Chinese Food Culture

August 23rd, 2010 | Chinese, Chinese Recipes | 5 Comments

Don’t you just love eating foods that remind you of your childhood, or when you were younger? Foods that practically transport you to a different era when things were a lot less complicated and life were much simpler, and perhaps happier?

I am a junk food junkie and I love all sorts of snacks, especially if they are in skewers. Fried cuttlefish ball is one of them—sold by street vendors, roadside stalls or the food court at the basement level of shopping centers (in Asia). They are nice little treats, ones that I particularly enjoyed eating, especially when they are dipped in a spicy condiment such as Lingham’s hot sauce…

The timing of this snack couldn’t be any better (or more nostalgic) as I found some cuttlefish balls made in Malaysia while food shopping this past weekend. It’s not easy to find Malaysian food products here in the United States so I was especially psyched to test the goods. The brand is BEST (极佳) and they have a whole lineup of fish products—springy fish paste, fish balls, fish tofu, and cuttlefish balls. It’s the taste of home and the cuttlefish balls are loaded with real and shredded pieces of cuttlefish.

I fried up these cuttlefish balls with my deep-fryer, poured some Lingham’s hot sauce over them, and then I turned on my TV and watched a DVD movie. Life is— again—simpler, happier, and tastier.

Just before we come on the potato salad tested recipes, it can be required to discuss about potatoes initial. Potatoes are a person in the 5 major substance that human becoming reside on. They’re indispensable in the diets of both the East as well as the West.

In my opinion, potatoes are so well-known for the dinning table because they can be cooked in various techniques. They could be steamed, toasted, stir-fried and even created into salads. I produced a challenge of residing on potatoes for one complete week without having repeating tested recipes. I discovered out that numerous potato tested recipes are accessible if you really look into them. You may see a spot from the potato salad quality recipes that we are going to talk about under.

To produce salads, the ingredients really should be edible at first. That may be why fruits are generally used for salads. On the other hand, potatoes can not be eaten raw. So they’ve being built edible in advance. There are two methods that could be applied to accomplish this from the Chinese cuisine – steaming and scalding.

In my opinion, steaming will be the best way. Everything we need to do is washing the potatoes clean, placing them into a steamer, placing the steamer on the pot containing some h2o and turning the heat on. Nevertheless, scalding consists of boiling some h2o, shredding the potatoes and straining the shreds.

Following the potato is completed, we need to cut the steamed potato into any shape that people like and then season them in order to comprehensive the potato salad tested recipes. In this step, it is possible to just count on your preferences for tastes and flavors. I like such seasonings as soy sauce and soy bean paste.

All that is left now is blending the seasonings and potato shreds or dices together.

Truth be told, I’m a food snob.

I shun away from chain restaurants–Cheesecake Factory, nah; The Olive Garden, meh; Denny’s, are you kidding me?! So, you’ve got it, I am a food snob.

I stay away from planning to franchise or chain restaurants at all price, well, unless I am starving to death or stuck from the middle of nowhere and also the only restaurant in town is Applebee’s. Somehow, the notion of an evil a huge restaurant empire scares me. I am afraid they may be about to take over the entire world and infest the dining scenes with the likes of Planet Hollywood (are they still in organization?) and Rainforest Cafe. I yearn for pure culinary originality and I champion epicurean creativity. Dining out is 1 of one of the most enjoyable and ideal things inside entire world, so a restaurant need to be special, possesses lots of character, and has its own identitity (no cookie-cutter decor and menu, please!).

However, I have to admit that there’s an exception. I go to Red Lobster, occasionally. As a seafood connoisseur, you must feel that I go there for seafood, but no, I go there for your sole cause of stuffing myself silly with their biscuits.

Yep, you heard it right–those fluffy-cheesy-buttery-garlicky-fresh-off-the-oven entire world well-known Red Lobster biscuits. (Red Lobster serves nearly 1.1 million of their Cheddar Bay Biscuits daily.) You’ve got the statistics, they’re spectacular…

Wait a minute, didn’t I just proclaim that I don’t do chain restaurants? I can’t lose my integrity (and reputation), but I am nuts for Red Lobster biscuits. What to accomplish? What to perform?

I created them, properly, right after hours of Googling for that secret recipe on the internet.

I do not believe I got the genuine secret Recipe for Red Lobster Cheddar Bay biscuits, but they were not bad. The truth is, they have been about 80% close for the original in terms of taste. That’s very good for a knock-off.

Will I go back to Red Lobster once more for their biscuits? Possibly I will. *wink*

Disclaimer: This post voices my individual preferences and opinions. Should you love chain restaurants, please really don’t get offended.

Are they malasadas (malassadas)? Beignets? Sugar Egg Puffs? Doughuts?

Not rather but they’re genuinely as fine as all of the above—soft, doughy, and fluffy. Once you have a single, you just can’t stop. And the top thing of all, they take only 3 minutes to make, seriously.

They’re fried Pillsbury buttermilk biscuits. Yes, those biscuits that you simply usually bake, or even steamed to produce Chinese bao (steamed buns)���

They were fried to golden brown (took less than 2 minutes) and then dusted generously with sugar. It’s not traditional, but trust me on this one particular: as soon as you taste these babies, you’ll almost certainly not bake them anymore! Look at the pictures, puffy, pillowy, sugared fried dough balls. Can you say no?

Happy National Doughnut Day! This is seriously a wonderful cheat. Try it out and I am positive every person will love them.

SUGARED PILLSBURY BISCUITS RECIPE

INGREDIENTS:

1 tube Pillsbury biscuits, buttermilk flavor (contains 10 doughs)

Sugar

Oil for deep frying

Technique:

Separate each and every dough from the tube and drop them into a frying pan (covered with enough heated oil) or a deep fryer. Turn them over and fry evenly until golden brown, about 1-2 minutes. Transfer out, dust with sugar, and serve instantly.

As Cynthia of Tastes Like House puts it: “Separately (mango & lobster), they are heavenly. Combined? They are sinfully good.”

She was spot on.

This mango and lobster salad was refreshing, light, and mangolicious. For me, the ideal ratio is approximately 1.5 mango: 1 lobster to get that perfect and harmony balance. Plus, mangoes are just too good, so the more the merrier…

Click the image above to see my mango and lobster salad gallery and here for my baked lobster with cheese.

This is a seriously good recipe and I hope you’ll get to try out my mango and lobster salad Recipe soon. Bon Appetit!

RECIPE: MANGO AND LOBSTER SALAD

INGREDIENTS:

2 lobster claws

2 ripe and big mangoes

1 cup cream

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Some sweet basil leaves (chopped)

METHOD:

Boil the lobster claws in hot water for 10-15 minutes or until cooked. Remove from shell and cut the lobster claws into small pieces. Peel, slice and remove the seed from the mangoes. Cut the mangoes into small cubes. Put the mangoes and lobsters in a bowl. Add in the cream, lemon juice, honey, and chopped sweet basil. Mix well, cover, and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before serving.

I got a box of mangoes when I hosted my recent Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24 Summer White Party. I used half to make lobster and mango salad and also the other half for mango lassi–my favorite Indian beverage.

Even though I grew up in Malaysia where Indians are the third largest ethnic group, I’d by no means had mango lassi until I came to the United States. I very first tasted it in an Indian buffet restaurant and since then I am hooked. I love its fruity sweet taste, creamy richness from yogurt and milk, plus the smoothness of blended mango down my throat. Mango lassi is just ideal with fiery and spice-laden Indian food…

Here is my simple mango lassi recipe that is certainly totally painless to prepare. I use honey as an alternative to sugar and that truly does the trick for me!

MANGO LASSI RECIPE

Substances:

two ripe mangoes

2-3 tablespoons honey or to taste

1/2 cup milk

1 cup yogurt

Method:

Peel the mango skin, discard seed and cut the mangoes into tiny pieces. Combine all of the components in an electronic mixer or blender and blend well. Make sure the mangoes are fully blended into juice.

Adjust the components as per your taste, pour into glasses, freeze inside fridge for 30 minutes or serve instantly.

I had the best Wonton Noodle Soup several years ago whilst I was transiting in Hong Kong. My flight arrived at 6:00 AM and I hopped on the Airport Express to Hong Kong Island. I walked about the empty streets that morning and stumbled upon this little hole-in-the-wall noodle shop among Central and Sheung Wan that was just opening up for organization. I was their first customer. Their Wonton Noodle Soup was basically delectable with generous offerings of succulent, fresh, and juicy shrimp wontons. Pure shrimp wontons heaven not the typical minced pork and shrimp “cheated” kind. 1 bowl of noodle soup plus a cup of hot chocolate, I was a happy camper even though I was sleep-deprived and utterly jet-lagged that morning.

Frequently in life, the best issues and experiences (dining included!) occur due to opportunity encounters; I’m even now searching and hoping to find that small shop that sells the finest wonton noodle soup inside the world…

When you travel to Asia a great deal, there is really a higher possibility that you’ll lay over in Hong Kong International Airport. I’m not a huge fan of airport food, but HKIA provides some incredibly decent food. Maxim��s Chinese Restaurant (a popular Hong Kong chain) in the Departure Hall serves fine Wonton Noodle Soup. While their wontons aren’t pure shrimp, they nevertheless taste delicious.

Other than noodles, they also serve Cantonese Dim Sum for example Egg Tarts, Steamed Fish Balls, Har Gow (Shrimp Dumplings), Siu Mai (Pork Dumplings), Char Siu Bao (Roast Pork Steamed Bun), etc. It’s not a poor location to have a light meal prior to your flight.

Note: Maxim’s Chinese Restaurant is located within the second floor at the Departure Hall prior to the immigration gate.

This past holiday season, I ate a lot, the truth is, way as well much. Following all individuals festive meals, heavy big-fish-big-meat (大鱼大肉) and crazy seafood consumptions, I crave for some thing incredibly easy, homey, and economical–and this lotus root soup came to my rescue…

Recently, when I was dining out at a Cantonese-style restaurant and had their every day soup (老火汤), I saw these dried honey dates (蜜枣) in the residue with the soup. Soon after a great deal asking around, I learned that this really is the secret ingredient that Cantonese cooks use when they make their soup. (Cantonese individuals, especially those in Hong Kong, are famed for stewing up extremely tasty soups.)

The secret ingredient sure didn’t disappoint. I’ve never produced such savory soup prior to. The taste on the pork ribs complimented the sweetness of these dried honey dates and also the end result was a incredibly light, pleasing, and refreshing soup that I just couldn’t stop sipping.

It’s time to take a break from fancy meals; it feels (and tastes) really excellent to be back towards the basics.

August 19th, 2010 | | 4 Comments

When I first started blogging on Rasa Malaysia 4+ years ago, there weren’t that many food bloggers back then, and Hui Leng Tay (AKA Tigerfish) of Teczcape: An Escape to Food is one of my very first blogging friends. We have become good friends over the years, even though we have only met once.

I am very happy to announce that her first cookbook—The Everything Rice Cooker Cookbook—is finally launched. Published by Adams Media, the book is part of the popular “The Everything” series. As the name suggests, the book is all about cooking with a rice cooker, with a whopping 300+ recipes using the magical electronic rice cooker. And the sweetest thing is that they are not all rice recipes because a rice cooker is so versatile that you can use it to make so many different things: soups, desserts, steaming, vegetables, pasta, seafood, and more…

If you are still debating if you should buy a rice cooker, I say go ahead. It’s probably one of the best investments you will ever made in the kitchen. What’s more, now you have a perfect cookbook to start expanding your cooking repertoire.

I would like to congratulate Hui Leng for launching this cookbook. To buy �€œThe Everything Rice Cooker Cookbook”, please head over to:

1. Amazon – US.85
2. Barnes and Noble – US.48
3. Borders – US.95

August 19th, 2010 | | 4 Comments

When I first started blogging on Rasa Malaysia 4+ years ago, there weren’t that many food bloggers back then, and Hui Leng Tay (AKA Tigerfish) of Teczcape: An Escape to Food is one of my very first blogging friends. We have become good friends over the years, even though we have only met once.

I am very happy to announce that her first cookbook—The Everything Rice Cooker Cookbook—is finally launched. Published by Adams Media, the book is part of the popular “The Everything” series. As the name suggests, the book is all about cooking with a rice cooker, with a whopping 300+ recipes using the magical electronic rice cooker. And the sweetest thing is that they are not all rice recipes because a rice cooker is so versatile that you can use it to make so many different things: soups, desserts, steaming, vegetables, pasta, seafood, and more…

If you are still debating if you should buy a rice cooker, I say go ahead. It’s probably one of the best investments you will ever made in the kitchen. What’s more, now you have a perfect cookbook to start expanding your cooking repertoire.

I would like to congratulate Hui Leng for launching this cookbook. To buy �€œThe Everything Rice Cooker Cookbook”, please head over to:

1. Amazon – US.85
2. Barnes and Noble – US.48
3. Borders – US.95