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| Chinese Ingredients
- Just Like Blighty |
Tomatoes or Fan Caer |
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Called Fan Kai in Hong Kong, Fan Caer in Mainland Cantonese, or Tomatoes are very common in China and available all year round. They come in both English, and sweet cherry versions, and occasionally 'Beefeater' types can be bought
in late summer.
China does not do Italian style Plum Tomatoes, except as imported canned food (Incredibly expensive).
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The standard Chinese tomato is not particularly palatable, with the inner flesh normally being a dry off-white and disgusting. Most will keep in the refrigerator for 3 days, and by day 4 have turned into a pile of brown
goo. This is not good! We suggest you try many suppliers and do a refrigerator test. If they behave as expected in the West, then use that supplier only.
Outside any wet market you may find local traders offering tomatoes, which may be far better quality, and home grown. Bare in mind they may use 'Grey Water' to water them and provide extra nutrients, so unless you are known to the
source, washing and removing the skin would be a sensible precaution. This applies equally to modern supermarket produce; be warned and be careful.
In Toisan this is not a problem, but it was a serious problem in Foshan, both in supermarkets and wet markets. I presume they were irradiated and nearing the end of their shelf life? |
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I now buy these normally in Toisan wet markets,
and judge them mainly by smell and trusted vendor. Obviously
I do not by ones with discolouration, and those that
are not firm to the touch. It is possible to find tomatoes
very similar to standard ones bought in UK supermarkets
= tasteless, but intrinsically ok.
I only use Chinese grown standard tomatoes in a salad
or sandwich. Forget about trying to cook with them,
as they are totally hopeless.
Cherry tomatoes are very sweet, and a usual ingredient
of Chinese fruit salad. Yuck! I use them only for eating,
or for decoration.
Beefeater tomatoes are excellent for eating, especially
with a little salt. They are quite expensive and the
season is short, so I haven't tried cooking with them
yet. They are probably the best of the bunch.
Chinese Recipe
The Chinese do use tomatoes in cooking, and in an extremely
odd way. I once made the grave error of asking for an
omelette in a chinese tea house, and this is what I
got served with:
Wash the tomatoes and dice into small pieces. Break
some eggs and put into a wok with a little oil, stirring
frequently until scrambled. Turn out the eggs onto a
serving dish which is twice as large as it needs to
be. Throw into the wok the diced tomatoes and add more
oil if required. Take a stick of Chinese honey (Pictured
right bottom) and chop or grate about half of it into
the tomatoes (That is a lot of honey!) Stir on full
heat for a couple of minutes until all the hard honey
has been absorbed into the juice and the whole thing
looks like a writhing reddish mass of goo. Tip out the
entire contents of the wok onto the scrambled eggs,
and serve to table (Cold if possible).
The results are truly disgusting! |
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This information is as supplied by ourselves, and ably
supported by our friends and various internet portals. |
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