Yan Can Cook; 605; Best of China -- Food and Art

Well. I am Martin. For 5000 years China has been a land fit with art and culture. Poets and artisans of every discipline are revere in Chinese society the same respect is paid to the creative chefs who demonstrate the genius in dishes like golden fried chicken balls in the colorful food sauce and this crisp salad of Will prawns served with hanging fruit and a feast for the eyes and the palate. Next on yanking coke the best of China. Yes Cook is made possible by black Americans to make sauces for home and professional chefs for over a century. They come to buy diamond walnuts. They're crunchy texture and not a problem at all kinds of food.

And I bought a saw as a mile and a saw and by Meyer corporation manufacturers of circular circular are designed and engineered for this series. Yes. Oh I'm in China. I

learned a scholar is someone who knows a great deal about artistic disciplines poetry painting music dance and yes even food in the West. We call him a renaissance man. Our first dish is a contemporary one grilled shrimp very simple. Here we have some nice jumbo prawns or shrimp. All we have to do is first remove the shell and then you can clean it and d rain it. Look at that. I remove these nice and then keep the tail intact because I want it and then do another one this time. I want to show you even. Start from the tail this way you always correct the tail so you wrote new lose the tail never lose your tail. Now when this is all done I will put it over here. Always clean up and then you use a knife and part of a little bit. Look at that but a little bit and brought up by a little bit. Look at that

and then you see the vein comes out and you remove the vein remove the ring and you'll remove the vein. You've got to remove the ring and of course do it in a sink. OK now when this is all nice and done we are going to show you how easy it is to do this. First you'll quickly marinate this prawns with a tiny bit of white pepper a tiny bit of salt ok and then you mix them up a little bit. If you want you can even put a tiny bit of wine but this is fine. OK and then you'll fall into this. Use some bamboo skewer already soak in water for a couple hours and you go like this. Look at this. You'll twist this and you go one go through the middle and you go for the middle like this and you put it right here. And you do another one. You go for the middle. Of towards the tail you go for the middle and you go for it again. Look at that and you

slightly brush it with a kind of oil has a touch of oil. OK this way they do not get burnt in your grill. Very important. Now we're going to grill this right here in this hot grill. Nice and hot. Make sure. This is not burning. Hot. Very hot. OK this all you really need. Put a whole bunch on both sides. OK. This way you don't burn your skill are very important. Now when this is all getting ready to be cooked all you have to do is get ready Something else we're going to show you how to make that quick look at that. This is all of the ingredients. Look at that. This is now. Look at this this is. Look at all these things we don't we have we have papaya. This is a papaya and then we also have mango. OK. Wonderful because it's very fragrant. And you cut them all into dice and some red bell pepper

which I will cut. OK. And then some chopped cilantro. Candy ginger and golden raisins and also some honey and of course problem sauce. When this is all nice and ready we put a right here. We cut up some red bell pepper cut it out cut it up cut it up into little dice like that. Look at that. No problem at all. And then you put them all together. You cut it out like this and you go one you see how fast you can do it OK. This is for the seltzer. As soon as you finish you put it in a bowl or right here put it right in the pan. Look at that. And then you cut. The papaya dieties and also a tiny tiny bit of mango. OK. And also golden Razan. And also can these jean GER. And of course never forget a tiny bit of celestial. Then we'll put a tiny bit of

honey oh honey and plum sauce. Look at that two tables one two three tables with Tom Sawyer and of course a tiny tiny bit of rice when again. OK. Mix them all up. Locate this. It's going to be a beautiful Carlow full of wonderful service and when this is all nice and done we're going to remove these. OK. And we'll put it right over here. If you look at all of these things. OK. Very important now. Make sure you don't forget you know shroom. Otherwise you going to have all the folks room is almost ready. All most ready. OK almost ready. Most ready. Look at that when it's all done when it's all done. The souce is already we're going to show you how easy it is to make that dressing. Very very simple. OK now here you have some.

Lemon juice or lime juice. About a third of a cup of something so lentil. And by need only little white pepper and a pine it was soy sauce this is our very special and also. Kind of a sesame seed oil mix and lop a ton with salad oil. Look at that about tables and you list this a little bit. And make sure they're nice included. Now we show you how easy it is to do all of these. First you put the dressing right in here and then you toast the done thing a little bit. OK toast one thing and then we'll show you how easy it is to put a hole we think can get a look at that. First you put this right here put it right here this is a mixed green salad. Look I'm tired as any where in any supermarket. Very very easy. And then.

Put it right here and then we'll put the grill shrimp rye on top. All coke all right on top. Make it nice because we are creating a masterpiece. So everybody can enjoy. Look at this this is OK. Look at this. Put the sensor or eye on top. Look at how beautiful this is this is not only a feast for. The eye but I feast. All right before you do you garnish this like with some pump. And this here we are a groom's room. Very exciting. Sosa one of the most traditional iPhone from China is the making all quite isn't a full close look. Let's go to Beijing China. This looks like a priceless.

It is that it was a right by skilled artisans of this crazy factory in Beijing China has been using this beautiful. Poisoning. With Sheets of copper wire attached a special before. The painstaking process and the piece was completed. Unless of course the artist makes a mistake in which case he gets fired and then the piece gets from this place in the exhibition.

Here is another amazing process called Stoke. It is a relatively new invention. A twist on the classic oh Christ in the first patent or even sign of copper thread was drawn up and transferred to a court. Each section is feel we're calling them and the process is repeated until the end of the signs feel looks like an actual masterpiece of modern and ancient craftsmanship. Now I want to create something that is in my own kitchen. This piece looks wonderful and it takes absolutely marvelous. I have some growing up chicken. I put some I have about one a right and kind a bit of white pepper and salt and the kind of a corn starch and the mixed up nice and smooth and I should go into little balls like that simple little ball and it would have been fried

them of course you can post them or you can steam them but we're going to be right in because this is a wonderful dish when you've been fried is nice and simple and I don't do too many fry dishes. I old cation Lee do it but when it requires a good deep frying then we should do it different. OK why would be frying this nice strainer. Get ready. OK we'll keep trying this. We're going to show you how to make the sausage. Here I want to show you I have some other ingredients right here. Here I have some wonderful. Cantaloupe. Now how can you tell good candle from a a right candle toll from a not right cantaloupe. When the cent. is right you can smell it and get a sweet musky smell and also if you shake the cantaloupe. If you can hear the seed bouncing back and forth that means it's probably too right. It was too right. People keep it in the fridge. OK when this is all nice and ready and we will put it over here and

make the sauce first I have some bleach. She and I also have some candles we put a rye over here. Very very simple and would put some bleach she juice the juice from the leach. OK and then also a tiny bit of orange juice. OK. Wow look at that. Make the sauce and if you want you can either use ketchup all you can make. You can get some star brought sweet and sour sauce with some give some nice color contrast and then when this is all nice and done you move them around you move them around and you think can you think can this solution. Very very simple. OK. They can end up with a corn starch solution to make sure it's nice and hot nice and hot. And get ready. OK. When it's nice and calm. The great thing about this a lot of people don't realize you know cantaloupe as a fruit is also very good because very high in a lot of vitamin A and C very very low calorie.

OK. You'll get there when this is all nice and done the chicken bones also done you put them all right here nice and go to Browns and nice and golden brown and shut off the heat you know the whole dish is so beautiful and I want to show you you can serve the whole thing right over here. Look at that. This is so beautiful. Beautiful dish. This is what you call a dish. Have you tore your eye and also appeal to your power. This is how beautiful this is of course you remember. This is what we have a sweet and sour chicken ball. Artistic expression takes different forms in the splendid China theme park in Orlando Florida. We were treated to several unusual ones. You know I love the pain and I'm learning from the master. This is. Florida. Splendid China's artist in residence. She is one of the very

few Chinese experts in fingerpainting for more than 5000 years talented artists in China perfected this skills that were passed down by them when masters they further refined them before passing them to the next generation. Which is why today many of our most ancient art forms are lie in forests fingerpainting days back to the Tang Dynasty some thirteen hundred years ago. You might say that it is one of the oldest form of digital art don't first learned this unique art from her mother engraved in China. What looks so simple actually took many years of practice with a field flicks of her finger. She can create a rooster a master painting absolutely magic. What is an other ancient form in China. Religious

icons and characters from traditional Chinese fables into such a happy face. I somehow must account for the piece there is a think picture of the happy family perhaps except the grandfather. Counting is not limited to would only just like ice covers in western cuisine. Trying to show a practice comping as an intricate part of the colon or for centuries instead of using ice they use a variety of vegetables. Many of us enjoy eating out in Chinese restaurants but ordering in a Chinese restaurant can be an art form. And here with me today is an artist in this field. Please welcome chef and general manager of the harbor restaurant in San Francisco. My good friend Mr. Clifford chow. I've learned a lot of people I've worked with

you for many many years on and off camera and do a lot of things. And I understand that you're a graduate. JOHNSON Well you know right. You are actually a mosque to shop but you love to eat and you love to cook. Like me now a lot of us when you go to China including myself I open a menu. OK here I am. Fresh catch. I have about 30 different items and then I look at the appetizer I have about 25 items. Then I go full seafood and poach each one of these 30 to 50 items and some of our friends at home. How so my dear. How to order how should we do it. When you go in the restaurant you like that looks hard but actually it's quite easy. It looks very confusing but just keep in mind you're looking for the balance looking for pounds balance in cooking techniques. Flavor textures in color and so forth just like the follow the philosophy the yin and yang wrecked absolutely right. And then you take one or two items from each category and then you pretty much will get a very

good out of it. While I personally love seafood particularly fish and vegetable What do you recommend. Well that's why we have so much seafood here for you to look at it. Let's start with here this is a good balanced menu you know some people love me particularly when you have a party of six to eight people here. What do we have here we have stir fry with sugar all this is wonderful because in this buy you see excellent sauce because where you see sauce that's great because this is just a lot maybe about half a pound of meat but almost all power in a piece called of course is the one that we just prepare and how about this one. We have poached a chicken in the master sauce and basically ate. Wine and soy sauce most of the Fed is all gone and render all of this my favorite. Seeing fish and of course this is also wonderful because I love rice and rice is very good good and highly in the lotus. And also keep the flavor in well how about that one over there that's not going to share. That's

the one that we just prepare on the show and all what is there. Well that's interesting and you have the cilantro and fish soup. Cilantro salmon and that is very light. This is exactly what I want or talking about in many parts of China during banquets How do they serve the sequence of the soup in the banquets usually. The soups are very very nice and expensive such things as. Shark fin soup or winter melon soup and that you surely need to be showcased therefore you should be served right in the middle of a banquet in many major banquet they serve it right in the middle but in of course in the northern China sometimes towards the entrance and insulting China they actually serve the tourists in the very beginning and correct. So it depends on what region. How about that one over there this in a little potato basket looks very nice. Yeah that's with the sort of seafood stir fried together in there. How about you that's why I love vegetable vegetable is interesting that's a sugar piece shoots stir fried with the bamboo mushroom topping wall.

That's great as it is a very well balanced diet and also it is actually only one dish is deep fry is just the one time I did and everything else is steam and stir fry and poach which is very healthy diet. You have different different techniques of cooking and balancing and also very colorful. Now let's talk about eating OK. A lot of time I notice that. When I first came to this country want to eat pasta noodle want to make it you know is everybody 5000 I all stared at me and I think kind of makes me nervous and I understand that in Asia public in Japan and China where they serve a lot of soup in a bowl and what is the proper way to sort of noodle. And eat noodle anywhere you like and basically just enjoy yourself. There's no. Particular way that you have to be certain it was not only wrong but you've got to use chopsticks you can use a fork or whatever it's kind of not. I really am Bill I remember when I make noise everybody thing is perfectly fine in Asia when you have to really have to kind of get a

spoon and basically soup spoon and the chopsticks. That's how you work I know this is not I think a lot of time you go to I go to China. People notice it when the Chinese always have their hand right on top of the table. Why I. Think it's not very polite in western cuisine that if you put your on here there's a reason for I think about a bowl of rice you got it you got a whole one bowl of rice in your hand. And eat. Your meal. Yes. And in times you can be pretty heavy so you know you sometimes you really need to rest your hands. Whole thing I like about it was I would be eating like that. Now of course the way to do it is you graciously transfer the food with your Chapstick from the bowl and graciously you don't like that you did very graciously do it this is how you do it you put your bowl of rice very close your mouth you put up whatever food and oh how about this. This is wonderful this is a special spoon here it's not a soup spoon is a serving spoon that we used to serve yourself with it

or to serve your guests with it. Oh it's very convenient. Very good monsieur this is how we do it you actually serve these dank you serve my guests and of course you always need Chinese food. Right right. So you always serve right. And then I would think that I I think a lot of people a person is OK you have rice here OK you have all kinds of rice here and I have rice here. OK now we also have food on top. Now what is the best way to eat. For instance I have some before you. And some sugar snap peas. Sugar PC. Now. A lot of times people in China stress and you search all your stuff here and then you end up eating rice out of it. Is it proper if you do this you're going to need a real longevity to finish your meal. Probably. So the best way to do it let's show everybody the best. And chops that they can eat all of this is a serving spoon

and this is what you eat with this is when you eat. So this is the way you can have some rice in there or something nice having your meat. And this is how you eat it and you push the whole thing into a dish is the proper way to direct and this is a most efficient way in a proper way to do it. Now a lot of time we go to a Chinese restaurant. You also see a Chinese restaurant they have a smaller menu with some specialty dishes like this which maybe you can elaborate what is different between a big menu and a smaller menu in some Chinese restaurant is it just this Chinese or this is somebody always Oh no no no no no this is that's the misconception of the big menu usually is something that is generally you can find all year round. You can find all you around and this is the season the menu and the chefs are recommendation also something that you will find in the market which is in season whatsoever. And then. For a month or so will put out a smaller menu and then

go into the next season which changes something rise depends what is available and also a lot of time just in case the chef is change and the really sick come out of the zone menu exactly like anywhere else you know the great thing about this is of course during the banquet you how do you serve teens at the beginning a banquet when the guests are arrive and then you have some tea to occupy the guest to carry on a conversation and along with other beverages and this soon as the banquet starts and tea will be removed and then the banquet starts. But if somebody requests to have a tea throughout the banquet that's perfectly fine so normally when you go out to dinner like this is perfect for about four or five up to six people this is great menu. We've got a lot of it a lot of seafood is a very healthy menu. We serve of rice a lot of complex carbohydrates a lot of fiber and of course let's drink to it. Thank you so much. Thank you Mr. Clifford chyle from habilis restaurant and I think you all advise and give us all the

tips about ordering and eating in Chinese restaurant you know is in the eye of the beholder. I would like to add that art is also in the gnomes and the taste buds of the beholder. Remember if you can call it for chow can you can just get it yet. All the dishes by Martin can make it home. By calling the number on your screen and joy more than 125 step by step recipe. More than 60 beautiful color photographs plus Martin's own cooking techniques and tips. Hundred or seven thirty six hundred possible buy sauces for home and professional chefs

compliment all kinds of food. And buy my own long book. Yes.