Pan

Are you a cow, or is that an acronym for something?

I know what I'd do: Any great Chinese restaurants in your area?

What do you consider the things you have posted so far?

Joanne, I think that a lot of Chinese-Americans like the really bad disgustingly sweet American-Chinese stuff, too. I frankly would probably avoid ordering lemon chicken in any Chinese restaurant in the US. If I saw it on a menu in Malaysia or Hong Kong or China, I'd ask whether it was sweet or not before deciding whether to order it. I recall seeing Martin Yan cook a rendition of Lemon Chicken that looked just like bad restaurant versions to me. Anyone else see that demonstration?

Hi, Peter. I don't think I've ever ordered fried dumplings at Congee Village, and I don't think of dim sum items as their forte, so I usually avoid them. I had a delightful dinner at Congee Village tonight with mascarpone, gaf, and gaf's friend Shirley who he knows from the LTHforum. I'm sure a report will be forthcoming from gaf, but I took pictures. Not all of them came out great, but on the basis that some documentation is better than none, here they are. This is crab congee: My only problem with this congee is that it takes some time to eat the crab meat and it's kind of messy. Three of us enjoyed this, but Shirley, who's Cantonese, said that having congee at dinner is like eating a bagel with dinner. I can definitely see where she's coming from. This is called Lotus Root with Special Bean Sauce: As you can see, the special bean sauce is made with generous helpings of red bean paste. The dish is one of my longtime favorites at Congee Village. I can never remember what name is given to this steamed chicken on the menu, but it includes some lap cheung (sausage), black mushrooms, tree ears, lily buds, dried salted jujubes, and ginger, and it's another of my longtime favorites: This razor clam dish was wonderful and is likely to be a new favorite dish of mine: It was full of scallions, onions, and delicious snap beans, and made with a tasty red sauce. Thank you for ordering this, Shirley! One of the unusual things that Congee Village specializes in (unusual for a Cantonese restaurant, that is) is lamb chops. This dish, which I don't believe is on the regular menu, is called Lamb Chops with Onions: The lamb chops were really moist and succulent, and the dish had a very nice sort of fragrance to it. Accompanying the lamb chops were plenty of onions, small branches of celery, and some broccoli spears. Finally, we got a freebie for dessert: Those of you who know Malaysian food may recognize this dessert soup as Bubur Chacha! I seem to remember a waitress telling me years ago that the chef at Congee Village is from Ipoh, that lovely Malaysian city that's known for its great food and depressingly devoid of jobs. I think another one contradicted that later. But in any case, this was a really excellent rendition. The flavor of the soup was moderately smokey! And the isi (solid ingredients), other than tapioca pearls, included slices of sweet potato and taro. Great food, great company. And a great time was had by all.

How sweet is the resulting dish? I like lemon chicken dishes that are sour. I hate the gloppy, horribly sweet lemon chicken that's standard in Chinese restaurants in the US. Really, I hate it so much I consider it a bane of existence. No offense intended to anyone.

My first thought on seeing that you're blogging again this week: We are not worthy! Second thought, after reading and looking at what's been posted already: We are lucky! You, nervous, Lucy? You are the champ! What a great week awaits all us readers!

Eden, that looks wonderful! What kind of fresh cheese did you use?

Of course I have memories of Ratner's! I would have thought that most any Jew who grew up in New York of New York-born parents (Brooklyn-born, in my parents' case) would have been taken there at some point, but I could easily be wrong. I'm not sure I was old enough to be impressed by the food. It was more of an ambiance experience for me, the feel of an old-time Lower East Side delicatessen (in this case, dairy). Going there from the Upper West Side was a big excursion. Now, if they were still around, I could walk there in 15 minutes easily.

Such a gracious blogger you are! Thank you in advance for yet another round of great photos! This has been one of the funnest foodblogs, and that's saying a lot!

This is such a fascinating, fun thread! I have no children, but I think my favorite meal c. age 7 (1972) would have been ziti, mostaciolli, or farfalle (al dente, please) with tomato sauce, meatballs, and sausage (all home-made except for the sausage and based on Ada Boni's Talismano della Cucina), topped by Parmesan and Romano cheese and accompanied by sliced cucumber (raw) or broccoli (boiled until cooked but not mushy) and baked sweet potato, with really good watermelon or some slices of my mother's apple pie topped with vanilla ice cream for dessert. I just realized, that's dinner only. For breakfast, I might have chosen either two Pop Tarts (I think I liked cinammon, among others) or two Breakfast Treats or Frosted Flakes or Corn Flakes or Rice Crispies, but my favorite thing was my father's Italian special egg dish, which was very buttery and probably wouldn't have been good for me to eat all the time. Preferred drink would have been milk. For lunch, I would have chosen either a peanut butter and strawberry or raspberry jam sandwich or an extra-sharp cheddar or some other kind of cheese (_not_ "American cheese") sandwich accompanied by Tropicana orange juice, a good pear or apple or bunch of green grapes, and some slices of Hebrew National salami (which might be in the sandwich if it were a cheese sandwich -- yeah, we didn't keep kosher).

Have a look at this thread: Chinese in Vancouver Even if you have no plans to visit Vancouver, you can just look at the pictures. In particular, what great stuff canucklehead has posted! And after looking, you'll probably want to go to Vancouver. And it's really high time that someone put a link to the thread on Dutch Cooking, on which Klary has been posting so many fascinating, delicious-looking things, with background.

Then perhaps you can interpret the passage I quoted.

Did you read my post about them earlier in this blog? They're an Indonesian staple, used for both thickening and richness. People often substitute macadamia nuts if they can't find candlenuts. The major difference is that, as I understand it (someone should correct me if I'm wrong), candlenuts cannot be eaten raw.

I genuinely don't know what you mean. I suppose those forums would be off-limits to me, then? Also, which forums are you referring to?

Great report, thank you! Ironically, no bibs gourmands were given out in New York.

Seconded, with feeling! But someday, perhaps you, too, will choose to grace us with a blog. Then, you'll know how much time it takes.

There's that Chinese mixed nut moon cake, which has bits of pork in it.

If eGullet Management planned on making this a professionals-only site, wouldn't their first step be to fire hosts like me? Feel secure in knowing that your fears won't be realized.

Is there some important way in which the pizza at L&B -- which to me is merely good and not worth a trip -- is more Sicilian than the square pizza at DiFara's, which is not just better than L&B's but in an entirely different category (artisanal vs. what, commercial?)? I happen to be a Manhattanite, but it's obvious that there are Brooklynites who prefer DiFara's.

It's hard to know. It doesn't look like anything is guaranteed for you, but it does seem like your email was taken seriously.

Rojak isn't a dessert. It's more like a salad. Rojak also means a bunch of things thrown together.

Abra, I just noticed that one of your mystery items is biji kemiri (candlenuts). You can use that in any number of rich, delicious Indonesian dishes, such as rendang.

Exactly. Please, keep overwhelming us. This is so much fun!!!

Red beans are used in various Chinese sweets, but perhaps the best dish I've had them in is sliced lotus root with red bean paste. I can't tell you how to make it, but I've enjoyed the version Congee Village, a restaurant about 10 blocks from me, makes.