Wokipedia: T is For...

Wokipedia is a regular column in which we introduce aspects of Chinese gastronomy, one letter at a time. This issue, 'T' gets the treatment.


tea eggs 茶叶蛋 cháyè dàn
The humble tea egg is the most portable of all Chinese breakfast foods. Pots of tea eggs can be found outside most convenience stores and hole-in-the-wall breakfast dives, drawing in passers-by with the scent of their spiced broth. Traditionally, the eggs are hardboiled, then the shells are cracked before being returned to a broth scented with star anise, cinnamon, Sichuan peppercorns, bay leaves, and of course, tea leaves. The tea gives the broth a slightly bitter character, which infuses the eggs during their long soaking.

tong sui 糖水 tángshuǐ
Literally translated as sugar water, tong sui is a catch-all Cantonese term for any kind of sweet soup or custard served at the end of the meal. The term tong sui is predominantly associated with Cantonese cuisine, since although similar desserts appear frequently in other Chinese regional cuisines they tend not to be counted as a separate category of dessert. Popular tong sui include black sesame soup (ground black sesame seeds cooked with water and rock sugar), guīlíng gāo (龟苓膏a jelly-like dessert traditionally made from the powdered bottom shell of the three-lined box turtle), and sweetened soft tofu (豆花 dòuhuā). Their frequently gelatinous and gloopy textures mean tong sui are often an acquired taste for the uninitiated.

… twice-cooked pork 回锅肉 huíguōròu ​​​​​​
One of the marquee dishes of the Sichuan culinary canon, twice-cooked pork might not have the eye-catching nomenclature of dishes like “pock-marked old woman’s bean curd” (麻婆豆腐 mápó dòufu) or “husband and wife lung slices” (夫妻肺片 fūqī fèipiàn) but is nevertheless delicious. The twice cooking in the name refers to the preparation of the pork, which is first simmered in water and spices and then refrigerated, before being stir-fried briefly with garlic, leeks, and spicy broad bean paste (豆瓣醬 dòubànjiàng).

That's T sorted. Click here to see what you missed with S.

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