How do you like Chinese food?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
I hate to say it, but the tender thing is lots of pounding and ...... MSG. it is one ingredient that many restaurants claim not to use because a few are allergic to it. I always make sure none of my guests are allergic. but it does make the meat meltingly delicious. I use Maggi with beef or pork. With chicken or turkey I just beat the living daylights out of it. Even my husband doesn't know how I get it restaurant-tender. Beat it up. To make it a little easier, buy cubed steaks.
 
Charlie - "Velveting" is a preparatory method that results in an unbelievably silk-like texture with poultry & seafood destined for ultimate cooking in a stirfry.

It involves placing the cut meat (sliced, shredded, diced, etc.) in a coating of dry sherry, egg white, cornstarch, oil, & salt & then gently but quickly giving it a quick (like 1 minute tops) "bath"/simmer in either low-temp (like 275 degrees) oil or slow-boiling water. The meat comes out light, sort of fluffy, & "velvety" - thus the name of the term.

There's absolutely nothing like it for preparing chicken for virtually any stir-fry dish. You'll swear you're in the best restaurant in Chinatown - lol!

If I have the prep time, I try to use this method as often as possible when I'm planning on stirfrying chicken. Haven't tried it with seafood yet.
 
I have done it where I just dipped the meat in a cornstarch and water slurry before sitr frying. I know that is not the actual velveting method, but it worked amazingly well. My wife couldn't stop talking about it. She wanted to know why I never did that before and wants me to always do it now.
 
GB - the "slurrying" isn't "velveting". "Slurrying" is how pretty much all meat is (or should be) treated before stir-frying. Just like flouring in regular recipes, it helps the sear. "Velveting" is totally different.

If your wife likes the "slurrying", she'll LOVE "velveting".

(Gee - talk about "food porn". Do I need to wash my mouth out after saying that? :LOL:)
 
I enjoy Japanese food a little bit more than Chinese but DH only like Chinese so that's what I end up eating! But I like General Tso's chicken, Sesame chicken, lo mein, and beef and broccoli. I've never had authentic chinese food but I am very curious how different it is from what we have here. What does Thai food consist of? What are some of the spices that are used in it? Also, what does MSG do? Is it a spice or a "filler"?
 
Thai food is a totally different "animal" from Japanese & Chinese. Difficult to encapsulize, but if you like Asian cuisine in general, do give it a try. Many dishes do use ingredients like coconut milk, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, etc., that aren't present in Chinese/Japanese dishes, but the preparation types are similar.

MSG is an enzyme (papaya-derived, if I'm not mistaken) that's used as a meat tenderizer & flavor enhancer. It was extremely popular back in the 60's thru 80's, but lost that popularity when many folks experienced allergic reactions to it, including migraine headaches. These days, it's pretty much gone from the cooking scene, including restaurants, although due to past prejudice & old wive's tales that everyone still uses it, many restaurants do put a disclaimer on their menus that they definitely don't use it.
 
No one said MSG was/is "bad" for most people.

However, many people ARE allergic to it, & those reactions can range from severe migraine headaches, to rashes, to mouth/tongue numbness - really a plethora of reactions from mild to severe.

Thus it can pay to be careful.
 
BreezyCooking said:
.

MSG lost that popularity when many folks experienced allergic reactions to it, including migraine headaches.
Click to expand...
I do not quite agree with this. I would say that MSG lost its popularity when the media wrote sensationalized stories about people having allergic reactions to MSG and started an MSG panic. The majority of people would have never experienced any symptoms if the media did not put it in their heads in the first place. There are plenty of products out there that contain MSG that people who supposedly are allergic to it eat all the time without a problem.

I am not saying that there are not people who have adverse reactions to MSG. There is no doubt that those people are out there. The number is no where near as high as most people seem to believe though.
 
I agree with GB, but as I said, I treat MSG as I would peanuts ... I make sure I know who I'm cooking for. I use Maggi seasoning for most pork, beef, or lamb Asian meals if I'm cooking for folk with no allergies. No one has gotten sick from my nege maki!

Oh, how I miss different kinds of Asian and Indian cuisine. I do my best, and have an entire cabinet of spices to work with, and a great herb garden. But I miss having all these cuisines at my fingertips as I did during my military days.
 
Wow, i've see peopple that do not like particular dishes, but how can you swip the whole cousine with one brush. It is so diverse, i doubt anyof us have tasted evn 25 % of what is really consider Chinese foods, not opnly that the foods are so diferent by the region, o well, it's your taste.

As far as MSG goes, as I already have said, the recent studies proove that msg is not that bad for a person at all. And that there are natural ocurances of the msg type chemichals in many foods.
 
Charlie - "Velveting" is a preparatory method that results in an unbelievably silk-like texture with poultry & seafood destined for ultimate cooking in a stirfry.

It involves placing the cut meat (sliced, shredded, diced, etc.) in a coating of dry sherry, egg white, cornstarch, oil, & salt & then gently but quickly giving it a quick (like 1 minute tops) "bath"/simmer in either low-temp (like 275 degrees) oil or slow-boiling water. The meat comes out light, sort of fluffy, & "velvety" - thus the name of the term.

There's absolutely nothing like it for preparing chicken for virtually any stir-fry dish. You'll swear you're in the best restaurant in Chinatown - lol!

If I have the prep time, I try to use this method as often as possible when I'm planning on stirfrying chicken. Haven't tried it with seafood yet.
Click to expand...



What an interesting tip! Thats something new for me! I always wondered why Chinese stir frys never taste the same at home as it does in restaurants...I always thought it was the soy brand I used or something....that could be a huge key! Thanks!

I LOVE egg foo young the kind with the large patties and brown gravy on top....any good recipes around here that I missed??
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

larry_stewart
How thick do you like your lentil soup?
Replies
13
Views
817
Sir_Loin_of_Beef
Sir_Loin_of_Beef
Texmex
What type pan do you use the most?
2
Replies
30
Views
866
jazzerlord
J
mseaglecook
Everything you wanted to know about Vegetarianism and were afraid to ask post...
2 3
Replies
55
Views
2K
Meryl
M
W
How does it not get clogged
Replies
9
Views
330
dragnlaw
dragnlaw
D
Chocolate salami like smoked sausage
Replies
0
Views
252
DenisAngel
D

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom