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Well... I think we have a mixed conversation. Different fish dish requires different techniques. The typical Cantonese style of "plain steaming" - just the fish with some ginger and nothing else - you add more ginger and some green onions and splash fuming hot oil on top then add some soy sauce. Then there is Cantonese style steamed fish that you steam the fish with fermented black beans and ginger. This dish can be consumed as is or some can add the ginger/green onions and splash fuming oil on top at the end too. Not wise to heat sesame oil - the smell is bad and heating turns the oil taste to bitter. Cutting ginger into slivers, shreds or to mince it or to grate it is a matter of preference.

The “opening of the year” dinner tonight. Reposted from My eG Foodblog last night: No-head salt-baked chicken. Got to my in-laws’ house. My MIL made a few dishes of her own. Shredded BBQ pork stir-fried with mung bean noodles. Some Chinese cabbage on her well-used wok. I chopped up the chicken, Cantonese style. The skin turned out very dry and crispy, just the way I preferred it. This dish has a good title “Ho See Fat Choy”, with “Ho See” (the dried oysters) means prosperity and “Fat Choy” (the hairy moss fungi) means getting rich. My MIL bought some roast pork this afternoon. Very good. Skin was crispy and tasty. And she made some soup from pork, dried oysters, bean curd sheets, black mushrooms and dried jujube dates. Quite good! I had a couple of bowls.

Is mung bean noodles a Toisanese tradition as a CNY dish? I saw the very same thing in my MIL's kitchen last night. And... this mui mui doesn't deserve a lei see. All I heard were promises of a recipe.

Vietnamese rice paper is good to make egg rolls where you deep-fry the "dumpling". It is a bit tricky to handle as you need to soak it in water for only 1 minute for it to come soft, and not too long where it becomes very mushy. It is no good for steaming.

Thank you so much Rachel! Reading your posts are always like reading literature books. I learned only enough English composition skills to state scientific facts and describe engineering tasks - like: do A and B and you will get C... It could very well be... that the soy beans I used came from the very same farmland near you! In Chinese, it is called: 緣 Cantonese pronounciation: "Yuen". (Meaning "Fate"). Some Chinese believe that fate has pre-determined everything we experience in life. Whether two people meet and fall in love. Whether a southern state soy bean will end up being consumed in Sacramento...

Pontormo: that sounds very good. All of these squashes... it seems... they don't look that "attractive" from the outside but are very delicious. Chinese don't cook these squashes and I have never seen them in Asia. May be I can try to blend that in some of my recipes in stir-fries or soup.

Thanks Bruce. Yeah I explicitely gave away my age didn't I? Actually I am not 48 quite yet because my birthday is in June. But that would be soon enough. These foodblogs are great ways to learn a culture. All cultures evolve around food. After all, we all need to eat to survive. I haven't met a culture whose social activities do not involve food. To understand any ethnic food, it's best to have the history/cultural background explained.

Thank you Abra. That sounds delicious! I really like kabocha. I need to try out the way you described. This two-way information trading in the foodblog is really great!

Tepee: Here what they sell are mostly Mandarin oranges. Tangerine and kumquats are found too. I haven't seen other varieties. May be just need to look in more places. These citrus trees usually do well in central California - plenty of sunshine and enough rainfall or watering. Unfortunately there was a big cold freeze a month or so ago in California and damaged many crops. That caused the vegetable/fruit prices to go up and quality to suffer.

I'll let you know as soon as I can when this Dai Gah Jeah will be arriving for " the small banquet". ← Dai Gah Jeah if you are ever coming this way, only the Koi Palace private banquet room can match the delight of your presence. Or the new Fat's in Folsom, which I heard is "very good". But then again, the "very good" rating is from my caucasian sister-in-law so I need to verify it first.

Thanks for answering my question on the (previously) unknown guord. So... butternut and delicata they are. The label I saw combined the 2 names into one label so it confused me a bit. I will try some of your suggestions on how to make them next time. leviathan: congee usually refers to what Cantonese called "jook". "shi fan" is Mandarin, which literally means "diluted rice". Beside the dialect differences, they actually are different ways of making the soupy rice portridge. Cooking "Shi fan" is fairly quick. The rice is still grainy. "Jook" on the other hand takes much longer - typically from a few hours to overnight. The rice has completed broken down and the liquid becomes thick and starchy.

Actually if Hannibal Lecter was a chicken, we would see him making a pot of chicken soup. It was the "Buffalo Bill" character that skins other chickens. (A fan of Thomas Harris' novels) (Removed the nightmare-inducing pictures. )

Hi again America! I am at work now! My office is 10 feet away from my bedroom. I am telecommuting. Being a computer consultant, I am all "wired". Most works don't require a "body presence". Occassionally, something may require some "SIFO" work. It's a geek's term that means "Standing In Front Of" it. That's when travelling must be made. Boy... many questions. I will to get to answer some of them during my many breaks - which is... whenever I get bored at work.

Good morning America! This Tuesday, Feb 20, 2007 - third day of Chinese New Year. My calendar shows today is "red" (holiday). Oh, oh... sorry. That's my Chinese calendar. I wish today is holiday... Today's liquid breakfast: Most of the same. Just heated up some soy milk that I made a few days ago. And, sorry, I got to run. I am late for work. See ya!

Date: Feb 19, 2007 Chinese calendar: The second day of Chinese New Year Festivities: This is the second day of the Chinese New Year. This is the day that most married women would visit their parents and be with their side of the family. It is also the first day for the official meal after the vegetarian meal on the first day. In Cantonese it is called "Hoi Neen", meaning "opening of the year". It is customary to slaughter a live chicken for the occasion. As tradition would have it, the chicken would have head on and feet on. The chicken may be made as an offering to the gods and goddesses first before consuming in the family.

The “opening of the year” dinner tonight. In the afternoon, I marinated the chicken with some salt-bake chicken powder. Rubbed that evenly on the surface of the chicken. Broke some star anises and mixed it with some salt, rubbed that in the cavity of the chicken. The Leung Cooking School of chicken hanging underneath the paper towel rack. Blew the skin dry for about an hour or so. Soaked some dried oysters to make a second dish. Also soaked some “hairy moss” fungi. Minced some garlic. I normally cook these dried oysters whole. Because MIL’s teeth are not as good as they used to be, I cut up these dried oysters into smaller pieces. Soaked and trimmed some black mushrooms. Heated up some oil, sautéed the garlic. Added some salt. Splashed in some ShaoHsing wine. Added the dried oyster, some chicken broth, water, oyster sauce and a bit of brown bean sauce. Braised it for an hour or so. Added the hairy moss fungi and black mushrooms. Cooked for another 30 minutes. Meanwhile, the chicken was progressing well. Chopped some green onions. Grated some ginger. Poured some fuming hot oil onto the mix. Added more baked chicken mix, sugar and salt. This was the condiment for the chicken. The chicken in the stove when done. The chicken was bowing to me, except… without the head. Got to my in-laws’ house. My MIL made a few dishes of her own. Shredded BBQ pork stir-fried with mung bean noodles. Some Chinese cabbage on her well-used wok. I chopped up the chicken, Cantonese style. The skin turned out very dry and crispy, just the way I preferred it. The final touch of my second dish: blanched some iceberg lettuce. Lined on the plate. On top, poured my braised dried oyster with hairy moss fungi. This dish has a good title “Ho See Fat Choy”, with “Ho See” (the dried oysters) means prosperity and “Fat Choy” (the hairy moss fungi) means getting rich. My MIL bought some roast pork this afternoon. Very good. Skin was crispy and tasty. And she made some soup from pork, dried oysters, bean curd sheets, black mushrooms and dried jujube dates. Quite good! I had a couple of bowls. Dessert: some Mandarin oranges. And some regular oranges. Pheww!!! I ate like a pig today! But hey! This is MY year!!!

What I drank and ate "in between meals" this afternoon while preparing for dinner: Grass Jelly Drink. These are made from some herbal grass anf formed into a jelly. The jelly then is cut into small dices and mixed with honey or sugar syrup. You can buy a can of just the grass jelly itself, dice it up and make your own drink. In Cantonese they are called "Leung Fun" (literally means Cool Noodle). What I snacked on: Some very tasty Vietnamese-Chinese made beef jerkies - strong in lemongrass flavor and heavy on chili peppers. Also some dried fish. (Horse-face fish sheetz?). Bought from my recent trip to Garden Grove - the home of best Vietnamese food in California.

Here are my lunch pictures from this afternoon. We met up with my in-laws for the “hoi neen” (opening of the year) lunch meal. The lunch was held at…. (I need some drum beats Dai Ga Jeah!)… You are right! Happy Garden Seafood Restaurant! The owner had taped some CNY decorations at the door. The banner said (wishing you) “everything would be going your way”. Very nice! They use dim sum carts in this restaurant. We had some of the typical ones and they probably don’t need introductions… this is “har gow” (shrimp dumplings). “Siu mai” (shrimp and ground pork dumplings). “Har cheung fun” (steamed rice noodles with shrimp filling), served with diluted light soy sauce. “Char siu cheung fun” (steamed rice noodles with shredded BBQ pork filling), served with diluted light soy sauce. Steamed tofu with ground shrimp. Taro rice cakes: cooked taro mixed with a batter made from rice flour, seasoned and steamed to harden, then sliced up and lightly fried before serving. There are dried shrimp, laap cheung (Chinese sausage) and diced black mushroom fillings. Daikon rice cakes: the cooking process is the same as taro rice cakes, only using daikon. “Char siu bao” (steamed buns with shredded BBQ pork filling). To match everybody’s demand, there usually are some fried noodle or fried rice noodle dishes. Today is the “opening of the year”, the rule is “must have chicken”. Both the fried rice noodle and fried noodle dishes were cooked with chicken. Fried noodles with chicken. Dessert: egg tarts. We drank the usual “Teet Kwun Yum” tea. (Remember the goddess who blesses the poor and suffering commons?). Leaving the tea pot cover open – this is the well-understood signal in Hong Kong restaurants which means “I need hot water refill”. If you want to signify the urgency, wave the tea pot in the air. Being that this was the second day of Chinese New Year, the owner had been showing some videos of some lion dancing competition. It is amazing to watch these masters doing their lion dances to jump from pillars to pillars six feet above the ground and still keeping their balance and grace. Sorry for the blurry shot. It was an attempt to shoot at the interior of Happy Garden as we were leaving. But should have known that walking and photographing don’t mix. Not on a small, idiot-proof automatic digital anyway. I can’t wait to have my DSLR!

You are welcome. I hope you will visit them and give them some business one day Carolyn. They might need it!

So much to eat, so little time! Back to work tomorrow... (Where is the crying emoticon when you need it???) > < o [---] ... For those who are not familiar with the culture... In China, the first, second and third day of the Chinese New Year are public holidays. Most businesses are closed, factories are shut down. The only businesses which remain open are entertainment, restaurants, transportation and public services. Of course in the USA, these holidays are not observed. So... Chinese living in America are robbed! Today it just happens to be a US holiday - President's Day - and we get a day off. Comes tomorrow, things are back to normal. And tomorrow... the Tour de California people will be coming from Santa Rosa to downtown Sacramento! Yikes! I better watch out and not be hit by these Grand Prix cyclists riding at 40mph+!

This is S.F. Supermarket where I did my Chinese New Year food shopping. It is located at Stockton Blvd crossing 65th Street. They had all kinds of seasonal candies, sugar-glazed nuts and melons for the new year. Sugar-glazed lotus seeds. Sugar-glazed coconut shreds in different colors. Some toffee kind of candies. Gold coins from large to small. I loved these gold coins when I was a kid. It’s pure chocolate inside! The store sold these gift baskets, already wrapped. I remember when my father took me to visit relatives during Chinese New Year, he always bought some gift baskets filled with fruits, candies. Some even with a bottle of brandy. Sugar-glazed coconut strips. Interesting! They package something into a container that looks like a giant firecracker! Crispy candy. Probably some kind of ground peanuts mixed with toffee. “So Kwok”. These are deep-fried dough with ground peanuts and sugar inside. Chinese call these “Siu Hau Zho” (a jujube date that resembles a smiling mouth). Deep-fried dough with sesame seeds sprinkled on the outside. Sugar-glazed lotus root slices. “Jin Dui” – deep-fried dough made from glutinous rice flower. The filling is sweet, made with smashed red beans. The outside is coated with sesame seeds. And… they are hollow! More sugar-glazed lotus seeds. Sweet ginger. I think these are ginger-flavored soft candies. Roasted water melon seeds. I bought one of these. This is a package for candies and it is shaped like a “Yuen Bo” – the ancient Chinese gold ingot. More gold coins! “Lei See” candies. Not sure what’s inside. Small candies that shaped like gold ingots. Sugar-glazed winter melon. Sugar-glazed water chestnuts. Again, sugar-glazed coconut shreds. I bought one of these because they were the smallest that I could find. You can buy each of the sugar-glazed melons/seeds and candies separately and put them in a serving tray. Or you can buy one of these combinations. The package is the serving tray. Cantonese call these “Tsuen Hop”. Boy… this was the largest that I had seen. Felt very heavy too. If I had bought one of these, I don’t know how long it would take me to finish it.

I went to do some year-end shopping last week. Here are some pictures that I took. There is a small floral shop in the same mall as SF Supermarket that sells seasonal floral items. I guess I don’t need to tell you their address. Mandarin orange tree. A small tree like this already produces two dozen Mandarin oranges. Buy a Mandarin orange, you can eat for a day. Plant a Mandarin orange tree, you can eat for life! This is the bigger variety: Tangerine. And this is the smallest in the variety: kumquat. Most of the fruits on this tree were still green. Trigs from plum trees. We buy this to decorate at home for Chinese New Year. They usually bloom around Chinese New Year. “Mui Fa”. It is also China’s National Flower. You buy one of these trigs, put it in a large size vase (like the ones in Koi Palace) and add water. Flowers will start blooming in a few days. This is another flower plant that Chinese like for CNY: “Shui Sin”. Sorry… don’t know what the English name is. It has a very strong fragrance. I think some perfume makers extract the fragrance from these flowers to make perfume.

What you said is very true. In general Hong Kong western pastries are much less sweet. That goes to cakes, tarts, breads, etc.. In fact a unique (I think) Hong Kong adaptation is to use savory fillings to make bread (buns). BBQ pork buns, curry beef buns, hot dog buns - to name a few. I always like those and only the Hong Kong style bakeries would make them. I am usually disappointed at the bakery items offered at the Taiwanese-run bakery shops. They just do it differently. As for the egg tarts: You can kind of tell by the look sometimes. Check out the color of the egg tart filling: shinny or dull? any crack? The crust: look flaky or solid? Burnt or too pale? And you can skip those that don't look too appealing.

Hi Ellen! We'll work on the third part and make another honorable Chinese out of you!

Hey Russell! How the heck are you? Kung Hay Fat Choy to you too! We ARE about the same age, yaaa? And we should know how to enjoy life! You sure have a much better access to all the top-notch restaurants than me. The Chinese population in Sacramento, by and large and for whatever reason, has tamed down their demand for the extra edge. In Cantonese, we call it "tsui tsim" (sharp mouth) - meaning the ability to taste even the minute difference in a dish prepared by different restaurants. There are many Chinese restaurants in this area, and many of them have strong patronage. But to me they always seem just one notch below the good ones commonly found in San Francisco and the Bay Area. To name a few of my personal favorites: Koi Palace (Daly City) Asian Pearl (Richmond) Hong Kong East Ocean (Emeryville) Fook Yuen (Millbrae) Zen Peninsula (Millbrae) Mayflower (San Francisco) Parc Hong Kong (San Francisco) There are just too many to mention them all.