Notes on measurements and ingredients for Canadians, or what's a lug and where can I get chiles?

Most of the ingredients for the recipes in the book should be easy to get for most Canadians. What you might have a problem with at the beginning though was non-metric measurements. For example, what is 7 oz (ounces) of meat equal to in grams? I couldn't find food measured in non-metric any more, other than when it said 1 lb. (1 pound).

Based on some research, the conversion you want to keep in mind is:

100 g = 3.5 oz
200 g = 7 oz
454 g = 16 oz = 1 lb

Jamie also mentions a "couple of lugs" of oil. I am guessing he is talking about the sound of oil as it leaves the olive oil bottle (it makes a "lug" sound when it leaves). If you aren't comfortable with that measurement, here's two things you can do:

1. Replace "one lug" with a tablespoon (tbsp) of the oil required
2. Add a bit of oil to your pan at a time until it coats the surface you are cooking on. A small surface will need less oil, generally.

Finally, lots of his recipes call for a fresh red chile. This is not a red bell pepper, which is sweeter, but a hot pepper, like the ones listed here.
(Ignore the photo: it's of bell peppers!) They should be finger long and thin, and likely medium hot. I had a hard time finding these in the bigger grocery stores, but did find them in smaller green grocers, especially ones that have other Asian produce like lemongrass.

These chiles are great: they add a great red colour to your dish, and also provide a nice touch of heat to your dish. If you can't find them, you could still get some colour and heat by using jalepenos instead. Or you could try dried chili flakes, though you lose out on the nice colour. You could even try tabasco sauce or a bit of some other hot sauce. All of those are easy to find. But if you can get red chilis, I highly recommend them. They are cheap, colourful, and nicely hot. (Yes, you could leave out the hot stuff all together, but I think that would be a shame.