[Sca-cooks] Semi-OT: [long] Cultural Evolution and the "traditional" banquet in NYC's Chinatown

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Huette von Ahrens:
>--- "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius"
><adamantius.magister at verizon.net> wrote:
>
>>  Little Peking Duck sandwiches. IOW, a Peking
>>  Duck presentation which
>>  did not feature the elaborate tableside
>>  presentation and ritualistic
>>  carving theater. They just carved them, put
>>  them on the little
>>  pancakes (which seem to have evolved away from
>>  the same tortilla-like
>>  pancake that used to be served with mu-xi pork,
>
>I thought that this was called mu shu pork?  Or
>are there regional variations?

Yes. At least dialect-based variations on pronunciation. In English, 
I gather, it is known as Sweet Osmanthus Pork. Officially, as I 
recall, the dish is an Imperial one from one of the southern-based 
dynasties, only served with the wheat-flour pancakes relatively 
recently, and was created by cooks who disliked a certain court 
official sensitive about his eunuch status, hence the use of lily 
buds and eggs in the dish.

>   One of my
>co-workers from Taiwan never heard of mu shu
>anything, until we went together to one of the
>restaurants in LA's Chinatown.

You should hear my lady wife, who is the soul of tolerance in most 
areas (she's married to me, after all) on the follies of Taiwanese 
cooks, who, she maintains, can't cook anything unless it is based on 
onions, garlic, and chives. I'm inclined to agree, but unlike her, 
don't see it as a problem ;-).

>
>>  and morphed into a
>>  little, ruffled-edge and clearly leavened,
>>  cake, about four inches
>>  across. Served as a sandwich with two cakes,
>>  the duck skin and meat,
>>  hoisin sauce, and shredded scallion. Very nice,
>>  but not the way I
>>  remember Peking Duck.
>
>Do you remember what they called this dish, as I
>would love to try to order this.  It sounds
>absolutely delicious.

Well, it was Peking Duck, just presented in a more informal fashion 
as part of a larger meal, where, ordinarily, it'd be more of a main 
course. The more common presentation would usually involve serving 
slices of the duck, with plenty of the crispy skin, in the pancakes 
(which would be larger, more like a wrap or tortilla), with hoisin 
sauce brushed on using a scallion cut into a brush, then inserting 
the scallion into the roll... In the bad old days you'd eat only the 
skin in this manner. Either way, you still have access to more duck 
meat, which the cook stir-fries in various ways, and then a soup made 
from the carcass to end the meal. We just had the sandwiches, in 
smaller, somewhat frillier pancakes, and in two rounds like a regular 
sandwich, instead of rolling or folding the the pancakes around the 
filling.

>  > Battered, fried shrimp with fried, candied
>  > walnuts in a lemony,
>>  mayonnaise-like sauce, on top of broccoli
>>  florets. Pretty standard
>>  stuff, and we all cried over the
>>  pedestrian-ness of it all, while we
>>  ate it. Not.
>
>In a local restaurant, one of their signiture
>dishes is steamed shrimp with candied walnuts
>in a lobster sauce.  It is very, very yum.

To quote Will Rogers, I never met a shrimp I didn't like (as long as 
it was fresh).

>  > Personally, I like a good I.P.A. with such a
>>  meal, but this was a
>>  nice improvement over the water-glass of
>>  blended Scotch on the
>>  rocks... and I had a bottle of I.P.A. in the
>>  fridge at home, so
>>  everything worked out beautifully.
>
>What is I.P.A?  Inimatably putrid alcohol?
>Inadvertantly pricey alcohol?

India Pale Ale is an English ale style designed (as with Russian 
Imperial Stout) to survive an ocean voyage to or through the tropics. 
As such, it's stronger, heavier, and quite bitter/hoppy. Unlike 
stout, though, it's not very dark (pale ale, despite its name, is 
usually amber), its bitterness is achieved with plenty of hops, not 
from roasted malts, and consequently tastes quite malty. Not everyone 
likes it, but I do.

Adamantius