On Fri, 12 Feb 2010 12:05:01 -0800, Dan Abel > wrote:

> In article >,
> sf > wrote:
>
> > On Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:22:28 -0800, "Bob Terwilliger"
> > > wrote:
>
> > Chile and cilantro? Huh. Sounds like Southwest/Chinese fusion.
>
> Chilis are very common in parts of China. Cilantro is often referred to
> as "Chinese parsley".

Do you really think I'm that ignorant? It was a joke. My point is I
haven't heard of them as ingredients in black bean sauce and he left
out crucial ingredients of onion (scallion) and ginger.
>
> > Have you done this before? It seems like a black bean sauce would
> > overwhelm the flavor of your steaks.
> >
> > > The steaks are bone-in ribeyes which will be grilled over charcoal. Chinese
> > > have a distaste for whole steaks on a plate; they consider it butchery to
> > > cut up meat at the table.
>
> My brother is an amazing cook. He is married to a Chinese woman, who
> appreciates his cooking. However, the other Chinese relatives sometimes
> consider him a terrible cook. A few years ago, he served a whole turkey
> and whole ham for Thanksgiving. That pretty much did in his reputation.
>
> > Which I find very odd, considering how large the individual pieces of
> > "bite sized" meat are... at least in restaurants, where they should
> > pay better attention to serving size.
>
> The food served in US Chinese restaurants isn't always reflective of
> what is done in China, or even in the home here in the US of the chef.
> Still, I don't believe that Bob wrote "bite sized", just that it is
> considered very rude to serve food that needs to be cut at the table.

Again, I know what he said and I'm talking about American restaurants.
Why cloud the issue? He also mentioned cutting/butchery at the table
which is what *I* feel like I need to do with the so called "bite
sized" pieces of meat that I'm served in restaurants.

> It appears to me to be acceptable to serve food that takes more than one
> bite.

It's not acceptable to me.

>I haven't noticed if people put the food down in between bites (I
> think they sometimes do), or just hold it in their chopsticks while they
> eat it. The key is "chopsticks".

They don't put it down. They chew off a hunk, eat it and either chew
on it again if it's still too big or put the rest of it in their
mouth. Ugh. I hate that. I don't mind the rice bowl scooping thing,
it's biting chunks off hunks of meat that I don't like to do.

> It's OK to do anything that doesn't require a knife at the table.

I don't care what's ok for others, I'm talking about what's ok for me.
Chewing on a hunk of meat held by chopsticks has all the appeal of
forking a t-bone lollipop style and chewing on it that way.

> Whole fish are fine. People just dig in with their chopsticks.

Neither of us were talking about fish and they use chopsticks and a
spoon with whole fish.


--
I love cooking with wine.
Sometimes I even put it in the food.