Tis' is the End: the End of our Culinary Journey

Wow, I can't believe that this is already the end of our culinary journey! We hit off 2014 pretty well I would say, get credit for eating delicious Chinese food, going on field trips to eat more food, by far the best JanTerm everrrr! I learned a lot about my own culture through this class. I mean, I knew that there were certain foods eaten at certain times, but I never thought why is that. Even a generation before me doesn't know sometimes as well. 

Remember in my last post about the Chinese New Year dinner and how I talked about the simple chicken? So yesterday we had a guest with us, my brother's tutor, and I asked him, do you know why we serve this kind of chicken on this day? He says no; I turn to one of the auntie's and I also ask her, do you know? She also replies, no; I wasn't really in shock per say but I definitely was not expecting that. She said she just knows that this kind of chicken is served on this day, but she doesn't know why. And so, I told her that on this day of happiness and a mark of wealth and growth, it is thought that no matter how poor you are you will still be able to afford a simple chicken. 

I guess I have an excuse for myself that I am a second generation living in the United States so it's "normal" or "okay" for me to not know this. But for my parent's generation...I think probably not. It does somewhat upset me that they don't know the why to certain Chinese "ways" anymore. Because it is so interesting and so unique that I would be devastated if no one remembers or carries down this tradition anymore. 

With that being said, I will try my best to carry this tradition with me as I grow. I am in a lot of ways American, and in a lot of ways Chinese. But living in America has somewhat made me forget about my Chinese "ways." And I really hope I preserve some Chinese tradition in me. 

Wow, that was kinda' deep...anyways! Thank you again for reading! JanTerm is officially over and everyone enjoy the rest of January!

Evann

Chinese New Year & Spring Festival 春节

Unlike the Western culture how the New Year is celebrated on...the New Year's eve and day on the Gregorian calendar, Chinese New Year is usually celebrated between mid-January to the end of February. The Chinese separates the year  by the patterns of the moon, hence Chinese New Year is according to the Lunar calendar. This year (2014), Chinese New Year is celebrated on January 31st; adn 2014 is the year of the Horse. How the animals come in play came from an old legend, which I may talk about in another time. 

So lucky for me, and quite a good timing actually, this week we're going to have Chinese New Year! Actually, as I am typing this blog right now, it is already Chinese New Year. Today was such a busy busy busyyyyyy day! My mother and I had to go grocery shopping at the Asian market. And guess what, it was jam PACKED! Everyone was doing their last minute shopping. It's like the eastern equivalent to Christmas Eve shopping or during Black during. Yeah, just that crazy. Andddd here are some typical food items I saw might interest you!

Honey Roasted Pork 叉烧

Roasted Duck 烤鸭

This is actually a very typical way of displaying food in the Asian market in Asia as well. The meat is displayed, and the consumer pick and choose which one(s) they want. Well, we didn't get either at the market becausseeeeee my mommy already bought the roasted duck the day before :). Good job mommy! Today we are here to get some vegetables, noodles, and to stock up on some sauces! 

Thank goodness for JanTerm class I'm taking or else I would've never finished making these dumplings! Practice makes perfect! Today's dumplings were a little different than the ones we made in class. The stuffing we made included: nappa cabbage, ground pork, salt, oyster sauce, sesame oil, and diced ginger; 1/3 being ground pork and the other 2/3 being veggies. (My mom likes to make everything healthier.) Hahah look at me makin' those dumplings! I sat there for almost 3 hours! Netflix was ma pal!

Working super hard!

I'm not going to show you all the dishes that we had but here are some of the dishes that have a significant meaning on Chinese New Year (or Chinese food culture in general haha). This dish (below) is called 捞生 (lao sheng); before the big meal for Chinese New Year, everyone would use their chopsticks and together as a group we would mix everything on this plate together while cheering. This is to bring good luck and sometimes we say wish upon good things (for others) during this time. 

This is no ordinary chicken! This dish is called 白切鸡 (bai qie ji); and it is Cantonese styled. It looks simple, quite plain actually, and you may wonder why is such an easy dish made on such a celebrated festival? Well, meat in China symbolizes wealth. So due to the simplicity of this chicken, people thought that even if you're limited, you (or your family) can still be able to afford a chicken on the table. This is a mark of growth (from the backfire of the Great Leap Forward). So this is still a tradition now and this dish actually asks for a lot of 功夫 (techniques). It was my mom's first time making it, not too bad mommy! Proud of you :)!

There is a Chinese saying and it goes like this, 年年有余. That translates to every year there are remains/leftovers. Every year there is so much abundance that you have remains/leftovers. Fish 鱼 is a homophone for 余. Traditionally, there is always at least one dish that is of fish to signify this saying. However, since we didn't have fish this time....and one of our family's friend got us some lobsters....soooo...we kinda' exchanged it. So what is usually a plate of steamed fish is now a lobster sashimi for us! And it was delish! :D 

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR! 

Of course, you can't have a Chinese celebration without alcohol ;). 

That is all folks! This was how I spent my 2014 Chinese New Year! I was definitely the most I've ever put into making a meal for Chinese New Year and it definitely made the food soooo much better! After dinner, we played some games, in this case charades and the loser had to eat a sushi with wasabi packed inside! Ahh I've had only 2, anddddd I was the lucky one who only had to eat 2 muahahah. At the end of the night, of course we received our little red pockets! :)

I hope you enjoyed reading a little snippet of my life and how my family and I celebrated Chinese New Year. I wish everyone good health and may all your wishes come true! Thank you for reading and have a lovely Friday tomorrow!

Evann

Peking Duck

Well, well, well....what do we have here? Yes, ANOTHER field trip down to Dallas to eat some good food! Jealous? Should be ;). Today, we're not just going to eat any Chinese food, we are going to get ourselves some Peking duck!! Yes, the one and only famous Chinese dish that is to die for! (Well..I didn't mean to exaggerate.) We went to a restaurant in Plano called Mr. Wok. It's a cute little cottage  that is heavily decorated with Chinese ornaments all over the walls inside. Very typical of Chinese people actually. This restaurant is super popular. People poured themselves, literally, in as we try not to trip anyone over with our chairs. Yes, it was rather intense.

Peking duck is a delicacy in Chinese food culture. Millions of ducks are served every week in China! Isn't that crazyy??? Peking duck is served with the steamed pancake, thinly sliced green onions, sometimes garlic as well, and sweet bean paste/sauce. The procedure for this dish is as follows. First you take a piece of steamed pancake and put it on your plate. Now get some sweet bean paste and spread it over your pancake. Not too much because it can be quite salty! The next step is to add your green onions, garlic, and lastly your duck pieces. Generally it is one piece of meat and a piece of skin so you have the perfect combination of softness and crunchiness. Wrap it up like a burrito and there is your peking duck ready to be devoured! 

Believe it or not, this is actually the first time I've had Peking duck anywhere else besides China. There are some differences but I wouldn't say it's big enough to change the style or the taste of the entire dish. The steamed pancakes in this restaurant I would say is slightly bigger and thicker than usual. But thats okay. Everything else is fine though! Very nicely done, it was sooo yummy! Everyone just couldn't stop, including myself as well haha. 

This is definitely not a dish that we are able to do at home...unless your house has a restaurant styled kitchen then aren't you a lucky duck?! (Haha, I did it again! LOL.) Anyways, I've always loved Peking duck and it actually has been a while since the last time I've had it..probably 2 years ago? I'm not even joking. So thank you so much (insert instructor's name here) for taking us to get some Peking duck! It was soooo yummy! I felt like I've had enough food for like... 2 days. Well..not really, but you know what I mean. I cannot believe that week 2 is alreayd OVER! Isn't that crazy? Time flies when you're having fun! And I'm having a blast for sure! Well, if you are in the DFW area and would like to try some Peking duck, with a Chinese approval, make your way to Mr. Wok in Plano! You wouldn't be disappointed! (Unless you're a super chef in China who has masted the Peking duck for 20+ years, then there are no guarantees.) 

Thank you all for sticking around these two weeks! I hope to post more Chinese food pictures whenever I can! It is almost Chinese New Year and I think we're doing something big at home this year. We shall seeeee! Until next time!

Evann

Lotus Root Sandwiches 莲藕猪肉饼 and Pineapple Rice 菠萝饭

Yup, we're going to visit a new province today! Yunnan 云南 is located in the southern part of China. The weather there is rather tropical and soooo...there are a lot of tropical fruits and vegetables :). In the Yunnan province, Buddhism is also practiced heavily. So the people's food there is usually kept to the minimal and they don't consume meat at all. So after our instructor told us about this culture, I really wondered what we were going to make today. 

And it turned out that we are going to make TWO dishes today! Get excited! :D

The first dish we are going to make is...drumroll please.....LOTUS ROOT SANDWICHES!! Yeah I know, sounds kinda' weird right? But trust me, they're actually pretty good! (Or maybe we're just super incredible fantastic magnificent chefs ;).) If you don't know what a lotus root is, it's basically a "root" that is found in muddy puddles in swampy areas. So how did we make a dish out of this interesting looking vegetable? Well, I'm about to show you!

Ingredients you will be needing is: sliced lotus roots, soy sauce, pork, sugar, eggs, ginger, corn flour, cooking wine, scallions, and salt.

First step is to mince the pork. It should be easier if you brought ground pork. Dice the scallions and ginger and put it in the same bowl as the minced pork. Now, according to your taste and liking, add in sugar, cooking wine, soy sauce, and mix everything together. 

Now in a separate bowl, mix in eggs, corn flour, and water; mix until the texture is consistent. Obtain some lotus roots, wash and peel the skin. What you would want to do now is to cut the lotus slices about a centimeter in width. 

As the name suggests, we are going to make a sandwich! As simple as that. Tkae a slice of lotus root and, like spreading peanut butter onto a piece of bread, spread the mined pork mixture onto the lotus root. Take another slice of lotus root an put it on top of the meat. Yay, you have your very own lotus root sandwich! But it's not done quite yet. Remember you prepared an egg mixture? Yes, submerge the entire sandwich into the egg mixture. Once you take it out, deep fry it in a wok heated with oil. When you see a golden, crispy, layer formed that means the sandwich is ready to be served! :) You can also try to lay a piece of napkin on the plate so it can soak the leftover oil. You can either go ahead and eat it as the way it is, or you can dip it in soy sauce, hoisan sauce, chili sauce, etc. Have fun eating! :)

So nowwwwwwwww, the PINEAPPLE dish! I'm sure most, if not all, of ya'll are quite interested in what is this Pineapple rice. Yup, well just like it sounds, it's pineapple...with rice! Or I guess it's more like rice in a pineapple bowl. Anyways, let's get started! Here listed are the ingredients that you would need for this dish:

• 1 cup sticky (glutinous) rice
• 1 fresh, ripe pineapple
• 3 pieces rock sugar or 1/3 cup of sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 cup dried longans
• 1/2 cup toasted pine nuts or coarsely chopped almonds
• Honey or agave nectar (optional)
• 1/2 cup flaked or shredded coconut

There are a couple of different ways to create this dish, but I'm going to tell you the recipe that we used in class. Because it can get a little wordy...I'm going to make this as succinct as possible! (You're welcome :).) 

1. Cook the rice!
2. Rinse the pineapple, cut off the head and cut the rest in half; carve out the pineapple meat and cut it into bite-szied block pieces for later use. 
3. By this time, your rice should be done. Mix the rice with honey, rock sugar, salt, longans, nuts, coconut water, and pineapple meat of course! (We're going to call this the "stuffing," you will see why in just a second. Literally.)
4. Place the stuffing in the pineapple bowl (or shell, however you want to call it). 
5. If you have a bamboo steamer, then place the whole thing in it and let it cook for 30-45 minutes. If you don't have a bamboo steamer, steam it in whatever way works for you! If you don't have any kind of steamer, I'm sure the oven would work just as fine :). 
6. Once the time is up! Grab a pair of gloves and it gobble up! You've just made your very own Chinese pineapple rice! 

Out of the two, I would say the lotus root sandwich is my favourite. (Well, besides the fact that I'm slightly allergic to pineapples.)When it comes to a meal, I gernally aggravate towards more savory and salty dishes than sweeter ons. And I also really liked how the lotus root sandwiches turned out. The lotus root was kinda' crunchy, probably because it wwasn't entirely cooked. But it added a different texture, which I thought wasn't bad. But if I were to make this dish again, I would let the sandwich deep fry a little longer until it's a golden brown colour. Then for the dipping sauce, I would use fish sauce, soy sauce, water, and some sesame seeds.

We've never made this dish at home before. I've talked about how my mother is a health freak. So usually we don't make anything that is deep fried. In our family, we like to use lotus roots to make soup. Lotus roots are known to hydrate the body. So a lot of Chinese families like to make lotus root soup (with pork and other herbs) after a BBQ, during the winter seasons, in which the body needs extra hydration (to keep it's balanced state; oh goodness I can go on with this forever. But I know you don't want to hear it haha.) With that being said, I wouldn't be surprised if my mom made me lotus root soup when I go back home this weekend. I'll try to post a picture if she did make it!

Well that is all for today folks, thanks for reading! Tomorrow, like last Friday, we are going to go on a field trip! Yayyy! :) We are going to have Peking duck. Yes, the one and only! So stay tuned and come back tomorrow for more! Have a lovely day! :)

Evann

Lao Nai Yang Yu 老奶洋芋 and Beef Skewers

There are so many different ethnic groups in China! Soooo many, it's kind crazy, yet incredible at the same time. Have you ever heard of the Uyghur people? Yeah, before today, I haven't either. The Uyghur people inhibit in the northeast border of China. They are a very distinct group with their own unique style of clothing, lifestyle, as well as culture. Most of them practice Islam. And of course, how can we forget about their food?? Righhttt??

Again, today we are going to make two different food dishes! Yayy more food! So let's start with meat, becauseeeee I like meat :). Well, I guess if you compare it to potatoes. You'll know what I mean later! 

Okay, marinade ingredients:

• 1 tsp. ginger powder
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• 1 tsp. dried chili flakes
• 1 tsp. ground coriander
• 1 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 3 tsp. sea salt
• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 80 ml vegetable oil
• 2 tbsp. soy sauce

Once you already made your marinade sauce, cut your beef into bite sized pieces. In a bowl, pour in the sauce and let the meat, well marinade, for about 15-20 minutes. And while this super delicious flavouring soaks into the meat, I have something else for you to do! Grab some toothpicks and soak them in a bowl of water. We do this because later when you make the skewers, the meat would slide through easier than it would if the toothpicks were dry. When the beef is done, your toothpicks will be done as well! 

Tick...tock...tick...tock... Well technically I could tell you guys what to do for the second dish, but I really don't want to confuse ya'll like this! Is 20 minutes up yet? Well, if it is almost hitting the 20 minutes mark, you can start the griller and get it all heated up! This part is pretty much self explanatory. After you have finished making all your cabobs, throw them on the griller and let it cook, cook, cook! Ooooh talking about this is making my mouth water all over again! I'm sure you guys have cooked beef before, so when you know it's done, it's done! Honestly, I had to like...fight for my skewers! Because they were just sooooo goood!! :D

Now onto this second dish: basically Chinese mashed potatoes (I'm not going to use that fancy name. I mean...what are titles for, right? Haha :).)

Okay, enough of this nonsense and let's get started! So in order to make this potato dish, you will neeeeeeeeeed:

• 1 lb. waxy potatoes
• 1/3 c. peanut oil or canola oil
• 4 garlic cloves, smashed and sliced
• 4 whole dried red chilis
• 4 green onions, chopped
• 1/2 c. fresh fennel greens
• 2 tsp. chili garlic paste (we added more because we're boss)
• 1 tsp. salt

The most tedious work ever, well in cooking terms, is peeling the potatoes...thank goodness I didn't have to. Thanks to Caitlin, Katie, and other wonderful people in my class! What would I do without them? Starve. Running on a tangent again, FOCUS! Once your potatoes are peeled, cut them into blocks, and them smash them to make it into a mashed potato kind of consistency. The rest of the ingredients, you are going to put all of them into the wok! So first heat up your wok, add some oil; the first few ingredients you want to add are the garlic and the salt. Then right after that, you want to put everything else (except for your green onions), including your mashed potatoes. If you feel adventurous like how we ALWAYS are, add in some chili garlic sauce, siracha, or whatever hot sauce you want to spice things up! (Haha, see what I did there? SPICE things up? Okay fine.) 

Well ladies and gents, here is your Lao Nai Yang Yu 老奶洋芋! Or in other words, Chinese mashed potatoes! Enjoy!

I'm going to be quite honest with you guys. I LOVED the beef skewers, the mashed potato....not so much. I mean, I didn't dislike it, but it's not something down my alley. Like...if I had a choice I wouldn't choose to eat mashed potatoes generally. But the beef skewers on the other hand... oh boy can I please have seconds? Thirds? Uhh...all of them pleaseeeee??!!? They were soooo delicious! I ate so much that I had an obvious food baby when I left the class. Quite embarrassing actually but..NO SHAME FOR FOOD! And while we're on the page of honesty right now, my family never made mash potatoes before...I've always thought the mashed potatoes is such a western meal. Like...never have I even seen mashed potatoes on a Chinese restaurant menu before...I don't know, I just found it quite odd and interesting. 

The beef skewers we made today was actually another thing that I thought was quite interesting... I don't think I've ever seen it on a Chinese menu before... Well, given that I lived in the southeast border of China, which is DIRECTLY opposite of the Ugyhur people, that would explain some food culture differences. Given the location of where the Ugyhur people reside, I'm not that surprised that their foods have a western twist to it. Well if I were to make these skewers again, I would sprinkle some pepper on top while it's grilling to bring out the taste even more! What do you think? I don't know, I'm not a great cook, I just know what I like to eat :).

Woohoo! Another two dishes under our belt! We are GOOD aren't we? Like always, thanks for reading and I hope you guys have a wonderful day! If it's cold in your region, please stay warm! Have fun creating the foods and I would love to see ay pictures :). 

Evann

Hunan (湖南) Beef

Today, we continued our exploration in the Chinese food culture; I am so excited to hear that today we are going to make food from the Hunan province. Why? Because it's going to be SPICY FOOD! And I LOVE chilli peppers and all things that give my tongue a little tingle. Hunan province is located in the southeast part of China. Yes, this is the second region in China that makes its food with mouthwatering, hot spices. But what makes Hunan food different than that of the Sichuan province? While Sichuan food had its distinct "numbing heat" flavour, Hunan food is sinply, yet dangerously hot. Like...really hot. The "numbing heat" will gradually grow on you, the hotness with Hunan food is that it just hits you (like no other). Yeah, be cautious! 

Hunan province is part of southeast China!

So the Chinese dish we are going to make today is Hunan Beef. If made correctly, the sauce should soak the beef and it will enhance the natural flavour of the beef itself. Soooo let's get on to it! 

First, you would want to marinate 1 lb of sliced flank steak, preferably cut into bite sized. Then you would want to marinade it in a bowl with the following ingredients: 

• 1 tbsp. Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
• 1 tbsp. soy sauce
• 2 tsp cornstarch

While you wait for the beef for 15-20 minutes, you now want to start on something else! So now, chop some ginger and garlic (both about 1 tbsp. each); then you want to prepare the sauce, which contains:

• 1 tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 tbsp. Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
• 2 tsp. chili oil
• 1 tsp. chili sauce
• 2 tsp. ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper

Now the basic work has accomplished, but we're not finished yet!! When the 15 minute mark hits, heat up the wok and put some oil in it until you can hear it sizzzzzzle. Throw in the marinated beef. Once it looks pinkish, add in the chopped up ginger and garlic. When you can tell that the beef is almost completely cooked, you can add in the sauce you have prepared. Stir it for a little bit, 5 minutes, and your very own Hunan beef is done!! :) Serve it with rice and sprinkle some green onions; there you have the perfect food presentation for this dish! Now pat yourself on your back and dig in! :D

Hunan beef served with white rice.

Hmmm...now my thoughts on this dish. The flavoring was actually really delicious! But if I were to cook it again I would add some Sichuan peppers, which I guess would defeat the purpose of it being "Hunan," some dried chili peppers, and some thinly sliced celery to add colour and texture. The beef should be chopped smaller than it was because it was very difficult to chew on and separate. Another reason would probably be due to overcooking the beef as it lost its tenderness. This is definitely a dish that is considered to be a 送饭菜, meaning "eaten with rice" because it is so savory! I actually don't remember our family making this dish, but definitely something similar. Our family likes to make a beef dish called 炖牛肉 (dun niu rou); I think the western equivalent would be pot roast. So instead of putting potatoes and carrots the Western recipes tell us, the Chinese 炖牛肉 would include different types of spices, which I can't recall from the top of my head. And usually this dish is also served with rice, and sometimes with noodles as well. 

Well I hope you guys enjoyed reading or recreating this dish yourself! Tomorrow we will continue our culinary exploration through Chinese food culture! And I have great news, tomorrow we are going to learn how to cook TWO dishes! Yipppeeee:) that means, more food! Let's all try to contain our excitement! Until next time!

Evann

Asian World Market

Today we did something different than we usually did in class. Instead of exploring different Chinese cuisines and trying to cook ourselves, we went to the Asian World market to checkout the products in the stores! One of our tasks today was a scavenger hunt!! Oh I love this game! Let's see what we have got in store! Hahaha you get it, in store... :D 

1. What are the four different types of tofu sold here? -Soft, dried, cakey, & deep fried!

2. What are the four different types of tea sold here? -Ji Jin, Dragon's Well, Long Jing, & Black Tea.

 3. Find a vegetable you've never tried. -Long squash

4. How is the meat displayed here? -In rows/columns by parts

5. Name one type of Chinese beer. -Was trying to find Tsing Dao, but found Taiwan Beer instead!

6. Find a spice you've never worked with. -Never heard of Coriander and Masala spices before!

7. How many types of rice to you see for sale? -Toooooo many! :0

8. What's in a Chinese bakery? -Different types of buns! Some with sweet/salty stuffing instead and some without! There were also different types of cookies!

Fresh ginger, garlic, dried red chillis, and scallions.

Pine nuts, red Azuki beans, stick rice, dried longans.

Chinese cabbage and prickly ash.

Honestly, I thought all these ingredients would not be as hard to find. Turns out, I was WRONG. Maybe I should pay more attention to what my mother is getting when she is here. Usually I just hangout at the junk food section and think of different ways to sneak snacks into the grocery cart without her noticing hahah!! :D 

Can you find these items in your nearby Asian market? Brave enough to take this challenge? To be completely honest, I had to ask to ask customer service for help. There were just SOOOOOO much spices and products in the store! 

I think the abundance of spices and different sauces really shows how the Chinese food culture is. With all these spices and various sauces, the Chinese is able to create a dish with different types of layers! This is definitely something distinct to the Chinese food culture. Hopefully, after this course I would be able to create my own dish with different layers. Practice makes perfect! Wish me luck!

Thank you for sticking with this for yet another week! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Go checkout the Asian market! It's really fun :))))))

Evann

Chinese Mapo Tofu 麻婆豆腐

Continuing where we left off yesterday, today we are taking a step further into traditional Sichuan cuisine! In today's dish, we are going to play with the famous Sichuan pepper 花椒. It is not necessarily the spiciest chili pepper in Sichuan; but what is unique about it is that it produces a numbing sensation to your entire mouth afterwards. Very different from what you're used to right? Ahh I'm so excited! But before we get started I want to tell you a story behind the this dish we are about to make! 

The dish we are making today is called Mapo tofu 麻婆豆腐. It translates to English as "pockmarked." The story behind this dish is that there is a woman with pockmarks, so obviously she wasn't "fairest maiden of them all." But because of her pockmarks, she was unable to find herself a husband. So she began to make this dish....that led to countless men wanting to win her hand. 

It is needless to say that she is an amazing cook, so let's hope that our team today will be as great as her!! Let's get started!

• 1 lb ground pork (marinated with soy sauce and corn starch)
• soft tofu
• chili bean paste
• chopped green onions
• chicken broth
• water
• rice

Before cooking the meat, we first want to cook the tofu. Since we are going to mix all our ingredients together, we don't want our tofu to be completely smushed by everything else. We are nooottttt trying to aim to make tofu paste! So in order to semi harden the tofu, we want to boil it and then take it out to settle for later use. But while you are waiting for the tofu to boil, obtain some rice, wash it, and turn on the rice maker. By the time you have finished the dish, your rice would be ready to eat with it! (Cooking Chinese food is also about time management!)

 With the wok all heated up again, throw in the ground pork and stir evenly and consistently (you don't want to only cook one side of the pork)! Now put in the chili bean paste, now the colour on your wok should be a orangey, reddish kind of colour! Isn't it pretty? :). Okay, now you want to put in 3 teaspoons of chicken broth, 3 teaspoons of water, and the boiled tofu. Once everything is almost done, add in the green onions! This adds more colour to the dish! Food presentation, remember? Haha :). Lastly but not least! Add in the sichuan peppercorn and dried chili peppers (if you wish)! 

The way that you would serve this dish would generally be simple on a plate. But in our case, since everyone has their own plate. We piled up some rice onto a plate, and set the Mapo tofu on top of it or on the side (as shown below). And by now your mouth is probably watering non-stop! Take a seat and gobble up!! 

I would say this is one of our more successful dishes we have made so far! I give this 10/10. However to customize it to my taste, I would definitely add some chili oil and extra peppercorn to really get the numbing sensation! Can you tell how much I love spicy food? Haha! I know, usually Cantonese people can't really eat spicy, but I guess my family and I are an exception!

Yes, my family absolutely LOVES spicy food. And one of our favourite family dishes includes Mapo tofu! I remember this one time that our entire family had a huge craving for Mapo tofu that we made it for 5 days straight. Yes, can you imagine. After that, it took us a while to want to make that again hahah. I would say this is one of the less fussy dishes in Chinese cuisine in general. It doesn't require that much ingredients, there is less chopping and cutting, and spices do in fact make a huge part in it! Oh I love Sichuan food. I have actually never been there before either. Having been living in China for 11 years, it is kind of embarrassing. Hopefully, one day I would be able to explore the grounds of my favourite Chinese cuisine. 

Well....guess what folks. Tomorrow we are actually NOT going to cook! OHMYGOSH right? Our class is taking a trip down to Dallas to explore the Asian market and have some dimsum! Wanna' know what that is? Come back to read more about it! :) Have a lovely day!

Evann

Kung Pao Chicken

HELLO AGAIN :).

Like I've said in the post before the previous one, we are going to explore the Chinese food culture in regards to its geographic location. And so today, we are going to be making one of the most unique Chinese flavours in Sichuan province! The Sichuan province is now for its spices and its famous numbing chili peppers. Sichuan is rather humid in climate, so he Chinese people there would eat (a lot of different types of) chili peppers to help cope with that. And gradually a practice became a tradition, which led to what we now call Sichuan cuisine. Although the main ingredient that makes Sichuan cuisine so special is the sichuan peppers that makes your tongue and lips numb after a while, today we are not going to use this ingredient....YET! But if you want to try this spice, stay tuned for tomorrow's dish, in which we WILL be experiencing this "numbing heat" :). 

As the title states, today we are going to make kung pao chicken! This dish is generally an American favourite and it is always available in ANY Chinese restaurant in the United States. But how do you make this delicious dish that everyone orders? Well, I'm about to reveal to you the recipe! Here is a list of ingredients you would need for this dish:

• 2 tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 tbsp. black or red rice vinegar, or red wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp. chicken broth or water
• 3 tsp. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• a few drops of sesame oil
• 1 tsp. cornstarch
• 2 cloves of garlic (minced)

There are two ways of making kung pao chicken: stir fry and deep fry. I personally like the stir fry and that is what we did! So first we cut the chicken into bite sized pieces and lightly cooked them in sizzling oil. Once the chicken appears to be slightly golden, take it out and place it on the plate for later use. Now you see all the ingredients listed above, take everything EXCEPT the minced garlic and mix them together; this would be our sauce that we are going to stir fry the chicken with. Now that everything is mixed, we can finally put everything together. Put the minced garlic in the wok and let it heat up; add in the sauce, when you can kind of see the sauce sizzling, throw in the chicken. You shouldn't need to cook the chicken for too long as it is already cooked. You are now just adding flavour to the chicken. 

If you are feelin' adventurous, then feel free to throw in some dried chili peppers! Don't put too much or else you would catch on fireeeee!! Well not really, but you know what I mean haah! Well ladies and gents, you know have your very own homemade kung pao chicken! It isn't really hard is it? Just be careful you don't want to overcook the chicken!

So my thoughts on this dish. I would give it a....6 out of 10 for today's performance. The chicken was very dry and it was very difficult to chew. Even so, the flavouring was very savory! So I would definitely give our sauce a 10/10! Next time when we make this dish, I would cut the chicken into slightly bigger pieces. Although the ones we had were bite sized pieces, but they were way too thin. And because have to put the chicken on heat twice for this recipe, perhaps a bite sized cubed chicken would probably be the best description when it comes to cutting. I think this would help with the dryness. By doing this it would also make the dish more authentic as the Chinese usually speak of the tenderness of the meat. 

Surprisingly, our family has never made this dish...at least not that I can think of. My mother is a health freak. Everything in our kitchen is organic and nutritious. So the thought of deep frying doesn't even exist in our family. Usually, we would steam the chicken, or stir frying it (without deep frying first). The chicken we used today is chicken breast, but real Chinese people hate, yes hate, chicken breasts of any kind. But Western people loves it! So that's a difference there. The best meat is the located near a bone. For those steak lovers, why is the T-bone steak the best? Because all the fat from the bone leaks into the meat, making it so sumptuous! Same idea with chicken also! Anyway, I hope you guys have a great time cooking this dish! Be careful not to overcook your chicken like we did!

Thank you for reading and if you are interested in tofu and Chinese 'numbing heat," come back tomorrow for another Sichuan cuisine!

Evann

Chinese Food Presentation

Food presentation is also a form of expression. Feel kind of sick? The food is probably more plain. Feeling hungry? You can probably see every single colour in the dish. Feeling adventurous? You will see a lot of red from the chili peppers. Food presentation is also one of the very few ways of allowing your imagination to take control; it is a form of art. And this is kind of what my take on food presentation would be. 

In this course, I have learned that Chinese food culture not only emphasizes on the tenderness of the meat, the idea behind the wok, and the search for freshness in ingredients, but also how the dish is presented itself 卖相. In Exploring China: A Culinary Adventure, Dadong is the master chef in one of Beijing’s five star restaurants. Whenever he completes a dish, he doesn’t just simply lay it onto a plate. In fact, he adds flowers, green onions, gold dust, and other accessories to decorate the plate in order to tell a story. In the video we watched specifically, he made a dish called “Sweet and sour duck balls” 酸甜鸭. And looking at the picture below, you can tell that effort is not only put into making the food, but also its presentation. Dadong said that there are ducks, and this is the nest. And falling out of the nest are the "eggs" (duck balls). He said that this tells the story that the spring season is coming. To Dadong, food presentation is a form of story-telling. 

酸甜鸭 This dish is decorated with the nest and some flour-dough ducks.

China use to be an extremely impoverished country, especially after Mao's Great Leap Forward has failed. And now that it is on the rail again and flourishing incredibly and quickly in all fields, I think it is acceptable for them to show some pride; and one way of doing that is through food, food presentation. After the Great Leap Forward, land was destroyed, food was scarce, and millions of people died. It is considered to be one of the worst famines in history. So now that China has enough food for everyone, people "flaunt" what they have now and also to show how far they have come since then. Gradually, this form of expression and art became what we call as Chinese food culture. 

冷面 Cold Noodles

Food presentation can either be the artistic version of "short and sweet," or it can be extravagant (like the "Sweet and sour duck balls"), or it can simple yet time consuming. And by that I mean this porcupine bun (shown below)! Isn't this crazy? Anyone can think of this idea but can ANYone take the time to actually make it? Because of the time that would need to be spent on making this dish, it shows the gravity of food presentation in the Chinese culture. Every country also have their ways of presenting food. But I have yet to see one like the Chinese who devotes into food presentation. To them, it is a ritual, it is holy, and it is sacred. Food presentation insinuates survival. And only those who have suffered the worst would show so much appreciation and thankfulness to the food they have now. 

And a side note, I know that food looking good doesn't have anything to do with what it tastes like. For example, ice cream is just a ball of sugar and milk and sometimes cream. But for some reason, whenever I see something presented well in Chinese food, it just tastes better (for the most part). It tastes more savory, more delicious, and more expensive. Is this something that you would also agree with? I don't know. This is just what my background, my education, and my experiences tell me. 

I hope you all now have a gist of Chinese food presentation! Thank you for reading :).

Evann