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Exotica of the Day

prawn crackers

Prawn crackers.

No, no…not pr0n, crackers. Calm down there, you crackers at the back. Prawn crackers are a staple of East Asia. Ninety percent air, 10 percent rice, and I think their collective grandmother might have seen a prawn at the circus once.

A bag of them is usually included with an order of Chinese takeaway (aka takeout) in the UK. At least, that’s my experience. Uncle B says it isn’t always; depends the size of the order. Well. There are no small Chinese takeaway orders in the Badger household, so that’s my experience.

Comments


Comment from porknbean
Time: December 1, 2008, 7:20 pm

Prawn crackers, riighhhht. Those look like a version of packing peanuts. Styrofoam munchers.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: December 1, 2008, 7:40 pm

In possibly the most politically incorrect terminology EVARR, Uncle B is apt to refer to a Chinese restaurant as a Chinko.

You’re welcome.


Comment from Lipstick
Time: December 1, 2008, 7:40 pm

ooooo, prawn crackers! They are so tasty!


Comment from Lipstick
Time: December 1, 2008, 7:41 pm

Dang, I’m going to steal Uncle B’s word. 🙂


Comment from Dawn
Time: December 1, 2008, 7:50 pm

Metal trays. That’s odd. How do you reheat your leftovers? If you have to transfer them to another dish or use an oven, that’s way too much like cooking.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: December 1, 2008, 7:58 pm

Years ago, Dawn, one of Uncle B’s friends asked me if we really got Chinese food in those little paper boxes he’d seen on TV. So I sent him a picture.

But the handles of those things are metal, so you couldn’t put them in the nuker, either.


Comment from scubafreak
Time: December 1, 2008, 7:58 pm

Stoatie, get him to change to CHINKO’S, and you have a great ad slogan… 🙂

btw, I think they eliminated the handles for microwave use……


Comment from Joan of Argghh!
Time: December 1, 2008, 8:20 pm

Prawn crackers! They go so well with crispy duck. Mmmm!


Comment from Liberty Girl
Time: December 1, 2008, 9:24 pm

Oh lawsie, Wease, I am so jealous. I first encountered prawn crackers in Saudi Arabia, gleaned from a Chinee grocery. Now I eat myself to puking on them every time I lay my hands on a box.


Comment from nbpundit
Time: December 1, 2008, 9:46 pm

Pffftt!
Where’s the stuff on suet pudding, shepherds pie, rack of
lamb with mint sauce, or yorkshire pudding?


Comment from Jill
Time: December 1, 2008, 11:08 pm

Everytime I talk the office into ordering in Chinese, the subject line of the email reads ‘Chiney Foo?’.

I kinda like Chinko better. (sideways head tilt)
But I’m thinking that our HR lady will explode an aneurism if I call it that.


Comment from Allen
Time: December 1, 2008, 11:08 pm

Ah, I can see Her Waselness, bicycling into town… Hey, what’s the status on the Raleigh bicycle?

Shopping for the lead shot filled Christmas Goose. Slowly munching on a Moonpie, with an occasional bite of prawn cracker as camoflauge, while sipping an RC. The distracted town inhabitants ask, “what the hell…?”

Britain… thers’s a weasel in the hen house. 🙂


Comment from Pupster
Time: December 2, 2008, 12:53 am

I don’t understand the prawn cracker link, unless it’s me whose benefits are being cut by NHS and I go pants-less for a reason beyond ventilation.


Comment from JuliaM
Time: December 2, 2008, 1:28 am

“Metal trays. That’s odd.”

Some of our local Chinese takeaways have switched to all-plastic containers quite recently.

Prawn crackers from the takeaway are sublime! The ones you get on the crisp aisle in the supermarkets, not so much, but will do in a pinch.


Comment from Gibby Haynes
Time: December 2, 2008, 9:34 am

Our local Chinese Takeaway has plastic trays now too. Totally microwavable. I’ve got about 50 of the bastards saved up in the cupboard. I use them to pour stock and other culinary concoctions in before banging them in the chest freezer only to discover them three years later and say, ‘What’s this? Whichever silly bugger put it in didn’t label it.’

Come to think of it, I haven’t received a free bag of plawn clackers for ages. I guess that means they’re not impressed by my cunning habit of padding out my orders with starters and side dishes rather than main meals.

Sometimes they give you free bamboo-effect calendars to play with too. My grandma likes them so much that once the year is up, she cuts off the calendar part and sticks it on the wall. Now her living room is emblazoned with Chinese Imperial tableaux. They juxtapose nicely with her her Don Quixote and Sancho, and her ‘Pretty Spanish Lady’ prints.

Oh, and I’ve never heard of ‘Chinko’ before. Must be a southern thing. Round here, if we’re feeling mischievously politically incorrect, it’s ‘Chinky’ or for annoying student union types, ‘Chink-master’ or ‘-meister’.


Comment from Sarah D.
Time: December 2, 2008, 9:37 am

Are they like shrimp chips?

OMG, I just went to Google shrimp chips for those of you not in the know, and apparently I’m in France. I think I’ll go back to bed and try this again.


Comment from Princess Bernie
Time: December 2, 2008, 11:15 am

Good morning, lovely Sarah D!

And Weasel, I haven’t forgotten to give you a big congrats on making it across the pond. Have been not much on the innernuts over the past week or so.

So now I’ll say it – congratulations Weasel and Uncle Badger!


Comment from Gromulin
Time: December 2, 2008, 12:55 pm

Isn’t it RedEx/Chinko’s now?


Comment from scubafreak
Time: December 2, 2008, 1:16 pm

Hey, RedEx/Chinco’s has branches in every major city in the world….. 😉


Comment from JuliaM
Time: December 2, 2008, 2:31 pm

“Are they like shrimp chips?”

If chips = crisps, and shrimp = prawn….then yes! 🙂

“…it’s ‘Chinky’ or for annoying student union types..”

Yep, ‘Chinky’ is the appelation of choice here too. ‘Chinko’ must be a country thing…


Comment from JuliaM
Time: December 2, 2008, 2:32 pm

“Sometimes they give you free bamboo-effect calendars to play with too. “

Oooh, I love those! If you have a ‘Hoo Hing’ distributors near you, you’re in heaven 🙂


Comment from dfbaskwill
Time: December 2, 2008, 3:27 pm

Let me know how the Kung Po chicken is over there. I couldn’t go a week without it if I was to visit the ancestral homeland. Austrian Chinese cooking was bland, I can’t think the British version would be any better. Keep the food updates coming.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: December 2, 2008, 4:15 pm

Uncle B makes a very creditable one of his own, df, so I don’t think we’ve ever bought one. Okay, I confess: there’s pretty much one thing I ever get at Chinese takeout. Fried pork dumpling. Damme, I love them.

My favorite British shopping trip whenever I came over was Wing Yip, Julia. They supply all the Chinese restaurants in England, so you could get…oh, everything. Pig uterus. Giant chopping blocks made from unfinished tree rings. Rice by the pallet-load. Last time Uncle B went there, he said kind of sucked, but I have my happy memories. Chinko must be London; that’s where Uncle B was born and raised.


Comment from JuliaM
Time: December 2, 2008, 4:38 pm

Wing Yip! Ooh, there’s a new one. Their website looks quite similar to the stuff Hoo Hing do. Nothing near me though, I’m over in East London, where the Hoo Hing Clan reigns supreme. They seem to have the East coast sewn up.

Do Wing Yip have the huge tanks of fresh carp, catfish and lobsters in the shops, awaiting their fate, too? That’s the best part! Half pet shop, half supermarket..
😉


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: December 2, 2008, 4:56 pm

We went to the Wing Yip in Croydon, when he had a place in London. We were in the Crystal Palace area. No live fishes, though.

I see Hoo Hing describe themselves as Britain’s largest Chinese grocery chain. Why do I imagine the boys from Wing Yip and the Boys from Hoo Hing lining up on either side of the street with their choppers and cleavers some day…?


Comment from Dawn
Time: December 2, 2008, 7:51 pm

Hmmmm….where’s our new post today?
I’m just saying.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: December 2, 2008, 8:01 pm

Pulling it out of my ass even as we speak, Dawn. It’s been a week today and I’m having a hell of a time getting my rhythm back.


Comment from Sarah D.
Time: December 2, 2008, 8:03 pm

*waves to the sweet Princess*

I still haven’t checked Google again, I’m afraid to.


Comment from Old Grouch
Time: December 2, 2008, 11:45 pm

“Are they like shrimp chips?”

Yep, and that’s how they’re sold in the U.S. You can buy them *unfried* at oriental groceries: Little discs about the size and shape of a quarter, which look like they’re made of clear plastic. Pop ’em in the FryBaby, and they whoosh up to full size almost instantly.


Comment from JuliaM
Time: December 3, 2008, 1:38 am

“Why do I imagine the boys from Wing Yip and the Boys from Hoo Hing lining up on either side of the street with their choppers and cleavers some day…?”

Heh! That would make an awesome musical…


Comment from Gibby Haynes
Time: December 3, 2008, 8:23 am

Yeah, Hoo Hing and Wing Yip are totally going to ‘go to war’ at some point. Why deny the inevitable. There can be only one most popular Chinese food wholesalers.


Comment from BJM
Time: December 12, 2008, 10:09 pm

Chinese and Indian takeaway in Florida comes in the tins too. I thought them odd at first but they do keep the food hotter and leak less in the car. Reheating leftovers in the microwave is problematic though, as one is forced to use a container of some sort, which means washing said container; thereby defeating the point of takeaway.

Mmmmm…magically inflated crunchy foodstuffs! I adore prawn crackers and papadams.

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