sheetz

Maybe not exactly what the OP is asking about, but Cook's Illustrated tested pure vanilla extract vs imitation vanilla and found that the imitation was better when used in cookies. http://www.cooksillustrated.com/tastetests/overview.asp?docid=18889

The easiest Chinese dish I know of is Soy Sauce Chicken. It's simply chicken that's been boiled in a "master sauce" consisting of soy sauce, sugar, and other seasonings. If you don't want to bother making your own master sauce you can buy it premade in a bottle next time you're at an Asian market. After cooking you can save the boiling liquid for the next time.

^Swallow's nests are harvested largely on farms nowadays. http://www.good.is/post/factory-farming-birds-nests-to-make-more-soup/

Nowadays they do make faux shark fins (made from gelatin?). And I've been told that swallow's nest soup has become just as expensive as shark's fin soup, so restaurants could switch over to that.

This is also supposed to be the traditional way of cooking white cut (poached) chicken.

I don't think there's a huge difference between the two styles of cooking, either. That said, if you ever read the comments on sites like Allrecipes.com and see how far some home cooks choose to deviate from recipes...well, at times their end products bear hardly any resemblance to the original dish! When seen in that light pastry making does seem pretty precise.

I'm like Dejah and usually just spend the time picking the layers of noodles apart. I've never tried soaking/rinsing them w/ water to separate them, but I'd think if you did that you'd want to make sure to air dry them very well before using. To prevent the noodles from sticking when stir frying them I spray the noodles with non-stick spray and rub it all over with my hands. Works like a charm.

I made a pictorial of this

Any recs for specific food stands at the Thursday night farmers market? We'll visiting SLO later this month.

Wait, 18 inches by 18 feet? Or is that a typo? I remember my mother buying 1000 year eggs from those crocks from when I was young. The eggs were covered in the mud that we'd have to scrape off. When did they stop selling them that way?

I've only glanced through Young's "Breath" book, but I don't know if I'd necessarily call the recipes contained within "authentic" in that they don't necessarily represent what you'd actually find in China. Rather, I think the book does pretty well to give a sense of the type of the homestyle cooking found in the Toisanese immigrant communities in America. I have no idea what type of cooking the recipes in "Sky's Edge" are supposed to represent, but cumin is something that you'd never find a Toisan/Cantonese kitchen.

I don't know, hzrt8w, I swear I can see a few drops of sesame over there in the corner of that plate... Just for kicks I looked up Eileen Yin Fei Lo's receipe for YZ Fried Rice in her book, "The Chinese Kitchen." Here's what she puts in her "authentic" YZ Fried Rice: shrimp eggs char siu soy sauce rice wine salt sugar oyster sauce sesame oil white pepper ginger garlic scallions OTOH, there are people who claim YZ Fried Rice should only be seasoned with salt.

I think Yangzhou fried rice is like Mapo Dofu--one of those classic Chinese dishes that everyone has their own version of. I like a little sesame oil on my fried rice and I mix a little water in with the eggs so they don't turn too rubbery. Instead of salt, soy sauce, and msg I sprinkle a little of the chicken boullion powder (gasp!) they sell in all the Chinese markets.

And don't skimp on the oil! You don't want it to be swimming in grease like bad Chinese takeout, but you do want the oil to more than simply coat the wok.

Yes, I'm sure baked char siu bao must be a HK invention. For cantonese style steamed buns use a sweet baking powder leavened dough. You may also use a yeast leavened dough, but it should still contain some baking powder in it or else the buns will not be fluffy after steaming. Yeast leavened doughs will typically not be as sweet as baking powder leavened ones. If you want to try a baked version use the "65C Water Roux" dough I described in this thread: Unfortunately, I haven't been doing much baking lately as I'm watching my weight.

I admit I'm at a loss as to why people would bother doing such a thing as everything at the salad bar seems to be inexpensive fillers. Maybe they share the salad with others at their table?

Sorry, I was going to recommend the blog you looked at. Try that and cut the duck in half. That should make it much easier to fry.

I was going to ask others about their local prices for mooncakes. The prices just seem too high to me. $9 for one mooncake? No thanks. Or maybe Chinese people wait till after the moon festival is over and buy the mooncakes at half price like my parents do.

Perhaps there aren't really any great Chinese potato dishes because maybe most Chinese prefer taro root? Classic taro dishes include taro duck, taro steamed with pork belly, and taro cakes. Certainly potatoes could be substituted for the taro in any of those dishes, but the inherent blandness of potatoes would result in a lesser dish, IMO. I've heard of the Northern specialty of stir fried potatoes, but potatoes aren't used very often in the South. My parents are from the South and I don't think my mother ever used potatoes except in curry, and that's not even a traditional Chinese dish.

I'd be shocked if you couldn't buy dried scallops in Paris, even if most of the Chinese business are geared more towards Vietnamese. Keep in mind that dried scallops are traditionally sold in Chinese medicinal shops, not in normal grocery stores. These medicinal shops are where you'd find other exotic dried items such as ginseng and shark's fins.

The characters are 杏仁豆腐. I found this video on Youtube of a woman making almond tofu the very traditional way using almond milk, agar, and rock sugar. It's in Cantonese but it should be pretty self evident what's going on.

Well, if it's the stuff that's served for dessert after a meal then that's definitely almond tofu. Sometimes they make it with gelatin, but mostly I think it's made with agar. In general I've never really thought it was all that hard to make. I would think the majority of restaurants use either a mix or flavor it with almond extract. What recipes are you using?

I'll assume you're using ice cold milk and Jello brand pudding. Also are you using an electric mixer? I wonder if you may be overbeating it. I normally just whisk instant pudding by hand or shake it up in a tupperware container. Have you tried making the pie with just the pudding and seeing if that sets?

Out of curiosity I checked the menus for 2 of the largest Chinese restaurant chains in the US: Panda Express and PF Chang's. Panda Express's chow mein is a noodle dish but PF Chang does not list chow mein on the menu at all. Instead, PF Chang serves both "lo mein" as well as "double pan fried noodles."

This reminds of the time my younger brother was first introduced to Chinese American "chow mein" when we visited NYC. Since we're of Chinese descent and grew up largely within the confines of LA's Chinese community chow mein had always meant a noodle dish. Anyway, we were in Midtown Manhattan and my brother wanted to try "NYC Chinese" food so we went to a bustling local takeout joint where he proceeded to order chow mein. The look on his face when he got his order was priceless, and my cousin and I had to spend a few minutes explaining to him that no, it wasn't a mistake, and yes, that's what locals considered chow mein. Of course, a few days later we went down to Chinatown and got the chow mein with noodles. Re: Ma Po on noodles,　I have heard of this, but do prefer my Ma Po witn calrose rice.