Ben Hong

ANZU, that is a superb post. It encapsulates everything that was on my mind perfectly, but you said it far, far more eloquntly that I could have ever hoped to do. Great job.

Restaurant fare is loosely based on the "classical" or standard-bearing recipes. As such, these were often vehicles to show off the best, not only in techniques, but in quality and quantity of ingredients. Sometimes "best" means "most" , as in the empahsis on meat dishes, the liberal use of oils and condiments, and the plethora of deep fried dishes. Everyday homestyle cooking is by far less "rich" and more simple (as Dejah said). I quail at the long list of ingredients for any basic family style dish that is depicted in some cookbooks. I can pare down the basisc ingredients to the bare esssentials and still come up with a very palatble dish. In this respect the Chinese housewife was (is) the master (mistress) of adaptation. Family style Chinese food is all about taste and simplicity. Oh yes, I do use msg very sparingly and do not use sugar much.

TP, does UPS, FEDEX or Purolator or any of the courier services fly out of K.L.

Hmmmm?? From my experience with the "second tier" restaurants (where the food evokes less guilt in the mind and less pain in the wallet) I am of the belief that these places are not the ones that one would look for fine wines in. The restaurants that I would not go to, that is the top tier group (unless it was for business or a banquet), you might find that they would "maybe" sell you wine by the glass. If the Chinese are going to drink any alcohol with their meals, it would be a Napoleon or something with Xs and Os in the appellation. At the very least a Johnny Walker Blue, if a person is feeling a bit penurious. For the average Chinese ,to order a wine by the glass would be tres, tres gauche as the very act would be looked on as stinginess personified, selfishness incarnate, and evocative of a feeling of being down on one's luck. With regards to fine wines, the majority of the Chinese are not connoisseurs or even experienced imbibers. That is maybe the only gustatory shortcoming that we have. Of course all of the preceding is from my own feelings, observances and experiences, so don't take it as "da gospel". Others with different and better viewpoints will chime in.

MMMmmm...Like I said (or did I?) TP, I'd wash dishes just for the crumbs off those mooncakes.

Canned straw mushrooms are a lot better tasting than the fresh. Once in a while, I spot them in some of the larger mainstream supermarkets.

TP, after a quick browse of your delectable, delicious, delightful, handiwork on your website, would you care to adopt this housetrained and inconspicuous "Soo-sook"?

TP, not nice to make an old man drool on his keyboard.

Chefzadi: doucement monsieur. Je pense que Yimay a fait un petit blague, n'est-ce pas? Peut-etre avec un grand soupcon de "sarcasm" aussi.

Balsamic=black vinegar. Hah! Oh, East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet....R. Kipling

Thanks Irwin for the excellent explanation. Damn, those Hakka women are amazing! I remember walking around a hi-rise that was being built (Li Ka Shing's building on the site of the old HK Hilton) with a civil engineer friend of mine from Canada. He was completely and utterly dumbfounded and confounded at the speed that people worked in HK and most of all, at the bamboo scaffolding. If that were to occur in Canada, or any other place in the world, those advocating such methods would be weighted down with about a ton of regulatory manuals and throw into some body of water to sleep with the fishes.

This Old F*rt can't get his head around such a dish. Wouldn't all the different layers get mixed and blended into one similar tasting blob? I really don't want to think of what the dish would look and taste like after 10-12 people have been rooting around it for a while. It is intriguing though, as I have never heard of it. Please tell me more.

Besides all the good suggestions, my favourite is a fish, preferably whole, preferably sole or flounder or any delicately fleshed fish steamed with "min see" and a few slivers of ginger and scallions.

"dry stirred (chowed) rice noodles with pork meat balls". Tepee Mui, that sounds delicious!

Ah, more's the pity. in times past, eating at the dai pai dongs was both delicious and cheap, and, there was always a small element of danger, healthwise. (I always used to carry my own disposable chopsticks and a plastic spoon when I went slumming).

Most definitely I would say that about BBQ. There are infinite variations of this genre and like the noodle dishes in question, they're all good. North and South Carolina have different styles, Western South Carolina bbq is different than that of East South Carolina, Kansas City bbq is definitely different than what you'd get in Texas or St. Louis or Georgia. Of course each region thinks that there is no true BBq but theirs. I haven't even mentioned Australia yet. Bon apetit!

sheetz, Now that you mention it, I have no intentions to cook for a living or even on a regular basis for anyone else. So it's highly unlikely I'd find myself volunteering in a restaurant kitchen. ← I guess I misread your commitment/desire to learn. No problem. Cookbooks are great, so are books on karate, medical reference books, etc. But I've never heard of anyone becoming a black or any colour of belt without stepping inside a dojo or a doctor starting to practice without doing an internship in a hospital.

A CKT by any other name would taste so good. It's a noodle dish, for goodness sakes, nothing mythical nor mystical about it. Use whatever sauces and ingredients you have at hand and knock yourself out. FWIW, I think that it tastes best when eaten amid clouds of diesel fumes, noisy streetlife, little dust storms, etc., that you can duplicate only at a street hawker's or a dai pai dong. It could be pad thai in Bangkok, CKT in KL or S'pore, or "Singapore" noodles in HK.

TP, does it mean "Da truth"

The whole dish is just steamed. So is the family style cooking of this dish. May be in Toisan the meat is browned first in this dish. You can try both styles and see which one you like.

Unless you are cooking 10 pounds of spareribs, one cup of soy sauce is wayyy too much. I normally sprinkle it on and taste as I go. Sesame oil (Asian kind) is never used to fry anything in Cantonese cooking, it is a flavour enhancer or finisher to be added at the end of cooking. A few drops is all you need, as it is a very aromatic oil. To properly sear or brown the spare ribs, do it in an extremely hot wok half pound at a time with a tbsp of oil each time. Mind, I'm talking about a home sized wok. As each batch is browning, sprinkle in a few drops of dark soy sauce to intensify the flavour and to give the ribs a nice golden brown sheen. Remember that Cantonese cuisine is all about subtlety. Moderation is the key word, therefore, you don't want any ingredient to overpower the dish.

Most commercial farm raised game bears little resemblance to the wild variety. We hunters have known this all along. A white tail deer shot and hung for 4-5 days will invariably taste a lot better than venison bought at the supermarket. The same goes for rabbit, quail, partridge, grouse, etc. Wild animals get a truly varied diet from browsing, grazing, scratching. etc. Store bought game is fed an unvarying commercial diet. If you really want the truest, most natural, tasting food available, take up hunting. Us hunters have a shrinking fraternity.

One of my favourite soups is kohlrabi. Pork neck bones, juilenned kohlrabi, a slice of chung choy, a few dried shrimp, mmm mmm. Stirfried, it is great too. My mother, and now me, always use diced kohlrabi and green peas in our havest time "yau fan".

Hey, watch it! This is a family type board . I used to love the new mothers' soup.

Hmmm...The more I learn about this Teepee, the more I like her. Amazing artwork.