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小笼包 is definitely one of my very favourite Chinese delicacies. Even in Hong Kong, I struggle to find restaurants which do it consistently well. One might have better luck in Beijing.
What to look out for:
Looks plump and full of liquid
Pork is very tender, succulent and melts-in-your-mouth
Plenty of tasty soup, but not so much that it dominates the meat in the dumpling
Very thin, but not fragile pastry to the point where it looks semi translucent (this one really sets the men apart from the boys, so to speak)
Crab roe for that added look, sophisticated aroma and taste (optional, but highly desirable)
Another very common, but unfortunately often poorly made Chinese "dish"/food is barbequed pork. The quality of the meat is the key, just like it is for a steak.
What to look out for:
Dark reddish colour on the outside
Generously, but evenly honey-glazed on the outside
Succulent, juicy pork w/ even fat distribution (半肥瘦)
Melt-in-your-mouth, fluffy (but not mushy) texture aided by an appropriate amount of fat
Sweet on the outside, then salty on the inside
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Originally Posted by azncookiecutter /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Another great dish that you may want to try is szechwan eggplant (魚香茄子). Awesome dish that goes quite well with rice.
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I must agree with you! This is an incredible dish! Any semi-decent restaurant will be able to make it superbly.
It must be generously flavoured with salted fish. I personally prefer to be able to actually taste the individual diced/minced chunks of salted fish, but others prefer to just be able to taste the flavour/smell the aroma. It's a very oily dish as the eggplant and minced pork really need to be fried in a very hot wok with lots of oil to bring out the flavours. I've never had this dish in Sze Chuan, but at least in Hong Kong it's only very mildy spicey.
Sweet and sour pork is one of the most often ordered dishes. However, most Westernised Chinese restaurants cannot do it properly. Actually, I'll go so far as to say that there are many restaurants in Hong Kong which can't cook it properly either. Where most restaurants fail is getting the pork and batter ratio right and at the same time, make the batter sufficiently crispy but not too hard. Again, the quality of the pork is paramount.
Lastly there's steamed fish. Quality of fish is number one priority as the actual cooking of it is relatively easy. In Hong Kong, you typically find steamed fish in oil/soy sauce garnished with spring onions and ginger. Other ingredients may include: preserved vegetables, blackbeans, dried orange peel, chilis, etc
Just thinking about food is making my mouth water