thread of pictures of real chinese food

i think a fusion of cuisines that uses the system or thinking of a mother cuisine to present local products is basically a good idea, whether it's like west coast chefs using japanese-inspired presentation and general approach to seafood or produce, whatever, or even say on the other side japanese chefs using french or general european approaches to japanese foods. but... i feel like in this case you've got guys doing it sort of backwards and trying to work with chinese flavors and tastes and products without being interested in or finding out why the general overall system works, starting with like how a piece of meat is cut, the method of building flavors in a dish beyond just a list of what goes in it, i dunno.

like my boy dyao said it's kind of fucked up and lame to think that it would work, like if a dude claimed, "yeah, i trained informally in a bistro in rouen for two months and now i'm going to take french cuisine to the next level."

i don't know what the nyc or miami chinese dining scene is like but in vancouver at least it's always extra depressing when a place opens up selling DUMPLINGS! and the spurious idea of chinese food brought up to the level of every yaletown/kits small plates place set down in some 1930s art deco in a gentrified chinatown building and a drinks menu that features ginger and longan syrup martinis because there are lots of great and innovative and hey even expensive if you want and hey they even have tasting menus if you want and hey there's a great wine list if you want high end and medium end chinese places within a 20 minute drive or a 5 minute walk depending on where you are.

vancouver does manage to make room for places like bao bei and still maintain the best chinese restaurants in north america though.

i guess i could ease off and say i guess it's cool that these guys would go to harbin and be inspired or something... but this kind of shit is just fucking lame and i can't get behind it.

otm all around

there is something really lame about what i have to assume is a superficial take on a deep cuisine. i want chinese restaurants that bring a mother broth from overseas and that's their one claim to fame. i want pots fermenting somewhere in Humboldt next to weed grows. mostly i want really good actual chinese chefs to get recognition.

not sure if you've had a chance to eat at Mission Chinese Food but imo that's an example of a "creative" take on Sichuan working. I prefer traditional, but I appreciate what he's trying to do. it's not disrespectful (calling out Z&Y at launch was just his way of saying hi) and most of his stuff works.

even so, i wish that 10% of the people that went to Mission Chinese Food would also visit Pot Sticker to have the real thing.

you know, like a food truck, but in chinese

I want to go to Flushing for noodles so bad.

nah you wanna go to flushing for a rack of muslim lamb ribs

http://i975.photobucket.com/albums/ae232/daggerlee/null_zps4f7a3d7b.jpg

Well yes, but that is always a true statement unrelated to anything else.

Where do I want to go for noodles?

Maybe the place chinavision was into, that could work.

http://m.yelp.com/biz/king-5-noodle-house-flushing

noodles i think are really easy and satisfying to make at home with limited actual work time and limited ingredients: flour, eggs, bones, meat, things to flavor a broth.

surely just buy the noodles?

I find a lot of noodles to be unexciting but my dirty Beijing mouth will always open for 炸酱面

no. do not just buy noodles. i swear to god. flour, egg, and water and after a few tries, you'll be able to whip it up quicker than it takes a pot of rice to boil and you can start to figure out what you need to do to customize chewiness, experiment with shapes.

the broth is easier to get better than any noodle place and within a batches of noodles, you can produce a noodle that might not be as good as the best places but will definitely be better than storebought and at the very least it's easy to produce a good rustic chewy noodle that's incredibly satisfying with a bowl of beef broth with a handful of cilantro and green onion on top or with like fried tomato and egg or other simple dish.

braising beef and putting big chewy noodles into the pot is nearly impossible to screw up and is an amazing meal. same with fat flat noodles and fried tomato and egg. cannot go wrong.

http://img6.ph.126.net/g8-V45ZU00gEsXCuHzLToA==/1296755217723776966.jpg

All hail thick chewy noodles, death to mushy flabby noodles

http://big5.citygf.com/FD/014001/200909/W020090907378336412629.jpg

i hope that picture works but if not

http://big5.citygf.com/FD/014001/200909/t20090907_116849.html

濑粉 làifěn or laaih fun??? it's starchy and savory thick like campbells cream of chicken soup

Is that hot or cold? Looks awesome either way.

yo dylaaaaaaaan the best canto dict is http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/

so that'd be: laai fan (6, 2)

it's hot.

my friend took me to eat it and was like, "do you think it's weird???" and it is a bit strange the combination of thick starchy and slightly gooey noodles but it manages to push all sorts of childhood school lunch / comfort food buttons at once that it's so familiar and good.

http://z.abang.com/d/guangzhoumeishi/1/3/b/X/-/-/1313572820.jpg

http://file20.mafengwo.net/M00/95/6C/wKgB3FETu2SACFdPAAiZjuBmpjI56.groupinfo.w600.jpeg

i got it from here--- http://www.mafengwo.cn/i/1105145.html
check it out for pictures of real chinese food + my new hometown

same friend took me to eat "the best" 肠粉/chángfěn/cheuhng fan in guangzhou for lunch
穗银肠粉 suìyín chángfěn
name changed after breaking away from local branch 银记肠粉 yínjìchángfěn
and it was pretty impressive cheuhng fan

frank bruni eats his way thru china

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/16/dining/reviews/chinas-dining-acrobatics.html?ref=international-home&;_r=0

The skin of this duck! Almost as thin as paper, almost as crisp as a potato chip. And the meat! Dark, rich — the chocolate of flesh.

gross, dude

http://i.imgur.com/4Xbvks0.png

i guess she's hungry!

I would expect her to pull a Mr. Burns

http://dc.eater.com/archives/2011/10/31/10-chinese-dishes-that-real-chinese-people-dont-eat.php

FYI Eater, a type of sweet and sour pork / chicken is pretty popular in Hong Kong, where it's known as Pineapple Chicken

http://i.imgur.com/bgHOv4p.jpg

i've had guo bao rou at a few '''''real''''' chinese places & its pretty much sweet n sour pork

Sweet and sour pork is wonderful

yeah... sweet and sour is eaten in china as just straight up 糖醋xxx / tángcù(sugar+vinegar)xxx, like 糖醋里脊肉, but there are lots of other sweet and sour combos that involve pork and chicken. in northern jiangsu, i ate flattened deepfried pork with sweetened with strips of haws jelly and soured with black vinegar.

salad... you've got 凉拌 liángbàn, which often take the form of vegetables, tofu, etc. tossed with sesame oil, vinegar, soy. in dongbei, i ate a lot of fresh greens dipped in sauce. no mention of concerns over dysentery.

and there is broccoli in east asia. sometimes people eat it with beef.

http://food.chinese.cn/image/attachement/jpg/site2/20110118/0023ae99e1440e9f4de807.jpg

辣子蒜羊血
chili garlic sheepblood

将羊扳倒，白刀子进，红刀子出，热血接入盆中。用马尾箩滤去杂质，倒进同量的食盐水，细棍搅之，匀，凝结成块后改切成较小的块，投开水锅煮，小火血固如嫩豆腐，捞出，呈褐红色，舌舔之略咸。
　　
至此羊血制成，可泡在清水盆里备用。
　　
清晨，或是傍晚，食摊安在小巷街头，摆设十分简单，一个木架，架子上是各类碗盏，分别放在盐、酱、醋、蒜水、油泼辣子、香油。木架旁是一火炉，炉上有锅，水开而不翻滚，锅里煮的是切成小方块的羊血。羊血捞在碗里，并无许多汤，加各类调料便可下口了：羊血鲜嫩汤味辣、呛、咸，花椒、小茴香味窜扑鼻。
　　
咸阳有一人，可以说什么的都不缺，只是缺钱；也可以说什么的都没有，只是有病。病不是大病，体弱时常感冒。中医告之：每日喝人参汤半碗，喝过半月即根除感冒。此人拍拍钱包，一笑了之。卖辣子蒜羊血的说：买羊骨砸碎熬汤每早喝一碗；再每晚吃羊血一碗吧。如此早晚不断，一月后病断。

Put the lamb on the ground and stick it in the neck with a knife. Drain the blood into a basin. Use a sieve to filter any impurities out of the blood. Add an equal amount of brine to the blood. Stir. Divide. After the blood congeals, cut it into smaller pieces. Poach over a low flame. After cooking, the blood cubes will have a texture similar to soft tofu. The blood will change to a reddish-brown and will have a slightly salty flavor.

At this point, the blood can be stored in clean water in a basin.

Early in the morning or around dusk, you will see the sheep blood sellers setting up. At their stalls, you will see dishes with all of the condiments for the dish prepared: salt, soy, vinegar, garlic paste, chili and oil, and sesame oil. Beside the condiments, there will be a small stove, where a pot of soup and cubes of sheep blood simmer. The blood is tossed into a bowl, just a little bit of soup with it, and all of the seasonings and condiments are set on top.

I knew a guy from Xianyang, a village near Xi'an. He wasn't lacking anything but money; he didn't have anything, either, except a cold. He went to a doctor of Chinese medicine, who told him: Drink half a bowl of ginseng soup everyday for two weeks and you'll be fine. The doctor chuckled and tapped his wallet. He went to a guy that ran a sheep blood kiosk, who told him: Every morning, buy some lamb bones and boil soup from them; every night, eat some sheep blood. Keep going for a month and you'll be back to normal.

http://www.csklx.net/upload/201392775445177.jpg

牛杂 only missing curry fish balls and ketchup on top

http://www.yoyomacau.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/rjnz2.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/3ekbg24.jpg

Had some of this on a stick

Excellent with soy sauce and mustard

Well tell us what it is, for christ's sake.

Pig intestine

looks pretty awesome, imo

dylann, is ketchup on top a thing? for specific dishes or just as a condiment?

i don't think i ever saw ketchup as a condiment in china before living in guangzhou. i often see it offered as a condiment/topping for things like: fish balls, beef blood and guts in soup like above, 手抓饼 (??? it's like a flaky dough thing with ham and egg in it and the sauce options are ketchup or mayo), chicken wings, sausages and other meat things on a stick, other streetside and mallside snacks.

Ketchup is a condiment with many Chinese characteristics. Sweet, sour + umami all in one sauce. It's great

My dad has been known to make marinades and sauces with ketchup. You can make a pretty good 红烧 anything with it

i never see it in the north though, i don't think. maybe i do. i wanted to speculate about the conservativeness of northern foodways vs. cantonese cuisine's or the cantonese eater's approach to outside influences or maybe ketchup came via hk.

It'll catch pretty soon I think

It's very suited to the Chinese palate

It's also true that it's been in HK since forever, and not the American kind either

Most of the big HK saucehouses have their own version

http://i.imgur.com/yTpgVl0.jpg

northerners do cook with it, too. but yeah they love their ketchup in the south, mh.

makes sense, thanks!