dmreed

The waitress said they ate many styles of chinese food in NYC so I doubt she was talking about Korean-Chinese style food...so I am still curious what the difference in taste might be. I do know that there is a very old company, Oriental Chow Mein Co., which has made a chow mein mix since 1926 and, according to the package, "The ingredients contained in this package will make a delicious meal of chow mein, of the type generally served in the better Chinese restaurants of southeastern Massachussetts". When I first heard about this mix, I ordered some just to try it out and I definitely do not much care for the taste! I have asked various Chinese and others chefs where they are from and what their favorite "authentic" restaurant is here in San Diego. I have liked all the different varities of "authentic" Chinese food I have tried. I carry a note written in Chinese which specifies that I want Chinese food prepared like the Chinese people eat and, when ordering a spicy dish, it asks for spicy 15 on a scale of 1-10...I frequently actually get spicy food! BTW I had my first Korean meal in Los Angeles back in 1959 at a woman's house who made Korean meals for homesick Korean students...in 1959 there were no Korean restaurants or Korean stores in L.A. Vancouver vs. S.F....that makes sense...thanks! I have not tried Chinese restaurants in L.A. but I will keep that in mind when I visit my mom who lives in El Segundo next to LAX. Do you have any specific restaurants you can recommend in the L.A. area? BTW where do you live?

thanks...I would have thought the same thing about "authentic" Chinese restaurants but the waitress said she and her husband simply do not like the taste of any West Coast (San Diego) Chinese restaurant food of any style of cooking...when I recently asked her again to explain why, she said that it did not taste good like NYC Chinese food! I have also heard that Vancouver has some of the best Chinese restaurants outside of China itself...why would that be when San Francisco Chinatown has been around for so long or so much longer?

New York versus West Coast Chinese Food? A Korean waitress at one of my favorite sushi bars says she and her husband do not like any of the Chinese restaurants they have tried here in San Diego, CA but that they really love New York Chinese restaurant food! What is the difference between the 2 coasts regarding Chinese restaurant food?

To clarify: There is no "traditional" chop suey in China. There is no "chop suey" in China. You won't find "chop suey" in menus among the restaurants in China. It is a North-American thing. In spirit it is the Chinese way - stir-frying local vegatables with bitsy little chunk of proteins. ← I am still not convinced. I have seen a couple of references similar to that found at http://quezi.com/720 ""There is a rural district south of Canton, China called Toisan. This was the point of origin for most of the early immigrants from China to California. There they make a dish of miscellaneous items called “tsap seui” which means “miscellaneous scraps.” It is also called “shap sui” in Cantonese. ""Mostly it is made of leftover vegetables, stir-fried together, often with noodles, and bean sprouts are almost universally included. The rest of the dish varies according to what ever is found in the kitchen. ""Now, one may hold any opinion one wants. But the “tsap seui,” “shap sui,” “chop suey,” connection is very difficult to ignore.""

did you do a google search? there are many recipe listings including http://www.yumyum.com/recipe.htm?ID=17658

I finally got a picture of the store-bought broth: ← how does the broth compare to restaurant or home-made broth? the reason I ask is because there are a couple of Vietnamese Pho broths which are OK in a pinch/hurry (in fact, my wife and I have bowls of pho made from a package soup mix with noodles several times a week about 5am) but they do not really compare to a good pho restaurant broth.

maybe Hoisin Sauce?

Har Dep? In The Chinese Cook Book by Wallace Yee Hong (C. 1952), is a recipe for Har Dep (some kind of shrimp dish). What is the English translation of "har dep"?

Sweet vegetable sauce? In The Chinese Cook Book by Wallace Yee Hong (C. 1952), in recipe 108. Stir-Fry Pork With Oyster Sauce (Chow Ho-You Gee-Yoke), he refers to an ingredient he calls "sweet vegetable sauce". What is this sauce?

Har Dep? this is some kind of shrimp dish...what is the English translation of "har dep"?

No, I'm far too glamorous for that Actually, I don't because I don't like to reuse oil like that... having said that, I've now had my gallbladder out, so can't use that amount of oil anymore anyway ← ok regarding reusing oil...definitely a personal choice...I seal the meat in a hot wok but I don't use that much oil. regarding the lack of gall bladder, I had mine out many years ago...it took a short while to handle any fat but now it is not a problem of any kind...I hope you have the same experience!

Zhajiang Noodles I like mapo dofu over noodles...last night because my wife prefers elbow macaroni to spaghetti, I served my mapo dofu over the elbow macaroni and it was great. I was just looking at a recipe for Zhajiang Noodles and the author suggested that Zhajiang Noodles from Northern China are somewhat like Mapo Dofu over spaghetti/noodles. Anyone here have any opinions?

To clarify: There is no "traditional" chop suey in China. There is no "chop suey" in China. You won't find "chop suey" in menus among the restaurants in China. It is a North-American thing. In spirit it is the Chinese way - stir-frying local vegatables with bitsy little chunk of proteins. ← I have no doubt that there is no dish called "chop suey" in China. But what is the difference between so-called "chop suey" and "Chow Pork Chop Kew" that I mentioned except for the lack of bean sprouts? I probably should put the name of the dish "chop suey" in quotes and ask about dishes found in China which have the same/similar ingredients and are cooked in the various ways "chop suey" is cooked varying from stir-fry to pressure cooker!

there are many foods that some folks love and others can't stand and still others don't care one way or the other, e.g., cilantro which some folks say tastes like soap and others love, chilis which some folks tolerate and others cannot tolerate, stink tofu (do fu ru/funyu), moldy cheeses, tarragon, dairy products where some are lactose intolerant and others are not, etc., etc....and the list goes on...and it does not seem to be cultural...cultural differences probably include whether it seems natural to eat offal, various "odd" animals...not to eat some animals for religious reasons, etc. a former boss of mine told me of a class he took where the professor gave everyone in the class a small white pill and asked everyone to put the pill on their tongue...he then asked those who thought the pill tasted salty to raise their hand and about half the class did so...he then asked who though it tasted sweet and again about half the class raised their hand...he then asked who though it was tasteless and a few raised their hands...it was the same pill for everyone...the difference in taste was caused by genetic makeup! the fact that the bizarre foods guy can eat almost anything but almost threw up with durian made me think that it might be genetic.

thanks...I found most of both series at Amazon and have ordered a few...mainly Chinese and other Asian.

in "The Chinese Cook Book" by Wallace Yee Hong (c. 1952), he states, "The basis of chow yoke (stir-fry pork) dishes is mixed vegetables. Even the well-known (in America) chop suey is of this family. In chow yoke, you can use whatever vegetables you happen to have on hand and whatever meat is available." his recipe "96. Stir-Fry Pork Chop with Assorted Vegetables (Chow Pork Chop Kew)" includes all the usual ingredients for chop suey except that bean sprouts are not mentioned and a little tomato catsup is used. Does this make the case for a traditional chop suey in China?

I think you need to clarify what you mean by "authentic" and in what way you deem the recipe as authentic or not. Fuchsia Dunlop's recipe is quite authentic, as is hzrt8w's. But if you want to add more oil and chiles to them, that would probably bring their recipes even closer to one you would get in Sichuan. Although I have to wonder, if you're serving it over pasta, just how "authentic" do you really need it to be? ← that is why I put "authentic" in quotes. I would consider the recipes by Dunlop and A. Leung to be authentic (no quotes). I frequently put more chili, fermented black beans and Szechuan peppercorns in recipes. When I order a Sichuan dish in a restaurant (when they ask how spicy on a scale of 1-10, I ask for spicy 15). I seem to recall seeing do fu ru in a mapo dofu recipe in a Chinese cookbook written by a Chinese author but I have not been able to locate it. my google search found just one such recipe...the non "authentic" one. I have suspected for some time that in the north of China mapo dofu might well have been served over noodles before rice was readily available but I have not found any confirmation. but, if it is true, it would be authentic (no quotes)!

I have Beautiful China (maybe Asia too) but I was not really aware that they were part of a series and I did not know about Savoring series at all I definitely will have to do some research!

Durian? I definitely would not eat much of what he eats but I cannot understand why he did not like Durian! Maybe the ability to enjoy durian might be genetic?

wow! that looks so good, I have just ordered the cookbook!

I don't recall raw beef making the broth cloudy (I basically always eat pho tai when I eat a pho restaurants). At home, I always try to keep some very thinly sliced eye of round in the freezer for when I make pho at home. I don't recall any cloudiness from the beef but I do notice it from the noodles. I will pay more attention next time I add the beef.

2009/05/11 I just found a recipe for mapo tofu which uses fermented bean curd! http://avenuefood.com/2007/10/03/mapo-dofu.aspx ← I just made the recipe tonight and it was great (I did add a bit more fermented beans, a bell pepper which needed to be used, and some black bean with garlic sauce...for my wife, I only used one dried chili but on my serving I put about 1 1/2 Tbs homemade chili oil. I served it over macaroni (I usually serve it over spaghetti). I noticed that the recipe is not really "authentic", can anyone provide such a recipe which is "authentic"?

this recipe sounds great, I will have to get some napa and try it soon! thanks

further investigation shows that this is not particularly "authentic" so if anyone knows of an "authentic" recipe, please let me know. BTW I just made the recipe tonight and I really like addition of the funyu!

amazon even has used copies!