Asian Cuisine - Southern China

Our menu for Southern China had the following dishes on it:

• Spinach Velvet Soup
• Char Siu
• Char Siu Bau
• Steamed Whole Fish
• Stir fried squid with bean paste
• Buddha's Delight
• Hong Kong Fried Chicken
• Beef Balls

Spinach Velvet Soup is a chicken stock based soup where cooked spinach is hand minced and added to the stock along with whirled in eggs and an amount of cornstarch as a thickener, and garnished with ham. This week our egg whirling didn't work out very well and the soup was the correct texture but Chef said the flavour was a little mild, otherwise a very good soup.

Char Siu is a cantonese bbq pork, where a Char Siu Bau is a bun containing the bbq pork. The char siu itself is pork butt which is marinated and then roasted while being basted with honey and sesame oil. This is then shredded and mixed with a sauce of shallots and dark soy, and wrapped in a dough to form a bun. The dough is light and fluffy, as well as being sweet. Chef said our final product was very good, the dough was the right texture and the pork was very flavourful. He did comment that the dough thickness on the bottom of the bun was thin. Otherwise, this dish turned out very well.

Steamed whole fish is simply that - a whole fish scaled and cleaned, and then steamed whole. Once finished cooking, the fish is seasoned and has ginger and green onion sauce spread over it, which is then coated with hot oil poured over the fish to release the flavours. While our fish was very attractive going into the oven, it didn't fare so well on the way out due to a temperature-adjustment mishap. However, it was mostly the appearance that had been impacted as the Chef said the fish still had good flavour and texture.

Stir fry squid with bean paste is a dish where squid is cleaned and then scored on a bias, then boiled to create a large surface area for the squid to pick up sauce. It is then combined with a bean paste including fermented black bean paste, chilies, peppers, and onions. This is stir fried together and served immediately. Chef had no particular comments on this dish, it was the right flavour and the squid was a good texture, not overdone.

Buddha's Delight is a tofu and vegetable dish combining the flavours of shiitake mushrooms, cloud ears, and tiger lily buds, along with bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, bean sprouts, carrots, sui choy... the list goes on. Obviously the point of this dish is to be a delightful vegetarian feast, with all of the ingredients combined in a wok to cook, and then served hot. Again there were no particular comments on our presentation of this dish, the flavour was good and it was what Chef was expecting.

Hong Kong Fried Chicken is a marinated chicken which is then battered and deep fried. It is then topped with fried onions and a red sauce. This was a particular sticking point on this dish, as many people mixed the chicken with the sauce completely which ended up softening the batter and changing the texture of the dish. We served it correctly, with the chicken merely topped with the sauce once cooked. Chef did note that while the flavour on the chicken and the sauce were fantastic, the onions were slightly firm and could have used a little more cook time.

Beef balls are a staple of the well-known Cantonese "dim-sum" menu. This is a mixture of ground beef with seasonings including palm sugar, oyster sauce, rice wine, and dried orange peel. The mixture is then rolled into meatballs approximately 2 inches across. These are steamed until done and served immediately. Chef said that the pork fat included in our dish was cut a little too coarsely, and that while the dish was very flavourful it seemed to taste too much of the beef itself and the seasonings weren't coming through enough.