The Chan-ese Way; Culture and Cooking

The The following program was paid for in part by Pacific Resources Incorporated. Hi, I'm Pyrrhus Chan. I'm an offspring of your favorite detective, Charlie Chan, and also your humble host of cooking the Chinese Way. Right now I'm standing right in front of a beautiful Chinese temple. As you will see folks, now the four characters

right up there from right to left is called Daihong Bodin. Daihong Bodin means a great magnificent Chinese temple. And first let me tell you, a Chinese temple involves so much Chinese culture. And that's what is in our incoming program. We will show you all aspects of Chinese culture as well as the cooking of the Chinese good cuisine type of food. So right now we will take a trip into the temple itself, but now we will stop in front of an emblem which is outside the temple. So would you please follow me? As I just said, this is outside of the temple. We are now looking at the two golden dragons. Now this is strictly handcuffed and it's covered by a large glass. The dragons represents dignity, represents prosperity. Therefore, if you go to China, you look at those old palaces. There are a lot of dragons there. And

it is for this reason so many people who are owning the Chinese restaurant throughout the world, they often use the name as golden dragon restaurant or something like that. And this represents something that people are very favorite about it. And then they put practically everyone like that on the four corners of this temple. So now let's take a look at the dragons from the inside. Behind me are the dragons you just saw a while ago. Now right next to the dragon is a guard. We call it actually it is a guard. He serves to guard the temple from all the evil spirit coming into the temple. He is not the main guard in this temple. Now if we take a closer look at him from the top to the bottom, then you will see him right over here. You see his head gear. Now right in front of his head gear is the head of a rooster. That represents his masculine. Because in China

people respect that rooster very much because it is always very dependable. They depend on the rooster to wait them up so that they could go into the field and make a living. Then later on you will see right over here, right at his middle of his whole garment there is cut a tiger head. Although it is a little hard for you to see but represents again masculine again to show that he is brave. Then looking at what he is holding on his right hand, now in the American or Western mind and you think oh he is an old man and he is using a crown. But first this is not. This is his weapon. This weapon is used to chase all the evil spirit and fight his enemies. Now right now we take a look at whatever he is standing on. This looks like a piece of rock but actually it is not. It is the cloud. It is believed that the Chinese god always

riding on the cloud that is when they travel back and forth, save you a lot of trouble traveling in your 4744 nowadays transportation. And first this is how it looks for the whole god. He is very masculine. He serves his duty royally. Music plays a very important part in the Chinese life. May it be in everyday life such as drama, things like that but also it is very important into a temple. So as you can see over here we have all kinds of musical instrument but all these are devoted to the worshiping. Now you take a look at this red wooden stuff. We call it Bok Yu. You know both this heart will you understand. This is actually called the wooden fish. I don't know why they call it fish but this is a part of the very important musical instrument for worship to calling the attention to the god. So that they know that the music is going on

worship is taking place. Now it was sung like this. Like that. Then you are put it down. Then you do something else. Of course by the time the worship is done the monks are all scattered around in each one in charge of certain type of instrument. Now this is a drum. You know in the American world every time you see a drum you immediately thinking of who is winging in the dancing floor. But this is strictly for worshiping as you can see this is the little stick used to hit the drum. Now it was sung like this. And then you go this bell as well. Like that. Isn't it nice? It's very pleasant nicely combined with them. Then right over here on my right hand side you see a gong is made out of metal and it's painted gold looking. And this is the stick which you use it to combine with all the other kind of instrument and also it will sound

like this. And folks you know back in China most of the famous temples are built on the mountain. So when they worship usually is in the morning and in the evening. These kind of bells get all over the sound, get all over the village to remind people this is the time they should think they should go back to the god so that they would have a strong desire to do good. In Chinese classical literature we call this kind of feeling or hearing of the bell. We call it mong wu sandong fangyan samsang. This is a part of Chinese culture. This is the Buddha. As you can see his body is painted by gold. In the Chinese mind gold representing prosperity and respect. That's why they always paint the god's body with gold. Then as you can see he's right hand

and he's left hand. That's the time when he's meditating he has a certain posture. Then he's lighting on the lily flower. In the Chinese mind the Buddhas are lighting on the lily flower whether they travel whatever. So therefore the lily flowers play a very important part in the Chinese life such as lotus root and lotus seed things like that they use it for food. And you see the two small little gods are more or less his messenger. He's a body god and they do not lie on the lily but they stand on the crown. One thing it would be interested to see you see right in the Buddha on his chest there is a cross. Now this cross representing his symbol. It is only this Buddha and have the right to have this cross and it is

nothing new. When it came to China thousands of years ago it's been this way. Now if you would like to take a look at the major portion of this outer as you can see right in the back there are two candles which is carved making by red and gold in color. Now the Chinese carving is very good as you can see they are combining their art such as carving and color combination things like that into their temple after all that's one of the very important things in their life. Now all over here you see the kind of fresh flower that's a part of the so called sacrifice. They always use a lot of fresh flowers. For this one as you can see we call it the burst of paradise and this one we call it entherum. Now these are very colorful flowers of Hawaii and people using it as part of the sacrifice. And

other than that you see this kind of fruit Chinese called it ball look. This thing is not commonly seen on the mainland US but it is very popular in China. This kind of fruit has been impressed the celebrated traveler Marco Polo very very much in his writing you will see he described this type of thing. Now all these are upon the sacrifice the kind of flower are mostly long lasting flowers the kind of fruit a long lasting therefore is very very good to use it for the sacrifice. Now over here we see this is the way we use it to put the incense. Now when the people come to worship the first thing they do they will kneel down right over there kneeling down and then right next to it would be the contribution box. You put a little money there and then you come into here to put the incense in by the time you place the incense normally is three pieces together six pieces together or nine pieces. Depending shortly

how much you want to over or let's say your financial standing then later on they will kneel down right over here to do their prayer that occupies a part of their life. They wish the prayer would be answered and they would be very happy in their life and later on you will see more about the incense. And for this conclude the little tour of this Chinese temple here and let us now going into this studio and I will show you the first major step how to use a walk and from then on we will study how to do the classical or popular Chinese cuisine. Now that we are in the studio let's take a look at what we can do. Oh boy there's a lay over here folks this kind of lay is a good custom in Hawaii. Sometimes if you were to do anything people give you a nice lay and on top of that you got a bonus too you'll be kissed by a pretty girl right in front of your wife and you don't have to feel guilty.

Let's take a look what we can do for this walk because I told you we will show you how to use the walk. Now as you can see right up over here we have a walk over here this is the cover. The cover is allowed to do with the cooking to make your meat tender you need the cover but we will study it later on now we will be interested in taking a look at the walk itself. This is a 16 inch walk this is a very versatile instrument Chinese people using it for thousands of years they use it to cook and they are using it to roughly about 30 different kinds of methods of Chinese cooking all of them could be used this walk. So as you can see this is 16 inch walk about the all one half a foot deep and this walk is made out of cash iron which is one of the best walk that you can find is kind of thick and heavy. Now if you will follow me up to here you see this walk has been well used

among this walk right over here the black stuff the black stuff right around here. So roughly it's about nine inch in diameter that area is so called your cooking area actually when you put the foot there that's where the foot is cold. So now this is the area cooking area then on top of this roughly from the ninth to the 11 inch right around this area that would be your heating area in that area the foot does not cook but it would have to heating it up. And then on top of this from the 11 inch on all right around here we call it fencing area this is the area we fencing the foot so by the time you do the stir frying whatever then your foot would not be spreading out have in the walk have on the stove so you don't make a mess. Then some of you will say what's the difference every time I cook is a mess. All right now let's take a look at the bottom again other than the walk we have a bottom right over here

we call it a ring. This is very important you could use the gas stove you could use your electrical stove they work just as well but for one thing you have to have a ring. So when you put it down like this way then the walk will closer to your heat but by the time you do your doing or things like the steaming things like that does not require a higher heat then you turn it the other way like this then by the time you sit the walk on top of it then this way the walk is a little above the heat so it's very versatile. So to a certain extent by the time you're using it if you were to using an electric burner then you use the largest burner then you fence it both sides with the little aluminum foil so that the heat would not go out too much otherwise it would be a little slower to getting the heat. Now that we say this is a very important thing you have to have something like that somebody will say well what about if I

don't I don't want to use this. Well about I just said this right on over here it doesn't work because that walk is going to be swing it's like this you got to have something like this otherwise the walk would be just swinging as you folks are. So now we got this now this walk is very good it lasts you 10 -15 years so long turn investment then it do all kind of cooking and if you want to by the time the food is done you could use it as in your calling bell you simply say hey come and get it the fully solid table chow time now we put it right back here turn that heat on you want your walk well you got to have a stove which or a burner which already on for a while let's say at least a minute or so then you put the walk you put the walk right on top of it and you do not use it you you put it roughly about the medium high

you do not use the walk at least a minute and up so that it can do something for you otherwise the meat would stick to the walk that's the whole thing. So now what are we going to do today first thing we are going to show you how the walk would work for us if we were to do a dish of soup so all what you need to do you hit up the walk then you put the soup stock put it right in there ah boy that's good well it would not bring anything like that because it's heavy that's what it's supposed to be now the soup stock is boiling so all you need to do we're going to make so called a flower soup which is a very popular soup all over the mainland or here in Honolulu Hawaii you know about it. Suppose I must emphasize today we're not interested in showing you the recipes we're just simply showing you how the walk can function. So don't don't worry now just be with us and the later on follow our programs then you you will know what to do how to cook up

different kind of things. So today all what we're interested in now would be simply showing you how it's going to work now you got a wide area over here so all you need to do you put it in now your hand everything's not going to be bothered yeah so keep the fire on keep the fire on now this is what we call Chinese ladle Chinese called it hot called it hot now you still a little bit and then this is what we call spatula or walk time walk time so you have these two things this always on your right hand side this is on your left hand side so you make some a little bit you make some a little bit like that now that you wait until the soup is boiling yeah you got to if you want to you may make a little higher and get a little stronger heat you always would have to adjust the heat a little bit so that you can get the walk to the right temperature one thing about Chinese cooking that is your proper temperature

and timing which makes a lot of difference now as you can see over here we are having it boiling now then you have a little egg yolk yeah about one egg yolk with a little bit then all you need to do you put it right in there and mix it up and you got your egg flour soup now you see how easy how simple that is so from now on if you follow us watching our program a lot of goodies you can learn which is very simple and easy now up to this far you would use these two things to make shake it up then you put your salt you put your pepper a little call me powder to season your soup let's say we put a little salt that's the most important thing of course we are using chicken broth as our cooking liquid and a little bit pepper now while you walk nothing is in your way that's why a walk is good

up to this one then that's all done we're going to put it right into this part right over here now the easy way for you to do you simply get a whole other putting it right on it that's your egg flour soup so easy and simple and we leave it aside now that the walk is a little dirty at this time what can be done oh that's very simple so you wash it a little bit you take a little cold water hot water whatever you want put it right in there then you use a little brush this brush is made out of bamboo you know folks in China we got so much bamboo and they really utilize it you use the bamboo shoot to it and use the real bamboo cut it out into that small then you could use it for the brush so now all you need to do you touch it a little bit I that's how simple or easy the less you don't have to get your hand wet all right then all you need to do you pick it up and pour it right in the floor let's

do it then you say oh it's not clean enough do one more time do one more time and that's all let's do it the walk has to be very clean at all times and otherwise it's going to be getting a lot of black stuff right around your food that's the thing you've got to be very careful if the floor is not wet enough you you wet it a little more there you go then you dry up a little bit a dry walk is very important now we're going to do another dish we call it stir -fry method you know folks the stir -fry method is the kind of method that is most popular oh I know you say oh you don't have to tell me that I know about Chinese cooking sure you know about northern food, southern food, Cantonese food but among that the most popular dish the method of preparing it would be your stir -fine method that's why we're going to show you a little bit about the stir -fine method thing now again your stove has been on you set the wok on set the wok on about a minute or so a minute and up then you

can use it during which time you do anything you want you don't have the folding lock hands oh come on let's get hard let's get hard you do something else so now while you're doing something so we do the lining up I'm going to show you the other dish that we are going to do we call it beef what vegetable beef with vegetable while we're heating up the wok folks I like for you to take a look at my vegetable you know the Chinese people really have their way making the vegetable so green and crispy now why it would be that way one of the secret is because you got a wok all you need to do you count up your vegetable everything then you have a part of hot water you fill it up yeah fill it up then you put your vegetable in there by the time the water is hot boiling you put the vegetable in use a little baking soda or brown sugar whatever then you use this jaoli this is Chinese jaoli so you move with fill times in less than a minute time you take it out you see now this over you a wide space and this

jaoli will take it up so fast so fast so you take up your vegetable and cooling off then you get it right there already so now we take a look at this one it is hot now so we put a little oil in it this oil is to keep it from the meat sticking in the in the bottom oh a little water ah boy that happens on the night folks if you are you get the thing like that don't get to to scare now you see the wok is hot when it's hot then we're in business that's the beef cooking the beef we need we need hot ah hot temperature for the beef now once we put the beef in there a trouble oil around the edge of the wok that would hasten your plumbing effect now like this this is the thing that you have to have a wide like this so that the oil would get down there you see a lot of noise right there this means it is going to be getting nice and brown

then you turn on the other side now you see that golden brown effect oh boy that's nice tender beef up to here then all you need to do simply add your vegetable right putting it right in there stir fry you stir three four five times then you fold up your hand and you wait about 15 seconds where 16 seconds alright I guess it's all right we're 14 14 times this all right 14 times this all right so you just start a level in the bend and then you wait why do we do that because you got to have the heat getting in the wok so that the wok is hot so that your cooking area keeps you enough heat then we add a little bamboo sure things like that just to give a little color then you picture the lap like that now both you see how easy that is then while you're waiting for it it's hot all you need to do you put a little oyster sauce yeah that's what we call Chinese magic

sauce to make your food really taste good and a little bit of soy sauce like that and mix it up mix it up now salt and pepper don't ever see Scott would be you put a little wine put a little wine right around the edge of the wok like that to give you some after smell therefore you wouldn't have walked like that to perform this kind of vessel aroma now we are going to take this out it's done folks it's just that easy stir fry method is always fast yeah the beef is done the vegetables done now we are in business putting everything in here to have a nice meal we got the soup we got the vegetable and meat things like that other than this kind of wok there's another kind of wok we call it we call it the peaking wok now at home we don't really call it peaking wok but over here

people calling it so we say if you don't beat them you join them so I'm joining the folks and calling this a peaking wok this is a peaking wok really what we mean by peaking wok is the kind of wok by the time you cook you can through your meat you can through your meat that's why we call it a peaking wok now something like this while you're cooking here the difference between the Northern and the Southern food some of the characteristics is this way the Northern food is harder in flavor it's also harder in in temperature so you have to have something like this now I I show you see how it could be done you put something over here then you cook it a little longer time but if you keep cooking it's going to get burnt so you do it you do the things like that that's why we call it the peaking wok in our incoming series or you have to do just to write to us then we will send you the recipes which is easy and simple to follow so you can cook them all these goodies we also like to

have your opinion and ideas so all you need to do just to write to me Titus k -h -e -t -e -t -v Hanululu Hawaii in our next program I will show you how to do a soy sauce chicken simply a tender young chicken cooking in the golden brown color in the soy sauce and I will also tell you to Chinatown to show you how an herb shop would look which is very interesting so please be with us and I'm counting on you next time we will see you again and until then we say join in that means goodbye you the preceding program was paid for in part by Pacific

Resources Incorporated you