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My familiy and I discovered this place after we refused to be subjected to the line and service abuse at Joe's Shanghai anymore. They also have decent soup dumplings!

Thank you for profiling this restaurant!! My family and I decided to try it when we were fed up with the lines at Joe's Shanghai. We walked across the street and found something ten times better - from the pickled vegetables and the great dan dan noodles to the cumin-heavy lamb, almost everything is delicious here.

I haven't tried the Sunburnt Cow or the Sunburnt Calf, but I have been to Bondi Road and their Australian-style burgers aren't bad, and they have a great all-you-can-eat oyster happy hour on Thursdays. They're all under one web site:

http://www.thesunburntcow.com/

I've also read a lot about Tuck Shop and their Australian pies.

http://www.tuckshopnyc.com/

I love my immersion blender and make sure my fingers are nowhere near the trigger when I'm trying to get out gunk from it. These stories are terrifying - "blood and chickpeas everywhere." Nyaaagh!

What about a mortar and pestle? I saw on a blog (maybe Chris Kimball's from America's Test Kitchen) that Jamie Oliver came out with this little jar and ceramic ball device that was supposed to perform the same tasks as a mortar and pestle, but there's less pounding and more shaking.

My Chinese family jokes about the "office lunch no-nos," which includes salted fish and shrimp sauce, but they were appalled when I told them I couldn't bring in salmon leftovers anymore because people were complaining about the smell. In order to keep eating fish leftovers ('cause I'm poor) without bothering people, I started sprinkling baking soda over smellier foods. It doesn't affect the taste or texture.

I was at Nick and Stef's steakhouse for a family dinner a couple of weeks ago and had some amazingly delicious golden raisin bread from Amy's Bread.

I'm always on the look out for Bulgarian products and Astoria, Queens is a gold mine. There are tons of stores there that focus on Eastern Europe, including Greece, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Russia. I usually manage to stumble upon the smaller ones with the giant buckets of feta, but Titan Foods (http://www.titanfood.com) is a great Greek supermarket and a one-stop shopping destination for me. There are a couple places in NJ you can go to and www.findbgfood.com is a helpful directory. Good luck!

Does a kid have enough time in the school day to eat this much food? I can't imagine being a busy mom and having enough things on hand to fill each compartment every day. Which makes sense cause I'm not a mom. :)

Don't you love how, when you bite into it, there's a satisfying snap?

I also have "Perfect Scoop" and I love all almost every recipe I've tried from it. Some of the recipes only call for whole milk and since Lactaid also makes a whole milk for the lactose intolerant, perhaps try using that instead of regular milk. Since it may be a little sweeter than normal milk, maybe gradually add the sugar so you can adjust the taste?

If you do an internet search, or try Lebovitz's blog, I think he does have a soy ice cream recipe floating around somewhere in the void of cyberspace...

In addition, you can always try throwing a pint of your favorite non-dairy yogurt into the machine and see what comes out! Just makes sure there is some fat in the yogurt.

If you go down to the ferry station in the harbor around rush hour, there's a guy who stands there with a little table full of stuff mussels and clams - it's delicious and very cheap! You hand him a coin and he squeezes some lemon juice on it, and it's delightful. I've also heard that some of the fishing boats in that area will grill fish and make fish sandwiches for you fresh on the boat.

There's a street near there (not exactly sure which one it is, but it's only about a 5 minute walk) that's not very big, but it's lined with cafeteria-style eateries where you take a tray and pick out different things you want to eat. My friend got a plate of plain rice once and it was one of the sweetest, most flavorful things I've ever eaten without any sort of sauce or accompaniment. There's also a lamb duner stand that's near there where a guy will slice off little pieces of roasted lamb meat and let you sample it - it's wonderful!

Have fun and don't forget to have fresh-squeezed orange juice! It's available every where and fantastic!

Oh gosh, I became lactose intolerant in college after barely having dairy for a year. It was horrendous, mostly because I would forget what kinds of foods have dairy in them. I once slurped down two portions of chicken alfredo without a thought and paid for it later. At one point, I was so lactose intolerant I couldn't even eat chocolate.

Buy Lactaid Pills at Costco - it's a steal!

When I lived in Eastern Europe, my host family canned EVERYTHING and I wouldn't mind doing the same and creating a megapantry! My favorite was the mixed vegetables - cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, and peppers all in one jar. I'd also like to try okra.