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As for chilling onions... keeping them in the fridge doesn't work for me.
What does work is putting them in the freezer for about 10 minutes right before chopping. I usually quarter, peel and rinse the onion before freezing. This way, it doesn't defrost before you're done cutting the whole thing. It's the only thing I've found that works. I'm pretty sensitive to it, too.

"I've never harmed an onion, so why should they make me cry?"

During college, one of the dining halls had turkey burgers at the grill station. Since they made fewer of them, and you could request them grilled right away, they tended to be less dried out than the regular burgers. They were rather solid, but I ate them often on top of large dinner salads. I havent had too many great turkey burgers, but those were pretty decent. Plus, i had a good option and could stay away from going way overboard with the junky stuff in the dining hall.

@ChefR0bert, I think the point of the trap IS to limit your smashing. Then you end up thoroughly smashing that one section of potato first before moving onto a new spot. When you smash with a normal zig-zag thingy, it tends to get more haphazard and parts of the pot will get overmashed while others stay too chunky Am I making any sense?
That being said, I'd like to see this gadget in action before buying it. Sounds a bit too much like one of those informercial things. (like the slapchot)

lamb stewed the chinese way.. with daikons, peppercorns and star anise. probably not in this book.. but it was definitely the first thing that came to mind.

@nataliepo, mmm that does sound wonderful. Thanks for the recommendation! I'll remember that.

However, I think I should clarify. I'm looking to buy an entire cheesecake for a friend's birthday dinner. So i'm looking for a bakery rather than a restaurant.

i'm a big fan of lunch in a box. lots of fun!

*raises hand* my house has day lily buds, chinkiang vinegar and wood ear fungus. gotta love chinese moms. :]
Last time i made hot and sour soup, it was wonderful. I had all sorts of mushrooms/fungi (shiitake, wood ear, cloud ear, golden, king oyster) in the house. plus the lily buds, a can of bamboo shoots, dried-from-the-garden thai chilis, white pepper. So good.
I didnt add an egg, but it the pot was already so full, i didnt even think of it. :P
I should make more tonight!

hmmm... the most "off-the-radar" spot i can think of it Woorijip in K-town. Cheap food, either packed and ready to go or from the steam table. A great lunch place, considering that most of the other options in the area are expensive, fast-food or both.

mmmm kimbap...

soup! involving any number of vegetables left in the fridge: tomatoes, beans, potatoes, onions, carrots, etc. plus some small pasta to add a bit of body. I like soup even when im not super poor.

When I was in college, me and two other girls used to have movie nights always involving whiskey. Sometimes straight, sometimes on the rocks or something with some soda. I am a fan. I have also had a shot of Virginia Lightning, AKA corn whiskey, AKA moonshine. That stuff is much to strong for me (100 proof). But at least I can say I've had it.

@ginger, you're right. I guess i notice it mostly when i click on a topic listed in the sidebar for "Recently in Talk". It's not a big deal. I'm just lazy. :P
Thanks Adam!

@lilyb, that was my post. I'd seen an article in Bittman's column so perhaps I posted it under "Food Media and News", making it harder to track down.

Heres a link to the Talk topic if you want to see it again.
As for your current situation, I'm not sure if it will work well for you. I've not tried this myself, but Bittman's column talks about mixing with water beforehand. Check out the comments on that post, other people had some helpful input. There are also a few more links that other people posted.

I hadnt noticed an excessive amount of asian-food themed posts, but then again, I tend to not peruse those very much.
However, I just scrolled back through the Serious Eats posts. From the front page, counting the "asian food" entries. In 3 pages, with 15 pages per post, totaling 45 posts, I noticed the Seriously Asian Dashi post, the Grilling Shawarma post and the Tofu Banh Mi review. 3 posts in 45. That doesn't seem like too many to me.

I think you also have to consider the columns. One of the recent Cook The Book series was a week full of hotpot recipes. Incidentally, the Nasty Bits column has included a number of asian recipes. Why? well.. because there aren't many non-asian cultures that eat chicken feet.

@Daniel, what kind of foods would you like to see instead?
You haven't voiced your opinion in that direction, just pointed out what you don't like.