Looking for foods to try and share a bit of my own culture. My family is cantonese viet and I grew up eating in a lot of traditional banquet hall restaurants. Usually these are dim sum menu for lunch and traditional shared foods for dinner. Most people have tried the common ones like siu mai (pork wrapper dumpling) and haw gow (shrimp rice dumpling) but my favorites are the uncommon ones like ngau zaap (beef offal) and baak wan fung zaau (pickled chicken feet).
Ngau zaap is basically braised brown sauce using off cuts, usually stomach and whatnot, with chinese radish. Its very savory, kinda like if you made an asian gravy.
Baak wan fung zaau is just chicken feet pickled in white vinegar. If you had pickled radish it’s essentially the same pickling and the chicken feet is gelatinous and a bit crunchy. You can also get them sometimes boneless since eating around the bones is kinda a pain. I really like pickled foods so this is one of my faves
Fish and chips. And despite all the jokes about British food, you really do owe it to yourself to learn just how good this meal can be when cooked well.
Samin Nosrat argues, in her book of the same name, that all cooking comes down to salt, fat, acid, and heat. Fish and chips is the perfect synthesis of this theory. It is cooking stripped down to this core idea. Done right, it is an absolute delight; beautifully flaky fish cooked to delicate perfection within a crunchy shell of light, crispy batter. Malt vinegar brings acidity to cut through the fat and salt. Everything works in harmony. There are contrasts in texture to enhance the melding of flavors.
Fish and chips, done well, is culinary perfection. But it is very hard to do well. There is nothing to hide behind. It is cooking stripped to the essentials, which means that those essentials have to be perfect. Most people outside of the British Isles have probably never had a good fish and chips in their lives, and even in the UK there are plenty of bad examples.
Anyway, those pickled chicken feet sound incredible. I had paper wrapped duck feet once and those were absolutely delicious.
I tried Gordon Ramsay’s recipe, and i can see why some of them is bland. Fnc basically are lightly seasoned because you’re supposed to taste the freshness and sweetness of the fish, just like how sashimi are. So if your fnc taste bland it’s usually the fish.
So go back to the ramsay’s recipe, i did that, it isn’t as crispy as it should be because i opt out of using beer(i don’t drink), but it still a really nice fnc.
The alcohol in the batter burns off during cooking. But if you’re still opposed to using it, substitute club soda.
The flavour of the fish is extremely important. Cod, haddock or halibut are the only acceptable options, anything else isn’t fish and chips. Personally I always go haddock. But I also find that when people say it tastes bland it’s because they’re treating the salt and vinegar as optional; they’re not. That’s like sushi without wasabi. Liberally season the finished result with both. Not just the chips, the fish too. And it must be malt vinegar. Do not substitute.
The issue not with the alcohol i might consume when i eat it, the issue lies with…what the heck am i supposed to do with the rest of the beer after cooking fnc, i sure as hell won’t drink it.
I like fish and chips but in the US it’s so expensive, it’s about 17 USD for a 3 piece
I’d like to visit the UK once since I heard the old school edm scene is still pretty alive there
We don’t call it EDM here, that is a dirty “word” ;) but yeh, there are still some great nights depending on where you are. I went to an old skool hardcore night recently that was fucking sick and most big towns and cities you can find decent drum and bass nights. Plenty of Jungalist nights in that same vein too.
If you are in Brighton, Bristol or London you can find decent proper dubstep nights (not that American brostep crap) and I’m sure there are others out there.
I’m certain all kinds of flavours of house and techno etc are out there too just less my wheelhouse.
The best part about all of these nights though, at least in my area of interest, they are all taking place in small, dark and dingy clubs with absolutely sick sound systems. The way it should be! You haven’t lived until you are chewing your face off at 5 am standing next to the bass bins feeling the music course through you whilst having a life altering epiphany xD
Haha yea edm is a funny word. People who listen always like to say edm is not a genre, it’s just a label, but whenever I tell someone who doesn’t listen about things like frenchcore or dnb they get confused, so I just default to edm.
I’ve been following this scene in the UK for a while and it seems fun
https://youtu.be/WmiWonBy35s
Haha yeh I get you, it is definitely used more in the US as here the general populace tend to know what the bigger genres such as dnb, house etc are so dont need a catch all concept.
Ah Dom Whiting, yeh I know that guy. I remember seeing his videos years ago when he only had a few people following around. He was in my city this year and I joined in the ride for a bit. Absolute chaos but mad vibes! Definitely need more of that in the world these days!
Damn, it’s been so long since I’ve been to a proper dubstep night. It was never that popular here in Germany, but it’s been ultra-niche for a while. Though it’s probably for the better for my hearing :D
Although I have had good fish and chips in the UK, I think New Zealand generally does better - although we do have some shit examples that are over cooked or cooked too cool etc
Although we do tend to do lemon instead of vinegar.
I’ve had pickled chicken legs and chili in rural Sarawak, quite OK but maybe a little out there for many westerners
I’ve found some decent fish and chips in Oz too, though of course I have a bottle of malt vinegar at home to complete my lore accurate fish supper.