I’m sure most Westerners who have ever dined with a group of Chinese are familiar with the the following scenario. After a ___-course lavish banquet, you look forward to something nice and sweet to cap off a great experience. Your Chinese hosts inform you that you’ll love the dessert; all Westerners love dessert. This one [...]
Tag Archives | Cantonese
Guide to Wrapping and Pan-frying Dumplings
I have to admit that I have a strong bias towards jiaozi (饺子). Besides Shanghainese soup dumplings (xiaolongbao), my favorite Chinese dumplings are thin-skinned and pan-fried, the kind found mainly in Southern China or New York’s $1-for-5 fried dumpling joints. Northern Chinese-style dumplings, which offer more thick doughy skin than filling, just can’t compare. What’s [...]
Vegetarian Congee
Two years ago, on Jacob’s first trip to Hong Kong, we stayed with my great aunt in North Point. On the first morning my aunt dashed downstairs to her favorite congee stand, and came back with a big take-out tub of plain congee and you jia gui, or Cantonese fried dough. We instructed Jacob to [...]
Recipe: Water Chestnut Cake with Ginger
Along with lucky red envelopes, I received a gift for Lunar New Year that I could use immediately in the kitchen: a package of water chestnut flour. Water chestnut cake (ma tei gow in Cantonese) is another snack, along with turnip cake, that is eaten all year round but especially during Chinese New Year. It’s [...]
Recipe: Turnip Cake (Law Bok Gow)
From a Chinese-American kid’s perspective, Chinese New Year is a holiday as cool as, or even better than, Christmas. You get lots of red envelopes full of money, big boxes and tins of candy, and big meals for at least 3 to 5 days straight. You don’t have to pretend to like any of the [...]
Recipe: Pork and Sī Guā Stir-fry
Sī guā is a common vegetable used in Chinese cooking, but comes with a rather sinister English name: snake gourd, for the long, spindly shape. Despite the exotic name, I’ve seen it in both New York and Boston Chinatowns. (Sī guā is the long skinny gourd with bumpy ridges running the length of the outside.) [...]
