[Sca-cooks] Chinese Road Map

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Stefan li Rous wrote:

> Thank you for this explanation. I had wondered when you were detailing
> all those wonderful food dishes around the Chinese New Year, why
> although they sounded absolutely wonderful (well, most of them anyway),
> I never recognised anything as something I'd eaten at a 'Chinese'
> resturant. Now I can see why.

To condense the basic Toysan food philosophy (a dangerous undertaking at
best) into a few words, it is, in part, the rustic cuisine that forms
the basis for the urban cuisines of Guangzhou and Hong Kong. It is
characterized by several short growing seasons for a huge variety of
vegetables, and a habit of preserving lots of foods with salt. These
foods are then used as not only bulk ingredients but also as seasonings.
So, in addition to the usual minced waterchestnuts that get mixed with
the ground pork and shrimp for dumpling stuffings and such, common
additions are salted radish, similarly minced, or perhaps salted mustard
knobs. Or this mixture can just be steamed on a plate as an entree, in
which case it may have a salted duck egg cracked over it, or perhaps ham
or salt fish added. Pickles are almost always done in brine, as opposed
to vinegar, used commonly elsewhere.

In general there is less soy sauce used (adding it at the table is
extremely rare, and you get teased about being an American) as well as
less free/pure salt, and fresh, sweet vegetables are frequently served
plain with nothing more than the ginger-and-shallot-infused sauteeing
oil they were cooked in (which, believe me, is all they need). In some
cases oyster sauce is diluted and thickened to for the basis of gravies
for vegetable dishes or mixtures such as the ubiquitous beef with
broccoli, for which no self-respecting Chinese cook would use the
Western floret-type broccoli, of course.

Basically, this is the regional cuisine conceived in homes, behind the
urban cuisines, largely conceived in hotel kitchens, in Hong Kong and
Guangzhou. (French food has a similar situation.) My wife complains that
they put too much sugar in everything in Hong Kong. In general, I agree
;  ) .

Adamantius
--
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com

"It was so blatant that Roger threw at him.  Clemens gets away with
things that get other people thrown out of games.  As long as they
let him get away with it, it's going  to continue." -- Joe Torre, 9/98