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If you brown the potstickers first, then add water, the skin (wrapper) will get soggy/soft at the end. Let the water do the boiling/steaming first, then when the water all evaporates away (and the oil remains) you will have some nice, crispy brown skins. Most efficient.

Good question. I would love to see how they did it. I think the tofu must have been deep-fried at a very high temperature (need a good burner) but very briefly.

It's soft and bouncy. And in a Cantonese description: It bounces off your teeth.

If you cannot find fish paste in the local grocery markets, don't be despaired. You can grind your own fish paste from scratch with a food processor quite easily. Get some fresh fish. Take the filet. Cut in small pieces. Put in a food processor and grind it for a good 1 to 2 minutes. If you don't have a food processor, just use a cleaver and chop on the fish filet (periodically scoop it and turn it) for a good 5 minutes or so. For bouncy textures, throw the fish paste against the mixing bowl or pot for a 2 to 3 feet distance for a few minutes. My father used to make his own fish paste from scratch. I got used to hearing the knocking sound from the cleaver when I went through high school. I cannot tell you which types of fish to use. Some are more suitable for making fish paste than the others. Just don't use the previously-frozen fish filet. Need to use the fresh ones. The fresher the better.

Tofu is deep-fried separately, then stir-fried with the mixture for just a few seconds at last.

I have thought about it too. The best deep-fried dace fish balls that I had was at Lo Fu Kee in Central, Hong Kong, as mentioned in Cha Xiu Bao's webpage. The fermented clam dipping sauce really compliments the fish balls. Unfortunately I have not seen this in jars in the Asian markets. Or perhaps I was not looking at the right place. Even for native Hong Kongers, the first byte would take some getting used to! Then the taste grows on you!

jon: I have seen this brand of frozen fish cake carried my local Asian grocery markets too. I haven't used them before but it should be fine.

I did some searches using 擔擔麵 (Dan Dan Mein) and found that there are many variations. Some are dry; some are in broth. Some are hot, with chili and sichuan peppercorn; some are not. Some use tofu; some use minced pork; some use minced pickled vegetable. Some place the sauce on top of the noodles; some place the sauce under the noodles. Some contain sesame paste; some don't use sesame paste. Some serve this hot; some serve this cold (room temperature). Yet they all use the name 擔擔麵 (Dan Dan Mein).

From my research on this Cantonese Nam Yu Roast Chicken, here is the method of making them in a rough sketch. It seems a bit difficult to do at home. Make a marinade with crushing 2 cubes of nam yu, crush some garlic. Mix and stuff into the chicken cavity. Seal openings with thread. To make the skin crispy, pour boiling red/white vinegar mix on the chicken body. Then hang up the chicken to air-dry for a day. Finally roast the chicken in the oven. Baste with red vinegar + malt sugar mix. Unseal the opening. Collect the nam yu liquid and use as a condiment. Chop up the chicken and serve. Dejah: I think the sheen on the chicken skin is from the malt sugar basting during roasting.

With regular (generic) fish paste, it is common to add dried shrimps and reconstituted black mushrooms (chopped) to enhance the taste. With dace fish balls, I think it is the best to appreciate the fish without other add-ons.

I do the Thai curries (red, yellow, green) from ready-made paste because I don't know the raw ingredients. I do the Japanese curry from their curry cubes. Again, not sure how they make it. But Ma Po Tofu can be made easily with chili bean sauce, hoisin sauce, garlic and chicken broth. I plan to do a pictorial on it. Pictures have already been taken.

"Heaven lah!"... LOL! The "Salt and Pepper" style is very common: on tofu, shrimp, squid, oyster and crab too. All Cantonese style.

I don't know. It may not be easy. I have never tried it. It would be a challenge. Need to research on the recipe...

#26, Deep-Fried Dace Fish Balls (酥炸鯪魚球)

Deep-Fried Dace Fish Balls (酥炸鯪魚球) I found some fresh fish paste made from dace at the 99 Ranch Market in Milpitas. Dace fish paste is very rare in the USA. This was the first time I had seen it. The dace was advertised to be farm-raised domestically. There are a few ways to make dace fish paste: make a soup with tofu and mustard greens, or boiled and served with shredded lettuce and sesame oil and ground white pepper. Tonight I wanted to make an easy deep-fried dace fish balls. The characteristic taste of dace was unmistakable. Picture of the finished dish: Serving suggestion: 2 to 3 Preparations: To make a dipping sauce: Use a small bowl, add 1/4 cup of water. Heat up the water for 10 seconds in a microwave. Add 2 tsp of sugar and dissolve it in warm water. Add 1/4 cup of light soy sauce. Finely chop 1/4 of a jalapeno pepper or 1 Thai chili and add it into the mixture. Cooking Instructions: Use 1 container (1 pound) of dace fish paste. If you cannot find dace fish paste, you may use the regular fish paste. Heat up a small pot of frying oil, at least about 1 inch deep. I like to use peanut oil for deep-frying. Set stove setting to medium high. Heat up the oil to the proper deep-frying temperature. I don't use a thermometer. Just spare a small spoonful of fish paste and drop it in the oil bath for testing. If the fish paste doesn't sizzle, the oil is too cold - wait for a little longer. If the fish paste immediately turns dark, the oil is too hot - add more frying oil to cool it down a little, then test again. The right temperature is indicated by the fish paste sizzling but not vigorously. There is a fairly quick and easy way to make a roughly round fish ball from paste. It is not "elegant". You need to use your bare hand. Here is the trick. Use one hand to grap some fish paste in your palm. Squeez your hand into a fist. The fish paste will be squeezed out between your thumb and your index finger like a tooth paste, in a roughly round shape. Use the other hand to hold a spoon, and quickly scoop up the fish paste as if it is ice cream. Then quickly drop the fish paste into the frying oil. Repeat the same process and drop the fish balls into the frying oil. Deep-fry up to perhaps 10 at a time until the fish balls turn golden brown. Remove. Lay the fish balls on a sheet of paper towel to absorb the excess frying oil. Transfer dace fish balls to a serving plate. Serve with dipping sauce. Place 1 to 2 sprigs of cilantro as a garnish.

Picture: Chinese name: 椒鹽豆腐 English name: Deep-fried tofu with Salt and Pepper Category: Cantonese appetizer, snack Description: Medium-firm tofu deep-fried, topped with fried minced garlic, chili, salt and freshly chopped green onions. (Offered at: New Hong Kong Wok Restaurant ((916) 454-2828), Sacramento, CA, USA)

With all these herbal ingredients, do you use them in raw (non-shredded) form to make BKT? The package my friend sent me was just a pack of some herbal shreds in a cloth bag. (Very small quantity too it seemed) Would the shredded form be just as good or slightly degraded compared to cooking with the whole herb?

Thanks for the additional info, trillium. It seems like Bak Kut Teh is more than just a dish for a meal. People eat it for the herbal/medical reasons?

I have a few suggestions for cooking duck tongue Chinese style: 1. Duck tongue braised with "master sauce". You can mix the "master sauce" using dark soy sauce, rock sugar, five spices and ginger or use a mix like what I used for beef shank: See: Beef Shank Braised with Five Spice and Soy Sauce (五香牛腱) As a standard technique for making "red cook" or "braised with master sauce" dishes, we first boil the meat (duck tongue in this case) with water and (optional) some ginger slices. Then drain and run cold water over the meat to rinse. This step usually would get rid of the blood, impurity and unwanted odor from the meat. Then take the meat and boil with the master sauce, followed by a couple of hours of simmering (duration depends on meat used). 2. Hot chili duck tongue (Taiwanese style). See this page (scroll to the bottom for the English version): http://www.coreasia.com.tw/labors/laborcenter/eat11.asp 3. 花彫醉鴨舌 Marinated Duck Tongue with Hua Daio Hua Daio is a kind of Chinese wine. I heard of this dish title but don't know exactly how it is prepared. I suspect duck tongues are first boiled, rinsed, then marinated with Hua Daio wine and perhaps some other seasonings. 4. Stir-fried with chili, garlic and ginger, per this recipe: http://www.am1470.com/pdf/100.pdf The recipe is in Chinese. Let me roughly translate it as follows: Ingredients: 1. ~1 lb of duck tongue 2. 5 to 6 sliver of ginger 3. 5 to 6 cloves of garlic 4. fresh chili (to taste) 5. Asian basil Sauces: black sesame oil, cooking wine, dark soy sauce Cooking instructions: 1. Boil the duck tongue in water, rinse and drain 2. Use a wok/pan, add 2 tblsp black sesame oil, add ginger, garlic and chili, add duck tongues. Stir. Add cooking wine and dark soy sauce. A little bit of water. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes until the sauce dries up. Before serving, add the fresh Asian basil.

What? You eat the oil too? Note to myself: after having a Malaysian dish, check with Tepee/Laksa first before throwing anything away.

I have seen pictures of lemongrass being bent and folded up into a knot. I always wonder how they do that? With the lemongrasses I get from the grocery markets, they are too dry and hard for me to fold. Perhaps we can only do so with fresh ones?

Excellent! Thank you, Jack! I always wanted to try some Taiwanese dishes.

Sorry...Sorry...Sorry...Sorry... I learned of the dish while living in Hong Kong but never had the opportunity to try it. I didn't know what to expect. Thank you for the crash course in BKT101. Very refreshing. I read some of the BKT recipes linked. I know less than half of the spices used! BKT seems very close to the Chinese "red cook" dishes using "master sauce", except for the difference in spices used. So... unlike Tea Eggs, there is no tea leaves involved in making BKT?

wonderbread: Welcome to the forum! I have not tried brewing tea with lemongrass. I don't have any reaction from eating dishes made with lemongrass. I have tried using but do not like the dried lemongrass in jars. I found that they lack the aroma that fresh lemongrass brings. pan: Maybe the lemongrass I bought from the store was not fresh enough. Maybe I didn't handle it properly. Maybe both. I need to try chewing on them again next time.

That was never my impression, but then I don't recall ever trying to eat the grass raw. Is your statement true even if the grass is freshly-picked or otherwise really fresh? ← Let me restate my sentence: From my experience, lemongrass does not seem to soften at all even after 3 to 4 hours of boiling/simmering. Maybe I didn't do it right. Maybe if it is cooked longer (e.g. 5 to 10 hours?) it will soften? I don't know. I use the lemongrass sold in large Asian markets. How fresh they are, I am not sure. They are not "right off the field" fresh, but perhaps anywhere between 3 to 10 days old? It seems to me that lemongrass has a texture similar to that of a sugar cane fiber.