dmreed

I would consider it to be Vietnamese as well...the particular bread/bun used is accidental (Occidental?) but the ingredients are generally Vietnamese and bread in some form is a world-wide food. I would agree that adaptation to a new environment or to new ingredients does not necessarily change the genre of the food!

IMHO one might classify Chinese cooking/recipes into 2 categories: 1) authentic from China 2) Chinese style in which Chinese techniques and ingredients are used but then what would be authentic Chinese? before the chili pepper was introduced, before Moslem influences, before Indian influences, before European influences??? regarding adapted recipes: if your family grilled a large steak and used soy or hoisin sauce for seasoning, I might call the dish "Asian influenced" or "Asian flavored". but if your family used "American celery" instead of "Chinese celery" in a dish that was otherwise "authentic", I would call it Chinese! BTW when I order Chinese food at a restaurant, I always ask for and even sometimes get, "authentic Chinese food like a Chinese person would eat". I sometimes get Sichuan food spicy hot but I have to ask "on a scale of 1-10, I want spicy 15". Generally I would consider most American Chinese restaurant food to be "Americanized Chinese food"...similarly for other ethnic food, Thai, Japanese, Vietnamese, Indian, Pilipino, etc.!

there is a new video for the Shanghai Spring Roll wrapper technique: http://www.asiandumplingtips.com/asian_dumplings/

I have wondered about chop suey for quite a few years...I admit that I occasionally order (or make at home) and enjoy it. Multiple cookbooks say that it is not Chinese and tell several stories about its invention! I have always suspected that the Chinese might use "left-over" meat and/or vegetables and make chop suey at home. I just recevied a 1977 (10th reprinting 1984) book by Ayako Namba and Grace Z. Chu "Chinese Cooking - An Illustrated Guide" and it has a recipe for chop suey which they also call ba-bao-cai. I have not had much luck doing a google search on "ba-bao-cai". Can anyone tell me if ba-bao-cai is indeed Chinese chop suey?

I just bought some seeds for the following: Prik Chi Faa (Capsicum annuum) This chilli is one of the major chillies used in authentic Thai cooking. The meaning of this popular Thai chilli is “pointing to the sky.” Prik Chi Faa chillies are about 3"-4" in length.

Facing Heaven Chilis are not Thai chilis and they're from the Sichuan region. The Tien Tsin chilis are what prsantrin linked to though, so they'd probably satisfy. That Ghost chili oil sounds dangerous--I imagine you'd only need a little bit. Regular chili oil is plenty hot for me. I think the goal for ma po tofu is a good balance of pretty intense heat and numbness from the peppercorns. As for using stinky tofu, I've never seen it, but I'm no authority anyway. I like regular ma po tofu so much though, that I don't think I'd want to mess with success. ← hummm...I grow what were labelled Thai chilis and they definitely grow "heaven facing"!! but perhaps they are not what are generally known as Thai chilis??? I will buy some Thai chilis or seeds to see how they taste and compare to the heaven facing chilis I now am growing. regarding stinky tofu in mapo dofu, I am only talking about using just a small amount for added depth of flavor...but I am not sure how much to use...maybe I should just add a tiny bit and see how it tastes, then add a bit more and check that, etc., etc.

Sichuan chili peppers aren't chilis at all - they don't produce so much heat in the mouth; rather they numb your tongue a little. I don't particularly care for the sensation myself, but I find it wholly different from the heat generated from chilis. I'm not sure if it's the same plant or not, but Japanese sansho produces the same feeling - you should be able to find little green bottles of the powder in an Asian market. ← I am asking about Sichuan Chili peppers not Sichuan peppercorns which I use quite frequently! the peppers might be the chilis called Tien Tsin peppers. See the recipe at http://www.thespicehouse.com/recipes/spicy...n-shrimp-recipe where both are used. Thai/Heaven Facing Chili apparently is not the same as the Sichuan chili. I just found a reference to the Tien Tsin chili which says the Fresno chili is a decent replacement. I am still looking for an answer to question 3) and I am curious about question 2).

3 questions/comments: 1) I don't recall getting an answer as to what Sichuan chili peppers are or what an equivalent pepper available in the USA might be. 2) For those who like "heat", have you tried the Ghost Chili (Bhut Jolokia) from India? Four times hotter than the Habanero pepper (over a million Scoville units!!!). I like HOT but a piece about the size of a common pin head just sitting on my tongue for a about 10-15 seconds required spitting it out! if I can get some to grow I will make some chili oil using the Ghost Chili and Sichuan peppercorns. 3) I seem to recall seeing a recipe for Mapo Dofu which used a bit of "stinky tofu" in addition to the usual ingredients. Can someone point me to such a recipe?

Again, there are no hard and fast rules. The methods you describe are used by second and third rate take out places for a less discerning clientele. Nothing wrong with it, it's just not common in household cooking or in finer restaurants. Hard veggies like broccoli and carrots, etc can be blanched but NEVER, NEVER meats and fish...nor tender leafy veggies. Meats and fish should get the benefit of carmelization in oil over high heat. Please refer to wok hei. ← thanks, that is what I thought and I do try to achieve wok hei when I stir-fry...I am trying to learn how to cook smaller quantities because even the "hot" biggest burner of my stove is not really that powerful :>(

while viewing the video series Chopstick Bowl (Chinese Takeout), the cook frequently blanches/parboils both the meat and vegetables (separately) before stir-frying for common recipes which I have seen just stir-fry the meat and vegetables separately. is this a common practice? maybe for some areas of China or styles of Chinese cuisine? ------------------------------------------------- 2009/05/01@0347 I think I asked too soon. it seems that the series is (as indicated!) dedicated to fast food takeout type recipes and cooking. the reason for blanching the ingredients is to allow rapid cooking fo the final dish....for main dishes, e.g., chicken and broccoli, essentially the sauce is prepared, the ingredients blanched, then when ready to prepare the dish, the wok is heated, the sauce is added to the wok and heated, then the blanched ingredients are added and heated until ready to serve! this seems to be a little faster than the usual food prep before starting to stir-fry. I might even try this technique when I have some prep time a while before I need to cook! I am still interested to know if this is a common practice or style of cooking.

thanks...I had just seen a cleaver used for shaping the har gao wrapper in a book I just received: "Quick & Easy Dim Sum Appetizers and Light Meals" by Judy Lew! I still do not know about the "hammer". BTW I was impressed by the commercial source of steam used in the video...thanks!

I recently got a sample of a semi-dried Ghost Chili (also know as Naga Jolokia and Bhut Jolokia) which currently holds the world's record for Scoville units...over 1 million units...more than 4 times the heat of the Habanero and twice that of the Red Sevina Habanero! I cut off a piece about the size of a large pin head and put it on my tongue without chewing and I had to spit it out after about 5-10 seconds...it was that HOT! if the seeds from the Ghost Chili grow and produce peppers, I will make chili oil with the Ghost Chili and Sichuan peppercorn!

thanks for the recipe...I tried it tonight with just minor variations...I did not use the garlic chili paste because my wife cannot deal with the heat...she loved it and so did I. I added some homemade chili oil when I served my portion. I did not have fresh noodles so I boiled some dried chow mein noodles...I think next time I will just use spaghetti because I prefer the texture (I have used spaghetti with mapo dofu and it works just great).

I just now found this thread. I have tried quite a few frozen dim sum of different types and of different manufacturers and all but one were so bad that I frequently had to throw them in the garbage. The exception is the frozen B.B.Q. Pork Bao with Oyster Sauce by O'Tasty Foods, Inc. City of Industry, CA 91745. They are not the best I have ever had or made but they are definitely acceptable and definitely better than some I tried at a local San Diego restaurant which received good reviews for their dim sum.

thanks except that it is supposedly made with red kidney beans? maybe it is Tian mian jiang paste/sauce? 20090419@2240 update: the original recipe was called Cha Chiang Mien (pronounced ja jeong mien). Doing a Google search on "cha chiang mien" I found this on Wikipedia (which I think is OK to quote): "Zha jiang mian (lit. "fried sauce noodles") is a northern Chinese dish consisting of thick wheat noodles topped with a mixture of ground pork stir-fried with fermented soybean paste." with the following additional information: "In Beijing cuisine, yellow soybean paste (黄酱; pinyin: huáng jiàng) is used, while in Tianjin and other parts of China sweet noodle sauce (甜面酱; pinyin: tián miàn jiàng), hoisin sauce (海鲜酱; pinyin: hǎi xiān jiàng), or dou ban jiang (豆瓣酱; pinyin: dòu bàn jiàng) may be used in place of the yellow soybean paste." Most of these are already in my pantry ready to try the recipe. So the author (it was published in 1935!) simply got it wrong regarding red kidney beans! But the recipes in the book look interesting and pretty decent for the year of publication. thanks to an answer by hzrt8w to another of my questions, I now try to find alternative phonetic spellings!

OK, here I go again! Reading a recipe in "The Chinese Festive Board" by Corrine Lamb originally published in 1935 and republished in 1985, I came across an ingredient called "chiang" which was described as "a particularly aromatic condiment which is made from red kidney beans. It is made best in the Province of Kuangtung, where Canton is located. It is not subject to decomposition and thus lends itself to export...". Another recipe refers to "sweet chiang". A further description and other names would be greatly appreciated.

I do that with shrimp -- making them nice and firm. But never thought of oysters. You would have to rub gently, I would imagine. ← I was probably thinking of shrimp too...I seem to be suffering from CRS (Can't Remember S...)! ← ah ha..I was right the first time! I just read in "Classic Chinese Cooking" Quantum Books 1996..."rub oysters thoroughly with salt and corn starch and then wash them in water".!

I just got and started reading "The Chinese Gourmet" by William Mark. In the Dim Sum section he mentions several tools used to make dim sum: - so choi - "a wooden hammer used for making doughy wrappers" - juat do - "metal juat do for shaping dumplings - ba pei do - "blunt metal spatula for making the semi-transparent rice wrappers for har gau I have not been able to find any other references to these tools. Can anyone help me find references and pictures or other names for these tools?

thanks folks, would using more corn starch reduce the problem?

glad to hear that it is not just me! but sorry you have the same problem! maybe someone can explain why this happens and what to do about it.

Hmm I'm pretty sure Mandarin pancakes are different from lumpia (I know them as popiah) wrappers, the latter being much thinner. The texture is also fairly different. ← I agree but the cooking technique described in the recipe seems to be the same as that used in the movie!

That's exactly what i do too....always try to have at least 2-3 servings on hand... ← thanks, folks, for the idea...I have always bought the whole works to go...it never occurred to me to just buy the broth :>(

I do that with shrimp -- making them nice and firm. But never thought of oysters. You would have to rub gently, I would imagine. ← I was probably thinking of shrimp too...I seem to be suffering from CRS (Can't Remember S...)!

After adding the corn starch and water to a dish to make the sauce, while heating and stiring the sauce thickens as expected but, after about 3-5 minutes, it becomes non-thick (runny) again. Why does this happen and what can be done to prevent this from happening?

Yep. I loooove the texture -has a bite to it. ← do you mean unlaid yolks? if so, where do you get them?