Ben Hong

In any language there is a tendency to slur or liaise words together, especially if you have the fluency of a native speaker. That's why it is so pleasurable to listen to someone speak a language the way it is meant to be spoken, without the slurring, in the case of English, eg: Richard Burton, Queen Elizabeth, certain BBC news readers. Mm ho are two distinct words, or should be although it is very common to hear them slurred into what sounds like one word. A more common sound is mm mo, where the "h" is not distinctly heard, especially in hurried conversation.

Holy Hannah, so much commentary on so simple a dish. Jook is wet rice or rice "porridge". Thin, creamy or thick, adjust water/broth content and time on the heat. Very basically it is a bland palette in which you add your flavours. Experiment, the possibilties are endless. Jook has recently become popular, but it is still regarded as a pauper's staple in some quarters.

Sue-On, you have an absolutely lovely, talented family. I can only marvel at the pictures depicting you and husband and your two children sharing the same stage. My hat's off to all. If this is not Canada, I don't know what is... a harmonious mix of cultures and races playing music together. The symbolism is huge. PS: this is not intended to sound maudlin.

Holy Shadings, Batman! Talk about nuances! "Jahm", to hack or hew or chop is usually meant for an action that signifies a violent motion with a cutting tool, a cleaver in this case. The quick violent action(raising the cleaver) is usually associated with, or needed, to break through some solid impediment, like a bone. One needs to "jahm" roast pork, which usually has bone, or a whole chicken, into pieces. BUT, one uses "chit" (cantonese), "qie" (mandarin) or "tet" (Toyshanese) to describe a slicing/cutting motion with a knife that one would use in slicing char siu, lop cheung or any softer, boneless article. So, where are we? If you order a piece of boneless, skinless crispy roast pork (why would you?) from the cleaver man, he will chit, tet, or qie the meat for you into bitesized pieces. But if you are a real connoisseur and order the rib or belly pieces( with bone), he will "jahm" it into the same sized morsels.

Yow tieu or deep fried devils are deep fried wheat flour "crullers". Dejah, forget the food when I visit, I want music . I know that I would love your eclectic brand of music. "Japanese five string bluegrass banjo player", shoot, ya can't get more esoteric than that.

Mm ho jahm. (don't chop). Siang gow (in one piece) are two other ways.

Sue-On, congratulations for this blog. Come prairie fires or rising ducks, look east around early November. I'm a-coming. That food looks good enough to eat, and I don't have any Chinese aunts and female cousins to feed me anymore .

Most of the busier restaurants/bbq places have such a high turnover rate, the meat that is hung in the front windows probably gets sold a couple of hours after coming out of the oven. Tell me, how long has your brown bag lunch been packed before it is eaten?

hzrt8w, good topic. Guaranteed to garner some useful tips. To my taste, black bean and garlic sauce needs a bit of minced ginger, especially for seafood. I tell anyone who will listen my mantra, "hot wok, cold oil" ie, heat the wok before adding oil. This prevents sticking. Meats that go into large stew type dishes should be blanched first. More later.

Way back over a half century ago, before the availability of Chinese foodstuffs became prevalent in North America, esp. in the smaller towns, we used to use the white part of the watermelon rind as a substitute for winter melon. Wasn't bad. Btw, watermelon rind pickles is a personal favourite.

Dejah, perhaps you are right. But I always thought that they were one and the same. Gou gi leaves with pork liver soup, was a regular summer treat when mother was alive.

"Jook sing" has taken on a whole new nuance over time. It usually means a young(er) person of Chinese parentage who can't really fit in or function completely and comfortably in either one of his cultures, either Chinese or western. If you took a complete section of bamboo it is blocked at both ends and hollow in the middle, ergo... A great example of the Chinese penchant for wordplay. It is only considered very mildly perjorative. In some cases and families sometimes the phrase is almost a term of endearment, seeing that there are so many Chinese of second and third generations now.

The berries add a sweet undertone to a lot of broth based soups. What's better is soups made with the tender leaves of the wolfberry plant.

HZRT8W, You get 100% agreement from me with regards to walking and exercise vs. diets. I am well in what one would euphemistically call the senior citizen age group, and I can still play 3 hours of singles tennis at a go, usually against opponents 1/3 my age because almost all of my contemporaries are too decrepit, or too fragile health wise. To see so many people "abusing" their bodies with fad diet after fad diet after scary quick fixes really distresses and frustrates me, when all they have to do is get out and walk 30 minutes a day. Btw, low carb diets are anathema to this coolie, simply because I don't think life is worth living without my large daily quota of noodles and rice.

Living in a very small place in a very small province in Canada has it's limitations. On of them is that you just can't go out at midnight to the neighbourhood "dai pa dong". To be sure, there is a plethora of Chinese take-out places but some of their offerings would be nightmare inducing. No, I just have a bowl of cornflakes or leftovers.

Go to Chuck's in St. John's for seal flipper and cod tongues and other game meals.

Gary, that makes you a member of the Chinese Brotherhood that doesn't like leung fun.

From my memories as a small child in Toyshan, I recall a treat that I loved and that was grass jelly (?) or leung fun. The taste was an acquired one and in later years, I found that it was not as cherished a treat as I remembered. The cool, thick, black, jiggling mass, swimming in simple syrup that was reminiscent of eating distilled essence of grass with a slight bitter after taste took some getting used to. My question: How many of this board have "enjoyed" this earthy treat, if indeed you know what it is? A positive answer to both parts of the question tells me that you are a real Sinophile.

During the days of summer lassitude, whether at a picnic, at the cottage, anytime of day, one of the great pleasures in life is the consumption of watermelons. Most of us would just roll up our sleeves, grab a large wedge of the watery delectable and bury our faces in it. But a person did something once that I thought was odd, she sprinkled salt on the wedge before eating it. When I expressed my curiosity at the practice, she said that it wasn't anything out of the ordinary, that a lot of people did it. My question is, does anyone else do this and is it common among those "weird Chinese"?

All these "non-traditional" ways of using la cheung are very er, interesting to say the least. My thought is , if you don't like them why use them in anything? Lap cheung is, to us of peasant stock, one of the luxuries reserved for special occasions back in Old China. It almosts distresses me to hear anyone disparaging them . Bunch of heretics.

They are not ,strictly speaking, melons nor green, but pumpkin or squash cooked with beef, black beans and garlic, with some scallions is one my all time favourites.

Good info, hrtz8w. I finish off the the dish with a liile cornstarch thickening. This serves two purposes; to prevent, or at least delay the leaching of a lot of liquid from the veggies, and it gives a smoother mouth feel to the dish.

Joong with a Texas twist, hey y'all how cool is that? For contrast, I'd add a few bits of onion with the beef and beans. I like the pictue.

Trillium says"Yang Chow Fan", or Yang style fried rice. I believe he meant "Yangchow chow fan", or Yangchow style fried rice. I know Yang and he is a friend of mine, but he has never had a fried rice dish named after him.

Sequim, I echo what hrzt8w said. That you are willing to improvise (create) to achieve the palatable, and be successful at it, means that you are "getting it" .