Greetings all - a brand-new member here, very much looking forward to contributing to the forums and eGullet - but first a request. Mayflower restaurant in Milpitas, CA (a wonderfully authentic Cantonese establishment) offers an off-menu item, prepared on request, called 'foong xia ha' (My Chinese is exceedingly poor, so forgive what is possibly a poor transliteration). It is a shrimp dish (xia), stir-fried with toasted ground garlic and ground hot chili peppers - it is absolutely superb and I would dearly love both a recipe for it and the proper Chinese characters so I can properly request it from a waiter. You all have a wonderful resource here - I've spent most of my life scouring the Web and old cookbooks for the most authentic and best recipes for any given dish and cuisine, and look forward to hopefully adding this one to my database with your kind assistance. cheers, JH
