Dejah

How many dishes are you planning to serve? Is this for a party or a simple family meal? Some suggestions: a simple soup such as wintermelon (with Chinese mushroom, little bits of ham, in flavourful stock), stir-fried mixed vegetable, or single vegetable like baby bak choi, Shanghai bak choi, pea tips, with beef or chicken slices, and fried rice or noodle dish (chow mein, mung bean thread, rice noodles). For sweet tong yuen, in addition to Gastro's suggestion, you can add fresh or rehydrated bak hap (lily bulb), leen jee (lotus seeds), hung yun (Chinese almond or whatever else they were called in another post! )

Is there a recipe for the broth? ← Maybe just beef bones or shank with some ginger slices? It really depends on how you want to use the broth. For Vietnamese pho, that's a whole different story. Ask c. sapidus!

Is crocodile meat readily available in Singapore? My mom used to "oon'd" a specific kind of dried lizard/salamander with yeuk toy (herbs) for my grandfather who was asthmatic. These lizards are dressed, stretched out and dried, and I have seen them still in Chinese herbal shops.

I know what you mean. This is especially a problem when I test new recipes because I hate to throw away my failures. It's just so un-Toisanese! A professional? Oh, that's a good one! I'm just a self taught amateur who loves to cook. I've never even worked in a McDonalds. ← I love that term: un-Toisanese. Well, sheetz, you're a good teacher!

Does using Coca Cola add a distinctive flavour to the chicken? Would diet Coke work the same? ← Dejah -- I would think that Diet Coke would not work because it contains aspartame, which breaks down in cooking. ← Thanks SuzySushi. Didn't think about that. But then, I don't think "diet" with ingredients when I cook. I'm supposed to cook chicken for Po-Po's supper tonight. Still trying to decide whether I want to braise with mushrooms, chestnuts, wood ear and lily buds, or Coca Cola chicken and the rest in stir-fry with lotus root. Maybe it's time for something different - like Coca Cola chicken! Sheetz: When I made the baos, I made the dough quite thin, to cut down on "WW points". Usually, they are bigger/fluffier dough-wise. I was glad they were ear-marked for others or we'd eat them everyday, all day long! With all the beautiful food you've produced, are you a professional in business? or a professional home-cook?

Only if I can come to your "open house"! I really think we need to have a cookboree/jamboree. Can you imagine the food we'd have? Irving Berling:

Ah Leung, Silow, A job well done! You've done the China and Chinese Cuisine forum proud. Now, git back in that kitchen and cook up more pictorials!

Is blanching a popular technique in a Chinese kitchen? I've never seen it, but I've noticed some Chinese cookbooks that utilize it. ← I didn't blanch when I was in the restaurant because the heat from the big burners shorten the time needed to "cook" the vegetables. I do now at home because my hubby and elderly mother prefers their vegetables, such as gai lan, to be on the more tender side.

I'm double posting the following images - in the chat siu bao cook-off and here. I made 5 dozen last week, for the grandson, and for my international students as a snack after their first skating adventure. I saved and dried the tangerine peels for later use. And now, who will get the other half?

Yum! Just what the doctor ordered for this weather. How cold was it in Brandon today? ← It was actually balmy today: -25F. This curry wasn't nearly as hot as the Fiery Lamb Curry - East Indian recipe we had last night. Whew!

Made these for my grandson and Chinese students last week. I made 5 dozen! The filling: Our eight year old grandson Soulin, and our dog Atticus. Who got the last bite?

Finally had time to process and post some of the dishes we've been eating at home: Mui choi jing gnow yook( beef and "fermented/preserved guy choi)with fresh mint cooked in the dish and extras on top. First had this in Durham, England - with the mint and hot chili peppers, that is. Dow see fu gwa gnow yook (fermented black soy beans/bitter melon/beef)and Shanghai noodles with chili peppers: Curry chicken stew - Chinese style. Yeah, yeah, I know. There are those red chili peppers AGAIN! We love heat.

Welcome to our home! Some mah-li goh for tea time before supper? Some of the dishes we had for supper: Summer rolls, siu yok, char siu, fuzzy melon fun see Siu gnap (purchased) Vietnamese lemongrass grilled ribs, clams in brown bean sauce, and a corner of the beef and mixed vegetables: Spicy shrimp in tamarind sauce Dessert was mango pudding. The picture was too blurred to post. Must have been because I was too full!

At last, a prime rib I am happy enough to post! Along with Yorkshire pudding, tri-coloured baby potatoes, and peas, both with fresh mint.

Toisanese tradition says you should eat chicken today - and on your actual birth date. I'm "killing 2 birds with one stone" - making curry chicken stew to feed my curry craving and to follow tradition!

They're the same wok and the same "original price" at our Wal-Mart here in Manitoba, I should have checked while there today to see if ours are on sale - like I need ANOTHER wok!

Wow! Those who came were in luck! What a treat! Is this a custom done once a year in CNY? ← Jeeze, Tepee! I'm tired just from reading the menu, never mind thinking about 100 or so guests!

Does using Coca Cola add a distinctive flavour to the chicken? Would diet Coke work the same? That was pretty sneaky - the breast meat under the drumsticks. Did your better half eat the "oily, cholestrol-ladened carb" with the lapgnap/lap cheung fan? I am teasing. Of course she did! How can anyone refuse?!

Ah Leung, My father also collects Coca-Cola cans. ← For those interested in Coca Cola memorabilia, here's a Coca Cola Christmas my hubby put up and adds to constantly: http://www.hillmanweb.com/xmas/xmascoke.html It focuses mainly on the Santa image rather than the cans tho. Ah Leung: Why does the label on the duck leg package say" Pork Blood?!" It seems Coke is collected by a lot of people. A friend of ours in Chicago has his whole basement decorated in the Coke theme. He has everything, and done up like a soda shop. http://www.tarzan.org/dumdum05/1430f.html I always drink diet Coke with Chinese food IF there is no accompanying soup. Does anyone like the diet Coke with lime? It doesn't have quite the zip the "other" brand has. Ah Leung: Why does the label on the duck leg say "Pork blood?!" That "simple dish" - I can smell it! I have a whole lap gnap here, but hubby says we can't have any until we lose a few lbs.

There's a Japanese-run fish and chips shop I know of in San Diego which is also very good. They make battered fried zuchini that is to die for. You know, I too have a long-standing pipedream to get an RV and hit the road. Myself, I was contemplating a much more modest vehicle--more likely one of those truck insert campers. But the intent was similar--head cross-country and do foodie stuff. Along with a whole bunch of other stuff, of course ... hey, we could have one of those RV camping jamborees! ← I used to have a chafer of deep-fried battered mixed vegetables: broccoli florets, stalk, carrot, onion, zuchinni, potato chunks - buffet filler. I loved the broccoli florets the best. There's a tiny cafe attached to one of the "not-so desirable bars" in Brandon. It's runned by a Newfie, and his fish 'n' chips are really light and crispy. Wish he could make them lower in calories and cholestrol! There are Good Neighbor Sam Jamborees, Wally Byam Jamborees, etc. We can have an eG Jamboree. Or, if we're set on Chinese food - eG Wokkers! When Wally Byam had their jamboree in Brandon, the city prepared a farmer's field for them - with water and electric hookups. There were over a thousand silver bullets - quite a sight especially if you were flying over. I can just see the eG jamboree now - high-power burners, portable stoves, international flavours wafting up over the city. Yum! We travelled a great deal in the 70s, 80s, in first our Volkswagan camper, then a Ford MiniVan conversion (still at our country home). I often cooked one pot rice dishes on the camp stove, or on the interior stove if it was windy or rainy. "Roll 'em out! eGulleteers!"

That's the only time I use my ceramic steamer - for "go lai tam" - Korean ginseng "tea". I use thinly sliced portioned ginseng root in water, and steam it for 4 hours for the tonic. Gastro - your mom was really strict. It was 24 hours without root vegetables and "yeet hay" foods for me. I have heard of people steaming a small chicken with some ginseng - a strength building food for some one convalesing.

The A choi in the picture looks like heart of romaine. I like this lettuce stir-fried.

Other than the beautiful horse statue, and the exterior of the building, the new Safeway down the street from me is exactly the same - right down to the layout of the produce, where the customer service counter is, meat section! We don't have the wine section because of different liquor laws. I love my Safeway, but you really have to know your prices. Starbucks in the store had a clearance on acouple of their coffees - Columbia Medium - $4.49/8 oz.-regular $8.98/8oz. The sushi they sell is sent over several times a day from a Chinese restaurant but made by their Japanese chef/s-i-l. I quite often pick some up along with their BBQ chicken for quick lunch enroute home. Our driveway can accommodate that "Greyhound" - so I'm expecting you to come "wok 'n' roll" with us!

Is mung bean noodles a Toisanese tradition as a CNY dish? I saw the very same thing in my MIL's kitchen last night. ← Yes. Fun see is a Toisanese tradition for CNY, birthdays, other times of "offering". Noodles is more common for birthday banquets, but fun see is always for CNY. Our university Chinese students association is having a big celebration on March 3rd - the last day of the festivities. I got invitations, but they are "wishing that I might donate a dish of something", so I'll make a big chafter of fun see with maybe BBQ pork. ETA: Fun see can be difficult to cook properly- must be presoaked, and enough stock added to it in the wok. Not enough liquid, it will clump and burn. The fun see really soaks up liquid.

And rightly so, says Dai Gah jeah Dejah who is a Rat. I went early enough to the bank and got new bills with sequential serial numbers. I actually didn't notice them until I was trying to separate them. In the bag of fruit I took to my mom's I remembered to put in a "huon bao". In return for "jak lam" my Mom put in another huon bao with a larger denomination bill. I am still in the hole comparing what I had to give out to nieces, children and grandson, and what I received!