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See this post and the follow-up replies on how to make the hooks: Cantonese Roast Chicken with Nam Yu (南乳吊燒雞)

Yes that's right. No need to turn the chicken. Hang the chicken with the breast facing down. Bake for 1.5 hour. Minimum work. Yes, just regular stainless steel kebab skewers.

This picture reminds me of the hawkers in Hong Kong in the 50's and 60's. They were everywhere. But as the country (or place) advances forward and more controls are enforced, street hawkers in Hong Kong became almost extinct. One thing for sure: wherever there is human settlement, there will be food vendors in one form or another.

It happens all the time. Sometimes patrons follow the chefs. Did you try the restaurant he went to across the street? What is in that big bowl (is it a clay pot?) near the camera? Some kind of soup?

I can see the price (e.g. 8, 10, 12) label. Are the per kg, per ??? Would it be that they have bars only in certain areas of Taipei? I remember back in Hong Kong, you can't find a bar unless you are in the areas crowded by westerners (e.g. TsimShaTsui, WanChai, Central and Stanley). This is more a Western culture than Chinese.

They sell the wontons as frozen in Costco? Or freshly wrapped?

#90, Baked Soy Sauce Chicken (豉油焗雞)

Pictorial Recipe Baked Soy Sauce Chicken (豉油焗雞) I have made regular soy sauce chicken many times. The traditional recipe is to boil the chicken in soy sauce mixed with rock sugar and spices. Today I want to try something new - how about baking the chicken after marinating it in soy sauce? The procedure is very similar to the "Nam Yu Roast Chicken" I published earlier. The difference? This time I used only dark soy sauce as the marinade. Serving Suggestion: 4 - 5 Preparations: Main ingredients (upper right, clockwise): - 1 whole chicken, about 4 lb - some star anises (see below) - Lee Kum Kee "Chinese Marinade" (see below) - Dark Soy Sauce (see below) Dry rub: - 4 whole star anises - 1 tsp of salt - 1/2 tsp of five spice powder Marinade for chicken: - 4 tblsp of dark soy sauce - 2 tblsp of Lee Kum Kee "Chinese Marinade" - 1/2 tsp of salt Basting mixture: - 2 tsp of dark soy sauce - 3 tsp of honey - 2 tsp of water Optional condiment: - 3 stalks of green onions (finely chopped) - 2 inches of ginger (grated) - 1/2 tsp of salt - 1 tsp of sugar - 3 tblsp of cooking oil Use a food mallet to break up the star anises into small fragments. Place them in a small bowl. Mix them with 1 tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp of five spice powder. Mix this "dry rub" well. Trim off the extra fat from the chicken. Apply the dry rub ingredients inside the chicken cavity thoroughly. Place the chicken in a large mixing bowl. To marinate, add: - 4 tblsp of dark soy sauce - 2 tblsp of Lee Kum Kee "Chinese Marinade" - 1/2 tsp of salt Mix and rub the marinade thoroughly over the chicken. Marinate at room temperature for about 2 hours, 1 hour per side. After an hour, turn the chicken over so the bottom would soak up the marinade liquid. After 2 hours of marination, use a big "S" hook to hang up the chicken. Set a small fan at "low" to dry the chicken. Be sure to place a plate underneath to catch the liquid dripping. Hang the chicken for about an hour or so. Cooking Instructions: Put 2 metal skewers through the chicken. Use some special hooks to hang the chicken underneath a rack in the oven. Fill a small baking pan with water and place it underneath the chick to keep the chicken moist during baking (as well as catching the dripping grease). Bake the chicken at 325F for 1.5 hour. This is how the chicken looks after 1.5 hour in the oven. Take the chicken out of the oven to apply the basting mixture. The basting mixture is made of: - 2 tsp of dark soy sauce - 3 tsp of honey - 2 tsp of water Baste the chicken thoroughly with a brush. Return the chicken to the oven and set the temperature to 425F. Continue to bake for another 20 to 30 minutes to make a crispy, shinny chicken skin. (Optional) Meanwhile, you may make a condiment with: - 3 stalks of green onions (finely chopped) - 2 inches of ginger (grated) - 1/2 tsp of salt - 1 tsp of sugar - 3 tblsp of cooking oil First chop the green onions and grate the ginger and place them in a bowl. Heat up the cooking oil to smoking temperature. Pour the smoking oil onto the green onion and ginger. Finally add the salt and sugar and mix the ingredients well. Finished. Remove the chicken from the oven. Chop up the chicken, Chinese style. Transfer to a serving plate. Serve either with the green onion/ginger mix condiment, or a small dish of dark soy sauce as condiment. The chicken skin is crisp, and the meat remains very moist and tender. Picture of the finished dish.

Bahn Hoi (sorry for the mis-spelling in earlier posts) is not deep-fried. It is steamed. I have posted some pictures of bahn hoi I had in a Californian Vietnamese restaurant: Golden Deli Vietnamese Restaurant, San Gabriel, Family run, over 16 years

There might be a small issue with this procedure, Gastro Mui. Where is the dark soy sauce in cooking? Unless you use massive amount of mushroom soy sauce in your marination... braised dishes use a heavy dose of dark soy sauce. May dilute it with some mushroom-soaking liquid. Thrifty thrifty! And listen to Dejah Dai Ga Jeah... rock sugar... couldn't go wrong...

According to that webpage I found, they plain-boiled the beef first, then sliced the beef and marinated it, then dried it.

Golden Deli Vietnamese Restaurant 815 W. Las Tunas Drive San Gabriel, CA 91776 626-308-0803 626-308-1291 (Closed Wednesdays) We have been going to this family run Vietnamese restaurant for over 16 years. It has been around since the late 80's. It is quite small, and often has a long wait during rush hours. It is one of the best Vietnameses restaurants that we have known in Southern California in terms of taste and value. In a recent trip, we dropped by again. A shot of the store-front logo. The interior had been remodeled once as far as we remembered. This interior decoration has been the same over many years. The Christmas tree, of course, is seasonal. A shot of the menu: In Vietnamese, Chinese and English. There are close to 100 items on the menu. But... relax... like the Chinese menus, many are simply combinations of this and that. The main categories are Pho (beef noodle soup), Hu Tieu (seafood noodle soup), Mi (seafood egg noodle and wonton soup), Bun (rice vermicelli with or without soup), Bahn Mi (sandwiches) and Banh Hoi (steamed thin rice vermicelli). Then you order them with charbroiled beef or pork or beef/pork meatballs or sugarcane shrimp, or fried egg rolls, etc.. There were only two of us, and we were on the road... so, we ordered only 2 items. This is Banh Hoi Thit Nuong Chao Tom - Thin steamed rice vermicelli with charbroiled pork and sugar cane shrimp. A close-up shot of the Chao Tom (Sugar Cane Shrimp). The ground shrimp patty is already taken out from the sugar cane (not served, though some other places do serve them too). On the left are Thit Nuong (Charbroiled Pork Slices). Both on top of a bed of Banh Hoi (steamed thin rice vermicelli, but into small square patties). Sprinkled on top are cooked green onion (with oil) and ground roasted peanuts. We roll the shrimp or pork slices with some sliced cucumbers and fresh herbs (e.g. peppermint) and rice vermicelli, then immerse into the dip (diluted fish sauce, vinegar and sugar) before eating. I hope that this is the right ettiquette for eating Vietnamese food. If not, well, more for your entertainment. The second dish is Care Ga (Vietnamese curry chicken) with Bahn Mi (french bread). The curry made in this restaurant is particularly good. They servce this with a wedge of fresh lime and some flavored salt (which I don't care for much). There are potatoes, onions and carrots in the curry, which is heavy with coconut milk with a trace of lemon grass and lime juice. They sprinkled fried shallots (yum!) and chopped green onions on top. Tear off the french bread and dip into the curry sauce/broth. This was excellent! My favorite drink: three color shaved ice. Green color is the pandan jelly, red color is the red bean, yellow color is the mung bean. They make it really well here. And the typical condiment counter in a Vietnamese restaurant: a minimum of 3 kinds of chili sauces (look - red rooster!), salt and pepper, light soy sauce, vinegar, sugar and all-you-can-use paper napkins. Some restaurants offer fresh jalapeno slices, but not in Golden Deli. Dinner for two, came out to US$14 + tip.

It is very ridiculous! In both No and SoCal there are similar Taiwanese-run hotpot all-you-can-eat restaurants. They charge a similar price, around US$9 for lunch and $13 or so for dinner, something like that. Weekend's higher. The MaLa broth would cost $2 extra per head. The ones that are done in California: actually they have a grilling pan too, so you can boil your ingredients in broth or grill them. You mix your own dipping sauces from some of the 20+ sauces they offer (e.g. SaCha, soy sauce, sesame oil, sesame paste, ground peanuts, HoiSin, etc..). I love it but just couldn't have it too often. (They haven't made it to Sacramento yet.)

Chinatown is >2000 ft, or 1/2 mile away from Hilton. About 6 to 7 blocks. It is within walking distance but the return trip may be hard with a full tommy! But you can walk uphill 2 blocks and take the cable car, which would slide you right down along Powell back to Hilton. SF Chinatown is bigger than the ones in Philly and NYC. More shops to browse and see. All the touristy things are on Grant, and the food-shops (fresh produce, dried seafood, herb, bakery, BBQ, etc.) are on Stockton. If you do go: Check out AA Bakery for their baking stuff (dan tart, pineapple bao, cocktail bao and such), and right across the street - Gourmet Delight BBQ (1045 Stockton Street, 415-392-3288) - and check out their BBQ items. The roast pork and roast ducks are to die for! But take-out only.

Thank you nakji! The Chao Tom in the US Vietnamese restaurants don't usually serve with rice papers unless we specially order it. Thank you for this week-long peek into the Vietnamese lifestyle and food! Let us know which country you are moving to next so you can do another blog for us all over again!

Pumkin soup. Made with chicken bones. Picture of the pumkin. It is quite small compared to other pumkins. I wonder if this is a Chinese variety. (I got the pumkin from the in-laws.)

I don't see the icon showing either. But just type in "" in your text and the software will plug in the icon. Speaking of sugar cane... have you seen/tried the Vietnamese sugar cane shrimp? (Chao Tom) Banh Hoi is thin rice vermicelli, pressed, steamed and cut into small rectangular shape.

Do you know the Chinese name translation for "Costco"? Great! Now we will buy 10 pound of sea cucumbers at a time. And five pound of tea leaves in canisters. No more free green onions... It does remind me of seeing David Faber's special on CNBC about Walmart setting up stores in Mainland China. They even sell live animals in Walmarts...

Brilliant! This is a very refreshing way of doing a lettuce wrap.

Chinese leeks are used in stir-fries, making dumplings (e.g. potstickers or the steamed version), and soup (e.g. Red Braised Beef Noodle Soup) as well as garnishing - cut in thin elliptical rings and throw on top. Very similar to green onions.

Oh, that's just a loose translation from Cantonese. Boil very briefly with plain water.

Is this the one that has no window outside and has a 2 big front doors with semi-circles on the top (golden dots on red color door)? And a fish tank (aquarium tank) right at the front door? If so, I agree that it has very good Chinese food (with some Vietnamese touch). I used to go there for lunches when I worked in that area. ← It was Seafood Cove. I just went back to visit during my recent trip. Seafood Cove Restaurant, Garden Grove, Chinese seafood w/ Vietnamese/Thai touch

Seafood Cove Restaurant (Chinese food) 8547 Westminster Ave Garden Grove, CA 92844 714-895-7964 I went back to Seafood Cove Restaurant, Garden Grove, during a recent trip after 4 years from my last visit. The food is great as ever with reasonable prices. The outside shot of the restaurant. I haven't quite seen any Chinese restaurant with the traditional big doors like this in the USA. After 4 years, their menu has not changed (except the prices). Instead of reprinting, just tape over the old price! Easy. New offers? Just print a new little section and glue it over the old ones. Their menu is printed in 4 languages: English, Chinese, Vietnamese and... the fourth one is Malay I think, but not sure. Clams stir-fried with chili peppers and Thai basils. This is very nicely done. A little Thai/Vietname touch as Chinese don't usually use Thai basils in their cooking. Taste so good! If you ever dine at Seafood Cove, You've got to try this dish. It is one of their signature offers, which they call "House Special Chicken". (You can order beef, pork, mussels, etc.) The taste is so unique, I have not seen anything similar offered in other Chinese restaurants. I tasted a small trace of butter in it. Sea Cucumbers Braised In Brown Sauce. This dish is okay but not as good as the other two. This restaurant has a lot more to offer. The menu has close to 300 items listed. Many are traditional Cantonese recipes but there are also a few with Vietnamese/Thai touches - which I like. Something different. Dinner for two, under US$30.

This is a picture of some Chinese leeks. I placed a bundle of green onions at the lower left corner for visual comparison. Chinese leeks do look like green onions on steroids, don't they? Chinese leeks are thinner than regular leeks but their flavor is stronger.

If that is their intent, they sure don't care to let anybody know. There was no notice of any explanations posted at the door. The parking lot was chained up. The second time I passed by was about 4 months after I had learned that it's closed. And apparently nothing had changed.