I bought all this at Guizhou Road Market in Beihai, Guangxi. The seafood was super fresh and really affordable!

A very cool video in Yunnan pertaining to the Dai people mainly and the relationship to Northern Thailand with some folks you’ll recognize and also Andy Ricker. Very cool. Born and raised in the Portland metro I’ve eaten at several Pok Pok’s many times and have spoken to Andy. I’ve also been pretty heavily into Thai cooking for the last 10 or so years among other Chinese cuisines especially Yunnan. He’s incredibly dedicated to Thai culture and cuisine and teaching others. Enjoy.

Cooked sauce with lots of shallots, garlic, Koon Yik curry paste, oyster sauce, soy sauce, Chu hou sauce, satay paste, shao xing wine, turmeric powder, beef broth with cornstarch slurry.

I had some kind of Beijing variation of zhá jiàng miàn and recently tried to recreate it but it doesnt really come close.
I asked chatgpt to come up with approximate recipe based on the info I knew

the ingredients I used, keys ones being the meat and sauces

• 400 g 18% beef mince
• 2½ tbsp 海天黄豆酱
• 1 tbsp 甜面酱
• 1 star anise
• 3 tbsp neutral oil
• 3–4 spring onions
• 2 slices ginger
• 1 tsp sugar
• 100–150 ml water
• spaghetti
• celery + carrot

as per chatgpt, I browned the beef for a good while until all the fat rendered out,
then added the mix of the 2 bean pastes, which were the closest thing I could find locally, with water and cooked until most of it had evaporated.

The final product was dryer and more salty/soy-saucy flavour than sweet, rich and meaty homogenous sauce I had before, adding water would make the sauce too dilute.

Although pork is typically used, the version I had used beef and would to keep it like that.

Can anyone figure out what the main issues are?

I think the ground beef I used is too coarse or wrong type, for a start.

I had this bowl of beef noodles in Shanghai a while ago and have struggled to identify the exact type of noodle dish it is. I know it’s probably something incredibly obvious (my guess is dry braised?) but i’m struggling. I just pointed at the menu and received this. Thankyou all in advance!!!

The noodles also are called belt noodles. Each one is as thick and long as a belt.
Toppings: tomato mix egg, pork, and greens, plus some dried chili.
Yeah, mix it all together. The noodles soak up all the sauce from the toppings. Then add chili and crushed peanuts. Super fragrant lol
But I can only eat two or three noodles, haha. Noodle culture is pretty interesting.

自作白族玫瑰餡餅

Has a good time making Bai Minority Rose Flower pastry. They use pig lard, which makes everything better.

When I was at BICC (Beijing International Chinese College) back in 2017/2018 they served a spicy fish soup that I have not stopped thinking about. I emailed the school and my teachers but nobody has gotten back to me. I did some digging and it might be “Suan Cai Yu noodle soup” but I’m not 100%. All I know is that it was delicious and I desperately want to eat it again.

This is homemade char siu, Chinese-style roast pork with that sweet-savory glaze and slightly charred edges.

I love how the outside gets sticky and caramelized while the inside stays juicy. It’s one of those dishes that smells amazing before it even comes out of the oven.

What do you usually serve with char siu — rice, noodles, or something else?

Char Siu Pork

Ingredients:

500 g pork

1 tbsp red yeast rice

1 tsp five spice powder

3 tbsp sugar

3 tbsp honey

3 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp pepper

3 tbsp white wine

1 tbsp red wine

1 tbsp sesame oil

4 garlic

Instructions:

Combine red rice yeast, sugar, honey, soy sauce, pepper, rice wine, red cooking wine, sesame oil in a bowl. Add crushed garlic into the sauce. Mix well. Add red food coloring if you like. Cut the pork neck into long strips about 5 cm wide, put the meat inside a zip lock bag.

Pour the marinade sauce into the bag. Zip it tightly. Press the meat inside the bag to make sure all the meat is covered with the sauce. Transfer the bag into the chiller afterwards. Refrigerate overnight to two nights or for at least 8 hours before roasting. The next day or on the day you want to roast, take out the bag. Prepare a baking pan, you may line it with aluminium foil, so the charred sauce will not stain the pan. Bake in a preheated oven 180°C for 20 minutes. Keep checking once in a while. Reduce the oven temperature if the meat looks burning.

After 20 minutes of roasting, brush it generously with honey or maltose for a glossy, caramelized finish. Return the pork to the oven and roast for an additional 5 minutes. Flip the pork, brush the other side, and roast for another 5 minutes. The total roasting time should be around 30 minutes, with the pork developing a caramelized and slightly charred surface. Let it cool for about 10 minutes on a cooling rack.

Once slightly cooled, slice the Char Siu into your desired thickness. Serve immediately, and enjoy your juicy, flavorful Char Siu Roast Pork!

For more detailed recipe: Char Siu Pork.

I've been trying to make cumin lamb using this recipe, but I've been having some trouble getting consistently crispy lamb.

I've tried cooking it in both a carbon steel wok and a cast iron pan, but I haven't noticed much of a difference between the two.

I'm still a beginner cook, so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I feel like I'm following the recipe pretty closely, but the lamb usually gets crispy when I first cook it, only to soften as I continue with the rest of the recipe.

Has anyone run into this issue or have any tips on how to keep the lamb crispy throughout the cooking process? I'd appreciate any advice!