What is Chinese fast food_
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00:00So there's a style of eatery in China that's a little hard to translate – it's called
00:04kuaizhan, and if you translate it directly, as people often do, it'd literally be fast
00:10food.
00:11But if I said to you the words fast food, your mind would probably immediately jump
00:15to some sort of fluorescent-lit chain serving up mystery meat cooked in assembly line form.
00:20And while I'm definitely no snob, Chinese kuaizhan's definitely a good bit tastier
00:24than that.
00:26Quality wise, you're probably looking at something closer to a diner, with a similar
00:29cultural footprint.
00:31The food comes fast, as the name suggests, but that's due to the fact that it's all
00:35whipped up at a walk station that can pump out simple stir fries in a flash.
00:39Generally speaking, a kuaizhan lunch consists of a simple stir fry, maybe some boiled veg
00:44on the side, and of course, a small mountain of white rice.
00:48So for this video, we wanted to try to teach you how to make a basic kuaizhan-style meal
00:52for yourself at home.
00:54The cool thing about this is that it actually ended up being a perfect sort of home-style
00:58meal for one to two people, because it's by definition pretty quick, and it's also
01:02about as complete of a meal as you'd need.
01:05So we'll show you the two dishes that were mine and Steph's go-to orders at our local
01:09kuaizhan joint that we loved in Shunde… a recreation of their Jiangbao tofu, my order,
01:15together with Steph's favorite of jiacai fried pork slivers.
01:18So.
01:19Jiangbao tofu, aka, sauce explosion tofu, up first.
01:24Here we've got one block, or 300 grams of soft tofu, and cutting that into one inch
01:29pieces.
01:30Then, to pre-cook it and get out some of its grassy taste, to that just toss in one teaspoon
01:35of salt together with about two cups or so of hot boiled water and let it soak.
01:40It'll need about 15 minutes or so, which'll give us some time to prep everything else
01:44for the dish.
01:45So.
01:46Because this stir fry moves fast, we'll prepare our sauce at first.
01:50At its core, this sauce is a base of Tianmianjiang, sweet bean paste… a paste that's neither
01:55sweet nor made from beans, but should be available at pretty much any Asian supermarket and can
02:00also be found online.
02:01So we'll be adding one teaspoon of that, one teaspoon of soy sauce, a half teaspoon
02:06liaojiu aka Shaoxing wine, a quarter teaspoon salt, a half teaspoon sugar, an eighth teaspoon
02:12MSG, an eighth teaspoon white pepper powder, and one tablespoon of water.
02:16Mix well, and set it aside.
02:19Then, on the aromatics front, really not too much going on here… just mince up two cloves
02:24of garlic, and cut one small mild chili into one centimeter sections.
02:28And then, with that, now we can fry.
02:32So, to stir fry, as always, first, longyau.
02:37Get that wok piping hot, shut off the heat, add in the oil, here about three tablespoons,
02:41and give it a swirl to get a nice nonstick surface.
02:44Flame on medium now, heat that oil up until it can bubble around a pair of chopsticks,
02:48and slide your… now drained… tofu in.
02:51Get that all into one even-ish layer, and don't touch it.
02:55Let that fry on that one side for about three to four minutes, until the oil becomes obviously
03:00clear again, like so.
03:02Now just scooch that to the side of the wok, and then optionally go in with a quarter teaspoon
03:06of Pixian Doubanjiang, chili bean paste.
03:09If going that route, once your oil's stained obviously red, about one minute, toss in your
03:14minced garlic, and let that fry for about 30 seconds till fragrant.
03:18Then swap the flame to high, and go in with your prepared sauce.
03:21Let that fry for about 15 seconds, chili's in, and over a low flame now, thicken it with
03:26a slurry of a half teaspoon cornstarch mixed with about a tablespoon of water.
03:31Final mix to thicken, and… out.
03:34Jiangbao tofu, done.
03:37Of course, all that said, if we really wanted to mimic a Chinese Kuaizhan joint, that stir
03:42fry can't be the only component here.
03:45Obviously a mountain of rice is also a must have.
03:49So just cook up some rice like you'd always cook up some rice, but to get things all Kuaizhan-y,
03:54we'll be shaping it before tossing it onto a plate.
03:57To do so, just scoop up some rice into a small bowl, press in along the edges of said bowl,
04:02flip that onto a plate, give it a couple knocks, and you've got yourself a pretty little
04:07mound of rice.
04:08Then, Kuaizhan component number two, a random bit of blanched vegetable.
04:14Here this was just 150 grams of napa per serving.
04:17To cook it, just toss a teaspoon of salt and oil into some bubbling water, then go in with
04:22your napa torn into two to three inch pieces.
04:25Pretty much any vegetable can also be given this same treatment.
04:29Just once it's done to your liking, which was about two minutes of cooking for napa
04:32for us, transfer that over to a bowl, drain out the water, toss in a quarter teaspoon
04:37soy sauce, and mix.
04:40And then with that final component, now we've got ourselves a Kuaizhan meal.
04:45So then, dish number two, jiacai fried pork slivers.
04:49Now the core ingredient of this dish is, as I'm sure you could guess, jiacai – Sichuanese
04:55preserved mustard stems.
04:57Now I promise that jiacai is actually a pretty easy to find ingredient – you should be
05:01able to find packages just like these at pretty much any Asian supermarket, and they're
05:05also available online in a pinch.
05:08For this video, we'll be using the not-spicy sort, but feel free to alternatively toss
05:11in the spicy or mala kind if that's what you're feeling.
05:16Then of course, the other titular ingredient, pork slivers.
05:20This was just 200 grams of pork loin, first cut into sheets, then cut into about two inch
05:24slivers against the grain.
05:27Once cut, just transfer those over to a bowl and marinate with a quarter teaspoon of salt,
05:31a quarter teaspoon sugar, a tablespoon of cornstarch, a half teaspoon soy sauce, a half
05:36teaspoon liaojiu a.k.a. Shaoxing wine, eight teaspoon white pepper powder, and two tablespoons
05:40of water.
05:42Mix that real well, coat it with about a teaspoon of oil, and now we can fry.
05:47So.
05:49To fry this, today we're essentially going to be doing a poor man's pass through oil,
05:53which'll basically just be shallow frying those slivers.
05:56So to your hot wok, just toss in about three to four tablespoons of oil, or enough that
06:01it can almost submerge the slivers in your wok or pan.
06:04Then, high flame, once you can see some bubbles rapidly forming around a pair of chopsticks
06:09about 180 centigrade, toss in your pork slivers.
06:13Break those up a bit, and let those fry for about 30 seconds or so… and once they look
06:17almost done, give that a quick stir fry for another 15 seconds or so to finish the job.
06:22Remove, toss in a strainer, and really make sure that most of that oil's drained off
06:26from the pork.
06:28Then, same wok, just remove some of that excess oil, leaving only about two to three tablespoons
06:33remaining in the wok.
06:35Swap the flame to low, and go in with about two cloves of minced garlic together with
06:39a half an inch of minced ginger.
06:41Fry those till fragrant, about 30 seconds, then swap the flame to high and go in with
06:45the jiacai.
06:47This pack was 80 grams worth for your reference.
06:50Fry that all together for another quick 30 seconds, then pour about a tablespoon of liaojiu
06:54aka Shaoxing wine over your spatula and around the sides of the wok.
06:58Give that another quick mix, then season with a teaspoon of soy sauce, a quarter teaspoon
07:02dark soy for color, and the remaining usual suspects which we'll list at the top of
07:06the screen.
07:08Quick mix, and for some vegetable we'll also toss in 50 grams of bean sprouts together
07:12with about 20 grams worth of julienned carrot.
07:1430 second fry, swap the flame to low, toss in a slurry of a half teaspoon of cornstarch
07:19mixed with a tablespoon of water, give it a final quick mix, and… out.
07:24Jiacai rou si, done.
07:27So xianchao kuaican, aka stir-fry kuaican, it's one type, and there are other kinds
07:34and forms of kuaican in China, for example there's one style of zhengcai steaming dishes
07:40that's originated in liuyang, hunan, that's spread out through the country and became
07:45a staple in major cities, and then there's also shaola roast meat, which is a Cantonese
07:52classic, and in this sense, even lanzhou ramen and shaxian dumplings can also be considered
07:58a kuaican.
07:59So right, check out the recipe in the description box, a big thank you for everyone that's
08:04supporting us on Patreon, and of course, subscribe for more Chinese cooking videos.
08:09Hi!
08:10Oh my god, you're so stupid.
08:11It's all your nose.
08:12Hi!
08:13Oh my god, you're so stupid.
08:16It's all your nose.