slow braised red grouper in sake 紅燒紅石斑 - part 2

I went back to 99 Ranch Market to buy more of the red grouper steak. Actually the title of this post is misleading as I took no photo of the second pot of slow braised red grouper in sake.


I ran out of glutinous rice so I bought a new bag; this is from Thailand

I use this special basket to steam glutinous rice; this is something I discovered a few years ago

it is so ingenious and not one grain of rice goes to waste if you use it properly

99 Ranch Market has free services if you buy fish from them

they will fry the seafood for you - within reason

I am not a fan of fried fish but I thought I would have them fry this snapper

I wanted to get more of the fried glutinous dough but they are all sold out

this is the fried glutinous dough that I want

I have very well gave up trying to find edible Hong Kong style sweet egg rolls and I thought I would give this a try

as always, the quality is poor and is disgustingly sweet; the world has gone to hell with sweet tooth

abalone lo mein

this slot on the shelf is no longer there in my two following visits; I hope they didn't discontinue it as this is the one that I want, instead of the ones that has flavor and ready to eat that is full of MSG

they do have a variety of "vegan meat"

I grudgingly bought this that is not fried

this is fish maw

canned small abalones

these are the glutenous dough; they are too puffy with the consistency of cheap bread

this is prepared like the slow braised red grouper in sake except it is all seafood and vegan meat

I am making a 6-pound batch of char siu

Excited with the selection of food products from Taiwan I bought this tin can of fried glutinous dough. I finally opened to try it. It is disgusting and a total ripoff. It is as sweet as syrup and has the most disgusting airy glutinous puffs in this disgusting sauce. This experience reaffirm my view that Taiwanese Chinese food is so bastardized, and a lot of food manufacturers in that country has no ethics. This can cost $3.50 and it is not worth $0.30.

this has to among the most disgusting thing I have ever eaten - it is a money grab ripoff plain and simple

Once I was in Hong Kong, and I was contemplating which next country to visit. On my list was Taiwan, Japan, and Thailand. I decided against Taiwan as I know Chinese food there is more hype than substance. In case you wonder, I have been to Taipei. I can write about my childhood experience with products from Taiwan and even as a child, I found the food to be expensive, bad, and nearly always too sugar laden. From now on, I will likely never buy another food product from Taiwan ever again.

here is my own fried glutinous dough braised in savory shiitake mushroom juice - yum!

a big batch of home made char siu made from 6 pounds of pork butt