Dejah

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.

We've eaten boiled crab at Santa Barbara, on the pier, and didn't get sick at all. It was one of those booths where you pick your crab, they'd boil it and charge you exorbitant prices. They gave us bibs, a hammer and lots of towels. As for frozen raw crabs, that was the only way we could get crab at the Chinese supermarket until fish tanks became popular. I used to thaw them in the fridge, then after I chop them up, I'd place them in a colander to drain for a little while. When I cook them, usually in ginger and green onions, I'd make sure the wok was really hot and cook a few pieces at a time so the wok doesn't cool down. I think high heat is the way to avoid watery flesh.

It feels like Churchill in the winter this weekend. Have had frost the last 2 nights. I will post about the Chinese restaurants on the rodeo circut when I get back. On the run again this weekend . . . just got back from a qi-gong workshop, rushed home to cook supper ( velvet diced chicken with baby corn, mushrooms, waterchestnuts over jasmin rice, winter melon soup). Now I have to pick my daughter up from her Celtic harp teaching duties and deliver her to volunteer for St. John Ambulance for a Wheat Kings hockey game...then I am going for a qi-gong treatment for my shoulder with my sifu...then...........

Just heard from our son, who was cast as a member of a Lancaster bomber crew for a 4 hour living history documentary. (www. airmuseum.ca/reach.html) They were served corned beef hash using Hereford Brand. He liked it! My hubby Bill is webmaster for the Manitoba Dragoons museum. Every year they have a fund raiser, and the main fare is always "bully beef", actually Hereford Brand"corned beef, served with rye bread. I used to buy the stuff quite often, then forgot about it until now.

Maybe that's why they were dressed in period costumes . . . clothing "makes the meal"?

I've been following a young Eurasian lady's foodblog. I mentioned her in the Bi-racial thread. Just now, I was reading her entries on Wuhan. . . with very nice pictures. One of the dishes was tofu and 400 year old eggs. Others were tomatoe and scrambled eggs, and jiaozi made with tomato filling. Have a look. http://www.wrappedindough.com/archives/200...kend_3.php#more

Got a hold of some fresh Manitoba pickerel . . . also known as walleye. My mom likes it poached whole. Once I cleaned the fish, I seasoned it well with white pepper, salt, a little msg and fresh ginger. I made a light stock with celery, green onions and ginger. The fish was poached in the stock for 15 minutes. I put the fish on a deep plate, splashed on some light soya and topped with shredded green onions and more ginger. On top of this, I poured heated peanut oil. What a splattering mess! but, oh so yummy! I have several more in the freezer now. How do you like your fish? Do you eat the eyes first? My mom got the fish cheeks.

Did any of you, as a child, have a special lantern for this festival? I best remember one, made of thin gauze material, shaped like a rabbit. My Yen Yen hung it on a stick, and it glowed with a small candle inside. I was reminiscing with my students this morning. They say that most now have a battery operated light inside. I would miss the flicker of the candle, but I am sure the battery light would be safer now. Transparent mentioned dai choy goh. Most of my students didn't know what this was. They just asked if I had any more mooncake! My wonderful s-i-l brought over a wutaw goh late last night. I am going to have some now, for an after school snack!

We had a beautiful full moon here last night. The night was clear and the moon just floated above our house. In the morning, I took 4 white lotus paste/double egg yolk moon cakes to share with the international students and our staff. In class, we talked about the tradition, the stories, the activities involved during this festival. They were all too cheap to buy some themselves, altho' most of them come from well off families. They are planning a getogether this weekend. I didn't have time to make taro cake this year. Maybe one of them will make some to share.

Wonderful pictures, kangarool! I remember enjoying street food like the ones in the Night Market., especially the octopus on the sticks. I am trying to remember the flavour...it's on the tip of my tongue but I can't quite describe it! I don't remember the silk worms, but I do remember the big black beetles that cover the ground just before the rain. . . They were fried until crispy, a favourite movie snack, like popcorn. The tofu soup, was it hot and sour?

I just got some white lotus paste/double yolk moon cakes from keefers in Vancouver. Opened one, and the bottom was pretty oily. I cut a wedge for taste test. The cake wasn't oily, so I guess all the oil settled. The pastry was light, and the yolk was moist, not hard like the other brand I bought a couple weeks ago. Laksa, I wonder if the nuts are actually the meat from black melon seeds? That's what I remember them to be. However, there are so many variations now. . . I mean, if there's ice cream moon cakes, there would be pine nuts! Wait...you did say pine nuts were listed in the ingredients...

Disadvantaged prairie woman must pay $5.98 per lb. of crab. And that was on sale! Usually it's $6.98. The fish tank at our local Superstore, is usually filled with lobsters, at $12.98/ lb. I'm glad I prefer crab!

Bought 3 dungeness crabs today. Usually I have lulled them to sleep in the freezer before I cut them up. However, I met up with "auntie" at the store and she said I should cut them up live just before I cook them for the freshest flavour. I tried. . . but they were pleading with me for 2 hours! Finally, when my mom arrived for supper, she told me to stick a chopstick into the mouth cavity, jab and pry to separate the shell from the body. I felt so bad, but once I got the hang of it, the remaining 2 were a "snap" How do you approach your lively snappers? What's your favourite recipe? Black bean garlic sauce stir-fry? Ginger/green onion steaming? Do you eat that goo inside (can't think of the term for it at the moment...been traumatized! )

SPAM fried rice

Jiaozi. . . deep fried? What is the dough like after deep frying? I have only had them boiled. Won ton wrappers would end up bubbly and crispy. But with this dough? The filling sounds great. I'll have to try that sometime. Thanks Jason!

trillium, Sounds like you have great friends. When Bill and I got married, 1966, there were very few bi-racial marriages, except perhaps in Vancouver or Toronto. I didn't get nasty remarks, but lots of rude stares. I was in university at that time, and the Chinese students from abroad would ignore me...until they found out I could cook "real Chinese food". If you have children, which parent do they resemble? To me, it seems that if the father is mongoloid (is this better? ) the kids seem to resemble the father more than the mother. My sons are more like their dad, "go bay", whereas my daughter has a "bean bay". They all have round eyes. They are all very good at eating everything when Po-Po is here. Other times, they will turn their noses up at herbal soups. They do like bitter melon soup with oysters and ginger. Go figure!

Laksa said: "In Australia, "chow mein" means fine wheat noodles deep fried to a stiff and crunchy bundle, kind like instant ramen but not as tightly packed, over which you pour a melange of seafood, chicken or pork and vegetables cooked in a thick soupy gravy. I've always thought of this as Cantonese chow mein. Do they serve this dish in Hong Kong?" This was what we served in my restaurant as "Cantonese Chow Mein". My version did not have a "thick soupy gravy". I did add a little stock to the meat/seafood/veg. mixture and thicken with slurry just before scooping onto the crispy noodles. The sauce stayed on this mixture, not soaked onto the noodles. I used thin dry egg noodles that we put into boiling water to soften, drain and kept cool until needed. "And what is American chow mein?" Not sure if prairie chow mein is the same as American, but our version is coasely shredded green cabbage, Spanish onion, celery, mushrooms and bean sprouts. This was stir-fried, thickend with cornstarch slurry, then topped with deep fried egg noodles. We used to make the noodles in house, just eggs and flour. The dough is rolled out to about .5 cm thick, then into strips about 8 cm wide. Several strips were stacked together, then cut into .5 cm strands, dusted lightly with flour and deep fried. They were so good that we had a hard time keeping the staff from grabbing handfuls whenever they are close to the noodle bin.

Thanks, Jack for a great week! That saddle of venison looks wonderful. Local? What seasonings? Haven't been to Cambridge since 1979...Seeing the great pictures may just put the firs under me.

Good point, mongo_jones Pick this up and run with it. I was having a h#&* of a time phrasing this question, but I am really inquisitive about bi-racial partnerships and food! Gary, my m-i-l is of Scottish descent, married to Anglo-Saxon, living and farming on the Canadian prairies. Everything was well done meat and potatoes. But Man! Nana used to make the greatest shortbread and custard pies.