Chinese Food! :) 中國菜 I'm an American with questions.

[chesebert]

Quote:

Originally Posted by milkpowder /img/forum/go_quote.gif Even though I am slightly picky about my Chinese tea, I'm really the wrong person to ask. I too have a couple "cakes" lying around but I don't know of any specialist way of storing them. I guess somewhere cool, dry, out of the sun and most important of all scentless. I don't believe my "cakes" are very expensive anyway. I don't know about putting them in the freezer, but I guess you could experiment if your cakes aren't the several hundred dollar ones I have an uncle who does business in China and they drink 普洱 like water. He's ridiculously into his tea and told me never to buy the horrendously expensive ones (not that I would anyway!). Apparently if you know the right people/places and skip the evil, money-hoarding businessman in the middle, you could get the best quality ones for a fraction of their pumped up "street value".

well..depends on your definition of horrendously expensive

I usually get the 500RMB/jin Yulong or Dragon Well at some wholesale store in China and have it shipped to me twice a year to ensure freshness (sprint/fall). The cakes I have are gifts...supposedly the horrendously expensive kind...who knows

I will just keep my cakes where they are

maybe they will go up in price ...lol

 

[chesebert]

Quote:

Originally Posted by crazyface /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thank you for the ideas! I will save my leftover tea leaves to use for cooking. My favorite tea right now is lapsang souchong (正山小种), and I hear that it is very good to make meats taste smokey.

正山小种...what's that?

nm...found it...I don't drink black tea..no wander I don't know about it.

 

[milkpowder]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chesebert /img/forum/go_quote.gif well..depends on your definition of horrendously expensive I usually get the 500RMB/jin Yulong or Dragon Well at some wholesale store in China and have it shipped to me twice a year to ensure freshness (sprint/fall). The cakes I have are gifts...supposedly the horrendously expensive kind...who knows

I've seen pu er sell for 10,000RMB/500g cake (a bit over 2/3 of a jin). That's properly insane and no doubt very inflated to attract rich (often nouveau riche) Chinese businessmen to buy it for the glamour factor/bragging rights in front of their friends. (The same reasons why they order bear paws, tiger genitalia, etc)

500RMB will get you sublime tea already. Anything that costs more than 1000RMB/jin and it's serious rolleyes territory... No point paying more just for show

 

[crazyface]

Hi again everybody!

Thank you so much for all the replies you've made!

I was just wondering -

Do you know any Chinese phrases (that I can write down) that mean the same as the Japanese "omakase," which means basically, "chef's choice?" That way it is all up to the chef what to make for me?

Okay, thank you, bye!

 

[crazyface]

Do any of you know a good way to cook shrimp shells? I've always just thrown them out, but I saw some pictures online of fried-up shrimp shells that looked rather good.

 

[lbcliff]

Quote:

Originally Posted by crazyface /img/forum/go_quote.gif Do any of you know a good way to cook shrimp shells? I've always just thrown them out, but I saw some pictures online of fried-up shrimp shells that looked rather good.

Maybe you can fry them, have a try and then throw away.

I've never seen fried shrimp shells in China.

 

[Spareribs]

I like chinese food.

 

[Audio-Omega]

I like steamed fish mixed with garlic, ginger and soy sauce. Such dish is great with plain rice.

 

[qqn]

sounds great, but no vegetables? i always love color in my food, white fish on white rice seems boring ... (neglecting the sauce)

 

[Audio-Omega]

I don't like vegetables except lettuce so I wouldn't be the right person to recommend any.

In fact I don't even like fish but steamed fish is ok.