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髮菜豬手, stewed pork fee with “hair veggie” has an irreplaceable place for Cantonese New Year dinner. Either we eat out or cook at home during Chinese New Year, we always try to include this dish. The pronunciation of the dish, 髮菜豬手, is phonetically similar to Cantonese pronunciation of 發財就手, making a fortune and hold it in hand. Such good meaning, besides the delicious, gelatin-rich pork feet texture, makes this dish very popular.
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Besides seafoods, Cantonese love chicken the most! And we definitely have a lot of ways to cook chicken. Crispy chicken is something we order a lot in the restaurants but rarely made at home because of its long, complicated procedure. Now I am thousands miles away from hometown, locked up in the apartment for more than a year and own a air-fryer, the perfect time to make crispy chicken! Its crispy yet sweet skin, juicy meat is the perfect comfort after a long day!
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In my mom’s hometown Shantou, Guangdong 廣東汕頭 in Southern China, fall is the season to make stir-fried short neck clam with Thai basil (金不換炒薄殼，金不換=九層塔，薄殼=海瓜子). There is no short neck clam, or its next substitute Manila clams 花蛤/花甲 (the one with specific pattern has thinner shell, bigger and sweeter meat), so I use Littleneck clams to stir fry with Thai basil this time. Still very, very, very delicious!! Seriously, as a Cantonese, it is weird that I do not like fish, but it’s no surprise I LOVEEEEE all other seafoods…
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There are many types of Cantonese barbeque meat. Just looking at the boneless category, my two favorites are Char Siu 叉燒 and Pork Neck BBQ 炭燒豬頸肉. I am also curious what are their differences besides the cut (shoulder butt vs pork neck), how air-fryer and oven baked them differently. It turns out their main difference is the sauce (char siu sauce vs hoisin sauce, honey vs fish sauce). As for cooking method for Pork Neck BBQ, we prefer air-fryer because it gives less greasy texture and also nicer dark red color.
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It is a sunny morning on my cheat day from workout, and I have RAISIN WHITE BREAD instead of WHOLE WHEAT bread in stock!! Perfect timing to finally try the air-fry French Toast recipe that I have long saved in my YouTube “watch later” playlist. Honestly, who does not like the deep fried French Toast, especially the Hong Kong style with rich amount of peanut butter, condensed milk, honey running across, and a giant chunk of salted butter that is so heavy to crush and leave a dent on the fluffy toast?
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The leftover half duck from previous post “Shiso braised Duck” was made into Cantonese Five-Flavor Duck. Five flavors are: fragrant, spicy, sweet, sour, umami 香、辣、甜、酸、鮮. Five-flavor duck recipe is very straightforward — mix sauce, stir fry duck till skin becomes golden, cook for long time over low heat.
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I got a whole raw duck the first time and dissected it the first time. First duck recipe to share is Cantonese Shiso braised duck 粵菜 紫蘇燜鴨. In this dish, shiso leaves help get rid of the strong taste of duck and brings in extra flavor. Shiso leaves are also commonly used in stir-fry with snails, another common Cantonese street food appearing in alleyways in the snail season of late Summer and Fall.
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Cheap, common, yet well-known braised beef flank with radish 蘿蔔牛腩 can be found either as street foods or as well-plated delicacy in Cantonese restaurants, dim sum, lunch, or dinner. It might sound abstract but this dish really represents Cantonese value and spirits: low-key in life, but not low-quality.
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White cut chicken 白切鷄 and soy sauce chicken 醬油雞 are almost on every table in Cantonese restaurants. Cantonese loves chicken, and loves the origin flavor of chicken, thus strong spices are not commonly used for cooking chicken. Both of these chicken cook in boiling water for 30secs and dip in ice water to have chewy skin, then for further marinating. I did not expect soy sauce chicken to have such straightforward process. Nevertheless, this is nothing compared to the taste of soy sauce chicken from hometown!!
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Good wonton noodle soup is hard to find, with a good combination of shrimp wonton, pork bone broth and chewy jook-sing noodle 竹升面. The best wonton noodle soup in memory was still the one of a small shop beneath bridge near home. Either in steaming, humid hot summer or chilly, cold winter, sitting on small standing stools with red paddings, rubbing neighbors’ shoulders in the crowded restaurants and having one bowl of wonton noodle soup with my parents will always chill the summer nights, brighten the winter darkness. Wonton noodle soup is another taste of home for me.
