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Since they started mass-producing dim sum, sadly only the specials remain interesting... occasionally. All the best, -- Ian Fenn One man and his wok - http://www.chopstix.com/

I remember the days of sleeping on the floor and rolling up pennies to buy 5 bucks worth of gas for my Green Demon. In the dorms, I had to petition to have the number of meals in my cafeteria meal plan reduced since it was so expensive. I must admit that our two cafeterias were actually pretty good. We had a line of woks where we could do our own stir-fry, waffle presses at breakfast with different flavors of mix and various toppings, etc. When not eating in the cafeteria and in my post-dorm experiences, my meals were much uglier. *Lipton noodle packets gussied up with Swanson chicken in a can *Hormel canned tamales *Kraft boxed spaghetti meal (add one can of tomato paste to water and you're ready to rock-n-roll) *Peanut butter on graham crackers *Lots of Taco Bell's 39-cent menu items and Wendy's 99-cent options eaten while walking between classes. I can't eat this stuff now, needless to say. *Bad sandwiches made using a cheap press from Target (featuring whatever supermarket bread was on sale, sub-par bologna or ham, and Kraft singles) *Cabbage bread (biscuits stuffed with cabbage and ground beef) *Hot dogs *Anything that was cheap and microwaveable

Yeah, it was funny at the CIA, too. I lived in one of the dorms. We were fed twice a day, but not at all on weekends. There was a student kitchen in B dorm, but it was just scary (we called it 'Tomaine alley'). We weren't allowed to cook in our rooms, but there were ways around that...I lived on curried rice made in a hot pot, while some people got creative with electric woks. I remember making grilled cheese sandwiches with my iron (cover the iron with foil first!). I also walked up to the store each week, to buy lots of fruit and veggies. And about those two meals a day... not always great...remember, they're cooked by fellow students, so... if they were having a bad day, we all suffered! Plus, when I was there, it was strictly classical french for many of the classes. You can only eat so many meals covered in Mother sauces...

I have to admit, I heard the douchebag reference, but it took me a while to convince myself that that was what I heard. I wanted to see him get hit by a car by the time Jeffrey gave him the boot. What is really funny is that everybody I know is well aware of why they have such troubles. The bar gets backed up because they serve eleventy-three froo-froo drinks with 37 ingredients each. THe food is cold because the kitchen is a quarter mile from the table. Rocco is never there because he's going through an intensive de-homosexualization process. (Anybody who has seen "Sordid Lives" is laughing right now.) And the entire staff is comprised of whining, back-stabbing slackers becasue they only follow the pretty, skill-free slackers they hired 'cuz they look good, not because they give good service. The staff don't know what kind of restaurant they are working in because they can't answer the most important question: "Am I an actor? Or am I a waiter? Waiter? Actor?" Oi! I have to say that you make quite a statement here. I would love for you to come in and try to wok a Friday and and Saturday night at Rocco's. The food is not cold, the service is great, the bar gets the drinks out. I am really suprised, because most of the people on egullet are really smart, that you don't understand the difference between TV and the real thing. There are no producers or editors involved in a 550 cover night. I would love to see you try to do what we do every night. For your information, I am an actor and a waiter, have been both for 12 years, and I am in great company. About 80% of waiters in NYC are actor or, musicans or comedians. Be sure you know what you are talking about before you open your trap. Sorry to the rest of egullet for being so angry. I work too hard to be brought down in this manner. So tell us then, Uzay -- if the whining slacker image isn't accurate -- is it scripted? Is it contrived? Because frankly, I'm not the only person who came away with that impression. I'd very much like a straight answer to my question -- is it "reality" tv, or it it theatre. You don't think people are whiners? Watch the show again. You got a problem with the rep you come away with from your involvement in this show, you shouldn't have signed release to begin with. One lesson you might want to come away with: Don't shit where you eat.

I have to admit, I heard the douchebag reference, but it took me a while to convince myself that that was what I heard. I wanted to see him get hit by a car by the time Jeffrey gave him the boot. What is really funny is that everybody I know is well aware of why they have such troubles. The bar gets backed up because they serve eleventy-three froo-froo drinks with 37 ingredients each. THe food is cold because the kitchen is a quarter mile from the table. Rocco is never there because he's going through an intensive de-homosexualization process. (Anybody who has seen "Sordid Lives" is laughing right now.) And the entire staff is comprised of whining, back-stabbing slackers becasue they only follow the pretty, skill-free slackers they hired 'cuz they look good, not because they give good service. The staff don't know what kind of restaurant they are working in because they can't answer the most important question: "Am I an actor? Or am I a waiter? Waiter? Actor?" Oi! I have to say that you make quite a statement here. I would love for you to come in and try to wok a Friday and and Saturday night at Rocco's. The food is not cold, the service is great, the bar gets the drinks out. I am really suprised, because most of the people on egullet are really smart, that you don't understand the difference between TV and the real thing. There are no producers or editors involved in a 550 cover night. I would love to see you try to do what we do every night. For your information, I am an actor and a waiter, have been both for 12 years, and I am in great company. About 80% of waiters in NYC are actor or, musicans or comedians. Be sure you know what you are talking about before you open your trap. Sorry to the rest of egullet for being so angry. I work too hard to be brought down in this manner.

Beloved chinese cleaver....spent an hour picking the one that felt "just right" from 40-50 others. Price about $12 but it is right up there on the list of things I would grab were the house burning down....after the cat, but before everything else. Also once had a great $2.98 plastic-handled serrated knife, but my stupid roomate broke it slicing a frozen loaf of bread...haven't had one I liked as much until I was given a quite expensive one as a gift. Still miss the cheapie, though. Small pyrex casseroles (pint size?), $2-3 or less at secondhand shops, great for keeping one-person servings out of reach of the cat. Bamboo rice spoons, 79 cents, for stirring & serving. $1.99 for four bamboo placemats that rolled up for easy storing, washed beautifully, and finally gave up the ghost after more than a decade of almost daily use because their thread finally rotted away. I've paid lots more for similar items in fancier stores but none have been quite so perfectly functional. $8 cast iron chinese wok, after a few hours sanding/polishing/seasoning good for a lifetime of slick, nonstick stir frying not to mention deep frying.

One of my favorite ways to use Sichuan peppercorns...this version is a Singaporean/Cantonese version of a Sichuan dish. I think Dunlop's book has a real version. You might also search out dishes that get translated as Hot and numbing X (chicken, fish, crab whatever) those are tasty too. I like using either a fermented broad bean chilli paste or a fermented yellow (soy) bean chilli paste. You'll see many versions with fermented black beans but try to resist, you owe it to yourself to try it with broad bean paste at least once. I also like it better with the more southern style preserved mustard green (hum choy, if you want more info on this, look up a past thread in dejanews) at least here in the US. The Sichuan version available in the cities we've lived in is either an insipid canned one, or an overly sweet, mushy on-site version. If you are lucky enough to live somewhere with a decent version, then by all means use that, otherwise, search out the fresh, tangy southern hum choy, try to avoid the canned ones. Fresh roasted Sichuan peppercorns are another imperative ingredient in this dish. I would almost say don't bother making it if you don't have them. Use fresh Chinese firm tofu, not a non-refrigerated variety. The peas are optional, not necessary. We put them in to stretch the dish or when we feel like having them there or when we are making a vegetarian version for non-meat eating friends. Lastly, we don't really like the hot chilli sesame oil combos that are out there (mainly marketed to round eyes), they don't have the right fragrance. Use a roasted sesame oil and a homemade chilli oil if possible. Ingredients: marinade for the meat: 2 t thin soya 2 t thick soya 3 t Shaohsing wine (the unsalted kind!) 2 t sesame oil 1/2 lb fresh minced pork (or ground if you don't want to mince it) 4 oz preserved mustard greens (hum choy) 2 packages of firm tofu (the kind with two cakes in them) pressed and drained (you can see a picture of how we do it in the eGCI class I did) 6 cloves of garlic, minced 2 t potato flour, plus 2 T water 3 T broad bean chilli paste (or yellow bean chilli paste) or more to taste 1 t thin soya 1 c of water or meat stock a bag of frozen peas (optional) 4 scallions, thinly sliced, white parts separate from green sesame oil chilli oil about 1 t of fresh roasted Sichuan pepper, ground (can be crushed with cleaver handle or mortar or in a grinder) 2 red chillies, thinly sliced on the diagonal a handful or more of cilantro (coriander) leaves peanut or corn oil Put the minced pork aside in a bowl and add the marinade ingredients. Let it sit covered at room temp while you prepare the rest of the stuff. Cut the preserved vegetable into match sized pieces, cut the tofu into 1 inch cubes (after it has drained off a lot of water). Mix the potato flour with the water. Heat a pan or wok over high heat until there are faint wisps of smoke coming off it. Put some oil in the pan quick! and swirl it around. Throw in the garlic and flip it around, very quick and add the pork. Flip it around until it's half cooked, then add the preserved vegetable, the white parts of the scallions, the bean paste and the soya. Stir it around until it incorporated into the meat. Pour in the water or stock and bring to a simmer, over med heat. Add the tofu pieces. Mix gently, and allow the sauce to be absorbed by the tofu about 5 minutes. Add the peas if you're going to. When the peas are barely warmed through, add the potato flour water mix (stir it well) and turn up the heat until it thickens. Take off heat. Drizzle with sesame and chilli oils, sprinkle with Sichuan pepper, sliced chillies, the green parts of the scallion and the cilantro. Eat immediately with steamed rice. regards, trillium

You might be looking for Burlington-centric, but I have a fave Asian Market in Hadley, MA: Tran's Asian Supermarket on Route 9 just over the Coolidge Bridge from Northampton. It's got everything you could possibly want in an Asian market, including fresh produce (I've gotten fresh durian there) and cookware. I got a nice flat-bottom spun-steel wok for about $16 and a bamboo steamer very cheap. They have a huge selection of packaged Asian groceries. For example, there must be 20 varieties of fish sauce, as many or more of soy sauce, all kinds of dried noodles. Fresh lo-mein, many varieties of tofu and miso. Fresh lime-leaf, long beans, Thai eggplant, rau ram, etc. Best prices anywhere on little bottles of ginseng extract. Coolers full of Viet and Thai soft-drinks. Jars of fermented fish, pickled garlic, all manner of curry pastes, dried spices and herbs. It's tiny, but warrants at least a few hours to take in its treasures. Worth a long trip for provisioning. Edit: punctuation.

There is a large non-stick wok (restaurant grade aluminum) at Costco for $26. I bought one a year ago, and am going back for a second, as it has not degraded at all.

Kitchen Sink Fried Rice is simplicity itself. As its name (which I think I must have stolen from Kitchen Sink Soup... not to be confused with Cream of Refrigerator Soup, which of course is quite a different thing) implies, it includes a little of everything - that is, everything I happen to feel like putting in. This always includes pork, and when possible it always includes shrimp. Tonight it also includes: onion, celery, cabbage, snow-peas, un-snow-peas, water chestnuts, and whatever sprouts the Fruitery happened to have. And eggs, of course, and ginger. Also some sherry. And soy sauce. I think that's it. And, oh yeah... rice. This is where the infamous antediluvian cooktop stands me in good stead: one of the burners is improperly adjusted, and produces a much higher and more powerful flame than it is supposed to. Every man who has entered my orbit in the past 14 years has kindly offered to fix it for me; to every one of them I have said the same thing: "what are you, CRAZY?!" Not that it quite measures up to those fabulous conflagrations they have to work with in Chinese restaurants - but it's at least a closer approximation than I've been able to squeeze out of any other stove. Out comes the trusty wok (I have two or three of them - four if you count the one downstairs in the bunker - five if you count the leetle one - but this one is my favorite, mostly because of the handle), and the assembly line begins. First, the ginger. Then, the onion, celery, and cabbage... and when those are almost done they are joined, briefly briefly, by the snow-peas and sprouts. Next, the pork. It was already fully cooked, of course (a bit too fully, actually - sorry, Mr. Boy ), but it'll look and feel and taste happier when it's browned. Even I am not quite They-Call-Me-Chief enough to photograph the frying of the rice and the addition of the eggs - though for the record I should like to announce that for the first time in my life I got the eggs exactly right. Anyway, once that's done, the Kitchen Sink gets dumped back in! It all gets smooshed around together and flavored up with sherry and soy, and it spends a short time covered, over a low fire, to make sure everybody is heated through, and then... ... it gets et.

And now we come at last to Those Magnificent Foods in Their Frying Machines.. To begin with, let's fry up the Blinchiki. In butter, of course. And this time... ...on both sides! Ordinarily, as discussed in earlier post, you'd serve these accompanied by bouillon, in which you would dunk them. (I do, ahem, have bouillon cups to match the plates we're using, but I didn't think to photograph one; and in real time they are in Gilgo and I am not. Maybe I'll fix this dreadful barbarism tomorrow... and maybe not.) As it is, we're making do, for tonight, with a little sour cream. After eating the Blinchiki, and after studiously avoiding each other's eyes while furtively licking the plates, we take a brief hiatus to assemble the rest of the dinner. (Something simple to set off all this fried stuff - noodles, cooked in chicken broth.) The Kotletkii are fried (I like to use a mix of butter and oil, roughly half-&-half) over a fairly high fire, until they're quite brown, on both sides (they plump up rather enticingly after you turn them - and this is how you know that that little nugget of fat in the middle is doing its job: when you cut into one of them with a fork it will, er, ahem, spurt juice at you).... Ordinarily I'd be doing these on a cast-iron griddle, but tonight we're being naughty and having the traditional Sauce Smitane with them, so I decided to use a deeper pan for the sake of simplicity. Anyway, as each batch is done, I set them aside in a Pyrex dish while I fry the next batch. If I'm making a lot I'll put the dish in the oven to be kept warm by the pilot light. Tonight I don't bother. Now for the veg and the sauce. Here's some of that broccoli rabe I admired at the Fruitery yesterday. I'm not going to do anything complicated with it. I've trimmed the tips of the stems and that's about it. A clove or so of garlic, pressed, sauteed lightly in oil in one of those non-stick demi-wok-ish pans my mother loved so much. (BTW, the oil I'm using for this and the Kotletkii is whatever neutral stuff they keep in-house - canola, probably.) I've also cleaned a couple of Portobello mushrooms (ordinarily I'd use plain little white ones, but as you may recall I stopped too late at the Fruitery and there weren't any - under the circumstances there's a touch of irony, I suppose, in the thought that beggars can't be choosers! ) - and I've cut them up into smallish bits. Toss the broc rabe in with the garlic, stir and let it cook down a little; then add a little mushroom soy, and it will be done around the same time as the sauce - and make a nice foil for its richness (Papa, who doesn't care for rabe, will get his foil effect from frozen baby peas, lightly killed). Meanwhile, saute the mushrooms in the fat left from the Kotletkii frying; Then lower heat and add a goodly dollop of sour cream :wub: (I used it ALL UP!!! :gloat:); swirl it in gently, and then stir until smoothly combined. And now, at long last, it's dinner-time.

I have a relatively big and complete collection of Farberware, now called 'Classic', pots and pans; for 'reserve' I have several still in the original boxes unopened in each of a few sizes. Seems to me, often the best pot has a stainless steel interior, and, given that, Farberware does the rest quite well. I even use the frying pan: It was good the last time I sauteed, in two batches, 6 pounds of 10% fat ground beef with quite a lot of OO and then drained and loosely froze the result. Recently have been able to buy cooking spoons apparently just stamped from a sheet of stainless steel. So, the spoons are 100% stainless steel with no seams, wood, plastic, etc. There are enough ridges, etc., in the shape to make the handles strong enough. I have two lengths for the handles, one normal and the other longer. They are terrific -- I prefer them to the cooking spoons I've had for decades with the spoon part attached to the handle with rivets and plastic attached to the handle with rivets. The new ones look less 'homey' but are really more functional, really darned near indestructible unless start using them to clean bricks, crack concrete, etc.! I'm a big fan of many of the Pyrex products. Favorites include the 1 1/2 quart and 2 quart covered casserole dishes. Dinner tonight was 1 C of the loosely frozen ground beef, 1 C of relatively spicy tomato sauce, 1 can of ravioli, in a 1 1/2 quart dish, covered, heated for 30 minutes at 50% power in microwave, and topped with quite a lot of Pecorino Romano. Other favorites include the 2 C measures, the older 4 C measure that was taller (instead of the newer one that I believe is too short), and the 300 ml custard dishes, recently made heavier. The 300 ml dishes are good for Chinese dipping sauces, lemon juice and coleslaw when I pig out on fried scallops and hush puppies, the 2 T each of minced ginger, minced garlic, minced scallion, and crushed red pepper flakes for a stir-fry I do, etc. The Pecorino Romano was grated with a simple -- nearly simplest possible -- stainless steel grater. Yes, with such a grater it's possible to get some 'fresh meat' in with the grated cheese, but that little grater has big advantages in simplicity and ease of cleaning and handling. My 170,000 BTU/hour propane cooker cost all of about $35. It's nearly indestructible and works great. The cooker works especially well with an inexpensive stamped sheet steel Chinese wok, 14" in diameter. That wok is nearly indestructible, has great surface, is easy to 'clean', and is great over a big propane fire. Once at a department store in DC got the sales person to let me see their collection of glassware catalogues, and they had one from West Virginia Glass with some classic stemware including some gorgeous tall ones for Champagne. I called the company and they shipped me a collection of five dozen for average price a little under $2 a glass. They remain terrific -- no Chambertin, Meursault, Champagne, Barolo, Chianti, or Asti Spumanti deserved better! My mother got a lot of stemware from Fostoria in West Virginia; they are prettier but a little less functional and, really, too delicate -- once I broke a stem just by picking up the glass. One of the programs on Jackie Kennedy has her saying that when she went shopping for stemware for the White House, she found what she wanted in West Virginia. Hmm? Wal-Mart carries some Rubbermaid ice cube trays. I got a stack; so far the first four kept in the freezer have lasted and worked perfectly -- the cubes come out very nicely. The trays have yet to start to crack or tear. I put the ice cubes in a simple covered plastic storage container, of course, also in the freezer; so, I have a ready supply of loose ice cubes that don't freeze together or sublime. About the cheapest is for free, and some years ago we started keeping some of the microwave safe trays from some TV dinners. The dinners weren't very good, but the trays have lasted for decades as good microwave proof tools! One use is to put some pork shoulder BBQ in one of the 300 ml Pyrex dishes, set on one of the trays, top with another tray, and heat in the microwave. Hardware stores sell sheets of abrasive intended for smoothing drywall. The sheets are black with a very open mesh and some really tough abrasive. I have some, cut into quarters, I keep in the kitchen for cleaning stuck food! Yes, Virginia, they can scratch some surfaces! One of the most functional 'kitchen tools' is a wet-dry 'shop' vacuum cleaner. Mine is the real thing, 3.5 HP motor, large diameter hose, on four wheels, etc., I got years ago from Sears for about $105. It's great for spills on the kitchen floor! Occasionally, dump the insides onto the compost heap in the woods out back. For the filter, a flexible cylinder of pleated paper, when it develops a full 'beard', put it on a horizontal stick and rinse off the beard with a spray on the end of a garden hose. While I got some extra filters, really, with reasonable care, can make one filter last for through many rinsings for years. Over the years I went through enough paper towels to destroy a large forest, so I found an alternative: Recently Sam's Club has been selling packages of a few dozen rectangular white cotton terry towels of an appropriate weight for a bit less than $12 a package. So, on my kitchen 'island', I have a big stack, about 18" high, with each towel flat, not folded. So, when I need a towel, I just take the next one from the top of the stack. I use the towels to dry hands, dry pots and pans, wipe up spills, etc. For cleaning, a pass in the washing machine with cold water, chlorine bleach, and liquid detergent, a pass with hot water and liquid detergent, then the dryer, then stacking gives me a new supply. Curiously somehow even soy sauce washes out nicely. White plastic cutting board -- big enough to get the work done, small enough for easy washing, drying, handling, storing. I got tired of seeing all that beautiful maple crack!

Diamond does have outstanding thermal conductivity... around three times better than copper. So, as soon as you can find me a nice thick frypan made out of pure diamond, we'll talk. Otherwise, you're talking about aluminum with some diamond dust on it. I'm not an expert on Asian cookware, so someone may correct me on this. Most woks these days are made of relatively thin carbon steel. This seems to be the standard configuration. Does this mean that woks made out of other materials are not technically woks? I have no idea. My operating assumption is that everything wok-shaped is a wok, and that iron was probably the original wok material anyway. Carbon steel woks may be useful on a home stove for many applications like steaming, deep frying, stewing, etc. However, the real problem comes when one wants to stir fry -- which is the purpose for which most people buy a wok. The shape of the wok (very inefficient from from a heat standpoint over a home stove) and the power of the typical home stove (pathetically underpowered compared to a restaurant wok burner) make a particularly unfelicitous combination when it comes to stir frying at home. The wok never gets very hot and loses what little heat it has accumulated very quickly. The only way to work around this is to cook in very small batches. A heavy cast iron wok deals with the heat problem by providing a massive heat capacity. Once that baby sits on the burner for a while and soaks up lots of heat, it will stay hot for a long time. For me, this makes the cast iron wok better for the home user who would like to stir fry -- even better would be a cast iron wok with a flat bottom for better heat transfer from the burner. All that said, I firmly believe that stir frying is much better done by the home cook in a sauté pan with a nice thick bottom (and yes, I've done side-by-side testing -- the sauté pan produced markedly better results). In fact, sautéing and stir frying are more or less the same thing. There was an article in the NY Times food section last week about a Vietnamese restauranteur named Charles Phan, featuring his recipe for "shaking beef" adapted to the home kitchen. One of the things I noticed was that the pictures accompanying the article showed the chef using a heavy frypan and not a wok as he would in the restaurant.

Sam, Thanks for responding to my swiss diamond question. I am still a little interested in them due in part to their suggestion they have better thermal conductivity than copper. Hopefully you won't mind to solve a riddle for me. Recently, I have noticed several very beautiful and very expensive cast iron "woks" on the market and I have always associated woks with much thinner and responsive steel. Are these cast iron behemoths truly woks? If so, which is better. Thanks, Natasha

A little late but here goes: Saturday- Steamed and roasted pork shoulder- pork shoulder pieces cured with salt and five spice mix for a few days then steamed till tender and roasted in a hot oven to crisp up the skin. This was very tender, flavorful and tasty. A sort of Chinese style eggplant and pepper- eggplant slices and bell pepper squares cooked in a wok with garlic, ginger, scallions, with a sauce of soy, sesame oil, pickled ginger juice and a corn starch slurry. This was topped with homemade chili oil and sliced pickled ginger (I love this stuff) Sunday- A chicken rubbed with olive oil/garlic mixture and roasted. Skordalia whipped potatoes (lots of garlic and EVOO) Roasted just-picked-from-the-garden beets, peeled then sautéed briefly in butter and oregano. Monday- Small ravioli stuffed with a mixture of leftover roasted chicken, parmesan, and herbs. The Ravioli were served in a white wine rosemary butter broth Raisin-chocolate chip bread pudding Elie

Yeah I didn't care for Big Pussy at all. The man is a culinary ignoramus. BTW, did anyone notice that while they had some pretty sophisticated restaurant equipment (fryolator, smoker, convec oven, pacoject, robocoupe, etc) they used pro-style home ranges and wok burners as opposed to restaurant ranges? What the hell is up with that?

Hi Weka, this is my first post on this wonderful site, hope I get it right. It seems like you have dried jellyfish, and this usually varies in terms of quality and salt content. Choose sheets that are nice and plump and of a uniform color, and do not have a stong chemical or fishy smell. Some come in sheets which you have to shred to the appropriate size, and some are already shredded. Here is how I do it: Rinse the jellyfish with a lot of cold water, and as you run the water through it, you have to rub and squeeze well to remove the salt. Rinse it as thoroughly as you can. You can shred them now to the desired size if need be. Place the jellyfish in a bowl, and cover it with cold water and soak it overnight. Rinse it again. Now, there are two ways to go next: 1.one way is to quickly immerse the shreds in a wok of boiling water ( to remove any strong smell) drain it immediarely and place them in ice water for about 15 min, and then drain in a strainer. 2.The second way is to skip the blanching and just drain in a strainer. Now, there are many ways to season and serve this dish, and most of the time, it is best served cold. There are many dressings for this dish, here are 2 of the basic variations I use. 1. vinegar based dressing: Sesame oil, red vinegar ( you can use rice vinegar if you cannot find this ), a little sugar light soy sauce, and if you like it spicy, a little hot bean paste. some chefs use fish sauce ( Chinese Yue lo, Filipino patis, or Vietnamese Nuoc mam) instead of soy which is also very nice. 2. Sesame oil, sugar, light soy, with or without your choice of chilli sauce, and you can sprinkle lightly with pan toasted sesame seeds. Seasoned jelly fish can release a lot of water if not served right away, as the salt will draw out the water from the hydrated formerly dried jellyfish. This will dilute the seasoning. Many chefs in Hong Kong therefore like to use Chicken boullion powder to season the jellyfish shreds (in addition to the sesame oil, etc.) as the resulting flavor is more stable and saltier. I myself do not use the stuff as it is high in salt and MSG, etc. Stick with simple basic seasonings, soy, fish sauce, a light vinegar, chilli paste or sauce, chilli oil, and sesame oil, and experiment with different combinations. You can serve the shreds with shredded and lightly salted (and drained ) cucumber. hope this helps....

Over the years, I've found many, many items: A White Mountain electric ice cream freezer, $15 A Bron Mandoline for $0.50. The blades were in backward (how'd they do that?) and it was a little rusted. I turned the blades around and polished it up, and sold it on eBay for $60, and then bought a brand new one for $99 on eBay with both safety slicing guards. I saw a man in line to check out with a beautiful $90 German chef's knife. I asked him what the price was, he said $8. I offered him an extra $12, he took it! A Calphalon stock pot, new in box, apprx. 16 quarts, $6 with lid. Chemex coffee pot, $1 (with 200 filters) Kitchenaid mixer $75. Almost all accessories at various other sales for pennies on the dollar. Beautiful set of china for 8 - $6! Le Crueset sauce pan and lid, under $8 Vintage Kitchenaid mixer with glass bowl, metal meat grinder, beaters, citrus juicer parts. Sold the bowl on Ebay for $31, beaters for $10. The grinder should bring ~ $25 to 35, but I may keep it and sell my newer plastic grinder. Oh, I paid $3 for the whole box. And, almost a room full of everything from things like two other ice cream makers, Chinese hot pot, North Africian couscous maker, two electric woks (One stainless in the box, the other non-stick), 20 of the Time Life series for $10, another 100 or so cookbooks over the years. A few pieces of Portmeirion Botanic Garden, one piece of Emile Henry. Perhaps 5 Cuisinart food processors. I part them out on eBay. I'll add more later, but my favorite buy was the dual oven, current model Maytag that was a perfect replacement for the 36 year old GE that was mostly non working. I paid $50 for it, and $37 for a new replacement oven handle that was dented when it was removed. It's time for a garage sale.

I second (or was that third?) the Ikea end-grain cutting boards....mine is fantastic! It was only $20! I went back a few months ago to buy one for a friend, and apparently they no longer sell them. I like my $.79 dough scraper, purchased at the business Costco. Or a good substitute is a Chinese cleaver. $12.95 for a set of 2 half-sheet pans, 1 sturdy cooling rack, and 2 plastic lids that all fit together perfectly...from costco. I use them to transport my food around all the time. How about the hardware blow torches? They beat the wimpy expensive ones "made for" creme brulee any day. Cheap pyrex measuring cups. And definitely my wooden stirring things and my Chinese bamboo angled spatulas. I use them for everything. Cheap Chinese carbon steel wok. We should start a thread called "When expensive stuff matters"

Are these places on the level of Wok n Roll's bubble tea? (ick) They need to put a Tenren (yes i know, there is one in Rockville) in DC.

There's an article in today's New York Times which discusses how a chef cooks a particular Asian dish. In it - you will see why your kitchen - no matter how high-end - is no match for wok cooking in an Asian restaurant (although I have read of home kitchens - particularly in high end housing developments with lots of Asian buyers - which almost duplicate restaurant conditions). In addition - you probably don't use enough salt (have you ever noticed that you gain 2 pounds in water weight after eating most Asian food?). By the way - I love a rice cooker (or the microwave) for rice. And a digital thermometer takes the fear out of roasting large hunks of meat. Robyn Excellent points, thank you. I do blame a lot of my current cooking problems on my shitty stove in my rental apartment. Both burners and oven are wonky, so I think my landlord needs to get me a new stove! I'll tell him eGullet says so

There's an article in today's New York Times which discusses how a chef cooks a particular Asian dish. In it - you will see why your kitchen - no matter how high-end - is no match for wok cooking in an Asian restaurant (although I have read of home kitchens - particularly in high end housing developments with lots of Asian buyers - which almost duplicate restaurant conditions). In addition - you probably don't use enough salt (have you ever noticed that you gain 2 pounds in water weight after eating most Asian food?). By the way - I love a rice cooker (or the microwave) for rice. And a digital thermometer takes the fear out of roasting large hunks of meat. Robyn

Bill- Just a few comments that I thought might be helpful to you. I'm an amateur, but I share your enthusiasm for this website. For example, I thought I knew about making stocks. The online Egullet stock pages had so much valuable information, same with the other specialized instructional pages. I, too, have a set of Calphalon that disappoints. Food is hard to clean off, they warp, the saucepans, except for a small Windsor pan, don't have a lip. Every time I pour something, it dribbles. I even bought a Calphalon wok, which never gets hot, although part of the problem is that my heat source is electric. Recently, I bought the 11 inch Mauviel saute pan by mail from the factory in France, at artcopperware.com, and it's wonderful. I measured the capacity carefully, it holds almost 6 quarts. A cm is .3937 inches, so 2.5 mm of copper comes out to .098 inches, roughly 1/10 of an inch. I'm not sure how thick the stainless layer is, but the pan, as you say, is a monster. You need two hands, definitely, and I would discourage anyone from buying this pan without holding one in the store first. My problem in Chicago is that Sur La Table is the only store that carries any significant inventory of copperware. A chef recently opened a cookware store in Evanston, near Chicago, and he carries Bourgeat, but he has very little inventory, and he'll have trouble surviving. I would love to look at a Falk or Bourgeat large curved sauteuse evasee, but I can't find one. The manufacturers are coming out with more lines of copperware that is not commercial-grade thickness, and it's misleading. I liked the idea of buying from the factory, and artcopperware charges only 106 Euros for the 11 inch Mauviel saute, but shipping brought the cost up to $201. I can't imagine anyone wanting to return one of these pans, but it'd be a hornet's nest to do that by mail, especially overseas. I have nothing to compare my pan with, but I can say that I love the Mauviel. It's a Rolls-Royce, truly. It doesn't have a curved edge like the Bourgeat, but that's more of an issue with a saucepan, than with a saute pan. It's not only functional, it's a thing of beauty, and I don't even mind cleaning it. Sam Kinsey is the guy to advise you on this, but let us know how you fare and what you decide. It's very exciting when you open the box and see that beautiful pan. Best wishes. Greg in Chicago

I have a huge thank you to give out to everyone who posted on this thread and helped me to have an incredible trip to Delhi/Agra/Jaiphur, especially to Monica, Mongo, and Episure, thank you for lending me your knowledge. India is a trip that I'd highly recommend to everyone, not just because of the food but because it is so different from anything you'll find outside of it. It's been a long time since I went on a trip where I felt as if my perspective of the world became quite so much broader. It really is a place of contrasts. I'll look forward to seeing more of it in the future. But, on to the food! The Imperial Hotel We stayed at the Imperial which I'd recommend to everyone who stays in Delhi. The rooms are a good size, the staff are very helpful, and the location is very central - you are close to the Tibetan market, Connaught Place, Cottage Industries, State Emporiums, and not too far from the Bengali Market or Chandi Chowk/Red Fort/Jama Masjid. I wouldn't recommend eating there though, the one meal we had was nondescript (it was breakfast though). What with so much to eat in Delhi, you don't want to waste a meal. Spice Route (the main restaurant in the Imperial) does have some absolutely amazing artwork inside of it but you are no longer allowed to just have a drink. If you have the time, it might be worth having a meal here simply for the space you'll be in. Bukhara Was simply incredible food. I had a few culinary revelations in India one had to do with yoghurt (which I'll get into later) and the other concerned dahl. I don't like beans or pulses of any kind. I think they are almost flavorless and usually have a mushy texture that I am not fond of. Whether its white Italian beans, or baked beans, or chickpeas (unless ground into hummus), or lentils, or kidneys - the whole category is terribly unexciting to me. But wow, I have changed my mind about dahl. I had several incredible bowls of dahl in Delhi/Agra but Bukhara's dahl is out of this world. Creamy, buttery, with just a hint of bitterness from the lentils... I could have had just this with a naan and been perfectly content. In fact, even after I was completely stuffed I couldn't leave the dahl bowl alone and spooned the contents into my mouth. Bukhara has capitalized on their famous dahl, they happen to sell it in cans. I bought one of these, I haven't tried it yet and will save it for a special occasion but I wonder if it could possibly be as good. Mongo, they have changed the cauliflower on the menu, it is now a battered version of the cauliflower that you described. The cauliflower itself was still incredible, but I would have preferred it without the batter. In fact, I peeled the batter off and ate the lovely grilled cauliflower by itself. We also had one of their tandoori chickens, lovely, I had the idea that this is what everyone else aspires to when they serve tandoori chicken. And the breads were excellent, we had two types of paratha (I preferred the plain, the other was just too salty) and a butter naan. My husband went back a second time for a work lunch and he raved about the tandoori lamb as well as a naan that they do for larger parties, it supposedly ran the length of the table! Chinese I had two chinese meals in Delhi. The first was at a party given at my husband's client's house. They had hired a Chinese Chef (I got the idea that he comes to cook for that family regularly) for the event and it was very good. Veg platters on one side, non veg on the other, there were several seitan/tofu dishes that were amongst the best I've ever had. They also served a dish where the main ingredient was huge slices of ginger. I love ginger so this dish was pleasing to me but I couldn't imagine serving it to anyone in the western half of the world. And the second was at Chopsticks. Mongo! If you ever crave that food in LA, I'd bet you could come close to satisfying it. Indian/Chinese is a lot like Korean/Chinese. I had the shredded lamb and the honeyed chicken dish and enjoyed them. I don't know where you can get good korean/chinese in LA but in Chicago there is a place called Great Seas. Korean/Chinese cuisine has developed a dish called Gampoongi, deep fried, heavily sauced, frenched chicken wings, if you haven't tried it, I think you'll love it. They do a few other dishes that are also unique - zha zhan miang, which is a noodle dish with black sauce, and a cold noodle dish with a hot mustard sauce with fresh julienned vegetables and seafood that are worth trying. Saravana Bhavan Mongo, thank you, this was also one of my favorite meals in Delhi, definitely a place not to be missed. It was heaving and I went upstairs to have a thali. For less than £5 they brought me a lovely fish soup, an incredible assorted thali, chapati and two giant poori breads. The fish based soup had spinach in it and was very peppery and also creamy, almost buttery. It was lovely. The thali itself had so many little cups of things I it, I've lost count. And if they saw that I had eaten all of what was in any given cup a server would come offer to ladle me some more out of a pot. When I declined on seconds he tried to encourage me to have some more and sternly tried again to get me to accept it! It made me laugh, but I couldn't eat more of one and think that I'd still finish everything else on the tray! The individual cups held something like the following in it - a broth with intense tomato flavor, yellow curry that was wonderfully sour (I loved this, do you know what it is?), a fresh coconut vegetable curry, chickpeas, "special rice", yellow curry, mutton curry, onion chutney, yoghurt, chiles, lemon juice, jagghery, a mint almost curd like thing that was so lovely I just ate it as it was (I think it was meant to be a condiment, does anyone know what this is?). The people sitting across from me also ordered another dish of idli. This looked so good, I was tempted to order one myself but after eating all of that AND loving the two giant poori's, I was stuffed. I had previously thought that poori was small and crispy... these were giant puffs that actually were very tender bread once I tore it apart, are these two different things and I'm just calling them both poori? Dum Pukht Was another highlight, I'd have to say my three favorite meals were Bukhara, Saravan Bhavan, and Dum Pukht. I'm not sure how you choose between them. After poring over the menu and trying to figure out how many dishes a lone diner can order by herself, I tried to order to which the waiter said, "No, no ma'am. You are ordering much too much food. If I can suggest to you, we can put together a meal for you of small portions and you will be able to try many dishes. Our chef will choose what is special for you." To which I thought, "oh! Omakase, why didn't you just say so?" I am hugely grateful to the server who recommended this, it was incredible and at 950 rupees, how do you beat this? I actually tipped them again what I paid for the meal because I enjoyed it so much I didn't think I could leave without doing so. I started with the Kakori Kebab. This was AMAZING. It comes with two tiny parathas that were a little sweet and deliciously crisp and tender. On the table they also give you bowls of lime pickle and thinly sliced red onions with some kind of tan colored powdery thing on it. What is that tan powdery stuff? I have to admit, I normally do not like lime pickle, there is something in it that is too perfumey for my palate to like. Is it asafoetida? However, with this dish it was the perfect accompaniment. I ate several pieces of lime pickle with the kebab. They then brought the main meal of 3 curry type things - chicken, mutton, burnt garlic dahl butter naan mutton biryani in a claypot garlic raita Again that burnt garlic dahl was phenomenal and the garlic raita could have been a dish all on its own. It is meant to be spooned over the biryani but I was also dipping my naan into it and putting a little on the mutton. And this is where I get to the yoghurt. I've never really been a huge fan of yoghurt either... until now. The yoghurt you get in India can be INTENSELY sour, thick or thin, but above all the flavour that comes through. I just have never had yoghurt that can compare. Why is this? How is raita and or the thick yoghurt that is served on the side made that gives it that sour tang? Really an incredible dinner that was finished off with just as incredible dessert. And I don't usually like sweet things but the dishes they served a Dum Pukht were excellent. Sweetened saffron milk with a "cereal" like thing in it, honeyed cake that was a texture it would have as if it were steamed - this sat in lovely cream with cinnamon nuances and pistachio crumbled on top. If anyone tries to take you to the Japanese restaurant in the Hyatt run kicking and screaming away. My husband's colleagues wanted to go for a light meal and this was not only some of the worst Japanese food I've ever had but it also gave me food poisoning. I had a smoked salmon starter that gave me the beginning of a stomach bug that has yet to completely go away. If not for this, I may have braved Karim's but alas, it was not to be. (by the way, for anyone going to do the Golden Triangle, Agra also has an outpost of Karim's but I don't know what it is like) We left for Agra and Jaipur after that meal and stayed at Amar Villas and Raj Villas. I have newfound respect for the Oberoi hotel group, and if it were up to me, I'd never stay anywhere else. The hotels are beautiful and the staff absolutely wonderful. We had two meals at Amar Villas, the second was at their "Indian Cuisine" restaurant. It was another great meal, the highlight of which was the black dahl. Wonderful... almost chocolatey. On our final night before we came back to London, we stayed at the Trident in Gurgaon (Joint venture between Hilton and Oberoi, beautiiful new hotel) and ate at Masala Art. The meal was good if a notch below Bukhara and Dum Pukht, it is definitely something you should do if you are new to Indian cuisine. Watching dishes prepared in front of you on huge flat steel plate/wok type things was fun. And the variety of things they bring you is also excellent, the chefs are more than happy to answer all your questions and there is also a "roving bread maker" that has a little cart and will fry your bread at request. We also had lovely pistachio cream "popsicles" to finish our meal here. Bhelpuri, I read the Dalrymple which was fascinating, and I did a lot of shopping! Exquisitely colored and embroidered silk saris on one of the back streets of Chandi Chowk, I also bought a few at one of the state emporiums but the ones on chandi Chowk were of better quality, if a bit more expensive. I also went to Hauz Khas where I did more shopping. I still cannot get over the prices... silk shirts were less than £18 and some other embroidered shirts for less than 10 dollars! The embroidery on the quilts and quality of material they use for sweaters, pashminas, shirts is astonishing... I actually came home and wished I had bought more presents... as it was, we came back with a suitcase more than we left. I also shopped at Santushti, I'd say those are places you shouldn't miss in Delhi. I visited surana's, exquisite stuff, but unfortunately, I'd have no occasion to wear the elaborate, ornate jewel studded necklaces! I did buy some beautiful things at Gem Palace. The things they had there were a little more "subdued" and weareable for us commoners , but still exquisite - chandelier earrings, diamond hoops, aquamarine drop necklaces. It was an incredible trip. Thank you again for being my guides

NeroW, did you cook the dip, the chips, or both? More importantly, what did you have to drink with them? Chinese takeout has been mentioned, but why not do it yourself? I have a 14" stamped steel wok. I have a quart of nicely flavored cooking oil in the fridge. In the freezer are wrapped individual portions of beef, chicken, pork and shrimp. The oil reaches pass-through temp about the same time that the marinating protein is ready to go. After velveting, I stir-fry with some fresh veg(s) and condiments to finish, and plate with rice or noodles from the pantry. Easy, and so much tastier than 95% of takeout. PJ