Dejah

This is a wonderful virtual tour, Doddie, of the food and sights in and around your home. Any chance we could see your first published poem? I'm sure it is on topic as you wrote it at your Mom's burger stall.

Sadly, this is why it's so hard for me to find a place to eat this. The taste of it makes me cringe for some reason, just the way a piece of pork fat would. Yes, you may strip me off my eGullet membership now. I don't think you usually fry the yam cake this way. What my family does is slice it and panfry--crispy edges! ← What makes you cringe? The texture of the cake or the minced preserved radish? If it's the latter, you can leave it out if there are lots of other ingredients. My family is like yours, MLI. We've never cut it up into chunks then stir-fried. We've sliced and panfried for the crispiness.

Cruellers cut into rings so they can get globs of jook inside; diced pei dan; slivers of preserved chili radish; and cilantro! Kids must have pork silk, cruellers. Grandson likes siu mai in his. Smart boy - meat eater!

Doddie: You mentioned in your introduction that you are a writer. Can you expand on that - or did I miss that particular post?

Huh...you young'uns are teaching this old dog new tricks. Thank you! But, to be honest, I don't think I'll ever learn to control my "lieu hand" - so my taro or turnip cake will always fall apart if I try to stir-fry the slices!

I think I've had something similar. It was just plain white turnip cake cut into long pieces (like fat fries) and stir fried with scrambled egg and green onions. ← Really? Must be quite a bit of rice flour in it to make it very firm. Am I missing out on something special?

Taro and turnip cakes are just that - cakes/goh. They are not ingredients to be cooked into another dish. It accompanies other dishes - as part of dim sum or as a snack. There are so many flavours in these cakes : doong goo, lap cheung, har mai, some even put in oyster sauce and cooking wine. If you try to "stir-fry it in with other ingredients, it would just crumble.

You can use the blender to grind the sesame seeds. I seem to remember someone else using a blender, and they had enough water in with the seeds so that it ended up like a thick black smoothie. Then you can adjust the thickness when you cook it. The rice flour would be the thickening agent - nor mai fun, I think. I'm sure peony would be able to elaborate on this.

I remember my Mom grinding the black sesame seeds and rice into flour form. Then, this is boiled with Chinese rock sugar (made from cane juice) into a slightly thickened soup. It was also said that you shouldn't eat gima wu too often as it will turn your skin black.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that you can fry up strips of Pilsbury canned bread dough if you don't have any yao zha guai. ← "guai" means devil. How can you call the Pilsbury Doughboy "devil"? SheenaGreena: The term "gruel" is not allowed at this time.

So, Dang Msians! Congee is like a foreign word, but porridge isn't! Sure, Pan. "Thorw another log on the fire, won't cha?" To add to the list, what about gruel then? jtnippon! Show thine face in here! Mumble, mumble - Give me that can of Campbell's Chicken and Rice SOUP!

Oh Oh! GIRD YOUR LOINS, ERGO SUM YOUR COGITAS', DRAW YOUR LINE IN THE SAND. The storms of another semantic war is gathering. Does porridge have to be made only with oatmeal? Do we not call jook rice porridge? When my mother fed me savoury oatmeal porridge did she not call it mak pei jook? ← According to Oxford dictionary, - congee is a "thick Oriental soup made of rice" -porridge is a dish consisting of oats or another cereal boiled in water or milk, - cereal is any kind of grain used for food, and rice is a grain. Therefore, I decree that congee can be called savory porridge, but a savory porridge made with oats or grains other than rice must be called savory porridge, and not congee. Only savory rice porridge may be called congee. Now, can anyone find the word "jook" in a dictionary? And, "mares eat oats and does eat oats, but we all eat congee..."

Doddie: What kind of rice do you use? From the pictures, it looks like glutinous rice. I asked my Korean students if they ate rice for breakfast every morning. Both of them, one being 35 years old and the other is 24, said they don't, but their parents do.

You can get creamy jook by "whipping" it with a big whisk at the final stage of cooking. I prefer to have "grains of rice" in jook. The creaminess depends on how much you whip it. I don't tend the pot very much while it is cooking because I like the "browned stuff" stuck to the bottom of the pot! This thread is not good for people on Weight Watchers or South Beach diets!

Good Morning, Yemyem, and welcome. Now that you've posted, you are no longer a "newbie"! Leftover rice is certainly a good option for quick jook fix - better than farina.

Some Chinese food ingredients, like aged red wine and brandy, are more precious the older they get. Examples: chan pei (dried mandarin peels). ← Ahem! You forgot to mention Chinese women before Chinese food ingredients.

I cannot visually imagine what this dish is. Is it still called "jai"? "Jai", which simply means a vegetarian dish, is typically a mixed stir-fry like what sheetz had or some wheat gluten or pressed tofu cooked with some sauces. ← Yes, it is still called jai, but gon (hard G)=dry jai. There is no sauce. Maybe it's a Toisanese or local dish. Ben: Any ideas?

Any rice cooker can make jook, but on top of the stove doesn't need to take more than an hour. You'd have to "mind it", I suppose, but that's all part of the joys of making jook!

As a previous poster said, these blogs continue to be stupendous! Having read your posts, I am so glad to see you blogging. I have had many students from Korea, and our Korean community is growing monthly, it seems. They have introduced me to many Korean dishes and given me Korean cookbooks. So, this is exciting for me to have a glimpse of their country. The Philippines have always fascinated me, but I have never eaten any cuisine from that part of the world. Now, I will have to look for a cookbook. I am so looking forward to learning from you! Your little guys are cute, and I liked the contrast in their names - Jai -for you, and Billy for DH and the USA? My older son's name is Ja-On - for moi, but both sons carry the William for DH.

Your idea of using oats reminds me of the oatmeal porridge my mom used to make in HK for my breakfast. Dad had sent a big container of regular oatmeal from Canada. Not being used to eating NA style porridge, Mom used to make a savory version, much like what you described!

OMG ROFL ← I hope you read all the posts that led up to Ben's comment. ← Whoa!! I do sound like a dirty old man, don't I?? The Devil made me do it!! What thread was that from? ← Check back up on page one of this thread, Ben!

There is nothing better than that plate of gai lan! Do you blanch, steam or quick stir-fry the gai lan? Did anyone make the dry version of jai? I mean the one with the soybeans, dow see lam, fun see, etc? That's the kind where you'd put a spoonful on a lettuce leaf, wrap it and stuff into your mouth. I have the ingredients, just haven't gotten around to making it. I took a big chafer of fun see topped with char siu to our students' CNY party. They didn't bring it out until after I went thru' the food line. I accused them of saving it for themselves. There were several dishes of stir-fried woodear. That's supposed to be traditional - auspicious for CNY. Maybe it is in other parts of China, but I don't remember my mom ever cooking just woodear. I was surprised to see two dishes containing jee toe ( pig stomach). It's one of my favourite organ meats, especially in fu jook tong. Sheetz: Glad you and Bruce liked the ribs. They were indeed finger-lickin'-good!

Seriously, do you REALLYwant it that badly, and I do mean badly?! If you've eaten slow-simmered, well-made, authentic congee, you will forever have that taste and feeling of contentment in memory. I think you will be sorely disappointed with this quick fix. But then, try it and prove us wrong.

OMG ROFL ← I hope you read all the posts that led up to Ben's comment.

I've seen those 1 pc steel ones but they look like they're covered or coated in some type of shiny coating. I'm afraid of that flaking off and getting into the food or melting in high heat. ← Are you talking about the coating that you have to wash/burn off before seasoning a new wok?