100 Chinese Foods to Try Before You Die

The Omnivore's 100 has been making the rounds in food blogs, but I cheered when I saw Diana Kuan's version with Chinese foods. Let's see how I did (some of the numbers didn't bold with the words):

1. Almond milk
   
2. Ants Climbing a Tree (poetic, not literal, name)
3. Asian pear
4. Baby bok choy
5. Baijiu
6. Beef brisket
7. Beggar's Chicken
8. Bingtang hulu
9. Bitter melon
10. Bubble tea
11. Buddha's Delight
12. Cantonese roast duck (My world revolves around roast duck)
    
13. Century egg, or thousand-year egg
14. Cha siu (Cantonese roast pork)
15. Char kway teow
16. Chicken feet
17. Chinese sausage (More by-products than an American hot dog, but oh-so-very good)
18. Chow mein
19. Chrysanthemum tea
20. Claypot rice
21. Congee
22. Conpoy (dried scallops)
23. Crab rangoon
24. Dan Dan noodles
25. Dragonfruit
26. Dragon's Beard candy (You haven't lived until you've tried this stuff)
27. Dried cuttlefish
28. Drunken chicken
29. Dry-fried green beans
30. Egg drop soup
31. Egg rolls
32. Egg tart, Cantonese or Macanese (I've had both, actually.)
33. Fresh bamboo shoots
34. Fortune cookies
35. Fried milk
36. Fried rice
37. Gai lan (Chinese broccoli)
38. General Tso's Chicken
39. Gobi Manchurian
40. Goji berries (Chinese wolfberries)
41. Grass jelly (I'm terribly addicted to this stuff)
42. Hainan chicken rice (A family specialty)
    
43. Hand-pulled noodles
44. Har gau (steamed shrimp dumplings in translucent wrappers)
45. Haw flakes
46. Hibiscus tea
47. Hong Kong-style Milk Tea
48. Hot and sour soup
49. Hot Coca-Cola with Ginger
50. Hot Pot
51. Iron Goddess tea (Tieguanyin)
52. Jellyfish
53. Kosher Chinese food
    
54. Kung Pao Chicken
55. Lamb skewers (yangrou chua'r)
56. Lion's Head meatballs
57. Lomo Saltado (Peruvian-Chinese food?! YAY!)
58. Longan fruit
59. Lychee
60. Macaroni in soup with Spam
61. Malatang
62. Mantou, especially if fried and dipped in sweetened condensed milk
63. Mapo Tofu
64. Mock meat
65. Mooncake (bonus points for the snow-skin variety) (True to my Hong Kong roots, I will eat nothing but the Cantonese-style mooncakes... sorry, Diana. :))
    
66. Nor mai gai (chicken and sticky rice in lotus leaf)
67. Pan-fried jiaozi
68. Peking duck
69. Pineapple bun
70. Prawn crackers
71. Pu'er tea
72. Rambutan
73. Red bean in dessert form (This makes me a bad, bad Chinese-American, but I can't stand hong dau saa or red bean soup)
    
74. Red bayberry
75. Red cooked pork
76. Roast pigeon
77. Rose tea
78. Roujiamo
79. Scallion pancake
80. Shaved ice dessert
81. Sesame chicken
82. Sichuan pepper in any dish
83. Sichuan preserved vegetable (zhacai)
84. Silken tofu
85. Soy milk, freshly made
86. Steamed egg custard
87. Stinky tofu
88. Sugar cane juice
89. Sweet and sour pork, chicken, or shrimp
90. Taro
91. Tea eggs
92. Tea-smoked duck
93. Turnip cake (law bok gau)
94. Twice-cooked pork
95. Water chestnut cake (mati gau)
96. Wonton noodle soup (drool, drool... one of my favorite dishes)
    
97. Wood ear
98. Xiaolongbao (soup dumplings)
99. Yuanyang (half coffee, half tea, Hong Kong style)
100. Yunnan goat cheese

83 out of 100. Not bad for a Los Angeles-raised ex-pat kid, eh? My score would be a helluva lot lower if the parental units tried to Americanize our eating habits or if I didn't live in immigrant-heavy L.A.

Day of Squash Blossom Quesadillas

While walking through the Hillcrest farmers' market this morning, I was drawn by a sign advertising squash blossom quesadillas. D. decided to add crispy tacos to my order and we had breakfast.

The tacos were yummy and the quesadilla delicious. I didn't take a close-up of the quesadilla because the entire flower was nearly enveloped by cheese. However, the flower was used whole, leaving a soggy spot where the little zucchini nub had softened.

I had an insatiable craving for more tacos and wanted to go to Aqui es Texcoco. It's been a Chowhound darling for a while and I have yet to visit. D. and I called M.T. and M.S. and we were on our way.

It's a bit of a drive to Chula Vista, even from North Park, but it was worth it. We kicked things off with a cup of lamb broth (me) and ensalada de nopales (M.T.).

I don't have a lot of experience with nopales or cactus paddles, but the salad was light and the cactus perfectly cooked. In my sparse exposure to it, I've noticed that it can have a unsavory mouthfeel if poorly prepared. Think slimy and rubbery.

For my entree, I chose two quesadillas. I thought the menu indicated that it was a quesadilla with huitlacoche, squash blossoms, and mushrooms, but it turns out that it's "OR" and not "AND". So, I received a lone quesadilla with huitlacoche and, when the friendly owner popped by with a squash blossom quesadilla that he thought we ordered, I asked if we could keep it.

Huitlacoche was really interesting. In fact, I loved it. Woody like a mushroom, but with the bulbous texture of a really soft grape, it did look and feel a bit like a disease. Which it is. Tasted fantastic, though.

The squash blossom was cooked to perfection and diced, so there was no soggy spot. The owner also plied our table with a variety of salsas, which I loved. I finished off with a barbequed lamb taco, which was awesome. A plain tortilla filled with shredded grilled goodness.

Yummy. The lamb was juicy and fantastic. Saved the best for last, it seems.

It was a fairly heavy meal, so three items plus the lamb broth made a big lunch. It was also very inexpensive, with tons of food for 4 people coming out to $34.

Hillcrest Farmer's Market
3960 Normal Street (at the Hillcrest DMV)
San Diego, CA 92103
Taco stand is across the aisleway from Charlie's Best Bread that specializes in salsas, tacos, and tamales

Aqui es Texcoco
1043 Broadway, Suite 108
Chula Vista, CA 91911

Chowdown at Sab-E-Lee Thai Restaurant

First, a great big thanks to Lillian for organizing this C-down and to Pat and Angie for the great company!

I like Thai food, but I don't know anything about it. Hell, if I did, I would have given up that coconut milky-goodness known as green curry a long time ago. My new Thai love: catfish larb. What is larb, you ask? It's ground protein, roasted almost to a jerky, that's marinated in lime juice, chilis, and herbs, and topped with rice powder.

For further edification, I leave you in the capable hands of Kirk (make sure to follow the links at the post's end to his past entries about Sab-E-Lee). In fact, it was at Sab-E-Lee that I ran into him. Hi, Kirk!

We ordered many dishes, but I was so busy eating that I'd forgotten to take pictures! Hence, there are only 3 photos from the whole shebang. Anyway, we ordered pad see-ew, which D. is rather particular about.

I really enjoyed it and I don't normally like pad see-ew. The flavor was great and there was clearly excellent wok hei, as Kirk mentioned. D., however, thought that Bangkok Thai in the Emery Bay Public Market does it better.

Lillian wanted to try the spicy mint leaves on steamed pork leg. I think they meant basil when they said mint, but I love herbs, so why quibble over semantics?

I liked the dish, although the pork could have been a bit more tender. Other dishes not pictured included the mixed vegetables, panang curry (excellent with less coconut milk than most typical Thai places), and a fiery papaya salad.

It's been a few weeks since the Chowdown, but I'm still thinking about that larb. Yum.

Sab-E-Lee
2405 Ulric Street
San Diego, CA 92111