Category Archives: Chinese food

food from Southwest (Yunnan, Sichuan) and Northwest (Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia)

Heng Fa Food Market in Chinatown

If you haven’t been to Chinatown in a few weeks, Heng Fa market has opened at a new location. This is the market that had purple signs “King Market” that was previously split across 10th St. just north of this … Continue reading

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Flowering garlic chives

Many Chinese vegetables available at the markets are sold in multiple forms and maturities. Vegetables that are going into flower are also appreciated and are usually labeled with an indication with a final word or character hua 花. Today’s item … Continue reading

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Yibin yacai in Sichuan-style stir fry dishes

I was pleased to find the full-sized Sichuan preserved vegetable yacai 芽菜 recently at the underground market in Philadelphia’s Chinatown (Asia Supermarket 亞洲超級市場).  Yacai has long been available in US Asian markets, but I was only aware of the pre-chopped … Continue reading

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Asian Markets of Ulaanbaatar

Greetings from the land of the great blue sky! Over the next few weeks I’ll have a series of posts from here in Mongolia’s capital city of Ulaanbaatar, and its environs. Food shopping here is very interesting, and in recent … Continue reading

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Recent book finds

This week I was in New York, and I came across a bookstore that specializes in out-of-print cookbooks.  You can find this place, Bonnie Slotnick Cookboooks, at [Updated] 163 W 10th St in Greenwich 28 E Second St in the East … Continue reading

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Xinjiang(?) Hami melons in Chinatown

With the bulk of my food experiences in China being more than ten years ago already, and with the continually changing norms of food import/export and larger Chinese consumer markets in the US, I constantly come across things that were … Continue reading

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“Sichuan pepper” and some of its relatives

Last week I wrote about the growing trend of Northwestern Chinese food in Philadelphia and New York.  Another trend that I’ve noticed over the years, especially clear in places like Madison, Wisconsin, is the continually growing popularity of specialty Sichuan … Continue reading

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On the growing popularity of “Xi’an” and “Northwestern Chinese” cuisine

I picked up the new “Metro Chinese Weekly” today while in Chinatown.  For those who are unfamiliar, this is a thick (eat your heart out, Village Voice), free, and weekly Chinese language newspaper, printed for Chinese communities in the Philly … Continue reading

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Follow up on “Big plate chicken”

For those of you who were maybe curious about that unusual “Old Yang family shop Big plate chicken” spice packet I bought several weeks ago, I finally decided to give it a try.  Above is my a less than photogenic … Continue reading

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