huiray

Panaderia, thanks. Methinks I'll go looking for a churkey to try out...

Fascinating! Didn't notice this breed before. I did a quick search, and it seems they originated from Translyvania? http://www.bbc.co.uk...t-fife-12745163 http://www.newscient...their-cool.html I didn't see anything from that quick search directly saying that it was popular in Latin America (not that I doubt you of course!) although the articles report the sourcing of the churkeys (a.k.a. turkens) to include Mexico while this one cites the researchers making comments that do relate to its importance in hot countries/"third world countries". Would you happen to have some more info about its popularity in Latin American markets/communities that I could look up, for my curiosity?

Lunch today: Pork ribs & veggie soup, eaten w/ soba noodles. [short-cut pork ribs, sautéed w/ smashed garlic, simmered w/ water + chicken stock; then carrots, parsnips, shallots, trimmed innermost celery heart, sliced ordinary mushrooms, parsley. Salting adjusted.]

Paul Bacino, how interesting! Charub tomatoes - hmm, I looked them up. Is it possible you mean Cherub tomatoes?

So do I, and I use it at home. They're sold in Chinese/Asian groceries and kitchen supply stores all over the place here and bought by folks to use at home. It's very useful for steaming stuff without getting a soggy mess, as you and dcarch say. Often I'll lay my stuff on top of some parchment paper or a big "wong nga pak" leaf or two as the situation suggests - siu mai, har gow etc, for example; Char siu bao on their own little squares of paper I might lay directly on top of the bamboo "grates". Other stuff in suitably sized plates go right on top of the "grates". Sure, I'll use a shallow metal plate propped on a tuna can with both ends removed, in a deep frying pan (with metal cover) with water bubbling away in the pan for steaming suitable things (like short-cut pork spare ribs w/ julienned ginger & chili black bean sauce, for example) or when I really don't feel like cleaning the bamboo steamer afterwards but the bamboo steamer, stacked or otherwise, shares equal time in my kitchen. ETA: Actually, those metal steamers with the tall "peaked" cover is useful for making "dun tong" (steamed soups/Cantonese "double boiled" soups) where the soup components are in that heavy glazed porcelain or stoneware bowl with the heavy knobbed lid - it sits nicely on the steamer stack under/within that "peaked cover".

You're welcome. Anyone is welcome to search for info on the www nowadays (and to read it with due diligence, of course). Umm, I thought people in Hong Kong cooked Chinese food, and do it at home too? Or that food that has Hong Kong roots is also Chinese food, so long as it is in the Chinese vernacular? Millions of people worldwide would appear to think so... Anyway, that last link I gave (http://www.cooking-c..._rose_wine.html) is to a website written by a lady chef who appears to operate restaurants in Hangzhou, Zhejiang - which isn't Hong Kong, I think? http://www.cooking-china.com/# As for hot pots - well, even this thread has contained posts from folks cooking Chinese food in hot pots in their home kitchens...

Just for info regarding cooking with Chinese rose wine... http://www.asiansupe...e-p/hcrwejj.htm http://www.foodista....s.aembpwtgqbiaa http://whoscookingto...i-lu-chiew.html http://lauskitchen.b...th-chinese.html http://www.smokywok....ce-chicken.html http://www.cooking-c..._rose_wine.html etc

Indeed. They (the judges) need to get over themselves. OK, fault Richter's rendition of it as whether it was good or not (haha, I have doubts about that) but to declare the very concept of it as "fried chicken" as beyond the pale is not right. Not when you didn't say what exactly you wanted – "US Southern Fried Chicken". BTW various commentators on Colicchio's blog have also said that "Fried Chicken" in Germany in the style of "US Fried Chicken" does not exist in cookbooks (in German, yet) even if Wolfgang Puck's mama made it in Austria when he was growing up.

Heh. I think it makes a difference if one is or is not born and raised in the US with regards to the request "make me fried chicken". Is it possible that "Fried Chicken" means something specific to one because one *is* born and bred in the US? Or that one has been acculturated to US cuisine for so long that one assumes one means "US Southern Fried Chicken" or equivalent when simply asked for "Fried Chicken"? (Which IMO would plausibly apply to all the judges there) What does "Fried Chicken" even mean? With or without skin, "just make it crisp" (applies to many kinds of fried chicken in many different cuisines), bone-on, bone-off, etc. Certainly if a dish is bad, it's bad - as you say, correctly - and one should be penalized for that.** But to mock versions of "fried chicken", as the judges did (whether it was properly done or not), that did not correspond basically to "US Southern Fried Chicken" or its equivalent without explicitly having it specified from the get-go, is not cool. Heh, I suppose you would not mind whatever chicken parts are made into "fried chicken" in this context, then? I imagine you would have no objection to Chicken 65, or Cantonese Fried Chicken (replete with the requisite prawn crackers), or Ayam Goreng Jogja, or any number of other "Fried Chicken" dishes from around the world being presented by the cheftestants, then, if they had the wit and the skills to do so? I wonder what Colicchio's face would have looked like (or Lakshmi's) if presented with one of these... ** ETA: On the other hand, I'm not sanguine about Colicchio's competence to judge anything outside of his limited range of USAmerican and Italian-American food. Certainly his opinions on "Chinese food" (like how roast duck should be like - especially the skin - as one example; or the spicing profiles) have given me pause.

Regarding double-frying - have a look at my post listing some articles about KFC (no, not that one; this is Korean Fried Chicken), as one type of fried chicken where this is done, with some descriptions of the process: http://egullet.org/p1907075 (NB: KFC leaves the skin ON) (Heh, for that matter Colonel Sanders does too, doesn't he?) Many of the responders on Colicchio's blog took him to task for declaring that it was not possible to get crispy fried chicken with the skin on and pointed out that his statement was simply false.

If I blanch, I don't sauté. If I sauté, I don't blanch. I think I described what I do in those posts I referenced? I've always used all parts of a typical head of Romaine or other lettuce save the yellowed or clearly degraded outermost leaves. I like the extra crunchiness and slight toughness of the outer leaves, and would consider even Western-type salads using just the hearts (with all outer leaves discarded) to be slightly "lacking" in range of texture.

That would make them obnoxious drunks, no? Commentators on Tom Colicchio's blog on this fried chicken episode have repeatedly pointed out that the instructions given by Colicchio were really not that explicit or blindingly clear. If he had wanted Southern Fried Chicken he should have said so. He had also penalized cheftestants before for giving him dishes that were "too simple" or "too straightforward" ("This is Top Chef, give me innovative and chef-like dishes!") then at other times penalizing them for not being simple or straightforwards enough. Perhaps depending on which side of the bed Colicchio got up on that day or the Phase Of The Moon that day. So, one could hardly fault the cheftestants for trying to avoid another "CJ situation" in the present case. They and Annabelle have a good point.

I don't know what sort of bottled bean sauces you have available, but at my local Chinese/Asian grocery (not that big, *certainly* not on the scale of H-Mart or Ranch 99, for example) there are yards and yards of shelves with dozens and dozens of different types of bottled bean sauces. Many of them are various varieties of black bean sauces of different characteristics (hot, non-hot, salted, fermented, non-fermented, with different additions and components) from various regions and provinces of Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, even Indonesia, etc. Do you have more than a few or so brands/types available to try out? Lettuce with oyster sauce is a common dish in many places, I make it frequently too. The "usual" lettuce offerd in restaurants varies depending on where you get it - frequently a baby version of romaine, in other places Taiwan A-choy. Nice dish. Usually by blanching in oiled hot water, sometimes by stir-frying. "Yau Mak Choy" usually with "Ho Yow" and often with fried garlic is an ever-present dish available in Malaysian and Singaporean Chinese restaurants, in particular. I do it with all sorts of lettuces but usually the ones with slightly more crunch and "toughness" which can take the hot water or hot pan without turning to mush. The common Western green-leaf lettuce works well, in addition to romaine.

Simple dinner on Friday - more of the sauce from lunch, served on rice. Broccoli blanched in oiled hot water, tossed w/ lime ponzu sauce & dusted w/ white pepper.

How about Korean fried chicken, a.k.a. KFC? ;-) p.s. The skin is left on. Some links: http://www.nytimes.c...ng/07fried.html http://www.seriousea...ed-chicken.html http://www.saveur.co...n-Fried-Chicken http://en.wikipedia....n_fried_chicken ETA: p.p.s. Don't forget David Chang is Korean.

"Pak Cham Kai" [白切雞] ("white cut chicken"), small chicken poached in salted & heavily gingered water. Cabbage soup, using the poaching water. Rice (Hitomebore), cooked with the poaching stock with additional chicken fat. Garlic-soy sauce: 1 head of garlic, chopped, sautéed, quenched w/ light soy sauce & MRT ryori-shu. Chicken livers & shallots sauce: done a little differently than before.

Patrickamory, you're welcome. Did you have a chance to look at that youtube video link I posted? ;-) BTW there are various recipes for "Lap Cheong" even for the "same" general "flavor" and some folks partially smoke them and some just air-dry them. There is no single way to do it. A couple other links you might find interesting... http://forum.sausage...opic.php?t=4413 [Note the last post here especially] http://unclephilipsg...se-sausage.html

Glad you like it, rod rock.

Friday lunch: • Spaghetti & meat sauce. Brunoise of one large white onion & one smashed clove of garlic sautéed in corn oil till beginning to brown, finely sliced de-stringed Western-type celery added, tossed, ground chuck added, tossed; generous Heinz “Simply Heinz” tomato ketchup added, the mixture stirred; several dried bay leaves, good light soy sauce (Pearl River Superior) & Jozo mirin added, stirred, and sautéed till just beginning to “crisp”/brown; chopped tomatoes (canned) added, stirred; generous Maruchan rice vinegar added, stirred; a few sticks of whole cinnamon & a small handful of whole cloves added, stirred, diluted w/ a little water, covered, simmered for about 1 hour total from start. Served over Barilla spaghetti. • Napa cabbage flash-sautéed w/ peanut oil & sea salt. Very hot pan, oil at smoking point, covered immediately after adding the cabbage, tossed and swirled with cover on, cover taken off after about 1-2 minutes, spluttering cabbage tossed w/ spatula, recovered & heat turned off, cover half-removed after 30 seconds. Yes, there is "juice"/liquid from the sauce; it has dripped to the bottom below the spaghetti in the bowl.

The commentators on Tom Colicchio's blogs on Bravo the past two episodes have laid into him. Last week's for the Kristen Kish dismissal, not unexpectedly. This week, for his attitude towards "fried chicken" and what it might constitute in the context of Top Chef from the point of view of the cheftestants. These comments should be read, IMO - they bear very valid points. Folks have also been laying into him for proclaiming that crispy fried chicken cannot be obtained with the skin on - they have been pointing out that his dictum is simply not true.

Early breakfast: Char Siu on fresh steamed white rice (Jasmine). Blanched Choy Sum. Ti Kuan Yin (鐵觀音) oolong tea.

Thursday lunch: • "Kon Lo Mein" – skinny wonton noodles dressed w/ a sauce of sautéed chopped garlic & shallots, minced chuck pre-marinated w/ light soy sauce, thick dark soy sauce, Red Boat fish sauce, sesame oil, and the (sweetish) juices from some "Char Siu". • "Choy Sum" blanched in oiled hot water. • Shrimp & pork wontons in soup** with chopped scallions & Chinese celery leaves. Heh, I forgot about the "Char Siu" which I had on the side waiting to be sliced...didn't notice it was missing as the minced beef dressing and the wonton soup were sufficient. :-) ** Chicken stock, simmered w/ a small handful of largish whole semi-dried anchovies and a couple dried thick-cap shiitake mushrooms, volume & seasoning adjusted, poured through a sieve onto the cooked wontons in a bowl, and the scallions & celery leaves scattered in.

I never had that much of a high opinion of Tom Colicchio and definitely not of Padma Lakshmi. After the last few episodes, I have even less. Much less. I've thought Colicchio has been too big for his britches and has been that way for a while now. Gail Simmons still retains some of my respect. Lakshmi really needs to pack her knives and go, go, go. Please go. Having said all that, the blood-letting about Kristen Kish being thrown off last week was sort-of corner-of-mouth-curling for me. Yes, it was an injustice and Josie Smith-Malave should have been the one thrown off. Still, Kish did do a Beef Borguignon dish and a so-called macaron that did not do so well - and how come no one has said anything about her tending to do largely Frenchie stuff? I could just envision the outcry if she were to tend to do largely "Asian"stuff, whatever "Asian" might mean, even if the term on its own would encompass an entire continent in its correct meaning rather than just a single country... ;-)

It seems the F-o-F is presumably going to be touted as "sustainable" fish. http://www.chicagotr...0,2908600.story

Here are four varieties of Lap Cheong (Chinese sausages) I currently have in my larder and that I presently use. I'm out of a liver sausage variety at the moment. Grain alcohol flavored; soy flavored; wine flavored; ordinary/standard flavor. Patrickamory, why not just buy a bunch of them and try them all? :-) They'll keep for a long time too... Here's a in Singapore's Chinatown. ;-)