sunflower

Moo Shu pork 木須肉 is a common Dongbei but no pancakes and there must be egg, woodears (black fungus) and lilybuds, not the common moo shu pork available in most Chinese restaurants/ take outs in America. Recipe on my blog too.

Guo bao rou 鍋包肉 is probably the most famous Dongbei dish well known outside China. Recipe on my blog if you like to try. http://sunflower-recipes.blogspot.com/2010/01/dongbei-goa-bao-rou.html 東北拉皮 Dongbei La-Pee http://eat.whinfo.net.cn/Files/11%E4%B8%9C%E5%8C%97%E6%8B%89%E7%9A%AE.jpg is a snack or xiao chi 小吃 , main ingredient is 拉皮 La-Pee a springy translucent noodle made with mung (aduki) bean. Not easy to find this ingredient outside China. 地三鲜 Dee San Sian is a vegetable stir fry with aubergine (egg plant), potato and green bell pepper. 糖醋苦瓜 Tang Chu Ku Kwa is sweet & sour bitter melon. Bitter melon stir fry with Chinkiang vinegar, sugar and chilli, a dish with multiple flavours of sweet, sour, bitter, spicy and salty. Pickled/fermented nappa cabbage 酸菜 suan chai is very common. Nappa cabbages with added salt and water, pressed with a heavy object (like a piece of stone) and left to ferment for about 20 days. Similar to kimchi, this Dongbei pickled cabbage is also sour without the chilli spice. Commonly eaten stewed with pork. Another popular Dongbei food is blood sausage. I don't know much about this not keen with any blood sausages.

Dangshen 党 参 is Radix Codonopsis, much cheaper than some of the expensive ginsengs. Thin soft young roots are very cheap, older roots can cost a lot more and have more flavour. Older roots can be about 1cm thick and woody. The flavour of dangshen is totally different to either of the ginsengs mentioned above. You can easily find dangshen in most Chinese herbal stores, some bigger Chinese grocery stores will sell them for few dollars a packet (normally the cheaper roots). For quality stuff you have to go to Chinese herbalist. With that Gary Rhodes' recipe, if the dangshen is just steamed for not very long you won't get the best benefit unless you chew and eat the roots. Danghsen is normally used to make soups to extract all its nutrients, to boil or steam cook for at least 1 hour or more.

Sorry the links don't work. Try this http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&rlz=1B3GGLL_en-GBGB363GB363&um=1&sa=1&q=%E8%91%9B%E6%A0%B9&btnG=Search&aq=f&oq=&start=0 and this http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=%E8%91%9B%E7%B2%89&oq=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

I believe you are talking about 'ge fen' 葛粉, a starch from a root called 葛根 (ge gen in Mandarin or goot gen in Cantonese). The root looks like a large sweet potato (yam) but the fresh is full of fibres http://www.zjol.com.cn/pic/0/02/99/98/2999814_147390.jpg. In English I think this is called kudzu vine root, popular in China as well as in Japan. If I am not wrong the root or starch made from the root has medicinal properties such cleansing/ detoxing, curing hangover and inflammatory. I love soup made with the root, haven't had it for ages. Think you may be able to find fresh root from Chinese grocery store. The starch, ge fen or goot fen 葛粉, is usually made into porridge like this glue http://www.51766.com/img/1001/1218700743590.jpg. Some people use the powder to make face mask good for spots.

I am Cantonese. I probably know what CNLink meant by 'deep boiled soup'. Think he is referring to 老火湯 (lo for tong). 老火湯 is a term used by Cantonese for nutritious soup that takes hours to simmer, steam or using a slow cooker. Some soup can take up to 10 - 12 hours. Usually the soup will contain meat/fish with Chinese herbs.

A bit of info re tube noodles posted on message #47 by shewie. A bit late hope you find this useful. These tubular noodles or pasta is a speciality of Shanxi, normally eaten with a spicy dipping sauce and lamb stew. There are two names all the same referring to the same noodles. 莜面窝窝 you mein war war 莜面拷栳栳 you mein kao lao lao Here are the definitions: 莜面 (you mein) is flour/noodles made with a type of oat called avena nuda or naked oat, This flour has a greyish colour. I have never seen it in the far east, UK or LA. I think you can only get this in China. 窝窝 (war war) refers to the honeycombed shape 拷栳栳 (kao lao lao) this is a local dialet, not many people really sure what this means. Some said 拷栳 was a farmer's tool and others said 拷栳栳 refers to a tubular colander. Here is a video how to shape this noodles http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDc0MDg5MjA=.html

There are two very different types of ginseng: One is called Panax quinquefolius or common name is American ginseng. In Chinese this is called 花旗参 (far kay sum) or 西洋參 (sai yong sum) both literally mean American or Western ginseng. This type of ginseng is 'yin' which means it cools you down than boils you up. Great if you have a sore throat or just want to have a detox cleanse. Another ginseng is called Panax ginseng, ranging from wild ginseng to the more commonly known Korean red ginseng. This type of ginseng is 'yang' which promotes blood circulation and revitalisation after illness. This is the type men will want if they want to be 'strong'. If you are not used to it or can't take too much of it, you will get headaches and nose bleed taking this. Prices for both ginsengs really depend on the age and size of the roots. You can get some ginseng for few dollars a root/pack to hundreds of dollars an ounce.

Just joined today and have read this forum for sometime. Great to meet you guys finally. If you have followed the BBC messageboard and read my blog http://sunflower-recipes.blogspot.com/ you probably know who I am. Anyway to answer the dmreed questions #91: 1) Yu Loo is fish sauce identical to Thai fish sauce. 2) Green plum sauce is called 青梅酱 (ching mei jiang) in Chinese. It is made with small green sour plums similar to greengage plum. I am not sure you can find Chinese green plums outside China, Taiwan and maybe Japan/ Korea. Regarding the method to prepare canned abalone, 1) Step 1. This is absolutely unnecessary, canned abalone is already fully cooked and tenderised. 2) Do not pressure cook canned abalone this will make it tough like leather. *slow simmering or pressure cooking only applies to dried abalones. All you need to do is just open the can and slice very thin. Eat as it is (I will eat it straight from the can) or briefly stir fry with oyster sauce, good chicken broth and Chinese cooking wine. Abalone with sea cucumber and shitake mushroom is a classic Cantonese dish. To serve, line the dish with a bed of steamed Chinese green and lay the stir fry abalone on top.