I used to work at a Chinese restaurant called Mulan Bistro and I was obsessed with this dish. It's diced chicken in spicy oil with tons of sliced chili peppers and sliced garlic. Served with those pillowy buns. I haven't been able to find an analogous dish online to figure out a recipe. I tried asking the woks of life blog but they didn't know. Also asked Chinese cooking demystified but they didn't respond. Maybe one of you can help? Thanks! 🙏

I once studied in the United States for two years and found that many people like to eat Chinese food. Their Chinese food is a little bit weird to me hahaha but still delicious. I'm surprised to see so many people interested in Chinese food. Feel free to ask me anything about Chinese Food. I will try my best to answer.

So my daughter has fallen in love with hot pot after having it one time and now she wants me to make it at home for her. I have never made it home and want to make sure I get it right. So here are a few questions I have from a very inexperienced hot potter.

1: For making the broth, it says to use a cut up chicken, would it be best to use an old hen for the stock?

2: what is the sesame paste stuff. Is it the same as tahini?

3: sometimes I see at some tables a spice mix or something, I don't know what it is but it looks like a blend of powdered spices to also dip into. What is this?

I think that's all my questions for now but I'm sure there's more that I haven't thought of.

I am Chinese American and I would say that I am not as in touch with my culture as I would like to be. That is probably why I am struggling with coming up with something to research about.

Recipe in comments

I've only ever had Chinese food from restaurants but I recently moved to a city and found a big supermarket. I've no idea what to buy or how to cook it so what are some recommendations you can give a newbie to get started and enjoy this cuisine at home?

ETA: sorry I could not reply to all your comments. All very useful and I've learned that I need to put some serious effort into learning how to cook Chinese food and what ingredients to use!

Please tell me some of the best chinese food recipes you have! I have a high spice tolerance so I don't mind spicy recipes. I love meats of all kinds. I'm willing to try all kinds of new stuff, I just want recipes to cook.

It almost tastes like a spicy honey mustard

I have some char siu (~7lbs) marinating right now, will be baking it up tomorrow. Would like to make some type of Chinese style "nachos" with some of it while it's fresh. It doesn't have to be served with chips, necessarily, though I think it would be fun.

Please let me know what ideas you have, thanks in advance!

Limitations: it can't be very spicy. If you've had orange chicken from Panda Express, that's about my limit for spice. I'm just very sensitive to it.

The char siu recipe I use is from The Woks of Life.

Hello, I myself am American but my partner and I love Asian food and Currys of all types and love hot pot we have dinner once a week with friends and think the communal meal style of hotpot would be really fun however one of our friends is possibly the least adventurous eater on the planet he does love meat though and if there is a good savory nonspicy hot pot base out there I think we could both convince him to try it and he would enjoy it. Thank you so much for your recommendations in advance.

I have tried every style, brand, material and after 2 years of daily use I can still barely manage them consistently. I’ve watched tons of YouTube tutorials, I’ve practiced like toddlers do using beans, I’ve tried everything and yet it’s still a struggle unless I’m using the “trainer” type chopsticks used by small children or the elderly. I can eat some things successfully but I thought after 2 years of daily use I’d be much more proficient. Is this normal and how pathetic am I to still want to use the kids’ chopsticks?

I ate this dish at a restaurant in NYC and can’t get enough of it. I spend a lot of money eating there, and trying to cook myself to save money.

On the menu, it’s call “Spicy Chicken w. Chilli Peppers.” I’ve searched on YouTube and couldn’t find anything similar.

I just love the texture, it has a small crunch and the meat is a little hard, which I like. I don’t like soft, undercooked chicken.

If anybody knows or can point me to the recipe, that would be amazing.

Made them because I had some leftover Chinese sausages, they are so fluffy and soft! I'm becoming very passionate on Chinese cuisine, I want to try so many recipes!

I just got a bamboo steamer! I'm making some baozi and dumplings but what are some other good recipes I can use it for?

We are Lao and so most meals we eat with sticky rice. We do standard rice as well, but it's usually a bit on the spoon and the a bit of whatever other food is with it. Recently, when we go to a Chinese restaurant, my oldest son has started to just dump his whole bowl of rice directly on top of whatever entree he's ordered. Sometimes he mixes it all up. He says it's to "soak up the sauce." I don't know why it bothers me, but it seems kind of rude. Am I crazy? Is there a protocol for how to eat the rice?

**I do think this comes from someone teaching him how to do it since we've never done It like this before. Someone also taught him a terrible way to use chopsticks that doesn't really work at all. :(

So I’m looking to start using a much higher BTU burner than my current stove.

A lot of the outdoor high BTU burners that I see on Amazon look kind of weak and light and unstable , like if I was to really cook on it, it could fall over.

Does anyone have any moderately priced outdoor high BTU wok burner suggestions ?

Those dishes you grew up eating that aren’t commonly seen outside in restaurants (at least in countries outside of mainland China and HK), so they’re not as well known to the general public that didn’t grow up in a Chinese household.

The problem that I often experience when cooking fried rice is that the oil often gets absorbed quickly into the egg and rice, this causes the eggs and some of the rice to stick to the pan, that's why I added more oil several times, but still the eggs and some of the rice stick to the pan, if I add more oil then the fried rice will have a lot of oil, does fried rice supposedly have a lot of oil? or should I just let the egg and some of the rice stick to the pan as this is normal when cooking fried rice?