The Sword and Laser discussion

A new month a new "What are we nomming?" thread! So what foods, snacks, drinks or other treats are you enjoying while reading "China Mountain Zhang"? Are there any food items in the book that stand out? Anything inspired by the novel?

Instead of giving a cocktail recommendation I am polling the Sword & Laser audience this month for their favorite picks at a Chinese Restaurant.

My own favorite Chinese restaurant dish is Cold Poached Chicken with Ginger Scallion Sauce! So simple and refreshing and savory at the same time! But what's yours?

My go to at a Chinese restaurant is Lemon Chicken and/or Combination meat Fried rice.

I am a big fan of dim sum. Except not the chicken feet. Never the chicken feet.

There is a what-are-you-drinking recipe appropriate for this one:

Lychee Martini

3 ounces vodka
2 ounces lychee juice or syrup reserved from the can of lychee
1/2 ounce vermouth
1 lychee for garnish (fresh or canned)

Fill a cocktail shaker halfway with ice. Add vodka, lychee juice and vermouth. Shake well. Strain into a martini glass. Garnish with lychee.

(not my photo, I don't have ingredients with me at the moment.)

I could also imagine a Margarita made with Tequila that's infused with Sichuan peppercorns - to represent Zhang's Hispanic-Chinese heritage...

Jan wrote: "Instead of giving a cocktail recommendation I am polling the Sword & Laser audience this month for their favorite picks at a Chinese Restaurant."

At a random place? The sweet & sour chicken.

At the Peking Gourmet Inn in Falls Church, Virginia (just outside Washington DC)? The Peking duck. I don’t like duck, but there it is très délicieux.

I don't know how authentic it is, but when I order Chinese from the one place in particular, I always get the orange chicken and some pan-fried potstickers.

(Or there's another place where I get the Szechuan chicken and the dish is basically 50% Szechuan peppercorns and cut-up dried red chiles.)

Oh man, this thread makes me think of a dan dan chicken dish I had in Seattle with hand-pulled noodles. It was many years ago and I still think about it.

Also there are a fair number of Chinese immigrants apparently in Kourou, French Guiana (France) and I have had amazing lemon chicken there.

And now I'm sad that there's no good Chinese here. Well, there is a great place in Reston. But I'm not going there tonight.

Liverpool has one of the oldest-established Chinese communities in the UK. Back in the early twentieth century, many Chinese people ran laundries, but when home washing-machines became more of a thing they moved into the restaurant business. But local tastes in the mid-twentieth century didn't run to fully authentic Chinese food so many Chinese people ended up running - yes - fish and chip shops. This led to the development of a distinctively Liverpudlian kind of fusion cuisine, and to this day most chippies in Liverpool offer some Chinese dishes alongside the traditional fish and chips, and deep-fried food in batter with 'salt and pepper' seasoning is almost as much of a signature Liverpool dish as scouse. Our local chippie offers salt and pepper chicken, squid, scampi, and white fish, plus you can get chips with the same seasoning. It's a fiery mixture of salt, finely-chopped onions, and fresh chillies that transforms the (let's be honest) rather bland classic English fish and chips into something much tastier.

These days there are also plenty of 'proper' Chinese restaurants in Liverpool, and Chinese supermarkets selling authentic ingredients, but for the proper Scouse/Chinese experience, it's got to be salt and pepper fish and chips.

Trike wrote: "At the Peking Gourmet Inn in Falls Church, Virginia (just outside Washington DC)? The Peking duck. I don’t like duck, but there it is très délicieux."

Always wondered, but shouldn't that be Beijing Duck now?

terpkristin wrote: "And now I'm sad that there's no good Chinese here. Well, there is a great place in Reston. But I'm not going there tonight."

If you’re that close to DC, you really should go to Peking Gourmet Inn at some point. It looks like just another hole in the wall in a strip mall, but it’s actually gigantic inside. It’s run entirely by people from China; they even write the orders in Chinese.

My friend maintains that the only really good Chinese restaurants are the ones where the building was something else entirely. The purpose-built “Jade Such-and-such” are never as good as the oddly-named-because-it’s-translated joints that used to be a gas station.

The former Jiffy Lube that’s now The Hot Wok? Guaranteed authentic!

Trike wrote: "If you’re that close to DC, you really should go to..."

I’ve been there and it’s fabulous. I should go back hahah.

When I worked in DC I enjoyed China Chilcano downtown. Is it still there? It was billed as Peruvian Chinese (because so many Chinese migrated to Peru that they created their own fusion Chinese food.) Fits with the protagonist’s Spanish/Chinese heritage. The spicy pisco sours were great.

Yes it’s still there. I hadn’t heard of it and didn’t know it was a Jose Andres thing. I’ll have to go. That man deserves a medal for all the work he does with World Central Kitchen.

He does (deserve a medal) for his work. And a second for his food.

Trike Wrote: "Always wondered, but shouldn't that be Beijing Duck now?"

:)

Ted wrote: "Trike Wrote: "Always wondered, but shouldn't that be Beijing Duck now?"

:)"

Washed down with a shot of Mumbai Gin.

If I may free associate (and when do I not), this reminds me of a bit in Pertwee's Doctor Who run. "The Mind of Evil" serial IIRC. There's a peace conference and the Chinese feature prominently. At one point the Doctor mentions to the Chinese ambassador that he palled around with "Tse Tung." At which point the ambassador said that was the given name (I think) of their leader Mao Tse Tung. The Doctor said that yes, Mao himself had given him the okay to address him that way. (I went looking for the exchange to be more specific but google availeth not.)

Younger-me wouldn't have noticed, older-me says "That should be Mao Zedong." Even funnier, the Doctor specifically mentions Hokkien which is spoken mostly in Taiwan. Mao would not have used it. But the script writer's wife was Taiwanese and she starred in the serial, so I guess they went with what they knew. Hey, it was the early 70s.

Keeping on to the more lighthearted aspects of this thread, the ambassador then insisted on having tea with the Doctor. Meanwhile the Brigadier cooled his heels while they chatted. In...some version of Chinese. Show notes indicate that Pertwee was barely comprehensible, although unless you're a Chinese speaker you'd never know.

AndrewP wrote: "Ted wrote: "Trike Wrote: "Always wondered, but shouldn't that be Beijing Duck now?"

:)"

Washed down with a shot of Mumbai Gin."

:)

Oaken wrote: "I am a big fan of dim sum. Except not the chicken feet. Never the chicken feet.

"
In college, we went to dim sum fairly regularly, and with a large portion of the student body being ABC, we were able to navigate the experience pretty well.
We did abide by fight club rules though: if this is your first time at dim sum, you will be trying the chicken feet.

Joseph wrote: "I don't know how authentic it is, but when I order Chinese from the one place in particular, I always get the orange chicken and some pan-fried potstickers.

(Or there's another place where I get t..."
I used to live a 5-minute walk from a Szechuan restaurant. I really miss that distinctive burn. Now I am too far out in the suburbs for the good stuff.

I am struggling through the section on Daoist Engineering, so I am listening to "Daoist Chant and Music". Yeah, I know it is not food or drink, but I am consuming it. Not sure it is helping .

I really should try to make the fried chicken in sesame oil with green scallions and chinese chilis from the book. Seems easy enough. I assume dried chili flakes....