Gary Soup

Welcome, William! Haven't been to Qingdao, but I spend a lot of time in Shanghai and the Jiangnan region. My wife can make excellent Shandong-style jiaozi. She learned it from a Shandongren neighbor. Have they taken care of the Lunkow xifen problem?

Pan, you need a new map! Maybe he was from Dandong (Liaoning)? That at least rhymes with Shandong.

Soemhow I missed it when it came out, but thanks to Marlena Spieler's SF Chronicle Digest here's the list for current (and upcoming) Farmers' markets in San Francisco and North Bay Counties, including scheduled days and hours: SF & North Bay Farmers' Markets Chestnut & Steiner on Tuesday evening? Maybe that's the "Now" replacement for Wednesday nights at the Marina Safeway......

It's a moving target. It depends on the definer, and where it's eaten. It's really a mix of several local cuisines in the Jiangsu-Zhejiang area, and you can find it called Huaiyang, Su-Hang (or Jiang-Zhe), Hu, Jiangnan, all of which have different geographical bounds. In the US, at least in the Bay Area, Shanghainese restaurants tend to feature home-style belly-pleasers like red-cooked (i.e., soy sauce braised) meats and "squirrel fish" (which is doused with a form of sweet and sour sauce). At home, Shanghai cuisine is much more balanced, with fish, shellfish, chicken, and tofu (in many manifestations) taking prominent roles. Bamboo is also a big part of Shanghai cuisine, as are oddities like kaofu (leavened bran dough), youmianjing (wheat gluten puffs), and, as mentioned, niangao, rice pasta usually stir-fried with napa cabbage and bits of pork, or smothered in pork cutlets for fressers like me. Veggie-wise, fresh soybeans and fava beans are favored, and leafy vegetables over stalky vegetables. The familiar bok choy is never encountered, but qing cai ("Shanghai bok choy") is an everyday vegetable in many households. Stylistically, Shanghainese cuisine is cleaner than Cantonese, with the northern dictum of no more than two ingredients in a stir-fry being religiously adhered to. (You won't find many "happy family" dishes on the menus). In general, I'd say Shanghai cuisine is less mushroomy, though dried donggu (Shitakes) are used liberally, as is tree fungus.

This from a January GraceAnn Walden column: "Chris Martin, managing partner of the Cannery shopping complex (2801 Leavenworth, at Beach), has big plans for 2004, including a farmers' market in the plaza each Friday and one weekend day a month. He says there will be custom-built stalls, about 25 hand-picked organic farmers, some flower growers, fresh fish and -- holy parking goddess -- validated parking in the Cannery garages. Martin also says that several new restaurants will open in the Cannery next year. The details have yet to be worked out, but Scoop readers will be the first to know." I love the phrase "hand picked" organic farmers. By whose gnarly hand? My guest is that he's aspiring for FPFM west. I think the more interesting part is the "several new restaurants", though. That's where the "wait and see" is most operative. Scoop, 1/07/04

Youtiao reputedly originated in the Shanghai area (actually Zhejiang). The story goes that some people were sitting with the cook in a dumpling shop in Hangzhou, when someone mentioned the betrayal of Yu Fei by Qin Hui. One of the kibitzers picked up a strip of dough, saying "This is Qin Hui". then picked up another one, saying "and this is his wife." He then twisted the two together and tossed them in a pot of boiling oil. Remember that when you eat one!

You might want to take a look at a couple of Ditty Deamer's web pages. Breakfast in China will fill you in on some of the street foods you may encounter, and China's Free Markets is a pretty comprehensive look at Farmers' Markets. Both are a little dated, but I doubt that things have changed much.

It's what's known in planning jargon as "highest and best use." It's given our beloved city a new class of well-heeled tourists, namely "culinary tourists." They want "artisanal", "organic", "heirloom," and the like. Names of "farms" you'll recognize on the menu at Per Se. If you've followed the news, Chris Martin of the Cannery is jumping on the same bandwagon. It could be worse. Maybe the Crab Shack will give way to a "Bouchon sur la Baie", or a "Wolfgang Puck Expresse". Cool, huh?

I think we're talking about two diferent things. rdaily was referring to the everyday Market Hall, I think (though Niman Ranch doesn't have an outlet there) and others were talking about the 1.5 "farmers" markets per week outside. I agree generally about the prices inside. I spent $9.00 for a takeout fish sandwich from San Francisco Fish Co. last week (WTF, it didn't even come with fries!). I'd except Acme breads; you can get a full pound loaf of great Ciabatta for $2, about the same price as a loaf of Safeway sliced white bread. And if you want "unique", at least there's Delica rf/1, while pricey and not my cup of tea, is Rock Field's only presence on this side of the Pacific. As far as the "farmers" market goes, it's mostly just clutter, as far as I'm concerned. The requirements for having a presence there seem to be 1) knowing the secret handshake, and 2) being able to pay the stall rent.

I came late to the surprising knowledge that sweet potatoes are a common comfort food in China, at least in Shanghai. There's nothing that tickles my wife and her daughter more in cold weather than munching on a sweet potato that they have roasted themselves. In Shanghai they were commonly bought from lane vendors, as ovens are not common in households. The sweet potato (shanyu) is even a linguistic frame of reference for Shanghainese. They always refer to potatoes as "foreign sweet potatoes" (yang shanyu), rather than the textbook "tudou".

A ba bao cha setup is part of each place setting at higher-end old line Shanghainese restaurants like Lao Banzhai and the (miserably deteriorated) Lao Fandian. Fortunately, they'll take it away if you don't want it, and won't charge you for it (unlike Hong Kong restaurants, where you pay for whatever's on the table when you sit down). It's also a red flag to my frugal wife. If we walk into an outlying restaurant with no pedigree proclaiming "Shanghai Cuisine" and she spots a white gaiwan with the botanical detritus in it, we'll usually walk out because she pegs the place as an overpriced pretender. I, for one, don't care for any sweetness in my tea. Some good longjing tea in a plain glass tumbler is all I ask.

Several spice dealers that Google brought up equate ganthoda to long pepper (piper longum). Some also call it "pipramul". Gernot Katzer's page on long pepper tells plenty about long pepper but doesn't mention use of the root. He doesn't include either "ganthoda" or "pipramul" as synonyms, either. Gernot Katzer on Long Pepper

Is this a commentary on modern Japanese society? I'll only speculate on which one has anything to do with eating. I don't know what to say. I'd like a moderator or someone appropriate to delete any offensive remarks I have made. Just my dumb idea of a joke, Hiroyuki. My post was probably more offensive than yours, but boys will be boys.

Is this a commentary on modern Japanese society? I'll only speculate on which one has anything to do with eating.

Isn't ganthoda a variety of (true) pepper? Spicy at that, I think.

It's "eight treasure" tea. Eight somethings that look like a bunch of nuts and berries and twigs sitting there in a gaiwan on your table, just daring you to infuse the lot.

A more vile concoction was never devised, IMHO. But anything that tastes that bad must be good for you, right? My wife makes a soup that's essentially a big ba bao cha with a silky chicken thrown in when she or her daughter are feeling peckish. I'd rather die than eat the stuff. Nothing against rock sugar, however. Combined with Zhenjiang vinegar, it makes for a tang cu with balls.

OK, so there's no pollution from the automoblie and there's no cruelty to geese and ducks from foie gras producers. Considering that the EU has given France and Hungary a 15-year mandate to come up with more humane methods of producing foie gras or face a ban, your friends should feel fortunate if they're cut half as much slack.

I believe I read 7 years, out of consideration for the one 25-man enterprise that produces foie gras in California. I think that's more time than the State gives GM to reduce pollution. Incidentally, the foie gras operation is near Stockton, a fur piece from Sonoma.

Well, at least you'd be eating a whole goose, not a harvested body part. And do you suppose those liverless ducks and geese are schmoozing at the water cooler, swapping war stories about their "operations"?

The four (counting UN Plaza on Wednesday and Sunday both) Farmers' markets in San Francisco are open year-round. Not counting FPFM, they function more as services than as events, and a lot of people rely on them. Most of us do eat year-round, and if anything I think they are more valuable during the winter, when eating good food at home probably has a higher priority than in the summer. Hey, farmers ought to be able to handle a little weather!

Maybe a dumb question, but why are they only held in the summer up there?

I don't generally side with the animal rights people, carnivore that I am. But what's happening to those ducks and geese seems to fall just about where I'd draw the line. However, in the interest of harmony, I've come up with a compromise solution: Make those birds take 3 meals a day at McDonalds for a month. That should achieve comparable results in a more humane way.

It dawned on me that I need to add a smiley face thing because it's not so clear this sentence was written in somewhat of a jovial mood. I would never in any seriousness say, "Right on, bro". I wouldn't even call you "bro" unless we shared the same mother. So here goes: We share the same mother Earth.

Pour boiling water over it and let it sit for at least 15 minutes. Or let it sit in cold water for a longer period. Then do your thing with it. You'll probably find recipes if you Google on "jellyfish salad". It's often served at the beginning of a big Chinese meal as one of the cold appetizers. It's almost de rigueur in Shanghai, and is also pretty prevalent in Hong Kong (or HK "style") restaurants these days as well.