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But... but... but... The purpose of using wrappers is to separate the meat from the broth - because meat will cloud up the broth. Chinese (Cantonese anyway) typically like clear broth with wontons. The minute you add the left over meat in it, it will cloudy up the broth.

If all the leftover wonton filling ends up in the soup, why bother wrapping the wonton?

snekse: I see that you used lap cheung as one of the ingredients to make wonton. But I missed when/where you use them in your pictorial. Did you mix them with your ground pork and shrimp to make the filling?

That's interesting! Thank you Julian. My friend did mention Ipoh. I found that on the package, the manufacturer has the address which ends with "Ipoh, Perak". Looks like the coffee powder is produced in Ipoh. It said "3 Dalam 1". I take it that it means "3 in 1" - coffee, sugar and milk? Tastes really very good.

A friend brought me a few packages of instant coffee from Malaysia. She said this is the famous Malaysian White Coffee. The package label said "Kopi Putih, Malaysia, Hei Hwang". I gathered that "Hei Hwang" is the brand name (in Cantonese-Chinese it is "Hak Wong" - Black King). What does "Kopi Putih" mean? Is it the region where the coffee beans are produced? Also, why is this called "white" coffee? Is there a story behind it? I would imagine most coffees are black in nature. The white color only comes from milk/cream added. P.S. It tastes very good!

Thank you for your wonderful blog again, Ellen. I look for your next return in another 9 months or so!

Aaa! Thank you Kathy! That's it. (Being a Chinese, I always skip the "L"s and the "R"s...

I cut the block of tofu into 1/2 inch cubes - strictly because of laziness, for no particular reasons. Yes I do feel the meal is "lighter" compared to eating a bowl of white rice. The tofu still kind of "filled us up" (or made us feel as if we were filled up.)

When it comes to making white rice, Chinese style, sometimes the rice are boiled and sometimes are steamed - depending on the kitchen. I have seen rice immerced in water in a flat container and steamed in a large steaming vessel in commercial kitchens. This is in contrast to using the rice cooker to "boil" the rice. I think the "steaming" method is more modular and it's easier to change out the flat container for the steamed rice (think of "dim sum") than to change out rice cookers. So for steamed rice, it is not necessarily a misnomer.

Ellen: May I ask you one more question before you close up shop? Since you live in Mission Valley... In the early 80's we used to go to a disco place called Fanagan's (or something like that?) north of Mission Valley mall, near Friars I think. Is that place still there? Or has transformed into something else now?

When I first started this "diet", I was skeptical too. Being a native Chinese, I have eaten white rice with every meal for over 4 decades. But after a few times, I started to like it. I don't want to go back to eating white rice at home any more. That is true, the firm tofu really doesn't "absorb" the sauce. (Note that I never said it did.) The sauce kind of coats on the surface of the tofu. Whether this is really more nutritional is my wife's area. Taste-wise, this is quite delighting to me.

There are 2 kinds of pea shoots popular in Chinese cooking. In Chinese, we just call them "large" versus "small" dou miu [Cantonese] - where dou miu has a literal meaning of "bean sprout". I think the large variety is from snowpea. I am not sure what bean or pea is for the small variety. The one I mentioned is the small variety, which looks like this: (From my recipe:) Pea Shoots with Minced Pork and Dried Shrimp (蝦米肉碎炒豆苗) I was told that they grow in water. Have I been mis-informed? The large variety looks like this: (From my recipe:) Pea Shoots Stir-fried with Egg White and Conpoy (瑤柱蛋白炒豆苗)

I wish they would provide some food pictures on their website to entice the would-be customers instead of the z z z z z text.

Pea shoots, like bean sprouts, should be available around the year. They don't need soil to grow. Just water. It should be quite easy to grow at home too.

Re: The un-named dim sum dish... I didn't seem to see any dumpling wrapper. Would it be that they are minced shrimp stuffed into some fried tofu? Or minced shrimp stuffed in shittake mushrooms? Both are popular in dim sum restaurants. Chicken feet taste very much like chicken... NOT!

I agree. From what I understand, tomato was not native to China. It was introduced at some point. Maybe hundreds of years ago. In Chinese, tomato is "Fan Kei" [Cantonese]. The first word "Fan" implies that it has a foreign origin. Like many things, Chinese adopted the foreign ingredients in our cooking. Does it make you consider it's authentic?

Re: "How authentic is that". How far back in Chinese history would you consider for being "authentic"? 20-30 years? 200 years? 2000 years?

I think it's all on the individuals who are seeking out for what food they want to eat. I myself don't like eating battered, deep-fried chicken in stir-fried dishes Chines style. The Chinese restaurants in the USA make such dishes this way because that's popular, that's what they can sell. It is a consumer-driven business, not authenticity-driven. I think their study should say "Chinese food in the USA" or the "Chinese food as the author knows it" and not real-Chinese Chinese food.

Welcome to the forum, Dale! How are the shrimpballs made? Deep-fried?

Nice pictures of Hotel Del, Ellen! Makes me a little bit home sick. Last time I was down there, I went sailing in the San Diego Harbor with my college roommate. About 4 years ago now. San Diego is quite a dynamic place. Many of the restaurants which we frequented back in college days are long gone. Change over is quite rapid. There wasn't a population of Chinese/Filipino/Vietnamese as big as today 20+ years ago. In the late 70's, reading a school catelog from SDSU in a library in Hong Kong. Saw a black and white picture of some students playing volley ball. An adobe wall with small bells and palm trees around (the Aztec shot). I was intrigued. The rest is history. Funny how the significant turn of one's life may start from something so innocently simple!

Here is a picture of the "wat dan gnaw hor" (Fried rice noodles with slippery egg sauce and beef) that I posted on my foodblog recently: This is essentially a similar dish to the ones posted upthread, albeit Hong Kong style.

Ah-huh! We are getting closer. Corn starch will thicken the broth/sauce. Egg white will also thicken the broth/sauce. (Egg yolk will not) So to not be "overly sticky", you need to compensate. So if you use an egg, and you don't want it beaten, don't use corn starch. Try to pour the egg in and quickly break it loose with a spatula. If you want to try the Hong Kong style, with the egg beaten, dilute the egg with half the amount of water before pouring it on to the wok/pan while cooking. Since the egg is diluted, you can use a little bit of corn starch for final adjustment. Also: adding eggs is the last step. Immediate turn off the heat and let the residual heat cook the egg a little. If you keep the heat on (you said "simmering"), the egg will turn solid and you won't get the desired effect. So... cook with intense fire, add the egg, remove from heat. I love E-Fu mein but never fix it at home. I don't think it would be that hard though, but maybe I am way off.

Yeah the pictures look familiar. In Hong Kong we have our rendition of the "wat dan hor" too. I don't know who was copying from whom. The sauce is basically something like broth + corn starch slurry for thickening. Then at the end (you can probably turn the stove off) add 1 egg or so. In Hong Kong the egg yolk and white are beaten so it comes out pure yellow. I guess they do it in MY/Sing without beating the egg so it shows yolk versus white. The egg is barely cooked but mixed well with the sauce. Then you pour the sauce on top of the fried rice noodle. Or return the cooked meat with other ingredients in a wok, mix it with the sauce, then pour the whole mixture on top of the rice noodles. Then back to your original question: You said you couldn't do it "creamy" enough I don't know what that means.

Kangarool: I am not very clear on your 'egg creamy sauce'. You meant the Italian white creamy sauce kind of "creamy" sauce - like Alfredo? You said you had it in restaurants before? What kind of restaurant? Chinese restaurant?

Oh yeah! Balboa Park... near downtown SD. Of couse! I remember that area well. Very nice! I have never learned of the name Golden Hill of the 4 years I lived in SD. I loved the wonderful dessert and coffee at that what-daya-callit place in the area... I am sure you would refresh me of the name. 5th and around Upas? Something like that?