Real Chinese Appetizers (开胃小菜)

So there's a bunch of different appetizers in China, but we think that you could broadly categorize 90% of them into three groups: (1) Pickles (2) Liangban cold dishes (i.e. "Chinese salad") and (3) Fried peanuts or peas.

Written recipe's over here on /r/cooking:

  / recipes_chinese_appetizers_%e5%bc%80%e8%83...  

For the pickles, we'll show you some quick pickled daikon; the liangban cold dish, we'll do mu'er; and for the fried peanuts... we'll fry some peanuts. We promise that we'll do some of the lacto-fermented sort of pickles sometime... as I mentioned in the video though, here's some resources for you on that topic in the meantime:

The always excellent ChinaSichuanFood has a couple posts on the topic:

https://www.chinasichuanfood.com/pick...

For a video, check out Sarcasmo57's old vid on the topic for some super homestyle kind of pickles (and leave them a comment telling them that we miss them and they should post more lol):

   • How to Make Pao Cai (Chinese picked v...  

And for a more general introduction, check out Sandor Katz and Mara King's excellent "People's Republic of Fermentation". It's a crime that this series doesn't have more views, but... YouTube does tend to demand at least a weekly upload schedule...

   • People's Republic of Fermentation  

Ok, so then for the clips in the very beginning. The bit in Italy was from Rick Steves - such an old-school pre Bourdain/Zimmerman style of travel show:

   • Florence, Italy: Antipasti Feast - Ri...  

The bit showing the Kimchi was from the King of the Food Vlogs, Mark Weins. As an aside up in Heilongjiang they actually also use their own type of Kimchi as an appetizer:

   • Korean Food in Los Angeles - 2 GIANT ...  

And, of course, Good Mythical Morning comparing appetizers from Texas Roadhouse vs Outback Steakhouse. I enjoy watching Rhett and Link eating and rating food from mediocre American chains way more than I should...

   • Texas Roadhouse vs. Outback Steakhous...  

And of course, check out our Patreon if you'd like to support the project!

  / chinesecookingdemystified  

Outro Music: "Add And" by Broke For Free
  / broke-for-free  

ABOUT US
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Learn how to cook real deal, authentic Chinese food! We post recipes every Wednesday (unless we happen to be travelling)

We're Steph and Chris - a food-obsessed couple that lives in Shunde, China. Steph is from Guangzhou and loves cooking food from throughout China - you'll usually be watching her behind the wok. Chris is a long-term expat from America that's been living in China and loving it for the last eleven years - you'll be listening to his explanations and recipe details, and doing some cooking at times as well.

This channel is all about learning how to cook the same taste that you'd get in China. Our goal for each video is to give you a recipe that would at least get you close to what's made by some of our favorite restaurants here. Because of that, our recipes are no-holds-barred Chinese when it comes to style and ingredients - but feel free to ask for tips about adaptations and sourcing too!