Last weekend my wife asked me if I would make her some egg fu yung. "You want egg rolls wit' dat?" I asked. Of course she did. But why stop there? I did have some leftover rice. Might as well make fried rice, too. And those little pork ribs I've been saving in the freezer are just right for Chinese BBQ ribs. So pretty soon it was 1960, I was a kid again and back in my hometown Chinese-American restaurant – New Rochelle's House of Wu.
A little tradition
Now, while I certainly don't claim any of the stuff I made to be "authentic" (whatever that means) Chinese cooking, it is authentic old-school Chinese-American restaurant cooking and I still love it.
Rather than stroke in the recipe for you I'll just link Andrea Nguyen's stellar version. It was she who solved my egg fu yung problem – the sinking of the filling to the bottom of the little pancake. This she prevents by mixing a bit of flour in with the filling ingredients before adding them to the beaten egg. Here's Andrea Nguyen's egg fu yung recipe.
Andrea suggests serving it with some hot sauce or hot chiles on the side. I've tried it that way and it's very good. But this time I went for the authentic (that word again) presentation and covered my egg fu yung with the "traditional" goopy brown sauce.
Talk with Nancy
In this week's Food for Thought Seattle Times food blogger Nancy Leson tells me about the great Chinese dinner she recently enjoyed at her friend Mark Chow's home. Mark's the son of Seattle Chinese restaurant legends Ruby and Ping Chow.
The egg dish, Mark prepared for her is yet another take on egg-centric Chinese comfort food.
"For God's sake will you just get a fork? It's driving me crazy just watching you!"
– Asian player at my poker table watching me attempt to eat with chopsticks
“Food for Thought” is a weekly KPLU feature covering the world of food as well as the thinking that goes into it. The feature is published here and airs on KPLU 88.5 every Wednesday during Morning Edition and All Things Considered.
