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These traditional treats are very hard to find in the U.S.A. They are not mass-produced using the cookie-cutter approach like many crackers and snacks. Yet the local bakeries don't bother making them (or not know how to make them) as sales are probably very slow on these items.

Is Penang curry the same as Thai red curry? Many Thai restaurants describe their curry dishes just as red curry, green curry and yellow curry. I have seen the name Penang Beef used, and the dish is red. Not sure if I can tie the two together.

I agree with wesza that the availability of fresh and top-quality ingredients in Hong Kong in the past few decades, under its special circumstances, has a major contribution to making Cantonese cuisine so successful. This seems to agree with what I said earlier about if I grew up in the Carribeans eating nothing but bananas, I may think the food from the rest of the world is no good and only bananas taste the best. I don’t think this is true at all, what you said about Cantonese cuisine uses ingredients that are typically more expensive. You may be referring to those dishes found in Chinese banquets. If you walk in to a restaurant in Hong Kong, or here in the USA or Canada, you can find plenty of dishes similar to what you called “everyday food”, such as beef stir-fried with vegetables, beef stew in hot pots, chicken with black bean sauce, Hong Shao Do Fu, roast duck and barbequed pork, etc.. These ingredients are not considered expensive nor “higher class”. I think the issue is, at least partially, when you and other fellow posters slammed on and said “Cantonese food is bland”, “all show and no taste”, you may be basing your broad judgment on a few limited Cantonese “bland chop suey” restaurants in the U.S., or a few what you considered as “high end” Cantonese “all show and no taste” restaurants in China, or the cooking done by a Cantonese friend. If you have the opportunity to spend some length of time living in Hong Kong and don’t be afraid to try the local Cantonese food, you may open up your mind a little. I think Gary Soup would agree with me… take San Francisco for example, there are plenty of restaurants in or outside of SF China Town which offer excellent common “everyday Cantonese food” for less than US $5.00 a dish. They are good (in fact excellent) but nobody would consider them as “high end”. Have you ever tried dining in those places? Have you dined in Cantonese restaurants serving “everyday food” in Portland, Seattle, Monterey Park, San Jose, Los Angeles, Cerritos, Irvine, New York City, Boston, D.C., Philadelphia, Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal? These cities, all outside of Guangzhou/HK, have fairly decent “low end” Cantonese restaurants. Yes, my personal experience.

I think Vietnamese may use the same grill pan to make their charboiled beef/pork too. I have one that actually has open slits on the dome. Fire from the stove can flame up through the slits on to the meat. I use it to charboil beef slices marinated with shallot, lemon grass, fish sauce, lime juice -- a Vietnamese style. I have been to Vietnamese restaurants which offer beef in 7 courses. They also use similar dome-shape grills for cooking the beef. The dome shape is a very good design because it drains off the fluid from the beef/pork/meat while grilling. This is important because it keeps the meats dry and their surfaces will caramelize better. With a flat grill pan, it doesn't drain as well.

I am familiar with Vietnamese food but not the language. I went to a new Vietnamese/Chinese restaurant 2 days ago and intended to have some Banh Hoi with charboiled pork and Sugar Cane Shrimp. The menu was trilingual: Chinese, Vietnamese and English. I have a tendency to just read the Chinese portion... without reading the Vietnamese portion, I ended up ordering something not what I expected. I know Banh Hoi is the name of the rice vermicelli. Many questions... would someone who's familiar with Vietnamese food or language help? Nem Nuong: This turned out to be the ground pork ball. Which word means pork and which means ball? I want to order the sliced charboiled pork, what would be the name for that? Tom Quet: This turned out to be a shrimp paste wrapped between two sheets of tofu skin. What's the Vietnamese for shrimp paste rolled on sugar cane? Apparently Bahn Hoi and Bun are 2 different kinds of rice noodles, is that right? Is Bun a thicker one? It seems that there are different Vietnamese word for beef: "Tai" in Pho Tai, "Bo" in Chow mein (Mi Xao Bo). Does Tai mean specifically raw beef?

Anise, cinnamon (five spice), salt and such are rubbed on the *inside*. The outside, primarily soy and red vinegar. Just like fried chicken (炸子鸡), the bird is first half-cooked (boiled) in a soy/vinegar/five-spice mix, then hung up to dry from a few hours to overnight, then deep-fried to fullycooked before serving. I think the vinegar draws most of the water moisture out of the skin so that when it's deep-fried, the skin will become thin and crispy.

The Chinese term 红烧(Hung Siu [Cantonese], or hong2 shao1 [Mandarin]) bears many meanings. My brother-in-law asked me once what is considered a Hong Shao dish. My answer is… well it depends on what it is. Hong Shao pork is different from Hong Shao fish or Hong Shao tofu. All that because this term has been used broadly in many dishes. The word 红(Hung/Hong) means Red (implied hot), and 烧(Siu/Shao) means burning (implied flaming or cooking or braising). I have seen some translated it as “Red Braised” (which is pretty good, though it puzzles readers where the red (color) comes from). I picked up the menu from a neighborhood Chinese restaurant, and I can find 5 different dishes the bear the term 红烧 yet that all mean different things. 1. 红烧排骨 Hong Shao Pai Gu [Mandarin] (spareribs): This is an appetizer. The spareribs are barbequed or grilled. 2. 红烧鱼Hong Shao Yu (fish): The fish is first deep-fried, then cooked again (braised) with a sauce made from brown bean sauce, chili bean sauce, garlic and ginger. 3. 红烧豆府 Hong Shao Dou Fu (tofu): Similar to fish, the tofu is first deep-fried, then braised with garlic, green onions, ginger and oyster sauce. 4. 红烧乳 鸽 Hong Shao Ru Ge (young pigeon): The young pigeons are actually deep-fried. They are dry and have crispy skin. No sauce. 5. 红烧肉 Hong Shao Rou (pork): Unlike fish or tofu, the pork is simmered for hours in a broth made with dark soy sauce, five spices, garlic, ginger, leek and sugar. As you can see now, the term 红烧 may mean barbequed (baked), grilled, deep-fried, braised (brown bean sauce), braised (oyster sauce), or simmered depending on the meat associated with the dish. Very confusing, huh?

You are very welcome, Betty. It is my greatest pleasure to share cooking tips with fellow posters. My motto is "Life is too short for mediocre food!" You can produce many restaurant-quality (heck, better than most US based chop-suey restaurants) meals right from your own kitchen. Did you end up using the LKK Chinese Marinade? Or did you make your own? Did you use their BBQ sauce to baste? Let me know if you have questions on other recipes.

When I make dumplings (wonton or siu mei or pot stickers) I use a food processor to grind the pork. The result seems pretty good. Save a lot of time.

Oh, forget it Ben. These are Cantonese stuff. Northerners probably don't have any idea what you are talking about...

I hope that you don't take one person's cooking (your friend's) and generalize it to conclude that all Cantonese food is bland. My in-law never cook her "Cantonese food" with any salt or sauce. Her version of Cantonese food tastes very bland to me too.

I think that, in the majority of cases, this judgement of taste comes from one's upbringing -- what one is used to. Unlike Hunan, Sichuan and other Chinese regional food, Cantonese food is known to be mild. So if you grew up eating hot and spicy food, you tend to think Cantonese food is bland. On the other hand, for those who grew up eating mild food, they tend to think Hunan/Sichuan/etc food is nothing but hot. Likewise if I grew up in the Carribeans eating nothing but bananas, I may think the food from the rest of the world is no good and only bananas taste the best. I read on a book once which said "hot" itself is actually not a taste. "Salty", "sour", "sweet" are tastes. But "hot" is just a mechanism to stimulate, excite your taste buds to boost their receptions to true tastes. So adding a little hot sauce to the food will make enhance the eater's perception to the food's taste. But when you eat something that's overly hot, your taste buds would become numb then you cannot disguish between different tastes any more.

Would you elaborate, Ben?

I really have problem with this statement. The fact that the Cantonese translation of the word Cheese sounds close to "pig s**t" is coincidental. In English/Cantonese translations, almost anything that ends with (or start with) an "S" or "CE" would be translated as something that sounds like "s**t". As noted months ago, that goes for BUS, TAXI, Store, Toast, and so on. Saying that Cantonese people purposely portrait Cheese as something disgusting (to eat) is a total lack of understanding of the Cantonese, or in a bit narrower scope, Hong Kongers' culture and language. Whether someone likes the smell of cheese is up to the individual. To broadly implicate that Cantonese/Hong-Kongers take pleasure in associating “pig s**t” with cheese because they don't like the smell of cheese is a problematic logic. While the rest of China may not have been exposed to cheese and daily products. Hong Kongers have plenty of food items made with or related to cheese and other dairy products due to many years of influences from America, UK, Australia and Europe. The new generations who grew up in Hong Kong all drink milk as a fact of life. That's why companies like "The Dairy Farm" in Hong Kong became so successful in the past decades. I don’t want to get in the fight of my cuisine can beat up your cuisine. I think everybody has his/her own favorite and just let it be so.

I never forget a taste. It is something I had when I was a teenager living in Hong Kong. I like it a lot. Like many things, I just reversed-engineer it and the result tasted fairly close. I think in the version I tasted in Hong Kong, they might have put in some other mix of beans and coconut shreds in it. I make it every now and then. Each time I make a pot, it lasts us a long time.

Thanks for correcting my spelling on "taro" guys and gals. Let me just edit the original post on the recipe to minimize further confusions... done. As for "yam" versus "sweet potato"... I might have been misled by the Chinese grocery markets where I frequently shopped at. They labelled them as just "yam" and I took the name for granted. I did some research and found that yams and sweet potatoes are different species. The good news is I am not the only one who is confused. What I intended to use is indeed sweet potato. Here is a picture of some sweet potatoes - the ones my recipe referenced. Here is some info on "yam" and why it's confused by many with sweet potatoes: http://www.epicurious.com/cooking/how_to/f...earch?query=yam Here is an excerpt on "what is the difference between yams and sweet potatoes": http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/plantan...weetpotato.html

Those days that you experienced back in 1997 were long gone. Since the US dot com crash in 2000, the Hong Kong stock market slumped. The real estate market followed. People lost 30% to 70% (in some cases) of their home value. Consumer spending shrank. The HK restaurant market was hit especially hard during the SARS epidemic a couple of years ago. People chose to stay home rather than to eat out. My brother told me that it has recovered a bit (so did the Hang Seng index) but sure is not the same as before.

The seafood sold in Hong Kong is not caught in Victoria Harbor. Those eatible fish and other creatures were long gone. Fish are caught mostly in South China Sea. Most of the fishermen in Hong Kong have to sail hundreds of miles (in the course of a few days) to catch them. Fresh water fish are probably imported from China - farm raised or caught in ponds/lakes/rivers.

If you are into sweet dessert soup, I can suggest you to make "momojaja". I am not sure exactly how it's spelled, and perhaps Laksa can enlighten us. It is a version of red bean dessert soup that's popular in South East Asia. - 1 bag of red beans (12 oz or so). Soak the beans in water overnight. - 1 lb of taro, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch cubes - 1 lb of yam (sweet potato), peeled and diced into 1/2 inch cubes - 1 pot of water in a large crock pot - about 6 to 7 pieces of brown sugar slabs (peen tong), or use other forms of sugar - 1 cup of tapioca (small or medium size) - 1 can of coconut milk Just drain the red beans, put in the crock pot filled with water. Put in toro and yam and sugar. Set for slow and cook for >4 hours. About 3 hours into it, put in the tapioca. (If you cook the tapioca for too long it will dissolve into the water). Fold in the coconut milk. Ready in another hour. This portion should be good for 1 bowl each person for 10 to 15. [Edited to correct spelling and clarify "yam".]

Saying it's "red hot" was just a figure of speech, not to be taken too literally. We all know that even the strongest burner cannot heat the wok to such temperature. I agree that you can achieve similar result with gas burners at home (not sure about electric ones) if you heat the wok/pan patiently enough. However, I do believe the flame, large or small, theatrical or symbolic, does make a difference in producing that elusive "wok hei". I think the reason is the flame caramelizes the aromatics along with the sauces and captures such "smokey" flavor, if you will, in the food. The way to light up such a flame is by dashing in the vinegar or cooking wine or similar alcohol or acid fluid onto a hot surface. It instantly evaporates and splashes many small oil droplets in the air, which catch on fire. This may seem an insignificant step, which I did not see other posters mentioned in pursuit of "wok hei", but it makes a world of difference. You can experiment with your cooking, one with a dash of vinegar/wine to catch a small flame, one without, and compare the difference in taste on the final product.

If you have the proper language module installed in Windows and you know how to encode Chinese characters, you may enter those Chinese texts. I don't have that, I just use a site that provides an English/pin-yin to Chinese translation: Chinese English Online Dictionary Input the words in English or Pin-Yin, then (hopefully) find the Chinese characters display and do some cut and paste work.

To attain Wok Hei in your cooking, in addition to getting a fast burner and Ben's points, let me add (from a timing perspective): - Burn the wok to read hot - Scoop in cooking oil, heat til fuming - Add aromatic as the recipe calls for, usually garlic, onion, ginger, shallot, etc. - Add the sauces as the recipe calls for, e.g. chili bean sauce, brown bean sauce, black bean sauce, etc. You really need to cook the sauce for a few seconds. - Quickly dash in 1-2 tsp of white vinegar or cooking wine. Tilt and toss the wok, let the flame from the burner to propage on to the surface of the wok and flame the sauces mix. Be careful as the flame may go up to 2 feet high or more especially if you add large quantity of vinegar or wine. It is not for the faint of heart. And sure it is advisable to do this outdoor as most of our home kitchen fans are not designed to extract this kind of fume. - Quickly add your stir-fry vegetables or meat (pre-velveted) to finish the dish. Most of the stir-fry dishes in restaurants are done this way.

Perhaps we can start the "si fan jai" in the US. Unfortunately I live too far away... The commute is... 3000 thousand miles... one way

percyn: is $50 for one person? Would that be because a certificate makes the cooks happy, and happy cooks make better food?

Speaking of drinking beer in China, I had an experience drinking beer in the city of Nanjing back in 1981. They sold beer in a bowl at room temperature on a summer day, as if it is herb tea. I was not sure if it's only because refrigerators were too expensive to get back then, or it's just a local practice. Drinking warm beer is one thing, drinking beer from a bowl is really interesting.