Author Topic: Chinese cooking in the new Western World  (Read 5911 times)

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Offline JohnB

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Chinese cooking in the new Western World
« on: November 22, 2012, 12:04:08 pm »
A funny thing happened on the way to the oven--

I thought I would surprise Jing on Thanksgiving. Cook the bird. This was not to be.
We bought a small fresh turkey this past Sunday. I am a good cook (I think, she doesn't), especially fowl. Anyway, I got home Tuesday and Jing had cooked the bird....her way!
The thing looked pitiful. Jing had removed part of the breast meat, stir fry for later use. The bird was splayed out in a large skillet of all things, in the upper rack of the oven, looking like a rag doll left out in the rain. Mind you, Jing had mentioned she has never seen an oven much less used one. New experiences can be surprisingly brutal. Still, it was edible, not too bad with Jing's homemade gravy. I do not know what she used for the gravy, it was not turkey stock.

Last night I took out a couple of frozen (in water) pork chops I cut up from a pork roast we bought at Costco.
It may be an interesting day this Thanksgiving Day.
 
Jing has developed a taste for cheese, but it is most unfortunate that she places little distinction on the use of the different variety of cheeses. Her favorite seems to be mozzarella.
I do not think it mentioned before, Chinese cooking in their new Western World. I am beginning to realize the kitchen is the wife's domain. Husband enters at own peril.


« Last Edit: November 22, 2012, 12:14:37 pm by JohnB »

Arnold

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Re: Chinese cooking in the new Western World
« Reply #1 on: November 22, 2012, 01:57:15 pm »
Funny story John for sure! :o

I had just last week had s similar account, but it was a Costco Pineapple in this case. "Too much trouble" I was told when buying it. I didn't care and replied... it's really no trouble at all. At home getting ready to clean and cut it up into bite size chunks, I was ask if I'm also going to put it into "Salt" first for a few days and then add some "Sugar" to it before eating it?  :o :-\ what the F*** I thought to myself! I cut off the the skin,the top and brought on the "Slicer gadget" which cuts nice triangular shapes and around the core. So here we have "fresh" pineapple ready to eat (our way) and both of them were hesitant to eat some. Well, more for me... I was thinking! After insisting they try it... it was loved by both. I would never do that (what they had in mind) to a nice fruit of any kind. Ahhh... nothing like a good Laugh afterwards.

Offline john1964

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Re: Chinese cooking in the new Western World
« Reply #2 on: November 23, 2012, 11:57:12 pm »
im lucky as my wife enjoys my cooking, I cook maybe 2-3 times a week, I still love Chinese food, even-though it is dissected in to the smallest pieces, I myself like to sink my teeth in to a nice thick steak.. 

Offline Smaug

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Re: Chinese cooking in the new Western World
« Reply #3 on: January 24, 2013, 05:04:24 pm »
Great thread. I can't wait to experience this with my lady.

Watching her effortlessly cook many many dishes from memory... I miss it. Even if everything is fried at 600* in peanut oil, hehehe.

I hope she likes variety when she comes here.

Offline Willy The Londoner

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Re: Chinese cooking in the new Western World
« Reply #4 on: January 24, 2013, 09:26:25 pm »
Great thread. I can't wait to experience this with my lady.

Watching her effortlessly cook many many dishes from memory... I miss it. Even if everything is fried at 600* in peanut oil, hehehe.

I hope she likes variety when she comes here.
I have no idea how others wives get on with cooking when they are living in foreign countries.
 Living in China my wife cooks only Chinese food but often cooks Chinese food in what she thinks is an English style!  But she when she does that she cooks two lots of food one for me and one for her.

On the two occasions we have been to UK on visits we have major problems in finding food suitable for her as even Chinese resturaunts are cooking things for a western palate and not typical Chinese food.  She us guaranteed to lose a couple of pounds each trip which at 93lbs is something she can do without.

Do others have wives that soon fall into Western cooking or do they often make separate food for them selves as well as a meal for you?

Willy


« Last Edit: January 24, 2013, 09:31:20 pm by Willy The Londoner »
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Offline Jason B

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Re: Chinese cooking in the new Western World
« Reply #5 on: January 24, 2013, 10:14:38 pm »
Xia will make Chinese food about 80% of the time and western food 20%.  I do not mind at all I love Chinese food no matter what it is.  We always have cereal and toast and coffee for breakfast though.  She is getting better cooking steaks and chicken breast etc.  But can not get her head around the fact that we eat a whole steak and do not cut it up into wafer thin strips prior to cooking it.
I WILL have my revenge for having to be clean shaven......once I learn how to tame my Dragon.

Offline maxx

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Re: Chinese cooking in the new Western World
« Reply #6 on: January 24, 2013, 11:34:51 pm »
MY wife cooks what she wants to eat.I cook what I want to eat.Are three boys.Have a different choice every night what they want to eat.For breakfest the boys eat cereal or eggs.

Offline daghoi

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Re: Chinese cooking in the new Western World
« Reply #7 on: March 05, 2013, 06:58:24 pm »

My soon to be wife is "inspired" by western food. Lived in the country for many years. She makes everything from start, uses only proper meat or fish, "tons" of fresh vegetables. Often two dishes, soup and meat or fish. No industrialized produced food, to be found in the house. We never needed to worry if we had eaten any food with horse meat.  Here in scandinavia it was discovered food that was declared as cattle actualy was horse meat. Understand it was same in UK and france and some other european country. Anyway thanks to my wifes cooking I did not need to worry about that.

Offline JohnB

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Re: Chinese cooking in the new Western World
« Reply #8 on: March 05, 2013, 09:15:19 pm »
Other than the dumplings & soup, I think stir- fry must be the only way Jing cooks. Same, same..lots of vegetables, some meat, and a lot of stirring. I am thinking I much prefer my vegetables steamed, a little butter, lemon, salt & pepper. And of course, fine grated Parmigiano Reggiano Stravecchio (Costco, a best buy). Soon the test of wills.   
Kind of odd, she hasn't done "hot pot"..in China, it is what we most often have at dinner in restaurants. Something different, healthy & tastes great.
https://www.google.com/search?q=chinese+hot+pot&hl=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=m6g2UcSZLMWHqwHB6oHgCw&sqi=2&ved=0CD8QsAQ&biw=1600&bih=767
My favorite Chinese food was in Changsha. Outstanding! I gravitated China north until I met Jing in Liaoning Province. More noodles than rice and there is a noticeable Korean influence to the cuisine there. Jing likes kimchi. I think it safe to say that Chinese soup, wherever, was always very good. I had radish soup in a hotel in Handan one late night. Radish soup! Beyond belief it was that good.
Again Changsha. First China visit, August as in HOT & HUMID. Was in a restaurant with others and the order was for fish soup. Out it came. Looked like a frickin carp in dirty soap water. I am thinking... I don't eat carp, but. Anyway, I did. And did not stop. I noticed the Chinese like the head. I of course, ate the upper, forward fillet of the fish. The soup, ahh!

China culinary 1st experiences are great, except for the donkey meat & snake.
« Last Edit: March 05, 2013, 11:54:01 pm by JohnB »

Arnold

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Re: Chinese cooking in the new Western World
« Reply #9 on: March 06, 2013, 12:07:28 pm »
I thought this would be funny, that Qing loves for me to make French Fries at home. One of our last trips to Walmart, I came by a nice Deep Fryer.. so I though why not? The only thing, now we also needed a Fries Cutter Tool. That of course was more than twice the price of the Deep Fryer. As I do NOT buy the cheapest of anything.. it had to be Metal not Plastic and be willing to last for years to come.
The Hot-Pot thing maybe not being too popular for our Lady's at home, might be because it is time consumming preparing all the food items going into the Pot. Qing does not want to buy (too expensive) the already cut Meat's/Ball's.. so doing this from scratch can take all afternoon. Of course the cleanup all night!
It is awesome though when we do have it.

Offline JohnB

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Re: Chinese cooking in the new Western World
« Reply #10 on: April 07, 2013, 01:14:27 pm »
I do not think my wife knows of "kung pao chicken"..at least she has not served it, yet. I have a Changsha cuisine cookbook (English lng). I'll have a go at it. I should be so lucky if she likes my cooking. I think it goes beyond the kitchen, as she is not forthcoming to anyone else's cooking in her kitchen.

A week ago, Jing said, as a matter of fact, that she had enjoyed dog meat for a year or so, a couple years back. She said this in front of my 2 labs! Last year we saw a few gulls on a nearby campus green. She said, "in China, we eat". I am thinking 'dogs', 'gulls' and they do not like 'kung pao chicken'!
On my first visit, Changsha, I had donkey meat, snake meat snuck on my dinner plate. I am thinking, I did not like the taste of whatever this poor beast was.
I do not think anything is safe, animal- wise, in China, except for maybe 'kung pao' chicken'.


Why Chinese hate kung pao chicken (and foreigners love it)
http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=848554 
A menu of cultural difference lies behind one of China's most popular dishes
By Andrea Fenn CNNGO


It conquered the palates of generations of Westerners who grew up with Chinese restaurants down the street.
Expats stroll around China in T-shirts emblazoned with its four characters (宫保鸡丁).
Facebook pages sing its wonders.
This mystic food is the simple gong bao ji ding  -- chicken fried with chilies and nuts, better known to non-Chinese as kung pao chicken.
However, Chinese generally shun the dish.
They're baffled by its popularity abroad, and don't want it to represent their cuisine.
Kung pao chicken is the most culturally divisive dish in China.

So what's with the love-hate thing?
To explain the conundrum, we asked three prominent Shanghai chefs to chime into the debate.
The experts included Wang Lishi, manager of King Kong Eatery on Changle Lu, home of legendary kung pao chicken soup noodles; Anthony Zhao, chef and cuisine consultant at Ultimate Food Concept and kung pao chicken connoisseur; and Corrado Michelazzo, Michelin-star Italian chef at Va Bene Xintiandi, who also enjoys Chinese food.
Collectively, the panel came up with the three explanations for the kung pao controversy.
Kung pao chicken by Corrado Michelazzo of Shanghai's Va Bene Xintiandi. Yes, even Michelin-star chefs love the poor man's chicken dish.

It’s no secret that Chinese would rather eat cartilage, bones, skin, bowels or any other (by overseas' standards) inedible bit of an animal, rather than a fleshy piece of meat. According to Zhao, Chinese are reluctant to eat the meaty chicken breast, which is the main ingredient of kung pao chicken.
"Chicken breast in China is usually dry and tasteless," he says. “People here prefer the meat next to the bones because it has some juice.”
Michelazzo agrees. “Chinese customers generally don’t like chicken breast,” he says. “Chicken in China tastes too much like poultry for them. I have to import chicken from Japan for them to eat it.”
Outside of China, however, breast meat is among the most requested and expensive part of a chicken. This helps explain the success of kung pao chicken among foreigners.
“I also had a prejudice toward chicken breast, but then I tried one in Boston and thought, 'Hey, this is nice and moist,'" says Zhao. “No wonder Western people really like chicken breast.”
The intense sauce explanation
One of the most important features of kung pao chicken is its starchy, syrupy sauce.
Michelazzo says Westerners appreciate the dish for the balanced taste of the sauce.
“The sweet and sour flavor and starchy texture are typical of Chinese restaurants in the West,” he explains. “We like to associate those qualities with Chinese cuisine, even though that might not necessarily be true of Chinese cuisine here.”
Zhao says the distinctive sauce might be a reason for local aversion to the dish.
"To many Chinese, kung pao chicken is too saucy and intense, and you can only accompany it with rice," he says. "Very few Chinese would eat the dish by itself.”
One anonymous marketing expert says it's increasingly common among young Chinese to suspect that restaurants that use intense sauce -- such as is used in kung pao chicken -- do so as a means to cover the taste of old meat.
While rejecting that notion ("We always use fresh chicken"), Wang Lishi of King Kong admits that the intense taste of kung pao chicken makes it increasingly unpopular among young Chinese.
“Around 10 years ago, to most Chinese, Sichuan cuisine only meant kung pao chicken and a handful of other dishes,” she says. “Now young people want something more delicate and unusual when they eat Sichuanese fare.”
Kung pao chicken soup noodles as served by King Kong Eatery in Shanghai.

There may be a deeper and perhaps more interesting answer to the kung pao dilemma.
Kung pao chicken is a dish that stirs memories and feelings among Chinese that aren't always positive.
Zhao explains that when the first restaurants opened their doors after the country's economic reforms, they all served simple dishes, such as kung pao chicken.
“At the time, chicken was rare and pork was the common staple, so we regarded kung pao chicken as special,” says Zhao. “But now, eating chicken is the norm, and people's tastes are evolving toward more complicated and sophisticated dishes.”
Get out of your Chinese food rut
According to Zhao, to some Chinese, kung pao chicken is a symbol of poorer times. Today's Chinese are eager to shake off the remnants of their indigent past.
However, the fate of kung pao chicken isn't yet sealed. Wang believes inflation in China could elevate kung pao back to the top of the menu.
"Peanuts are getting more and more expensive," says Wang. “Soon a plate of kung pao chicken will become so pricey that people will stop thinking it's such a cheap dish.”
« Last Edit: April 07, 2013, 03:03:09 pm by JohnB »

Offline Willy The Londoner

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Re: Chinese cooking in the new Western World
« Reply #11 on: April 07, 2013, 08:15:01 pm »
The Chinese the have strict morals when it comes to animals. If an animal gives up his life for man then they are not going to waste any part of that precious gift.  Of course they respect animals to the end.  Just see how many pigs you see strapped over the back of motor bikes being taken on a last scenic ride. Enjoying the freedom of the open air! ::)

Willy
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