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Hello! I am new to eGullet and the China forum, but have really enjoyed reading through some of the threads here. I love learning about cooking food from different cultures, because I finds this informs my cooking overall. It's great to have access to so many ingredients and techniques! My friend has a fresh ham (weighing approx 4 lbs) in his freezer that he wants me to cook up one of these cold winter days to cure our cabin fever. Through some internet research, I have learned that the Chinese have many good uses for this. I've found an interesting recipe for "Red Cooked Fresh Ham" in Irene Kuo's The Key to Chinese Cooking, and would be grateful for any tips that those experienced in cooking Chinese food can give me. I'm planning to serve the ham with boiled rice and two vegetables (one green, and something else.) I live outside Ithaca, so I have access to several good Asian markets. I will choose the exact veggies when I see what looks good and is reasonably priced. (I will also browse through the forum further to get ideas of this.) Any suggestions for this will be much appreciated as well. I will, of course, happily report back on the meal (with photos if my camera cooperates.) Thank you!

I am allergic to wheat. (I'm not a celiac - not allergic to gluten, just to wheat.) A little soy sauce usually doesn't bother me all that much - but some Chinese restaurants seem just to have a lot of stuff that gives me an unexpectedly intense bad reaction. So, here are my questions: 1. What makes some Chinese dishes so dark? 2. Do Chinese restaurants in North America sometimes thicken their food with wheat flour instead of corn starch? 3. What can I ask them to omit in cooking dishes? I'm not talking about food that's clearly wheaty - like much dim sum, egg foo yung, chow mein noodles. It's the stuff that is mainly vegs. and meat, with various kinds of sauces. --Phage

I notice in most, if not all, of my recipes, call for white pepper. Why? Forgive me if it's a dumb question. I am new to cooking Chinese food, but very interested in it. Thanks Bill

The following is a true story. A couple of years ago when I was writing my Asian Dining Rules book I was in a Chinese restaurant and I spied, behind the cash register, a copy of a magazine called Chinese Restaurant News. I asked to look at it and, although the thing turned out to be in Chinese, I was able to extract an email address. This led me to Betty Xie (pronounced "shi-eh" or close to that), the editor-in-chief of Chinese Restaurant News, which is the industry journal for America's 43,000+ Chinese restaurants. I interviewed her and, in addition to an actual interview I included in the book, I found her to be a wealth of information about an industry that -- on account of the language barrier and the fact that the bulk of Chinese restaurants are small family businesses without publicists, investor-relations departments, public filings, etc. -- can be tricky to research. A little less than a year after that (this takes us to a little over a year ago), Betty invited me to something at the Javits Center in New York called the Top 100 Chinese Restaurants in the USA awards, followed by a gala banquet at the New Yorker hotel. I had never heard of the Top 100 Chinese Restaurants in the USA awards, but the invitation indicated that this was the fourth annual iteration of said awards. I thought to myself, "It's going to take a long time to give out 100 awards." (We call this "foreshadowing.") It was a spectacle of expectation-shattering proportions. The area of the Javits Center that was set aside for the awards ceremony -- and as you can imagine it was a large area -- could not contain the crowd. Martin Yan was there to present the awards, as was Miss Asia. It turned out that the Top 100 is a bit of a misnomer. It's actually the top 100 restaurants in each of 10 different categories (e.g., buffet, takeout, Chinese regional cuisine). This makes sense from a taxonomy standpoint, because you don't have buffets in Ohio competing in an apples v. oranges showdown with Grand Sichuan International in New York. Needless to say, giving out 1,000 awards takes a lot longer than giving out 100 awards, especially when the owners of each winning restaurant need to be photographed with Martin Yan and Miss Asia. Incidentally, I say Miss Asia singular because that's how it was represented, however there were actually six or seven Miss Asias in attendance representing various subdivisions of Asia. Miss India was particularly winsome. At the time I thought about using a photo of me with Miss India as the jacket photo for my book, but we opted to go with a cover design that didn't include a photo. The banquet was even more of an off-the-hook happening than the awards ceremony. It was like a cross between a wedding, an inauguration ball and a variety show on Chinese-language cable television. There were something like 10 very good courses of food and an incredible amount of beverage served to hundreds of people, and my editor Gail and I were I think the only two non-Chinese-speaking people in the room. All the speeches, videos and later the karaoke, were in Chinese. Occasionally I could pick out English words like, "New York City!" or "Martin Yan!" I kept thinking, "This spectacle is occurring here and no white people know about it." At the time I wrote a short front-of-the-book piece about the awards for a magazine (which I think still hasn't been published). In researching that story I learned a little about the awards process. A restaurant applies for an award and, presumably, pays a fee to cover the evaluation process. A "mystery diner" working for the AboutFace corporation visits the restaurant anonymously and files an extensive report, which forms a big percentage of a restaurant's score. There's also a consumer-feedback component and an editorial panel that evaluates the restaurant based on reputation, standing in the industry, etc. All these numbers are crunched together and the rankings come out of that. This past October my book came out. Soon after, Betty Xie contacted me and said she wanted to do a story in Chinese Restaurant News on me and the book. She interviewed me and a few weeks later the November issue of Chinese Restaurant News arrived in my mailbox. Some time in the course of the previous year or two, I had kind of forgotten that the magazine is in Chinese. Here's an idea of how the article looked: I thought it might be culturally insensitive to be as amused by seeing myself giving an interview in Chinese as I was, however I showed it to several Chinese people and they assured me they found it even more bizarre and hilarious than I did. Shortly after that, Betty contacted me again. The fifth annual awards were coming up and, she said, they're really planning to up their game this time (Chinese Restaurant News and its parent company, which also publishes several other industry magazines, are the driving force behind the awards). The awards ceremony and gala were to be held at the Rio hotel in Las Vegas. And, most relevant to me, they wanted to publish a dining guidebook covering all the award-winning restaurants, in English, and they wanted me to be the editor. It seemed like a fun opportunity, so I said yes. Within days I started getting emails from various staffers at Chinese Restaurant News, including one asking what flights I wanted to be on in order to give my speech in Las Vegas. What speech in Las Vegas, you may ask? I had no idea and, as I write this, I will be giving the speech in about 40 minutes and I'm still not quite sure what it's about. I mean, I know it's about the book but I'm not exactly sure what I'm expected to say. Then again, I was not sure what I was expecting to say last night either. At the welcome cocktail reception, Betty Xie got up to speak in Chinese. What I heard was along the lines of, "chinese... chinese... LAS VEGAS... chinese... chinese... RIO HOTEL!... chinese... chinese..." and then, ominously, "...chinese... chinese... DINING GUIDE... chinese... chinese... EDITOR... chinese... chinese... STEVEN SHAW!" All of a sudden she's motioning for me to come up on the stage. She thrusts a microphone into my hand and whispers "Say something Steven." So I give a little impromptu speech about what we're doing, then people applaud, then someone comes and gives my speech again, in Chinese. More applause. I go down to get off the stage and go get a drink, and a Chinese couple comes up to me. The matriarch says they own a restaurant in South Carolina, can she have a photograph with me? Sure, I say. So her husband photographs her with me, then she photographs her husband with me, then someone else photographs all three of us. By now a small line has formed of people wanting to be photographed with me. I estimate I was photographed with about 70 different people. It took about 40 minutes. I have to go give my speech now. I'll check in later with an update if I can. For now, I'll leave you with a page from the event brochure. As I mentioned at the beginning of this post: all true.

One of those odd coincidences. My wife wants to make one of our occasional jaunts to a deep-suburbs Chinese grocery store, for the really cheap live lobsters they're selling these days, and she sends me a recipe for lobster with pasta, sherry and salmon roe from today's Times to print out, so I'm thinking further ahead than usual. In the mean time, I'm thinking really far ahead, about cassoulet next month, and I need duck fat so I can get going on the confit, which comes cheap from a place called Bella Bella and while working my way around their slightly-hard-to-navigate site I see that you can buy "Silkie Black Meat Chicken" from Bella Bella, as well (Within the ad, there's a link to a Times article, if you look close). But I recall seeing Silkie Chicken at Great Wall and wondering "what's up with that?" and so I'm figuring on buying one or two when we head out for the lobsters. My question is, does anybody have any experience, advice or recipes that go beyond the Times article concerning how best to dispose of this odd bird?

How does one get that bright orange yolk on Salted Duck eggs? I cook mine on the rice cooker with rice.....results always vary.....sometimes I get that bright orange yolk,but most times it is a pale dull yellow(more like a boiled egg yolk)....Is there a certain cooking time or method to get that perfect cooked yolk or it depends on the quality of the salted egg?

maybe this forum shoud be renamed chinese cooking? there is little if any "baking" in chinese food let me know if I am wrong tho

God I love this stuff! Silky, smooth and slinky mmm... Looking at the number of ingredients (ginger juice, milk and sugar), it seems easy enough but I've never attempted it before and was hoping someone could offer a tried and true recipe?

During my last trip to South China, which occurred in October, I spent some time in the Anxi mountains in Fujian. There I repeatedly was served a delicious vegetable whose name, roughly translated in English, was 'plastic bamboo'. It is slightly crunchy, very tender and tastes very sweet. Much like fresh bamboo shoot but more tender. White in color tinged with light green, and in its raw state it looks like a tapered stalk, about 2-inch wide at the base. Before being sliced and stir-fried, it has to be stripped of a few light green layers, a bit like lemongrass. My Cantonese friends who were spending time with me in Fujian told me that vegetable was also available in Guangzhou and other parts of South China. Botanically, it does not seem to be related to bamboo but it might if it is a graminea (as the taste would suggest). Does anyone know of this very remarkable vegetable and of a possible English name? I haven't seen it yet on any Chinese market outside of China. Oh here's the thing in its raw state, just before being cooked: Edit: OK, got it. Zizania latifolia Turcz., AKA water bamboo, jiao sun, jiao bai, kuw-sun, chiao-pei sun, co-ba. It is a graminaea, hence bamboo-related and a cousin of rice, particularly of American wild rice. The swelling of the stem is caused by a fungus.

In Chinese (hopefully I'm copy pasting this right) 豆乳鍋 and in Japanese 豆腐の豆乳鍋. I'm not so sure whether this is a Chinese or Japanese creation although admittedly, my first (and sole) experience had been at a Japanese restaurant. Googling it, I've found many results linking to Taiwan. Anyway, that aside, who here has tried it? What are your thoughts? Yay or nay? From what I recall, it was sort of rich, being slightly (just a tad) creamy. In that respect, I felt like I was eating seafood laksa hotpot-style. Very interesting indeed; I'm tempted to try it at home (or maybe even plain milk...or coconut milk?!). I've heard stories that soymilk hot pot is great in nutritional value but I can't be too sure myself. Food porn http://www.flickr.com/photos/osakajon/93089572/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawaron/2541120587/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/radicalpudding/126408429/

This was a new one for me: I love tofu: in its fresh form, deep-fried pockets, dried foojook, tofu skin, etc, but I've never purposely frozen fresh tofu to use in soup or anything with sauce. Several of my Chinese students came to our house for their first Halloween experience. They all miss "hometown food", and were drooling over my Chinese cookbooks. While we treated all the goblins who came to the door, we decided to make something they really miss - hot'n'sour soup! They told me in class conversations about freezing tofu - how wonderful it is. So, we sliced some firm tofu, threw it into the freezer while the soup simmered. I don't think it was in there long enough, but the idea is that freezing produces "little holes" once the frozen water content melts. These are perfect for absorning the sauces and flavours. Anyone follow this step? I will have to try this again. I sent the leftover soup back to residence with them, but I might do that when I next make tofu - oyster sauce.

I'm referring to the common dim sum dish. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tofu_skin_roll http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tofuskinroll.jpg I have a pretty good idea how to make the filling, but am uncertain as to which bean curd skins I should buy. There are so many different kinds at the local Chinese supermarket. Some are dried, some are frozen.

Hi all! Hope you guys can help me. I was curious as to what i would need for chinese hot pot? Is it similar to shabu shabu? I remember eating it when I was a young little thing, but all I can really remember is the tripe (my fav!) Any suggestions on what other ingredients to get or what kind of broth it has to be? All suggestions are greatly appreciated!! Thanks!

A fellow eG'er and I were in an asian market today and I found a bin of the most unusual looking things. A little further looking around led me to bagged packages of similar items labelled "sichuan preserved vegetables". They smelled quite wonderful so I thought I'd better bring some home, knowing that someone on eG would be able to give me good ideas of what to do with them. A little research shows a picture of pork belly with preserved vegetables, but no recipe seems available. Anyone have any suggestions, recipes, ideas?

I love the sweet soy sauce that comes with steamed rice rolls. What's in it exactly? I love to have that on hand when having rice roll at home.

Even before the recalls, I've often wondered how those eggs tarts and coconut buns are made. Are they pre-mixes? Are the ingredients from China? Or is everything made from scratch (which I highly doubt.)

Saw this article posted on Yahoo. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080927/ap_on_...te_rabbit_candy I wonder how many of us ate these growing up. Just about all the Chinese kids I knew ate them.

Inspired by some wine I bought, I want to take a stab at Szechuan style cuisine. Help me prepare Szechuan or Szechuan style food in my home kitchen. Right now, I am looking for the spicy Szechuan food (though I understand it's not always spicy). I do have some Szechuan peppercorns. I also understand that chilies are a big part of the spice in this style. Living in Texas, I am no stranger to chilies. Both fresh and dried. Fresh jalapenos and serranos are comon items in my kitchen. For dried, I have guajillos and arbols on hand. Do these work in Szechuan cooking, too? What about meats? Beef, pork, chicken.. I like it all. Seafood, too. (shrimp, scallops, etc.) For preparation, I want to start with pretty easy and not too many ingredients. Simple stir fry is always good. something I can knock out pretty quickly on a weekday if I do some prep work the night before would be awesome. Easily obtainable ingredients is key, too. So, tell me what to do! I want to get cooking.

Hi all, I'm in a little bind. I just came up with a wonderful black sesame cupcake filled with sweet red bean paste. The problem is, I cannot think of a buttercream or whipped ganache topping that will go well with these flavors. I tried a ginger infused swiss meringue, but it just didn't fit. I was thinking maybe coconut, but I want to remain true to the cupcake as far as chinese or korean flavors go. Any ideas would be so appreciated.

I occassionally go to visit friends between Shoreline and Tacoma. I would like to bring them egg tarts, coconut cream buns, etc and take them out to a good authentic Chinese restaurant. However, I have had to resort to buying Chinese pastries from Vancouver and bring it up because I cannot find even one Chinese bakery in Washington. As for Chinese restaurants in the Washington area, my friends cannot even suggest one they find comparable to Vancouver. When they visit Vancouver, they order take out to bring home to Washington with them. Is there a thread that lists what I am looking for in Washington, between Shoreline and Tacoma?

I picked up a small container of pork fu at the asian market I usually go to. Its dried shredded pork flavored with soy. How is this generally used? The results of my googling haven't yielded much that looks very...well...asian. Thanks in advance

If you wanted to eat good Chinese driving between Whistler and Seattle, without detouring too much from the fastest route (TransCanada Hwy/Hwy 15 east of the city/truck crossing at Blaine), where would you stop? We drive from Seattle to Whistler once or twice a year and I like to take the opportunity to eat great Chinese in the Vancouver/Richmond area along the way. But, this means a LONG detour off the route I mentioned above. Last time we stopped at Chen's Shanghai in Richmond on the way home, and we spent 2 hours crawling through Vancouver (from the exit off the TransCanada north of Vancouver, through the city, to Richmond) to get there. It was painful. So: Do I have any decent options that would only be a short detour off of my route? Next time we'll be driving up after work and staying in North Vancouver--anything there, or a short drive from 1? Or maybe I'm not seeing the best way to get from Richmond to north of Vancouver--is there another way besides going right through downtown, getting stuck at light after light? Thanks for any ideas.

Anybody know a mail-order source, or, barring that, a reasonable substitute? If you use more potent Thai chiles how much do you reduce the amount by?

As someone who has recently moved to Ottawa from Vancouver I'm looking for at least decent Chinese food. I'm not asking for Chinese restaurants like those in Vancouver, but somewhere that is at least decent. Are the Yangtze and Chu Sing the best I can expect?

In a kind of an interesting turn in the Chinese Eats At Home thread the discussion led to Chinese descriptions of food textures. I don't know if it's been discussed before and you will first have to forgive me because I only speak Cantonese, my written/reading skills are rudimentary at best, so if I make any glaring errors please feel free to correct! Anyway in the thread I was describing how salting prawns makes them more "song" (爽) gives them a refreshing crispness like a juicy apple or a ripe grape. Then there was the "daan ngaa" (彈牙) feeling which literally means "bouncing teeth" and was also a good one for prawns but better for something a little more rubbery like fish balls. Pleasantly rubbery; the kind where the outside gives nice resistance to the teeth but then gives way with a nice resistance too. "Cheoi" (脆) as CFT says is best for crispy stuff like the crackling on Siu Yook - light and crispy not heavy crunch. "Cheoi" is almost onomatopoeic but better still is "bok-bok (卜卜) cheoi" which makes it even crispier!! I think an important part of enjoying Chinese food is the "hau-gum" (口感) which translates to "Mouth-feel" (in fact is this where that horrible cheffy term comes from?). If you think about when you actually eat the two main senses are taste and feel, so why shouldn't the hau-gum be as important as the flavour? One of my favourite textures is "waat" (滑)- smooth, moist & slippery, like the belly or collars of freshly steamed fish or steamed chicken's feet. But this is also sometimes this is the most challenging texture for Western palettes, you know the really slimy texture that most Cantonese people crave!! Like bird's nest or shark's fin, let's face it we're not eating it for the flavour but for the texture (ok partly because of perceived health benefits too I admit). I've only mentioned a few, so which textures do you appreciate and how would you describe them?