Wok this way. The Chinese food thread.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Goons with Spoons > Wok this way. The Chinese food thread.

Shadowhand00: Jan 23, 2006; Golden Bear is ever watching; day by day he prowls, and when he hears the tread of lowly Stanfurd red,from his Lair he fiercely growls.; Toilet Rascal

Bob_McBob posted:

Sichuan hot pot

Need to pick up a bunch of the numbing sichuan peppercorns so I can make this.

# ¿ May 31, 2011 18:10

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 07:17

Shadowhand00: Jan 23, 2006; Golden Bear is ever watching; day by day he prowls, and when he hears the tread of lowly Stanfurd red,from his Lair he fiercely growls.; Toilet Rascal

Grand Fromage posted:

Okay man calm down. I'm just trying to find something I can get in Korea. The local Chinese grocery stores don't have doubanjiang.

You might be able to use ssamjang as a substitute, since its not quite as sweet as gochujang can be and its not as smelly as doenjang.

# ¿ Oct 9, 2012 17:34

Shadowhand00: Jan 23, 2006; Golden Bear is ever watching; day by day he prowls, and when he hears the tread of lowly Stanfurd red,from his Lair he fiercely growls.; Toilet Rascal

Arglebargle III posted:

Nobody puts hoisin sauce in mapo dofu.

Mapodofu is douban sauce (chili bean garlic sauce), chilies, tofu, scallions, and pork. Huajiao if you're into it. Cloves if you want to get crazy. Hoisin is for like... duck and cucumbers. No idea why mapodofu should turn out bitter. Get yourself a nice chunky red douban sauce (often sold in the U.S. as bean sauce or chili garlic sauce) and add it after browning the pork but before adding the tofu. It will take care of 90% of the flavor.

Wok seasoning the "right way" might require a video, I dunno. Wok seasoning the easy way is pour some oil in there and put it on hot-rear end heat for like ten minutes, swishing occasionally. It's not perfect but it works. Cooking with oil improves the seasoning unless you cook acidic stuff. And if you do it the easy way enough, it's about as good as the right way. Food doesn't stick to my wok anymore at least.

Don't overthink it, is what I'm saying.

The best mapodofu I've ever had was at FuLoon near Boston. The method they use to prepare their mapodofu is here:

http://www.seriouseats.com/2011/07/how-the-best-mapo-dofu-is-made-fuloon-restaurant-malden-ma.html

If you're ever in the area and you like Szechuan food, check it out.

Shadowhand00 fucked around with this message at 06:23 on Apr 17, 2013

# ¿ Apr 17, 2013 06:21

Shadowhand00: Jan 23, 2006; Golden Bear is ever watching; day by day he prowls, and when he hears the tread of lowly Stanfurd red,from his Lair he fiercely growls.; Toilet Rascal

Arglebargle III posted:

Their recipe looks good but I doubt I'll swing by for their mapodofu any time soon because I live in Sichuan. vv It's not too hard to get here. That recipe is the epitome of Sichuan cooking, all the recipes here are like:

1. get three things
2. chop the poo poo out of them
3. add 20 different spices and oils
4. wok

Once I asked a friend's mother for her ginger frog recipe. Her ingredient list for the solids was two things: frog and a kind of green called asparagus celery in English. Her ingredient list for the sauce was: fresh ginger, pickled ginger, a different kind of pickled ginger, sesame oil, chili oil, light soy sauce, mushroom soy sauce, and on and on. I can't remember the rest.

I usually eat Korean-Chinese food (generally Chinese people transplanted into Korea, who then went and created jjajangmyun and jjampong) so we never really see much of true Sichuan cuisine. I've been venturing out in the SF Bay Area trying to find those magical peppercorns though and I'm definitely falling in love with it.

# ¿ Apr 17, 2013 16:08

Shadowhand00: Jan 23, 2006; Golden Bear is ever watching; day by day he prowls, and when he hears the tread of lowly Stanfurd red,from his Lair he fiercely growls.; Toilet Rascal

Nickoten posted:

Would it be inappropriate to ask about recipes for Jjajangmyun here? I liked the Chinese version posted earlier but wanted to make something closer to what they serve in Korea, and I didn't see any Korean food threads posted. Sorry again if it's off-topic.

I personally also enjoy it with ground beef, so if you can do beef that should make a decent substitute I think.

The recipe here is pretty good - http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/jjajangmyun - make sure you find good sauce and use plenty of onions. Obviously, there're slight differences between gan jjajang and regular jjajangmyun, but this should get you started.

# ¿ Apr 18, 2013 19:15

Shadowhand00: Jan 23, 2006; Golden Bear is ever watching; day by day he prowls, and when he hears the tread of lowly Stanfurd red,from his Lair he fiercely growls.; Toilet Rascal

Nickoten posted:

That's actually the recipe I've been using for a while! Good to know other people use it, too. Apparently the video is new, though, which is nice because her measurements could be a bit confusing at times ("Throw about a teaspoon of sugar in" as she dumps what appears to be at least a couple tablespoons in there).

The problem was that I tried some Jjajjangmyun in Seoul sometime after and there was just something about it that tasted amazing, unlike anything I'd had before. Mine felt a bit earthier in comparison, but it might be due to me using sweet potatoes. Maybe I really just need to add a lot more sugar like the video says?

I feel like maybe I ought to add light soy, too? Dunno if that's a crazy idea.

Edit: This new video is really good. Thanks for posting that!

No problem.

Its really hard to find Jjajangmyun outside of Korea that really tastes like it does in Korea. Go to the Bay Area, go to Ktown in LA, go to New York and you'll find a nice approximation, but there's nothing like getting delivery jjajangmyun from your random corner Chinese store in Korea.

# ¿ Apr 18, 2013 21:51

Shadowhand00: Jan 23, 2006; Golden Bear is ever watching; day by day he prowls, and when he hears the tread of lowly Stanfurd red,from his Lair he fiercely growls.; Toilet Rascal

Grand Fromage posted:

Try more sugar and/or corn syrup. I hate jjajangmyeon with a passion so I can't help, but generally everything in Korea is packed with sugar. I've been told by Korean immigrants that the food is getting more sugary with time, so the places in the US probably don't use as much as the ones here do.

Meh, growing up in a household where my father had diabetes issues, I grew up on Korean food that was lacking in sugar. Every time I'm at a Korean resturant, I have issues because everything really is too sweet.

# ¿ Apr 19, 2013 17:46

Shadowhand00: Jan 23, 2006; Golden Bear is ever watching; day by day he prowls, and when he hears the tread of lowly Stanfurd red,from his Lair he fiercely growls.; Toilet Rascal

Grand Fromage posted:

Sounds like the "soak your meat in milk to get rid of the bad smell" thing Koreans have. No one seems to be aware that if your meat smells bad, it's rotten and don't eat it.

Hah man, some of the weird conceptions about food Koreans have is just... a little insane.

# ¿ Aug 18, 2013 07:21

Shadowhand00: Jan 23, 2006; Golden Bear is ever watching; day by day he prowls, and when he hears the tread of lowly Stanfurd red,from his Lair he fiercely growls.; Toilet Rascal

I'm guessing the deep fried chicken with dried pepper is really good - probably similar to what they have at a lot of other szechuan restaurants. Garlic sauce eggplant is generally pretty good. Mapo Tofu is always good. Mixed beef in hot pot is probably really good. Probably Spicy twice cooked fish.

# ¿ Aug 27, 2013 21:16

Shadowhand00: Jan 23, 2006; Golden Bear is ever watching; day by day he prowls, and when he hears the tread of lowly Stanfurd red,from his Lair he fiercely growls.; Toilet Rascal

Shbobdb posted:

So, my ladyfriend is all about Xi'an cuisine. Hit me with your lazerbeam, goonsirs. Can't argue with starting with where China started.

Personally, I've only been exposed to Xi'an cuisine because i tried this place: http://www.xianfoods.com/

Spicy & Tingly Beef Hand-Ripped Noodles in Soup was delicious though.

# ¿ Aug 28, 2013 06:27

Shadowhand00: Jan 23, 2006; Golden Bear is ever watching; day by day he prowls, and when he hears the tread of lowly Stanfurd red,from his Lair he fiercely growls.; Toilet Rascal

hallo spacedog posted:

I still have to buy moon cakes, thanks for the reminder.

My coworker brought in Durian mooncakes :getin:

# ¿ Sep 19, 2013 21:13

Shadowhand00: Jan 23, 2006; Golden Bear is ever watching; day by day he prowls, and when he hears the tread of lowly Stanfurd red,from his Lair he fiercely growls.; Toilet Rascal

Confirm, its loving delicious. especially Kimchi Fried Rice.

# ¿ Sep 20, 2013 07:21

Shadowhand00: Jan 23, 2006; Golden Bear is ever watching; day by day he prowls, and when he hears the tread of lowly Stanfurd red,from his Lair he fiercely growls.; Toilet Rascal

squigadoo posted:

One of my co-workers regularly brings food made with salt fish and microwaves it in the general kitchen area. The smell is ... undeniable.

edited to say that the worst I've done is bring preserved egg on tofu with soy sauce, vinegar, and pork fung to eat on rice. No smell that traveled a distance, but I'm pretty sure my breath was lethal.

A few of our guys from Xiamen will bring this in every so often. I'm okay with it but I know the people who aren't used to the smell/taste of this food complain about it frequently.

# ¿ Sep 26, 2013 18:42

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 07:17

Shadowhand00: Jan 23, 2006; Golden Bear is ever watching; day by day he prowls, and when he hears the tread of lowly Stanfurd red,from his Lair he fiercely growls.; Toilet Rascal

Just saw this on Serious eats:

http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/05/the-wok-mon-converts-your-home-burner-into-a-wok-range-solution.html

God drat, I'm thinking about funding it.

# ¿ May 19, 2014 17:39

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Goons with Spoons > Wok this way. The Chinese food thread.