sheetz

Wait, you mean other people don't do this? You should have seen my mom salivating when we went on a visit to the aquarium.

I think you may be on to something! How about this one: Savory Duck Egg Flan with Sun Dried Baby Prawns and Imperial Yolks for $15.99.

Hehe, I guess I have trouble putting "upscale" and "Toisan" in the same sentence since Toisan, at least way back when my parents lived there, was an impoverished region. I mean, that's why everyone left there to go settle in other places around the world! I don't know if this dish is typically Toisan, but I know some Toisanese who like to eat glutinous rice flour balls in a daikon radish soup. Toisanese food is basically just a more rustic version of Cantonese, so I don't know if it will appeal to a largely non-Chinese clientele.

I'm actually not all that familiar with Taiwanese style cooking. Could you describe what some of the Taiwanese 'biases' are?

....unless the Chinese cook is expecting American guests for dinner, in which case she would deep fry the chicken in a bisquick batter and toss it together with the celery and carrots in a bright red sweet and sour sauce made with ketchup.

I've heard there are "Black Market" banquets where certain banned foods like tiger's penis is served. These meals would certainly cost well in excess of US$1000 a head.

There's an English menu, too. Don't know if it's the same. http://www.clubqing.com/english.html

This menu sounds a little pedestrian, although it's possible the actual dishes themselves are very elaborate. I found a few high end banquet menus from a few Southern California banquets. Prices are per table. Mission 261, San Gabriel $1088 Barbecued Whole Suckling Pig Deep-Fried & Stir-Fried Twins Flavour Prawns Sitr-Fried Boneless Pigeon & Spike Cucumber w/ Black Fungus Braised Superior Shark's Fin w/ Supreme Stock Stir-Fried Fresh Lobster Balls w/ Egg White & Creme Braised Whole Abalone & Fish Maw w/ Seasonal Green Vegetable Steamed Fresh Live Fish Steamed Boneless Chicken w/ Cured Ham & Black Mushroom Steamed Rice w/ Fresh Crab Meat Wrapped w/ Lotus Leaf Double Boiled Sweetened Harsmar w/ Red Dates & Lotus Seeds Fresh Seasonal Fruit Platter Empress Harbor, Monterey Park $1088 Special Sashimi Platter Extra Fancy Superior Shark's Fin Soup Braised Whole Abalone with Fish Maw Sauteed Fresh Lobster Meat w/ Supreme Sauce Seasonal Pea Shoots with Crab Roe Steamed Fresh Live Fish Clay Pot Rice with Assortted Meat Double Boiled Bird's Nest w/ Coconut Milk Assorted Sweet Dim Sum Empress Pavilion, Los Angeles $988 Baked Avocado Stuffed w/ Crab Meat and Bird's Nest Double Boiled Shark's Fin w/ Lobster Sashimi Empress Pavilion Seafood Hot Pot (Whole Abalone, Fish Maw and Sea Cucumber) Boiled Geo Duck Clams in Special Broth Braised Pea Shoots w/ Enoki Mushrooms and Dried Scallops Imperial Style Steamed Live Fish Shrimp Dumpling in Supreme Soup Double Boiled Papaya in Coconut Juice Chinese Pastries Anyone know of any other fancy menus? P.S. For anyone unfamiliar with 'harsmar' , it's apparently frog's ovaries.

I remember a show with Ming Tsai where he did exactly this!

I wonder how much higher rent adds to the restaurant tab. For sure, many of the best Chinese restaurants in the US tend to be located in lower rent districts compared to the top restaurants serving Western cuisine.

The Ken Hom book sounds like stuff that Ming Tsai would make--more of a fusion style than actually Chinese. I've looked through Susanna Foo's cookbook and those dishes seem a lot more Chinese to me even though she uses some traditionally western ingredients.

I didn't read the whole thread, but the best advice I can give is for you to set a good example. If you can live a healthy lifestyle by eating right and exercising the chances are that it'll start to rub off on him, even if it doesn't happen right away.

From the context of the discussion, I assumed it was US Dollars. Maybe Irwin can clarify. I wouldn't be surprised if it were US Dollars, though, since a single serving of the finest shark's fin soup alone would probably cost $1000HK.

Certainly some do. But Chinese people are also great believers in the restorative qualities of certain expensive foods like shark's fin, bird's nest, ginseng, etc. and that drives up the prices for these items, as well.

I've been reading the discussion regarding Chinese cuisine with Ruth Reichl and it was mentioned in HK it's possible to have a feast of the rarest delicacies for up to $1000 a person . What's the most expensive Chinese meals you've ever eaten? I know of a few Chinese restaurants in Southern California which gave banquet menus for over $1000 a table, but I've never had the pleasure of partaking in one.

Here's a recipe for a roast turkey w/ glutinous rice stuffing from Susanna Foo. I bet thousands of Chinese Americans eat something similar to this on Thanksgiving.

I didn't know that Chinese went out for Thanksgiving. Most of the Chinese I know eat at home. I've never heard of peking duck style turkey and I'm not sure it would work very well. The most common practice is to roast a turkey Chinese style. This usually involves marinating it with soy, ginger, star anise, etc. and/or stuffing with a traditional glutinous rice stuffing.

champipple: Welcome to eGullet! "Haam yu" with fried rice may not be that recent. I have known it for over 15 years. ← I could be wrong but I had the impression that it was a popular regional dish among Cantonese. It's something my parents like, so I never thought of it has nouveau/HK cuisine.

Those deep fried taro dumplings are one of the harder dim sum to make. I'd rate them as somewhat easier than egg tarts but harder than most other things.

Thanks for the resonse, Mira. My guess is that you could shape the buns the night before, especially if you use double-acting baking powder.

How does the texture of the CI recipe compare to a regular yeasted dough recipe? Is it easy to tell the two apart? Is it more like a biscuit/scone?

I'm soooo jealous! I like how your pics show the flames wrapping around the entire bottom of the wok, as they should. Unfortunately there are a lot of people who believe the heat is supposed to be concentrated only in the the bottom of the wok in order for food to be pushed to the side and kept warm. They undoubtedly have watched one too many late night infomercials.

Times do change. It wasn't that long ago that my parents visited a "well-to-do" cousin who had not one, but TWO bicycles!

I am sorry. I was only kidding when I posted my note. (Note the "6 days 7 nights" thing... theme from the Harrison Ford/Anne Hache movie). Who can eat out and get stuffed for 7 nights straight? ← I can dream, can't I?

I think we should have a MOE (Member Organized Event) to meet in Vancouver for an annual 6-days/7-nights gathering. Just to eat! ← Or even better we could rotate between different cities, alternating between the East Coast and the West. It could be Vancouver, then NYC, then LA, then Toronto, etc.