Gary Soup

I imagine Cindy thanks me too You were fortunate that she used a glass pot so you could watch the leaves "perform". Here in SF, even the "fine" tea houses use a traditional opaque pot, perhaps because they tend to be locked into the more "southern" Ooolongs and reds. Just curious, was it a Jenaer pot, one of these? Of course, Ten Ren is a Taiwanese company, and the Taiwanese seem to be really into green teas, despite the fact that they are just across the strait from Oolong country.

There's a Shanghainese delicacy (hong shao tipang) found on Chinese restaurant menus all over the Los Angeles area as "Pork Pump" in English. It started as a typo for "pork rump" on a single restaurant's menu. The dish caught on (who doesn't like a rich, fatty dish?) and so did the name, and it became widely copied. But then, my late Uncle Walter used to often remark, "Many people can spell and many people can paint signs, but very few people can do both."

I think his point was that if pronounced as a Cantonese would render the characters, it sounds a lot more like "cheese steak" than if a Mandarin speaker read the words aloud. I agree, that was a ridiculous assertion. In my household we know that the real Chinese is Shanghainese He reminded me of a "Gamblers' Special" bus trip I one took from San Francisco Chinatown to Reno. The tour guide would periodically get up and address the group in Mandarin, though some of the older members only understood Cantonese. Finally, one younger man who understood both admonished him: "This is America. You should learn a little Cantonese!" Philadelphia Cheese Steak originated in Taiwan?

Maybe the wine list is a little over-complicated, too, as they claim to have 1,400 wines (twenty by the glass). Their web site says that you can email them for a wine list.

My wife sautees them with tofu.

Only tangentially related, but you cand find an amusing account on this blog which will explain what 芝士士的巻 means if you find it on your menu in Philadelphia. There's even a picture for un-believers.

FWIW, it just occurred to me that Cafe Asia, inside the Asian Art Museum at 200 Larkin St., serves Peet's coffee (mind the apostrophe) and tasty Asian small plates. Unfortunately, you have to pay the $10 museum admission to get to it, but if you have the time and are interested in Asian antiquities it's well worth it. Cafe Asia [Edited typos]

I've been a Peet's fan since about 1968 (my Berkeley days). Unfortunately, there's not one near the Ramada, though there's one in the Ferry Building. Your walk will be (slightly) downhill. On the way down you could jog one block to the east around Eddy St. and score one of the best Vietnamese sandwiches (banh mi) anywhere on the planet at Saigon Sandwich, 560 Larkin St. There's a Starbucks *VERY* near the Ramada, but I ain't telling you where it is. Friends don't let their friends go to Starbucks.

They're obviously very knowledgeable about Western Chinese cuisines, probably because or the agency's location and its apparent market base of back-packers and trekkers. I noticed that their coverage of some of the coastal cities was pretty text-book and spotty, and some (like Ningbo and Yangzhou) not covered at all. But they've got Xinjiang and surrounding territories covered like a glove! I was favorably impressed with the website's focus on street food and "real" local specialties.

Starbucks doesn't count.

I stumbled across this page on the website of a travel agency in (of all places) Urumqi. It gives a succinct rundown on local specialties, plus guidance on where to look for them in 53 different cities in China. Any comments or additions? Muztagh Travel guide to local Chinese Cuisines For the record (I've posted this link before) an excellent broader survey of more formal Chinese Cusines is located here.

Were you there for lunch? His "date" may have been Laurel Wellman. Laurel Wellman on Calvin Trillin

One obvious difference is that tang bao are not necessarily "xiao". I've been served one that was about 3.5" in diameter and came in its own small steamer with a soda straw stuck through the hole in the top to drink the "soup" (and incidentally burn one's mouth). Conventional xiaolong are not overly soupy, they just provide that little "Shanghai Surprise."

This is getting confusing. The only steamed buns that I am aware of that Yangzhou is famous for are "five ingredients" buns, which contain sea cucumber, chicken, pork, bamboo shoots and shrimp. And they are definitely not small. Xiaolong bao are reputedly from Nanxiang, which is in Shanghai County, on the "right" side of the river, as they would have it in Shanghai. BTW, most recipes for xiaolong bao would have sesame oil, too.

The only recipe I could find at hand was in the Wei-Chuan Series ("Chinese Snacks") and it called for making the aspic separately and adding a portion of aspic and a portion of pork filling separately to each bao. It suggested that the aspic could be made from chicken bones OR pork skin, and offered a gelatin alternative of 1/2 T gelatin to 1/2 cup stock. I actually observed the crew assembling xiaolong bao at the Nanxiang Xiaolong Dumpling Shop in Shanghai and noticed that they had separate portions of filling and of aspic prepared for them.

I'm not sure what Ian's case was, but if in fact they were new crop "legal" stock, your experience would bolster my theory that the heat-treament process (which doesn't seem particlarly drastic) is less debilitating to the peppercorns than long or sub-optimal storage. As I recall it, the required treatment is 140 degrees for 10 minutes. I can imagine peppercorns sitting in a bin in a Chengdu market ALL DAY at ambient temperatures around 100 degrees in the summer, so I think a little perspective is in order. There's been reports, BTW, of them suddenly reappearing lately in other places, like the 99 Ranch Market chain in California, so I suspect that the treated ones are finally showing up (the new regs took effect in January).

F. Lin is correct, the traditional way of making xiaolong bao is to make an "aspic" from rendered pork skin. You can use gelatin as a short-cut, but will want to flavor it as intensely as possible from stock or something. The key point is that it should be chilled solid before wrapping the dumpling and cooking (or freezing) so that it doesn't mingle with the other filling. You want that volcanic explosion of flavor from a source separate from the solid filling. I've come across xiaolong bao in San Francisco that were structurally almost perfect by Shanghai standards, but never achieved that intensity of flavor delivered by the ones made the "old-fashioned way."

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Just to bash you again there is no region called Haka, though a lot of Hakka people have settled up-coast from Guangdong. The reason I mention this, is that the very name "Hakka" means something like "guest people". They have always been know for being itinerant.

Vancouver and TO have benefitted from some tranplanted chefs and HK-owned restaurants (San Francisco has a few of those, too). San Francisco may also have a definable "evolved" Cantonese cuisine of arguable haute-ness. A book with the title "Western US Chinese Cuisine," published recently in Taiwan, caught my eye while browsing in EastWind books in San Francisco last weekend. Unfortunately, except for the title, the book was entirely in Chinese. Based on the pictures, however, it was NOT a history of chop suey, nor a paean to retro sweet and sour pork and tomato beef chow mein. It was replete with illustrations of exquisitely presented (and presumably prepared) dishes that would elevate the cachet of any Cantonese wedding banquet. Inside the back cover was a group photo of the 1982 graduating class of an SF Chinatown cooking school, and I'm guessing that the chef whose picture graces the frontispiece was part of that class. Has anyone else seen this book? I'd love to get Ju Ju to read it and tell me what it says, but fat chance of that.

I presume you meant better than SF in non-Cantonese. I think SF can hold its own in Cantonese cuisine with any North American City, but is sadly thin in other regional cuisines. Is it true that live seafood tanks are outlawed in SF? Absolutely not. Every decent Chinese restaurant and many markets have them. The animal rights activists have thrown their best ammunition against Chinatown markets, but the powers that be have wisely upheld the cultural values of the Chinese community (lot of votes out there). You can still get live fish, crustaceans, chickens, frogs, soft-shelled turtles, whatever. My wife buys live "huang mao" chickens and brings them home on the bus!

I presume you meant better than SF in non-Cantonese. I think SF can hold its own in Cantonese cuisine with any North American City, but is sadly thin in other regional cuisines.

The San Francisco Bay Area has 1.3 million Asians, according to U.S. Census Data. (By definition, this includes Japanese, Indians and Filipinos as well as Chinese and SE Asians). There's STILL not enough Asian restaurants. 2000 Census Data for SF Bay Area

Reminds me of an announcement I once saw posted on a telephone pole in SF announcing a Psychic Fair. Someone had scribbled graffiti on it reading "You don't need to be there to attend." [Edited for typo]

We'll say anything to get you back here, Fuchsia! Lord knows this forum needs some energizing. I unerstand what you are saying about Hunan vs. Sichuan cuisine. My point was that when the "Four Cuisines" are meant to be all-encompassing, the two get lumped together for the reason you mentioned. I also would never say that Hunan cuisine was the more prestigious of the two. If I were being judgemental, I'd say that the contrary was true. I'm aware of the variety and complexity of Sichuan cuisine, and note that Hunan cuisine, at least as featured here in the US, tends to be more single-mindedly focused on delivering heat above all. I'd like to learn more about the cuisine of the Hunan-Yunnan border region, though. For what it's worth, Hunan's and Sichuan's borders no longer touch, technically speaking, since Chongqing became a municipality. Maybe we should talk about a Hunan/Chongqing cuisine, or would that just muddy the waters more?