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For beef tripe (牛柏葉), I think it takes less time to cook. You can blanch some cut beef tripe in boiling water for a few minutes and it's ready to eat. For seasoning (Cantonese style): use some fresh green onion (shredded) and some diluted light soy sauce (with a pinch of sugar), and some chili slices. Or some Cantonese style dishes cook these beef tripe in black bean sauce (with some onion wedges and green bell pepper), or with "may choy" (some sweet and sour preserved vegetable). Or you can dip it in Hong Kong style curry sauce. I have seen that in the "No Reservations: China" episode (Sichuan). they dip the boiled beef tripe in a sauce/mix made of dried chili pepper, peanut sauce and soy sauce. The tripe is very bland. Absolute no taste on its own. It's all in the sauces you use to cook it with. It's all about texture. And it's a bit chewy (even when cooked).

I don't think this can be remotely considered as a recipe. The most useful sentence is #1, which said to use cumin powder, chili powder, salt and tomato paste. (But no proportion given.) The rest is just to grill the meat until cooked. Maybe I can come up with a recipe saying Indian curry is made by... oh, just a mix of different spices.

Thank you CommissionerLin and aprilmei. I didn't realize "Wong Yau Hai" is a different species than hairy crab. That seems to make sense. Still a very high price item to me, but it makes sense why people would pay that price to eat it.

This is very confusing, I know. There are people writing horizontally from right to left. And there are some from left to right. I have seen both ways about equally often. I think that for a plaque, the "right to left" is the traditional way and the "left to right" is the modern way (influenced by English/Portugese etc. couple of centuries ago).

Excellent! This is the "A Canuck in Hong Kong, Volume 2". Gau Kee was on my list. But like many restaurants... too many restaurants, too little time. I was based in Hung Hom so getting to Central is a bit less convenient... I had been to Central and eat only twice: taken by Law Foo Kee and Yung Kee. Next time... RE: Steamed cake with salted egg custard. Do you recall the Chinese name for this dim sum?

I think there is a membrane of some sort with the honeycomb tripe, which cannot easily be severed by chewing. Cutting the tripe to bite-size pieces (as in dim sum style) helps.

Sounds like "shui gow". Chinese: 水餃 If you tasted woodear fungi and bamboo shoots in them, most likely.

Thanks anna and aprilmei. I am still puzzled at this phenomeon. Hairy crabs are inexpensive in Shanghai, but why would they be so expensive in Hong Kong? Hong Kong imports many food items from China and we don't see rice grains or choy sum get tripled the price due to transportation. So what makes the price? Also, to me it seems that cooking hairy crabs would hardly takes any "see fu" (wokmanship - yes "wok"). I mean... who can't handle steaming a crab? So what can set a restaurant to get such a high profit margin while most other dishes they offer are under high competitive pressure (e.g. I had a Peking Duck special for HKD 60 and many dinner specials).

When I was in Hong Kong a few weeks ago, Shanghai hairy crabs were in season (which is around October-November I think?). Unfortunately I missed the opportunity to have a meal on hairy crabs. On the street of Tsim Sha Tsui, I saw stores selling live hairy crabs at HKD 200 to HKD 300 each (all kept in refrigerators). That's just the consumer's retail price. When eating in restaurants, the price of cooked hairy crabs is, predictably, higher (unless you catch some promotional specials). I read a commentary on openrice.com that somebody went to Farm House in Causeway (that restaurant that I have been to) and ordered hairy crabs. Farm House was selling the crab at HKD 650 each (which is like almost US$100). I haven't had hairy crabs for a long time. Memory serves me... that these crabs are tasty... but... spending US$100 to eat one small hairy crab? A crab would not weigh more than 1/3lb - 1/2lb. One can spend US$200 or so to have a cooked King Crab (US$19.95/lb x 10lb)... and it can feed 6 to 7 people. But instead, US$200 for 2 small hairy crabs to feed 2? US$100 for a small crab, that kind of price would put hairy crab above abalone and shark fin on the scale of expensive Chinese food items. Do you think they are really worth that price tag? Am I off base? Also... if hairy crabs can be sold at such a high price, can't someone farm-raise them and make a fortune? I quote from the following webpage: http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/sr2.htm..._id=&dishes_id=

Which kind of beef tripe are we talking about here? 牛柏葉: (Picture here:) http://www.flickr.com/photos/andreelau/314552609/ or 牛肚 (honeycomb tripe) (Picture here:) http://img2.dianping.com/Groups/GroupPic/2...470_11400_L.jpg

What the Cantonese' term of "fish stomach" (yue toh) is actually fish air bladder (fish maw).

Ahhhh.... four flavors! But like so many things Chinese... the names are meant to be ambiguous. Like "eight treasures" (baat bow), "three freshnesses" (sam seen), "five fragrance" (ng heung)... your guess is as good as any.

"Sai mai" as "West Rice"? That is used in dessert more, and it is tapioca pearl. But I don't think that's what you were refering to. Did you mean what in Cantonese it is called "Yee Mai"?

It is very true that in past generations, cooking methods and recipes were passed down verbally. Not only that, you really have to watch how the elders (masters) did it in order to learn. I mean... how can you write down on a piece of paper how to wrap a joong? - with one bamboo leave! Or how to tilt the wok and dash in the rice wine to ignite a flame? Or how the heck you plead a har gow? And my nephew... he couldn't cook *anything* unless the specific quantified measurements are recorded and printed on a piece of paper in front of himm with photo illustrations. Spoiled! Spoiled!

I don't think he did. He, like many others in that generation or before, was not that health conscientious. He insisted on eating duck fat when he was 80, despite our dismay. He's strictly after the taste and simplicity.

I did some searches on the web with the Chinese name: 芫荽魚片湯 Quite a few pages came up. So this apparently is quite a common home-cooking soup. Some add thousand-year-old eggs in the soup... hmmm... interesting.

Fish filet cilantro soup My father made this very well. He used a small piece of fresh fresh-water fish (usually "Wan Yue" in Cantonese, not sure what the English name is). Cut the fish into very thin slices (about 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch). Marinate the fish filets with just salt, ground white pepper and sesame oil for about 30 minutes. Boil a pot of hot water (serving is about 3 to 4 Chinese bowls). Add the fish filet and 2 bundles of cilantro. Cook another 2 to 3 minutes or so. Done. (The thin fish filet cooks very quickly.) This combination seems to work really well together: cilantro, fresh fish filet, sesame oil, ground white pepper. I don't think this was his original recipe but I will bet this cannot be found in any Chinese cookbook. (Well... at least those published in the USA.)

I believe she was refering to: dried olive kerneis (南北杏) Here is a picture of a package of olive kerneis: Or it could be regular almonds?

Hmmmm... upon further googling, I found that some information listed Farm House's address as: Farm House Restaurant 農圃飯店 1-2/F, AIA Plaza, 18 Hysan Avenue 銅鑼灣希慎道18號友邦中心1-2樓 Neighborhood: Causeway Bay Phone: 28811331 Cuisine: Cantonese And this is no longer correct. It seems that maybe they used to be in AIA Plaza. But now they are in Ming An Plaza. The pictures look different too. So probably you have been to their location when they were at AIA Plaza. If that's the case, they indeed have moved. But the phone number is still the same though...

I don't know if they have moved or not because it was the first and only time that I have been to Farmhouse. I found the current address and map and phone number from their official website. It is the location that I visited only 4 weeks ago: http://www.farmhouse.com.hk/c_contact.php Some webpage said they are in the AIA Building, which is not correct. They are in the Ming An Plaza, right next door. On the second floor. There is an escalator running to it. Still couldn't find it, give them a call.

What does it mean by "authentic" recpies that is lesser known? Does it mean you are tired of "Kung Pao Chicken", "Mongolian Beef" recipes? You want something like Beggar's Chicken? Stir-Fried Milk? Snake Soup? Braised Armadillo?

The Chinese characters for "goh lai" are: 高麗 which is the translation for Korea (the older translation). The Korean ginseng is: 高麗參 which in Cantonese sounds "goh lai sum". Perhaps in Toisan dialect people just drop the "sum" or "tam" part when referring to the Korean ginseng? The description of the soup does sound like Korean ginseng.

I think there are 2 main reasons: 1) The Chinese (who don't work in the restaurant business) have Christmas holiday off. Family gathering time. 2) Those who don't celebrate Christmas come to eat Chinese, because we (and other Asians) are about the only restaurants who are not closed on Christmas day.

Unfortunately we are to eat turkey twice a year, both Thanks Giving and Christmas. Traditions of the in-laws. Personally I would rather have Cantonese Roast Chicken or Roast Duck, if a bird must be had. I was appointed to cook up a chow mein dish - with considerations to the Chinese elders. So between the dry turkey meat, cranberry sauce and green peas, one can have chow mein on the side. Perhaps we can steam up some Chinese pancakes and use turkey slices as if they were Peking duck and roll them up with hoisin sauce and green onions...

Sorry to barge in. From my Google research, the CWB location is: 食肆名稱: 泉章居 類型: 中國其他 地址: 銅鑼灣軒尼詩道489號銅鑼灣廣場一期8樓 地區: 銅鑼灣 價錢: $100 以下 電話: 2577 3833 489 Hennessy Road, Causeway Bay Plaza 1, 8/F. But another web page gave the address of: 地址 : 銅鑼灣駱克道463-483號銅鑼灣廣場一期7-8樓 463-483 Lockhart Road, Causeway Bay Plaza 1, 7/F-8/F I am not sure which address is the "official address" as Causeway Bay Plaza 1 is on Lockhart, Percival and Hennessy. And it's only one block from Time Square. (Info as current as Sept 2006)