Midnight snacks

[lorea]

I believe wife's cake (old wife's cake?) is a flattened filling of lotus paste wrapped in a flaky lard-based crust. Kind of similar to sun cakes.

[Dejah]

Wife's cake is sweetened wintermelon paste encased in a flakey layered pastry, like the ones on pai dan so.

[Laksa]

What are Wife's cake and Pai Dan So?

Pai Dan So is an century egg wrapped around by a crispy crust made from flour/shortening.

Wife's cake is..... errr, let me ask my wife...

Wow, I never had Pai Dan So before. Do they use a whole egg? That's rather indulgent. I've had battered and deep fried hard boild eggs. Is that how they make pai dan so too?

Is your wife's cake likely to be different from my wife's cake?

[Dejah]

Wife's Cake picture and description:

http://chinesefood.about.com/library/blphotowifecake.htm

[Laksa]

Wife's Cake picture and description:

http://chinesefood.about.com/library/blphotowifecake.htm

Thanks Dejah! I've had wife's cake before... just never knew it was called that. I think they give this out at Chinese weddings, right?

I also found a picture of pai dan su here.

Edited July 29, 2004 by Laksa (log)

[hzrt8w]

Wow, I never had Pai Dan So before. Do they use a whole egg? That's rather indulgent. I've had battered and deep fried hard boild eggs. Is that how they make pai dan so too?

Sorry, not likely a whole century egg in one Pai Dan So. I had bought some in Kee Wah Bakery in Monterery Park. Theirs are the best IMHO. I think they generously use 1/2 an century egg in one Pai Dan So.

The recipe you pointed to suggested to slice up each century egg into 6 to 8 pieces. They also add lotus paste and pickled ginger in the fillings. Pai Dan So is a bakery item, so it's baked in an oven not deep-fried.

[hzrt8w]

Your lo bak gow is similar to mine, except I don't use as much rice flour. I'll try yours next time and see if I like it better! Also, do you know how they keep the texture of the daikon in dim sum restaurants? Do they not cook the daikon during that initial stage?

If you don't use as much rice flour, the cake will tend to be very soft and fall apart easily. But it tastes good as the steamed version of Lo Bak Gow.

If you want to show more texture of the diakon, you may reduce the initial cooking time from 30 minutes down to say 10 to 15 minutes. I tried to make Lo Bak Gow without the initial cooking step once (just steam the raw shredded Lo Bak and rice flour mix). The result was not good -- tasted like chalk. The taste of the rice flour was too "raw". Since then I learned that I really need to cook the Lo Bak with rice flour for a little while. The recipe at Above.com calls for cooking them for 1 hour (and steam for another 1 hour). I think that's way overdone.

[hzrt8w]

hzrt8w: You are correct. Pai dan so...of course!

Dejah: This one is for you.

Bought these from AA Bakery in San Francisco yesterday. Clockwise from the top right:

1. Coconut tart

2. Pai Dan So (Century egg pastry)

3. Curry Puff (with curry beef filling) -- my all time favorite all-time snack

Edited August 22, 2004 by hzrt8w (log)

[Dejah]

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....hzrt!

My Mom and I shared the last paidan so last week.

The coconut tarts I can get here at our supermarket.

I make a curry puff, with chicken and potatoe, and sometimes with ground beef.

The only thing I am envious of is the pai dan so . . .

My midnight snack tonight will be moistened burnt rice with mashed sweet potato!

I cooked rice on the stove tonight so that I can have burnt rice. (fan jeu . . .yummy!)

Edited August 23, 2004 by Dejah (log)

[Ben Hong]

"fan jeu" or noong, with sweet potato mashed into it is truly the food of the village. Dejah, I am really, really, going to enjoy my visit with your family. Just keep talkin' girl. I'm just countin' the days.

[Dejah]

"fan jeu" or noong, with sweet potato mashed into it is truly the food of the village. Dejah, I am really, really, going to enjoy my visit with your family. Just keep talkin' girl.     I'm just countin' the days.

Get your list ready! Ben.

I was talking to my bro tonight. He's going to get in touch with his buddies and we'll get you and your friend set up for the big hunt.

It'll be Canada goose hunting season as well while you are here.

Now, do I talk to Mom about cooking these things?

[hzrt8w]

The purpose of this post is to entice you to try a popular Cantonese breakfast/snack/dim-sum called "Cheung Fun", and to bump up my thread count.

Cheung Fun is basically rolled-up steamed rice noodles. You can usually find them in shrink-wrapped packages in oriental grocery markets.

A typical package of Cheung Fun (about 1.5 lb). You may put them in the refrigerator for up to 1 week or so. Any longer than that, they will start drying up or turning moldy. The best is to consume them the same day or next day after you bought them.

When you are ready to eat Cheung Fun, cut them up in about 1.5 inch in length. By themselves, they taste rather bland. You need to season them.

First heat them up in a microwave for 2 minutes or so. Then drip in some sesame oil, light soy sauce, sesame paste, hoisin sauce and (optional) hot sauce. At last, shake a few sesames on top. Voila, instant snack in under 5 minutes.

If you want to kick it up a notch, you may heat up the Cheung Fun with dried shrimp and fresh chopped scallions.

Edited August 25, 2004 by hzrt8w (log)

[Dejah]

I love cheung fun! They are best served fresh at dim sum restaurants. The texture is smooth, silky . . . soooooooooo good. The char sui ones are the best!

Shopping trips to Winnipeg always end up with 2 or 3 packages. Most of my family likes the ones with dried shrimps and scallions. Son2 likes the plain ones drizzled with soya, sesame oil and sweet chili sauce.

I have tried to make them from SCRATCH. That means soaking a flour dough ball, squeezing it again and again to extract the gluten?.! An elderly Chinese friend spent a day showing me how to do this. It was a wonderful day of conversation and learning experience. I didn't have the heart to tell her that one can buy the fixings in a package.

The couple of times I made cheung fun, I couldn't keep up with the hungry mouths.

You have to be careful when shopping for these. Check the ends of the cheung fun, and between the rolls, for any sign of pink or yellow spots. This is mold. Even if it is prior to the "best before" dates, they spoil easily.

Edited August 25, 2004 by Dejah (log)

[Ben Hong]

Cheung fun is one of those food items best described as "sensual" oooohhh baby.

[hzrt8w]

I have tried to make them from SCRATCH. That means soaking a flour dough ball, squeezing it again and again to extract the gluten?.!

I believe you can make cheung fun with mixing rice flour and water. The difficult part is having the equipment to steam it. In the restaurant's kitchen, they have a shallow rectangular tray with holes at the bottom. You lay a wet cloth on top of the tray to hold up the flour/water mixture. Steam it for 2 to 3 minutes, take the cloth out, flip it upside-down and separate the cheung fun from the cloth onto the table top. Then you roll them up. If you make it yourself, you can put your favorite filling in the cheung fun.

[Ben Hong]

Sometimes in desperation, I make cheung fun using rice flour, cornstarch(3/1) and water to make a slurry. Just oil a metal or glass pie plate, ladle in a thin layer of the slurry and steam. The cheung fun comes off the plate quite easily