Cooking in the Time of COVID – Hong Shao Kao Fu

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Instagram Post 3/23/2020

 
👨‍🍳 Cooking in the Time of COVID 👨‍🍳

A few days ago, I posted about New Kam Man, 200 Canal St in Manhattan, a Chinatown market that’s been open during the COVID-19 crisis and deserves our support. I highlighted a couple of bean curd skin snacks (they have top-notch barbecue and roast meat options too) and I spotted another that I was less familiar with, so of course, I bought it. The label read “Stewed Gluten Kao-Fu 5 Spices”.

(Click on any image to view it in high resolution.)

Hong Shao Kao Fu is an appetizing Shanghainese dish made from wheat gluten (kao fu), dried mushrooms, wood ears, dried lily buds, and peanuts that’s served cold and is so good that it’s something I make at home. Now, although the kao fu I buy in Chinese markets looks a little like whole wheat bread, this product was different. But I thought it might be fun to experiment with using it in place of my usual kao fu – even though it’s not an orthodox usage – so I modified my recipe and here’s how it turned out. It’s rather different from the original but pretty tasty if I say so myself. And yes, my vegetarian friends, it’s perfect for you too.


This is NKM’s “Stewed Gluten Kao-Fu 5 Spices” in slices, straight out of its container, before I started messing around with it. Since we’re very much in the throes of coping with COVID-19, you’ll be seeing more “Cooking in the Time of COVID” posts from me. Hope that’s okay. 😉

And a reminder: you can stay current with which Manhattan Chinatown restaurants are doing take out and deliveries during the COVID-19 crisis here. Please give them your support.

🥡 #keepcalmandcarryout #supportchinatown #supportsmallbusinesses

Stay safe and be well. It’ll be a long row to hoe, but we’ll get through this together.
 
 

2 thoughts on “Cooking in the Time of COVID – Hong Shao Kao Fu”

  1. I was in Chinatown today. Started at New Kam Man. Bought a few things for lunch – drunken chicken, marinated bamboo shoots, and seaweed salad. Liked them all. I saw not one customer there around noon! Other supermarkets did have more customers. But I saw shocked to see no street vendors. fish stores closed, most bakeries closed, very few restaurants open (House Special on Hester Street is closed for good), only one vegetable store open on Mott Street. Not many Chinese buying fish at New York Mart on Mott Street. And I was right – some prices have gone down. I bought a porgy for dinner – $1! Baby whiting for 79 cents per pound! Will see what is happening on East Broadway and Chatham Square area on Thursday.

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