aprilmei

Does anybody remember those "white rabbit" sweets?? I used to love those. I sometimes see them here (in Hong Kong) at Chinese New Year. And I used to like those thin, red coloured crumbly wafers - can't remember what they were called. They were the diameter of a quarter but much thinner, sold stacked in these waxy paper wrappers. Oh, and butterflies!!! They were just won ton pei that was twisted into a butterfly shape, deep-fried and then dipped in honey. We used to get them at one bakery in Los Angeles Chinatown (old Chinatown - not Monterey Park). They were really good. But every other version I've tasted since hasn't been nearly as good; maybe it's an age thing.

Icered is dreadful, really nasty, vituperative stuff on there. Although I occasionally (1x every 6 months or so) read it with morbid fascination, just to confirm my faith in how awful people can be when they're hiding behind the shield of anonymity.

Eliotmorgan, interesting that you bring up Felix. I REALLY dislike the food there - but to be fair, I haven't tried it since the new chef (actually, not so new - she's been there for at least two years now) came on board (although I did like ex Felix chef Bryan Nagao's food much better when he went to Kokage; it was Japanese, not a forced Hawaiian-fusion). But Felix has been around for ages, despite the food. People I've talked to who go there regularly (or at least more than I do) say it's not for the food, it's for the ambience - and it does have an incredible view. But so does Spoon, and I thought the Spoon food was much better.

I finally have the copper molds and the beeswax so over the weekend I made double batches (enough for 24 each) of plain canneles AND Bau's chocolate canneles. Actually, I just made the mixes and baked six of each. I forgot to take into consideration that it takes at least an hour to bake each batch (I have 12 molds) so it's going to take a loooonnnnngggg time to bake the remainder. I think I'll take Paula's advice and freeze them. BUT, the canneles turned out beautifully. They rose just a little out of the molds and also stuck just a little, but I was able to pry them out without disfiguring them. The crusts on both types are lovely, really delicately crisp. The chocolate canneles are gorgeous - they look just like the photograph. Although I must say I prefer the plain ones.

HKTraveller, I think Spoon will be around for awhile because the InterContinental has invested so much in it and they're not going to let it go that quickly. Restaurants in hotels have an advantage in that they don't really have to worry about paying rent so they can cruise along a lot longer than independent restaurants, even if they're not making a profit. But like you, I wonder who their target audience is. It is expensive - comparable to the prices at the Paris Spoon. As you point out, it's too expensive for casual dining. It also has the disadvantage of being in Tsim Sha Tsui and not very close to the MTR so it's a place where the diner actually has to make plans to visit, rather than dropping by on the spur of the moment. I also wonder how well some of the dishes will be received. I loved the cold tomato soup with bonito tartare, but more traditional Chinese people don't like the idea of cold soups. They also won't like having to put it together themselves, they're going to want the dish completely prepared for them.

Actually, it's opening tomorrow (October 22). AD flew in a couple days ago but the restaurant team (executive chef, pastry chef, restaurant manager, maitre d' and sommelier) have been here since July. I've only been to the Spoon in Paris so that's the only one I can compare it to. Spoon Paris seems more casual and the menu is more Asian influenced, which wouldn't have gone over well in Hong Kong - nobody here is going to pay 27 Euros for Peking-glazed spareribs when you can get it for about HK$80 (about US$10) at any local restaurant (even though Spoon Paris' spareribs come with marmalde diable and Maxim's potatoes). Also, at this price range, people here expect a more formal setting (although it doesn't seem stuffy-formal). It's going to cost at least HK$500 (US$64) to have a three-course meal without wine. There's a six-course "sexy Spoon" meal for $750 (about US$100) which the chef creates with consultation from the diner. I was there for one of the pre-opening dinners and of course the quality is going to be top-notch when AD is here, so let's hope they can keep the quality and consistency. Warm royale of cepes custard with raw mushrooms (enoki and shiitake), pancetta salt and green juice was wonderful, as was the chilled tomato soup with sun-dried tomato salad, bonito tartare and seaweed pesto. The latter dish was "deconstructed" - every component served in a separate dish (fabulous accoutrements - I wanted to put some of the dishes in my handbag - after eating everything, of course!). I also liked the poached Boston lobster with herbs/basil condiment (most of us would call it pesto) and vegetable minestrone. The meat dish tasted good but I don't especially like tournedos - too lean (when it comes to beef, the more fat the better, IMHO). Then aged Comte cheese "from the summer of 1998" (delicious), then a refreshing citrus sorbet, then for dessert, "sugar and salt" chocolate praline finger.

I HATE it when the wait staff interrupt a conversation. You could be right in the middle of telling an anecdote or a joke and they'll come over to ask if you're ready to order. They should watch discreetly from a distance and when there's a pause, that's when they should approach the table. I can forgive it once, but not when it happens several times during one meal.

Sesame leaves look like large shiso leaves but the taste is very different, quite mild in comparison.

Okay Paula, I'm temporarily giving up the search for the best cannele recipe - will wait until I get the right copper molds and some beeswax. Thanks for the advice. btw, loved your recipe - they're not too sweet. Noticed that your batter was looser than the others, especially compared to Bau's chocolate recipe which was fairly thick.

Just checked bridgekitchenware.com - they sell the molds for $16.95!!! Ouch!

Hi Paula, thanks for this info - will order the copper molds as you advised, and also some beeswax (these products aren't available anywhere in Hong Kong). I checked culinarion.com and the molds are 9 euros each, JB Prince sells them for US$8.20 and meilleurduchef.com seems the least expensive at 7.34 euros minus 19.6 per cent for orders out of the EU.

Hi Paula, thanks for your advice. You're right that the canneles settle back down into the molds but they don't do it quickly enough and the colour isn't even on the parts that aren't coming in contact with any metal. The tops are pale - not just the fluted edges, but the centre as well. I tried putting them under the broiler as you advised in the last thread but it only browned the edges. Also, do the copper molds come in both copper and tin-lined copper? Rickster mentions that his are tin-lined but from looking at websites, it also seems that pure copper molds are also available (at least the picture makes them look like they're pure copper). Is there an advantage of one over the other?

I've been baking a lot of canneles lately and have tried three recipes in the past week (Paula Wolfert's from the last cannele thread), Herme's from La Patisserie de Pierre Herme, and Bau's chocolate canneles. The only other recipe I tried previously (Nancy Silverton's) were baked in a silicon sheet of petits four size canneles. I've been trying out this week's recipes in full-size cannele molds made of tin (I think). I gave the molds an initial wash, dried them in the oven, and seasoned them by brushing thoroughly with melted Crisco and heating them in the oven for an hour. I then poured out the excess fat and inverted the molds and let them continue to season in the oven for about 15 minutes. Before baking, I brushed the molds again with melted Crisco then chilled them in the freezer before pouring in the rested batter. They were all baked in a convection oven. After the canneles were baked, I could not get them out of the molds - they were stuck in places. Once I was finally able to pry them out of the molds, they tasted fine and were not underbaked in the centre but of course they didn't look good. After I baked each recipe, I had to soak the molds in hot water to soften the parts that had stuck, then re-washed and re-seasoned them. Can anybody please tell me what I'm doing wrong? Am I using the wrong fat? Should I switch to a regular oil instead of Crisco? I know the last thread recommended beeswax along with the fat, but I thought the beeswax was to give the canneles a better crust, not to facilitate their removal from the molds? Or is it the metal? I know that copper is the traditional metal for cannele molds - I'm using tin, is that why the canneles are sticking? The traditional molds - are they tin-lined copper or pure copper? I'm also having the same problem Nightscotsman had - the canneles keep rising up out of the molds. You'd think that if they're able to do that, they wouldn't be stuck at the edges, but they are. Thanks in advance for any help.

Yeah, La Cumbre is good - or was when I lived in SF. Ask for whole beans, not the re-fried beans (it's a little lighter). Also, (question for San Franciscans) is Taqueria San Jose still there, near the corner of Valencia (I think?) and 24th?? Fabulous tacos. They have lengua (tongue) and cabeza (head) - very yummy. The carne asada and carnitas are also good. Just meat and tortilla, nothing else - you add the salsas at the table.

I've seen something like this in use at an induction dinner for the Commanderie de Bordeaux in Hong Kong. The point is that some people can't tell the difference between red and white wines based "only" on smell and taste - they have to have the visual clue. The inductees were on stage, handed these "blind" glasses of wine and the first question they had to answer was, "Is it a red or white wine?" Thank goodness for the pride of the inductees, all of them got the correct answers.

Yes, Louisa's right (Hi Louisa!!). the visiting chefs will be at the Relais Plaza.

I love Chiu Chow soups and anything with those tiny oysters. Like ho jai jook (tiny oysters in jook), and oyster omelette, and that wonderful peppery soup with intestines and pickles. I also love those cold boiled flower crabs, and I recently tried at a very local Chiu Chow restaurant (local in Hong Kong, I mean) raw marinated crabs. Really salty, wine-y, rich and delicious - loads of roe in the crabs - but only the Chinese people at the table liked them.

Australian born Chinese think they're ABCs too, but I always tell them they're wrong. When I first heard BBCs and Aussie-born Chinese speaking I couldn't believe my ears. It's disconserting to hear British or Australian accents coming out of Chinese faces. And one of my colleagues is from Scotland - she has a gorgeous Chinese face but when she opens her mouth, it's a thick Scottish accent (she keeps calling me a "wee lass"). I'm used to all the different accents now. One of my friends back in the States is Chinese from Nicaragua. I asked her why her family went there - and she said that when her grandfather was trying to emigrate, he saw on the map "America". So he bought a ticket there. Problem was, he didn't look closely at the map - and he chose Central America, not North America

Shiewei is right, just make sure your pan is oiled. That way the noodle sheet will come off the pan and it also lets you stack them without the sheets sticking together

Katie, you're correct. Just as BBC means British born Chinese and CBC means Canadian born Chinese. We've taken up several of the TV stations. Herbacidal, I'm also ABC. Moved here 10 years ago. There are lots of us here - and everybody seems to know everybody else! It's a city of more than six million, but in the ABC and OC (overseas Chinese) community, it's something like two degrees of separation rather than six (someone is always a friend of a friend).

Great, thanks for both responses. It looks as if there are 10 in Paris.

Can someone please help! I'm writing a piece on Alain Ducasse, who's opening a branch of Spoon here in Hong Kong. To put his attainment of two Michelin three-star restaurants in perspective, I need to explain how few three-star restaurants there are in total in Paris and/or in France. Unfortunately, I don't have a copy of the Michelin Guide 2003 and there doesn't seem to be a copy in all of Hong Kong - I've checked all the bookstores. Can someone who has the 2003 guide(s) please tell me how many three-star restaurants there are in Paris and/or in all of France?? I've googled and checked past e-gullet threads but can't find a precise number. Thanks in advance.

SuzanneF, it actually keeps very well raw. You can even cut off slices and then keep the raw pieces at room temperature (at least that's how the Chinese markets sell it). If it's cooked too long ahead of time it can ferment (poi, anyone?). it's great as a hearty Chinese dessert, cut in cubes, simmered until tender then served with hot, slightly sweetened coconut milk. there should be more liquid than taro.

Herbacidal, I should have been more precise: the official way of writing in China is with simplified characters. Just like the official dialect is Mandarin but in a country of 1.6 billion (isn't it something like that?) there are still many who don't speak the official dialect. In SE Asia, they might be from Southern China but the dialect they are taught in schools (at least in Singapore/Malaysia) is Mandarin. Many of my friends (from Singapore and Malaysia) also speak several other dialects, like Hakka, Fujian. When I first came to HK, I tried speaking my family's dialect (which I don't know fluently): Toi San. The looks I got were dreadful - like I was some little peasant straight from the countryside. It might also have been my awful American accent mixed in with the village dialect.

Hi, I'm living in Hong Kong (main dialect Cantonese) and the usual spelling in English is Chiu Chow. But in Singapore/Malaysia, as Gary pointed out (where main dialect is Mandarin) it's Teo Chow. And in Bangkok (where there's a surprisingly big Chinese population but I don't know which dialect they speak; the Chinese there speak Thai and have taken on Thai names) it tends to be Chaozhou. and Herbacidal, you're mostly correct in that written Chinese doesn't differentiate between dialects, but in Hong Kong they use the traditional (old fashioned, complicated) characters. In most of the rest of the world (China, Singapore, Malaysia) they use simplified characters.