fried rice

I make fried rice sometimes just so I can use up some veggies or meats in the fridge. 

One of the "known secret" to make fried rice that's not all clumped together is to use "old" rice... rice that's been chilled in the fridge that is. An awesome Taiwanese chef shared his method on making "golden" fried rice once, where he mixed the whisked eggs with the cold rice before frying it. This way (almost) every grain of rice get coated with eggs and when it's done being fried it's golden!

I used some diced Taiwanese sausages and carrots, and I also added some blanched spinach (so it was easier to mix with the rest of the ingredients) and then seasoned with a little bit of hondashi (a Japanese bonito "soup stock" seasoning) and shichimi.

Yummy.

the thousand-year-egg experience

I personally love Pidan （皮蛋）, also known as Century Egg or thousand-year-egg. They look and taste crazy, but I grew up with them, know what they are, and actually enjoy the flavors of these black eggs.

John is not a big fan of Pidan. I guess by looking at them they look totally wrong. Jello-O like "egg whites" and soft cheese gooey "egg yolks" don't seem to be components of eggs. I'd offer him a piece of Pidan every time I'm having some, but he'd kindly refuse.

Growing up we would have the Pidan sliced and topped on tofu,with special sweet and thick soy sauce, bonito flakes, and maybe some Asian mayo (!) such as Kewpie.

I also really like diced Pidan in rice soups (Cantonese style.) Some of the Chinese restaurants in town serve them and all the ones I've had so far are delicious.

When I enjoy Pidan at home I'd simply just dip them in Taiwanese black vinegar. Yum. And then I read about how you can enjoy Pidan with slices of pickled ginger (like that besides your sushi.) I tried it and it was yummy! The acidity from the pickled ginger blends with and balances out the flavors of the Pidan so it tastes milder, smooth, and actually very good!

So I wrapped a piece of pickled ginger around a little wedge of Pidan and convinced John to give it a try.



ready...


uhh... it was not THAT scary, dude...


bite it, John!


umm...

John looks all silly in the photos, but I think he actually enjoyed the Pidan wrapped in pickled ginger slices. In his own words, the pickled ginger-wrapped Pidan is "like strong, aromatic soft cheese. Strangely good."

yum yum sunday brunch

One of the restaurants John and I really enjoy is Yum Yum Kitchen. We've been going there frequently for a while now, and they serve some of the most authentic Nothern Chinese cuisines in the city.

But today I'm going to write about their weekend brunch, and I will be telling you all about their spicy and delicious foods in another post.

On Saturdays and Sundays Yum Yum serves Chinese breakfast items, such as youtiao (fried bread sticks,) fresh soy milk, rice soups, meaty buns, sticky rice buns, and such. I think I've tried everything on the breakfast menu throughout the many Sunday brunch-time visits! Here are a few photos from one of my Sunday brunch visits:

"you tiao."

"niu rou juan bing."

"tian jin gou bu li bao zi."

"jian bing guo zi."

"dou fu nao."

And of course there are many more dishes I've tried. I love them all! If you don't know what to get when you visit Yum Yum, ask the boss lady what Yiching gets. hehehe. I think the boss and the servers pretty much all know me by now. *blush*

Yum Yum Kitchen
23 East 2100 South
Salt Lake City, Utah 84115
801.466.9352

Paris 2011 - i had Chinese food for lunch

John and I had Chinese food once when I was in Paris!

We walked by this little semi-fast food Chinese place where people are pointing and ordering food from a fairly large display case (like those for pastries or gelato.) The food actually looked good, so we thought, hey, maybe we could try some Parisian Chinese fast food, and we did!

Luckily the owners spoke Mandarin, so I asked how we would order (even though I probably ordered food wrong anyhow,) and got some fast and pretty good Chinese food!


Chicken with black mu-er, and roasted duck in yummy sauce.

The chicken was ok, but the duck was really delicious! There was no bones, just a box full of sliced duck breasts with sweet and pungent sauce. Yum.


Fried rice and saucy rice noodles.

Ok this was when I thought I misunderstood the lady taking my order... she gave me a little mountain-full of rice and another little mountain-full of rice noodles. We didn't finish the food, except for the sliced duck.


This boy was awesome!

The boy sitting near by was eating his food with a fork an a knife, and he was using the utensils very properly... cutting the food with the knife, and using the knife to gather food onto his fork before eating (instead of using fingers like I usually do.) He was also very polite and poured water for his mom and little sister. So cute!

I enjoyed my quick Chinese food adventure in Paris.

weekend funness

This past weekend was fun. Of course I wished I could have done more than I had, but overall it was pretty eventful!

First of all, I got to meet Thriving Ivory on Friday!!! The band came and had our coffees, and hung out at the caffe. I was so excited (but I stayed cool) and happy. Their touring manager would come and have our coffee when he's in Salt Lake City, but this was the first time the whole band came! Ahhhhhhhh!

And I've been trying to bake a little more these days. I hope one of these days I will be able to offer what I bake at the caffe and people would like and buy them.

So on the weekend I made my first batch of chocolate cupcakes from scratch!


Chocolate cupcakes.

I practiced frosting these cupcakes with marshmallow creme. Turned out pretty good!

And on Sunday my buddy Brian and us went to have dim sum. He's heading off back to Portland this week, so John and I wanted to hang out with him and talk... and what could have been better than dum sum on a Sunday afternoon?




Mmmm... dim sum.

After dim sum and long happy talks John and I went to visit Shuan and Daena. It was the first time I went to their house. It was a lovely home! Their dogs and cats were super friendly and happy as well. Made me happy.


Margret is my new favorite cat!


Happy Schnitzel.


Cordelia by the window, and posing for the photo.

I didn't get to take pictures of Abby and Tofu, but they were both very nice, too!

A very lovely weekend indeed.

Ahh I love baking. I love friends. I love animals. I love weekends!

spicy good

John and I went to Szechuan Garden again Sunday. It's been almost a year since we last visited the place. We've wanted to go for a while, but with the restaurant being out in Sandy and not open until 4pm on Sundays (the only day of the week we're off), we just hadn't had a chance to go.

But Sunday we went to IKEA (in Draper... farther south than Sandy) and I thought, hey, I really want some spicy Szechuan food, so off we went to Szechuan Garden.


We had "Happy Couple" and "Sauteed Tea-smoked fish (OK I made the name up)" as appetizers.

I think the sauteed tea-smoked fish was John's favorite this time. The texture of the smoked fish steaks was almost like pork. It's probably marinated and cured. Very delicious.


"Twice-cooked Pork".

I don't know how the pork was cooked twice, but it was really good. Szechuan Garden uses sliced fatty pork (almost like slices of bacon, but with more meat) and it was soft but not greasy.


Shredded duck with ginger and green onions.

The shredded duck with ginger and green onions was my favorite dish this time. At first glance I didn't see a lot of shredded duck, but when I pick up the vegetable pieces with my chopsticks there were usually duck pieces as well. There was no heavy sauce for this dish, but the flavors of the vegetables, duck, and spices in this dish made it the best "I'll-have-another-bowl-of-rice" yumminess.

We didn't have dessert there, but I did see "sweet egg" listed in the menu as a dessert. I wonder if it's custard of some sort... maybe I'll have to try it next time... just to see what exact it is.


川香園 Szechuan Garden
1275 E 8600 S
Sandy, Utah 84094

yesterday

I was blogging on my yichingsays TAIWAN blog (in Chinese) last night and noticed that there was a new icon on the bottom of the entry that says "today in history." I clicked on it and realized that it was the first anniversary of my Chinese blog!

I can't belive it's been a year. I was reading along some of my previous posts and noticed that I had always been talking about pretty much the same things: coffee, food, John, our dogs and pets, silly things I see or hear, and small things here and there.

It's been a fun year of Chinese blogging. I'm going to keep it up.

Happy Anniversary my Chinese blog.

simple stir fried noodles "chow-mien"

I still haven't made more dumplings, or gyoza, with the rest of the meat/cabbage filling. I decided to stir fry the already-chopped-up meat and vegetables with some noodles and made simple chow mien.



Simple Chow Mien

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon oilve oil for frying (optional)
1 cup dumpling/gyoza filling
Asian noodles, cooked (for 2)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon white pepper

Cook the Asian noodles according to package instructions. (I use dry Taiwanese yellow noodles... cooked and drained.) Heat the oil and stir-fry the gyoza filling until the meat looks pretty much cooked. Push the meat and vegetables to the side to make a circle in the center of the pan. Add sesame oil and the cooked noodles and stir together the meat/vegetables and noodles until hot. Add soy sauce and white pepper to taste.

This Chow Mien tasted so good, and it reminded me of the Chow Mien from this little noodle stand in Taiwan. I think the sesame oil, soy sauce, combined with the white pepper did the trick.

gyoza with a lot of cabbages

I have been wanting to make Chinese dumplings (gyoza) for a while. This past weekend I finally made some! I used a whole cabbage for the filling, and because I didn't want to pull out the food processor, I cut the cabbage into pieces by hand, and therefore the pieces are not as "chopped" as it probably should have been, nor uniform. The dumplings turned out yummy, though, and I esprecially enjoyed the texture of the bigger veggie pieces.

Homemade Chinese Dumplings / Gyoza

Ingredients (filling):

1 lb. ground pork
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon Hondashi seasoning (optional)
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 Tablespoon oil (I use olive oil)
1 Tablespoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 head chopped cabbage + 1 teaspoon salt
6 "sticks" chopped green onions
1 Tablespoon grated ginger root (optional)

2-3 packages of storebought gyoza skins or homemade ones. I use the two packages that were in my freezer. Thaw before use, of course.

First place the chopped cabbage in a large bowl. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon salt over the cabbage and "squeeze" the salt and the cabbage together. Set aside. This will allow some extra water from the cabbage to come out. Drain (if there's water) before combining with the pork.

Mix the ground pork, salt, Hondashi seasoning (optional), soy sauce, olive oil, sesame oil, and white pepper in a large mixing bowl and stir until everything are "bonded". Add the chopped cabbage, chopped green onions, and grated ginger (optional). Mix well. Now you have your filling. Yay.



Place a gyoza skin in your left palm. Use a pair of chopsticks to pick up about 2 Tablespoons filling and place in the center of the skin. Wet the edges (not necessary if using homemade fresh gyoza skins) before closing the dumpling. I like to make little folds on them... seem to help closing up the dumplings better. Repeat until either the filling or the skins run out. I never know how many dumplings I'm making. I made about 45 the other day and I still have way more than half of the filling left. I'm guessing this recipe probably makes 100-120 dumplings.

Lightly dust a place with flour. Place each of the dumplings on the place after it's made. After completing a plate, stick it in the freezer for about 20 minutes. The dumplings will harden and you can bag them and store them in the freezer.


Nuki wants some dumplings too.

To cook the dumplings, first boil a large pot of water. Add the dumplings, stir with long chopsticks to prevent sticking. Wait until the water boils again and turn the heat to medium-low (just enough to keep the water boilig) for about 7 minutes. Drain and serve with dipipng sauce, or in soups.

To make the dipping sauce: Cominbe soy sauce, vinegar, and sesame oil to taste.

So this is the deal... the dumplings look pretty good before cooking this time, but after I boiled them a lot of the skings fell apart. I think it was because I used the package of gyoza skins that was in the freezer too long. They were still very delicious... just broken-looking. :(

I still have a lot of filling left. I think I'm going to make my own gyoza skins for it. I'll post the recipe for the homemade gyoza skins soon-ish (when I figured out the right ratio for flour and water.)

Oh, and if you're just tired of making dumplings but still have too much filling left... make little patties and fry them in a pan. I've done it a few times, and the patties were super yummy by themselves or with rolls!

new golden dragon

John and I went to the New Golden Dragon for dim sum yesterday. It was not our first time there, but we did try some things that we had been waiting for to try in the past.


I love dim sum in all its forms!


Broiled BBQ pork. I first tried this when Jenny took me there. These are of limited quantities each day, so you've got to get to the restaurant early enough (before 1:30pm) to try it. It's really good!


Fried fish filled with fish roe. OK it tastes way better than it sounds. It's yummy!


The fish was FILLED with roe!


Watch out for the really spicy hot peppers!


Sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaves... I have to post this one, because I had actually seen someone eat it with the lotus leaves still wrapped around it. You eat the yummy rice inside WITHOUT the leaves.


The family sitting next to us had piles of buns on their table... Someone REALLY likes those buns!


These were the buns the family next to us really liked. They're called "chicken tail" buns because they are shaped like a chicken tail. There was sweet coconut filling inside.

We had a couple more dishes that I didn't take pictures of. I was just enjoying my food too much at the time.

If you like dim sum, you'd love New Golden Dragon!

New Golden Dragon
1518 South Main Street
Salt Lake City, Utah
(801) 487-9888

breakfast at Golden Isle

Every Saturday and Sunday Chinese breakfast items are served at Golden Isle restaurant here in town. Usually they serve fresh soy milk, Chinese fried bread, buns, and noodles, etc..

We usually don't have Saturdays off these days, but since we took the day off, we went there for some late breakfast.


Fresh soy milk is the best! Make sure you only get a small order of the soy milk here... the large one is LARGE.

\
Delicious Chinese fried bread stick... yummy!


Green oinion pancake... very chewy and tasty.


Little steamed meat buns. Dough-ier than we expected.


Golden Isle
671 West 5300 South
Murray, Utah 84123

(801) 288-2266