Lost in my immersion in all the wonderful foods that I have sampled in China was the realization that to date, I hadn't actually eaten much of the Chinese food that is familiar to me -- Cantonese food!
Lost in my immersion in all the wonderful foods that I have sampled in China was
the realization that to date, I hadn't actually eaten much of the Chinese food
that is familiar to me -- Cantonese food!
On Saturday night, we dined with H's two friends from Macau who had a craving
for the Cantonese stuff. Happily we set off in matching teal taxis to the 555
Restaurant, a ridiculously large opulent dim sum/wedding banquet hall/buffet
facing a public park in Hangkou.
As many readers know, Cantonese food is the most prevalent type of Chinese food consumed in the West, due largely to the fact that most Chinese who ended up leaving China for other countries hailed from Guangdong province, the southern coastal location of which leant itself well to leaving the mainland. Guangdong is the former Canton province, and is the home of Cantonese food and language.
Though I am pretty familiar with it myself, I found this description of
Cantonese food by
Flavor and Fortune, a publication from by the Institute for the
Advancement of the Science and Art and dedicated to the Science and Art of
Chinese Cuisine (ISACC).
"Main-stream Cantonese food has a fine balance of taste. Food is dainty but not bland, tender not raw, sometimes fried but always not greasy. Cooking methods vary and include shallow frying, deep frying, stir frying, steaming, baking, barbecuing, and grilling to name the most popular. For condiments, the Cantonese love and use Hoisin sauce, plum sauce, sate sauce(also known as barbecue or tea sauce), shrimp paste, oyster sauce, a myriad of kinds and grades of soy sauce, catsup, and red and white vinegar."
NOTE: If anyone ever wants to get me a present, back issues of
Flavor and Fortune magazine would be MOST welcome. Check out the
list of articles from the last ten years -- I salivated.
Anyway, on to the food. We took turns picking off the dim sum cart, and
ended up with a nice variety of those items so ubiquitous in New York. This
included chicken feet, wrapped fish cake, steamed shrimp dumplings, steamed
cabbage and broccoli with vinegar, char siu bao (roast pork buns),
egg custard, and some righteously stinky tofu. Damn, that stuff smells
horrible. But it tastes pretty good. I loved these tiny tiny baby bok choi
(could you call them fetal bok choi?).
It wasn't the most amazing Cantonese I have ever eaten, but it was tasty and familiar. I'm still not sure I'd ever order savory chicken feet on my own, but just the sight (and rubbery text of them) was comforting.
555 Restaurant
Hangkou, Wuhan -- Open till 3 a.m. on weekends
Posted by Astrid at September 27, 2004 09:33 AM