57
When a plant arrives in the kitchen, the ecological perspective doesn't matter any more. Any insect present on a plant destined for human consumption is considered a pest by the consuming humans and by the cooks preparing the food for them, no matter what the plant considers it to be (pollinator, parasite, whatever). The average person dislikes consuming ...
43
For me it isn't fried rice without toasted sesame oil, and the fried rice I have had in restaurants always tastes to me as if it contains toasted sesame oil. Peas are pretty required too. BTW, La Choy is synthetic soy sauce, it was at the very bottom of the America's Test Kitchen taste testing of soy sauce (sorry, paywalled), the only soy sauce to get a "not ...
43
Because it is more efficient when running the kitchen while in full service.
It takes less time to remove their hands from the towels than it would take to remove gloves.
This also applies to chefs in other kind of cuisines; if you look at french cooks, they will do the same thing; grab a towel to pick something from the oven, or pick a pan from the stove.
33
It's simple; Americanized Chinese food rarely contains cheese because Chinese food rarely contains cheese.
As many as 90% of Chinese people are, to some degree, lactose intolerant. Dairy is simply not a large part of Chinese food culture. Dairy is growing as a business in China. However, since dairy makes most Chinese sick, I imagine the dairy industry will ...
27
One technique, but not the only, is velveting. Here the meat is tenderized in an egg-white/cornstarch mixture for 20+ minutes, then cooked briefly (a minute) in oil or simmering water with a small amount of oil prior to using in stir fries.
I've never velveted in straight oil but water/oil definitely gives the chicken that smoothness that Chinese ...
25
These recipes aren't very standardized. Your mileage will vary greatly from one restaurant to another.
That said, generally these are three distinct dishes.
Orange chicken is... Orangey.
Sesame Chicken is typically salty with a hint of sweetness, served with sesame seeds.
General Tsos is typically sweeter with a little more heat and served with ...
23
While Erlenmeyer flasks and graduated cylinders and food-science may not be able to save your leftovers, adding some cooked rice with fried egg (basically any fried rice recipe) will likely crowd out the saltiness of the base dish as well as extend your leftovers.
18
The problem with your question is that you're kind of asking something akin to "what is the universally accepted traditional preparation for Spaghetti". While conventionally in much of the English speaking world, that refers to spaghetti and meat sauce. The word/dish itself refers to a specific style/type of noodle and could be topped with anything.
Lo Mein ...
17
Baking soda (Sodium bicarbonate).
If you find the meat has a spongy texture aside from being very tender, then very likely the restaurant put baking soda (Sodium bicarbonate) in the marinade. The sodium in baking soda chemically reacts with the meat and make the meat very tender and soft.
Below is an except from the cooking section in Sodium bicarbonate (...
15
OK I can read Chinese and let me tell you the answer: the noodles you bought are made by eggs. They're not made by rice. (FYI, there are TWO kinds noodles called "Rice Noodles", they are actually made by rice. The two kinds varies in thickness).
You can first make soup noodles to grasp the texture of the noodles you bought. Try undercook and overcook a bit, ...
15
I might suggest that one thing that most home cooks are missing in comparison to a restaurant is heat. You aren't going to get the same results as a restaurant without the blazing wok that a restaurant uses. You can get closer by letting your wok get blazing hot before adding oil and quickly cooking small quantities of food at a time.
Alternatively, if you ...
14
I think what's really happening here is mostly physics, rather than any magical reaction between the meat and the "velvet" (i.e. egg and cornstarch; I'm going to use this term for brevity).
The largest effect is that the velvet adds a thin, clingy coating to the outside of the meat. When introduced to heat, that's providing a barrier to the movement of ...
14
It's a matter of personal preference when referring to restaurants in the United States. Some egg rolls are too large to be easily handled with chopsticks, and they can be eaten using your hands; smaller ones and similar preparations such as spring rolls can too, but you may find it preferable to use chopsticks. When choosing your own egg roll from a common ...
13
I once worked in a Chinese restaurant and we used it for beef only, It was always the same, 1/4 teaspoon baking soda per lb of meat (lean meat, we used top round), tablespoon ShaoXing wine, pinch of salt and clove of garlic mashed. Marinated about 15-20 minutes, then "blanched" in hot oil for about 30 seconds, meat will look horrible after this last step, ...
13
Glad you asked!
I'm a Chinese person who lives in Shanghai.
Based on what I see and my girlfriend's preferrence, native young guys in Shanghai are after rice from Thailand, in Chinese "泰国香米". It looks long and thin, just like @talon8 said. This kind of rice has sweet smell.
Personally, I prefer rice from Wuchang. Wuchang(五常) in a place in Heilongjiang ...
13
Kenji López-Alt from Serious Eats dealt with the exact same issue (section Rule #2: plan in advance if you can, but don't worry if you don't). To sum up his findings:
Rice only need to be dry, not stale (hence making rice one day in advance is not necessary)
Drying the freshly cooked rice by spreading it on a tray and putting it under a fan for one hour ...
13
I would say there may be more insects in the flowers, but that is not a big deal. The ones not removed by normal washing or possibly a saltwater rinse will mostly at least be tiny ones attracted by the flowers and will not affect quality and taste. Some would even callously call it extra protein. IMO, the real issue with these types of plants having ...
12
I am answering the question as I understand it based on our discussion in comments.
Step 1 - Choose the restaurant wisely. As a rule you don't want big fancy restaurants and you certainly don't want to even try in a chain restaurant. You want the holes in the wall run by members of the ethnic group that matches the cuisine. When you enter the restaurant, ...
11
I like using a microplane to very finely grate the ginger (that's easier to do if the ginger is frozen), or making a paste with the ginger in a food processor or blender. Just peel the ginger (you don't have to be perfect), cut it into chunks, add just enough water to get almost a baby food consistency and puree. Then you can stir-fry the puree to flavor the ...
11
For a domestic kitchen a few thousand BTU is plenty as you will rarely need to heat more than a few liters of liquid.
In a professional kitchen you might be asked to prepare a 30-litre portion of soup or broth or make 5 kilos of dry pasta at once.
Doing that on a domestic range would take ages and that is not something you want in a kitchen. And with the ...
11
while all of the above answers are correct, I want to provide a perspective as a native Chinese. Rock sugar is better used (than granulated sugar) when you try to make dishes involving coloring the ingredient (by caramelization, dishes like braised pork belly (Hong Shao Rou need this step) mostly because of the shape difference. Rock sugar has less surface ...
10
It becomes quite confusing when talking about the difference between chow mein and lo mein mainly due to the error in translation.
In Chinese chow mein literally translate as "fried noodles." However when buying chow mein at a chinese restaurant, you get vegetables with a side of deep fried noodles. Somehow the title of a dish is referring the to side ...
10
A number of Chinese restaurants are happy to prepare it without pork or beef. I've seen it with pork (most common) or beef (sometimes).
A vegetarian Chinese place that I occasionally visit uses a "vegetarian ham" along with some vegetables like peas to augment the custardy texture of the soft tofu. I like to add some ja tsai (zasai, depending on ...
10
Because as you are cooking your soup, water in your soup is evaporating away as steam. You might salt a soup perfectly halfway through, but after evaporation, your now thicker soup is too salty.
When adding salt, wait until the end of the cooking process, as soups will reduce and concentrate the flavors as the liquid evaporates.
[ Source: http://...
9
Pretty sure it is congealed pig's blood. It's commonly seen in SEA (South East Asian) countries and Hong Kong. It is used as an ingredient in some dishes and in Malaysia, I have seen it been used in soup as well as soup based noodles.
One way to identify them is that they are always sold in cubed form.
update: sometimes, chicken blood is sold/used in the ...
9
It seems like you are primarily interested in reproducing the umami of the meat. Tofu does in fact have glutamic acids that will add to the umami; just make sure to thoroughly dry the tofu (extracting as much liquid as possible) before use. In addition, you can use minced mushrooms, as Stephie mentioned in the comments. You can also experiment with adding ...
8
You cannot remove salt once it is in your food, so you either mix it with something else as @mfg says, or throw it away. I'd just chuck it and never grace that restaurant with your presence again.
8
There are probably several factors which lead to the perception that chinese food heats less evenly in a microwave than on the stove top.
There are lots of types of Chinese food, but due to the mention of sauce on the original question, I am going to assume its a dish with meat and vegetables in a sauce, like (as often available in US Chinese restaurants), ...
8
Per AsianResearch.org's article The Ancient Theory Behind Chinese Food:
Generally
speaking, foods that have a higher water content are considered cool,
or yin, in nature. These are often foods that are boiled or steamed.
Foods that have a higher energy content, particularly from fat, are
considered warm, or yang, in nature. These are often foods ...
8
The Chinese cultural norm is to eat rice with chopsticks. It would be very inconvenient to constantly switch back and forth between eating with chopsticks and a spoon depending upon whether you were eating rice or vegetables or meat.
To get around the loose grain problem, you can use the shovel method. You pick up your bowl and use a shoveling motion with ...
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