Just heavenly. A genuine Hong Kong institution.

Tomorrow I will be hosting and having my first hotpot with some family member. I was planning on making some pork meatballs from scratch but since i’ve never eaten hotpot before I have no idea if i have to precook them before or directly cook them in the hotpot soup during the dinner? Same question for the lotus roots and bok choy. I’ve never prepared them before. Do they need to be precooked ?

I know people usually throw whatever they like in hotpots but while i’m at it, is bok choy good in hotpot? And what other vegetables could i add? I was planning on having lotus roots, spinach, bok choy, potatoes, spring onions, enoki mushrooms, and tomatoes for the vegetables/mushrooms part. Is the selection weird or okay?

I've hosted several hot pot parties in the past and always run into this issue. After sitting out on the table for a while, frozen dumplings start to stick together as they defrost and they break apart when trying to separate them. Any tips and tricks to better serve frozen dumpling?

I can spread them out on a plate, but then it takes up a lot of room on the table if trying to serve a lot of them. I can serve a few at a time and keep the rest frozen, but if I'm not paying attention then the plate may be empty for a while (which isn't overall a big deal, but I'd really like to avoid this from happening).

If I defrost the dumplings before setting them out, then I'm worried they will become mushy when cooked and fall apart. I also thought about pre-cooking them, but they will become hard AND still get stuck together.

A similar issue happens with rehydrated noodles. After sitting out for a while, they start sticking together and become a huge clump.

Are there better ways to serve these items?

I love this in winter

Not sure why the title had to be so long. But it says it pretty well. The Chinese sauces at the grocery store are all full of sugar and I need to keep my sugar down so I pretty much eat keto with some occasional rice or keto type bread. Just looking for ideas of sauces to be able to toss my veggies and proteins in. Montreal seasoning can only be tasty for so long. I've tried mixing gochujang, rice vinegar, seseme oil, and soy sauce together and while it's alright on rice but not so much on veggies. Plus, it can get salty way to easy. Any ideas? Prefer authentic asain sauces. Thanks in advance.

I don't have a gas supply where I live, and I don't own the place so can't make modifications to my kitchen. I also don't have a garden. I see a lot of youtube cooks use portable burners, but don't know what I should be looking out for. I've searched, and found a few articles that recommend very expensive burners, and lots that recommend things only available in the US. Any ideas?

Hi! My girlfriend was given this LGM by a Chinese colleague as she knows I like Chinese cooking but I am curious as to what I should cook with it! I found a video by Chinese Cooking Demystified that said it was much too salty to eat as is and it’s a staple of liang ban dishes, but my googling has come to naught as google just recommends me normal LGM recipes. Does anyone have an idea what I could do with it besides using it as a stir fry base as Steph suggested?

I was recently served some "egg drop soup" by a native Chinese which surprised me. They scrambled and cooked (way over cooked IMO) the eggs in a pan and then boiled them in water. Nothing else. No salt, green onion, cornstarch slurry, etc.

I realize people like different things, and lots of Chinese soups have very simple broths, but to be honest I found it quite disgusting - it was like if you got eggs stuck in a pan then soaked it in water. I'm wondering if this is a standard variation or what... I tried to identify this style online but never found anything. They mentioned the more typical style is for a "sweet" flavor profile, although I've never had sweet egg drop soup.

I have some salmon I want to steam tonight. Just wondering whether to marinade it first and then steam it or steam it plain and then pour over a sauce?

Any recommendations for a basic sauce recipe?

If you've got links for specific ones you recommend I'd appreciate it. I usually buy from Amazon, but wanted to get the opinion of a site like this as I'm researching.

As a Cantonese, we eat vegetables every single day.

Hi,

We're cooking hui guo rou tomorrow and to get ahead, I've prepped the pork belly and done the first cook. So far I've:

- Seared the pork bellyskin in a hot wok to remove hair

- Washed the pork belly and scrubbed the skin

- Cooked in cold water with aromatics

My question is around brining at this stage and if there would be any positive or negative effects. I've got time where I will keep the pork cool before slicing and cooking the second time for the dish.

I have seen some techniques that put the cooked pork directly into cold water and then keep cold before slicing thinly. But the folks over at chinese cooking demystified recommend keep the pork dry while cooling (so I could dry and keep uncovered in the fridge before cooking tomorrow).

But I was curious about a third option. I have a good amount of brines from lacto-fermented pickling including spicy dill pickle brine, kim chi and pickled jalapenos. I don't have any sichuan pickle unfortunately.

Is it crazy to keep the cooked pork belly in a brine overnight or even two nights before I slice and cook it? Would it do anything good? Would it have any adverse effects on the meat?

I love brining pork in lacto-fermented pickle brine but I've always done that with raw meat and then cooked it.

Any one have any experience or thoughts? Could also be good to ask this in the pickling subreddits.

My elderly Taiwanese mom (74) is super picky about the foods that she eats and what makes it worse is that she has no teeth and refuses to use her dentures. She's already been hospitalized twice for malnutrition because she's incredibly picky and will outright refuse to eat some of the food I cook for her, unless it's good/authentic Asian dishes.

Since she can't chew any meat, soft tofu has a lot of the nutrients she needs and she'll happily eat it if it's soft enough. But I only know a handful of recipes and I'm afraid she'll get sick of them eventually and stop eating them. So really looking for any suggestions for tofu dishes/sauces or any other soups or dishes that are soft and easy to eat without chewing.

Some of the stuff that she likes:

Taiwanese sweet soymilk (Dou jiang)
Sweet & sour soup
Eggdrop soup with tomatoes
Chinese steamed eggs
Eggplant with garlic sauce
Miso soup with tofu (Japanese food, but she likes it)
Mapo tofu (hit or miss, apparently my mapo tofu is not very good)
Curry tofu (also hit or miss)

Any suggestions would be super appreciated!

She's from Tianjin if that helps.

She insists that I tell you that she doesn't have the right ingredients here and that it's close enough.

I think she's messing with me, but I can't tell.

Has anyone here heard of it?

Update: It's "lazy mousse" apparently. I'll let the mods decide if it's chinese cuisine enough to stay up.

I want to try Mooncake for the first time and give them as gifts (if they work out). Because I see my friends on different days, I wanted to make them beforehand. Is there a good way without quality loss? (Question in title) Thanks in advance :)

Hihi!! I really want to make something for my boyfriend's family for christmas. They arent really into the gift giving aspect, but typically enjoy a nice "feast" together. Im already planning to make cookie/dessert trays for those close (including his family) but I want to add something a little personal too. Especially, since his mother had brought me some sweet treats (non-Chinese) while the three of us (bf, her and I) went to see a Christmas tree lighting.

His parents (& him) had immigrated from Xi'an, China. So any suggestions on something easy to bake? I've found one recipe of "Chinese Chews", but is there anything more specific to the area he's from that I can try out? I'm hoping for something not too sweet as well, due to his parents' trying to stay proactive against diabetes. Thanks in advance!!(:

P.S. Yes, I am aware that most Chinese desserts/treats aren't the typical "American Sweet" but I'm pretty sure they just don't like too sweet of things. And, sorry if this kind of post isn't allowed here. I've already posted it in r/chinesecooking just to be safe!

As title says.

For many Hong Kongers, they think "northern Chinese" (read: non-Cantonese cuisine) is just spicy chilly, salty, heavily seasoned, and lose the food ingredients' natural flavours. Many boast that Cantonese cuisine is the best regional Chinese cuisine. Many argue that being delicate and its emphasis of having a balanced profile, use of fresh ingredients, let the food itself shine, the diversity in preparation methods for any single ingredient, makes Cantonese cuisine stand out more when compared with its peers from the rest of China.

If you aren't Chinese or of Chinese-heritage, or are Chinese but not culturally Cantonese, would you agree with this assertion and why? And if you disagree, would you let us know which areas does Cantonese cuisine do worse when compared with other regional Chinese food?

I've never seen Chinese restaurants serving egg drop soup outside the US, so I'm wondering if it's a US invention? Though, it does taste like Chinese food unlike other fake US-invented chinese food.

Secondly, I'm wondering if anyone's got a good recipe for egg drop soup? I've been using the recipe from thewoksoflife which is pretty good, but it still differs from the ones I've had in restaurants. My guess is i'm not getting the broth correct