TRULY CANTONESE: 鹹魚茄子

Sometimes it distresses me that my ex is so thoroughly Americanized, despite being Cantonese from San Francisco's Chinatown, and having had all the childhood exposure to fun food. She usually eats very white.
I am not like that at all. No, I will not claim that I am Cantonese in any way. But good heavens, American Wasp Cuisine is not, strictly speaking, very interesting.
Everything with potatoes and overcooked vegetables.
Deep fry that sucker and put it on a stick.

The mature and discerning individual wants something else. Something better. Something you can eat with chili paste (sambal).

Like, for instance, dried fish eggplant. Over rice.

Gotta make it a bit saucy.


鹹魚茄子 HAAM YÜ KE JI

Ingredients (材料 'choi liu'):
About two or three Asian eggplants.
Between a half and one tablespoon dried fish (梅香鹹魚 'mui heung haam yü').
One clove of garlic, chopped.
A piece of ginger, chopped.
Half a teaspoon hot bean paste (辣豆瓣酱 'laat dau baan jeung').
Jigger of sherry or rice wine.
Dash soy sauce (老抽 'lou chau').
Cooking oil for sautéing.
The merest pinch of sugar.
A little cornstarch made pasty with water.

Cut the eggplants into thick wedges lengthwise. Heat up some oil in a wok, and fry these till gilded but no further, drain. Crumble the dried fish, and boil in a little water. When the dried fish is thoroughly softened, strain it over a bowl (reserve the liquid), and dump it into a greasy pan to sizzle, along with the ginger and garlic; when it starts smelling fried, add the soaking water, hot bean paste, and a pinch of sugar, then cook till dry. Dump in the eggplant, stir around, and add the dashes soy sauce, rice wine, and a splash of water, plus the cornstarch paste. Cook till liquids reduce to a sauce consistency, about three or four minutes.
Garnish with chopped chives, serve.

You could substitute shrimp paste (鹹蝦醬 'haam haa jeung') or fish dew (魚露 'yü lou') for the dried fish, perfectly acceptable (call it 海味茄子 'hoi mei ke ji'), but plum fragrance salty fish (梅香鹹魚) has that real sexy flavour.

And you might add ground pork at the appropriate stage.
Or preserved pork belly (臘肉 'lap yiuk').


I guess the reason why she eats so Waspy is that there are plenty of Chinese eateries near her office, whereas I work in Marin, where the nearest Chinese restaurant is Panda Express, gottenyu, and everything else is equally washed-out. I am desperate four days a week.
Actually, disappointed. Culinarily unexcited.
Marin is white cotton sponge.

乜都唔好味，無可口嘅。
清湯淡茂茂。


She also eats Indian food on occasion (yes, I introduced her to that!), but if you think about it, that too is frightfully Anglo.




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