huiray

Oh, I forgot - Palembang in Sumatera is also well-known for its krupuk.

A late night meal. Fish balls [commercial], Taiwan bok choy, fresh fine rice vermicelli (bánh hỏi tươi) in leftover beef broth. Chopped scallions.

What I have in my larder at the moment – a Vietnamese brand of shrimp chips, and also crab chips. There are various other Vietnamese brands; also Malaysian, Thai, Indonesian, etc etc brands. All available from "Asian" groceries and even Chinese groceries (at least in the USA) if they are worth their name. As implied above, I've used various brands from various producers over the years. These chips are commonplace not only in "Chinese takeouts & restaurants" in the USA or North America or UK or other places (both English-speaking and otherwise - e.g. the Netherlands and even Germany) but are widespread in SE Asia (of course) in both Chinese and non-Chinese communities. I believe they are also found in places even like Hong Kong especially accompanying Cantonese-type (HK) crispy-skin roast chicken. The latter is especially common in Chinese communities in SE Asia. One does not need much oil, as Okanagancook has described above. I typically puff these chips in no more than a couple of inches of oil in a small saucepan (maybe ~6 inches diameter) on my stove. From what I read about BGEs - couldn't one just plop a small saucepan like that on the grill of the BGE? (I don't have one, so I'm wondering more than declaring) One just turns over the chip after it puffs up (with chopsticks, e.g.) to "finish" on the other side. 20-30 seconds in all, if even that. There are long chopsticks ("cooking chopsticks") if one felt the need for additional distance between oneself and the oil... (the pair of cooking chopsticks I have is 18 inches in length; but I just use a regular pair of bamboo ones) The Malay communities in SE Asia (especially in Indonesia; in particular Malang (Java) is a center for such things) also have oxen/cow/water buffalo skin chips that behave the same way as shrimp chips, besides said shrimp chips and also fish chips etc. Java in particular. (The wikipedia article referenced above does touch upon Indonesia has having probably the widest array of these sort of chips)

Unsalted butter, walnuts, gorgonzola dolce, heavy cream, spaghetti [Garofalo], parsley. Plus celery, button mushrooms, parsley in beef broth (not pictured)

I think these (as-is) would be very nice in a slow braise with something like daikon & rehydrated Chinese mushrooms. :-)

Ann_T and scubadoo97, most kind. Thanks. Your meals are lovely too.

螞蟻上樹. (Ants Climbing a Tree) Made with the requisite cellophane noodles (a.k.a. glass noodles a.k.a. mung bean noodles) traditionally specified for this dish. Ground pork marinated w/ double-fermented soy sauce, Shaohsing wine, Yuojia laodouban (友加老豆瓣), corn starch. Hot peanut oil in pan, chopped garlic, julienned ginger; the pork mince mix; stir-fry, then chopped scallions; chicken stock w/ some rock sugar dissolved in it; cellophane noodles (presoaked in hot water). Toss well. Dress w/ more chopped scallions.

Chicken wings & drumettes, chopped in two through the bones; stir fried in a tangy tomato sauce w/ stuff. Blanched romaine dressed w/ oyster sauce & ground pepper. White rice.

Yesterday - more of the congee made here; reheated w/ more water added; then served w/ thinly-sliced negi (white part), chopped scallions, deep-fried shallots, ground white pepper, a raw egg. Mixing everything together (hot/warm congee) also cooks the egg partially but the "velvety nature" of the raw/partially cooked egg (Cantonese "wat") is present and is the desired effect and texture.

Glad you found some things worth a read, CeeCee.

Panaderia, whatever became of the replacement/rebuilding/whatever of that large market (with the large fresh fish sections) in your locale that burned down?

A beautiful dish but a pretty costly one too, it seems to me. :-) The Imperial Osetra, plus (I presume top-notch) smoked salmon alone probably (at usual retail prices) would be running around $150+ for the amounts shown in the pic for the one plate? Then if one factors in the labor costs (the potatoes and other stuff is relatively cheap by comparison) this one plate might be around $200+ in a restaurant sense... Your circumstances clearly are very privileged, considering also the other amazing dishes you show with all sorts of exclusive ingredients. Good for you, certainly. I for one can't match the bounty of your available ingredients but shall savor looking at (and imagining eating) the dishes you create.

Another pot of rice congee, for a cold day. Peanut oil, ginger, garlic, shallots (not usually added at this point), "five flower meat" :-), ja choy (a kind of preserved mustard stem), splash of fish sauce, water, salt, simmer, uncooked jasmine rice, simmer, tau pok, simmer. Eaten w/ scallions & deep-fried shallots. A braise (stove top) of winter bamboo shoots, oil, garlic, snow fungus (rehydrated), fu chuk (beancurd skin), aka miso, water. I think I'm forgetting something...

Large head-on (lots of orange hepatopancreas) shell-on shrimp deveined and marinated w/ Shaohsing wine, salt, oil, scallions, ginger; then drained & stir-fried w/ garlic, ginger, shallots, hot long green chillies, lots of ground white pepper, scallions, salt. Kai-lan stir-fried w/ garlic, oil, oyster sauce. White rice.

Or fork and spoon. :-)

Harm Choy Tong¶ with bánh phở tươi§ ¶ Special edition of this soup. :-) Water, chicken legs, short-cut pork spare ribs, oil, sliced galangal, sliced ginger, smashed garlic, trimmed pickled mustard greens (pre-soaked), sliced tomatoes, salted plums, "aged gourmet" rice vinegar, salt, rock sugar. Simmer till done. § Fresh Vietnamese-type rice noodles.

Thanks, I appreciate your compliment.

• Teochew-style steamed Silver Pomfret. Partially steamed w/ scallions, Shaohsing wine, salt, ginger, scallions; fish retrieved, liquids & stuff discarded, all other stuff (tomatoes, salted plums, fresh ginger & scallions, chopped/sliced pickled mustard greens (harm choy), sliced heong koo, etc etc) added and steaming finished off. • Braised (stove-top) winter-type bamboo shoots w/ shiitake mushrooms (dried "heong koo", reconstituted), smashed garlic, wong nga pak (Napa cabbage) hearts, chicken stock, peanut oil. • White rice.

Whereas your "pilau" is my "pilaf" so when I think of "pilaf" it is a rice dish (no pasta) in particular from the Indian sub-continent. Biryani is just a form of pilaf, so far as I am concerned. No pasta.

"no water involved." Uhh, milk is around 80% water (or thereabouts) and cream is usually more than 50% water.

Interesting. Thanks for posting these, I learned something new. When I think of "pilaf" I think of the dish called "pilaf" from South Asia, SE Asia, also southern West Asia - which can have meats, herbs, vegetables, other stuff in it - but not pasta to my knowledge. Pretty much like what is described in the Wiki article, from a quick scan of it. (It looks like the article also does not describe pasta as being an integral part of "pilaf" dishes but it does illustrate a "typical" Turkish pilaf dish with one that has orzo.)

Miso soup. Water, hon-dashi granules, bunapi-shimeji, scallions, finely sliced negi (white part only), wakame, cubed soft tofu, Yamabuki miso. Fedelini [De Cecco] with crème fraîche, parsley, lemon (juice + zest) & Parmigiano Reggiano. (red chili flakes & garlic & pepper also) This is a dish from the menu of Bluebeard in Indy; recipe shared by Abbi & John Adams.

I'm just curious. Yes, really. What made you think that pilaf had pasta in it in the first place?

Well, yes and no regarding Nasi Goreng being whatever one calls it and no differences between Chinese fried rice & Nasi Goreng and whatever. (including "Chaufa" from Peru) There are certainly all sorts of large expanses of grey areas but Potter Stewart's observation (thanks due to his clerk at the time) about the definition of obscenity comes to mind. There's something about the overall dish one is looking at and tasting that may make one think more of one genre rather than another. The overall taste, the mix of ingredients, etc etc.** Personally, when I have a plate of Yeung Chow fried rice in front of me I wouldn't think of Nasi Goreng, no... and some iteration of fried rice with kecap manis and galangal and a couple of fried eggs on it served w/ sambal ikan bilis on the side - I wouldn't have in mind some version of Hong Kong-style "Chow Fan" either. And so it goes. ** But yes, in some cases two dishes might be cooked independently by two different cooks from two different culinary traditions/cuisines and called by separate/different names yet when presented to a third party would be seen as virtually indistinguishable. :-)

Have you seen this old thread? http://forums.egullet.org/topic/144472-fried-rice-chinese-type-in-china-or-restaurants-here/ :-)