Tropicalsenior

To what do they rely for their flavor? Is it strictly the aromatics in the rice? It is so prevalent here that even all the little Chinese restaurants do it. My housemate absolutely adores this stuff and sometimes he will pick some up on his way home from work just to do his part so that I don't have to cook every night. I suck it up and eat it, but every time, I feel like I've earned an Academy Award.

Thanks for the memories. I must have read those books 4 or 5 times each.

@liuzhou I'm sorry to hear that you had a blah day but it's good to know that I'm not the only one that feels that way sometimes. Yesterday was one for me, too. We haven't had any rain since November and yesterday was hot, windy and dusty. All I could do all day was sneeze, so dinner last night was also blah and boring. We had pork cutlets sandwiches on homemade rolls and cantaloupe. It was so boring looking that I didn't even take a picture of it. BTY, is it true that they don't ever put soy sauce in fried rice? Almost every recipe that I see calls for soy sauce. @Kim Shook That tonkatsu looks wonderful. Now I'm kicking myself for not picking up the thick boneless pork chops I saw last week. That is a beautiful meal.

Do you steam them or fry them? I've heard that you need a different dough for each method and I can't remember which is which.

Been there, done that!

I'm more inclined to suspect a rather bad cell phone photo.

Hey guys, give @mm84321 a break. Even gourmands like to get out of the kitchen and associate with those of us with more plebeian tastes.

@SmithyBeautiful! I suspect that the reason you didn't get air pockets was because of the double dipping in the flour. Letting them set and dipping them again might have caused too hard a crust. The second dip in the flour really isn't necessary, nor is it necessary to let it set that first time.

Thank you. That is high praise, indeed. And thank you for the recipe. This is something that I will be making regularly. I also make Rou jia mo on a regular basis. They are perfect for a quick meal on a hot summer night.

This is my first attempt at making @liuzhou's WoWoTou Buns, but it won't be my last. I don't know how authentic they are but they were delicious. They turned out larger than I expected but it was probably because all of the flour that I used was gluten flour. I will try it again after I've gone to Chinatown to get some soy flour. I used a filling that I have made before for Korean egg rolls. It has a lot of flavor even without garlic or onions. I fixed some homemade potstickers that I had in the freezer and made a cucumber salad. It's a meal that I will definitely make again.

I wanted to make a Chinese dish that liuzhou had made and I found a similar recipe on this site. The directions were hilarious. liuzhou said that it was just a bad computer translation but you still can't help but laugh when you read through the recipes. This one is particularly funny. It's kind of a shame though, because there are almost a thousand recipes and most, barring a few pig spleens and chicken feet, look really good.

I thought that I would make some of these and I went looking for a little better recipe then I had previously found that gave ingredients but no quantities. I found this one but I find I need a little help with the translation. This is the first time I have been instructed to do plastic surgery on something before I steam it.

My best heat beaters are my IP, freezer and microwave. When I make soups, stews and sauces I always make more than enough for one meal and put it in the freezer. Then when it's hot, I can thaw out the extra meal in the microwave and it's quick and cool. I also have the advantage (?) of getting up at 4:30 in the morning to get breakfast for my housemates before they go to work. I do a lot of cooking and baking then and just reheat it at dinner time. For frying things, I use my electric skillet and I do make a lot of stir frys in my wok. I don't have much luck serving salads. My housemates are from Central America and to them, a salad is a side dish. They would never say anything, but the times that I have served salads I can sense the puzzlement, as if to say “is this all we get”. Soups and casseroles that I can finish up at the last minute as they come home from work seem to be more practical. I do wish that the idea of cooking naked would work for me, it would save me a lot on laundry.

I didn't find that the extra step was necessary, either. I'm so glad to see that someone else likes red dishes, also, even if they don't photograph that well.

Thanks for the memories! Until I was 12, we still had the old wood stove so things were doubly hot.

When I'm cooking, all I wear is loose cotton scrub tops and white shorts about two sizes too big. I do mean, that's ALL I wear. I can't stand anything tight. I keep a big supply in the laundry room and if I get splattered or floured, I can change and keep right on going. It may not be the most attractive, but at my age I'm not trying to look cool, I'm just trying to stay cool.

Love it!

BTY, my grandson has your cookbook in hand and will bring it to me in the spring. I'm very much looking forward to it!

Was the salmon fresh or frozen? And if it was fresh do you think it would have done better frozen?

This probably sounds like a strange subject to bring up when most of you, as @CantCookStillTry would say, are up to your knickers in snow and ice but some of us right now are in a heat wave. Although Costa Rica is in the northern hemisphere, Central America only has two seasons. Wet and dry. Wet season is from sometime in April to sometime in November so that puts us in the dry season right now and our two hottest months are March and April. CCST is in Australia and going through a real hot time. We'd like to know what you do to beat the heat. What are your favorite hot weather recipes? How do you cook in the hot weather to keep from heating up your kitchen? Any and all suggestions and anecdotes are welcome.

Ham and corn chowder with homemade biscuits and a Mediterranean salad.

I'd cozy up to a steak before broccoli any day.

Boy, that brought back memories. When I was first married, the only cookbook that I had was either Betty Crocker or Better Homes and Gardens, the one with the checkered cover, and it had a recipe for rice pilaf that was made with rice and little bits of spaghetti broken up in it. I made it in a skillet with a tight cover, and I made it often. Someone stole my cookbook and after that I never made it again. That was long before Rice-A-Roni was popular.

This is probably an old one and everyone has seen it but I just got it in an email and I thought it was funny but oh so true. ORDERING A PIZZA CALLER: Is this Rocco's Pizza? GOOGLE: No sir, it's Google Pizza. CALLER: I must have dialed a wrong number. Sorry. GOOGLE: No sir, Google bought Rocco's Pizza last month. CALLER: OK. I would like to order a pizza. GOOGLE: Do you want your usual, sir? CALLER: My usual? You know me? GOOGLE: According to our caller ID data sheet, the last 12 times you called you ordered an extra-large pizza with three cheeses, sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms and meatballs on a thick crust. CALLER: OK! That's what I want ... GOOGLE: May I suggest that this time you order a pizza with ricotta, arugula, sun-dried tomatoes and olives on a whole wheat gluten-free thin crust? CALLER: What? I detest vegetables.. GOOGLE: Your cholesterol is not good, sir. CALLER: How the hell do you know? GOOGLE: Well, we cross-referenced your home phone number with your medical records. We have the result of your blood tests for the last 7 years. CALLER: Okay, but I do not want your rotten vegetable pizza! I already take medication for my cholesterol. GOOGLE: Excuse me sir, but you have not taken your medication regularly. According to our database, you only purchased a box of 30 cholesterol tablets once, at Drug RX Network, 4 months ago. CALLER: I bought more from another drugstore. GOOGLE: That doesn't show on your credit card statement. CALLER: I paid in cash. GOOGLE: But you did not withdraw enough cash according to your bank statement. CALLER: I have other sources of cash. GOOGLE: That doesn't show on your last tax return unless you bought them using an undeclared income source, which is against the law. CALLER: WHAT THE HELL? GOOGLE: I'm sorry, sir, we use such information only with the sole intention of helping you. CALLER: Enough already! I'm sick to death of Google, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and all the others. I'm going to an island without internet, cable TV, where there is no cell phone service and no one to watch me or spy on me. GOOGLE: I understand sir, but you need to renew your passport first. It expired 6 weeks ago...

I have tried but I just can't get them down raw. My very favorite way to eat oysters is to bread them well, fry them and have them on a sandwich with thick sliced bacon and whole wheat toast with just butter on it. A nice little cholesterol bomb.