Cantonese Cuisine: Recommend Authentic Dishes? - Page 2

wanton noodles!

or even satay yue dan noodles

gu lo yuk

ling mung gai

si jiu jing sin pin

bak chek gai

cha siu bao

gon chao au ho

go haai fun si bo

Yee foo noodle (or yee mein) with crab meat or lobster, steam diver scallop or oyster with black bean in half shell, bean shoot with crab meat and roe, suckling pig, conpoy (dried connecting tissue of a very large clam, often mis-translated as dried scallop), abalone, conch .....

To appreciate the finer points Cantonese cuisine, you really need go to a Chinese banquet where 10-12 courses are served family style for 10-12 people.

Well, you're the expert here on being a douche bag.

That is Taiwanese food, not Cantonese... You would definitely need a clay pot. And remember, soy sauce goes in at the very end after basil leaves. The chicken nuggets have to be burned slightly for the crisp and smell. Oh, and if you want Cantonese food, one of the popular one would be fried crab. p.s., steamed fish is classic Chinese food, a great test of steaming techniques of the chef, similar to stir-fry, pan-fry, deep-fry, broiling, etc p.s.s., don't try to meddle with too many different flavors because all 8 types of Chinese food have distinct tastes.

/thread my favourite cheap dish dish, especially in HK where $2 can get me a bowl, is jing mien (plain noodles) using the same noodles as the wonton noodles (except without the wonton or if you spell it weirdly wanton )

Hey RAO,

I planned to PM this response to you as it is rather lengthy and this thread is getting old, but my post count isn't high enough to send PMs yet. So...here you go:

As for the pronunciation of 謝謝 (the generally accepted romanization is xièxiè), the initial consonant sound is a "sh" sound, and the final vowel sound is more like "e" as it sounds in "meh".

If the restraurant employees speak Cantonese, you will never say, "Xièxiè." Instead, go with "唔該" (m4 goi1 according to Jyutping romanization). This is an all-around, informal "thank you" that is appropriate for favours and services. (Don't use it to thank someone for a gift.)

Kikkoman is a Japanese soy sauce brand that will serve you just fine for general Chinese cooking purposes. If you wanted to get really hardcore, you would go out and buy two bottles of soy sauce for home: a bottle of light soy sauce, and a bottle of dark soy sauce. Light soy sauce would be used more to add flavour to food, and dark soy sauce would be used more to add colour to food. Kikkoman is similar to a light soy sauce, but it is a little bit sweeter. My mom actually just keeps a jug of Kikkoman in her kitchen. I have a bottle of light soy and a bottle of dark soy (Pearl River Bridge brand). It all depends on how fussy you want to be.

Don't try too hard with the staff of the restaurant. As at any restaurant, just be respectful and let them know that you enjoy eating there. As you build your rapport with the staff, they will find ways of showing you that you are a valued customer.

As for the Cantonese dish names, I'll help you where I can:

gon chao au ho (乾炒牛河): Fried rice noodles with beef
go haai fun si bo: I can't figure this one out. It is some kind of hot pot with vermicelli noodles as its base (as indicated by the last three words). Maybe the second word is "crab"? I don't know.
satay yue dan noodles: Yue dan (魚蛋) means "fish ball" and is ... exactly that. The type of noodle is up to the House. (They may give you a choice.)
gu lo yuk (咕嚕肉): Sweet and sour pork
ling mung gai (檸檬雞): Lemon chicken
si jiu jing sin pin: Not sure on this one either. The first two characters reference a type of seasoning paste made from fermented black beans and pepper. The third character means "steamed". That's all I can give you.
bak chek gai (白切雞): Marinated chicken
cha siu bao (叉燒包): BBQ pork bun

Hope this helps.

... and, yes, it has been a slow day at work.

Nice to know some canto's are on here....so funny seeing cantonese written out lol since there is no official pinyin for canto and it is basically typed out phonetically, so some things may be written differently and depending on where they are from, words with dipthongs are going to be written out differently as well.... like ngau vs au for beef.

Going to ditto on the steamed fish. Not only do fine cantonese restaurants make this but many cantonese families make this at home too and a well cooked "jing sek bahn" aka "steamed rock cod" will warm any canto's palate. Difference between home vs restaurant is the super hot wok's that can flash heat oil to mix with the soy sauce to pour on top.

A dish that is very tasty that some people mentioned (I don't know the name in cantonese nor in english lol) is the clay pot dish. Clay pot with a mixture of vermicelli, mushrooms, vegetables, tofu and either shrimp/scallop/crab or chicken/beef/pork. "fun si bo" is in the name but I don't know what else is called...you can ask them what type of "fun si bo" they have. Not many dishes use it so it will narrow it down.

Bahk chek gai is a very simple dish that many Canto's like but I personally find it too dry, although the flavor is nice. It is basically a whole chicken that is quickly boiled and then covered with a garnish of hot oil, ginger, and fresh green onions. I believe the chicken is seasoned with only salt. It is most, but the boiling of the chicken strips the chicken of its natural juices, so thats what I mean by it being a little on the dry side.

Yimein is another dish that is good. Its a noodle dish that is typically stir fried and the noodle itself is kinda like fried gluten. Absorbs flavor very well and is soft but meaty. Having it cooked with lobster is mmm mmm good.... "lung ha yi mein" might be a name they would use.

That brings me to another dish that you should try, is lobster. Different restaurants will cook it differently and they usually only make it 1-2 ways per restaurant so if you ask for lobster "lung ha" they will more than likely NOT ask you how you want it cooked. But one of the traditional ways of cooking is to cut it up in pieces with the shell and then cooked in a mixture of seasonings, ginger, garlic, and cooking wine. Very delicious but lobster is always expensive.

A vegetable dish that is my favorite of the chinese vegetables is "tong sum choi" also called by some as "ohng choi". I can never remember which of those is the proper name and which is a colloquial name. In english some call it Chinese Spinach but tastes nothing like it.

And finally (surprised no one mentioned this) is roasted duck. "Siu ngap" or "siu ahp" is the name and well as the name says its a roasted duck. VERY good!

謝謝 is xie xie , and sure as fuck isn't "shay shay"! if I was going to write it in english, it would be like "she (as in "he/she" with a short e) and an a tacked onto the ending. Look at a youtube video for it or something. FYI you wouldn't say xiexie to cantos, you'd say "um guai" or "doa jie" (duo xie 多謝/ "many thanks") . Agh, cantonese is annoying even in text.

Ung choi is more of a proper name for this vegetable, but in restaurants it would simply be referred to as tung choi (when dealing with Cantonese). In English I believe it's called (aquatic) morning glory. It's definitely one of my favourite vegetables with either fermented tofu sauce or shrimp paste sauce. Good call.

for cantonese food, you have to try the seafood. For crab and lobster, there are multiple sauces: cream, salt and pepper, and ginger, onion and chives.

arguably my least favorite cuisine on the planet. Don't even bother trying to learn how to say thank you in Cantonese - you will never work out when to say 'm'goi' and when to say 'doh jie' (making up my own pinyin there). Xie xie, as various people have pointed out above, is Mandarin. I am sure they will understand it when you say it on the phone. I am equally sure they will understand "thank you".

Country Style Duck w/ the vinegar dip = Lo Suye Gnop Soy Sauce Chicken = Si Yao Gai Salt + Pepper Fried Frogs Legs = Jiew Yeem Teen Gai My favorites.