Dejah

closer...anything below the knee/elbow but not feet/trotters.

I think lapcheung and dong goo would be wonderful on pizza, as with BBQ duck or char siu. Not too sure about bitter melon.

Good question! I have a jar in my spice cupboard that I can't recall buying. I made meatloaf last night and now I'm thinking the MSG would have added that little bit of something extra to make it taste even better. edited to add: Is MSG always something to cook with? Has anyone sprinkled it on after plating? Or does it's umami effect only take place when cooked? ← As to whether MSG loses its potency, I don't think so. It's not like herbs. MSG should not be added after plating! It must be mixed in and cooked with the food before plating. It is meant to enhance and not upfront flavour. MSG comes in different "sizes" - some look like tiny strands of crystal, and others may be fine powder form. It's cheapest to buy in packets from Asian stores. Accent used to come in small shakers and they were very expensive!

I use MSG in everything savory... a pinch and it enhances the flavour. For stir-fries, I add salt to my wok when the oil is hot, but MSG always 3/4 way through the cooking process. With meat that requires other cooking methods, I work a little MSG in with the salt or whatever other seasoning I would use during prep. Soups, I add a little MSG when I taste it just before serving - just as I would taste for salt. I grew up eating food with MSG all my life and cook with it as my parents have done. I always thought it was a must in Chinese cooking. It was a surprise to me when my Chinese students all say, " It's not good for you! My family never uses it." Really?!

Rona, If you're planning to make joongzi (sticky rice in bamboo leaves), salt the fat! I cover the pork with kosher or pickling salt, leave it on the counter for 3 days, then rinse off. The pork will be firm to the touch and greyish coloured. If you're using it right away, then cut it into pieces the size of your middle finger and add to the rice packets with the rest of the ingredients you're using. Once boiled, some of the fatty yumminess melts into the rice. Must have that fatty pork for the best joongzi. If you're making lotus leave joongzi, cut the pork into smaller pieces and cook them with the sticky rice. Then add the rest of the ingredients before wrapping. If you don't have time to make joongzi now, freeze the salted pork for later use.

I think "zhu zhang" sounds like pork knuckle. ← I know Mom talks about using "zhu zhang" in making soup, and I think it's the knee or elbow part of the pig, and not the knuckle. Dried scallops too! Ho teem lah!

I made this last weekend and tried to replicate the crispy one shown in Fat's Guy's post. Unfortunately, my camera is screwed up at the moment so no pictures. I marinated the lamb slices in salt, and lots of ground cumin for most of the day. To coat the slices, I worked in an egg, a little flour/cornstarch mix. Then the slices were coated with fine crumbs and deep fried in veg oil. The green onion and sliced fresh chili peppers were sauteed in hot oil, then I tossed in the meat. The meat was tender and delicious, but I was hoping for a stronger lamb and cumin flavour. Next time, I might add whole cumin to the crumbs. Would that work? Perhaps I'll make a light vinegry/cumin sauce for a final toss with the meat as I do with ginger beef... I want more cumin flavour!

Orangeblossom: What a lovely name! CFT is correct in suggesting bicarbonate of soda (baking soda). I would suggest soaking the stomach in a baking soda solution. If you purchase the stomach from a reputable source, they are usually pretty clean. The soaking will remove any odour that remains. I would also suggest a quick blanch after you rinse off the soda solution before actually making the soup. To be honest, I've never made just pig stomach with white pepper soup. I've always added slices to foo juk tong. Can you explain the white pepper soup more? Someone else mentioned it being their favourite. I just add a small piece of ham choi to the soup. I do it because my Mom does it. She says it adds flavour. The ham choi is rinsed before hand so it's not that salty. I also add ham choi to melon soups, but only in the last few minutes before the soup is cooked. Otherwise, it causes the soup to have a slight sour taste. I know what you mean about "a handful of soups". I remember my Mom making many different kinds, different ones for different seasons and needs. I only make a few favourites. I was hoping that more people would share here their recipes/methods here so I can be motivated to try more variety. With my schedule, I seldom make lo-for soups. My s-i-l does more of that, especially during hunting season when she has access to fresh venison, game birds with herbs. I need to go to a store and find out English names of some of these ingredients.

I used silkened chicken and Spanish onion in light oyster sauce for my potstickers. This offered a different meat and flavour from the other items we offered as a lunch combination platter: siu mai, char siu bao, sticky rice, har gow.

I am sure, if the chicken is to be served cold, that they must keep it refridgerated for health-safety reasons. Chicken cooked Chinese style tends to be "just cooked". If this dish is on the regular menu, the restaurant must prepare several in anticipation. These must be refridgerated, or as with BBQ chickens sold in places such as Safeway, kept under heat lamps at a specific temperature. There was one incident of food poisoning that I remember well. Many salty chickens were purchased from a Chinese BBQ shop in Winnipeg for an elderly lady's 80th bday. The city is 2.5 hours from Brandon where I live. We were invited to the early sitting. All of the guests ate chicken from the same purchase and were fine. The second sitting was 2 hours later, for guests who had to work late. The remaining chickens were kept on a counter in the kitchen where the room temperature was neither high enough or cool enough to prevent bacterial growth. Several guests experienced major food poisoning and spent days in the hospital. The hospital, by law, had to report these incidents. The health inspectors were called in and there was a major investigation. Eventually, it was established that the chickens were fine at their source. It was the inappropriate storage handling at the destination that caused the major outbreak of food poisoning. In the past, would the item be offered in the same extent as they are in today's restaurants? Perhaps this dish would be prepared only for special occasions, cooled immediately and served as soon as possible.

The little boy eating the sweet off the stick, is that like a taffy? I seem to remember eating something like that years ago What other cuisine would have a dish called "pissing shrimp"! Thanks for letting me share in your feeding frenzy.

Thanks Dejah! Season the chicken - with just salt? With soy sauce? Wine? Would seasoning the chicken the night before be enough time? ← I would just season with salt, and a little MSG (optional) Kay: I've never used the first step you mentioned. What is the purpose of that? Would it be to "shrink the skin" so it doesn't burst with boiling? Would there still be enough heat in the water to cook the chicken when you put it back in the second time?

Tonight, we are finishing off the last of the large pot of lotus root (leen gnow)soup: My family prefers the kind that is more starchy and has "strings" when you bit into each piece. "Strings" is an appropriate descriptor as my family, who cannot speak Chinese call the roots as "fiddle bridges" . When you cut a round slice in half, they look like the bridges on a violin or fiddle. It's hard to tell which roots are more starchy - round-shaped or elongated-shape segments. Anyone have a way to tell the difference? For the soup, I use a chunk of pork butt with bone attached, at least 3 rehydrated dried octopus (bak jow yu), fresh ginger, and a piece of ham choi (salty turnip). I like using the kind of ham choi that comes with the leaves. Wash and soak the octopus the night before. Make the pork stock by simmering the meat and bone(s)for at least an hour. Add cut up octopus, ginger, ham choi, and sliced lotus roots. Bring the whole pot to a boil and then simmer until the lotus root is tender.

all of Ah Leung's and Canucklehead's pictures. Have you posted all of your pictures from the trip, Ah Leung?

No soy sauce? Interesting. ← Ah Leung, Ce'nedra did say it was for dessert, so soy sauce would not be appropriate.

Anna: You can make the chicken as you described in "boiling". The amount of "sitting time" depends on the size of the chicken. For a 3 pound one, probably an hour or so. I would add a stalk of green onion and some slices of fresh ginger to the water. You can also steam it by placing the chicken in a dish then steaming. It might be easier to do the "boil" method as you wouldn't have to monitor the water level in steaming. Just make sure you season the chicken well ahead of cooking time.

I can see with the breading and deep frying that crispy would be the ideal way with this dish. Liuzhou: From which of Fushia Dunlop's books is the recipe for cumin beef?

Good description. No, the honeycomb tripe I had didn't completely break down either, but it did become chewed enough for me to swallow. I don't think it's supposed to be like tendons, which will break down in your mouth.

Were the bits really tough? Mine still had texture, not melt-in-your-mouth tender, but there were no really tough bits. I only braised mine for 2.5 hours. I like the bit of chewiness still in the tripe. Maybe the bicarb did some work. I didn't get around to do anything more with what I had. Will pick up some new stuff and try again when life settles down a bit.

"Sai mai" as "West Rice"? That is used in dessert more, and it is tapioca pearl. But I don't think that's what you were refering to. Did you mean what in Cantonese it is called "Yee Mai"? ← Sai may be should have been "say" with a long A volwel sound=4 may=flavour? taste? That's the soup with leen jee, hung yun, bak hap, sang day (raw earth), see goo, faka tam (American ginseng), look juk, etc. I wish I knew Chinese characters...other than you guys!

You are correct in your above statement sheetz. There IS definitely a "recipe" in terms of what ingredient must go with/or compliments each other. There is much thought given when combining certain "elements" - in the correct combination = for an ailment or as a tonic; in the wrong combination, causes problems with one's health; using complementary ingredients = delicious food. For myself, I am aware of what ingredients go into, for example, soups, but only because I was raised on and loved that "recipe" and not really conscious of the health factor, etc. That's just a side benefit. How many of you make the tonic soup called "Sai mai". Do you know the English names of the ingredients? Please post your lists so I can compare with mine.

Not in my mother's dish, but there's nothing preventing you from adding it...if it suits your fancy and tickles your palate. ← I might add ginger AND chun pei (rehydated tangerine peel). I think the need for ginger and chun pei may depend on how well the pig stomach was cleaned, whether there is any strong piggy odour remaining. The addition of pepper is also used to get rid of "sang mai/fishy taste" as with rehyrdated oysters in foo juk tong, or "sou mai" as in pig stomach. I was taught to sautee the oysters in a bit of oil and white pepper before adding them to soup.

Sheetz your term "exact recipe" is what I was trying to stress in the cookbook thread. There are no exact recipes in traditional home cooking. Remember 2-3 generations ago, most women in the villages were illiterate and being so deprived, they learned to improvise by approximation and taste and in doing so after a few times they (hopefully) would achieve the taste that their predecessor...mother, aunt, mother in law, produced. This obsession with exact recipes is the greatest encumbrance to creativity in the Chinese kitchen. ← I think that sheetz meant exact quantities when the term "exact recipe" was used. The list of ingredients yes, but not how many cups of this, that. I mean, how can you describe "yut jat" choi gon (one bundle dried bak choi)? Now of course one can buy prepackaged choi gon in Asian stores. The women 2 or 3 generations and more ago learned not by recipes but by being taught by the elders. I know my Mom learned from watching and doing with her grandmother, mother, mother-in-law, and other elder females. Pig stomach is definitely different from fish stomach. I have also been taught and still being taught by my Mom sitting and directing from her chair. I am trying to record some of her instructions as she is 99. At least my kids will have some kind of recipe to follow.

OH YES! Love pig stomach in this soup. This is my daughter's favourite WITH dried oysters. Dried oysters are a must in foo juk tong for Chinese New Year. On the hung yun: google says" apricot kernels" toxic unless they are blanched or roasted before consumption. Grace Young in The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen says: Ah Leung: I wonder if your father knew that cilantro is good for reduction of high blood pressure?

Night before, lightly score the racks, marinade them with a mix of hoisin sauce, 5-spice powder, a bit of sesame oil, salt, a couple tbsp of cooking wine, and sugar. Roast on a broiling pan at 400F for about 30-45 minutes depending on the meatiness of the ribs. I sometimes cut the racks into sections of 3 or 4 ribs, then hang them with S-hooks and roast that way.