Be me, a Chinese who is sitting in front of his computer eating pizza in America, while watching an American cooking and eating traditional Chinese food in China

@ChineseCookingDemystified

6 жыл бұрын

Haha this one was Steph cooking, although you'll get me again next week when we do Beijing-style Moo Shu pork (木须肉). I, for better or worse, usually am the one that does the northern stuff :) What pizza you eating? There's a couple solid joints in Shenzhen (one run by some Chinese American brothers that split their time between China and NYC growing up, and another that's a random dude from New Orleans), but none of em have sausage pizza which I weirdly sometimes crave.

@dongshenghan1473

6 жыл бұрын

Ever heard of Blaze Pizza? One of those fast food pizza restaurant. They let you pick w/e you want on your pizza, so this time i picked Italian sausage, chicken, bacon, mushroom, olives, red sauce and ovalini mozzarella. Didn't know there are people with foreign background running pizza restaurant in China tho, wonder how they manage to get all those cheese which Chinese hardly eat. I dont know about the situation of Shenzhen, at least the only pizza restaurant i have seen in Guangzhou are pizzahut and another chain Italian restaurant which i cant recall the name.

@ChineseCookingDemystified

6 жыл бұрын

Nah last time I was living in the states was 09, so I definitely missed it. Seems like they've expanded quite a bit. So in terms of the Western restaurant scene in mainland China, it's definitely grown leaps and bounds. In Shenzhen I'm always a bit peeved at the quality-to-price ratio of most Western restaurants - to me it's absurd to see places charge CNY 120+ for a burger when I can make one at home for CNY 10... but at least they're around. In terms of cheese, most places use imported cheese, it's not too difficult to get. The packaged stuff isn't super high quality, so there's also some people (mostly foreigners) that produce it. There's a Brazilian guy in Shenzhen that makes a real quality mozzarella using the milk from the river buffalo in Shunde (Shunde produces some real good buffalo milk for 双皮奶 and such)... that's where I personally get mine from :)

@patavinity1262

6 жыл бұрын

A delicious irony.

@SilasGrieves

2 жыл бұрын

It’s been 3 years at the time of me posting this since this video was uploaded: I just wanted to stop by and say how unbelievably cool you guys are. It’s kinda beautiful that two otherwise completely separate people, born half around the world from each could one day walk down the path the other was born at the start of. You guys share a cultural understanding of each other that’s lost on a lot of people. How cool is it that you guys can talk about Western food in China and Chinese food in America and just both instantly get it? That’s such a cool life highlight.

So a few things: 1. Be sure to check out the full video of the puffed rice making using the pressure method. Really cool. What they’re making is a classic sort of sweet snack called mihua, which’s sort of the Chinese equivalent of a rice krispy treat - they use that method as it’ll yield individual pieces of puffed rice. Big thank you to Globik for letting us use that visual. Link: kzread.info/dash/bejne/l3uaua2qaM6qZps.html 2. So I always like to go into the ‘why’ with each video, but full disclosure: neither of us are exactly chemists. The information regarding how rice puffing works comes from a journal article I read, link here: researchbank.rmit.edu.au/eserv/rmit:160274/Sharma.pdf While I’m pretty sure I got the TL;DR correct, someone with more background than me’s prolly a better person to parse that. 3. And yeah, apologies for using that stick pan for the video. We wanted to have the pouring of the sanxian as the intro/thumbnail, which was difficult to set up. Because we used that stick pan, some fond obviously developed. While it did lend a nice subtle flavor to the sanxian, (1) this channel is ‘Chinese Cooking Demystified’, not ‘Chris and Steph’s Crazy Fusion Fun Hour’ (2) it really detracted from the color - this dish shouldn’t be brown-ish. So use a wok - or at least something relatively non-stick like cast iron - if you wanna make this correctly. 4. ‘Sanxian’, as I said in the video, is used to describe an almost ridiculous number of dishes. Some more background - and why we chose the ingredients we did - is in order. Also, just a quick correction that those ‘color guidelines’ are for the Sanxian for this particular dish. If you don’t mind, from the reddit post: ---------------- “Ok, so brief aside here. ‘Sanxian’ is sort of a catch-all term that refers to a number of different stirfries, fillings, and sauces throughout China. Originally a Huaiyang thing, sanxian literally means ‘three fresh things’ and has its own muddled history. It historically refers to groupings of ingredients that would be eaten during the end of Spring/start of Summer (立夏), referring to everything from ‘apricot/cherries/plums’ to different varieties of seafood. The most famous ‘sanxian’ is likely ‘disanxian’ - a Northern dish consisting of potato, green bell pepper, and eggplant. The second most well-known ‘sanxian’ would probably be a dumpling filling consisting of shrimp, pork, and Chinese chives (though there’s even a bunch of variations on that!). So what can we take away here? Dishes called ‘sanxian’ usually boast a variety of different fresh ingredients of various colors. That’s it. Here we’re doing a Sichuanese one that’s a copycat of what’s served at our favorite Sichuan restaurant in Shenzhen. But even the sanxian for this specifc dish has variants, and can even change depending on the season! The commonalities are that is has something green (we use wosun a.k.a. Celtuse, but you’ll also find snow peas or other crunchy veg), something pink (we use spam which’s pretty normal but many places use shrimp), something white (we use bamboo shoots, but king oyster mushrooms and chicken are also around), and something black (we use shiitake mushrooms, but mu’er’s quite common and you can even find sea cucumber). It’ll also have some meat - we used pork loin mostly out of laziness, as pig heart is a tasty and traditional choice. So feel free to play around with this and make it your own. Every place has their own *sanxian*: this one is one we enjoy.”

@ChineseCookingDemystified

6 жыл бұрын

Yeah Disanxian's an absolute classic. Just checked out the recipe on your channel - really happy to see you took the time to properly deep fry everything first. Way too many English language recipes skip that step and opt for only stir-frying, which I don't think is quite correct. The only small quibble I'd have would be the dark soy sauce - the deep color of the dark soy I feel overwhelms the natural color of the potato eggplant & pepper :) And we're not professional chefs or anything, I don't think people'd be too interested in 'our riff'' of things lol... if we ever editorialize a dish, we always think it's important to have a light touch. Regardless, usually the more 'creative' things we whip up are using local ingredients for American/Western dishes.

@ChineseCookingDemystified

6 жыл бұрын

Haha just a nitpick. I'm sure the flavor and texture were on point. And yeah, I don't think it's possible to run out of Chinese dishes. You could theoretically do weekly videos of *just* Cantonese food for 30 years and still just be scratching the surface. Running out of dishes that people know and search for in English? That's much more likely lol

@jhoughjr1

5 жыл бұрын

I was just reading about puffed rice last night and then stumbled here.

Awesome, been looking for a recipe on how to make the puffed rice. Thank you!

Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe!

Our family's favorite Sichuan and Hunan restaurant used to make a soup sort of like this with a similar simple flavor profile and color balance of items, but since it was soup, the puffed rice was poured onto the bowl at the table before everyone served themselves.

I've been to China a number of times and Guo ba (so sorry!) is one of my favourites. I always wondered how they did it, and I'm glad you've made this video! I love China and its people, zàijián!

Incidentally, papadums are made in a similar manner - cook starch, dehydrate, fry. Rice and/or bean flour is typical, but tapioca pearls are my favorite.

@ChineseCookingDemystified

6 жыл бұрын

Huh, cool. I knew Indian cuisine had puffed rice - bhelpuri's an obvious example - but I didn't know papadum also followed the same technique!

@KamalikaMukherjee81

4 жыл бұрын

@@ChineseCookingDemystified So happy that you know about bhelpuri! And Nelumbo Nucifera is right. It is the same technique as preparing a paadum or papad. We have papad out of pretty much everything including rice papad. Also puffed rice is eaten as a snack and is extremely popular in Bengal. 'Jhal muri' is the Bengali version of 'bhelpuri'. If you ever visit Calcutta, please try it out.

I love this channel. Thanks again for the video guys; I've really learned a lot about chinese food since following you.

@stephanieli7519

6 жыл бұрын

Thanks :) Glad that we can help.

Love, love, love y’alls channel, I already tried a few recipes and have been blown away. Keep up the good work! ❤️ from Houston, TX

@ChineseCookingDemystified

6 жыл бұрын

Cheers man, I hear Houston's a great town for Chinese supermarkets and the like. As an aside, just watched the Ugly Delicious episode for Houston, seems like a nice place to eat as well.

The texture must be ridiculously good! Thanks for sharing

@ChineseCookingDemystified

6 жыл бұрын

So when you make the guoba at home like this, the texture's pretty cool! It starts out super crispy and then slowly softens over ~15 minutes. Sometimes when you eat outside in China restaurants'll use manufactured rice cakes and just get that sizzle from doing that oil-pouring method... those ones tend to soften like almost immediately. Still good but I do also really like those crispy bites :)

I love this video and will definitely try the recipe.

God, I love this channel so much!!!

@ChineseCookingDemystified

6 жыл бұрын

Cheers, thanks for watching!

This dish was a great memory from my father who passed. Thanks.

Aha, now I understand when I've seen "San Shien Wor Bar" on some menus in the States! It's an attempt to translate the pronunciation of guoba. The sauce is also really good as a dish in its own right (like the Da Sanxian recipe).

I have great memories of the guoba from my old local chinese joint. In their case, they used a darker sauce with seafood and veggies, and it was always served in a sizzling plate. The puffed rice was loose (more like the cereal type puffed rice). Very likely it was just a westernised version. Anyways, found myself craving it and your channel was the first place I checked and, as always, didn't disappoint 😊

His voice is so soothing, like Babish.

Great job!

i knew this food from watching Cooking Master Boy.. looks delicious

Very good chef

Love your channel!!!!

@ChineseCookingDemystified

6 жыл бұрын

Cheers, thanks!

Mmm, guoba... Zero waste junk food! I'm defo trying this. Thanks, guys!

@typhooonn

4 жыл бұрын

what are you talking about? where is junk food ?

Finally!!! Thanks for this video. I used to eat this food in a chinese restaurant in Barcelona, they called it 'Ku Bak', was absolutelly delicious and spectacular when they were completing the plate in front of your eyes, means pourring the sauce into the fluffy rice. Unfortunatelly the restaurant closed long time ago and since then i've been trying to find it in other restaurant, but no way. The funny point is that i've found your recipe by accident, actually I was looking for the recipe of San Xian Noodles that appear in the anime 'The flavors of youth'. Anyway, thanks a lot. In case you are interested in some Peruvian foods, just ask me. As about Chifa as well. Chifa is how we call the Peruvian fusion beetwen Chinese Cantonese and the Peruvian flavours. :) Our favorites Chifa dishes are: arroz chaufa, tallarín saltado, sopa wantán, wantán kam lu, gallina chi jau kay, gallina tipa kay, arroz sam si, choy pi kay, fun king chong long, nabo encurtido and chancho con piña. Ironically, any of this Chifa dishes contains potato, as Peru is the potato country. Funny ha. Well, thaks again for your info and I will follow your videos.

We always had store bought puffed rice cake in our cubbard growing up

Looks delicious!! Glad you didn't try that pressure EXPLODING technique at home ;)

@ChineseCookingDemystified

6 жыл бұрын

Haha a small part of me can't help but think about it, but something tells me the neighbors wouldn't be too thrilled. Cheers again for the video man, swing by Futian sometime and eat our leftovers

@GLOBIK

6 жыл бұрын

Hahaha! revenge for all the fireworks and renovations ;) My pleasure! Sounds like a very tasty invitation right here!

You can also use a dehydrator if you decide to dry the rice overnight.

You can also use an air fryer to crisp these! (Rice noodles too!)💖

Damn it, I was going to start my diet today...Thanks Guys, love your vids XD

@ChineseCookingDemystified

6 жыл бұрын

Haha as long as you're not going for keto or something, seems like something that could fit into a diet ;)

Quick Story Time: As a kid, I went to a Chinese Restaurant called BoBo China that served a dish they called: Sizzling Rice Soup. To serve, they would bring out a soup with crystal clear chicken broth, snow peas, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, chicken, & mushrooms. On another plate the server would have steaming hot rice. When they got to your booth, they would pour the hot rice in the hot soup and it would pop and sizzle. It was the best soup I have ever eaten, before or since. I moved away later on and sadly, I learned they closed. This is the closest recipe I have ever gotten to that soup. Thanks so much!!!

@openreels

3 жыл бұрын

Yes! We used to get sizzling rice soup when I was a kid in Berkeley, CA, at a place called Omei's. Loved it! I've never seen it again, but we can get this kind of sizzling rice dish at sichuan restaurants where I live now (Maryland/DC area) and it's great.

Ini Indonesia, Guoba is called Rengginan (made from sticky rice) or Intip (made from ordinary rice)

Well 'Bombing Tokyo' is certainly one of the more interesting names for a dish. And I had no idea they have Spam in China.

@ChineseCookingDemystified

6 жыл бұрын

tbh I still kind of like that name... not the most friendly but it's got character lol.

@teslashark

4 жыл бұрын

The supposed original recipe style is shown in the 1980s movie Sanmao in The Army, though they just had a chili and kungpao chicken sauce. Spam, the generic kind, came to China through Russia I think, not America.

@Ohyeahhahaha

4 жыл бұрын

@@teslashark not too sure tho. China was under KMT's administration, and KMT has been America's ally since the mid of WW2. No surprise that China got American supplies and thus spam. My 2 cents

Do you have more footage of that street-side pressure frying?

@ChineseCookingDemystified

6 жыл бұрын

I linked it in the description, but you can check the full video here: kzread.info/dash/bejne/l3uaua2qaM6qZps.html Off the top of my head, Trevor James also has a video of street popcorn (similar method) here: kzread.info/dash/bejne/d4ifvNKDk73Om6w.htmlm39s Hope that helps :)

If you wanted an epic recreation of Chuuka Ichiban’s Guo Ba, check this out! (Not my own video) kzread.info/dash/bejne/a5uhq8p-dsfYZNo.html

Omg I swear this is the young fella from Jaws talking

Sorry C & S, this is longer than I had intended 😳 Well! This looks so good Chris and Steph! I'm able to "taste" food by reading recipes, watching food videos and shows and I was not able to with this. That's not a bad thing, I promise. It means I have to research the ingredients! What fun! Another equipment question if I may. I often see pots like the one you used~they looks as though they were handcrafted. Are these good to cook with? Any advantage over non stick? Who manufactures these? Are they expensive? Sorry for all the questions, but I am a true "kitchen stuff" addict. I don't own a lot of gadgets, pots or pans etc. because in 50 yrs of cooking I've come to have very few, but perfect for me essentials. I replace what I need when I need it. And my pots are up for it. These look primitive yet somehow really appealing. Not sure but did you ever do an equipment video? (I've been very ill, as I mentioned so was too lazy to look ☺.) Keep these videos coming, please. PS: Chris~your commentary was spot on! You are relaxed, informative and it's like you're talking "to" us, not "at" us Jenn 💖 in Canada 🍁

@ChineseCookingDemystified

6 жыл бұрын

Thanks! So there's nothing overly special about the equipment we use - we do recommend grabbing a carbon steel wok (we make a little video on Wok buying a couple weeks back), and we personally like the sort of Chinese knife we use (i.e. 'vegetable cleavers'). If you have any specific questions feel free to shoot em over! Get well soon Jenn :)

...sure wish I could find a source of the pressure method here in order to avoid the oil.

@ChineseCookingDemystified

6 жыл бұрын

This sort of guoba isn't oily at all... 15 seconds at 210C means there's no real added oil/fat to the rice cakes. If you're concerned about the oil, just skip the ladling part! :)

Do they have sizzling rice soup in China? I've been trying to find a good recipe for it, but this isn't quite the dish, and I've been wondering if it's an American Chinese dish.

@yunnypuff

4 жыл бұрын

Is what you had similar just with different ingredients and/or different sauce consistency? This is pretty common to find in China, especially Sichuan. Other versions include more a more soupy sauce, or use seafood like cut up octopus or calamari to bring in the umami. The puffed rice is the staple, though.

@natalie-taylor

4 жыл бұрын

I've been looking for a good recipe too! The restaurant we used to get sizzling rice soup at has closed and I miss the soup so much. This is the closest recipe I have been able to find (the channel has an interesting name, lol): kzread.info/dash/bejne/n3allJWGl9mpgMo.html The version we ate had thin slices of beef, chicken and small shrimp. It also included snow peas, water chestnuts, mushrooms, carrot, bamboo shoots and baby corn too.

Guoba is the best. I have to deliberately not buy huge bags of it on my way home or I'll sit on my sofa eating it until my molars are encased in starchy concrete.

I love sizzling rice soup better though not the tomato based one. Great when you have a cold.

You need to write an authentic, real "Chinese cookbook", the way the Chinese people that you live with, actually, cook. Your videos are the best in this genre'...because you live in China and I can count on the fact that you are cooking, exactly, as they do....which is, exactly, what I want to learn and see! Another fabulous, authentic, perfect Chinese cooking lesson....Thank you, again!

@ChineseCookingDemystified

6 жыл бұрын

So I *have* had this idea. What I think I'd wanna do is write it and release as a free PDF using a sort of donation 'tip jar' model. My vision would be to have a picture-heavy book showing the step-by-step process that's focused on and organized by technique - give a basic recipe in depth, then give many variants. Basically, a sort of hybrid between Kian Lam Kho's "Phoenix Claws and Jade Tree") and the now-out-of-print Williams and Sonoma "Mastering" Series (super underrated series, those books taught me how to cook... cannot recommend their "Sauces" book enough). Here's the thing though: we're still learning stuff ourselves! We take the research for each video we do incredibly seriously and we're picking up lots of techniques along the way. I think we're probably still a year away til we're ready to write something comprehensive.

@stevewilkins2754

6 жыл бұрын

Great Idea! Love the fact that you will be a)step by step and b)picture heavy as this is important in teaching culinary skills. You know this as I see how well you teach in your "step-by-step" videos. They are very "instructive" and I know a book that follows your videos would be very helpful to your followers and fans. It's great that you two are still "learning" because that makes everything so "up to date" and authentic. The "authenticity" of your recipes and technique is very apprarent. You do have classical "French-technique" training, as I hear it in your excellent videos. Someone not as well versed.....would not know what "fond" is, for example, as I just heard you use the term and had to smile. Even Ming Tsai(sprelled wrong) of "East meets West" would be impressed with your classical French terminology in your instruction!L.O.L. I agree with you about the Williams-Sonoma series and I have all of the books....somewhere. I learned to cook at the C.I.A. but before I went, I used the Williams-Sonoma series too and learned a lot. "Tip-jar" is fine but you are "good enough" to just charge a price for your book....in fact you're much better than just "good enough", you're very good! You really "bridge the gap" between Eastern and Western foods and their preparation by your step by step approach and great "teaching skill". The C.I.A. would hire you as a "Chef Instructor" for Asian Cuisine in a heartbeat....

@ChineseCookingDemystified

6 жыл бұрын

lol it's quite common. Been around for all of Steph's life here (used to be a treat for them growing up as it was more expensive than pork). I should say that what we're using it's "Spam" per se but rather a Chinese brand of it.

@stevewilkins2754

6 жыл бұрын

TyquiDean....by "authentic", I mean a)living and cooking in China and not a studio in New York City b)using a metal wok and not Circulon cookware c)the ingredients used including vegetables that are indiginous to China and most importantly the techiniques used in an apartment with a simple burner in China. I have not been to China, so I did not know that a large number of Chinese cook with a burner and one wok.....i.e. no stove as we all have here in the U.S. Also, Span is a dish that is very popular in the Hawiian Islands and has been since World War II. I did not know that it was used in China but it is "authentic" Chinese food because the "everyday" Chinese people, like the Hawaiians; prize it and use it in their cuisine.

Looks great, but I'm not a fan of spam, so I'll have to use a substitute or just use more pork.

@ChineseCookingDemystified

6 жыл бұрын

Hey, I talk about it a bit in the reddit post, but feel free to use shrimp. I'd venture they're equally common, maybe with a slight edge to shrimp. We just... like spam.

@toddstropicals

6 жыл бұрын

Chinese Cooking Demystified Oh I hear ya, spam just has way too much sodium for me "health issues"

Hey, I’m also this guy ready for government work! ;-)

@typhooonn

5 жыл бұрын

what did you mean ?

I think Boaty McBoatface agrees with me the former name is catchy.

@thisissteph9834

5 жыл бұрын

" Boaty McBoatface", lol.

LOL CHNESE SPAM!

@commentcopbadge6665

5 жыл бұрын

Nope. Regular western SPAM but just used in a Chinese dish.

Bombing Tokyo lol Did people in Chongqing name the dish after the real event?

@alkazargui175

5 жыл бұрын

Chongqing was bombed heavily during the war. The dishes name is a sort of act of revenge.

4:40 the... what?

YO I FUCKIN LOVE SPAM (☞^o^) ☞

OOF original name much better

Ehhhh. I’ll pass on this one. That’s a LOOOOT of work.

I prefer the old name

Don't paint over people's artwork... not a good idea

Fyi had to turn on subtitles and mute the sound because the voice over gives me nausea, that's how bad his voice sounds.

Bombing tokyo. Lol. Chinese were creative back then before communism.

@patavinity1262

6 жыл бұрын

Yes, what a shame there are literally no creative Chinese people today! And the Communist Party were (and are) extremely anti-Japanese, so I'm sure they approved of the name.

@xz1891

5 жыл бұрын

You guys are nuts, bombing Tokyo was done by America after jp raided Pearl harbour.

Seeing as your audience is English speaking, could you not just say Xiaoshing wine instead of Yow-Jo aka Xiaoshing wine? You say that mouthful of unnecessariness in every single video and I cannot see what the point is seeing as 99% of your audience will likely be living outside of China and buying from Asian supermarkets where it's called Xiaoshing wine. So basically what I'm trying to say is, it's really annoying so stop it now.

@ChineseCookingDemystified

6 жыл бұрын

Haha I see what you're saying, but this is where we unfortunately seem to have contradictory pet peeves. I like calling it liaojiu, as "Shaoxing wine" refers to a very specific high grade huangjiu wine with a deep and storied history. If you're a super high end restaurant, you'd use 'huadiao', a specific grade of high end Shaoxing. There's many sorts huangjiu, but the ones you'll bump into when cooking are usually liaojiu and huadiao. For some reason, it kinda bothers me that outside of China low grade salty cooking wine is labelled 'Shaoxing wine'. It'd be like if super-crap brandy was labelled 'cognac'. So when we started out, I'd always say 'liaojiu', but I *do* know that in English everyone says 'Shaoxing'. So saying both is my compromise ;)