huiray

Really? Wow. But, to each his or her own, of course.

Thanks, rod rock. I like soups. Lots of soups. Tonight's soup: http://egullet.org/p1901720

Nice. Tasty-looking. What did you use for the "curry" component?

Lotus root soup, tonight’s version chez huiray. Short-cut pork spare ribs, sautéed w/ garlic in peanut oil; quenched w/ pork bone stock (from pork knuckles & shin bones w/ lots of marrow & some meat). Then, into the mix was added: sliced peeled (skinned) washed lotus root [“Lin Ngaau”; 蓮藕], rehydrated “Far Koo” [flower-patterned thick cap shiitake mushrooms; 花菇], big fat ‘black’ “Hung Chou” [special grade of Chinese red dates; Jujubes; Ziziphus ziziphus; 紅棗], raw “Fa Sang” [red-skinned peanuts, shelled; 花生], and chopped pre-soaked “Muk Yi” [Wood ear fungus; 木耳]. Some of the soaking water for the “Far Koo/Muk Yi” was also added in. Salted lightly. Simmered for about 1 ½ hours. Seasoning adjusted.

Yes, fish balls are quite useful. :-) Have you tried the cuttlefish or cuttlefish-fish mixture balls too?

Fish balls & spinach in chicken soup (w/garlic), with fine Japanese wheat noodles.

I go back and forth between tartar sauce/cheese and ketchup/lettuce/no cheese. I prefer the latter, but like many above, sometimes you get a jones for the messy tartar sauce and you have to do it! Heh. But it's not a F-o-F without the tartar sauce! "Fish Sandwich" with K/L/NC - that's a different creature. The (Lenten) Wendy's Fish Sandwich is this combo, IIRC from last year, but w/ K on the side? - although you can ask for cheese at extra cost. Actually, I remember that was what I did when I was doing a one-on-one/side-by-side comparison last year.

Roast Chinese duck, pork & Chinese spinach wontons, chicken & shrimp wontons, and pre-fried soy puffs wonton soupy skinny noodles. With wilted watercress & chopped scallions.

Certainly there are many folks who are avid fishermen like your friends who would have no aversion to seeing whole fish on their plates. Ditto many eGullet folks and many other foodies too. But - I was referring to the "general" dining public, with which it has been commented on that they *do* have such an aversion to whole fish. The overall familiarity with fish does also seem to be less than with four-legged meat, beef in particular - and this aspect regarding fish is also touched upon in that NYT article.

Hot water from the kitchen sink faucet. Rarely, a minimum-temp oven.

Perhaps the fact that *in general* the "usual" USAmerican dining public is not a fish-eating/fish-educated demographic has much to do with it, as the article mentions. I suspect folks in various "ethnic" populations in the US who traditionally eat lots more fish would be better educated - and they would also tend to buy whole fish so they can see what it is. It is notable that this "general US dining public" (dare I say mostly Caucasian?) has an aversion to seeing whole fish on a plate on their table with those eyes staring back at them (maybe with the exception of trout, maybe?) in this sense. Maybe folks should try to buy whole fish with greater regularity and ask their normal provisioners to supply same?

Hmm, a pretty old thread. A couple updates (certainly not exhaustive) on the most recently listed places (by nsxtasy): • Euphoria is closed as a public-access restaurant - it became a catering concern a while back, with its upstairs space available for catered parties. The downstairs Creation Cafe is still operating. http://www.creationcafeandeuphoria.com/ • Z's Oyster Bar has been closed for a little while now.

BRAVO!!! Well said. I subjected myself to that ridiculous computer scramble in the early days of Next. Personally I thought there were defects in the food and unexpected glitches in the service. I dined as a solo diner on separate occasions, paying for a two-top each time with the kitchen adjusting the servings for me so I cut them some slack but at $250 - $330 for those solo dinners I thought it was not good value for money.

liuzhou, what a lovely steamed bass dinner! Very nice. It's actually quite amazing and an interesting coincidence, because I also had a steamed bass dinner last night. I used what is sold here in the Chinese groceries as "big mouth bass" and did it a quasi-Cantonese way. The gutted, descaled, washed fish (swimming around in the tank just a few hours prior to dinner before it got fished out and bashed on the head ) was marinated a short while w/ Shaohsing wine, sesame oil, white pepper, chopped green onions/scallions, julienned ginger, a bit of soy sauce plus a dash of salt (with the cavity stuffed w/ the scallions & ginger too) then steamed in the usual manner. The fish only is then retrieved from the steaming dish and plated on another dish (that serving dish in the pic), julienned ginger & scallions (lots!) and chopped cilantro strewn over it and a sauce of [a little garlic & julienned ginger briefly sautéed in hot vegetable oil, quenched w/ soy sauce (Pearl River light soy sauce & Higeta Honzen soy sauce)] poured over the whole shebang. I normally up the amount of scallions/cilantro/ginger (& some garlic) than you might find in a restaurant as I like lots of the stuff. The veggie accompaniment was a variation of "Yau Mak Choy" a.k.a. romaine lettuce, blanched in oiled hot water, drained, drizzled w/ oyster sauce. White steamed rice.

@liuzhou: That black "crab roe" - I am assuming this is "stained"/dyed form of normal crab roe? I've always thought that crab roe other than orange-ish in color were artificially colored as I don't know of crab species that produce black roe - but perhaps you could fill me in? (A quick Google & internet search turned up nothing certain)

@percyn - are those maitake (a.k.a. "hen of the wood") mushrooms something you get locally grown, frequently or otherwise? I love them and a local grower used to have at a certain local Farmers' Market them but they proved to be too much bother (and was a touch-and-go financial proposition) so they gave it up - and I have haven't had really fresh stuff since then.

Except our version is salty and buttery/oily, and I must say, laden with bias, that that makes it far tastier In Iraqi and Persian food, it's considered the highlight of the meal. (The bottom of dolsot bibimbap (nurungji) is pretty good, but not as good, and the nurungji that gets served immersed in hot water is soggy and tasteless.) I agree frying the rice in oil or butter does make rice really tasty. Oh, such rice would be scrumptious indeed. Still, the use of butter in a Chinese cuisine sense would not be traditional. OTOH, those clay-pot rice concoctions would, depending on who's making it and/or the skill of the chef or vendor of same, would be a dish where the (oiled) drippings and sauces from the meats and other ingredients in the dish percolate to the bottom and form a fond - then the crispy bits of the rice form using the oily sauce rather than just oil or butter (again, not something commonly used in Chinese cuisine). Different strokes for different folks - no doubt rice fried in butter would appeal more to many folks here.

Vienna-type sausages? They *look* like them... :-)

No F-o-F love since March of 2010? Shame. I like it. Quite a bit. Even nowadays, after the descent from the zenith of its earlier days. There's nothing *quite* like it, really, IMO and that of some others I dare say, in its weirdly satisfying combination of stuff. Usually I get it with "extra Tartar sauce" which usually forces them to make it "to order" even if the fish may not be specifically cooked for me. I like the extra sauce, anyway. That piece of vivid orange American cheese? Heh. Nothing else will do, and it also serves to hold the thing together. Folks who say they would substitute it with other gourmet fancy cheeses are missing the point of the F-o-F in my view. I've never tried the relatively new double stacker, though. As far as fast food fish sandwiches go, my preferences (for what I get in my area) would be McD's F-o-F > Wendy's (during lent) > Burger King > Arby's ~ Rally's > Long John Silver.

Simple cabbage & chicken soup. Water, chicken thighs w/ fatty skin on, salt, simmer, chopped white cabbage, simmer. That's it. Often plain-and-simple hits the spot.

Sometimes I do it the "old fashioned way" - water up to your first knuckle joint. Of course, some folks have long fingers and unusual inter-lengths...

Interesting about the 1:2 versus 1:1.5 (or so) rice:water ratios for cooking Basmati. When I do mine with 1:1.5 I simmer mine uncovered or at most only half-covered till the water is just absorbed then put the lid on and turn the heat down to very low. <<Shrug>> To each his or her own.

When I eat breakfast, I generally like savory stuff. Once in a while I'll have something like "bacon & eggs" or variations thereof. Very rarely will I have bread or rolls or similar. Sweet things like "Danish pastries" and cinnamon rolls pass my lips *extremely* rarely. Croissants – yes, they're an exception, and almond croissants (if not plain) are nice. Otherwise, I tend to eat noodles (especially soupy noodles) or rice with savory accompaniments or stuff like "Yong Tau Foo" (Yum!) especially when I made a batch the day before...too much work to do it the same morning of the breakfast. :-) Or a nice bowl of "Bak Kut Teh", again usually leftovers from the day before. [in SE Asia I would have eaten things like this from vendors who *would* have made it that very morning, of course] Here's a pic of some Yong Tau Foo I had for breakfast not long ago. (The soup was the poaching stock with Napa cabbage ("Wong Nga Pak"); the dipping sauce was Lingham's Hot Sauce.)

I normally use 1 rice : 1.5 water. Ditto about the 1:2 giving mushy Basmati (contrary to what is often given as "directions" for cooking it).

Some selected soups I made over the last month or so: Bak Kut Teh with "country-style pork ribs [rather than my usual pork spare ribs] = "Yook Kuat". I added in selected Chinese herbal ingredients** (not the full panoply of stuff often used in the Klang or similar versions) plus the usual other stuff (including age dofu, and copious garlic) plus Kikkoman soy sauce. Eaten with boiled white rice. ** These included: Tong KwaiTong Kwai ("Radix Angelica Sinensis"; Angelica sinensis) Yook Chook (Polygonatum odoratum 'Druce'); Black Dried Jujubes; Dong2 Sam1 (Codonopsis pilosula 'Nannf'); Chun Pei (dried orange peel); Dried liquorice twigs, shaved; cinnamon sticks; cloves; whole star anise. Beef short ribs soup w/ garlic, daikon & snow fungus. The bone-in short ribs were browned w/ the garlic first, water added, simmered for about 1 hr before the rest of the stuff went in. Eaten w/ softened skinny rice noodles ("mei fun"). "Harm Choy Tong". Pickled sour mustard soup, with ginger, tomatoes, vinegar, mirin and bone-in skin-on fat-on chicken as the meat. Additional salt to taste. ...and a "Hakka-esque"/"Hakka-inspired" soupy braise (I made it fairly soupy that day so it could be freely ladled onto rice and the "soup" drunk as-is): Sliced pork belly (“Sam Chang Yook” or “Ng Far Yook”) marinated w/ shiro miso, “Liu Ma Kee” (Brand) wet bean curd (“Fu Yee”), Shaohsing wine, yellow (cooking) wine, minced garlic, julienned ginger; then sautéed in peanut oil; water added and slow-simmered with some lumps of rock sugar and sliced washed salted turnip (“Jaat Ji Chung Choy”) till meltingly tender.