Chinese street food

[chengdude]

Some common Sichuan street foods, separated into low mobility, i.e. available from shops with glass cases facing the street, and high-mobility, i.e. sold from carts, wagons, bicycles, and vendors carrying baskets/buckets on shoulder poles:

high mobility-

shao kao - meat and vegetables on skewers; you choose, then watch them being

grilled or fried with liberal brushings of lao jiao jiang/dou ban jiang (hot

pepper sauce/"chili bean paste") and/or liberal seasoning of hot

pepper/Sichuan pepper powder.

ma hua(er) - crunchy, deep-fried dough twists, slightly sweet.

shao bing - oblong bead baked in a coal-fired drum, either with a sugar filling or an seasoned, oil filling

jian bing - crepe batter cooked on a griddle with a fried egg and filled with various suan cai (preserved vegetables)

bao bing - paper-thin crepes made from rice flour, usually rolled with liang cai (see below).

zha tudou tiao - french fries cooked in a wok, usually soft and greasy; a recent development to cash in on the popularity of fast food offerings.

yumi hua(er) - popcorn, often sweetened with sugar.

mao cai - choose-your-own vegetables and meat on skweres or in piles, then dipped and cooked in a pot of spicy, oily broth and served in a spicy soup. The street-food cousin of hotpot.

kao rou chuan - shish kebabs of lamb/mutton cooked over coals by Uighur Muslims.

chou doufu - fermented (some would say, rancid) tofu deep-fried in a wok; not for the easily offended.

dou hua(er) - tofu pudding served in a small, plastic bowl with lajiao jiang (hot pepper oil), Sichuan pepper, soy sauce, vinegar, a dash of MSG, green onion, and suan cai (Sichuan pickled vegetable)

xi gua - watermelon slices

bo luo - pineapple quarters on-a-stick

low mobility -

leng mian - cold noodles mixed with the seller's own take on the soy/vinegar/hot pepper oil/preserved vegetable theme.

liang fen - cold starch noodles, sometimes shaved from a block, again mixed with a proprietary blend of hot/sour/salty tastes.

liang cai - cold, shredded vegetables mixed fresh with the above-type sauces, sometimes stuffed into guo kui (see below) and sometimes taken home to roll into bo bing.

chuanrou bing

niurou bing - raised, fried round bread discs stuffed with a beef filling

chuan rou bing - coiled pastries stuffed with beef, vegetables, and spices, fried with a lot of oil

yumi bing - round, fried cornbread (raised dough), often slightly sweetened

congyou bing/da bing/qianceng bing - very large, raised dough fried and cut into wedges, usually layered with green onion and Sichuan pepper or jiu cai and Sichuan pepper.

mantou - steamed bread, can be plain, sweetened, or savory with either lajiao jiang, Sichuan pepper, or chives. Usually made from wheat flour or wheat flour mixed with other flours/flavors (cornflour, black sesame powder, etc.)

baozi - steamed buns filled with any number of preparations, usually on the savory, ground meat theme.

[possum]

that list is exelent! were did you find it? and more important were can i get recipes for the above.....?

[herbacidal]

that list is exelent! were did you find it? and more important were can i get recipes for the above.....?

That list looks to me like it was drawn from memory.

Damm good list.

[possum]

damn right...the stuff on the list brings back so many memories...many things i saw there and forgot....i must find the recipies....especialy the ones i already mentioned- the flat bread with meat and the starch noodles.

btw, i tried today to cook up 1 part potato starch in 10 parts water. after a while it sure did turn pretty clear and thick. i took it off the fire when i thought it would burn. 5 hours in the fridge later...not hard enought....so, either it needs alot more cooking..or....i need to add something else....in the cook book by fuchia she says the process is done with the flour/starch, water and some kind of coagulent....any ideas? gelatin mabye?

[jo-mel]

CHENGDUDE - No Copper Well Street noodles? (Tong Jing)

Impressive list!! One could graze all day and night!! Sounds good to me!

Edited May 20, 2004 by jo-mel (log)

[ecr]

For me the taste of Chengdu will always be hongyou shuijiao. Those silky-skinned dumplings floating in hot-sweet chili oil mixed with other stuff.

And dao shao mian. They're all over China but the soupy ones we used to eat for lunch in Chengdu (3 bowls each!) were topped with minced diced pork/pickled veg and interlaced with tender pea greens.

[jmsaul]

Our hotel was in Tsim Sha Tsui, and the street food was amazing. One thing we liked were the fish balls they sold. We can get frozen fish balls (though they probably won't be the same), but does anyone have a recipe for the sauce they use with them?

[hzrt8w]

Our hotel was in Tsim Sha Tsui, and the street food was amazing.  One thing we liked were the fish balls they sold.  We can get frozen fish balls (though they probably won't be the same), but does anyone have a recipe for the sauce they use with them?

←

The recipe here provides a very similar sauce (broth) for curry fish balls. You can even mix them, as they do in Hong Kong.

Pictorial: Steamed Curry Squid (Dim Sum), Home Cooking Series 74, 咖哩蒸魷魚

[annachan]

There are usually two sauces: curry or soy. Which one did you have? Also, they are sometimes served fried and you can dip that into soy and/or hot sauce.

Just had dinner but this is making me hunger. Maybe it's time for another trip back to Hong Kong.

[Tae.Lee]

i was in HK earlier this year and one night i was drunk and got the munchies late at night in hung hom and wandered the streets and found one of these vendors.. lifesaver!

i had fishballs and i think some sort of beef ball.. exactly what i felt like at that time..

[jmsaul]

Our hotel was in Tsim Sha Tsui, and the street food was amazing.  One thing we liked were the fish balls they sold.  We can get frozen fish balls (though they probably won't be the same), but does anyone have a recipe for the sauce they use with them?

←

The recipe here provides a very similar sauce (broth) for curry fish balls. You can even mix them, as they do in Hong Kong.

Pictorial: Steamed Curry Squid (Dim Sum), Home Cooking Series 74, 咖哩蒸魷魚

←

Thank you! That looks right. And the only thing I need to go get is Sa Cha sauce, which I'm sure I can find at a Chinese grocery...

[jmsaul]

There are usually two sauces: curry or soy. Which one did you have? Also, they are sometimes served fried and you can dip that into soy and/or hot sauce.

We had the curry one -- they were grilled on a stick, and when we ordered it they asked us if we wanted sauce. We said yes (of course!) and they dropped the skewer into a tub of sauce and let it sit for a bit before serving it.

I'd like to find an excuse to live in Hong Kong for a while (though I'm told I don't want to be there in the summer -- we were there in late October and it was lovely).

[annachan]

I'd like to find an excuse to live in Hong Kong for a while (though I'm told I don't want to be there in the summer -- we were there in late October and it was lovely).

←

Join the club! Hubby has been wanting to do that for a while. I resisted because I can't stand the summer humidity and don't think I can get away with just being there in the winter months based on my schedule. The best time is really to get there before Christmas and stay through after Chinese New Year. Think of all the festivities and FOOD!

[hzrt8w]

When is the best month, weather-wise, to visit Hong Kong?

My pick is November. Why?

Jan/Feb: a bit cold but dry. Though the temperature doesn't fall below 5C/40F, the wind chill can be uncomfortable. But Jan/Feb is the festivity season with New Year and Chinese New Year.

Mar/Apr: foggy, misty. Molds grow on the wall...

May/Jun/Jul/Aug: Hot and humid, plus that is typhoon season. If you get caught in a typhoon, you would lose a few days of sight seeing opportunity. Heavy rain, strong wind, business closure... Hot temperature plus high humidity makes you sweat all day.

Sep/Oct: Getting better, but might be hot still.

Nov: dry, no rain, no typhoon, temperature around 20-25C/70-80F. Very comfortable. Things are slow because people are saving money for Christmas and Chinese New Year.

Dec: could be good because of Christmas season. Might be getting cold if you don't mind. Everywhere is crowded...

[jmsaul]

Our hotel was in Tsim Sha Tsui, and the street food was amazing.  One thing we liked were the fish balls they sold.  We can get frozen fish balls (though they probably won't be the same), but does anyone have a recipe for the sauce they use with them?

←

The recipe here provides a very similar sauce (broth) for curry fish balls. You can even mix them, as they do in Hong Kong.

Pictorial: Steamed Curry Squid (Dim Sum), Home Cooking Series 74, 咖哩蒸魷魚

←

Just wanted to say -- I tried that over the weekend, and with the addition of a bit more Sa Cha sauce it is indeed very close to what we had in HK. I cooked the squid and shrimp balls in the sauce on the stove, then removed them and cooked the sauce down a bit to thicken it.

Thanks!

Now, of course, I have to go back to HK to calibrate it...