Beef - different parts in English, Japanese and Chinese

After having the Chinese hotpot dinner last week in Him Kee Hot Pot 謙記 and getting stumped on what all the different choices you get in selecting beef, the number one ingredient of Chinese hotpot; dad decided  to do a bit of research on the subject.

It all started with 牛頸脊, which broadly translates to chuck and neck. And the confusion starts straightaway. Basically, where exactly these cuts are depends on who you talk to and where you are, that is even if you speak only English, because the primal cuts, the basic sections from which steaks and other subdivisions are cut, vary from the US to the UK and they are different again in Australia. ref wikipedia entry on beef

On the whole when you order 牛頸脊 (or 手切肥牛) in a hotpot restaurant in Hong Kong, you will get a plate of thinly-sliced-across-grain chuck, unless you go to one of the shops where you get them in further subdivided cuts of three (ref weekend hongkong)
牛頸 - neck
牛邊 - blade (word of warning, 牛鞭 which is pronounced the same way and a much better known term is cow's penis)
牛翼 - chuck

In Him Kee, the second beef dish on offer is 牛肋肉, equally pricey as 牛頸脊. This one is much less confusing, it's just rib loin.

So which one is better for hotpot? It really depends on how long you want to leave it in the broth. As a general rule, the further you move away from the horn towards the mid section of the cow, the more tender the texture gets and the shorter the cooking time. So the rib loin is more tender and require less cooking time than chuck, hence the rib loin should be cooked shabu-shabu style (fast), whereas the chuck slices should be cooked sukiyaki style (slower).

What should you order if you are with a big group of people who couldn't care less about how long they leave the beef to cook? Then you should order beef brisket, 牛腩. Basically, brisket comes from the same shoulder part of the forequarter of a slaughtered cow as chuck, chuck being the "top" cut and brisket being the "bottom" cut. Referring to the Chinese wiki entry, the three main edible subdivisions of the beef brisket are:
坑腩 - the "bottom" cut of the first 8 ribs of the cow, tough and full flavor since it supports a large part of the cow's weight.
爽腩 - the "bottom" cut of the 9th to 12th ribs of the cow, softer in texture with plenty of collagen, smaller in quantity makes this the pricier cut of the brisket. Arguably the most famous beef brisket restaurant in Hong Kong, Kau Kee 九記, is famous for offering 爽腩 in a rich broth.
腩角 - the tiny portion between 8th and 9th, only seen those sold in local butchers, surrounded by collagen.

The equivalent English distinction between such cuts are the point-cut {腩角 where the point is 角 and 爽腩} which is the superficial pectoral muscle of the shoulder responsible for pulling and leaner, flat-cut {坑腩} which is the deep pectoral muscle of the shoulder responsible for pushing. ref wikipedia entry on brisket The flat cut brisket is traditionally more widely available in the western butchers mainly for cooking corned beef (known in the UK as salt beef) and pastrami. The point-cut was often discarded. But this might no longer be true as Chinese cuisine becomes more prevalent. The equivalent phenomenon is chicken feet, where the sale of chicken feet is the margin which is keeping the US chicken industry afloat. ref freakonomics.com

The following picture is from a Japanese website but somehow we have lost its origin. Please let us know if you know where it's from.

1. 肩ロース肉　- chuck roll, blade {牛邊}

すじっぽい（筋っぽい）sinewy therefore cut thin to use.

Best for yakiniku, sukiyaki, stir-fry

Steak = flat iron steak

2. 肩肉　– shoulder / chuck tender / clod {牛翼, 黃瓜條， taiwan 腱胛里肌}

the part that exercise a lot, so it is tougher but full flavor

Best for curry, stew or thin cut for yakiniku

Steak = teres major steak

3.  すね肉 – shank / shin {腱子}

sinewy but full flavor

Best for pot au feu, traditional French beef stew

4. リブロース肉 – spencer roll / rib loin {牛肋肉, taiwan 里肌}

tender, the uppermost part of the cow

Best for roast beef, shabu shabu

Steak = rib eye steak, entrecôte
カルビ - Galbi, Korean bbq short ribs

5. サーロイン　– Sirloin　{西冷牛排，牛外脊, taiwan 沙郎牛排}

Good texture + marbling

Best for steak, sukiyaki

Steak = Sirloin, New York Strip

6.ランプ肉 – Rump {外條}

Not fatty, fine texture

Best for steak, roast

Steak = round steak, rump steak

7. 外もも - Silverside, bottom round

Exercise makes it sinewy and a bit tough

Cut into cubes for stewing, thin cut for anything

8. 内もも - Topside, top round

Tender with great taste

Best for sukiyaki, tataki

9. ヒレ肉 – Fillet / Tenderloin {taiwan 小里肌}

Next to the back bone with no exercise, tender but not fatty. The Best!!

Best for steak and tataki

Steak = T-bone steak (front part less tenderloin), porterhouse (rear part more tenderloin) [Bistecca alla Fiorentina]

10. バラ肉 – Flank {巴掌肉}

Layer of fat separated by layer of red meat. Tough

Best for curry, stew. Thin cut Korean bbq
Steak = Hanger steak, skirt steak (the meat of the diaphragm)
ハラミ

11. シンタマ肉 – Thick flank

Non fatty

Best for steak, sukiyaki

Also

ネック – neck {牛頸}

red meat with elongated strip of fat

肩バラ – brisket {牛腩}


ホルモン - offal, it's always good to know what you order and what you about to eat. This Japanese word, pronounced as ho-ru-mo-n, sounds exactly like hormone (in fact the Japanese for hormone is exactly the same). So it's easy, if someone is offering you hormone to eat, your reaction might be similar to being offered offal. In Gyukaku 牛角,  the Japanese BBQ chain, there's a menu item called, ホルモン三種盛り which is simply translated as assorted 3 kinds. If you think assorted 3 kinds are just 3 different types of meat without checking the picture, you might be in for a shocker. The 3 kinds are:
コロホル - pork intestines
レバ - beef liver
センマイ - beef tripe

If you like this entry, you might also like the most popular entry on our blog, all about beef offal.
As we gather more information, we shall do more updates on this entry. Let us know if you see anything incorrect.

New York Style Pizza - Homemade in HK!

Pizza toppings - tomato, Iberico sausage and mozzarella

Adapted from Mario Batali Pizza Dough recipe

• 3¼ cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
• 2 teaspoons instant or rapid-rise yeast
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 cup warm water
• ¼ cup dry white wine, at room temperature  (consume the balance with the pizza)
• 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil

Combine flour, yeast, salt & sugar in mixing bowl. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the warm water, wine, and olive oil. Using a Kitchenaid mixer (I skipped the handmixing process), mix until the dough comes together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.  The dough is ready once it is  smooth, elastic, and only slightly sticky.  Oil a large clean bowl, add the dough, and turn to coat. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel, and let the dough rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Preheating the oven with a  pizza stone takes a long time - best to preheat earlier.

Divide into 3 portions and roll on a lightly floured work surface into an 28cm round.
Spread each with 1/3 cup tomato sauce and add your favorite toppings.  
Bake on the pizza stone at 200°C for 15 minutes or until the sides brown (in fact patiently wait until you see tiny bits of black burn marks to ensure maximum crunchiness).   

The right out of the oven pizza was truly yummy with crispy crust and juicy toppings.

To do - get an even thicker and larger pizza stone, will go to our local stone mason and get a piece tailor made, get one of those big wooden spatulas to put the pizza in and out of the oven and get a pizza cutter perhaps.

Bread Making at Home Part 3 - Pain de Dieppe and more

Pain de Dieppe

This bread came from here ->


View Larger Map

メロンパンの一種　墨西哥包

Mum's latest hobby - Bread Making at Home Part 2

Homemade Ciabatta - right out of the oven

Baguette Viennoise

So far she has tried making......
Brioche
Milk Bun (pain au lait)
Baguette Viennoise
and now Ciabatta (one of them has sun dried tomatoes added)

Bread Making at Home Part 1

Pain au Lait and Brioche

Photos we like

Pine nut crust lemon tart from the recipe of Bouchon Bakery

Romanesco Broccoli - a beauty of nature bought from a local supermarket

Minute repeater, tourbillon, perpetual calendar - a marvel of watchmaking

Homemade Springrolls

Crunchy homemade spring roll (the Grand Hyatt recipe)

Recent photos

Art Exhibition in Time Square

Home made lotus-leaf rice 荷葉飯

Pity!! We couldn't capture the smell!!

Speeding through Admiralty

Ice cream making class in Grand Hyatt - terribly organized

Home made Osmanthus Jelly 桂花糕

All the ingredients

Another Citysuper Cooking Competition - Le Creuset Theme

Pan-fried Scallops, Beef-stew with Fried Potatoes and Berry Crumble

All about beef offal 牛雜，牛胃，牛肚，牛栢葉， 金錢肚

“牛栢葉和牛肚是不是一樣？” came up during a recent dinner conversation while having Chinese hotpot in the American club. We are not sure if our ancestors really differentiate much among the carcasses of little dead animals. Just can't imagine them saying, "Yucks! That's offal, we only eat the meaty part of the body."

After some digging, looking up high-school biology and checking Cantonese culinary terms, we think we have cracked this question. It is probably worth setting out all the related terms here as well.
牛雜－a popular street food in south east Asia which involves stewing beef offal in a rich sauce made from Chu Hou Paste 柱候醬. The offal found is limited to what's inside the abdomen like intestines, lungs, spleens, kidneys, livers and stomachs, but no brains or hearts.
金錢肚－Within a pot of 牛雜, this is perhaps the most recognizable due to its honeycomb appearance and perhaps the most popular. It is more appropriately named in English as the honeycomb tripe and comes from the second stomach, the reticulum, of a cow.
牛栢葉（牛百頁）－An ingredient sometimes found in 牛雜 but more often missing because it is a dish in its own right. This perennial favorite dim sum dish is from the third stomach, the omasum (aka manyplies),  of a cow. The dim sum version is bleached white using hydrogen peroxide (an industrial chemical that's also used in the bleaching of dark fish meat in fish fingers to make them commercially more desirable.) The hotpot version is normally unbleached and appeared blackish. It is known as leaf tripe in English, referring to the leafy texture of this particular stomach.
牛肚－This is from the first stomach, the rumen, of a cow. It is known as smooth tripe in English and perhaps the least desirable of the three types of tripe. As found in the quote from The Deluxe Food Lover's Companion (Deluxe Edition)

The tripe found in most markets today is the lining of beef stomach, though that from pork and sheep also fall under the definition. There are two beef stomach chambers and three kinds of tripe, all of which are tough and require long cooking. The best tripe, from the second stomach chamber, is called honeycomb tripe because the inner side has a pattern similiar to a honeycomb. It's the most tender and subtly flavored. Pocket tripe is cut from the end of the second stomach chamber. It's shaped like a pocket with the inside also being honeycombed. The least desirable plain or smooth tripe (with a smooth texture on both sides) comes from the first stomach. Tripe is available fresh (which is actually partially cooked by the packer) in most supermarkets. Choose tripe with a pale off-white color and store for up to a day in the refrigerator. Tripe is also available pickled and canned. The most famous French dish using this variety meat is the Norman dish called tripes à la mode de Caen-tripe braised with carrots, onions and cider. In Spanish-speaking countries, menudo (tripe soup) is a well-known favorite.

牛胃－The all inclusive term covering all the above, plus the reed tripe from the fourth stomach, the abomasum, of a cow.

Update - if you like this entry, please check out our latest write up on beef from our blog, thank you.

So now you have the answer to the above question and more. We are all for knowing what you eat.
Related wikipedia links:
offal, tripe
Other links:
hydrogen peroxide bleaching of dark fish meat

Doggy Biscuits

When we stay home idly listening to the TV blasting behind us, we hear "global warming" all the time. But the last few days certainly do not feel like "warm" at all to us. While those in Beijing can blame the snow storm on rain experiment, but we never hear the HK government fire anything up the sky other than fireworks. So the welcome wintry gust is probably the work of mother nature after all.

As this cold spell continues, there's nothing better than the smell of freshly baked cookies and cakes. Mum and dad are baking more nowadays, after all you don't want to switch the oven to 180C when the kitchen is already 35C. It's a different matter when the kitchen is 15C.

You probably wonder what goes into the doggy biscuits which drive us all crazy. You might be surprised that our treats are very similar to the ones for human consumption, the major differences are

• No Chocolate, use Carob in situ - one of the most popular human desserts is dogs' worst enemy, the theobromine in cocoa is a killer. You can read more here. Carob is a safe alternative but apparently tough to find in Hong Kong. If you find it in Hong Kong, let us know. Ours are from friends in far away places.
  
• No Raisin - Nobody knows why, but never feed grapes or raisins to us. So choc n' raisin cookies are out for us. You can find some dog biscuit recipes with raisins in the web but as in human recipes you never know if they have gone through the trial process.
• Less sugar or no sugar - most of the recipes use honey instead. Honey is a lower calorie and more nutritious alternative. Sugar will make us fat and rot our teeth.

Ingredients commonly found in dog desserts are - carrot, banana, pear, banana, apple sauce (no added sugar), pumpkin, honey, carob, peanut butter, oats, walnuts, cream cheese, sour cream, tofu, soy milk, cornmeal and egg.
Spices and herbs - cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla extract.

Quality dog biscuits should be fit for human consumption, just a harder and healthier alternative. Get your mum and dad to start baking. It's fun and delicious.

Our Garden - A few new things

It's been a while since we wrote about our garden. The cooler weather brought some new crops with it. Some of these may not be that common in Hong Kong. From the top:

Kaffir Lime - Mum and dad have been asking almost 30 different shops and garden centers in Hong Kong for this. None of them carry this seemingly common south-east asian shrub. There was one garden center, KK Horticulture, which cater specially for expat which claimed they had it before but died during winter in Hong Kong, a fairly dubious claim, given the mild winter in Hong Kong. They got their two plants with their luggage from Singapore where they bought them in the market. It's fresh leaves add a distinct flavor to Thai curry and they are often included in the Thai spice pack (together with lemon grass, chili and galangal ginger) that you can buy in supermarket. Lets see if they survive 20C Hong Kong winter.

This big chili pepper is the only plant grown from seed that managed to survive all the rain and typhoon through the summer. Mum and dad probably need to rethink their seed growing program.

Buddha's hand citron - They got this from a friend's garden center. Positively creepy.

Mulberry - This was bought in March and was always looking sickly. No leaves and no fruit were coming out. Then after the very last typhoon, it came back to life!!. The fresh mulberries are great. They are much sweeter and have more flavors than the raspberries that you can buy in supermarket. The leaves are supposed to be nutritious as well. You can put it through food processor to make mulberry leaves juice. You can then taste what silk worms feed on.

San Francisco - Coi, Part 2

Here's a quick run down on what they could remember from the meal but, as in most food blogs or restaurants' reviews, words never do justice to your experience whether they were good or bad.

Summer, Frozen in Time - Plum, Frozen Meringue, Yogurt
The most memorable dish of the whole meal and perhaps the best dish during this trip. It was a literal explosion of flavors. Every spoonful of the icy pink-orange appetizer got a different part of your taste buds to work overtime. The frozen meringue kept the aroma of rose petals from coming out until it was melted in your mouth. The next dip into the appetizer you get the flavor of plum. It was best described by the now overused cliche, like a box of chocolate; you never know what you are gonna get. Only that, it was far better than any box of chocolate.

Melon and Cucumber - Aroma of Mint
After the spectacular first course, this continued to clean your palate while introducing you to a different set of flavors with green being the theme color.

Inverted Cherry Tomato Tart - Black Olive, Basil
Mum is not a fan of olives and she asked for the olives to be taken out. She didn't know what she was missing. The black olives were turned into a crispy top and added texture to the whole dish.

Chilled Piquillo Pepper Soup - Fresh Pole and Shelling Beans, Zatar, Nepitella
A gazpacho style soup which condensed all the natural flavors into another challenge to the taste buds. A quote came to mind:

Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin wrote in the Physiology of Taste, appearing in 1825, that Bertrand, the steward of the Prince of Soubise, used fifty hams for one supper, but only one ham appeared on the table, the rest being essential for his sauce espagnole, white sauces, and so forth.

A great dish should be something more than meets the eye. You just can't tell how many different ingredients that have gone into that simple bowl of soup. Mixing a lot of ingredients is the easy part, but creating the right mix takes years of experience and flair.

Sweet, Sour, Salty, Bitter - Young Carrots, Burnt Rice, Cocoa Nib, Cilantro
Not their favorite. While there wasn't anything wrong with the dish, like most executions where the chefs tried to introduce the 4 (5 in the case of Cyrus's canapes, the fifth being Umami) basic tastes, they always tasted funny and never quite bring out the best of the food. Perhaps it's the natural human desire to enjoy the right mix.

Monterey Bay Abalone Grilled on the Plancha - Nettle Salsa Verde, Spicy Breadcrumbs, Lemon Zest
Pan-Grilled Matsutake - Potato-Pineneedle Puree
Both dishes were fine displays of bringing the natural flavors of the main ingredients. While the Chinese way of cooking abalone, fresh or dry, emphasizes on the sauces, grilling was a simple delivery. You can adjust the taste depending on how much puree or salsa verde you add.

Slow Roasted Lamb - Chard Leaves and Stems, Garum, Rosemary
Mum is not a lamb fan. She got a piece of beef instead. The lamb was perfectly cooked and very tender. But the most flavorful part was also the most unhealthy part, the lamb fat, probably shouldn't go into too much detail.

Cavatina - Sweet and Spicy Greens
PB&J - Niabel Grape, Pistachio Butter, Apple, Sorrel
Caramelized White Chocolate Parfait, Semi Frozen - Huckleberries, Anise
The cheese was tasty but nothing to write home about. Mum and dad liked both desserts. The Niabel grape tasted a bit like the Japanese Kyoho grapes.

Echoing the very first course, "Frozen in Time", it was well past midnight when they had their fresh chamomile tea to finish the night. The unhurried delivery of the dishes, sometimes by the chef, Daniel Patterson himself and the fading light through Japanese paper left you plenty of time to enjoy and decipher each dish. Time was frozen after all!!

Only when they left the restaurant and walked back to the hotel were they reminded the seedy surrounding area. Some zaftig blondes in super short skirt waiting outside the disco nearby waiting to be ushered in.

PS -
Foraged, the last item in the ingredient list, literally means picked from the forest. They were told, the small white alyssum flowers on top of the first course were hand picked by the chef from the forest.

Dog Roll and South Stream Seafood

So what's this dog got to do with dog roll and seafood? He is Cameron, the house dog for South Stream Seafood and apparently he is trading toys with dog roll. Seafood and dog roll don't sound like they come together. But in the case of South Stream, they do. In fact, when the delivery man comes to the door, often he has more meat than seafood, because the whole family are carnivores. Yummy!! We don't get dog roll all the time, sometimes we get beef rib bones on, which are good for our teeth. If we are good, we get these perhaps once in a month or two. Meanwhile, this weekend, mum and dad had all their meat and fish for both lunch and dinner from South Stream. When they went to this magnificent house in Barker Rd for a house-warming bbq, the owners got all the meat and fish there. Mum and dad like recommending go places to their friends. Remember to get us some dog roll this coming weekend!!
http://www.south-stream-seafoods.com/store/index.html

Garden Produce

Last night mum and dad got all excited during dinner. You would have thought they just made something special like Kobe Wagyu. It was just a few stalks of beans fried in butter with a bunch of other veg. We have seen those every time we had our exploratory trip around the garden. Just a few sickly looking plant trailing up the trellis and not enough even for us to snack on!! Apparently, they tasted better but we had no way to tell as we were not invited to the tasting. Guess it's all in their minds, seeing the beans from seeds to plant.

If you like organic garden produce, ie not something from huge scale intensive farming that you get in supermarkets, planting your own is not really a solution even if you have some space. Your best bet is to go to the Organic Farmers' Market in Star Ferry on Sunday. Apparently they have one on Wednesday as well, but mum and dad have never been. More on this in a later entry.

Doggy Desserts and Carob

Buddy had his birthday muffin made for him last year and then mum went to learn baking doggy biscuits in Three Dog Bakery. And then it all stopped. No more home baked stuff after Cadet went to heaven. Sob :(

Last week dad pulled out this book about baking for dogs called Doggy Desserts by Cheryl Gianfrancesco and started flipping through the pages. Next he saw 3 packs of Carob chips that mum got from her colleague from the US still in their original wrappings. Our luck changed.

A day later, they bought some organic wholemeal flour from "Great". Soon after dad messing around with the spatula in the kitchen putting all the below ingredients together, the muffin mix was ready. 25 minutes in the oven and this Banana Carob Chip Muffins came out as if by magic. Mum and dad had a taste of it. Yummy!!

1.75 cups wholemeal flour
0.25 cup honey
0.50 cup carob chips
1.00 egg
0.25 cup veggie oil
0.25 cup milk
1.00 mashed up banana (pick a ripe one)
1.00 tsp baking powder
1.00 tsp baking soda

Our only comment is the muffin taste more like human food than dog food. All good for us. Check out the book for more exciting experiments and lets hope we get more from the home bakery.



NB - Carob is an excellent source of pectin which makes it a good colon cleanser. More on carob in wikipedia.
Also if any of you know where one can buy carob chips in Hong Kong, please let us know.
We will talk about another good colon cleanser, epsom salt in another article.