Glossary

Bean curd Bean curd is the solid substance which is formed through the action of acid on liquidised beans. Almost tasteless in its natural state, it is highly nutritious, and often used as a meat substitute.
Black bean sauce Sauce made from black beans and garlic. Slightly bitter, it is generally made with chillies, and so can be somewhat spicy, depending on the chef.
Char siu Roast pork from the south of China.
Chop suey An Americanism for anything cooked with beansprouts as the main ingredient.
Chow mein Literally 'fried noodles'. Cooked noodles are fried with meat and/or vegetables.
Crispy aromatic duck Duck served with light pancakes, cucumber, spring onions and hoi sin sauce. The duck goes through a number of cooking processes, and takes around 5 hours to cook.
Dao fu Cantonese for bean curd.
Dumplings What the Chinese refer to as dumplings are either ravioli-type boiled 'dumplings' or else steamed buns made of a sweet dough and filled in the centre with meats or sweet fillings.
Fu Young An egg dish which is a cross between scrambled egg and an omelette.
Hoi sin sauce A barbecue sauce, very rich.
Kung Pao A spicy hot dish made with chillies and spring onions.
Ma po bean curd/Ma po dao fu A spicy bean curd dish with minced beef in a rich thick sauce.
Noodles The original spaghetti.
Pancake roll An alternative name for spring rolls.
Satay A Malaysian dish where meat is placed on wooden skewers and deep fried. Usually served with a sauce for dipping.
Seaweed As it suggests, seaweed. However, often some other vegetable is substituted. As it is deep fried, dry and usually salty, most people cannot tell the difference!
Sesame toast Bread covered in a prawn based paste which is used as the adhesive to coat the bread in sesame seeds. This is then deep fried.
Singapore fried noodles Thin noodles with a mixture of meats and seafoods, quite spicy.
Spring roll Translated from the Chinese name, spring rolls are sheets of rice paper or a pasta type skin, filled with meat and/or vegetables and deep fried.
Szechuan style Szechuan cooking is hot and spicy, and generally anything which is described as such will be spiked with chillies.
Tofu An Anglicised form of Dao Fu or bean curd.
Won ton A pork/prawn dumpling which is usually boiled, but can be deep fried, in which case the casing becomes crispy.