hzrt8w

Stephanie: I posted some pictures on my visit to the Sacramento farmer's market yesterday. My overall impression was that the quality of the vegetables I found was just so-so, and the prices I saw was not much better than the ones I had seen in Asian markets such as SF Supermarket. Being that their hours are limited - only once a week in the morning, I don't find the value in going to it. New Canton - I love it. It is one of the best Chinese restaurants in Sacramento that I know. Unfortunately... they are closed. Has been for 1/2 year or something. I love the dim sum they made. Not sure what's coming in to take its place. I have not heard of Eastern Empire before. Where is it? May be I can try it out!

Kung Hey Fat Choy to you too Kouign Aman! I will get to my "geek" part later on this week. So stay tuned!

Hi Susan: It's very nice that you dropped in. Thank you for the invitation to do this foodblog! It is a lot of work but a lot of fun too! I hope everything works out for you. I am hanging on for the time being, and wondering if one day I may need to give up some volunteer work too. Happy New Year to you!

Last night’s dinner… Being that many Chinese don’t want to “kill” on the first day of Chinese New Year, we would be a vegetarian for… half a day. Last night’s dinner was some simple vegetable stir-fries, Chinese style of course. We had a quarter of a winter melon. This melon was home-grown and was given to us by a friend of my mother-in-law. This is one benefit of living in California. You can grow many different vegetables in your own backyard. And many Chinese immigrants do. I have seen friends who had turned the backyard into a miniature farm land. Melons, beans, tomatoes, choy sums, etc.. The melon was peeled and diced into small cubes. Minced some garlic and got some small dried shrimp. First fried the dried shrimp on the pan with a couple of teaspoons of oil and let the fragrance develop. Satueed the garlic and added some salt. Added the diced winter melon, some water, and a bit of oyster sauce. Let it cooked until the melon turned soft. To add some texture, I added a can of straw mushrooms at the last minute. The second dish: I bought some nice and fresh pea shoots. Minced some garlic again, and sliced one serrano pepper. I usually like to blanch the pea shoots in water first. I don’t have a high-power wok burner (yet). I wanted to reduce the stir-frying time. I found this method is better. Removed the pea shoots when they are slightly undercooked. Heated the pan real hot, added some oil, sauteed the minced garlic and pepper slices together. Added some salt. Returned the blanched pea shoots. Stir-fried it for just one more minute. Done. Stir-fried pea shoots. Stir-fried winter melon and straw mushrooms with dried shrimp and oyster sauce. My wife and I don’t eat rice regularly any more. She wants to avoid the starch. Instead, we eat tofu in place of rice. We picked this firm tofu. She said the firmer the better. I cut the block of tofu into smaller cubes, and heated them up in the microwave for 4 minutes (too lazy to boil them). Ate this instead of rice in every home meal. To counter the “blandness”, I like to add a wallop of hot sauce.

Good morning everybody! This morning’s liquid breakfast: Kern’s Guava Nectar. I love guava. I love most guava flavored drink. I like eating guava fruits. It may taste a bit bitter at the first bite but the taste is really good. Today’s plan: well… today is the second day of the Chinese New Year. Typically married women would go back to their side of the family and spend time with their parents. Today is also “Hoi Neen” [Cantonese] – opening of the year… the meal that symbolizes we are officially opening up the year. “Must have chicken” is the rule. So… A whole chicken is already defrosted. Oh, I wish we have live chicken in our markets here. I would kill to get a live chicken. And I would kill a live chicken! You will be lucky to find chicken with the head on, and they charge a premium to leave the head on! I do with what I can find. I plan to make “Salt-baked Chicken” as depicted in this pictorial recipe: Secret Salt Baked Chicken (秘制鹽焗雞) We will be meeting with my wife’s parents for a dim-sum lunch (can you guess where?). Later on I will come home, bake the chicken, make another “ho yee tau” (good luck charm) Chinese New Year dish, and go to her parents’ home for dinner. They seemed to like my Salted-Baked Chicken last time. That’s a blessing. Because there aren’t too many dishes I make that they like. So… I won’t push my luck.

My old post mentioned 2 Thai places in Cypress: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...dpost&p=1285810

Hey if you can't afford it, how about a discount and just get me over there? I know I am less experienced but California is much closer to Malaysia... airfare much lower!

The year of the dog is before year of the pig. So you were born in 1959? Every year Chinese New Year (which is based on lunar calendar) lands on a different date in the solar calendar. If we have access to the lunar calendar back to 1959 we'll know.

Hi Abra! I am flattered. One more hint: I watched Jessica Lange in King Kong (the first remake, not the one done by Peter Jackson) in high school. And John Travolta in Grease was my idol. How old am I?

Mentioned in My eGullet Foodblog: Fresh sweet potatoes, cut in thin slices, baked for about 10 to 15 minutes. Home-made fresh soy milk. And for the occasion, being the first day of CNY and all: red water melon seeds and candied coconut strips.

Check out more on the Chinese New Year snacks on this post from Tepee: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...dpost&p=1362979 Chinese call this "Chuen Hop" [Cantonese]. It means a box that is complete, perfect. In the box there are assorted candies, candied fruits, candied winter melons, candied lotus roots, etc.. When relatives or friends come by during CNY, you serve the goodies in one of these - with a cup of tea, of course. That's the Chinese tradition and manner during CNY.

Today is the first day of Chinese New Year. Children are the happiest because there are all kinds of treats for the occasion. Most of them are candied fruits, melons or roots (such as lotus root). I don’t have a sweet tooth and I avoid most candied stuff. We don’t have any children so it’s easier to get away with it. I did buy a couple of Chinese New Year special-occasion snacks. A bag of red water melon seeds. This is very typical of Chinese banquets, especially around Chinese New Year, that they serve red water melon seeds before the meal. The water melon seeds are dried (sun-dried typically) and died in red color. I have been snacking on these all day long. The other one that I like is candied coconut strips, as I had shown in the teaser picture. They died the coconut strips in different colors: pink, pale green, white. Oops… white is the natural color of coconuts. LOL! We just had a simple dinner at home. It is getting late. Allow me to post tonight’s dinner tomorrow. After dinner, this is what I had for dessert: It’s a Mandarin orange. This is another symbolic item. In Chinese, Mandarin orange is “Gut” [Cantonese], which sound the same as the word that means “Safe”. So… we must have some Mandarin oranges around New Year time. That’s why you see plenty of them in the Asian markets this time of the year.

After I went to the farmer's market, I came home to pick up my wife. We went to the nearby restaurant (which is our favorite) New Hong Kong Wok on Freeport Blvd. Personally I don't have any particular rules to observe, foodwise. We just ordered something quick and tasty. Beef ribs stir-fried with onion and bell pepper. Clay pot with oyster and tofu. The big brown chunks in the pot were whole garlic. There were pieces of black mushrooms as well. I ordered this one for symbolic reasons. Oyster in Cantonese is "Ho", which is similar to the word that means "Good". Let this year be a good year!

Date: Feb 18, 2007 Chinese calendar: The first day of Chinese New Year Festivities: This is the first day of the Chinese New Year. Many Chinese live with their parents (typically the fraternity side). As they wake up, they would wish their parents well, say a few nice words. In the old days, the parents would sit on chairs, and the son and daughter-in-law would kneel on the floor and pour a cup of tea for the elders: one for the father, one for the mother. If one of the parent has passed away, tea would still be poured but served at the family altar. The parents would then pass the "lei see" [Cantonese] (or "hung bao" in Mandarin), such as those shown in my teaser picture: In the red envelop, there is money of course. The more money they give you the more they love you! Today most Chinese families eat at home, especially in Hong Kong. The reason: Many Chinese restaurants close down for three days (Day 1, 2, 3 of Chinese New Year are public holidays in China) so that the chefs and staff can go back to their home village for family re-union. Those restaurants that remain open - they are packed! Things might have changed over the years as I haven't been in Hong Kong for CNY for close to two decades. Take a look at what Tepee (a Chinese-Malaysian) ate with her family on New Year Day here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...dpost&p=1362963 Her family eat vegetarian dishes on the first day of the year. Some Chinese believe to avoid "killing" at the beginning of the year (well... for one day). In China, firecrackers are very popular among kids. This is the time of the year that you would hear the boom, boom, boom everywhere. In Hong Kong firecrakers have been banned long time ago because of the fire hazard. The government would sponsor fireworks at night to make up for it. Some believes that on the first day of CNY, one should not shampoo the hair, as that would "wash away" the lucks.

Pontormo: What you said is very true. My wife's family is not that traditional any more after 40 years of living in this valley. MIL has blend in many occassional food to please the grandchildren (they all like chow mein, you see). I have just posted my report on Sacramento's farmer's market (every Sunday morning underneath the I-80 (business) freeway). This time of the year is typically cold and wet. Today was exceptional because it was sunny, calm and in the 60's (F). I don't know what other outdoor markets there are.

Today is Sunday. There is a small farmer's market in Sacramento every Sunday from dawn til about noon. This morning I rushed out of the house wanting to take a few shots of the market before it closed. It is a pretty small scale farmer's market, located in the parking lot underneath the I-80 (Business) freeway between X and W, 6th and 7th. Perhaps I picked a bad time to go. Today is the first day of Chinese New Year. Duh!!! All Chinese farmers are with their families at home celebrating the CNY! Without the Chinese farmers selling their goods, the market is just not the same. I only saw booths here and there - far less populous than usual. Hmmm... someone selling trigs of plum trees (left). Chinese love plum flowers. "Mui Fa". It is China's national flower. Rows of assorted flowers. These lilies are lovely. Well... I saw only one booth selling Chinese vegetables (choy sum, gai lan, etc.) today run by a Japanese family. These vegetables didn't look very good. Kabocha. Some just call it pumkins. Very good to make soup with. I love them. Pork Butt Bone Soup with Kabocha (南瓜豬骨湯) Some packaged nuts: almonds, walnuts, etc.. Walnuts with shells. When you go to these farmer's markets, you have to know your stuff. Often the labels are wrong. I am not sure what this is. Some kind of gourd? And another pumkin like gourd? More farmers selling flowers. These are hugh yams (sweet potatoes)! I only like small sweet potatoes. I think the small ones are tastier. And I like the skin. Someone selling bakery items. These are far cry from those I have seen on eGullet. I don't know how to bake but I can tell good bakeries from so-so ones. This is interesting... a guy selling not only oyster mushrooms but the kit you can use to grow oyster mushrooms (hung on the wire tripod on the left). A plastic bag full of some wet... something. Some big oyster mushrooms and shittake mushrooms. These looked like hugh green onions. But the label said "sweet red onion". A farmer selling bags of potatoes. I have never seen purple potatoes until now! This is fascinating! I didn't buy anything today. I felt that these prices are not that different from those found at regular markets. I don't see the value in coming here to shop, especially that you need to be there on a Sunday morning before noon. Well, just want to show the readers what this farmer's market in Sacramento under the freeway looks like.

Hi Sandy: Chinese were among the first to immigrate to California back in the gold rush era. They were recruited as cheap labor to build the transcontinental rail road in the Sierra Neveda. After the railroad was built, quite a few settled in the Sacramento Delta area as farmers, some sought other professions such as doing laundry business in San Francisco. In the Sacramento valley it is common to see Chinese-Americans who have been living here for a few generations. Ha ha ha.... LOL! Keep guessing! hzrt8w = Horses and Zebras Resemble Trojan Ate (8) Weeds LOL! The fact is: my online moniker, “hzrt8w”, has absolutely no particular meaning. It happened to be a computer login name I was assigned at a company I used to work for long time ago. It was so unique that I just use it to sign up for accounts everywhere I go.

Stephanie: That's the thing... these Chinese New Year midnight markets don't exist in the USA! If you are ever in Hong Kong for the Chines New Year, there are a few places where these midnight markets are held. The most popular one is in the Victoria Park, Causeway Bay.

We just went to the newly opened Koi Palace in Thunder Valley Casino yesterday. I have posted my review and some pictures in my eGullet foodblog: Review of Koi Palace inside Thunder Valley Casino

Yesterday I mentioned that on this Chinese New Year Eve, we went to a special place for lunch, taking advantage of this holiday weekend before we had the family gathering dinner. We heard that Koi Palace is opening shop in Thunder Valley Casino. We were very excited because we really like Koi Palace in Daly City. Thunder Valley Casino is located in Lincoln, about 30 miles NE of downtown Sacramento. It is a mid-size Indian casino with the usual card tables, slot machines and stuff. Koi Palace is inside the casino. Someone mentioned that this used to be Fat's. The last time I came to Thunder Valley was about a year ago. I didn't notice the restaurant in my last trip. This Koi Palace is very nicely decorated. The style and material is top-notch. This is a statue of "Kwun Yum" and a small water fountain at the entrance. Kwun Yum is the goddess who blesses the poor and the suffering. (Perhaps gamblers need her blessing?) The Chinese style cushions at the waiting bench. Also at the entrance: a very nicely made dragon boat with miniature bamboo plants. We sat down and ordered our lunch from the menu. They do not have any dim sum cart. One orders it from the menu. It is interesting that most dim sum restaurants in the Bay Area have different prices for small, medium, large and special items. At this Koi Palace, they seem to want to simplify that. Flat one price for all dim sums at US$3.80 each. They do adjust in giving you different quantities to make up for the price differences. This is the setting. All utensils have their restaurant logo, from tea cups, to plates, to chopsticks, to chopstick holders. I ordered one of my favorite tea "Teet Kwun Yum", which is named after the goddess who blesses the suffering commons. How appropriate! The ceramic tea kettle sits on top of a miniature stove with a small candle inside to keep the tea warm. The food came. Here is the shrimp dumpling "Har Gow". Very tasty. Same quality as their main restaurant in Daly City. Har Gow is easy to make, but hard to make well. The difference is all in the "kung fu" (the mastery) of the main chef in material selection, marination, dough making, dumpling pleading and the exact timing when steaming the dim sum. In Hong Kong, people say if you want to know if the dim sum in a particular restaurant is good or not, just taste their har gow. It is sort of a bench mark item. Next: siu mai (shrimp and ground pork dumpling). This item is not as good as what they make in Daly City unfortunately. It is a little bit dry and dull. Daikon rice cake "Nor Bak Gou". Shredded daikon cooked with rice flour, seasoned, steamed to form, then cut into slices and slightly fried when served. There are dried shrimp and black mushrooms in the filling typically. This one is not bad though I had better ones. Fried bean curd rolls with ground shrimp filling, "Har Guon". This is similar to what I made in this pictorial recipe: Shrimp Paste Wrapped in Bean Curd Sheets (鮮蝦腐皮卷) Their version is dry and pan-fried. Very tasty. Steamed bean curd sheets with ground pork filling, "Seen Jok Guon". Very good. Sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaf. How it looks when the lotus leaf is unwrapped. They added laap cheung (Chinese sausage), black mushroom (really succulent!), dried shrimp and very finely chopped (but not ground) pork as the filling. This one is very good too. A trio of light soy sauce, hot sauce and Chinese mustard. Don't underestimate the Chinese mustard. It can clear your sinuses in 5 seconds! Try it on your American hot dog... Phewww.... that's all we had room for. After the meal, I walked around the restaurant and took notes of their decorations. Again, really very nicely done. This has been the best decorated Chinese restaurant I have seen in North America. This is the section where we sat at. In the main dining room, it is a tall ceiling set up. The center piece is the fire place, chimney and a flat dragon sculpture hung at the center. The fireplace really makes you feel cozy. I don't know if any of these decorations is inherited from Fat's or they are completely Koi Palace's creation. You can tell that they are designed by some top interior decorators. A closer look at the black dragon sculture. Looks like it is made of cast iron but I am not sure. This is what I really like: in the other side of the fireplace they sectioned off what could be used as a private banquet room. On the wall, they hung some old drawings - Chinese women in their traditional Cheung Sam back in the 20's/30's. Make you feel as if you were back to the old Hong Kong and old Shanghai before WWII. Some pictures of Chinese banquets and just friends getting together for a meal. Picture of a Chinese woman in the Ching dynasty, and super-size vases at the corner. More historic pictures of China in the back corner. When I host a small banquet in the future, I would like to book a private room and host it here. And a traditional stone lion sculpture. In conclusion: we were very happy with this meal. The service was excellent. They have well-trained staff and very attentive. To my surprise there weren't too many customers at their grand opening. I was expecting more fan fare than what I had seen. But Lincoln is a little out of the way for most people who live in Sacramento. It would be hard to drive for 30 minutes there just to have a meal. But to me, it beats driving for 2 hours to get to their Daly City location. The price is a little on the high side. Given that you can dine in a nicely decorated restaurant with friendly staff and attentive service, and high food quality (except for one dish that we tried), this is a meal that we would remember. I am not sure how often we will drive to Lincoln to eat at Koi Palace, being that we are not gamblers so we went there really just to eat. I hope that they will stay around for long, as the fact that Fat's is no longer there makes me think this may be a challenge - setting up fine Chinese dining in a casino - for Koi Palace.

I like them both. I shop at different Asian markets and they don't carry the same brand. I usually eye-ball the product and pick the ones I like and not much pay attention to the brand names - as they can be all different. In making this pictorial I think I was using up one package and about to open the other. The yellow and thin wrapper is the best for Cantonese wonton. The white and thick wrapper is for jiaozi (dumpling), Northern Chinese style.

Hi Pam. I cook Chinese food about 80% of the time. Hey, to us Chinese, "Chinese food" is... Food! LOL! The other 20% would be a mix of: Italian (pasta) Mexican (fajita, burritos, enchilladas, etc.) Thai (red, yellow and green curry, stir-fries) Vietnamese (curry, BBQ beef/pork, pho, bahn hoi, egg rolls, etc.) Japanese (curry, ramen) Indian (did I mentioned that we like curry?) Steaks, salads, hamburgers, pizzas, fried chicken just don't interest me. Not that I want to make at home anyway. Hong Kong is a very unique city because of its history, location and culture. To characterize it in one phrase, I would say it is a "city on the move". Things are very fast-moving. People are always on the run. May be not as fast as in Tokyo, but faster than New York City. Did I get back to Hong Kong often? Well... I used to fly back every 2 years or so to visit my aging Father and siblings. Father passed away in 1999. That was the last time I was back. It seems as if suddenly there is a void of reasons to go back. My brothers and I remain close. But they understand that we don't need to see each other often to maintain the bond. I gotta tell you... there is something called "Cultural Shock". Those who had experienced it would know what I am talking about. You grow up in a certain environment, speak a particular language, taking things for granted, doing things automatically. And suddenly you move to a foreign country to live by yourself. You don't speak the language. You can't read their street signs. You don't know how to order a meal in restaurants. You don't know where to shop for groceries. All items and brands look completely foreign to you. That... is cultural shock. I experienced it a few times. First time was when I came to San Diego for school. In Hong Kong, though English is taught as an official language, it is rarely spoken in daily lives. When I came to USA, from the first moment that I arrived San Francisco International Airport, that's the only language I heard. I tried to pick up a pay phone to call my friend, and I didn't know how to make a call! The operator came on, and I ended up hanging up the phone because I didn't know what to say and what to do. It takes time to settle in a new environment, living a new life. And interesting enough... my second cultural shock came when I moved back to Hong Kong and worked there for a few years after I graduated from school. I had already been living in California for six years, getting used to Californian sunshine and the laid-back life style. I didn't know what to do back home. I walked slower than most people on the street. I talked slower. When I shopped in a market, I expected the cashier would place the change on my hand - as they do in the USA. They dropped the change on the counter and looked at me with funny eyes - where did this guy come from? Sticking out his palm? And needless to say, my third cultural shock came when I immigrated to the USA after that few years I spent in Hong Kong and traveled in Mainland on business. But with each time, though, the degree of impact and enormousity deminish. It takes far less time to adjust. And... this is home. My chosen country to live - the USA. First generation immigrant, much like my father when he took the train from Canton to Hong Kong many decades ago. My food habits remain those that I acquired grewing up in Hong Kong though. I am fortunate now that I live only minutes away from many Asian markets in the area. When I lived in Mission Viejo, I used to do weekend grocery shopping at 99 Ranch in Irvine once a week. And occassionally went to the San Gabriel Valley to get some "real" stuff.

Hi Lucy neighbor! Great to hear from another local! To do shopping for Asian ingredients, there are more than 1/2 dozen of Asian markets (mostly run by Vietnamese-Chinese) of various sizes along Stockton Blvd, from Fruitridge to Florin. You can drive along Stockton and take a look. The one that has the best selections and tidiest isles is "SF Supermarket". They have two locations. 1) Where Stockton Blvd crosses 65th Street. 2) On Mack Road, between the 99 freeway and I-5 freeway. Near Franklin Street, I think. I am hoping to show some pictures of SF Supermarket later on. The prices of their goods are slightly higher than the others but SF is more shopper-friendly. It is easier to get storekeepers who speak English to help you than other ones.

Thank you Rebecca. I don't have much of a sweet tooth and I shy away from pastries. The only ones I like are the Hong Kong style ones, such as egg tart, curry puff and some buns with savory filling. Sadly I have to go to SF Chinatown to get those (the good ones). The ones made in Sacramento... I wouldn't lay eye on them at all. A "newspaper grill"? Interesting. You burn newspapers to cook? How is it done? I never not heard of this term.

Yes. Note edited. Thank you English Professor Dai Gah Jeah.