“I just love Chinese food. My favourite dish is number 27.
– Clement Atlee, former British Prime Minister
Before getting on to my write-ups of this weekend’s dinners, a brief look back at the last two classes of 2010, the “other two” of our Four Chinese Meals – the north and the south, represented by classic dishes from, respectively, the area around Beijing, or Peking, and those of Canton and Hong Kong. I really do realize that these are over-arching categories, and perhaps down the line I’ll expand this into 40 Chinese Meals, or maybe we’ll take on one particular region and do a little more in-depth series – might be a fun approach if there are a couple of students interested enough to commit to something like one of those…?
From the north, I had wanted to focus on dumplings and buns, or at least a couple of classic examples, so we make potstickers as well as roast pork steamed buns (had forgotten how much I miss those – always a favorite in NYC, and, as best I’ve determined, not available here, except at Chinese New Year when they suddenly show up at the street festival). Plus, a classic Mandarin dish of sliced beef with orange peel and chilies, and Peking style fried prawns with spiced salt for dipping.
And, finishing up with what had originally been intended as the first in the series, from Canton and Hong Kong – basic white rice (which we’d covered already because of the last minute change in order of classes), with four accompaniments – sweet and spicy spareribs, prawns and eggs, chicken with cashews, and the incredibly simple but really tasty, braised lettuce with oyster sauce.
Up close and personal photos of each dish on our Flickr site, you’ll find them in our “Various Classes” set.
By request, I’m repeating these classes starting this Thursday morning – there are still spots available if anyone wants to join in the fun. Also available, on Wednesday mornings, our five session look at the regional cuisines of central Italy, kicking off with Lazio, the area surrounding Rome. No other classes scheduled this month, but I’m open to requests!
Clem Attlee? B**llox! Not a real quote.
Perhaps, perhaps not, and likely he wasn’t the first to say it, but if you search the quote, it’s been attributed to him for a very long time and in a whole lot of places.
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