Swans [was Re: Query: Boston Restaurants]
Chris Jones
>In article <40...@ursa-major.SPDCC.COM>, j...@spdcc.COM (Jerry Natowitz) writes:
>> In article <18...@haddock.ima.isc.com> t...@haddock.ima.isc.com (Andrew
>Tannenbaum) writes:
>> >In article <18...@frog.UUCP> bi...@frog.UUCP (Bill Masek) writes:
>> >> 3. Best Sechuwan Chinese Appitizers - Mary Chung's get the
>> >> Peking Ravioli and Swan Lao Chao Shou (sp?) and nothing else
>> >> comes close.
>
> I am curious how popular the 'Suan La Chao Shao' soup is. I first
> had it at Royal East in Cambridge, and haven't seen it anywhere else.
> Apparently Mary Chung has it, and I heard a place in Arlington also
> has it. According to the Royal East menu (of several years ago),
> this soup is a standard fare. Why then have I seen it nowhere else
> apart from the Cambridge area?!? How authentic is it, and what region
> of China is it from. Even more, what does the name mean?
>
> Have other people had this before? The Royal East version is a
> spicy soy sauce broth with many bean sprouts and wontons. It is
> really yummy (and it leaves the corners of your mouth tingling from
> the spiciness). I would love to know where else this can be gotten,
> or better yet, how to make it!
>
> I would appreciate any help I can get on this Suan La Chao Shao
> research!!!!!
I too am interested in finding out how this soup came about (and if anyone has
a recipe, now's the time to pipe up). The restaurant in the Royal East
location used to be called Colleen's Chinese Cuisine (you can still see the
"CCC" logo under the yellow paint in the medallion over the door). Colleen's
was the site of many a Chinese food fest; in my opinion it was the best Chinese
food near MIT, and beat almost everything in Boston's Chinatown. Anyway,
Colleen's was where I first got Swans, as they were called by the people I
worked with. I heard that Mary Chung's was started by a chef from Colleen's (I
wonder what her name was?) and they also made the soup, and after Royal East
took the former Colleen's location, they continued the soup because everyone
orders it. (Well, maybe not everyone, but I've got an 8 year old son who has
adored it since he was 5. His 5 year old sister prefers the non-spicy,
non-soy, porky wonton soup. She's generally wonderful, so we're willing to
give her some more time.)
--
Chris Jones c...@ksr.com {world,uunet,harvard}!ksr!clj
Mark A. Rosenstein
friend who took her cooking class several years ago. I tried this
recipe recently, and while I got something that resembled swans, they
just weren't the same. I'll have to figure out what needs changing.
-Mark
SUAN LA CHOW SHOW
Sauce
2 Tbsp Dark Soy Sauce
4 Tbsp Water
1 tsp Vinegar
1 Tbsp chopped Garlic
1/2 Tbsp minced Ginger
1 tsp Hot Oil or Hot Oil Paste
Dash of White Pepper
Combine all ingredients. Make sauce a day ahead of time to allow
taste to blend. If you want to double the portion, DO NOT ADD
additional Garlic, Ginger or Hot Oil.
Skins
2 1/2 cups White Flour
3/4 cup Hot Water
1/4 cup Cold Water
Stir hot water and flour together with chopsticks. Add cold water and
work dough with fingers. Roll dough into a ball and cover with damp
cloth or plastic. Leave it at room temperature for about 20 minutes.
Knead the dough again for approx 10 minutes. Form it into a long roll
about 1 inch in diameter. Cut it into 20 to 24 small pieces. Press
each one flat with the palm of your hand. Roll it out thin.
Filling
1 lb ground pork or beef
1/2 to 1 lb Chinese Cabbage
3 Tbsp Soy Sauce
2 Tbsp Wine
2 Tbsp Oil
2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Sesame Oil
2 Tbsp chopped Scallion
1/2 tsp minced ginger
1 egg
Dash of White Pepper
Bean sprouts
Boil a large pot of water. Mix together everything but the cabbage in
a bowl. When water starts to boil, add cabbage. Turn off heat and
let cabbage soak for approx. 2 minutes. Rinse cabbage in cold water
and squeeze out excessive water. Chop cabbage finely and squeeze
again. Sprinkle a dash of salt onto cabbage and stir it into the meat
mixture.
Boil another large pot of water. Wrap filling in skins, and drop
wontons inside boiling water and wait. When it starts to bubble, pour
in 1/2 cup of cold water and wait for it to boil again. When it does,
repeat with another 1/2 cup of cold water. The enxt time it starts to
boil, the wontons that are floating on top should be done. Scoop them
out and rinse under cold water.
Serve wontons over bean sprouts topped with sauce.
Andrew Tannenbaum
Restaurants call "Suan La Chow Show" soup. People call it soup.
It is served with one of those white soup spoons.
It ain't soup, it's dumplings on sprouts with spicy soy sauce.
There's no soup in there. You wanna fight about it?
I've also seen "Chinese casserole" with meatballs the size of your
fist, which I would call soup, but that's another fight - this at
Hua Yuan on East Broadway (not related to Broadway) in New York's
Chinatown (yum!).
Andrew Tannenbaum Interactive Cambridge, MA +1 617 661 7474
David J. Braunegg
Colleen Fong. She used to make Suans for her family, and her daughter
Peggy suggested that she serve the dish in her restaurant. Colleen
retired, which is why Colleen's was replace by the Royal East. Mary
Chung was a cook at Colleen's, which is why you find Suans at Mary's.
I have the recipe (from Colleen) at home and will try to remember to
bring it in.
Dave
--
Dr. David J. Braunegg
M/S K103
The Mitre Corporation
Burlington Road
Christopher C. Stacy
The "Suans" at Colleen's were sweeter and less hot than the ones at Mary's.
I enjoyed both dishes, but personally usually prefered Mary's.
I wonder if there isn't some secret being purposely witheld from us
would-be Suan cookers. For one thing, I didn't see any kind of sweetener
in the recipe posted, and there is definitely sugar or something in there.
After Colleen retired to teach cooking, Royal East opened up in her
location with a similar menu, including Suans.
Unfortunately, their Schezuan food has never been on a par with Colleen's
or Mary's. The last time I looked, they were trying to establish a
difference by emphasizing their seafood. Many people I've queried over the
years have indicated they patronize Royal East primarily because of the
slightly nicer decorum there, and to avoid the long waiting line at Mary's.
Royal East changed their Suan recipe a few years ago, and I find the new
implementation to be too bland, so I hardly ever go there anymore.
(As I mentioned in the original posting: when Mary's is too busy,
or when I want a nicely decorated place, I prefer to go to Chang Sho.)
Ah, Colleen's ...restaurants you can't get anymore...
David Yang
There is definitely a Hot (La) and Sour (Suan) Soup that you can find
on almost any menu. Personally, I've never heard of adding dumplings
to it; though I could be wrong, this sounds a bit like some owner/chef's
idea of combining 2 things people seem to like-- dumplings and spicyness.
It reminds me of when I went to a local restaurant with several other
students. One of the students, a vegetarian, asked the waiter if he
could have a particular dish with hot sauce (I think there was at most
one spicy vegetarian dish on the menu). The waiter responded, "You can
have *any* dish you want with hot sauce." It seems pretty tough to be
a non-Hunan/Sicuan restaurant these days; all the non-takeout places
seem to have at least some Hunan/Sicuan dishes.
David
John T Kohl
> There is definitely a Hot (La) and Sour (Suan) Soup that you can find
> on almost any menu. Personally, I've never heard of adding dumplings
> to it;
Mary Chung's has the much-ballyhooed "Suan La Chow Show" AND a separate
"Hot & Sour Soup with wontons" which is precisely this cross between
Hot&Sour and Wonton Soups.
--
John Kohl <jtk...@ATHENA.MIT.EDU> or <jtk...@MIT.EDU>
Digital Equipment Corporation/Project Athena
(The above opinions are MINE. Don't put my words in somebody else's mouth!)
John T Kohl
> There is definitely a Hot (La) and Sour (Suan) Soup that you can find
> on almost any menu. Personally, I've never heard of adding dumplings
> to it;
Mary Chung's has the much-ballyhooed "Suan La Chow Show" AND a separate
Brett W Johnson
>
>There is definitely a Hot (La) and Sour (Suan) Soup that you can find
>on almost any menu. Personally, I've never heard of adding dumplings
>to it; though I could be wrong, this sounds a bit like some owner/chef's
>idea of combining 2 things people seem to like-- dumplings and spicyness.
This "soup" is distinctly different from hot and sour soup. It consists
of dumplings and beansprouts with a hot/sour/sweet sauce. It isn't really
a soup at all, and is nothing like hot and sour soup. 'Tis excellent and
the only thing I think is truly outstanding about Mary Chung's...