What's Fer Dinner?

[con's fly is open]

Jack's Aunt Stew. The meat's too tough to BBQ.

[ilunga]

Fortunately I haven't come across the 'mouse faetus' (sp?) soup.

The outdoor bbq places are everywhere in Luoyang. Love 'em! Yang rou chuar washed down with zha pi mmm. One thing I saw a lot of in Wei hai was man tou - grilled and seasoned. In Luoyang we have shao bin but it's not as good. The eyes are a bit chewy for me. Never been brave enough to try the 'ji ji/ yin jing/whatever you wanna call it'

Two of my favourite dishes are 'tie ban shao zhi qie' (really good eggplant and meat dish. The eggplant has black skin and it comes wrapped in tin foil) and 'yu wong su pai' (very tasty ribs)

[Mr Nobody]

Yeah, I like the 'fried steak' (But i would call it fried spare ribs - any flesh will do). shuan4xiang1gu3.

[acjade]

I have just copied your post on a card Mr Nobby. I'll carry it with me at all times.

[Raoul Duke]

More dishes!

Congo and I hit the wonderful little DongBei restaurant here in the DongGang last night. We had the usual run of dishes listed in here. However, to mark the honor of having _2_ members of this forum in the restaurant, the laoban brought us samples of the things they were eating. These are very much DongBei specialties, so only look for them with any hope in one of those restaurants.

We were both blown away by both of these dishes.

Sa1 Zhu1 Cai4 is pig's blood soup with cabbage. (Get over it, newbies, this stuff kicked ass!) Cubes of pig's blood, and perhaps bits of other thankfully anonymous organelles, joined about 20 kilos of shredded cabbage per small rice bowl, all in a wonderful rich broth. Neither of us are exactly big fans of pig's blood, but we lurped this stuff down with enthusiasm. Conelrad said he'd had the same dish in DongBei...but not this good. This soup is full of the rich hearty nutrition you need to go back out in the cold and grow more cabbages.

Jiu3 Cai4 Huar1 is a thick grass-green paste. It appears to contain cucumber, loads of garlic, perhaps a bit of chive, maybe a dash of chili oil, a ton of vinegar, and about 2 tons of salt. The effect is somewhere between pickle relish and wasabi. More a pickle or palate-cleanser than a dish, it was absolutely luscious. 2 thumbs up from the Dong Gang.

[Ruth]

Was taken out to dinner last night by the parents of a private student. Amazing 12 year old chatters away in English non-stop. Great little translator she is.

Anyway, we had 'fish skin' as one of the 9 main dishes. We were very leary of what it could possibly be before it arrived. Sure enough, it was fish skin, in small strips. No scales. No idea what kind of fish. It was fried and spicy. Lots of garlic and hot peppers and something else we couldn't identify. Too spicy for me, but Lei Shan liked it. The texture was chewy and not very fishy tasting. I'll edit in the name of it when I get it.

[Mr Nobody]

Yeah, I have had fried fish skin any number of times mostly in HK or Foshan, usually as a thing you throw in soups or juk, but it tastes fine, freshly cooked, as a snack with beer.

Anyone had the deepfried salt spiced tofu as a beer snack? Yum, just be careful since it keeps the heat for a LONG time.

There is a sliced cucumber with chilli oil dish around here, too, that is great. Served chillled, but seems to have been slightly cooked, maybe steamed or stirfried. Except sometimes they go overboard with the chilli.

And a very simple chicken thick soup made with a whole chook that is fabulous. Delicate, subtle, at first seemingly plain, then surprizingly delicious. Then really delicious. Then can't have enough and the pot is empty. Impatiently looking around for the next pot. Not possible to eat any more, but still eating.
The Sun God's Chicken = shen2 xian1 ji1.

[Lotus Eater]

Went back to the above mentioned tea house with friends the other day. It is an off-shoot of yours, Raoul.

However, since they now know me, I was asked to write a recommendation for them, and then given a guided tour of the whole joint. 3rd and 4th floors are private rooms for hire - some very flash, with the massive Chinese sofas, own toilets, mahjiang tables, dining settings as well as the tea drinking paraphanalia.

The whole of the top floor was one suite available for hire. It had a dining room for 10, tea drinking room, games room, bathroom with shower and toilet, a bedroom with antique bed, a pond with a verandah and verandah chairs to retire to when it all gets too much, a 'living' room with the huge chairs, a litle garden to wander in. If you wanted you could move in and it would probably be better than the apartments most of us are currently in.

All for the miserly sum of 1688Y per hour.

Inquiring minds want to know why there needs to be a large bed if you are going to a place to drink tea?

[Mr Nobody]

No, they don't. I can't imagine what you can do on a bed at over 1000 rmb in only one hour. And I don't want to know.

[Arlis]

Some additions around my area in Qingdao. Please note that the tones may not be 100% correct as my listening sucks and I can't confirm it with any chinese people I trust.

Ga2 La4
A Shandong cuisine (or so I'm told) of fresh clams boiled in a light broth with plenty of red peppers and a bit of ginger. The result is a spicy burst of seafood that's heavenly when chowed down with a cold Tsingtao by the beach. Long lunches often result in my consumption of about 40-50 of these suckers (and I'm the one with the smallest pile!)

Suan2 La4 Tu3 Dou4 Si1
Another spicy favourite to be consumed outside with a cold one while a refreshing breeze rushes through you. The dish consists of a multitude of very thinly sliced potato slivers that's been cooked with red peppers, vinegar, and garlic. A friend I know orders one at every meal and whines if there is none.

Ba1 Xi Ka4 Rou4
Brazilian BBQ. This particular pork bbq variety is very localised and is not presented on sticks but on a plate surrounded with mantou that's been cut into slices and quickly deep fried in oil. The bbq pork itself is spiced (with unknown heavenly spices), tender, and scrumptious to eat. However, an additional spicy (and slightlys sweet) sauce on the side allows for dipping of the meat or/and bread to really elevate this from a normal bbq dish. (may be a restaurant specialty)

San1 Xian1 Yuin1 Do4
Fried Green Beans. Strangely enough, every chinese student/colleague/friend that I've sat down to eat this with has never eaten this dish before in their life. Yet it's the first dish to be completely and utterly finished before others. Green beans are stir-fryed together with minced meat, clams (without the shell), century eggs, soy sauce, and possibly garlic. The result is amazing and as I stated, it is the first to be devoured before other dishes whenever I order it at a particular restaurant. (may be a restaurant specialty)

Ka4 Li1 Fan or Ka4 Li1 Niu2 Rou4 Fan
Curry Rice. Hasn't really been mentioned, not so much a Chinese dish but I've noticed a number of small, hole in the wall restaurants offering this so I'll say it anyway. One of my favourite non-chinese dishes that I've tried for the first time in my life (though I found them China). The curry is not so much Indian curry but similar to japanese-style curry without the mind blowing spice (yes it's spicy, but spicy in a delicate way). Anyways, found with a few varieties including a potota pancake variety I found at a japanese curry restaurant in Qingdao (see the Qingdao post in city specific info). It's great, it's fantastic, and every person I've taken there for the first time (chinese and foreign) has liked it tremendously.

Bon apetit!

[Mr Nobody]

Oh, yeah, Jade and Lotus, the fried spare ribs is what Mrs N ordered in that restaurant we ate at the end of our visit. What we got was not what she ordered. It is supposed to be crispy, lucious and tasty, not soggy. Just thought I would mention it. Can also be any meat, chicken, pork, beef, and any cut, not just ribs. Can buy the chicken version here like KFC.

[Ruth]

Posting here to bring this thread up a little. A new member was asking for recipes and this thread is a good one.

[cheekygal]

Thank you, i will keep an eye on this thread and also post some things here

[Raoul Duke]

Glad it's bobbed up. I have a new one.

Mu4 Shu1 Rou4 is pretty good stuff. It's pork shreds stir-fried with leek, scrambled egg, and wood ears. You may recognize it as "Mu Shu Pork", a popular favorite at least in the States, except that here it's generally served without the pancake and sweet hoisin sauce that generally accompany it there.

[Raoul Duke]

Aaaaand another one. Kind of an odd dish but good if you can figure out how to eat it.

Ba2 Si1 Xiang1 Jiao1 are a sort of caramelized banana fritters. Banana chunks are battered and fried and placed in a dish. Caramel is poured over them, and the whole thing is sprinkled with sesame seeds. They are served with a small bowl of cool water...dip your bite in the water to solidify the caramel and keep it from stringing everywhere.

The same treatment is given apples (ba2 si1 ping1 guo3) and potatoes (ba2 si1 tu2 dou4). All are pretty good but the banana is my favorite.

Problem is, this is a hard dish to eat. It's served at a precise temperature of 1450 degrees Celsius...the caramel is pliable enough but Westerners need to wait about 45 minutes for it to cool. When it actually IS cool enough to eat, the caramel has hardened to the consistency of granite. You need a hammer and cold chisel to eat it.

Anyway, if you can sort out the puzzle, it's a pretty good dish. It's a definite favorite in the Northeast; my local Dongbei restaurant does it really well too.

[Ruth]

We had all of those during bootcamp - apples, bananas, sweet potato. VERY popular. The trick is to get the pieces dipped into the water before they all harden together.

[Raoul Duke]

Sweet potatoes...haven't seen that yet but sounds good. Ba2 Si1 Nan2 Gua1.
Ruth hits on the problem...this dish must be eaten quickly upon serving. But it's served at the temperature of molten lava...

[George61]

the temperature of molten lava...

well...molten sugar, anyway. I like the sweet potato version, but for ordinary spuds I prefer tomato sauce.

[Ruth]

Sweet potato is what we get in our local restaurants. Hadn't tried banana or apple before bootcamp. Yummy and certainly HEALTHY given the fruit, right?

[Mr Nobody]

Where is an eyes-rolling smiley when you need it?

[Ruth]

^{This is not a blatant attempt at postpadding, merely a helpful hint for my dear friend, Mr. N.}

[George61]

Yeah, right!

[Lotus Eater]

If you ask for ba si nan gua up in my neck of the woods you will end up with caramelised pumpkin! Sweet potato up here is gan1shu3 or hong2shu3.

Why is tomato called different things in different places as well?

[Mr Nobody]

Well, bunches of the smileys aren't there for me, including the popular eyesroll and the bong.


Crap, looking in the wrong place. My bad.

Still no bong though.

[Raoul Duke]

Kids!
Dishes please! It's a library!

To get all the smileys, you have to use 'reply'. If you use 'quick reply' you only get the few default smileys that come with the forum software.