Chinese sizzling beef

[Cineris]

11 minutes ago, huiray said:

 

Thanks for the response. I would suspect they are more likely to be in the direction of Cantonese or southern Chinese, anyway...rather than Szechuanese, and your comment about the overall menu seems to suggest that.

 

No Shaohsing wine...OK, try some dry sherry (NOT my "best substitute recommendation", but it is in the generalized desired direction), or try some sake...

 

Ordered some shaoxing wine on amazon, but it takes a heck of a long time to get it delivered here. End of may. Sherry and sake is just too expensive in Norway to buy for one dish. I'll wait. 

[dmreed]

maybe you could simply ask the restaurant what the ingredients are...maybe a white lie that you have food allergies would help!

 

[Jaymes]

My son's best friend's father is a Chinese master chef. In place of rice wine or sherry, he often uses a splash of gin. Says it's his "secret ingredient."

 

Yes, I realize it seems farther afield at first thought but it might be cheaper and easier to source there (one of my favorite gins is Norweigan). If so, wouldn't hurt to try it. 

Edited April 22, 2016 by Jaymes (log)

[liuzhou]

8 minutes ago, Jaymes said:

My son's best friend's father is a Chinese master chef. In place of rice wine or sherry, he often uses a splash of gin. Says it's his "secret ingredient."

 

Yes, I realize it seems farther afield at first thought but it might be cheaper and easier to source there (one of my favorite gins is Norweigan). If so, wouldn't hurt to try it. 

 

Gin is damned expensive in China (most people have no idea what it is) and I can't see it being cheaper than rice wine anywhere else. Also, I can't see how it could possibly substitute for Shaoxing wine. Totally different taste.

I'd stake everything on the OP's restaurant not using gin!

Edited April 22, 2016 by liuzhou (log)

[Jaymes]

28 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

 

Gin is damned expensive in China (most people have no idea what it is) and I can't see it being cheaper than rice wine anywhere else. Also, I can't see how it could possibly substitute for Shaoxing wine. Totally different taste.

I'd stake everything on the OP's restaurant not using gin!

 

I agree the restaurant isn't using gin, and that gin isn't Chinese  (however, neither is sherry, is it? an oft-suggested substitute). But the op seems to indicate that imported alcohol is almost prohibitively expensive in Norway. Gin is distilled right there. So suggested might be interesting to try a splash or two.

 

My Chinese master chef friend was sold in the 40's as a small boy from a poor family somewhere in central China to a wealthy Chinese family that owned restaurants in Hong Kong & Singapore back in the days when Britannia ruled the seas. There was a lot of gin around. Eventually the family that had "adopted" him began the trek to the US, at one point owning at least a dozen Chinese restaurants in California, Colorado and Missouri.

 

However, if you reread my post, at no time did I indicate in any way that I thought gin might be what the restaurant was using. Just more of a "if it's cheaper there, why not give it a try just for grins."

Edited April 22, 2016 by Jaymes (log)

[liuzhou]

12 minutes ago, Jaymes said:

However, if you reread my post, at no time did I indicate in any way that I thought gin might be what the restaurant was using. Just more of a "if it's cheaper there, why not give it a try just for grins."

 

And I just meant to say that I doubt that there is anywhere on the planet where gin is cheaper than rice wine. Or that it would be a normal substitute (and I've always considered sherry an only vaguely acceptable substitute.)

But your story of your son's friend's father is interesting if somewhat sad, but all too typical. Still.

 

At least he learnt some skills and became a Chinese master chef, whatever that means. So many bought and sold children ended up in much worse places.

 

But we are getting off-topic.

Edited April 22, 2016 by liuzhou (log)

[Lisa Shock]

I have seen rice wine in markets here in Arizona for as little as $3 a bottle. -And that price includes import taxes, shipping costs, etc.

[Cineris]

Any spirits with an alcohol percentage above 4.5% are sold in a separate store called "vinmonopolet". Winemonopoly translated directly. Basically you can only buy beer in usual stores or markets. Rice wine isn't something you can find in the monopoly and you have to import it. Only thing I could find from that part of the world is sake, which goes for from 300 to 600 kr per liter. That's 36 and 72 USD. Gin and sherry are also pretty close. Cheapest sherry I could find, an Alegria Manzilla goes for 12 USD for 37.5 cl. 

[Jaymes]

9 hours ago, Lisa Shock said:

I have seen rice wine in markets here in Arizona for as little as $3 a bottle. -And that price includes import taxes, shipping costs, etc.

 

And that's the case here in Texas as well. Sold everywhere including grocery stores. For next to nothing. Too bad about Norway. Guess that's due to those high taxes we all hear about. 

Edited April 22, 2016 by Jaymes (log)