Five Spice Country Caviar

Bong Bong, you read it correct. We will have Country Caviar aka Boogers aka Red Neck Edamame aka Poppers aka Baldies. The only food with more nicknames than Ghostdini. Shouts to the homie Tyler for bringing em back. I had em at his crib this weekend and went bonkers.

I haven't had a good boiled peanut in at least 5 years. Since I went to beijing, I always went for the vinegar peanuts, but I had some of these watchin football Saturday and I'm fiendin!!! No lie, I woke up with the chills runnin to the fridge for boiled peanuts like a chino lookin for his black tar.

Boiled peanuts are in my blood. My grandpa used to make em and sell em back in the day so this one's for you big homie! When I get home, I'll put some out for you. I know you bored of all those oranges mom be puttin out!

Old Beijing Vinegar Peanuts

When I was in Bejing 3 years ago, I ate these every single meal. No lie, no exaggeration, they're that good. We're not doing french fries or anything like that at the new restaurant because we're gonna do different types of homemade peanut dishes as sides. This is one version. Vinegar, cilantro, fried peanuts. Can't beat it!

Hand Pulled Chicken Bao

This recipe took a while, but it was worth it. Boiled a whole chicken, hand pulled all the chicken off the bones, let it cool, then tossed it in some chili and green onion infused oil that has been marinating in my fridge for a couple days (intentionally! haha), then mixed it with a sweet sauce I made. Turned out awesome and will def be on the menu!

Dessert Bao

Decided to make a dessert bao yesterday. It'll be on the menu at the new restaurant. The photos would not take forever cause the glare from the buns was crazy after being fried. The photos look like shit but they were dope. Fried bao with sweet sesame filling. The black stuff oozing is the sesame. Also made it with sweet peanut which was real good too. The flavor and taste is there, just need to work on preseentation for the opening!

Sichuan Peppercorn and Salt Turkey

Yesterday, I did a Chinese style Turkey preparation. Seasoned the turkey with sea salt and white pepper like usual. Then, I toasted some spices (sichuan peppercorns, anise, dried chili pepper, garlic, salt, and white pepper) and put them in the cavity. I put the turkey in 400 Degrees oven for 30 minutes. It got nice and crisp real fast. I took it out, then poured hot chili oil on top of the turkey. I had also put a turkey neck into the oil just to give it extra flavor. Pouring the oil gave the turkey a nice crispy skin and then I covered the turkey and put it back in the oven at 320 degrees.




That's all she wrote. I took the drippings, mixed it with some milk and flour, gravy was off the hook. I still prefer the Hen-Rock turkey cause its sweet, savory, and more holiday tasting, but Ning really liked this Chinese turkey better. Definitely has better texture, straightforward flavor, you really taste the turkey and its got bite. Try it sometime!

Biscuit Stuffing Recipe

By request, here it is:

Get dried biscuits, crumble them all up

Take a giblet, sautee it in a lot of duck fat. Let it simmer on low for like 3 minutes, don't let the fat burn. (if you want a protein based stuffing and BALLIN out of control, get some duck leg and sautee it in the duck fat. Or, you could use country sausage. Don't use no italian sausage or anything like that. duck or country sausage.)

Remove giblet, add minced shallots, sage, crushed red pepper, minced carrots, and rosemary

Let simmer, then deglaze pan with hennessy.

Add agave nectar or brown sugar (or whatever sweetener you want). Hit it with a dash of soy sauce.

Add about a half cup of water.

Then put in the biscuits (i had like 8 crumbled up biscuits) crumble and stir, stuffing should be slightly moist and fluffy.

A Hen-Rock Thanksgiving

I made turkey a week early for yall this week! The prep photos are from last year. Long story, someone took my camera so I didn't have the camera to take prep photos. I did the same prep last year so I'll use photos from last year's prep and this year's results. The theme of thanksgiving this year was Iron Chef Hennessy. Every dish got hen-rock!!! As the alkaholiks once said, "I wish Hen-Rock came in a 2-liter, me and OE is like Tarzan and Cheetah."

I brined the turkey in Hennessy, salt, pepper, agave nectar, bitter orange, and water. Let it brine for 1 day. Then I drained the turkey, patted it dry and stuffed it with biscuit stuffing!



Here was the final product. Don't front on the skin! I like it a lil crispy, but if you don't like it dark, use a foil cover.



I love to brine with henny and bitter orange, gives it a savory and slightly sweet flavor. Last year's was actually better cause I had a more robust brine and seasoned it again before putting in oven. This year, I just brined it and put it in with salt/pepper. Still very good, but I would do it like last year.

Surprisingly, the favorite of the night was my duck fat and henrock ox tail soup. Used a lil french technique. Used duck fat to sautee everything, made the soup with fresh fennel, celery, carrots, onions, garlic, oxtail, henrock, and some seasonings. I love oxtail but usually there are always people who won't eat it, but people really liked it this time.



Dessert was Henrock Candied Yams with Sharm's Christmas Marshmallows. LOL. I asked for marshmallows, I got christmas trees. It was funny, all the grocery store had was holiday themed marshmallows. This recipe is very easy and good. Sautee butter, put some minced ginger down, let it sautee, add brown sugar (or agave nectar) and cloves, let melt, put henrock in to deglaze pan. Then chop all your yams, put in a baking pan, pour mixture over it and bake on 350 for like 20 minutes. Take it out, mash it up, return to pan, put marshmallows on top and bake until marshmallows melt but not burn.

The Haus Dog

Made this last night. All beef hot dog, fried tofu skin, mustard green, dry pork sung, and sweet chili sauce. I liked it, but I was also bonged out of my gourd. Ning was indifferent, Raf was scared of the dry pork sung. I think asian fusion just doesn't work that well on hot dogs because the flavor of the bun clashes. If this were on a steamed bun would be better. I'm gonna try at the restaurant in a ball of sticky rice!

Location Confirmed!

Confirmed! Baohaus has a home, 137 Rivington St, NY, NY 10002. The google image says 138, but it is 137, the former cafe with the green awning next door to Schiller's. We signed the term sheet and made our deposit today, will be signing lease tomorrow. Great landlord, Allen Luke, really happy to be in the spot. We're shooting for a late December/Early January opening and will keep you updated. Hours of operation will be Sunday to Wednesday 12pm to 1am, Thursday to Saturday 12pm to 3am. Hope to see you there!

Logos for Baohaus

Here is the Baohaus Logo! Let us know what you think. We did a bunch of colorways.

Biz Details

Everything's been going real well. Re-organized the partnership and its just my cousin and I now. For those counting, this is the 3rd time I've had to re-group haha. But, its final now. We put in an application on a location. I'll disclose location hopefully by Wednesday if we can close (fingers crossed).

This blog has become more about recipe/menu development than anything, but this post, I'd like to share some insights from the last few months trying to get the shop open. Obviously, having a partner that has a similar vision and different skill set is key. The first two go-rounds, I had tried to partner with really talented people, but they were cooks as well. My cousin is a cook, but a full-time lawyer and willing to do more business aspects. The key is to find a balanced partnership where people bring different skills. For instance, the Cleveland Cavaliers are idiots. You have Lebron, you need people to spread the floor, get a shooter, not a giant person to clog the lane like Shaq. Ditto for baseball, you don't want a bullpen with no lefties.

Second, landlords are assholes. We dealt with one that bold faced lied about the offer he originally made us even though we had the printed offer in front of him. Long story short, he asked for a certain amount of cash in our biz account, we got it in the account, and he asked for more denying the original number. Initially, we were very responsive to his requests and the things he wanted in a deal, but once he started back tracking and altering the offer, we realized he was going to continue pushing the envelope. I find that in this situation, playing a hard line with the property managers works. He tried to talk us down as low as possible so he could play good cop/bad cop with the actual landlord who calls the shots. In my opinion, let the property manager eat shit. He's the landlord's battering ram and the less you pay attention to his bush league tactics, the better off you'll be. Make an offer, stick to it and force the landlord to make a decision. Its hard to walk away from a good offer so wait for him to blink. At least that's what I think works.

The business posts will begin to pick up. We got a location and we're going to start getting into permits, etc so should be interesting! Stay tuned.

Baohaus Tasting!

Thanks to everyone who came to the Baohaus©2009 Tasting! We didn't get photos of everyone, but my cousin and biz partner Phil was in the house, Prince of BK (Raf), George (photographer), Simon "Fook" Tung, Courtney Brown (our #1 blog commenter haha), Ning and her Yumi Kim crew. Was a lot of fun and we got dope feedback.



So, we started off with the Taiwanese Saturday Gravy with braised soy sauce egg and pickled mustard green on rice. This is one of my top 5 favorite dishes all time. My mom used to make one big pot Saturday morning so she wouldn't have to cook anything else that day. My brothers and I would eat it watching cartoons, for lunch, dinner, and even the next morning. That's why I call it Saturday Gravy. Its what we ate instead of spaghetti I guess. It consists of ground pork butt, spices, and a soy sauce based braise. I cook it for 2 hours, then let it sit a few hours before eating. This dish was the lowest rated of the night (averaged a 6.5 out of 10) though because I ran off to pick up a friend at the train and left it on the stove. Reduced it a little much, but easy fix in the future. Most comments said it would have gotten a 7.5 to 8 if it had not been over reduced.



The second course was my Chairman Bao, a hunan style red cooked pork belly. I learned how to red cook pork this way from my grandma and oldest Aunt on my dad's side. Shanghai red cooked pork is sweeter, more tender, and wetter. The Hunan style is more of a dry, cured, red cooked pork, almost bacon like if you were to make bacon by soy braising. We get it almost black from a thick soy sauce and chili pepper braise. I didn't use chili peppers cause some people don't like it, but everything else was by the Hunan book. My dad's side of the family is from Hunan and so is Mao, thus the name. I came up with my own process. I first flash fry the pork, then braise it in the dark soy braise, then I steam it to reintroduce some moisture into the pork before serving on gua bao with cilantro, peanut powder, pickled mustard green (with my own tweaks!) and Taiwanese sugar. This and the next course were the favorites of the night. The scores ranged from 8 to 10 for this dish averaging 9.25.



The 3rd course was my Haus Bao. It is my original recipe! Ever since I was a kid, I always asked older Chinese/Taiwanese people, why the hell don't we red cook beef? I like pork, but I'm probably more of a beef fan. SO, over the years, I've been working on red cooked beef recipes. I've been doing it a long time and this is the culmination. Our Haus Bao, which no one else does. Its my personal favorite. Courtney and I liked this dish best, others rated the pork belly slightly higher. The beef averaged 9.



My mom's Famous Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup aka Junkie Noodle Soup! I have tried beef noodle soup all over the world. I've had Sichuan, Fuzhou, Fujian, Cantonese, you name it, I've tried it and nothing tops my mom's recipe. I mess with the proportions here and there, but this is true to her recipe through and through. Prince of Brooklyn says, "You are going to have beef broth fiends twitching outside the spot at night asking for a syringe of this soup." Well said Prince.... thus Junkie Noodle Soup was born. The scores for this dish averaged 8.8, no one rating it lower than 8.



Lastly, the Fook brought some sake and I always keep ginger beer in the fridge so I made Sake/Ginger Beer cocktails. OFF THE CHAIN. Hopefully we get a beer/wine license so we can make this at the spot. If not, we'll have the ginger beer, you bring the sake, BYOB all day.

Thanks again to everyone who came through, always appreciate the support!

The "Show" Comes to BK

SO, the "show" (sorry, can't tell!) that I'm on came out to shoot some profile stuff and I've been shooting since Sunday night. We shot at the Laugh Lounge during the 8:30 show. 5am call time the next day, did a scene in front of Courthouse, Chinatown, Reed Space, PNC Radio, and my crib. LONG day, but it was fun.... until the sound dude molested me while adjusting my mic. NOT COOL



Just playin, he paid me so its all good. They had me cook some cool stuff too!



I did my "Far East Steamed Blue Crab". Here's what I did:

Live blue crab
Dust with white pepper and sea salt
put in bamboo steamer with green onions, ginger and steam for 15 minutes

Heat up peanut oil really hot right before you take the crab out of the steamer. Pour oil over crab, then drizzle with sesame oil and soy sauce. ENJOY. I reserve all rights to this Edwyn C. Huang original recipe!!!!!!! Its the SHIET!!

Also made my Chinese Veggies with Hot Medley

Taiwanese Fried Chicken!!!!

Taiwanese fried chicken in the house!!!!!!!! Put it on some Red Sausage Fried White Rice for the little menu tasting we did yesterday with Giovanna. She made an awesome chicken and cabbage stir fry on brown rice. I think I might have lost weight yesterday for the first time since the 90s. Pretty dope.

So, you want the recipe???? Hmmm..... I thought a long time about this. My fried chicken recipe is off the hook. So I'll compromise. I won't give you the brine, but I'll give you the rub haha.

Brine the chicken. Then rub it with this:

White Pepper
Salt
Chinese Five Spice Powder
Little bit of sugar (that's the trick)
Cornstarch (NO FLOUR!!!)

Always remember, when cooking, even savory or sweet foods. Its not all salt or all sugar. Balance the flavors!!! Cooking is a two way street. You need carriers for the different flavors. And, don't "overcook" your recipes. This has nothing to do with the actual cooking, but the concepts. There's no need to have 20 herbs and spices or a brine, a rub, and a sauce and a colonel. Keep it simple. Its all in the execution and how the flavors combine, not how many you can throw in.