Dejah

That film was pretty cool! I have been thinking about how aunty and I steamed the cheung fun. We used teflon coated round cake pans. The pans were set on a wire rack with water up to the bottom 1/3 of the pan. This way, the cheung fun cooked from the bottom as well as from the top. A lot of work but got a good facial out of it!

Oh Yeah! " How long can you hold off before the first crunch"! There's another red one, not like the ones browniebaker posted about...Can't remember what they were called. How about the licorice flavoured olives? Some lemon flavoured as well. Or those peanut and sesame bars? I had a candy from Trader Joes when we were in LA. They were black sesame bars with cumin. They were great!

WHOA! And you are still able to sit and post!?

Actually this clears up the what bing ting or wong tong is for my wife. She knows what to search for now. As for Po po. I know exactly what you mean, Ben. I fell in love the instant I saw her. Where would I be without my maman as a chef? I'm sure she and Dejah's Po Po are about the same size too! ← You are absolutely right, Ben! I had the wrong "tong" BUT, bing tong ain't pebble size... they are more fist size! Po-Po is actually my mother. She is 95 and still directs with a loving but firm hand.

I'm sorry, but I don't know the name of bing tong in Korean. Not sure if you caught the link for lobak goh in the China thread, but here it is again: http://www.hillmans.soupbo.com/soos/lobakgoh.html

This was today's preparation for Chinese New Year. http://www.hillmans.soupbo.com/soos/seedball.html

Ok, here's the latest effort in making "tay doi" or "Chee jie" for New Years celebration: http://www.hillmans.soupbo.com/soos/seedball.html The method here involves one extra step when compared to Grace Young's. We made up and cooked some slurry before adding it to the flour, whereas Young just adds cooled sugar syrup to the flour. Mom said we don't blow air into the pockets now for sanitatary reasons. Besides, she said she doesn't want to because of "old people's breath"! Unfortunately, these balls collapse when they cool down. But she assures me that's what they are supposed to do! I snuck one to taste. Regardless of how long I drained it, there was still a lot of oil in the pastry. There was a very thin layer of crunch on the outside. The rest was sweet, soft, and chewy. We used only diced sugared lotus nut for filling. These will now be kept safe from tasters until after the offering on New Years Day. I think we will make gnow lan yuen tomorrow!

I echo Yetti's sentiments! We were ready to send out an APB. Those pictures look wonderful. I wish we had virtual taste capability on computers, even virtual scents would be acceptable!

I love being a virtual gourmand! My son was in Amsterdam backpacking lin 2003 but he didn't think to take pictures of food! I am looking forward to another wonderful blog!

I like to just plunk a piece in the microwave to soften then chew , chew, chew! Gotta be careful if you have false teeth ( so says my Mom ) Not much for the battered kind, but I do like'em dipped in egg then fried. LTwong: Are you sure your relatives and friends weren't pulling your leg? 12 - 16 hours? How big was their cake?! Grace Young's recipe said 35-40 minutes on high heat. Mom's recipe said 1 hour and the slices were firm enough to fry. Hope to have pictures of another traditional Chinese "pastry" to post this evening. Mom, s-i-l and I are making tay doi this afternoon.

Sure you can put in lap cheng and lap yuk. Don't know about the BBQ pork as the flavour is not as intense as the cured meats and may be buried. The lobak has such a strong odour when it is cooking, but really not after it is cooked. So the flavours are from the ingredients. I have used reconstituted scallops in place of dried shrimps. I will make one with scallops for my mom and family.

I think I used a double thickness of cheesecloth stretched over the top of my steamer to make cheung fun. Like Ben said, your water's gotta be "rockin' hard." Once set, roll it up off the cloth with your chopsticks. I agree with hzrt that if you steam cheung fun on a solid plate, they will be thick and heavier. That's what we did with the flour gluten fun made with aunty's recipe. They were ok . . .but . . . not cheung fun Pre-packaged rice flour for cheung fun is available in Asian grocery stores in Winnipeg. I can't imagine why any Winnipegger would want to make these. There are many dim sum restaurants and they are not expensive. Just think of all the other "sides" you can pick up off the carts along with cheung fun!

Pan, have you tried South Indian filter coffee? It's got that smooth, creamy, almost chocolaty taste that the candies have. rjwong, browniebaker, and hzrt8w, I've never had preserved plums. Are they more sweet or savory? ← Wah mui are the salty ones, dry wrinkled grey coloured plums with a touch of sweet. These are sold loose in a bag or small plastic containers. One kind is REALLY salty. I remember my mom pouring hot water over these to make a briny drink whenever we had sore throats. Chun pei mui are the double paper wrapper moist (should be!) sweet preserved plums flavoured with licorice.

How about the transluscent rock candies with the salty plum inside? Talk about a surprise for unsuspecting "suckers". My sister just sent us some ginger candies. These are cylindrical shapes about an inch long x 1/2 inch in diameter. They are individually wrapped and crumble in your mouth when you bit into them. There's a wonderful burst of ginger flavour when you bite!

Speaking from experience, they are a pain! I had a hard time keeping up with supply. It seemed like I was steaming and steaming, and by the time everyone else had had enough, I didn't feel like making anymore for myself! I use a packaged flour for making cheung fun. Before that, an olderly aunty showed me the hard way... squeezing the gluten out of a lump of very wet dough! Now that was what we'd call FROM SCRATCH. I haven't repeated the recipe since. I just buy the pre-packaged cheung fun from my Asian store whenever I get to Winnipeg. These are quite good re-heated in the microwave. They are firmer than ones served at dim sum, but great for when you get home and wanted more!

My family enforces this, especially when Po-Po is over for supper. I also enforce the "no elbows" and "no knees" on the table rule. Another rule I learned as a child was: Don't lift the index finger or any finger of the hand holding the chopsticks. My "pointer" got wacked by Gung Gung's chopsticks!

Chun pei, wah mui, lung mun...( preserved orange peel, plum, lemon, etc. We eat them as candy, I suppose. They are good when fresh. Hubby likes them. I hate them for all the wrappers I find under his desk! Jo-Mel: The ginger candies are in the candy aisle. The red lucky candies are, I thought, strawberry flavoured? I have a package waiting to go into the" tune hap". I just got a bag that looks the same, but they are "chewy". Just had one....fruity flavoured...gummy texture. I really miss coconut candies...the dark coloured ones, not the white or beige kind. They were so full of flavour!

Hey Plunk! Long time no see! Spring break is coming soon, so we may get a chance to chat again. Do you have Grace Young's Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen? I used her recipe as reference. For ingredients I used lap cheung instead of lap yuk ( only because I didn't have any on hand). For my pan (10" x 3"), I used 4 cups of flour and nearly 3 cups water( soaking liquid). I have to make a third cake this weekend after I get a hold of lap yuk. I made the second cake this afternoon. When I came home from teaching my evening class, I cut the cakes all into pieces, fried them up and packed them all into the fridge ( my cold garage) to take to school tomorrow. 26 international students will have their goh tomoorow at lunch time. Teepee, the cakes do have "ho daw liu", eh? I think it's the restaurant mentality...big and loads of. . . I figured if I have to spend so much time preparing, I might have well load it up! I shop like that too!

Yuki, I have julienned the daikon in the past. . . but laziness set in. I can't remember if it made much difference in the texture. However I always cut the daikon by hand when I make savory tong yuen. I like big pieces then!

Those bricks may look solid, but after pan frying, they were very light. The texture was perfect for cutting into 1/2 " slices for frying. Grace Young suggests oyster sauce for dipping. I prefer the chili soya.

Just got some pictures processed and up on my website. Rather than taking time to figure out how to upload into the post ( I am an illiterate techie ) I am posting the URL. http://www.hillmans.soupbo.com/soos/lobakgoh.html Enjoy!

Lobak goh is a lot of work...soaking, chopping, shredding, boiling, stir-frying, mixing, then steaming for an hour! When hubby came in late last night, he though the dog had made a mess in the basement. That's how strong the smell was. But he sure enjoyed the slices I fried up for lunch. Dye choi goh (agar agar) is the really firm jelly that is made from seaweed called agar agar. I posted a picture of it somewhere here.

GASTRO, I love how you are posting familiar Toisanese words like "kok" and "jai bee". I haven't heard those terms for ages! Yuki, that neen goh looks great! I leave that chore to my s-i-l, b ut I gave her the recipe;-) I love matay goh...sticky, chewy, sweet.mmmmmmmm I took lobak goh for my collegues lunch today. Now, I have to make another one so there would be enough for 2 pieces each for 26 students. How about agar agar? (dye choi goh, oi toy gow) BTW, the lobak goh I made last night had just the right firmness. It held its shpae when I cut it into slices. Once fried, you can still pick them up with your fingers, but soft when you bite into it. Hope to get pics up today.

So, YOU'RE the one who left behind all those crumbled rolls!

Sorry, Ben! I must have given you plastic ones! No wonder there was food all over the place