Chinese Meat Sauce

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

Hey guys, a few notes, and an important correction re soybean cooking time: 1. You will likely need longer than one hour to cook your soybeans until soft - probably at least three hours. We found that the soybeans in Thailand were older than the ones we would get in China, and needed longer to cook. We assumed that the situation in the West would be closer to our experience in China, but after poking around it seems that the western standard is something like 3-6 hours. Apologies. 2. If you’re short on time, you can use the following trick: first, drain out that 1.5 cups of soybean cooking liquid that we’ll want to use for the meat sauce later. Add additional water to the soybeans if needed. Then, add in ¼ tsp of either Kansui lye water -or- sodium carbonate. Bring to a rapid boil and boil it for 10-15 minutes - this should significantly soften the beans. This process will give the beans a slight greyish hue - slightly unattractive, but not really an issue in this particular dish. 3. Definitely check out Xiajie’s meat sauce recipe too: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mmTScqSAmdF_mZo Xiajie’s obviously pretty big - and has English subs! - so I’m the algorithm’s brought most of you to her already… but she’s one of our absolute favorites in the ‘village cooking’ genre. 4. I do want to reiterate that we *like* those ‘creative mapo tofu’ applications from the introduction - sometimes I feel like people can read a little bit too much into ‘critiques’. In particular, Matt’s (the Dumpling King) Mapo Tofu chili dog was one of the primary inspirations for this video. But all of that stuff - Andrea’s nachos, Mandy’s tofummus, Alex Blood’s mapo meat pie, Haikan’s mapo poutine - I want them all. We just feel that if mapo tofu can have so many applications, a mala roujiang would be even *more* versatile! 5. As an aside, I just learned about the existence of Mabo Tofu Ramen from researching this video, and was very happy to find a Japanese place in Bangkok that served it. It’s… awesome. It aggressively breaks the shape rule in a way that feels like it might not work, but totally does. 6. Oh, for the chili powders in the mala roujiang… definitely feel free to adjust the heat level to your tastes. I feel like the dish should be ‘obviously spicy’, but not uncomfortably so. If 2 tbsp of cayenne seems a little intimidating to your tastes, try using 3 tbsp gochugaru/Kashmiri and 1 tbsp cayenne… or even just all gochugaru/Kashmiri - you can always add more cayenne to taste later. And for those China-based, you can use Shaanxi chili powder for the ‘not spicy’ chili powder (i.e. in place of Gochugaru or Kashmiri). 7. If you accidentally made your sauce too spicy, balance it with more MSG, sugar, and Sichuan peppercorn powder. 8. For the curious, that bar that we were at in the outro is called "Fatty's Bar & Restaurant" - big thank you to them for letting us film there/get creative with their hot dog. If you're Bangkok-based and haven't heard of them, definitely check them out: goo.gl/maps/kKCw2Kvmy963vkyV9 . And while we're at it, two other Bangkok bar recommendations for those in the market: (1) United People's Brewery, goo.gl/maps/9Fy9jjerHs27RYov8 and (2) Yod Bar, g.page/YodBarBangkok?share . Fatty's is a fun place but it's definitely more of an expat haunch (so probably more relevant to people living in Bangkok than people traveling here) - United People's Brewery and Yod Bar are two of the focal points of Bangkok's nascent craft beer scene. 9. Something that we absolutely should have talked about in the video, and I'm now kicking myself for - Zhajiang (of Zhajiangmian/Jajangmyeon fame) *absolutely* also belongs to the same category of meat sauces. So besides the Fujian Pork & Mushroom, Zhajiang another roujiang 'standardized to dishhood' - and is definitely the most famous of the sort. That’s all for now. Might edit this a bit more later with more notes.

[@ropro9817]

Yummmm... so, it's like a Chinese Bolognese sauce 🤠😋

[@masstwitter4748]

I use XO sauce in this way - a kind of fancier version (given the cost of the ingredients 😳) but delicious on noodles and various western mash-ups eg as a burger sauce, on green beans, etc. Definitely intrigued by your Mala concoction!

[@KrKrp0n3]

I cook basically all types of beans in a pressure cooker - significantly reduces cooking time and energy wastage. Had great results with soy beans too. Cook on heat for maybe 20 minutes, wait until it cools down, done.

[@mmmmaximilian]

Hey! I'm Bangkok-based, would love to know where you went for Mabo tofu ramen! Sounds delicious

[@NathanTAK]

I really want a video on the shape rule. It would satisfy my brain. I want to know about all the exceptions.

[@theangel666100]

You guys might be the biggest resource for English Language Chinese cooking at this point. So if there is no accepted translation for an ingredient you could put one forward. Also have you considered creating a master list of all Chinese ingredients and sauces and their translations, identifications and substitutions because I think you're the most at liberty to do so.

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

Haha I feel it'd be be pretty arrogant to embark on that project ourselves... but I wonder if we could wrangle up some of the bigger names in the space (Woks of Life, SoupedUp, Made with Lau, etc etc) and together sort of formulate some standardized names? Might be cool to work on, but I'm also... a little lazy :)

[@Grilnid]

@@ChineseCookingDemystified Cue the XKCD comic n.927

[@swirlingabyss]

@@Grilnid Yes. Let's never attempt to standardize anything.

[@paulg6778]

At first blush, some standardization of ingredient translations does sound cool. As I think about it, though, I realize that my main challenge with ingredients isn’t when reading Steph/Chris’ recipes - it’s while I’m in my local Chinese market, trying to identify the many bean sauces in front of me. In that situation, I find it much more reliable to reference the Chinese characters for the ingredient that Steph and Chris usually include in their recipes. Anyone who’s having trouble identifying an ingredient, I’d recommend they try and get comfortable with reading the alphabet of the package’s original labeling.

[@thegreengatsby9803]

I have noticed the pan-asian cooking (the asian continent) is really unique to the region you are cooking the food from based on historical trade, climate and geography. As an Easterner (South Asian) with a mixed upbringing of both East and West, Westerners do like to classify and categorize everything. It’s not an insult, a mere observation 👀✌🏽

[@sarriest]

Proper taucheo / yellow bean sauce (wow it sounds weird saying this in English) is pretty much impossible to find outside of parts of China and Southeast Asia, but a really good sub for it is red miso, the more fermented the better. None of my fellow overseas Southeast Asians can tell the difference when I use red miso instead!

[@aintmisbehavin7400]

Thank you so much for that tip!

[@ukguy]

They sell it in most chinese grocery stores I have been to.

[@fajarsetiawan8665]

I second this as a SEAsian

[@Juleru]

I found something in an asian store here (not Asia): It looked like a mix between soybean paste and the soybean sauce shown in the video, in terms of liquid-ness. It's the same brand ("Healthy Boy") but it's in a glass jar, not a bottle (just google "healthy boy soybean" and you'll find it). Do you know if you can also use that one too (and just add a little bit of e.g. water)?

[@TheSilverwing999]

Good tip!

[@yankldoodl8096]

When I was on exchange in late 2017, my favourite thing to eat at the cafeteria at Tsinghua University was a thing called Roujian ban-mian. it was a whole ordeal to figure out how to order it from a cafeteria stall that had several other lesser noodles, and whenever I ordered it successfully it was a massive treat. When I came home, I was still obsessed but I couldn't find a recipe anywhere (I think I actually found this channel looking for it). I assumed from the name ( and as Chris and Steph confirmed here) that the reason I couldn't find the recipe was because a dish called something as obvious as "meat-sauce mixed-noodle" was about as likely to have a fixed recipe as it sounds. That being said, without the intuition of a Aiyi, I knew I couldn't puzzle this one out on my own. I'm so excited that after five years, I can put my search to rest and finally get back to eating god's-own breakfast noodle. Thank you for doing the lord's work Chris and Steph!

[@Mageling55]

Just made the Ma-La version, it came out super tasty. I may have eased off a bit too much on the spicy, but its my meal prep for the week, so I didn't want it getting hotter in the fridge and going to waste. Serving it with rice and stir-fried oyster mushrooms and gai-lan

[@purple-flowers]

So I'm from Cincinnati. When Greek immigrants came over and settled in our city, they brought over this meat sauce that was eventually dubbed "chili" (even though it is not). This reminds me of it, and I like the cultural convergence.

[@abydosianchulac2]

Oh, is _that_ why this chili everyone raved about had the consistency of water and I didn't understand it? This totally makes sense now.

[@purple-flowers]

@@abydosianchulac2 yeah it's more of a pasta sauce that ignorant Americans decided to call chili. It's Mediterranean inspired and has cinnamon and other spices. Some recipes even call for dark chocolate. Not necessarily the most chili like thing lol.

[@abydosianchulac2]

@@purple-flowers Now I'm craving a dish of gnocchi slathered with the stuff...

[@purple-flowers]

@@abydosianchulac2 the "traditional" way is spaghetti, the Cincinnati "chili," and shredded cheddar cheese. You can also add diced onion, hot sauce, and other fun stuff. People also put them on hot dogs. Never tried it with gnocchi but I'm sure it's delicious.

[@pastashack3517]

Yes!! I had the same thought. I'm sure you could serve either of these up exactly how you'd serve up chili

[@peabody1976]

All I kept thinking is that it feels very "ragù" without the tomatoes, so it would be a very nice way to do a substitute spaghetti bolognese fusion. Roujiang feels very versatile, so thank you both for posting this!

[@stefanmadansingh1966]

There are a handful of deliciously blasphemous mapo ragu recipes floating around, NYT Cooking has one and they’re way better than they should be… on noodles and nachos alike!

[@WolfeBTV]

I was thinking the same--this is somewhere around chili or bolognese, and damn the spices and schezuan peppercorns work so well with it. Gonna try my leftovers on some noodles or pasta, with a fried egg and maybe some green scallions and sesame oil on top 😋

[@commenter4898]

Yes! And there's a joke here in Taiwan that meat sauce with rice (滷肉飯 luroufan) is just our version of spaghetti bolognese.

[@sarahb3989]

Makes perfect sense! In Italian cuisine ragú doesn’t always mean tomatoes! Plenty of regional versions bianchi

[@antonioscendrategattico2302]

I think it's a spicy bit of convergent evolution. Faced with very similar but slightly different situations, Chinese home cooks came up with something similar to what Italian home cooks came up with. And the rest is history.

[@FabbrizioPlays]

I've been doing "mapo" udon for years, and had no idea people actually left the tofu in for stuff like that. It does seem superfluous!

[@mannagrynet]

Some of us just really love tofu ok? ;__;

[@alexaez2946]

You don't watch a lot of youtube channel, don't you

[@FabbrizioPlays]

@@mannagrynet I love tofu too, but soft braised tofu is too fragile for anything other than soup. It makes no sense.

[@FabbrizioPlays]

@@alexaez2946 it's very easy to watch a lot of youtube without ever seeing a mapo tofu burger

[@mannagrynet]

@@FabbrizioPlays I sometimes add a larger piece instead of an egg to my ramen, but if you made actual mapu tofu and put that on ramen I can see it being difficult.

[@BenjiSun]

for people asking about the yellow bean sauce, because there's a number of "bean sauce/paste" with similar names it's easy to order the wrong one online or at your local asian market, you can look specifically for "puning bean sauce/paste" (普宁豆酱) that's the Chaozhou/Shantou (aka Chaoshan/Teo-swa/Chiusan) style mildly fermented yellow soybean sauce that goes really well with Chaozhou style cold fish(typically grey mullet 烏頭 is the best).

[@beautenaturelle9989]

Thanks for the suggestion. Do you have an online store that carries this brand?

[@rhosymedra6628]

I had something that was probably really similar to this meat sauce over spaghetti noodles at a Taiwanese bubble tea restaurant in the midwestern USA! It was like a mala kind of spaghetti, really interesting.

[@adriennefloreen]

I love how you show the front labels of all of the brands of ingredients you use and also write them in Chinese in your description. Years before your channel existed, I used to go to websites to find recipes for Asian foods that did the same thing before going to San Francisco and the surrounding cities where there were Chinatowns and Asian markets. I'd both memorize what the containers of ingredients looked like and write down the Chinese characters for them in a little note book and how they were pronounced in case the store didn't have the pictured brands, and I would try to get hotels with kitchenettes (this was before Airbnb existed too) and cook my own Chinese food. Several times I inspired tourists who saw me doing this to do it too, I even cooked someone dinner in their hotel with a kitchenette sometime around 2010 who asked me what I was buying, it was bitter melons and some asian sauces. Some KZbinrs turn the labels backwards because they are afraid to show the brand labels on KZbin and I love that you show them. If possible put links to where people can buy them online, some of these items are not sold at the small Asian markets at my house and I cannot drive my car to San Francisco (its like 7 hours away) at this time because it is a antique diesel car and the doors do not lock and only one window rolls down fully. Some of this stuff is on Amazon for $27 dollars but on other sites for $2 if someone takes the time to find a link.

[@snowinjuly4872]

Something my family has made for ages is a jidanjiang, like chinese miso paste (not sure what to call it in english) and egg curd sauce that we serve atop vegetables or noodles. I would love to see an exploration of that from yall since I don't actually know anything about the history or if there are other regional variations.

[@jingzheng1388]

Me too! My grandma and my mom used to make that when we didn’t have anything else at home and it’s so simple and quick and tasty. I love eating the sauce with congee or noodle.

[@rickmull1883]

This channel has made me so happy since I found it. Very precise recipes.

[@sarahb3989]

So glad I stumbled on this the same day I got ground pork in my CSA box. Far more exciting than my typical family polpetti recipe, and from the best English language resource for Chinese Christine I’ve found outside of Dunlop’s books! You’re both invaluable educators and wonderfully practical resource!!

[@mellisagnwn]

Love your channel! And the recipes of course! And your 'tauco' pronounciation is pretty good too 👍 Just want to kindly clarify that 'bahasa' literally means 'language' if you translate it to English. So it is more accurate (and makes me, this particular Indonesian, happy 😊) if you say 'bahasa Indonesia' instead. I know it's much longer but there you go 😁

[@arraufsulaimanadi]

Or maybe just say "Indonesian" instead cuz, when you translate the word "bahasa indonesia" to english, it means Indonesian (CMIIW)

[@welovephilippineswithmylov5419]

😱

[@Bear-cm1vl]

I travel a lot for work and cook Korean Bulgogi using ground beef or small dice chicken a couple kilos at a time and package in vacuumed 230 ml jars, freezing until needed. It makes a great "sloppy joe", noodle / rice topping and even works over mashed or sliced potatoes. This looks like a great alternative and a totally different flavor profile; thank you for sharing!

[@lilchinesekidchen]

Thank you! this is exactly how i feel about ma po fusion foods. I wanted to add that in Ma po tofu, the tofu itself is playing the role that a starch based ingredient normally does (to absorb flavor and dilute saltiness) so the tofu seems almost redundant in a lot of these ma po fusion foods.

[@justinbarron8109]

I appreciate y'alls dedication to the channel and craft that you would continue to produce a video when the rain is pouring down around you, thank you guys so much for the content.

[@670839245]

As a someone from a family who have no chefs in the family tree and don't care about subtle flavors, our meat sauce for topping noodles is just ground pork and half a packet of store-bought ... some sort of sauce. My personal favorite is a product called 香其酱, but generic 豆瓣酱 or northeastern 大酱 are also something my family or extended family sometimes use. Other than the packet of sauce, we don't really add anything else to the wok (no sugar no soy no five spice or whatever). Eggs instead of meat is also sometimes what my family cook up, if we happened to not have ground meat or when they feel like going a healthier route.

[@CToast]

Yay sister Xia! She was my gateway into "Chinese people cooking Chinese food"! I believe your channel got suggested to me from watching everything of hers

[@LunaZeidner]

Will definitely try this out! I recently made a SE asian inspired spaghetti sauce that an American expat in Vietnam (much like yourselves) had made on tiktok for his kids. I used ground pork with shrimp paste, fish sauce, lemongrass, garlic and lime. Added in a bunch of tomatoes from my garden and it was pretty good! Definitely an interesting funky flavor from the shrimp paste and fish sauce that I appreciated. Anyways, these look immaculate, and I like to use your recipes bc it gives me a guide to what I need to look for at my local chinese/asian markets here in the midwest. Thanks!

[@Whodaleewho]

I like the Heretic sign in the back ground, used to go to their brewery in the Bay Area for years when I lived there. I really enjoy y'alls videos and have learned a lot from you 2. Thank you and Cheers from South Carolina.

[@queenofdramatech]

There was a restaurant in New York City called 88lanzhou that I think served this exact sauce with hand-pulled noodles. Thank you so much for finally sharing the recipe that I can make and go with!

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

Damn, one of those COVID casualties... looking at their IG though, I'm guessing that that sauce might be some sort of Zhajiang? Speaking of which, shit, we definitely should've talking about Zhajiang in the video, which's also in this same category of thing

[@queenofdramatech]

@@ChineseCookingDemystified they already had one reincarnation so I'm hoping for a second thanks for giving that a look see! I've been going with a Taiwanese meat sauce but this seems likely as well. I can't wait to give this a go!

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

@@queenofdramatech Well, we can at the very least guarantee that it'll be tasty with noodles :)

[@queenofdramatech]

@@ChineseCookingDemystified Thank you very much!

[@mark-angelofamularcano237]

One of those pantry/fridge ready flavor mixes that I will definitely add to my collection :) Honestly our fridge is filled with prepped flavors and stocks that cooking something on a weeknight is fast and delicious!

[@LowercaseKev]

The comment sections is always filled with people's wonderful insights to possible substituted and various life experience with the dishes. Makes it feel like one big happy family

[@skynet40433]

Mapo tofu is a masterpiece. The delicacy of the tofu is the star. Why would you do that? So glad we have this meat sauce to try. Love this channel so much 💛

[@eph_kni]

this channel is incredible. thanks so much you two for sharing all of this. its been so much fun bonding with my mom over cooking these dishes. whenever i visit her, we try something new or keep it lazy and cook something familiar.

[@dreammfyre]

Literally Chinese ragu/“bolognese”. Surprised this isn’t a more thing worldwide.

[@DianeH2038]

you have to try Mandy Lee's mapo to-fummus, seriously. she's an amazing cook. and the to-fummus (or whatever we want to call it) is cooling and complements the dish perfectly. her recipes are fussy, for sure, but she gets it right. her mochi bread (milk bread with a rice tangzhong) is amazing, too, and I'm generally NOT a fussy cook. sometimes, though, it's worth it. that said, I'm happy to see a roujiang recipe, even as someone who rarely eats meat! I do eat it sometimes, though, and when I don't, Impossible burger would work great for something like this. thank you, as always, Chris and Steph!

[@antsweaters]

I have been obsessed with making chili sauces lately so I cannot wait to try these recipes.

[@WolfeBTV]

New to the channel and had to make this--I made the beef sauce and it's amazing! I used a small frying pan to fry the spices (tipping it up a bit so the oil pooled to one side), then moved over to a 12" frying pan for the rest of it, and followed the instructions to a T. Definitely going to make this again and the only thing I'm going to adjust is cranking up the hot peppers, I love fire. Looking forward to trying more of your recipes!

[@tomcotter4299]

You really didn’t need to do all the persuading in the beginning. I saw that meat sauce and immediately knew I had to have it.

[@giuseppelogiurato5718]

Oh! So happy you used Xia Jie's weejios... I love her so much; she is so cute! I've learned so much about Shaanxi cuisine from her channel.

[@araminrain]

Dang Xiajie clip inside! Loooove her! Great video again guys

[@aSinkingShip]

We used to call this chinese spaghetti sauce when we were young. This is so good to stir into pasta or rice!

[@stariyczedun]

I just did your mala meat sauce - cut soy sauce by half, for chili powder I took 50/50 gochugaru and sweet paprika (yes, I'm a wimp). Also I had to substitute Chinese black fermented beans for Philippine ones because those were the only kind they had in store here. It was so good, I couldn't stop eating it. Definitely one of my favourite "over rice dishes", even though I'm more used to Dongbei cuisine.

[@PearlofGod_MLPPixel727]

I learned so much watching this one video! Thank you for your work, and 祝你有幸福的一天. 💖 (Excuse me if the Chinese is wrong. I used a translator but wanted to wish your team a blessed day.)

[@albertozaffonato1325]

Thank you guys as always, your videos are the best! I feel blessed every time

[@somefreshbread]

I'm so glad you made a chili dog with this. It was literally the first thing I thought of when I saw the thumbnail.

[@PearlofGod_MLPPixel727]

I found it so fun when the analogy of a chili dog was used here to explain because I was starting to think the same thing. LOL

[@messybetsy]

Not to be messy, but I'm going through a really hard season in my life, and I just love how you explain everything. It makes me feel welcomed in and educated on what is actually up instead of just glazed over with Orientalism. Thank you for the detailed videos. I would never know any of this without you guys.

[@Blackspider611]

Thanks so much for this recipe! I’m Indonesian and I confirm your pronunciation for tauco is correct 👌🏻

[@rachelle1]

This channel is fantastic 💜

[@obiey2540]

this is the best cooking channel!

[@UnderAGlassMetropolis]

I love it, it's the Chinese answer to spaghetti bolognese (the UK version, obviously) I'm definitely making this to smother over noodles.

[@tommihommi1]

The mala beef sauce is *amazing* in quesadillas! I'm blown away!

[@samsr2887]

it's quite funny that last week i was in the mood for mapo tofu -type flavours but definitely didnt want tofu, so i made a meat sauce very similar to the second recipe here, frying some pixian douban, aromatic vegetables, fried beef, though I used a ton of onion (because I had a lot of extra onion to use) and finished it off with chicken stock and oyster sauce for body and umami. I served it with chili oil on the plate to mix in so I could tool the spiciness because my partner does can't handle as much spiciness as me, keeping the sauce itself very sweet and savory and salty

[@nlpascal]

This Mala meat sauce is genius. A bit in the wok with left over rice, egg and veggies and in record time I have a delicious breakfast.

[@rhoharane]

Nice video as always. btw Steph's hair looks amazing in this video for some reason

[@beatpirate8]

We love my moms pork sauce on everything! Thx for this video. I’ve never had the beef sauce!

[@catsang119]

Omg...the word choice of "Mala Beef Slop" 🤣 I zoned out a bit during the explanation of the recipe but was startled with laughter as I heard "mala beef slop...done"

[@puggirl415]

Everyone is talking about using this meat sauce in different dishes. For me it looks a bit like the seasoned meat I use in Dan Dan Noodles. Pork, seasoning, sechwan peppercorn, bean paste, green onion. If I make this I will try it as a slightly more complex meat sauce for Dan Dan. Also thank you for clearly showing the yellow bean sauce. I know I can find it in one of the 2 Chinatown shopping districts nearby, but some of those stores care hundreds of different jars of sauces so seeing it will help immensely when trying to look at a couple hundred jars on the shelf.

[@LemoNanora]

0:18 I need you need a bigger bowl for mixing 2:50 love it and ate it since I as a kid, always have it with plain porridge & the meat sauce my mum always cook it with tofu and pork cubes into the sauce sometimes she adds shiitake mushrooms

[@Abderian]

Living in the countryside of northern Japan, I found mapo ramen and mapo tenshinhan, both of which were amazing and would leave you in a food coma for hours.

[@jhoughjr1]

rice and meat slop does taste good. In college I combined leftover white rice with manwich beef in desperation and it was great.

[@earfdae]

that's a brilliant way to steep the spices in the oil

[@wendyshoowaiching4161]

2nd sauce. Can use soft canned red beans (without the brime tomato sauce). Beans ideal because its soft. Can use the egg omelette wrap mince meat. Good with rice and stir fried water spinach (mince meat)

[@huggledemon32]

As some one who can’t eat spicy food- thank you for including a non-spicy version of this “dish”!!🥰🥰

[@Uderscore]

I've been gradually approaching my regular mapo tofu recipe to something like this over time, and good to know it's a totally valid template, but I am still good keeping the tofu in, as it is still a good and accessible filler if done right. I've been cutting it smaller and frying them early until crisp, then they absorb the sauce as it cooks and become chewy bits of flavor

[@buckingtonhassleshire9136]

dude this and congee sounds so good..

[@misters86]

I watched this thinking at first it was going to be more similar to an Italian American meat sauce. But then by the mala version I was like...this is more akin to chili. The chili dog idea at the end has me wanting to try this out.

[@PhatTrumpet2]

Agreed. For much of the video all I could think of was, "That would be amazing on a hot dog or baked potato."

[@abydosianchulac2]

I really want to make a chili with sichuan peppercorns now

[@MaggieKeizai]

Oh my god, mala beef slop has me excited like wow. Mala beef slop noodles here I come.

[@josephlucatorto4772]

nice recipe also the background at the end was really cool

[@CommentGirl12]

Realizing i made somerhing very similar to this with hot paprika and a more tomato and red wine based sauce that I eat over rice, mostly. My folks were Italian and Hungarian immigrants, so it's a bit of a mix of both flavors. Ill have to add in some five spice powder and sechuan pepper to the next batch!

[@Bannnessa]

Im Indonesian Chinese and Your tauco pronunciation is pretty accurate!

[@verycarla67]

"ma la beef slop" sounds SUPER appetising!

[@haileybalmer9722]

That mapo tofu hummus sounded nasty until I saw it. That actually looks really delicious, and I love that it follows the classic guide of Silk Road cuisine. I know that's not at all what this video was about, I'm just impressed. I never saw that before.

[@MrsTeawithmilkplease]

You knew I needed this in my life before I did. This is added to my list of things I want to try. And it also reminded me of my resolution to cook more mapo tofu. XD

[@angelad.8944]

Ha, then ending was great! 😂 I actually have some tsaoko pods. Really looking forward to trying this out. Thanks for all your hard work and taste testing. 😊

[@MeowjinBoo]

fun fact. Au pied de cochon in montreal (famous resteraunt here in canada) has a mapo tofu with fois gras and its DELICIOUS

[@chinmitten]

I’d never heard of mapo tofu before this actually.. I was vegan for 3 years and developed an affinity for tofu but I love mixing it was meats these days. I know what’s on my meal planning next week now 🎃

[@greenmacaroni8872]

I made this and served it with smashed cucumbers. Talk about delicious!!!!!😊😊😊

[@commenter4898]

The Indonesian name tauco/taoco is just the Hokkien pronunciation of 豆醬. Another meat sauce that has standardized into a dish is 瓜仔肉, popular in Taiwan. It uses minced pork with pickled cucumber (瓜仔 / 脆瓜 / 花瓜), which most Chinese supermarkets have them in glass jars, and the dish is sometimes thickened with potato starch. We usually serve them on rice. Lurou/rouzhao fan (滷肉/肉臊飯) is another meat sauce dish that is popular here.

[@ERH1453]

Thanks for the clarification

[@lynn858]

Sounds tasty. Took a photo of your comment in hopes of being able to locate such a thing. I might actually have to ask someone at the store for help. 😱 Usually I just find an aisle that looks vaugely promising and read the english on every tag until I find it. Sometimes it takes a few aisles.

[@jurrasicore8682]

i mean its basically chili, a flavorful spiced meat sauce thats borderline a meal, thats chili. it even has beans in it for one of the recipes. It reminds me of skyline chili in some small ways. Im almost tempted to try and make this for a chili competition to see if in the US itd be accepted

[@lutztech]

Looks good! Chinese food is the best.

[@TheFieryWind99]

As an Indonesian, I'd like to confirm that your pronunciation of the word "tauco" is correct. However, we usually natively spell the /tʃ/ sound as (c) proper, with no addition of "h" ("ch" is usually only for loanwords). Also, nice video!

[@phthisis]

Will definitely give both of these recipes a go, and since lots of Chinese cooking typically combines pork with shrimp, I have a mindset to try the first recipe with shrimp instead of pork (for someone with a weird diet). As for the second recipe, minus the black beans (like you did...Freudian Slip? XD), it's similar to an American/Mexican chili recipe; we may not fry chili in a wok, and our recipes are all over the place, but for the most part, it's a very similar recipe.

[@RJinthematrix]

i can't imagine adding msg to a dish that already has douban; such strong flavors already

[@tinkergirl4561]

Omg, looks so mouth watering. Thanks for the detailed instructions. Eat over noodles 🍜

[@drunkweebmarine9492]

Mapo tofu is super good. My go to is twice cooked pork. As always awesome channel

[@phalayasasukmakarsa1852]

You almost pronounced "tauco" perfectly except the "u" should sounds like "u" in tofu. Great show as always!

[@CookinWithSquirrl]

Mala hotdog topping sounds amazing!

[@zameshtan]

That rain... But a question: if I made a couple of jam jars of roujiang, how long would they keep in the fridge? This looks like it's going to be eaten in small scoops with other stuff!

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

So from what people say online, 1-2 months... BUT with the large quantities of garlic/aromatics and such I personally don't try to keep it *too* long. It also freezes very well, so we've been putting it in little ~2 portion baggies, tossing in the freezer, and simply grabbing some when we want it. And yeah, rainy season in Bangkok's... a thing, lol. We're actually reasonably lucky with our setup at our new place - if we were in an apartment, I dunno if we could film on a balcony with rain that heavy.

[@lisacastano1064]

If you want it to keep awhile in the fridge make sure it's covered by about half an inch of oil.

[@AidanNaut0]

you could freeze it in ice cube trays and store in freezer bags. Ive done this before with homemade spaghetti sauce. Come to think of it, this is basically china's take on spaghetti sauce!

[@donaldlee8249]

They can last virtually forever if you salt them enough

[@tommihommi1]

@@AidanNaut0 this!

[@mateussilva9477]

Really interesting mixing of flavors

[@mayalimon0929]

As usual, great video!

[@spanky814]

This is like the Chinese version of BBQ cookout beans with ground beef. I eat that as a rice topper too.

[@lannik_0]

I tried this after watching the video a few month ago. We loved it and it's now part of our standarts. Came back to the video because I keep forgetting the name.. We just called it Chinese Bolognese 😬

[@numberonealcove]

Kenji has one of these in his Wok book. He calls it "Pepperoni XO Sauce." It's good.

[@Dubyea]

Can make a video with the szezwhan spicy peanut chicken, My wife and i would love the recipe i used to get it for my birthday everyyear here in canada. Then the restaurant changed places and now its a lunch only fastfood place

[@akaaka261]

We have followed you since 2018 and love all the dishes. We wanted to show family the dry pot recipe but we couldn’t find it anywhere!? Was that video taken off? The seasoned spice mix made that dish!

[@misubi]

Mabo tofu ramen is so sweet and wonderfully mild in Japan.

[@TouchePV]

Thanks for the video!

[@BrooksAndDone]

Question for the MaLa beef. Did you intentionally toss the beef in raw? I was wondering how much time it would add to pull the base aromatics but leave the oil - then full send the beef, max fire - then drop the temp and return Aeros with Beans? Maybe a texture thing but I would think some sear/fry on the beef would be awesome. Love you guys thanks for the vida!

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

So originally when we tested it, we did the Mapo method of really frying the fuck out of the beef until it was crispy - we ended up preferring something with a bit more tender of a texture in this sort of sauce. Something that might be a nice idea though might be to take like 10-20% of the beef and fry it til crisp in the very beginning of the process ala mapo tofu, then add the remainder in later? Idk

[@tommihommi1]

@@ChineseCookingDemystified I often do this when making Bolognese, works great!

[@leokatak3681]

Surprisingly I find OK! Brand 黄豆酱in any big grocery stores in Nairobi, Kenya

[@benarterburn443]

Great stuff

[@yellowmonkee0]

Cool. I have that exact dark soy sauce at home. Lee kum Kee premium dark soy sauce.

[@tuck295q]

Thanks for allowing me to find my ancestor dialect name. Been trying to search for it for decades. Teochew from Chaozhou. 😂

[@-KiTToBuG]

Chinese chili I love it!

[@woolfel]

mapo tofu ramen is awesome! when ever I have left over I will cook up some shin ramen and add mapo tofu to it.

[@Moonlightrealgirl]

Can highly recommend Mandy Lee’s Mapo tofummus! It was delicious