Text 15032, 117 rader
Skriven 2014-07-22 09:40:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av NANCY BACKUS
Ärende: sic transit 698
=======================
 ML> Ian and Jacquie Hoare, who were on the echo before you, and
 ML> Glen Jamieson, whom I'm pretty sure you overlapped with.
 NB> I've heard much of the former, though they were before my time, and
 NB> indeed have had a number of conversations here with the latter.

On the echo Ian was very a. knowledgeable; b. opinionated;
c. entertaining; d. all of the above. Jacquie never
appeared here but was engaging and fun in person.

 ML>> Sadly, the large assortment of guo teh dumplings (which had
 ML>> been made in house) was no longer on the menu.
 NB>> Maybe those were on a special menu...?  Or only made for particular
 NB>> days...? 
 ML> More like the auntie who made them died or moved away!
 NB> Ah.  Yeah... I can see that...  sigh...  ;0

You win some, you lose some.

My brother and I recently went to a place in Rockville
called A&J, which has been around for several decades, only
people used to badmouth it, so I was never steered there -
my father liked Joe's Noodle House instead, which serves
some of the same things, only at Joe's the food is mouth-
searingly salty. Anyhow, I refuse to go to Joe's, now that
I don't have to please the old man.

Jonathan has just gotten his CCNP (analogous, he tells me,
to a master's of computer science, only more practical
and - as it's administered by Cisco, saleable), so this
was to be a celebratory meal.

Anyhow, we had dim sum, and it was quite good and mostly
reasonably priced.

Started off with "braised pork on rice with braised egg,"
which I envisioned as nice red-cooked pork belly but
turned out to be ground meat in a five-spice-heavy brown
sauce, sided with pickled mustard green - which Jonathan
surprisingly liked - a smallish portion but okay for the
$4 charged.

Guo teh tasted pretty normal, but the wrappers were much
thinner than usual and the filling had less soy than
usual. The observation was made across the table that
these didn't taste as Chinese as usual, which struck me
funny as Jonathan has formed stereotypes of his own based
most of the time on only the slimmest evidence. Anyhow,
there was plenty of ginger and scallion, and the things
tasted perfectly Chinese to me. An oddity - these were
made in groups of four, stuck together, and an order
gives you two of these groups, for $6.10. They could
easily get away with selling one set for $3.50 or even 4.

My treat was spicy tripe, slivers of honeycomb beef
stomach in moderately hot hot oil and some soy and
sugar - very good, and even Jonathan liked it.

Hung you chow show are supposed to be a Szechwan specialty
- pork wontons in a spicy broth of soy, hot oil, Szechwan
pepper, sesame, and a touch of sugar. When made with
vinegar, which I prefer, they're called suan la chow show.
These were heavy on the Szechwan pepper, light on the hot
pepper, and very light on the pork. Okay but not exciting.

Aside: when you make wontons at home, you fill them nice
and tight with filling; at a good restaurant likewise.  
Cheapo restaurants use scanty filling. Some Americanized
places omit the filling altogether and just fry some
noodles and call them wontons, which irritated me the
first time I encountered the custom, but now, eh, who
cares, just don't come back. Someday at a picnic I will
do a wonton demonstration along with whatever I promised
to do this year but didn't.

The guo teh were good enough that we got an extra order.

Jonathan informed me that it was his turn, so he paid
for his own celebratory meal. Except he didn't - he didn't
have any money. Sort of peculiar.

Sigeumchi Namul (Seasoned Spinach)
cat: Korean, Singaporen, banchan, starter
servings: 6


3 bn spinach, cut into 2" lengths
3 cloves garlic, minced
light soy
sesame oil

1) Blanch spinach in salted boiling water for no more than
30 sec. Drain into ice bath. This will stop the cooking
process and retain its bright green hue. Wring the water
from the spinach (you absolutely need to drain the water
from this, otherwise it'll be waterlogged. Just give the
whole clump a quick squeeze) and set aside.

2) Stir fry the garlic in 1 Tb sesame oil. Some recipes
call for raw garlic to be tossed in with the spinach but
I don't quite like the sharp bite of raw garlic, so I
give it a quick fry for a more aromatic mellow taste.

3) Set aside the golden crisp garlic in bowl.

4) Toss garlic, 1 Tb soy, and 1 Tb sesame oil with
spinach and serve. You can up the sesame oil to 2 Tb if
you like. This is good at room temperature or chilled.

Variations: A light sprinkle of sesame seeds lends
additional flavour and texture. M adds: and is necessary.

thehungrybunnie.blogspot.sg


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