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Uh, a little confused - are you talking about jio niang? I had it "egg drop" style - but never with salt. And steamed? You must mean something else?? ← I think Kent was talking about the steamed egg custard. Most of the Cantonese recipes are egg mixed with water, then steamed. People put different kinds of filling ranging from minced meat to dried shrimp, conpoy to thousand year eggs and salty eggs. I have a recipe here for those who are interested to make it at home: Steamed Egg Custard with Conpoy (瑤柱蒸金銀蛋) You can pour dried shredded beef on top like they do. I haven't done that before but that seems to be a good dish to make. Also, I have another home-made style recipe on beef shank. You can use it on beef or tendon: Beef Shank Braised with Five Spice and Soy Sauce (五香牛腱) BTW: u.e. - great pictures! The food really stands out! I gotta learn how to take pictures it as good as you do.

When is the best month, weather-wise, to visit Hong Kong? My pick is November. Why? Jan/Feb: a bit cold but dry. Though the temperature doesn't fall below 5C/40F, the wind chill can be uncomfortable. But Jan/Feb is the festivity season with New Year and Chinese New Year. Mar/Apr: foggy, misty. Molds grow on the wall... May/Jun/Jul/Aug: Hot and humid, plus that is typhoon season. If you get caught in a typhoon, you would lose a few days of sight seeing opportunity. Heavy rain, strong wind, business closure... Hot temperature plus high humidity makes you sweat all day. Sep/Oct: Getting better, but might be hot still. Nov: dry, no rain, no typhoon, temperature around 20-25C/70-80F. Very comfortable. Things are slow because people are saving money for Christmas and Chinese New Year. Dec: could be good because of Christmas season. Might be getting cold if you don't mind. Everywhere is crowded...

Nice phishing! Thanks for your kind words. But... no bite. Not yet. This dish is quite common in Sichuan style restaurants. Even many Cantonese restaurants offer it now. You may find "yu shiang" (or "fish-fragrant") recipes in many books in print for Chinese cooking, such as "Land of Plenty" by our beloved Fuchsia. Page 196: "Fish-Fragrant Pork Slivers". Mix it with eggplants. Or simply use eggplants.

My neighborhood restaurant serves both at the same time with Peking Ducks.

It is hard to figure out what "kind" of red bean cake you had, especially that was a home-made production... anything goes. Can you describe it more? Was it baked? Flour-based pastry? Steamed? Sticky-rice flour based sweet cake? What does it look like? Does it contain red bean and something else? What kind of cake? The popular "moon cake" can be a red bean cake too.

The recipe here provides a very similar sauce (broth) for curry fish balls. You can even mix them, as they do in Hong Kong. Pictorial: Steamed Curry Squid (Dim Sum), Home Cooking Series 74, 咖哩蒸魷魚

They are never frozen. Some packages are sold refrigerated and some just dried. If the staff speak and read Chinese, show this to them. They will most likely recognize it: 榨菜 (Sichuan preserved vegetable)

The Madras type is the one liked by Hong Kongers. It has more tumeric powder (thus the yellow color) than other curry mixes.

Toronto! Big Chinese population. I think you should be able to find reconstituted squid in the Chinese market.

The kind I used is already reconstituted at the store. If you start from the dried squid, then yes a much longer soaking time is needed. But simply by soaking in water is not enough to make it edible (too tough). I believe they need to add something like Sodium Carbonate (Soda) to the water when soaking dried squid. I haven't quite learned the portion or steps. I usually buy the "ready to cook" type of reconstituted squid from the stores.

#74, Steamed Curry Squid (Dim Sum) (咖哩蒸魷魚)

Pictorial Recipe Steamed Curry Squid (Dim Sum) (咖哩蒸魷魚) This dish may be found in some dim sum restaurants: Steamed curry squid. It is quite easy to make at home. The key is in the marination. I used reconstituted dried squid to make this dish. You may also use fresh squid instead. My experience has been that the smaller the squid, the tastier. Picture of the finished dish: Serving Suggestion: 2-3 Preparations: Main ingredients (upper right, clockwise): - About 1.5 to 2 lb of reconstituted dried squid - Garlic, use about 4-5 cloves - Sa Cha Sauce (Bull Head Brand "Chinese Barbeque Sauce") - Curry Powder - (Not shown in picture) Ginger, about 1 inch in length Soak the reconstituted dried squid in water for about 30 minutes. Rinse it thoroughly. Drain the water well. To marinate: Place the squid in a mixing bowl. Add: - 4-5 cloves of garlic, peeled and pressed - 3-4 tsp of Sa Cha Sauce - 2 tsp of curry powder (Madras type) - 1/2 to 1 tsp of salt (or to taste) - 2-3 tsp of your favorite hot chili sauce, or slices of 1 small fresh chili pepper - grated ginger (about 1 inch in length) - 2 tsp of corn starch - 3-4 tblsp of chicken broth - a pinch of sugar (e.g. 1 tsp) If you are a fan of MSG, this is the time to sprinkle some on top. Mix the ingredients well. Transfer the marinated squid to a steaming dish. Cooking Instructions: Cooking is very simple: place the dish in a steamer and steam for 20 minutes. To avoid getting excess water condensation in the dish, I advise to place a plate on top to cover the steaming dish to block off some of the water condensation. This is what the dish looked like after 20 minutes. Scoop and transfer the squid along with some sauces to the serving plates (or small dim sum dishes). Picture of the finished dish.

Your Oxtail pot looks lovely as well, Anna! Your question is just the same one that millions of Chinese house wives (plus house husbands to be PC) have to face with everyday: how to prepare enough varieties for a mid/big size family for dinner in a small kitchen? The best advice that I can give you is try to prepare a combination that would not get in the way of each other. For example: if you plan to prepare 4 to 6 dishes you don't want to have all 4 to 6 stir-fries because you have only one wok/pan and you cannot get them ready at the same time. You may want to consider one or two simmered/braised dishes (prepare ahead of time), one or two steamed dishes, one "ready to eat" dish (e.g. store-bought roast pork, BBQ pork, chicken, etc.) or cold-cut dish and one stir-fried dish. Or use the oven to bake something. Or perhaps have a pot of soup. This way, you can bring out all 4 to 6 dishes at the same time to the dinner table.

Thanks for your kind words, warlockdilemma. I agree with Dejah Dai Ga Jeah that the electric rice cooker would do fine. Just that you don't get any fan jiu!

Yes, just break the yolk with the spoon when scooping the beef/rice. No, the yolk would not be cooked. That's the way this dish is consumed in Hong Kong.

#73, Minced Beef Over Rice in Clay Pot (窩蛋免冶牛肉煲仔飯)

Pictorial Recipe Minced Beef Over Rice in Clay Pot (窩蛋免冶牛肉煲仔飯) One thing that I don't like about having steamed minced beef in Chinese restaurants, be it in clay pot or in dim sum dishes, is that the beef seems too soft and spongy. Probably it is the result of using meat tenderizing agent like borax or carbonate. I like making minced beef dishes at home to avoid these additives. This is a rice clay pot with minced beef. Picture of the finished dish: Serving Suggestion: 2-3 Preparations: Main ingredients (upper center, clockwise): - 2 to 3 cup of long grain rice - Minced beef, about 1/2 lb - Gai Lan (Chinese broccoli), about 3-4 stalks - 1 small egg - (Not shown in picture) Garlic, about 2-3 cloves - (Not shown in picture) Ginger, about 1 inch in length Cooking Instructions: Slightly rinse the rice grain. Add about 2 cups of water. Pour the rice/water mixture onto the clay pot. Set on stove and heat over medium/slow fire with lid on. It will take about 10-15 minutes for the water to boil. Meanwhile, add the minced beef to a food processor. To marinate: add 1 tsp of sesame oil, 2 tsp of ShaoHsing cooking wine, 1 tsp of ground white pepper, 2 tsp of dark soy sauce, 1-2 tsp of corn starch and a pinch (e.g. 1/4 tsp or to taste) of salt. Also, peel and press 2-3 garlic and grate 1-inch worth of ginger and add them to the mixture. Optionally, you may add about 4-5 peeled water chestnuts (freshed or canned, finely chop them first) to the mixture to make the beef patty softer. Break the egg and add the egg white to the beef mixture. Save the egg yolk for later. Use the food processor to blend the mixture for about 1/2 to 1 minute. (The color of this mixture turned out a little more pink than I expected. If you want the color darker, you may add some more soy sauce.) The key is: Watch the rice in the clay pot. Once the water start boiling and reducing, add the minced beef patty on top of the rice once the water looks almost evaporated. Continue to cook with the lid on for another 3 to 5 minutes. Don't add the beef too early or too late as it can easily overcook or undercook. While the beef is cooking, use a second pot to blanch the 3-4 stalks of Chinese broccoli. Drain well. When the beef/rice is ready, transfer the broccoil to the clay pot and lay them around the rim. Make a small impression at the center of the beef patty and add the raw egg yolk on top. To make a sauce: Use a small bowl. Add 3 tblsp of dark soy sauce, 3 tblsp of hot water, 2 tsp of sugar. Mix well. Add the sauce (to taste) to the beef/rice clay pot at the dinner table before serving. Picture of the finished dish.

Shaya: Thanks for your kind words and sharing your experience! Yours looks very nice too! Indeed the dried shrimp adds some interest texture contrast in this dish. One may also use some lap yuk (Chinese dried bacon) - dice them up - in making this and similar dishes. Minced beef, pork, chicken, turkey... all would work too.

Wow!!! When are you going to invite me to dinner??? That looks gorgeous!!!

infernooo: Welcome to California, Mate! Yeah, I was confused for a few seconds about the "SOCAL" title. And 99 Ranch does have branches up and down the state. Yeah, unfortunately I have to agree with both of you about 99 Ranch despite being a Chinese myself and a fan of 99 Ranch market. The dairy products that you expect cannot be found in 99. And their fresh vegetables/produces are just okay, sometimes so-so, sometime outright crappy. You need to be careful on what to pick. I have bought rotten lychee from them before. I only go there to shop for meat, poultry, seafood and other products that they carry a good variety of. I also like the yogurt and fresh carrot and orange juice from Trader Joe's. Yeah, El Camino Real is really LONG! Like 400 mile long going down all the way to true SOCAL. In present day they call it Highway 101! Now Caltrans has hung some model mission bells every few miles on some posts along the whole King's Highway. I have seen them from SLO up to around San Jose. Not sure how far down they started. And they seemed to be there only in recent few years as I don't recall seeing them before.

Naw... There are no good yum cha places in Burbank!

I don't think this will be any faster. A friend just told me that it took him over 8 hours of overhead (security checkpoint delay, flight cancellation and delay, take-off delay, etc.) for a 2 hour flight from Chicago to Atlanta. Going into Burbank and fly: 1 hour to dump the car and get to the terminal, 2 hour to get through security check, you may have a delayed or cancelled flight, you may have a take-off delay, 1 hour flight time, land at San Jose, another hour to get to the rental car counter and parking lot... trading this for a 6 hour drive via I-5. I don't think the time saving (1 to 2 hour if all goes well) is all that much.

The vegetable dishes are really good deal! RMB 15.00 = US $2.00, and RMB 28.00 = US $3.50 for the mix veges. Looks great! I cannot imagine what those visitors who paid US $100.00 per person for dinner in China would be having...

This picture does look like a mango pudding and not tofu-fah. I found this recipe from the leisure-cat's website on mango pudding: 芒果乳酪布甸 Mango Yoghurt Pudding The pudding is made with gelatin. And in this recipe some yogurt is added. This is not tofu-fah though.

The traditional way of making tofu fah: they place the soymilk in a wooden bucket (the same kind that is used to carry water) to let it solidify. They sell tofu fah by scoop up the super soft tofu with a shallow metal dish made by brass directly from the wooden bucket. In modern dim sum restaurants, they take the easy route: instead of using a wooden bucket, they just use a portable plastic ice chest and roll it out on a cart. Does the job... but looks kind of tacky.