Taste Hong Kong » Vegetable

Hot and Sour Potato Shreds

TasteHongKong — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 07:10:34 +0000

These pale-looking, spaghetti-like thin strips are shreds from a potato, may I assure you. I first encountered them when visiting Qxingdao in China, a city far away from Sichuan where this dish was originated. Then, I keep seeing this hot and sour potato shreds (written as 醋溜土豆絲 in Chinese and pronounced as Cu Liu Tu Dou Si in Mandarin) from Chinese cook books and Chinese food blogs. There are variations though, they all tend to include peppercorns and dried red chilies as the key ingredients .

To me, potato is not at all any alien food, but still I found it hard to associate these shreds with the potato family in my very first bite. I excused myself for too getting used to eat deep fried and baked potatoes, which are either crispy or fluffy. To describe these funny thin strips, I would say, they are more or less like cuts from a jicama, something crunchy indeed.
(...)
Read the rest of Hot and Sour Potato Shreds (372 words)

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Tomatoes Stew with ToFu

TasteHongKong — Sun, 23 May 2010 17:32:36 +0000

The type of tomato I bought for making this dish are probably one of the best tomatoes I have ever had, almost seedless, flesh is dense and meaty. Sadly, except in some supermarkets, it is not our habit here to have different kinds of vegetables labeled. I tried to find out the name of them, but the stall keeper answered in a short, abrupt tone, ‘Meaty Tomatoes’, as if that was the most specific answer.(...)
Read the rest of Tomatoes Stew with ToFu (531 words)

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Chinese Cabbage with Ham and Cream Sauce

TasteHongKong — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 16:02:20 +0000

This is a popular dish of Beijing cuisine, which in Chinese is called 腿茸奶油津白.

When preparing this at home, I often apply my own preference. What I mean is to cook and flavor the cabbage predominately with ham and to coat it lightly with a creamy sauce which at the same time should not over-power the tastes of others. As such, I use no chicken stock, butter, and lard. Instead, I toast, stir-fry and then simmer the ham in the sauce to release its flavor. This might be a less oil-laden version however I find it equally flavorful.
(...)
Read the rest of Chinese Cabbage with Ham and Cream Sauce (457 words)

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Double Cooked Pork Slices

TasteHongKong — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 04:46:38 +0000

This is a famous dish of the Sichuan cuisine. Interestingly, I have never found one Shanghainese restaurant here in Hong Kong not listing this Double Cooked or Twice Cooked Pork Slices on their menu. A possible reason is that they love spicy food as well. Added to this, my guess is, this dish is just too simple to adapt because unlike other Sichuan foods, which require lots of spices and different types of chilies, the key ingredients for making this dish include only chili bean sauce, pork slices, green and red chili peppers.
(...)
Read the rest of Double Cooked Pork Slices (537 words)

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Lettuce Wraps – Chinese Style

TasteHongKong — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 05:26:49 +0000

Most of the posts included here so far, if you have noticed, are mostly Asian or actually Chinese recipes. Nevertheless I still see the need to specify the style of this dish cause it is available in many regions yet varies quite a lot in the use of ingredients.

Recalled from my dinning experience, lettuce wraps of the Korean type are the most exciting; apart from generally having pieces of beef as the filling, there are also red hot sauces and raw garlics to go with it. When eating the Thai style, I could probably differentiate it from the others by the first one or two bites as it is just easy to tell from the flavors of added fish sauce and ground peanuts. Talking about the uniqueness, another one that has impressed me is the Malay wraps, I might not be that familiar with Malaysian menu, but I have enjoyed their popular bean sprouts in many kinds of their dishes, lettuce wraps included!

Me being lucky enough to have tried this same dish of different culinary styles, so there is no reason not sharing mine with you.
(...)
Read the rest of Lettuce Wraps – Chinese Style (331 words)

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Stuffed Chili Peppers

TasteHongKong — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:12:13 +0000

I like having this slender type of chili pepper for stuffing. When halved, they are just in the optimum size to hold the right amount of fillings for me as I prefer not to have the meat outweighs the taste of pepper. Yes, I have been using meat actually more than one type of meat as the filling, but the only magic combination to me is fish with beef. Let me explain why.
(...)
Read the rest of Stuffed Chili Peppers (376 words)

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh