hello hi everyone! Wesley here. Today we’re diving back into our series dedicated to deconstructing Chinese American classics with a shot at yet another item from the PF Chang’s menu, which is their stir fried Chinese eggplant. For those not familiar in this series, we have been taking menu items from iconically Americanized cuisine like PF Chang’s or Panda Express, then taking apart these recipes, and reassembling them through the lens of more traditional Chinese wok cooking. Not too long ago, we took a look at PF Chang’s Mongolian Beef, their Singapore Chicken, and a few others as well. 

We’re going making use of some Chinese eggplant today, which is most notably longer and thinner than your more common globe eggplant found here in the states. They also have fewer seeds which makes them a little less bitter, and generally more appropriate for flash cooking like we do in a wok fry. Then we’ll also be pairing this with a “sweet chili soy glaze” as PF Chang’s describes it, which by my best assumption is referring to the use of sweet chili sauce for a sweet and spicy glaze. Then finally rounding this all out, i’m going to be making two creative additions to help bring this to life with some spicy black bean paste and Thai chiles, both of which should add some nice depth of flavor, umami, and complex heat that I personally think is absent in the PF Chang’s version of this dish. Hope you try it.

It will be out on Friday December 31, 2021, so bookmark the recipe here, and be sure to subscribe and hit the bell on YouTube to get notified when it’s out!

Woo Can Cook is a series where we reproduce fun foods and recipes from my childhood. Some of them are authentically Chinese and/or pan-Asian, but a lot of them are odd Americanized versions that I inherited from my parents and grandparents while growing up in the Bay Area/California.

We're live streaming every Tues/Thurs at 6:30PM PST, with new recipes out every Friday!

Hello hi everyone! Wesley here.Today we’re diving back into our series dedicated to deconstructing Chinese American classics with a shot at the PF Chang’s Singapore Black Pepper Chicken. For those new to the series, we have actually done a number of Chinese American classics already, (including a shot at the Mongolian Beef from PF Chang’s not too long ago). What we’ll be doing today is deconstructing what makes these dishes “tick,” and then identify what are the Americanized aspects going on, and try and reconstruct the dish through the lens of more traditional wok cooking. Now, fortunately for us, PF Chang’s has actually published this recipe for us to take a look at, and it’s honestly, pretty bland looking (mostly a combination of oyster sauce, soy sauce, and rice vinegar), so I’m feeling pretty confident that we can do…decently better. 

So for our version today, we’re gonna stay fairly true to the original with the inclusion of some flash cooked sweet white onion, green bell pepper, and red Fresno peppers. But then we’ll be deviating a bit by tossing that in a bright, umami forward dark soy sauce base, and finally rounding all of that out with what I think is the most iconic part about this dish, which is some steamed chicken, for some of the most tender, aromatic, lacy, and juicy bits of chicken that you will ever create. Hope you try it.

It will be out on Friday October 29, 2021, so bookmark the recipe here, and be sure to subscribe and hit the bell on YouTube to get notified when it’s out!

Woo Can Cook is a series where we reproduce fun foods and recipes from my childhood. Some of them are authentically Chinese and/or pan-Asian, but a lot of them are odd Americanized versions that I inherited from my parents and grandparents while growing up in the Bay Area/California.

We're live streaming every Tues/Thurs at 6:30PM PST, with new recipes out every Friday!

hi hello hi everyone! Tonight we're making a kung pao chicken recipe that i wrote which is loosely based on hacking the Panda Express Kung Pao Chicken. The "Woo Can Cook" version that we're making tonight incorporates a handful of more traditional Chinese ingredients to amp the overall dish up a bit, most prominently the use of spicy black bean paste.

Freshen up on the recipe here, bookmark the stream here, and pick up the ingredients below if you want to follow along and cook dinner with me.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 chicken thigh

• 1 yellow bell pepper

• 2 green onions

• 12 dried peppers (tianjin peppers, or similar)

• 2 stalks celery

• 1/2 medium white onion

• 1/4 cup raw peanuts

• 4 cloves garlic

• 1 inch ginger

• Sichuan peppercorn

• vegetable oil

INGREDIENTS (marinade)

• 4 tbsp soy sauce

• 2 tbsp shaoxing wine

• 1 tbsp sesame oil

• 2 tbsp hoisin sauce

• 1 tbsp white pepper

• 1 tbsp corn starch

• kosher salt

INGREDIENTS (sauce)

• 2 tbsp black vinegar

• 2 tbsp fish sauce

• 4 tbsp soy sauce

• 2 tbsp black bean sauce

• 1 tbsp brown sugar

• 2 tbsp spicy chili crisp

• 1 tbsp corn starch

• water

Hello hi everyone! Wesley here. Today we’re adding to our series on foods inspired by the Bay Area restaurant scene with a shot at a Taiwanese sticky pork and rice roll or “cifantuan,” inspired by the one found at Five Happiness in San Francisco, CA. For those not familiar, a cifantuan or “fantuan,” as it is colloquially referred to, is made up of glutinous sticky rice, wrapped around a Chinese fried donut or “youtiao,” and folded together with a savory dried pork floss, or “rousong.” Here in the states, you’ll commonly come across these in Taiwanese pastry shops and dim sum restaurants like Five Happiness, but you may also find these in Taiwan from street food vendors as well because they are so compact and easy to eat on the go. Hope you try it.

It will be out on Friday July 23rd, 2021, so bookmark the recipe here, and be sure to subscribe and hit the bell on YouTube to get notified when it’s out!

Woo Can Cook is a series where we reproduce fun foods and recipes from my childhood. Some of them are authentically Chinese and/or pan-Asian, but a lot of them are odd Americanized versions that I inherited from my parents and grandparents while growing up in the Bay Area/California.

We're live streaming every Mon/Tues/Thurs at 6:30PM PST, with new recipes out every Friday!

hello hi everyone! Wesley here. Today we’re diving back into our series on Panda Express Hacks with a shot at their string bean chicken, which we’re gonna deconstruct, and then see if we can’t amp it up a bit with some of my favorite additions drawn from more traditional Chinese wok cooking. For those not familiar, Panda Express’ string bean chicken features (as you might guess) string beans (or green beans, depending on who you ask), sweet white onion, and a bit of chicken breast done in a fairly mild “ginger soy sauce,” (or at least, that’s what they call it). To me of course, ginger and soy sauce are in most Chinese stir fries already, so that sauce could very well be really anything.

So, I’m taking a bit of liberty with my attempt here, and adding a couple of ingredients to bring out a little bit more savory umami and heat, with a couple of ingredients that you’ll likely recognize from some of our more traditional recipes. This is mainly gonna be done with the addition of dark soy sauce, black bean paste, and my favorite combination of heat elements, some Chinese doubanjiang, and spicy chili crisp or “lao gan ma.” Hope you try it.

It will be out on Friday July 16th, 2021, so bookmark the recipe here, and be sure to subscribe and hit the bell on YouTube to get notified when it’s out!

Woo Can Cook is a series where we reproduce fun foods and recipes from my childhood. Some of them are authentically Chinese and/or pan-Asian, but a lot of them are odd Americanized versions that I inherited from my parents and grandparents while growing up in the Bay Area/California.

We're live streaming every Mon/Tues/Thurs at 6:30PM PST, with new recipes out every Friday!

hi hello hi everyone! Tonight we're making a recipe for a dish that a few folks have requested now, which is a Chinese beef chow fun. Beef chow fun comes from Cantonese cuisine and is commonly associated with Hong Kong style street food. Here in the states, it’s also a staple of Chinese American cuisine throughout the country, and can have a wide array of veggies and meats included, depending on where you find it.

Their version of beef chow fun is fairly classic, using a combination baby bok choy, bean sprouts, flank steak and of course, wide chow fun rice noodles. I’ll also be taking a page from our Mongolian Beef recipe to nail down the most tricky part of this dish, which is the crispy seared beef. Hope you try it!

Freshen up on the recipe here, bookmark the stream here, and pick up the ingredients below if you want to follow along and cook dinner with me.

INGREDIENTS

• 4 cloves garlic

• 1 tbsp (about 1 inch) ginger

• 8 oz flank steak

• 16 oz chow fun

• 8 oz (about 24) baby bok choy

• 4-6 oz (about 1/2 cup) bean sprouts

• 1/2 cup corn starch dredge

• 1 tsp baking soda slurry

• peanut oil

INGREDIENTS (marinade)

• 4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)

• 1/2 tsp white pepper

• 1 tbsp sesame oil

• 1 star anise pod

• kosher salt

INGREDIENTS (sauce)

• 4 tbsp soy sauce

• 2 tbsp dark soy sauce

• 2 tbsp oyster sauce

• 2 tbsp black vinegar

• 1 tbsp doubanjiang

• 2 tbsp shaoxing wine

• kosher salt

hello hi everyone! Wesley here. Today we’re adding on to our series on foods from TV and Film with a sweet and sour chicken, inspired by “How I Met Your Mother.” Its origins (as you may have guessed) very much come from American cuisine, and for this reason, very prominently features the use of both canned pineapple AND the pineapple syrup that it’s canned in, for an almost aggressively sweet quality.

It is commonly paired with a handful of other colorful veggies like red bell pepper and white onion, and of course makes use of the all American classic condiment, Ketchup, in order to achieve that bright red color that you’ll know and love. We’ll be using one of my favorite go-to fried chicken recipes with a double fried, carbonated soda water tempura batter, which yields (in my opinion) the best fried chicken results in a Chinese glazed chicken dish like this one that i’ve ever managed. Hope you try it.

It will be out on Friday July 9th, 2021, so bookmark the recipe here, and be sure to subscribe and hit the bell on YouTube to get notified when it’s out!

Woo Can Cook is a series where we reproduce fun foods and recipes from my childhood. Some of them are authentically Chinese and/or pan-Asian, but a lot of them are odd Americanized versions that I inherited from my parents and grandparents while growing up in the Bay Area/California.

We're live streaming every Mon/Tues/Thurs at 6:30PM PST, with new recipes out every Friday!

hi hello hi everyone! Tonight we're making a kung pao chicken recipe that i wrote which is loosely based on hacking the Panda Express Kung Pao Chicken. The "Woo Can Cook" version that we're making tonight incorporates a handful of more traditional Chinese ingredients to amp the overall dish up a bit, most prominently the use of spicy black bean paste.

Freshen up on the recipe here, bookmark the stream here, and pick up the ingredients below if you want to follow along and cook dinner with me.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 chicken thigh

• 1 yellow bell pepper

• 2 green onions

• 12 dried peppers (tianjin peppers, or similar)

• 2 stalks celery

• 1/2 medium white onion

• 1/4 cup raw peanuts

• 4 cloves garlic

• 1 inch ginger

• Sichuan peppercorn

• vegetable oil

INGREDIENTS (marinade)

• 4 tbsp soy sauce

• 2 tbsp shaoxing wine

• 1 tbsp sesame oil

• 2 tbsp hoisin sauce

• 1 tbsp white pepper

• 1 tbsp corn starch

• kosher salt

INGREDIENTS (sauce)

• 2 tbsp black vinegar

• 2 tbsp fish sauce

• 4 tbsp soy sauce

• 2 tbsp black bean sauce

• 1 tbsp brown sugar

• 2 tbsp spicy chili crisp

• 1 tbsp corn starch

• water

hi hello hi everyone! Tonight we're making a recipe for a dish that a few folks have requested now, which is a Chinese beef chow fun. Beef chow fun comes from Cantonese cuisine and is commonly associated with Hong Kong style street food. Here in the states, it’s also a staple of Chinese American cuisine throughout the country, and can have a wide array of veggies and meats included, depending on where you find it.

Their version of beef chow fun is fairly classic, using a combination baby bok choy, bean sprouts, flank steak and of course, wide chow fun rice noodles. I’ll also be taking a page from our Mongolian Beef recipe to nail down the most tricky part of this dish, which is the crispy seared beef. Hope you try it!

Freshen up on the recipe here, bookmark the stream here, and pick up the ingredients below if you want to follow along and cook dinner with me.

INGREDIENTS

• 4 cloves garlic

• 1 tbsp (about 1 inch) ginger

• 8 oz flank steak

• 16 oz chow fun

• 8 oz (about 24) baby bok choy

• 4-6 oz (about 1/2 cup) bean sprouts

• 1/2 cup corn starch dredge

• 1 tsp baking soda slurry

• peanut oil

INGREDIENTS (marinade)

• 4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)

• 1/2 tsp white pepper

• 1 tbsp sesame oil

• 1 star anise pod

• kosher salt

INGREDIENTS (sauce)

• 4 tbsp soy sauce

• 2 tbsp dark soy sauce

• 2 tbsp oyster sauce

• 2 tbsp black vinegar

• 1 tbsp doubanjiang

• 2 tbsp shaoxing wine

• kosher salt

hi hello hi everyone! Tonight we're making a kung pao chicken recipe that i wrote which is loosely based on hacking the Panda Express Kung Pao Chicken. The "Woo Can Cook" version that we're making tonight incorporates a handful of more traditional Chinese ingredients to amp the overall dish up a bit, most prominently the use of spicy black bean paste.

Freshen up on the recipe here, bookmark the stream here, and pick up the ingredients below if you want to follow along and cook dinner with me.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 chicken thigh

• 1 yellow bell pepper

• 2 green onions

• 12 dried peppers (tianjin peppers, or similar)

• 2 stalks celery

• 1/2 medium white onion

• 1/4 cup raw peanuts

• 4 cloves garlic

• 1 inch ginger

• Sichuan peppercorn

• vegetable oil

INGREDIENTS (marinade)

• 4 tbsp soy sauce

• 2 tbsp shaoxing wine

• 1 tbsp sesame oil

• 2 tbsp hoisin sauce

• 1 tbsp white pepper

• 1 tbsp corn starch

• kosher salt

INGREDIENTS (sauce)

• 2 tbsp black vinegar

• 2 tbsp fish sauce

• 4 tbsp soy sauce

• 2 tbsp black bean sauce

• 1 tbsp brown sugar

• 2 tbsp spicy chili crisp

• 1 tbsp corn starch

• water

hi hello hi everyone! Tonight we're making a kung pao chicken recipe that i wrote which is loosely based on hacking the Panda Express Kung Pao Chicken. The "Woo Can Cook" version that we're making tonight incorporates a handful of more traditional Chinese ingredients to amp the overall dish up a bit, most prominently the use of spicy black bean paste.

Freshen up on the recipe here, bookmark the stream here, and pick up the ingredients below if you want to follow along and cook dinner with me.

INGREDIENTS

• 4 cloves garlic

• 1 tbsp (about 1 inch) ginger

• 8 oz flank steak

• 16 oz chow fun

• 8 oz (about 24) baby bok choy

• 4-6 oz (about 1/2 cup) bean sprouts

• 1/2 cup corn starch dredge

• 1 tsp baking soda slurry

• peanut oil

INGREDIENTS (marinade)

• 4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)

• 1/2 tsp white pepper

• 1 tbsp sesame oil

• 1 star anise pod

• kosher salt

INGREDIENTS (sauce)

• 4 tbsp soy sauce

• 2 tbsp dark soy sauce

• 2 tbsp oyster sauce

• 2 tbsp black vinegar

• 1 tbsp doubanjiang

• 2 tbsp shaoxing wine

• kosher salt

hi hello hi everyone! Tonight we're making a kung pao chicken recipe that i wrote which is loosely based on hacking the Panda Express Kung Pao Chicken. The "Woo Can Cook" version that we're making tonight incorporates a handful of more traditional Chinese ingredients to amp the overall dish up a bit, most prominently the use of spicy black bean paste.

Freshen up on the recipe here, bookmark the stream here, and pick up the ingredients below if you want to follow along and cook dinner with me.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 chicken thigh

• 1 yellow bell pepper

• 2 green onions

• 12 dried peppers (tianjin peppers, or similar)

• 2 stalks celery

• 1/2 medium white onion

• 1/4 cup raw peanuts

• 4 cloves garlic

• 1 inch ginger

• Sichuan peppercorn

• vegetable oil

INGREDIENTS (marinade)

• 4 tbsp soy sauce

• 2 tbsp shaoxing wine

• 1 tbsp sesame oil

• 2 tbsp hoisin sauce

• 1 tbsp white pepper

• 1 tbsp corn starch

• kosher salt

INGREDIENTS (sauce)

• 2 tbsp black vinegar

• 2 tbsp fish sauce

• 4 tbsp soy sauce

• 2 tbsp black bean sauce

• 1 tbsp brown sugar

• 2 tbsp spicy chili crisp

• 1 tbsp corn starch

• water

hi hello hi everyone! Tonight we're making a kung pao chicken recipe that i wrote which is loosely based on hacking the Panda Express Kung Pao Chicken. The "Woo Can Cook" version that we're making tonight incorporates a handful of more traditional Chinese ingredients to amp the overall dish up a bit, most prominently the use of spicy black bean paste.

Freshen up on the recipe here (out 3/26!), bookmark the stream here, and pick up the ingredients below if you want to follow along and cook dinner with me.

INGREDIENTS

• 4 cloves garlic

• 1 tbsp (about 1 inch) ginger

• 8 oz flank steak

• 16 oz chow fun

• 8 oz (about 24) baby bok choy

• 4-6 oz (about 1/2 cup) bean sprouts

• 1/2 cup corn starch dredge

• 1 tsp baking soda slurry

• peanut oil

INGREDIENTS (marinade)

• 4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)

• 1/2 tsp white pepper

• 1 tbsp sesame oil

• 1 star anise pod

• kosher salt

INGREDIENTS (sauce)

• 4 tbsp soy sauce

• 2 tbsp dark soy sauce

• 2 tbsp oyster sauce

• 2 tbsp black vinegar

• 1 tbsp doubanjiang

• 2 tbsp shaoxing wine

• kosher salt

hi hello everyone! Wesley here. This is a recipe adding to our Bay Area restaurant hack series, for a chicken katsu from an Oakland staple of the community called Shogun. Apart from a number of classic sushi rolls that you can find at Shogun, they also have one of my favorite chicken katsu plates in town, so I thought I pay homage to this spot today.

For those not familiar, a chicken katsu is a battered and breaded chicken breast cutlet coated in panko breadcrumb, then deepfried to golden brown awesomeness. It can be served with a number of different sides, but my personal favorite are some pickled daikon radish, and of course, a classic sweet and savory katsu sauce. Hope you try it.

It will be out on Friday March 19, 2021, so bookmark the recipe here, and be sure to subscribe and hit the bell on YouTube to get notified when it’s out!

Woo Can Cook is a series where we reproduce fun foods and recipes from my childhood. Some of them are authentically Chinese and/or pan-Asian, but a lot of them are odd Americanized versions that I inherited from my parents and grandparents while growing up in the Bay Area/California.

We're live streaming every Mon/Tues/Thurs at 6:30PM PST, Weds at 6PM PST, with new recipes out every Friday!

hi hello hi everyone! Tonight we're making a kung pao chicken recipe that i wrote which is loosely based on hacking the Panda Express Kung Pao Chicken. The "Woo Can Cook" version that we're making tonight incorporates a handful of more traditional Chinese ingredients to amp the overall dish up a bit, most prominently the use of spicy black bean paste.

Freshen up on the recipe here, bookmark the stream here, and pick up the ingredients below if you want to follow along and cook dinner with me.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 chicken thigh

• 1 yellow bell pepper

• 2 green onions

• 12 dried peppers (tianjin peppers, or similar)

• 2 stalks celery

• 1/2 medium white onion

• 1/4 cup raw peanuts

• 4 cloves garlic

• 1 inch ginger

• Sichuan peppercorn

• vegetable oil

INGREDIENTS (marinade)

• 4 tbsp soy sauce

• 2 tbsp shaoxing wine

• 1 tbsp sesame oil

• 2 tbsp hoisin sauce

• 1 tbsp white pepper

• 1 tbsp corn starch

• kosher salt

INGREDIENTS (sauce)

• 2 tbsp black vinegar

• 2 tbsp fish sauce

• 4 tbsp soy sauce

• 2 tbsp black bean sauce

• 1 tbsp brown sugar

• 2 tbsp spicy chili crisp

• 1 tbsp corn starch

• water

Hello hi everyone! Wesley here. Today we're adding to our Chinese American food hack series with a recipe for a Taiwanese popcorn chicken based on a version that you can find at a cafe and snack stop called Quickly. Quickly is well known for their pearl milk tea or "boba nai cha," as well as their tasty bite sized popcorn chicken snacks.

I also thought I'd use this as an opportunity to experiment with a buttermilk fried chicken approach in my own "Woo Can Cook" version, which yielded some of the tastiest fried chicken that I have literally ever eaten. Hope you try it.

It will be out on Friday March 12, 2021, so bookmark the recipe here, and be sure to subscribe and hit the bell on YouTube to get notified when it’s out!

Woo Can Cook is a series where we reproduce fun foods and recipes from my childhood. Some of them are authentically Chinese and/or pan-Asian, but a lot of them are odd Americanized versions that I inherited from my parents and grandparents while growing up in the Bay Area/California.

We're live streaming every Mon/Tues/Thurs at 6:30PM PST, Weds at 6PM PST, with new recipes out every Friday!

hi there hello everyone! Tonight we're making a deep fried angus steak dish called Beijing Beef, using a recipe that I wrote hacking the Beijing Beef from Panda Express. It's a super flavorful, sweet and savory dish that's easily one of my favorites from our Chinese American Food Hack series on the channel.

Freshen up on the recipe here, bookmark the stream here, and pick up the ingredients below if you want to follow along and cook dinner with me.

INGREDIENTS

• 4 cloves garlic

• 1 tbsp ginger (about 1 inch)

• 1 lb angus sirloin steak (or flank steak)

• 1 red bell pepper

• 1/2 medium white onion

• chili flake

• vegetable oil

INGREDIENTS (tempura batter)

• 1/4 cup corn starch

• 1/4 cup AP flour

• 1/4 cup water

• 2 egg whites

INGREDIENTS (sauce)

• 1/4 cup water

• 4 tbsp soy sauce

• 2 tbsp hoisin sauce

• 2 tbsp oyster sauce

• 2 tbsp rice vinegar

• 4 tbsp sweet chili sauce

• 1/4 cup honey

• corn starch

hi hello hi everyone! Tonight we're making a kung pao chicken recipe that i wrote which is loosely based on hacking the Panda Express Kung Pao Chicken. The "Woo Can Cook" version that we're making tonight incorporates a handful of more traditional Chinese ingredients to amp the overall dish up a bit, most prominently the use of spicy black bean paste.

Freshen up on the recipe here, bookmark the stream here, and pick up the ingredients below if you want to follow along and cook dinner with me.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 chicken thigh

• 1 yellow bell pepper

• 2 green onions

• 12 dried peppers (tianjin peppers, or similar)

• 2 stalks celery

• 1/2 medium white onion

• 1/4 cup raw peanuts

• 4 cloves garlic

• 1 inch ginger

• Sichuan peppercorn

• vegetable oil

INGREDIENTS (marinade)

• 4 tbsp soy sauce

• 2 tbsp shaoxing wine

• 1 tbsp sesame oil

• 2 tbsp hoisin sauce

• 1 tbsp white pepper

• 1 tbsp corn starch

• kosher salt

INGREDIENTS (sauce)

• 2 tbsp black vinegar

• 2 tbsp fish sauce

• 4 tbsp soy sauce

• 2 tbsp black bean sauce

• 1 tbsp brown sugar

• 2 tbsp spicy chili crisp

• 1 tbsp corn starch

• water