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When I went to Beijing, the vegan in our group had a terrible time. They do *not* really cater to the vegan market over there—and Chinese cooks in China are not quite as welcoming and forthcoming about their ingredients as Chinese cooks in America! The vegetarians were quite happy, of course; vegetarian food is definitely "safer."

Normal vegetarian Vietnamese food is much the same as far as being tasty vegetarian fare but not always necessarily vegan even if it's listed as "vegetarian" on the menu (we will, for example, still list a dish as vegetarian if it's got fish sauce in it). While it's true that temple vegetarian food is usually close to vegan, it's hard to be sure since vegans avoid so many things. Besides, most places outside of California and Houston don't really have a large enough Vietnamese population to have restaurants that cater to specifically temple-food tastes—you're more likely to find it at a home or temple ceremony.

Also, @Dcarl1, that only holds true if you avoid breads like naan and paratha, which are often spread with butter or ghee in the cooking process (also, ghee isn't expensive at all if you make it yourself, which if you're making restaurant-quantity amounts, seems actually more time- and cost-efficient than making it for a single meal). As with the Eastern Asian cultures, usually South Asian vegetarian dishes are great for vegetarians, but vegans need to be careful and it may depend on restaurant-to-restaurant how strictly they separate ingredients.

@Kenji and @kimthaism, Kenji is right, the Viet food scene in NYC is AWFUL. I hate when friends suggest we try a Vietnamese restaurant up there. Thankfully, it's much better down here in VA, even in southern VA, where I am.

Here in VA, the shoulder I just bought to make pernil (which, incidentally, will be remixed with this recipe for supreme meat-flavor/crispy-skin win—thank you so much for your mind-reading powers leading you to post this recipe this week!! XD), looks a lot like the cut you have here. Right next to it in the meat department was Boston butt, which was skinless and shankless, and on the other side was a big honkin' whole shoulder. Guess we have the best of both worlds here!

Welp, time to go get either a microplane zester (and pepperoni in stick form instead of the cheaper kind) or tapioca maltodextrin. Afterwards: Pepperoni on ALL the things!!

I don't really have much to add (I recognize fewer of these than I'd like to admit), but I did want to mention that yeah—@LizziBean, rambutans and lychees are two completely different things. They're really easy to confuse, though—especially in that li'l picture, without a real scale!

Looking forward to learning new things from the answers next week!

Late comment, but is anything really too late when it comes to deep-frying?

I did tempura bacon once. It was a marvel of crispy, fatty, crunchy goodness. Highly recommended!

Having often gone the "I'll just have a bowl of Golden Grahams" route if there wasn't anything good at the dining hall (or if they were still cooking it out), I'm afraid I have to fall on the GG side of the "divide." It wasn't even as if I'd eaten it growing up, so there wasn't a pre-existing nostalgia factor, either. I actually thought I'd like CTC better, since I am a fiend for cinnamon, but Golden Grahams is the one I ended up sticking with, and the "endless" cereal dispensers at D-hall can vouch for that. I don't have any concrete reason as to why anymore, though. I guess GG just does it for me in a way that CTC can't.

I still remember the first time I ate two bowls of GG for dinner as a post-college "grownup." Ohh, the sweet, sweet, satisfaction.

Whoa! It's Leandra! This is what I miss when I have to take a work-calls vacation from Serious Eats, seeing a college classmate hit the big (or at least delicious food) leagues!

And what delicious food there was this week…I'm jealous, I wish there were a sandwich place like that in my neck of the woods!

Any notes on how to work the gelatin/agar in for us cheater or vegetarian non-homemade-stock users?

Mine are always kind of dense, but I kind of like 'em that way. However, crispy-superflaky sounds awesome, so I will definitely have to give this method a try!...and I'm considering subbing in garlic chives for some of the scallions, too...hmmm....

Wait, I just realized it's the same recipe. Oh well, still delicious, still on my must-try-sooner list!

There's a restaurant in Richmond (VA) called The Republic—they do this amazing thing they call the "Southern Sweet 'n' Spicy", which is sweet potato tater tots, topped with cheddar, bacon crisps (real ones, not bac'n bits crud), jalapeños, spicy candied pecans, and a splash of maple syrup. They sound weird, but are in fact addictively, brain-meltingly good. If I try making this, I might see to incorporating some of these elements internally instead of just externally…

They don't seem to have a problem staying crisp, either, and they certainly aren't as dark as the ones in the slideshow—they were a pretty, cheerful orange color on the outside. Food coloring, or do you think they added something to the process? I haven't asked them, but as it's an independent and not a chain, I kind of assumed the sweet potater tots were done in-house…hmmm.

Wooo, Richmond represent! I might actually be able to make that, too. EXCITEMENT!!