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I'm with shoneyjoe on this one. Keep the mayo, the peanut butter, the chopped up tuna scraps, the squiggles of wasabi aioli or what have you, the tempura crunchies and the five kinds of sashimi out of my roll.

In a restaurant I'd much rather eat a simply made nigiri with one kind of impeccably fresh fish with no other adornment but a tiny dab of wasabi and maybe some soy sauce.

When I'm making hand rolls at home, we usually just go for really homespun stuff like boiled shrimp, tamago, eel, cucumbers, and fish roe.

I really can't think of anything I wouldn't eat again and I've eaten some unconventional things (comparative to the standard Western diet anyway).

That hakarl sounds like a doozy though...

The premise is a pretty traditional Taiwanese dish, so yes, it can be done well at home.

Just braise some good, fatty pork belly in a base of soy sauce, anise, five spice, sugar, scallions and ginger until its meltingly tender. No nonsense about any fancy brines or what not.

Chill to let it set up and make it easier to slice.

Serve with chopped sweet/sour pickled Chinese mustard greens (I like to briefly stir fry the pickled greens with a bit of ginger, not enough to color the greens or to wither them, just enough to get rid of some of the raw astringency and to warm it through).

Sprinkle with peanuts crushed fine with some sugar and sandwich the whole thing in those bifurcated ssam buns (gua bao, find it in most Chinese markets).

@Alaina: That was fast! Thanks, guys! You guys are awesome!

Most slimy/gelatinous/gooey foods like meats, connective tissue, certain vegetables, seafood are AOK with me.

I like interesting textures in my food.

The only thing that I can't stand is if it's slimy AND has some other incompatible texture like...stringiness or grittiness.

I love them. They're always in the house. It's something we have to restock on the moment we are out of them (or we don't let ourselves ever run out of them)

They make a comforting and highly unhealthy, but mostly comforting quick meal.

With breakfast mantou though, I think I prefer fish or pork floss. Just rip the mantou into bite sized pieces and press the torn side down into the floss to pick up a generous, fuzzy layer and eat! Yum...it's got the same kind of sweet/savory flavor profile as lap cheong though.

Lemon slices muddled with honey for relief from just about any respiratory ailment.

It's about the only "medication" I will take for anything if I can help it.

I also like ginger for when I feel crummy, especially when its cold out since it warms you right up. Lots of ginger in good chicken soup = prevention of all kinds of sicknesses, IMO.

Yogurt for GI problems. Keeps the pipes running like clockwork.

Chocolate for emotional ailments!

Probably just seasoned flour and then into the oil.

You can also try dredging the heads in potato flour (not potato starch) and baking them until crisp.

Definitely Chinatown.

Why get bok choy at Whole Foods if you can saunter down a few blocks and get it for much much cheaper and at better quality?

At Whole Foods its a frou frou novelty, an afterthought.
In Chinatown, its what's for dinner and it better be good.

Wash, dry, layer liberally with salt and sliced chilis. Cover securely and weigh it down.

Check back on it after a few hours to overnight, drain and squeeze out extra liquid.

Season with a dash of soy sauce or dashi broth. Eat with rice.

Or you can stir fry it with a little bacon.

And I second the kimchi idea.

Cheese isn't typically a part of Chinese food, at least not in the food that people from the regions of China we're familiar with brought over.

A lot of East Asian adults are lactose intolerant, so that probably says something about the lack of dairy products in the traditional diet in that area.

Cheese and dairy doesn't seem prevalent in the cuisine of Eastern, Central and Southeastern China. Any cheese and dairy in these cuisines are results of Westernization and are more recent and "hip" additions to Chinese cuisine.

Like in Chinatown these days you can probably get cheese and seafood casserole-type dishes, shrimp and scallops baked with cheese and other such monstrosities, but they're really not traditional at all.

In places like Northern, Northwestern and Southwestern China where you see cultural crossovers with Mongolian, Slavic and Indian people, you're more likely to see dairy.

For example, Xinjiang (NW region in China, traditionally big on herding) cuisine is a lot heavier on meat, bread and yes, fermented dairy like cheese and yogurt than what we typically think as Chinese food.

Bandai also has a home-Pocky making machine and a sushi roll maker.

They're both colorful, plastic and make things that are dubiously edible.

I can't find a reason to cop to the added value/higher price of precut, prewash, pre chopped anything.

I saw in the market that they were selling plastic cups with four slices of apples in each. Four slices. I cannot imagine the extenuating circumstance that would make you need to buy four slices of apple in a plastic cup. If you're that lazy to cut an apple, eat it whole.

The only thing I can think of that we buy that's been sliced for us is winter melon or maybe half of a kabocha squash or something. And that's only because its more prudent just to buy what the family can eat before it rots rather than a whole gourd (whole winter melons are the size of car engines).

Just an idea for mangos. What I usually do is slice off the rounded sides, leaving the flattish pit surrounded by flesh in the middle.
The sides can be scored then flipped inside out and the cubes will pop right out of the skin with a little coaxing.
The middle is tougher. You can either just go to town gnawing on it and make a glorious mess or you can slice open the skin and peel it all off in one piece. Then take your knife and start carving off slices around the pit until there's little fruit clinging to the seed.