Must Have Cantonese Dishes!

Are you tall enough? Hey guys, welcome to Off the Great Wall. It's Mike. It's Dan. I'm Felicia Felicia is joining us today because we are eating some awesome Cantonese food. I'm Cantonese, but honestly, I can't speak well, but I can eat well. Oh, that's like all you need Exactly. I don't have many traits, many good traits in my life, but I can eat. Yep. You can't eat though You can barely eat. You're like not a good eater. So what do you got going on for yourself, man? I'm very refined. All right. I'm very selective. Okay, I That means he's picky. So we're at the Imperial Palace restaurant here in Flushing This is one of the best Cantonese places in the city And we've got a bunch of awesome authentic Cantonese dishes that they recommended and we also asked Felicia to help pick out for us Yeah, I mean I love Cantonese food And if you guys watch us a lot, you know that Mike likes the northern part of China because all that food is so Flavorful. Yeah, and some people might say yeah, but exactly. Oh, excuse me. Too flavorful? It happens There's there's certain things in life that doesn't exist. Okay, too much money, too much fun, and too flavorful. That doesn't exist That's a healthy balance For everything. Here's the thing about Cantonese food, right? It should be fresh and the flavors should be complex but savory. And they speak for themselves That's what's the unique characteristic about Cantonese food. That's why most people who like Cantonese food They probably don't like a lot of spice, a lot of hot oil. Probably the total opposite to Sichuan food, right? Yeah, opposite of what I love. Yeah, like Felicia said it speaks for itself So if you got a dish, it's like hey taste me But if you're tasting like a northeastern lamb, it's soaked in hot oil and spices, right? It's full of awesomeness I don't know what you're talking about. So today we're gonna try a bunch of Cantonese dishes. I'm gonna keep an open mind I don't typically eat Cantonese food. You can't go in with a negative attitude. Exactly I'm gonna be positive because I love food in general and I'm starving Alright, so we have five dishes arrived so far. Did you know you were gonna do a food feast today? No, I did not so but I didn't eat anything. So I'm excited like beyond excited She has a food sense. She sensed lots of food are coming. So tell us about some of these dishes So this one at the front it's called Guan Chao Ngao Ho and that's a staple in I think all Cantonese People's, I don't know, regime in eating It's a bit oily, but the beef is really tender and it goes down a treat. This one There's a bit of like mushrooms. Mushroom, sea cucumber, right, right and there's like a gravy kind of sauce and it's not too salty And this is a this this bao is is a very You know famous way that a lot of Chinese dishes are cooked even Cantonese dishes are always cooked like this, especially in the winter Yeah, it's like a stew, right? Oh, we just got something else. Oh This is insane. That looks so crazy good Sautéed pea shoots with garlic and what I like about this dish is that the garlic is whole And you can eat this and it's sweet and what we have here so inside there's prawn, there's scallops There's a bit of vermicelli noodles and it's wrapped in a really thin pastry with breadcrumbs So this is like a Cantonese egg roll sort of yeah in a way and it's different to a spring roll and no Cantonese meal Is complete without the iconic fried rice Wow, you can actually smell the dried shrimp. It's a little pungent, right? Yeah, and of course that's a specialty, right? That's a specialty they have at this restaurant sticky rice nor me and it's got crab inside. Oh that thing smells so good Spring onions feature in almost everything. Can I say this is the first time we had all the food come out at once? Which is great because a lot of times, you know, people are following us as we're eating But now they could really see like a whole feast, right? I love that and we're still in the deal with the oh This is the most important part of any Cantonese meal look at that eyeball. It just looks like juicy Are you a person? Oh, you're gonna you good. Are you a fish head person? No, not the fish head, but I do eyeballs Okay, so that's that's that's your eyeball my grandma used to make me eat the eyeball cuz she's like Oh, it's gonna help you with your eyesight. It doesn't help me with my eyesight grandma tails Yeah, it's like eat the fish you can swim better as I don't think that's true So the fish in Chinese Chinese is you which also means plentiful So it's a very symbolic part of a feast and also there's a there's a way to flip it, right So you can't just like flip it where else you'll you have to eat the one side. Yeah, and clean that off. Yeah peel the Right. Yeah, because otherwise you are you kind of keep giving away your fortune like it's overboard So that's how you get a whole fish during a Chinese New Year feast or any feast Anyway, you guys can get mad at me for getting hot oil. I Would not are you kidding? I'm not gonna put it on there. I'm gonna put it on my own Natural flavors of the fish are gone diminished. Yeah, seriously It's a hot oil team Mike for team oil. What else are you gonna add hot oil to everything? No way. Seriously Yeah, every serious. Okay. I think you need to leave right now. Would you add hot oil to any of this nothing? Well, you guys hot oil lovers though. I Love chili. I'm not saying anything bad But when you win this you appreciate it for what it wouldn't this taste great with hot oil or some of the noodles That's like you go everywhere and you're like That is not what it's like sort of let's try some of these dishes. Hang on There we go, this is the Asian photo time before every single meal here we go Yo, yo watch Mike Mike gets into it. He's gonna start standing up This is the first time Anthony's feast after a while filming check that out. Can we dig in please? We can't again so we've got the picture time out of the way You might get your Asian card revoked for like not finishing picture. All right I think we should start with this cuz I might like get cold. So go ahead. Take the biggest one I'm gonna take a small one. Take a small one. You take a small one Oh, you guys are doing this wrong. You need some of this sauce on this Yeah, I'm drinking this you know when you eat oysters and you have ocean. Yeah oysters. All right This is I don't know how we're gonna do this There we go Yo, mine is stuck to the shell. Yo, come on. I can't even it's like it's so close I gotta admit this sauce is insane. Oh This is the only oyster, oh you are making a mess young lady, that's the only way to eat it This is the only oyster that like it's taking me like a minute. I still haven't finished it Yeah, you know I'm saying and it's taken like five bites cuz oysters are usually what like one slurp and it's done And you know what? I love about Chinese food in general is like all right in the West How many different ways is there to cook an oyster eat it? I can eat it raw Right it fried yep, right or you grill it grill it but here like look at all the seasoning that went into like this oyster Yeah, this is like, you know, this is each one of these like a little taste the flavor of the actual exactly the freshness of it Well, let me pour you guys some tea. Oh, well, thank you. Ah You want to explain what you're doing with a hand motion here? That is how you say Thank you. When people pour you tea if you don't then You'll be shunned, you know up north we actually do the knuckles because the story was like there's some Emperor who was like escaping and they had a servant and The Emperor had to dress up as a servant to serve the servants Then the servants did this to symbolizes their kneecaps as they were kneeling but the Cantonese they usually do like that Yeah, but what is that? You're just stomping Like how you walk in the office This is what we also love about Cantonese for any Asian food We got the little lazy Susan and who is Susan why she's so lazy There you go Thank you very much. Great service All right, let's try it. So let me uh Let me serve you guys. This is a sea Cucumber yeah, the thing about sea cucumbers is that it's really hard for the flavors to penetrate it Uh-huh. So if it's good, you're gonna see how flavorful it is. That's one indication of it. It looks it looks texture of it Yeah, you like that. I like why it looks like It looks very slimy. It's like a snail looking thing. I can almost describe it as a gelatin gel. Yep Tendon isk thing. So this is really interesting. This is actually fish stomach. Okay. All right, so Yeah, fish tripe. Yeah. Oh, there you go and Dan hates tripe. So tripe is so good I know finally she's on my side for once in my life That dish if you like those textures, yeah, it's a really good dish because everything is so tender, right? I've had sea cucumber before where it's just unedible. It's like rubber, right? So here's the thing I just don't like that texture. All right, this is the Cantonese egg roll. I like it a lot this my friends It's excellent. It's insane. It's crispy on the outside. It's got a lot of mayonnaise on the inside Obviously, you can taste the tofu. You can taste the seafood. Let's do that All right this is a really popular dish down south because you have the Normie which is the sticky rice, right? And this rice should be infused with the flavor of the crab Take it slowly there because with glutinous rice It'll fill you up. Oh, this is a definitely a fill-you-up kind of idea. I love All right, we're gonna go ahead and try the hoof and the beef hoof and you know, there's a way to do it See, they always give you two spoons, right? Because the Cantonese waiter waiters. Oh, you're gonna do it. I can do it They all do it one hand That's how you do it wait, yeah, oh no, it's like this it's like this All right, this is hoof and this is typically something I don't usually get why because it's so heavy And once you once you start eating a little bit, it's it's like it fills you up so quickly It definitely does. All right. I'm with you on this one. I would put hot oil in this Yeah, you need hot oil and vinegar maybe a little bit of vinegar. That's right. I would do it This is something you see in a lot of Cantonese meals and they take their fried rice very seriously because northerners We typically like a bowl of steamed rice, right? We like we have our dishes which are very saucy and you need the white rice to balance it Imagine eating Sichuan food without without rice. You can't do it You can't do it, but Cantonese food you can eat any of this without the help with rice So the rice itself becomes like a dish exactly. So now I'm gonna try something that Felicia here failed Here we go ladies first, there you go. Nice job So what's in this again? There's baby shrimp, which we can smell right away. It's also got some raisins Interesting raisins. I don't know if they just added that in It's really in there. There's there's really some sweet elements to this But the baby shrimp and baby look like almost baby octopuses. I think the baby shrimp is key I really like the raisins in there. Mm-hmm. They're not like the the brown kind They're like the lighter lighter kind really good for us The older might set you off at first, but the little baby shrimp really is vital to this dish Yes, exactly All right, let me serve you guys some don't meow. Oh, yeah, which is like a Must-get veggie. Yeah, we were eating Cantonese food Let me know if you want a whole piece of garlic Yes, the lady wants some girl you want some garlic buddy There's not into garlic that much the more pungent the better and I have to say It's in season now and they cooked it perfectly because this can be overcooked so easily So finally, we have to fish and we couldn't wait. So we're like already ate half of it. The next stage is to Despine this fish because you don't flip it over. That is probably the worst thing you could do when eating this fish Well, she just did it guys you should learn this for when you go to a significant yeah, yes Oh, you're gonna be put to the test. Well, she's got some skills. Look at that. It's delicate. Oh my gosh She's like a surgeon. This is the surgery I like I've never seen this before. Oh, wow. I never seen it before either. Hey, hey Mike eat that one right there. No no, no, I Freaked out earlier you guys missed that but uh, I ate a piece of fish eggs Yeah, and that was totally not my not my I can't I can't describe the taste the taste This is the one I'll relive it again. It's like it's like these little things that you're just like, oh my god I'm eating baby fish. So what do you guys think of the fish? This is my favorite kind of fish because the flavor of the fish it's so tender. I love the skin It's kind of slimy. It's not that's how I would eat it every time. Mm-hmm. And the sauce I agree is it's pretty good It's soy based sauce when I was little and we would get this We'd be at a full restaurant and I would just take the plate And just oh, yeah, and then get yelled at by right from the sauce. Another really great part is the cheek I heard about that. I heard that she is really tender, right? But this one has a really little head, you know, why cuz that fish is flat-faced. There's no meat in the cheek Gotta go there. I was thinking it I didn't say it and she said it. I guess people are just meaner. I know I think we're just more direct. All right guys So we obviously have a mountain to climb in front of us with trying to tackle all this stuff So we got some reinforcements and we're gonna feast on this. We'll see a little bit Well, no Cantonese meal will be complete without a final desserts. And this is red bean with little Yes Sago It's got it's got green the monkey monkey. Yeah, so let's try the peanuts. I love this stuff. Actually should be a bit sweet, right? Hmm. Oh It was delicious Yeah, also, you know, there's not a lot of Chinese desserts out there so fruit It's like whatever someone's like, can I have some Chinese dessert? I'm like you want an orange? We did finally get some hot sauce hot that's not hot oil It's a garlic garlicky hot sauce, which it goes really good. I think with the doughnut. Yes. Oh, no Don't I put my doughnut in that it makes it better with the with the noodles or whatever Yeah, so I have my own way of eating Cantonese food and these guys have their way Yes team like team everybody else If you like my hot spicy approach to Cantonese food Will probably But whatever are you gonna try more Cantonese food from now on? You know what? I'm gonna stick to dim sum I do like dim sum So we are gonna have a dim sum video coming up at some point and now I'm looking forward to that I do like them some This is you know what I eat this again. Yeah, I eat all food I'm a lover of all food, but is this my favorite style of Chinese cooking? Probably not. What about you? I I think you have to be in a mood to eat this kind of food like If you're feeling healthy, this is definitely it if you're looking for something that's like boom Flavor-wise flavor-wise, right? Well, this is again. This is the southern cuisines like my favorite. Yeah, cuz it's just I love the natural Flavors of food, you know, I mean like so I love the natural flavor of food, too Yeah All right, guys. Anyway, that's it for our Cantonese adventure We'll sure be seeing more of Felicia and thanks Felicia for coming with us. I loved being here. Thanks for the food And again, we want to thank Imperial Palace and Flushing definitely come check it out It's right off the main street amazing place great service, by the way So absolutely the information is in the description box below. So guys definitely come and eat some of their awesome food Thanks so much for watching