Better late than never, right?

It's pretty choppy. We had a lot more fun having the barbecue than we did trying to cobble together a video representation of it...

Griff, fun to watch but I REALLY wanted to see more food and eating, and comments on your recipe. Not to say I don't appreciate some metal screamery, but in any event I am very impressed with the professionalism in editing.

I wonder, was the food good? Did the ribs & chicken turn out good to your standards? Dude, I am in Taipei. My 4rth of July is gone.

I did eat like a king tonight though. I went to a local restaurant. Here local restaurants are cool. They are like no frills. A room, some tables and cheap food that is fresh and delicious.

I got 5 dishes and 3 Taiwan beers (24 oz), one of them being 7%. But the best part is they gave us a free dish. Someone ordered and they made the wrong one, so maybe they thought "give it to the American--its the 4th of July!"

Very nice people here that love America. But the reason is probably that I always tell them I love thier food. People here don't do that.

I got grouper cooked Taiwanese style. Whole fish steamed with hot chile, garlic, ginger, and parsely and other stuff with a sauce.

Lamb cooked in a earthen pot with onions, garlic.

Sonbeijee..

Another chicken dish that was free--but unbelievable.

a veggie--dunno how to describe.

rice (of course)

beef, cooked with scallions and ginger, garlic with a black pepper sauce. Awesome.

I rate this restaurant 9.7

The cost? Around $27 USD. That was for 3 people. 2 of which were drinking beer like it was going out of style the whole meal.

The food was absolutely awesome. Unfortunately, you noticed the one thing that bothered me the most about this shoot - not enough footage of people eating and digging on this stuff.

We had a great opportunity missed when one of the guys in the band was watching me pull a rack off the grill (freshly mopped) and he said "Man, that's sexy. Can you poke a hole in it for me?"

Dude just thinking about ribs or grilled food makes me hungry.

Here, I took the bus to a supposed 'great' Mexican restaurant. It SUCKED.

The fajitas were pan fried with enough meat for a 4 yr old. Then they didn't serve any cheese with it. Perhaps that is 'authentic'--but it sux. I was mad because the bus ride was over an hour to get there.

Luckily, we were able to take a bus to the train and shorten the return time by 15 mins.. But I think getting palletable Mexican in Taiwan is not possible.

I will say if you like fried chicken, there are these stands all over that have fried chicken pieces. They fry them up and then throw in some fresh Thai Basil (jocenta), and bag em up and you leave with a skewer to eat with.

It is usually around $1.30 USD in the more expensive places. But it beats the hell out of Macdonald's or KFC in terms of quality and quantity.

So much so, I am addicted to it. That and the Taiwanese sausage. The guy grills it to perfection, then throws tons of spicy hot sauce on it--grills it some more. Then he slits it down the middle and inserts basil, garlic (like leaves), and cilantro). Then he skewers it.

Its the best sausage HANDS DOWN. Never had any as good in my life. So good, it would almost be the first thing I showed someone who had never been here.

But it can't be healthy.. Lots of fat. I face this tomorrow going to my night class. Eat it or not eat it.. But when I eat 1 I can't contain myself. I need to eat another!!

The shot cutting the carrots (?) with the cleaver coming really close to your fingers was interesting

Nice presentation. Loved the big guy slamming the dude to the ground...

Okay, finally got to have a look-great music footage, not my usual kind of music but I liked it.
I sure do miss ribs, cooking them outside just adds something. Cool approach with `Mr. food critic` too. Frying pans- they`re not just for housewives anymore...
People in Japan are ass backwards grilling-the best charcoal here is famed for having no flavor at all.
GOD I miss those grilled chicken stands in Taipei-always with chicken dispatched the same day and the sauce is sublime. I had a fried chicken dish from a supermarket on sunday, it was awful.
For the 4th I just went to TGI Friday, had a good old cheeseburger and a large beer.
Last night I decided to cook, made a butter paneer with sauteed veggies and oysters, and a huge fresh salad. I ate way too much, probably I`ll have the leftovers tonight.

I havent seen any grilled chicken stands. Any advice nn where to find one? I usually only see kabobs. Yeah that attitude aboiut BBQ causing cancer is annoying. People are so afraid of dying in Taiwan too.

The ribs & chicken looked good! You can't beat good barbeque.

I have a Weber kettle grill that I picked up about 5 years ago. I'll never go back to gas again. I use it mainly for direct heat, but it can smoke too. I'll have to try Grffinator's rib recipe sometime, maybe next weekend.

Recipes for my rub and my mop sauce can be found at

http://www.hottmagazineonline.com/chef.html

Trust me, you'll never go back to bottled BBQ sauce once you try it. Super thick and super sweet.

Griff I just read your recipe for the chicken marinade. That looks DELICIOUS!!! Whenever you throw in some garlic, lemon with soy sauce your in business.

By the way have you ever checked out the BBQ Bible before? It has some great recipes in it.

One of them 'hair dryer steak' is interesting. My other guitarist made it. You grill a steak at insane temps by using a hairdryer on the coals while it is cooking (lid off of course). The result is supposed to be fabulous. I would imagine at that temp the fat drips vaporize before they even hit the coals, and the exterior probably browns very nicely.

Dunno though. I have my own style of doing steak through trial and error. I can usually always pull it off with my Weber at home with flying colors. Lamb too. But I employ usage of the lid. I woudl be too worried about messing up the steak to try the hairdryer one.

That is basically a "volume" simplification of my usual chicken marinade for smoking.

Typically I'll also add black bean sauce and some five-spice powder to give it some real complexity.

However, when you're marinating 30-odd pounds of chicken, cost effectiveness becomes an issue...

BTW - I have dug everywhere online for a recipe for Son Bei Jee, and have come up empty.

Any chance one of you guys could find one for me locally over there?

Holy crap...

After a great deal of exhaustive searching, I finally located the dish in question...

Sanbeiji

That said, the sinister side of me wonders if this dish was frog originally, and what manner of humor I might derive from such a revelation...

You will love that dish-if you can get those veggie leaves they throw in even better, it`s supposed to be good for health.
Gifthorse, those chicken stands are scattered around-it`s better to look for the single stands. If you go to the markets and ask at the stands that have a little of everything, it`s not as good. There was a stand near Gongguan that was there pretty steadily, on Roosevelt Road across from the metro station and up a little toward the university entrance. Or you can ask your GF about kao ji tui-pronounce the last word with an `a` sound, not `i`.
I think charcoal is `hui` so you want `hui kao de`.

Sanbeijee--You will love it. Basically you cook it in a wok, using chopped up chicken pieces. If I were you, I would cut the meat off leg meat, and thigh. Maybe throw in a few bones with it to add flavor. It uses 1 cup rice wine, 1 cup soy, 1 cup sesame oil.. But its best to taste it and make sure it isn't too salty. Also a bit of sugar. Not too much.

It also requires alot of garlic cloves, maybe some mushrooms (I have seen this), some scallion, and alot of fresh chopped ginger slices. The ginger is not peeled. Oh yeah, and don't forget the red hot chile chopped up also. It is a spicy dish.

The secret is to reduce the sauce so there is very little left on the bottom. Also one of the most important things!!!! DO NOT put the Thai Basil in until the last 2 mins of cooking. Put alot in too. It really shrinks when it hits the intense heat. The freshly picked Thai basil and the ginger really add to the complexity of taste in this dish. Without either of them the dish will suffer and simply cease to be Sanbeijee.

The dish is best with chicken, but though they don't mention it in this article, it is also served with octapus and clams.. The sauce is excellent on seafood.

Put the chicken in with the garlic and ginger, and brown it a bit before adding the other sauce.

Thai basil is a bit different than regular basil. It looks a bit different. If you can't find it, regular basil will work. (it is called JocenTA in Chinese). Clip off the flowering tops (alot of them). They kind of resemble little buds..

Also when it is cooked and ready, you are supposed to transfer it to a very hot earthen pot. It is like an iron skillet kind of. When it is served this way everything is sizzling and kind of smoky. Then with a separate bowl of rice, you pick it out of the bowl with your chopstix and eat it over your rice.

Usually people in Taiwan eat together. Meaning everyone will be eating from the same bowl, or more likely 5 or 6 plates of food at once. It is a very interesting way to eat. Much more so than the way we eat in the US where you just have your own plate of 3 or 4 things. Usually the table becomes full of dishes of food after around 20 mins.

They are quick in preparing food. Like you may order your food, and 5 mins you have a plate of sizzling lamb with hot chiles, and garlic. Then 3 mins later another dish arrives. Then another and another. Pretty soon you have 6 plates on the table and you can pick and choose what you want to eat next.

Also Taiwanese love veggies. They always balance the meal with vegetables.

SO just a recap.

Chicken legs, thigh meat, maybe some bones.
alot of fresh sliced ginger, and full garlic cloves.
Red hot chile pepper
MAYBE some mushrooms (not too many)
some scallion
Fresh basil (alot)
rice wine (perhaps you can find this at a Chinese store, mention you are making Sanbeijee and they will know what kind to sell you)
Soy Sauce Kikkomon will do
Sesame oil


Good luck, I know if you do it right you will love it as much as I do.

Well, as to the rice wine, I can get Sake in my local supermarkets pretty easily. As to the Chinese version, that's a bit more of a challenge - none of the oriental groceries in my town have liquor licenses, so none of them sell alcholic beverages...

hmmn, sake is a bit different, but may work.

just make sure you don't use the full amount of soy sauce

it will be too salty

check it out first

Why would it be too salty if I used Japanese rice wine (not salted cooking wine, the real stuff) as opposed to Chinese rice wine?

The soy sauce is the problem, a full cup seems like a lot to me too.
I`m a little unclear-you can get sake in the supermarket-sake has alcohol. The Chinese version is just called rice wine but they are basically the same thing. Japan has taken it to a vastly higher level as far as drinking but either one should do fine, the taste may vary a bit.

That's what I was thinking - thought maybe someone was presuming I was talking about the "cooking sake" they sell in Oriental groceries around here (because they don't have liquor licenses) that have 3-5% salt content in them.

That will sure stop you from mistaking it for something to drink.
I`ve used regular table sake for cooking on occasion but even that is too expensive to do in volume.

BTW - I think the whole "three cup" thing definitely falls flat in translation, since a "cup" here is a standardized measurement, but not so much over there...

I wouldn't dream of adding a full cup of soy sauce to anything (other than the marinade I made for the BBQ, which was more like a quart of soy sauce and three quarts of lemon juice and a two liter bottle of club soda - but that was for 30 pounds of chicken...

Yeah the rice wine I use has no salt in it. IN fact I drink it too!!! My gf's Dad told me the aboriginals in Taiwan drink that as their main alcohol drink. It is actually quite good. It is more nuetral than Japanese sake, but I like it BETTER!! LOL, I know it is ridiculous. I still love Japanese sake though. But the cooking wine here is DIRT cheap. 1 big bottle for around $1.25 USD. That is very cheap.

Basically as I stated in my pm, just coat the pan liberally with oil for the initial sauteeing of the vegetables, I wouldn't add any more sesame oil than that. Then when I mentioned adding sauce after browning the meat a bit, I was referring to just soy sauce and rice wine (a bit of sugar). I wasn't referring to any additional sesame oil.

If we get a chance to meet up this year I`ll see if I can bring some of the good stuff over. Oh it`s rice wine alright, something like a Ferarri is `a car`.

So you're saying either:

1) The export sake we get here in America is for shit, or...
2) Sake is vastly superior to Chinese rice wine, or...
3) Chinese rice wine is vastly superior to sake...

Could you clarify?

Well, of course Skip knows WAY more about that than me. I doubt you can compare them really. The stuff I am talking about is cooking wine. It is dirt cheap.

I THINK I know what Skip is talking about. See you serve the cheaper sake warm. Like when you go to a Teppanyaki restaurant where they cook the food in the middle of the table with that Mongolian styled griddle. That stuff is cheap sake.

I think Skip is talking about the better stuff that you serve ice cold. It comes in a pitcher that has a big hunk of ice in the center of it surrounded by the glass (it isn't actually in the sake). I drank some of it, it was excellent.

Here in Taiwan people drink this stuff called Khiouliang. I am not sure if it is rice wine. But DUDE, this stuff is WAY TOO STRONG. It can borderline on around 90% alcohol. It tastes HORRIBLE to me. Looks clear like vodka. Its popular among the older generation like my gf's Dad. Mostly the youth in Taiwan don't drink anything. They eat fruit and drink tea.. Kind of boring if you ask me.

Smoking pot in Taiwan carries a 4 year prison sentence, so that isn't really even a part of the culture at all. It is virtually unknown about and nonexistent. It cracks me up. I have tons of students who wear pot leaves on thier clothing, or a pot leaf necklace. They don't know what it is. I will ask and they have 0 idea.

Gotcha.

Actually, most of the teppinyaki restaurants around here offer several different varieties of sake.

I favor the Momokawa Pearl variety, which is unfiltered, which gives it a completely different character. But the less expensive stuff like So Chiku Bai or Gekkikan are decent, palatable clear sakes, and they do well for cooking.

Well I live in Japan. As I mentioned above, sake for drinking here has been taken to amazing heights compared to Chinese rice wine sold for cooking or for drinking, for that matter. #3 would be straight off the list.
If I visited Taiwan I would be bringing sake from here to Taiwan.
As for #1, there are one or two companies in California which are reportedly producing decent sake, I can get the names or better yet look up my pal John Gauntner`s website www.esake.com , there`s more info there than you could possibly need.
The problem with exports is due to American law regarding `fortified wine`, or alcoholic drinks which have had the alcohol content changed after brewing or distilling. If a sake says `Junmai shu` that means it`s pure brew, just rice, alcohol and koji or yeast. Anything other than that runs afoul technically, of U.S. tax law, the same way pot was made de facto illegal. The point being #1 is also off the list, there are good exports available but a lot more of them are restricted. I wasn`t comparing Chinese and Japanese rice wines directly but #2 is closest to my point.

So what would be the difference between Junmai Shu and (in the case of Momokawa) Junmai Ginjo, or (in the case of Momokawa Pearl) Junmai Ginjo Nigori Genshu?

`Ginjo shu` started the current wave of popularity, and got rolling in the 1980s-it refers to more milling of the rice, more laborious filtering. However without the `Junmai` it means that a small amount of brewer`s alcohol is added after brewing, to more or less standardize the alcohol content.
Basically Junmai is good, Ginjo is good but it has been tweaked after brewing, Junmai Ginjo is better than either of the other two. The next grade up from Ginjo is `Daiginjo`, so you have Junmai, Ginjo, Daiginjo, Junmai Ginjo, Junmai Daiginjo. Mind you these grades don`t necessarily mean that one grade is always better than the other, sometimes quite the contrary. it refers to the process, not the taste.
Anyway Nigori sake means that some the lees from the rice has been left in the bottle. It settles to the bottom but if you shake the bottle it will be cloudy. The rice bits make for a slightly sweeter taste. I don`t care for it personally but a lot of people like it. Similar to `bottle conditioned` beer where a bit of yeast is left in the bottle. Genshu means unfiltered and unpasturized, it`s straight out of the tank. Genshu is usually only available at certain times of year, during the sake brewing cycle when it`s being moved from the brewing tanks. It usually has a strong `zingy` taste, similar to being carbonated. Actually it can be TOO strong for some people and it can also overpower any food you`re having with it.
Hope that`s helpful.