What is Chinese fast food_

The Master Chef

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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.

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