Dejah

Ham jeu bo jai fan... as baby gets used to firmer foods.

Not sure if it was coincidence or there IS cooling benefit even from the canned sugary rau ma (pennywort) drink, but I was having spotty nose bleeds on Friday from eating so much fried foods and curries last week. It was a good time to try the canned drinks that were in the fridge. In acouple of hours, and since then, I haven't had anymore problems. The canned drink had a definite flavour - not unpleasant. It had a "cooling" mouth feel. Not something I'd drink on a regular bases, but if it wors, I'll definitely keep cans of it on hand.

Hey! Tepee MuiMui: Good to see you. I usually add fu yue to quick stir-fry spinach, or really young bak choi (from thining out rows in the garden). May have to try nam yue next time! Got some peashoots, and I'll just stir-fry with garlic and drizzle sesame oil at the table.

Well, my attempt at using the pennywort (rau ma) was disappointing. I wonder if perhaps the plant was not mature enough, or picked too long before it reached my hands. When we tasted the leave raw, there really wasn't any distinct flavour: no mint scent, bitterness, just "something" very faint. My mom said it didn't quite look like the ones she remembered from China. She remembers it having a minty flavour, meaning that when you taste it raw, it had a cooling effect on the tongue. Anyway, her recipe was to boil it with diced sweet potato and slab of Chinese brown sugar for a "lueng tong sui". She said it should have had a distinct aroma, but there was nothing. All we could taste was a bit of "green" and sugar. We didn't eat it because it might NOT be the right stuff! As I am writing this, I feel a tingle and scratchy feeling on the tip of my tongue from when I tasted the soup and rau ma. Yikes! I hope it's not like poison ivy or nettles! So, sorry, gang, I'm a failure with bung dai wuan.

I just make a curry "gravy" with curry powder, diced onion, and chicken stock, thickened with slurry for french fries. We had this for the first time while touring England in the 70s. When you order fish'n'chips in the shops, you can have curry gravy with it. It is delcious! I like to dip both the fish and the chips in this.

Spicy thick curry sauce, or ketsup and cajun seasoning

Lumpia, egg roll wrapper, is different from the more common ones we see, the thick dough wrappers. These are very thin, white and fragile ones made from rice flour? These would be easier for a group project than the other rice paper wrappers that require pre-soaking in warm water to make them pliable. I'll have to remember that for my next group project!

How would they keep those soup cubes frozen in the hundreds of xiao long baos waiting to be steamed? If they are making the stock anyway, adding gelatin powder to set the stock wouldn't take that much more work...

Went browsing in Winnipeg today and first thing I saw and picked up was several cans of Rau Ma/Pennywort drink. They're in the fridge as I "speak". Will enjoy a can for you later, Ah Leung. Then I went searching for another Asian store I had heard about. It is smaller than the one I usually frequent, and caters more to Thai, Malaysian items. I found shiso, mint, Thai basil, Thai chilis, and lo and behold - fresh pennywort! I didn't expect to find it on the prairies! Now, what will I do with this herb? Won't know until I see my mom tomorrow. She might laugh at me and say why do I bother? Just buy the cans. I seem to remember mom making a sweet soup with pennywort, sweet potato and rock sugar in the summer. Look what you started! U.E

To us Chinese, Chinese food is... Food! ← Probably the most profound words to come from you in a long time. Totally agree. In the immortal words of the Immortal Lao Tse: Shit happens! ← You are BOTH hilarious, and I agree with BOTH of you!

This reminds me of the "broken bowl" plant my Mom used to make a cooling soup along with sweet potatoes: "Bung hao wuan chowh"

Your journals and pictures are tasty treats, UE. Thank you again for this armchair dining. All the salads are a revelation to me. Is it common in just these areas you visited? I am familiar with the cold plates of jelly fish, bak jam gai, duck, beef tongue, pei dan, etc, but not the salads of bean sprouts, pickled cabbage, do fu gan, vegetable type salads.

Thanks for all the replies. I'm going to bake more without the paper liners, and some with liners sprayed with non-stick spray. Frustrating as I thought the liners were to keep the muffins from sticking!

I think General Tso's chicken, from various googled images, is the same as what we served as sesame chicken, except for the excessive # of dried chili peppers. I do deep fry the chicken pieces, usually thick strips of dark and white meat. I season the chicken with salt, MSG, and sesame oil, then work in an egg, flour and baking powder. This is worked in thoughly, then the chicken is tossed into fine cracker crumbs. The chicken is deepfried, and they end up with a nice crunch without thick batter. The sauce is just vinegar, water, a little sugar, sesame oil, 5-spice powder, and lots of crushed pepper (amount depends on the consumer). This is thickened with a cornstarch slurry, and the chicken pieces are tossed in quickly to coat. I prefer to NOT completely soak the chicken pieces with sauce. I do provide a side of the sauce for those who like more sauce. It's crunchy, spicy, more tang than sweet, sesame flavoured, and topped with sesame seeds. Might to have to make some soon. Ah Leung only uses breast meat 'cos he obeys his wife!

I am trying to bake muffins to keep in the freezer for quick breakfast fare. The pans I use are non-stick, but I still used paper liners 'cos I thought they'd keep intact better if mishandled. Problem: the liners are stuck to the muffins. The store bought ones never seem to stick. Is it because they use more fat in their batter? How can I solve this problem other than not using paper liners?

Thanks. The only pain is uploading the photos - after post-production. Some of these restaurants were very dim. u.e. ← Thanks so much for taking the time to post pictures and text about your trip, U.E. And, I hope others will do the same, so we could take more of these virtual trips. It really doesn't matter if you're travelling in China, or eating Chinese anywhere else in the world, it's always interesting to those of us at home. Looking forward to more!

I made Tepee's beef rendang for Ketupat-style joong last night...didn't make joong tho'. I used stewing beef (a large pkg was given to me) which I never use normally. Next time, I will use meat from shortribs - a bit of fat, gristle. I made extra sauce and it was great on saffron and peas rice. The flavour and aroma are intoxicating. I love this stuff! For a vegetable, I stir-fried sliced yellow and green bell peppers, some red onion, then sprinkled fennel seeds on top. That added a nice licorice flavour.

Made this lemon chicken tonight. I butterflied the chicken breasts (saved the tenderloin for another dish), coated them with cornstarch, egg, then fine bread crumbs. This is different from the battered one I made in my restaurant days. I used Minute Maid frozen lemonade concentrate. Didn't need to reduce the lemonade, and I thickened it with a cornstarch slurry made with lemonade. I did add a tbsp of sugar to tame the tartness. This was a nice contrast to the Sichaun deep fried green beans.

Got a big bag of "Chinese green beans" from one of the "aunties" , so I made this for supper tonight. These are wider than ordinary green beans, and I've only ever seen them in the Chinese gardens. I deep fried the beans, used a red hot pepper (rather mild, actually) for colour, and much more ground pork because my hubby is such a carnivore. It was really interesting to pick up on the different flavours: the sesame oil in the pork, deep fried flavour of the beans, the crunch and salty bite of the ja choi, and the toban sauce heat. I topped it with a sprinkle of toasted sichuan peppers. The heat was just right. This was very good with Ah Leung's lemon chicken with lemonade and plain rice.

I LOVE dill, so would also appreciate the recipe, ecr.

Thanks for your kind words, warlockdilemma. I agree with Dejah Dai Ga Jeah that the electric rice cooker would do fine. Just that you don't get any fan jiu! ← That's when I would make it in a pot on top of the stove.

That's how my hubby, who as I mentioned (up-post) cannot cook, achieved this recipe: in an electric rice cooker. You can also use an ordinary pot on top of the stove.

The addition of baking soda doesn't give you the spongy texture; it makes the beef "chu how". The sponginess comes from the beating which incorporates air into the meat mixture. When I make yuk bang, I like to add minced ham choi for the crunch and flavour, and I love the meat juice seeping down into the rice. When hubby (who does not cook) was doing a 3 month teaching stint in an isolated northern reserve for our university, I prepared and froze packages of this beef, ginger, and ham choi or mui choi, chicken and ginger, and pork and ham choi for him to cook on top of the rice in his electric rice cooker. Do you break the yolk just before serving? Will the heat of the meat and rice "cook" the yolk? The gai lan certainly adds to the colourful presentation. If you are making this dish for the first time, make sure that you are using the small measuring cup that comes with rice cookers and not the regular measuring cups we use in the kitchen.

I am just beginning to try my hand at Malaysian cooking even though I've had cookbooks for ever. That's mainly due to the lack of essential ingredients. So, the first recipe I made was Ayam Limau Purut. I've made it twice now, and can't get enough. The recipe is posted in the fresh Asian herbs thread in this forum. The recipe called for 1/2 chicken which is not near enough for my carnivorous family. This second attempt, I used 6 boneless breasts and 6 bone-in thighs. I added more lime leaves as well. There's very little leftover! Along with the huge pot I made for our family, I also made a potful for a friend with a 3 lb organic chicken. I was raving about the flavour so much that she asked if I would make some for her and her husband! Chef Michael Smith on FoodTV said to use the congealed stuff at the top of a can of coconut milk to sautee with, as it is pure coconut oil. l Didn't work well for me. It gave off a beautiful aroma, then it scorched.

We made the effort to go to the Phoenix last summer, and were disappointed. Maybe because it was not on the weekend (not a valid reason), but it was not "peng, leng, tseng". The dim sum was so, so, and they charged me $10.99 for a small plate of stringy, basically uncooked gai lan. The Chinese crueller seemed "reheated" and hard. When I asked the server about both items, they just said "really?". The bill was +$40.00 for the two of us before tips. This was upstairs at 12:00 PM. I was wanting to have xiao long baos, but they only served them on the weekends.