huiray

A simple dinner after an afternoon of shopping at Asia mart, Carniceria Morelos, Namaste Plaza, East Asia Market...and lounging around before getting into the mood to do the barest minimum of cooking. Cantonese roast duck from Asia mart, w/ skinny wonton noodles tossed w/ the duck+bean sauce from the previous component, and with blanched kai-lan dressed w/ LKK oyster sauce + white pepper.

There are a lot of them out there nowadays with dry+wet sauce packets (multiple) in each package, some with ONLY wet packets in them... Many are quite good. Shelby, consider spending some time browsing the shelves of the biggest "Asian" market/grocery in Kansas City the next time you are in there for the ramen/instant noodle packs they carry, assuming they have a varied selection. Perhaps they have various other non-fried noodles/ramen brands/varieties you might consider trying too. I sometimes forget that large selections of such stuff is not found everywhere. ETA: In fact, I have various Myojo Chukazanmai packages, different varieties, that languish in my larder (yes, I first tried Myojo Chukazanmai stuff years ago ) - because I seldom prefer them over other brands that I eat and in fact in some aspects don't especially care for the Myojo Chukazanmai stuff when compared w/ some other good ones I go to. But as they say - to each his or her own. :-)

Claus' "Grillwurst", browned in EV olive oil then simmered w/ sautéed shallots, water, fingerlings, dried thyme, generous ground white pepper. Seasoning adjusted. Served with: 1) Chioggia beets. 2) Angel hair pasta & broccoli.

A couple of recent meals. Fried rice. Rice bran oil, garlic, "fish sauce" (containing whole anchovies w/ chillies, ginger & galangal inter alia) (Mam ca com an lien), sliced beef, broccoli florets & stems, green cabbage, garlic, several-days-old-rice, Maggi sauce. Deep-fried chả giò chay, w/ green cabbage drizzled w/ okonomi sauce. Beef shin & beef chuck stewed w/ peanut oil, sliced ginger, shiro miso, water, dried Chinese mushrooms (rehydrated) plus the soaking water, dried wood-ear fungus (rehydrated), bamboo shoots (packaged, “fresh”/in water; pre-simmered in salted water & drained), dried tofu rolls (yuba rolls) (pre-soaked), a few dashes of Maggi sauce, hon-mirin, jozo-mirin.

BTW I assume you have used (or are aware of) the packages of Tonkotsu and Shoyu ramen, complete with the seasoning packages appropriate to each, that are produced by Sun Noodle themselves? I've posted about meals using the pre-packaged Tonkotsu Ramen (with said sauce/seasoning packs, which furnish the appropriate MILKY stock), with add-ins as I felt like it, for example here and here. (and if you have not had these before I would suggest that you NOT throw out the "flavor packages" as you intimate you do in most cases in your OP) Just for the hell of it I add here as well what I had a few days ago (predating this thread) where I made a bowl of Nong Shim Kimchi noodles gussied up w/ kkakdugi, hot capicola, "pull mustard" (雪裡紅), broccoli florets & a couple of eggs poached in situ. (A bowl of "ramen" can encompass a great deal more than a specific type of specifically Japanese food dish, which itself is an adaptation of dishes from other culinary traditions. ;-) )

I think it is a mistake to consider "ramen packs" or "instant noodles" with disdain nowadays, including the flavoring/sauce packs that they come with. Unless one knows only the "low quality" type of stuff. My local Chinese grocery, for example, has maybe 30-40 feet of shelves, from ceiling to floor, stuffed full of all sorts of ramen and noodle packs from all regions of E/SE Asia, as well as stuff now made in the USA under the brand names of stuff that originated from E/SE Asia. Many of them are QUITE GOOD. Many, MANY of them contain air-dried noodles/ramen, rather than the fried stuff that USED to be the norm. Myojo Chukazanmai stuff (Japanese) is quite good, but is NOT the only game in town. I don't have a particular favorite. I use and eat a lot of them, with all sorts of gussying up as desired. I've posted about many of these on the dinner, lunch (not recently) and breakfast (not for a while now, but I used to) threads repeatedly. The best "ramen"/noodles I've had (just talking about the noodles) have been, to date, from the Prima Taste (Singaporean) brand and Nong Shim (Nong Shim Black, not the "standard" one) brands. Better than Myojo Chukazanmai and perhaps even Sun Noodles, in my opinion.

Well, Andre still needs to DO SOMETHING about that utterly atrocious and pretentious website of theirs. It is completely useless in my opinion and in fact urges me to NOT patronize them. One needs to click here and there to get anywhere and then the info that is conveyed in all their pages seems to convey how "in the clouds" they are and information that normal humans require from a restaurant website are beneath them to provide. Yes yes, their menu changes but to not even provide a representative sample of what one might expect to eat is not acceptable. They used to provide a "Gallery of Photos" and "drawings" of said Andre's concepts which at least gave an idea of what sort of dishes they served - but even those have been removed. There is so much more I could say about the defects of the website but perhaps I should stop here. "Octaphilosophy"? A Registered Trademark? I had always blinked at this over the years. On another forum I had mentioned how "Kiasu" they were, years ago, something that someone else (i.e. not me) had said about them and their website.

Chicken wings with tomato sauce (Cánh Gà Sốt Tương Cà). Rice. Pan-fried green cabbage. On the way there:

gfweb, the eggs were beaten w/ generous additions of hon-mirin (lots of complex sugars in it; plus 12% alcohol) and ryori-shu (cooking sake; has rice koji, sugar, salt, glucose, 13% alcohol). Salting adjusted. Very hot pan, full flame, sufficient very hot oil (a fair bit, really); chopped celery tossed in it, the egg mixture went in, pan maintained on full flame. The mixture browns up nicely; turned over (broken up w/ spatula somewhat) briefly and removed from the pan with the centers still slightly wet.

Thanks, Dave W & Shelby. ----------------------------------------- A meal a few days ago. Eggs w/ celery, using a tamagoyaki-like egg mixture. Allowed to brown, with the sugars in it. Brussels sprouts fried rice, w/ julienned ginger & stuff. Beef stew. Rice bran oil, beef short ribs, beef shin, sea salt, water, shallots, Klondike Golds, heirloom carrots, Maggi sauce, oregano, thyme.

A couple of recent meals. Skinny wonton noodles tossed w/ a pan sauce (scallions, cincalok, fish sauce, this-and-that) & fried shallots. Soup (Savoy + green cabbage, chicken legs, garlic, ginger, galangal, chicken stock). Ayam Sioh w/ rice & celery. Harm Choy Tong.

Yes it does. I posted a pic of a bucket of it here - yes that was the "Classic" KFC. I have to agree that it is somehow less tasty/crispy than from previously...but I hadn't had some for a little while anyway, and that bucket was from a franchise I had never bought from before. (Local variations even in the same city are not unknown - e.g. Wendy's, McD's, etc *do* vary in the food they sell in my experience even though it is supposed to be "the same" within the same chain)

Yesterday's meals. "Stirfried Kimchi Noodles" [Paldo] augmented w/ more baechu kimchi & corned beef (both commercial) plus scallions. Itek Tim. (Nyonya-style pickled mustard & duck soup) Similar to what was posted here previously. Note that tamarind (not lime or vinegar) and galangal (not ginger) are used. Cincalok fried rice. Duck fat (rendered from the excised duck fat pieces from the duck leg used for the Itek Tim), finely sliced negi, cincalok, 2-day-old rice (Basmati).

Asam Heh (tamarind prawns). Pan-fried cabbage. White rice. (Plus the rest of the carrots & celery soup from a previous dinner)

Colonel Sanders' Chicken (a.k.a. KFC), w/ carrots & celery in chicken broth. Bak Kut Teh, Canto-Hoklo herbal style. Yau Mak Choy. White rice.

I'm sure many folks here know this but it bears noting that tamarind is used as a vital and common ingredient in many, MANY cuisines. As examples, all SE Asian and various S Asian cuisines use it extensively, as an ingredient in its own right and as the souring agent.¶¶ Other souring agents are used as well, of course, but the taste of tamarind is essential for the "correct" flavor in many dishes where a substitute such as lime or lemon would result in a dish which would be judged "inauthentic" by people who grew up with or know the dish/cuisine well, even if it is otherwise "acceptable" to less demanding folks.** As for SE Asian dishes - look up Malay, Filipino, Thai, Vietnamese, Nyonya, Cambodian, Laos, Burmese, Indonesian (all regionalities), various Southern Indian recipes and in many of them tamarind will be used. There is no single "tamarind sauce" that is used. The ingredient as pulp or puree (derived from the meaty dried seeds, of course) & etc are used as needed and in proportions and ways (in combination with other ingredients) that differ depending on the desired taste and sourness profile. Note also that there are "Sweet tamarind" varieties as well as the standard (more sour) varieties. Yes, the taste and acidity differ between them. Yes, I've used both types. (See here and here as just two links that talk about the issue) And yes, commercially available preparation of tamarind pulp, puree as well as the dried pods/seeds themselves vary in taste and freshness, just like with other kinds of foodstuffs. There were some comments above wondering about cooking shrimp with tamarind. Here's a simple Northern Nyonya tamarind shrimp/prawn dish posted on eG some time back. Here's the Google search for recipes for that dish. ¶¶ Let alone African & Western Asian cuisines in addition to the other parts of the New World outside of the USA and Canada. ** Just as using Western limes in place of calamansi limes in some dishes alters the taste profile. &Etc. (Of course, sometimes one has no choice)

JUST.EAT.IT. REALLY. You won't die.

Which was why I asked if the OP was thinking of an Indian-Chinese sauce. Perhaps you might take a look at my post again. As for the OP saying it was "Szechuan" - ah, but he/she did (exact spelling aside). Which was *also* why I made the comment that it would make sense "in the context of Indian-Chinese food" (see my post again), rather than in the context of food from the province of Szechuan/Sichuan in China. See here also, where the "features" of Indian-Chinese cuisine are briefly described. So the "original recipe" which he/she asks for ... would probably originate from India itself. Perhaps someone here on eG very knowledgeable about Indian-Chinese cuisine could step forwards with the "original" recipe for this sauce - and perhaps for the "original" recipe for "shezwan rice" also.

Which is clearly Indian-Chinese, not actually Szechuanese, or Chinese (or true Hakka).

I wonder if you are thinking of a sauce called by that name in Indian-Chinese cuisine. Would that be so? Indian-Chinese food, otherwise known as "Hakka food" in India, has little (if any) resemblance to true Hakka cuisine as known in China and SE Asia (and in the Chinese diaspora outside of India). Are you thinking of a sauce commonly used in "Chinese" food as found in India? The recipe for "Szechuan sauce" as linked to by sparrowgrass looks like a generic sauce that could be used in any number of dishes that are put together by Western or non-Chinese cooks in places outside of China or SE Asia. I don't know why it would be called "shezwan sauce" (presumably "Szechuan sauce") unless it was in the context of Indian-Chinese food --- just like "Manchurian Chicken" is a typical Indian-Chinese dish not found in Manchuria or China or SE Asia or anywhere else except in Indian-Chinese cuisine including localities outside of India where the Indian diaspora is concentrated, such as in Toronto, Canada or London, UK. (In Toronto "Hakka Food" tends to mean Indian-Chinese food, for example, NOT true Hakka food) What is "shezwan rice"?

Various meals over the last few days. Beef short ribs braised w/ garlic, Korean radishes, shiro miso, fermented bean curd, dried Chinese mushrooms (small far koo type). 1) w/ min6 sin3 right after cooking; 2) after leaving overnight (color deepens, flavors meld more) w/ rice & pan-fried chiffonaded Savoy cabbage. Fried rice. Two-day-old rice w/ garlic, sliced pork belly (skin-on), Western celery, eggs scrambled in situ, halved large shrimp, chopped scallions. Seasoning adjusted. Eaten w/ garlic stir-fried pull mustard (雪裡紅). Cod fillets steamed w/ rice bran oil, hon-mirin, fresh lime juice, pickled plums (鹹水梅), juliened ginger, scallions, and I forget what else if anything else. De-ribbed chiffonaded collard greens in chicken stock. White rice. "Singapore Laksa La Mian" [Prima Taste] w/ aburaage & wild American shrimp.

Brussels sprouts stir-fried w/ chicken. Served w/ min6 sin3.

Correction: The name of the restaurant is Supanniga, not Suppaniga.

Try stir-frying them with a meat of your choice. (An example) If you "do" Chinese-style cooking at all, that is.