Doing Dim Sum
Thursday August 28, 2008
I've just returned from a week in Vancouver, home to one of North America's largest Chinatowns. It's great to see that some Chinese restaurants still use the cart system to serve dim sum! It was fun sampling from all the different carts, never knowing what is coming next. We wound up with delicious crispy pork, deep-fried squid, and an assortment of dumplings. Learn more about the history of dim sum, and try several recipes, including Chicken’s Feet and Egg Custard Tarts.Shu Mai Photo, Copyright © by Rhonda Parkinson, licensed to About.com, Inc
Spicy Szechuan Prawns
Tuesday August 26, 2008
In this recipe for Szechuan Prawns with hot sauce, prawns are coated in an egg white mixture and quickly blanched in oil, then combined with ginger, garlic, and scallions (green onions) in a spicy sauce. For a more attractive presentation, you could arrange the blanched prawns on a plate, pour the heated sauce over, and garnish with green onion brushes.Szechuan Prawns Picture, Copyright © 2008 by Rhonda Parkinson, licensed to About.com, Inc
Shrimp Lo Mein With Three Vegetables
Friday August 22, 2008
An assortment of red bell pepper, bamboo shoots and Napa Cabbage adds color to this simple stir-fry. Feel free to substitute an Italian pasta such as fettucini or linguini if Chinese egg noodles aren’t available.
More Shrimp Recipes
Cantonese Beef With Tomatoes
Thursday August 21, 2008
Beef with Tomatoes is a great way to take advantage of vine-ripened tomatoes from your garden or the local market. In this popular Cantonese stir-fry, beef is marinated with oyster sauce and stir-fried with sliced tomatoes. A small amount of sugar nicely balances the tart tomato flavor.
Learn more about the health benefits of tomatoes – from About’s Guide to Low Fat Cooking
Learn more about the health benefits of tomatoes – from About’s Guide to Low Fat Cooking
Stir-fry Pork Strips With Cucumber
Tuesday August 19, 2008
Cucumber soaks up the oyster-flavored sauce during stir-frying, added something extra to a quick and easy stir-fry. This dish goes very nicely with cooked rice.
This unusual gourd with the pockmarked skin is a popular ingredient in Chinese cooking, and is also used in Chinese traditional medicine. Learn more about bitter melon and try a few recipes, including Pork with Bitter melon - a classic Chinese dish using salted black beans.
Bitter Melon Photo, Copyright © 2008 by Rhonda Parkinson, licensed to About.com, Inc
Tender strips of beef are stir-fried with bell peppers in a flavorful sauce and served over egg noodles. Toasted sesame seeds provide the finishing touch. As a reader has commented, the taste of the sauce nicely complements the noodles. This recipe for Spring Beef on Egg Noodles is submitted by a reader, Alan, and includes a wine recommendation.
More Chinese Beef Recipes:
Don’t feel like heating up the oven to bake a cake on hot summer days? Chinese cakes are normally steamed. Although the idea of steaming of cake may seem unusual, it’s really quite easy. Here are simple step by step instructions, with photos, showing how to steam a Chinese Sponge Cake.
Here is a simple stir-fry to celebrate Chinese Valentine’s Day, made with lychee fruit, a symbol of love. Marinated pork and canned lychees are stir-fried and then coated with a flavorful sauce made with hoisin sauce and reserved lychee juice. Pork with lychees goes nicely with cooked rice. To end the meal, you could have a refreshing Lychee Granita, or a Beijing Bellini, made with Lychee liquor.
Lychee Photo, Copyright © 2008 by Agricultural Research Service, USDA, licensed to About.com, Inc
What is Bitter Melon?
Saturday August 16, 2008
This unusual gourd with the pockmarked skin is a popular ingredient in Chinese cooking, and is also used in Chinese traditional medicine. Learn more about bitter melon and try a few recipes, including Pork with Bitter melon - a classic Chinese dish using salted black beans.Bitter Melon Photo, Copyright © 2008 by Rhonda Parkinson, licensed to About.com, Inc
Spring Beef on Egg Noodles
Monday August 11, 2008
Tender strips of beef are stir-fried with bell peppers in a flavorful sauce and served over egg noodles. Toasted sesame seeds provide the finishing touch. As a reader has commented, the taste of the sauce nicely complements the noodles. This recipe for Spring Beef on Egg Noodles is submitted by a reader, Alan, and includes a wine recommendation.More Chinese Beef Recipes:
- Chinese Steak With Peppers
- Ginger Beef- (Restaurant-style)
- Red Cooked Beef - The Chinese version of beef stew
- Szechuan Beef
Chinese Sponge Cake
Sunday August 10, 2008
Don’t feel like heating up the oven to bake a cake on hot summer days? Chinese cakes are normally steamed. Although the idea of steaming of cake may seem unusual, it’s really quite easy. Here are simple step by step instructions, with photos, showing how to steam a Chinese Sponge Cake.Chinese Sponge Cake, Copyright © 2008 by Rhonda Parkinson, licensed to About.com, Inc
Pork With Lychees
Thursday August 7, 2008
Here is a simple stir-fry to celebrate Chinese Valentine’s Day, made with lychee fruit, a symbol of love. Marinated pork and canned lychees are stir-fried and then coated with a flavorful sauce made with hoisin sauce and reserved lychee juice. Pork with lychees goes nicely with cooked rice. To end the meal, you could have a refreshing Lychee Granita, or a Beijing Bellini, made with Lychee liquor.
Lychee Photo, Copyright © 2008 by Agricultural Research Service, USDA, licensed to About.com, Inc
What’s In a Name?
Wednesday August 6, 2008
Countdown to Beijing: 2 days
Visitors to the Beijing Olympics won’t have any trouble finding their favorite dish of Kung Pao Chicken or Mapo Tofu at local restaurants. A booklet, Chinese Menu in English Version, contains a list of over 2,000 proposed names for dishes and drinks that it recommends restaurants use during the 16 day event (source: The official website of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games). Jointly published by The Beijing Tourism Association and the Beijing Muncipal Government’s Foreign Affairs Office, the booklet is designed both to prevent visitors from struggling with English translations of their favorite dishes, and to make the names themselves are a little more appetizing. So, for example, “chicken without sexual life” becomes “steamed pullet,” while “husband and wife’s lung slice” is transformed into “beef and ox tripe in chili sauce.”
Visitors to the Beijing Olympics won’t have any trouble finding their favorite dish of Kung Pao Chicken or Mapo Tofu at local restaurants. A booklet, Chinese Menu in English Version, contains a list of over 2,000 proposed names for dishes and drinks that it recommends restaurants use during the 16 day event (source: The official website of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games). Jointly published by The Beijing Tourism Association and the Beijing Muncipal Government’s Foreign Affairs Office, the booklet is designed both to prevent visitors from struggling with English translations of their favorite dishes, and to make the names themselves are a little more appetizing. So, for example, “chicken without sexual life” becomes “steamed pullet,” while “husband and wife’s lung slice” is transformed into “beef and ox tripe in chili sauce.”
While some approve of the revamped English language menu, others point out the literal translations lack color and don’t give any cultural background. In the China Daily newspaper, columnist Raymond Zhou wrote: “It turns a menu into the equivalent of plain rice, which has the necessary ingredients but is devoid of flavor.” What do you think?
Chinese Recipe Name Origins
More Chinese Recipe Name Origins