i love authentic oriental cuisine ..love it

[evanovitch]

walked into mi fave restaurant today...all quiet afta lunch hour rush an staff was in dis screened off area eating..so mi go ovah an ask di owner, mi fren, wat him eating,,,him offer mi some...ooooh la la...bitter green soup wid tofu.....juss di bitter green, some tofu an clear broth...deeeeliiiiishous....den him stir some egg tofu wid green peas n celery fi mi ...heavenly...sunday i went in an the chef was bored an had done dis boiled chicken they do bak in China..him sen mi fave waitress fi ask if mi want some...so mi seh mi wi taste it fuss...so him sen di foot fi me...ooooh la la...di chicken is boiled whole in some seasonings dat include ginger...it comes out white and is served cold wid a sauce dat includes ginger, soy etc...mek mi tell u dat mi clean di chicken foot an had to have more

from di day mi tell di owner thanks in Mandarin fi a meal well prepared, me an him is fren...anyting mi want mi get...even from fi dem pot weh dem cook fi demself....

moral of the story...get to know ur local restauranteur..u would be surprised the treats dem will allow u to enjoy

[MsPeaches]

Re: i love authentic oriental cuisine ..love it



O mi Sistren.......

Disyah brings back some memories......but it's too rahtid late an mi haffi
Tomarrow!

But GOOD FOR YOU! You are so right!

[MsPeaches]

Re: i love authentic oriental cuisine ..love it


Awake again!

When I was a student in Toronto, there was a wonderful family-run Restaurant in Chinatown called Henry's. It had seven tables and some of the best Chinese food in Toronto at the time. People used to go fishing in Lake Ontario and bring in their fresh fish for Henry to cook. I do remember one Saturday afternoon a man arriving with his catch and saying "I want Henry's WIFE to cook this - NOT Henry!"

Their prices were dirt cheap and it was there that I was shamed into learning how to use chopsticks.
Sometimes we would go in towards 4pm and the staff of the place would be sitting together at a table and eating their own special food. We asked them to give us a taste and from then on, we always asked for some of 'whatever you are eating' and were treated to some genuine Chinese home cooking. I still remember a dish with 'blue-metal-type' dasheen in it - (yu knoe, di wan wid di pupple veins).I had never seen it before and was a little apprehensive, but I decided to be brave and try it anyway. Magnificent!
I think the difference between the 'standard' Chinese Restaurant fare and the 'home cooking' is that Chinese restaurant food is generally short-order stuff and what they cook at home may take considerably longer.
You're lucky to find a place where they entertain your likkrishniss!

If you're anything like me, you will promote the place to your friends and family to make sure it stays open (your vested interest). There's a very popular Vietnamese/Chinese restaurant in Ottawa that I 'made a project of' in the 1980s when they were still struggling after 3 months of being open. I'm sure they are still there and think of me from time to time. It was another family-run restaurant owned by a family of Ethnic-Chinese Vietnamese refugees, and they put their 4 kids through University on the proceeds of that place.

[johnnycakes]

Re: i love authentic oriental cuisine ..love it

Evanovitch,

Jamaicans like most Third Worlders will not only eat things like chicken foot and whole fish, they LOVE them .

Most McDonald Americans will not consider them as food if they were starving.

Most Bostonians who have little or no experience with real Chinese food actually FEAR going into Chinatown to eat for fear that they will get sick from the "unsanitary " manner in which they believe the Chinese handle their food.

The Chinese are so good at food handling that they and they alone are exempt from U.S health laws that mandate refrigerated showcases for food.

Go into any of those Chinese restaurants where you see roast pig, roast ducks, chicken, pork etc hanging in the window and you can be surer of the quality and purity of that food than you can at any American style restaurant.

I worked for some 28 years right next to Boston's Chinatown and aside from the occasional submarine sandwich, Chinatown was where I always ate .

I got sick ONCE from the food there in the 28 years and it was from eating a shrimp that tasted a bit "funny" but which I swallowed anyway.
That is not the fault of the cook or the restaurant.

During the years i worked next to Chinatown I always had salespeople whom I dealt with ask me which of the restaurants in Chinatown were good places to eat and my answer was always the same: " ANY of the restaurants in Chinatown."

The reason I could say that is because the Chinese, contrary to what most Americans think, are so very fussy about their food that any restaurant in Chinatown where the vast majority of the customers ARE Chinese would be out of business should they serve sub-par food.

Sure, the more expensive places have nice tablecloths, murals on the walls, carpets and they put little fancy decorative stuff on your platters but I was always quite content to eat in the cheaper places because there was so little difference in the quality and taste of the food in the cheap eats places and like you and others, you get to try some very different and delicious things when you get to know the owner(s) .

I'll drop this in here for those who are now tempted to try authentic and not that overspiced and oversalted and deep fried poo-poo platter SUBURBAN Chinese food:

If you go and it's your first time and you don't know what would be good, I always recommend Beef Chow Hor Foon (dry fry not the one with sauce) .

My nine year old niece loves it so much she wants the leftovers for breakfast the next day and my father and mother-in-law who are both 86 and very picky eaters now only want Beef Chow Hor Foon when we are bringing food back from Chinatown.


(ingredients: beef strips, fried wide rice noodles (chow hor foon is an exact translation for "fried rice noodles&quot bean sprouts, onions, scallions, soy sauce. It's very simple and very very good for those who want both authentic Chinese cuisine but nothing that will weird them out. Suburban restaurants most often do not make this dish and ALL the restaurants in a Chinese community do.

I could go on forever, dish by dish but maybe later.

[MsPeaches]

Re: i love authentic oriental cuisine ..love it

[Tulip]

Re: i love authentic oriental cuisine ..love it

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: evanovitch</div><div class="ubbcode-body">...get to know ur local restauranteur..</div></div>

My dad strongly promotes that policy, but I really haven't gotten on that level with but about 3. I mean to the point of I'll have what you're having even though it's not on the menu.

I'm not altogether sure I've ever had authentic Asian cuisine. My friend's mother moved to China to teach and based on how she described the food, I haven't.

There's a chance I had some authentic Thai food though. So good I might need to buy a cookbook and add it to the rotation.

[johnnycakes]

Re: i love authentic oriental cuisine ..love it

Tulip,
The problem with trying to cook authentic Chinese food in the U.S. or Jamaica is that if you are not near a Chinese community which supports the very necessary Chinese supermarket, it is very difficult to get the fresh vegetables, cuts of meat, sauces and other odd (to us) things you would need.

I can remember going to a Chinese (style) restaurant in Jamaica and being quite disappointed at finding very un-Chinese things substituting for what you would normally find in authentic Chinese food.

As mentioned before, I have found that the food you get in suburban America where the clientele are almost 100% white /non-Chinese people, the food and menu is substantially altered to meet the xenophobic/fear of the strange nature of U.S. eaters.

The food is decidedly inferior in these suburban restaurants as a result.

Here's an example although fried rice is eaten in real Chinese restaurants, they do not use what is called thick soy ( a browning sauce) to darken the fried rice and the suburban restaurants almost always use pork bits left over from the previous day to add to the fried rice, something that would get a restaurant in the Chinese community shunned by the Chinese.


Another example: Chow mein which translates as fried noodles is served in American Chinese restaurants with crunchy deep fried noodles that are like little pretzel sticks.
Real chinese chow mein is made up of boiled noodles which are then pan fried TO ORDER so that they get crunchy on the outside and edges but remain soft noodle inside. The first time my aged mother-in-law had real chow mein, she didn't like it at all because all she had ever experienced was the deep fried suburban chow mein noodles.

it is no secret that Americans will eat badly prepared food if you give them huge amounts of it but surprisingly you get much more AND better food at a real Chinese restaurant than you will at a suburban Chinese restaurant.

[Tulip]

Re: i love authentic oriental cuisine ..love it

JC, I had some &quot;pan fried noodles&quot; a few weeks ago that is the best Chinese food (as far as I'm concerned) that I have tasted in I don't know when.

[evanovitch]

Re: i love authentic oriental cuisine ..love it

yes MsPeaches...my sister loves the barbeque pork...so she gets it at Costco , the slabs,n wen dem doing deres dem do some if har...dem wi call mi on the phone an seh dem doing it tomorrow so mi fi bring any slabs she wants done...

wen dem doing big parties, dem tell mi so mi can come before fi get tastes of the diffrant tings dat dem mekking .

three brothers own the whole complex....so di whole family wi eat dere often...if i go in and they r there, dem send ovah food to me dat mek fi dem...an truss mi dat came from juss saying thank u in Mandarin for a meal i really enjoyed....

is true wat dem seh...they love to save face...plus mi chat to dem all di time...juss not to order food..is same way wen i was in LR..i got the same service at my fave restaurant there as i use to help the staff wid dem English an getting tings done widdin the community since they didnt speak english...

[johnnycakes]

Re: i love authentic oriental cuisine ..love it

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tulip</div><div class="ubbcode-body">JC, I had some &quot;pan fried noodles&quot; a few weeks ago that is the best Chinese food (as far as I'm concerned) that I have tasted in I don't know when.

</div></div>

Tulip,

I too had a new Chinese food experience a week or so ago when I bought some roast pig (the kind you see hanging in the Chinese food shop windows) .

They usually only sell it by the pound and since my wife will not eat it and I am hesitant to eat all that fat, I have never bought it before.
I persuaded the guy with the cleaver to give me about half a pound while I was waiting for my order of food to go and it was superb especially the outside browned and crisped fat which I ate Chinese style with a pile of rice.

The Chinese eat relatively little meat in their meals and a ton of rice and so don't have a big problem with weight or cholesterol.

Chinese wedding feasts on the other hand feature mainly meat because it is a symbol of opulence, wealth since traditionally meat is scarce in their diets in China.

Would anyone care to talk about Chinese bakeries?

CHAR SU BAO (pork buns) is all I will say . Try one or two (baked not steamed) with a good cup of coffee and you'll be back the next day for a dozen to bring home.

[Tulip]

Re: i love authentic oriental cuisine ..love it

JC, I have never heard of pork buns before. I also have not had Chinese roasted pig. I will say that that crispy skin on the ham is what makes it even worth the effort to cook.

[johnnycakes]

Re: i love authentic oriental cuisine ..love it

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tulip</div><div class="ubbcode-body">JC, I have never heard of pork buns before. I also have not had Chinese roasted pig. I will say that that crispy skin on the ham is what makes it even worth the effort to cook. </div></div>


Back in the late 60s and early 70s I lived in the hippie/gay community on Beacon Hill in Boston . One of the frequent rituals was going to a regular spaghetti dinner open house at a local poetry shop owner's apartment Saturday nights, smoking prodigious amounts of dope, playing darts, getting into deep political discussions listening to a very varied list of music and eventually crashing on the couch or floor. On Sunday morning we'd all be up earlier than we'd like and head down to Chinatown for a breakfast that included Egg Foo Yong (Chinese omelets) AND pork buns (in Chinese : Char su (pork) bao (buns).
This began a lifelong love affair with Chinese bakery products which, IMO are far better than the standard U.S bakery products.

Bao ( pronounced bough or bow as in bow to the Queen) are made in about eight or so varieties filled with chopped pork in a nice little bit of sauce, curried beef, hot dogs, ham and egg (Chinese style egg McMuffin?) creamy filling, pineapple, a few others and my wife's favorite: custard bao.

All of these are best eaten fresh from the bakery especially the pork bao which are not nearly as good reheated but the custard bao can be kept in the fridge for several days and then microwaved to warm and are just great with a good cup of coffee ( as are all the bao.)

They cost about 70 cents each and two pork buns are plenty for lunch or breakfast.
With coffee you spend less than $4.00 for your meal.

So... if you have to drive 20 miles or so to get to a Chinese bakery, make the pilgrimage that will add something superb to your list of favorites.

A much heavier and smiling you can write and thank me later.

[MsPeaches]

Re: i love authentic oriental cuisine ..love it


<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: evanovitch</div><div class="ubbcode-body">yes MsPeaches...my sister loves the barbeque pork...so she gets it at Costco , the slabs,n wen dem doing deres dem do some if har...dem wi call mi on the phone an seh dem doing it tomorrow so mi fi bring any slabs she wants done...

wen dem doing big parties, dem tell mi so mi can come before fi get tastes of the diffrant tings dat dem mekking .

three brothers own the whole complex....so di whole family wi eat dere often...if i go in and they r there, dem send ovah food to me dat mek fi dem...an truss mi dat came from juss saying thank u in Mandarin for a meal i really enjoyed....

is true wat dem seh...they love to save face...plus mi chat to dem all di time...juss not to order food..is same way wen i was in LR..i got the same service at my fave restaurant there as i use to help the staff wid dem English an getting tings done widdin the community since they didnt speak english...</div></div>

Chru dat! Ppl from outside a place are often ignored by the locals, partly out of fear, IMHO. When yuffi warm up to them, they are very gracious and really appreciate the attention. A little love and attention goes a loooong way in this world.

Good for you for helping them out. You were very gracious yourself to become their connection to their new community and I'm sure they will never forget it.

johnnycakes, there was a Chinese bakery in Ottawa's Chinatown and of course they baked all the things you mention, but frankly I found them a bit tasteless and flat. Maybe it was just the bakery or maybe these buns aren't everybody's 'cup of tea'.

But my favourite was always the Sai Fan.
Yummy bean thread noodles cooked with all sorts of different stuff according to what you want....shrimps, spring onions, egg, BBQ pork, Chinese sausage........OHH!! .I'm making myself hungry just thinking about it!!
I could sure use a plate of Sai Fan to warm myself up right now!!! It's here!!

[johnnycakes]

Re: i love authentic oriental cuisine ..love it

MsPeaches,

Chinese frosted cakes in the bakeries in Boston are either butter cream or whipped cream.

Their cakes are WAY less sweet than American frosted things and just different.
They use lard in their flaky crust things and it's really good if heavy.

The bao seem to be made with tea or coffee in mind .

As you said, not everyone's cup of tea but then so much of authentic Chinese cuisine is not thought palatable by so many people not exposed to it .

Duck feet or chicken feet ?,

Not on your life.

Crispy Fried Whole Fish in a garlicky spicy sauce speckled with sweet red peppers ?

Not even if you held a gun to their head.

And I'd trade my great toe for some of that right this minute.