origamicrane

actually reading that recipe kinda reminds me of chinese steamed omlette. Its just a few eggs whisked with part water, seasoned with salt and pepper then drop in some rehydrated dried shrimps, or minced pork or bits of cod then steamed until its set, then a splash of soya sauce to finish.

Have you guys checked out Chinese Experience on Shaftesbury avenue? http://www.chineseexperience.com/general.htm I think its pretty good as they have some interesting dishes and little of that run of the mill pseudo-chinese stuff. Been there twice for dinner and the things i really like are the Peking ravioli in chilli sauce and the Braised organic pork belly in five spice they also have dan dan mein too. next time I go down I'll write a review.

arrr.... we are probably talking about two different types of tofu then. The one I use is called "egg tofu" I think it is actually a steamed mixure of blended egg whites and tofu. I take a snap of the packets next time i buy some.

hehehe! sorry for taking so long to post Yeah the egg tofu comes in little plastic tubes about 1 inch diameter and about 5inches long. I think we can get 3 tubes for £1 in London. anyway here you go a little portion of a very popular preparation of tamago tofu in hk. It basically a hot sweet and sour made from a base of sweet thai chilli sauce then cooked with minced chicken, diced onions, red pepper, garlic, scallion and the tofu is just fried until the edges are lightly browned. enjoy I'll take a photo of the tamago tofu in its tube when i next buy some. I got a feeling that the tamago tofu in japan is probably a different texture to the type I am using as some of what you guys are saying it seems that your tamago tofu is very soft tofu. Whereas the type I am using is quite firm you can easily dice it.

cool

that was the very first thing you ever cooked ? i do mean the very first thing you ever cooking as a kid helping you mum in the kitchen or your first home economics class.

hmm.... think we could answer this question very easily by listing the first 3 things that we ever cooked. and i do mean the first 3 things ever. in my case it would be boil rice fry an egg make pasta. but having said that most of us know that to get a reputation as a good cook amongst family and friends all we really need to learn is to make a few dishes and do them really really well! a good omellette a roast something a good gravy/sauce

hmm.. just an opinion here. ok even in China the same dish will have regional differences as in any other national cuisine. but i think that the dish should have at least the core flavour ingredients in common otherwise it will probably called something else. here's an example lets take sweet and sour pork in different regions it might be sweeter or sourer or even spicy it might have onions, pineapple peppers, etc but put that on your plate and everyone will say its sweet and sour pork. ok lets change a few of the ingredients, lets remove the veg but if the sauce is the same its still S&S pork minus the veg. Lets remove the pork and its just S&S sauce remove the vinegar and its no long S&S. So what am i rambling about? well what makes a dish authentic to a country? surely its the distinctive taste. you can have S&S sausage, fish cakes, kanagroo, zebra,etc the fact it has the base flavour makes it the very least a chinese dish. But what will make it an authentic chinese dish? well simply is it available in China? is it eaten by chinese people? will they instantly recognise it as a chinese dish?

shittake mushroom

Is using a pinch (or more) of salt, or sugar, or acid cheating? They also enhance other flavors; would you say that their use is trying to make up for something missing? ← I think msg is seen as cheating if you used the powdered stuff.

umami is more meat based its the mouth feel when you eat crackling.

have you actually tasted pure msg? its not nice (confused it for sugar when i was a kid) but wouldn't the best example of umami be dashi stock? konbu and bonito flakes?

it tastes like chicken you know i'm right

I have to soak, wipe and boil mine because we can only get dried bamboo leaves in London. Often the leaves are quite dirty so soaking them is essential and we also have to cut the leaf stems off as otherwise they tend to pierce the overlapping leaf. of course if you got fresh ones i think you just need to soak them

ok! ok! i'll retract the fat and forty statement!!

hot water only bubbles if it has a rough surface to form bubbles on. if you have a very clean and smooth container and microwave water in it it will not bubble this is why it can be dangerous to boil water in a microwave as it can produce superheated water. for more info http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~jw/superheating.html. it is your imagination about microwaved water cooling faster. another reason why you may not want to steep tea in the heating container is that the heating source in the heating container itself will retain heat as such the temp of the water might not be uniform throughout the container. Maybe by pouring the hot water into another teapot you mix the water up and you might get a more uniform temperature in the liquid? but if you take making tea that seriously i think you missing the enjoyment of tea n'est pas? Second if you live in a hard water area your kettle will have limescale and as such that will also effect the taste and you will get bits of limescale in you cuppa.

Why do you think its going to take some persuading to convince my mum to make zoong!! The only reason you have to boil zoong for 5-6 hours is if the zoong you make are really big!! mine are about 6 inches long and 4 inches high and wide!! (yes it is a sign that i'm crap at wrapping zoong!)but!! eat one of those and you won't need to eat for the rest of the day and it means there a lot more lui inside them hhhmmmmmm.... :)__ drooll!!

What's stopping you from making zoong? You know all the ingredients and where to get them. You have the knowhow to make them. (If not, we'll help you. It's much easier than you imagine.) Added bonus: you can turn around and sell some to her! ← true! true! I can make them, just not as good as my mom (isn't that always the way with chinese food) mmm.... i might be sneaky if i go buy the ingredients this weekend I can probably convince her to make some next weekend afterall she won't allow all that stuff to go to waste chinese mothers are so predictable hehehe!!

arrr.. but how big are they? actually haven't been able to convince my mum to make zoong she said she buy some instead sigh!!

Why? Isn't "zoong" official enough? I very much resist the so-called "Chinese Tamale" (though I must admit I had used it before for convenience). Why don't we call it what it is? ← hmmm..... well here's my reasoning my non chinese friend: hey whats that little green parcel in your fridge tied up with string? me: it a zoong my non chinese friend: a what? me: a zoong my non chinese friend: a dune? me: no a zoong my non chinese friend: what is it? me: it a massive rice dumpling my non chinese friend: oouuuhhh.. whats in it? me: glutinous rice, yellow beans, salted pork, salted egg, shitake mushroom, dried shrimp, chinese wax sausage, chestnuts wrapped with bamboo leaves. my friend: can i try some? me: sure *a few minutes later* my non chinese friend:: yum!! this is realy nice. what is this again? me: a zoong hehehe!! life's too short

thats why I hope its worth it. although I do get a glass of bubbly and £18 of food vouchers and its for charrity. Hopefully the gala night will allow me to indulge my other passion photography

well got my ticket. hope its worth it!! £45 not cheap I could have a (cheapo) dinner at nobu for that btw the ticket booking website seems a little flakey it crashed without confirmation when I went to pay for m ticket. anyway if you are going to this say hi! I be the chinaman in black with a camera.

hmmm..... I'll ask my mum see if she's feeling mad enough If she is I'll take loads of photos too and make a photo tutorial. The problem with making zoong in my household is that we have to make loads for our extended family and a few for the workers in the restaurant. We usually end up making over 80! and each one I think weighs close to a kilo each!! by the way whats the official english name for zoong??? as i find it hard to explain to my non chinese friends

sounds like fun I can go and heckle John Torode

slice into rounds and sear them on both sides then chuck in some chopped garlic, onions, scallion, miced chicken sweet and sour sauce:) yum hmmm i must take a picture next time my mum makes it