Martin Yan puts in an appearance before the show starts. A diminutive, bouncy looking man casually dressed in a chef’s jacket and denims, he chats to members of the audience who wander up checking out the cookbooks and his well-known chef’s knife – a superbly crafted marvel made to chop, dice, slice and do everything except cut bones. Then the show begins. What sets “Yan Can Cook” apart from the rest of the Chinese cooking shows is Yan’s twin gifts for entertaining and cooking.
He works the viewers, evoking laughter through his jokes, giving out flowers, and awarding two of his books to the audience member who traveled the farthest distance to go to the Stampede (they got here from Jordan). Sadly he was not in a position to award his prize knife, which he promised to do if someone may inform him how noodles got here to be referred to as pasta in Italy. It seems Marco Polo fell in love with mein (pronounced “meen”) or noodles during his travels all through China. Returning dwelling, he held a celebration in which all forms of mein, including chow mein and lo mein, were served. Because it was a party, the men all consumed a a substantial amount of alcohol, together with Marco Polo’s uncle. As the night wore on, the uncle’s recurring requests to “go the mein” gradually shortened into “pasta.” Is there any truth to this legend, found in one in all Martin Yan’s cookbooks? Probably not, but it’s a fun story.
When it got here time to cook, Yan showcased two stir-fry dishes: stir-fried shrimp with greens and a spicy Szechuan rooster dish. He began with the shrimp meal, which referred to as for ginger juice. As an alternative of utilizing a ginger press – efficient but moderately boring – he extracted the juice from a slice of ginger. (Later he defined that the trick to this was freezing the ginger forward of time). The stir-frying was simply as fun. From the flames which rose up from the wok it’s clear this is one chef who takes the words “flaming wok” literally. Martin is a master at stir-frying, shaking the wok and tossing ingredients with no difficulty. You needed to watch carefully to not miss anything although, for the reason that course of itself was very fast, taking mere seconds.
While no recipes were given out, the demonstration was accompanied by several tips, resembling using a bit of wine and cornstarch in a marinade. In addition to, like all good Chinese language cooks Martin prefers to depend on his eyes as a substitute of a measuring spoon in terms of including components.
After the present we have been invited to sample the results. (Yan had ready additional ahead of time). Both dishes had been excellent, although the rooster dish was much less spicy than I expected, contemplating that one of many elements was chili paste. I puzzled if he had deliberately made it a bit of on the bland side to satisfy members of the audience who won’t appreciate fiery Szechuan cooking. Then it was over to a side table, where you may get an autographed copy of one of his cookbooks. When my turn came, he signed it “To Rhonda, the One & Solely, A girl of fashion and great taste!” Okay, so he signed every girl’s e-book in the identical way. The person remains to be my idol. In case you ever have the opportunity, you should definitely catch his live show – the rice vinegar label showing clearly by the bell pepper pores and skin alone is worth it.
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