Thursday 11 September 2008

The Chinese One Hundred

Out of the Omnivore's Hundred came this; The Chinese One Hundred. This was created by Diana over at Appetite For China and I had to give it a go.

So copy it, paste it, highlight the ones you've tried and link it back to Appetite For China. Let's see how we get on...

Almond Milk
Ants Climbing A Tree - glass noodles with pork - not literal!)
Asian pear - only the best hangover cure ever
Baby bok choy - sweet and delicious
Baijiu - A Chinese distilled liquour. I was quite young. It tasted awful.
Beef brisket - I'm not sure why this is particularly Chinese, unless it means the stewed beef brisket, 'ngau lam' in Cantonese. Delicious, especially with tendons in noodle soup.
Beggar's Chicken
Bingtang Hulu
Bitter melon
Bubble tea - love it. Especially with big black tapoica pearls.
Buddha's Delight - aka. Monk's Vegetables
Cantonese roast duck - so good. I haven't yet recreated it at home.
Century Egg, or thousand-year egg - the last time I ate this I was horrendously hungover, having dim sum with my parents. My mum ordered it to spite me, I'm sure!
Char Siu (Cantonese roast pork)
Char kway teow - fried ho fun
Chicken feet - I can take them or leave them really.
Chinese Sausage - I prefer the less livery ones.
Chow mein - not a big fan. If it has to be fried noodles, make them ho fun please.
Chrysanthemum Tea (pic to the right)
Claypot rice
Congee - my grandmother made this for me when I was ill, adding dried scallops. I used to will myself to be sick just for it.
Dried Scallops - See above.
Crab rangoon - I had to look this up and got this: "Crab rangoon are deep-fried dumplings served in American Chinese restaurants, stuffed with a combination of cream cheese, lightly flaked crab meat with spring onions and/or garlic. These fillings are then wrapped in Chinese wonton wrappers in a triangular or flower shape, then deep fried in oil". This sounds horrible. Thank god I haven't had it.
Dan Dan Noodles - most recently at Baozi Inn
Dragonfruit
Dragon's Beard Candy - currently there is a stall in Chinatown selling it.
Dried cuttlefish
Drunken Chicken
Dry Fried Green Beans
Egg drop soup
Egg rolls - I first thought this referred to the sweet egg pastry rolled into cigar shapes you can buy in big tins at New Year. These are also good.
Egg tart, Cantonese or Macanese - Cantonese is my favourite.
Fresh bamboo shoots - oooh - not fresh, I don't think.
Fortune cookies
Fried Milk
Fried rice
Gai lan (Chinese broccoli)
General Tso's Chicken (picture to the right)
Gobi Manchurian
Goji berries (Chinese wolfberries)
Grass Jelly - not actually made from grass.
Hainan chicken rice - The best I had was at the Shangri-La in Singapore when I was about 10. I still dribble at the memory.
Hand-pulled noodles
Har Gau (steamed shrimp dumplings in translucent wrappers. Not very easy to make, as I demonstrated recently.)
Haw Flakes - sweets. Any Brits I ever offered it to never liked it, although why I have no idea.
Hibiscus tea
Hong Kong Style Milk Tea - my grandmother made it best.
Hot & Sour Soup - still one of my favourites.
Hot Coca-Cola with Ginger
Hot Pot
Iron Goddess Tea (Tieguanyin) - no idea. Probably.
Jellyfish - I particularly like it cold, dressed in sesame
Kosher Chinese Food - no idea.
Kung Pao Chicken - Fuschia Dunlop's recipe is lovely
Lamb skewers (yangrou chua'r)
Lion's Head meatballs
Lomo Saltado - never heard of it
Longan fruit
Lychee

Macaroni in soup with Spam - my favourite, especially with a fried egg on top.
Malatang - a Beijing speciality, apparently
Mantou, especially if fried and dipped in sweetened condensed milk
Mapo Tofu - one of my favourites.
Mock meat
Mooncake (bonus points for the snow-skin variety) - red bean paste ones are the best. I do hope they import some snow skin varieties this year!
Nor mai gai (chicken and sticky rice in lotus leaf)
Pan-fried jiaozi
Peking duck -
In Beijing, no less.
Pineapple bun
Prawn crackers
- is there anyone who hasn't?
Pu'er tea - ?
Rambutan
Red bean in dessert form - red bean ice lollies are best, but the pancakes are also good. Anyone got a recipe?
Red bayberry
Red cooked pork
Roast pigeon
- we used to go to a restaurant on Lamma Island that did them well. My sister liked to suck the heads of the pigeons.
Rose tea
Roujiamo
Scallion pancake
Shaved ice dessert
Sesame chicken
Sichuan pepper in any dish
Sichuan preserved vegetable (zhacai)
Silken tofu
Soy milk, freshly made
- my mum makes it all the time
Steamed egg custard - urgh. Too eggy for my liking.
Stinky tofu - and my god does it stink.
Sugar cane juice
Sweet and sour pork, chicken, or shrimp - mostly in England.
Taro
Tea eggs
Tea-smoked duck
Turnip cake (law bok gau) - possibly the best bit about New Year.
Twice-cooked pork
Water chestnut cake (mati gau)
Wonton noodle soup

Wood ear
Xiaolongbao (soup dumplings)

Yuanyang (half coffee, half tea, Hong Kong style)
Yunnan goat cheese
So I make that 78. What's your score?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Malatang is a Sichuan specialty, usually offered as street food. You dunk skewers in boiling spicy broth. So good...Thanks for trying out the list!

Sunflower said...

Hi Schmoof, had a go with the list. No bad I had about 90