Dejah

Even when it's hot weather, I enjoy noodles. Hor fun, cheung fun, ramen (the salt is so good when feeling a bit under the weather), chow mein. When I make bok choy soup, I add several chunks of carrot and celery along with a honey date.

Aiyeeah! Away for two days and I've missed so many posts! I've been to the big city of Winnipeg and came home loaded...as in groceries. Planning to have some cheung fun with dried shrimp, yu choi mue, char siu for a quick supper. Ben Sook: We a friend and I went to Kum Koon for dim sum today. It was excellent as usual. We had gook fah cha with our dim sum. Waddled out.

All the blogs have been real adventures, thanks to all eGulleteers! The photos have created quite a "drool blotch" on my desk. sazji: Your blog from Turkey is especially appreciated at this time as I have three students from Turkey in my university ESL class. They try to explain their food and country to their classmates and me, and now, we can look at your blog for visuals to go with their explanations. Last week, they brought Turkish Delights to share in conversation class. A previous poster mentioned similarity to Apletes and Cotlets from Seattle. That's what I thought of when I saw the Turkish Delight. Thanks for all the delightful pictures.

How about sweet/salty/sour: chun pei yuen - boogers - tiny, tiny cubes of orange peel in the little bottles. The kids always called them boogers, and they loved to gross out their Canadian friends.

Sheetz: That braised pork is beautiful! I'll have to try the reduction and glaze step next time. I was comparing yours to mine posted on page1, and yours is definitely the prettier one. However, mine was very tasty and tender as well. I used a pork shoulder picnic cut. They were on sale that week, but about 3 times as much this week! I think you need to have that skin and the layer of fat on the pork to really get the flavour and texture. Oh...the skin and fat.... For sugar, I used palm sugar, only because I had a package opened. My students wanted me to add Sechuan peppercorns next time! 3 more days then I can have my bittermelon fix!

All I can say is: "This thread is getting wayyyyy out of hand!" Hubby thought I was going senile, sitting here drooling,that is, until he saw the food posted, and he too started to drool. I've only had xiao long bao once, and have been in search of them ever since. There is one place in Winnipeg, Manitoba that makes them, my former favourite haunt. But, I haven't been there for quite some time because I abandoned them for dim sum restaurants. Now, I find out they've started serving several dim sum items. I DO have a recipe for home-made and have bought pork shanks for the jelly. If possible, could you post your recipe and directions, RRO? It will be one of many projects over the holidays.

On the prairies, I daydream about fresh shrimp. To have the "crunch", I soak the peeled shrimp in a solution of cornstarch and cold water for about half an hour, rinse, then cook accordingly. I need to get closer to an ocean!

I've never heard of a restaurant getting the "white part only" with bok choy. The bok choy for my ex-restaurant always came as whole plants in wooden cases. The choice part is the core of the bok choy. My mom used to get that part as the stalks are so tender. Wait! Off topic here.

Leftover char siu in my restaurant was usually diced, julienned, sliced for use in fried rice, chow mein, Singapore rice noodles, wonto soups, etc. If the fresh batch is not ready when we need it for lunch, we can microwave quickly to use as appetizers. You should leave the piece whole, don't cover the container, then zap at short intervals. The reheat cycle works well. Best way, of course, is to eat it fresh that day.

Came home to finish BBQing the venison kebabs, so taking time to post the stir-fried venison from last night's supper. It really was delicious! I used big slices of ginger and left the scallions in long pieces. Hubby loves ginger. The kebabs are more Thai/Mayasian flavouring, but I might post pictures later anyway.

You should have explained indeed; I enjoyed your run-down of the process to cooking "/k/***'s Killer Krab"! . Yep. Frying a garlic/ginger/chilli mix is hilarious!What? You are not chinese? I assumed you were all along. ← Aiyeeah! Forget about it, Liuzhou. You can't be anything other than Chinese! You've morphed. Wonderful looking crabs. Way too early for me to be drooling.

Would you marinade the venison before stir-frying? I think ginger, garlic and scallions are the key ingredients.

According to one of my brother's hunting buddies, gaminess also depends on the way the animal is bled and that certain fats must be removed. I check out the meat Emrah gave me. It's well trimmed, but I can't tell what part of the animal it came from. One of the pieces in the freezer looks like it might be a tenderloin. THAT piece will wait until I have time to plan. How would a marinade of apple cider and ginger work? I want to do kebabs on the BBQ then warmed up in a conventional oven at lunch time on Thurs. It's our traditional pizza farewell party. maybe I should ground the venison up, add Middle East spices and do flat bread?

Oh Man! I need bittermelon! Not sure this thread was a good idea; it's killing me! The colour on the melon is wonderful. Do you blanch it before stir-frying? I don't because I love the bitterness. This would be so good on top of ho fun...or in soup with pork bones, ginger, chan pei, and dried oysters. Another item on my list. How much is pork belly in your area? Nishla? I priced a piece about 3 lbs the other day: $25.00. Because I was cheap, I opted for pork shoulder picnic. It still had lots of fat and the skin intact. I DO want to try and make it like yours though. I can hardly wait 'til the weekend when I can cook again. FREEDOM is at hand!

I did get a request for kebabs Chinese style, so maybe I'll marinate the heck out of venison cubes, then grill. An experiment soon.

A small fan at low setting softly blowing on the food from where the camera is will eliminate 99% of steam interference. So will judicious placement of background lighting, use a light or white backdrop etc. ← Well, now that you have shown tibits of wisdom, you need to get your camera snapping and post some of your "stinky foods"! Re-Chinese yau ja quay and alum: Is alum what we call chou fun - stinky powder? Made them once while still operating the restaurant and had the big woks for deep frying. They were good while hot, but once they cooled off, they were hard.

I wonder if they marinated the venison with something before stir-frying? Sometimes venison can be quite gamey. I'm a mom first and foremost! Followed very closely by cook-er (as my students all say), then teacher. I like to keep all three parts of myself balanced.

Doesn't strike me as the least bit weird at all. Does that mean I'm weird? ← Sounds like an Ah Leung trick - oyster sauce. So, would that be considered weird?

A student just gave me several chunks of venison from his hunt on Saturday. I know how to use it in North American recipes, but how about in Chinese/Asian cooking? My mom always cooked it in an herbal soup, with gai jee, dried longan, etc. Any suggestions? How about recipes that would appeal to Chinese students from around Shanghai area? I would like to make something for them. It may be their first time trying venison?

Ahhh Tepee, you're so cruel to your Gah Jeah. I haven't had breakfast yet, and now, I want those ribs. Whenever a recipe calls for chilis, fresh or dried, I always fry them in the oil before adding any other ingredients. This way, the oil is infused with the flavour and the heat. Otherwise, you're right, it's hidden until the unwary takes the big bite. With fresh chilis, I do chop them or smack them with the flat of my knife, again frying them in the oil before anything else is added.

sheets: Did you make the yao tiu? I want some and the store is closed! Here are the pictures of the food from this weekend. Kung pao chicken, shrimp sushi, and commercial potstickers. Then Cantonese chow mein for brunch yesterday: Hubby tells me I need to record my "good settings" for the camera. Who's got time when all I think about is cooking and eating? Most of the pics are taken at night. It's so much easier during the day with natural light. Anyone with suggestions for better lighting? I usually have overhead incandescent lights, then I try with and without flash. Also, how can I centre the pictures or place them side by side?

They are called edamame, Tepee. I've had them, but only in the frozen form. Not sure what they are supposed to taste like, but they look good. Jeera is East Indian rice cooked with cumin seeds and black peppercorns. I haven't mastered the art of cooking basmati rice where each grain is still "individual grains." Mine is still too soft, but I sure love the cumin seeds. Ambrosia Delight is a dessert in a 9x13 pan. The bottom is graham wafer crums, topped with sliced bananas, topped with coconut cream pudding with mandarin orange slices stirred in, along with toasted coconut flakes. This is then covered with whipped cream. It was smooth, cold, chewy, and tangy with the orange slices. I took the rest for the staff this morning. Thought I'd better get it out of the house! (Does mandarin orange segments help qualify this recipe as Chinese?) What's in the bento, Peony? And MiFi, what's in the sweet 'n ' sour chicken? Give details, please.

Well, I'm glad someone is on the ball! I'm knee-deep in marking exams, then this weekend was sorta repeats of Ah Leung's pictorials. I did take some pictures but just haven't had time to process. So, Tepee, keep on feeling "self conscious." Are you going to tell us what that "seamonster" in your soup was? How did you get my spoon?! Let me see, I can describe our meals and post pictures later: Friday, daughter was home so we had kung po chicken, store bought potstickers (disappointing), and shrimp sushi. Saturday, second son was home, and it was lemon chicken with sauce made from half a can of frozen lemonade and sugar. I've been mixing foods alot lately, depending on my mood. So, with lemon chicken, we had jeera rice. For vegetables, it was Canadian chop suey. Sunday was pretty traditional English for China's bday: 10 lb AAA prime rib roast, Yorkshire puddings, oven roast potatoes, veg sides, and Ambrosia Delight for dessert. My saving grace for this thread was chicken and snow fungus soup. Soulin, the grandson, didn't like the fungus as he said it "looked like brains", but he liked the broth. I've packed the other half of the soup to take to my students this morning. Tepee: Not only are your pictures artistic, so are your sweets! I think I could handle, eating them, that is, anything that you'd bake.

But, but, but... the title of this topic is "weird snacks". Some of these are too normal: pork sung, dried seaweed, beef jerky. Normal ones are "off topic"! ← What can be more weird than for Asians 1. to toast 2. to eat a hot dog bun 3. margarine (butter better) slathered on a hot dog bun 4. and topping it with cole slaw! These ingredients / combinations are not traditionally Chinese/Asian; it's more like North American chop suey. I said it SOUNDED normal, more so than eating uncooked non-rehydrated dried oysters, but still weird.