sacre_bleu

Also of note for WNY eaters: the only real Korean BBQ place in WNY that I know of is in Amherst, on Evans Rd (Korea House, 402 Evans). Excellent bulgoki and dwaeji bulgoki you grill over a full in-table gas grill setup. The kalbi didn't send me. Really solid panchan. Could hold its own against any of the second-tier places in Manhattan's Koreatown. Also, Vietnamese: 99 Fast Food, on Bailey Ave by the University at Buffalo Main St campus, and downtown on Niagara St, across from city hall. Pho as it was meant to be, and a small menu of other blue-collar Viet standards.

Still open, still fine, IMHO. The wife likes David Jun's fusion dishes and I appreciate the well-executed sushi. My homemade tuna tartare is better, though. We drop in on his downtown noodle/sushi roll place (Osake, corner of Delaware and Chippewa) for the "sushi happy hour" when all rolls are $4.

Daikon kimchi and peanut butter on pita bread. Yes, really. An assertive Asian kick on the pickle and peanut butter sandwich.

I'm a conservative Orthodox Christian (you may know of Greek Orthodox, whose practitioners come in a spectrum of strictness when it comes to fasting). Lent, for people like me, is 40+ days before Easter and Christmas, plus stretches before other observances. Some Orthodox don't fast, or go with a no-meat-only-fish regimen, sort of like Catholics on Fridays. I adhere to the ancient practice: no meat, fish, dairy products. Shellfish (shrimp, squid) are allowed. Even stricter people keep a no-oil fast too, but that's not something I do. The idea is to remind you of how your hungers (for food, and other things) influence your behaviors. It really sinks in when you see something like a McDonalds ad and catch yourself thinking "That looks really good." When I would never voluntarily patronize Mickey Ds.

Half the year I eat a nearly vegan diet, for religious reasons. (No meat, fish, dairy). The other half of the year, I don't. Me likee bacon, spare ribs and two-inch-thick sirloins. I can tell you, it's really accelerated my exploration of different cuisines. Thai, Korean, Chinese all contribute to my table, and I wouldn't have had the impetus if I could always mangia whatever I wanted.

Unless cost is no object, Weber is the way to go. A big kettle will do all the grilling/roasting you need, and rudimentary smoking (i.e. turkey, chicken, pork loin, salmon, eggplant). The lack of a moveable grate has never been a problem; you move the coals or stack them to get temperature gradients if you want. A Weber Smoky Mountain Cooker if you want ribs, brisket, pulled pork without a lot of monitoring time. That's my $.02. 8+ years of satisfaction talking here.

Here's a question: How much time before taping do you actually have to think up recipes? I remember reading that the Japanese Iron Chef contestants were told that it would be one of three ingredients. So they each worked out menus for each of the three, and simply chose when the "surprise" ingredient came up.

Please, can some kind Korean soul contribute a recipe? (Not necessarily the Jaffrey version.) I've tried to duplicate this at home, and I have the kochujang, etc., but I can't seem to get the proportions right in the sauce.

I rather enjoy cooking in other people's kitchens. I bring my knife, and ingredients, and the right pan, if I think they might be lacking. Then I "let" them clean up. Bliss ...

I've got a nomination. Jason Epstein's New York Times Sunday Magazine columns walk the line, and occasionally slip over into the pointlessly memoirish. Case in point Sunday's offering, wherein Epstein belabors readers with his account of his 1953 honeymoon aboard the Atlantic liner Ile de France. Not enough about food. Too much about him and the decor in his stateroom, etc. I often enjoy his columns. Just this one made me mutter, "Get to the food already, sheesh. I don't care that much about your life." Meaning that I could be interested in your life. But you completely failed to hold me there this time.

Amy, you might have been put off by a few marginally chippy responses. But by now I hope you understand that your question was unhelpfully broad, a de-pinned hand grenade tossed into a room full of ... American food writers. I might well have asked, "Why are the questions posted on eGullet so bad?" My contribution to the discussion: One reason much food writing isn't as scintillating as the output of the famed authors named above is that the pay is often dismal. If you have a book gig, a well-appointed contributing editorship or a staff job at a metro newspaper, you might have the time and resources to immerse yourself in knowledge and hone your prose. There are still talented outsiders who work on their writing while holding down another job (i.e., Bourdain). But those are exceedingly rare, in my acquaintance. Most often, food writing is piecework (say, $75 a section front story in a 200K circ metro, for instance), and gets cranked out like chicken carcasses on a packing house assembly line. (Edited for clarity.)

Roasted cabbage with cumin seed -- sounds like peasant fare but the spice, along with a bit of butter, draws out a wondefully earthy sweetness from the vegetable. Quarter, core and slice a green or red cabbage in 1/2-inch slices. Place in a buttered baking dish. Sprinkle with 2 teaspoons of cumin seed, dot with 2 tablespoons butter. Bake at 400, covered, until tender, about 45 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. It's the cabbage I serve to "I really don't like cabbage" people.

Is that the right recipe? There's no kimchi.

Problem: A couple years' grease film built up on cabinets over stove Solution: You tell me, pretty please. Will try the Mr Clean Erasers, but what did people do before they were invented? Windex and 409 don't do much with the hardened stuff.

Sahni's resipes are simpler -- if you don't live in a metropolis or diligently assemble ingredients by mail order, Sahni's recipes will be easier to accomplish.

Re: Towne Diner (for Pan) It's still open (at Allen and Elmwood) and still serving Greek standards into the wee hours. For Buffalo, that's ethnic. Their food is a bit shopworn for my tastes but then again I'm fortunate enough to be fed in actual Greek and Macedonian households. They did commit one unforgiveable sin the last time I was there, however. Ordered the gyro-and-feta omelet, got feta-and-seasoned-pressed-ground-beef. If I was a proper Greek, someone would have had their head lopped off with a sabre, "Opa!"

Re: O chef Dave Jun is a swell fella who has really added something to the Buffalo scene. He's responsible for the noodle bowl place (Osake) and reopened Blu on Main Street. I wish he'd do a whole-hog Korean place but there may not be the market.

Buffalo does offer a few ethnic notables. Fastfood 99 is excellent blue-collar Vietnamese downtown and near the UB Main Street Campus. There's bare-bones but tasty Korean on Niagara Falls Boulevard and good full-service Korean (including BBQ tables) in Amherst. There's two sushi restaurants (one, called "O," is sushi-plus) worth the wasabi, one in Buffalo and another in Amherst. A noodle bowl-sushi roll place downtown, at Delaware and Chippewa. Two or three decent Thai places, none mind-blowing. There's Pakistani Indian on Transit Road (including the only dosas I know of in Western New York.) There's a couple of Jamaican/West Indies places and a bunch of Indian places that haven't captured my fancy at all. No Mexican worth talking about, a few so-so Puerto Rican/Dominican places on the West Side, and one Chinese place a notch above cookie-cutter takeout joints (Chang's, in Amherst). Meaning, if there's a good Chinese Chinese (as opposed to American Chinese) place in WNY, I haven't found it, despite desperate searches. An excellent resource for Buffalo diners: Bill Rapaport's Buffalo Restaurant Guide (which includes places across WNY and Southern Ontario).

That there is one pretty cooker, all right. But if your cash is scarce and barbecue is more important than the aesthetics of your patio scene, I'd consider the Weber Smoky Mountain Cooker, Weber's charcoal-fired smoker. It weighs in at about 30 pounds and goes for about $180. It looks like a fat black capsule standing on end, and is certainly nothing as attractive as the Kamado. It also doesn't have the radiant-heat versatility that the thick ceramic walls afford Kamado owners. But it's the gizmo I'd recommend if your No. 1 concern is the shortest line between you and pulled pork, brisket or ribs in your backyard. Its airtight construction means that 15 pounds of Kingsford briquets can last for 14 hours, largely unmonitored with few if any temperature spikes, crucial for barbecue and hard to attain on log-burning rigs. Its adherents even have a non-company sponsored site with all sorts of helpful advice: The Virtual Weber Bullet I usually put on my pork butts at 10 pm, pile in the oak and hickory chunks, and go to bed. Pull them at 8 am and have a breakfast that Atkins freaks can only dream of. Still, I admit it, that Kamado is a mite sexy. Me wants. But I'd need to get more rebar under the patio somehow.

I use the Weber Smoky Mountain Cooker ($179). On one load of charcoal, it'll do 14-hour pork butt cooks. I cook 'em overnight and wake up once or twice to check temps, don't usually have to adjust anything. I loves me my Bullet. Pull the butts when they get squishy, double-wrap in plastic grocery bags (to catch the juice) and let 'em sit for a few hours. Pluck the bone, finish sparingly with a mixture of apple juice, vinegar, soy sauce and Sriracha chile sauce, so you can still taste the smoke and porky richness.

Klink, seems like you've got a master's grasp of the subject. But a humble suggestion from a veteran home barbecue guy: Warn 'em off the crappy cheap water smokers. I just about quit barbecuing trying to control my Brinkman. Switched to a Weber kettle, did better. Graduated to the Weber Smoky Mountain Cooker (The Bullet) and all the sudden barbecuing wasn't a gamble any more. Could stop fretting temps all the time and spend my time on more rewarding pursuits, like perfecting my honey chipotle glaze and working through margarita permutations. Now I cook two cases of spares and a case of butts for a party every year, without fear or fumble. Your course. You tha man. Just my $.02.

Thanks a bunch. A few belacan questions: Do you roast it before you use it? Some recipes seem to call for it. Or does the wok cooking of the puree roast it anyways? Does the pre-roasting cut down on what might, to some American noses, seem like an untamed aroma? I use fish sauce all the time, but some references to belacan suggest opening your windows before using if you're not used to it, etc. Appreciate any (more) advice.

The Penang restaurants in NYC call it "Kangkung belacan" and they also have a green-bean dish with a similar sauce ("Kacang Pendek Belacan"). I haven't been able to find a recipe anywhere. There's obviously belacan in it, which is identified as a dried shrimp paste that comes in a block. I can order a brick of that online. But what else is in the sauce, and how do you put it together? Help would be appreciated. I've got a need, and the nearest Malaysian restaurant is about 300 miles away.

Looking for a place to take a few guys for dinner. Prefer authentic Korean, not Japanese mimicking Korean. I want to grill my bulgoki over a flame, shoot soju and be stunned by the variety of kimchi and other panchan. Can you help with a name of a place?