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I am aware of the practice of eating monkey brain. But I don't think what's on that menu is real monkey brain but just a name for something that resembles "stick cracked monkey head". For one thing, the name is quoted in "double quotes" while no other names were quoted. For another thing, there is no way you can buy a real monkey brain dish for only RMB 18 (or roughly US $3).

I believe you can make cheung fun with mixing rice flour and water. The difficult part is having the equipment to steam it. In the restaurant's kitchen, they have a shallow rectangular tray with holes at the bottom. You lay a wet cloth on top of the tray to hold up the flour/water mixture. Steam it for 2 to 3 minutes, take the cloth out, flip it upside-down and separate the cheung fun from the cloth onto the table top. Then you roll them up. If you make it yourself, you can put your favorite filling in the cheung fun.

Do you mean this: 生日快乐, 婆婆 ?? (Sorry I could only find simplified Chinese characters) Above.com is so sleepy these days. ZZZzzzz I am so glad that Jo-mel introduced egullet to me. This board is so much more active. As for my name... Ahem... Laksa and others: here is an easier way to remember my screen name: just HZRT Horse and Zebra Resemble Trojan None of these is my real initials by the way.

The purpose of this post is to entice you to try a popular Cantonese breakfast/snack/dim-sum called "Cheung Fun", and to bump up my thread count. Cheung Fun is basically rolled-up steamed rice noodles. You can usually find them in shrink-wrapped packages in oriental grocery markets. A typical package of Cheung Fun (about 1.5 lb). You may put them in the refrigerator for up to 1 week or so. Any longer than that, they will start drying up or turning moldy. The best is to consume them the same day or next day after you bought them. When you are ready to eat Cheung Fun, cut them up in about 1.5 inch in length. By themselves, they taste rather bland. You need to season them. First heat them up in a microwave for 2 minutes or so. Then drip in some sesame oil, light soy sauce, sesame paste, hoisin sauce and (optional) hot sauce. At last, shake a few sesames on top. Voila, instant snack in under 5 minutes. If you want to kick it up a notch, you may heat up the Cheung Fun with dried shrimp and fresh chopped scallions.

LOL. At first I thought I was reading some Japanese or other languages. I took a glance at the second link. It is a very interesting menu translation. Especially there is one item unter "Specialty Dishes": "Stick-cracked monkey's head". It is a direct translation of the Chinese name 棒打猴头. Does anybody know what it is? I don't think they are serving monkey's head, are they?

Dejah: Do you also collect one-off recipes here and there from websites? I have a whole binder full of them. I just picked the ones I think should be a delicious dish and wait to get a chance to try. I have a mixed feeling about naming Chinese dishes by pronunication of the original names. Do people (non-Chinese origin) think it would be easier/appropriate to order/remember Moo Goo Gai Pan or Chicken with Mushrooms? Yu Xiang Rou Si or Sliced Pork with garlic sauce? I think only a few (the most popular ones) made it to the menu in American Chinese restaurants with their transliterated names. It's funny about the name "Egg Foo Young". It's half-and-half. To be fully transliterated, it should be "Foo Young Dan". As far as cook books... I browsed a couple of cookbooks by Martin Yan. The recipes he picked to include in the books are not classical dishes. Some of them were even created with western influences. But I have to say that his presentations are quite beautiful.

I had tried that method with potstickers. The potstickers still stick together under their own weight in the freezer over time. Unless I can provide individual separation in the freezer, I rather just freeze the filling and wrap as I go.

I think so. I had my first fried won ton in Hong Kong in the mid 60's. Fried won ton in Hong Kong is served with a sweet and sour sauce mixed with shrimp, pork liver, onions and green peppers. I think this recipe is handed down from generations ago, and that the Chinese immigrants in the USA found fried won ton and sweet and sour sauce particular popular with American eaters (but minus the liver part). As for won ton wrapping: I don't freeze wrapped won ton because the frozen skin can break off easily, they stick together, and they become mushy when defrosted. I usually freeze the left over filling by itself. The next time I make won ton, I defrost the filling and wrap the won ton shortly before cooking.

I first tased the mixed nut mooncake when I was about 5. I hated it. (Sorry BB) And I still do. So it's been around for at least 40 years. That was the time when creativity was not encouraged so I think it's fairly safe to say mixed nut filling is probably classic. The only change I observed in mooncakes over the past 40 years is the introduction of the mini's. I guess people don't want to mess with this traditional Chinese bakery item like they do with French pastries.

Let me ask you this: if you have been eating brownies all your life and somebody just cooked some brownies for you, would you be able to tell how good they would probably taste just by taking a look at them? I have been eating Hong Kong style pastries for over forty years. When I see these moon cakes, would I say "jeez, these moon cakes look like hell, but I should just buy some anyway and see how they taste..."? The pastries from restaurants in Hong Kong in general are very good. I had not eaten any lousy pastries until I arrived the U.S.A. I live in Sacramento. There are plenty of second class or even third class bakeries around. There is an old Chinese saying about food: Color (visual appeal), Smell, and Taste. If something doesn't look right or smell right, it would not get through to the taste test. I don't know... either I am holding a highly picky Hongkonger standard or that Eastern Bakery reserves all the excellently baked moon cakes for mail orders only. I'll let you in on a secret: I always use the "Local Chinese patron indicator" to help me evaluate how good a Chinese restaurant is in a foreign town. I arrived China Town at 3:30 pm on a Saturday afternoon. This is the busiest moment for bakery shops and grocery stores. The fact that I did not see any Chinese patron lining up to buy bakery items at their shop tells me either the bakery is not up to par or that the price is too high. The locals know.

Dejah: Zha Jiang Mian in Cantonese is Jah Cheung Meen. Jo-mel: I have a different process: First brown the pork (should marinate it a bit) with a little bit of oil, remove from pan. Then heat the wok with a bit of oil, add garlic, cook for a few seconds, add the chili bean paste, brown bean paste and hoisin sauce and "cook" the sauce for a few seconds until high heat, then dash in the sherry. Add chicken broth and sugar until boil. Add corn starch slurry to thicken sauce. Then lastly re-add the meat and cook for a few more seconds before pouring over the noodles. Sesame oil is to be dripped on top at last. The difference is all in the process...

Laksa: The bitter melon you picked looks beautiful! I always cook them with garlic and Chinese Foo Yu, or garlic with fermented black beans. I should try it with salted soy bean next time.

I have never seen Tandoori in paste form. I need to pay more attention next time when I go to an Indian grocery store. The ones I've tried are Tandoori spice powder packs. They just listed the generic description of their ingredients, such as cumin, corriander, tumeric, citrix acid, etc... No proportion given of course. When I used these Tandoori spice mix to make the Tandoor chicken, they tasted okay but not as good as the ones in the restaurant. My wife thinks they are a bit on the sour side. I like the crispy skin of baked chicken so I leave the skin on. You are right, perhaps I should try taking the skin out and the marinade should penetrate into the meat better. I remember eating these skin-less Tandoori drumsticks in Indian restaurants and they seemed a bit dry. That's another reason why I leave the skin on just to retain the moisture in the meat.

Blame it on all these TV programs about health and wellness all saying blah blah blah dark meat is not good for you blah blah blah dark meat is not good for you blah blah blah. I think the sublimal message has been engraved.

Jo-mel: Mid-Autumn festival this year is on September 28, 2004 (Tuesday). I would hate to see you miss it by one night. The moon would just not be as round. We have an old Chinese saying about the 3 days around the mid-autumn festival: The night before: 迎月, welcoming the Moon The night (mid-autumn): 赏月, appreciating the Moon The night after: 追月, chasing the Moon Unless all you want to do is to chase it...

I was not scared by the decade-old pastry sample displayed in their window, Gary, and did go into the store to look at the "real" thing. I think their owner has not heard of companies who can make plastic model of your real food item for the purpose of placing in display window.

Dejah: This one is for you. Bought these from AA Bakery in San Francisco yesterday. Clockwise from the top right: 1. Coconut tart 2. Pai Dan So (Century egg pastry) 3. Curry Puff (with curry beef filling) -- my all time favorite all-time snack

As promised, here is the recipe of my Indian Tandorri Chicken. I understand that, perhaps like Mapo tofu and King Pao Chicken, everybody has his/her favorite way of making Tandoori Chicken. I know very little about Indian cooking. I am hoping others reading this thread can give me pointers in making tastier and better presented Tandoori Chicken. Mrs HZRT refuses to eat dark meat so I am making this with chicken breasts with skin and bones. Recipe for Tandoori Chicken Ingredients: - 2 pieces of chicken breasts (with skin and bones), 1 piece of chicken thigh - 4-5 tsp Madras curry powder - 1 tsp salt - 1 tsp cayenne powder - 1 tsp paprika - 1 tsp cumin powder - 1/2 tsp allspice powder - 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder - 1/2 tsp black pepper powder - 1/2 lemon, juiced - 2 tbsp plain yogart Method: - Mix the spices together, pour on to chicken, add lemon juice and plain yogart. Rub the mixture evenly on the chicken pieces. - Leave chicken to marinate for over 4 hours or overnight in the refrigerator - Put chicken pieces in skewers (so the grease from the chicken will be well drained), put on a rack in the oven. - Bake chicken in the oven at 300F for about 1 hour Put chicken breasts and thighs in mixer, get ready for marinade. Mixing the spices in a bowl. Chicken breasts and thighs after marination. Put chicken pieces on skewers, then bake them in oven. Finished Chicken Tandoori. Footnote: The Tandoori spice mix varies each time depending on the mood of my day. I always start off with Madras curry powder and salt. Then I mix in cumin, corriander, black/white pepper, cayenne, paprika, cinnamon, star anise (powder) or other aromatic spices with different portions each time.

I dropped by Eastern Bakery in San Francisco yesterday. Chinese name is 东亚. Yes Gary, they have pictures of Clinton right at the front window. I wonder how much campaign contribution they had made to earn this bragging right... Right on Grant Street in the middle of China Town, that place is a tourist magnet. When I went in to the store, I saw half of the patrons were non-Chinese tourists. It is interesting to see the shop-keepers having to explain most of the bakery items (names, ingredients, taste, etc.) in English to these tourists. Not quite what I am used to. However, from the look of them I found their Moon Cakes not up to my expectation. Their forms were kind of irregular and the skins looked dull instead of shiny. Prices: around US $15 to $17 a tin of four. The prices are much lower than Kee Wah's (which are selling around $24 a tin of four). I looked at the prices of other bread bakery items and found theirs to be much higher than their peers in China Town. Perhaps that's why I didn't see a crowd of Chinese competing to order in their shop? I left and proceeded to my favorite bakery "AA Bakery" on Stockton Street near Washington. There, I saw the usual crowd of Chinese customers fighting for their orders. *sigh* Interesting enough, AA Bakery posted a re-print of SF Examiner article which surveyed the bakeries in China Town on Moon Cakes and ranked AA Bakery the first. And Eastern Bakery is on the fourth place. AA has always been my favorite and I was glad others recognized them too. Their Moon Cakes are priced at $4 each regardless of filling. But they make the Moon Cakes in different sizes. So I suspect the smallest ones are lotus paste with double yolk filling and the largest ones are probably fruit and nut filling. San Francisco Examiner's article on Moon Cakes I thought of buying a few tins and re-distribute them to egullet readers in this thread... with a 50% markup of course... but, naah... Yes, Kee Wah is Hong Kong based. They had been around before I was born. When I was small I just knew that all my aunts went there to buy Moon Cakes for self-consumption or gifts.

Or a sniffer-ful of cognac... no, make that VSOP... no no no, make that XO. (Where is Laksa's virtual drink when you need it?) A bright full moon is mysteriously mesmerizing to lead us to think about our loved ones especially those whom we cannot be with. [or should it be "with whom we cannot be"? Sounds weird.]

Kee Wah, which is a very famous restaurant making Moon Cake in Hong Kong, has established their US presence and has a website. I had been to their bakeries in Monterey Park, California and was always impressed with their bakery items. They offer mail order for Moon Cakes. These Moon Cakes look more traditional. Kee Wah Bakery The prices seem a bit high though. But then again I don't eat Moon Cakes that much and haven't bought any in years (always got them from the in-laws), I am not familiar with the going price. The mini Moon Cakes are very popular in recent years. With the minis, you never have to share. You can garble up the whole cake in one shot. But the traditional size and shape of Moon Cake is still the best on my book. I haven't tried the ones in Eastern Bakery, but I think Kee Wah's should be comparable.

It is September 28, 2004 Tuesday. Since I heard "Eastern Bakery" mentioned a few times... can anybody tell me the street it's on (and the cross street)? I will be in SF again tomorrow and would like to drop by and pick up a few to try. Anybody knows the Chinese name? (In China Town, Chinese business names are much more prominent than their English ones)

The pictures on this website looked like those hand-painted ones made in the 40-50's. I am not sure what the green filling is.

Sorry I ran out of time. I will be out of town for a few days. I will post my recipes after I come back.

Sure. I will post it once I get a chance to type in the recipe. Probably tomorrow. My wife and I like lean lean pork. I know it's less flavorful, but that's one big reason why we don't buy the fatty BBQ pork from restaurants. The others would be the red food dye, and that most restaurant burn the tips of their BBQ pork. In places like San Francisco or San Gabriel Valley, I like the taste of the BBQ pork they make in restaurants. Very tasty. But I now live in Sacramento, so far I haven't found any restaurant that can make BBQ pork up to par. I am not sure on the name of the cut. Probably shoulder loin? I like the cut with no fat at all. Jo-mel: maybe I had mis-spoken. I made Shrimp with salt and pepper (椒盐虾) It's fairly dry. I shouldn't have said "salt and pepper sauce". Let me know if you still would like to know how I make mine. Would be happy to share. The image uploading at Gullet is very easy. In recent year, turkey fryers are popular. I like those turkey fryer burners. When in family gatherings, I like to borrow the burner and the wok from my brother-in-law and make some more restaurant-like Chinese dishes (with wok-chi) in their backyard.