origamicrane

more dim sum 101 A little dim sum etiquette Dim sum is an informal meal usually shared by family and friends. Its not a formal meal as such there are no real rules but there are some minor rules of etiquette. 1. Chopsticks are definitely not drumsticks so please do not play the drums on the cups and bowls as it is very annoying. 2. Picking up food for yourself. Ideally use chopsticks. If you don't know how, learn! if not, fork off if you are still learning and your chop stick technique isn't that good yet you are allowed to stab the dim sum to pick them up. The only problem with this is if it is a siew long bai in which case you will lose all that lovely juice. 3. Picking up food for others. Use the reverse end of the chopstick to pick up food for others. Often you will see the younger members on the table picking up a dumpling and placing it into the bowl of the elders, this is a sign of respect and affection. But when you want to do this reverse the chopsticks, so you are using the thick end that has not been in your mouth. ie: more hygienic. 4. Dipping sauces. Only dip the dumplings into the sauces if you have nottaken a bite out of it. If you have taken a bite out of the dumping and want more dipping sauce pour some onto your spoon/plate/bowl again its just a hygiene thing. 5. In many Chinese restaurants especially in Hong Kong and probably Vancouver/Toronto you may find two sets of chopsticks at every table setting. One pair will be white, the other black. The black pair is for picking up food from the serving platters and putting into your bowl. While the white pair is used for picking this up from your bowl to you mouth. This may seem a little obsessive but this is due to the knock on effects of the SARS infection a few yers ago people just started to get hyper paranoid about hygiene.

more dim sum 101 Prawn dumplings in hot sour soup. (Only available at Golden palace. ) These dumplings contain minced prawn and garlic are wrapped in a thin pastry skin. First deep fried then simmered in a hot and sour soup. This soup is similar to tom yum soup but tastier with a lots of black vinegar and garlic. Chiu Chow fun giou dumpling. This dumpling contains minced pork, dried prawns, shredded daikon, chinese chives and peanuts. Prawn seaweed rolls. Seasoned minced prawn wrapped in a piece of roasted seaweed (nori) deep fried and served with a salad cream. Pineapple buns. These are called pineapple buns because originally they had a criss cross pattern scored all over them that resembled a pineapple, unfortunately most places don't do this no more. This is a sweet dessert dim sum containing a thick custard.

it was a chilli sauce!!!! anyway it wasn't even my recipe it was Packo's and it was very nice, thank you very much. Packo's chilli crab recipe (in case you wondering what we are blabbering about my episode of chef V britain was on today) Don't you think it was silly for them to say that my nickname is sushi sam yet i'm not making sushi!!!?? jam fools!! Anyway only lost cause I forgot (most) westerners can't eat crab in the shell.

Golden Palace v Royal China On quality i think the two are pretty neck and neck I would be more then happy to eat at either place although GP is my home team RC advantages are definitely locations that are easy to get to and decor. But GP wins on 1. Variety. they have ~20 more dim sum dishes available, seasonal stuff and dishes not available in any other dim sum restaurant. 2. Quantity. GP's dim sum is slightly larger per piece but some may say its not as elegant. 3. Price. I think GP probably a little cheaper per dish. 4. Waiting time. no 45 minute wait for a table here. 5. Parking. there's a Tesco car park just opposite the restaurant, you get 2 hours free parking. 6. They have great prawn crackers. So is it worth travelling past RC to get to GP? Well Raj does it every week Disclaimers: 1. I'm talking about the Dim sum only. Royal China's dinner menu is better then Golden Palace. 2. I am biased because they are my local dim sum joint and I do business with them. I supply them with prawn crackers hehehe! CLICK CLICK! cheung fun thread in the chiense forum thank you its the camera

I'll agree with that, more people should try dim sum and i hope ping pong become popular. As hopefully this will reduce the queing time for Royal China in Bayswater and Bakerstreet and maybe even mean Yauatcha will give you more then 90 minutes. edited to add: the penny just dropped! Ping Pong is the dim sum equivalent of the local chinese takeaway.

couldn't agree with you more, i make my weekly pilgrimage to Golden Palace too And I understand what you mean about the expensive western food in Hong Kong and the locals bias for western food. Went ( with relatives) to a Pizza Hut in new territories and there was a 45 minnute queue!

nice pics - but is the above Law Pak Goh - known as taro cake? - always thought there should be mention of daikon or mooli in the title Yin ← good eyes but you are decieved. Yep it looks like law pak goh (aka - daikon cake/mooli cake/turnip cake/carrot cake) but its actually "woo tul goh" (taro cake) you can tell as it is grey coloured where are law pak goh is usually white. Thats the good thing about Golden Palace it has several dim sum dishes not usually available in chinatown (not even in yauatcha or hakkasan! ) these include the vegetarian mock meat dim sum dishes, the grilled chicken with lemongrass and the sour soup dumplings Raj mentioned amongst others.

hi raj thanks that a strange comment as i think dim sum in hong kong isn't actually that good and the good ones are as expensive as london but still not as good.

hello met up with a few fellow egulleteers today for lovely lunch at my favourite dim sum joint Golden Palace in Harrow. It was lovely meeting all of you I hope you liked the food and look forward to meeting up with you again soon. But first a little background for those unfamiliar with dim sum. I think i will turn this thread into a dim sum beginners guide and add more photos as the weeks progress. Dim sum is a traditional chinese breakast or lunch consisting of small plates of steamed and fried foods, I have heard people describe it as Chinese tapas. Dim sum literally means "piece of heart" or "piece of love". To have a balanced dim sum meal, you should have a mix of fried and steamed dishes approximately a 50/50 split. The reasoning for this split is that the Chinese believe in a natural balance of ying and yang or heating or cooling of the body. Fried dishes heats the body while steamed dishes counter this heating effect. ( thats a very simplified explaination if you like to know more, read up on acupuncture and chinese medicine). Dim sum menus can contain as many as ~80 dishes. Depending on how hungry you are each person should order 3 or 4 dishes each that are shared. In cantonese we call this meal "yum cha" which means "drink tea" as such tea is an integral part of this meal, tea also aids digestion and has a cooling effect. When pouring tea you should pour tea for others before your own and if someone pours tea for you, you should acknowlegdge them by gently tapping the table with your knuckles or fingers. When the teapot is empty, you should take the lid off or put the lid off at an angle and this will indicate to the waiters that you need a refill. There are lots of chinese teas but unless you specify otherwise you will usually be serve 'bo lai' or 'jasmine' tea. Personally my favourite are 'Oolong' or 'Iron Buddah'. Chopstick usage is mandatory it is seen as rude to pretend to be ringo star with your chopstick, unless you are still in primary school Dipping sauces, you will usually find a small dish of chilli oil, chilli sauce and thai fish sauce on the table. Certain dishes also come with their own dipping sauces. Chinese don't usually use soya sauce as a dipping sauce for dim sum. GOLDEN PALACE 146-150 Station Road Harrow London HA1 2RH Roast pork puffs ( triangular ones) and Yam mixed meat croquettes (oval ones). Roast pork puffs contain chopped up bits of chinese bbq lean pork (char sui) with a rich sweet red gravy often with onions in and wrapped in puff pastry and baked. The sign that it is a really good pork puff it that the filling is hot, the gravy is rich and sweet and the pastry is thin, light and flaky yet moist and not too oily. Yam croquette contain bits of pork and dried shrimps wrapped in a pastry made from taro flour. Thai style chilli deboned chicken feet. This is one of the few dim sum dishes that is served cold. The chicken feet are blanched in hot water and the outer skin is removed. Then the bones are removed and they are boiled then allowed to marinade in fish sauce chilli and lemon grass it should have the texture of squid and should have a clean fresh flavour of the marinade and shouldn't be fishy. Pan Fried dried shrimp cheung fun with sesame paste and hoi sin sauce. Cheung fun is sometimes described as chinese callenoni. Cheung fun is made from sheets of gluten used to wrap various fillings such as prawn, scallop, beef , pork of chinese doughnuts. Cheung fun is usually served with a sweet soy sauce poured over it. Pan Fried Taro cake. This is made from shredded taro mixed with dried meats and seasoned with five spice. This is steamed and then cut into slices to be pan fried. Har Gau - Prawn dumplings. These dumpling are filled with juicy and succulent pieces of prawn and usually a little bamboo shoots. This is one of the staples of dim sum. Dim sum isn't dim sum without har gau. Scallop dumplings. Pan fried Prawn and Chive dumplings notice that in all the dumplings above, the pastry skin is translucent and you can see the filling inside. The sign of a good skin is that it is translucent, thin but strong enough not to rip when picked up with chopsticks. It it best to allow the dumplings a minute to cool, this allows the pastry skin to firm up thus reducing the chance that it will rip. Glutinous rice with mixed meats wrapped in lotus leaf . This is quite a stodgy dish containing bits of chicken, roast pork, chinese wax sausage, shiitake, and a salted egg yolk in a thick sauce. Sui Mai - Pork and prawn dumplings. Another dim sum staple. Contains pork and prawn and somtimes bamboo shoots and shiitake. Egg Tarts

hello can anyone help me with a recipe for Goong Chae Nam Pla (raw prawn with chilli lime and fish sauce) the raw prawns can they be from frozen? do you have to blanch or anything? and Kho Moo Yang (thai char grilled pork) thanks

snake soup - tastes like chicken crodile - tastes like chicken frogs legs - tastes iike chicken whats the point? might as well just eat chicken!!! being chinese we eat stuff that a lot of people say is wierd sharks fin, sea cucumber, bird's nest which is actually swallow spit, chicken feet, duck tongues, turtle soup, "hair" fungus, dried sea horses there's probably a lot more but a few of those are eaten as medicinal soups rather then regular "food".

i got a question is here any danger in eating pre-frozen uncooked prawns raw?? I'm asking as had thai raw prawn salad last night kung chae nam pla ( rawn prawns in chilli , lime and fish sauce) and there are no fresh prawns in london so they must be from frozen. also anyone got a recipe for this as i want to try making this at home cheers

so do the korean and japanese righty-ho then so let me get this straight bbq = smoking - in southern US bbq = grilling over hot coal - rest of the world smoking = smoking - rest of the world man that jason going to have to fly to a lot of countries to kick a lot of butts. or could rename this thread: Grilling Vegetables on Outdoor Charcoal Grills, Vegetarian "barbecue" for you British, Australian, Canandians, Japanese, Korean, yadda yadda yadda.

BUGS!!!! Recipe for corinader bugs flambe (as in insect, not bunny) (although you could try it with bunny, but could be messy) 1. Take one saturday afternoon to cook up some satay. 2. Add a bag of coriander seed, cumin and fennel seeds. 3. Pour out 2 tablespoons of each into a pan for toasting. 4. Notice a little bettle crawling around in the pan take tissue and sqish bug. 5. Notice a few more bugs crawling around in the pan. 6. Look closer and notice even more bugs crawling around. 7. Start to get concerned that there is a bug infestation. 8. Look at the bag of cumin seeds, no problem. 9. Look at the bag of fennel seeds, no problem. 10. Look at the bag of coriander seeds, bug central!!! 11. Curse damn bugs!! and look to contain said bugs. 12. Get pissed off that entire 500g of coriander seeds are a write off. 13. Decide to make coriander bug flambe instead. 14. Pour entire contents of bag into pan and turn heat to max. 15. Take blowtorch and fry those suckers as they try to crawl out from the seeds and think thoughts of the magnificent 7 or anakin skywalker killing the tuskin tribe or real life enactment of "out of the frying pan into the fire." while singing Trammps - disco inferno 16. Grin like Jack Nicholson in The Shining as bugs become extras in Sarah Connor's dream sequence in Terminator 2. 18. Feel strangely psychotic but strangely better after decimating the bug colony. 19. Serve my perfectly done coriander bug flambe to oscar the grouch. 20. Wash the pan and working area. 21. go out buy new bag of coriander. optional steps: 22. write it up on egullet and sound like a psychopath 23. reminds oneself that everyone on egullet is a food psychopath hehehe!!

A rich and rather sheltered friend of mine went on holiday for the summer. 2 months later she comes back and i drive her home from the airport. On getting back to her flat I offer to make some food while she unpacks. On opening the rice cooker i say "hey! has someone been cooking here? there rice and peas in the rice cooker?" yep we had 2 month old steamed rice with penicillin

i know its not the west end but some of the best noodle dishes i think are the vietnamese restaurants down in Dalston. Tay Do is the best all rounder down there I think Song Que is the best for pho(but nothing else) or if you want the best value cafe east down in Surrey Quaye is excellent looks like a greasy spoon cafe (well it is during the daytime) but they serve a damn fine beef pho.

Invariably, I find that my fellow Canadians refer to a gas grill as a BBQ. Now, maybe it's because my family never used an outdoor grill (just a tiny hibachi), but I've never referred to it as anything but a grill. Jason, time to drive north and teach these people something about BBQ. ← what about an Australian too? ok lads tell me what's the English dictionary definition of a barbeque?

84 Brewer Street

ryo!!! no other noodle bar stays open tiil 3am

ah, I see. all I know about is silken tofu and firm tofu (the latter being the kind the man brings to borough market in his bicycle trailer!), are these both forms of tamago tofu?? are there any other names the egg tofu goes by, to help me find it in an oriental supermarket? ← There's actually a thread about siken tofu in the japanese and chinese forums. Basically tofu firm and soft is the same thing just different states rather like water and ice Tamago tofu isn't tofu at all its actually just steamed egg whites. Where as egg tofu is a blend of egg whites and tofu and is a little firmer then normal tofu. It called Egg tofu in the london chinese supermarkets i should have a picture somewhere i post it once i located it.

a second branch already? is ping pong really making that much money? or are they going franchise? McDimSum here we come

Please do rename my thread, but you'll have to call it "outdoor charcoal grilling", or us Limeys will think you're talking about broiling. At least I remembered about eggplants... ← aubergine "we can get some tinnies and chuck a few shrimps on the barbie, mate"

oh, that where the sweet chilli sauce comes in. Egg tofu is a mix of egg and tofu (not the same as japanese tamago tofu) it comes in plastic tubes and you can cut them into rounds. You not really grilling the tofu just grilling the edges to give them a little crisp and caramelising the thai chilli sauce although usually it gets burnt cause of the sugar in the sauce but when didn't you eat some carbon at a bbq?

po-tay-to po-tah-to hohohoho!! we speak english, you speak american

Fresh shiitake mushrooms. Skewer and grill them, brush with a little soya sauce and sesame oil. Aubergines, courgette, peppers, butternut squash, sweet potato, sweetcorn,asparagus, etc Head to a chinese supoermarket and look for some mock meat or egg tofu.