Hi -

The restaurant chain PFChangs has a dish they claim is from Yunnan's
Dali City, called Dali Chicken.

Its spicy potatoes that are first boiled then spiced and deep-fried,
then mixed with a stir-fry of chicken and leeks (I think) - but the
chili sauce it comes in is apparently had to duplicate. Has anyone tried
to replicate this? Successfully, would be good!

Thanks,

Ian

On Tue, 04 May 2010 21:58:46 -0400, Ian wrote:

> Hi -
>
> The restaurant chain PFChangs has a dish they claim is from Yunnan's
> Dali City, called Dali Chicken.
>
> Its spicy potatoes that are first boiled then spiced and deep-fried,
> then mixed with a stir-fry of chicken and leeks (I think) - but the
> chili sauce it comes in is apparently had to duplicate. Has anyone tried
> to replicate this? Successfully, would be good!

Can't say I've taste it. Is it sweet? The base for all my sweet
chili sauces is Mae Ploy Sweet Chile Garlic Sauce. Everybody I've
turned onto it loves it. If you haven't tried it...

Depending on it's use, I add sriracha, black or regular rice vinegar
and/or a little fish sauce.

-sw
-sw

Sqwertz wrote:
> On Tue, 04 May 2010 21:58:46 -0400, Ian wrote:
>
>> Hi -
>>
>> The restaurant chain PFChangs has a dish they claim is from Yunnan's
>> Dali City, called Dali Chicken.
>>
>> Its spicy potatoes that are first boiled then spiced and deep-fried,
>> then mixed with a stir-fry of chicken and leeks (I think) - but the
>> chili sauce it comes in is apparently had to duplicate. Has anyone tried
>> to replicate this? Successfully, would be good!
>
> Can't say I've taste it. Is it sweet? The base for all my sweet
> chili sauces is Mae Ploy Sweet Chile Garlic Sauce. Everybody I've
> turned onto it loves it. If you haven't tried it...
>
> Depending on it's use, I add sriracha, black or regular rice vinegar
> and/or a little fish sauce.
>
> -sw
> -sw

I replied to this last night, but I can't see my reply anywhere.

Anyway, what I said was that I love the Mae Ploy Chile Sauce (mine
doesn't have 'garlic' in the title, but its in the contents) too, and
have been known to force it on my friends, absolutely sure that they
will love it, as they have.

I have not yet tasted the Dali Chicken - a friend who is useless in the
kitchen asked me to see if I could recreate it, so I'm doing some
research while I wait for an opportunity to try it.

Cheers,

Ian

On Thu, 06 May 2010 20:58:03 -0400, Ian wrote:

> Anyway, what I said was that I love the Mae Ploy Chile Sauce (mine
> doesn't have 'garlic' in the title, but its in the contents) too, and
> have been known to force it on my friends, absolutely sure that they
> will love it, as they have.

I just went downstairs to check on the label but I made a sandwich
instead (Garlic Bologna, Columbus Salami, Helmans, horseradish, and
romaine lettuce, in case anybody was wondering ;-)\

Anyway, it's *not* the one labeled "Spring Roll Dipping Sauce" or
"For Spring Rolls" which is a thinner sauce. Buy the full strength
and thin it down yourself - with the ingredients I suggested
earlier.

Mae Ploy has a much greater depth of flavor than any other sweet
chili sauce out there (Carnaval brand being the another
widely-distributed one here in the US, but very inferior).

> I have not yet tasted the Dali Chicken - a friend who is useless in the
> kitchen asked me to see if I could recreate it, so I'm doing some
> research while I wait for an opportunity to try it.

I've never eaten at PF Changs but I'm betting it's based on sweet
chili sauce.

On second thought, I just read a couple reviews of it and I take
that back. It doesn't sound sweet (I would have figured most
everything at PFC's was sweet).

-sw

Sqwertz wrote:
> On Thu, 06 May 2010 20:58:03 -0400, Ian wrote:
>
>> Anyway, what I said was that I love the Mae Ploy Chile Sauce (mine
>> doesn't have 'garlic' in the title, but its in the contents) too, and
>> have been known to force it on my friends, absolutely sure that they
>> will love it, as they have.
>
> I just went downstairs to check on the label but I made a sandwich
> instead (Garlic Bologna, Columbus Salami, Helmans, horseradish, and
> romaine lettuce, in case anybody was wondering ;-)\
>
> Anyway, it's *not* the one labeled "Spring Roll Dipping Sauce" or
> "For Spring Rolls" which is a thinner sauce. Buy the full strength
> and thin it down yourself - with the ingredients I suggested
> earlier.
>
> Mae Ploy has a much greater depth of flavor than any other sweet
> chili sauce out there (Carnaval brand being the another
> widely-distributed one here in the US, but very inferior).
>
>> I have not yet tasted the Dali Chicken - a friend who is useless in the
>> kitchen asked me to see if I could recreate it, so I'm doing some
>> research while I wait for an opportunity to try it.
>
> I've never eaten at PF Changs but I'm betting it's based on sweet
> chili sauce.
>
> On second thought, I just read a couple reviews of it and I take
> that back. It doesn't sound sweet (I would have figured most
> everything at PFC's was sweet).
>
> -sw

PFChang's junior spin-off, Pei Wei, uses sugar in just about everything,
but its hard to put too much sugar for the public in a product in the
US, it seems.

My friend who liked the Dali Chicken loves extremely hot Indian food,
and eats Thai often, so I tend to trust his judgment that Dali Chicken
is worth a look.

My bottles of the Mae Ploy sauce are not the thin spring-roll versions,
I just checked.

Ian

On Sat, 08 May 2010 12:11:15 -0400, Ian wrote:

> PFChang's junior spin-off, Pei Wei, uses sugar in just about everything,
> but its hard to put too much sugar for the public in a product in the
> US, it seems.

I've never eaten at both because of their "Americanization". I've
never eaten at either, but it's kinda ironic that you mention
they're the company because I've always considered them the same
restaurant with just a shrug of my shoulders, without knowing they
really *are* the same people.

> My bottles of the Mae Ploy sauce are not the thin spring-roll versions,
> I just checked.


Good. Then I don't need to give you the Mae Ploy speech again.

Except for their curry pastes... I just used some Massaman tonight
in some cured pork butt tacos (with onions and piquillo peppers all
fried in lamb fat and topped with chipotle cream sauce(*). I always
have 2-3 varieties of this on hand in any given month. They only
cost $2/14oz at my store and they last a year when you have 3 types
on hand.

-sw

(*) This is not a specialty of the house. I just started pulling
stuff out of the fridge and that's what it became. And it was very
good. Enough left to do another lunch of it tomorrow. Using the
red or yellow paste this time.

Ian wrote:
> Hi -
>
> The restaurant chain PFChangs has a dish they claim is from Yunnan's
> Dali City, called Dali Chicken.
>
> Its spicy potatoes that are first boiled then spiced and deep-fried,
> then mixed with a stir-fry of chicken and leeks (I think) - but the
> chili sauce it comes in is apparently had to duplicate. Has anyone tried
> to replicate this? Successfully, would be good!

I've eaten at PFChangs once maybe twice.. I found it very Americanized and
kind of gross. They recently opened one near my office, I may give them one
more shot.. but I prefer more authentic cuisine.

--
Dan

Dan Logcher wrote:
> Ian wrote:
>> Hi -
>>
>> The restaurant chain PFChangs has a dish they claim is from Yunnan's
>> Dali City, called Dali Chicken.
>>
>> Its spicy potatoes that are first boiled then spiced and deep-fried,
>> then mixed with a stir-fry of chicken and leeks (I think) - but the
>> chili sauce it comes in is apparently had to duplicate. Has anyone
>> tried to replicate this? Successfully, would be good!
>
> I've eaten at PFChangs once maybe twice.. I found it very Americanized and
> kind of gross. They recently opened one near my office, I may give them
> one
> more shot.. but I prefer more authentic cuisine.
>

Sure, its very Americanized Chinese, and very popular too. At
dinner-time, its always crowded, anywhere in the country I have tried to
eat there. Within that context, they have dishes I like very much -
Soothing Lettuce Wraps, Mongolian Beef, and Kung Pao Chicken (which has
General Tso-ish chicken and not really tasting like kung-pao, but tasty
anyway).

Given a choice between Hong Kong Palace (our local Sechuan place) and
PFC, and its no contest, HKP wins every time. But if I have visitors who
don't like the real thing, I'll eat American Chinese before Italian,
American, or anything else, really.

Each to their own, I say!

Ian