How i spent my Wednesday evening

[kyllo_in_china]

I just cooked myself sweet and sour pork from scratch (and it was really good, unlike the last time I tried), and watched The Graduate on DVD. Total cost? Less than four dollars. It's times like this that remind me how much I love China

Comments

Re: Hey dude, thanks

[da_rosas]

Heheh, thanks for your response! Ms. Clueless in Vancouver, I fear what she must be like in person if she is incapable of making friends in person. Generally speaking, many Chinese that I've met here who came here as immigrants tend to be very polite. They'll make no clear indication directly to someone if they've been offended, but (with luck) they'll avoid them like the plague when given a chance. Yeah, as I wrote in my initial response, pity any poor thing that meets Ms. Clueless' clearly stipulated requirements in the perfect coolie that will be in awe of a proffered cup of tea. Oh, yeah, and like all such Chinese actually need English tutoring to boot. *trying not to gag* Sorry, I shouldn't preach to the choir.

You also noted that you've had the sweet and sour sauce in "a" Hong Kong restaurant. FYI, though I've never been there myself, I understand many HK restaurants are accustomed to serving "American" style Chinese food (akin to serving egg rolls, or an eatery in Rome serving pizza). I honestly do not believe that the ketchupy sweet & sour sauce you've mentioned is actually HK in origin. With all the Cantonese food that we grew up with, only my mother liked it and her attitude was that it was something atypical (implication: perhaps not familiar, meaning foreign?). Growing up, I always thought it was another American concoction.

BTW, I'm not absolutely sure, but anything with "ketchup" smacks as American to me. (Not sure the history of ketchup, but I assume it's western in origin?) I'm not even sure that HK (perhaps Chinese in general?) originally even have tomato products. Growing up, anything that had tomatoes in it tomatoes and peppers, etc. I felt was an Chinglish / AmeriChin type of invention, though some Chinese will like it. I may be wrong. Ask me more on this, if you can.

BTW, Chengdu: I know nothing really of mainland China; growing up, I was very limited to the local Chinatown Chinese, which back then was almost exclusively Hong Kong based. As far as "colorful" *snorts* language, I've been told that Cantonese is one of the most "colorful" though I'm certain we're not the only colorful dialect! Let me know if you want a link to some dirty Cantonese slang, heh.

Cooking: Oh, heck yeah. I'm culinarily-challenged to some extent, but aching to eat more at home. I miss a lot of very basic, simple Cantonese dishes that just aren't available at the local Am-Chinese joints. Love soups, noodles, but all the stuff I grew up with. A lot are surprisingly easy, actually, just getting proportions and seasonings right.

Re: Hey dude, thanks

[kyllo_in_china]

Well, you're definitely on the right track here--both of the two common words for "tomato" in Mandarin (番茄 fan qie) and (西紅柿 xi hong shi) denote that it's foreign/western in origin, but I have no idea when it was introduced to China. Today, Chinese people eat tomatoes, peppers, corn, and potatoes all the time. There are many things that didn't exist in Chinese cuisine a few hundred years ago, but I wouldn't hesitate to call "Chinese food" today.

Chinese food in America is influenced by Hong Kong food, but it's adjusted to American tastes. And I would suspect that Chinese food in Hong Kong has also adapted to Western influences (probably more British than American). Food, like culture, changes over time, so it's hard to say what's "authentic" Chinese food today and what's not. I only stayed in Hong Kong for a week, and in the space of that week I only had sweet and sour pork once, but the resemblance to the American kind was striking, in contrast to the kind I've had in the mainland.

Yeah, Cantonese has some pretty hilarious slang and insults. I don't speak a word of Cantonese, but I can read the subtitles, so I laugh my ass off at the kind of stuff that they say in like, Steven Chow movies, for example...