Dejah

Thanks, Peony. I thought that was the name, but when I did google on arrowroot, it showed me a different looking tuber. Don't think I'll be deep frying them. If anyone has any other ideas, please post. Edited to add: That water chestnut cake looks so good! My s-i-l makes this, and after telling me how much muscle power one needs, I decided it's tradition for her to make it.

Lovely looking leen gnow, Habeas, as is the dish! I bought a bag of "see goo" on the weekend. I can't remember the English name for this "corm"? The only way I've eaten this was steamed to accompany lap yoke. Suggestions? If no one can understand my Toisanese, I'll get a picture of them later and post for identification.

Thursday's supper: Habeas' Szechuan Green Beans with Pork/Pork Hubby was very happy with the pork/pork. The plate is one of a set of three varying sizes that Superstore had on sale for $2.98! How could I resist? Friday, as I mentioned in a previous post, was the International Students Banquet. There were some dishes made by the students, but they were long gone by the time our table got to the food line. Other food was catered to by a local Chinese restaurant. Not to be arrogant, but no wonder people miss Soo's! The other items came from our new East Indian restaurant. The butter chicken, curry shrimp, curry chickpeas, and vegetarian basmati rice was worth waiting for. Made me crave for more, and you'll see the results of that craving further down this post! Saturday was bloody cold - windchill temps of -45, but we headed off to Winnipeg anyway to catch our son's gig at the Academy Eatery and Bar. Thru' various emails from the daughter and son, they were missing Soo's curry chicken - #36 on our menu. For supper on Friday, we braved the cold (-40C as well) and had supper at the English Pavilion - part of our annual Winterfest . The choices were steak and kidney pie, English pasties, steak and stout stew. Dessert was Spotted Dick and Custard. It all went down well while listening to some of our buddies perform songs by the Beatles. By 9 PM, I was cooking #36 with six chicken breasts, 4 medium size onions, bulk curry powder from SERCA distributing (gotta have the old authentic Soo's taste, and it does have a good curry flavour), fresh red chili peppers. The chicken was marinated in seasonings, oil and cornstarch. I cooked it in 3 batches, resulting in 4 Ziplock sandwich-sized containers for the kids, and nice snack portions for hubby and myself - eaten at 10 PM! What trip to Winnipeg, especially in this weather, would be complete without a visit to Chapters and Chinatown for groceries? After seeing c. sapidas' beauties from The Vietnamese Kitchen, I HAD to have that book! First stop - Chapters and the book jumped out at me. Beside it, to feed my craving for more curry, I found Curry Cuisine - Fragrant dishes from India, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia. I've been browsing in both books and they were well worth the trip to Chapters. Next on the agenda was Sun Wah Grocery in Chinatown. The parking lot is always a hazardous place. I was worried that all the BBQ meats would be gone by 2pm, but I was lucky as they were just bringing in a new batch from their kitchen. I picked out a duck (for my freezer for later use), lots of char siu and siu yuk for the kids, and 2 pig stomach for supper tonight. There were many displays of CNY candies, treats. I picked up packages for Mom, the students' treats, and ourselves. Now to keep our hands off until NY! For vegetables, I got dow miu, baby bok choi, baby Shanghai bok choi, leen gnow, fresh bak hap, Thai basil, Thai chilis, pomelo, as well as cheung fun, and a mango sponge cake for Mom. Now, I've been watching you guys with your bellys - pork bellys, that is, and what I've found in our meat counters have been disappointing in quality abd price. What did I see in Sun Wah's fresh meat counter for a total of $3.78 but this 1.8 lb. beauty: I was undecided on how to use this pork belly, but having enjoyed the beautiful crispy-skinned siu yuk from the BBQ specialists, I will probably braise this and attempt Tepee's with wutow, if I can find wutow at the store. If I had been able to buy two pieces of pork belly, I would have attempted sheetz's siu yuk. My main excuse is that I don't have a convection oven.

Dang, Pam! It's cold in Winnipeg! We went in this morning and had planned to stay overnight. But, my daughter's apt. complex doesn't have visitor's parking with plugins, so we came home - got in an hour ago. Brrrrrr.....-47C windchill. My daughter was invited to the Tu Bi'Shvat dinner - but had to miss it. She was kicking herself after she saw your pictures. Do you shop at Sun Wah in Chinatown? Inspite of the weather, the place was packed and you can imagine what the parking lot was like. They were lined up at the BBQ counter, and the 2 cash out lanes. I was checking out the tabletop burners like the one you used for your hotpot dinner. Do you like it? Does it give off fumes?

Gastro Mui: Do your parents still have the restaurant? If so, where is it located?

Thanks, Daniel, for linking sheetz's picture of the crispy pork. I red braised a pork butt, and a pork shoulder a while back, one with dark soy sauce, star anise, cinnamon stick, and cane sugar (Chinese rock sugar) crystals, and the other with sweet soy sauce and Thai chilis. Both were great as pulled pork sandwiches on crusty rolls.

Daniel: That slab of pork belly is a thing of beauty! I was checking them out in our supermarket and for $27.00, it was miserable looking. I'm heading to an Asian market in the city this weekend, so I'll be on a hunt! Meanwhile, check out a post by Chinese forum egulleteer sheetz for her take on siu yok - Chinese crispy pork made from pork belly. I always enjoy a siu yok sandwich, crispy skin and all. Sorry I don't know how to post a link to the picture in question, but it's post # 688, page 23 of the Chinese Eats at Home thread.

Wow! Thanks for the picture of the Paddle Wheel Cafeteria, Pam. The food looks the same as it did when I used to eat there in the mid-sixties! I had forgotten about that place. We still shop at the Bay, but mostly on the floor with the women's clothing. I remember sitting at one of the U-shaped counters. Are they still the same? Do you like the malts at the food bar in the basement? They are thick and chocolatety. Once in a while, we'll remember and take the escalator down for one. Eaton's Grill Room was classier. I miss Eaton's!

Nooooooooooooooooooo! Don't let her do it! The addition of sweet chili sauce makes it more appetizing. The rice wine vinegar would also add a flavour as opposed to red food colouring, sugar, water and vinegar.

I have never made this "Christmas sauce", as my kids call it, but the recipe TJ Harris posted is what I would suspect. It's cheap, quick, sweet, and sour. The red flecks could well be undisolved red food colouring. Can't understand how people can soak their food in this red glue.

I don't need to cook tonight. The international students are putting on a "foreigner food buffet" at the university. I love their wording. Not sure what the foreigner food will be, but some will be Chinese. The teachers are all guests, so we don't have to take food. Some of the students were disappointed!

Good Grief! Too time consuming? When you retire? Why you young whippersnapper! I ought to take the gai mo so to your butt! Salting your old ham dan is NOT time consuming. You buy some eggs, duck eggs if possible, or double yolk chicken eggs, or just extra large chicken eggs. Mix up brine strong enough so that an egg will float in it. Use a non-metallic container big enough to hold a couple dozen eggs. Add the eggs, place a plate on top so the eggs are all submerged but not packed down. Leave it in a cool place for a month - VOILA! Check the eggs after about 3 weeks. How long it takes depends on how strong your brine solution is. Retire...hrumph!

Egg yolks are high in Cholestrol; therefore,..................... The ham dan you get is cooked? I've never heard of that. Are you thinking they are cooked because the yolk is firm? They wouldn't keep very long even in the fridge

Welcome to the forum! Shengcai. Your first post looks mighty good. I'm wondering if your surname is "Cai" is another pronunciation of Choy/Choi/Tsai, and so on. We have some distant relatives here in the city named Cai. Written in Chinese characters, it is Choy. Are you of the Toisanese clan?

Susan: Did you do anything with the chicken feet after making the stock? I would have sauteed some fermented black beans, garlic, ginger and Thai chilis in the wok, then toss in the now more than tender feet for a "dim sum" order of Golden Phoenix Claws!

Talk about differences in techniques! Poor Gastro Mui won't know how to make this by the time we all put in our 2 cents worth. To me, you don't "velvet" the meat by browning. It's the marinating of the meat with seasonings, oil and cornstarch that results in the velvet texture once you chow the meat. You don't have to remove the meat at medium rare unless you like it medium rare. I would blanch the bittermelon for a very few minutes - only because my husband doesn't really like his vegetables crisp. (Too much old style English cooking by the female relatives on HIS side!) The dow see ginger garlic paste is then stir-fried before I add the fu gwa. Remember, you want the melon to have the dow see flavour. Mix and stir-fry this a couple of minutes, then add stock. Let it simmer for a couple minutes ( I go by visual, so don't ask me how long!). Without thickening the liquid, remove the melon and the liquid. Here, I differ from Ah Leung. My second step is the browning of the beef. Once I clean out the wok (all the bits are in the plate with the melon), I chow the meat in the hot oiled wok. Once the slices reach the degree of doness I want, I'd put the melon back in with some of the liquid. The cornstarch used to marinate the meat will thicken the sauce somewhat. If you want it thicker, then add a little more slurry. If you want lots of sauce, take out the now thickened melon and meat, add the rest of the liquid held back, then thicken this and pour on top. Sometimes, I will just thicken at the end the melon step, plate this, chow the beef, add a bit of stock to form a light sauce coating on the meat, and serve the meat just on top of the bittermelon or other vegtables. Whew! Thank you for your patience, Ladies and Gentlemen. Dejah will now leave this post!

I buy the black beans with the ginger in it, but I also add fresh ginger. I often add slivers of ginger to the meat to be chowed. Oyster sauce doesn't complement the black bean garlic sauce. Added to meat, it will "mask" the natural flavour of beef, pork, or chicken, and muddle the flavour if they are to be part of a flavoured dish, as with black beans and fu gwa. I DO enjoy oyster sauce - as a dip for simmered chicken, as a base for sauce for vegetables such as gai lan, or for sandpots with bland ingredients such as tofu. It's also great with ho fun - my kids' favourite. With Chinese mushrooms, oyster sauce seems to complement its strong flavour. Or, is it good because all that sauce seeps down into the bland lettuce? Now, I'm wondering as I write this: Is the tendency to use oyster sauce frequently or infrequently dictated by what we grow up with and how our elders cooked? I know Ah Leung favours it for marinades whereas I, and maybe Ben Sook, do not use it as often.

Being of the "older generation", I too cook as Ben Sook - basic ingredients in this dish. To be honest, I very seldom use shiaoxing wine in my cooking. I will use it with fish, squid, but that's all. This is used to counteract any "sang mei" - fishiness. Otherwise, I don't care for the taste of the wine. Guess my cooking is just not elevated above "gah hing". To marinate meat, I just use salt, pepper, msg, oil and cornstarch if I want to velvetize. Oyster sauce?! 5-spice? These do not pair well with dow see. I even at the sesame oil although I love the stuff and may cave. If you use a lot of stock, then you'd need to increase the amount of dow see for flavour. If the sauce is too runny, use a more concentrated slurry made with stock, not water. For the bittermelon to really absorb the flavour, stir-fry the black beans WITH the melon rather than the meat. To me, it's the melon that should be flavoured.

Congee. Wonton soup with shrimp roe noodles. Hot 'n' Sour soup - pushing it? edited to add: Way ta go - PamR. Do Manitoba proud!

Hey Folks: Meet a foodie pal of mine from Brandon: Inga. Now that she's joined, I'll have to show her how to post! How did your chicken stir-fry with oyster sauce turn out tonight?

Bruce: Your descriptions are OVER THE TOP! Your photos are very much appreciated when Ms. Dunlop doesn't have visuals of dishes such as this one. And now, I'll have to get the Vietnamese Kitchen book that you have been showcasing. Trying to keep up with Bruce - never mind the "Joness"!

Shaya, What did you use to make the dipping sauce for the Vietnamese Beef Rolls? Your marinated beef sound good. I'll have to try that instead of the usual shrimp.

The paler green ones you see may be grown in a greenhouse. They are the same as the usual ones in the summer. You can stuff them with ground pork, sauteed then gently braised. Or, make soup with melon chunks, rehydrated oysters, pork and some ginger. Our local Asian store brought in a case, but most of the melons were bought up by their East Indian customers. I bought my share and had dow see gnow yuk chow fu gwa served on top of ho fun.

I can attest to what Ben said. I work for an interpretor service out of Tuscon, Arizona. Many of my calls for Toisanese are from hospitals in New York, Brooklyn, Conneticut, Boston, Sacramento, Denver, you name it. This was such a surprise to me. Years ago, when we went to a Chinese restaurant anywhere, Toisanese and Cantonese were the main dialects for the wait staff, and Toisanese for the kitchen. They were able to understand eachother as there are similarities. Now, there is a lot more putongqua spoken. That's a whole new "language" to me. I switch to English, and even today, I get "Chinese don't know how to speak chinese". So, Peony, don't feel bad; you're not alone!

From Dejah's View, All Over Again: Buffet Item - Toisan Pork Chops: breaded pork chops with sweet/sour/spicy sauce. The sauce was a mix of Worchestershire sauce, ketsup, and Soo's "secret stock). A "just to use up stuff" dish: Snow Peas and Squid.