Chinese Food

Popiah (Hokkien: poh-piáⁿ) is a Fujian/Chaozhou-style fresh spring roll common in Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia. Popiah is often eaten in the Fujian province of China (usually in Xiamen) and its neighboring Chaoshan on the Qingming Festival. It is sometimes referred to as runbing (潤餅) or baobing (薄饼) in Mandarin. In the Teochew (Chaozhou) dialect, popiah is pronounced as "Bo-BEE-a",^[1] which means "thin wafer" (also in the Hokkien dialect).

A popiah "skin" is a soft, thin paper-like crepe or pancake made from wheat flour which is eaten in accompaniment with a sweet sauce (often a bean sauce, a blended soy sauce or hoisin sauce or a shrimp paste sauce (hae-ko, POJ: hê-ko), and optionally with hot chilli sauce before it is filled. The filling is mainly finely grated and steamed or stir-fried turnip, jicama (known locally as bangkuang), which has been cooked with a combination of other ingredients such as bean sprouts, French beans, and lettuce leaves, depending on the individual vendor, along with grated carrots, slices of Chinese sausage, thinly sliced fried tofu, chopped peanuts or peanut powder, fried shallots, and shredded omelette. Other common variations of popiah include include pork (lightly seasoned and stir-fried), shrimp or crab meat. Seaweed is often included in the Xiamen versions. Some hawkers in Malaysia and Singapore, especially in non-halal settings, will add fried pork lard. As a fresh spring roll, the popiah skin itself is not fried.

In mainland China, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan there are "popiah parties" at home, where the ingredients are laid out and guests make their own popiah with proportions of ingredients to their own personal liking.

Similar foods in other cuisines include the Filipino/Indonesian variant referred to as Lumpiang Sariwa, fried spring rolls and fajitas (Tex-Mex). In Vietnam, bò bía is the Vietnamese variant of popiah, introduced by Teochew immigrants. It is common to see an old Teochew man or woman selling bò bía at their roadside stand.

Yong tau foo ( also spelled yong tao foo,yong tau fu, oryong tau hu yong tofu) is a Chinese soup dish with Hakka origins commonly found in China, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia. There are also Teochew and Hokkien variations.

In Malaysia, the Ampang region of Kuala Lumpur is particularly famous for this dish. It is ubiquitous in Singapore food courts, too. Essentially the dish originated in the early 1960s in a restaurant called "Chew Kuan" as tofu stuffed with a meat paste of fish and pork, thereby earning the dish its name "Yong Tau Foo," which means "stuffed bean curd." Since then all variety of vegetables and even fried fritters have been similarly stuffed, and the name Yong Tau Foo has thus been used liberally to apply to foods prepared in this manner.

Yong tau foo is essentially a clear consomme soup containing a varied selection of food items including fish balls, crab sticks, bittergourds, cuttlefish, lettuce, ladies fingers, as well as chilis, and various forms of fresh produce, seafood and meats common in Chinese cuisine. Some of these items, such as bittergourd and chili, are usually filled with fish paste (surimi). The foods are then sliced into bite-size pieces, cooked briefly in boiling broth and then served either in the broth as soup or with the broth in a separate bowl. The dish is eaten with chopsticks and a soup spoon and can be eaten by itself (served with a bowl of steamed rice) or with any choice of egg or rice noodles, or bee hoon (rice vermicelli). Another variation of this dish is to serve it with laksa gravy or curry sauce. Essential accompaniments are spicy, vinegary chili sauce, similar to Indonesian sambal oelek, and a distinctive brown sweet bean sauce or hoisin sauce for dipping.

In Malaysia, the Malay Muslims have taken to yong tau foo in a big way. As pork consumption is prohibited for Muslims, halal yong tau foo is generally soy based or stuffed vegetable fritters or steamed bean curd with fish paste stuffing. To prepare the dish, these, a steamed rice-flour roll (similar to that used for chee cheong fun) and a vegetable called kangkong are boiled to heat and soften them. The food items are drained and eaten with sprinkled toasted sesame seeds, chili sauce and a hoisin based sauce. Another version commonly found in Perak state is the soup type where the food items are served in a broth and provided with chili sauce and hoisin based sauce dipping. Halal yong tau foo is normally sold by Malay vendors at night markets (pasar malam) and at halal food courts by non-Muslim vendors.

Bakkwa, orrougan is a Chinese salty-sweet dried meat product similar to jerky, made in the form of flat thin sheets. It is normally made from pork. Bakkwa is believed to have originated from a meat preservation and preparation technique used in ancient China that is still practiced in places with Hokkien influence.

In Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines bakkwa or ba gua is the most widely used name. Cantonese speakers use the term yuhk gōn', Anglicised version long yok, while in China and Taiwanthe product is more commonly known as rougan. Commercially available versions are sometimes labeled as "barbecued pork," "dried pork," or "pork jerky." Bakkwa is particularly popular as asnack in Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and the Philippines. In Beidou, Taiwan, it is regarded as one of the three pork delicacies.

In Malaysia and Singapore, bakkwa has become a highly popular gift offered to visitors and acquaintances, as well as amongst corporate employees (some during the Chinese New Year). In Muslim-majority countries like Malaysia, halal chicken varieties of the snack may be used as a gift substitute. It may also be served in functions such as Chinese wedding banquets and religious ceremony dinners. While demand is particularly high during the festive seasons, it is also served throughout the year in various outlets as takeaway snacks or to be served together with main courses at home. The meat is commonly sold in red-coloured bags or packaging, an auspicious colour in Chinese culture.

Introduction
Clay pot is particulary famous in the cuisine of Singapore,Malaysia,Vietnam,India and China.It is suitable for everyone since is a very delicious food.Clay pot chicken can be found easily at food court in every area of Malaysia.Target customer are those employees that finish work at night, a family with children for dinner,couple for them to share food and maintain close relationships and etc.

Many restaurants feature clay pot "dishes" on their menus.Example:- Clay Pot Mee(noodles),Clay Pot Tofu(soy bean cake),Clay Pot Curry Fish,Clay Pot Soup.Pot dishes are the Oriental version of the American casserole.The main difference is that they are cooked on top of the stove rather than in the oven.

Food cooked in a clay pot has maximum flavour, enormous nutritional value and is visually appetizing.The dishes can go straight from the oven to the dinner table.The design of the clay pot assures good retention of heat and keeps food much hot longer.

Method of cooking
The rice is cooked in the pot first and cooked ingredients like diced chicken and Chinese sausage are added later.Most of the restaurant will put some dark soya sauce and also salt fish to enhance the taste of the rice.The dishes is really approximately 15-30minutes with high temperature cooking and longer cooking time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claypot_chicken_rice
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay_pot_cooking

Tau Foo Fa or "豆腐花" in Chinese word is a Chinese desert made by very soft tofu.It is also referred to as ToFu Pudding.

Tofu is originated in ancient China, although little else is known about the exact historic origins of tofu and its method of production.While there are many theories regarding tofu's origins,historical information is scarce enough as to relegate the status of most theories to either speculation or legend.Like the origins of cheese and butter, the exact origin of tofu production may never be known or proven.

In Singapore and Malaysia it is more commonly known by its names Tow Huay or Tau Huay in Min Nan, or by the Cantonese name (Tau Fa) with the Cantonese variation being more common in Malaysia, in fact it is almost exclusively known as Tau Fa.

Tau Foo Fa is usually served with a clear sweet syrup alone, with ginkgo seeds suspended in the syrup, or in a sugar syrup infused with pandan.In Malaysia ,however,the most popular kind is served in hot and sweet ginger water,with some of the customers preferring to buy only ginger water as it is believed to contain medicine properties.It sometimes served with Gula Melaka (brown sugar syrup)with it.Depends on the customer to choose which taste they prefer to add.

In Malaysia,Tau Foo Fa can be easily found at food court whole Malaysia during the afternoon to evening period.Many worker or student can buy it during their lunch hour or hi-tea break to enjoy the Tau Foo Fa.Its is cheap and healthy because soy milk in an important source of protein.A bowl of Tau Foo Fa only cost around RM1-RM2 in Malaysia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tofu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douhua