[www.rnz.co.nz]

Vivek Mahbubani learned Cantonese after his parents insisted he do so but over time, he's turned the language into his "superpower", performing full stand-up comedy sets in Cantonese.

"It helps me build a bridge between two cultures," he said.

[www.wttw.com]

He wants to add more traditional-ish Cantonese dishes to his menu, like soy sauce chicken, which nods to Grand Palace’s five-spice duck. The dish involves building a master stock, known as lo sui, using soy that’s sweetened with rock sugar and seasoned with a heap of spices. The stock is then repeatedly re-used to boil whole ducks, or in Cai’s case, chicken thighs – “Breast meat is too dry!”

“Just imagine thousands of pounds of chicken over the past decade cooking in that master stock, and you just keep adding to it, so it gets better with time,” said Cai. He inherited 3LP’s lo sui from his father. “That’s something I can leave to my kid.”

Of course, there’s no guarantee Henry Junior, now eight months old, will want to take up the heavy torch of keeping the lo sui alive, much less taking over 3LP from Cai, whenever that time comes.

Among other uncontrollable factors, the price of eggs will put many Cantonese bakeries out of business.


[www.nbclosangeles.com]
Iconic Chinatown bakery facing economic uncertainty

The cost of doing business remains unpredictable for small business owners.

[www.scmp.com]

In 1998, the American composer and lyricist Stephen Trask paired up with writer and actor John Cameron Mitchell to come up with a groundbreaking rock musical loosely inspired by a German babysitter and prostitute who worked in a small city in the US state of Kansas.

Now, a Cantonese version of Hedwig is coming to Hong Kong, and its creators promise to stay true to the original’s spirit while giving the American tale a local context.

“The original production is from more than 20 years ago. We see this as a succession to that. People fought for love and fought for their rights back then. How do we take the energy from what they built and keep going from there?”

podcast: [www.kqed.org]
Ellis Island might have been a welcoming place for many immigrants to the United States, but Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay tells a more troubling history of immigrant detention. Starting next month, the Oakland Ballet will premiere “Angel Island Project,” a dance production highlighting the stories of immigrants, primarily from China, who were detained there in the early 20th century. As part of KQED’s annual Youth Takeover, high school students Nico and Maite bring together choreographers and a local historian to talk about the project and the lessons that histories of immigration can teach us today.

[oaklandballet.org]
Angel Island is composed by Huang Ruo who was deeply inspired by poetry carved into the walls by detainees held at the Angel Island immigration Station between 1910-1940.

Ruo’s 80-minute oratorio is scored for a string quartet, 16 singers plus a narrator and has been transformed into a dance work, featuring 12 Oakland Ballet Company members and created by 7 Asian American Pacific Islander choreographers.

This thread is closed but I wanted to add to it:

[www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk]

[www.scmp.com]
Like Manhattan’s Chinatown, Sunset Park’s Chinatown was initially dominated by Cantonese speakers, but that changed in the 2000s with an influx of immigrants from Fuzhou.

Since then, some of Sunset Park’s Cantonese population has moved to nearby Bensonhurst and Avenue U in Sheepshead Bay. Sunset Park now has many Mandarin and Fuzhounese speakers.

[www.youtube.com]

Everything Happens for a Reason | Buddhist Wisdom for Life

[www.seattletimes.com]

The reasons for the final farewell are familiar ones in the world of mom-and-pop operations in Seattle nowadays. “Our business hasn’t been the same since the pandemic,” co-owner Christine Su explains. “And then with food costs going up, and then also wages, it’s been really hard.”

[www.youtube.com]

Quote
Tang
Hong Kongers mostly call it 「馬仔」
「蛋散, 馬仔」are basically the same thing in different shape.

[www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk]

I remember dining at that famous QianMen Peking Duck Restaurant when the only foreigners living in Beijing were diplomats and the local roads were clogged with bicycles instead of mopeds. The reviewer of that restaurant: [youtu.be] thinks whoever can make this peking duck style in America with a chicken substitute will make a lot of money. Well, I know how to make this peking dish with chicken which I refused to reveal even to my own brother when he asked me about my succulent crisping technique some 40 years ago to impress his girlfriend, however, I do disagree with the vlogger that a chicken version will make a lot money in America because the chicken market is over saturated with so much price-sensitive competition not just within the Sinophere culinary scene but within so many other exceptional world cuisines.

Anyway, deliciousness doesn't make money... it's marketing that makes the money no matter how bad the product is, for example, I was hungry in Hungary early this year to try different places that served langos (Hangarian version of fried ghosts 油炸鬼/Ox-tongue pastry 牛脷酥). Unfortunately the most popular place I went to was really over-hyped by the internet as the best in the city. The place I went to was crowded with lines out the door so I thought the langos here should be exceptionally very good and worth the wait only to find out it was really below my expectations because my taste memory from yesteryears remembered langos that were far better tasting with better mouth feel from mom and pop hole in the wall places.

Lesson learned...I should have checked the latest reviews on Yelp. My question to the peking duck vlogger is what is the star ingredient of the dish that makes it shine? The duck or the sauce? Also when I first ate at that restaurant, sugar and ginger was not offered so I wonder if sugar and ginger are a recent addition. I personally am not a fan of adding sugar to the duck because sugar doesn't really cut the grease, it just makes your mouth feel less greasy but you are still eating the grease. Cantonese roast duck is marinaded before cooking therefore the flavorful duck grease is very delicious and desirable to mix in steaming hot white rice or soup noodles.

Quote
From Home

Do you know what happened to my favorite Peking Duck Restaurant that used to be in front of Qianmen? I was so disappointed during this past Chinese New Year to discover that the whole neighborhood in front of Qianmen had been gutted (no pun intended). The chefs there knew how to cook a "mean" fish...if you know what I mean.

I was in Kunming last month and had dined at a classy vegetarian restaurant and I'm serious...they made tofu-skin "casserole" taste exactly like duck! Same texture and all compared to real duck...but unfortunately costs more than real duck. Hats off to Kunming cuisine...or can we say Daoist/Buddhist cuisine...

:-)