Dim sum and other Cantonese food

[TripSearching]

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Is anyone in this thread actually Chinese? While most info is on the surface correct alot is being left out in regards to a real dim sum experience. As an example, the turnip cake is traditionally served with Oyster sauce which improves that taste of the dish considerably imo.

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I am Chinese but American born. I believe the turnip cake is generally served with hoisin or chili sauce, not oyster sauce.

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I am quite positive it is not chili sauce and isn't hoisin sauce another name for plum sauce? I reconfirmed with my chinese connection to make sure that I was correct when saying the sauce we get it served with is Oyster Sauce. Oyster Sauce also goes well with Choi in case anyone likes this.

[amoeba]

When making Ma Po Tofu, I like a mixture of hot bean paste with Lao Gan Ma (the chili paste with the old woman on the front). roughly 2/3to 3/4 hot bean paste to 1/4 to 1/3 Lao Gan Ma.

I also add dried red chilies and szechuan pepper corn.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/kattebelletje/371793307/

[The DaveR]

Wu, Pretty sure I've had the pork belly you describe at Joe's Shanghai and it was awesome.

[punkass]

i'm hungry from this thread. anyone in baltimore have suggestions of a good place?

[amoeba]

With regards to braised pork belly, this is really one of the easier Chinese dishes to make.

ingredients
pork belly
green onion
ginger
star anise
soy sauce (you can use a mixture of dark and light. light will be more salty, dark will give you more color. adjust ratio to your taste)
shaoxing wine
stock
rock sugar

first buy some pork belly (should be about $2 to $2.5 a pound at an asian grocery, its a cheap cut of meat). Cut up in to roughly 1 inch cubes.

Traditionally at this point, it is boiled in 2/3 water, 1/3 wine + ginger and green onion for about 10 minutes. This is to remove/mask any of the gaminess of the pork belly.

Meanwhile, on another pot, combine soy sauce 3/4, more wine 1/4, star anise, rock sugar. bring to boil and turn heat down to simmer.

move the pork belly after 10 minutes in the preboil pot in to the simmering sauce and simmer covered for at least 1 hour or until meat is really tender. check periodically (like every 15 minutes), as liquid becomes more evaporated, add stock to compensate.

[zasterguava]

mmmm yummy yummy yummy. I looooove Dim Sum.

Thread inspired me to look for recipe lists. Here is an OK website for it: http://www.recipezaar.com/cookbook.php?bookid=38013.

[RunDownHouse]

The one time I've had dim sum was at a place in NYC that was a great big ballroom type place that you had to take an escalator up to get to. Don't remember the name. It was a really good experience but I didn't like the chicken feet at all. Crunching through the bones and then trying to suck the skin and tendons off was just not a pleasant sensation. I remember thinking that the flavor was fine but it seemed you could get the same flavor by using the sause/seasonings on any part of the chicken and not worry about the bones.

[Wu36]

Rundownhouse, the place on E Broadway on top of the mall?

[RunDownHouse]

I have no idea about the address. Its kind of across from a bank and there's a big market and a famous candy shop a couple blocks away. I think I posted about the dim sum place after I got back and NYCers knew exactly what I was talking about, so it isn't a small or unknown place.

I also ate at Joe Shanghai while I was there and fell in love with soup dumplings. I really want to somehow start a chinatown in Nashville, but something makes me think it won't get off the ground.

[zasterguava]

Rundown, yeah I love Dim Sum but not a fan of chicken feet. I used to go with my brother who would always order the most disgusting sounding ones like chicken tongue etc, which generally are not the nicest.