now i feel old af. 
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This!
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Having had the pleasure and fortune quite a number of Hakka Taiwanese style home cooked meals in Taipei over the course of 6 years, some ten years ago… let me add the following
- home made dumplings (jiaozi)
- braised pork belly with bamboo shoots
- marinated / simmered egg (a bit herbal, almost like tea eggs but different)
- “lu wei” - soy sauce and herbs packet (like a tea bag’s worth) mixture for simmering all sorts of stuff from tofu, chicken feet, meats, innards, eggs etc. Some buy lu wei from outside.
- mien sien (essentially Taiwanese somen) with chicken broth (home cooked of course), fried egg and the requisite soy sauce paste
- braised pork knuckles mien sien/somen, a tradition that if I didn’t remember incorrectly…eaten also before exams (and for good luck). Braised pork knuckles with black vinegar and pickled/aged young ginger is more of a Cantonese thing and for nursing moms who just gave birth. One popular Taiwanese nursing mom food I think, is sesame oil chicken with lots and lots of Taiwanese rice wine (mi jyo).
and much like any household, buying takeout from outside that’s chopped and serving it as a “home” entree. One very typical item is sliced Taiwanese sausage (a la Sinbala) and every mom carves out garlic. Because, stinky breath rules and garlic with TW sausage is a classic pairing like raw onions with satay skewers. Someone I knew occasionally took home Sichuan style numbing spicy hotpot (broth and condiments), and also Shandong style duck heads (famous at some night markets).
Going back to Cantonese, the “chopped/sliced” takeout that is arguably at the #1 list to accompany other home cooked meals with rice and soup, is of course, roasties. It’s cheating, but it’s so classic to do that. Over here in California Cantonese homes, you can throw in dim sum bakeries that sell low priced huge portions varying quality dim sum style bites, and pair with congee that’s cooked at home (or purchased as takeout for those who ran out of time) for a typical Sunday family lunch…or if one is too lazy arsed, Ling Ling potsickers from Costco, aka Panda Dumplings or Panda Gyoza.
So is this thread about what people eat at home, and/or where to find this kind of food in restaurants from the list? There are also some tried and true dishes that because of execution (e.g. and ie wok hay) that are also considered comfort food, that you wouldn’t be able to easily replicate in the kitchen, and thus better to get it outside.
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Is Beef and Tomato considered Chinese-American or HK in origin?
Yes, I remember those Cantonese dishes with a big difference. I hated them. That’s because my mom was an ABC and wasn’t a very good cook, particularly at homestyle Toishan/Cantonese food. Even though my dad was also an ABC he had a much more traditional upbringing (he was the last of 7 siblings, while my mom was the first of 7 siblings), and craved all those dishes.
I don’t know if it originated from Hong Kong but beef and tomato is a classic pairing there.
Well tomato beef was well established before Hong Kongers started arriving here 50 years ago. But not all old Chinese restaurant dishes were inauthentic either.
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Steamed egg, so simple yet needs some technique. Cantonese chawanmushi kind of, but no dashi. Smooth is the desired texture.
Go to a restaurant that does it right, and get a fresh clams version, super good. Some drizzle just a little soy sauce and some add conpoy before the steaming. If you want to jazz it up, add some aged premium shaoxing wine, but then again you’ll want a whole phat crab resting on top of it so the fatty juices exudes from the shell and sinks into the egg for extra goodness…
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Pretty sure tomatoes were available in Hong Kong for quite some time and people have mixed protein with it for home cooking for that duration if not longer also. Tomato beef slices (with onions) sauteed or stir fried is something that would have been consumed at homes in Hong Kong…and baked proteins with tomato / ketchup sauce has been around a long time in HK cafes (but before that, Hong Kong style western restaurants).
Tomato beef pan fried noodles? That’s not a commonly ordered dish, for example if you go to a stir fry noodles joint.
Ma-Ling luncheon meat omelette
Onion omelette
we chinese take food pretty seriously, plus this is a LA-centric board.
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Comfort for me
Photo not mine.
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that’s kind of the point, which everyone may not have gotten given the long lists i’ve seen. in my definition of the term, it goes beyond just the taste of the dish, the dish should prompt some sort of emotional response as well. there are some great dishes/food that i enjoy immensely but i personally wouldn’t define as comfort meals. and if a lot of different foods prompt the same response, it can’t be all that special IMO.
david chang has been quoted as ordering domino’s pizza primarily because it’s what his family ate while watching the redskins play. there’s an emotional connection to comfort food and as everyone has a different history, i’d expect a great deal of variance.
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We always put ground beef or pork below when I was a kid. We did soy sauce and sesame oil. As I got older I would eat it with a ton of chili oil.
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What’s the trick to getting the steamed egg/ground pork cooked and soft? Mine comes out pretty tough but if I don’t steam it long long enough, the middle is still soft and runny. My mom’s recipe used chicken and duck eggs.
Use 1 to 2 egg to water ratio and cook the marinated minced meat, stir fry or steam, prior to putting them into the egg mixture for steaming with aluminum foil or saran wrap covering the shallow ceramic bowl. Perhaps steam for 7 to 8 mins on high heat.
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Ah, okay, my mom steams everything in one go.
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Yeah that’s how my mom used to do it too. Egg would always be hard I never knew there was a softer egg option until I started cooking/eating out myself.
Taking HK comfort food to the next level
“Corkage” BYO fermented stone ground shrimp paste and shrimp blocks from Tai O, Hong Kong. Had a master chef steam pork belly over tofu with them a few years ago, who knows how to use these ingredients properly (and the ratios of paste to block).
Enjoy with rice.
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As much as I’ve enjoyed seeing the lists of the different dishes, I kind of thought that was the original discussion too. The few truly comfort dishes for individuals. Not necessarily the long lists of traditional dishes.
But hey, thread drift happens, I could have done a better job describing instead of just linking to the other thread and it’s been fun and interesting to see what’s been posted.
At the very least, I’m sure getting a lot of fun nostalgia value and also new info from all the replies, so hopefully it’s the same for other people.