Hugh and Carol Eat in Hunan

Hong Kong Snacks Post

2008-12-28T07:55:00.001-08:00

Hong Kong is THE place for eats and thus a food blogger's delight. But my favorite by far, are the snacks it offers. Here's a favorite from my childhood: gai dan zai (egg deliciousness - more like egg waffle balls or something). I remember getting these after school everyday as I took the bus.

Typical snack bar on corner of a busy street in Tsim Sha Tsui (Kowloon)

Here are the delicious egg treat makers.

Pour in the batter.

TADA! Delicious, warm, toasty egg snacks. Waffle like bread on the inside and a thin crispy crust on the outside.

More snacks for your viewing delight:

And next door, a drink stand of every flavor imaginable - ALL 100%!

Ranging from tomato juice to cucumber juice to watermelon juice to apple juice...

The machinery

An American Thanksgiving in Changsha

2008-12-01T07:58:00.001-08:00

Sweet potato croquettes

Cranberry sauce in a can, from the States!

Roasted tomato soup

Roasted carrots and potatoes

Hunan dish of the night

Salad

Mashed potatoes

Stuffing

Pumpkin risotto

Turkey substitute - spicy Hunan chicken

Green beans

Desserts - Sweet potato and apple deliciousness

Pumpkin something

(Not shown because I was eating instead of taking pictures: delicious persimmon pudding, banana bread pudding)

I lied. We do in fact, have a picture of BANANA BREAD PUDDING

and of course, some good old wine

Guangzhou Post: Dimsum

2008-11-12T00:15:00.000-08:00

Turnip cake

Dumplings with carrots, vermicelli and other greens

Greasy and delicious pancake creation

Cha Siu Bao (Pork Dumplings)

There was more but I was too busy eating to take pictures. Cheers!

Sichuan Post 2 - Making Baozi with Grandma Gao

2008-11-07T06:38:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago, I visited lovely Sichuan villagers I befriended two years ago, one of them being Grandma Gao, who is a fantastic cook. Here are some delicious baozi she made!

Get baozi bread mix ready (probably made of flour, water)

Roll it up into dough

Put ground meat into balls of dough

Twist the dough balls up to close them up

Line them up in a steamer like so

Steam for about 15~20 minutes

Baozi!

Here is something else delicious she made (I have no idea what they're called, but they are distant relatives of the baozi)

Roll out the dough and spread a mixture for inside (made up sesame and some other forms of deliciousness)

Roll everything up

Cut rolled up dough into slices, and steam!

Tada!

Sichuan Post - Sichuan Hotpot

2008-11-07T06:09:00.000-08:00

First off, I may love Chinese food, but let me just say, especially post-November 4, 2008, I am very proud to be an American.

Now on to food.

Sichuan (my favorite province) is best known for its spicy hotpot. Sichuan spiciness and Hunan spiciness are different, in that Hunan is "la" and Sichuan is "ma." "La" is what your tongue would feel after eating a couple red peppers or two, while "ma" describes a tongue and mouth-numbing experience.

You dip all your foods in this sesame oil with additions of oyster sauce, garlic and cilantro (you add however much you want yourself)

Oyster sauce

Cilantro and green onion

Super long chopsticks to help fish out what you're cooking in the pot

Beef

Cow tripe

Eel

Lotus root

Tofu skins

Noodles

Broccoli and potato (second shelf) as well

If you want things to be spicy, you cook your food in here.

If you are in need of a break from spiciness, you cook your food in here. Notice that this part is significantly smaller.

The End!

Duo Luo Jie Visit #2

2008-10-20T07:41:00.000-07:00

Barbecued eggplant with spices, spices, spices and chives

Barbecued green beans, blocking access to delicious eggplant.

Barbecued cucumbers, and snails in a styrofoam box

Barbecued octopus (thank you Heyman)

Tofu, bell peppers, and golden mushrooms, also blocking access to delicious eggplant

Chicken

Restaurant Near Yali

2008-10-15T23:20:00.000-07:00

More delicious Changsha food on the Lazy Susan. My favorite from this restaurant is the eggplant that comes out sizzling in foil on a hot plate.

The Appetizers:

Cold soybeans

My dish overfloweth with vermicelli

The Main Dishes

Beef with the typical Changsha additions (pepper and pepper..)

This picture does the eggplant dish no justice.

Soups are boring (because you can't see anything), but I'll put this mushroom soup up for variety's sake

Chicken with ginger and soy sauce

Tofu skins and a LOT of cilantro

The "Mai Dan" flower. Many restaurants put a flower on your table to indicate that you've paid the bill.

I'm also going to start posting reviews on this blog on the side. My favorite (and only review) is: "It's a sin to post the photos there. So tempting." - Helen Gao, DC '10, student at Yale University.

Hunan Wildfire: A Yale-China Changsha feast

2008-10-12T06:11:00.000-07:00

String beans with pepper and garlic

Juicy eggplant with slices of hot pepper

Stir-fried (?) cabbage, also with slices of hot pepper (noticing any patterns here..?)

Tofu with bell peppers

Spicy slices of chicken in ...spicy sauce

Roasted duck in a duck basket

Soup pre-boil, with sweet carrots, spices, and other greens

Crab

Corn juice

2008-10-09T20:47:00.000-07:00

As promised, here is my first post! Many have commented that our Changsha blog does not feature enough Changsha food. In reply, we give you Duo4luo4 Jie1 堕落街，Changsha's busiest street-food spot. It stretches from the side of Hunan University (Hu2da4 湖大) along the shore of the Xiangjiang River, noisily resisting the imminent demolition allegedly awaiting it.

The street is full of stalls arranged with everything imaginable on a stick. Typically, you point at what you want, a man puts your selection on a tray, and then you sit and wait for him to to bring your finished food, grilled and caked with Changsha's spicy sauce, la4jiao1 辣椒.

Unfortunately, I couldn't take pictures of the different foods because of my technical difficulties, but we have a video! For this post, a video luckily seems more appropriate. Covered with the spicy marinade, all those lotus roots, eggplants, chicken wings, oysters, baby octopi, pieces of beef, cartilage, and tofu, cucumbers, scallions, and other offerings can begin to taste and almost look the same by the end of the night. The street's atmosphere sets its food apart (quite literally due to the roaming stench and hint of stinky tofu).

More posts to come soon! Please add comments and correct me if I have made a mistake.

Hugh

Shanghai Post 1 - Din Tai Fung

2008-10-02T09:45:00.000-07:00

Hugh's camera is currently broken, which is why I've been posting so far. He is also currently out in the desert somewhere, in Inner Mongolia. But a Hugh authored post is coming soon, I promise! I am spending the week in Shanghai, Suzhou and Hangzhou. Here is Shanghai Food Post #1 (special edition since it is not Hunan!) - none other than the famous Din Tai Fung, located in Xin Tian Di, which is a district of restaurants, shops, cafes, bars with cobblestone streets. It's very pretty but extremely fake looking.

Anyway, Din Tai Fung, which originally started in Taiwan, is famous for its delicious dumplings, including xiaolongbao, which is a juicy pork dumpling Shanghai is very famous for. It is a little on the pricy side but worth every bite! Eating xiaolongbao is tricky because you have to make sure none of the juice falls out, and you also want to make sure you don't burn your tongue.

Xiaolongbao - yes, that is steam

Dan dan mian - spicy Sichuan noodles

Pork dumplings

Veggie dumplings

Shao mai (open-face steamed dumplings) - dumplings steamed with rice in soy sauce and vegetables

For dessert, a well-known dessert chain called Honeymoon Desserts, which offers Chinese style desserts with mango, sago (really small clear chewy balls often in desserts and drinks), coconut variations.

Mango with sago

Mango, coconut, and red bean (and Peter's arm..)

Bullfrog

2008-09-27T20:23:00.000-07:00

Another Changsha delicacy that cannot go ignored is bullfrog (niuwa, which is literally bull and frog). Yes, yes, I agree, it sounds disgusting, because bullfrogs are disgusting. I also refused when I first heard of these dish, and so I told everyone not to tell me what it was so I could judge the dish objectively. It is surprisingly good, as it tastes just like chicken, but it's a bit disappointing at times because bullfrog doesn't have much meat on it. Bullfrog is also prepared in a pot of somesort, and put on top of a burner in front of you at restaurants.

Bullfrog sizzling away

And some accompanying top dishes of the night..

Hugh's favorite dish of the night: pickled cucumber with slices of pork.

My favorite dish of the night, and one of my favorite Hunan dishes so far: fat green beans sizzled with pepper, spices and what I believe is pork as well.

Nightfood

2008-09-27T19:09:00.000-07:00

Nightfood after an exciting Thursday night at Cafe Mescale, one of our favorite bars in Changsha (the owners are good friends with Heyman and Evan): crawfish extravaganza!

Little do they know...

They usually come in a bowl of spicy delicious Hunan sauce, although non-spicy alternatives are also available. At this place, gloves were given, but proven ineffective. Eating procedure: rip off the tail, eat the tail meat, then suck on brains. Mmmm

Uyghur Restaurant

2008-09-21T09:18:00.000-07:00

Our stomachs and taste buds have been extremely pleased for our first three weeks in Changsha. However, much to our dismay, both of our cameras remained broken due to previous unfortunate incidents, and we have not been able to blog. But September rolled along and I finally bought a camera I'd been meaning to buy for a long, long time. So here is an inaugural post of a Uyghur restaurant about five minutes away from Yali Middle School. This place is one of Heyman's favorites, and is quickly becoming one of ours too.

kao bao zi - roasted dumplings, also known as "the best things in the world" by Heyman. Toasted/baked, and filled with lamb meat, vermicelli. They are even tastier because they are limited, and are not always available since the restaurant only makes a certain number per day.

a famous chinese dish called liang pianr. wide, clear cold noodles with spongey tofu. sauce is spicy, with a seemingly Xinjiang/Hunan edge to it.

Fat, juicy lamb meat on a stick known as yang rou chuanr. A classic Uyghur snack, often eaten with big pieces of bread.

Broccoli in garlic and spicy sauce.

Fried potato pieces that crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. Sprinkled with spices.