Ce'nedra

I feel like I'm the only Asian who doesn't eat guts (or blood jelly)! Am I weird? Edit: With the exception of the casing for Chinese and/or other sausages. What are those made of anyway?

Seems like a Middle Eastern/Central Asian influenced dish. Does anyone know if this dish came about during the Silk Road? And does anyone know of any other Silk Road-influenced foods in China? Really fascinating history...

Yes, I have actual jars that say this. One jar is labelled "Mam Ruoc Chau Doc -- Fine Shrimp Paste". The other jar is labelled "Mam Ruoc Da Nang -- Fish Sauce". Both jars list the contents as "fine shrimp and salt." I have a third jar that is labelled "Mam Tom Thuong Hang -- Shrimp Sauce (Finely Ground)". The contents of this jar are listed as "Fermented shrimp and salt". The content of each jar is a slightly different color. Maybe the labels reflect a translation problem? I know Chau Doc and Da Nang are towns in Vietnam, so I was thinking that the first two jars contained different regional versions of shrimp paste? But what about the jar labeled Mam Tom? It's a mystery!! ← Ahh then it's probably (I assume) really bad translation? The 'sauce' was most likely referring to 'paste'. Maybe in the Vietnamese language, they don't really differentiate betwen 'sauce' and 'paste'? Anyway, I just asked my mum about 'mam tom' and she said yes, that is different from 'mam ruoc'. Problem is she's not familiar with 'mam tom' because it's (apparently) essentially a Northern Vietnamese thing, which she doesn't really know much about... She said she'll check up on what's the difference for me though

Tried making a Xinjiang spin of meat skewers today (flavours used were nothing related to Xinjiang though hahaha). Had it with bbq sauce (again, not Xinjiang related at all), toasted sweet sultana bread and salad with a dressing of palm vinegar, salt, sugar and water.

Just thought I'd mention that other than the Papaya Tree brand that I previously recommended, the 'Horse' brand is also one of the best ones I've tried. I alternate between the two brands. Here's a picture in case you're wondering

To be honest, I have no idea what 'mam tom' is. As for 'mam ruoc', I have no idea what it actually means, I only know how to refer to it. What I do know though, is that it's NOT fish sauce in any way (did you see this on the actual jars?). 100% sure it's shrimp paste.

I've seen it called mam tom, however I'm actually interested in the name of the residue/paste left over from making fish sauce and what this is called in various SE-Asian languages. ← I know it as 'mam ruoc' (i.e. the fermented shrimp paste).

I've been eating ALOT of vegetarian lately (for the past few weeks) because according to some Asian/Buddhist (I'm not really a Buddhist but I follow -sort of -anyway) tradition, you're supposed to for 49 days or something like that when someone in the family passed away (my grandma). My mum, aunts and uncle have been strictly following this whole vego thing (no garlic and something else included -strange) and so I just eat whatever is placed in front of me really. That explains why I haven't really been posting much! I haven't done any cooking recently! But I shall post some vego meals I've had these days soon enough (when I get home later!). Edit: or maybe even later -I've been really slack recently... Re-edit: I LOVE LOVE Asian vegetarian food -alot of gluten and tofu -it's really lovely. I didn't expect to enjoy it so much because I'm generally an full-fledged carnivore. I may reconsider my eating habits...cutting down in the meat intake (not entirely of course!). Seems like a healthier lifestyle (to balance between vego and meat that is).

Vietnamese cooking does indeed use shrimp paste. I add it to a noodle soup called 'bun rieu' (someone correct me on spelling please).

TOKYO MART HERE I COME! How's the price?

Really interesting video: Traditional Xinjiang dishes/fine dining Xinjiang roadside dining A lady making dan dan noodles (in English!) Part 1 Part 2 Home-made Chaozhou shrimp roll (I've always wanted to learn how to make this! Too bad I don't understand..) Part 1 Part 2 Anyone know the name of these Teochew noodles?

Making popiah crepes, a Hokkien/Teochew specialty http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vfz7od7bpos Making xinjiang noodles (laghman?)

HOLY! Is this what that direction means? http://www.flickr.com/photos/sathea/807796444/ OH MY.....................my knees are shaking...

Slap the dough till elastic? Okay, I may need some assistance and explanation in this particular part haahhaa. Here's hoping you give it a try, make a success, then guide me through lol! Thanks so much for the recipes btw I think the egg-less recipe sounds more traditional, at least according to what I'm familar with.

Y'know, when I started researching dan dan noodles, I stumbled across a major amount of variations on this dish--some variants have a peanut-based sauce, some have a sesame-based sauce, and there are apparently even a few styles that have neither peanuts nor sesame seeds. This page summarizes the confused terrain I fell into. I confess that, right at this point, I'm tempted to go more with the sesame-based version, if for no other reason than I've planned to do that peanut-based Vietnamese dipping sauce (nuoc leo (sp?)) with the summer rolls. But who knows? I've got both peanut and sesame ingredients in the house, so I might put a little of both in the noodles, see how that tastes. As for heat level--this is an issue throughout the meal, because as you may have noticed I've got several dishes on the menu that normally pack a lot of spice heat. I've got some dinner guests who are a bit cautious about spiciness, but I don't want to totally wimp out, so what I'm going to do is put a modest amount of heat in the traditionally hot dishes, and provide appropriate condiments for anybody who wants to up the voltage in their servings (sliced fresh chiles, dried chile flakes, chile oil, sriracha, ground sichuan peppercorns, etc.) With the dan dan noodles especially, I think this customize-your-serving method will work out well. ← Sorry, by peanut-y I meant sesame hhahahha (oops ). I think sesame based is traditional (maybe?) so it would be nice to give it a go if you can You're right, there's many many variations and the soup-based dan dan mian is also really quite delicious (tantanmen is the Japanese ramen version -really good stuff). Please do offer your recipe once it's done

OMG I am particularly excited about the dan dan noodles (love these babies)! Will you be using a spicy PEANUT-y sauce?

I've never had Hanoi-style pho but I heard they don't much vegetables/herbs as Southerners do. Is this true?

I never knew! And am pleasantly surprised. For those who are living/have been to Korea, have you ever taken a visit to Dongdaemun? Please do provide some details as I'm very much interested Central Asian cuisine strikes me as a very unusual and exotic cuisine and I'd love to learn more. How common are Uzbek, Uighur, etc immigrants in Korea? And are sightings of their food around Korea increasingly popular? Here's some photos (of food) someone took on their trip to this 'Central Asian village': http://flickr.com/photos/68558939@N00/sets...57594521064225/ And a passage from http://english.seoul.go.kr/today/infocus/s...232133_5093.php

That steamed papaya with coconut milk looks really mouth-waterning. The papaya pieces look as if they can be melted in the mouth. What's this? Looks really tempting as well.

Since you live in Guangxi, where they make a traditional Chinese cheese, would you say that milk is more common in this particular region? Do you see alot of Guangxi residents drinking fresh milk/using it in their cooking?

I can ask my friend (when I see him) who once said during a conversation that his dad learnt the recipe from an Uighur friend.

DylanK: Could you offer us the recipe please? Thanks. It looks beautiful. I wonder this too.

Thanks alot everyone for your contribution DylanK: What's ziran? v. gautam: That recipe has alot of depth -thanks so much for your effort! You're right. Xinjiang cuisine is very much a combination of Central Asian and Chinese imo (from what I've gathered so far at least). What are Yukon Gold potatoes though? I've never heard of that kind (then again, I don't really take note of potato names in general) -here's hoping we have them here in Oz! Oh and when you say 'peppers', you don't mean capsicums do you? In Oz, we use different terms I think (poo the confusion). Your version sound just delicious. I'll have to hunt down on all the ingredients beforehand to make sure we have it before I start cracking Oh and yes, I think I should start simple first. I'm not too confident with my cooking skills just yet lol. Fengyi: What would you recommend as a good substitute? Oh and I've been offered a link to a Big Plate Chicken recipe: http://gobilily.blogspot.com/2007/01/big-p...ji1-recipe.html Can anyone tell me if it's 'authentic' enough or at least sounds about right? Thanks so much

Btw, 'gai dan cha' (tea soaked eggs) would be considered a traditional family recipe for my family A lovely, simple dessert. All you need is eggs (chicken eggs), Ceylon tea (black tea), water, ginger, palm sugar and a bit of white sugar.

Wow much respect to everyone who went through the entire process of making those baos. I'm not one to get involved with looong cooking/preparation so I really wish I had your (everyone here) patience and talents! Again, we had 'gai dan cha' for dessert (after Asian meatloaf for dinner -which is posted in the 'dinner' thread)