Makato San, thank you for letting China be on top :) I understand your
favoring in Spain though, compeltely. however, you left no place for French.
Any reasons?
As to Korean food, I think their great contribution is galic/sugar/saseme
oil/soy sauce marinating for meat, no matter it’s bolgogi , or in table BBQ
. I would say garlic is used best in Korea. I love their radish kimchi and
spicy beef soup to Addiction level. Hmart is my blessing, you have no idea.
Japanese food is voted high for being exquisite, imho. You typically get
higher votes among westerners than Asians because westerners put higher
weight on plating, color and appearance than taste itself. (Good customers
to get dollars from ) I love Japanese raw fish /shell fish dishes
more than cooked ones (but I do crave una (eel) don periodically).
Chinese food, endures longest history and cultures, is far more appreciated
in asia than the rest of the world. Most of the time, we don’t give much
crap about how a dish looks, how the table is presented, etc. The goal is to
render the best taste, with least man hour and cost. I go to la croix for a
duck dish to feel pampered, and pretentious ;), but if I want TASTE, I go
peking duck – which the best available in town is provided by Jane G’s. (
yes, thy will sponsor my wedding). The best available in U.S. is found in
NYC and San francisco, and maybe the Yao Ming restaurant in Houston, where
President bush (both) frequence. The best I ever had is in dong Da
restaurant in Beijing. The dollar difference per ounce of meat, French is 3
times higher, to start ;) Most city slicker americans have tasted Kong pao
chicken or Ma Po tofu, but they are more or less Americanized, some
nicely, like Han Dynasty, into a more saucy version with stronger than
desired sweet taste. But they did a good job keeping the cooking temp
perfect, which makes the meat slight goldened outside and juicy, flavorful,
tender inside. Can’t say that to a lot of French, or western meat dishes.
(with exception of medium rare grilling). If one want to cook meat, the most
important element is the cooking temp and how fast you sear the meat to
make it just safe enough to eat, but still tender and juicy inside. Most
cuisine fail on this matter. Throwing away garbage American low end china
town dishes like sweet/sour chicken, which I never know existed before I
left China, the variety Chinese dishes any American know, is about 1% of
Chinese food, as I only know about 50% for the vast regional food culture
varieties - that will include the monk food that makes delicate tonfu dishes
taste like meat. If I go back to China now, my top desired dish list will
be
these: pork/chives eggplant cases, three spice dumplings, NanXiang
xiaolongbao (steamed crab pork leek juicy dumplings, from Shanghai), Peking
duck, Mongolian lamb, Chongqing shabu shabu, kong pao shredded sea snails,
lamb bbq skewer, Lamb stew with pancakes (muslim Hui dish), pork/radish meat
balls, Sichuan prosciutto, roasted pork cheek mmmmmmm. And the best part is
, wont’ cost you a fortune.
French cuisine, tops the western world. Italy is the runner up.I will not
twist a westerner's arm for him to agree with Chinese food supremancy( hehe)
, but I have yet to be convinced I prefer French to Chinese. But that would
be my taste buds, my knowledge of the compliation, variety and techniques
richness of Chinese food culture. heee heee.
