Made some great Chinese food tonight.

[smirkymonkey]

My Chinese friend bought me some vegetables from her grocery store - Chinese broccoli, baby bok choi, napa cabbage, Chinese mushrooms, Chinese (Japanese?) eggplant, water chestnuts - all for under $8.00! I stir fried everything with chicken, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, soy and pepper. It was delicious! I am on keto, so I didn't make a sauce, but I didn't need to. Everything was delicious without it.

It was like a real Chinese restaurant meal, but healthier. I am beginning to enjoy being on a keto diet and authentic Chinese vegetables makes it delightful! If you have a Chinese grocery in your city/town I would highly recommend a visit!

[RKP5637]

1. This, is really making me hungry! Sure sounds incredibly good!!! I love Chinese food. We have a

takeout here down the street and their food is incredible. It's always very fresh and crispy.

[pangaia]

2. Glad you made it, cause the food at those "real" Chinese restaurants isn't Chinese food.

You may have noticed, the owners and employees NEVER eat the food they serve.

[smirkymonkey]

6. Ha Ha!

I wasn't implying anything is wrong with their food. I love it. Just that I needed to have a healthier version w/ the diet I am on.

[pangaia]

8. Good move by you. :)) But I WAS implying there is something wrong with their food...

Truly, what those "Chinese" places serve is NOT Chinese food.. I wouldn't kid you.




I've been to China and Taiwan many times and was married to a Chinese woman... and I cook Sichuan several times a week. My ex- referred to P F CHANGS as 'Chinese food for white people."

The only places you can find Chinese food is in big cities...

And real Chinese is MUCH, MUCH healthier than the usual American diet. with the exceptions --such as, oh.. CHAIRMAN MAO'A RED BRAISED PORK which is OH SO delicious...

This is where I get a lot of my ingredients..
http://blog.themalamarket.com/

You may not care for Sichuan, but just look at some of those dishes.!! UMM "Hao chu!"


If you want to try making some really delicious Chinese dishes, not only Sichuan, of course, let me know. I can recommend some very good cook books.AND where to get very good woks.

[smirkymonkey]

10. I would love some suggestions.

My friend is Chinese and picks up the best Chinese vegetables for me in the store she goes to. They are also very inexpensive. And delicious. The taste of the dish cannot be replicated with non-Chinese vegetables.

She just told me how she cooks her day to day meals and I followed her instructions. It's not really restaurant food, but more like Chinese home-cooked food.

I would shop there myself but it's a little out of my way and I don't have a car. She goes all the time and doesn't mind picking things up for me.

[pangaia]

12. That is perfect that you have Chinese friend...

And I would say, don;t worry about cooking real Chinese'restaurant' level dishes.
Home cooking is super.

OK- I am partial to Sichuan, as you will see below but....

That website I linked to-- There is a great back story to the woman who runs it, Taylor Holliday, and her adopted Chinese daughter, Fong Chong. They have developed deep connections with suppliers in Sichuan and get VERY high quality ingredients. They also have a FB page

Here is a great memoir to read by Fuchsia Dunlop-- SHARK'S FIN AND SICHUAN PEPPER - A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China.

She also has several super cooking books- all with MANY photos
-EVERY GRAIN OF RICE (Sichuan)
- LAND OF FISH AND RICE - (Jiangnan- the region of the lower Yangtze)
- REVOLUTIONARY CHINESE COOKBOOK - Hunan

A great mostly Cantonese/Hong Kong book by Grace Young - BREATH OF A WOK Which also has a great history and much info on woks, techniques, photos, etc.... They also have a FB page WOK WEDNESDAYS

- MRS CHIANG'S SZECHAN COOKBOOK this is an old and delightful by, Well, Mrs Chiang.. and Ellen Schrecker


For a wok, if you do not have one- there is GREAT info in BREATH....

https://www.wokshop.com/ THIS is where to go for all kinds of Chinese kitchen supplies. You can ask the owner for advice. OR your FRIEND !!!

good luck..

[smirkymonkey]

14. Thank you!

Much appreciated!

[Major Nikon]

7. Most Chinese food in America is a bastardized version

The methods used for preparation are similar. It’s just the ingredients which are significantly different. Long grain steamed rice and soups can be found at most Chinese restaurants in the US which isn’t that much different from those in China. From there it diverges significantly. They eat far more vegetables and much less meat and most of all of it is much more bland.

[pangaia]

9. which are you saying is bland American Chinese or real Chinese?

[Major Nikon]

11. Real Chinese food is pretty bland IMO

During my time in China most of what we ate was cooked vegetables minus the heavy seasonings and copious amounts of salt found in Americanized Chinese food.

[pangaia]

13. Uh, I have NEVER, EVER found real Chinese or Taiwanese food to be bland.

I might posit that your taste buds have been salted to death. To the point that you can no longer taste vegetables, or meat(by which the Chinese mean pork), or fish, or whatever.

There is an elegant delicacy to the food of Guangdong and Jiangnan, a simple brilliance to Shanghai cuisine, Shangdong's rich seafood, Sichuan-- Oh my CHENGDU !!! tzzzzz, And Hunanese heat!!! no tzzzz

The various Chinese cuisines are at the peak of the world culinary ladder. French chefs travel to Guangzhou, Shanghai, Qingdao, Beijing and, especially, most especially, Chengdu to learn how it is done !

here ya go. Does this food look 'bland' to you?

http://blog.themalamarket.com/

Guandong (Cantonese)
https://www.google.com/search?biw=1414&bih=793&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=0a3EXM6BIJKWsAWz5YrIDA&q=+cantonese+cuisine&oq=+cantonese+cuisine&gs_l=img.3..0l2j0i5i30j0i8i30j0i24l6.10672.14774..16360...0.0..0.116.797.7j2......1....1..gws-wiz-img.......0i67.ozgrrGLnVyk

Shanghai cuisine
https://www.google.com/search?biw=1414&bih=793&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=4q3EXIGiN5G0tQXPwKHADA&q=shanghai+cuisine&oq=shanghai+cuisine&gs_l=img.1.0.0j0i7i30l4j0i7i5i30j0i5i30l4.25862.29373..32037...0.0..0.95.655.8......1....1..gws-wiz-img.0uriqLoktho

Fujian cuisine
https://www.google.com/search?biw=1414&bih=793&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=BK7EXImVAuKMtgXU8YfgAg&q=Fujian+cuisine+&oq=Fujian+cuisine+&gs_l=img.3..0j0i30j0i8i30j0i24l2.114525.121268..121653...0.0..0.84.1484.21......1....1..gws-wiz-img.......0i7i30.EZvIvdxxyCc

I hope you will give it another go....

[Major Nikon]

15. That was my experience traveling to Beijing, Shanghai, and a few other Chinese cities

And by bland I don't mean tasteless or bad. I just mean by comparison to western cuisine it is generally far more subtle.

With the exception of Beijing, all the places you mentioned are in the south of China. Generally speaking the closer to the equator you go anywhere in the world, the stronger the flavors become. The reason is because refrigeration is a relatively modern invention. People needed stronger flavors to overcome off flavors associated with spoilage.

[pangaia]

16. More subtle, I would probably agree with you.

However, the infinitely complex flavors of Sichuan, for example ARE in fact very subtle to detect and very difficult to get right, more so, I would say, than even Hunanese cuisine, but I know your meaning.

And the refrigeration issue could be... but pickling was commonly a solution for that problem.
Thinking of the beginnings of 'sushi,'

However, Shangdong, Shanghai and the Jiangnan region are hardly in the south of China, although Jiangnan does refer to 'south of the Yangtze.'

Have you ever had Xiaolong bao? --Shanghai, Jiangnan ummmmm Hao chu !!!

AND, Guangdong is way south, and the cuisine there is not particularly spicy at all.

And think of Sanya, in Hainan.. not at all strongly flavored food for the most part.. (Of course this is where Russians go on vacation. (Those obese Russian men should definitely NOT wear thongs at the beach !!)

And the, South Korean cookery.. Seoul is north of Qingdao. Busan is almost at the same latitude as Nanjing and Kyoto, WHERE I am going again in a month! YAY !!!

Anyway, now I'm getting hungry....

[Major Nikon]

17. We ate Xiaolong bao at some famous restaurant in Shanghai

I don't remember the name of it, but we were told it was the best place in the world to get it. We also ate Peking duck at Quanjude in Beijing. FWIW, while in Beijing they referred to Shanghai as "in the South".

At any rate my take on real Chinese food vs Americanized Chinese food was a huge difference in the amount of salt used. However, most of the restaurants we ate at were owned by China. So we really didn't get much variety in what we were served. We did eat with a couple of Chinese families in their homes which was very nice.

[pangaia]

18. That is really funny about Beijingers referring Shanghai as in the south. I believe it. LOL

There is a street not too far from the Bund that is sort of known as the dumpling street.. especially for Xiaolong bao. Interesting that you ate in.. what-- "state' restaurants, maybe ?. Maybe that was the issue.. maybe the menus were designed for foreigners. I have no idea, actually.

You are certainly right.. very little salt or sugar.. Americans are so used to those that anything made without such copious amounts can probably taste bland.


I never had heard of Quanjude so I check it out.. big chain all over China. But looks like it may be the real deal...
WIKI--

"restaurant chain sells over 2 million roast ducks served in 400 different styles to over 5 million customers annually. With annual sales reaching 500 million yuan (US$81.5m), the company has an estimated value of 8.458 billion yuan (US$1.38b)[citation needed] with 600 million yuan (US$97.8m) in assets and 700 million yuan (US$114m) in "intangible assets".

After a merger in 2004 with Beijing New Yansha Group, Quanjude is now a part of the Beijing Tourism Group.[2]

I have never had really good roast duck. I'm jealous...


The interesting thing about 'famous restaurants' in Japan, and I might say in China as well, for that matter is that often they are famous for tourists. I think it is more true in Japan, actually.. but... ??

I have dear friends in Kyoto and have been there quite a number of times. What I discovered is that the 'famous' sushi bars, or soba or yaki tori places, for example, are pretty much the ones that Westerners can find. In order to find the REALLY good ones, and at a much lower price, ya gotta know somebody.

I have a good Taiwanese friend in Shanghai also, plays in the Shanghai Philharmonic. Boy does HE know where to eat !!!!

Interesting conversation.. I finished dinner.. seared scallops ++++ in my 52 year old cast iron skillet. Didn't even use my wok. That's rare..

[Major Nikon]

19. I'm pretty sure the tour group I went there with was partially subsidized by China

IIRC we paid less than $3K per person for a 10 day trip that was all inclusive including all airfare, museum tickets, transportation, meals, and 4-5 star hotel accommodations for several Chinese cities. The tradeoff was we ate at mostly state owned restaurants and had to tour numerous state owned factories where they were always trying to sell us goods at greatly inflated prices. I actually enjoyed touring the factories. While I'm quite sure we went to only the cleanest and best run factories, it still demonstrated how much of the population is involved in making labor intensive products.

We ate at THE Quanjude, which was the same restaurant where Nixon ate Peking duck in 1972. It was hands down the best meal we had when we were there. I'm sure there's probably better and cheaper places to get Peking duck, but it was quite nice anyway.

[pangaia]

20. Sounds like you had a great time.

And if not familiar with getting around China, a tour group is a good bet.

But, yeah. With the exception of Quanjude, where it sounds like you hit the jackpot...I think you missed out on the some really great Chinese cuisine.. INCLUDING street food... one of the great joys... Next time...

I've seen a few 'factories myself, but not on a tour. A furniture factory just outside Guangzhou..where men were putting on gold leaf with NO respirators !! I think they were not long for this world..

And a factory in Dongguan, near Shenzhen. I forget what it was, but the conditions were atrocious, basically slave labor.. mostly women, living stacked in dorms- working 14-16 hour days.. They were trapped pretty much into working there..

sad...

[Major Nikon]

21. We actually got to sample quite a bit of street food

...and we went through several markets.

I think just living in Beijing must take several years off your life. The pollution was worse than LA back in the 70's.

[pangaia]

22. OMG-- Sichuan peppercorns !---red AND green... Hua jiao !!!

[rusty quoin]

3. Good for you.

[luvallpeeps]

4. Have you tasted the tofu shiratake noodles?

There is a Chinese grocery near me, (Detroit suburb) that sells them. They have elbow, spaghetti, and linguini. They aren't bad.
https://www.amazon.com/Tofu-Shirataki-Noodles-Spaghetti-Shape/dp/B000AQJRWG
Only 3 carbs in the whole bag I believe. They are about $1.67 for the 8oz bag. I got lucky finding them at that store.

[smirkymonkey]

5. No, but I would love to try them!

I am kind of missing "pasta" like things and they sound delicious. I think they might have them at the Whole Foods near me. I will definitely give them a try. Thanks for the suggestion!