Ling

I WANT THAT STEAK AND CRAB!!!!!!!!!!

Are there answers to these questions? I would guess that French, Italian, and Chinese are 3 of the 4 great cuisines. I don't know about the 4th though. I'm guessing that French cuisine is considered the "standard" by which other cuisines are measured. Would love to know the real answers though!

My mom is great with letting me help with holiday dinners. I always make the desserts since she stopped baking a long time ago. Usually, she makes the Chinese dishes that we all love (like sticky rice) and I make the western-style dishes (like my favorite sausage, artichoke, and sourdough stuffing). Before the day, she will ask me for a list of ingredients I need to make the dishes I've planned, and she will even do the grocery shopping!

The meat at T&T and Empire Supermarket (in Richmond) is generally very cheap. I would say it's almost on par with the deals at Save-on-Meats. I don't buy the beef at T&T though, as it can be a little tough. They have chicken breast halves (skin on, bone on) for $1.99 a pound. I bought pork shoulder for something like $2.39 a pound, regular price. My mom buys veal brisket regularly from Empire today for something like $2.59 a pound. But the asian supermarkets don't carry "exotic" meat like buffalo, etc. Bummer. They do have frogs (really gross looking--headless, with the green and white spotted skin still intact) and turtles (also really gross--I think the butchers just slit their necks so the head is still attached) for the adventurous. Oh yeah--and the BBQ place next to the Richmond T&T sells marinated, cooked duck wings and goose wings. They are so good, especially when you chill them in the fridge for a while.

Susan in FL: yes, the clams were steamed in chicken broth with a few heaping tablespoons of fermented black beans (it contains sugar so I didn't have to add extra to balance the saltiness), soy sauce to taste, quite a few cloves of chopped garlic, chopped scallions and some ginger. I used a cornstarch slurry to thicken. edit: forgot to add that I also added some ShaoXing cooking wine.

The first meal I ever made for my bf was baked goat cheese ravioli with radicchio. It took me a helluva long time to make since I didn't have a pasta machine and had to roll the dough out by hand!

I split over 4 lbs of clams with my bf, and we had some pork chops as well! Clams were cooked Chinese-style, with lots of garlic, soy sauce, and fermented black beans.

I'll take 5 pounds of steak when it comes in, please!

can you pm me your email addy?

I wish I could make it my avatar, but when I make the picture so small, you can't really see what's going on.

Congrats on your first year of marriage! The Vancouver egulleters had the pleasure of meeting Tony just a few days ago and we had a great dinner as well at the Hamilton Street Grill. I love your espresso cups.

Here is a pic of Tony Bourdain and me at Elixir. Excuse my cheesy smile--I was so excited : http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/10999385..._1099982290.jpg

He didn't go to cooking school. He started out as a dishwasher at age 17 and "worked his way up" to head chef at Bonaparte's. At the end of the show, they said that he was now working as a junior chef for another restaurant down the road from Bonaparte's.

I was just going to start a thread about this show! I honestly wanted to kick the "head chef" or hit him over the head with a sauce pan. How can he NOT know how to make a bloody omelette?!!!!!!!!!! And all that moldy food? Not only can he NOT cook, but he's a pig in the kitchen. Great show. I loved it. It got me all riled up...heh heh....

I am getting over my pneumonia and had to take codeine cough syrup before switching over to antibiotics. When I was REALLY sick, the only thing I could stomach were soft scrambled eggs. I tried eating other foods but I would end up spitting it back out because the smell made me naseous. Thankfully, I'm much better now. One can only eat so many eggs in a day.

Chef Neil, if the gingerbread recipe is available, could you post it here for us please? And what was that tan-colored ice-cream that was served with it? Cinnamon ice-cream? It was really good! I guess I'll have to come into HSG to have the ice-cream again, since I don't have an ice-cream maker.

I just woke up and my stomach is still hurting from last night. I was full before the entrees came! That's how much good food there was! Last night was so great; everyone was so friendly. The duck rillettes were my bf's favorite--he told me he must have downed 1/2 of the entire PLATTER while watching the film. The pastrami was awesome, as were the oysters and short ribs, but I think my absolute favorite (this is a very hard choice) would be the tuna with tomato chutney. Mmmm.... Oh yeah, and the gingerbread pudding of course. Damn that is a good dessert. Reminds me of sticky toffee pudding. I didn't even have room for the cheese of tequila shooters! As soon as I waddled into my apartment, I had to unzip my skirt. I haven't eaten so well in a long time, thanks to Chef Neil, Chef Fowke, and their staff. I think I was starstruck when Tony walked into the room at Opus. We followed him around for a while until I finally worked up the courage to ask for a picture. I'll post that later.

I am one bad-ass troublemaker.

Most bread recipes that I've seen call for 2 rises, so I don't make my own bread very often. I made foccaccia last week and though it was good, I had to throw half the pan away because we couldn't finish it. Actually, I was probably being a little picky about its "freshness" but I just don't like to eat bread that's not super fresh. I like to buy the small loaves of olive bread from Terra. That way, my boyfriend and I can finish the whole loaf at one time. I've stayed away from Cobs because of the comments on this board, so can't comment on their bread. I had really good Multigrain from Ecco il Pane a while ago. It was a good chew.

Hope you remember to shave your legs.

If I pin a small sausage on my lapel AND wear the decoder ring, could you make an exception on your "no tiara" rule?

this sounds good..fits the thanksgiving theme too sweet potato ravioli with sage butter sauce: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/104709

maybe homemade ravioli?

Have a question...how formal is this event (both Opus and the Egullet dinner)? (What should I wear?!!! )

When we bought the tickets at Barbara-Jo's, we were told that the food being served at Opus were dishes from the Les Halles cookbook.