Now you’re frightening me – my cans do say “Product of China” – but, as always, it’s a question of how much one ingests of anything.
I should clarify: I’m sure it’s a fine part of a balanced meal/ diet. I was just referencing the comparison to canned sardines - compared to a typical brand of sardines, this has about double the calories (prob on account of the fish being deep fried before packing in oil) and a whopping quadruple the sodium. With sardines, I can eat a whole can on some toast or rice and feel good about it. Have to be a little more judicious with this stuff - which is totally fine because it packs a dense wallop of flavor and texture in a way that no canned sardines can.
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I try to avoid canned fish from China - malachite green accumulates nicely in fat tissue of fish and so with their regular use in fish farming there might be a chance you might get a higher dose
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In addition to the odd chemical, vegetable seed oils are generally not good and deep frying in it worse. It also has sugar. So I agree with kennyZ should be sparingly consumed. The dish that we are talking about is okay if you don’t eat it often.
It is unfortunately true that China has food products that are sometimes dangerous, or counterfeit, or mislabeled, or lying about the label. It is not prevalent however and the scams are usually found out quickly but not through official means. It happens elsewhere in the world as well.
In general eating healthy and natural in the east or west is very challenging. It is a post-industrial age problem not a east or west problem. In fact most of todays bad trends started in the west. Japan may have invented MSG and Chinese restaurants may use it but then again donuts in America are a far bigger problem. It’s just really hard to eat well wherever you are.
Life is full of risk and so is the food. If you wanted to remove all the risk you would have to grow it yourself. I do grow but not all my food. I just do what I can to be healthy and accept the reduced risks I know I am bound to encounter.
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I scoured the giant Chinese market for a can of fried dace with black bean, and came up empty. Haven’t had time for a shopping trip since then. So I was on this dish but quick.
The A Lee 88 menu does specify “bok choy” but it is sliced thinly across a diagonal so it’s a bit hard to tell visually. Based on the taste, I could see it being celtuce - or what my spouse’s family calls A-tsai - but in my experience that has always been a giant stalk that gets peeled & cut up like a kohlrabi into batons, not a smaller stalk with leaves attached, as this dish was. Could just be a baby version, of course, or maybe just something else entirely, as my experience is not exhaustive in this arena.
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And this, in a nutshell, is why we need everyone’s input here. Omakase, authentic (even if it’s coming from someone Japanese, Korean, or Martian), whatever. If it’s good, it’s good. Jay-zuz.
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I hate to admit this – and ya’ll please don’t hate me – but this where I get mine:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JKV4HYU/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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As usual, you’ve nailed it. I couldn’t agree more. I also suggest – in the spirit of us all getting along – that I don’t think anybody has said to another poster “we don’t need your input.” We may disagree with someone else’s input, and it’s healthy that we say so, but that’s not saying “stop posting”.
To be realistic, sometimes people take disagreement as a “stop posting” signal. But that’s their interpretation, and cannot ever be taken as a “stop-disagreeing” signal. I believe that strongly.
On a more technical note, yes, if " it’s good, it’s good" and that’s a worthy observation.
But it’s also absolutely worthy of discussion to explore the meaning of culinary terms, their origins and so forth. In fact, I’d argue that it’s these discussions that give HO depth and heft and elevate it above Yelp.
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A friend and I went for a final lunch yesterday. They had a pretty limited menu by then (no lunch specials), but we had the Szechuan Style Fish Fillet in Spicy Broth and the Mapo Tofu. The former was terrific, basically a whole fish and cut up into pieces, so the collar and belly meat was particularly flavorful, with tofu skins, mushrooms (shaped like enoki but bigger and individual), cabbage, and lots of peppercorns in the broth. We told them that we look forward to seeing in their new location, whenever that opens.
[edit] and beansprouts
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Glad you got to enjoy it. I had Fish Fillet with Preserved Cabbage, the use of the latter was very subtle to great effect. Just the tenderest outside thin leafy parts were detected and it was more umani than sour, very different than I was expecting. All the dishes except the two orders of Shaomai were massive, Tao was simultaneously giving us extra and clearing out stock I assume. I didn’t post the fish yet, but here’s their woodear “appetizer”.
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The Fish Fillet was really good, but I have to convince Tao to get some proper flounder https://www.instagram.com/p/Cb_GaHYJzHp/
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And then they were gone. Final writeup in case they pop up somewhere else, and I really hope they do.
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