Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Chinese Waffle Making

Hey, get your Chinese Food Olympic Event submissions in! Sunday night is the closing ceremonies so hurry up! I am not even going to post this recipe because I'd be surprised if you could find one of these. These irons are for making a Chinese snack/dessert called Gai Dan Zai which means "little eggs" (hope I got that right). They are somewhat similar to waffles where they are nice and crispy on the outside and pancakey on the inside. You ever have Aebleskivers? Well these aren't quite the same but they are easier to make in my opinion. Just pour the batter in, cook one side, flip it over and cook the other side. You usually find street vendors making these and I've seen them in all sorts of different flavors (mango, coconut).


I introduced Neal to these on our last day in Hong Kong 4 years ago and that was a mistake because 1) he REALLY liked them and wished we could make some back home and 2) it was our last day there and we missed out on trying the different kinds. A couple years later I enlisted the help of my aunt J in Hong Kong and my dad who was there for a business trip and they managed to get this snazzy kitchen tool and bring it home for us just after Aedan was born.


I am still learning how to use it and truthfully, I can't seem to find a legit recipe. These tasted good but not Hong Kong good. They actually make them so that all the "eggs" are connected by crispy batter and so you pull it off the iron in one whole piece and snack on it that way. I lack the special certain touch I suppose. Someday...

9 comments:

  1. Oh I'm sitting here drooling all over my keyboard! I'm so jealous! Yum, yum, yum...I remember being so glad that we had tried them, but then wishing we hadn't so that I wouldn't know what I was missing!

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  2. I'm in!
    http://dyerlogue.blogspot.com/2008/08/go-world-get-takeout.html
    Justin's family makes aebleskivers, but I've never had them. And I can't spell them. I basically like anything made out of pan fried dough, though...

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  3. Aebleskivers can also be representative of some of my family heritage (on the non-chinese side obviously) and I LOVE them however the pans are equally hard to come by. I found an adorable Aebleskiver pan on ebay once and it ended up going for $80+ dollars!!! Someone must have had a HUGE craving :)

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  4. Ahem- the closing ceremonies is Sunday night. You scared me there for a second- I'm planning on doing my entry on Saturday. Oh, and can you recommend a good Asian market in town? Where do you go?

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  5. Oh man, I can't keep my days straight. Yikes! You are right, closing ceremonies Sunday night. As for asian markets here, the best one is AmKo on Springfield. The Green Onion on Neil is ok, there is another further down on Neil and that is more authentic Chinese but is very small. Good luck ;)

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  6. My stomach is growling now!!!

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  7. Ok Jackie, my entry has been posted. http://aprilcots.blogspot.com/2008/08/what-do-we-do-now.html
    Hope you liked the closing ceremonies! We are breaking out our new Mario Kart game tomorrow night after Matt gets home from his quals- we can both feel warm and fuzzy knowing we are doing the exact same thing just 50 yards or so across the parking lot... :-)

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  8. wow, you found a pan! I grew up on these - every time we went to NYC, I'd get these little "bread things" from the street lady in Chinatown. I saw them in Boston, but they didn't taste right. In Taipei, everyone has their own variation. I get so excited when I see them and then SOO disappointed when they end up tasting like a bad fortune cookie. (just stumbled on this post looking for a recipe)

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  9. hi there. where did you get the pan and i need one...please tell me thanks
    my email is vjenny28@gmail.com

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