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To fuel up for the big exploration I hit many pastry shops. Arizmendi wasn't on a list but had a huge line so I jumped in. Good pizza and baguettes and a little cookie for the trail. I've been fans of Craftsmen and Wolves for a while so I stopped by for Chocolate Croissant and Hazelnut Financier. Then I grabbed a Berry tartlet. My take on C&W is that they are a great pastry shop but their design changes aren't necessarily an improvement on the classic design. Next door is Dandelion and got exactly what I expected - great chocolate Around the corner to Tartine. I'm pretty familiar with their work so I just grabbed a Fragniappe croissant. Went around the corner and fell in love with the BiRite grocery where I snagged cheeses and a Michael Mischer chocolate. Across the street to grab an ice cream: The Trifecta: Salted caramel, Brown sugar and Malted. Great and totally worth the wait in line. In Chinatown I had fun at the WokShop where I bought a flat bottomed cast iron wok. She also shared a recipe for mooncakes since I bought a few new molds for this year's festival. We lucked into a Szechuan place where we were asked to share a table with who turned out to be the chef's daughter so we got lots and lots of food. Last day we crossed over to East Bay for a lunch at Chez Panisse and a stroll through Berkeley Bowl. I was blown away by the produce which is what I bought but I coveted this...which I can't even get through my restaurant distributor. I tried to get knives at the hardware store in Little Japan but they were mostly factory knives - good knives but I wanted something special since they were a gift to myself for such a great year. I ended up at Bernal and got a sharpening lesson But here's what I ended up with - two very sharp Fujiwaras. On our last day we headed to Berkeley where we had lunch at Chez Panisse and then cruised the Berkeley Bowl. Amazing produce which is what I bought but what I coveted was this: What I missed - Castro Village Wines, Atelier Crenn. Hit Outlander and was very much not impressed although our server was fantastic.

I've never been happy with SV lobster. I know restaurants do it very successfully, but I haven't found a temp/time combo to my liking. I think it may be a problem to try to boil/simmer the tails all at once - even if you have two pots. The problem is that you probably don't have enough heat, unless you plan on putting the pots on a wok burner. Dropping 15-20 lobster tails into a pot of boiling water will drop the temp considerably, and depending on how much heat you have, may take a really long time to come back to temp - during which time, you have no idea how long it's been at what temperature. I think a more realistic way to do it would be to cook them in small batches in a pot. Since your tails are small, I can't recommend timing, but guessing, I'd simmer for about 5 min. then turn off the heat and let steep (covered) for another 10. Take out the tails and let them cool in the air, during which time you can bring the pot back to a boil and do it again for the next batch. You can then refrigerate the tails (well wrapped) for a day or so, and then either reheat on the grill, or all at once in a big pot of water for a minute or two. You can do these all at once because it doesn't really matter what temp the pot drops to - you're just reheating for a few minutes anyway.

I can think of a couple of things off the top of my head: When boiling sugar, I like to have an extra tall pot. That allows for the rise in size due to the boiling, and also helps keep the kitchen clean by trapping all the crystals that get tossed out of the sugar/water mass on the sides. When making rice, I adjust the amount of water used based on how deep the rice will be. (yes, I also adjust by type of rice and freshness) In other words, I use less water if I am making a lot of rice in a tall pan because the steam rises through the rice, helping to cook it. Whereas in a large flat pan the steam is released at a lower level. I prefer to use a tall cast iron pan to deep fry in, or my wok. The high sides catch grease and help keep the kitchen clean. I know that people will chime in and say to not do this, that steam is trapped and a regular cast iron skillet is better, but, I hate the splatters.

I would not use bitter melon for this unless you like it bitter. You will not be successful trying to eat something you need to mask. Instead take supplements - or dry it, powder it and fill your own capsules. There are countless plants with similar claims. Find another that works, and that you like, and use it. Right now this is a fad. I like it like as it is, but at first was a little shocked by the taste. Now I actually have cravings for it! I am going to follow this post to see if anyone has personal recipes. Right now I don't have faves (except the bitter melon with oyster sauce below) that I've tried out - just collecting them. I first had it in in Beef and Bittermelon with oyster sauce at a Chinese Restaurant. Very easy to do - probably don't need a recipe for this - just standard stir fry wok cooking techniques. I usually add onions and garlic, and a bit of ginger too. It works with other meats or no meats too. I don't pre-boil the bitter melon anymore unless I am going to freeze some too. There are numerous Indian dishes made with it so look for it there. Karela is one name used for it in India - but there are others and spellings are variable - but look for it under the language for which you are seeking a recipe. http://bittermelon.org/learn/commonnamesaroundtheglobe http://www.plantnames.unimelb.edu.au/Sorting/Momordica.html#charantia Here is a great link http://www.harekrsna.com/practice/prasadam/recipes/bitters.htm I'm not Hare Krisna, so I add onions and garlic to many of these recipes (they abstain from both) It's popular in SE Asia too - you can find lots of recipes if you search. The leaves and stems are used too. Not sure about the phytochemicals in these, but I've had a Philopino soup with them that was wonderful. I have not had an abundance of the greens to spare for this, but maybe I will this year. Seems they also use them in Thailand and Vietnam, and likely other SE Asian countries too. I wonder if it works with chocolate - complimenting the bitterness? Also wonder if you can sweeten it and make drinks with it? I am growing 4 varieties this year in my garden. It's a challenging crop for me as I have a short growing season. But it looks like I have plants with fruits on them as we speak so I will be successful this year. They are rampant growers, and are very easy in places with heat (humidity and wet conditions don't bother them either compared with others in the squash family). Evergreen seeds is a good source of early varieties. Chip the seed a little and they will come up easily once the soil is warm. They don't like being transplanted so I just put them in the ground with black plastic mulch and a row cover to keep things warm and cozy. The row cover comes off when the plants start to sprawl and temps get in the 90's.

Stuffed Bitter Melon with Shiitake Mushrooms and Lean Pork /481 Here's mine. These will be browned in oil in the wok, then steamed on top of the rice in the rice cooker.

Sounds like you had a hell of a time! I absolutely love super hot wok cooking, better than fireworks. And when you manage to successfully stir-fry your food at super high heat without burning your foods (and yourself) the flavor is incomparable. Your pan was probably so hot that there was probably some trapped air or water beneath the starch marinade and the rapid expansion due to heat caused the explosion. Did the oil light on fire too? For super hot wok cooking like this, I would recommend parboiling or precooking everything before hand so that the ingredients all cook at the same time. Everything goes so fast that you will end up burning everything if you just add raw ingredients and expect them to cook through. . As as you experienced, adding the raw meat with marinade can result in some hazards. The point of the wok that is this hot is to provide rapid caramelization and intensify release of aromas, not necessarily to cook all the way through. For meats that are marinaded in starches I like "velveting" them beforehand to precook them and to make sure the starches in the marinade don't stick and burn to the pan. Shallow frying some ingredients at lower temps beforehand can help with the "drying" process so the outside isn't too wet when it touches the hot wok.

liuzhou Thank you for pointing that out about using the sesame at the end. I've been following what I learned from a book, "The Wok and the Way" and that was what was suggested. I'm glad you brought this up. By annology, here in Appalachia when we make Apple Butter we only add the Oil of Cinnamon right at the end of the process before canning it in glass jars. Otherwise it will evaborate out of the Apple Butter and be wasted.

I know it's typical to include the starch in the marinade, but I would try doing it differently - marinate wihtout the starch, drain, then a dusting of starch just before it hits the wok...

Nope So my marinade was soy sauce, chinkiang vinegar, and potato starch, with a bit of cooking oil, all mixed up at once, as I've always done and always see recipes for. I suppose I could consciously drain it next time. As for coating in starch, do you mean before it hits the wok, or as part of the marinade as I did?

I'd imagine it was just too wet. When a lot of liquid (trapped underneath the chicken) is rapidly heated, the steam produced can be very powerful. Next time, I'd try draining the marinade really well, then maybe a light coating of starch (rice flour, wondra, etc.) to absorb the excess liquid. I've watched a lot of cooking over those ridiculously hot woks in Thailand - the kind where there's a fan underneath the charcoal pot, and it looks like a flame thrower is underneath the wok. Most things that go in there seem pretty dry - I can't remember anything dripping wet, until the sauce goes in, but by that time, the wok is cooled by all the other ingredients already in it.

I've been using a wok for all my adult life and am pretty good at it, I'm just not used to it at such intense levels of heat.

Just a word about cooking with a Wok. The principle is to be able to use just enough heating fuel to quickly cook the meal. That was why the Wok was invented. There wasn't much fuel and it was expensive so the cook had everything laid ot in advance in order of the time it took to cook. Once the Wok was heated, peanut oil would be swirled around the side and possibly some sesame oil to help flavor it. Then in would go the items like Green Peppers, Onions, carrots, meat and later celery, bok choy, bean sprouts, show peas and whateve only needed to get hot with the few minutes of heating fuel you had. The Wok is a very efficient utensil. It doesn't require much fuel. If you were using a 12 inch Wok, I'd say 10 to 15 glowing red briquettes would more than be enough to prepare your meal. You may even get by with eight briquettes. I learned to cook in a Wok years ago. Today I own about four of them. It started in school days when my Grandmother bought one somewhere and thought she would learn to cook Chinese. She was clueless and successless as well. Next tme I was by there she had it filled with dirt on the patio and flowers growing in it. So at the end of the season I asked her for it and cleaned it up and learned to use it. It is a whole different way to go about cooking let me assure you.

So the other day I bought one of those Thai grills/charcoal wok stoves, for getting serious damn heat outdoors when stir frying. Loaded it up with hot charcoal tonight and sure enough it got HOT. So hot that when I added my marinaded chicken cubes, a portion of chicken literally exploded out of the wok and headed straight for me, burning my arm in the process. What didn't hit my arm travelled a good 5 feet or so. I guess maybe the chicken was too wet? Is one not supposed to marinade meat when dealing with such high temperatures? I imagine it still wasn't as hot as a commercial wok range, but then also I'm using a 14" wok, as opposed to a much larger one typical for such a high-heat application. Basically, I got this grill in part to get searing heat and super wok hei, which I achieved...so how do I prevent further injury?

How about some simple stir-fries? (You don't need a wok) Slice up the chicken breast(s), against the grain of course. Something simple then might be: hot oil in frying pan, chopped smashed garlic, fresh ginger sliced or julienned or chopped, chicken pieces, salt, vegetable of your choice suitable for a stir-fry (try celery, green or red bell-type peppers or poblano type etc,** mushrooms - even the standard button mushrooms work, semi-leafy vegetables with slightly harder stems (think kai lan), or even onions chopped into large pieces) cooking the veggies till they are still crunchy (that includes the mushrooms and onions) (If your family does not like crunchy vegetables in a cooked dish then leave out the vegetables altogether) Add some cut-up hot chillies in if you like. A splash of soy sauce if desired. Or try fistfuls of trimmed, washed basil (yes, basil) in large-ish pieces (tender stems included if they are tender) tossed in right before the end...Thai basil would be best for this but the standard Italian/Western type works fine too. Some cooking wine or cooking sake could also be added (except with the basil - I'd leave it out in that case; ditto soy sauce, that would clash w/ the Italian basil IMO) and the chicken slices could be pre-marinated before it hits the frying pan. Try chicken stir-fried w/ cucumbers and a fresh chilli – Hakka style. Here's a recipe by the author of "The Hakka Cookbook" using specifically skinless boneless chicken breasts. (One needs to "join" the site to see the video but the recipe and instructions are visible (click on the button for the details - look on the webpage) without "joining") How about "poaching" or steeping the chicken breast(s) in gingered hot water? This is similar to how Hainanese chicken or "white cut chicken" is done, except that just the breasts instead of the whole chicken is "steeped/poached". Smash some ginger, add to a pot of water (enough to cover the breasts plus maybe an inch more), bring to a boil, add the breasts in, return to a simmer/boil and shut off the heat; let the chicken sit in the hot water (salted if desired) till "just" cooked (say, around 15-20 minutes) (cut to test or use a meat thermometer), retrieve from the pot, plunge into cold water, retrieve, slice up (against the grain) and eat with something like ginger-scallion sauce with or without added chopped garlic as well, or with a chilli sauce in the SE Asian style. These are just a few simple suggestions; the variations and other dishes are many, including ones that are more involved. Do you have access to tamarind, galangal, lemongrass, E/SE Asian-style bean paste(s) or SE Asian-style shrimp paste(s)? If so the possibilities expand, especially with curries. ** ETA: Especially with peppers, I would tend to toss in fermented black beans into the stir-fry - but you may not have this.

Rice cooker here as well. I still have one but haven't used it in so long now that I should just throw it or give it away. I 'think' it probably still works. But, like you, Anna, my electric grill/press, has been put away for ages too. My electric wok has been out in its place for a while now. I really need to get my island expanded/reconfigured - and extra counter space added along the wall. I also have a plan for a way to line up all my favorite electric appliances on the new counter and build a shelf over top (well above the tallest appliance) with some kind of door(s) to hide them all along that extra wall where the new counter will be (like one ~12" long giant appliance 'garage' with electrical outlets near each one so I don't have to actually move the appliances to use them). Of course, even with those changes, due primarily to size constraints, the new freeze-drier and my large chamber vac machine will stay on utility carts. My Vita-mix is a real nuisance to use right now - so I don't for the most part. It is on the counter in full sight but is too tall to use in its place and I have to remove the jar part to get it out far enough to use.

Today's thrift-store haul. The small wok I visualize as a serving dish not a cooking vessel.

I've been taking off the disc diffuser on my burner for the last year since with the disc most of the heat goes to the sides. But I always stir-fry in my Lodge cast iron wok. There is practically no point in stir-frying indoors with a regular wok, you might as well use a regular skillet.

Same impression here, the idea is good but the average Gas Stove lacks of BTU, the flame in the video looks anemic better to buy a proper outdoor wok burner

I find that life gets much easier when I have my staples around. To make it possible, I need to have always some stock around. At the moment I have beef and chicken stock in the fridge. I also have always some tomato sauce and bolognese ragu' in the freezer. Also home made buns and often I have a crepes in the fridge. My children like soups, especially clear soups and if I have a good beef stock ready, it takes only minutes to put together (broken angel hair pasta, cooked 2 minutes in water, or rice noodles). Or I often make minestrone (without pasta or rice, that I add to it only to the quantity we are eating, don't like overcooked pasta or rice). My children don't like veloute soups and it's a pity. I try to cook a roast (or a stew) that is served as it is for one or two meals at most and then becomes croquettes. I often make more risotto than we would eat, so I add one egg and with the ice cream scoop I make rice cakes pan fry and those reheat quite well. Often I buy pork loin (we don't eat a lot of chicken) and do breaded cutlets in the morning and I keep in the fridge to cook as needed. Always have some vegetables washed and ready to cook. They usually takes minutes with the wok or pressure cooker. This thinking is useful also for me to recap my strategies. Soups ready with just pasta/rice to add Roast or stew ready Meat/vegetable croquettes, rice cakes ready in the fridge just to saute' Boiled eggs in the fridge Vegetables: crudites ready to eat or vegetables already washed and cut. Pickled vegetable with rice and sugar, Asian style My home make buns for hot dog for when I'm stressed. Or whole foods naans for a cheat quick pizza.

Not blanched, just stir fried in the wok with oil, chili peppers and garlic. Stir fry on high until the wilt slightly, add a little bit of water, lower and steam cover for a couple of minutes. I tried with outer greener leaves (the one people usually discard), inner paler and I like much better the outer leaves because they are more flavorful. Definitely one of my best recent discoveries. I keep the hearts for shaving in salads or saute' whole.

Andie, I do know of one very specialized use for the electric wok: keeping boiled sugar warm so that you can use a pot of it in liquid form. -Like the caramel sugar needed for a croquembouche, gateau st honore, or the sugar for making a big batch of spun sugar, or maybe caramel sugar nut spikes. I actually picked one of these up cheap at a thrift shop when I was in culinary school just for sugar work. It works well and the shape is economical in that as you use the sugar up, the pool becomes smaller and less winds up wasted on the sides. That said, you need to make sugar showpieces, croquembouche, nut spikes, or spun sugar every once in a while to justify the owning the wok.

Earlier this morning I came across another unwanted, unworkable appliance. An electric wok, made by West Bend which NEVER got hot enough for stir-fry or any other suggested use. I can't recall if I bought it or it was a gift. Useless.

Anna - Perhaps we need another thread about appliances we bought because we thought we could not live without them for whatever reason but actually never used them or used them minimally. My list there would look a lot like Lindag's - and include, in particular, a SodaStream and Keurig bought for a ONE night visit by my daughter (she never used them at all. I don't drink pop or even soda water. I tried the Keurig a couple of times and now need to think of someone to give it to) - and then there was a breadmaker someone gave me - never used - bread was always the ONE thing that I think should always be made by hand - literally (with the exception of the cinnamon rolls I make in the Thermomix) - it was given away pronto. (PS .. Anna - you posted about your Keurig while I was still writing this .. edited to say - PM me your address and when I get home I will be thrilled to mail you mine!) However, I did use the rice cooker for years and loved it - and it still works, I think .. I am just not sure where it is any more and I am not sure why I don't use it any more either - other than 'out of sight, out of mind' perhaps, or maybe that I am not cooking for a family either any more. But, the Breville grill/press machine IS currently used extensively for weeks at a time I find but due to size and space constraints, it trades places with the electric wok according to my whims. While it is in storage, I use my Staub grillpan on the stove. If I had a Jenn-air grill in NS (as I do in NC), I may never have even bought or used either the Breville or the grillpan - but I love them all. I also have had several food processors. The first was a Cuisinart DLC-7 Pro given to me by my brother in the early 1980s I think - it was in every day use for at least 25 years, and the motor still works and I still have it but the bowl cracked and needs to be replaced so I stupidly bought a newer version which was garbage and was used about 3 or 4 times - I won't bother to move it up north - it will be junked or given away because I have now gone without a food processor for several years and found I really don't need it any more. Oh and then there is the espresso machine I used to use every day and now it too is stored away - for special occasions that rarely seem to arise. Times change, needs and interests change. I don't regret most of my 'gadget' purchases over the years. Had fun with (most of) them for a while. What is still out on my counter and still very much in use? My Thermomix. What is out on my counter or within easy reach and is used very rarely? My Vitamix, my two Kitchen Aid stand mixers (one is on the floor because I can't figure out where to store it), and a couple of crockpots (heaven knows why I don't use them - just never occurs to me and they are in plain sight). What is in easy reach in a drawer and still gets used a fair bit? My old hand mixer. What now sees occasional use, is still loved, and has been used extensively in the past, but, is now in the closet? My Excalibur dehydrator - which may find itself rather lonely when I get the new FD set up. It still works and will not be given away in my lifetime though. The thing is .. I don't NEED any of the electrical kitchen gadgets I have (they are really mere 'toys' for grownups). I used to make everything by hand/the old fashioned way - and still can/do if I am too lazy to haul the modern, heavy 'time and step saving' equipment out of its hiding place, set it up, plug it in, remember how to use it, and wash it all afterward.

I rarely use nonstick, so don't know much about what's available. I OCCASIONALLY use a NS pan for eggs, but more often than not use my carbon steel wok. My personal pots and pans are: 14" CS wok, 12" Lodge pan that I've smoothed down and seasoned with much love and care, and a 5ish quart Lodge enameled Dutch oven (or "pot" as I call it). However - nonstick is CRUCIAL for one absolutely essential item in my repertoire: Iraqi and Iranian style rice, with hakkaka/tadig, the rice crust that forms at the bottom of the pot. Anything not nonstick is a recipe for disaster, and to prevent the rice from scorching and to keep it cooking evenly, a thick pot is desired, at least at the bottom. The last few years I've been cooking at my parents' house using their pots (some ancient unlabeled 1980s stuff, very heavy and thick), or in previous, rental kitchens on sub-optimal cooking vessels. Now that I have my own condo, I'm looking for 2 rice-worthy pots, one large enough to cook, say 2 cups of rice (let's say 2-3 quarts), and the other for more (5-ish quarts). I guess the small one would be some kind of saucepan, and the other vaguely dutch oven-y in shape, or resembling a scaled down stock pot. Calphalon seems make a few items that sound about right, but I don't know how thick-walled their stuff is. What other makers are out there?

Ok, but the dish calls for crispy thin chicken with a lightly breaded crust with breading bits. Not going to get those results in a pan. Maybe a super hot wok with oil, but thats pretty much the same thing as deep frying.