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Gary Soup

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Everything posted by Gary Soup

  1. It might have something to do with the fact that their new "flagship" store in San Francisco is right around the corner from Neiman Marcus, where the animal rights people traditionally smash windows on the day after Thanksgiving.
  2. A contrary view is presented on the YellowBridg website, to wit: ******************** Ketchup 茄汁 Tomato sauce (Via Cantonese ke jap). Most dictionaries actually list the source of the word as being a Chinese or Malay word meaning fish sauce. They ignore the more direct route: the Cantonese word which sounds like ketchup and which actually means tomato sauce. Duh. (In mandarin, ketchup is called 番茄醬) ******************** Of course, ke jap could also be an after-the-fact construction to represent the sound of the western "ketchup" (the characters shown as representing ke jap literally mean "eggplant juice", I believe).
  3. Curry was also in my wife's repertoire when she came to the US from Shanghai. Most often it was curried chicken (with potatoes) and she only uses yellow curry powder. It's probably something from the British influence during the International Settlement days. Likewise, the ketchup could have been an American influence from the same period. That's one reason I was fishing for other people's experience with ketchup in Chinese cuisine.
  4. Do you have any reason to believe the best foie gras is not from free range ducks and geese? The descriptions I've read of farms that raise the highest quality foie gras sound no different from those that produce free range chickens. You've posted an opinion based on the assumption that your question will be answered to support your contention, which is why I dismiss your opinion. Let's assume for the moment that there is no free range foie gras. Would that be a good argument to ban foie gras and allow battery chickens? Might it be much more effective to ban the factory raising of all fowl? I could support that. Perhaps the key to your opinion is based on the fact that you could care less if foie gras were banned. Your last statement would be correct, except I was making an observation rather than expressing an opinion. The touchy-feely descriptions on restaurant menus of how some of the animals are raised are meant to impute humaneness as much as superiority of flavor and texture. There may well be "free range" foie gras ducks around; however, the menu writers are cagey enough (no pun intended) to realize that using such a description might produce an unwanted dissonance. I find hypocrisy a lot more appalling than what someone chooses to do to a duck's vital organs.
  5. It's an interesting issue, and not as simple as liking or disliking something for indescribable reasons (a lot of people don't like cilantro, but don't perceive it as tasting soapy). It could be a measurable genetic thing, like the "asparagus effect" on some people's urine. On the other hand, it could be a psychological contrarianism; Canola oil, after all, is a "designer" oil, albeit through breeding and not through GM techniques, and to some people there's something "fishy" (so to speak) about designer foods. It's also possible some people got hold of some poorly processed Canola oil (we've always used the "Superb" label from Costco). BTW the "several" people who reported the fishy taste in the other thread was TWO, by my count.
  6. My wife has used Canola oil (at my non-binding suggestion) for all her frying since she stepped off the boat, er, plane from China. Neither she, her finicky daughter nor I have found anything objectionable about using Canola oil for high-heat cooking. It is, after all, produced by a strain of the same plant that produces the most widely-used cooking oil in China. She's never tried stir-frying a grilled cheese sandwich, though.
  7. What's salad cream? I think it's what's called in the US "Salad Dressing", i.e. the kind that looks like mayonnaise, comes in the same size and shape bottles as mayonnaise, but ain't mayonnaise.
  8. Well, I'll eat anything with four legs, or flies, swims or crawls myself. You could probably make foie gras from my liver, with all the beer I drink. Nonetheless, I could care less if foie gras is banned. I find a certain irony in the fact that menus that boast of serving free-range this or pasture-fed that also feature fois gras (any free-range fois gras ducks around?) Maybe Sonoma County, the capital of animal husbandry correctness, is just trying to be consistent. Or maybe trying to position itself as the "kinder, gentler" Napa.
  9. Did you really think burgers are a culinary atrocity? You must be buying that off-brand stuff! Off-brand stuff? You mean I should stick with McDonalds?
  10. This thread was inspired by a current similar one on the India board, thanks to Mongo Jones. Ketchup is generally associated with hamburgers, fast food, and as a camouflage for other culinary atrocities. The highest per capita use of ketchup (as well as Jell-o) in the US is in Salt lake City, and I won't further elaborate on the relevance of that. Like Mongo Jones' aunt in New Delhi, my wife had an honored place for ketchup in her pantry long before she left Shanghai. I think she considers jumbo bottles of Heinz ketchup as much a "find" as the 50-lb. bags of Calrose rice at Costco. She uses it some obvious ways, such as a base for the peculiar Shanghainese "Russian" (luosang) soup, and for the sauce that accompanies her version of "squirrel" fish. It's also used to give color while toning down the heat of some Sichuan style chili-based dishes for the Shanghainese palate, and I'm sure she sneaks it into some other sauces and bastes that are not obviously tomato-ey. The touch of sweetness (a hallmark of Shanghai cuisine generally) in ketchup seems to make it a good fit for her cooking. Does any one else want to 'fess up on their use of ketchup in Chinese food or their knowledge on the use of the noble condiment in other regional Chinese cuisines?
  11. I get you. Actually we are talking about three different things. The HK style chow mein is almost as much an aberration from mainland chao mian as is the "American style" chow mein Eddie was talking about. But don't get me wrong. I've come to like the HK style for its mixture of textures--soft on top and crunchy on the bottom. I had some today with dim sum, topped with a generous portion of large velveted shrimp and baby bok choy.
  12. I checked the Whampoa Gourmet website and was surprised that they have a Huang Jia Sha branch there. Huang Jia Sha is a place (almost the place) for excellent dumplings and "small eats" in a fast food format in Shanghai. Along with Din Tai Fung, it sounds like an all-star fast food lineup. I don't think Whampoa Gourmet as such existed when I worked in HK six years ago. Is it in near the KCR terminus? There seemed to be major construction in that area when I was there.
  13. I'd say it's peculiar to Hong Kong in particular. Mainland Cantonese tend to favor a larger noodle, and as far as I am aware, never cook them crisp. As far as chow mein not being "on the menu" in HK, it is, as I mentioned, a staple of dim sum houses where menus are not usually used in any case. I doubt that there are many dim sum houses in HK that DONT serve chow mein, and plenty of people order it. It's probably true it won't appear on dinner menus, though. It's the same case in Shanghai, where chow mein is usually only consumed with "xiao cai" meals. At dinner, its declasse to order any starch, even rice.
  14. Alice Waters self-congratulatory? Perish the thought!
  15. "Hot-pot" restaurants in Sichuan have been know to lace the stock with opium (to make their fare addictive, I suppose) but you've provided the first evidence that they may be into hallucinogenics, too.
  16. It lives on under the name "Happy Family" on the vegetable section of many Chinese restaurant menus.
  17. I don't know what you mean by "food outlets" but you can find chow mein at plenty of restaurants in Shanghai and I daresay at most dim sum houses in Hong Kong.
  18. FWIW, Ross (SF Market St. Store) has a whole bookcase full of cookbooks on the 3rd. Floor (on the wall behind the glassware). I don't know desirable they are, as I don't pay much attention to cookbooks unless they have nice pictures of Chinese food. On that note, I posted a message on the Chinese Cuisine board about a big sale of new cookbooks from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong at EastWind Books (1435 Stockton at Green).
  19. The chicken and the oven stuffer sound cute and tasty - but what's up with those dumplins'? Patience, Eddie. They were setting me up for my Dragon, Tiger and Phoenix recipe. Just waiting for the dragon to come up now. Check back on St. Patrick's Day.
  20. Sorry for picking up on the tangent, but that translator in the opening scenes of Lost in Translation was absolutely hilarious. One of the funniest scene I've seen in a while. And the rest of the movie is quite good too, though not nearly as comical. I haven't seen that one. Was it as funny as Tommy Chong's simultaneous translation of Blind Melon Chitlin's lyric? (I guess that name makes this food-related; tangent my patootie!)
  21. The translator may have been Olivia Wu. She's a terrific food writer for the SF Chronicle as well as a restaurateur, but controversial in Chinese cooking circles because she sticks by the northern Chinese tenet that there should not be more than two prominent ingredients in a stir-fry. I'd go along with that, as it seems to be an operative principle in my wife's Shanghainese cooking, and it works for us. (No "Happy Family" dishes in our happy family.)
  22. As I mentioned, I assumed the poster was talking about jiaozi (note reference to "crescent shape", sealing the wrapper, etc.). Except for the jiu cai (garlic chive) variety they almost always have cabbage. It's not simply a matter of filler for the sake of economy. If you used meat only, you might end up with a dough-wrapped chewy meatball and perhaps shrinkage. Use of raw cabbage not only adds texture, but keeps the shape nicely plump as it absorbs water. My wife is not only ethnically Chinese but learned all her cooking in Shanghai, and has never read a recipe in her life. She wouldn't think of making a pork jiaozi without cabbage. She learned her jiaozi-making from a neighbor from Shandong. When she's really into it, she takes the trouble to use her special tapered jiaozi rolling pin to make wrappers that are thicker in the middle and thinner at the edges. Things of beauty, her jiaozi are.
  23. Suzanne, were you here for the Woman Chef's conference, and did you have any contact with Chef Nei of Jai Yun (Chinese)? I heard he was a guest speaker.
  24. Stick by your guns. I think the thread is belittling and pointless. But I have to add that I know an American greasy spoon restaurant that features "bowel of oatmeal" on the breakfast menu. My late Uncle Walter was wont to say "Many people can paint signs, and many people can spell, but few can do both."
  25. Project, I assume you are talking about jiaozi of the shuijiao variety, which are actually boiled, not steamed (the guotie, or potsticker, variety are actually steamed and fried in one process). I disagree with Herbacidal on the cabbage. Most such dumplings I have had used at least a small quantity of (napa) cabbage. My wife also adds finely chopped donggu (shiitake) mushrooms. She also makes a variety that is filled largely with jiu cai (aka gau choy) which mostly makes me belch, but I won't talk about those. Since Mrs. Soup does the cooking and I do the eating, I'm just guessing here, but: - The dough doesn't need much working, the boiling brings out the gluten. - The cabbage should be raw, though if you use round cabbage instead, it might need some parboiling. - The proportions of ingredients vary infinitely, according to your whim and tastes. - Definitely freeze them uncooked. They take quite well to freezing. I can't imagine what freezing them after boiling them would do to them. Above all, as Jo-Mel suggested, don't be so technical in your approach. You undoubtedly have an idea of what you want to end up with, and just keep tweaking until you get there.
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