China

My New Grocery Bag

dianakuan — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 10:38:24 +0000

As of June 1, China banned grocery stores from giving out free plastic bags to customers, joining Sweden, Ireland, and a few other places in raising awareness of how wasteful plastic bags are. (I never saw the necessity, in China as well as New York, for stores give you a bag just for Coke or to double-bag a carton of milk.) Now reusable grocery bags are being worn everywhere and sold in every other clothing shop. I found this one with Mao the Smoking Bicyclist at Grifted on Nanluoguxiang, Beijing's unofficial hipster hutong. (They also have a line of Socialist dolls.)

In other fun news, Serious Eats found Absinthe gummy bears in New York. And Syria currently has the world's largest restaurant, seating at max. of 6,014 people, with separate theme sections for Chinese and Indian food.

Snowstorms in Central China and Stranded Trains

dianakuan — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 20:05:39 +0000

On January 25th Jacob and I left Beijing on what was supposed to have been a leisurely 24-hour ride to Hong Kong. We got to the train station on time, despite being almost late, and went through check-in without hassle. The train left on schedule, and the first 12 hours were pretty relaxing. When I went to bed the train was still chugging along, having just entered Hunan province.

The next morning I woke up to the news that the train had barely moved all night. There was a lot of snow and ice outside. We inched along, stopped, inched more, stopped. We stopped in Changsha's train station for about 6 or 7 hours. It wasn't until dinner time, way past our expected 1pm arrival time in Hong Kong, that we passengers were finally clued in.

Areas of Hunan, and other surrounding provinces, were experiencing the worst snowstorm in 50 years. Hunan had a massive power failure, and we were on an electric train. We had no power to run on. By 9pm, almost all the lights were shut off to conserve electricity, in case the conductors needed to jumpstart the engine. There was no more hot drinking water. Heat was also turned off. Bathrooms and hallways were getting filtheir and filthier. We still had to buy, and sometimes pay extra for, all our food.

Halal Food in China

dianakuan — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 16:09:37 +0000

Cool site of the day courtesy of the Shanghaiist: IslamiChina, a guide for Muslims living/traveling in China that includes a very comprehensive listing of halal restaurants in almost 40 cities.

In Beijing, there's almost 60 restaurants listed, mostly Mongolian hot pot or Xinjiang. The maps on the site are pretty basic, so to pinpoint the exact locations (especially in sprawling Beijing) you would need a more detailed map. But I'll definitely use this the next time I have hunger pangs for lamb kebabs, stewed mutton, or nang.

2007: A Year in Food

dianakuan — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 08:00:02 +0000

In the spirit of end-of-the-year reviews, I've hopped on the bandwagon and created my own. This past year, travel and moving sucked up most of my expenses, so dining out took a backseat compared with previous years. However, I've had many wonderful meals at home and at the houses of friends and relatives. I've become well acquainted with grocery stores in Beijing, Hong Kong, Macau, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Denver, LA, and San Francisco, where the simplest provisions can make hearty and delicious picnic fare. And nothing cheers up the appetite and the wallet simultaneously better than street food, of which I had plenty this year.

So below is my little year-end ode to joyous eating. Happy New Year!

Best Meal in China

Din Tai Fung, Beijing: The chefs here have certainly mastered xiaolongbao's soup-to-filling ratio. We had basket upon basket of steaming hot pork xiaolongbao, crab and pork xiaolongbao, mini pork xiaolongbao, veggie dumplings, and sides like their signature chicken soup. A must-visit if you're ever in Beijing, Shanghai, Taiwan, or any other city where there's a location. (See Food Resolutions for 2008 below)

Appetite for China and changes to Indietrekker

dianakuan — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 19:11:12 +0000

My obsession with food has taken on a life of its own. Or rather, a blog of its own. Appetite for China is my new blog focused on food in this country of seemingly endless foods to try. It will have previously published food-related posts from indietrekker, and will become to repository for all future food posts. AFC started out of my endless curiosity about China's many cuisines and my inability to find another blog focused on the topic.

Indietrekker, meanwhile, will not be forgotten. It remains my blog for general travel around the world, though for now it will remain centered on China/Asia.

Please visit Appetite for China, and stay tuned for more posts here as well.

Recipe: Asian Pear and Banana Smoothie

dianakuan — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 08:22:13 +0000

One of my favorite things about fall is that pears are in season. Here in China, we get Bartlets and Bosc pears like in the US, but Asian pears are by far the most popular and most abundant.

I did a little research on the origin of Asian pears and found out that all pears may have originated in China. From The Washington Post:

All pears, it's believed, have a common parentage from rootstock native to western China. But centuries ago, trees that were taken westward to European countries changed over the years and produced fruit with a texture and flavor like the common Bartlett pear.

Asian pears tend to be sweeter, more crisp, and juicier than their European cousins, which means they're excellent for making smoothies. The natural sweetness cancels out the need for additional sugar, though sometimes I use a spoonful of honey if I'm in the mood for a sweeter drink.

Asian Pear and Banana Smoothie

8-10 cubes of ice
240 mL (1 cup) unsweetened soy milk
2 Asian pears, peeled and chopped
3 medium-sized bananas, peeled and chopped
15 mL (1 tablespoon) honey, optional

Recipe: Pork and Sī Guā Stir-fry

dianakuan — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 03:06:36 +0000

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.) The flesh is about as soft as a winter melon's, which means that any cooking method longer than a quick stir-fry will render it very soft.

Snake gourd goes well with a red meat that also cooks quickly, like lean pork. I add some green peppers, onions, and scallions, but keep the companion veggies to a minimum so the sī guā and pork stand out.

Even with a rough exterior, sī guā peels easily. So no need to exert more force than peeling, say, a carrot. My mother likes to cook sī guā with a concentrated abalone extract, which has the smell and texture of oyster sauce. Of course, good 'ol oyster sauce always works too and is much easier to find. Just don't cook melons or gourds with soy sauce or else your finished product will have a sour flavor.

Pork and Sī Guā Stir-fry

Serves 4 to 6, as part of a communal meal

Recipe: Soy-Braised Chicken

dianakuan — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:47:48 +0000

The Cantonese often go ga-ga over Hainanese chicken, a dish prepared by boiling a whole chicken in pork and chicken stock. It originated on the island of Hainan, became a national dish of Singapore, and is enjoyed anywhere on the globe where the Cantonese dine.

Chicken without sauce allows you to taste the freshness of the skin and meat, much like eating shimp with nothing but a spritz of lemon. But no offense to Hainanese chicken - sometimes your tastebuds just cry out for something savory that just melts off the bone.

Soy-braised chicken is a simple casserole dish can be whipped up within 30 or 40 minutes. An earthenware casserole dish is ideal, but a medium sized pot also works. (My mother once said that moist-cooking methods with a lot of soy sauce is bad for metals...maybe any food scientists would like to explain why?)

Soy-Braised Chicken

Serves 4

500 mL (2 cups) soy sauce*
750 mL (3 cups) water*
1 piece ginger, peeled and sliced
45 mL (3 tablespoons) sugar
10 mL (2 teaspoons) cinnamon
5 mL (1 teaspoon) star anise
4 pieces chicken, thighs or wings or combo
1 scallion, roughly chopped

*More if needed to cover chicken at least 3/4 of the way, but maintain the 2 parts soy sauce to 3 parts water ratio.

Recipe: Wontons, Healthy or Decadent

dianakuan — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 09:34:25 +0000

Wontons, if made well, live up to their Cantonese name, which means "swallowing clouds." Whenever I have wonton soup, it's an exercise in self-control to not eat all the wontons first. These little parcels of pork in wrapper steal the show, even if vegetables and noodles are present.

Wonton soup is available at just about any homestyle Cantonese restaurant, both in China and abroad. Making them at home is another story. Home cooks who didn't grow up making wontons find the folding intimidating (but this is true with all sorts of dumplings.) Many also think making wontons at home is a hassle, especially when going down to the local noodle shop is such a breeze.

I've found that by making big batches of wontons, I can freeze them and take them out for a rainy day. The Cantonese mainly put wontons in soup, and that's the context in which I knew them for most of my growing-up years in China. Then after moving to the US, I discovered the greasy guilty pleasure of American Chinese food, and subsequently the deep-fried wonton. Wonton soup may be awkward to eat if you're out with friends, or throwing a party, but munching on a big basket of fried wontons is as much fun as sharing popcorn shrimp or french fries.

My Leafy Green Vegetable of Choice

dianakuan — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 10:41:56 +0000

Ever since I was young, whenever my mother asked me what vegetable I'd like for dinner, my answer 99% of the time was "chao ong choy", the idiomatic Cantonese term for stir-fried water spinach. (In non-idiomatic Mandarin it's 炒空心菜 cǎo kòng xīn cài.) I don't know what made me love it from an early age on, but it always tasted meatier than other stir-fried greens. Maybe because the hollowness of the stalks - hence the "kòng xīn", which means "empty center" - cradled whatever seasonings or sauce it was cooked with. Many many years later I still love water spinach, although I now dabble in other greens from time to time.

Chinese water spinach is usually in season during the summer, but here in Zhongshan, where warm whether stretches well into October, I can enjoy my leafy green for a bit longer.

My mother's recipe for stir-fried water spinach is simple and hasn't changed much since my days of single-veggie-fanaticism. Most Cantonese restaurants and other people's mothers will make a very similar version of this dish, which is why, apart from using old stalks or over-cooking, it's hard to make a bad plate of water spinach.

Recipe after the jump.