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 all gourmet dishes” clause looks like a disclaimer of sorts. But, I’m not one to barge into a restaurant and ask them which dishes on the menu are “gourmet” dishes and which ones are not. I have no interest in being on the wrong end of kitchen cleaver or getting served pre-salivated food. Still, it makes me wonder. There’s no way steamed rice is “gourmet.” What else isn’t gourmet?
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 see if an Asian Gift Pack is released the next time Chinese New Year rolls around.
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 to make sandwiches more appealing is to use a cookie cutter. Suddenly, a regular peanut butter and jelly sandwich is transformed into a person, heart or a star. On one level, it makes no sense. Same bread. Same peanut butter. Same jelly. But, cut it into the shape of a gingerbread man and it’s delicious.
Keep that in mind the next time you are facing a challenge at home, work or elsewhere. There’s nothing wrong with your sandwich. It’s just the shape of the sandwich. A minor change can dramatically transform your product or career.
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, soya beans, wheat flour, salt and potassium sorbate. The label indicates that the soy sauce is naturally brewed, but then again so did the label on the Haday Superior Light Soy Sauce, which included the “other” ingredients.
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, fried, and braised the ribs. Not sure which step caused the problems. Next time, I will omit the optional frying step and see what happens. Coincidentally, I order this same dish from a neighborhood Shanghainese restaurant, and I always think that their ribs are dry and overcooked as well. 
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 took a quick glance at the ingredients as saw some familiar ingredients and some foreign.
I understand water, soy beans, wheat flour, salt, and sugar. That’s the plain English ingredients. Yeast extract may sound like yeast, but it isn’t. Instead, yeast extract contains glutamic acids, and is used as a flavoring like monosodium glutamate (MSG). Next up is Disodium 5′-Inosinate and Disodium 5′-Guanylate. These are flavor enhancers used with glutamates (from the yeast extract) to create 鲜味 in Chinese cooking. Finally, sodium benzoate is a common food preservative.
Next time I am at the grocery store, I have to see if the Pearl River Bridge brand contains the same ingredients.
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 (e.g.,糖醋排骨) and in pinyin (tang cu pai gu). The author also includes an interesting historical note of the dish or how she came across the recipe. And, of course, the list of ingredients and the cooking instructions. If I have time, I will test this recipe during the coming weekend.
The largest shortfall in this cookbook is the lack of photos. While the photos of Chairman Mao memorabilia fit well with the theme of the cookbook, the home cook will be better served with a photo of the finished dish. I don’t need a full-page photo for every recipe. I have had enough sweet-and-sour spare ribs to know what that dish should look like. However, for her relatively more obscure dishes, such as Beef Slivers with “Water Bamboo,” I really need a photo. I have no idea what water bamboo (交白 or jiao bai) is. And, after reading her explanation, I still have no clue. A good photo motivates the cook to recreate the dish. I need photos in my cookbooks.
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 attempt to squeeze in a lame joke, Time really missed the mark. Sure, at one time in America, going out for Chinese food meant a visit to the local Cantonese restaurant which served the same item as every other Chinese restaurant. However, this is 2008 and most major American cities offer a more diversified Chinese menu that now includes Hunan, Sichuan, Beijing, and Shanghai cuisine. So, Time should know that when Chinese people go out for lunch or dinner, they have choices as well. Chinese people don’t go out for Chinese food. They go out for Cantonese dim sum, Taiwanese food, Shanghai xiaolungbao, Northern Chinese cuisine, etc. Just like American food in America isn’t just called food. You have burgers, steaks, California cuisine, salads, Philadelphia cheese steak sandwiches, seafood, pizza, etc.
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 explanation while growing up. In the end, I see the fortune cookie lesson as a reflection of our business world. Some people/companies are inventors, and other people/companies are marketers. For some products, we deeply associate the invention with the inventors, and for other products we associate them with those people or companies that drove them into mainstream. You can sit around all day wondering why Japanese restaurants don’t serve fortune cookies or why most computers run Mac OS (yeah!) or Windows (boo!) instead of Xerox OS. Everything looks obvious in hindsight.
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 on the outside. Good stuff. Loved the delicious blue cheese dressing in the salad. Mango lemonade was equally delicious, but $3.50 a glass without free refills seems a bit steep, especially, when half the glass is filled with ice. With the appetizers hitting the marks, I was looking forward to the entree. However, the meal peaked too early. I had first ordered the braised short ribs, but the waitress told me that they were out. C’mon, it’s a meat dish. Beef isn’t in season? So I ended up ordering the miso glazed salmon instead. The fish was okay, but that miso glaze was nasty. The miso glaze was cloying sweet and has the consistency of a paste. Ick. Fingerling potatoes were good, but the soy wilted kale was excessively salty. The taste of soy sauce was bit overpowering. Had me longing for the miso salmon at Cheesecake Factory.
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 all gourmet dishes” clause looks like a disclaimer of sorts. But, I’m not one to barge into a restaurant and ask them which dishes on the menu are “gourmet” dishes and which ones are not. I have no interest in being on the wrong end of kitchen cleaver or getting served pre-salivated food. Still, it makes me wonder. There’s no way steamed rice is “gourmet.” What else isn’t gourmet?
