Johnny Lee On Cantonese White Chicken Video

Goldthread (South China Morning Post) video just posted by Clarissa Wei from her February trip to Los Angeles on good old JLee

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This was well done and produced. I appreciate @JLee motivations for cooking Cantonese food, the food of his childhood, and preservation of culinary traditions.

Btw, he’s popping up at Chinatown Nights tonight with his pearl river delta concept.

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Anyone know how that works? Is it similar 626 Night Market where you have to pay an admission fee and fight the crowd?

no admission fee or as crowded and crazy like 626.

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Singaporean BBQ Chicken Wings
https://www.instagram.com/p/BvnXO5chVcZ/

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See you tonight? Mozza wings part deux?

I’m going to try and make it tonight

i might have to add this bang to my planned fohb tonight. also on the menu:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bv0IxTlHMRE/

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I believe it’s cash or Venmo only tonight for Johnny’s pop up.
i’m not sure about the other vendors.

here is an article on Chinatown After Dark from LA Taco

@JLee I applaud you! Keep up the great work you are doing!

Legit Hong Kong Cantonese cuisine is dying a slow death even in Northern California. Some say it is already dead and people just do it to go through the motions, take shortcuts, and make money (no heart and soul). People just want to fill their stomachs with shitty Hong Kong cafe fare because it’s the cheap fast convenient and “in” thing. While it hits the spot momentarily, you can get bored of it quick.

One big problem is too much work for some old style dishes, not enough people willing to learn, and you can’t charge so much $ (thus can’t make a living long term). The other side of the coin is the retirement and dying off of traditional chefs who learned the old school way and either never took on apprentices, and/or don’t have the patience to deal with the next generation who are not as committed and devoid of passion.

There is so much untapped knowledge out there that’s unfortunately in Chinese or you have to go on a journey back to HK and Southern China to explore. Unfortunately some of those places of knowledge and tradition are also fading away due to geo political and economic reasons which is totally F’d up.

The anchor Cantonese restaurant (and a very fine one at that) at The Excelsior Hotel in Hong Kong has recently shuttered (the hotel is going to be demolished), and a film crew made a documentary with the executive chef. 30+ years of glorious Cantonese cooking by this man, who knows what he will do next.

This needs to be watched by all of you. It’s sad but yet so inspirational.

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Went and supported Chef Johnny tonight. The guy in front of me in line paid for my wings. He rocks. Turns out that was also the last order of wings Chef Johnny had.

Quite simply, Pearl River Delta Singaporean wings tonight were the best Asian wings I’ve had in the U.S. (that wasn’t prepared by my Dad)…

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Nice, I took four wings to go along with some Secret Lasagna and Waxpaper Co grilled cheese

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First stop of the night to support @JLee


Char Siu Ribs


The ribs are smokey and the outer crust did remind me of char siu but that flavor didn’t penetrate much beyond the crust.


My order of ribs are overcooked.


Singaporean BBQ Chicken Wings


I could’ve eaten more of these! Nice flavor with a bit of a kick and generally juicy throughout with the exception of the drumette being dryish.


Didn’t really see what this is but it tasted like a chicken khao soi? We wait ONE HOUR for this…


Noodle with decent bounce and a broth that’s very light in coconut and curry flavor.


This is the only piece of chicken I found…


Sadly, I had to split it with @PorkyBelly. The chicken was so tough and stringy that we couldn’t break it against the grain…we had to split it along the grain :grimacing:


Apple Grilled Cheese


It was decent. The ratio between bread and cheese is off…too little cheese and too much bread?


Some kinda boiled potato with pickled ginger, some sorta aioli, and fried shallot
This is a freebie given to us since we waited a long time for our grilled cheese…it’s also surprisingly good even though it was a cold dish. The various combination of sweet, sour, salty flavor along with texture variation of each ingredient really made the dish.

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If the khao soi was from the same booth as chef Lee, it was the other chef who shared a booth with him. I believe Chef Lee only made the ribs and the chicken wings

Correct

I’ve been wondering about marinades in general, I’ve made a kalbi marinade and smoked a short rib plate in my smoker and I can never get the flavor inside the meat. It always seems to be flavor on the surface

I think marinades don’t really penetrate much of the meat beyond the surface so people tend to stick with thin cuts when they’re used.

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Pholaosophy by Thip Soulisak (@phakhaothip)

I had THREE pieces of chicken, three quail eggs, and loads of bamboo in my bowl! Feeling loved (or they were blowing out stock towards the end lol)… Oh and the wait was three minutes.

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300% more chicken and 50% more quail eggs? It’s a blowout sales!

I was about to ask for a refund after an hour…

Apologies for the ribs, I was originally going to do pork jowl but I didn’t want to serve it without rice so spraeribs made more sense but the ones I had on hand didn’t have fat content I would have preferred. Thanks for trying it though, I’ll definitely do a better job next time!

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