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Ah... the good old Bully's. After all these years. If memory serves correctly, they have another Bully's at La Jolla too. Does that Bully's still exist? There is another glass-house like restaurant along I-8 underneath I-15. Flanagan's, is it? Is it any good?

The package that I bought has a label of "periwinkle". Perhaps it is another case of "lost in translation". The one that I bought was a sea-snail kind of thing. The one that you described seems close to the French escargot which lives on land.

Sweet flour paste is made from fermented flour, I think. It tastes similar to Hoi Sin Sauce, and is dark brown in color. In Chinese, it is 甜麵醬. There is a picture of it in one of my earlier posts. The small jar at the upper second-right:

#45, Periwinkle with Brown Bean Sauce (炒東風螺)

Stir-fried Conch with Brown Bean Sauce (豆醬炒海螺) From my experience, periwinkle is best stir-fried with brown bean sauce. Let me illustrate how to prepare this dish. This sauce is also good for other type of seafood or meats, such as chicken. Picture of the finished dish: Serving Suggestion: 2 to 3 Preparations: Main ingredients: (From upper-right, clockwise) - Shelled periwinkle, about 1.5 to 2 lb total (Note: periwinkle shrinks quite a bit during the cooking process. You should budget at about 0.75 lb per person) - 3 to 4 stalks of green onions - 4 small shallots - 5 to 6 cloves of garlic - Ginger, about 2 to 3 inch in length - (Not shown in picture) 1 small chili pepper (e.g. jalapeno) Peel and mince the garlic. Peel and finely chop the shallots. Trim ends on the green onions and finely chop. Thinly cut about 8 slices of ginger. Grate the rest of the ginger. (Not shown in picture: trim ends and cut 1 chili pepper into thin slices) Cooking Instructions: Use a pan/wok, set stove at high. Add about 2 cups of water. Add the 8 ginger slices and periwinkle. Bring to a boil and boil for about 2 to 3 minutes. Drain the water with a strainer. Discard the ginger slices. (Note: boiling the shellfish with ginger would suppress the fishy taste inherent in most seafood.) Start with a clean wok/pan. Set stove at high. Add 2 tblsp of cooking oil. Wait until oil starts fuming. Add minced garlic, minced shallots, 2 tsp of chili bean sauce, sliced chili pepper, 2 to 3 tsp of brown bean sauce, 2 to 3 tsp of sweet flour paste. (Note: no need to add extra salt as these sauces are quite salty.) Stir well. Dash in 2 tsp of ShaoHsing cooking wine. Add 1/4 cup of chicken broth, 2 tsp of sugar. Bring to a boil. Add corn starch slurry (suggest: 2 tsp of corn starch mixed in 4 tsp of water) to thinken the sauce to the right consistency. Adjust quantity. Slowly fold in the corn starch slurry to thicken the sauce. Return the periwinkle. Stir and toss for another 2 to 3 minutes. Make sure the sauce is evenly coated on the periwinkle. At the last moment, add the chopped green onion and stir to distribute it evenly. Transfer content to a serving plate. Drizzle about 2 tsp of sesame oil on top before serving. Picture of the finished dish.

That's 龍利 Note that the word 利: Although in Cantonese we say "lei", as "tongue". But in official Chinese there is no such a word. The word for "tongue" should be 舌頭. The word 利 just has the same sound. That some of weird thing about the Cantonese dialect: How you say something cannot be put in written characters. But I don't think Cantonese is unique in this regard.

Is it served in a clay pot? There is a popular Cantonese clay pot dish called "Lei Wu Gnap Bo" [Cantonese]. It just means duck with taro in clay pot. Do you have access to buy some Cantonese roast ducks? Or else you need to make the crispy duck as well for this dish. Use about 1.5 lb of taro for 1/2 roast duck. Peel the taro and cut it into 2in x 1in pieces. Heat up a clay pot, add some cooking oil. Add some minced garlic (4-5 gloves) and green onions (about 2-3 stalks, cut into 2-inch pieces). Add 1/4 - 1/2 tsp of salt. Dash in 2-3 tsp of ShaoHsing cooking wine. Add 1 tsp of brown bean sauce. Add the taro. Stir-fry for 1 minute. Add 1/4 cup of chicken broth, 1/2 cup of water and the juice from the roast duck. Bring to a quick boil. Then turn down the heat to a simmer. Simmer for about 20-30 minutes. Stir occassionally (about every 5 minutes). Check the taro. When it first turns soft, it's about ready. Then add in corn starch slurry (about 1 to 2 tsp of corn starch to 2 tsp of water, adjust). Thicken the sauce. Then add the chopped roast duck into the pot. Cook for another 5 minutes or so. Ready. (Optional) Add some cilantro to the pot.

What a coincident! I made this again just 2 days ago. This time, I dashed in about 2 tsp of ShaoHsing cooking wine along with the white vinegar. It really jazzed up the taste by a notch.

I used the soft egg noodles ("Hong Kong style" from the website jo-mel linked to). I do not parboil these noodles. I simply take them out of the plastic package, loosen them up on a plate, then lay flat directly on the frying pan. In the restaurant they can use a lot of oil to deep-fry the noodles. But at home I don't deep-fry. I use a pan to fry the noodles. Might need to use the spatula to press down on the noodle while frying to help them get crispy.

Doesn't everybody? ← Urrrrrrrrr.... No. May be in my village cooking is a father-to-son craft.

Sorry, I meant to say 赤口 (Chek Hou), not "Gi Hou".

How is the dried oyster prepared exactly? "Soong"... you dice them up to stir-fry?

It's pretty easy, really. Look for the dried noodle package where the noodles are pale yellow (some has darker yellow color). Lift it up and feel it. E Fu noodles are very light, weigh just about half of the other dried noodles.

Can anybody tell me the Chinese name for "Yu seng" or "yee sang" or "yu sheng"? Is it 魚生? If it is, that's the same as the Chinese translation for sashimi. It's driving me nuts not comprehending what you guys were talking about.

If I remember it correctly, in Cantonese practice observed in Hong Kong... on the first day of CNY, we must have a fresh (live) chicken to "open the year". It's on the second day (or is it the third day?) that it is a vegetarian day. On the third day, there is supposed to be no visit ("Gi Hou"). If you visit your relatives on the third day, you risk getting into a quarrel. Oops... this is the third day of CNY (US time). Why am I talking to you???

Beautiful, Jason! Thanks for the taking the time to post the pic. In Cantonese cooking, different meats (or seafood) are marinated differently. For beef/pork: typically use oil (cooking oil or sesame oil), light/dark soy sauce, ground white pepper, ShaoHsing wine, corn starch. May be oyster sauce. For chicken: depends if the recipe is "light" or "dark". If light, only use ground white pepper, corn starch, egg white (may be), ShaoHsing wine (may be). If dark, marinate the same way as beef/pork. For shrimp/scallop: seafood is delicate, don't need much for marination. Use salt, oil, corn starch, egg white (may be). That's it. BBQ pork typically doesn't get marinated again for stir-fried dishes or fried rice/noodle/rice-noodle because it's fully flavored and cooked.

Thanks Jo-mel. Glad to hear that. I love this dish. I sometimes order it in restaurants. Tasty they are, but in the restaurant they give you something like 6 to 8 (max) small oysters in each order. Charging US$8 to $10. Just reminds me why I cook at home often...

The literal translation from Chinese "Fat Choy" (same pronounciation as "getting rich") is "hair vegetable". A fungus species that resembles human hair. Here are a few pictures of it: Stir-Fried Lotus Roots with Dry Conpoy and Hairy Moss Fungi (連年發財: 瑤柱發菜炒蓮藕) Notice the hair-like fungi.

Would you enlighten us? 411 on your yummy dinner plz? What did you have for CNY?

Dragon is a legendary animal. Can't count that. You can eat snakes or lizzards as a substitute. But... oh no, we already have snake on the zodiac...

Not sure what your taste and budget is. There are many fine dining restaurants in the Sacto downtown area. There is an "Il Fornaio" right on Capitol Mall (M Street) and 4th. Italian. I used to work in Irvine Koll Center where there is a Prego's and an Il Fornaio. Personally I prefer Prego's but Il Fornaio would be a close second. There are a few restaurants in Old Town Sacramento by the river. I have been to the restaurant (forgot the name) onboard the Delta King. Very good cioppino. Very nice, close up view of the river. There is a Rio City Cafe (I think) featuring fine dinning and Joe's Crab Shack for casual. There are a few Indian and Thai and Chinese restaurants along Broadway (around 16th). They are okay.

That's one thing about Chinese whole chicken dish: We gotta keep the head on. The head symbolizes "the beginning". And the tail symbolizes "the end". We must "have a good beginning and have a good ending". Gotta buy a chicken with the head and the tail...

How do we say farewell to the old guard and welcome the new? Should we cook the chicken and feed it to the dog??? How about next year? Cook the dog and feed it to the pig???

Yeah. I remember this well too. The excuse of being distracted... Should be well prepared at this year's CNY dinner...

Same to you, TP. I think out of the four: 身体健康 (good health) is the most important. May I also wish you all: 龍馬精神 狗年行運