sheetz

We seriously need to organize a Vancouver Chinese food tour...

Instead of using glutinous rice, I make mine with regular long grain rice but just before serving I stir in some glutinous rice slurry to give it that smooth silky consistency.

Zha cai and you tiao are really good in congee. I also like thousand year egg and roast duck. Another thing we did growing up was place sliced raw fish on the bottom of a bowl and then ladling boiling congee on top, allowing it to sit for a few minutes before eating it. It's an annual tradition for Chinese families all accross the US to use the leftover turkey carcass to make jook the day after Thanksgiving.

Those banquet dishes look scrumptious. And very expensive, too! I don't think I've ever eaten whole braised conpoys before. Obviously I need to hang out with a wealthier crowd.

My guess is that restaurants use lots of pork fat.

I haven't heard of birthday banquets being held in the honor of anyone under retirement age. They do have feasts in honor of newborns, I think, but I don't think they are on held on their birthdays. As hzrt stated, you're supposed to have noodles and sou bao. Maybe a feast in honor or an elderly person would have some medicinal dishes, with things like ginseng. Other than that I can't think of anything. Perhaps there are a few Chinese baked goods that would appropriate for the occasion. These links explain some of the symbolism involved with various Chinese foods: http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_chinaway...ntent_29424.htm http://www.chcp.org/banquet.html http://www.einaudi.cornell.edu/curriculum/.../food/index.asp

These are probably the normally recommended wines to go w/ Chinese food. For me, I'll have a 7 Up/Sprite.

What is a "West Lake Duck"? I don't think I have come across this term before. How does the duck look and taste and served with? ← This is called Sai Woh duck in Cantonese. It's a common banquet item. The duck is either steamed or braised until tender and then completely deboned. Usually has some other veggies like bamboo shoots, mushrooms, etc.

Unfortunately, there's no "official" Cantonese, and many Cantonese speakers themselves don't even consider it to be "real" Chinese. Whenever a non-Chinese person says they want to learn Cantonese, even a Cantonese person will invariably tell them to learn Mandarin instead. In the past I've searched for study materials to help improve my Cantonese but good ones are almost nonexistent. Cantonese as it is spoken in Guangzhou is not the same as what's spoken in HK. Which one do you consider more "official?"

What about those countertop rotisserie ovens? I don't know if I want to try roasting a duck considering the size of my oven. I might want to try a steamed or braised duck, like the West Lake Duck that many cantonese restaurants serve. Anyone have a good recipe for that?

It would definitely help if you describe your cooking technique. Do I sense a roast duck cookoff in the near future?

Here's one more bit of food trivia: Egg whites, like lye water, borax, and baking soda, is also alkaline, which probably explains why adding it to marinades has a tenderizing effect on meats.

I thought bear claws were outlawed, which is why they are so expensive. I happen to enjoy the taste of a well prepared shark's fin soup as well as the next person, but I don't know if it's worth the price. Same with swallow's nest and other exotica. However, it is considered a sign of great respect to offer such an expensive delicacy to your guests at a meal. My mom use to keep some dried swallow's nest in the cupboard for when we had esteemed guests over for dinner.

Hey, this looks good. I'm gonna try it sometime soon.

I'm still trying to figure out what role lye water plays in mooncake skins. One thing I noticed when making them is that the dough is initially very wet, almost the consistency of soft serve ice cream. But then as the dough is rested it firms up to the point that it can be rolled out. Is it the lye water that causes this to happen? There also another recipe that uses lye water--Chinese almond cookies. I plan to make those after I've done with the mooncakes, and I'm wondering what the purpose of lye water is in that recipe.

Still working on perfecting those mooncakes. I've learned quite a lot from just the few batches that I've attempted. 1st attempt: Total disaster. The pastry skin was too crumbly and the filling too soft. Couldn't even remove the mooncakes from the wooden mold. When I mixed the ingredients for the pastry it seemed too sticky so I added more flour. However, after resting it was not elastic at all and broke up easily. Everything went into the garbage. 2nd attempt: Slightly better. I mixed the pastry as directed and after resting it seemed the right consistency. I used yellow mung bean paste for the filling, but it didn't have enough structure to hold up during the baking. Maybe that's why mung bean paste isn't generally used for mooncakes. The result was the mooncakes lost shape and started to collapse within minutes of placing them in the oven. The egg glaze (beaten egg, oil, water) didn't brown well either. I did finally figure out how to tap the mold in 4 directions to remove the mooncakes, however. 3rd attempt: Best so far. Used butter for the fat in the filling, so was harder to shape the mooncakes, but once the filling was brought up to almost room temperature it was easier to work with. Used egg yolk for the glaze instead of the whole egg, which browned better. Tepee, what do you use for your glaze? Do you brush the whole the entire mooncake or just the tops?

I called up a few places, and while a couple of people had heard of Lyle's, nobody knew where to buy it. I didn't know golden syrup was a popular cake ingredient. If Jackal is correct that corn syrup can be used instead, I may just use some pancake syrup I have on the shelf. It's basically corn syrup with some flavoring and coloring. In the meantime, my homemade golden syrup (boiled to 230F) is maturing in a glass container on my cupboard shelf. Yes, but while I'm waiting for my syrup to mature, I'll want to be trying some other filling recipes. What recipe do you use for lotus seed paste? Also, have you ever made yellow mung bean paste? I did manage to make a batch of red bean paste using butter. It tasted fabulous, but did harden a bit when cooled in the fridge. Unlike the batch made with oil, there wasn't a problem with any fat pooling on the surface. It was a little bit like a red bean fudge. I'm going to try it with lard next.

Ok, so it seems I need to boil it to just below the soft ball stage. To be honest, I'd never even heard of Lyle's Golden Syrup and it's probably not widely available in the US, especially if you're like me and don't live in a large city. I'll check around at some of the specialty grocers but I'm not optimistic...

OK, another question for Tepee. I'm trying to make golden syrup. The directions only say that I'm supposed to boil it until it turns light golden brown. Having no experience with golden syrup I have no idea what the finished product is supposed to be like. Do you know how I can tell when I reach that stage? Is there some temperature that I should be heating it to? My golden syrup seems a bit on the runny side.

I was going to make them but I was out of a couple of ingredients, so I'll have to put it off for a day or two. I'm going to try a batch of red bean paste with the unsalted butter and report back how it turns out. Worst case I'll just zap them in the microwave for a few seconds before eating.

You mean you JUST noticed???! Have you checked out the work on her website? ← No kidding. Tepee makes me feel SOOOOOO inferior! I made my first ever batch of red bean paste last night following Tepee's recipe. I forgot to presoak the beans, so I added a teaspoon of baking soda to the boiling water to soften the beans. Boiled it for maybe a half hour, possibly less, and mashed it up using a potato masher. Then pressesd it through a sieve, which took a fair amount of elbow grease, I might add. Finally put back into the pot along with sugar, maltose, and vegetable oil (didn't have any peanut/groundnut oil) and heated it until thick. It didn't take anywhere near 1 hr, more like 30 min. I forgot to buy rosewater so I stirred in some vanilla extract at the end. Comments: 1. One little bag of red beans makes A LOT of red bean paste! At first I wasn't sure if Tepee's recipe would make enough so I used the entire 12 oz (340g) bag. But boy, do those suckers expand after they are cooked! LOL 2. Despite using only flavorless vegetable oil, this was easily the best red bean paste I have ever tasted. Most red bean pastes I have eaten have been too sweet, and the stuff out of a can has a terrible metallic aftertaste. OTOH, this red bean paste is rich and creamy with an incredible depth of flavor. The vanilla took it to an even higher level. It's so good I could eat it all straight out of the bowl, which I guess is what you want in a mooncake filling. 3. Tepee, have you ever tried making red bean paste using butter or lard? I have some extra bean mash and I'm thinking of making a batch using unsalted butter. Butter might affect the texture to the point that any refrigerated paste would have to be brought to room temperature before molding, but I think the improvement in flavor might be worth the trouble.

At first I was also a little confused about the "Straight-Chinese" reference. Is this supposed to be some sort of heterosexual-Chinese cooking?

*cough* The mooncake festival falls on this Sunday Sep 18....but, well, I understand. It makes a good nibble any time of year. ← Oh, this year is just for practice.

My lye water FINALLY shipped from pacificrimgourmet.com today, so it looks like I'll be attempting them this weekend or early next week.

Growing up in LA, my folks would call always San Francisco dai fau, or "big city." They don't do it as much anymore because their friends who immigrated more recently would have no idea what they are talking about.