Overseas Chinese Web Guide

Category: Food

  • No MSG*

    Last month, the New York Times published an article about the controversy surrounding MSG entitled “Yes, MSG, the Secret Behind the Savor.” Now, I’ve seen more than a few Asian restaurants with handmade signs declaring “No MSG.” However, “NO MSG on all gourmet dishes” is not the same as “No MSG,” is it? That “on…

  • Jack Daniel’s Hispanic Gift Pack

    With Cinco de Mayo being just one month away, I saw that Jack Daniel’s is already out with their Hispanic Gift Pack. Curiously, I spotted this package at an Asian supermarket instead of the local supermercado. I guess nothing says gracias like a bottle of Jack Daniel’s. I need to keep an eye out to…

  • Cookie Cutter Marketing

    Marketing works. Why else are we drilled to not judge a book by its cover? Sometimes our marketing ideas work. Other times, they are a complete failure. And, you will never receive a more honest response than from a child. If they don’t like what you prepared, then they don’t eat it. One easy way…

  • Pearl River Bridge Superior Light Soy Sauce

    I just discovered that Kylie Kwong recommends Pearl River Bridge soy sauce, the brand that I’ve been using for a number of years. Kylie Kwong explained that “[s]ome inferior versions are full of chemicals, so make sure you buy naturally fermented soy sauce.” The ingredients for Pearl River Bridge Superior Light Soy Sauce are water,…

  • Sweet and Sour Spare Ribs

    I finally made the Sweet and Sour Spare Ribs recipe that I had found in Fuchsia Dunlop’s Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook. The flavor was spot on; however, the ribs ended up a bit dry and overcooked. I found the recipe instructions to be a bit vague in terms of cooking time. In her recipe, I boiled,…

  • Haday Superior Light Soy Sauce

    I usually use Pearl River Bridge soy sauce. However, because I have been busy as of late, I had to send others to shop for groceries in my place. As a result, we have started to venture into other brands of foodstuffs, like Haday Superior Light Soy Sauce. Not being familiar with this brand, I…

  • Review: Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook by Fuchsia Dunlop

    Amazon just sent me Fuchsia Dunlop’s Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook. This cookbook exhaustively covers Hunan cuisine. Literally. I was exhausted from reading the cookbook. The introduction? 43 pages. Four paragraphs on bean curds. Two paragraphs on garlic. It all adds up. The first recipe is Sweet-and-Sour Spare Ribs. All recipes include the name in Chinese characters…

  • Time Magazine is Wrong About China

    Time: Kentucky Fried Rice. Starbucks has the gall to sling its lattes for coffee connoisseurs in Vienna, and Budweiser peddles its brew in Belgium. So why shouldn’t Yum Brands–the Louisville, Ky.-based company that owns KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and more–sell dumplings in a fast-growing market where Chinese food is just called food? In an…

  • Not Invented Here

    New York Times: Solving a Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery Inside a Cookie. Fortune cookies, Yasuko Nakamachi says, are almost certainly originally from Japan. Her prime pieces of evidence are the generations-old small family bakeries making obscure fortune cookie-shaped crackers by hand near a temple outside Kyoto. I heard the hidden messages in moon cakes…

  • Review: California Cafe

    Had dinner at California Cafe in Palo Alto. I had no problem finding the Stanford Barn, but the restaurant was tucked into this small corner that required some effort to locate. The crab cakes, organic greens and mango lemonade were quite tasty. The appetizer comes with two crab cakes. Moist on the inside and crispy…