jo-mel
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Posts posted by jo-mel
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Got it! I've used them. But they are fairly new --- if the last 10 years, more or less, are considered newish. In restaurants, the pan/fried (Two sides yellow) noodles were the regular cooked noodles used for lo mien and the like. Then, all of a sudden, these noodles were on the market and were called Hong Kong noodles. Some were pretty good, and some were kinda uncooked tasting. In my classes Ive used both, and the people liked the ease in using the Hong Kong type.
"Lo Mein"! Ah... Thanks for bringing up another confusing terminology besides the bean sauce!
The "Lo Mein" in Hong Kong is the boiled egg noodles with oyster sauce poured on top, served with a small bowl of wonton broth on the side.
The "Lo Mein" as Hong Kongers know it do not exist in the US Chinese restaurants, except in those who cater to Hong Kongers.
The "Lo Mein" offered in the American-Chinese restaurants refer to what's closest to "Soy Sauce Chow Mein" in Hong Kong.
The "Chow Mein" as Hong Kongers know it is called "Pan-Fried Noodles", or "Leung Mein Wong" (Two Sides Yellow) in the US Chinese restaurants.
The "Chow Mein" offered in some American-Chinese restaurants refer to what's... well, there is not quite an equivalent in Hong Kong or China. How do you describe a dish of "stir-fried meat with vegetables" with broken deep-fried thick wheat noodles laid on the top? We just don't have such a dish.
OK -- so you have some cooked noodles and you have some sort of topping or a saucy flavored meat/veg mix or whatever.
You make the meat/veg mix and add the cooked noodles and MIX it. Voila Lo Mein?
Or---- you heat some oil and add the noodles, mixing them a little, but the idea is to get some of the noodles crispy and some are soft. You add the hot meat/veg mixture and mix it all up and -----?you have Chow Mein?
Or ---- you take the noodles and place them in a little oil, and let them cook on one side, then flip the entire thing to brown the other side. Place the pancake on a plate and add the hot meat/veg mix and you have Two Sides Yellow?
That is what I seem to have been following these many years.
That last one with the noodles placed on TOP of the meat/veg mix is something I've not seen.
Of course then there is the Chinese/American style of yore where a chop suey type of dish is placed on dry canned noodles and you have that comfort food of the 30's and 40s ------- and which my dear DH absolutely adores!! When I'm not around, and he gets take-out -------THAT is what he gets!!!! {{{{{{groan}}}}}}
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Wok hei in action!!!!!
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hzrt - another great one! I wonder why it is called 'gan' when it is fairly saucy.
.....Would you show what your ginger grater looks like?
.....One last thing. When you do your book, you will be showing not only that you don't have tomuse a wok to do fantastic Chinese food, but you don't need a big cleaver either! Conventional tools -- fantabulous food!
jo-mel: I think it is called "gan" because the shrimp is the main and "only" ingredient, not cooked with any vegetable or anything else. I may be off on this.
The grater that I use is an old-fashioned, "one facet" cheese grater with 2 blade/hole sizes. I use the 1/8-inch blades/holes to grate ginger. I don't like using the 4-facet cheese graters. They don't work too well for me.
I don't have a wok, but I do have a cleaver.
However, I much rather use a small chef knief to do most of my cutting/chopping. It is much lighter and much easier to handle. I reserve the cleaver for chopping whole chicken only, cooked or raw. Nothing like chopping flesh and bones with a heavy, sharp cleaver. (Uh oh, do I sound like a psychotic? 
)A wok and a cleaver have long been associated with traditional Chinese cooking. I have a feeling that if I ever find a publisher to print my cookbook, he/she will demand that I demonstrate all cutting techniques with a cleaver and cook everything on a wok! For showmanship sake.
That's the same grater I use. And I don't bother to peel the ginger. I use that same guage grater for garlic, too, ----when I want a fine mince. I don't peel the garlic. I just pick off the tip with my fingernails and grate away.
One of my cleavers is very narrow - about 1 1/2 inches across a regular length blade. I use it alot for light stuff.
If a publisher starts in on you, just tell him not to question a Master Chef!!
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hzrt - another great one! I wonder why it is called 'gan' when it is fairly saucy.
Would you show what your ginger grater looks like?
One last thing. When you do your book, you will be showing not only that you don't have tomuse a wok to do fantastic Chinese food, but you don't need a big cleaver either! Conventional tools -- fantabulous food!
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The aroma is jumping out at me, hzrt! Wonderful!
Tepee, I can make a tomato rose. They are the easiest!
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Got it! I've used them. But they are fairly new --- if the last 10 years, more or less, are considered newish. In restaurants, the pan/fried (Two sides yellow) noodles were the regular cooked noodles used for lo mien and the like. Then, all of a sudden, these noodles were on the market and were called Hong Kong noodles. Some were pretty good, and some were kinda uncooked tasting. In my classes Ive used both, and the people liked the ease in using the Hong Kong type.
I'm still partial to the regular noodle, but whatever noodle is served to this noodle-gal, she will chow down!
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Yes, it looked very much like kohlrabe. BTW: The technical term would be quenching.
That is fascinating! Using the water amount, and boiling point as a timer! Do you happen to know the chinese term for it?
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hzrt - I never heard the term "goes" before, but cooking the dumplings that way is supposed to help keep the dumpling skins intact, and not be split by the force of boiling water. By adding the cold water, it stops the boiling, but by the third boil, the dumpling filling will be cooked.
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These noodles look great, hzrt!
Are they the ones that feel semi dry in the package?
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Ah Leung:
---------"HRZT8W" certified dishes ----------
wesza ------ Loved your post, but the above phrase really got to me!!!!!! LOL! We can all say that we were in on it at the beginning!
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So------ 'bean sauce' for a bean flavor. This I've always done.
If I want 'bean sauce' with a 'kick', then I just use dou ban jing that has some sort of chili in the ingredients.
Then if I want a wallop, then I use the dou ban jiang and extra chili----- or I can use the plain bean sauce with a lot of chili?
I'll buy a jar of LKK for a taste test. I've never been a real fan of the label because they have so much sugar in their hoisin sauce. Koon Chun has 3 gms of sugar per Tb, and LKK has over 20 gms. Maybe their dou ban jiang is different.
I understand about the fine print! Sometimes it is dark ink on a dark label!!
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Deh-Ta Hsiung has a page on Black and White Pepper. He said the black (first green, then red then black and dried) altho aromatic, are less pungent than the white (ripe, soaked to remove the coating, dried).
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Probably innovating cooking?
Susanna Foo has "Cold Beer Shrimp" in her book.
I just found this "Yangshuo Beer Fish" in a google. Is says it is a local specialty. If this is the Yangshuo on the Li River, I wonder if it was influenced by the tourist influx.
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This thread is a good candidate for the best information, instruction, or documentation on Chinese cooking I have ever seen, and I have a large stack of famous books on Chinese cooking. Three loud cheers for digital images, the Internet, and eG!
Cashews are widely available. The cashews you bought, were they, as you bought them in the bag, already salted or not, roasted or raw? If they were just raw whole unsalted shelled cashew nuts, then I will know what to look for.
The 10 ounces, was that the weight of the bag or the weight of the nuts you actually used?
Is there a reason you used breast meat instead of thigh meat?
Project -- I agree! These pictorial sequences can't be found anywhere. I, too, have many many books. One is "Chinese Step-by-Step Cooking (Yan Kit Mar.in), but it is not as complete as Ah Leungs. The WeiChuan books also have picture guide, but also lacking the fool proof pictures here.
hzrt --- Get thyself to an agent!!
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I've used bean sauce for many years. Mostly Koon Chun brand. I know it is from brown/yellow beans, and that the sauce has bean pieces in it. The Ground Bean Sauce is almost the same but has a smooth texture and is supposedly made from inferior beans. It is also much saltier, so I rarely use it.
Regular Bean Sauce has been my choice and when I want some heat, I usually use Lan Chi brand Chili Bean Paste with Garlic (or chili peppers.)
Well, when the term Dou Ban Jiang" came up on these threads, I wondered what it was, as it sounded like a regular bean sauce, but might have some chilis in it as I gathered that it spiced up a dish.
So I did some buying of the different brands, and it is as pcbilly said --- it is very confusing.
豆 瓣 酱
辣 豆 瓣
员 骰 豆支
The first -- Dou Ban Jiang is on a Union Foods label , called Bean Paste, and is just beans and salt
Also the first -- 'Dou Ban Jiang' is under a Hsin Tung Yang label, called Soybean Paste but has Soy bean paste, chili, sugar, salt and spice.
The second --La Dou Ban, is Union Food label, called Hot Bean Paste. It has chili, bean, salt, vinegar, sesame oil in it. At least this one has the word hot - la -辣 - on the label.
The last - Yuan Shai Douchi is Koon Chun and has beans, flavorings and no heat. But I didn't expect it in this jar., but is called Bean Sauce, as the first two are. (Bean Sauce in English, but different Chinese characters.)
The term Dou Ban Jiang can either be hot or not, as these jars say.
I know that the terms paste and sauce are usually interchanged, so that is not a factor.
My question is this --- If I want to use Dou Ban Jiang, do I need to add chili, or should I just ignore it all and use my regular Koon Chun Bean paste and add chili if I want heat.
Maybe I should just read labels!
What brand do you all use for Dou Ban Jiang?
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hzrt -- Why thank you!!!! Yeah -- I do love Northern cooking, and it may be because of the hoisin, or the pepper/vinegar ---I don't know. Maybe because I've spent more time in Beijing than the other areas. But I also have a thing for Eastern lately. But then there is the zing of Western, and the purity of Southern ------AARRGGHHHH! What to do. The one thing I have is that since I'm not Chinese, I am not locked into any area. When I have a big dinner, I try to balance all the regions.
Your Chicken with cashews is better than the one I've used -- maybe because of the different blends of sauces. Seems like a lot of depth in it. But I will have to have the cashews on the side. DH can't eat them, so I will serve him first and then mix them in.
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Wesza -- I had to laugh when you said that your SIL wanted to use ALL the cashews. When I was in a dorm situation in China, one of the popular dishes was pork with peanuts and chili peppers. Usally fatty, but very good and because I love peanuts, I had it a lot. Well, one time the dish should have been called Peanuts with pork flavoring and chili peppers! I guess they ran short on pork! But I loved it. All those peanuts!!
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pcbilly --
You have brought up one of my questions, -- on the bean sauces, but I will put it on a separate thread.
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Pssttt! Jo, Fengyi's writing in mandarin....you're writing in pinyin!
And, I'll add:
7. La bu la, wo dou bu pa!
OOPS! Wo shuo cuole! No chilis for me!!
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1. 辣 ? 我怕! Hot?.....I'm scared!
2. 我怕辣. I'm scared it's 'hot'.
3. 我不怕辣..... I'm not scared it's 'hot'.
4. 辣 , 我不怕! Hot?!?!? I'm not scared!
5. 我怕不辣 I'm scared it's not hot!
6. 不辣?!?! 我怕!! Not hot?!?!? I'm scared!!!
Love it! I plan to memorize it -- with proper emphasis.
OK if I write it in Mandarin?
1. La? Wo pa!
2. Wo pa la.
3. Wo bu pa la.....
4. La, wo bu pa!
5. Wo pa bu la.
6. Bu la?!?! Wo pa!!
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hzrt --
On those sizzling rice dishes -- forget the shrimp! I go for the rice with the sauce on it. I'm not one for tomatos in Chinese cooking, and even the tomato sauce dishes are at the bottom of my list ---- but the dish you described does have a flavorable sauce. Hugh Carpenter has a great Tomato Fireworks Shrimp dish that is wonderful over sizzling rice.
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This Catholic is a bagel-eater.
Fruit Danish? Fugeddaboudit.
Cheese Danish? For dessert. (After all, ----all those fixins for the bagel amount to a meal.)
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hzrt -- that 'hot fish fillet' dish should be called 'chilis with fish fillet flavor'!!
My DH loves hot. He puts tabasco on his horseradish and uses red pepper flakes liberally. Well we were in the Yucatan bone fishing, and the Mayan chef on the island made a tortilla soup to die for. However he garnished it with a habenero pepper. An innocent little pepper sitting on top of the soup. Well, DH doesn't know habanero from a pickle. So he put the whole thing in his mouth, chewed and swallowed. In less than a minute he asked -- "Was I supposed to eat that thing?" He'd finally met his match!
What is the hottest part of a chili? The seeds? The rib inside that holds the seeds? The outer skin?
I like Ma La dishes, and in the la 辣, I like the heat it imparts, rather than eating the chilis themselves. But I especially like the ma 麻. Not just the numbing, but the flavor. Maybe the flavor is more the fragrance, but I really like it.
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Carswell --- so how did the dish taste?
I think we've all experienced the 'cough' from fried chilies. It has to wear off. You really can't do anything about those droplets in the air if you are in the middle of them. I had a whole table of students hacking one time. I told them that they REALLY learned a lesson!
I've done the sizzling dishes for both classes and for family. A shrimp one on sizzling rice on a sizzling platter, a steak and onions, and a steak with black pepper sauce.
About the black pepper sauce----- is that Hong Kong innovation for Western tastes or do Chinese like it too? I love it! A place nearby, has oysters on skewers in black pepper sauce on a sizzling platter. So good --- and yes --- it turns eyes. I asked the waiter where the oysters came from. He said he'd ask the chef. The chef told him --- a can!! I couldn't believe it! I still like them and order them whenever I go there. Many black pepper sauces are on scallops or shrimp, but even tho those are fresh, I still prefer those canned oysters.
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Awwwwww--- Thanks, Ah Leung! Looking at your masterpiece is to taste it. And the aroma-----! Well, I'm humbled that you would do this for me.
Yes! Get that cookbook going!
Ben-- LOL! Stack them horizontally? HeeHee! DH and I have wonderful memories of the Mirimichi and their salmon.
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Oh!! My 1000th! Hee Hee -- I think I've been broken in! Tepee -- was that message, on another post, for me? I saw it ant thought that someone had passed a milestone, but I'd never checked to see where I stood! Thanks all!
Wesza -- I'm not too nice. When I've served a clay pot with rice, I don't tell anyone what is on the bottom. They are not usually Chinese, so they don't know about that goody, and I have it all to myself!
In Asia, isn't the rice that is left on the sides and bottom of the pot -- and dried out, the original basis for sizzling rice? (And I assume done here by Chinese families) I've done it that way --- leaving a thick coating in the pan, but then I made it in the oven --- then I ?progressed? into buying the cakes.
Pictorial: Hong Kong Chicken Pan-Fried Noodles
in China: Cooking & Baking
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Leung/liang? We are talking 'two' 两 here?
Does it matter if the noodles are thick like Shanghai (yum!) or regular Cantonese, or the Kong Kong 'ready to use' type? They can all be made pancake style and be called Liang Mian Huang?
About Shanghai noodles -- There is a noodle dish I like that requires no pre-cooking. The raw noodles are lightly colored in a little oil before stock/broth is added. After cooking for 5 minutes the sauce and rest of the cooked meat/veg mix is added. Easy without having to have an extra pot.