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Okara or soy pulp is a white or yellowish pulp consisting of insoluble parts of the soybean which remain in the filter sack when pureed soybeans are filtered in the production of soy milk. It is part of the traditional cuisines of Japan, Korea, and China, and since the 20th century has also been used in the vegetarian cuisines of Western nations. Okara is low in fat, high in fiber, and also contains protein, calcium, iron, and riboflavin. It contains 76 to 80% moisture, 20 to 24% solids and 3.5 to 4.0% protein. On a dry weight basis okara contains 24% protein, 8 to 15% fats,and 12 to 14.5% crude fiber. It contains 17% of the protein from the original soybeans.

Here's a twist on the international Chinese food topic: http://www.dfjb.com.cn/ This is Yum Foods (Taco Bell, KFC, etc.) newest franchise opening in China. It's called Eastern Dawn or East Dawning or something, and the idea is to take their "western" fast food business model and apply it to traditional Chinese-style cooking. The style looks kind of pan-Chinese with maybe a few more northern style dishes, and I guess they would be competing with some of the Taiwanese chains already doing something similar. Interesting price point though, considering that RMB 20 (what they charge for that shrimp noodle bowl) will get you some pretty decent dishes at a sit-down restaurant. The question is, though fairly unlikely, will they be successful enough to then sell the same brand back here, and if so, how much internationalization of their menu do you think would happen?

is it really any good? i have had some and it wasnt very tasty at all

Qingtuan (Chinese: 青团, literally "green cake") is a traditional Chinese dish. This food, which looks like a round green stone, is made of rice, black bean paste and a special plant called maiqing (麦青) (barnyard grass shoots). The exact technique in making qingtuan is quite complicated. Barnyard grass shoots are edible only in spring, so this food is eaten for the annual Qingming Festival, which falls around April 5 in the Gregorian Calendar.

Rubing is a firm, fresh goat milk cheese made in the Yunnan Province of China by people of the Bai and Sani (recognized as a branch of the Yi in China) minorities. Its Bai name is youdbap, meaning "goat's milk". It is made by mixing heated goat's milk and a souring agent, traditionally a mixture called naiteng made from a cultivated vine. It is often served pan fried, and dipped in salt, sugar . It may also be stir fried with vegetables in place of tofu. Much like paneer or queso blanco, it is an unaged, acid-set, non-melting farmer cheese, but with the aroma of fresh goat's milk.

Soft fried tenderloin (软炸里脊 ruan zha li ji) is a traditional dish of China Beijing cuisine. 200 grams of tenderloin, four eggs, 30 grams of cooking wine, 30 grams of flour, 10 grams of sesame oil, 1 kg of pork fat, and salt. The tenderloin is cut into slices 4 cm long and 2 cm thick, and soaked in the mixture of rice wine and salt. Egg whites are mixed with flour in a container to form a paste thick enough to keep a chopstick in a standing position. Pork fat is heated and the marinated meat slices are fried for five minutes. When the cooked tenderloin slices are ready for serving, sesame oil is added. Due to the use of pork fat, the dish is considered unhealthy and the vegetable oil has been used as an alternative, but many have claimed that this results in the dish not being as tasty as when pork fat is used.

I have used Hung Lu for a long time (my instructor was a fan of Oriental Mascot brand) , but recently notice recipes specifying Shaoxing. Does it matter? Also, does anyone know a mail-order source for Sichuan pickled vegetables? My local Asian market never seems to have them. If I make my own do they keep indefintely?

Just wondering...is Inner Mongolian cuisine distinctly Mongolian or is it considered a regional Chinese cuisine? Also, can anybody refer to me any specialties? Hot Pot perhaps? P.S I'll be posting more often these days since I recently returned home from my holidays yay!

I'm planning on going to a Chinese supermarket later today to pick up the basic staples I'll need for cooking from this cookbook. However, I left my copy at work and won't have access to it until Monday. If you own it, could you please reply (or PM me) with a list of the basic ingredients needed? She has a page toward the front of her ingredient guide that says something like, "these are the basic ingredients needed for the recipes in this book," and then lists about 8-10 things. Please save me an extra trip to the bookstore! Thanks!

I book I'm reading recommends it. Seems like it might hold heat better. Any thoughts?

I'm reading Fuschia Dunlop's excellent book on Sichuan regional cooking, entitled Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper (I highly recommend it). Reading about 50 pages from this book every day has inspired me to try to cook from it, as well as from her more recipe-specific cookbook Land of Plenty. I need to pick up some stapes like pickled chiles, chili bean paste, Sichuan peppercorns, and fermented black beans, to start. I've shopped around in Chinatown before, but I'm hoping someone has a great recommendation for a place where I can pick up most of these ingredients. Please let me know!

In my city's Chinatown, a couple of restaurants serve what they call BBC. It's broad beans (or soy beans), bean curd and pickles/chutney. It's quite salty but is delicious! I think it's vegetarian and has no meat. Is anyone familiar with how to prepare this dish or its history? It's one of my favourites!

howdy from puerto vallarta folks im trying to learn recipes for making hand made noodles udon and everything else in particular im very interested in learning the shanghai style tecniques where you spin and pull if anyone has any dough recipes it would be a great start thank you so much bruce byng chef owner tetro limon puerto vallarta

Hong Kong Food Street Very good Hong Kong cuisine. I posted about it in my eGfoodblog in 2007 (first visit, second). Below are some excerpted photos: Winter melon soup, which is a rich soup cooked inside a winter melon. It is considered one of the most famous dishes of Cantonese cuisine. This had to be ordered a few days in advance. Clams steamed in rice wine. One can find similar versions in Spanish cuisine that use sherry instead of rice wine, French using white whine and Italian using red wine. Rice wine is the least acidic of these and greatly enhances the richness of the broth. Fuzhou My parents told me about this place. They heard about it through a Chinese radio ad. I couldn't find any information on Google about it, not even an address. Their phone is 713-995-1889, and it's located in the Di Ho shopping center, north of the Welcome Food Center in Bellaire. I've been twice now and think this is as good, maybe even better than Hong Kong Food Street, but it's hard to compare as they are different regional cuisines. More photos, comments, and menu on my Flickr. Some excerpts: Pickled daikon. Superb. Made in-house. Ask if they forget to give it to you as soon as you sit down. It's free, and you can ask for refills. Fuzhou style dumpling soup. Very small dumplings. Quite tasty. Sauteed snails. Will take one person an hour to eat. Very flavorful and fresh. Needs to be eaten with toothpicks; ask if they forget to provide you with some. Frog with salt and pepper. Great. Like tiny fried chicken legs. Their salt and pepper technique is the best I've ever had, better than T&S Seafood (Austin). Light, airy batter. Business has been really slow the two times I've been there, so am a little concerned it might close. Please pay them a visit, for their sake and yours!

Good morning, I found an interesting Belgain Trippel recipe that calls for Chinese rock sugar. I am sure that I will not be able to find this stuff kosher, so I will have to resort to making my own. It is described as a blend of refined sugar, brown sugar, and honey that has a subtle spiciness. Is anyone familiar with this? Does anyone have a formula? Thanks, Dan

Hi Gang - anyone know of an arabic or middle eastern grocery store (small or big) in Hong Kong? I regularly go to the stores in Chungking Mansion, but they are more Indian leaning to Pakistani. Not Middle Eastern. There are also smatterings of tiny shops scattered around Sham Shui Po and Mong Kok, but again mostly Pakistani/Nepalese, i.e not Arabic, Turkish, Lebanese, etc. Anyone help? Would appreciate it. Thanks.

We only had four people this time: franktex, future eGullet member Anthony, my girlfriend, and me. We still managed to order nearly everything we've gotten in the past. Pork intestine. Proper high-heat stir-fry with a bit of a crispy crust on the intestines and rich, smoky flavor from the peppers. This treatment of intestines doesn't leave them as chewy, which is more palatable for Westerners. Overall, one of the best intestine dishes I've ever had. Seafood dumplings. OK. Filling overcooked, packed too tightly. Not as good as Zhong dumplings at Asia Cafe. Pork stomach and pickled vegetable soup. Very simple. The pickled vegetable was quite sour and an interesting thing to have in a soup. Lion's head. Very soft, with a few very small pieces of water chestnut. Whole sea cucumber. Very tender. Best sea cucumber I've had in America. Quail. We forgot to take a picture, so this photo is from last year. This year it was only four pieces, but there was a nice tray of sea salt for dipping the quail into. Braised ham hock. Sauce with rock candy. Appeals to my Shanghai tastes. Better than last year. Eight treasure rice cake. Very wet, even more so than previous years. Otherwise, pretty good. Overall, the food is the best I've ever had from Pao's and one of the best Chinese meals I've had in America, and not far at all from what you can get in China. I hope to organize more events this year, the next one in March. Higher res photos in my Flickr. Pao's Mandarin House review on Fearless Critic partially written by me. Reports from 2008, 2007.

There was listing of a few Chinese New Year Banguets in Miani Herald= any suggestions for banquets that u have had in the broward/dade/palm beach area

I've got a chinese cleaver, but its not as sharp as my chef knives. Are chinese cleavers not supposed to be that sharp? And, if they are supposed to be sharper, how do you sharpen them? Is it the same method that you'd use to sharpen a chef's knife?

My niece, 9, half Chinese, half Portuguese, raised in the USA. She refuses to eat tofu. We had tried to entice her three times in separate occasions. A firm "no, no, no". No soft tofu. No hard tofu. No fried tofu. No steamed tofu. No soyabean drink. If a Chinese kid doesn't eat tofu at a young age, it seems unlikely she/he would eat tofu in adulthood. Are there any converts who hated tofu at a young age? For me, growing up in a Chinese culture, eating tofu is a matter-of-fact, kinda. Tofu is bland. Texture is softer than cheese. More like gel perhaps. Is this something that takes getting used to? Reminds of the movie "Bend It Like Beckham" in which the mom said "And you don't even want to learn how to cook dal!" (for an Indian). I would parity it: "And you don't even want to eat tofu?" (for a Chinese).....

Chinese New Year is 26 January, so we will have a New Years Eve dinner at Pao's Mandarin House on the 25th. 2009 will be the year of the ox. Fearless Critic review of Pao's Mandarin House partially written by me. Pao's Mandarin House 2300 Lohman's Spur Lakeway, TX 78734 (20 miles from downtown Austin) (512) 263-8869 Sunday 25 January 7:00 pm This will be the fourth year we've been doing this. See 2008, 2007. 2006 thread seems to be missing. This will also be a eGullet fundraising event. Last year we raised $32 for the Society from eight people. $0, $5, $10, whatever you can afford would be appreciated. If you're interested in attending, please rsvp below along with the number of guests you would like to bring. Let's aim for 8-10 people so we can all still sit at one table.

I was in Shanghai for a few days (great food) and while going through one of the food markets, came across this young lady making wrappers for Shanghai spring rolls. She did it with such ease - slapping this very elastic dough into the cast iron pan set over a gas burner then a few seconds later, peeling it off and adding it to a growing stack of wrappers. She would occasionally use a cloth to very lightly oil the pan. The dough was very "loose" - she occasionally (not constantly) would rotate her hand so the dough wouldn't drip through her fingers. I'm going to attempt them this weekend. I have Florence Lin's recipe (from the Dumplings and Noodles cookbook) - the ingredients aren't expensive so even if I fail (which I expect to), that's not a problem, but I would appreciate any tips from experienced popiah wrapper-makers. Couldn't ask the woman in Shanghai because I think she was tired of people watching her - a friend who went to watch her after me got chased away. TIA

This is the second tea tasting of 2009 thanks to eGullet Society member Greg Glancy of Norbutea.com. This time we will be tasting and discussing an Imperial Dian Hong -- a Chinese red tea. Greg has provided five samples of 10 grams each that I will mail to the five eG Society members participating in this tasting. While the tasting is open to all members who have posted at least five substantive posts in the Coffee and Tea forum, preference will be given until midnight next Monday to those who did not participate in the last tasting of TGY Oolong. Please PM me if you would like to participate in the tasting and discussion. Here is some background information on Imperial Dian Hong from Norbutea.com. (Copyright Norbutea. Used with permission.)

Living my whole life in the United States and I am first generation Chinese, being the first born in the States (it gets confusing depending on which culture you come from), I've pretty much only experienced Chinese-American food eating at "popular" Chinese food restaurants like Panda Express or P.F. Changs. Sweet and sour pork, kung pao chicken, general tso's chicken, and walnut prawns seem to be big mainstays of the Chinese-American "fast-food" scene in the states and highly popular. People who haven't been to Chinese banquets or authentic Chinese food restaurants declare their love for Chinese food. These dishes are not found much in authentic Chinese dishes from the mainland if at all, but adapted to foreign tastes. Many of the proteins seem to be dumbed down to be more appealing to their foreign customers. Lacking the textural elements that are high prized in Chinese cuisine, like jellyfish, wood ear, niu jin (not sure of the translation) or the ridiculous amount of offal consumed by Chinese. I won't even get started about the diversity of critters consumed as well. I was wondering if the Chinese-American dishes such as listed above are prevalent in countries other than the United States, or are there more authentic dishes being served due to popularity. I did visit Italy and by insistence of my father, we ate at a Chinese restaurant X_X...don't ask. And the dishes were quite similar to the fare I would expect in the United States. Which comes to my question, internationally, outside of Asia, are Chinese dishes similar to the US ideal of what Chinese food is? The deep fried batter coated meats sauced with particular sauces, egg rolls, potstickers. Or are they more authentic? Japan and Korea have definitely taken Chinese food and made their own versions of popular dishes. Off the top of my head Ma Po Doufu is very popular and well known in both countries. I know that there are Chinatowns across the globe which do try to replicate authenticity for their own denizens, but I am thinking more along the lines of popular Chinese restaurants outside of the Chinatown enclave. I'm particularly looking to see responses from non asian countries close to Asia yet having a completely different culture. For example Australia.

Anyone know of any special offerings during the Chinese new year in Philly's Chinatown this year?