Ben Hong

**Sighhh** Here I am stuck in the frozen Great White North with no access to fine restaurants and good eats. Now you are telling me you are going to be embraced by the warmth of OZ. Cruel, I tell ya. Just cruel. Ahh, what the hay, enjoy your trip TP Mui.

Jeeeeze Sue-On, I can't believe that you are doing the same thing that I do. About 25 years ago, I bought quite a bit of fatt choy for my mother. After 18 CNYs she died in 2000 leaving me to take the contents of her pantry. Yup, there was the remainder of the fatt choy, about a soccer ball volume of the stuff. Nobody eats that stuff except at CNY.

Couple of cuts from a leg of pork.

Not exactly what I had in mind. Stick to the real Chinese stuff. Guaranteed no salt needed.

Gastro Girl I realize that sometimes we Toysanese can't really transliterate the sounds of our speech. The wolfberry plant in Toysanese is gow ghee (hard "G"), the berries are gow doo. Gow=dog, same tone. Doo same tone as "left", gee is same tone as "Gee do goi?" How many? Your Mom would understand perfectly.

And I wasn't invited!! Absolutely gorgeous looking spread.

Gastro girl, I really don't understand what product you are speaking of. The Chinese fuyu is almost an alcohol laden block of salt in the first place. Perhaps a picture of the label or product would edify your humble and dense elder.

Fu yu is all soy bean. Nam yu has fermented rice also. So I was told.

See my post above. If you can find a butcher who still breaks down half carcasses, tell him that it is the belly flap, that is the large boneless flap that covers the paunch and is between the ribs and leg.

Absolutely right Anna. A traditional family meal has to have minimum of 3 dishes plus the rice. These three dishes do not have to be big productions. Typically: Soup Salty small dish (can be steamed on top of rice). This is usually called the "extender" in case company drops in unexpectedly. Stir fried dish Stewed or moist cooked dish Vegetable dish Meat Dish Fish/seafood. Think variety and small dishes, one for each member. The main cooking methods, ie: steaming, moist cooking, stirfrying, frying, should be used for each separate dish. For example, you wouldn't want three deep fried dishes at one meal. Aren't you glad you asked? .

Niu lan is Mandarin for gnow lam Cantonese or gnow nam Toysanese. It is the belly flap of beef, sometimes mistakenly called flank. It is a cut consisting of layers of lean meat, sinews, white membrane, fat, gristle and is probably the choicest cut for many Chinese. All texture and goodness. Does NOT mean flank steak.

Take two aspirins very 4 hours, drink lots of liquids of your choice, get yourself to bed and stay there for 12 hours. GAR-ON-TEED to work. Last resort, call Mommy.

Maybe "shank" is a good description.

I was working with a bunch of young Chinese bachelors once and they had access to an endless free supply of bull penises from the local abattoir. They had the delicacy at least three times weekly in hopes of...err..ahh, improving on their abilities and dimensions. Last I heard they were still suffering from the same inferiority complex that drove them to seek such remedies in the first place.

Ditto on both counts.

My mother frequently "oon'd" yeuk toy and beef shank meat for me when I was but a wee lad, hoping that it would initiate a growth spurt. *Sigh* one of the few times she was wrong.

Strictly speaking, any food that is consumed by a Chinese person is indeed "Chinese food".

There is a third way of steaming fish, especially if the fish is extra oily or too "aromatic". Panfry and brown with a little soy sauce first, then steam normally. I (being Cantonese, specifically Toysanese) have never used sesame oil on any steamed fish. As Ah Leung says once you heat it to a sizzling temp., it smells and tastes awful. (Must be the technique of those barbaric Northerners )

That, Grasshopper, is what we call wok hei. It is that ephemeral quality that many cooks seek. Overdone it is called burnt. In the beginning there is extreme heat, then enough oil, then small portions with little moisture, proper sequences, then technique along with impecable timing. What was your question???

THAT'S IT TEPEE, I AM MOVING TO KL AND CAMPING OUT NEAR YOUR KITCHEN DOOR. ANYTHING THAT YOU THROW OUT WOULD BE BETTER THAN I CAN GET 'ROUND HERE. Hmmmm retirement in 5 weeks...cold and snowy here...

Oh hear me denizens of the China Forum! There is but one master and his name is SHEETZ. I am in awe. YO' DA MAN

Tepee mui, you are killing me *drool*. My Gawd that is awesome.

How would you make this one? Would you bake it or steam it? ← Ah Leung, is there a version of "salt baked chicken" that is steamed????? Yim gook gai. "Gook" means dry heat, baked, roasted, to me.

There is a saying in Chinese that wherever there's chimney smoke, you would probably find a Chinese presence. The Chinese presence and influence is very, very evident in most of the Caribbean island/countries and have been for centuries. On a business trip to Mauritius some years ago, I was absolutely gobsmacked to find that the Chinese and their descendants made up a great part of the population. Their food, though delicious was quite a bit "changed" from the original. Mauritius is a small island off the east coast of Africa.

It is for me and every single one of my friends and relatives. We leer at SS with disdain, scoff at nonstick, spit at cast iron, laugh uproariously at electric woks, and sniff at induction woks . I have a gas range with a 15K btu burner now, but my second choice for home cooking would be a flat bottomed carbon steel wok over the large burner of a home range. When that burner gets cherry red, wok hei is a cinch when cooking one or two portions. As for good tools for any job, no need to buy a $2000. camera when your skill is at the Brownie level.