Gary Soup

If it's the same as Guilinggao, I've had it but can't say I've enjoyed it. What does that make me? Around here, "grass jelly" is usually associated with a drink, which I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole, unless it was added to whisky blanc in vermouth-to-gin proportions.

I certainly believe fact #1 on that thread, namely that China produces 15X as many watermelons as any other country. They probably consume it all, too. People who stereotype black people as watermelon-eaters have never been to China (and have never met my extended family). I don't dare come back from Costco this time of year without a watermelon or two.

My wife washes and soaks the bamboo leaves but she doesn't boil them, and they seem to be supple enough.

I think that implies that there were a lot of non-Asians there, too. In San Francisco, that comment would fall into the "damning with faint praise" category.

I'm a big Y. Ben House fan, too. I used to automatically recommend it, but got tired of being dumped on by people who can't seem to distinguish between food and decor. (My mother taught me not to eat the paint!) Have you tried the seafood chow fun? Maybe the best single "anchor" dish I have ever had at a dim sum palace.

Yeah, what is it with these Texans? First beef barbeque, now beef zongzi???!!! Now, armadillo I could see....

They certainly are. When the Shanghai Municipal Government decides to ban something, it gets banned. I'm talking about home cooking, using coal, which typically was kept burning all day. The few older households that haven't been relocated into new residences have been retrofitted for gas (bottled, where need be). There are still street vendors using charcoal (this either isn't banned or the ban is not enforced) but it's a minor source of pollutants compared with a few million households cooking all their meals on coal.

If Shenyang's air quality is comparable to Detroit's, it's probably better than most big cities in China! Actually, it's probably improved since then, if they've banned the use of coal stoves for cooking like they did in Shanghai. Shenyang happens to be the home town of Gong Li.

"Gorurmand Delights" are not found on my usual playground, but I do know that Gary Danko is open seven nights a week.

The small Kikkoman bottles are commonly used as part of the table setting in Chinese restaurants (some of which have been know to refill them with cheaper soy sauce!). They may have omitted the refrigeration advice to avoid freaking out the more obsessive customers ("How long has this bottle been sitting out????"). The regular Kikkoman is so salty that it probably doesn't matter. I think my wife refrigerates chili sauces and nothing else (I'll check when I get home, if I remember). But then, turnover is pretty fast on most of her condiments, as she cooks Chinese every day.

It's somewhat ironic that the teahouse is a tribute to Lao She, who was driven to drown himself in a nearby pond by the Red Guards.

A bit off topic, but today's San Francisco Chronicle has a feature on Nam Prik, Thai Chili Sauce, by my favorite food writer, Olivia Wu. It includes some recipes for preparation and use. Nam Prik

You should also read Project's thread on making dumplings. I believe he's called "Project" because he develops his recipes using Microsoft Project.

I think it may be "xiao luobo" (not to be confused with "xiao laopo").

Maybe, but your camera eye is not, methinks.

I'm just a perfectly normal denizen of a sex-obsessed culture. Let it be, Yetty. I can get excited by a Georgia O'Keefe painting of a flower, too.

It sure is. It's been a long time since she updated any of her pages. I have no idea what she's up to these days.

Here's a mini-tutorial/demonstration of jian bing-making in Beijing: "Chinese Crepes"

You can't win if you don't play. But gosh, is that bottom picture provocative!

They're available in San Francisco. Other shops (Gin Wall?) may be cheaper, but the Wok Shop has them available online. The WS also has the Chinese "moon cookie" molds. The cookie molds look like this: Wok Shop Website

And people accuse Shanghainese of having the sweet tooth! Do you put maple syrup on cheung fun too?

Someone once told me that the meat-filled moon cakes were called "Suzhou moon cakes". The everyday dian xin equivalent might be the ones called something like "ha ko an", for "crab-shaped dumplings." Shanghainese will queue up to buy Cantonese-style (but usually with a simple sweet paste filing, not the many add-ins that Cantonese here in SF seem to like) mooncakes. The longest queues are at Xinghualou, whoic has the most cachet. But in fact, they don't like to eat them, they like to give them away. And of course, the people they give them to will thank them profusely and then give them to someone else. It's a bit like Americans and Christmas fruitcake. [Typo corrected]

I don't know how many times my wife or mother-in-law have prepared a sumptious multi-course meal and then just said, dramatically, "me, I'll just eat pao fan." It's a badge of ostentatious suffering, which Shanghainese mothers seem to like wearing as much as Jewish mothers. Your father may have his tongue in his cheek. I would guess that "congee" probably has an Indian origin.

I love doufu hua, also known as doufu nao ("brains"). Next to our apartment complex in Jinqiao, an impromptu "food court" springs up every day, with different vendors preparing different specialties. A hearty breafast of fiery doufu hua, deliciously greasy shengjian bao, and great congyoubing (scallion pancakes) costs about US $1.00 for two. I'll live like a king in retirement!

More processed doufu madness, from a 2002 San Francisco Chronicle article: The Hidden World of Tofu Chef Nei', shown in one of the pictures, by the way, attracts customers willing to pay $50 to $150 per seat at one of his "Chef's choice" banquets of home-style Shanghainese food at his hole-in-the-wall restaurant. He uses a lot of doufu.