jo-mel
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Posts posted by jo-mel
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焗 jú
It is not in any of my dictionaries, either ----- and NJStar just gives me a box when I copy/paste it there. How were you able to print it?
And is it baking or braising?
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肉臊味
Does that mean just a slghtly rancid smell from the fat, or does it also mean meat that has gone bad?
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Still having trouble with the word 'stuffing' - 酿 Pinyin: niang4. The dictionaries I checked all have the translation for that character as 'brew / ferment', and nothing about a filling or the act of filling.
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The most important question is:
What's the name of this dish in Chinese?
My brain draws a blank on this one and I fear my Chinese card will be revoked. Ai ya!
Rhoda Yee calls her Seafood Stuffed Bell Peppers - Ha Yu Yeung Lot Jiu
The closest I can figure from the characters she uses is: 虾肉酿辣椒 (Xia rou niang la jiao), altho the peppers are not hot --- just regular green bell peppers.
To make it Shrimp stuffed Bell Peppers would be: 虾鱼酿辣椒 I think?
I've looked in several areas and I can't see the word 'stuffed', in Chinese, to describe a Chinese dish. I guess I can check out menus.
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Just about the time that the ban was ending, I was in a food store in NYC's Chinatown. They had some Sichuan peppercorns in an unmarked package ---just a price on the clear plastic bag. As soon as I got in the car to come home, I opened the bag and tried one. WOW! Do I need to say more? None of my other purchases of S.Pepper, before or after, came near these babies!
I taste tested two more packets that I keep in the freezer. One was the one I bought in NYC with just the price on it. Both taste tests were numbing, tingling positives! And the numbness and tingling were almost immediate and lasted quite a while. Those packets are keepers. I still have more tests to do tomorrow.
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Just about the time that the ban was ending, I was in a food store in NYC's Chinatown. They had some Sichuan peppercorns in an unmarked package ---just a price on the clear plastic bag. As soon as I got in the car to come home, I opened the bag and tried one. WOW! Do I need to say more? None of my other purchases of S.Pepper, before or after, came near these babies!
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If you don't wash the inside of the peppers, then the filling sticks better than wet insides ---- but the cornstarch offsets this. As the cornstarch cooks -- it provides a 'glue'.
As far as turning them --- use utencils in both hands -- a spoon or a chopstick in each. Turning without losing the filling is then no problem. If, for some reason, a filling comes out --- just push it back in. It will have formed itself to the shape of the pepper and it will fit nicely and neatly back in its place.
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I have several packets of Sichuan peppercorns, from various sources, and I think I will test them all over a period of two days to see which have potency and which don't --- and weed them out. I just tested the jar that I keep in the kitchen. Nada numbness -- zilch, zip. They will be the first to go!!
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Xiao Leung -- it is hard to see from the picture, but did those chicken elbows have much chicken on them? The joint part, as with the tips seem to have more cartilege than actual meat. Probably full of flavor from the sauce, and great chewing, -----but actual meat?
I wasn't going to get in on the "garlic breath" talk, but I can't help myself. I feel, that if two of you have garlic breath --- then it CAN be sexy!! (Moderators --- we'are still talking FOOD here!)
Also-- a while back there was something on those two Sichuanese restaurants that vied for authenticity for their own Kong Pao Chicken. I tried to find it, but failed. Can any of you techies help? That is one of the dishes I'll be having when my classes start next week, and I wanted to show how the dish can vary with peanuts or green peppers or not, yet still be called by the name Gong Bao Ji (Kong Pao)-- even where it was born.
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Think I'll chop some up and make black bean GARLIC Shanghai noodles for supper in honour of "sexy garlic breath"Irwin.
I just LOVE Shanghai noodles! So how is this dish made?
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Interesting serving 'dish'. Is that bamboo? I see what looks to be foil sticking out of the side.
Just checked thru my Sichuan books and 辣子雞 la zi ji recipes call for only a few chilis -- 10 and under. Fuchsia Dunlop uses a small rice bowl of dried chilis, but she says to use Sichuan chilis if possible. They are moderately hot.
Maybe the chef in that restaurant just likes to boast the hottest dish around? And maybe he makes up for the cost of the chilis by using cheap elbows?
Are you keeping a food log on this trip? And are you going to go home and indulge in some nice comforting neutral congee?
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There is simple no accounting for taste. When I give my cooking classes. the people are facing some my bookshelves --- and there are 4 shelves of Chinese cookbooks in that spot. Most people are intrigued and ask question about what I would recommend. But one woman, one time, asked if I had something simple -- like a Better Homes and Gardens Chinese Cookbook with easy recipes! AAARRGGGHHHH!
Every single book may not be the perfect for any one person, but there has yet to be a book that I have not learned something from. (or is it -'from which I have learned something')!!!
Pictures are always nice, but none match the wonderful instructive photos that hzrt offers. The books that have no pictures, or only a few, but which have personal accounts along with recipes are fonts of information.
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hzrt ----HeeHee! I also read, open-mouthed, your comment on garlic. I said to myself "HUH?" You DO like your garlic, altho when you use it, it is usually browned and cooked.
Of all the eel dishes in my Shanghai cookboks, there is only one with garlic and it isn't raw.
Could there be any merit ( in history) in raw garlic and its use as against intestinal parasites that may be associated with a dish?
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Jo-Mel, I hadn't realized that some restaurants deep fried their "foo yong". Must be the dickens of a job, what with all the ingredients bursting all over the deep fat.
Perhaps Dejah knows this better than I, but when they are deep fried, the oil is boiling and a ladle of mix is carefully tipped into the oil and then the ladle is used to immediately splash (or pour) the hot oil on the top surface so as to harden the top before turning. I guess some restaurants also pan fry them.
Once I made home style Fu Yong for my sister and her two boys. The kids turned up their noses because the omelettes weren't crisp and had no gravy. Tough! I had more for myself!!
When I think/smell fu yong, I am transported back to Boston's Chinatown when I was a kid, and the predominant aroma is from bean sprouts. I guess that is from using 'chop suey' mix as SueAn mentioned?
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Isn't the difference that one is "Western restaurant style" and the other "home style"? The restaurant style came along about the same time as chop suey and the like.
The restaurant style are small usually deep fried omelettes with a gravy on top, while the more authentic is simply a pan fried omelet -- sans gravy?
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Xiao Leung -- When I see your pictorials, I really think I can smell their aroma. Well, yesterday I was sauteing some onions for a stuffing. Usually I can't smell my own cooking, but when I saw the finished picture of your Egg Foo Young, instantly the scent of onions filled the room! LOL! See what your pictures do!!
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Eureka!! I have found the list. It's in one of my cookbooks "The Encyclopaedia of Chinese Cooking" by Kenneth Lo. In fact he lists 40 terms, starting on page 9 of this book and goes to page 20.
Great going, Ben! I can imagine how you felt when you found it!
I have the book, too. I had been going over all my books to see what methods were listed, but I hadn't come to Lo's books yet, so I'm happy you found it. He really just about covers it all. When I have a minute I plan to check his list against "Chinese Cooking" and see how they meld. Lo has some good explanations --- as if he was right beside you, explaining it.
Wish I knew how to scan a page in a book and then get it to the computer!
I already have a question, tho. The character for "variation on braising" ' (#24 in Lo) is 'chu/ju'. But I can't find the character as written. It is 火 on the left and 局 on the right --- but I can't find the two together as one character. herzt has the same character as 'bake'.
Lo's last paragraph in that chapter says "There are many more cooking terms than the foregoing forty. Every province and region has its own expressions and pecularities. Some of the cooking terms are related to the material and ingredients used. But forty is a round number, and the various local terms and expressions, although they may run into dozens more, are really only variations of these principal, basic terms."
WOW! More?
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~~~~~My maternal grandmother was 101 and her sisters lived well into their 80s through revolution, famines, tortures, disease and other tragedies that only women of that age can relate to. ~~~~~
Ben -- In my trips to China --- of all the things I've see both on and off the tourist track -- of all the food I've experienced, the scenery and attractions and all that--- only one thing made me stop and contemplate, really contemplate, ----was seeing an elderly woman. All I could think of was what that woman must have experienced. What she must have seen as she lived through those years. I'd feel it for the men, too --- but not like the woman. I would be in absolute awe. I experienced it in Russia, too, but not with the depth of feeling that I had for Chinese women. So much happened, so quickly (relatively) in their lives. What stories they could tell.
And back to food ----- I agree with the osmosis theory. All learned and passed along without reading it, without scientific studies, without nutritional counseling or fine print and warnings on packages!!
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Do you happen to know those 35 terms to describe cooking?
I'm curious, too. One of my books has 30 cooking terms. I'll list those when I have a chance.
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Ben -- to me you are Xiao Ben!
A Jewish friend of mine spoke of the affinity of Chinese food by Jewish people because of Jewish dietary laws concerning dairy -- and therefore the popularity of Chinese restaurants in Jewish neighborhoods.
Who came first? The Yellow Emperor or P'An Ku --- or are they one and the same?
As for yin/yang (or is it yang/yin?) ---- isn't it just balance? A spaghetti dinner is balanced by a salad. Even the steak and fries eaters have a yin beer to balance all that yang.
If we seem naturally to lean toward balance, why do Westerners reach for iced tea on a hot day?
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--- or is it your own yin yang need that makes you seek out those yin/yang foods.
(or is that what you are saying?)
Do we normally seek out yin/yang foods to maintain our normal balance, and is it when we are imbalanced that we have a natural need to rebalance? Like eating too much salt and then drinking water to offset it. (drinking is yang and eating is yin -- isn't it?)
Ben ---- You are toooooooo funny!!
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Well, I'm just going to have to find some fresh lychee and do some testing, and have some longans also -- as an antidote, of course!
Where do rambutans figure in this?
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When I saw the word "upscale", my first thought was ----HUH?
I don't mean that the food is not the best, as every meal I've had has been 4*s.
But he place is so homey, that I don't think of it as upcale. The dining room set-up, and the atmosphere is like family ----- and I can hardly wait to go back!!
Has this link been given?
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Wow... it's another honor! To be adopted! I grew up without a mother. I hope it's a good thing...
I live in the sunny... oh, not quite that sunny up in Northern Cal. This ain't no Los Angeles...No we don't have any pets (oh, I managed to spell it right this time, Dejah). If we do, they might acquire some crave for Cantonese food!
I may not be Chinese, but now I can say I have an adopted Chinese son!! YEAH!!!!!
SF: House of Nanking
in California: Dining
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Looks great!! What are the floating vegetables in the soup? Scallions? I can almost taste that broth.
Nanjing is the only place in the whole wide world where I had a dish with bean sprouts, and the sprouts were trimmed -- heads and tails!!