jo-mel

You can make train trips to Datong &/or Chengdu. Not known for any particular food, (except lamb) that I can remember, but certainly worth seeing for their very interesting historical places. My food log from those places were varied and good. I clearly remember Deep Fried Fat Chunks!! Cubes of fat that were fried! Also I see I had Meatballs braised with 5-Spice flavor, a couple of times.

I guess everything is relative. Even in Cantonese food you can experience a variety of tastes in a simple menu of Pickled Mustard Green Soup, Steamed Ham and Chicken and Black Bean Ribs. Hardly bland. But the 'simple purity' was just a description as compared to the depth of Sichuan cooking in which so many flavors are added. Not being Chinese, I'm not locked into any region (as I am with my New England tastes). I rarely cook a Chinese meal that does not bring all the regions, plus textures and forms of cooking into play. I love them all! Gary -- how do you figure that Cantonese is 'complex'?

The only dish that I can think of that would accept melted cheese is that classic Cabbage with Cream Sauce. Cheese would melt in with the milk, but then the simple fresh tastes of the basic flavorings would be loss. Even in a stewed dish, the cheese might overpower or alter the traditional flavors. Even the 'fusion cooks' haven't fooled with cheese --- or have they? (Rangoons not included)

I truely believe in Chi zai Guangzhou----, but isn't that because of the freshest of ingredients are available and the food is prepared in such a way as to keep to the Tao belief of things in the natural state? That the variety and cooking control add to the reputation of Cantonese cooking? Doesn't it mean that Sichuan or other regional foods are not less or better tasting, it's just that they are more complicated than the simple purity of the Southern regions?

Gotcha!! I was taking it too seriously! My New England Thanksgiving Dinner is the best in the country! There is only one BBQ -- South Carolina's! (ever get into a discussion about BBQ with a group of Southerners?!!)

'best tasting' I have a little trouble with that. Cantonese is certainly the 'most respected', but how does one determine 'best in taste' unless you have identical foods/dishes. Am I opening a can of worms?

K.C. Chang and Anderson cover this subject in their respective books on Chinese culture. They note that altho the lactose problem may be a factor, that issue doesn't seem to affect Indians and Central Asians who have the same intolerance. Those peoples simply add the bacteria which neutralizes the problem. Chang talks about milk being used all over the Far East today but "There is still some resistance to rank cheese, which we love, and we were amused to find it considered by our informants as the putrefied mucous discharge of an animal's guts. But, after all, many Westerners resist strong cheeses, too." Many dairy products were available during the occupations by 'barbarians' from the North, and when they left, the Han Chinese felt that reliance on dairy food would mean reliance on tarde with those 'barbarians'. Chang mentions the cheese produced AND used in Yunnan Province, but "the technology is probably derived from the Mongols and their followers and concentrated among the Yunnan Muslims~~~~~~~~" I had read, somewhere else, that altho milk products were available and used during those occupations, ----when those Dynasties were overthrown, cultural superiority stepped in and they rid themseves of those dairy items and their reminder of the foreign influence.

The cover picture on "Chinese Cooking" - (Zhaohua Publishing House, Beijing 1983) depicts that wonderful flare-up. When people in my classes ask about that special Wok Qi -- I show them that picture and tell them that if they can do that -- they've got it! The chef in the picture is very nonchalant looking, and it appears as tho he is holding the wok with his hand and a rag! I don't see any handle! The flame is so high and full, that is shines on his face. Cool!

I guess this is the time to use the "Wo bu xihuan chi gou rou' phrase!!

When I wash and dry a wok, after using it, I always rub a little, tiny, teensy bit of oil in it, and wipe it completely with paper towels. It keeps my woks from rusting. BUT -- don't ever put a wok away glistening with a layer of oil. The liquid in the oil evaporates over time, and you end up with a thick finger-scraping gel.

NancyH --- {{{{{{batting head!!}}}}}} I should have known!! Glad to 'see' you and telling that great story!!

I found these: (probably a repeat of WHT's information) http://www.herbs2000.com/herbs/herbs_chinese_angelica.htm http://www.myhealthspan.com/ChineseAngelicaRoot.shtm

Dejah - "I take cheap metal poultry skewers ( the ones used to seal up a bird once it is stuffed) and bend them into S hooks." I never thought of those skewers. I'm going to toss out my clumsy coat hanger 'S' hooks. They hang too low! Thanks!

Gary -- that was a nice complete list of food terms. Thanks! The 'corn flakes' was a funny touch! No 'wheaties' or 'froot loops'??

One time, I put a wok in the 'cleaning' cycle of my oven! It took every last bit of anything off the surface, and left me with a clean, but rusty wok. I then scoured it, got rid of all the 'debris', and started the seasoning process all over. Worked fine. BTW -- that wok had two metal handles. If it had had a wooden one, I would have simply removed the handle.

When the kids were growing up, Sunday dinner was a roast of some kind, with gravy, mashed -- whatever. In the Fall, when football was either on the radio or TV, Marty Glickman's voice was in the house with us. DD associated Roast Beef with Yorkshire Pudding with Glickman and came to think of that dinner as a "Marty Glickman dinner" She's now 46 and still serves a "Marty Glickman Dinner". (We do too!)

I had dinner in "Old Shanghai Restaurant" (twice). Not the same place? It was a culinary tour with Hugh Carpenter, and he picked out some pretty good places.

Looking forward to your experience at the Li Family Restaurant. I tried to get in there in 93, but couldn't. It was such a disappointment!

I can't list any right now, as I have a fixation on Shanghai Noodles with that gravy consistancy that is sooo good. Nice big chewy noodles and a homey sauce! OOPS -- I have to add Copper Well Street noodles to my list! HZRT - What is your reason for adding the browned pork back into the Zha Jiang Mian at the end? To keep the flavor of the pork in itself rather than leaching into the sauce?

In China, I have eaten in just about every venue possible, over a span of 13 years --- Top hotels, bottom hotels, clean places, spit-on-the-floor places, touristy places, strickly Chinese places, peoples homes, train food, boat food, street food, plane food, tent above/dirt below places, dormatory food, train station kiosk food----what have I left out? With all that -- I was sick only once, in China, and charcoal took care of it in a day. No one else with me became sick, so it still mystifies me. I also became sick from mussels, here in New Jersey, at a respected restaurant. (The Great Ko Shing) So I guess it depends if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Some places I used my own chopstick & bowl, and sometimes, in questionable places, I only ate stuff right out of boiling water/oil or a grill and into my own bowl -- but not always. But then again, I just might have an iron stomach!!

OK - we have a choice of thick/thin/fresh/dry -------but ----- which IS authentic?? (couldn't help myself!) Authentic is like The old 'meatloaf syndrome' -- my meatloaf and your meatloaf may be different, but they are both meatloaf.

OOPS! Sorry 'bout that, Gary! It really wasn't intentional --- but it did work! LOL! Qing -- not Xiao 小 Qing or Lao 老 Qing?

Qing --- What do you guys eat at the restaurant?

Don't forget the Stone Forest in Kunming. Interesting! I was with a travel agent friend, and we stayed at the Stone Forest Hotel. My food log shows that at breakfast there was a rice noodle dish with pork, red pepper, and salted vegetable that was "spicy and good". I also had a note saying 'coffee - I think it was coffee'!! LOL! I'm really enjoying your trip!

Being non-Chinese, I still like my Shizi Tou, GuoTie, and Mapo Doufu. But I also like Italian opera in Italian and German opera in German and the Latin mass. But that's just me. I remember when I first started translating place names in China. Exotic sounding Shanghai, Peking, Honan, Szechuan, etc, all lost their mystique when I learned their translations. Dejah -- the "real" menus, on the wall, are such a challenge! Printed-- OK, but written?? I have to work at it!