chinese casual entrées 少菜

In Chines cuisine the verity of dishes that good eateries serve typically are called 少菜, translates as small dish. A more accurate translation would be casual entrées. They are meant to be good and affordable. These are what you would order when you go out to a restaurant with your friends or family. You would order many dishes of 少菜 and shares with your company - often eaten with a bowl of "steamed" rice and drinks.

Most good restaurants would have their list of signature 少菜 dishes they do well. The regular customers know which are. Also the dishes rotates with the season and the availability of the ingredients. Very often there are hand written signs on the walls listing the current in-season dishes.

seasonal dish of  少菜 posted on the wall - this is a very fancy one; most would not have a picture frame

 a couple of dishes of 少菜

Very often in a company one would nominate the most experienced foodie to select the dishes to be ordered. Sometimes are chosen by the alpha male or female in the party. Ordering the dish in Chinese is called 點菜; translates as pointing the dish. In Chinese the word 菜 means vegetable. It however means the specific dish when use in the context of a meal. This points to the significance of vegetable plays in the country's cuisine.

Most of these dishes traditionally are served in a medium size oval plates mainly for the presentation. As they are meant to be eaten with many other dishes the serving is modest so with a party you get to tastes a great verity.

In my recent trips to Hong Kong I was quite disappointed  to find the difficulty in finding restaurants that serves good 少菜. Most restaurants now promote the very expensive dishes that used to be served mainly in banquets because there is more profit to be made. Some examples of these banquets dishes include abalone, shark fin, fish maw, sea cucumber, expensive fish like grouper, and lobster.  Also with the increase of affluence and the change in tastes many want to eat these once rather out of reach fancy dishes instead of the much more bang for the buck 少菜. In truth most of these expensive dishes are prepared very poorly by even the very expensive restaurants nowadays.
in this meal i made 2 plates

crab meat and shitake mushroom with snow pea leaves

steamed baby ribs in fermented black bean sauce - i took the liberty to add some chinese sausage

slices of pork stir fried with fresh bamboo shoots and bell pepper

another crab meat and shitake mushroom with snow pea leaves - this time i added fresh clams

a steamed affordable fish

stir fried beef with snow peas and fresh bamboo shoots

more examples of chinese casual entrées  少菜

beef stir fried with a chinese melon (i have difficulty in remember the name of the melon)

steam pork belly with salted radish leaves 梅菜扣肉

steamed minced pork with fermented salted-fish

 clams with garlic and fermented black bean sauce