xChinese and xVietnamese Food
Replies: 37 - Last Post: May 13, 2012 5:22 PM Last Post By: HenningWessel
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That is a lot of great food places!I ate really well in Vietnam and China...even if a lot of times i didn't know what it was.Menus in Chinese only (or no menus at all)....just going into the kitchen and seeing what was cooking,or pointing at what looked good on other people's plates.
Most of that 'Chinese'food that you find in the west doesn't really exist there (apart from in a few tourist oriented places).
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As lucapal says lots of great food places on your list. We loved the food in both Vietnam and China and we did eat well while we were in both countries.In Vietnam there were lots of meat (chicken/beef) and vegetable dishes with rice, as well as the usual spring rolls, Pho etc. Most places had English menus and we found it cheap for food. If you are a beer (i.e. lager) drinker then Vietnam is excellent with bier hoi being available for pennies.
China, we didn't have too much trouble either. A lot of places which looked like they wouldn't have an English menu suddenly produced one when they saw us and although some of the translations left a lot to be desired, we really only had a couple of 'bad' meals in a month there (think steamed chicken feet and head). In Beijing and Shanghai (and possibly some other places) there is a food court in some shopping centres which is called 'Megabite'. This place is very cheap and you can see the food before you buy...usually you can ask what meat is in it by pointing and making the animal noise (this worked ok for us!). The portions were huge too.
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For Hong Kong the local newspaper South China Morning Post has a great Food and Wine supplement that comes out every Thursday. it's got very comprehensive listings.6
xSaigon - has a lot of great food, but if you fancy something non-vietnamese (!) there's a really good small sinaporean chain called Lion City. You'll find a lot of malay & singaporean expats there. They do a good chicken curry, and their blackpepper crab is amazingXMekong Delta - fish from the delta is good. THey tend to deep fry it so seek it out in other guises too
xHoi An - there are lots of (good) touristy restaurants here. Go to Morning Glory as (despute being touristy), their menu has a really good description of all sorts of vietnamese specialities (in english), so you know what else to seek out on your trip. ther's a dumpling called white rose (?) which is local to Hoi An, plus a dish called Cao Lau which you won't find anywhere else in vietnam - it's a pork noodle soup but with very unique noodles.
xHanoi - street food everywhere. Pho or Bun Ch
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#7.Likewise.Quite easy to make at home.Buy a packet of fresh/frozen chicken/duck feet from oriental grocery/supermarkets.Can include cleaned/washed chicken wings,liver/gizzards/intestines.(optional)
Clip off all the tough keratin talons with a pair of kitchen sissors dunk into a metal/pottery cooking pot (or pressure cooker)
Add some sliced fresh ginger.
A tablespoon of whole peppercorn.(Dried chillies optional)
A teaspoon of Chinese five spice powder.
5 pcs of star anise.
3 or 4 pcs of spice cloves.
Some fresh(or presoaked dried ) shitake mushrooms.
A cup of dark soy sauce.
Tablespoon of oyster sauce/(or alternatively hoi sin sauce)
A splash of Chinese Hsio Tsin rice wine(or dry sherry)
A drizzle of saseme oil.
A few whole cloves of crushed fresh garlic.
A tablespoon(or two) of honey/brown sugar.
Add enough of either chicken/vegetable stock or plain water to cover the ingrdents and a bit over.
Salt to taste.
Simmer until the chicken feet is soft,tender and almost glutinous and the gravy thick and much reduce.
Serve garnished with fresh chopped Chinese parsely/cilantro and spring onions.
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#3Menus in Chinese only (or no menus at all)....just going into the kitchen and seeing what was cooking,or pointing at what looked good on other people's plates.
Sometimes it's difficult to see what's inside the pot.
I usually used to take a paper tissue and drew a fish, a pig or a cow. Or, just pointed at something I didn't know what it was, only if it looked good enough.
OP, it's not easy to talk about Chinese cuisine. A big country with lots of regional varieties. But, the food, even at a cheapest hole in the wall is good, always worth trying.
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#11.You are more than welcome although its a bit far flying from US to SE Asia just for chicken feet and innards:))Clams and black beans with garlic sounds interesting.Done like in a chowder or gumbo?
We did black beans with pigs trotters with spices,soy sauce,various herbs and lotus roots that went down quite well recently.
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tribolite,You probably realize this but the black beans I am referring to are fermented soy beans, not what are most commonly referred to here as black beans, which are more common in soup or in Hispanic dishes. So what I did is not nearly as "soupy" as a gumbo or chowder. It is more like just steamed clams in a sauce, although you steam them in the sauce of fermented black beans, garlic, a bit of soy sauce and some chicken broth.
Edited by: StanInMaryland
