After a recent trip to Beijing, I returned home to a request for 北京酸奶. Funny. No one mentioned that the yogurt tasted that great when we were over there or else I would have paid more attention. Anyways, 北京酸奶 is more of a drinking through a straw instead of an eating with a spoon type of yogurt. I did find a 北京酸奶 maker in the United States. Thank you Google! So far, I have only found their products in Northern California at Taste Good Beijing Cuisine in Milpitas. Why isn’t this being sold at 99 Ranch?

Anyways, my attempts at home-made yogurt are still works in progress.

First, heat up some milk until it just reaches a boil. For my first few attempts, I started off with 2 cups of whole milk just to make sure I was headed in the right direction. You don’t want to end up wasting a lot of milk if the recipe or technique is off.

Next, I pour the milk into a mixing bowl and cool the milk in an ice bath until it hits 115° F. Basically, the smaller mixing bowl containing the warm milk sits in a larger mixing bowl containing an ice/water mix.

Once the yogurt hits the target temperature, I add in the yogurt starter with a milk:yogurt ratio of 8:1, and whisk till smooth. Next time, I might run the batch through a blender to see if the end product will be even smoother.

At this point, I ladle the yogurt mixture into individual ceramic cups (which are really leftover French yogurt containers) and place them in the oven at 100° F for six hours. After six hours, place the containers in the refrigerator to cool.

If you do not sweeten the yogurt, it comes out pretty tart. I’ve added maple syrup to the yogurt at the time of consumption and that was pretty tasty. I’ve also added sugar (2 tsps per 2 cups of milk) while heating the milk and that works as well.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

My favorite fish used to be Chilean Seabass. However, because of concerns over sustainability and mercury poisoning, I have been avoiding that delicious dish for quite a few years now. The great thing about the Chilean Seabass was that it was such a forgiving fish. Even if you slightly overcooked it, it remained juicy instead of instantly drying out.

During a recent trek to the local farmers market, I found some whole butterfish chilling in the ice bins. At about $5.00 per pound, these fresh butterfish were a deal. I have tried them steamed, deep fried and topped with home-made sweet and sour sauce, breaded with panko and served as butterfish sliders, and also broiled in a miso marinade. Since butterfish is just as forgiving to the imprecise cook as Chilean Seabass, we instantly bonded. My type of fish. However, my local farmers market comes but once a week unless I was willing to travel to different farmers markets just to procure fresh fish. I don’t have that kind of time. So, to satisfy that midweek seafood craving, I discovered the retail counter at The Fish Market. At first, The Fish Market confused me since they marketed butterfish as sablefish. But, over time, I recognized that these were interchangeable names. Butterfish may also be sold as black cod. All the same good stuff. The Fish Market sells fillets, instead of whole fish. The price used to be around $15.00 per pound, but lately had climbed to over $20.00 per pound. The butterfish is really fresh at The Fish Market. They have also thoroughly deboned the fish. When I want to make my panko-breaded butterfish sliders, I love working with the butterfish from The Fish Market because I don’t have to hunt for hidden fish bones. I have also found butterfish at Whole Foods. Again, sold as black cod or sable fish. Their fillets are not as thoroughly deboned as the ones from The Fish Market. Makes no difference if I am steaming or broiling the fish. After cooking the fish, the fish bones are really easy to spot and remove. However, for the sliders, working with deboned butterfish fillets just saves a lot of time. Price wise, Whole Foods was originally a bit more expensive than The Fish Market. However, after the Fish Market price increase, Whole Foods inched up to second place.

Anyways, broiling butterfish cannot be any easier. Previously, I was using the Grilled Miso-Crusted Butterfish with Three Caviars and Avocado recipe from the Roy’s Feasts from Hawaii cookbook. Of course, without the caviar, avocado and a few other ingredients. Really hard to stock for a Chinese, Japanese and Western kitchen. Anyways, I found a simpler recipe for Misoyaki Butterfish at Feeding My Ohana. The end result was fairly similar. I probably will have to create two marinades and run a taste test when I’m feeling more ambitious.

The lovely butterfish from Whole Foods after sleeping all night in the miso marinade.

Misoyaki Butterfish after about six minutes under the broiler. The timing in the oven is key. You have to watch the broiler closely so that the miso marinade on the fish gets caramelized, but not burnt. The crisp miso crust is the tastiest part of the fish.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Thank goodness for the photo because I could not read the Chinese and the English was utterly incomprehensible. At first, I thought the dish was named after a Chinese senator named Bao Zhikou. It could be possible, much like how Dongpo Pork 东坡肉 bears the name of 苏东坡.

From the photo, the pièce de résistance appears to be sea cucumber and Google Translate confirms my suspicions with an obtuse translation of Bao Zhi buckle Sea Cucumber.

The better translation will interpret 鲍 as abalone and 汁 as sauce. As for 扣, Google Translate offers the following possibilities. As a noun, 扣 may mean button, discount, knot or ouch. In this context, none of these are correct. As a verb, Google Translate offers buckle, button, deduct, button up, pull, detain, fasten, arrest, place, press, or take into custody. These are all wrong as well. My best guess is that 扣辽参 means steamed sea cucumber because 梅菜扣肉, which is a favorite dish, is preserved vegetables with steamed pork. So, my translation would be Sea Cucumber in Abalone Sauce.

So, where does distant senate come from? Well, 辽 could mean distant or faraway as an adjective. Senate, according to Google, is 参议院, so there you have it.

As for the related menu items, 清炖辽参 could be translated to Sea Cucumber is Clear Broth. I can see how “boils in its own broth without soy sauce” would be one way to translate clear broth. Google translates 金米烩辽参 to Golden Rice Braised Sea Cucumber. Of course, 金米 literally means Golden Rice; however, a closer translation may be available. I just haven’t found it yet. I am 100% sure that Bao Zhikou and Jin Mihui do not refer to competing senators with dishes named after them.

Related posts:

1. 醬肉煎包 The restaurant translated this to “The soy-sauce cooked pork fries...
2. 木瓜炖雪蛤 Not sure how 木瓜炖雪蛤 ended up as The Chinese Flowering...
3. 西红柿鸡蛋面 The restaurant translated this as tomato egg surface. Not sure...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Not sure how 木瓜炖雪蛤 ended up as The Chinese Flowering Quince Cooks the Snow Clam Synopsis. As far as I know, 木瓜 is papaya, not the Chinese Flowering Quince. I can see how 雪 which means snow and 蛤 which means clam ended up together as snow clam, but where did synopsis come from?

Google Translate says 木瓜炖雪蛤 means Papaya Stew Hasma. I agree with the Papaya and Stew part, but I have never heard of Hasma. Wikipedia reports that Hasma is a Chinese dessert ingredient made from the dried fallopian tubes of true frogs. Ugh, on second thought, Snow Clam Synopsis sounds perfectly delicious. Talk about a missed translation. Big difference between clams and frog fallopian tubes.

As for the 木瓜, I had to reverse search the Chinese Quince on Wikipedia and it turns out that Chinese Quinces and Papayas are both referred to as 木瓜. However, based on the photo with the reddish orange fruit with green flecks, I’m betting that I’m seeing a papaya and not a Chinese flowering quince. I think Google Translate wins this round.

Related posts:

1. Old Mandarin Islamic 清真老北京 I first heard of Old Mandarin Islamic through the Check,...
2. 西红柿鸡蛋面 The restaurant translated this as tomato egg surface. Not sure...
3. 醬肉煎包 The restaurant translated this to “The soy-sauce cooked pork fries...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Having a knife sharpener is the most impractical of practical kitchen appliances. You cannot prepare food without a sharp knife. From mincing to chopping to slicing to dicing, having a sharp knife makes these essential kitchen tasks an absolute joy.

So, after unboxing the Chef’s Choice 1520 AngleSelect Diamond Home Electric Knife Sharpener, I proceeded to sharpen all the dull knives in both of our knife sets. After dutifully performing its task, I summarily dismissed the knife sharpener to its storage closet. Talk about no reward for a job well done. But, why waste counter space for an appliance that will not be used again for a few months? So, the knife sharpener was feeling a little lonely and wanted some sun, so I started asking around for knives to sharpen and boy did I get a challenge. I really should have taken a before and after pic.

This time, I had a Chinese cleaver with a prominent nick. Wow. I knew this one was going to be a challenge. I re-read the instruction manual. Even though China is part of Asia, the manual indicated that Chinese cleavers should be sharpened as American/European style knives instead of Asian-style knives. After submitting the knife to a complete honing and polishing cycle, it was perfectly sharp. The nick was diminished, but still noticeable so I took the knife through a second honing and polishing cycle. This time, the nick disappeared. Success. I knew the Chef’s Choice Electric Knife Sharpener could put a sharp edge back on the knife, but wasn’t entirely sure about the nick. However, this worthy kitchen appliance passed the test. Good job. Not back in the storage closet you go.

Related posts:

1. Chef’s Choice 1520 AngleSelect Diamond Hone Electric Knife Sharpener I recently purchased a Chef’s Choice 1520 AngleSelect Diamond Hone...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I spotted the following note on the box of oranges I brought home from Costco:

Treated to maintain freshness in transport with one or more of the following Thiabendazole, Imazalil and coated with food grade natural resins and/or vegetable wax.

At Costco, the warning isn’t too helpful unless you know what those unpronounceable chemicals do or you have access to Wikipedia. If the warning just indicated that the two chemicals were fungicides, that would have made the warning 100% more informative.

Related posts:

1. Website Banned in China Whenever I read about the Great Firewall of China, I...
2. Yamaha Piano Special Event at Costco (2010) The Mountain View Costco hosted another Yamaha piano special event...
3. Pages: You Need a Newer Version of Pages to Open This Document Today, a co-worker asked if I could open .pages document....

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I recently purchased a Chef’s Choice 1520 AngleSelect Diamond Hone Electric Knife Sharpener because some kitchen knives were flunking the ripe tomato test. Basically, if a knife could not cleanly slice through a ripe tomato, which presents the dual challenge of a moderately tough skin with a mushy interior, then it flunks the ripe tomato test.

Quite a few knives flunked the test. At the top of the tomato photo, some knives were only able to leave an indentation. After I ran my knives through the sharpener, they were all able to slice through the poor tomato. Chef’s Choice certainly had cheaper knife sharpeners available, but I needed the 15/20 feature, which lets it sharpen both Asian knives, like a Santoku, as well as European knives.

The sharpener has six slots: two to hone each side of an Asian-style knife, two to hone each side of an American/European-style knife, and two to polish each side of a knife.

Related posts:

1. 西红柿鸡蛋面 The restaurant translated this as tomato egg surface. Not sure...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The restaurant translated this as tomato egg surface. Not sure how the relatively easier 面 ended up as surface. I would have expected the trickier 西红柿 to be mistranslated as western red persimmon. Google Translate offers the better translation of tomato and egg noodles.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The restaurant translated this to “The soy-sauce cooked pork fries the package.” Google Translate offers a translation of Sauce 煎包. Not particularly helpful. If I separate the words into 醬肉 煎 包, Google Translate then offers Sauce Fried package. I think Pan-Fried Beef or Pork Bun would be the better translation.

Related posts:

1. Little Sheep Hot Pot Soup Base Previously, I had purchased Little Sheep Hot Pot Soup Base...
2. Little Sheep Shabu Shabu Last night, I used my remaining package of Little Sheep...
3. Little Sheep Hot Pot Soup Base 小肥羊火锅底料 Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot is one of my favorite...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I first heard of Old Mandarin Islamic through the Check, Please! Bay Area television show on KQED. You can view that episode on the KQED website or download the free episode from iTunes. Anyways, I finally made my way to San Francisco this past weekend for a taste test and ended up enjoying a feast at Old Mandarin Islamic.

First off, I’ve been to many Chinese-Islamic restaurants in the Bay Area and in Los Angeles. Usually, I opt for the noodles and sesame bread。 However, based on my recent re-discovered fondness for hot pot, we ended up with hot pot and a bunch of other dishes.

As you can see, the Old Mandarin Islamic hot pot is quite different from the Little Sheep Mongolian hot pot. Besides the different cooking vessels, the Old Mandarin Islamic broth was much clearer and lacked the distinct medicinal taste of the broth from Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot. Since the Old Mandarin Islamic meat coming out of the broth was not as strongly flavored, the restaurant provided some dipping sauces.

The lamb from Old Mandarin Islamic is as tender and paper thin as the one from Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot. However, if you compare the photos, the Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot lamb appears a bit more fatty. Besides the hot pot, we also tried the 生煎包, the cumin beef, and a vinegary napa cabbage dish. I really should have picked up the take-out menu so I could be more precise with the names of the dishes.

The real stand-out dish was the lamb stew. I cannot recall the English or Chinese name, but this stew had a rich, savory sauce with the most tender pieces of bone-on lamb I have ever tasted. I would return to the restaurant for this dish alone. It was that good.

Related posts:

1. Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot in Los Angeles I love Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot. So, during a...
2. Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot & Grill – San Mateo, CA Little Sheep is too popular. I knew that we were...
3. Little Sheep Hot Pot Soup Base 小肥羊火锅底料 Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot is one of my favorite...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.