‘Laoganma’ are a much loved brand of chilli cooking sauces from China. Roughly translated ‘Laoganma’ means ‘old godmother’ and the founder of the brand, Tao Huabi, can be clearly seen on the label.
Tao Huabi started a small noodle shop featuring her own home made chilli and soy bean sauces in Guizhou in 1989. The sauces became so popular that several years later, she opened up her first small factory. From these humble beginnings, the brand became the most popular chilli sauce in China. It now has a multi-million $ turnover and it is sold all over the world.
We love Laoganma sauces and highly recommend them. They taste strong and flavoursome. Our favourite is the black bean chilli sauce which is rich and dark. The ‘crispy chilli’ flavour is also highly popular.
The sauces are available internationally and you should be able to find them in any store selling a decent selection of Chinese food.
Stir fry the sauce with vegetables (we like pak choi and broccoli florets) with some meat or tofu, add soy sauce and Shaoxing rice wine. Combine with noodles and a sprinkle of sesame seeds, a dash of coriander and your meal is ready in no time!
Whilst we are on the subject of China, we cannot help but add a link to the old Chinese boxing form of Zui Yuan aka ‘drunken fist’. We knew there was a fighting style of ‘drunken boxing’ as we are fans of Jackie Chan’s old 1978 Kung Fu movie ‘Drunken Master’, a very popular comedy at the time, which features several great fight sequences. However, whilst watching the movie we did not realise that Jackie Chan was not simply pretending to be ‘drunk’ when confronting some opponents, he was enacting the ‘drunken boxing’ style rather than fooling around for the comedic effect.
A superb contemporary film of the style courtesy of the South China Post follows. If you like the Brazilian martial form Capoeira you will love drunken boxing because whilst the two forms are clearly distinct from one another, there are some similarities in our opinion.
A friend put us on to Emanuel Augustus known as the ‘greatest boxer you may have never have heard of’. Augustus incorporated ‘drunken’ movements into his boxing to riveting effect and the short documentary below gives you a good idea of the man’s style. If you thought that Muhammad Ali could dance around his opponents, check out the real life ‘Drunken Master’ in action.
Jackie Chan‘s movie was very popular in Jamaica and it influenced tracks by DJ’s such as General Echo and Ranking Joe (both tracks were called ‘Drunken Master’). Ranking Joe is still around thankfully but General Echo was murdered many years ago.
Ranking Joe’s aptly named ‘Shaolin Temple’ album was our favourite by the man.
FOOD, FILMS 'N' TINGS 