huiray

Tai Yee Ma Kar Lui (大姨媽嫁女) (Fuzzy squash w/ cellophane noodles & dried shrimp). Because. Hiyayakko. Cold soft tofu, grated daikon, katsuobushi, scallions. Hokkaido kelp flavor naturally brewed soy sauce [Wei Chuan], water, Hondashi flakes [Ajinomoto], Hon-mirin [Takara]. zapped ½ minute, cooled to RT.

Har Mai (蝦米) may be a "secret ingredient" to Dunlop, but it is not so to lots of folks in many cuisines around the world. ;-) Personally I don't use it that much. The single most frequent use of it for me would probably be in making a favorite war-horse of a Cantonese home-cooking dish – fuzzy squash with cellophane noodles (大姨媽嫁女 ; although the name doesn't quite match the description in English :-) ). I've posted on various iterations of this dish that I've made, here on eG. (some examples: here, here, here (scroll down), here; there are many others) I also use it in various soups and stir-fries especially with certain vegetables. Some vegetables (for me) iinclude edible amaranth either as a stir-fried version or a soupy version (examples here (scroll down), here; there are others), fuzzy squash soup, angled loofah soups and stir-fries (just one example - scroll down). Or in things like kangkong belacan with, what else, kangkong a.k.a. water spinach a.k.a. ong choy. (See here, here for just two examples) I do use it in fried rice on occasion (like here, scroll down) but it is relatively rare. I don't think I've used it in congees. It's used extensively in Nyonya cuisine, as well as in Malay/Indonesian/Thai/etc etc cuisine (look at the wiki article again) as well as in certain kinds of Malaysia-Chinese or Singaporean-Chinese dishes, let alone its extensive use in various regional Chinese cuisines especially in Southern China. As one example in Malaysian-Chinese cuisine, it's a vital ingredient in the melangé that forms the sauce mixture for what are called "kam heong" (金香) dishes w/ chicken, shellfish, etc in Malaysia – these constitute a fusion of Chinese/Cantonese, Malay and (Southern) Indian cuisines. I made a riff on Kam Heong clams recently – see here, scroll down a bit. As for using it simply as a source of umami in a soup, say, when I am not specifically looking for the taste of dried prawns - i tend to use other things like dried scallops, dried oysters, dried cuttlefish or dried squid. But see my examples above with some soups. One tidbit – it's the ingredient in Katong Laksa (if not all Singapore-style laksa) that gives it its characteristic taste and distinguishes it from other forms of laksa lemak or Penang curry laksa (NOT Penang (assam) laksa, which is a very different creature) or other laksa/curry mee like Sarawak laksa or KL curry mee etc. Here's a useful discussion – it's long but worth reading if one is interested in SE Asian laksa. Here's a google search for "dried shrimp" on eGullet; another one for "dried prawns"; yet another for "har mai"; and this one using traditional Chinese characters. Hmm, searching using simplified characters seems to return nothing... Here're a couple of things that incorporated dried shrimp, that I bought commercially, which I've shown on eG - some "vegetarian" buns and some rice noodle rolls (chee cheong fun).

In addition to what gfweb suggested, you might consider looking for sorullos/sorullitos instead? It looks like you can buy bags of frozen sorullos [Kikuet brand] from the ShopRite on S Walnut St in Wilmington... Carmen's Kitchen on 4th & Dupont is Puerto Rican although they don't seem to have them on their menu - perhaps you might give them a call, though. Maybe other similar-cuisine places in town?

Teochew-style Bak Kut Teh.** Stir-fried baby kale. White rice. ** This is much lighter than the more usual Canto-Hoklo style of BKT (very herbal, very spiced, much darker w/ more sauces) I've tended to make in recent years and which I have posted about here on eG. The Teochew style is peppery and garlicky, light-handed with the soy sauce, basically non-herbal; although I added in a little Angelica sinensis root slices and Codonopsis pilosula root pieces, as is also sometimes done in this style of BKT. On the way there. The peppercorns (white) were cracked & lightly ground (mortar & pestle) before adding to the pot; the garlic cloves were lightly crushed and added in with the parchments/skins left on them.

It would be hard for me to bring myself to destroy some of these by actually eating them. http://www.viralnova.com/amazing-food-art/ But I think I'll get some sticky rice on my next shopping trip.

EV olive oil, chopped garlic, julienned Westphalian ham, chopped heirloom tomatoes, sliced portobello mushroom, halved artichoke hearts (canned), quartered baby zucchini, cut-up asparagus, spaghetti [Garofalo].

Itek Tim. Water, duck legs (each cut into two pieces), simmer, skim well; sliced galangal, lightly crushed garlic cloves, trimmed pre-soaked pickled mustard greens (Harm choy/syun choy), salted plums plus some of the pickling liquids, slurried tamarind paste, palm sugar. Seasoning adjusted. Simmered till done. No additional oil added, the globules floating on the surface is duck fat rendered from the legs (skin & fat on) in situ.

• Asam Heh. (Tamarind shrimp) I used lots of tamarind for this today, I was in the mood. (Palm sugar & dark soy sauce also goes into it) Made lots of sauce for rice. • Kai-lan stir-fried w/ garlic & quenched w/ oyster sauce + black sesame oil + a dash of double fermented soy sauce. White pepper. • White rice. Had 3 bowls.

It seems there is a purveyer of Chicago Dogs near you. :-) I have no idea how good or authentic they are at this place, of course. https://www.zomato.com/research-triangle/cloos-coney-island-hot-dogs-raleigh/menu#tabtop Or, a little further, in Asheboro... http://courier-tribune.com/get/do/chicago-dogs-hit-asheboro (Or, you could drive up to Chicago. :-) Closer than Scottsdale or Tempe in Arizona where there are Portillo's outlets.) I like Chicago dogs. Whenever I'm in downtown Chitown I try to hit at least the Portillo's on Ontario and get my fix of Italian Beef, hot dipped, as well. Or at Al's Beef down the road. Lots of other places of course, depends on where in Chicagoland I am in. I can get a sort-of Chicago dog in Indy at Fat Dan's. :-)

Soup. Water, "black" Chinese jujubes, dried Codonopsis pilosula root pieces (dong2 sam1; 党参), short-cut pork spare ribs, salt, simmer; wolfberries (goji berries), then wolfberry leaves right at the end. The leaves are from a slightly different subspecies/variety of "wolfberry" than the one that usually is grown for the berries. Chicken wings in a tangy tomato sauce. Today's version a sort-of cross between chicken wings in tomato sauce (cánh gà sốt cà chua) and chicken wings with fish sauce (cánh gà chiến nước mắm). A little over-floured, though. Made saucy. On the way there. Plus white rice of course.

Pork & clams – besides the Portuguese, the combination is common in East & SE Asian cuisine. Just google "chinese pork clams" or "asian pork clams" and tons of stuff pours out. It might be useful for folks who don't eat much non-Western stuff (or to think about it that much) to consider that the food-pairings between, for example, North American and East Asian cuisines are based on different principles. There are great affinities between certain Western-type cuisines ("North American" & Western European); while certain others (Latin American & Southern European) have overlaps with E Asian cuisines. http://www.nature.com/srep/2011/111215/srep00196/full/srep00196.html (The article cited used a Korean-based database, true; but the principle applies across E/SE and even S Asian cuisines. There is another paper that makes the same sort of conclusions for S Asian food; I've posted about both elsewhere here on eG)

Earlier – Deep-fried barely battered baby zucchini w/ flowers, plus broccoli florets. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Later – "Kam Heong" Clams. Loosely after this recipe. More liquid (mainly water) was also added for more sauce. White rice. On the way there. Salted taucheo, crushed w/ a spoon. Madras curry paste slurried w/ the soaking water for the har mai; more of the water was added after the photo was taken. Minced garlic, minced ginger, roughly diced shallots, sliced Thai-type hot green chillies, minced pre-soaked har mai (dried de-shelled shrimp), curry leaves (Murraya koenigii)(கறிவேப்பிலை).

I commonly garnish my hot dogs with ramen or noodles. (or is that "I use the hot dogs as garnish for my ramen or noodles") :-) Like here. Or here. (The ones used in both happened to be Dietz & Watson natural casing dogs but I've used other brands as well including Nathans etc in similar ways) I've always found the intense disputes about ketchup/no-ketchup quite amazing. People even come to blows over it. I myself eat hot dogs (in the usual conventional way with a long bun &etc) with all sorts of toppings depending on my mood and what's offered to me. Ketchup, relish, pickles, chili, onions, mustard, etc. OK, I might not automatically go for mayo or cheeze whiz myself but if handed one in a social setting I would not refuse to eat it. Would hot dogs in pastry count in this topic? After all, what one puts ON a Pig in a Blanket (if anything) before you eat it would fall under the rubric of "How do you garnish your hot dog"...

Yesterday–Today's chicken stock/broth, from two stewing chickens (from a Chinese grocery) w/ ginger slices and a bit of salt. Chickens were rinsed, chopped up (backbone split w/ cleaver), simmered, skimmed repeatedly, left on stove overnight at a bare simmer (around 180-190ºF by pie-type thermometer). No fuss. Stock/broth, "first decant" through cheesecloth, stopping short of chicken pieces "falling over against the cover held against the pot". Remainder of the broth/stock, "shaking"/"thumping" the pot and holding the chicken pieces against the cover as the stock is poured off, through that same cheesecloth. The latter portion was used for a nice lunch "soup" with young kale, asparagus added in (& vermicelli, at the end) and simmered till done.

Today's selections from BRFM and CFM.

At Broad Ripple Farmers' Market (BRFM) & Carmel Farmers' Market (CFM) today, 2015-0530. BRFM: Ramps (FAT bulbs; $10/lb), wild-collected oyster mushrooms, baby zucchini w/ flowers still on, broccoli, young Swiss chard, young beets. CFM: Asparagus, portobello mushrooms (not pictured), baby curly kale leaves (special request to the vendor), sugar snap peas. The ramps today came from around Portage, IN. Appropriate - the source of the ramps I've been picking up from this vendor has been "progressing north" with each passing week. The earliest ones I got this year, from a different vendor (the owners/originators; at the Indy Winter Farmers' Market) were these (mid-April) from south of Bloomington, IN.

Groceries 2015-0529 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Asia Mart Wolfberry leaves (they look like these) - not regularly found, always nice when they appear. Maitake mushrooms Kai-lan Fuzzy squash Scallions Korean radishes Limes Jicama Vietnamese coriander (Rau Răm; Persicaria odorata) Pickled mustard packs (harm choy/syun choy) Shallots Stewing chickens (unfrozen!!!) Pork spare ribs, short-cut Chinese style) Po-lei (pu-erh) tea, reasonably OK grade Fresh skinny wonton noodles Glutinous rice w/ pork & shiitake mushrooms in lotus leaf (frozen) Fresh soft & firm tofu HK style wonton wrappers Viet Hua Food Market Chicken wings, middle portions only Fresh shrimp Shaohsing "Hua Ti" cooking wine, "Supreme" grade Bulldog tonkatsu/vegetable-fruit sauce Garlic The Fresh Market "Blue Sea" sea salt Kosher salt TFM Madras curry powder (I didn't feel like making my own mix nor going to an Indian place or to Penzeys) Fresh Middleneck clams (farmed) EV olive oils (Arbequina, general mix - both California Olive Oil Ranch)

BTW one can also find what I suppose are "Hong Kong Chickens" as Anna N calls them, but of a variety that are distinctly yellow-skinned. Other than the "Ayam Kampung" dominant in Malaysia for Hainanese Chicken Rice, these are the types preferred for making HCR here in North America. Yes, they will have head and feet attached. They are not cheap, comparatively speaking, but still cheaper than those oh-so-special chickens sold by (Western) vendors at Farmers' Markets. At my local Chinese grocery they would be around $14-15 for a 4-ish pound chicken; not chickenfeed by the relative costs of stuff otherwise sold at great prices in such places.

Anne_T, thanks for the compliment. Perhaps one day we shall sup together and it would be my pleasure!

Late night/early morning meal. A slow-simmered stove-top braise of: smashed garlic + peanut oil, chopped-up skin-on-bone-on chicken breast, fermented bean curd ["TF"; Szechuan brand] (四川白腐乳) (this one) smooshed into the mix in the pot plus some of the steeping liquid, skinny bamboo shoots (canned), unpeeled straw mushrooms (canned), fresh wood-ear fungus, water, simmer, bean curd skin rolls (腐竹). Seasoning adjusted, simmered till done. White rice.

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/148833-cold-shrimp-hors-doeuvre/ http://forums.egullet.org/topic/148833-cold-shrimp-hors-doeuvre/#entry1975383

Kale & spinach in chicken broth w/ chicken fat, leftovers from here, with vermicelli added in. Dressed w/ sliced red-streaked fresh spring onions. The vermicelli. A sauté of garlic, pork snecken (see here) cut into rounds, halved morels, trimmed broccoli rabe (see here); tossed w/ al dente linguine [Rustichella d'Abruzzo] in the pan plus a bit of pasta water. Dressed w/ chopped spring onions on the plate. Fresh mango slices.

Ever tried using your hands, in the Indian way? http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/814007?page=all :-) For myself, those dishes you show NEED rice with them. I dare say those folks there also did.

Various stuff from yesterday. Eggs, with Kikkoman soy sauce & ground white pepper. Partly drunk (bowl to lips), partly spooned. Cubano Especial & black bean soup, from here – leftovers taken home shown, a few damp condensation patches seen on the Cubano bread. The bread was the real deal, the type needed for a Cubano, and perfectly crisped and ironed in their plancha press. I chatted w/ the owner and he said they got it from a supplier in South Carolina although they are considering making their own in the future - maybe. The meats and fillings were nicely done and the sandwich had a good yielding (right through) bite and crunch. He generously topped up the soup for me to take home. He also gregariously gave everyone in the (small) shop a shot of excellent Cuban coffee on the house, I guess he just felt like it at the moment, lucky me. The leftover Cubano piece; with chiffonaded young kale & small spinach leaves & heads (many flowering) in chicken broth w/ additional chicken fat rendered in situ in the soup.

EV olive oil, shallots, ramp bulbs, butter, calf liver slices (plus the marinate of sake, salt, lots of black pepper), sugar snap peas, Cipriani tagliarelle (dripping wet straight from the cooking pot). Toss & mix in pan.