huiray

Looks very nice, scotty. Glad the "traditional" ways still work. ;-) Definitely medium-rare, I'd love to have that steak on my plate.

Barley w/broccoli - an interesting combination. Do you do this (and variations thereof) on a regular basis?

Regarding G&TG - try turning up before the doors open, around 4.30 pm, wait, and get yourself in to the front desk the moment the doors open. The wait will likely be quite decent then. Depends on how many of you there are, a party of two or so is best. Frontera Grill - ditto, turn up just before the doors open if you have no reservations (they do take a VERY LIMITED number with larger groups and at this date they must be gone). If you sit at the bar you can ord er from both the Frontera Grill menu and the Topolobampo menu. Are you really sure you want to do Hot Doug's? At 1 pm you could be waiting quite, quite a while in line down the block, for stuff that isn't all that earth-shaking. It's also about 25 miles from Burr Ridge to Hot Doug's, taking Interstate 55 and Interstate 94 along the way, not two of the fastest flowing roads especially on a Saturday afternoon. I'm not sure if there are any major games in town too on whichever Saturday you arrive... There's a bar opposite Second City but I have no opinion on that one. Not really that much around that area for good dessert & drinks, that I know of anyway. One option might be to head on down to Division, walking down Wells, sampling or eyeing the bars along the way and hitting the Division melee of pubs/bars/general scene (can be a mob around some places) (depends on what sort of clientele you want, too). Or, head on down a little more to Sable in the Hotel Palomar for fabulous inventive cocktails, one of the largest selections of single malts and whiskeys around, and sample "small plates" (quite good "bar food" IMO although some folks consider the food/desserts from Heather Terhune to be utterly superb [i disagree]). But the drinks and bar atmosphere is bright (can be a little loud), more "upscale", with a pretty nice long bar. The cocktail menu is pages long - plus the listing of the scotches etc, it's a small book! An alternative is the Violet Hour (in Wicker Park) on Damen just south of North Ave, 2.3 miles from Second City going west on North Ave. Great cocktails, but no real desserts, there's a selection of cheeses available, also some munchies. Another option is to wander around Rush & State, just a mile down from Second City (via Clark or Wells) - there are bars and places to grab some dessert around there, loiter around the Viagra Triangle there if you want (heh) and maybe walk down State or Rush (the area can be quite lively) - maybe down to Sable? (Then cab it back to wherever you were parked) :-) Yet alternatively, you could try out/try for entrance at the Aviary close by G&TG on Sunday night (if you try for an early dinner) - try emailing them NOW, or just try your luck. They have some of the most inventive drinks around. One of a kind of place. There's not really the same sort of place in NYC (or SF or LA, as far as I know), unless the quality of their concoctions have gone down since I was last there (before their Master Cocktail Maker got kicked out). p.s. G&TG is Girl & The Goat.

Spinach was stir-fried in batches until barely wilted and then dumped in a colander over a bowl. After stir-frying the shallots and scallions, I added the stock and other liquids and reduced until it “tasted right” (not long), and then mixed in the spinach and spinach liquor. I hope that helps, it wasn’t very precise. Yes, what you describe is clear. A common way of doing a stir-fry veggie then. I imagine you "stir-fried" the spinach with minimal or no oil, basically to wilting - you might consider blanching the spinach in (perhaps oiled) hot water and draining next time, almost the same thing, followed by dressing the spinach with the "stir-fried sauce" of your choice as before.

Southern Fried Chicken today, at Mississippi Belle in Indy. "Meat 'n three". White meat/dark meat (leg) pan-fried chicken. Collard greens w/ extra pot likker. Fried cabbage. Mac 'n cheese. Hot water corn bread w/ onion slices. Half-n-half sweet tea & unsweetened tea. I was as happy as a clam.

Interesting thread. Regarding this - Who cares if it's traditional, it's on the list for my next visit to NYC. I wonder if it is truly salt cod that Mission Chinese used... I've never had that dish at Mission Chinese but am aware that their menu says "Salt Cod Fried Rice" and has the additional description of "Slow cooked mackerel (???), Chinese sausage, lettuce, egg". (see here for the NYC menu) There are many variations on Chinese/South China salted fish, many sold whole (smaller fishes) or in larger chunks (larger fish) etc. Salted fish fried rice (using the Chinese-type salt fish) is not really a new dish. :-) I imagine salt cod (as produced in and found in the West) could be a substitute for the salted fish in various "Chinese cuisine" dishes. I wonder how simple "homestyle" dishes like steamed pork-patty-with-salted-fish ["鹹魚蒸豬肉"] or steamed tofu-chopped-with-fish-paste ["老少平安"] (sometimes with pork mixed in) would come out like using salt cod instead...probably pretty similar. The question would be how to pretreat the salt cod (Length of soaking? Any soaking? Just a rinse? How much to use?).

That fish sounds good. The spinach - how long did you cook it and how much reduction (of stock other liquids, etc) did you do or did you just fish out the spinach and leave behind the residual cooking liquids?

Nice. Do you use pandan in your nasi lemak?

Clearly this veggie is now becoming something you like to play with. How often would you come across it in the markets around you nowadays?

• "Choy Kon T'ong", leftovers from previously. Broth plus the veggie (the good stuff) largely spooned out. • Babi Pongteh chez huiray today. A Nyonya dish. Sliced pork belly simmered/stewed w/ sautéed sliced shallots, smashed chopped garlic, salted soy beans, garlic-black bean sauce, rehydrated small "flower-cap shiitake mushrooms", thick dark soy sauce, "gula melaka", sliced potatoes. • Stir-fried baby bok choy. • Steamed/boiled white rice (Hom Mali).

if it were me I would have simply cooked it on the grill or under the broiler. Done. But that's just me... To each their own.

Indeed. Dried salted plums, as another example that just popped into my mind - they *cannot* be substituted with fresh plums in dishes that call for the dried salted stuff. Not if one wished to create the dish with those characteristics that were called for as intended. Etc etc etc. ETA: Sure, if one wished one could use the fresh ingredient instead - but the resulting dish would be specific to one's taste and would no longer be what was intended in the original or the traditional dish. There are exceptions, of course, but in general the two are not really interchangeable.

rotuts, the dried cuttlefish impart a sort-of fishy-tangy taste to the soup as well as a burst of umami. The taste is *not* "bad" - it resembles salted dried fish, in a vague way, where good ones have a clean nice smell to it, not at all "bad". One could also think of it in the same way as dried scallops (although the smell and taste is not the same) which are also added to various kinds of soup for both the taste and the umami factor. Nevertheless, it can be considered an "acquired taste", in a manner of speaking, especially if one has not encountered such tastes or smells before. The dried cuttlefish here is added for the taste/smell only. It is not eaten. I'm sure issues with fast degradation &etc with fresh squid & cuttlefish would have been a factor in olden times (and even in modern times) but once the techniques and uses of the dried product were established they acquired their own desirability as an ingredient (and not the fresh stuff) in dishes for the taste profile. In this soup I made, if I used fresh squid I would end up with a differently tasting (and, to me, undesirable) soup. ETA: Dried foodstuffs frequently become a different ingredient altogether. This is especially true of dried seafood, and of many other types of dried vegetables. They acquire their own characteristics and taste profiles as well as concentration of certain taste components, and it is an error to think of all dried foodstuffs as "poor substitutes" for the fresh stuff. Think of katsuoboshi (shaved dried cured bonito/skipjack tuna) versus the fresh fish, as perhaps something more familiar (vis-a-vis Japanese cuisine) - one does not make dashi with the fresh fish - one uses the shaved dried/fermented/etc stuff.

• "Choy Kon T'ong" [菜乾湯; Yale: choi3 gon1 tong1] - "Dehydrated Cole" soup. This is dehydrated "Bok Choy" [白菜乾; Yale: baak6 choi3 gon1], soaked for a while, trimmed and squeezed off somewhat; simmered for about 2 1/2 to 3 hours w/ pork ribs (short-cut; chopped into pieces) sautéed w/ lots of smashed garlic; Chinese red dates ["Hung Chou"; 紅棗; Yale: hung4 jou2; Ziziphus zizyphus]; rehydrated small dried patterned-cap shiitake mushrooms ["Far Koo"; 花菇; Yale: fa1 gu1]; salted dried cuttlefish ["Mak Yue Kon"; 墨魚乾; Yale: gon1 mak6 yu2]; and sea salt. • "Kon Lo Mein" - Skinny wonton noodles tossed w/ a sauce of minced beef sautéed w/ chopped garlic, oyster sauce, thick dark soy sauce, MRT Ryori-shu, Higeta Honzen soy sauce, and chopped deseeded hot long green chillies. BTW using the dried ingredients in this sort of soup is necessary to obtain the particular taste profile and characteristics desired of this soup. Using fresh (i.e. undried/non-dehydrated) stuff is just wrong. Even fresh shiitakes would be simply wrong - the taste would not be right. Some pics of 3 of the dried ingredients I used: The dried cuttlefish. The "Dehydrated Cole"/dried Bok Choy. Two brands shown. I used the one on the left today. Red dates. Two good grades shown. I used the ones on the left today.

What is "Genghis Khan Beef" ???

Oh, for "dessert" I had fistfuls of this. :-)

Saturday lunch: • Stir-fried beef slices w/ loads of smashed & chopped garlic and sliced bittergourd. • "Kwun Tong" (quick boiled soup) of chopped chicken legs, sliced fresh ginger, halved crimini miushrooms, sliced shiitake mushrooms, chopped "Wong Nga Pak" (Napa cabbage) hearts, trimmed Thai basil. • Boiled/Steamed basmati white rice.

Wei Lih Jah Jian Mien (Instant noodles with fried soybeans paste) (Taiwanese product) (Ramen Rater's blah-blah). Gussied up w/ a couple of hard boiled eggs,halved, and chopped scallions for the noodles part; with some dried cut wakame added to the broth part.

Yes, but neither are generally available in China. Oh well, maybe you need some contacts in Hong Kong to send you some regularly. :-) http://data.mongabay..., Hong Kong SAR

The modern iteration of "Yee Sang" was indeed formulated in SE Asia, yes, but the origins of it is thought to possibly come from Shantou & Chaozhou. I consider it a "Chinese-cuisine-type" dish, or, if you like, a Malaysian-Chinese or Singaporean-Chinese dish in its modern form; i.e. more than just "China inspired". :-) Some links here, here, and here; or even this, although the dish pictured looks different from the SE Asian versions. Regarding limes - the "ordinary" limes found in SE Asia - other than Kaffir limes - are also not exactly the same as the ones found in the UK or in the USA. There is some argument about what exactly they are, with some folks considering their taste to be somewhat between a Western/US-type lime and a lemon.

Another exception to the "no raw food/salad" dictum in Chinese cuisine is a dish called "Yee Sang" (魚生) which has both raw and cooked vegetable components as well as raw fish. It is traditionally served on the 7th day ("Yun Yat", or "Everyone's Birthday") of the usual 15-day Chinese New Year celebrations, popular in the Chinese communities in SE Asia. Often served until the 15th day ("Chap Goh Meh" [in Hokkien]) in some places. (Some images here) Here're pictures of some of my home-made versions. I used sashimi-grade raw salmon and tuna. Before adding all the side-components and sauce and tossing: After tossing: Another batch, before-and-after: ...and one more, before tossing:

Lunch on Friday: • Steamed flounder fillets, cut into large pieces. Pre-marinated with salted (whole) soya beans [上等豆酱] (Tiger brand), sesame oil, Shaohsing wine, ground white pepper, julienned sliced fresh ginger, smashed garlic. Added sliced fresh shiitakes into the mix. Dressed after steaming w/ sliced scallions. • Stir-fried "Yau Mak Choy"**. Romaine lettuce stir-fried w/ chopped garlic in hot veggie oil with oyster sauce & a splash of mirin. • Steamed (boiled) white rice (Thai Hom Mali). ** Note: "Yau mak choy", as called by the Cantonese (especially in SE Asia) [see here for some images] is a sort of baby lettuce; the typical romaine (or cos) lettuce found in the west is basically the same but larger. The term is sometimes used in relation to Taiwanese "A-choy" which is not what I used here.

Lunch on Thursday: • Cooked the rest of the white beech mushrooms & oyster mushrooms; plus small shiitake mushrooms & crimini mushrooms. All fresh. Also added in rehydrated snow fungus as previously. Chopped parsley. Added in some butter this time besides the veggie oil. Note to self - don't add butter again to mushroom medleys like this one. Not to my taste. • "Shaved" King Oyster mushrooms (lengthwise; then cut further into lengthwise strips approximately the size of fettucine), pan-fried as "pasta" in oil & garlic. Accompanied with sautéed chicken, sliced shallots, chopped tomato, made slightly saucy. Dressed w/ sweet mini red pepper & romaine heart leaves. Note to self: if you do something like this again, cut the oyster strips thinner and cook it longer.

Panaderia, thanks for the bread info. I see you are in Ecuador - not much in the way of edible mushrooms around you? Darn.

Some very good olive oils taste only faintly of olives, I find - at least for my taste. Two that I really like are Maussanes-les-Alpilles and Nicholas Alziari, both French. The latter one was better some years back and may contain blended oils but is still very nice, quite flowery and fruity. Both have an olive-like taste but it is not a dominant taste, it's partly in the background, not "harsh". Some Californian first-press olive oils are quite nice. To an extent I think it depends on one's taste. I don't like olive oils that have a very pronounced olive taste especially those that are assertive to the extent it becomes harsh and astringent (to me). But yes, good EVOO should have at least a slight olive-y taste but should be balanced. Some are fruity/flowery, as I mentioned above; some are peppery-like, some have a olive-y/grassy undertone, etc. ps. It's 'vinaigrette'.