Am I the only one who always cooks brown rice with chicken stock? If IÂm in a hurry  I throw it into the rice cooker  perfect every time. Otherwise, I use this recipe: Brown Rice Pilaf 55 min : 5 min prep SERVES 4 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 tbl butter 1 small yellow onion, chopped 3 garlic cloves, minced 1 cup long grain brown rice (not instant) 1/2 cup Vermicelli (check Mexican isle - El Guapo Pasta) 2 1/2 cups fat-free low-sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth salt & pepper, to taste 1. Heat oil & butter over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook, stirring, until onion is golden, about 5 minutes. 2. Add garlic, rice, and spaghetti and sauté for 1 minute. 3. Add broth, and season with salt and pepper to taste; bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to low. 4. Simmer until rice is tender and most of the liquid is absorbed, about 45 minutes. Fluff with fork.

FOAS, the last batch of my char siu bao I used a recipe from a book "Dim Sum, The Art of Chinese Tea Lunch" by Ellen Leong Blonder. When I first saw the book I was not impressed with the cover and presentation. It has that kind of humble appearance that doesn't attract one's attention immediately. After reading the book and trying out a couple of recipes, I became very impressed. As always, I modified her recipes for my own convenience. This is what I did for a bao dough: Make a sponge: 2 tsp active dry yeast 1 C lukewarm water 1/2 C sugar 1-1/2 C cake flour (I used part unbleached** and part cornstarch to make 1-1/2 C of flour mix) The recipe suggested proofing the yeast in warm water for 10 minutes prior to making the sponge, but I skipped this part. I knew my yeast was good so no need to do that. I simply added everything together, stir to smooth, let sit in a warm, draft-free place for an hour. To make the dough: 1/2 tsp salt 1 T rice vinegar (I used white vinegar) 2 C cake flour (once again, I used unbleached**/cornstarch mix), plus about 1/4 C for dusting the board 1 T baking powder 1/4 tsp baking soda (I skipped this) 1 TBSP vegetable shortening (Traditional Chinese buns used lard; I had some so I used it) ** If you don't want yellow-ish buns, you may want to use AP flour instead of unbleached. Even AP flour won't give you that bright white Chinese buns we see in restaurants, but AP flour definitely will produce whiter color than unbleached. For very white buns, you will need to use special flour i.e. Hong Kong flour, for the best results.** Stir the salt and vinegar into the sponge starter. In another bowl, sift together the 2 C cake flour (or the flour mix), baking powder, and baking soda (none for me). Stir the flour mixture into the yeast mixture. When combined, add the shortening (lard) and work it in with your fingers. The dough will become a sticky, somewhat shaggy mass. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured board and knead it for about 15 minutes, or until smooth, adding flour as necessary. Grease a clean, large bowl with a little shortening, place the dough in the bowl, and cover it with a damp cloth or plastic wrap. Let it rise in a warm, draft-free place for 1 hour. (If you have made a bao filling ahead and refrigerated it, take it out now to let it come back to room temperature.) Lightly punch the dough down, and then proceed to shape the dough for wrapping. This recipe will yield 18 large or 24 medium buns, depends on the size you want. Placed wrapped buns on wax paper (2-3 inch squares), at least 1" apart, in steamer (I used bamboo) and let rise for 30 minutes. Bring the water in the steamer to a boil over high heat. Steam a single tier of buns at a time (I used two tiers together), over high heat for 12 (15 for me) minutes. Repeat 2 or 3 batches, if you steam one tier at a time, until all buns are steamed. Serve hot. I've built a unbleached flour sourdough starter last week and this morning it looked ready. I am playing with it now to see if I can make sourdough char siu bao with unbleached/rice flour. So far the dough looks very soupy. I am not going to add more flour until the dough has risen to double. If in four hours the dough is still spongy I will add more flour into it. Since this is sourdough, it will take 7-8 hours to get the dough ready. Probably won't know the outcomes until tonight. Even if this doesn't work out, I will learn something from the experiment and have fun with it. Keep smiling! Cheers! Al

Thanks everyone. Rice paper is great. It is a good way to use up all your leftovers in the fridge. Season the leftovers a little, wrap them in rice paper in an interesting way, everyone will feel that they are exotic gourmet treats. Annie, rice paper cooked or fried will not be slimy, no more so then ravioli. Cathy, try the brush-on water technique, may be that would make the rice paper easier to handle. dcarch

Yes, get the Pho! We go out for Vietnamese soup often. Claude and I love it and all our kids do too. It's delicious! I recommend it with rare beef (served in very thin slices). You can get the pho with tripe and/or beef balls (which are kind of rubbery), but I prefer without. Claude's always more adventurous than me. With the soup you'll get a plate of bean sprouts on the side that you can add if you want, and there's always Hoisin sauce and hot chili sauce on the table that you can add if you like. Vermicelli with barbecued chicken and a spring roll is another of my favourites. It usually has peanuts in it, too. Whatever you get, Glenda, ENJOY!