Ben Hong

The baguette, and other French breads. A number of "charcuterie style meats, eg: sausages, cooked meats, etc. Of these they make the most fantastic sandwiches. BTW, Vietnamese coffee is some of the best...anywhere.

Salt baked chicken is a classic dish in Chinese cuisine. And no, salt does NOT draw out the moisture. In fact, the crust formed in the baking procees stops leakage of moisture, giving a far more moist result than oven baking.

Shiewie: Yes.

Funny thing, five spice powder is used a lot, generally, in Cantonese style BBQs. but there are regional differences here in Canada. For instance, in the Montreal Chinatown, the charsiu and the whole roast pig has five spice, but in Toronto, nada.

Are thesethe long crullers that you eat with jook? If they are, then they are called: yu tiao (Mandarin), yu ja gui(Cantonese), Chinese crullers in English terms. Never heard them called donuts before. Google it and I think Martin Yan has a good recipe. Be aware that to make the real McCoy. you need alum, potassium carbonate, etc., pretty hard to get unless you are friendly with an apothecary or a large Asian goods supply house.

Hmmm? Dong Bei and "cuisine' are, to say the least, an improbable juxtaposition of the two terms, no?? Maybe even a bit of an oxymoron.

Basa is absolutely great. I picked up a bag of IQF fillets last week at COSTCO. Like Dejah says, it's a lot "fresher" tasting than cod and haddock. Almost better than the fresh tilapia fillets I also use. I think it's a species of farmed catfish. CHEAP too.

Gastro, I know that a pejorative of any degree does hurt and I, of all people, do not want to diminish your experiences(?) with the words "jook sing". However, in a lot of cases it is used in a sense that is not at all insulting, depending on whose mouth it came out of. I sometimes call my own children and their cousins "jook sing" as a term of endearment, my favourite uncle used to call me that when he expressed mock shock at my ignorance of the ways of our people. But, I reiterate, it all depends on who is using the word. We Chinese have a wry way of using "titles" and nicknames. For all his life, one of my best friends was called "Fat Willie", Willie was 6' tall and weighed 140 lbs. with a pocket full of anchors. My brother was always "fui doy Chow", or Fatboy Chow even as a slim young boy, because he had a fullmoon face which made him look fat. But, he grew into the name in later life A friend with a swarthy complexion was always "huck gui Lim" (black devil Lim), even in the most polite company. Context usually indicates meaning and intent.

ABC, CBC, FOB, XTC*, what the hell we're all Chinese. The stigma is on the people who would denigrate anyone because of place of birth. *extra-terrestial Chinese

Gastro is right. Toisan is a small coastal county in Guangchou province (adjacent to Hong Kong). It was the source of the manpower that built the railroads and opened the mines and lumber camps in the late 19th-early 20th century. Up until the late 1960s Toisanese people comprised 95% of ALL the Chinese population in North America. The so called Chinese food that was generally available to the general population up to the 1970s was a bastardized and corrupted version of Toisan and Cantonese foods. (I never heard of kungpao chicken or the silly old fart called General Tso. I really would be surprised if any Toisan mother made sweet and sour spareribs or foo yong for her family).

The fish is a small grouper, bass do not have those smacking huge lips. I'm not an ichthyologist, just a chowhound.

I don't know Dejah. All I know is that my desire to be the first male matchmaker* has come a cropper due to the actions of one reluctant and camera shy candidate. But I'll wager that her parents will never be able to afford the HUGE dowry that her actions have precipitated. Poor Dear * no, not that kind of male "matchmaker"

Irwin, what you served your family would be a classic Chinese banquet by any description. I admire your sense of adventure. As for places that serve Toisan dishes in Van, your best bet would be to ask. I haven't spent any time in Van's Chinatown oh, it must be five years. My last few trips there have been in and out types and Richmond is normally where my business contacts and friends gravitate. Keep looking though because there are still a large residual population of old style places around Chinatown.

Kowtows?? Kowtows you say??!! MMmmmm. here I was sitting all evening by the computer waiting...waiting. I can't do my job as matchmaker without a true representation of what the er..ahh.. the "goods" look like. Must have the Toisan Mui in formal cheongsam, even if she is blonde

Lo fo tong or literally "old (long) fire soup" is a standby for many Chinese restaurants of the neighbourhood or village style. In old Chinatown (Spadina-Dundas area) of Toronto, there's at least two mom and pop holes-in-the-wall where they still carry on this tradition. Very plain, very rudimentary places where there's literally a "mom and pop" or in Toisanese "ah Sook and ah Sim" (aunt and uncle). In these places you will find a heated steam table with the cooked meats of the day, that is, lots of offal cooked loo style, your varieties of bbq poultry and meats, stews, joong, noodles, etc. *drool, slurp*. Whenever I enter one of these places to grab a meal I am greeted like my real aunt or any matronly Chinese woman would , that of course makes me feel as if I have arrived home after travelling Lord knows where. There are no formalities here, just like you wouldn't expect any when you go to your mother's. The style is matter of fact; greetings, wash your hands, sit down, then "ah Sim" brings you a cup of tea, chopsticks and spoon and ask what you would prefer today. That question is often unnecessary, because one would always say I'll have what "ah Sook" cooked especially well today, or please make the choice for me (I like everything that I see). She would then go to the front to her helpmate and ask for something on my behalf, go to the kitchen to bring me a huge bowl of lo fo tong, and hence to the front of the place where my meal is all ready; whether it's something over rice, a couple of small dishes of bbq, stews or whatever, maybe a few sprigs of gai lon or yu choy and of course all the rice you can eat. For under $5.00 Cdn, I have to carry my stomach out the door . This is not fancy, it's not pricey, it's not haute cuisine but it is HONEST food, that is wholesome, soul satisfying stuff that only a frugal Toisanese would appreciate. BTW the more they see you, the bigger the portions . Now back to your question. Lo fo tong can be anything that you want to put into a soup pot, the proviso being that all ingredients can last some time in the simmering process and that they also need a long time over gentle heat to fully develop flavour. Common tongs are "Choy gon (dried bok choy) and dried duck webs with red jujubes and pork bones, carrots with bbq bones and chin pay, lobok gnow lam, 4-flavours soup, ching bo leng, lo fo watercress soup, etc., etc. These soups are uncommonly flavourful and savoury (no msg) because all the remainders of the bbq pig, and other meats go into the stock (there's no shortage). Omigod, do I drool!!!

Ditto, sheetz.

"the most interesting food city?" Interesting because of price, atmosphere, cosmopolitanism, price, exoticism, food quality, freshness, ease of access (including language), ethnic variety, price, hygiene, public safety(comfort level) and price????? Hhhhmmmm?! Toronto Hong Kong Singapore K.L. Malaysia Vancouver San Francisco Other cities have individual restaurants or ethnic styles that may shine. New York is absolutely great, but who the hell can afford it? Same as Tokyo. Boston has great New England style seafood and good Italian. Seoul can produce good Korean food, as for other fine cuisines, they just don't get it. Quebec City is the best kept food city in the world . Paris in microcosm, heavily sauced by the elan and joie de vivre of the Quebecois and Quebecoise. Oh yeah, the food, yes the food Don't have the depth of experience to comment on Europe, sorry.

Jeez, I gots to move to Brandon .

I'm waiting........

The duck gizzards seal the deal. Irwin is henceforth a genoowine, bony fidy, honest to PoPo, Toisan Loh.

"animal derived proteins" are somehow bad? Anybody ever see what the REAL free range chickens eat? I mean those that are scratching around someone's farmyard, the only free range chicken there is, strictly speaking. What they eat is a smorgasbord of creepy crawlies, live and dead, all manner of garbage including animal products, the odd seed out of a cow pattie or horse bun, water from a fetid mud puddle on the drive way, etc. ad nauseam.I'll take a supermarket chicken anyday, thanks ever so much. I absolutely believe that a REAL free range chicken has better flavour and, what's more important to my Chinese trained palate, better texture and mouth feel. But, it'll be a cold day in Hell before I'll let myself be gouged by the people who claim "free range" status when all they're doing is making the pens slightly larger and letting in more daylight to satisfy the PETAphiles. Most of them feed the same commercial feeds as the non-free range producers. (I am not talking "organic" chickens, which is another topic altogether).

Irwin, shhh. Putting up statements like that would probably creat a run on the dwindling supply of Toysan Mui. Hey Gastro888, your price just went up (inside joke) Seriously, I am pleased that a person of your gustatory and business experience saw fit to verify for all the uniqueness and fantastic taste of "the food of my Mother" . Thanks, cheers.

Jo Mel, until very recently, I doubt that there were identifiable groups of Szechuanese who migrated to North America. Certainly not the critical mass that one would infer, given the vast number of "Szechuan" eateries on this continent. The vast majority of Szechuan food that you get here would be cooked by "other" people. . But there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, as some famous practitioners of French cuisine are non-French. As long as the food appeals to you and it is well prepared, who cares??

Do the "Manchurians" really have a distinctive cuisine? Dong bei ren maybe do.

I have never known any self respecting Asian family eating broken rice if they could afford the whole stuff. To us (my family) broken rice means the remainders, the dregs, fit only for beggars and the penurious. My mother would not use it, even in jook. As for most rices, the fresher the better. New crop rice absorbs a lot less water and is sweeter and in the case of the scented varieties, more aromatic. The memories of eating freshly threshed and polished rice during harvest time in old China is a strong stimulant to get my salivary glands gushing.