Ben Hong

Joanna Kates just reviewed (very favourably) the King Noodle restaurant in Saturdays' Globe and Mail (Dec.2). It is located on the west side of Spadina about a block down from the Dumpling House. I can safely say that it is one of my favourites, but so is Goldstone.

No need to abstain or refrain. There is a need to be vigilant and selective. Certain parts of certain animals have to be cooked through. In most parts of the world pork is still the biggest vector for trichinosis. I still eat offal or organ meats quite often.

Sounds to me like the underdone pork liver still harboured parasites.

Calculate you must not. Just do, Luke. Use the force.

Holy sheeit, you guys have weird cravings!! But I do like your tastes. I used to be an inveterate snacker of dried shrimp, that is until got a terrible case of of the sheets from a bad batch. Now to satisfy my salt cravings, I go to kalamata olives, smoked herring, pickled herring snacks, smoked oysters, kielbasa, pepperoni, cretons, all kinds of cheeses, the stronger the better. I am almost addicted to Danish Blue Cheese.

Chinese homecooking does not have much deep frying. Restaurants, I am not so sure.

Wow, I just read through this thread for the first time. I am shocked to learn that not one of the posters on this thread is an international star like Kylie is.

I will not ever recommend dishes to people I don't know, especially if they have already put caveats out. Sometimes it's best for one to try something other than the tried (trite) and true (mundane).

Not really knocking Swatow because as I said, I have never set foot in it. But that restaurant has never been mentioned by any of my family, friends and associates. Maybe I will try them next month. As for ordering at New World, I don't. I just ask the wait staff to bring me whatever is freshest and/or are the specials of the day, unless I am really craving a certain dish. Usually I have my family with me, so they make up enough dishes for a communal dinner. I trust them fully and I have never been disappointed with their selections. This trust comes from longterm patronage and mutual familiarity and friendship.

AMEN I have patronized the Ambassador 3 times in the past 4 months, ie; every time I go to TO. I have not had a bad experience. (In my past life, I had been a food professional with my own restaurant.) On a more pleasant note to the Chinese restaurant scene in TO, my favourite is the "New World Seafood" on Spadina (west side), between Dundas and College and has been for a long time. I guess other people think so too for I have met a rather famous world class Toronto Chef, the one with the sibilant first name, and his whole famdambly there on more than one occasion. Basically this is a family run place and most of their regulars are treated like village folk or "heng li". Like a homecoming for this old "loh wah kieu". Lai Wah Heen is in a class by itself, but not for everyday eating. Their food and prices are a little too "refined" for this village boy, who just want great food at a reasonable cost. I have never set foot inside the Swatow, and I can't see why it's so popular unless it's because of the late hours they keep.

Egg rolls are a bastardization of the original spring roll. I don't know where it started, but the egg roll is a staple on the menu of the the multifaceted "Chinese" diners all over North America. Go to some smaller cities and towns and you will be hard pressed to find spring rolls but egg rolls are still very, very common. Oh yes, the dipping sauce for egg rolls is"plum sauce", aka "pumpkin puree".

Sue-On, hold that thought, err, recipe, for about 10 months until I get there.

I have used many, many types of chopsticks but I have always returned to the bamboo Chinese style chopsticks. I absolutely abhor metal ones; lacquer, ivory and plastic ones are too slippery, other than poplar wood, most other woods introduce extraneous flavours which are not usually pleasant. Call me a crotchety old traditionalist. BAMBOO.

Although it is peanut oil, the "regular" stuff does not taste near as good as the Chinese peanut oil...not as distinctively nutty. Not the same at all.

Thank you all, Ladies.

Sweet potato mashed into noong is an absolute favourite peasant food. Gastro Girl try it, you'll like it. Tong yuan is more a festival food, not generally treated as an everyday comfort food.

Even though it is past 1 am, I am wishing that everyone can see what I am seeing shining through my southeast window right now, a glorious full silvery moon. So bright I can see the colours of the changing maples in the yard. The air is hushed and chilly, a couple of degrees above the freezing mark when I came in from a walk in the woods with my dogs. The silvery sheen over the woods and meadows makes everything absolutely Walt Disney-like magical. Even the silent owl that swooped over us looked like some soaring ghost. It is good to be alive. Oh, and I received a dozen mooncakes from my darling daughter. She killed two birds with one stone as they also represent her birthday gift to me .

Joyce, you can use anything in combo like lop yuk, lop cheung, lop app (with skin), fresh pork, diced kohlrabi or jicama, diced green beans, green onions, add a little oyster sauce and soy sauce and lay over boiling stage rice. Use a little less water than normal for the rice, though. No need to add oil finish as the preserved meats are oily enough. Ratio: 1 part liu to 1 part raw dry rice.

Back in the village days, my father started a small peanut oil plant, (besides his rice milling operation and general store and liquor distillery ). After the pressing, the peanut residue came out of the press in big ten inch disks about2 inches thick. My eldest brother and young uncle were about 4-5 years old at the time and love to eat these peanut "cakes". One day they went into the store room and had an orgy of eating. Not a good idea, because in a couple of hours after drinking copious amounts of water to slake their thirst, the ingested peanut residue started to swell their bellies and they were in agony. They didn't like the subsequent purgings too much.

I use a fair amount of extra virgin olive oil for "western" foods. But ABSOLUTELY NOT IN CHINESE FOOD. Chinese style peanut oil is synonymous with good Chinese cooking. Canola is very close.

I am making another dish from my childhood tonight, salt chicken in rice pot. Every Chinese person has eaten "salted chicken", that is the cooked chicken is hacked into pieces and salted, as a method of preservation but it changes the taste significantly. My mother's other version is to salt raw chicken for a couple of days before use. The salting process changes the flesh into a very, very silky texture and the taste is divine. Cut chicken into bite sized pieces (after rinsing), mix with some ginger and scallions, put on top of cooking rice at the boiling stage. YUMMY!!

If you recall the history of HK, it was only a small haven for a bunch of coastal pirates, until it was ceded to England to use as the opium transfer point into China. Commerce thrived and it of course attracted all sorts of people from the coastal regions of Fujian, Guangdong provinces. The Pearl Delta and surrounding regions, ie: Toysan supplied most of the in-migration. After the Japanese War, ie; WWII, and then the Communist takeover, another huge influx happened and Toysanese were again in the majority. Scratch a "Hong Konger" and the probability is good that he find that his grandparents are Toysanese.

"Hum" = salt, "ha"=shrimp.

Hey Gastro Girl, long time no see. I love fu gwa. You should try fu gwa "steam boats" sometime. My mother use to make it to entice me to learn to like fu gwa. Just hollowed out halves of the melon stuffed with fish paste and shrimp chunks, then steamed. I now make a little sauce by thickening the juices produced by the steaming process and adding a smidgen of black beans and garlic.

I am batching it for the next month or so during hunting season , so I will cook all sorts of what my wife calls "strange and smelly" things. I started off with a bang last night, or maybe it was a "sniff-sniff": Rendered fatback bits with hum ha steamed with ginger and a few bits of scallion, stir fried iceberg lettuce with black beans, potato soup with ribs and ja choy. I still have enough for lunch.