Dim sum and other Cantonese food

[garcia1000]

Hey guys

I know a bit about Cantonese food. I know the most about Hong Kong/Guangzhou style traditional food, and a bit about Chiuchow and Hokkien (Fujianese) food but not much.

Anyone interested? I plan to post a bit about the different kinds of dim sums. Then I could post about the ways of making food (such as steaming fresh fish or double-boiled soup)

One advantage of this food is that it tastes good, so that gourmets will like it. I can start off with barbecued pork buns (cha xiu bao). Tell me if this topic interests you!

Barbecued pork buns

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cha_siu_baau

This consists of a bun made of dough, with a filling of barbecued pork (I'll write another entry about barbecued pork later, as it deserves its own section).

A good bun has the following characteristics:

The bun must be soft. A hard bun indicates staleness and is unpleasant to the palate. A soft bun is easy to chew.

The bun must not be excessively moist or dry. Excessive moisture causes dough to stick to the roof of the mouth. Insufficient moisture makes it a struggle to chew.

The bun must be hot. These should be eaten as soon as they arrive at the table. Steam should be visible.

The barbecued filling must be sufficient in quantity. Not a lot is required, but it needs to be enough to flavour the bun.

The filling must also be hot and contain the right amount of gravy/sauce. When the bun and the filling mixes together in the mouth, it should not feel too dry. Also, the taste should not be overwhelming. It is analagous to mashed potatoes and gravy, you want the right amount of both.

Usually, these are served in a wicker container containing two or three buns. These are considered the cheapest items on the menu and will be rated a 'small'. (Small, medium, large, extra-large, special, other are the ratings, each category has ascending prices.)

garcia1000 likes these.

[edfurlong]

Lots of pictures of yummy food would make me interested!

[imitation]

most boring type of chinese food, but hey what ever floats your boat.

[garcia1000]

Many people think that Cantonese food is boring. Quick background, there are four main categories of Chinese food.

Northern food, such as dumplings, noodles, and so on, is more similar to Western food. This is because the higher latitudes and colder climate means that food must be easy to make and able to be stored for a long time.

Sichuan food is appreciated by Caucasians a lot because it is very spicy due to use of their special kind of peppercorn. Sichuan is a mountainous region with a low variety of foodstuffs, and so the food needs to be flavoured with these things.

Shanghainese food, such as wonton chicken soup or Shanghai-style dumplings, are sort of midway between those above and Cantonese food. They have a variety of fresh ingredients (for example, hairy crabs are a particularly tasty delicacy) but also use cold cuts and noodles.

Cantonese food, especially places around the Pearl River Delta such as Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Shunde, etc, get a wide variety of fresh food including seafood. Because of this, the cooking de-emphasises heavy spices and sauces, and emphasises freshness of ingredients and bringing out the fresh taste.

As an analogy, say some guys were to prepare a tuna. Northern style would be to fry it with heavy sauce, Sichuan would be to dunk it in hot peppercorns, Shanghainese would be to steam it in some soup base, Cantonese would be to eat it sashimi-style.

In American restaurants, much Chinese food is Sichuan or sometimes Northern style. This is because it is the tastiest when working with cheap or non-fresh ingredients, and the use of thick sauces is more recognizable to the Western palate.

Pictures

[WhoIam]

Please keep these coming. There are a lot of good Chinese and dim sum restaurants in Vientiane but I'm not very familiar with this type of cuisine.

[7ontheline]

Nice thread, but WTF at

[ QUOTE ]

Sichuan food is appreciated by Caucasians a lot because it is very spicy due to use of their special kind of peppercorn.

[/ QUOTE ]

Since when is spicy food appreciated by Caucasians in general? Real Szechuan food is too spicy for almost all Caucasians I know. Of course some of the wordly denizens of this forum will be exceptions, but I wouldn't agree with the generalization otherwise.

[garcia1000]

[ QUOTE ]
Since when is spicy food appreciated by Caucasians in general? Real Szechuan food is too spicy for almost all Caucasians I know. Of course some of the wordly denizens of this forum will be exceptions, but I wouldn't agree with the generalization otherwise.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ok I lied

Next up!

Rice noodle rolls (cheung fun)

These are delicious! It consists of an ingredient wrapped by a thin rice noodle wrapping which you can see in the picture. It is served with soy sauce. The soy sauce has two functions; firstly, it brings out the flavour of the cheung fun. Secondly, a fresh cheung fun will have a slightly sticky exterior, and the soy sauce will mitigate that. It is also common to put in a small amount of oil to make sure the cheung funs don't stick to each other.

Common ingredients include barbecued pork, shrimp, and minced beef. Others that are also used are scallop, vegetables, dried shrimps, fried dough, and probably others.

A well-made cheung fun should have the following characteristics:

It should be hot. Ideally, it should be freshly steamed and made.

The noodle part should have the right texture. It shouldn't be too chewy, but it must be substantial and easily picked up with chopsticks.

The noodle part must be thin. Generally, a thick noodle will mean that the inside of the noodle has been insufficient cooked, which leads it to being hard. This is undesirable.

The inside filling must be reasonably fresh. In contrast to har gow, this is not absolutely vital, but fresher ingredients do taste better.

The soy sauce must be right. The soy sauce used is sweeter than normal soy sauce. It must match the cheung fun.

If oil is used, there should not be too much oil. Too much oil makes the food unhealthy, and leaves an undesirable oily film.

This item is usually a 'medium' or 'large' depending on the filling.

garcia1000 likes this very much! Especially the barbecued pork and scallop versions.
Pictures!

[splashpot]

I was planning on doing a dim sum post but never got around to it. If you go to a good place, it is delicious. Here are some standard dim sum dishes. Pics from google.

Siu Mai (pork/mushroom dumpling)


Ha Gow (shrimp)


Cheung Fun (shrimp or beef inside, rice noodle outside)


Don't know the name for this one (I know my Chinese sucks) but it's bean curd on the outside and pork/mushroom on the inside, very delicious.


Dan Tat (standard dessert, custard egg tart)


I may post more later.

[splashpot]

And just for fun:
Fung Jao (chicken feet)


Don't feel bad if you don't like it. I know plenty of Hong Kong born people who don't. I think it's ok. Basically you just eat the skin, spit out the bones.

[steel108]

[ QUOTE ]
And just for fun:
Fung Jao (chicken feet)


Don't feel bad if you don't like it. I know plenty of Hong Kong born people who don't. I think it's ok. Basically you just eat the skin, spit out the bones.

[/ QUOTE ]

My favorite. Friends always freak out when I order it. The fried turnips come in at a close second.