7 replies to this topic

[Fat Guy]

I have a friend from Western Canada who speaks of a Chinese-restaurant dish, ginger beef, that's popular in Calgary. Wikipedia confirms that this is a regional specialty of Western Canada. It sounds a lot like what we know in NYC as orange beef: crispy fried pieces of flank steak with a sauce -- in the case of ginger beef a thick, sweet, ginger-and-vinegar sauce. Has anybody seen this dish around NYC? I'd like to check it out and also get my expat friend a fix.

[scamhi]

Dim Sum a Go Go has a very good Beef with Young Ginger

[Fat Guy]

That's a sauteed dish of sliced beef with actual ginger, though. I think the Canadian variant has deep-fried strips of beef in a ginger sauce.

[scamhi]

don't knock it FB...

[Mjx]

Unless my memory is seriously letting me down, ginger beef (and chicken, and pork) is actually a fairly common item on Chinese restaurant menus, shouldn't be difficult to find (or perhaps that's the just case at the cheaper joints where I tend to run in and get take-away?). I'm fairly certain I got it at Charlie Mom just a few months ago, for example.

You might have better luck finding the sort of version you describe out in Queens, though; they just seem to run to more variety out there.

[Snadra]

If all else fails, this recipe is pretty much what I remember a restaurant owner described to the ginger beef obsessed boyfriend I had a long time ago in those wintry environs. I've made the dish myself a few times because despite moving onto different tastes, it's still darn enjoyable every so often.

It's also very similar to crispy schzewan beef (which I've also seen called rainbow crispy beef) if that helps at all.

[Dejah]

Crispy Ginger Beef is similar to crispy Sichuan Orange Beef. Orange beef is made with rehydrated orange peel and orange flavouring in the batter and the sauce. I make ginger beef with ginger powder and shreds of fresh ginger in the batter and in the sauce. The sauce also has a little 5-spice, chili peppers, sugar, vinegar, and water. Have to be careful when coating the crispy strips with the sticky sauce (thickened with cornstarch slurry) as too much would ruin the crispiness. You'd want just enough to coat SOME of the surfaces. I usually deep fry some strands of ginger to put on top before serving. This was a popular dish in my restaurant. The spiciness is adjusted to presonal requests.

[Fat Guy]

I'm having a lot of fun with the imagery of a "ginger-beef-obsessed boyfriend."

I did a search on Menupages.com to see how many restaurants in NYC have "ginger beef" on the menu. I got a bunch but had to rule most out because they're either not Chinese restaurants or it's a case like Dim Sum Go Go where the dish is something different. I need to do some followup work on the ground with some of the good candidates.