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The chilies are cooked, but perhaps only very briefly. Not long enough to turn them dark brown or black. Maybe they recycle the chilies???!!! I cannot tell which kind of chili is the right kind for Sichuan food. They all seem to be the dried, narrow and short, and bright red in color.

They charge US$8.95 for this dish. It is about par in San Francisco standard though a bit high compared to Sacramento's. Right price or not, to me this dish is not a good value. Thanks for sharing with me your experience on Sichuan Hot Chili Chicken. I tend to think this might be a one-restaurant's practice but I don't eat Sichuan food often enough to tell. Sadly this restaurant gets really good review on some local journals and on Chowhound. I passed by before on a weekend evening and it was jam-packed. I plan to go to their second outlet "Spice! II" but would try out some other non-chicken dishes. La Zi Ji is out.

froggio: Welcome to eGullet! Hope to hear from you more about the food in Shanghai.

I just went to "Spice!" restaurant in San Francisco for dinner last night. It serves "trendy" Sichuan/Taiwanese cuisines. I ordered a dish of "Sichuan Hot Chili Pepper Chicken" (辣子雞). Here is a picture: The taste was pretty good all right. But this was scary for a Cantonese boy like me (Cantonese are typically not fond of hot food). Look at how many dried hot chilies they used? I roughly counted. They must have used between 150 to 200 dried hot chilies to make this dish! I know we discussed this before... It's for the flavor. But does anybody really eat all these chilies? I think I will drop dead in the restaurant half way if I've ever tried. Here is what I really don't understand: Why use so many dried chilies if most of them wouldn't be consumed anyway? They cook with dried hot chilies whole. If it is for the hot flavor, shouldn't cutting up the dried chilies be more effective? What flavor can one derive from 200 dried hot chilies that one couldn't do with 100? Or even just 50? These dried hot chilies are selling at about US$2.50 a bag (maybe 400 by count). They sure spend a lot on the ingredients that seem unnecessary. In a country that "nothing goes to waste", it seems to be very much in contrary to common sense. Anyway, here is what's left on my dish after I had consumed all the chicken pieces: The spices included bits of salt, garlic, ginger, green onion and Sichuan peppercorn (powder). And the way this restaurant made this dish is a bit of rip-off I think. The chicken pieces you see in the picture: they are all from the elbows of the chicken wings. Chopped Elbows of Chicken Wings!!! You can see how much meat they give you. I understand about dark meat is more flavorful than white meat. But chicken wings with bones? Needless to say there won't be a second time. I may give this restaurant one more try but definitely not this dish from them. Here are some pictures on how to cook this dish (pictorial). In Chinese though. 常美味紅油辣子雞(組圖)

This is the "Spicy Dumpling" (Hung Yao Chow Shao) I had. The Shanghainese touch was adding sesame paste and sesame seeds on top.

This is the "Stir-Fried Eel" I had with 2 (maybe 3) tsp of minced raw garlic in the middle. The garlic is kind of covered by the chopped green onions.

I do like garlic a lot. Browned and cooked. Raw garlic? Not as much. Reserved for special occassions. Like when meeting someone with whom you don't want to spend much time...

Beijing Ren. Definitely! Reminds me of those business trips to Beijing in the winter by train. No opening the windows (winter). Garlic breath... most were smoking inside the train too... cough cough...

After I had made it, I realized 10 cloves were too many. I could have done that with 5. The Nam Yu Roast Chicken was the only Cantonese dish that I have seen served with raw garlic, though.

Hehehe... didn't think of that! I kept scooping the minced raw garlic with my chopsticks and ate it... What was I doing? Mixing sounds good. Definitely will do that next time!

I am sampling different Chinese restaurants in San Francisco this week. Today's lunch was at "Shanghai Dumpling King" (changed name from "Shanghai Dumpling Shop"). I ordered a dish of "Stir-fried Eel" ("Chow Sin Woo" [Cantonese]). They put about 2 tsp of minced raw garlic in the center of the dish. It tastes pretty good, but a little bit too "garlicky" because the garlic is raw. I haven't had Shanghai food too often. Is this typical of Shanghai style eel? I had this dish in a Shanghai style restaurant in San Diego many times but never had seen it served with raw garlic. Perhaps this is just one restaurant's rendition? I also ordered a bowl of "Spicy Dumpling" (Hung Yao Chow Shao [Half Cantonese half Mandarin :-) ] ). They put sesame paste in this dish. Also a first for me. It tastes good... but with sesame paste, after the 4th dumpling you would feel like you already have enough... (There are 10 in a bowl...) Again, is this typical of Shanghainese' interpretation?

Is that the same oil with flavor built-up from being used over and over again for deep-frying stuff?

Gravy is not used in the classical Chinese cooking. I can tell you what those Americanized Chinese restaurants do to make the brown sauce: just use chicken broth (or some kind of broth) and add oyster sauce and dark soy sauce, then thicken it with corn starch slurry.

We Chinese use soy sauce for hundreds of years before refrigerator was invented. I really don't see the advantage of refrigerating it. I never did.

#48, BBQ Pork Egg Foo Young (叉燒炒蛋)

BBQ Pork Egg Foo Young (叉燒炒蛋) Egg Foo Young is a common dish offered in American Chinese restaurants. I typically don't like the ones made in these restaurants. Some of them mix flour/water in the beaten egg (a Chiu Chow (Teochew) style fried eggs, typically cooked with small oysters). Some of them put in bean sprouts. The Egg Foo Young, or just "fried eggs", that I like is very simple to make. Here is an illustration. You may use ground beef, shrimp, oyster, ham, turkey slices or other meats of your choice. The cooking procedure is the same. Refer to other published pictorials for the marination of beef, shrimp, etc.. Dedicated to Jason Perlow. Picture of the finished dish: Serving Suggestion: 2 to 3 Preparations: Main ingredients: (From lower-right, clockwise) - Stored-bought BBQ pork, lean, about 1/2 to 3/4 lb - 6 large size chicken eggs - 1 large onion - 3 to 4 stalks of green onions Cut the BBQ pork into very thin slices. Peel and wedge one large onion. Trim ends and finely chop 3 to 4 stalks of green onions. Break and beat 6 large size chicken eggs. Cooking Instructions: Use a pan/wok, set stove at high. Add 2 tblsp of cooking oil. Cook the BBQ pork slices first. If you use other types of meat, also cook the meat first. Remove from pan. Add 2 tblsp of cooking oil to pan. Wait until oil heats up. Add wedged onions. Sprinkle about 1/4 to 1/2 tsp (or to taste) of salt. Stir and sautee the onions for a few minute until slightly brown. Add another 2 tblsp of cooking oil to pan. Add the beaten eggs. Cook for about 30 seconds to 1 minute. Return the BBQ pork slices. Sprinkle the finely chopped green onions on top. Gently fold the egg omlette a couple of times. Cook for a few minutes until the eggs solidify. I like my eggs still moist and not overcooked but this is a personal preference. Transfer mixture to a serving dish. Picture of the finished dish. Pour 2 tsp of light soy sauce on a small dish and serve as a condiment. Or drizzle light soy sauce on top of the Egg Foo Young. Optionally: place 2 prigs of cilantro on top.

I came up with only 23 lexicons on Chinese cookings. Took me a while... 炒 (chow) Stir-fry 爆 (bao) stir-fry, quick, high heat 蒸 (jing) steam 烤 (hou) barbecue 燒 (shiu) burn, (open fire) 炸 (zha) deep-fry 釀 (yeung) stuffed, usually steamed of pan-fried 焗 (guk) bake 拌 (boon) mix (after cooking) 烹 (pung) cook (generic term) 煲 (bo) boil 燉 (dun) double-boil 浸 (jum) boil (in water) or deep-fry 煮 (zhue) just cook (can be white-boiled) 扒 (pa) usually means pouring sauce on top 撈 (lo) mix (e.g. with oyster sauce) 燜,炆 (mun) slow cook (braise) 煎 (zhin) sear 鹵 (lo) braise with five spices 煨 (wui) bake 灼 (cherk) boil 燴 (wui) mix (cook over slow heat) 煙 (fun) smoke

This is a spin-off discussion. Ben Sook's post, (this one), said there are 35 Chinese lexicons describing different ways of Chinese cookings. My Cyber Mom Jo-mel's post, (this one), said she has a book that listed 30 of them. I would really like to all 35 Chinese lexicons, if not at least 30, which describe the different ways of Chinese cookings. Can you list any of these 35?

That looks very good, liv4fud. Thanks for sharing your result.

There is a very practical reason for this. Typically there is only one wok in each family's kitchen. If you stir-fry everything, inevitably the first dish would get cold when the second dish comes out. Chinese don't like to eat things cold. The cook of the house has to time well. A soup, a braised dish, a steamed dish and a stir-fried dish can all be served at the same moment. Do you happen to know those 35 terms to describe cooking?

(Duplicate post)

Keeping this Yin and Yang on how it relates to food: When we feel that we are "over heated" (Yang) - meaning we have a sore throat from eating too much fried food or too much dog meat in hot clay pots , we need to cool it down by introducing some Yin - e.g. drink some herbal tea. When my MIL cooks Chinese vegetables - especially Chinese (Napa) cabbage - she always put a few slices of ginger. It's because eating Chinese cabbage is too "Yin" for her. After eating it she will feel cold. To balance it, she cooks the vegetable with some ginger, which is "Yang", to balance it... gives her some heat to counter the cooling effect.

Lovely! All three generations in one place. Anybody wants to be my aunt or my niece? Now I need to bake half a dozen chickens to feed the hungry family!

Why not? In a pound of lychees, 1/2 pound goes to the pits and skin. What is left which is eatable, most of it is water anyway. If you have seen how light dried lychee is, you know what I mean... Yin and Yang is a labeling of the characteritics of a certain food. It doesn't mean Yin is for female and Yang is for male.

There is a picture here: It's the bottle to the left. Lee Kum Kee translated it as "Chinese Marinade". It is something that is made of soy sauce and five spices.