Chinese Cooking Quotes

“He who makes soup of thistles is ill qualified to discuss the savor of a stalled ox.
Chinese Sayings”
― Helen Evans Brown, Helen Brown's West coast cook book

“That knife! It looks similar to a machete-like weapon used in India- the Kukri!
He's using it to chop leeks, ginger and some herbs...
Which he's tossing into a pot of rich chicken stock!"
"Ah! Now he's grinding his spices!"
Cross!
"What?! He's crossing different implements in every step of his recipe?! Can he even do that?!"
"I recognize that mortar and pestle. It's the kind they use in India to grind spices."
"Oh gosh... I can already smell the fragrance from here!"
He clearly knows just how much to grind each spice...
... and to toast each in a little oil to really bring out its fragrance!
"Ah, I see! What he has steaming on that other burner is shark fin!"
"From Indian cuisine, we dive straight into something very Chinese!
Cross! Saiba x Mò Liú Zhâo!"
"What the heck? He's stroking the fin...
... quickly running the claws along its grain!"
Ah! I see what he's doing! Shark fin by itself is flavorless. Even in true Chinese cuisine...
...it's simmered in Paitan stock or oyster sauce first to give it a stronger, more concentrated umami punch.
But by using those claws, he can't skip that step...
... and directly infuse the fin with umami flavor compounds!
"Saiba...
Cross..."
"Aaaah! That implement! I recognize that one!
Eishi Tsukasa!"
Tsukasa Senpai's Super-Sized Grater-Sword!
"He took a huge lump of butter...
... and is grating it down into shavings at unbelievable speed!"”
― Yuto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 35 [Shokugeki no Souma 35]

“Saturday afternoon she deboned chicken breasts and put the raw meat aside; then she simmered the bones with green onions and squashed garlic and ginger. She mixed ground pork with diced water chestnuts and green onions and soy sauce and sherry, stuffed the wonton skins with this mixture, and froze them to be boiled the next day. Then she made the stuffing for Richard's favorite egg rolls. It was poor menu planning- Vivian would never have served wontons and egg rolls at the same meal- but she felt sorry for Richard, living on hot dogs as he'd been. Anyway they all liked her egg rolls, even Aunt Barbara.
Sunday morning she stayed home from church and started the tea eggs simmering (another source of soy sauce for Annie). She slivered the raw chicken breast left from yesterday- dangling the occasional tidbit for J.C., who sat on her stool and cried "Yeow!" whenever she felt neglected- and slivered carrots and bamboo shoots and Napa cabbage and more green onions and set it all aside to stir-fry at the last minute with rice stick noodles. This was her favorite dish, simple though it was, and Aunt Rubina's favorite; it had been Vivian's favorite of Olivia's recipes, too. (Vivian had never dabbled much in Chinese cooking herself.) Then she sliced the beef and asparagus and chopped the fermented black beans for her father's favorite dish.”
― Susan Gilbert-Collins, Starting from Scratch

“He found all of this very cool, jumping right in to join me as we got down to the serious business of Chinese cuisine.”
― Noel Marie Fletcher, My Time in Another World: Experiences as a Foreign Correspondent in China

“I began the process of transforming the slab of pork belly in the fridge into my version of a Shanghai-style dish. I chopped the lean meat into bite-size pieces, and then blanched and browned them in demerara sugar and sesame oil. The sizzle and occasional pop accompanied the incomparable, savory aroma of rendering fat. As the meat stewed in its juices, I created a sauce comprising pink peppercorns, star anise, cloves, sweet soy sauce, and Chinese rice wine in the hot wok. I braised the pork belly, checking in at intervals to ensure the tenderness of the meat.”
― Roselle Lim, Natalie Tan's Book of Luck & Fortune

“Separate pots of simmering French and Italian soup stocks...
Bowls of various Chinese spice blends...
Trimmed and marinating lamb shanks, a common ingredient in Turkish cooking...
And the foundation of all Indian cuisine- toasting the starter spices!”
― Yuto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 35 [Shokugeki no Souma 35]

“Winnie and Big Leo Chao were serving scallion pancakes decades before you could find them outside of a home kitchen. Leo, thirty-five years ago, winning his first poker game against the owners of a local poultry farm, exchanged his chips for birds that Winnie transformed into the shining, chestnut-colored duck dishes of far-off cities. Dear Winnie, rolling out her bing the homemade way, two pats of dough together with a seal of oil in between, letting them rise to a steaming bubble in the piping pan. Leo, bargaining for hard-to-get ingredients; Winnie subbing wax beans for yard-long beans, plus home-growing the garlic greens, chives, and hot peppers you used to never find in Haven. Their garden giving off a glorious smell.”
― Lan Samantha Chang, The Family Chao

“The aroma of spices and pineapple melded into a beautifully colorful fragrance in her pineapple-curry fried rice!"
The sweet tart of the pineapple and the saltiness of the fried rice spread through the mouth in a wave! It's a similar idea to sweet-and-sour pork, another Chinese dish that uses pineapples.
"As a finishing touch, she hollowed out a whole pineapple, poured the fried rice inside its shell and then baked it in the oven. The inside edge of the pineapple shell was even rubbed with salt to prevent too much sweetness from leeching into the rice."
"Doing that meant only the fragrance of the dish increased without changing the taste or drying out the rice.
Traditional Chinese cooking has taken yet another small step forward with this dish.”
― Yūto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 7 [Shokugeki no Souma 7]