BuzzEssen Foods

Bak Kut Teh

Bak kut teh, which literally means “meat bone tea,” is a tasty soup made with long-simmered pork ribs spiced up with a variety of herbs such as garlic, fennel, cloves, cinnamon, and star anise. Mushrooms and dried tofu are also popular additions. The soup may be garnished with green onions, coriander, or fried shallots.

The secret of bak kut teh’s tastiness is the soy sauce and minced garlic, which added to it during the cooking process. Bak kut teh is best served with noodles or rice. It is a favorite breakfast fare.

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Asian Cuisine

Taiwanese Beef Rolls

The roll is comprised of a crispy green onion pancake wrapped around braised beef slices with a handful of pickled greens and cilantro. One bite and you'll witness how the dark sweetish bean sauce is the perfect condiment to officiate the marriage of pancake, green onion, beef, and veggies. Though they may be a bit on the oily side, these beef rolls are finger food at it's finest

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Asian Cuisine

Soondooboo Chigae

Soondooboo chigae is a spicy stew made with soft uncoagulated tofu that is produced by compressing and curdling tofu to remove excess water. There are numerous variations of this dish consisting of seafood, beef, pork and/or vegetable contents. Plain soondooboo chigae is usually made with some added pieces of pork, several small clams, chopped garlic, and red chili pepper flakes (gochugaru) along with chopped leeks and sesame oil.

In addition, there are different levels of spiciness for this dish; light, medium and hot. The ingredients and spicy broth are added to a generous amount of soondooboo in a ttukbaegi(ceramic bowl) and boiled over an intense heat. If preferred, a raw egg may be included to add flavor as well as thickness which can dilute its spiciness of the broth. Main ingredients may vary depending on their availability and the preferences of the restaurants as it is served during lunch or dinner, especially during the winter seasons.

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Asian Cuisine

Sushi

Sushi is the most famous Japanese dish outside of Japan, and one of the most popular dishes among the Japanese themselves. In Japan, sushi is usually enjoyed on special occasions, such as a celebration.

During the Edo period, "sushi" refered to pickled fish preserved in vinegar. Nowadays sushi can be defined as a dish containing rice which has been prepared with sushi vinegar. There are many different types of sushi.

Sushi (すし, 寿司, 鮨?) is a type of food preparation originating in Japan, consisting of cooked vinegared rice (鮨飯 sushi-meshi) combined with other ingredients (ネタ neta) such as seafood, meat, vegetables and sometimes tropical fruits. Ingredients and forms of sushi presentation vary widely, but the ingredient which all sushi have in common is rice (also referred to as shari (しゃり) or sumeshi (酢飯)). Although commonly mistaken for sushi, sashimi, which is also a Japanese delicacy, consists of thinly sliced raw meat or fish and may or may not be served with rice.

Sushi can be prepared with either brown or white rice. It is often prepared with raw seafood, but some common varieties of sushi use cooked ingredients and many are vegetarian. Sushi is often served with pickled ginger, wasabi, and soy sauce. Popular garnishes are often made using daikon.

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Asian Cuisine

Wonton Soup

Wontons are known as chāo shǒu (literally means "crossed hands"), added to a clear soup along with other ingredients, sometimes deep-fried. Several shapes are common, depending on the region and cooking methods.

The most famous are called Sichuan-style wontons, a celebrated snack in Chengdu. They are famous for their thin skin and rich meat filling as well as their soup, made of chicken, duck, and pork simmered for a long time.

The taste texture is very smooth and quite oily. A more Hong Kong style version would be cooked without peppers, and instead pieces of salted fish. It's extremely popular and much ordered in restaurants or dai pai dong (traditional licensed food stalls) together with rice.

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Asian Cuisine

Peking Duck

Peking Duck is a famous duck dish from Beijing that has been prepared since the imperial era. The meat is prized for its thin, crisp skin, with authentic versions of the dish serving mostly the skin and little meat, sliced in front of the diners by the cook. Ducks bred specially for the dish are slaughtered after 65 days and seasoned before being roasted in a closed or hung oven. The meat is eaten with scallion, cucumber and sweet bean sauce with pancakes rolled around the fillings. Sometimes pickled radish is also inside, and other sauces (like hoisin sauce) can be used.

The cooked Peking Duck is traditionally carved in front of the diners and served in three stages. First, the skin is served dipped in sugar and garlic sauce. The meat is then served with steamed pancakes (simplified Chinese: 春饼; traditional Chinese: 春餅; pinyin: chūn bǐng), spring onions and sweet bean sauce. Several vegetable dishes are provided to accompany the meat, typically cucumber sticks. The diners spread sauce, and optionally sugar, over the pancake. The pancake is wrapped around the meat with the vegetables and eaten by hand. The remaining fat, meat and bones may be made into a broth, served as is, or the meat chopped up and stir fried with sweet bean sauce. Otherwise, they are packed up to be taken home by the customers.

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Asian Cuisine

Dimlama

This dish comes from Uzbekistan and goes by a few different names: basma and dimlama/dumlama. According to Stalic, basma refers to this version, where everything is put into a cold kazan and then steamed, while dimlama refers to a similar dish where everything is fried before steaming.

Basma is an incredibly simple dish to prepare with amazing results: tender, juicy, lamb meat that practically melts in your mouth, in a rich vegetable broth with plenty of soft carrots and potatoes. It’s crowned with a few heads of garlic cooked whole: the garlic cloves fall right out of the skin and are so soft they’re almost like a puree. And yet this dish requires nothing more than 1) cutting vegetables and 2) time. To be sure, it involves a lot of vegetable cutting. And it takes almost 2 hours to cook after the prep is done. But the result is well worth it.

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Asian Cuisine

Chorba

Chorba is traditionally prepared with mutton or lamb which can also be substituted with beef or poultry depending on the recipes and regions.

Chorba is definitely the culinary symbol of Algeria as much as harira is the same for Morocco but as iconic as it is, it was not born there.

It was actually imported to Algeria by Turkish invaders in the sixteenth century. In the Ottoman army, soup was particularly important in the Janissary Corps where the çorbaci (literally “soup man”) was a military rank equivalent to colonel. From Turkey, it spread throughout the Balkans, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia and the Maghreb.

In Turkey, it is called çorba, in Iran: chourba (شوربا), in Afghanistan: chorwa (شوروا), in Romania: ciorba, in Kyrgyzstan: chorpo (шорпо), in Russia: churpa (шурпа), in Kazakhstan: sorpa (сорпа), and in Central Asia: chorpa (شورپا).

In the Maghreb, chorba is consumed in Algeria, but also in Tunisia and Libya.

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Asian Cuisine

Sambusa

Sambusa is a fried or baked dish with a savoury filling, such as spiced potatoes, onions, peas, lentils, macaroni, noodles or minced meat (lamb, beef or chicken). Pine nuts can also be added. Its size and consistency may vary, but typically it is distinctly triangular or tetrahedral in shape.

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