Hey guys, a few notes: 1. Another very common kuaican component that we didn't touch on is the complementary soups. Usually pork bone based, complete with some sort of combination of kelp, daikon, or winter melon. If you're in the market for a recipe for something like that, you can check out our recipe here: th-cam.com/video/OA1pLCtZX2w/w-d-xo.html To get the full kuaican-side-soup experience though, you'd probably want to water it down and triple the MSG ;) 2. The rice shaping and the blanched vegetable are much more common in the Cantonese Siu Laap (Roast meat) kuaican. As you might be able to tell from the footage of the stir-fry kuaican place at the beginning of the video, they (1) didn't shape the rice and (2) didn't come with the vegetable - the veg was a separate dish that we had to order. 3. Quick Mea Culpa on the tofu dish. Astute observers might notice that the zoomed out shot of the tofu at 1:10 was a bit 'different' looking than the closeup at 1:11. Basically, what happened was that we slightly overthickened the tofu on the first go-around when cooking, and especially after sitting on the counter for an hour or so when filming, the whole thing ended up getting gloopy. So we cooked it again, refilmed everything, BUT by that point the *pork* had been sitting out too long to be pretty on camera... so we decided to not waste any more pork, keep the original version of the introduction. Lesson: be judicious with the slurry for Jiangbao tofu, especially if it's going to be sitting out for a touch before serving. 4. While we're on the subject of screw-ups, I know the lighting was a little rough in patches for this video (especially Steph's outro). Still getting used to our new place. 5. Oh! Another thing that I loved about the kuaican joint in Shunde was that they had their own house-made version of douchi chili sauce that you could scoop on your rice (basically, a homemade Cantonese take on Lao Gan Ma black soybean chili). Especially with the Jiangbao tofu, I loved to scoop some of that on the rice, let it intermingle with the tofu a bit... so yeah. Eating either of these dishes alongside some Lao Gan Ma black soybean chili is highly recommended. That's all I can think of for now. Another recipe coming up next week, filming tomorrow. Dim sum dish, should be a fun one
@@RampagingPixie :/ what happened? I'm a little worried that the sauce might overthicken on people like it did with us on filming day (easy to do if your wok's rolling a little too hot). If you shoot over a picture, I might be able to help troubleshoot. The sauce should be evenly coating the tofu.
The stir fry _kuaican_ concept is similar to many Thai stir fry dishes such as ผัดกะเพรา (holy basil stir fry, usually with pork or chicken) and คะน้าหมูกรอบ (Chinese kale and crispy pork stir fry). The former is so popular among Thai people that it gets the nickname "no-brain stir fry" because it is a go-to when you can't think of anything to order. These dishes are usually available in "cook to order" diners. I guess that Chinese immigrants might have brought the idea, which is then blended into Thai cuisine. That said, when Thai people hear the term "fast food", they (actually, we) would first think about the Western-style fast food. We didn't really have a term for "food that can be made so quickly that you can just order and wait for a couple of minutes at a restaurant" until Western-style fast food is introduced. Thai dishes of that kind are usually known as อาหารตามสั่ง (food made to order) or อาหารจานเดียว (single-dish food, as opposed to having several bowls of side dishes with a bowl of rice). The term อาหารจานด่วน is coined later to only describe Western fast food despite the fact that Thai dishes can be as fast as Western fast food. There are also ข้าวแกง (rice and curry) restaurants where all dishes are already made. You only need to select up to 3 choices (usually) to go with rice, and they will be piled on the rice. Despite the literal meaning, ข้าวแกง restaurants have more than just curries. They have stir fries, soups, and others.
Indonesia has a quick-serve joints like this and we call it 'Warteg'. The food is generally cooked in advance and consist of almost everything; meat, veg, chicken, fish, and of course, mountains of rice. Cheap too!
I love how in the comments every country is chiming in with their country’s equivalent of this food. Although we’re different in execution, I love how the concept and pleasure of quick, homey comfort food is universal.
I think it´s something similar to what we call in Mexico "Comida Corrida" (food on the run or something like that) which is just different restaurants serving traditional guisos that they have ready with a serving of rice and refried beans or maybe nopales salad among other variations with some tortillas on the side. It´s completely distinct from what we think of as fast food
In Malaysia there is something similar call 经济饭 or economy rice in English. I think you can also find them in Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia. It's all pre-cooked. So, when you go these places you will have 2 scenario. They either give you a mountian of rice and then you choose the dishes or there will be a person who ask you what you want and then you tell or point and they will help you scoop the food into your mountain of rice. Most dishes are from Chinese origin, but sometimes they have other local cuisines like curry. Some places kept their food warm in warm water underneath the tray.
It's called fast food mainly because it's basically ready within minutes of ordering. Fast food in China is not just about pre-prepared food, freshly cooked food can also be cooked and delivered to your table in a short period of time. The shortening of time is mainly due to large pots and ultra-high heat, so that the same dishes can be quickly cooked in a few minutes at one time when the guests order the same dishes.
i've been watching your videos for a few years now, and you just now helped me realize we've been cooking our family's few "chinese american" dishes wrong, or, not great for decades. the 2 we normally do, have a "pass through oil" step, that i didn't know about. but after seeing so many of your videos, i realize that's what it is. i/we always thought it was just "pre-cook the meat some so it didnt stick to our wok/pan". but now, after seeing it 10, 20, 40 times in your video, it's "pass through oil", but written down in a more easily done/understood/simple american steps, without all the extra explanation. i get it now. we can do that step better.
i watch a lot of cooking youtubes and your videos are the only ones that i can watch with both sound AND captions off and still understand both the recipe and the techniques used. thats some good editing.
Hi I just wanted to give you some feedback that I really appreciate recipes like these, because they are quick and easy and involve base ingredients and techniques. Keep up the good work!
I worked in Fuyong, Shenzhen for maybe 4 years and had a lot of kuaican for lunch. Specially when office food bordered on hospital food, we would eat out. But when we need to return quickly for overtime we'd go down in the streets for dinner. Our go to meal was Chow Mi Fun that I can't seem to forget. It was stir fried rice noodles with some meat, bean sprouts, pieces of scramble eggs and lettuce. You'd slather it with chili sauce and down it with a bottle of Cola. Still makes my mouth water 'til now.
Interesting! In Singapore, this style of food is generally called tze char (煮炒, 'cook and stir-fry'). One half of the menu is basically like kuaican, stuff served with rice; the other half are more elaborate dishes, from hotplate tofu through ginger and scallion pork to fish head curry and chilli crab.
Tze char is relatively expensive in Singapore and not for staple meals. If anything, I would think that the 'economic rice' would be a better fit in terms of speed and cost. 'Economic rice' or "chai fan" (literally translated to dishes and rice) where you have 15-20 cooked dishes on display for pick. Usually the customer would spend about $2-3 USD and get white rice, two vegetable dishes and a meat one.
@@BlackJacketWasp Tzechar stalls always offer simple 1 dish meals as well, such as fried rice, fried noodles, rice+1 stir fry (eg, rice with sweet and sour pork), which would certainly qualify as kuaican.
@@chriszzz True, fair enough. It's quite common these days and they are pretty 'fast' too. But I wouldn't use the word 'always' as some stalls are still pretty expensive. I guess the most traditional sense of the phrase 'tze char' still connotates high cost where a single dish can cost up to twice of a Mc Donald meal (for comparison's sake), or at least to an person who is born in the 80s. When one (and friends) go out to eat 'tze char', the meal rack up anyhwhere from 50 to 100++ for 3-4 persons sharing several dishes at ($10-30 a dish, depending the type). Even single dishes like fried rice or yi mian (~$12 - 14) at twice the price of a fast-food meal to middle-lower incomes could be a luxury meal to them. Maybe once in awhile a low-income earner / student could afford them but probably not as a daily staple. I wouldn't be able to afford them when I was a student so I am a little hesitant to label them as 'fast-food'. Anyway, in SG we don't call them "kuai-can" - this concept is still very westernized here where it means less-than-healthy food served in burgers, fries, or fried chicken / tenders / nuggets from common franchises like McDonalds, KFC, LJS, and maybe the arguably more luxurious "Shake Shack". But may times have change. Students seem to be more wealthy these days =P So maybe tze char IS affordable to them.
@@BlackJacketWasp You are talking about ordering multiple, pricey dishes. Of course it would cost more. You could just order simple rice/noodle dish for $5-7 per person, which is more inline with the fastfood concept, and it would be much cheaper than the equivalent Big Value meal in MacDonald's, and a much fairer comparison. You have to compare apples to apples. No coffee-shop tzechar sells Yimian for $12 for a single serving. It is always around $5-6. $12-14 is for larger servings for 2-4 people, which of course would cost more but would still be cheap per person, and still cheaper than your McDonald's meal.
@@chriszzz You state a lot of things in absolute and assume that we live in the same areas of the country. While I appreciate your general thoughts and logic, you have a lot of bold unsubstantiated claims like "no coffee shop tzechar sells Yimian for $12 for a single serving" or "tze char always offer...". I can show you a few that do price that and never offers anything less than $12. But that's not the point. You also assumed $5-7 person is an affordable meal, where $3-4 could already get someone a decent meal. To some, $5-7 meals and food from Fastfood is a luxury. Also, do you know there are places that sell hor fan for $2.50? But again, that's not the point. The point is, unless you have went to every single stalls on the island to verify that, do not assume and do not use it as a statement in what was a fairly cordial discussion turned unncessary debate to make your point, because it's not helpful at all. If you decide to have a proper conversation to exchange ideas instead of trampling over people's experiences and point of view, I am happy to continue in engaging this topic. Otherwise, good day to you - this will be my last response to this topic.
Love your guys videos, easily some of the best Chinese cooking/recipes on TH-cam. I'd love to see you make a video on more specifically Chinese Knife skills.
Would be interested in a place to learn more of these recipes for those without 快餐 joints near them. These kinds of short, simple "why would there be a recipe out there, anyone can make these" recipes are difficult to find resources on.
While I haven't seen these exact dishes in America (perhaps I just haven't looked hard enough), we certainly have small Chinese-diner type places that will wok out food inside of 10 minutes or so. Their major drawback is that they tend to turn the sauce into a glop that you have to cut with a knife, sometimes it is firmer than the vegetables.
Yeah American Chinese takeout really hits the same place of my brain as kuaican joints in China... so much so that I think it'd be arguable that takeout-style Chinese in the west could maybe be considered one sub-category of kuaican along with Hunan steamed kuaican, Cantonese roast meat kuaican, Stir fry kuaican, etc etc.
After over a year of watching your videos I *finally* got a wok and made a dish from your channel.. The Jiangbao tofu. I was not disappointed. I fried the tofu a minute or 2 longer so I could get a crispness on one side, used 2 jalapenos instead (it's what I had on hand), and didn't include the chili bean paste, but the rest I did as prescribed. If I have someone over and they say they're hungry, I'm definitely going to offer to make this for the two of us. Also, this introduced me to sweet bean paste which is amazing I can't wait to use this for more stuff, but the yibin burning noodles are next... waiting for the yacai to come in the mail :D
this kind or meal are very flexiable, u could either do stri fry with rice, or just pour any saucey dish on the rice(盖浇饭)，or just fride ur rice with what ever dish and it became fride rice（炒饭）, dont be shy do what ever u like, afterall this kind is the food u choose when ur lazy in China. Amazing vedio, thank u
Have you guys seen Street Food Fighter with Baek Jong Won? When you mentioned 快餐 I instantly recalled that episode he did in Chengdu where he had the duck and pig foot set meal, which resulted in the waiter clearly his half eaten meal away thinking he was done after he had gotten up to get more pickles. Funny stuff.
The pork dish reminds me of a guisado (stir-fry) with pechay (chinese cabbage). Here in philippines some add more runny sauce or thicker sauce using the with the marinade
Kuaican sounds like a somewhat similar vibe to Japanese famiresu (family restaurants). They're casual (mostly chain) eateries where you can either get a quick bite and go or hang around with friends for awhile, and they tend to focus on either Western food (a dessert-centered version of Denny's, the pseudo-Italian Saizeria) or traditional comfort food (like Matsuya, where you get some katsu with a bunch of rice and a mountain of iceberg lettuce, or Sukiya which is known for their donburi). the latter seems the closest to kuaican if I'm understanding the video right
I don't think the mainstream Kuaican is similar to Japanese family restautant at all(Cha Chaan Teng could be). Most Kuaican afaik are not prepared meals from chain restaurants, nor are they for leisure purpose. Gyudon Gosanke(Matsuya, Yoshinoya, Sukiya) to me are more similar to Yang's Braised Chicken Rice, which is also considered Kuaican but not the same as those Kuaican mentioned in the video.
Oh I've had Saizerya where I live. The food was pretty good and the price was honestly pretty cheap compared to most places. Would not recommend the pizza though, the bottom is completely pale white.
In the philippines we have karinderia / carinderia (also "paluto", "turo-turo") -- usually family owned / a part of their property is converted into a mini canteen where you can purchase and eat a variety home cooked meals either to go or have it there. Much affordable and healthier than western fast foods.
Chinese food in Bangkok is kind of interesting, in that there doesn't really seem to be an *overly* clear of a marker where Thai ends and Thai-Chinese begins. Someone gave us the analogy of Italians in America, which seems like it kind of fits - an enormously influential immigrant group that dramatically changed the trajectory of their adopted country's cuisine. Like... is chicken parm an American food, Italian food, or Italian American food? All of the above? Something like, say, drunken noodles seems to be in that same sort of liminal space. Hell, I was chatting with a Thai chef, and she offhandedly referred to Pad Thai as a 'Chinese dish'. Caught me off guard, but then again the full name of Pad Thai is "Kway Teow Pad Thai" (something like 'Thai style stir fried rice noodles'... with the style of rice noodles being that classic Teochew sort). So yeah, everything is intermingled and interesting. Tons to learn, will probably be years before things become untangled in my head. In terms of dishes that have direct Chaozhou antecedents, one thing that I found interesting is that their Guorou (果肉, dunno the Teochew name off the top of my head) here are stuffed with crab in addition to pork, which's awesome.
at this stage im switching to this style of cooking haha, our "fast food" here in ireland can typically take an hour to get here and honestly, pizzas just dont have the same feeling anynore
This is basically how I prepare lunch for me and my wife... (Although I also sometimes use noodles instead of rice, and if there are substantial left-overs, we can eat those.)
definitely healthier than what i usually get. in germany, everything for a quick lunch is a sandwich. be it a kebab from turkush/arabian immigrants or a classic german bratwurst (sausage) served in a fist-sited loaf of bread.. everything here is optimized for fast, efficient feeding. you dont even have to sit down :D
while most people think of fast food chain as something that's closer to like kfc, pizza hut etc fast food doesn't necessarily mean it have to be unhealthy, because fast food just mean that the food is cooked and served in a pretty fast manner, while kfc mcd and such is also fast food it is more to the junk food kind of section, but ofc calling your product "junk food" won't be as appealing as "fast food" unless your product is garbage plate
idk if they have them in china but here in ny i love the 三菜一汤 style of chinese fast food but it's harder to come by now since everything near me is slowly gentrifying
My favorite american chinese concept is the places with a million steamer pans and you choose a couple dishes with a starch. They're a lot like panda express but more authentic and *ahem* a bit sketch health department wise.
I just came across this channel and this is my first video, Looking at the channel I thought he was living in china, but there was something that told me he was living In Thailand. It was just a hunch because I’m Thai as well AND I WAS RIGHT… it low key scared me how I can recognize “Thai” vibes.
Whenever I soak my Kombu, it always ends up slimy. Thirty or so min soaking in cool water, with lots of rinsing and still slimy. Is this the way it's supposed to be? I blanch my vegies in the water I used to soak/wash the rice. The starchy water takes some of the bitter edge off.
In the Philippines, the closest equivalent of this would be "karinderya" which is basically family-owned small time eateries that serve home-cooked meals. There are several types though, some focus more on noodle dishes (called panciteria/pansitan/mamihan), some on porridge, and other stuff but usually they are served quickly. Same ambiance as well.
So might be a stupid question, but why do these stir fries never brown anything? I've always loved making stuff inspired by chinese food, but I always try to get _some_ browning before adding liquids
@@dracomet2097 Browning isn’t burning, it’s caramelizing. But it’s not a typical flavor in most stir fry - a lot of stir fry seems to be based around flavor profiles that would be muddied up with caramelization sweetness added?
@@TrappedinSLC I get that, but is there a historical or practical reason for why that is the case? i.e. why there seems to be less variation that takes advantage of browning?
@@Taernsietr I'm not familiar enough with the historical development of cooking in those areas but off the top of my head I can see it being a cooking techniques/facilities thing (you need a certain amount of heat and time to brown something but not burn it) or it could just be a flavor thing - browning makes the flavor of the meat stronger, and many Asian dishes are much less meat-forward than European cooking, so you'd want to keep the meat balanced with your other ingredients like vegetables and rice, which are milder less assertive flavors (in most cases) than browned meat would be? Stir fries in particular you usually want each individual element to still have it's own unique flavor when you bite into it, whereas European cooking tends to want everything to blend and take on the same flavors when doing something that combines a lot of elements, like a stew or soup? So there's less worry about individual elements being able to stand up to the meat flavor on their own, if that makes sense?
This looks fun. What does the oil accomplish when blanching the Nappa? My parents would add olive oil to spaghetti cooking water too, and I never understood why.
For the vegetable, it adds a little richness and sheen. For pasta, the logic is that it helps keep the noodles from sticking, but I personally oil noodles right after cooking instead
I'm definitely a little late at this one, but does anyone have any suggestions of other recipes using the "sweet bean paste". The tofu in the video is delicious and I'm wondering what else is commonly done with that ingredient. In general, I'm a big fan of the northern style food (which I think that is?) and would love to learn more about it
in far eastern russia, such chinese fast food places are called "chu-fan" or chufanka. I heard its originated from the word tea house but I am not sure :)
Just like western fast food, these style of cooking is fast to cook in restaurants, but they aren't necessarily fast to cook at home due to prep and cleanup. You'll likely spend upwards of an hour and hour and half if you prep and clean everything from scratch everyday. The key to both fast food being fast in restaurants is that is they spend most of their time in preps before service time and so that they can cook really fast in the final stage. For home cooks, you would want to do most of your bulk preps in the weekends so that you can have more time in the weekdays to do what you needed to do. Parfry/pass through oil most of your proteins and blanche/pass through water your veggies in the weekends, so that you can just make quick stir fries throughout the week. And also make side dishes that you can use throughout the week also. In the weekdays, all you need is just stir fry and reheat the side dishes.
How do you boil water in a wok without it dissolving all your seasoning off? Every time I have even a moderately wet substance in my wok, all the seasoning dissolves and I'm left with almost bare metal again.
Japan has these Chinese diners everywhere. They serve everything from Mapo Tofu and Shredded Pork with Green Pepper to Ramen (known as Chinese noodles in Japanese), Gyoza, Fried Chicken and Fried Rice. Lots of effort put in too, always fresh ingredients, unlike the Chinese takeaways here in the UK, which everything seems to be made cheaply as possible and sold for max profits.
can you guys please please please do a video on the chinese egg burgers, or dan bao as my wife calls them. i used to get them in harbin daily and they are delicious, and there are countless videos of street vendors making them, but the actual recipe of the batter seems to be a carefully hidden secret. the only thing i could fimd is that it may be made from rice flour. HELP!
Although fast food is quicker to make, the cleaning and processing time for preparing the ingredients is several times as long as the time for frying, which is of course nothing compared to stewing stock.
I think a good name would probably be something like "fast casual" if you wanted to compare it to some American style restaurants above fast food but not exactly a sit down restaurants
anyone who have watched cooking master boy would "know" the historical reason. they said it is to protect/mask the veggies from the odor of the water because back then water quality was questionable 🤷🏻♂️
Is this style the origin of most American Chinese food? The presentation and preparation method looks so much like it, just swap out for more local ingredients and adjust to an American pallet?
Just wondering, you're not using loin for the pork slivers but rather thick flank. Would you say it's better with loin or thick flank? Both are pretty easy to come-by cuts here in Germany, so I'm curious.
Hey guys, a few notes:
1. Another very common kuaican component that we didn't touch on is the complementary soups. Usually pork bone based, complete with some sort of combination of kelp, daikon, or winter melon. If you're in the market for a recipe for something like that, you can check out our recipe here: th-cam.com/video/OA1pLCtZX2w/w-d-xo.html To get the full kuaican-side-soup experience though, you'd probably want to water it down and triple the MSG ;)
2. The rice shaping and the blanched vegetable are much more common in the Cantonese Siu Laap (Roast meat) kuaican. As you might be able to tell from the footage of the stir-fry kuaican place at the beginning of the video, they (1) didn't shape the rice and (2) didn't come with the vegetable - the veg was a separate dish that we had to order.
3. Quick Mea Culpa on the tofu dish. Astute observers might notice that the zoomed out shot of the tofu at 1:10 was a bit 'different' looking than the closeup at 1:11. Basically, what happened was that we slightly overthickened the tofu on the first go-around when cooking, and especially after sitting on the counter for an hour or so when filming, the whole thing ended up getting gloopy. So we cooked it again, refilmed everything, BUT by that point the *pork* had been sitting out too long to be pretty on camera... so we decided to not waste any more pork, keep the original version of the introduction. Lesson: be judicious with the slurry for Jiangbao tofu, especially if it's going to be sitting out for a touch before serving.
4. While we're on the subject of screw-ups, I know the lighting was a little rough in patches for this video (especially Steph's outro). Still getting used to our new place.
5. Oh! Another thing that I loved about the kuaican joint in Shunde was that they had their own house-made version of douchi chili sauce that you could scoop on your rice (basically, a homemade Cantonese take on Lao Gan Ma black soybean chili). Especially with the Jiangbao tofu, I loved to scoop some of that on the rice, let it intermingle with the tofu a bit... so yeah. Eating either of these dishes alongside some Lao Gan Ma black soybean chili is highly recommended.
That's all I can think of for now. Another recipe coming up next week, filming tomorrow. Dim sum dish, should be a fun one
"triple the MSG"
Is Uncle Chris now wearing an orange polo ?!
water down, MSG up
The tofu came out SUPER mild, like, very bland.
@@RampagingPixie :/ what happened? I'm a little worried that the sauce might overthicken on people like it did with us on filming day (easy to do if your wok's rolling a little too hot). If you shoot over a picture, I might be able to help troubleshoot. The sauce should be evenly coating the tofu.
Are we supposed to wash the zhacai first? Mine came out quite salty despite being conservative with salt.
The stir fry _kuaican_ concept is similar to many Thai stir fry dishes such as ผัดกะเพรา (holy basil stir fry, usually with pork or chicken) and คะน้าหมูกรอบ (Chinese kale and crispy pork stir fry). The former is so popular among Thai people that it gets the nickname "no-brain stir fry" because it is a go-to when you can't think of anything to order. These dishes are usually available in "cook to order" diners. I guess that Chinese immigrants might have brought the idea, which is then blended into Thai cuisine.
That said, when Thai people hear the term "fast food", they (actually, we) would first think about the Western-style fast food. We didn't really have a term for "food that can be made so quickly that you can just order and wait for a couple of minutes at a restaurant" until Western-style fast food is introduced. Thai dishes of that kind are usually known as อาหารตามสั่ง (food made to order) or อาหารจานเดียว (single-dish food, as opposed to having several bowls of side dishes with a bowl of rice). The term อาหารจานด่วน is coined later to only describe Western fast food despite the fact that Thai dishes can be as fast as Western fast food.
There are also ข้าวแกง (rice and curry) restaurants where all dishes are already made. You only need to select up to 3 choices (usually) to go with rice, and they will be piled on the rice. Despite the literal meaning, ข้าวแกง restaurants have more than just curries. They have stir fries, soups, and others.
In Mexico we have comida corida which also literally translates to fast food but in Mexico all the foods are prepared ahead of time
Indonesia has a quick-serve joints like this and we call it 'Warteg'. The food is generally cooked in advance and consist of almost everything; meat, veg, chicken, fish, and of course, mountains of rice. Cheap too!
Aka Buffet Restaurant.
@@renlevy411 but it's not self-service.
Nasi putih hangat + kerang hijau + kikil + tempe orek 🗿
Oh yes, akupun langsung mikir warteg!
But honestly, warteg has bigger selection of veggies, no? (Albeit more oily too 😂 everything deep fried!)
@@renlevy411 you are compketely wrong congratz
I love how in the comments every country is chiming in with their country’s equivalent of this food. Although we’re different in execution, I love how the concept and pleasure of quick, homey comfort food is universal.
I think it´s something similar to what we call in Mexico "Comida Corrida" (food on the run or something like that) which is just different restaurants serving traditional guisos that they have ready with a serving of rice and refried beans or maybe nopales salad among other variations with some tortillas on the side. It´s completely distinct from what we think of as fast food
In Malaysia there is something similar call 经济饭 or economy rice in English. I think you can also find them in Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia. It's all pre-cooked. So, when you go these places you will have 2 scenario. They either give you a mountian of rice and then you choose the dishes or there will be a person who ask you what you want and then you tell or point and they will help you scoop the food into your mountain of rice. Most dishes are from Chinese origin, but sometimes they have other local cuisines like curry.
Some places kept their food warm in warm water underneath the tray.
"Economy" rice is such an anachronistic name given what the name used to mean. Ironically it's still keeping up with the economy these days.
More commonly known as Nasi Campur or mixed rice in Malay.
It's called fast food mainly because it's basically ready within minutes of ordering. Fast food in China is not just about pre-prepared food, freshly cooked food can also be cooked and delivered to your table in a short period of time.
The shortening of time is mainly due to large pots and ultra-high heat, so that the same dishes can be quickly cooked in a few minutes at one time when the guests order the same dishes.
@@emperorfaiz we don't call it nasi campur for Chinese rice. It's economy rice. Or chap fan
more like 小炒 style as it is single dish + rice
i've been watching your videos for a few years now, and you just now helped me realize we've been cooking our family's few "chinese american" dishes wrong, or, not great for decades. the 2 we normally do, have a "pass through oil" step, that i didn't know about. but after seeing so many of your videos, i realize that's what it is. i/we always thought it was just "pre-cook the meat some so it didnt stick to our wok/pan". but now, after seeing it 10, 20, 40 times in your video, it's "pass through oil", but written down in a more easily done/understood/simple american steps, without all the extra explanation.
i get it now. we can do that step better.
i watch a lot of cooking youtubes and your videos are the only ones that i can watch with both sound AND captions off and still understand both the recipe and the techniques used. thats some good editing.
Hi I just wanted to give you some feedback that I really appreciate recipes like these, because they are quick and easy and involve base ingredients and techniques. Keep up the good work!
I worked in Fuyong, Shenzhen for maybe 4 years and had a lot of kuaican for lunch. Specially when office food bordered on hospital food, we would eat out. But when we need to return quickly for overtime we'd go down in the streets for dinner. Our go to meal was Chow Mi Fun that I can't seem to forget. It was stir fried rice noodles with some meat, bean sprouts, pieces of scramble eggs and lettuce. You'd slather it with chili sauce and down it with a bottle of Cola. Still makes my mouth water 'til now.
Interesting! In Singapore, this style of food is generally called tze char (煮炒, 'cook and stir-fry'). One half of the menu is basically like kuaican, stuff served with rice; the other half are more elaborate dishes, from hotplate tofu through ginger and scallion pork to fish head curry and chilli crab.
Tze char is relatively expensive in Singapore and not for staple meals. If anything, I would think that the 'economic rice' would be a better fit in terms of speed and cost. 'Economic rice' or "chai fan" (literally translated to dishes and rice) where you have 15-20 cooked dishes on display for pick. Usually the customer would spend about $2-3 USD and get white rice, two vegetable dishes and a meat one.
@@BlackJacketWasp Tzechar stalls always offer simple 1 dish meals as well, such as fried rice, fried noodles, rice+1 stir fry (eg, rice with sweet and sour pork), which would certainly qualify as kuaican.
@@chriszzz True, fair enough. It's quite common these days and they are pretty 'fast' too. But I wouldn't use the word 'always' as some stalls are still pretty expensive. I guess the most traditional sense of the phrase 'tze char' still connotates high cost where a single dish can cost up to twice of a Mc Donald meal (for comparison's sake), or at least to an person who is born in the 80s. When one (and friends) go out to eat 'tze char', the meal rack up anyhwhere from 50 to 100++ for 3-4 persons sharing several dishes at ($10-30 a dish, depending the type). Even single dishes like fried rice or yi mian (~$12 - 14) at twice the price of a fast-food meal to middle-lower incomes could be a luxury meal to them. Maybe once in awhile a low-income earner / student could afford them but probably not as a daily staple. I wouldn't be able to afford them when I was a student so I am a little hesitant to label them as 'fast-food'. Anyway, in SG we don't call them "kuai-can" - this concept is still very westernized here where it means less-than-healthy food served in burgers, fries, or fried chicken / tenders / nuggets from common franchises like McDonalds, KFC, LJS, and maybe the arguably more luxurious "Shake Shack".
But may times have change. Students seem to be more wealthy these days =P So maybe tze char IS affordable to them.
@@BlackJacketWasp You are talking about ordering multiple, pricey dishes. Of course it would cost more. You could just order simple rice/noodle dish for $5-7 per person, which is more inline with the fastfood concept, and it would be much cheaper than the equivalent Big Value meal in MacDonald's, and a much fairer comparison. You have to compare apples to apples. No coffee-shop tzechar sells Yimian for $12 for a single serving. It is always around $5-6. $12-14 is for larger servings for 2-4 people, which of course would cost more but would still be cheap per person, and still cheaper than your McDonald's meal.
@@chriszzz You state a lot of things in absolute and assume that we live in the same areas of the country. While I appreciate your general thoughts and logic, you have a lot of bold unsubstantiated claims like "no coffee shop tzechar sells Yimian for $12 for a single serving" or "tze char always offer...". I can show you a few that do price that and never offers anything less than $12. But that's not the point. You also assumed $5-7 person is an affordable meal, where $3-4 could already get someone a decent meal. To some, $5-7 meals and food from Fastfood is a luxury. Also, do you know there are places that sell hor fan for $2.50? But again, that's not the point. The point is, unless you have went to every single stalls on the island to verify that, do not assume and do not use it as a statement in what was a fairly cordial discussion turned unncessary debate to make your point, because it's not helpful at all.
If you decide to have a proper conversation to exchange ideas instead of trampling over people's experiences and point of view, I am happy to continue in engaging this topic. Otherwise, good day to you - this will be my last response to this topic.
Love your guys videos, easily some of the best Chinese cooking/recipes on TH-cam. I'd love to see you make a video on more specifically Chinese Knife skills.
Nice touch that each of you prepared the other's usual dish.
Would be interested in a place to learn more of these recipes for those without 快餐 joints near them. These kinds of short, simple "why would there be a recipe out there, anyone can make these" recipes are difficult to find resources on.
While I haven't seen these exact dishes in America (perhaps I just haven't looked hard enough), we certainly have small Chinese-diner type places that will wok out food inside of 10 minutes or so. Their major drawback is that they tend to turn the sauce into a glop that you have to cut with a knife, sometimes it is firmer than the vegetables.
Yeah American Chinese takeout really hits the same place of my brain as kuaican joints in China... so much so that I think it'd be arguable that takeout-style Chinese in the west could maybe be considered one sub-category of kuaican along with Hunan steamed kuaican, Cantonese roast meat kuaican, Stir fry kuaican, etc etc.
i just call this style of food "a quick lunch" and home cook it pretty frequently. good to know there's some culture behind it!
I would love to see more of these
After over a year of watching your videos I *finally* got a wok and made a dish from your channel.. The Jiangbao tofu. I was not disappointed. I fried the tofu a minute or 2 longer so I could get a crispness on one side, used 2 jalapenos instead (it's what I had on hand), and didn't include the chili bean paste, but the rest I did as prescribed. If I have someone over and they say they're hungry, I'm definitely going to offer to make this for the two of us. Also, this introduced me to sweet bean paste which is amazing I can't wait to use this for more stuff, but the yibin burning noodles are next... waiting for the yacai to come in the mail :D
this kind or meal are very flexiable, u could either do stri fry with rice, or just pour any saucey dish on the rice(盖浇饭)，or just fride ur rice with what ever dish and it became fride rice（炒饭）, dont be shy do what ever u like, afterall this kind is the food u choose when ur lazy in China. Amazing vedio, thank u
I love how you can order dishes like these at restaurants because it’s a way to get the taste of home without being at home.
Have you guys seen Street Food Fighter with Baek Jong Won? When you mentioned 快餐 I instantly recalled that episode he did in Chengdu where he had the duck and pig foot set meal, which resulted in the waiter clearly his half eaten meal away thinking he was done after he had gotten up to get more pickles. Funny stuff.
The pork dish reminds me of a guisado (stir-fry) with pechay (chinese cabbage). Here in philippines some add more runny sauce or thicker sauce using the with the marinade
Kuaican sounds like a somewhat similar vibe to Japanese famiresu (family restaurants). They're casual (mostly chain) eateries where you can either get a quick bite and go or hang around with friends for awhile, and they tend to focus on either Western food (a dessert-centered version of Denny's, the pseudo-Italian Saizeria) or traditional comfort food (like Matsuya, where you get some katsu with a bunch of rice and a mountain of iceberg lettuce, or Sukiya which is known for their donburi). the latter seems the closest to kuaican if I'm understanding the video right
I don't think the mainstream Kuaican is similar to Japanese family restautant at all(Cha Chaan Teng could be). Most Kuaican afaik are not prepared meals from chain restaurants, nor are they for leisure purpose. Gyudon Gosanke(Matsuya, Yoshinoya, Sukiya) to me are more similar to Yang's Braised Chicken Rice, which is also considered Kuaican but not the same as those Kuaican mentioned in the video.
Oh I've had Saizerya where I live. The food was pretty good and the price was honestly pretty cheap compared to most places. Would not recommend the pizza though, the bottom is completely pale white.
I think you guys should make short documentaries about food too. I would love to see, other than just recipes.
This is a really good one guys, I'm going to try it tonight. Hope you're settling in well in your new place, and looking forward to more videos!
In the philippines we have karinderia / carinderia (also "paluto", "turo-turo") -- usually family owned / a part of their property is converted into a mini canteen where you can purchase and eat a variety home cooked meals either to go or have it there. Much affordable and healthier than western fast foods.
so interesting and the food looks so good! Thanks
i was waiting to see how would the Singha beer be used for cooking, then i realized it is probably just for the hot summer 😆awesome recipes guys~
sneaky little bit of product placement perhaps ;) but the superior beer for that area, if you can get it, is undoubtedly Beer Lao!
It's delicious, that's what it is.
something poetic about the rain starting once the pork is brought out for prepping...
Well, living in China and didn't realize this could be an interesting topic. I also found 自选 quite interesting, especially Taiwan style.
What's up with merch? I need an "aka Xiaoxing Wine" coozie or something
Aww, Steph cooked Chris's lunch and Chris cooked Steph's. Cute
(also, I see you were drinking Singha in preparation for the move, smart thinking)
We're out of tofu, so we're going to do Steph's menu today ❤️
Honestly, looks so good, wishing i could recreate the tastiness!
So, how are the chinese places in bangkok? Any interesting innovative fusions of thai and chinese cooking?
Chinese food in Bangkok is kind of interesting, in that there doesn't really seem to be an *overly* clear of a marker where Thai ends and Thai-Chinese begins. Someone gave us the analogy of Italians in America, which seems like it kind of fits - an enormously influential immigrant group that dramatically changed the trajectory of their adopted country's cuisine.
Like... is chicken parm an American food, Italian food, or Italian American food? All of the above? Something like, say, drunken noodles seems to be in that same sort of liminal space. Hell, I was chatting with a Thai chef, and she offhandedly referred to Pad Thai as a 'Chinese dish'. Caught me off guard, but then again the full name of Pad Thai is "Kway Teow Pad Thai" (something like 'Thai style stir fried rice noodles'... with the style of rice noodles being that classic Teochew sort).
So yeah, everything is intermingled and interesting. Tons to learn, will probably be years before things become untangled in my head. In terms of dishes that have direct Chaozhou antecedents, one thing that I found interesting is that their Guorou (果肉, dunno the Teochew name off the top of my head) here are stuffed with crab in addition to pork, which's awesome.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified That seems really cool, I hope that'll be a vid after you two get settled. Have a nice day :)
at this stage im switching to this style of cooking haha, our "fast food" here in ireland can typically take an hour to get here and honestly, pizzas just dont have the same feeling anynore
I'd be interested to know how it goes!
What an awesome video, thanks for the tasty lunch ideas!
This is basically how I prepare lunch for me and my wife... (Although I also sometimes use noodles instead of rice, and if there are substantial left-overs, we can eat those.)
Guys ur videos are amazing, just wanted to say thank you!
Looks very delicious 🤤🤤 Thanks for sharing ❤
Wow this type of fast food is so much better! We need stores that sell this in the West.
definitely healthier than what i usually get. in germany, everything for a quick lunch is a sandwich. be it a kebab from turkush/arabian immigrants or a classic german bratwurst (sausage) served in a fist-sited loaf of bread.. everything here is optimized for fast, efficient feeding. you dont even have to sit down :D
Doggie is back!
Nice dishes.
while most people think of fast food chain as something that's closer to like kfc, pizza hut etc fast food doesn't necessarily mean it have to be unhealthy, because fast food just mean that the food is cooked and served in a pretty fast manner, while kfc mcd and such is also fast food it is more to the junk food kind of section, but ofc calling your product "junk food" won't be as appealing as "fast food" unless your product is garbage plate
Amazing, simple and delicious!
i love this channel thank u for making videos
idk if they have them in china but here in ny i love the 三菜一汤 style of chinese fast food but it's harder to come by now since everything near me is slowly gentrifying
My favorite american chinese concept is the places with a million steamer pans and you choose a couple dishes with a starch. They're a lot like panda express but more authentic and *ahem* a bit sketch health department wise.
Your channel is so truthful and wonderful. I love your dog too!
I just came across this channel and this is my first video,
Looking at the channel I thought he was living in china, but there was something that told me he was living In Thailand. It was just a hunch because I’m Thai as well AND I WAS RIGHT… it low key scared me how I can recognize “Thai” vibes.
haha it was the Singha on the table wasn't it
@@ChineseCookingDemystified I’m not sure, I looked at your background and thought it looked like it’s gonna be from Thailand but I doubted it haha
looks amazing, thanks for sharing
Whenever I soak my Kombu, it always ends up slimy. Thirty or so min soaking in cool water, with lots of rinsing and still slimy. Is this the way it's supposed to be? I blanch my vegies in the water I used to soak/wash the rice. The starchy water takes some of the bitter edge off.
Looks delicious I’m making both of these this week
豆腐很好吃，我也喜欢吃，趁热吃味道好
AKA and Piping Hot. My day is complete now! 🤣
Those stir fries are also great as noodle toppings.
In the Philippines, the closest equivalent of this would be "karinderya" which is basically family-owned small time eateries that serve home-cooked meals. There are several types though, some focus more on noodle dishes (called panciteria/pansitan/mamihan), some on porridge, and other stuff but usually they are served quickly. Same ambiance as well.
So might be a stupid question, but why do these stir fries never brown anything? I've always loved making stuff inspired by chinese food, but I always try to get _some_ browning before adding liquids
It's about trying to cook the food not burn the food.
@@dracomet2097 Browning isn’t burning, it’s caramelizing. But it’s not a typical flavor in most stir fry - a lot of stir fry seems to be based around flavor profiles that would be muddied up with caramelization sweetness added?
@@TrappedinSLC I get that, but is there a historical or practical reason for why that is the case? i.e. why there seems to be less variation that takes advantage of browning?
@@Taernsietr I'm not familiar enough with the historical development of cooking in those areas but off the top of my head I can see it being a cooking techniques/facilities thing (you need a certain amount of heat and time to brown something but not burn it) or it could just be a flavor thing - browning makes the flavor of the meat stronger, and many Asian dishes are much less meat-forward than European cooking, so you'd want to keep the meat balanced with your other ingredients like vegetables and rice, which are milder less assertive flavors (in most cases) than browned meat would be? Stir fries in particular you usually want each individual element to still have it's own unique flavor when you bite into it, whereas European cooking tends to want everything to blend and take on the same flavors when doing something that combines a lot of elements, like a stew or soup? So there's less worry about individual elements being able to stand up to the meat flavor on their own, if that makes sense?
This looks fun. What does the oil accomplish when blanching the Nappa? My parents would add olive oil to spaghetti cooking water too, and I never understood why.
For the vegetable, it adds a little richness and sheen. For pasta, the logic is that it helps keep the noodles from sticking, but I personally oil noodles right after cooking instead
thank you for another great video!
I've definitely had this style late-night in an american city. But also, I can't distinguish it from any other real chinese food.
That looks exactly like the place I'd eat at every day after work in Suzhou.
I'm definitely a little late at this one, but does anyone have any suggestions of other recipes using the "sweet bean paste". The tofu in the video is delicious and I'm wondering what else is commonly done with that ingredient.
In general, I'm a big fan of the northern style food (which I think that is?) and would love to learn more about it
The original title of Wheels on Meals, Jackie Chan action flick set in Spain, is 快餐車 (Fast Food Cart)!
in far eastern russia, such chinese fast food places are called "chu-fan" or chufanka. I heard its originated from the word tea house but I am not sure :)
This is really similar to Japanese 定食 (teishoku) meals, except the Japanese version usually puts the rice in its own separate bowl.
Just like western fast food, these style of cooking is fast to cook in restaurants, but they aren't necessarily fast to cook at home due to prep and cleanup. You'll likely spend upwards of an hour and hour and half if you prep and clean everything from scratch everyday.
The key to both fast food being fast in restaurants is that is they spend most of their time in preps before service time and so that they can cook really fast in the final stage.
For home cooks, you would want to do most of your bulk preps in the weekends so that you can have more time in the weekdays to do what you needed to do.
Parfry/pass through oil most of your proteins and blanche/pass through water your veggies in the weekends, so that you can just make quick stir fries throughout the week. And also make side dishes that you can use throughout the week also. In the weekdays, all you need is just stir fry and reheat the side dishes.
Both look so so good!
A godsend indeed!! Thank you for sharing
Where I live, 现炒快餐 is often translated as "Today's rice dish", offering different dishes depending on season. :)
More of these!
It's good to see your puppy, again.
I wish I had a dollar every time he says "A.K.A. Shao-Shin Wine"... I'd retire. 😆🤑🍷
Can confirm that the jiangbao tofu is epic!!
How do you boil water in a wok without it dissolving all your seasoning off? Every time I have even a moderately wet substance in my wok, all the seasoning dissolves and I'm left with almost bare metal again.
ill have to try it! Thanks. Only problem might be getting the bean sauce
Japan has these Chinese diners everywhere. They serve everything from Mapo Tofu and Shredded Pork with Green Pepper to Ramen (known as Chinese noodles in Japanese), Gyoza, Fried Chicken and Fried Rice. Lots of effort put in too, always fresh ingredients, unlike the Chinese takeaways here in the UK, which everything seems to be made cheaply as possible and sold for max profits.
I had my eye on that Singhal, fearful it would be forgotten. Then I saw it was open at the very end. Prost!
Haha it's a ritual for me to have a 'deep frying beer', but the shallow fry moved so fast that I forgot about it :)
can you guys please please please do a video on the chinese egg burgers, or dan bao as my wife calls them. i used to get them in harbin daily and they are delicious, and there are countless videos of street vendors making them, but the actual recipe of the batter seems to be a carefully hidden secret. the only thing i could fimd is that it may be made from rice flour. HELP!
Although fast food is quicker to make, the cleaning and processing time for preparing the ingredients is several times as long as the time for frying, which is of course nothing compared to stewing stock.
I so wish we had establishments like this all over America. The food there seems so much better than the garbage that dominates our market.
I think a good name would probably be something like "fast casual" if you wanted to compare it to some American style restaurants above fast food but not exactly a sit down restaurants
做得很好
I guess the equivalent of this in Singapore, are zi char stalls.
This looks great! Just wondering, what’s the purpose of the oil in the cabbage blanching water?
Mostly for a bit of sheen
@@ChineseCookingDemystified what if i drizzled them with some sesame oil
anyone who have watched cooking master boy would "know" the historical reason. they said it is to protect/mask the veggies from the odor of the water because back then water quality was questionable 🤷🏻♂️
@@cd-zw2tt probably not a bad idea tbh however i think it'd be better used for the finish.
Is this style the origin of most American Chinese food? The presentation and preparation method looks so much like it, just swap out for more local ingredients and adjust to an American pallet?
do Singapore's "Tze Char" (or Zi Char) count?
I think that's more high-end than Kuaican.
Anyone who’s spent time in Beijing will surely have fond memories of a 盖饭 or two from the ubiquitous 成都小吃
Nice Video! Is that wok burner portable and able to use indoors? And Do you have a link or name for that? 😄
Maybe this would equate to the quick-service restaurants we have here in the west?
_liaojiuakashaoxingwine_ - gets me every time
Just wondering, you're not using loin for the pork slivers but rather thick flank. Would you say it's better with loin or thick flank? Both are pretty easy to come-by cuts here in Germany, so I'm curious.
I have definitely got to try the pork one.
"..... but first, langyao."
I haven't heard that for a while.
The sweet bean paste that is neither sweet nor made of beans made me laugh. 😂
Thank you
What's the dish at 0:40?? Looks yummy!
Will the final outcome of this dish be negatively affected if I _don't_ prepare it in a torrential downpour?
Reminds me of the wok restaurants in the Netherlands
Do you live in Thailand? I often saw thai products in your video.