Well Done Steak with Ketchup Sauce Spaghetti (Cantonese classic)

Canto-western steaks! Well done, still delicious.
0:00 - Well done steak in Asia
1:05 - Consideration 1, Thinness
1:36 - Consideration 2, Cut
1:59 - Consideration 3, Marinade
4:24 - Consideration 4, Sauce
5:15 - The ketchup sauce
7:25 - Cook the steak
8:07 - Make the plate
OLD SCHOOL SOY SAUCE WESTERN WET BRINE
* Water, 2 cups
* Salt, 2 tbsp
* Sugar, 2 tbsp
* Garlic, 2-3 cloves, smashed
* Ginger, ~1 inch, smashed
* Dried Bay Leaves (香叶), crumpled
* Onion, sliced, ~1/8
* Peppercorns (黑胡椒), ~1/2 tbsp
* Shaoxing wine (料酒/绍酒) or white wine, ~2 tbsp
* Soy sauce (生抽), ~1 tbsp
Bring all of these ingredients up to a simmer to dissolve the salt and slightly cook the aromatics. Transfer to a bowl and cool down to room temperate (this will likely take ~30 minutes to cool). Slide in the steaks. Brine for at least three hours in the fridge.
Alternatively, for the dry brine, just sprinkle over a bit of salt and sugar - ~1/2 tsp each - and place on a rack in the fridge.
CHA CHAAN TENG MARINADE
For one ~250g steak (give or take ~50g)
* Salt, ½ tsp
* Sugar, 1 tsp
* Water, 2 tbsp
* Oyster sauce (蚝油), 1 tsp
* Dark soy sauce (老抽), 1 tsp
* Liaojiu a.k.a. Shaoxing wine (料酒/绍酒), 1 tsp
* Black pepper powder, ¼ tsp
* Cornstarch (生粉), ½ tsp
* Worcestershire sauce (喼汁), ~1/8 tsp
* Optional aromatics: ~2 dried bay leaves torn into pieces, bit of sliced onion
* To tenderize: Chinese meat tenderizer powder (嫩肉粉), ¼ tsp or sodium carbonate (碱面), ¼ tsp; water, ½ tbsp; oil to coat, 1 tbsp
Note that Kansui (枧水- lye water) can also be used as the ‘sodium carbonate’ here.
Marinade for a day, then add the “to tenderize” ingredients 45 minutes before cooking. If you’re using sodium carbonate in place of papain, you don’t have to be as paranoid - in my experience, with papain, any longer than ~45 minutes can risk making the steak mealy.
You can also use baking soda if you like. Add ½ tsp together with the salt and the sugar. Because we won’t be doing the “to tenderize” step, also coat the steak with that 1 tbsp oil after mixing everything in the initial marinade.
BLACK PEPPER SAUCE
Mix together 1 tbsp black pepper sauce - Lee Kum Kee or homemade - with 1 tbsp water and ½ tbsp soy sauce (生抽). If using the store bought sauce, also add in ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper.
KETCHUP SAUCE
* Lard, 3 tbsp
* Onion, ½ medium. Finely minced.
* Tomato, 100g. Finely minced.
* Shaoxing wine (料酒/绍酒) or red/white wine, ~2 tbsp
* Garlic, ~3 cloves, smashed
* Dried bay leaves (香叶), ~3
* Ketchup (番茄酱), 5 tbsp together with 3 tbsp water
* Water, 1 cup
* Seasoning: salt, ¾ tsp; salt, 1 tsp; soy sauce (生抽), ½ tsp; dark soy sauce (), ¼ tsp
* Final seasoning: MSG (味精), ¼ tsp; white or black pepper (胡椒粉), ¼ tsp
Over a medium flame, fry the onion in the lard until it begins to lightly brown, ~5-8 minutes. Add the tomato and mix. Add the wine, and let it cook. Once the wine’s completely cooked away, ~2-3 minutes, add the garlic and the bay. Fry until fragrant, ~30-60 seconds. Add that 5 tbsp ketchup together with that 3 tbsp water. Cook for 3-5 minutes until the water is cooked away, and you can begin to hear the sauce ‘frying’ again.
Add the water and the seasoning. Swap the flame to medium high, let it reduce for ~15 minutes. Once reduced by about two thirds, remove the garlic and the bay. Add in the ‘final seasoning’, then season to taste. Reserve.
TO MAKE THE PLATE
Boil 50g of dried spaghetti in salted water according to the package, or until just past al dente. Shock with cool water to stop the cooking process, then oil the noodles to prevent sticking. Set aside.
Boil a hunk of corn together with a few florets of broccoli. Boil the broccoli for ~45 seconds, and the corn for ~3 minutes. Set aside.
Remove the steak. If using the Cha Chaan Teng marinade, remove any aromatics before frying. If using the wet brine, thoroughly pat the steak dry before frying.
Fry the steak over a high flame with a thin shmear of oil until it hits ~65C. For the thinness that we were doing, this should take about 2.5 minutes on each side. Transfer the steak to rest while cooking everything else.
Start heating up a hotplate over a high flame. On a separate burner, fry the spaghetti:
In ~1 tbsp lard, fry a bit of julienned ham (or spam) over a medium flame. Once browned and fragrant, ~1-2 minutes, slide it up the side of the wok, drain the oil, and set aside. Add the spaghetti, stir fry for ~1 minute. Add ~1/4 cup of the ketchup sauce, mix well. Drizzle in a slurry of ½ tsp cornstarch mixed with ½ tbsp water, mix well, ~30 seconds.
Once the hotplate is ~140-150C, shut off the heat and add in ~1/8 of a sliced onion. Slide the steak on, nestle in the spaghetti and the vegetable. Top the spaghetti with the ham and the steak with the sauce.
___
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Outro Music: คิดถึงคุณจัง by ธานินทร์ อินทรเทพ

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

Hey guys, a few notes: 1. So something that I was trying to balance with this one was to introduce that classic Cha Chaan Teng steak together with a more ‘general’ well done steak guide, so to speak. I hope things didn’t get overly confusing there. In the future, we might circle back to the category again in order to more fully give Cha Chaan Teng ‘iron plate meals’ the attention they deserve. 2. Reason being? Whenever I’d go back to the States, one of the first things I’d do when I’d land would be to cook myself a steak - American beef is quite good, after all. I personally enjoy medium rare, but I’d also find myself cooking for my parents, who like their meat cooked through. After doing some poking around, I found the combination of fatty cut + thin steak + dry brine + not overcooking + sauce actually made a… perfectly delicious steak. So much so that I felt that that modern gospel of “never an inch over medium” was just plain… wrong? And there was just this cool symmetry there with how steaks are treated in Guangdong. 3. Note that for the wet brine, many of those old school soy sauce western wet brines could actually get pretty intense on the ingredient front. Other commonly seen additions might be stuff like carrot, Chinese celery, coriander seeds, cilantro… so on and so forth. I always found wet brine recipes that went super heavy on the aromatics to be a little on the obnoxious side… because let’s face it, a little carrot is hardly mandatory. That said, during testing I was actually a little surprised as just how much of a difference the aromatics made to the final steak! I felt that onion, ginger, and bay leaf were the most obvious flavors imparted, so those were the ones I left in. Feel free to add a little of the aforementioned ingredients if they happen to be sitting in your pantry, though. 4. Another point - wine. In a lot of Canto-western stuff (and Macanese food too for that matter) some cooks use Shaoxing wine, some use western wine. We always have Shaoxing wine on hand, so that’s what we reach for… but white wine, red wine, or a cheap brandy would all be acceptable here. 5. I sometimes hesitate to call for papain in these videos, because in the past when we’ve used it we’ve had a number of reports of… disintegrating beef. While I’m not 100% sure the root cause of the problem, I’m guessing that it might be because the beef is *too* good (tender already) or too mediocre (maybe there’s other additives already there like STPP that muff things up). If in doubt, maybe use sodium carbonate (or Kan Sui lye water, same thing) in its stead. Or go the baking soda route. 6. For the ketchup sauce, as I briefly noted on-screen… if you’re familiar with the Cha Chaan Teng ketchup sauce that’s smothered over pork chops or steaks, that’s actually not what we were going for. That sauce is a thick, roux based gravy that’s flavored with ketchup (also cooked ketchup though!), but we really wanted to aim for that *thinner* style of ketchup sauce that our local street steak topped over their spaghetti. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find all that much solid information out there on the topic. 7. So, our approach was to use Western fried rice as a base idea, and work from there. It was very much our interpretation of that sort ketchup sauce, which - while I mentioned in the video - I’m slightly worried that I didn’t emphasize enough. While flavor-wise I’m confident it hits a similar category of thing, were a lot of random personal “Chris-isms” in the technique itself (which I know it’s why you come here :) ). Ok, that’s all for now. Might edit a few more notes in a bit.

[@kingdarkem]

-sirens- Sir we are the kitchen police. We are gonna need your chefs license. We are arresting you for the crime of using ketchup and spaghetti in the same dish. XD sorry couldnt resist looks good though other then the ketchup. Something I might think would improve it is the old time ketchup prepared with mushrooms. Pack mushrooms in salt. There are historically several mushrooms that were used. Let this sit until the liquid from the mushrooms fills the container. Pour off the liquid and boil with spices. Typically least in the US it was mace, nutmeg and black pepper that was added. For a Cantonese version I might try black cardamom though I might use the Indian version for more smoke flavor. Dried orange peel, 5 spice, maybe some white cardamom. Boil the liquid and spices until the liquid has reduced by half. Strain filter and bottle.

[@captainsalt8416]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/a4Ovg5Z7dtaJaLM This here is how a Cha Chaan Teng chef in Hong Kong do that kind of tomato sauce. Hope it helps. Generally I think when doing the kind of thinner, less chunky sauce in Chinese Western cooking people usually use tomato paste rather than minced tomatoes like this recipe for the pasta.

[@Dosadniste2000]

Serbs (probably together with the whole region) cooking beef steaks in sour cream being totally confused with well done juicy cuts being a discovery :))

[@regimiro4888]

@@kingdarkem I don't really get whats so bad about using cooked ketchup,. Its literally just tomatoes, sugar and vinegar, you could find hundreds of dishes using those three things separately. What is the great crime?

[@kingdarkem]

@@regimiro4888 it's more the flavor...most ketchup is just...ugh nasty stuff. If you must put ketchup on pasta. Head over to John Townsend channel and use that delicious mushroom ketchup.

[@haileybalmer9722]

I live for this kind of thing. I feel like it's a universal thing in the US to stare down a plate of chicken chow mein or sweet and sour pork and think, "I wonder if they're eating spaghetti or steak and eggs with a fork in China and calling it American food. What would that even look like? Probably as foreign to me as my egg foo young would be to them." And, well, now I have part of an answer. While I was chowing down on General Tsao's chicken, another person half way around the world was eating a well done steak and ketchup spaghetti off of a sizzling iron plate. Each dish missing the mark of what inspired it, and yet each uniquely delicious in its own right. Something all together familiar and yet new.

[@jW-kr5xn]

Lol you’re are mostly right, instead of American food we just call these kinds of food “western food” (西餐). And “western food” to us is always associated with fanciness

[@CaravelClerihew]

This is the sort of stuff you'd get in 'Western Food' hawker stalls in Singapore. They're definitely a local take on Western food and can feature bread rolls reheated in a deep fryer, a lonely slice of tomato or cucumber and a big pile of chips, all slathered in heaps of pepper gravy. It's amazing.

[@Banom7a]

or baked beans with coleslaw on the side

[@ace1262]

Lots of Chinese used to work for the Brits when they were over, and some were cooks who made food for them. This is their interpretation of what 'Western' food is like from their lens. Hence the relative lack of differentiation between English/Italian/German cuisine

[@DizzyBusy]

In Indonesia too! At least on Java

[@Ealsante]

Yep! That's the legacy of the Brits, and the Hainanese who cooked their food and then adapted it. So the Hainanese 'western' repertoire includes not just the hawker stall 'Western Food', but also fried pork chops, curry rice, and the breakfast of eggs and toast (albeit with kaya).

[@uglyfink]

Good old "Ah Beng" Western...I'll take the grilled chicken chop on a hotplate please

[@calrm00]

A version of this with baguette, fried egg and lighter sauce was a super popular Vietnamese street food a few years back 😅 Served on the same flat cast iron pan too!

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

Haha if you look closely at 5:49, that was a night where we went to go get street steak, with... Steph's freshly made Banh Mi :) Toss the rolls in a backpack, leisurely bike ride over... there's definitely things I miss about Shunde

[@Jestersage]

All I know is someone in an Asia region started serving western-style food on flat iron pan and it became popular (similar: Philipine's Pepper Lunch - the taste greatly reminds me of the black pepper steak sauce they used for the HK char'chang'tang steak). My guess is either Taiwan or Japan.

[@DuyroZeppeli]

Still one of the staples for breakfast in Vietnam. I love sum' "bò né" with extra pâté in the morning, served with either hot, crunchy, freshly baked or cool, chewy bread that was left out for maybe a couple of hours or so.

[@CookingEmi]

@@Jestersage i don’t know who but we have sth similar where a deconstructed bánh mì is eaten on a flat iron pan

[@emmythemac]

Love hearing Steph talk about "nostalgic" western cuisine. Sometimes I feel like there's this dichotomy in the way we discuss Chinese cuisines in the US, where on one end there's this kind of clickbaity "Chinese people try Panda Express" side where obviously it's very different from food in China and also just generally a fast food/fast casual level of quality. Or there are dishes that I, in my local Chinese American community, just hadn't experienced because they either weren't a thing or my family never ordered them (crab rangoon and general tso, I'm looking at you). And on the other end we have American born people who, whether or not they have an idea of how "authentic" the dish is, still have fond memories of growing up with it. I think there's value to nuance here. I personally have very little connection to modern China but a lot of connection to US West Coast Chinese immigrant communities, but it's not like the two things are mutually exclusive. There is crossover in both directions! And I just find it so interesting hearing Steph's memories of western-style dishes. Like ketchup spaghetti is so prevalent in Asia, but in the US and certainly in Europe it sounds crazy. But just because it's not authentic Italian doesn't mean that lots of people enjoy it. Idk, this video weirdly gave me a lot of shower thoughts.

[@JohnnyWishbone85]

I mean, "Chinese food" here in the west is essentially western people's idea of Chinese food made in a western way with western ingredients, so why can't "western" food in China be Chinese people's idea of western food made in a Chinese way with Chinese ingredients?

[@Losobo]

I love these sort of odd Chinese takes on western food. It's like a culinary version of the game of Telephone. But it also extends to something that I grew up with from my mother: American Chop Suey. It's ground beef, celery, onion, tomato sauce, and macaroni noodles (and a few other ingredients). None of us really know the origins of the dish but my bet was that a family friend or relative went out to San Francisco in the early days, tried the uniquely Chinese-American dish, then went back to the East Coast and tried reproducing it. I wouldn't be surprised if dishes like Well Done Steak is from nearly the same sort of origins. Keep up the good work you two! I love your channel and you've taught me a lot

[@weilam03]

it funny cause us Asians make weird American food and you Americans make weird asian food but its all love. we love your food and you seem to like ours too. 👍 some ingredients arent available in asia so we substitute, i think your chop suey recipe did the same thing. it shows how good of a cook is to use different things to try and recreate a dish just by taste

[@missbearlockholmes]

@@weilam03 oh, we definitely love your food!

[@Ealsante]

And going the other way there's General Tso's chicken, which... doesn't exist in China! Delicious stuff just travels, and everyone puts a little twist on it as it travels along.

[@arethmaran1279]

An even more apt comparison when you learn the old name (and still used in parts of the UK) for the game 'Telephone' was 'Chinese Whispers'

[@fabulousknight1960]

​@@arethmaran1279 A bitterly missed opportunity indeed.

[@Heyutana]

Papaine is found in papaya, bromelaine is found in pineapple, figseine is found in figs,… these fruit enzymes are what tenderize the meat, so they are often found in traditional stews all around the world, or mist recently rightfully so in marinades 😊

[@sjukfan]

"I don't feel like cooking tonight, should we order in Western food?" "I love Western food! But I have to cheat, it's too hard to eat with a fork and knife." "Yeah, me too. I don't understand how they do it." "I heard they learn it as kids."

[@queenofdramatech]

Too 🤣 funny!!

[@Saitaina]

I know HOW to eat with chopsticks, but my arthritis says use a damn fork.

[@arthas640]

a lot of westerners never get taught how to use them so they never do, older westerners grew up somewhat suspicious of Asian culture (WW2 then Korean war then Vietnam war then Japan crushing some western industries did a number of public perception of Asian culture in the west) so they never really wanted to learn as kids and now they're set in their ways. Many people never really get taught how to use them correctly, if they get taught at all it's usually a waiter or random person who spent a hot minute just showing them how to hold them, handing the chopsticks over, and then setting them loose while the westerners clumsily fumble around before giving up and using chopsticks. I learned as a kid but I'm a millenial. Cant use them now though after breaking my fingers and wrist a few times.

[@cinnabun-ysera]

One of my Chinese classmates for a language program in Japan legit didn't know how to use a fork and a knife. One day he asked me to teach him to make steaks, so I obliged. Meat is generally sold cut fairly thin here, unless you're buying filet or a kilo+ of steak. At the end I told him to use his fork and knife to cut against the grain. Confused, he put down the fork and knife, reached for his chopsticks and tried taking bites out of the whole steak. Never change, Chen-san, never change.

[@0Turbox]

@@arthas640 Why should a "westerner" learn to use chopsticks? It's like to have to learn to juggle, before you can use your phone. What's next, slurping your soup out of the teller? ;)

[@ravenrush7336]

Growing up in China, I really love this kind of steak meal, especially for the tender meat and flavorful sauce. Glad to see that I can also find this stuff in some Cantonese restaurants here in California.

[@NUSORCA]

Hi 너의 첫 구독자가 인사 그리고 있습니다

[@NeonSonOfXenon]

Wow, this is super similar to how my Mexican family would prepare steaks for fajitas or other grilled steaks. I like my regular American steaks medium rare cause well done is always dry and hurts my jaw to chew, but I never stopped to question why fajitas were juicy despite being well done. Now I know it was the prep and the use of fatty thin meat

[@nikobatallones]

As a Filipino, I'm hearing Western reactions to the idea of sweet spaghetti. But also, Japanese naporitan!

[@The_Chef2511]

Well the Italian and American reactions anyway. Spaghetti and other pasta sauced with ketchup is a common comfort food in Germany and surrounding countries typically served with schnitzel.

[@anubisean]

Not to disregard the Italians/Italian-Americans/Americans but it's kinda their fault for making their food easy to customize.

[@blarfroer8066]

@@The_Chef2511 no it's not. Unless you think that gagging on your "food" is comforting.

[@deandingus_]

@@blarfroer8066 your take - 🚮

[@The_Chef2511]

@@blarfroer8066 Considering such pasta is typically served with a cutlet of deep fried sausage that is basically the German version of doctor's sausage or mortadella I don't think it's food you'd want to have sober. Maybe that's why eastern Europeans need so much beer and vodka.

[@johnwalker7592]

I LOVE THIS CHANNEL. I'm a cook in the USA- and cannot say enough how all these videos have IMPROVED my flavor profiles... Yes there's something to learn from French cooking.. and locally sourced foods.. ALWAYS try to cook whats locally had for cheap. MSG/white pepper/shrimpsauce.. just to name a few that have been added to my everyday items to keep stocked and ready to use.. I even bring shit to work with me to try to create new menu items...

[@Frager007]

Thats cool. But why would you try to cook with shit?

[@aaronsirkman8375]

@@Frager007 Obviously you haven't tried yet, or you'd know.

[@wilhelmseleorningcniht9410]

Anything that requires thin and cheap steak, or works better with it, is great in my book! I can not afford anything else beef related, so that's useful. Thanks!

[@Saitaina]

Same. I have eshewed beef for this reason unless it's a special meal.

[@Mars0War]

Absolutely, the "rules" about never cooking a steak well-done, or never above a medium rare are if you're using a good quality cut of beef. It's about making sure that nice steak you bought doesn't have its natural flavours destroyed, since European cooking, especially French cooking, is all about presenting the natural flavours of your ingredients in the best way possible. But cheap cuts that would be tough and chewy no matter what doneness you cooked it to could absolutely benefit from these techniques, just keep it away from that A1 Wagyu.

[@arthas640]

@@Mars0War it's also because "well done" is usually associated with "cheap" and "low quality" since cheaply processed meat isn't as safe so they cook it more to counteract the risk of food poisoning. Doesnt help that cooking anything between "medium rare" and "well done" is harder to do for poorly trained cooks so they default to well done on everything further reinforcing the "low quality" aspect. Also as you said preserving the natural flavor is a must with better quality meats so all that seasoning that tenderizes the meat would cover up the finer details. Doesnt help that both some of the best (tenderloin) and worst (flank steak) have low fat content so well done turns it into old shoe leather so you need to either add a sauce or thoroughly tenderize if you want well done and done want to chew on your steak like a cow chewing cud.

[@Propane_Acccessories]

Look for flat iron steak. Great flavor and still cheap.

[@teferi456]

@@Propane_Acccessories Depends on where you are. I live in Connecticut and flat iron is like $10-$14+/lb. Better off getting a blade roast and cutting it into flat irons yourself.

[@UdonNoodles24]

This reminds me of the steakhouses my aunt used to take us to in Taiwan. The steaks were really thin and served with the most delicious black pepper sauce on a sizzling plate. They were served with wide egg noodles, not spaghetti, and the noodles also had black pepper sauce. Best part was where the noodles got all crispy from the hot cast iron plate. 🤤 It was served with a vegetable and a really sweet bread roll.

[@josephlucatorto4772]

The presentation of the cha chaan teng/soy sauce western steaks is always so beautiful. Can’t wait to try this myself

[@zagzug247]

I recently moved and there no authentic Chinese restaurant near me so I've been learning all these Chinese recipes to make at home. I've been wanting Chinese black pepper steak and this came in time. Thank you so much for teaching us all these authentic Chinese recipes.

[@leesagrrl]

I have a friend hose Mom is Thai... and she makes the BEST Mee Krob with Catsup! It's delicious.

[@graefx]

This type of cooking always strikes me as the type of comfort food as I have memories of with mall food court Chinese. It's a vague memory of "authentic" but it tastes damn good and makes you happy inside.

[@satoshiketchump]

This reminds me of sizzler, a similar dish that's widely popular in Nepal and India. Its either a meat patty, grilled chicken or fried vegetable patty, served with either sautéed pasta or thick cut fries, steamed or sautéed vegetables, smothered with brown sauce and plated on a sizzling hot iron plate, lined with cabbage. Gosh I'm salivating just thinking if it.

[@ribbontoast]

I grew up loving this meal in HK and when we moved to the US this was an amazing way to make 99 cents per pound steaks at the local grocery store for poor people taste like a $7/lb steak. I cooked both these classics for myself a lot once I started cooking for myself. Then I stopped for over a decade because people---and here I'm talking about grown adults who are supposedly liberal and progressive and tolerant and not racist---would constantly express disgust at using KETCHUP?!?!?! on spaghetti or heavily saucing my cheap steak. I've honestly just recently started reclaiming the old cha chaan tang recipes I grew up loving and am glad that y'all put out this video so I have a quick English language resource for reference.

[@mellow-jello]

Very timely video, as ketchup spaghetti and well done cheap beef are in the kitchen during hard-to-do times. Shout out to these meal cafes for their ingenuity with affordable food.

[@williamaitken7533]

I know, I KNOW that the spaghetti probably tastes good. But all I can think of is the one year I went to Christmas at my boyfriend's family's house and his crazy aunt made multiple lasagnas with ketchup as the tomato sauce base. It was like sickeningly sweet. I just have a tough time trusting the idea of ketchup-based pasta sauces after that haha!

[@lellab.8179]

As an Italian, I can feel you pain. Just the thought of a ketchup lasagna hurts so much! 😄

[@mspaint93]

Oh man, I kinda did when I was making a lasanga and when I was had prepped all these beautiful vegetables, made homemade riccotta etc, realised I only had a tiny bit of canned tomato left. Had the 'genius' idea of thinning it out with tomato sauce (ketchup). It tasted revolting, like just so insanely sweet :(

[@whatever1661]

@@lellab.8179 haha even me as a german feel your pain... this is the stuff trauma are made of

[@koffyninja7]

I grew up with a Filipino best friend so i know the joys of ketchup sauce spaghetti but i want to applaud you for a video title designed to make the most westerners angry as possible

[@oldhippy1947]

Looks delicious!

[@cchoi108]

OMG I love this steak I never actually thought of it as well done! You can't buy this anywhere in a restaurant anymore thanks for showing the recipe! Total throwback I love it!

[@DerangedTechnologist]

As always, many thanks; this rocks!

[@danielloveson5507]

I love your HK style street food videos! keep it up, great work!

[@mgtupload3836]

Omg omg you have no idea how excited I am to try this. I loveee the “ketchup” steak sauce they use growing up but I literally could never find it here in the west and can only find it in guangdong. So glad steph is from there to teach us.

[@emilyjaneschmidt6567]

Looks delicious !!!

[@Twisted_Logic]

As a Texan, where there are four donenesses: blue, rare, medium rare, and inedible, this looks tasty. But MAN did I not expect to have a pit in my stomach the whole time watching it happen.

[@CaravelClerihew]

2:53 - I remember as a kid in SEAsia seeing uncooked rice in salt shakers to prevent the humidity from clumping the salt.

[@t.o.4251]

I see it at Vietnamese restaurants in the US too. Never had an issue with clumping salt though!

[@humanperson9881]

I've also seen people do that in the American South with rice in salt shakers and a slice of bread in sugar containers

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

Yeah we definitely need to do something. Oddly, if we get Chinese brands of salt from the Chinese supermarket here, it doesn't seem to clump on us nearly as much... not sure what sort of black magic's going on there. We use a box for the salt though, so I'm worried that the rice might get mixed in with the salt. From google I've heard a ritz cracker can work? Anyway, it's not *too* much of an issue, but it does definitely make for a super awkward "let's season a hunk of meat in the western style" shot haha

[@nhgh1756]

@@ChineseCookingDemystified "not sure what sort of black magic's going on there" my guess would be whatever way they crystalize it results in a smaller surface area. you could try a silica packet in your salt pig, too, since it'd be pretty hard to accidentally throw that in the food (and even if you do, meh)

[@min_nari]

@@ChineseCookingDemystified Potassium ferrocyanide / 亞鐵氰化鉀, the anti-caking agent. only a miniscule amount is need to prevent salt crystals from clumping during packaging and daily use. same ingredient in mortons salt. altho if you put it in open air the salt still clumps.

[@shermanteo1606]

I love the channel. The content has allowed me to eat so much more cuisine. Thanks a million.

[@hoddtoward]

I know it's not relevant to this video, but I do hope you will make a Cantonese roast duck over rice video one day. It's my favorite thing to get from small Chinese BBQ places in the US.

[@MbisonBalrog]

Amazing

[@domeskeetz]

I love your channel. So through and informative.

[@MamunsLife]

Thank you so much for this recipe! I used to order this dish every week when I was living in China. And ever since I’ve been back, I’ve been missing it a lot, now I can at least make it at home!! 😁

[@PhatTrumpet2]

So fun to see what "date night" looks like in another part of the world. Quite certain I'd take this over Olive Garden anytime.

[@StanfordChiou]

Explaining the difference between two different kinds of Canto-Western fusion is what I come to Chinese Cooking Demystified for.

[@riper7514]

Here in Argentina we're one of the biggest beef producers and consumers, and 99% of the steaks you're gonna get are well done by default, that's how we like them. If you wan't them medium, you'll have to specify it beforehand. And everyone will look at you as if that cow is still alive! Good to know it's culturally normal in Asia too

[@R0gue0ne]

Love it!

[@kuliosw4815]

As someone grew up in Shenzhen this is sooo homey, very much looking forward to trying cook this oversea.

[@jhoughjr1]

that looks do delicious.

[@theovertyrant2620]

My brother in law is going to love this.

[@kvdude7279]

I love your puppy dog. So well behaved! 😍😍

[@DCuros]

I really want to try that ketchup sauce spaghetti and see how it compares to Japanese spaghetti napolitan.

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

I'm like... 90% sure it might be derived from spaghetti napolitan? A lot of Cha Chaan Teng fare seems like it may have Yoshoku roots - Cheesy seafood rice from Doria is an obvious one, and while there's some disagreement Pineapple Buns may also be a Cantonese version of Melonpan

[@JustaFatBoi]

@@ChineseCookingDemystified In regards to Pineapple Buns/Melonpan, I actually think they might share a common root in Mexican conchas, given that all three of these buns use a similar two-dough technique. This is only a theory without any research to back it up though.

[@zlatanonkovic2424]

I love these Chinese/Western fusion recipes. Before this channel I was not even aware that China had such a extensive history of their own interpretations of Western cuisine.

[@jW-kr5xn]

I don’t like well done streak at all, but man those cha chaan teng style steak on a cast iron plate with a black pepper sauce is always delicious. Because the sauce taste so good the quality of the steak doesn’t matter. That’s the only way I’ll accept well done steaks.

[@yifanwang4906]

Beautiful! It's the general idea of steak, but with a lot of Chinese cooking techniques. Perfectly combine them and you'll have this, naturally. Plus it's much cheaper to make!

[@GordonSlamsay]

This goes against everything ive been taught in 10+ years of learning the culinary arts. I like it. Truly a punk dish.

[@yermomLeslie]

omg 多谢我依家终于识得点做哩种牛排啦

[@puggirl415]

The steak you plated looked very well marbled. Almost waygu-like. Yummy. And I'd want to try that spaghetti sauce. I've been really getting into ketchup in my home made fried rice sauce. The sweetness of the ketchup really balances the savoriness of the fried rice.

[@n0etic_f0x]

One thing I will note Cha Chaan Teng marinade you can use a simple common one ingrediat marinade. The one ingrediat? Onion. Just find a vessel that will hold your streak and have some room, use a box grater to grate 2-3 onions, shread them and completely cover the steak with him for 6-12 hours. Other than adding salt this is all you need to do, I acctuealy think this trick came from Food Wars, as in the anime.

[@jennischindler]

Onions do some amazing tenderizing, great idea. That’s called chaliapin steak and while the technique was used in Food Wars, it’s origins in Japanese cuisine date back to the early-ish 1900s.

[@n0etic_f0x]

@@jennischindler Thanks for the comment, that is what it was. I heard that and I just thought it had no chance of working. I tried it and this was no apples and oranges difference it was more like the difference between apples you find in trees and the kind of Apples Steve Jobs made. It is so easy yet it so good.

[@daveyg34]

When I lived in Changsha this was the luxury meal our employers would take us to. I loved it! Once had a student take me there (his mum was a teacher at the school and I was his favourite), he proper had his mum’s full purse with him. I just let him order for me!

[@YoshiharaShigetoshi1845]

Thank you chef!

[@pegparrish3512]

Certainly a lot of work for such a dubious sounding menu but it really looks delicious and I’ll definitely give it a try! Many thanks!!

[@ilias4156]

Love you guys...

[@chinmitten]

My girlfriend was adopted from China as a baby, we joke I do Asian cooking better than her and this channel definitely helps 😂 really appreciate more traditional Chinese and Japanese recipes

[@Busterdrag]

Man, I recently learned of the Cha Chaan Teng type restaurants and I admit, I am super fascinated by them.

[@hanstun1]

That is one brave headline for a food video! 😁

[@haniffat]

We also eat well done steak here in Indonesia, tasty!

[@TheDistur]

Sounds pretty good actually.

[@user-boxue]

My childhood fav is the mushroom sauce going with it! Never thought about what mushroom was in there

[@CosmicDoom47]

I love this - it reminds me a lot of Indo-Chinese food (Indian take on Chinese cuisine). Just how one culture interprets food from another.

[@Pikakeung]

Is it just me? Or do anyone else feel weird to not hear "liaojiao aka xiaoxing wine" like we usually do? I feel like it's practically the channel's slogan at this point haha

[@NoiseAndBells]

I had this thought as well! I've seen so many of these videos that I know perfectly well what is meant by "shaoxing" but for no discernible reason it felt... off? I guess we're all used to the little stock phrases, they are quite endearing :) I also now have to resist the temptation to say "but first, long yao" every time I am cooking something on the stove lol

[@SmolAliens]

It’s like cayenne in a Chef John video.

[@infin1ty850]

I love seeing Chinese takes on Western food since we have so many different takes on Chinese food here in the West.

[@carlcouture1023]

I'll admit I thought you were making some kinda joke when I saw the title, but I had to see. I'm a vegetarian. I can't even make this. But this is definitely eye opening and makes so much sense. I'm definitely going to tell my meat eating friends about this one! They're not gonna believe me!

[@delyar]

Doggo was SUPER impatient at the end!

[@outerheaven2k7]

I'mma enjoy the judgement I get when I tell people I'mma gonna make a well done steak this weekend. Def a med-rare-rib-eye-steak person but never closed off to trying other methods regardless of where from- legit hyped to try this

[@kingdomadventures]

The dog seems extra animated today! So much personality!

[@MrMarket1987]

I KNEW IT! VINDICATION! I always thought restaurants going out of their way NOT to make them or use "good meat cuts" for anything past medium is just an excuse for refusing to get around poor cooking skills. Take that, food snobs! If I want something hearty with a jelly center, I'd just eat fruit-filled gelatin outright and call it a day.

[@Hoakaloa]

thank you for this. reminds me of my mom's spaghetti but different. Korean American. Mom put flank steak in our spaghetti sauce...some how...I don't know what the sauce base was...i would get upset that my sisters would set out only chopsticks when they knew i refused to eat spaghetti with with chopsticks ...that's not right! Oh, the times when one did not have to consider the effect of conspiracy theories. AND, I preferred my steak well done as a kid. My mom did the extra to cook it to my liking. I was a skinny kid. I will try this recipe to discover if my lost preference for well done is mistaken. Mahalo!

[@simonl.6338]

Non-al dente spaghetti with ketchup, boiled plain brocolli, a well done thin steak smothered in sauce. Iam sure this tastes great and is a comfort food for many but it feels like someone created this just to make classicly trained western cooks angry :D

[@thastayapongsak4422]

There is a street vendor near my place in Bangkok that makes similar kind of steak. Well done, super thin steak.

[@susantuna3434]

i like my steak medium rare but also this looks good cause it has that sauce that looks tasty and if its a thin cut wont be that bad on well done

[@otterspotter]

I want a Chinese Cooking Demystified video dedicated to that adorable dog in the end of so many videos. Feature the dog!

[@Uderscore]

recently heard a general "food hack" tip to add a few dashes of fish sauce to any tomato sauce you're cooking to greatly enhance it, seems like an especially good application in theses sort of ketchup noodles.

[@psychosomaticstatic]

I add fish sauce to everything (savory) tbh

[@richardrhodes9664]

You had me at ketchup spaghetti

[@hkhk6612]

sedap

[@marrymejohn]

Not huge into steak but gonna try out the ketchup based pasta sauce

[@VashGames]

"We'll be beating that toughness into absolute submission" Laughed at that line. My first image was a kung fu man going to town on it with a meat hammer.

[@pichofiraviyah8492]

i like it blue

[@quoccuongtran724]

being a north vietnamese, i always find southern chinese cuisine to be the most similar to ours that said, my homemade steak recipe is the old school western style (just dry brine with salt, pepper and ginger/garlic) made from cheap cuts (absolutely thin-sliced & tenderized you could see holes in them) without any sauce, i dont know how to make sauce i think we may have inherited it from the french

[@kleinebre]

In UK, I haven't seen meat tenderiser powder in Oriental supermarkets, but Indian supermarkets do carry it. If you can't find it at all and still want to tenderise your meat: Papain derives from papaya. In Sout-East Asia it is common to wrap meats in papaya leaves. Young papaya has a similar tenderising effect. Failing papaya, kiwi fruit will do the trick. It's a different enzyme but still does the job. I've also tried pineapple in the past - this also works for tenderising, but perhaps a bit too much.

[@HughGort]

Its cool to see chinese "western food".

[@louiscambre3445]

This reminds me of the Japanese yōshoku cuisine. One of the items is Naporitan/Napolitan spaghetti.

[@VeryEvilGM]

Medium rare fans: "Well done is sacrilegious!" After the video: "We're sorry, we've been all wrong!"

[@MASTERLinkYT96]

That Schnauzer is beautiful and the ketchup sauce doesnt look bad too!

[@Vulgaels]

Intereating tbing is that all over East Europe we also eat mostly well done, where marinade and brining are essential

[@edwardhisse2687]

I believe it has to do a lot with beef quality. We generally just don't do rare meat.

[@SuzanneWho]

A local family owned Chinese cafe in San Francisco used to make tomato beef chow mein that had a sauce that was based in ketchup and soy sauce. I wonder if your spaghetti sauce is similar? I’ll have to try it. I really loved that tomato beef dish!

[@4xdblack]

Hey CCD, there's a dish I've been trying to find a recipe for and have had zero luck. I first had it at the local chinese buffet from my hometown, and its called "Mandarin Chicken" It was a battered deep fried chicken thigh, that became glass shatteringly crunchy. And would be served smothered in a gravy like sauce. And it was delicious, but also probably never called "mandarin chicken" except in that one restaurant. Does this sound familiar to any dish you know?

[@Yesat-Erday]

Lean-thin steaks are also quite the norm here in Switzerland which means I now have more interesting ways if I get some beef once in a while.

[@ChateauShack]

drool....

[@stuntmonkey00]

There is something about that vaguely meat-jelly texture from Chinese cha chanteng beef that is so nostalgic and at the same time vaguely "this isn't good for me is it?" lol.

[@ahmedalsadik]

Well that was weird :) And I do love those oven mitts tho, very science fictiony looking!

[@alastairpei]

As a HKer, thank you for not immediately dismissing this dish. Well done steak is often seen as taboo in western cuisine but as you said it really depends on the beef.

[@geneard639]

I will never ever knock another persons yum! And I leaned in Italy that a tired tomato based spaghetti sauce can be brightened and freshened by a generous dose of ketchup. Frozen spaghetti sauce loses flavor, ketchup brings it back like it was just made.

[@Ultradude604]

If you can make a top round steak into a tender steak without slow cooking it... Compliments to the chef!

[@happybirch9663]

I grew up in Indonesia and these are the kind of steak typically found there (well done steak with sauce, thick fries, and veg on a hot plate), but there are also "normal" western style steak but not as common. When I watched youtube and they don't like well done steak, I thought to myself I'm pretty sure the ones I usually eat are well done. Turns out this type of steak is mainly done in Asia.

[@DirtyHairy84]

When I was in France working as a chef a popular staff meal the French cooks would make was hot elbow noodles mixed with ketchup and Mayo. When I asked about it they just said ketchup is a sauce. Condiments and sauces are different in the American mind for some reason.

[@SylviaRustyFae]

Ill often use condiments to help build sauces cyz they always have thickenin agents in them alrdy which can sometimes do it and im also a fan of stronger more variable flavours; which i cant rly get anywhere near without havin a bunch of random sauces lyin around alrdy. Tho ketchup is still one i almost nvr reach for, but its honestly one of my least liked condiments; barely ahead of that horrid yellow mustard. Its often overly sweet to me cuz sweet flavours can be too strong for me and can just hide all other flavours. Tho i keep tomato paste on hand and use that far more often

[@austin.....]

Mayo is a super common ingredient in sauces in the states. Ketchup here is generally too sweet to use willy-nilly in a sauce and was actually created AS a topping, so you can hardly blame that one.

[@DirtyHairy84]

@@austin..... yeah but not on hot pasta. Sure it’s the base for a sauce in a cold dish. Hot sauce emulsions are typically hollandaise based.

[@yungwarcrimes]

ive made well done steak thats still tasty