Missing Out on Some Great Food

[Robert S.]

My dear wife Ping (my sweetheart and taskmaster) was waiting for her green card for a very long time and when it finally came she took the money she had saved and went to her home of Dalian to visit, and took our grandson, Johnny, whom we have been taking care of, now age 15 months. Poor Ping has been suffering all this time in America, not able to find all the ingredients she wants, especially seafood, but now in Dalian, which is at the end of a peninsula in the middle of the Yellow Sea, she was able to get the things she wanted for the special holiday meal she made today for her "family people."

 

Everyone came to her apartment and from what I can gather they started eating about 11 AM and did not stop for several hours. They had cold pig foot cut small and covered with a very spicy sauce, eaten with nibbles of cold rice, just to get the appetite even more stimulated than it was by walking up the stairs and into the room following the wonderful smells. If you liked you could use a toothpick and eat some bites of what Ping calls Chinese Jell-O which is the cold congealed juice from cooking the pig foot, served on a bed of lettuce. The main course was soon ready which was flounder very lightly breaded and quickly deep fried. There was also another kind of fish which she said America does not have and she could not describe but she said it is so good. Oh, and "fish stomach" whatever that is. They had crab legs, and boiled shrimp. Now back to the all important pig foot, she had the fresh cooked hot pig foot, left big without further cutting, which is dipped in the sauce bowl as you eat it, and to round out the pork offerings, she served pork neck bone. (I'm asking like where's the ham and she is again explaining to me how Chinese people don't really care about pig meat but they like to gnaw on the bones). I'm getting so hungry I'm gnashing my teeth on a piece of old leather. One of the cousins had stopped by a restaurant owned by some Xinjiang people from western China and brought barbecued ribs of mutton ("cooked the Ali Baba way you know" [making turning motions]). She next mentioned the clams, bought fresh at the fish market that morning, the kind that spit water at you as you walk by. I don't know how they were served. Also there was another kind of shellfish, not clams, not oysters, not scallops, not mussels, she described them as "you know, you open them and the meat inside run-run, they have a foot you know" which I did not have any idea what she was talking about. There was hot rice in the rice cooker, of course, and there was noodles with mushrooms. For vegetables they had those long Chinese cucumbers and a big bowl of snow peas which she cooks just a very short time and then runs under the cold water to stop the cooking and then very lightly oils them with her special oil that she prepares using vegetable oil with some kind of dried spice or herb or flower to give it that special taste. There was something else I am forgetting. Oh yeah, and beer, and "white whiskey."

 

All the while she is telling me this she is slurping and smacking and giving bits to the baby as he makes his rounds. I am not sure she was able to really throw down to the degree she is capable of, but it sounds like a pretty good feast I missed out on. Well, I got to run and head over to Sonic for a couple of corn dogs, they are so good with beanie wienies.

[Dan R]

Sounds yummy! Some may be similar to a meal I had near Penglai, Shandong (same region). The "run run" shell fish, I wonder is that sea urchin? You know the orangish soft shellfish at the sushi bars.

 

The Chinese seafood stores in L.A. used to sell fish innards from barrels on the weekends until the health department stopped them. Somebody should get that approved as edible in the U.S.. Most people don't realize that until it has been proven safe government agencies regard anything as inedible. The orginal list made about 100 years ago was based on the northern European diet. In the past 20 years there have been many items added as the population diversifies.

 

I can tell she is really enjoying herself!

[BillV 8-16-2004]

Also there was another kind of shellfish, not clams, not oysters, not scallops, not mussels, she described them as "you know, you open them and the meat inside run-run, they have a foot you know" which I did not have any idea what she was talking about.

 

My wife bought some fresh conch yesterday at the Chinese market, these are still alive when they break the shell there at the market. She prepared it in a soup with pork bone and conch together. I had dried conch but this was the first time fresh. She tells me it is very expensive in China here it was $2.99 a pound. This is a possibility of what your wife prepared it is very delicious if you like seafood.

Edited October 1, 2006 by BillV 8-16-2004 (see edit history)

[Robert S.]

Now today her auntie and uncle have come back again this morning only intending to stop by for a short visit. Ping says uncle loves Johnny so very much. Uncle wanted to go back home but Ping told them no and asked them to please stay for lunchtime, that she needed help with eating so much leftovers. They were prevailed upon to stay. If I had been there I promise there would not have been hardly any leftovers. She has only been gone a month but I am nearly ravenous for some of Chef Ping's culinary delights.

[SheLikesME?]

Oh I am jealous. Not of the pig foot though. Wife is at her parents and having a feast. I know I would love it. I could not get off to go see her or she me.

 

She is North of Benxi in a small city. Says she was born in Dlaian. We went there on our marriage trip I call it, rather than honeymoon, because we had daughter in tow and met her sisters. We took a slow boat from Dalian one night. We had such a good time there. This is where she wants to retire and get a place close to the sea over by the zoo.

 

Have fun.

 

Doug

 

 

I should add that wife wants to go out with her Uncle some time. He is a fisherman out of a small town up from Dalian on the mainland side, not Korean side. She really would love to work on his boat I think full time, if possible in her life.

Edited October 3, 2006 by SheLikesME (see edit history)

[pkfops]

Also there was another kind of shellfish, not clams, not oysters, not scallops, not mussels, she described them as "you know, you open them and the meat inside run-run, they have a foot you know" which I did not have any idea what she was talking about.

 

My wife bought some fresh conch yesterday at the Chinese market, these are still alive when they break the shell there at the market. She prepared it in a soup with pork bone and conch together. I had dried conch but this was the first time fresh. She tells me it is very expensive in China here it was $2.99 a pound. This is a possibility of what your wife prepared it is very delicious if you like seafood.

 

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