[Various Chinese cuisines]

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.

[Dulce de Leche]

I've made it this way before, but I don't boil it. I do bring the pot of water (with the can of condensed milk) to a simmer, put on the lid and then turn the heat way down, as low as it will go. I usually cook it 3-4 hours, topping up the water whenever it gets too low, and then let it cool in the water.

But I have heard of a can blowing up - happened to a friend of a friend. She had caramel on her ceiling. My friend said it smelled good - too bad she didn't get to taste it.

[Pierre Herme pastry books]

You're getting good prices on the books ordered from amazon.ca. Plaisirs sucres sells for 39 euros at the PH shop, and Secrets Gourmands is 83.85 euros. But that's probably the original version, not the smaller size.

[Pierre Herme pastry books]

Forgot to mention that I live in Hong Kong so can't just look at these books at a bookstore - nobody carries them here.

[Pierre Herme pastry books]

I was in Paris recently and visited the Pierre Herme pastry shop. Gorgeous stuff - expensive, but there was a line of customers out the door (admittedly, though, it's a very small shop). The pastries are beautiful and really delicious. Anyway, they had his book, La Patisserie de Pierre Herme (in French/English) selling for 114 euros, so I bought it (it sells on Amazon for $179 so I saved about $50, but damn, was it heavy!!). Anway, I liked it so much I was interested in his other books, "Desserts" and "Chocolate". Does anybody have all three? are they very much the same? I don't want to buy them if they're too similar.

thanks...

[Moon Cakes]

I think it has a lot to do with how fresh they are. When I lived in the States, my grandmother would give them to us and we'd never eat them (or maybe just a bite to pretend we appreciated them). But now I live in Hong Kong and they're much better, even the inexpensive ones from Maxims (a bakery chain). In fact, I try to time my annual visits back to the States around mid-Autumn, so I can bring boxes of them back to my mother. She freezes them and eats them throughout the year until my next visit.

Every year, I'm given an unbelievable number of mooncakes. Boxes and boxes - sometimes four boxes at a time from one person or company. I give them away to my colleagues but there's one type that I keep - these delicious, tiny mooncakes from the Peninsula Hotel. They're like French pastry; in fact, I'm positive they use butter in the wrapping. The filling is delicate, with the yolk mixed into it rather than whole. It's not too sweet. It's quite rich - but not like in a lotus seed paste rich, more like a French pastry richness. Because they're small (eight to a box, instead of the usual four) I can eat a whole one. It goes beautifully with hot tea. Other bakeries/hotels try to imitate this type (I think they're called custard moon cakes, but it's not really custardy) but nobody makes them better than the Peninsula.

But the older generation doesn't like this type. I gave a box to my mother and she said she prefers the lotus seed type. I like the lotus seed type (with two egg yolks, which is the perfect balance for me) but can only eat a small sliver at a time.

Besides the types you named, there are a few more. One wrapped with mochi (glutinous rice flour paste) - actually, several types are wrapped in mochi. I think these are dreadful. Then there's the gimmicky Hello Kitty and Garfield mooncakes aimed at children.

[Boudin noir in Paris]

Wow, thanks for all these suggestions. Let's hope it gets cooler or I'll only be in the mood for salads - which would be a major tragedy.

[Boudin noir in Paris]

Bux, I've heard very mixed things about andouillete. Some people say it's fantastic, the most delicious thing in the world, others say it tastes horrifically like what was inside the intestines when the pig was still alive (scary thought). Please enlighten me: are andouilletes supposed to taste very strong and "fruity" and these people (the ones that don't like it) just didn't like it, or did they unfortunately come across bad andouillete that hadn't been cleaned properly? Do some taste stronger than others? have you ever eaten a "bad" (off-tasting) one? What should the flavour be like? I love entrails and have eaten loads of intestines at Chinese restaurants. I've never eaten one (so far) I haven't liked, but don't want to mess up my impeccable entrail-eating track record with an off-tasting andouillete.

Hoping it cools down by the time I get there - last I heard it's 39 degrees Celsius.

thanks.

[Boudin noir in Paris]

Hello everybody, I've been reading e-gullet for a while now, but this is my first post.

I'll be in Paris the last week of August - yes, I know it's a bad time as far as eating goes. But I'm desperate for boudin noir, especially after reading Jeffrey Steingarten's piece (It Takes a Village to Kill a Pig) in his last book where he writes about making it with Pierre Herme and his wife. So where's the best place to go for boudin noir in Paris? and where can I go to buy some to bring back from my holiday? (it's legal to bring back this type of sausage where I live). Should I buy it in cans or in casings? And what brands are best? or should I go to a charcuterie?

thanks so much...