Chinese food
Eating Guilin Noodles in Guilin, Guangxi,China
While I was in Guilin, I of course had the opportunity to sample the famous Guilin mifen (桂林米粉) also known as the famous Guilin Noodles. These are rice noodles covered in a sweet gravy broth with a number of different ingredients not limited to ox bone broth and mangosteen in addition to many others. (The recipes vary greatly by restaurant) On top of the noodles green scallions, pickled cabbage and green beans and radishes are usually added on top. There is also a bit of meat in there, usually pork or dog.
One of the first things I did when I came to Guilin was look for the noodles so I could make that obligatory Guilin noodle video, which is what I did. The noodles were only 4 rmb for the bowl, which is about ~$.60! After covering with all the additional condiments, the noodles look quite pretty and very colorful.
The flavor is immense in these noodles. The peanuts are nice and crunchy and fried and mixes very well with the soft noodles. I love scallions in just about everything, but the pickled radishes and green beans were also tasty! The pork was super fried and had the consistency of something like pork rinds back home, but only the crispiness on the outside, meatiness on the inside. I think the bamboo shoots were probably the best condiment, though. Here’s one more look at them, don’t forget to check out the video I posted about these videos on my YouTube channel above!
Kung Pao Chicken and Ox Tongue: Spicy Sichuan flavor feast!
Living in China affords access to all of the culinary wonders that is Chinese food. China has many provinces and each one has their own special types of cooking. Sichuan food is renowned for being very spicy and that is just like the meal we had today at a traditional Sichuan restaurant located in the Longgang metropolitan area of Shenzhen. It’s located at the corner of Longping W Road and Aixin Road in Longgang.
It is a very beautiful restaurant There’s even a coy pond with fish swimming around! It’s quite a sight. This is some of the delicious food we had:
The first dish we had is what we know of as Kung Pao Chicken back home, or 宫保鸡丁. This is chicken meat along with peanuts, dried chiles, and leeks fried in a high heat wok covered in a sweet and spicy sauce. This dish is absolute heaven. A lot of Chinese dishes have bones but this is the few that actually use pure chicken meat with no bones. The meat was soft and moist and literally falls apart in your mouth. The leeks give a nice onion essence and the chiles give it some serious heat. This dish is actually one of my favorite Chinese dishes ever, hands down. The next dish we had was a bit different, but still spicy as hell!
So this dish is called Fu Qi Fei Pian (夫妻肺片) which is sliced beef with ox tongue over a spicy chili sauce. This dish was served cold, but it sure is spicy hot! The tongue is nice and chewy which I really like and reminds me of tripe. It’s covered in a citrus style spicy chili sauce that compliments our other dish very well. Coupling a bite of tongue with the thinly sliced beef is a match made in heaven as you have chewiness mixed with moist tender beef.
So from tomorrow for the next week I will be traveling to Guilin from Shenzhen by sleeper train (It’s about a 13 hour train ride and I will be exploring much of that beautiful area! My blog probably won’t be updated for at least one full week, but when I get back, expect lots of interesting new Asia content! Don’t forget to check out this week’s Sichuan food meal, below:
Enjoying beef hotpot in Huizhou with LaoWhy86
This last weekend I took a trip out to Huizhou – a Tier 2 city in China that is just about a one hour bus ride from Shenzhen. I went there to meet my friend C-Milk, or more commonly known as LaoWhy86 on YouTube. We met at Huizhou’s finest beef hotpot restaurant for some drinks and a meal. The result was some delicious food, crazy Chinese baijiu and good times.
Pictured above are a few of the things that went inside our hotpot. This restaurant is well known for it’s beef and how they make their beef meatballs. Instead of grinding the meat in a grinder, they actually pound the meat for a continuous amount of time without actually cutting it, to make the meatballs. The meat is delicious, juicy, tender, and I found it to be bouncy and different than a western meatball.
If you aren’t familiar with hotpot (火锅), I’ll fill you in a bit on how it works. There is a large pot of broth in the middle of the table (On top of a hotplate) that is generally filled with spices, vegetables, raw meats, chile peppers, etc and cooked until done. Once it’s done, you just take what you want out of the pot, dip it in your dipping sauce, and you are eating like a king. Hotpot is a little different than other styles of eating because you must cook your food first, but sometimes waiting for it makes it taste even better. Here’s a nice picture of mouth watering beef simmering in our hotpot.
Now the dipping sauce was something out of this world, or so it seemed literally so! When I dipped my first strip of beef into this delicious dipping sauce, I was immediately reminded of a spicy mexican blended salsa. I tasted elements of tomato, cilantro and definitely some chile peppers!
We also ordered some incredibly delicious beef noodles (炒牛肉河粉) that tasted surprisingly creamy. It seemed to be covered in a sauce that reminded me a lot of western gravy, the style that you would put on top of mashed potatoes. It was a little different, but the noodles were sweet and delicious and the beef was nice and tender.
After a few drinks or ten of wine/beer/baijiu, we went back to my friends house for some arm wrestling. It was a good time to say the least!
Make sure to check out my video from this evening – I think you have to see the video to understand the scope of our experience! Don’t forget to check out my channel on YouTube and subscribe if you like the material!
Eating some late night Chinese Barbecue in Shenzhen
One of the coolest things about China is how vibrant things can be late at night. Of course, it depends what part of the city you’re in but in most parts, there is usually a late night area with street barbecue that runs into the late hours of the night, sometimes as late as 3-5 AM! It was about midnight last night when we developed some strong barbecue cravings, so we decided to head down to one of our local barbecue spots at Dafen here in the city of Shenzhen. Chinese saokao (烧烤, or barbecue) is absolutely delicious, and I intend to show you just how delicious! First, have a peek at some of the things we had to eat that night:
We went to our local barbecue spot (In truth, it was our first time going there since we moved to this new part of town) and checked out what they were offering. We stacked up everything in the basket and gave it to the laoban, and watched them cook it.
The first thing to sample was an appetizer. We had ordered some dried squid with wasabi and soy sauce, known as youyu (鱿鱼). This had the consistency of something like beef jerky, but with a seafood flavor. When you dip it in the wasabi and soy sauce together, it has a real kick to your nostrils!
The first two things I had tried were the enoki mushrooms (金针菇) and shiitake mushrooms (香菇). I love all shrooms, as they help you to see life clearly! Barbecued mushrooms are no exception, especially when they are topped with special lajiao. After that came tofu (豆腐)that is covered in some kind of spicy orange sauce and also barbecued. Very delicious – much tastier than plain old tofu, that’s for sure! Following the tofu was some spring onions (韭菜) that were delightfully tasty and flavorful. Of course they were covered in oil and barbecued, so they tasted much better than raw!
Next up was some koi fish (开心鱼). Now I really had no idea what exactly this skewer was when I saw it. I thought it might be dried shrimp that was barbecued. When we got home and looked it up, I was surprised to find out that it was in fact koi fish.
Upon trying this dish, it reminded me a lot more of fish jerky than anything. Overall a nice fishy flavor with that dried chewiness that we so love in jerky.
The last couple dishes were chicken and fish. The chicken (鸡腿) was fantastic. The meat was nice and juicy and tender, some of the skin was crispy, and the lajiao had my mouth on fire at the same time. The fish, which we found out was actually called Ribbonfish (I had thought it was just mackerel) was the best dish of the night, however. The skin was very crispy, the fish meat was pleasant and soft, and the best part is they took out the bones. I rarely eat fish in China because of the strong presence of bones – which I hate! Any Chinese fish dish where the bones are removed is worth 5 stars to me!
Above are the chicken and fish dishes – click the pictures for a bigger view! That was all we ate that night, and my was it good! The total for the bill came out to 62 RMB, or $9.48 USD! What a steal! Check out the video of this Chinese barbecue adventure on my YouTube channel, below! Please subscribe if you enjoy the content! What do you think of Chinese barbecue? Do you enjoy it? Please let me know in the comments!
Eating baozi (包子) and skateboarding in China
This morning I went down the street near the metro station at Dafen to grab some baozi and jump on my skateboard for the first time in a VERY long time. I talked about baozi already before in my first blog post, “What’s for breakfast in China?” but I wanted to take a video for this post, so I thought I would bring them back. Also the first baozi article I did was on beef baozi, and today they were pork!
The baozi is a very traditional and one of the most common things that Chinese people eat for breakfast. This particular baozi was full of stuffed pork (Which was fatty and greasy, which is a little heavy for the morning but that’s why you don’t eat too many!) and also some cabbage, if I recall correctly. 1 of these baozi only cost 1 RMB, or $.15 USD so my breakfast only cost $.30 since I had two. That baozi was more than enough fuel to give me the energy I needed to pull off a few skateboarding tricks.
As I proceeded to bite into the delicious baozi, something insane happened. The fatty pork juices dripped out, and nearly landed on my shorts! Luckily I was quick enough to recover, only having to explain to the camera what had happened with my mouth open and simultaneously full of baozi. A baozi stain is no fun – I assure you and I am happy I avoided it. Those juices however, are delicious so I highly recommend taking a more full bite and making sure you get the juice with it! After finishing those delicious baozi, it was time for some skateboarding. I used to skate a lot in my younger years (13-20 years old) but pretty much stopped shortly after high school. However, it’s still fun to roll around and do some tricks sometimes!
An enjoyable morning it was, though hot! By the time I was done skating, I was absolutely drenched in sweat. Nevertheless, please be sure to check out the breakfast video from this morning, which also comes with a little bit of skateboarding attached! What do you think of baozi? Let me know in the comments!
Chang fen: A Chinese breakfast staple
This morning I returned to my local laoban to do a Chinese food video about breakfast. Today we had chang fen (肠粉) which is a common breakfast dish made with rice paste, eggs, vegetables, and ground pork covered in a pork fat broth with soy sauce and chopped garlic. I probably have chang fen at least once a week living here. I find it to be a relatively healthy option – as this is steamed and not fried, and I enjoy eating as healthy as I can.
To make chang fen, a large multi-layer steam rack is used. Generally they start by pouring rice paste and covering the tray with it, and then adding ground pork, a few vegetables and cracking an egg or two on top. The mixture is stirred around and sent into the steamer for less than a minute. When it comes out, it is scraped off and set onto a serving plate.
When it comes out, it is quite a pretty sight to behold. The taste of chang fen is interesting to say the least. The texture is sort of a thin jello-ey texture that without the sauce is not exactly bursting with flavor. Rice paste is of course made of white rice, and as we all know white rice has a fairly brand and neutral flavor. However when it is coupled with vegetables, meat, and a nice pork broth with garlic and some chili sauce on top, the flavors go a million ways! The pork broth gives a rich decadent flavor especially when you get those chunks of ground pork in the bite. Grasping some chopped chilis with your chopsticks in a bite adds a spicy aspect to this dish as well.
I also blogged about chang fen back in April, you can see that post here: Chang fen: A cheap, delicious and exotic breakfast in China. Don’t forget to check out the video from this morning’s breakfast which includes video of the cooking process and tasting, from my YouTube channel! Please like/subscribe if you enjoy the content!
Making a delightful spicy chicken stir fry at home
Today after working out at the gym I needed a protein-jammed recipe and of course the go to food for that is chicken breast. So I created what I call a spicy chicken stir fry, behold it in its gain-fueling wonder.
So how to make such a delightful and tasty dish? Here are the ingredients:
Ingredients:
- 2-3 bunches of cilantro, chopped.
- 2 big bunches of celery
- 1 white onion chopped.
- 2 tablespoons of Chinese lajiao (Chopped pepper chile sauce)
- 2 chicken breasts
Take 2 frozen chicken breasts and boil them in water for about 10 minutes to thaw and partially cook them. While they are boiling chop up the vegetables. When the boiling is done, remove the chicken breasts from the pot and slice them into chunks. Then add some olive oil to a frying pan and heat it up for about 30 seconds. Add the chicken, and add the vegetables and stir together to coat in the oil. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Next, add a couple scoops of lajiao and mix well to get the lajiao well distributed. Transfer the stir fry to a plate and garnish with chopped cilantro. Eat and enjoy your daily protein. Please have a look at the recipe video below!
That’s all for today, but stay tuned for some interesting videos from Hong Kong, later this week!
Eating fried noodles in Shenzhen!
Today I went to another local laoban that we frequent to order some pidan zhou – Which I have already written about in this blog before, a few weeks ago. Unfortunately they were sold out of the zhou, so we had some chaomian (炒面) instead. Chaomian are high heat wok fried noodles with eggs, pork, and vegetables added along with some spices.
These people are very nice and we frequent their establishment at least a few times a week. Today I asked if we could film them cooking and if they would do a little quick sit down interview with us. They agreed.
Chaomian can be hit or miss in China. I have had great chaomian, and totally lousy chaomian. Of course you can guess that this particularly lady does the chaomian just the way I like them – with 2 eggs, pork, and vegetables added. The end result is an absolutely delicious dish you would very rarely find back home in America, and no, Panda Express does not cut it. Check out the video below to see the cooking, tasting and interview with the laoban.
Making Chinese style Philly Cheesesteak.
Sometimes, I end up missing foods from home. There are usually ways to replicate these foods by cooking at home, but usually you can’t get things 100% spot on due to a lack of ingredients here in China. I love a good Philly Cheesesteak, which is the steak sandwich from Philadelphia with steak strips, green peppers onions and cheese on a bun. Now, using all those ingredients except the bun (Which I replaced using shou zhua bing, a common Chinese flatbread here) I decided to make what I call a Chinese Philly Cheesesteak.
The ingredients are as follows:
- 200-300g of beef sliced into strips.
- A red onion, sliced
- A green pepper sliced into strips.
- Shredded cheese
- 2 shou zhua bing flatbreads
- Salt (Optional)
To make this is actually a very easy recipe. First, start buy slicing your onions and green peppers. Next, heat up a pan with some olive oil and add in the peppers and onions. Stir to coat in olive oil. Let them cook for 2-3 minutes. Meanwhile, slice the beef into strips. After the vegetables have cooked a few minutes, add in the beef and stir it in. Let the beef fully cook, at least 5-7 minutes. After it is fully cooked, separate the piles of meat and vegetables in piles of half. sprinkle shredded cheese over each half and cover the pan, after turning the heat off. Let the cheese melt. Next, cook the shou zhua bing in a pan. Heat for 2-3 minutes on each side. Next, spoon the beef and vegetables and cheese mixture onto the shou zhua bing. Wrap, eat and enjoy! Check out the recipe from my YouTube channel here:
Walking around Laojie’s (Dongmen) food street in Shenzhen
Last night was epic! We took the MTR train from Dafen to Laojie (8 stops, about a 15 minute ride) which is home to some of the best shopping and food in Shenzhen. For my YouTube video channel I made a video sampling a few foods, and touring around the area.
Laojie is a beautiful place. Lots of beautiful women, amazing street barbecue and other foods, what could be sweeter? After getting off at exit D with a couple friends I met up with my girlfriend and we started walking around. I apologize for the low quality pictures, I was filming most of the time and I completely spaced out on taking some high res photos! These are all video grabs from this week’s video:
I hadn’t been to the food street that many times so we got lost for a couple minutes, but we found it pretty quickly. While walking there, we ran into an outside barbecue that was serving up youyu ( 鱿鱼 , squid), and yangrou (羊肉, lamb). We couldn’t resist the temptation and we all got a few skewers. The barbecue is well priced, too. You can get 4 skewers of squid for 10RMB ($1.50 USD) or 2 skewers of lamb for the same price. The squid was nice and chewy not overcooked, with lots of spices added. The lamb was delicious and fatty, and for me that’s great because I love animal fat. (Not in excess, of course!)
After devouring our skewers, we headed off to the food street. We got there around 9:45 which is pretty late for laojie. Although it is very easy to find street barbecue going until 3-4 in the morning in Shenzhen, Laojie is a bit of a different case. Around 10:00 it appeared that lots of vendors were starting to close down, but lots of people were still serving until we left (Around 10:45) I bought some lotus root (藕片) and some potatoes. There isn’t much to say about the potatoes except that these ones were actually a little bit overcooked (These were leftover at the end of the night) but still pretty tasty. However, they were a bit too salty. The lotus however was very good. Lotus has a really interesting texture and it is probably the crunchiest vegetable I have ever eaten. It’s somewhat comparable to the crunchiness of an apple.
After walking around a bit more and having some delicious leng mian (Cold noodles, 冷面 ) we decided to take the train home since it was early enough (The train stops around 11:30 and it was only around 10:45) and called it a night. Please check out the video of the food crawl below, and if you like it please feel free to subscribe to my channel 🙂
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