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Thank You Chef Fowke! I'm going to smoke my cured double brisket today. Have the CDN Tire smoker box, and have the time to watch it, and replace spent chips. You know, I've often wondered about aluminium foil...Sure won't use it now... I am going to steam it in a wok lidded "gypsy pan" contraption on the stove. I think I'm going to add a little Zatarane's liquid crab boil seasoning to the water because I just can't leave well enough alone...

Aloha! I have a few moments, so I wanted to "tweak" the timeline posed by Irwin. While I agree with the stature that Irwin has accorded to McCully Chop Suey, the credit for the modernization of Chinese Cuisine in Hawaii should be awarded to an earlier Mon Lui establishment, Mok Larn Chien. I should also note that Mon Lui recently passed away; his funeral services were held just last week and an institution has truly passed. Back then, new items were also being introduced in other restaurants. In 1954, Wah Duck Young opened King’s Garden in Kaimuki and offered a delicious suckling pig and spicy “fragrant” duck. Hong Yee “Blackie” Wong imported Alaskan king crab and served it with black bean sauce to eager customers at New Star Chop Suey. The restaurant sign (a giant crab) cost 800 dollars, a large expense at that time. Chinese food became widely popular in the local community. Wishing to prepare these dishes for themselves and their families at home, many sought recipes and took cooking classes. Gail Wong wrote “Authentic Chinese Recipes” in 1954, followed by YWCA cooking teacher Gail Li Sia’s publication in 1956. Preparing for a growth of tourism, the Hilton Hawaiian Village recruited chef Dai Hoy Chang, who had been cooking at Lau Yee Chai since 1938. He opened the Golden Dragon Room in 1958, and it subsequently became a full-scale restaurant. Statehood in 1959 brought larger commercial and social investments to Hawaii. The pace and quality of life was heightened, and Chinese culinary establishments expanded to meet this market. McCully Chop Suey was the first Chinese restaurant to offer air-conditioning. Along with Golden Duck and Diamond Chop Suey, it attracted University of Hawaii students for late night snacks after study hours in the new Sinclair Library. Yong Sing ventured into the downtown financial district in 1966 to offer business lunches. Patti’s Chinese Kitchen introduced Chinese fast food when they opened at Ala Moana Center in 1967, and the Wong Family offered a sit-down alternative to center shoppers with the Coral Reef. The beginning of dramatic culinary development followed the enactment by the Congress of the United States of the Immigration Act of 1965, which raised the quotas of immigrants from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Peoples Republic of China. When Moon Palace opened in 1965, (on the former site of Sun Yun Wo), it heralded the arrival of the Hong Kong style of presentation. The noodles and dumplings were smaller and more delicate than those offered at older Cantonese-style restaurants. By the late 1960’s, immigration from Taiwan and northern parts of China had increased significantly. There was growing interest in cuisine from regions in China other than the southern Cantonese and Hong Kong styles. The first “northern” Chinese restaurant in Honolulu, Winter Garden, opened at Kahala Mall in 1969. The owners were from Shanghai but served the Szechuan and Hunan styles as well. Paradise Garden followed in 1970 on Kalakaua Boulevard, serving Peking-style dishes. A five-table establishment operated by the wife of a University of Hawaii professor, the small shop offered pungently spiced dishes to crowds of diners. The novelty was such that customers happily stood in line waiting for an available table. Another early northern restaurant was Szechuan Mandarin Cuisine in Palama, opening in 1971. In 1973, James Liu introduced his version of the Shandong style at Beijing, which he managed, and then opened the Mandarin, where meat, fowl and fish were blast-fried or braised with heavier preparations of onion, garlic, and chili. In the restaurant’s private room, Professor Daniel Kwok and Honolulu Star-Bulletin editor Hobart Duncan began a new dining club called the West Lake Society. Normalization of relations with China and President Nixon’s historic trip to Beijing in 1972 elevated the prestige of Chinese cuisine and stimulated interest in this culinary art. Arline Hoe, after closing Dragon Pearl in 1969, developed the Asian and Chinese Culinary Arts program at the Pensacola campus of Kapiolani Community College. Many contemporary Chinese chefs, including Russell Siu, Sam Choy, and Harry Yim, received their early training in her program. Titus Chan, who had developed a popular cooking show for Hawaii public television, rode the crest of this interest when he was syndicated nation-wide in 1973. The companion book for the series, “Cooking the Chan-ese Way”, was released in 1975. More Hong Kong-style restaurants opened. The Oceania, a floating restaurant modeled after similar restaurants in Hong Kong’s Aberdeen area, was brought with great fanfare to Honolulu Harbor in 1972. Adjacent to Ala Moana Center, China House became the place for mall shoppers to rest and snack on noodles and dumplings. The western China style from Szechwan matured at the Maple Garden in 1975. In addition to the now ubiquitous mah po tofu, hot and sour soup, and smoked tea duck, owner Robert Hsu offered a northern-style breakfast menu based on soy milk, “dou jiang”. Accompanied by roast cakes, “shao bing”, deep-fried crullers “yu tiao”,and other pancakes, buns, and condiments, it is one of the more unusual Chinese dining experiences available in Honolulu. The southern Chiu Chao and Hakka styles were also brought here with varying success. Also in 1975, the Lau family adapted the San Francisco-style baked bun at Royal Kitchen. One of the original tenants at the Mun Fa Chinese Cultural Plaza, their new buns with varied fillings became popular inter-island gift items. Also at the plaza, the Empress became the largest Chinese restaurant in the state, offering a venue for large parties outside of Waikiki at reasonable prices and with free parking. For a more detailed timeline of the Hong Kong initiation to Honolulu cooking, go to http://www.hawaii.rr.com/leisure/reviews/a...04_tmasters.htm Kai Lan attracted crowds to its tiny Liliha Street location in 1977 with its initiation of Hong Kong-style live seafood, such as clams in black bean sauce. Raymond Chau followed the next year with the opening of Won Kee and his Hong Kong-style crab and lobster. Chinese Menu offered similar items in 1979 to University area patrons. In 1980, the Great Wok of China opened in the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center. It was the first and probably only Chinese restaurant in Hawaii to offer close-up wok cooking in a configuration similar to Japanese teppan-yaki. As the return of Hong Kong from the British Commonwealth to China loomed, in-migration from the Crown Colony increased and Honolulu restaurants positioned themselves to meet the new arrivals. Dim sum parlors proliferated. China House, Panda Cuisine, and Royal Garden formed one cluster near Ala Moana Shopping Center. Ting Yin, Sea Fortune and Cheung Kee competed for Chinatown customers while Empress was joined by Legend at the Chinese Cultural Plaza. Chan’s had the University area to itself and Hee Hing ruled in Kapahulu; Eastern Garden slipped in between them at lower Waialae Avenue. Eastern Garden then established a Pearl City branch and went after the Waikiki market with Beijing, Seafood Village, and Shanghai Garden. Similarly, Yong Sing faced downtown competition with Hong Kong Harbourview at the Aloha Tower Marketplace. Forum recruited a Hong Kong chef, Kwok Wah Chan, in 1992 and earned a reputation for fine Cantonese cuisine. With the acquisition of the only cabaret license in the down-town/ Chinatown area and the introduction of Chinese karaoke, it was poised as a unique food and entertainment location. Increasing in-migration from other regions in China prompted the emergence of different cooking styles in snack shops and food malls. Ja Ja, Fu Mei and Café Paulina were early purveyors of Taiwan food items, particularly the soup and noodles that are characteristic of the Fukienese style. These items are now offered at Dew Drop Inn and KC Kitchen. Cuisine from Singapore and Malaysia, including Straits Chinese or “Nonya” food, first appeared at Peter Germain’s I in Kapahulu in the early 1980’s, followed by Chet Chua’s Orient Fare, then Café 33, Fu Lu Shou, Shirley’s Pantry, Hannah’s Kitchen ,Tsuru Diner, Noodles Express. and New Century Restaurant Limited menus are now available at Triple One in the Maunakea Marketplace. I'd love to gossip about Singapore Bistro and HeiChinRou but that will await another column!

DAY 4 ~ SUNDAY The family finally all got up around 10 a.m. I still had a few biscuits left in the fridge, so I made my version of egg McMuffins for brunch! Some of us slathered salsa on the eggs, just to give us a kick start before the show. A juicy peach made the brunch complete. On our way to the festival, thunder roared across the city, and it poured as we humped our equipment to the stage. Luckily, our first performance was an entertainers' workshop under the big top: "Partners in Music." One of the questions posed was "When do you rehearse?" My answer, of course, was "while I am wokking" ;-) Over the years, Bill and I learned a lot of songs while I cooked. During the afternoon break, we came home for lunch. Son Robin, our bass player, was home from his I.T. job, an eight-hour drive from Brandon. One of his favourite foods is Shanghai noodles, with a twist. I cooked the noodles with smashed fermented black beans, garlic, Habanero peppers, chopped mint, BBQ pork, and deep-fried julienned wonton skins. These are SO GOOD! Spent the rest of the evening back at the festival. Supper was from Morden Munchies truck, a familiar sight at many outdoor functions in Manitoba. I had a smokie dog, and shared a family sized tub of chips. The grease was hard to resist. Dessert was a single scoop of cookies 'n' cream ice-cream, a dish of apple crisp from the entertainers' tent, and many cups of coffee. A few pictures from our evening show:

wokked spring greens with garlic, red chilli flakes, soy sauce, Chinese five spice powder and a little stock, served over buckwheat noodles. instant post-pub food.

In the Mission district you want to hit Bombay Bazaar (on Valencia btw 16th & 17th St) for spices, and all things Indian, including ice cream. I would skip the Mexican food around here, although it is prefered by some, (too Americanized), the food is much better around 24th St. Lucca, as mentioned, (22ndSt & Valencia) is a temple and not to be missed. Homemade Ravioli since 1924 or so.They also import a TON of stuff for most restaurants in SF so the prices here are better than anyone. period. In China town, (a short walk to/from North Beach), I would go to The Wok Shop, on Grant, for every kind of Asian cooking gadget imaginable (This is not Sur La Table). Fun place. Have a great trip.

As you're walking along the streets in Taipei, don't be alarmed if you smell something truly shocking. It's probably just "smelly tofu". If you try it, you might even like it. It's been many years since I was in Taiwan, but for some reason, I remember the street food more than the restaurant food. Corn on the cob cooked on charcoal grills stuck in my mind for some reason. And I remember seeing street hawkers with these giant woks filled to the brim with a dark stew, the surface covered with stewed eggs. I think they're called tea leaf eggs or just "lu" eggs. Wonderful stuff. And isn't Taiwan famous for their "Taiwan Beef Soup Noodles"? 台湾牛肉面

Rachel, Jhlurie and I went back to Mo' Pho' tonight. The place was pretty busy, and the kitchen was putting out great food, despite some gas feed problems this evening with the wok burner. Evening crowd at around 9:30PM on Saturday Summer Roll Shrimp Spicy Seafood Noodle Soup with Shrimp and Crab (Vietnamese Bouillabase) Cellophane Noodles with Lemongrass Fish

Day 5 Morning Session Demo So final day today and the demo was on the following:) 1.Ballotine of salmon 2.Tournedo beef with madeira jus, sauteed veg and pommes Anna 3.Rhubarb and vanilla parfait with rhubarb sauce and champagne sabayon. So first of was the ballotine of salmon. As salmon is a big fish and the demo was for a small audience the lecturer substituted the salmon for trout. We got two patted down fillets of trout and placed them top to tail and trimmed off the fat and cut it so that they were both the same shape. We then saesoned it with salt , pepper and a little cayenne. Lay out a 3-4 sheets of overlapping sheets of cling film long enough to place the fillet in the middle and wrap it up several times so that it is airtight. Spread a layer of chopped herbs (chervil, parsley, dill, tarragon, etc) into the middle length of cling film and place the first fillet down. Then place a sheet of gelatin along the length of the fillet and then place the other fillet on top of this. Coat the whole of the salmon in herbs and then wrap in cling film and roll the fillets into a ballotine(sauasgae) making sure it is tightly wrapped and teh ends are tied and sealed. Then weight the ballotine for poaching. The whole ballotine is poached in a water bath and the cooking time is 3 minutes for every 450g at 65 C. This is a vey precise cooking time after the cooking time you can allow the ballotine to cool in the water bath for no more then 1 hour. that the ballotine out of the wter bath and chill in fridge overnight. The ballotine is sliced up into pieces and served with a drizzle of lemon oil, creme fraiche, a pinch of sea salt and salmon roe. quite pretty right? it tasted quite delicate and subtle with an aromatic undertone it was nice but not nice enough for me to consider making it. Next was the beef. They started by making the madeira jus. This was made from whole chicken legs, shallots, garlic, thyme, bay leaf, mushrooms. Degalzing with sherry vinegar and cognac. Then add 425ml of madeira, chicken stock and water skimming off the scum when required. Simmer for 20 minutes then strain through muslin and then reduce. We blanched an refreshed a load of baby veg and reheated them in a wok with a big knob of butter, alternatively could just blast it in a microwave. Next we caremelised some shallots in butter and soft brown sugar. The final vegetable was a variation of pommes anna. Using a cookie cutter we cut out a big circular piece of potato then thinly sliced it using a mandolin and arranged the circle piece in a pastry circle and brushed with melted butter. We repeated with a second layer. We then enveloped the potato arrangment in greae proof paper and bake them in a hot oven for 12 minutes. After doing this the pommes anna has cooked trough and all we have to do is just fry them off to give it some colour. And then the beef was browned off and finsihed in an oven and served. this was yummy, the jus was very good and very quick compared to the 4 hours it took to make the lamb one. and finally the rhubarb and vanilla parfait i don't like rhurbarb much so i will only write about the vanilla parfait which was deep sweet and very creamy. The rhubarb part was actually a sorbet i would probably replace the rhubarb with strawberry or more likely raspberry sorbet. Whisk up 2 egg yolks with 2T of caster sugar and the seeds from a quarter of a vanilla pod. Then whisk up 2 egg whites into stiff peaks and slowly incorparte 1/4 cup of caster sugar then whisk 1cup fo double cream until it holds it shape but not stiff. Then add the egg yolks to the cream and whisk. Then fold in the egg whites. stick into a container and freeze. The champagne sabayon was 4 T champagne , 6 egg yols 1/2 cup sugar, 1 cup double cream whisked up in a bowl set above simmering water. and the final touch was a little sugar work by making a caramel and then using a fork make little strands of sugar that was then shapped into nests, curls and star shapes. and that was the last demo as we left we collectd our attendance certificates a break for now will write about the last practical session later ciao.

Butter butter butter butter butter butter butter butter I currently have 3 types in my freezer: Plugra, President (from Normandy), and regular unsalted from Trader Joe's. Oh, did I mention I like butter? Actually, it's because I do a lot of baking (gearing up for pastry school in the fall). I would only admit this here because you folks are probably the ones who could comprehend it, but I like it when my hands smell like butter (sometimes even after washing). I mostly use olive oil for other stuff, peanut oil for wok cooking, safflower oil for "neutral" oil needs, EVOO for salads or garlic bread. Edited to fix typo

Stir your sauces before adding to the wok. If there is cornstarch in the sauce, it will have settled, but so will other heavier flavorings like hoisin, brown bean sauce, etc. Also, don't dump the whole sauce on top of the things in the wok. You have them nice and hot, so don't cool them off with the sauce ----- rather pour the sauce around the sides of the wok so that it will warm up as it flows down ----then mix in.

Mixers. Well, by default it looks like the KitchenAid artisan mixer is the defacto standard. I own and extra bowl which is highly recommended. I bought the attachments for meat grinding (never use) and the plastic cover for keeping flour and stuff from spraying out of the bowl (never use). Dishwashers. We own a Bosch dishwasher that is incredibly quiet. However, if yo buy a Bosch, be sure to get the extended warranty. We have had two breakdowns that would have cost a LOT of money if we hadn't had the warranty. Stoves: Due to space limitation, we own a Jenn Air that sucks the smoke and fumes down draft to the floor. Basically, the Jenn Air doesn't work as far as venting odors is concerned. Anything higher than a sauce pan, won't have its vapors sucked in, plus, the suction pulls heat away from the burners, so that everything takes longer to cook. The grill attachment that comes with it is junk, doesn't work. The oven is superb, both conventional and convection are precise and trouble free. So if you are buying a Jenn Air so you can grill meat inside the house, or control odors, forget it. If you are buying to have a great oven, this is a very good stove. Also the venting action works perfectly for the oven, just not the stove tops. I have gone back to cooking my smelly foods outside on my propane burner with my wok, when I don't want the house to smell up. Vacu-Vin. The company that makes the wine corks also makes containers for storing food, that you can remove air from. I couldn't find any locally and ended up buying a large supply directly from the company. I use my flat containers and my cylindrical containers weekly for storing everything.

I usually brown any meat that goes into braised/stewed dishes first...adds nice flavour and a bit of "browning". I do this when I made a large casserol of black bean garlic spareribs. Once the ribs are browned, I drain off the excess fat. The smashed garlic and ginger is cooked first, then add the black beans before returning the ribs to the pot. To this, I add pork stock to cover, and some black beans that I previously blended with some water. This really adds to the flavour and colour without adding soya sauce. I boil this mixture for about 20 minutes, then thicken with a half cornstarch and half flour slurry. This prevents the sauce from breaking down when you do the next step. The whole lot is poured into a cast iron casserol dish. Put the lid on, into the oven at 350F for an hour. When ready, the meat is full of flavour, tender and ready to put over large mounds of fluffy rice...LOTS of rice! I agree with Ben about the hot wok/cold oil method. This is especially true if you rinse your wok between ingredients. This ensures there is no moisture left on your wok...so no surprise splatters when you add the oil. Mom said that if you salt your oil before the ingredients, this will also prevent splatters, especially if you are adding freshly washed and drained vegetables.

hzrt8w, good topic. Guaranteed to garner some useful tips. To my taste, black bean and garlic sauce needs a bit of minced ginger, especially for seafood. I tell anyone who will listen my mantra, "hot wok, cold oil" ie, heat the wok before adding oil. This prevents sticking. Meats that go into large stew type dishes should be blanched first. More later.

A trick I learned from a Grace Young recipe made an astonishing difference in the flavor of the finished dish. After soaking dried mushrooms to rehydrate them (prior to adding them to a chicken stir-fry), the recipe called for the mushroom-soaking liquid to be strained, added to the wok full of chicken and vegetables, and boiled down hard to a syrup before the sauce-elements were added at the end. This kicked up the mushroom flavor by more than a notch.

Black bean sauce: smash the garlic and fermented black beans before cooking. Stir-frying with black bean sauce is a very common dish. Be it beef, chicken, shrimp with black bean sauce, the recipe typically calls for using garlic and fermented black beans. I often see people cook the garlic and black beans separately on this dish. Here is a tip for you: black beans do not release their "soy" taste when you cook them whole. When you are doing your preparation work, mince the garlic (or just use the side of a cleaver to whack them flat), rinse the fermented black beans, drain, then use a big table spoon to smash the black beans, then mix them with the minced garlic in a bowl to form a paste. This technique is similar to South-Asian cooking where they grind the ginger and other spices to form a paste before cooking. When you are ready to cook the dish, heat up the wok/pan and add in cooking oil. Cook the garlic/black-bean paste first until fragrant, about 10 seconds, then add a few slices of chili pepper (or jalapeno), a bit of salt, a dash of vinegar/cooking wine, then add 1 diced onion to sautee for a minute, then add sliced green or red bell peppers. Sautee for a few more minutes. Add chicken broth or water. Bring it to a boil. Add the par-cooked (velveted) meat. Add sugar (if you like) and corn starch slurry to thicken the sauce. To enhance the "soy" flavor, I often add some light or dark soy sauce as well.

A friend and I went to Zyka about a month or so ago. I had: Aachar Gosht: A Hyderabadi specialty, goat meat is simmered with fresh tomatoes, fried onions, fresh cilantro and tempered with whole garlic, cloves, fennel seeds and whole red chillies. $4.99 She had: Kadhai Chicken (boneless) Boneless chicken pieces cooked in an Indian wok with garden fresh tomatoes, ginger juliennes and coarsely ground spices. $4.99 Neither was really noteworthy and I didn't think that I'd be back, but I might be willing to give it another try. Maybe we caught them on an off day. It wasn't bad, mind you, and I do want to try the lassis. I also want to try the vegetarian place on the other side of Taj.

Just wanted to add another recommendation for a Chinese grocery store... I was walking around Lavapies (checking out vserna's rec--Foodland on Amparo--great spot for Indian ingredients and spices). On the way back, I noticed a place on Embajadores, just north of the Fabrica de Tabacos on the right side. At first I thought it was just chinese housewares, because there are rice steamers and other kitchen appliances in the window. When I went in, I found a very big Chinese grocery. Much bigger than the other two mentioned above. But not nearly as pan-Asian....almost exclusively Chinese, with more produce and housewares. Looked like a good place to buy a wok. Also seemed a bit cheaper with more selection of a lot of items. Next time I'll go, I'll try to figure out the exact address and name...

30-second Aloo golki Serves 3 as Side. 30 seconds to an Indian side dish, with minimal ingredients, thats what I needed as a bachelor in a minimal kitchen. However, since I'm a foodie, it has to taste like something my mother would be proud of. The dish I settled on is a traditional fasting-day dish called aloo golki, due to the discovery of canned baby potatoes. Traditionally this dish takes a fair amount of time, because you have to steam and then laboriously peel the baby potatoes, but cans make that magically simple. Open a can, and the only extra thing you have to do is trim some of the odder shaped pieces to a uniform size, eliminate the occassional oversoft one, and there you have perfect potatoes. 1 large can of small round whole potatoes 1 tsp crushed or fresh coarse-ground black pepper 2 T ghee salt to taste Open the can, drain the potatoes, pat them dry and halve the larger ones. Heat the ghee in a heavy wok or deep saute pan till hot.Drop the potatoes in the ghee and move them around for a little bit so that the ghee coats the potatoes - maybe 15-20 seconds just as the potatoes start sticking to the sides. Add salt and generous quantities of the crushed pepper. Move everything around 5 seconds more, then transfer potatoes to a serving bowl. To deglaze, put a little water into the pan, scrape off all the starch sticking to the sides and pour the thick glaze onto the potatoes. Thats it. 30 seconds. Traditionally eaten with luchi or sliced bread, but just as great as a standalone munch. Changing the quantity of pepper adjusts the heat of the dish, but pepper imparts the smell too so too little pepper will make it boring. Fine ground pepper is milder than crushed pepper. Keywords: Easy, Side, Potatoes, Indian, Vegan ( RG1125 )

30-second Aloo golki Serves 3 as Side. 30 seconds to an Indian side dish, with minimal ingredients, thats what I needed as a bachelor in a minimal kitchen. However, since I'm a foodie, it has to taste like something my mother would be proud of. The dish I settled on is a traditional fasting-day dish called aloo golki, due to the discovery of canned baby potatoes. Traditionally this dish takes a fair amount of time, because you have to steam and then laboriously peel the baby potatoes, but cans make that magically simple. Open a can, and the only extra thing you have to do is trim some of the odder shaped pieces to a uniform size, eliminate the occassional oversoft one, and there you have perfect potatoes. 1 large can of small round whole potatoes 1 tsp crushed or fresh coarse-ground black pepper 2 T ghee salt to taste Open the can, drain the potatoes, pat them dry and halve the larger ones. Heat the ghee in a heavy wok or deep saute pan till hot.Drop the potatoes in the ghee and move them around for a little bit so that the ghee coats the potatoes - maybe 15-20 seconds just as the potatoes start sticking to the sides. Add salt and generous quantities of the crushed pepper. Move everything around 5 seconds more, then transfer potatoes to a serving bowl. To deglaze, put a little water into the pan, scrape off all the starch sticking to the sides and pour the thick glaze onto the potatoes. Thats it. 30 seconds. Traditionally eaten with luchi or sliced bread, but just as great as a standalone munch. Changing the quantity of pepper adjusts the heat of the dish, but pepper imparts the smell too so too little pepper will make it boring. Fine ground pepper is milder than crushed pepper. Keywords: Easy, Side, Potatoes, Indian, Vegan ( RG1125 )

Rice noodle is a tricky thing to prepare. Are you talking about the dry rice noodle sticks that you rehydrate, or soft flat rice noodles from the fridge or freezer? Either way, they're both tricky. Even the dry rice noodle comes in two varieties, one finer than the other. The finer one can end up being a big gooey mess if not handled properly. The soft flat noodle is usually stir-fried but you need quick and experienced hands and a super hot wok.

I ate at the Wild Noodles in Ridgewood and I was not too impressed. My wife had a rice noodle dish that had no flavor. She added soy sauce and the red chili paste they had on the table and that helped her dish. I had the Bangkok Peanut Noodles and they had more flavor than the rice noodles but the problem was that it was swimming in oil. I got an extra bowl and poured off several extra tablespoons of oil. Everything is stir-fried in woks and I guess the "chef" thought the more oil the better. The ingredients were fresh and the place was clean-but it is true what LJC was saying about trying to be all things to all people. It simply doesn't work most of the time and sadly that is the case with Wild Noodles. The set-up is that you place your order at the counter, they give you a number that you place on a stand on a table and then food runners bring the food out to your table. Soft drinks and iced tea are self-serve from a fountain station. The runners were very hospitable as they offfered to refill drinks and asked if they could get you anything. The design and set-up of the restaurant and service is very kid friendly so that might be their saving grace as parents can bring kids of any age here without worry.

chinese sauasages lap cheung the red waxy like sausage hanging by strings. yes they do have a sweet taste and they are fatty but if cooked right are very tasty. You don't really find them in restaurants as this product is more for home cooking. Quality varies from brand to brand like any other product . But the simplest way to cook them is to toss them in the rice cooker with your rice, while the rice steams the sausages are cooked and they impart their flavour to the rice. Once cooked take them out and slice them into very thin half a centimetre thick diagonal slices. And they are just eaten like that with your other chinese dishes. Yes they are an acquired taste as chinese wind dried/cured products are very different from western versions. If you don't like the sweetness you can make sticky rice which is made from a load of rehydrated dried shrimps, squid, shitake mushrooms. The water from the rehydration is used to cook some glutinous rice, at the same time you cook the chinese sausages. chop up all the ingredients into small piece and quickly stir fry in a wok with oyster sauce, soya sauce a little sugar. Then you mix it with the steamed glutinous rice. serve with a sprinkling of chopped scallion. :)

The Liberace of the culinary world. My apologies to both spikemom and wongste. I guess my darker and sarcastic sense of humor didn't translate well this time. It just seemed rather obvious (to me at least), that Susanna Foo was the more approriate venue for a Szechuan chef. That being said, it went without saying that a restaurant would have the accoutrements apropos of their own cuisine. Chinese restaurant probably wouldn't have a pasta machine, an Italian restaurant wouldn't have a wok. Duh, yes? Sorry if I offended anyone. I never got the vibe that Chef Kenichi and Morimotosan were buds, if you know what I mean. In fact, I don't even know that they were ever on the show in the same time frame, were they? I suppose I don't take notes as to who's on with whom, but I don't specifically remember any interactions with the two of them.

Not really. Morimoto specializes in Japanese cuisine, not Chinese. Logistically speaking, a Chinese restaurant is more likely to have the equipment and ingredients he needs, woks, big Chinese cleavers, etc. It would be really cool to have in Philly a King of Iron Chefs battle between Chen-san and Morimoto-san though. What wouldn't I give to be on that tasting panel... Duh - yeah. He's a chef that specializes in Chinese (even more specifically, Szechuan) cuisine. Chen Kinichi guest cheffing at a Japanese, French, Italian, Serbo-Croatian, Hungarian, Cuban, Lativan, Polish or German restaurant, Argentinian Rodizio House, Belgian Frites stand or whatfreakingever doesn't really make sense, does it? Sort of what I was implying, no? Am I being too oblique? Well, I wasn't trying to contradict you. I was just adding something that I thought was worth mentioning to your reply to what spikemom said. Perhaps I'm dense, but I can't see if you implied anything by what you wrote. If you find what I wrote too obvious, please feel free to ignore it. There's no need to launch a sarcastic diatribe, is there?

Thanks to everyone who chimed in on my requests for info. As you'll see from the brief report below--excerpted from an e-mail to a good friend and Portland e-Gulleteer ExtraMSG, hence the informality--we ended up modifying the original itinerary on the fly. ---------------------------------- 1) St. John. Went here for lunch on the day we arrived. Had the marrow and parsley salad as a starter. Two slices of toast, several segments of hot roasted bones, a salad of parsley and shallots, and a small pile of gray sea salt. Okay, but nothing outstanding. The parsley flavor was so strong that it tended to overwhelm the meaty, buttery flavor of the marrow. And there really wasn't enough marrow to leave much of an impression. An interesting, quirky dish, but not something I (or K) would order again. Next was a white cabbage and cockles salad. Bland, bland, bland. Almost no flavor in any component of the dish. Totally forgettable. Next was an "Old Spot" pork pot roast with bean salad. The pork ended up being a slice that included the tenderloin, bacony cut, and then a thick layer of fat. Good pork taste, but very one-note (and definitely on the salty side). It was served in a bit of soupy stew broth that tasted the same (i.e., porky, salty). I think the pork had potential. But this was the wrong dish for it. The only interesting thing about it was the contrast in textures you got with the unusual cut. The beans, however, were excellent. They were mostly Lima, with shallots, bits of carrot, and maybe some potato. Definitely the best dish component we had there. For dessert, we got the Eccles cake with Lancashire cheese. The plate came out with a good sized slab of cheese and a puck-shaped pastry about 2" in diameter. The Eccles cake was a bready pastry with a light granulated sugar coating, filled with currants. That's it. No moisture. No sauce. No pastry cream. We both agreed that, for what the pastry chef was trying to do, he probably did a good job. But it didn't approach the American ideal for a dessert (i.e., sweet, sweet, sweet). Anyway, we were both pretty disappointed with the meal. Total tab for that ended up being almost 40 pounds (roughly $75). 2) New Tayyeb. This was a low level Indian restaurant near Whitechapel, recommended highly on e-Gullet. The place was slammed when we got there around 9 PM. We waited nearly a half hour for a table. The menu was a challenge, since there weren't any descriptions of dishes and most of them were unfamiliar to me. We ended up ordering veggie samosas, one chicken curry, one lamb curry, and kheer for dessert. The samosas were good, but thin (flat, rather than the lofty pyramid shape I'm used to). Really good chutneys--one cucumber and yogurt, one mango, and one hottern'hell chile. Both curries were excellent--not really as soupy or gravy-like as I get around here. They didn't impress at first bite. But once you started eating them, they really grew on you. Entrees included sides of a veggie curry with squash and a red bean curry. Both were very good. Good kheer, closer to a rice pudding than what I usually get under that name. Total price for the meal ended up being about 17 pounds (about $28 US)--unfortunately one of the better values of the trip. 3) Soho Spice. A good friend recommended this place, saying it was one of the best meals of his and his wife's life. K ordered chicken tikka masala. I ordered another lamb curry (something korma-ish). I didn't like either of them as much as what we'd had the night before, but they were still very good. K said it was the best chicken tikka masala she's ever had. We had a good gulab jamun for dessert. 30 pounds or so for the lunch. 4) Mela. This was proposed by several people as an alternative to the high-end nouveau Indian places I had enquired about. Reminded me of an Indian Cafe Azul [an erstwhile Mexican restaurant in Portland run by a Chez Panisse alumnus]--great ingredients, good technique, but pretty traditional dishes. We weren't really hungry, so we skipped the appetizer and went straight to entrees. I ordered a duck curry and K ordered some kind of veggie ball curry. Both were incredible--two of the best Indian dishes I've ever had and definite highlights of the trip. The duck pieces were crispy, with an excellent sauce (with spiciness and almost mustardy undertones) that clung to the pieces without making them soggy. And the curry with the veggie balls was "lick the bowl" good. We had a good mango kulfi for dessert. 25 pounds or so. 5) Street vendor near the Tate Modern Art Museum. This guy had a cart with a wok-like bowl in it. He had a sugar syrup heated in the wok and would stir these enormous peanuts in it until they were caramelized, then sell small bags of them--still hot from the wok--for one pound. Mmmm. Simple, but a great little snack. I saw a similar cart elsewhere in the city a couple days later and was tempted to buy another sack, even though I was on my way to a dinner reservation. 6) Cafe Italia (or something like that). K was mad that we were taking so much time traveling to restaurants and spending so much (by US standards) on food. So I said, "Fine, we'll go wherever you want to go from now on." When mealtime came, she was at a loss and picked this place because it was close to where we were at the time. She had canneloni and I had spaghetti Bolognese. Both were sub-Olive Garden [i.e., a mediocre US chain] in quality. 25 pounds, without appetizer or dessert. After that, she went back to letting me pick the restaurants. 7) Harrod's. I've never seen anything like Harrod's. The place is unbelievable--like a lovechild of Neiman Marcus and Las Vegas on steroids. It's enormous, gaudy, and cool as hell. They have "food galleries" that cover the better part of a city block on one floor. A candy, chocolates, and pastry section. A cheese and deli section. A seafood and meats section. It makes Central Market look like a low-rent 7-11. Cabrales had recommended their Oyster Bar for a lunch. So we ordered fish & chips there. K loved it, saying it was one of the best things she'd eaten on the trip. I thought the fries were really good. And the fish seemed to be done about as well as it could be, though it's just not my kind of dish. 16 pounds for one order (i.e., two fried filets and a small portion of fries). We went over to the pastry section and picked up a bread & butter pudding and a fig & brioche pudding. The former was pretty good, while the latter was just so-so. 8) Tamarind. The only Michelin-starred Indian restaurant in England. (Zaika used to have one till the original chef left.) They started us with papadum and a trio of chutneys. The chutneys were, as K put it, "Interesting here," tapping her head, "but not here," pointing to her tongue. Sweet and sour flavors in unsual combinations. I tended to agree with her. One of them (the fruitiest of the three) was okay, but the others barely worked at all. Our appetizer was some kind of concoction of fried potato patties, chickpeas, tamarind chutney, and yogurt. Interesting, mellow, and pretty good. For entrees, she got a chicken with tomato onion curry and I opted for two veggie dishes, sag aloo (spinach and potato curry) and a black lentil curry they touted as a house specialty. Disappointment across the board. All three dishes were just okay--really no better than we can get around here. Also, it seemed like they pureed and strained the chicken curry so there would be no texture to it; that might earn them a star, but it kind of detracts from the dish. For dessert, we ordered the most unusual sounding option they had--slow-cooked carrot fudge with vanilla ice cream. Very tasty. Imagine something between a carrot cake and carrot bread, removed from the oven while it's still underbaked, then extracting the warm, slightly mushy underbaked center portion. That's kind of what it was like. Served with a decent vanilla bean ice cream with the plate garnished with a carrot juice reduction. A groovy little dessert. But it wasn't enough to redeem the uneven quality. And at around 60 pounds, it was a very poor value. 9) Viceroy. This was an Indian place in Windsor (where we were visiting Windsor Castle) that came highly recommended in Lonely Planet. Ugh. High school cafeteria quality Indian. 20 pounds for two entrees. Total disappointment. 10) Gordon Ramsay RHR. Our one three-star meal. While it didn't knock my socks off, it was a very good meal and a reasonable value at the price point (80 pounds per person for the tasting menu). I'd say it fell short of Trotter's or French Laundry. But, overall, it's in the ballpark (i.e., 5 Mobil stars in the US). Quick sketch of courses (followed by a 1 to 10 ranking of the course, comparing it with the best of the best in the US): a -- Kelleresque cones filled half with an avocado mousse, half with a masala mousse. 9. b -- Two paper-thin slices of some kind of spicy meat dehydrated to complete crispiness with a layer of seasoned creme fraiche and cheese between them. 10. One of the best amuses I've ever had. c -- Trio of salads, each served in a spoon. One was a nicoise, one was a tomato and basil gelee, one was rare beef with capers, shallots, and something else. 9. d -- Foie gras terrine with layers of smoked goose, served with bite-sized salads of mushrooms and green beans, with concentric rings of olive oil and a red wine reduction. A superb foie gras presentation. 10. e -- Scottish lobster and langoustine ravioli with tomato compote and other things I can't remember. A lobster lover would probably really dig this. And even though I'm not a lobster lover, I thought it was pretty darned good. 7. f -- Skin-on seabass with veloute. I'm sure there was some kind of excellent side component to this course, but I can't remember what it was. All I remember is the seabass and sauce. Man, what a fish. Right up there with the best I've ever had. 10. g -- Lamb three ways. Thin rare slices, layered with well seasoned potato slices. A shaped pile of shredded meat, like confit in richness. One other way, combined with spinach. All very tasty and competent, but not interesting at all. 8. h -- Beef medallion with sauteed sweetbreads, mushrooms, and a way too dark, rich, intense sauce. By far the weakest dish of the night. K liked it more than I did, but she agreed it was the weakest of the bunch. The meat wasn't very tender and the flavors were just too clumsy. 6. i -- Lavender infused creme brulee. Lighter than most creme brulees I've had--almost fluffy in texture. Very tasty, but not original in any way. 7. j -- Trifle of warm apple compote, a cool spiced tapioca, and an intense granita. One of those dishes that emphasizes contrasts in temperature and texture. Very tasty, too. 8. k -- Strawberry and rhubarb tartlet. Hard to describe (almost no pastry component) but excellent. 9. l -- Mignardises: (i) Dark liquid caramel filled truffles. Very intense caramel flavor--like cajeta quemada. 9. (ii) Strawberry ice cream truffles. Truffle sized balls of an excellent strawberry ice cream enrobed in white chocolate. They were served just as the ice cream inside was starting to go melty. Simple, but perfect. 10. (iii) Some good but forgettable mini-muffins. 6. (11) Goddard's Pie Shop (in Greenwich). K had a minced beef pie with mashed potatoes, half with gravy, half with parsley sauce. I had a Cornish pastie--a croissant-looking pastry filled with lamb, potatoes, carrots, etc. The pastry components to both items were very well done--light, flaky, not soggy. But the fillings were bland as can be--a blandness that salt alone could not rectify. The mashed potatoes tasted like they were made with water rather than milk, cream, or butter--totally flat tasting. A great idea, but really blah in the execution. (12) Mela, again. We had to grab a quick dinner before a play started ("Measure for Measure" at Shakespeare's Globe Theater), and this was close by. We started with an appetizer sampler that included potato and chickpea balls with a spicy tamarind chutney, crispy tandoori chicken bits with a mango chutney, and a lamb kebab with a very spicy pickled meat and veggie chutney. (A lot of the menus had pickled meat items.) All were good, but the veggie balls were the best. We shared a mild chicken curry, a potato/spinach curry, and lentils. For dessert, I got gulab jamun with ice cream and she got some kind of bready pastry in a cardomom/milk-based sauce. Another good meal, though nothing was as good as the entrees in our prior meal there. That may be because we did the "pre-theater" fixed price meal, where they guarantee to get you out in time for your show. We probably should have ordered ala carte. They had a rabbit curry I really wanted to try. 12) St. John Bread & Wine. We came here for breakfast before heading to the airport. We had hoped they'd have some pastries, but they said they wouldn't really start on pastries till closer to lunch time. I had toast and honey (two slices for two and a half pounds). They know how to do toast there. But it's still just toast and honey. (Nothing remarkable about the honey.) K got pikelets and apricot jam. We didn't really know what that would involve. It ended up being two round patties--sort of a cross between a pancake and an English muffin--served with butter and an apricot jam. K thought they were pretty good, but I thought they were excellent. Maybe it's just because I'd never had anything quite like it before. Very interesting texture. We picked up a brownie to go. Good brownie with whole hazelnuts in it. The hazelnuts weren't toasted, though, so they ended up with that slightly chewy resistence, rather than the brittle crunch (and nuttier flavor) they get from toasting. A good brownie, but no better than one can make at home. 13) Generic Airport Cafe. We picked up a chicken tikka sandwich--white bread with spiced chicken and slices of cucumber. Yuck. Edible, but just barely. But what can you expect with airport food? Also, Lay's operates in England under the name Walker's. They have a line of gourmet potato chips in all kinds of offbeat flavors. I picked up a bag of "Roasted Lamb and Mint" potato chips to go along with the sandwich. Not bad, though there wasn't any noticeable lamb taste to the chips. I'd be interested in trying some of their other flavors. [bTW, Chips = Crisps.] ------------------------------------------- Overall, we had a good time with the food, despite the occasional disappointment (and common service shortcomings--even at Gordon Ramsay, surprisingly). High prices and a weak dollar resulted in poor value in most cases. But, still, there were many morsels that made it all worthwhile. Thanks again for all the help--71 replies from the date of my first enquiry till my departure to London five days later. Astonishing. Your experience, passion, and generosity are greatly appreciated. Scott