Dejah

Winter melon with the skin on, simmered for the afternoon with dried oysters, pork neck bones and dried tangerine peel. Bitter melon soup with dried oysters, neck bones and a big chunk of fresh ginger. Dried bok choy soup with wind dried duck feet, pork butt, dried dates and a few Chinese almonds. Lotus root soup with dried octopus, preserved turnip, ginger and a big hunk of pork butt. Fresh bok choy, carrots, celery, beef trimmings (gristle with bits of fat, and fresh ginger. Say mai tang with American gingsen root (lotus nuts, almonds, gee jai see, sa tam, etc.etc) and a hunk of pork butt. Chinese okra with slivers of ham or chicken. Come deer hunting season, my s-i-l will make venison soup with Chinese herbs and dried longan.

I have several Australian Womens Weekly mags and have used recipes from them. I don't have the Oriental one but I do have the Chinese Cookbook #2. Have never used the recipes. It was just for my collection to use ...sometime. After this post, I looked through some of the recipes. There are ones that seemed traditional, but also some "adjusted" ones. The photos are very colourful. There are step by step photos on how to, and a glossary at the end. The AWW one I use the most is the Finger Foods one.

Must be a western thing... As I think back, I noticed the "vinegry" touch in the kung po...and I didn't put vinegar or rice wine or anything like that in. So, I just opened a can of baby corn and the cobs have a slight touch of sour. Besides, they look so pretty. Have you ever seen fresh baby corn? A friend of mine tried to grow some years ago. So few for so much work!

Kris, Please explain about the squid fermented in its own guts! Are the squids raw? How long have they been fermenting? What else is in the mixture? How do you eat it?

So, what is traditional kung po? Am I just misguided? lazy? Do you use toban sauce (chili bean sauce) as a base? I use it in ma po tofu along with the sechuan peppercorns. I use it in kung po along with fresh chilis. For my kung po, I use diced chicken breast, with waterchestnuts, baby corn, diced red, green, yellow peppers, celery, onion, topped with dry roasted unsalted peanuts. I prefer to use whole sechuan peppercorns, but my daughter doesn't like to be surprised, so I grind them a bit.

Fella eGulleteers need to check in on my friend Astrid's blog. She just posted some cool pictures from her 7 day holiday in Hangzhou. http://www.wrappedindough.com/archives/200...lida_1.php#more

Hide is beautiful, as are your daughters. Thanks for sharing them! I have a 6 year old grandson. He loves udon noodles; noodles of all kinds.

I'm not sure how young men in Japan are raised, but perhaps Taka was coddled. He is staying in a homestay where the hosts are to provide 3 meals a day. The students pay $550.00 a month. His homestay mother has had several students. As they have been ones who help themselves to the fridge, she assumed Taka would do the same. He has not adapted to our culture yet. His "mom" has been clued in and she will show him some the ropes. I did some curry chicken fried rice for him today. He is shy, and would only take the food when I said "I cooked too much and brought the extra for whoever wanted some".

KD=Kraft Dinner=Mac 'n' cheese A Canadian thing. It is a product put out by Kraft Canada...macaroni, cheese powder in a box. You just boil and drain the macaroni, add butter, milk and the cheese powder. Stir and it's ready! Not as good as scratch, but cheap and easy enough for older kids to make in the microwave. One family I know, with 7 kids, bought KD by the case. Every Friday was KD night. The kids, now grown, still eat it, but the DELUX version. KD is the slogan for their recent ads.

When I have had access to Chinese crispy pork, siew yuk, I like to save the fatty parts and some skin, now more chewy than crispy. Put that on the bottom of the dish and top with ham ha and steam. Or, you can do as Ben suggested...pork belly. . . or fresh bacon cut. You need the fat to make it great! See!? Emerill isn't the first to expound on the wonders of pork fat.

Kris, Thanks for the entry and photos on the curry dish. I will make that for Taka tomorrow...with chicken as I have the meat on hand. As I don't have any curry roux, I am sure I can make do with adding curry spices, then thicken with my usual stew slurry of half flour and half cornstarch. I made some curry beef fried rice with leftover beef, rice, green onions, diced green beans. It was good. I saved a container but my daughter raided the fridge! So my student had BBQ steak and potatoes for lunch today. We've contacted his homestay mother, so I may not be making food for Taka much longer. I'll get that curry in tho' .

Chinese ham ha is pinkish/lavender colour. . . so deceptive! And yes, very strong smelling, a good ingredient in moderation. Hubby says it reminds him of chicken manure, the ammonia smell. They used to raise chickens on the farm and guess what his job was. He likes ham ha though. I like to spoon it on top of leftover fatty siew yuk then steamed. My grandma used to make it with pork fat that's been deep fried. My s-i-l uses it for a dipping sauce.

No, I never save left over fish if it was the fresh kind. Canned dace with black beans is another matter.

Ok! who was fooling around??

Kris, I checked the curry thread. Great! What is Japenese curry roux? Is it curry paste? I mentioned the curry to Taka and his face light up, so I guess I'd better follow through now.

I too let others eat their fill, then clean up all the bits and pieces left...soaked in juices. I do this when eating chicken and duck as well. Why is it that bones have the best flavour?!

A collegue of mine is heading off to Singapore come Dec. to teach. Her budget is going to be tight. She has heard that eating out in Singapore is very expensive. Cooking at home is the way to go. However, the company is putting her in a hotel, so cooking may not be possible. Any suggestions on where to get decent food at fair prices would be appreciated!

Just spent some time reading your New Years blog. It was great, especially seeing you and your family. Very much looking forward to this week! I have a Japanese student in my EAP (university ESL) class. He doesn't seem to know much about preparing his own food, and his homestay mom is not helping much at the moment. To date, I have only seen him bring butterless rye bread to school for lunch! I have been making extra food when I cook supper, mostly Chinese stuff. He seems to like it. Takayuki is 19 years old. What can I feed him without taking a whole course on Japanese cooking?

Yetti, Thanks to your thread, I've now eaten dragon fruit and prickly pear. The prickly pear is such an ugly fruit! I suppose it's nature's way to avoid being eaten. Both fruit had gorgeous coloured flesh. The dragon fruit was easy to eat. I wish I had known about the "facial" factor of the peel! The prickly pear, it was ok, but having to deal with the seeds would not encourage me to buy it again, even at $.88 each. I may just cut the last one, take a picture and leave it at that! My mom said the flavour reminded her of "fa nium", not sure what it is called in English.

Are they sold as snacks? Cooked? Wrapped in something? I haven't come across those. Going into Winipeg next weekend, so I'll have to look for them.

The flesh on the pickerel is what my mom calls " shuen ji jook/ garlic meat", meaning that the flesh breaks off in pieces that look like cloves of garlic. After I steam the fish, it is easy to take off the top fillet, and remove the backbone. Hubby has no problems with bones, but my brother hesitates. I am the only one in my own family who enjoys shrimps with the shells on. I can shell the dang things in my mouth. So, when we have shrimp, I cook some with shells on for myself. The rest of the family also think I am crazy when I buy a box of the little shrimps with the heads on. I just dunk them in salted water and eat'em like popcorn in front of the TV.

Chinese restaurants on the rodeo circuit.... For several years, we toured as a PR band for a grain company called Federal Grain. During Canada's Centennial, and Manitoba Centennial, they sent us to every mid-sized city and small town in western Canada. Being away from home for 2 months at a time, Bill and I were always searching for a Chinese restaurant for a rice fix. On the prairies, there is a Chinese restaurant in every town. The thing I remember the most is how all the family members of these restaurants would take turns coming out of the kitchen to check out this Chinese girl escorted by 5 white males. Remember, this was in the late '60s, early '70s when bi-racial marriages were uncommon. Then the guys would prod me to order food, in Chinese. Once they found out I could speak Cantonese and Toisanese, they'd adopt me for the duration that we were in their community. 4 of the guys would only eat Canadianized Chinese food, or the usual hamburger steak, pork chop, etc. while Bill and I would be treated to real home cooking. Then they'd find out that I was an entertainer (a Chinese girl entertainer was pretty unusual for these prairie folks), they'd come to our evening shows at the fair/rodeo grounds. If we didn't make it down for supper, they'd hold supper until we could go down later. I think that was the first time I had "squirrel fish". At that time, all the restaurants had pretty much the same menus...chop suey, chow mein, sweet & sour ribs, battered shrimp. But what the owners ate was the best! One thing I hadn't eaten since I left Hong Kong in '58 was pigeon. One family had been out doing pigeon population control. We had pigeon cooked with "yurk choi", Chinese herbs that evening. It was Bill's first time and as usual, he liked everything. They were always amazed how adept he was with chopsticks. By the time we toured Montana, as part of a grandstand show, we had our motor home. I did a lot of our own cooking. Didn't do much Chinese as I fed everyone in the band. We met up with entertainers from California and they'd introduced us to Mexican food. That was our food focus. Man! Loved that guacamole and hot salsa! For Bill, his introduction to dim sum was on a 3 week holiday trip with my parents. We drove down through the American heartlands via Chicago, several of the southern states and westward to California, north thru' Washington , Vancouver and eastward home to Manitoba. My dad's main focus was finding a Chinese restaurant and a Holiday Inn at every stop. As soon as we were seated, there'd be eyes peeking out of the kitchen doors. My dad took that as an invitation to go and talk to the cook! Each time, we'd end up getting traditional Chinese food rather than the menu items. We usually hit the smaller restaurants rather than big fancy ones. One of our most memorable suppers was in Nashville, Tenn. As we were driving into the city, passing Opryland, we spotted a huge neon restaurant sign: CHOY'S. My dad was so excited as that is our family name. We went there for supper, and found out that the owner was indeed from our village in Toisan, and he actually went to school with my brother. This was a big restaurant, and the food they brought out ... a braiser with BBQ ribs, pork, chicken wings, wontons, bak jam gai, steamed fish, Chinese mushrooms and abalone, lots of vegetables...I wish digitals were available then! When we hit big cities, we'd try and find Chinatown for lunch. Bill and I learned a lot about dim sum during that trip. To this day, har gow and sui mai are still his favourites. LA's Chinatown was an incredible experience, food and all. Then we hit San Francisco. Whoa!!! We loved the streets, the little shops and restaurants tucked in tiny alleys, etc in Chinatown. BTW, Gary and Ben, thanks for the compliments.