Monday, July 29, 2024

WHAT YOUR CHILDHOOD TASTED LIKE

In a Facebook group someone had questions about salt fish. A particular type. And how did you write it in Chinese? Well, what she was looking for was 霉香鹹魚 ('mui heung haam yü'). Moldy aroma or fragrance salt fish. Which is great with sliced chicken, streaky pork chunks, steamed pork patty, or in 鹹魚雞粒炒飯 ('haam yü gai naap chaau faan'; salt fish and diced chicken fried rice). Among a number of other uses. It's delicious as an additional ingredient in food, a bit strong to eat by itself. She also asked how much it cost, but I forget to note down the weight of the piece I bought recently, which is about the size of a hamburger including the bun, and enough for between four and eight uses depending on what you pair it with.
Sixteen bucks. 馬鮫魚 ('maa gaau yü'; scomber, mackerel).


Also good in soup with tofu, veggies, and ginger. 鹹魚豆腐湯 ('haam yü dau fu tong'), usually made using the flavoursome fish heads. Either bokchoy or stalky mustard green can be added, even sliced cucumber or fuzzy melon.


By the way, what do you call stirfried long bean with chunks of German smoked sausage, touch of oyster sauce, chilipaste, and ginger? Is it Cantonese? German? Generic Euro?
德煙香腸炒豆角 ('tak yin heung cheung chaau dau gok')?

It's what I'm eating right now. Lunch was earlier than usual, and I was peckish again.
Steamed dumplings, delicious with hot sauce. Eaten in a sea of Caucasians. Sweet and sour pork, egg rolls, and fried noodles to my right, three dudes wearing freshly acquired coolie hats (斗笠 'dau lap') to my left, some very tall very white people at front.
The latter were probably Dutch.
The dumplings were utterly delicious. I like that place because they employ alert and intelligent young people, who all understand me when I seak Cantonese, even the native speaker of Mandarin. But the tourists I am less fond of. Coolie hats. Good gracious!

Also, how DO you get that electric scarlett hue into the sweet and sour pork sauce?
Is someone tasked with mixing it up every morning?
The red dye 40 wizard?

It was cooler than I expected today. Probably chilly out near Ocean Beach, and possibly foggy too. The Richmond and Sunset districts are very likely cut-off from civilization.
They ate the last polar bear. The penguins are next.
Great with oyster sauce.



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