Dejah

All the BIG O birthday parties I have attended have given out sets of rice bowls and chopsticks as "party favours". At my grandfather's 60th while I was still in HK, I remember the large living room/dining room that we had was set with 6 round tables, each seating 8. This was the supper just for family members. Granny had engaged the chef and kitchen staff from one of her favourite restaurants to cook the meal. The only dish that I really remember was the snake soup! I was enjoying the "crisps"...so light and transluscent...crisp and delicious. Then, my brother told me it was deep fried snake skin! I was given a new set of clothes for this party. Still have a picture of myself sitting in my red coat with fake leopard skin collar. The rest of the family also got new clothes for that celebration. For dessert, I know we had miniature fruit and birds shaped from marzipane, fruit and a sweet soup with noodles.

Would this be the same custard powder as "Bird's Custard Powder". I use this for trifle, but not sure if it would be the same.

I mentioned the addition of honey to the blanching water in a previous post.

Looks more like a sautee pan than a frying pan... have you always used this type of cookware? hzrt? I have woks, but have been eyeing a sautee pan...

Watch for the FIRST cyber event of the Chinese Forum! 12:01 am, October 8, 2005 Come and join in the special first cyber banquet Visit the venue... Drool at the banquet fare prepared for this special event... Drink to his health of our guests of honor... Join us as we sing and make merry...

Hey! How did you get a hold of my platter?! A good looking dish. hzrt! We'll have to make up a menu with all your dishes for the virtual Chinese home cooking restaurant we talked about in another thread...

Very interesting. I don't think I had this before. I wonder how they tie it in with West Lake (Sai Woo). Would this be a Hangzhou speciality originally? ← That's what I was told about West Lake duck, West Lake tang, West lake etc, etc...tied to Sai Woo.

Tepee! You are so cruel! I am drooling...(starting to sound like Ben Sook!

The red bean soup is served more often hot than cold. You can also make a thicker, sweeter version and turn it into ice lollies. Yum! ← I prefer my red bean soup hot...love the lollies! Must make some...

Why NOT, if one likes wine? My gut feeling is that white wine would go well with Chinese food. I, like Ben, can't drink much alcohol...no tolerance, but I do like sips of white...not too dry, with ANY cuisine, and red or white meat.

Save the wine for before and after, Tepee... I am not much of a drinker, but I love a sip of ice wine after supper...just a sip...or two at most...

In the US, "GAM", or Gum in Cantonese - same sound as gum as in "gold", is tangerine (or tangerine orange). There is another smaller citrus fruit called Gut in Cantonese. Also popular around Chinese New Year. It's mandarin (or mandarin orange). Both tangerine and mandarin can be used to dry their peels for chan pei. ← I just save the GUM/GAM and not the GUT JIE. I still have a whole 2 gallon glass jar full of old chun pei from my restaurant days. This is kept in a cool dark corner. The aroma is wonderful whenever I open the jar for a piece. Chun pei is my favourite part of the red bean soup, along with the bak hup, lotus seed, peanuts, dumplings, rock sugar...etc..etc...

I found I had more problems with azuki? beans. They tend to stay firmer. I like the beans soft. I have had red bean soup with coconut milk, but I prefer it without. Love the flavour but not the "richness"? Bak hup! ooooo one of my favourite things to eat! Can't cook them too long tho'. I soak them, then add them after the beans, nuts are soft. We just had fresh bak hup soup for supper. I saved some of the inner cores this summer and planted them in my flower bed. The plants are about a foot tall...well...they were before the snow. Next summer, I should have fresh lily bulbs within easy reach! Right now, we buy them from the Chinese grocery store...2 1/2 hours away.

Dejah: Do you really use orange peels to make chan pei? I thought the taste of orange peels are not suitable to eat or something. I have only seen dried tangerine peels. ← hrzt: Not navel oranges. I should have made it clear. These are the Chinese oranges that we get at Xmas? or ...They are easy to peel, look like Japanese oranges except bigger. Toisanese is "GAM"? Also, I used to scrape the pith, dry them, rehydrate, cut into thin strips, then simmer them in a little water with licorice root and salty plums. These were then left out to dry and stored in glass jars. One of our favourite snacks!

Do you mean...put the whole thing in your mouth, roll the orange around with your tongue and teeth, spit the complete peel out, then eat the meat! Ahem...who's got the bigger... I like to dry my own orange peel too. The pith is scraped, then left on a platter to air dry. Not only do I get a nice citrus smell while it is drying, I think this method may keep the aroma better than freezing. Tho'...I've never tried freezing orange peel. Maybe I'll try that this Xmas. Remind me, Tepee! To my red bean soup, I add raw peanuts (soaked for 3 hours) along with the red beans and lotus nuts. At birthday parties, I have seen small glutinous rice dumplings also. Gan sui joong? Really? I'll have to tell Po-Po that. She loves both the soup and gansui joong. Now she can have both at the same time! Does thinking about Xmas make you visulize poor Dejah with all the snow? Well, we had our first snow blizzard yesterday! So early...so much...Hopefully it will all melt by this afternoon. My Mexican students were in a state of shock. They asked me, "Will there be sun again? or not until spring?!" Don't know how I'll be able to find that Thanksgiving turkey for "Turkey Chop Suey"in this snow !

Oh. I always remember the cilantro, even if I have not intended purpose for it. But, I always forget the parsley. So, tonight's soup will NOT have a garnish. Did you check out the photos above of the cilantro roots at the farmer's market? ← Those cilantro roots look wonderful! I love the more intense flavour of the roots. This herb is believed to lower blood pressure. I often make soup with the whole plant in a simple pork broth. If you are wanting parsley only as a garnish, wouldn't cilantro work? I would prefer them myself. Wonderful tag team! Kris, is there a chance of seeing your cooking class in the blog?

Put me down for copies: one for me, one for each of my kids, one for each of my nieces...in exchange for joongzi! You need to retire and write this book, Ben-Gaw.

The oven my uncle used in his restaurant was a big square unit that sat at eye level. He'd blanch the ducks with a hot water bath containing honey, star anise, salt, MSG. The ducks were air-dried, then stuffed with a mixture of meen see, star anise, ginger, garlic cloves. Their butts were skewered and tied close so the marinate doesn't ooze out. The ducks were hung vertically on hooks on a rotating rack. They are turning all the while roasting. They always turned out well rounded in colour and flavour. The skin was not crispy, but it had a nice sheen. I have tried to roast mine hanging, but, as with muichoi, my oven is big, but still not big enough to allow the heat to work its magic. Haven't made it for years...oven gets messy, even tho I DO have self -cleaning!

What? Cutlery? You mean you don't bite the head off, suck out the juice, pop the whole shrimp into your mouth, suck the juice off the shell, roll the shrimp around catching the shell with your tongue and teeth to peel the shrimp, spit the shell out, eat the meat? It takes practice. Hubby still uses his fingers. My brother and I are the only ones in the family who eats shrimp in the shell this way.

Cornstarch is like velveting...makes the meat "waht"... Thanks to the poster who gave me the spelling for that word! Welcome to the forum, I_call_the_duck.

" Waht" can be achieved thru' velveting without baking soda. "Chueh" in beef balls is from soda and waterchestnut flour. With the recipe I use from Wei-Chuan series, I use only 1 tsp. of soda in 2 2/3 lbs of meat. We used tenderizer powder (made from papaya extract) on sirloin beef before slicing for stir-fries. Wouldn't soda render tenderloin "mushy" and fall apart as you stir-fry? What is your reasoning behind that?

Yeah, no dialects. Maybe we just post in "standard" Chinese - written ones, the sqaures. Solve the dialect issue. (And scare Dejah away...) ← Careful! I have "friends" in Sacramento!

Fu yu is wonderful with green beans. I loved sweet potato leaves (see yeep) with fu yu...can't get them here.

That's not a problem because the harvesters snack on the chicks as they work.KIDDING!! ← Ba...BA....LUT! (for those of you who remember Desi of I Love Lucy) You bad, Laksa!

Choy poh, as subtitled in an earlier post, is preserved turnip. Please don't be too sensative. In this forum, all we talk about is choy - different Chinese dishes. ← Ok, so choy poh = ham choy