Food – Cantonese Cuisine

Tonight I was treated to a meal that was absolutely no stranger to me, but, as it turned out, has been sorely missed:  a good ol’ Cantonese restaurant dinner.  There is a definite difference between a restaurant meal and home cooked dishes.  I miss them both, but the former has been a lot harder to come by these last few years.  (Especially since home cooked… I could do myself.)  So I thought tonight I would reminisce and share the goodness of a Cantonese restaurant dinner with those who know it, and explain to those who have yet to try it.

I apologize for the lack of visuals- it would have been really awkward in tonight’s company.  If I come across the dishes again later I will try to take and upload some photographs.

First, Roasted Suckling Pig!

I don’t think I know any meat eater who doesn’t like this dish.  The coveted crunchy skin has been a childhood favorite for myself, my siblings and cousins.  The unspoken rule at the table has always been that the youngest ones be given priority to this crispy treat because adults simply did not care for fried food.  (This was a lie! I found out not too long ago that my parents love fried food.  They simply had better restraint and felt the pressure to set an example for healthier dieting.)  As I grew older I slowly and unwillingly became one of the adults who placed the morsels on my little cousins’ plates.  Tonight, however, I was the youngest, and I ate it up!

The best roasted pig is a suckling, but don’t expect to find it at your local Chinese delicatessen.  It’s much more pricey and usually a special order item, although it has become more readily available at restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area than years ago.  Roasted pig is offered at all the good delicatessens, but finding a well-seasoned and perfectly roasted slab has become very difficult to find nowadays even in Chinatown.

Second, the Clay Pots!

Ah, I love a good clay pot dish.  They are so versatile.  Rich or poor, we all use them!  From the cheap one-pot meal “Clay Pot Rice Dish” to the classy and expensive “Seafood Clay Pot”, we love our clay pots.  My favorites are the “Braised Tofu Clay Pot” and “Beef Flank Stew”.  Tonight we had a “Braised Oyster and Tofu Pot” as well as a “Lily Stamen, Cloud Ear Fungus and Beef Stew”.  Both agreeable, but as always I probably had most of the tofu.  (Tofu and recipes containing it has become popular during the last few years [I still remember the days when people in America turned their noses at the bland “bean curd cakes”. It wasn’t that long ago.], but in my opinion, truly understanding the awesomeness that is tofu comes from trying it in the various ways it has been cooked for centuries.)

Now, sure, you can find a section for “Clay Pots” on many Cantonese menus, but a lot of places cheat.  They stir fry the dish and dump it in the clay pot.  Some people are smarter and heat up the clay pots separately before dumping in the contents.  Actually, most places are smart enough to do that, but not the place we went to tonight.  The aroma and taste is completely different when the food has actually spent cooking time in the clay pot.  If you get the clay pot within minutes of ordering, it was definitely stir-fried.  Also, the cooking staff was too dumb and impatient to wait and at least make it seem as if your dish spent time in the pot before serving.  A good clay pot dish is rare.

Last, a vegetable dish!

All the Cantonese families I have ever dined with will choose at least one vegetable dish for every meal.  My mom always cooked that way and I adopted her ways.  This has always been the most boring selection, but without it, just as it is without rice, the meal is incomplete.  Don’t get me wrong- I love my veggies.  My dad is constantly suggesting that I becoming a monk because I eat so little meat.  Nevertheless, the poor dish is always the necessary afterthought and receives little fanfare.  Tonight we had “Dry-Sauteed String Beans”.  Sometimes it might be “Bok Choy and Black Mushrooms” or” Steamed Yow Choy with Oyster Sauce”.  These poor vegetable dishes also translate over to home cooking, so really, I didn’t miss it as much.  But it was good!

Thanks for staying with me on this nostalgic trip!  More to come, hopefully.  My taste buds certainly agree.

Tonight’s Dinner – Japanese Gratin

Since the bite of Japanese-style gratin leeched off of a B. K.’s plate a few lunches ago I’ve been longing for an entire portion for myself.  There weren’t many recipes available online, and the ones I found mostly did not contain rice.  The closest I found was at Shizuoka Gourmet and that was good enough for me!

1. First things first, the rice.  It really defeats the original purpose of this meal which my friend calls “a lazy housewife dish”, but one of the most awesome parts of that bite was the rice.  So I made rice the night before and left it out to dry overnight (covered with a paper towel so heat and condensation could be released but keeping icky stuff out).  Putting it in the fridge during the  day helped harden up the rice before frying.

2. I didn’t feel like having a meaty dinner, so a good filling variety of vegetables (and a fungus) was crucial.  What I had on hand was zucchini, an eggplant from my garden and some onions.  I had to go out and get a few mushrooms to help complete this meat-less meal.  If I had more eggplants it would probably have sufficed, but look at how colorful it looked!

3. Sauteed the onions first…

4. Added the zucchini, eggplants, then mushrooms.  A bit of salt and pepper to taste…

5. Then it’s time for the rice!  To be honest I should have made the rice first and laid it in the dishes before cooking the vegetables, but I forgot about the butter and already put olive oil on the pan.  I remembered the butter the second time around.  Not only did it smell wonderful but the rice didn’t stick to the pan at all!  I seasoned the rice with some soy sauce and ketchup.  In my mind the combination sounded wonderful and I was right!

6. Here’s the part where I messed up.  The recipe didn’t give any measurements and I didn’t bother to look up a recipe for the bechamel sauce.  I figured since I was familiar with the concept, having seen dad do it a few times, that I would just wing it.  First mistake was putting in corn starch thinking it was flour.  Then I put way too much flour when I realized what I had done.  The sauce wasn’t white because what I had on hand was wheat flour, which was actually fine.

7. The dish ended up as two personal sized dishes because I didn’t have the right size dish.  Oddly enough the two 2-cup Pyrex containers fit everything pretty well.  See the tops of the dishes?  That was another bump in the road.  Apparently the grated cheese I thought was in the fridge had been thrown out this morning.  So I cut up some Laughing Cow creamy cheese wedges.  Don’t do it- it doesn’t melt.

8. The finished product!  Doesn’t look particularly impressive, but it was filling and flavorful.  Next time I will make more rice, follow this recipe for the correct sauce and double check to make sure I have cheese!

I hope this was amusing for anyone who has stumbled upon this page. Hopefully I’ll be chronicling more of my cooking, as well as the mishaps. Boy am I full. Time to relax and plan tomorrow’s meals!