Fukien Cooking

[eatingwitheddie]

The last decade has seen a large group of Fukien Chinese immigrating to the states.

Has anyone encountered any especially good examples of Fukien cooking and/or restaurants?

[tissue]

I like taro and pork spareribs.

[Pan]

Ed, back in the early 70s, my folks used to take me and my older brother to Foo Joy on Division St. It was a delicious restaurant that served Fujianese (yes, then transliterated "Fukienese") banquet food, the likes of which I have yet to find elsewhere. Ironside beef (I think it was called)...boy oh boy, I'm having a hard time remembering the stuff: It's gotta be at least 28 years since the last time I was there, I guess.

[eatingwitheddie]

Ed, back in the early 70s, my folks used to take me and my older brother to Foo Joy on Division St. It was a delicious restaurant that served Fujianese (yes, then transliterated "Fukienese") banquet food, the likes of which I have yet to find elsewhere. Ironside beef (I think it was called)...boy oh boy, I'm having a hard time remembering the stuff: It's gotta be at least 28 years since the last time I was there, I guess.

Yep

Went there myself and often, had some banquets there as well. They had great whole boneless crispy eight-precious rice stuffed duck and chicken, plus wonderful dishes with red wine sauce, which was made from rice wine lees.

[Pan]

Was it that beef that they put pineapple slices and cherries on top of (the things kids remember)?

Or was that a pork dish or something, and the beef had bak choy on it?

[trillium]

Ed, back in the early 70s, my folks used to take me and my older brother to Foo Joy on Division St. It was a delicious restaurant that served Fujianese (yes, then transliterated "Fukienese") banquet food, the likes of which I have yet to find elsewhere. Ironside beef (I think it was called)...boy oh boy, I'm having a hard time remembering the stuff: It's gotta be at least 28 years since the last time I was there, I guess.

Just FYI, Fujian is what Mandarin speakers call 'em, Fukien is what Cantonese speakers call 'em and Hokkien is what they call themselves (kinda like the whole Teo Chew discussion). Clay pot dishes with taro...yum. All the Hokkiens I've run into have been cooking in the kitchens of Sichuan and Cantonese restaurants. We haven't found a place where they're actually cooking food from their region, but it's bound to happen sooner or later.

regards,

trillium

[rgruby]

Swatow in toronto is supposedly Fukien. I don't know if the food is authentic to the region or not.

It's been a few years since I've been there - I can't recall any dishes in particular.

Cheers,

Geoff Ruby

[engberson]

This may sound a little stupid, but ...

A chinese restaurant here in San Francisco sells Fujian Fried Rice; it's delicious. So I tried to find a recipe, which was very difficult. I found a recipe in Yan Kit So's Classic Food of China (not published in US), but it wasn't very good. Earlier this year, I found a recipe in -- ready? -- Martin Yan's last book. Apparently he made it on his tv show that was broadcast by food network canada. This recipe was close to what I've bought, and I (finally) understand the basics and so can make a good version at home.

(the sauce is what I was hung up on, and it's basically stock reduced and flavored with soy and oyster sauces and so forth -- now, I could figure that out, but I couldn't at the time).

Also, Yan adds tomatoes, which surprisingly doesn't suck.

I've been through an awful lot of Chinese cookbooks, American publications mostly, and Fujian cuisine gets precious little attention. In restaurants, too, right? You can't purchase pre-fab sediment paste, which I gather is a high-profile ingredient in Fujian cooking. What the hell? And right here, this thread has produced only one Fujian restaurant?

Thanks to trillium for the Fukien/Fujian/Hokkien breakdown. I was curious about that.

[trillium]

I just thought of another hokkien dish that's quite famous in Singapore... popiah! Yum. We keep meaning to throw a popiah party, but that would mean mastering the skins.

regards,

trillium

edit to add popiah link

Edited September 24, 2003 by trillium (log)

[Gary Soup]

Swatow in toronto is supposedly Fukien. I don't know if the food is authentic to the region or not. 

It's been a few years since I've been there - I can't recall any dishes in particular.

Cheers,

Geoff Ruby

With a name like that, I would expect Chaozhou food (which has elements of Fujian as well as Cantonese cuisine, at any rate).

[Gary Soup]

This may sound a little stupid, but ...

A chinese restaurant here in San Francisco sells Fujian Fried Rice; it's delicious....

Not stupid. Quite a number of Chinese restaurants feature Fujian rice, or Fuzhou rice (often rendered as "Fook Joy Rice") and it is a notable dish. If done right, it's like a seafood paella, and can be a meal in itself. It's quite a different role for "fried rice" than the more familiar Yangzhou style fried rice, which is essentially something you do with leftovers.

Edited September 25, 2003 by Gary Soup (log)

[Shiewie]

A short article on Hokkien food in Flavours, a Malaysian food mag.

[titus wong]

Hey trillium/tissue:

Got any good recipes (Fukienese or otherwise) featuring taro? I was about to try a taro with spareribs recipe that I purely improvised (I had no idea that this was a Fukienese dish). Would appreciate any tips, or even recipes. Also, I do this as a steamed dish; should this be a claypot/casserole instead?

Thanks.

My shot at taro w/spareribs:

1 medium taro corm, about 1 lb., peeled, quartered, and sliced into ½” slices

2 sheets dried bean curd skin, roughly broken up, and soaked in water for 30 min.

Meat Marinade

1½ lbs pork spareribs, sawn into 1½” pieces

1 tbsp. soy

1 tsp. sesame oil

1 tbsp. Xiaoxing wine or sherry

1 tbsp. cornstarch

2 tbsps. oil

2 scallions, minced

4 slices ginger, minced

5 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp. soy

1 tbsp. Black Chinese vinegar (or balsamic vinegar -- purists: don't hate me)

2 tsp. brown sugar

Ground black pepper

2 tbsps. cilantro, minced

1. Combine ingredients for meat marinade. Set aside for 30 min. In a pan of lukewarm water, break up two sheets of dried bean curd skin. Set aside for 15 min. Drain and reserve. Peel and slice taro corm.

2. In a hot wok or sauté pan, add oil and swirl until the sides are evenly coated. Add remaining scallions, ginger, and garlic, and cook briefly until fragrant. Add meat marinade and stir until evenly browned. Add taro and bean curd skin, and stir. Add soy, vinegar, brown sugar, and ground black pepper to taste. Combine ingredients thoroughly. Remove from flame and empty contents into a pie plate or other shallow dish.

3. Set up a bamboo steamer in a clean wok. Fill the wok with water until it touches the bottom of the steamer. Remove the empty steamer and insert your pie plate into it. Bring the water in the wok to a boil. Cover steamer and lower it into the wok. Steam for 45 min. Remove from heat.

4. Plate. Garnish with fresh cilantro. Serve with rice.