Photograph of grocery in Chinatown, Manhattan by Momos via Wikipedia under GNU Free Documentation License
Recommended reading: Chinatown, A Portrait of a Closed Society by Gwen Kinkead
“An ancient Chinese saying goes like this ‘Food is the nearest thing to Heaven’”.
Cooking Secrets of the Oldest Civilizations in the World, The-ChineseFood.com
Soy sauce, which is ubiquitous in Chinese and other Asian cuisines, is made with wheat. Wheat-free versions of soy sauce and tamari are available. They are just not generally used in restaurants. Hence, those of us with Celiac Disease (gluten enteropathy) or wheat-and-gluten sensitivity cannot eat in Chinese restaurants. We tend to miss it, as you might imagine. You can then imagine also how delighted I was when I learned recently that P.F. Chang’s China Bistro had a gluten-free menu. I signed-up on-line for their mailing list and more delight: They sent me a card for 10% off.
There’s a P.F. Chang’s at Stanford Mall in Palo Alto, California, not far from me at all. I’d never been, so I went with family and friends. The decor is refreshing, not the heavy, ornate old-time traditional, but still Asian in feel. The staff is delightful and accommodating. They offer a nice selection of teas, the choice of brown or white rice,and even a perfect, flourless chocolate dessert on the gluten-free menu. My son had chicken and broccolli from the gluten-free menu, which he enjoyed. My friend had salmon and asparagas, also from the gluten-free menu, which she said was okay. It was clear from just looking at it that the salmon was dry. I ordered shimp in lobster sauce, which is one of my favorites and something I used to make at home for family. The short-story on P.F. Chang version: once it was savory and delicious and once it was made with sugar and fried egg. Yuk! I sent it back, and it came back the same way. Oh, dear. I have to say staff and the manager were great and didn’t charge us, but it was disappointing.
I realize that when one has a standard in mind – and my standard is from the Cantonese Restaurants we went to in Brooklyn and Manhattan when I was growing up – it’s difficult if not impossible for other cooks to meet that standard. Specifically, there was a fine Chinese restaurant, the name of which escapes me after all these years, on 86th Street in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn between Fourth and Fifth Avenues. My mom and I loved to go the the RKO and then dinner after: egg rolls, barbequed spareribs, wonton soup, lobster Cantonese, quamquates and almond cookies . . . and lots and lots of sweetened oolong tea to wash it all down. We didn’t know about Hunan or Sezhwan cooking because most of the Chinese in our area at that time came from Guangdong provence and spoke Cantonese dialects and cooked in the Cantonese manner.
Shrimp in lobster Sauce is lobster Cantonese with shrimp instead of lobster. Here is our family recipe adapted to be gluten-free. I believe I originally adapted it from an old copy of Pearl Buck’s Asian cookbook, which is probably no longer in print.
Gluten-free NY Cantonese-style Shrimp in Lobster Sauce
The recipe:
Serves four
2 pounds of good-sized raw, fresh shrimp, shelled and devained
2 tablespoons of corn starch mixed with 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cornstarch desolved in 1 tablespoon of water
2 cloves of garlic, minced fine
1 tablespoon fermented black beans, soaked (in a spoonful of water) and chop roughly
1 tablespoon fresh ginger root, minced finely
1 green onion, minced finely and 2 green onions slivered
1/4 pound lean, ground pork
2 tablespoons sherry, preferably not cooking sherry
1 tablespoon wheat-free soy sauce or wheat-free tamari
1 cup gluten-free chicken or vegetable stock, homemade or packaged
1 egg, well beaten
oil of your choice, safflower, peanut, canola
4 cups of cooked brown or white rice
In one bowl, dust the shrimp with the mixture of cornstarch and salt. Set aside. In another bowl, mix the garlic, ginger, and minced green onion. Transfer mixture to a nice sized fry pan or a wok with a few tables of oil in it. When the aroma starts to waft add the pork and mash with a fork stiring until it is brown and broken into little pieces. Add the soy, sherry, black beans, and stock. Bring to boil, and then lower to a simmer and add the shrimp, stiring well so that it cooks through. Add the last spoonful of cornstarch, stiring constantly to blend and thicken. Pour in the beaten egg and keep stiring so that it from threads. Make sure the shrimp is cooked through. Turn off gas and stir in the slivered green onions. Serve hot over rice.
Golden Dragon Oolong Tea from Peet’s Coffee and Tea is a fine accompaniment.
