XiaoLing

Because they're clamouring at my door for my baos!! I have to protect "my precioussssssssssss."

She wasn't really holding out on me as much as I teased her of doing that day. Rather, my family really doesn't measure or even keep track of what we put in our food. We guesstimate (is that a word? ) our seasonings and pick our ingredients on the spur of the moment thought. We really should get more organized.

Yes you do! Salt it a bit and wait a few minutes and then wring it out. But I do this after chopping it into pieces. You know what else I really love with tofu? Tofu meatballs. It sounds strange but its in all the restaurants in Wuhan. It's made with tofu and I think a little bit of pork. It's all fried into a delicious little ball of goodness! Sigh... You're absolutely right. You can't put a price on good quality time! That's what I said to my Dad but he's not as convinced. I will never understand why relatives choose to ask such ackward questions. Oh man! That is classic! Soy sauce in water for boiling noodles! That's a brilliant idea! I asked my grandmother how to make wontons once and she gave me a list of ingredients. A few months later, we were making wontons together and I noticed the lady was adding a lot more ingredients than she told me the first time! I called her on it and she just laughed. I don't know if it's old age or she's holding out on me.

I would love to send you guys some baos! But I think it'll spoil by the time it reaches Japan. I actually just got off the phone with my Dad and apparently there is a bao revolution going on in my family. After having baos at our house, my uncle went home and has spent the last weekend and tonight making more baos at home. His filling is different: pork cellophane noodles napa cabbage five-spiced tofu (As his main ingredients. ) Funny thing is when we were making these baos, my Dad kept saying "We can buy these in Chinatown for 2 for $1 and some for 4 for $1. Not going to be doing this again anytime soon. It's too MA FAN (troublesome)!! But what can I do? My daughter wants to make baos." "Umm...Dad...I'm right here. I can hear you." But I got the last laugh since now everyone has caught the bao bug! My Dad and I were just talking about ways to improve our filling for next time. We have a master plan!! MUAHAHAHAHA.... And we plan on executing this plan soon. I will post pics as soon as I do! I also realized that by making these baos with/for relatives it's a great distraction for those inevitable questions such as "When are you going to get a boyfriend?!?" and "When are you going to get married?!?!" All I have to say is "Want some bao?"

Thanks everyone! My Dad just used regular all purpose flour and yeast. Nothing special or secret about it! But the dough was very fluffy and light. I swear he must have put something in there when I wasn't looking!! But the old man denies it! Since my Dad is from the north, we did your typical northern filling. It consists of: Pork Napa Cabbage Scallions Ginger Shitake Mushrooms (Dried variety. I was going to use fresh ones because they are readily available now (not the wimpy thin ones you see in regular groceries but the big meaty Asian ones that look exactly like the dried variety) but I decided against it because they are not as fragrant as the dried ones.) Salt Soy Sesame Oil Pepper That's it. Simple and delicious! It's just like our dumpling filling but the ingredients are chopped a bit coarser to give it a bit more definition.

Good morning eGulleters! I have been itching to try to make my own baos for a few months now. My mom is usually the expert in making these baos since hers come out perfectly and looks as beautiful as the restaurants. However, since she is in China at the moment, my dad and I decided to “experiment” on our own. Since my dad’s family is from the northern province of Shang Dong he is a master at making dumpling and man-do dough and we just applied the same dough to making our baos. Both of us has never wrapped baos before and since my mom wasn’t here to teach us, I think we did a decent job! My Dad made the dough and I made the filling. Here are some pics from our Bao Day. Here’s my dad rolling out the dough: Here’s my filling: Here’s my Dad’s attempt at wrapping baos. I must say he did pretty well! : Side view of his baos. For some reason my Dad’s baos became smaller and smaller as the day progressed. I made a comment of how he was trying to make soup dumplings instead of baos. He told me it’s not the size, it’s the quality. Hmmm…I think he's trying to imply something about my baos. : Here’s my attempt at wrapping baos. I was very proud of this one. : The finished baos in the steamer: Here’s what the finished product with filling looks like: Contrast of cooked baos and raw: And a whole plate of baos!: We made quite a few baos that day. I would say about 60 or more. My Dad eats them for breakfast with a side of soup. All in all, I think we did a great job. It could have been prettier but as my Dad says, as long as it’s edible, it’s all good! I will have to have my mom teach me the professional way to wrap baos when she’s home this month!

I've never been to Turpan or have had their cuisine. I have had similar cuisine from what I have found on the web though. Here's a website that might be helpful: http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides...pan/dinning.htm Please come back and enlighten us all!

Awesome travelogue!! You always do such a great job and I love reading your summaries! Which reminds me...I should digg up some pics of my own.

Sorry, I couldn't find any of the Wuhanese packets in my makeshift "pantry." (Or rather, I couldn't get into my "pantry" - long story) But I am going home this coming weekend so I will take pics then.

Unfortunately, it is not. I tried looking for it all over the net and wasn't able to find it. The Wuhan rice powder looks a bit different than the other versions and in my opinion tastier. (I have tried many of them.) The difference is that the rice is infused with more spices so the rice powder is actually red rather than a light sand color. I will try to take a pic and post it tonight.

Here's a tip for those cooking this dish. My family has been making this dish for generations and is known to be a Wuhan specialty. You want to add some minced ginger and rice wine to the meat marinade to get rid of the "gaminess" from the meat. AND before you plate the meat for cooking, add seasoned potatoe pieces (salt, pepper, soy sauce) OR dried long beans or cabbage (just a quick rinse, no need to soak or season.) The potatoes and dried veggies will soak up all the drippings and seasoning from the pork belly and becomes extremely tasty!

Nope, just marinade the meat raw and then coat with rice powder. You'll be pleasantly surprised! I love pork belly!!

With the packaging that you have you can easily just buy some meats (beef, chicken, pork, etc) and just marinate them with the marinade provided. After marinating for 30mins-1hr, mix the rice powder in with the meats and marinade. Arrange on a steam proof plate and steam until cooked and soft. My family makes this all the time and the spiced powder we get is specifically from our region of Wuhan. We always use pork belly because you kind of need the fat to keep everything moist and of course the pork fat taste good! Here are my pics: Steaming in the wok: After hours of steaming, it's ready to eat:

This is pretty interesting...I've never had it before. Can someone tell me what kind of dried squid should I buy? There's a ton of different whole dried squids available in Chinatown. Which one? Does it matter? Thanks in advance.

Interesting, my Russian friends told me about this exact dish. They said that the recipe came from Russia's Asian republics and they are traditionally cooked outdoors over a slow fire. Either way, it's delicious!

I also use fried tofu puffs in hot pots. It's great in soups, noodle soups, and stews. Just throw them in and let them soak up all the flavor. My grandmother would say, the more you boil or cook them the fluffier they would get.

I agree with Fugu, you definitely should have oyster sauce, hoisin and xo sauce. You should also have fish sauce handy. A dash of that will give your stir fries and soups extra flavor. Plus various chili sauces will also give your dishes extra flavor.

Iron Chef Italian (Japanese version) tenderized his live octopus by hitting it with a huge diakon radish. Could be a great stress reliever. I also heard that you can tenderize and deslime the octopus by massaging it with sea salt.

I love Yan Kit-So's Classic Chinese Cooking!! It's one of the best beginners book. It's loaded with pictures and explanations. It's great!

Ahhh...Reminds me of the Dae Jang Geum (Da Chang Jin) episode when her teacher made duck soup and made the emperor severly ill. But as it turned out, it wasn't the duck but rather the sulfer in the water around the area. I don't really know if ducks are toxic. My grandmother (another wise old Chinese lady) told me that ducks are liang shing and it's ok to eat. Especially since my brother and I are always getting nose bleeds. But then again, I think the morale of the story here is to not eat anything in excess.

That's what I thought it was. In Mandarin it would be"huo chi" or fire breathe/chi. My grandmother tells me that Duck is "liang chi" or cool breathe/chi so when I have a lot of "huo chi" (or anytime for that matter) I would eat some cold braised duck wings. YUM!

You probably didn't realize that I came from one of the three furnances of China! This is nothing! LOL. Just kinding...this weather is killing me. Thank goodness for Central Air!! All hail to the creator of Air Conditioning!! *bow* What? 95 tomorrow?? I thought it was suppose to cool down tomorrow?? It's been a humid 96 for the past 2 days! Yeah, hotpot can and will be eaten in this weather as well. What can we say? We love spicy foods. And believe it or not, it has a weird "high" or cooling affect afterwards. Yup, the thinly sliced beef, lamb, pork, etc at Super 88 or Ming's (my preference) is supposed to be used for hotpot. Meats are suppose to be cut as thin as a slice of deli meat. All this talk about hotpots is really making me crave for one. I also heard that Ginseng in Framingham has just opened a Chinese shabu shabu (aka hotpot but they figured if they put it in Japanese it would attract more customers)! And they have ying yang hotpot as well as ma-la! I'm looking forward to trying it soon!

Yup, Chong Qing is a Sichuan province so they should have the same style. The reason why my hotpot doesn't look like it has a lot of chilis is because there was so many seafood and beef balls in it. My Aunt kinda went over board. But trust me, there was a thick layer of oil that just coated our lips and there was so many chilis and sichuan peppercorns that at the end we couldn't tell what we were eating! LOL. NYC should have a lot of Sichuan restuarants that will do this. I can't remember the one I use to go to but it's some where in Flushing. My family still lives in NYC but we prefer to make our own so we can have everything and anything we want. We like a lot of "weird" items such as pig's blood, tripe, intestines, etc. It's so good.

What does yeet hay mean? Does it mean heat chi from foods?

That's what we do but we turn off the AC in the summer time! It's awesome sweating from the heat in the summer as well as from the ma-la spices! I usually go for an ice cold light beer with my hotpot but for my grandmother and my uncles they always opt for MaoTai. That's a bit too much heat even for me!