eatingwitheddie

I usually steam fish. I put it on a plate, season it and place it in a covered bamboo steamer that is placed over a wok. Most often I set up my electric wok and use it exclusively for this purpose. Since I have a very small stove but lots of counter space, using my electric wok this way increases my produciton capacity.

I don't use XO sauce in my cooking.

XO SAUCE The information that’s been posted about XO sauce is mostly right on the money. XO names a premium spicy sauce that has originated in Hong Kong in the last 10-15 years (I believe). Chefs take pride in making their own XO sauce, typically viewing it as a premium sauce because they are using a large number of ingredients, some of which may be very expensive. Dried scallops, dried shrimp, dried baby fish, ham, garlic, ginger, 4 or 5 different varieties of fresh and dried chiles, are all components of XO sauce recipes that I’ve seen. XO sauce can refer to two related but different things. Its primary identity is as a condiment sauce on the table, just like soy or any other hot sauce. In vernacular usage, sometimes the phrase XO is just being used to suggest that a particular spicy dish is special or somehow of premium quality, though it may not necessarily contain the spicy table condiment XO sauce the chef is preparing. It name comes from the marketing idea that XO Cognac is a premium product, and it’s that association the name refers to. Because XO sauce is a ‘new’ sauce and because it is expensive there are very few available commercially. I have primarily tried Lee Kum Kee, but the truth is, that it kind of goes against the tradition that each chef is putting their own personal stamp on it. If you're in NYC go to Ping's at 22 Mott and order a couple of Giant Oysters Steamed with XO Sauce. Good dish!

HOISIN SAUCE Sold in a jar or a can, hoisin sauce is a sweet and savory soy bean-based paste that is made by several different manufacturers according to similar but different proprietary recipes. It is rarely used on its own, but is typically mixed with flavorings like soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, wine, and sesame oil to create a sauce for a stir-fry dish. Its two most well known uses (in Chinese cuisine) are as a condiment for Peking Duck and as part of a marinade for BBQ’d ribs. I love the flavor of hoisin sauce and first encountered it in the form of Beef w. Hoisin Sauce at NY’s Shun Lee Dynasty Restaurant in 1966. In fact it was the flavor of hoisin that first woke me up a to the world of hi-quality Chinese cooking and inspired me to seek more knowledge. In my experience I have always found it to be a popular flavor, and one that is uniquely Chinese. When wrapping crispy Peking Duck skin in pancakes, a scant tablespoon of hoisin is first smeared on the wrapper before rolling. In this preparation the hoisin is typically first thinned with a little bit of water, and then flavored with a touch of sherry or Shaoshing, as well as a small amount of sugar and some sesame oil. To use hoisin as the base of a stir-fry sauce, briefly sauté some minced garlic (2t) and 2 chopped scallions (note NO ginger), then add 2 T of hoisin and any chile paste (if you are cooking a spicy dish). Cook for 10 seconds then add a seasoning sauce of 2 T soy (Kikkoman is my choice), 1 T Shaoshing, 1 1/2 T sugar, 1 t white vinegar, 1/2 t MSG (if desired) and enough cornstarch slurry (2 t maybe) to thicken the sauce. Now add whatever precooked (stir-fried) meat and/or vegetables you want to the sauce. Mix for about 30 seconds, until the food is completely coated and the sauce has the right viscosity (you may want to add more cornstarch if it is too thin or a drop of wine if it is too thick). Sprinkle the dish with a little sesame oil and serve. As far as different brands go, I know that someone previously posted that Koon Chun is all sugar (and by implication has no taste). I would suggest revisiting the can; it works really well for me. I like Lee Kum Kee brand’s hoisin as well, though I find myself using it mostly for a Shanghai crab dish that I prepare. I prefer the Koon Chun brand, which I find more richly flavored, for meat and poultry.

I dined on dim sum at Sun Sai Wah 3 different times this past September, both at the Vancouver and Richmond locations. The food was excellent and equivalent to some of the best I've had in HK and Taipei. None of the visits was on a weekend. The restaurants were full, but service was quite good anyway. Kirin may have better dumplings, but surely we are talking levels of excellence here. The idea that the food isn't very good any more (as was mentioned elsewhere in this thread) is preposterous. I would rate my experience at 95 out of 100. Most of the items I tried were from the dim sum kitchen, though we did sample a squab that was terrific

When you steam a Chinese dish what kind of steamer do you use? What dishes do you steam?

What are best, most popular and newest Chinese restaurants in Paris?

LA has one of the most vibrant Chinese food scenes. You can drive forever through Monterey park and adjacent neighborhoods and see one restaurant after another, from fancy HK style dim sumeries to mom and pop places. What's really good these days? What's new?

To Kukujiro 1. Use just enough marinade to barely coat the meat. For 1-1 1/2 lbs of meat use just one egg white, salt, 1-2 T dry sherry or rice wine, and about 1 1/2 T cornstarch. Using your fingers mix the egg white, wine and salt into the sliced beef for about 30 seconds, then add the cornstarch and mix again until the starch is dissolved. Also try adding 1-2 T of vegetable oil after the cornstarch is dissolved - this will help the beef slices separate from one another. 2. If the slices have stuck together the oil was definitely too hot! Use a thermometer, or if you don't have one, put a few slices in the oil to see how they cook. The oil should be around 280-300 degress F. If the oil is not sufficiently hot when you add the meat, it won't cook - it will be too cool. If this happens use a slotted spoon and remove the meat then reheat the oil before proceeding. 3. If the sauce thickened (tightened) too much, use a little less cornstarch slurry. Be aware of the fact the both the beef and broccoli will give off liquid of their own when mixed with the thickened sauce. As a result, the sauce is slightly overthickened at first but will then thin out. When I cook a dish like this, rather than relying on a measurement of exactly how much cornstarch to use, I have some cornstarch slurry next to me and add it a little at time until the sauce is the right consistency. That way you can controll the viscosity very precisely.

If you put salt and MSG side by side I could tell the difference in a moment by tasting them. I believe that MSG definitely has a taste and I'm comfortable with using the Japanese word umami as a word that denotes this flavor. I think having a word like this is a very sensible idea.

By the way I do believe that certain individuals have a reaction to MSG. For instance, from my experience, when I consume a lot of MSG quickly, perhaps by eating a bowl of soup, my nose starts to run and gets a little stuffed. I still like it and cook with it. It takes me a year to go through a small $1.50 bag of the stuff. I prefer to buy Japanese Ajinomoto brand MSG

I use MSG in my cooking and I can assure you that 98% of professional kitchens use it as well. In certain Chinese dishes one can get excellent results without it. I'm thinking of highly flavored dishes that contain seasonings like salt, soy, sugar, garlic, ginger, scallion, bean pastes, chiles etc. In some of the more lightly flavored dishes, especially vegetable items, it produces a result that is difficult to achieve any other way. I regard it as a classical part of most of the flavoring sauces that I use. When I choose to omit it, I always think about how I am going to replace it by using a touch more soy or salt or a different kind of accent (no pun intended). It is interesting to know that MSG occurs naturally in seaweed, and according to Japanese food experts, was discovered by scientists trying to isolate the flavoring agents found in kombu (seaweed) based dashi (stock).

This is exactly the method that I use. Actually I keep the light on after covering the pot for a little more than 15 minutes, 20 minutes maximum, and then let it sit for another 10 minutes (or more). I do find that different kinds of rice and different brands of the same variety of rice may require a little more or less water. I usually determine this empirically, through trial and error with a particular batch of rice.

Who knows where they put peanut butter in their egg rolls? Do you know why some restaurnats can sell 2 egg rolls (1 order) for more than $30 bucks? Looking for grass roots egg roll research/stories/anecdotes/best of their kind reputations. PLEASE!

That's exactly what my friend has been wondering. He's been looking for more than four years and has enlisted my help. We've been seaching, but could find no bone. We have discovered guinea pig (in a Latino joint), flying fox, armadillo (in a market not a restaurant), and the legendary and grossest of all dishes: monkey brains (in Canada). Someone has written about a Chinese restaurant that got busted for serving cat, supposedly to save money and not on it's own merits. I for one don't believe it without proof.

'Ed, to cook your rice, do you use a rice cooker? I don't think it's absolutely necessary, but nice to have.' I have never used a rice cooker in my entire life (though restaurants of mine have.) Makes no difference at all. Though good rice is extremely important - for Asian food I ususally prepare Jasmine rice (from Thailand).

Totally true, but since these mushrooms are only sold here, I think it is primarily a question of the supply being limited and what you see is what they got. And yes when they look great the price may be as high as $5/lb (other times it is $2.5-$3.5)

I don't believe they're more perishable, I've kept them for quite a long time, well over a week. I suspect the ones you bought may have been 3/4's of the way through their post harvest life span before you acquired them. A slow boat from China ...............

I've eaten at Sunny Garden a few times, mostly lunch, and suspect that it's a very good restaurant. At one time, the former head chef here, David Lum, had previously been the head chef at Shun Lee Palace. I also recollect that they had excellent old-fashioned American style Egg Rolls.

I was in Edgewater and went to John's Shanghai. The soup dumplings were extremely good, the moo shu pork was ordinary, and the menu intriguing. I'm interested in returning. Is there Joe's Shanghai here as well? Or did you mean John's?

jinmyo writes 'Hua gu (flower mushrooms) are superb. I can't get them fresh in Ottawa unfortunately. But a comrade brings back pounds of dried from frequent trips to mainland China. Some of these fellas grow the size of my hand and reconstitute to about the size of my head. They are tremendous sliced on the bias and grilled with a few lashes of chile oil.' With so many mushrooms the dried variety is often better than the fresh. The ones you're receiving sound great. By the way, in NYC the majority of dried hwa goo come from Japan and Korea. I don't know what you normally do, but try soaking the mushrooms in cold water, not hot, and soak them for an extremely long time: 3-4 days. After they soften just a little, perhaps after an hour or two of soaking, trim away the stems and then return the mushrooms to the water. When you treat the best quality flower mushrooms like this I find them to be vastly better than if they only soaked for an hour or two (forget the 20 minute stuff most books suggest which is fine for a lesser grade but not these). The soaking liquid makes an excellent base for a stock or a sauce. When purchasing flower mushrooms look for ones that are quite thick. These will have a wonderful meaty quality By the way the fresh flower mushrooms are extremely fragrant. I keep figuring that at some point some of our French chefs will discover that these guys are around and want to use them. They are absolutely excellent!

I frequently dine out in Northern New Jersey with my friend and her mom. Any suggestions about the best Chinese restaurants there, and any dishes that might be especially good/worthwhile? There's a large Korean population in Northern NJ - I'd also be interested in hearing about any of those restaurants that stand out

re: Waterchestnut Powder Waterchesnut powder can be used to thicken, but I primarily use it to give an extra crisp exterior to fried foods.

If you can't find sweet bean paste use hoisin sauce instead. As for bean sauce - koon chun brand out of HK is widely available in US Asian food stores. I believe that bean sauce and sweet bean sauce are the same item - it is called 'sweet' not because of the sugar in it - but because it is not a 'spicy' (hot peppered) version. Much in the same way that we have sweet and hot Italian sausages

My friend loves to hunt. He loves his dog. He writes, sometimes about food. And for 4 years that I know of, he has been on a quest to cook and eat a dog. I assume he would only do this where the law (and culture) permit. Though in his heart I know he dreams of chowing down at some little out of the way storefront in Flushing and discovering that the mystery meat in the casserole was not sold by the pound, but AT the pound. So far, (when last I heard), his quest has gone unfulfilled. So calling all you intrepid eaters, especially you Cantonese and Korean types, I want to hear about the real thing. Unleash those reminiscences! Some of you must have had dog skin in Beijing or Seoul.