Gary Soup

Tang yuan = "tee doi" ?? This is basically a dialect question, but probably not worth a thread of its own. A woman in my office, an ABC who doesn't know Chinese, went home to So. Cal. for CNY for the weekend. She said she spent a lot of time helping her grandmother make "tee doi" which, from her description, are what is better known as tang yuan (tong yuan). A Cantonese (from Hong Kong) co-worker said he's never heard of "tee doi." When I pressed her, my ABC co-worker said she thought her grandmother was from another province of Chinan, not Canton, but she didn't know where. Anybody recognize "tee doi", and if so, what dialect might it be?

Winos (& Wine Ho's?) will want to know that Zuzu has a very impressive wine list specifically designed for pairing with tapas. Not a bad selection of beers, either Zuzu Wine List

I've never been to BJ, Jon, except for a stop at the airport. I save my blather for Shanghai topics. Go for it!

Ditty Deamer has two excellent websites that are a bit dated, but very useful starting points (especially for the wet markets): Free Markets in China Breakfast in China Anybody know what Ditty's up to these days?

I tend toward the Chef Peng theory (link inside Jo-Mel's link). I can't speak for Chongqing or Chengdu, but I know that if General Tso ever shows up in Shanghai, he won't be able to pull rank on Colonel Sanders.

Yet more fusion? To quote Jason Sheehan, "Of course, if you're going to bastardize a cuisine, it's best to go someplace were no one knows the parents."

I don't think the Loco Moco was invented by Ferran Adria, and it wasn't invented by me, although I did invent it for myself when I was a lean and hungry Beatnik wannabe in the early 60's. The New Lun Ting was (and is) a workingman's pit stop in San Francisco Chinatown which featured a huge sign in the window reading "ECONOMIC MEAL". It's menu consisted primarily of something over a MOUNTAIN of rice (no "two scoops" here) with optional brown gravy. For me, the "something" was usually a 3/4 lb. hamburger patty, because it was the cheapest (about 85 cents), and I always opted for the gravy. They always had some fried eggs hanging around for other delicate concoctions, and sometimes I would cadge one for my cholesterol sundae. So there, I may claim to be one of the 33,700 co-inventors of the LM should an intellectual property lawsuit ever arise. I spent a couple of weeks in Oahu in 1984 courtesy of my employer, and though I at at places like the Rainbow Drive-in to pocket some of my per diem, I don't recall seeing on any menus. In fact it's an outrage that something this elemental even has to be conceptualized with a name, and screw Wayne whatever-his-name-is.

It's true, according to a United Nations formula based on the number of different ethnicities represented in large numbers. My impression, though, is that it's still a roast beef and pork pie kind of place. It also seems to have more American fast food outlets per block in the downtown area than any American city. Montreal may have as good a representation of varied cuisines despite its presumed Francophilia. Looks like a lot of missed opportunities there.

You didn't find the Chinatown Hooters interesting?

I suppose it depends on the diligence of your search and your templates. But thanks for vetting the fried rice and the Mongolian beef. Now I'll know.

I think if I were in your shoes and so many people's opinions differed so utterly from my own, I wouldn't be able to resist giving it another try. But hey -- I'm actually thrilled to death with your assessment. For me, it just means two fewer people in front of me in that interminable line. "Many people" also tout House of Nanking, Ton Kiang and Yank Sing, to mention three other places I'm not interested in returning to. Be my guest.

There's plenty of confusion over Asian vegetable names, even in China (the same characters mean bok choy to a Cantonese and Napa cabbage to a Shanghainese). 80 percent of the references to "Chinese leeks" I came up with on Google pointed to "garlic chives", or allium tuberosum. If that's what you got, use sparingly at first. They are quite pungent when cooked. They also (to my taste buds) impart a sour taste.

Well -- I hate to point out the obvious, but -- That could certainly be the problem. After all, a lot can happen in seven years. The last time I was there was about three months ago, and it was wonderful. Perhaps you should give it another chance. It was highly touted even then, and there's been no change in ownership. It was the single most disappointing meal I have had in 40 years of eating Chinese food, both here and in China.

I wasn't familiar with the term Chinese leeks, but Google brought up a number of mentions that it was another name for Chinese chives (which is yet another name for jiu cai), or, to be scientific, Allium Tuberosum. I don't recall if they have any visible bulb, but we only use the green shoots in any event. They are available year round here (well, this is California). Are we all talking about the same thing? Da suan is what my wife calls common garlic.

I have to dissent on R&G lounge, though I haven't been there in seven years. The one (and only) meal we had there was a total fiasco. We ordered the signature deep fried crab dish, and it had either been kept in the tank too long or very ineptly prepared. The meat was literally fused to the shell, and impossible to get at without getting a mouthful of shell fragments. (My wife is a crustacean maven and can usually suck a crab leg dry in record time.) A clay pot dish we had was just a soggy, amorphous mess with no distinguishing characteristics except the cloying sweetness of too much cornstarch. We had a third dish, which was apparently not memorably good or bad, because I can't remenber what it was. We went on a whim, and it could have been the chef's night off. My wife is convinced that the Cantonese staff had it in for her because she is Shanghainese, but I would give R&G the benefit of the doubt on that. I can't give them the benefit of the doubt for horribly botching a signature dish, though.

You may be talking about garlic chives, a.k.a. jiu cai/gau choy. I wouldn't stir fry them with another green vegetable, as they would tend to overpower it. My wife usually uses them with meats, eggs, and in soup. She makes a shui jiao stuffing that's mostly jiu cai with a little ground pork (always makes me belch) and a fuyong-like thing with beaten eggs.

That's Golden Gate. You should give her a "hong bao" for waiting in line for you!.

I haven't gotten past thinking about what the USES might be....

Lately better known as Mitchell Brothels.

You won't find a line at the Wonder Bakery. It's off the beaten track. I was surprised to see memesuze even mention it.

That must be the Wonder Bakery, next door to Utopia Cafe (a great place for very good, cheap Chinese food).

Virtually all of the ducks sold in the SF Bay Area are from the Reichardt duck farm, which was founded to serve the Asian market (much like Petaluma Poultry) so there shouldn't be much variation in their characteristics. They run around $1.45/lb in Chinatown. Liberty Ducks are the exception, and are raised by Jim Reichardt, who left the family business to cater to the high-end trade. Since they are pitched as being sustainably raised, with room to boogie around in, I would actually expect them to be leaner, but what do I know? They're probably a bit pricier, but might be what you need for duck confit, whatever the hell that is.

I'm not an egg custard tart maven, but in San Francisco Golden Gate Bakery gets WAY more buzz than any other source. Of course, that means you have to wait in a line and personally I would never go out of my way to buy egg tarts. The time for eating them, IMHO, is at the end of a dim sum lunch when the sweetness of the tart can be useful in counteracting the saltiness of what came before. For that, I'm happy with whatever comes out of the kitchen.

Maybe it's a Cantonese or Chinese-American thing. Or conversely, maybe the diminshed role of rice is a Shanghainese or northern thing. It could be the Shanghainese penchant for gamesmanship, or the fact that they historically spend more money per capita on food. My wife serves rice with every meal EXCEPT when we have guests, even relatives. Then she kicks up the number of dishes and the rice is held back in the kitchen to be available on request. All her relatives, both here and in Shanghai, do the same thing.

Your experience may be different, but my observations hold true for every dinner meal I've had in China, and every meal with mainland Chinese friends here in San Francisco. At homes, hosts will typically have a pot of rice available in the kitchen, and will ask at the tail end of the meal if anyone wants rice. The expected response is to decline.