Gary Soup

I have heard that, too. Also, for jiaozi, your make the wrapper thicker in the middle and thinner on the edges. My wife uses a special tapered jiaozi rolling pin for this. Otherwise the "top" of the jiaozi, which is formed by pressing together two edges, would be thicker than the base, and the wrapper wouldn't cook uniformly throughout in the boiling water. This is not an issue with guotie, since the base is cooked differently from the top.

I buy it by the quart, as I only use it on my Cheerios on weekday mornings. A quart of non-fat is $0.99 in Chinatown (or at TJ's) versus $1.19 at Safeway. Anyway, I consider us lucky now because two three decades ago the price was controlled by the producers (thanks to the infamous "milk lobby") and discounting was illegal.

I would recommend Fleur de Lys only if you are old enough to remember WWII. I am old enough to remember WWII, but I've never been to Fleur de Lys. Do they serve S.O.S., salmon patties, and Spam?

According to the scuttlebut on that other food board, our beloved Rancho Gordo will be having a booth there in the near future. The poster evoked the experience of eating chicken from Roti Roti on one of his corn tortillas. Now that's what I would call eating!

I'm not a snot eater (at least since I was a kid) either, but I imagine cold snot would taste like raw oysters. Gotcha!

I've never liked raw oysters because they remind me of getting wiped out on my surfboard (okay, boogie board) and taking an unwanted mouthful of seawater. But seawater with a "nice metallic finish?" Ye cats!

Does anyone know what time China 46 opens on weekdays? I'll be visiting my daughter in NY next week, but we won't have a car until Friday AM when we will be headed upstate (via 80/81). I would like to at least check out C46's xiaolong bao and other Shanghinese "brunch" items. Their on-line menu only mentions the "Lunch Special" from 11:30 to 4:00 but that may be too late for us.

Anything called "Happy Family" we avoid like the plague. It usually signals too many competing ingredients for Shanghainese cooking sensibilities.

Uncrush yourself. Good news for Sears fans

I have had lunch at the Asian - you can pay the admission fee, tell them you are going to the restaurant, and as long as you return to the desk within an hour they will return your admission. That's useful info (I didn't know that because I'm a member). In the space of an hour you could also browse in the gift shop.

If you happen to be in SF Chinatown for brekkers, two got-to's (or maybe you've been there, done that) would be Uncle's, at Clay and Waverly for an American-style breakfast, and Hing Lung on Broadway for Chinese. Uncle's doesn't have quite the charge that they did when they had a counter, but they still have 50's style banquettes and properly greasy ham 'n' over-easy. Hing Lung has the corner on the youtiao market (made fresh all day at the front of the shop). It's the place to go for the youtiao wrapped in a rice noodle (I don't know the name, it's kind of a donut cheung fun) and for jook, which you can get by the cauldron as well as the bowl. Speaking of breakfast in Berkeley, is anyone old enough to remember the Egg Shop and Apple Press on Shattuck? It was my regular Sunday morning omelette stop, ca. 1970. I'd usually see Tom Hayden and Robert Scheer at a corner table, talking quietly (probably conspiring against Our Republic).

That's what I thought I was doing every time I visit Montreal.

Or even the both for the same character. The Chinatown restaurant called "New Hong Kong" in Chinese (Xin Xiang Gang) is called New Sun Hong Kong in English.

The whole website is kind of fun and charming. The auther readily admits he knows no Chinese other than the ones he challenged himself to learn so he coud read signs and menus. In San Francisco's Chinatown, restaurants will often changes owners, staff, cuisines, and Chinese name but retain the previous English name, presumably to keep their gueilo customers. This can be counter-productive: Great Eastern Restaurant, arguably the best in Chinatown these days, was one of the worst back in the '60's when I first went there. I had to be strong-armed into going back to it three decades later because I still asociated the name with mediocrity.

Yank Sing actually relocated their Battery Street restaurant to Rincon Center three years ago. (The Stevenson Street location remains unchanged.) I think this is a quibble, because most people nowadays would consider the Rincon Center area as part of the financial district. It's a lot further from Chinatown than the original location (and, apart from an occasional ABC, there's usually nary a Chinese face in sight among its customers). Incidentally, before YS ventured south of Market, there was a wonderful little dim sum takeout on Mission near 2nd. St. called "Yin Place." (They later added a branch in the Embarcadero Center. ) They offered a variety of white syrofoam dim sum "bento" boxes similar to the ones YS Express came up with, but were cheaper and, IMHO, tastier. It was Yin Place's takeout that got me hooked on Singapore noodles. There were a number of unsupported conspiracy theories about the disappearance of Yin Place, and I did notice that some of Yin Place's counter people ended working for YS.

If you are thinking of New Asia, which used to be called Asia Garden, it's on Pacific between Grant and Stockton. I consider it the Grande Dame of Chinatown dim sum parlors, and it was where I cut my dim sum teeth, as it were, on chicken feet almost 40 years ago. Yank Sing, at its original Broadway/Stockton location was for a time its chief competitor.

Don't quote me on this, but I've heard that if you use it instead of salt on all your food, it will improve your blood pressure. And if you use it in place of pork belly, it will improve your cholesterol levels.

My wife occasionally makes turtle soup. The shell of a soft-shelled turtle get soft enough to eat, though I don't care to.

Gary Soup: My wife and I will be visiting San Francisco in August. Is there any Shanghainese cuisine in SF at all? Would be nice to have some xiaolonbao and lion heads. Couldn't find those in Sacto. Fortunately, we have a few. My first choice would be Shanghai Dumpling Shop (Balboa at 34th). Best xiaolong bao in town, and ditto on the niangao (rice ovalette pasta) if you like that. I recall the lion's head meatballs being good too. The scallion pancakes are not the crispy, layered kind I like, but my wife likes them. Somewhere on the board (maybe in California) there is a thread started by jschyun on this restaurant. Shanghai Restaurant (Judah near 9th) is slightly divy-er and cheaper. I can't vouch for their xiaolong bao these days, since we haven't been there for a while, but they always have a bargain "five cold dish special" for some ridiculously low price at weekend lunch. I don't recall trying the lion's head there, but their big dishes are generally OK. Old Shanghai (Geary at 17th?) is a "nicer" but pricier place. I don't get there often because it doesn't do well in my frugal wife's quality/price ratio calculations (with a heavily weighted denominator) but don't recall any negatives, or having heard any negatives. Fountain Court is closing at the end of July, and I would avoid Chinese Harvest (if it's even still in business).

You are right, of course. (My high school biology is almost 50 years behind me.) This is also a good characterization of agar-agar's use in cuisine.

You can also try to find the best fried balogna sandwich.....

The name is of Malaysian origin, it's but origins are actually the seas -- it's extracted from purple seaweed. It's called "dai choy goh" in Cantonese (I just looked that up). It's also a medium used in biology laboratories for growing bacterial cultures because it's very pure in its reconstituted form yet very nutrient-rich. (I knew that long before I knew that people actually eat it!)

That would have been Hon's Wonton House. A lot of the smaller old-style Cantonese restaurants have decent won ton and won ton noodle soups, but Hon's is about the only place that specializes in it. There are a fair number (probably a couple of dozen) bakeries in Chinatown, mostly on Stockton St. and widely scattered among the side streets and alleys.

My dictionary says it's qiongzhi (琼脂). In its natural state it's tasteless, and is often used by vegetarians as a substitute for gelatin.

I made potstickers with chinese sausage, mozarella and fresh basil as a filling one (ie prosciutto, cheese and basil ravioli). they were quite nice, if I recall J Omigod. Lap cheong Rangoon?