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Is there an eating etiquette for Nasi Lemak? Is one supposed to chew these different components separately? Or can one kind of take some ikan bilis and coconut rice in the same scoop?

Irwin's explanations makes a lot of sense. Indeed there is a big Hakka population in Ping Shan/Yuen Long. I wonder if the guests would help themselves to pick from the basin if the server is not around... I use the term "basin" just to be trueful to the Chinese word "poon" -> basin. Yes the basin you use for wash-ups. Clay pots have different names. Bo [Cantonese] is "pot". So it seems that this dish, or custom, was confined to the Ping Shan village until recent years. Now it is offered in certain restaurants.

I didn't read the recipe in detail. Now you mentioned it, both recipes use 1:1 ratio for flour and sugar. Wow! That's a lot of sugar! Reduce it down to 3:1 may be... I am not a baker, just used my general cooking experience.

I don't understand this dish. I have heard of the name before (in Chinese) but did not co-relate that's what it is. Of the 20-some years that I lived in Hong Kong, I have never witnessed or heard of this dish served in restaurants. Is there any symbolic meaning? Why go through the extra efforts of putting everything in layers in a big basin, instead of serving each entree individually? Is it really practical, or hygienic, to have everybody's chopsticks digged deep in the big basin to fish out the meat? I cannot imagine the blending of different entrees, each with a different sauce, in the same bowl for serving and call that special and delicious. What am I missing?

Shouldn't it be the Moon Cake that would explode? I hope you are not holding the Moon Cake while the microwave is on! Or else we will really have a Chernobyl effect...

I have never made that before, but I would imagine the batter is a simple mixture of flour, egg, milk, maybe water, with a pinch of salt. These eggettes are not that different from waffles.

The picture looks pretty good. This has been an educational experience for me. This looks more like the Gon Chow Ngau Ho in Hong Kong style cooking. I want to taste it in person at some point in my life. The Hong Kong style CKT is more like Singapore style Chow Mei Fun, with curry powder and no soy sauce. Now I am very unsure of the "Singapore style Chow Mei Fun" in Hong Kong really resemble anything like the stir-fried vermicelli in Singapore, with curry powder, shrimp, BBQ pork, onion slices, green onion and bell pepper.

Dejah: Does this term "crever" show up in your new generation dictionary? Is it a combination of "Crazy" and "Clever"?

"dry stirred (chowed) rice noodles with pork meat balls". ← The word "lo" in Cantonese means stirred but not stir-fried. "Chow" on the other hand implies stir-fried over high heat. For example, Lo Mein is just wheat noodles (boiled and drained) with oyster sauce poured on top (no stir-frying). Chow Mein is wheat noodles stir-fried with meats and vegetables. So back to your quote, it would be: dry stirred (with oyster sauce?) rice vermicelli with port meat balls. How is the "mai fun" prepared?

The brown bean sauce is fairly generic. From my experience the taste of brown bean sauce from many of the major manufacturers are about the same. Koon Chun, Yeo's, Lee Kum Kee... It is seldomly used alone. Most often it is used along with other ingredients such as garlic, hoisin sauce, five spice, etc. as a marinade or as an ingredient to make the "brown" sauce. While the Cantonese use brown bean sauce in steamed fish, Northern Chinese (not sure where exactly, let's say it's North of Canton (GuangDong) ) use brown bean sauce to make "Sweet and Sour Fish". The fish is breaded and deep-fried first (or just shallow-fried without bread over slow fire in home cooking). The brown sauce is made by saute'ing some garlic, ginger, brown bean sauce, hoisin sauce, vinegar, sugar, water, and thickened with corn starch solution. Chopped green onions on top at the end as a garnish. Some versions of this, called "Ng Lau" [Cantonese], or Five Willows - five ingredients in thin shreds, add shredded daikon, carrots, celery, black mushrooms, or other vegetables (pre-cooked first) in the sauce and pour on top of the fish.

Like bacon bits? This sounds like a very "distorted" Cantonese pronounciation. Hmmmm... Char is in "Char Kway Teow"... that one is "Chow" (Stir-Fry) Char is in "Jue Yau Char"... that one is "Ja" (dregs)... The 2 words sound distinctly different in Cantonese. Maybe in Teochew they sound the same?

i am sorry... I kept hearing you guys mentioned this term "jue yau char". What is it exactly?

the Los Angeles basin is a huge area! Good Chinese restaurants typically cluster around high-Chinese-immigrant-population areas. The following areas are the ones that I know: Irvine (said before) Cerritos/Artesia Torrance China Town (Los Angeles Downtown) Alhambra/Monterey Park/San Gabriel/Rosemead/El Monte (of course) Hicienda Height/Diamond Bar

I found this picture from a blog webpage. It is a close-up of Penang Style CKT. Does it look close to the CKT that you guys are talking about? Close-up image of CKT: http://umami.typepad.com/photos/street_foo...e_food_020.html For the full blog: http://umami.typepad.com/photos/street_food_around_bangsa/

Ar.... I found that... different. There is a local noodle house in Sacramento called TK noodle. They offer one item that's exactly that: half flat rice noodles and half yellow egg wheat noodles. At first I found that unusual. (Because in China we you don't see this half and half mix. Rice noodle is rice noodle. Wheat noodle is wheat noodle. One or the other... ) Now that you mentioned it. Is this common in Malaysia (to have a mix)?

250C = 482F Roughly, eh? I don't think there'd be much pf a tart left at those temps! ← Oops! I subtracted 32F instead of adding! I am sorry. Well... NASA's rocket engineers made mistakes too with their Mars spaceships... not converting metric/English... mega oops.

Unfortunately in Hong Kong, the dai pai dong as you knew them in the 60s/70s have pretty much extincted. In their place are small shops (really inside a building, have gates) / restaurants to offer what's once "street food" (e.g. fish balls, chow mein with soy sauce, daikon cake, fried fish paste with green pepper, cold cut liver/intestines/chicken-feet, jook, cheung fun, wonton noodle, fried clams, fake shark-fin soup, pork blood, pork skin, etc., etc..) In more recent years, food courts inside big shopping malls and fast food chains are in. Street hawkers no more. An era has passed.

Some pictures of the real Char Koay Teow on the streets of Penang: http://penangtalk.com/hawk/ Curry Mee, Fried Oyster... slurpppppp!

I agree. 250C = 420F roughly. Doesn't seem overly high.

Besides Chinese food, save your stomach for some great Vietnamese food while you are down there. Little Saigon (Garden Grove) is only about 10 minutes away along the 405. Exit Brookhurst from 405. Go North. Make a left turn on Bolsa. Along Bolsa between Brookhurst and Magnolia, there are many many Vietnamese eateries and snack shops. My favorite is called "My Nguyen" (I think). It's a Vietnamese restaurant on Brookhurst between Bolsa and Westminster (on the East side of Brookhurst). Best: Thit Nuong (charboiled pork slices), wrapped with rice paper Chao Tom (shrimp paste with sugar cane) Pho Tai (rice noodle soup with raw beef) Vietnamese egg rolls (fried), wrapped with lettuce In the next mall to My Nguygen (southward), there is a snack shop in the middle of that mall (sorry can't remember the name). They sell many varieties of dried fruits, jerkies, candies, etc.. They have the best Vietnamese hot beef jerky, shredded squid and dried fish with sesame!

It's also worth mentioning that in Hong Kong, the Cantonese BBQ items are top-ranked. Siu Ngap (Roast Duck) Siu Yuk (Roast Pork) Char Siu (BBQ Pork) Some shops/restaurants are better than others but most of them would not disappoint. The freshest BBQ items usually come up around 4:00 pm or so (people buy them on the way home off work). It's local custom that these ducks, chicken, porks, ribs are hung at the front of the store. It's hard to miss them. If you son is really adventurous, try some dry duck feet and roast chicken liver!

Wow... I think this restaurant is new. I worked in Irvine for years and years and did not notice this name. The location used to be another restaurant... not TGIFridays's but something else... can't remember the name now. They are next to a MacDonald's, right? May be I will try it next time I go down. Did you go to Sam Woo Seafood or BBQ (Culver and Irvine Center Drive). Especially Sam Woo Seafood. Excellent service, great food, reasonable price. And there are plenty of good Chinese eateries at Walnut Ave X Jeffery Road.

So the Chernobyl green color is from pandan? Do you like the added taste? Typically people don't like the dull green color (looks like it's moldy). Their coloring in the picture is not helping.

Thanks for the link to the dictionary, Suzy. That's very handy!

That's my feeling exactly too. A 15-year old would more likely look for McDonald's, Burger King, KFC and Pizza Hut! There are plenty of these outlets in China/Hong Kong now... (Except Taco Bell...) Having said that... besides dim sum and dan tart/pineapple bao... I think a couple of things definitely worth having while in Hong Kong are: Jook (rice portridge), cheung fun (steamed rice noodles) and wonton noodles. It's extremely hard to find Chinese restaurants who make these items well in the US/Canada - unless you live in cities highly populated with Hong Konger immigrants such as San Gabriel Valley, Vancouver and such. Those items are available everywhere in Hong Kong. And most of them would not disappoint.