Ben Hong

TP, if I can remember all of them, I'll try to list the ingredients that we used in our long ago restaurant here. Blanched and wrung dry cabbage(round head regular type). Green onions. Salt and pepper. 5-spice powder. Ground meat -could be chicken, beef or pork. Oh, and msg. of course. "Special" ones that were made to order were regular barrel shaped spring rolls and the meat therein was shrimp and chopped char siu. Now I ask you, wouldn't it be a shame to drench such a creation with "plum" sauce? That's what THEY did.

Don't ya love it though when 'common' Asian stuff gets into a FDR folks go all ga ga and ooh la la over it? ← Hehehehe . Wasn't so long ago, I was castigated for leaving (crispy) skin on a salmon fillet by a couple of houseguests (they didn't eat it and they won't be invited back )

When it comes to dim sum, I am not, cannot be, and WILL not be a moderate man. Give me taro puffs or give me death.

Ditto what Dejah said about pictures. As for food, my memories of the sitdown style restaurants were not very good. You see, my last trip there was ten years ago and some of the restaurants there were still very much in the "communist" mode, ie: "iron rice bowl" mentality. The food was great but the service was ABYSMAL. So bad, that once in mid meal the waitress took off without a fare thee well because her shift was over. This was after she berated us for coming in an hour before closing time. . I am positive that things must be better now. When I travel anywhere in Asia, I usually "go native" and eat at the stalls and kiosks which serve great food at small prices. There is a caveat though when and if you want to go that route. I used to carry my own chopsicks, a small pocket knife and a spoon, and I never, ever eat anything that isn't piping hot out of the wok or stove. Enjoy the fruit stalls but use your own knife to pare or peel your own fruit. For cold drinks, aways drink bottled water , sodas or beer. Beware of ice cubes. As a final advisory, take some Immodium along, just in case your precautions fail. But really, enjoy yourself by trying various foods and snacks. Toisan City or Taicheng used to be a beautiful city, but the times I was there, the whole place could have used a coat of paint. They tell me facilities and attitudes have improve a thousand times with the advent of private enterprise and tourism. There is an absolutely gorgeous lake in the middle of the city with a long beautiful traditional crooked bridge spanning parts of it. When I was there, fishermen were still poling their boats and casting nets. You can reach almost all points of Toisan within an hour's drive of the city. There is a typical Chinese wet market every few blocks. That was where I really felt that I was among my own people. They all spoke my dialect, Toisanese. The people were all raucous, crude, blasphemous, scatalogical, profane...but they were MY people Everywhere I went was like I walking around in a family reunion. It's ah sook this, dai gaw that, sen sung everywhere. If you are like me who grew up outside that type of society, you will experience no feeling like it. It was the first time since I left my home village in '49 that I felt completely comfortable - I wasn't a visible or auditory minority; I can blend in in every way and be comfortingly enveloped by familiarity. Try to learn a few words of Toisanese before you go.

[quote I swear my Mom used to add ketchup, but she's changed in the last couple years. Who's to argue with a 95 year old kitchen prima donna? Ben, is there anything you eat without fu yu? ←

Firm tomatoes cut into largish chunks, sliced flank steak marinaded in soy, ginger and garlic, a few onion slices, a few celery slices, salt, some sugar, ketchup, thicken with a raw egg, top off with scallions. Can't type this without drooling. OK, here's the Toisan loh coming out, I love eating this on top of rice, BUT, I always like a piece of really smelly salt fish or a cube of fuyu alongside whenever I eat this. Don't ask!!!

What Irwin and everyone is speaking of is the Toisan way, even the Chinese way. People helping people who need a little assist along the way, especially if there is a connection whether it's familial, regional, etc. is almost "genetic" to the older civilizations whether they be Egyptian, Jewish or Chinese. I have been the recipient of such generosity many times in my life, a clan member taking me in as a youth, a relative "bringing" me over as his son, a job interview offered because of a relationship, etc. Perhaps, as Dejah illustrated in her example of sponsoring village members, that was how North America got populated by only Toisanese in the early days of the Chinese immigration. There is a very, very important Chinese word that describes the whole process; guangxi in Manadarin or guanhai in Cantonese. In my work I have given seminars on how to use guangxi/guanhai effectively in doing business in China. Of course the English word is the very descriptive: Networking or networks

Dejah: Hoi saon, Toisan or Hoisaan is where we come from. Ngai Kui , kui= district (parish?), Lung Pan Toon (toon=village), Oi Gong Hu (hu=market). These are very specific and accurate locaters. You probably don't remember/know this but in rural China, all villages have to have access to a market place, which is usually a cluster of stores and commercial operations. This is where the local farmers come to sell their produce, people come to pick up the mail, get their rice milled, and maybe even meet for yum cha, etc. etc. Because everyone walked, these markets , "hu" or "hui", usually serve only a small number of villages, at most 10-12, and maybe 3-4 clans, all within walking distance. As for halibut trimmings, I have the local supermarket fish guys putting aside the napes and cheeks. I can usually get them el cheapo. There is absolutely nothing like the long muscle fibres of the halibut cheek for mouth feel and sweetness. And yes, I do them like your mother's way, mostly.

Go to any of the so-called Szechuan restaurants in any Chinatown in any of a dozen cities. Or better still, make it yourself. It's easy enough. Some call it double cooked pork, some call it twice cooked pork.

First time (1991) I went back to my village, near Chek Sui (Mandarin: Chi Xi), was a trip that will always live in memory. Holy hannah, what an experience the trip was. First I missed the train in Guangchou by waiting at the wrong gate (don't read Chinese), then after I got off the train in Toisan City (Taicheng) I had some "problems" with the independent taxi drivers (after I threw one to the ground, the others scattered), spent the night with my very patient cousin in the Wah Kieu Hotel, which was absolutely and disgustingly filthy, hired a car to take us to our village. On the way we almost killed five separate people, clipped an oxcart loaded with sugar cane, definitely killed a piglet and 3 ducks, and got the bejezus scared out of me. Spent an afternoon visiting old childhood memories and inspected the school we all chipped in to build. Visited my father's grave and generally had a grand time. On the way back , I left by hydrofoil out of Guanghai or Kwong Hoi for a 2 hour ride to HK. On my second visit 4 years later, things were 100% better and nowadays it's almost "too easy".

Some wineries and distilleries of Europe use graylag geese as "warchdogs". As a hunter, I've eaten about 6 species of geese, a dozen types of ducks, herons but never a swan...hmmm. Naww, too fricken beautiful and scarce.

Divina, I may be mistaken, but what we call "olives" in Chinese is a name used for lack of a better term. Usually it means jujubes, which are dried and are reddish brown and wrinkled in appearance. They are olive shaped and similarly sized and are decidedly sweet in taste.

Agog. Welcome to this little community. Yep, you sure come from a long line of Toisan folk. In fact, your grandparents predate anyone I can think of and as such they were lucky to be a family during the evil days of the exclusion. Fan noong is what we normally call the tasty crust at the bottom of the pot. It is great with a bit of fu yu spread on it, and especially good when it is from a pot of "yau fan", with all the oily goodness from lap yuk, lap cheong, dried shrimp etc. Cow brains with "doong guay" or medicinal roots is supposed to be good for developing intelligence Your mother probably comes from a village that is very, very close to mine. Her doong are exactly how my own mother would make them and the way she soaks the bamboo leaves is done at home too. Laksa, if there is one single thing that I really miss in Canada is the clay pot food vendors. I JUST LOVE TO EAT THE RICE POTS. All my future french fries for some claypot goodies.

Long ago when we operated a large general purpose restaurant with a multifaceted menu, that's what we'd do. I mean, who has time to wait for fried chicken cooked from the raw? The other benefit is that the resultant poaching liquid (stock) from doing 100 lbs. of chicken is ambrosia.

"Icelandic cuisine" is a touch oxymoronic, no?

Msg adds the "meatiness" of taste or, "umami" to a savoury dish. Soups, stocks, stirfries can benefit from 1/8th tsp. per serving. The secret is to enhance rather than replace the rich meaty flavours. Like almost everything else, it's a slippery slope. If you use it constantly and indiscriminantly, your family's taste will be "spoiled" because they will expect that kind of over the top richness in everything. People who use msg injudiciously are who I would call "shortcut cooks". Nothing will replace the good old stock pot bubbling on the back burner. MODERATION please.

I think it's Swiss chard. Not 100% sure though... ← If that is swiss chard and not bok choy, I'll eat it. Beautiful blog.

MSG is probably used more now than ever before. Check the ingredients list of any canned stews or soups, bouillon cubes, frozen dinners, gravy bases, cheeze doodles, flavoured potato chips, Dorito salty snacks like tortilla chips, corn chips, ad infinitum. For the longest time it was used in commercial baby foods. Like others have said, free glutamates are found in most of the foods that we eat and as a race, humans have a natural attraction to the umami taste.

O! Tempora! O! Mores! What's the new generation coming to??? Gimmee mo'

Nondual, you are indeed welcome. And yes, food is what brought us together here and food will always be a common thread with the Toisan people. As for real Toisanese pronounciations, there are three sounds that non Toisanese have huge problems with: "thl" and two sounds of "ng" . The "thl" sound is found in words such as four ("thlee") and die, dead (thlay) or snow (thluet). The sound is formed by touching the tip of the tongue against the front teeth and breathing out the sides of the tongue as you say the word. "Ng" has two facets, a nasal gutteral hum like sound like the word for five, or the family name. Also it is the start of a word like two "ngee" or cow "ngow" in toysanese. The English equivalent is to be found in a word like "ringing" where the sound of the first "ng" is heard very plainly. "Ng pon gnow gnuk chow thluet ow" or Five plates of beef chow snow peas. Couple that with the 5-7 tones that are to be found in the southern main dialect, and you have a linguists nightmare. Nobody said that it was easy being Toisanese.

BC, amazing! I came over in 1950, when I was 7. Jeez, I can't begin to tell you of the so called "adventure" . My wife is also British born but she was daring enough to try anything, including me, when things like that weren't as common as today. Haha, you ought to have seen her the first time my mother slaughtered 2 ducks, four chickens and an 18 pound goose in our basement laundry room the first Chinese New Year after we were married.

Ling and BC, welcome to our little (growing) group. Admitting that you like ham yee and ham ha, you are Toisan to the core BC, if your Dad came over in the fifties, I'd bet my crooked travel chopsticks that he is Toisan loh (man). We'd probably be very close in age , he and I, but he probably spent some time in HK before coming over to Canada, acquiring some sung wah (sik fan). This thread is becoming very educational for all, including this old codger. Thanks for your contributions. PS: BC, don't underestimate the Caucasian wife's (Ihave one of those ) abilities to learn to like certain foods. My wife likes salmon steamed with ham ha and she loves fu yu with anything . Ham yee is a hit and miss still .

The Chinese board is the one where people who eat and cook Chinese food hang out.

An age old question like the Cadbury caramel chocolate bar ads. How do they insert the caramel into the chocolate?

Whenever I hit the big city where I can get them fresh, I bring some home and eat them with homemade jams. For a Canadian twist, they're also pretty good with maple syrup. But, their natural partner is JOOK.