Cooking Videos — Week of 2026-08-14 to 2026-08-21

Watch First

The single best watch this week is 【風味茄子】详细教程 by 鲁菜老厨陈宗明, which permanently solves the dreaded problem of soggy home-cooked eggplant. Chef Chen shares master-level Lu cuisine double-frying secrets that yield an incredibly crispy, sweet, sour, and savory masterpiece.

Week in Review

This week’s culinary content was dominated by a masterclass in regional Chinese cooking, with veteran chefs from 老东北美食, 鲁菜老厨陈宗明, and 老飯骨 dissecting Shandong (Lu) and Northern classics. The focus centered on technical precision, with channels sharing crucial food science secrets for achieving texture, from crispy double-fried eggplants to non-stick pan-seared whole fish. Interspersed was a strong current of cultural nostalgia, exploring childhood schoolyard snacks and the evolution of Taiwan’s favorite instant noodles.

Highlights by Theme

Recipes & Tutorials

For classic banquet mastery, 老飯骨 delivers an extraordinary guide to 揚州炒飯 using the golden-yolk coating technique, while 尚食厨房 ShangshiKitchen shows how to slow-simmer an intensely aromatic, waterless 姜母鸭 using sesame oil and Huadiao wine. On the comfort side, 老东北美食 demonstrates rustic genius with 大蝦燒白菜, braising sweet cabbage directly in rich, homemade shrimp oil. Finally, MASAの料理ABC brings professional pastry flair with a mold-free 法式鳳梨酥盒 featuring matcha custard and caramelized pineapple.

Food Science & Tips

Science-minded cooks will appreciate 詹姆士官方專屬頻道’s breakdown of how salting raw fish skin triggers salt osmosis to draw out volatile, fishy compounds. We also got a masterclass in frying from 鲁菜老厨陈宗明, who explained that eggplant requires a dual-stage fry to form a protective starch shell and evaporate surface moisture. Lastly, Chef Chen shared a brilliant trick in 醬燜黃花魚 of briefly blanching fish in boiling water before braising to remove skin impurities and eliminate muddy odors without the mess of deep-frying.

Restaurant & Travel

This week offered a rich journey into culinary heritage, starting with 老飯骨 as master chefs recalled their careers at the Great Hall of the People while attempting to preserve vanishing, labor-intensive classics. They also explored Anhui’s deeply savory, fermented specialty, Chou Gui Yu (Smelly Mandarin Fish), highlighting its cultural importance in local restaurants across Anqing. Meanwhile, 詹姆士官方專屬頻道 took us on a nostalgic trip through Taiwan’s schoolyard history with the iconic, buttery milk powder bun (Naixu bread).

Skippable

Home cooks seeking deep culinary education can bypass the wave of content-dry dessert videos, such as the Costco cheesecake or MASA’s ‘guilt-free’ crispy snack, which tease great flavors but lack detailed instructions or transcripts in the source material. Additionally, while the flurry of ultra-short recipe clips this week provides quick inspiration, they lack the technical depth needed to truly master the dishes.