With a piece of big land and 5000 years of history, Chinese cuisine is extremely complicated. Different regions have different cultures, climates and ingredients so that people have formed different types of cuisine. The most basic types are these four: Lu, Chuan, Su, Yue which presents four major regions in China. I am trying …
Read more »
Many of you may have heard of this dish: Mapo tofu. It is almost like a signature dish in every Chinese restaurant and take away. But why is this tofu called Mapo? Or, should I say, this women who invented the dish called Mapo? ‘Po’ is a Chinese saying of elderly ladies, sometimes don’t …
Read more »
As a farming nation, Chinese have combined all sorts of vegetables, grains and nuts into cooking. Thus most widely used types of cooking oil are all vegetarian friendly: groundnut oil (peanut oil), soybean oil, sunflower oil and vegetable oil (rapeseed oil). Be aware, I haven’t mentioned sesame oil yet, because the flavour is so strong, …
Read more »
Shanghai people love eating chicken, this is no daunt. If you don’t believe me, next time you visit Shanghai, count the number of KFC and McDonald’s in high street. To common knowledge, those two old enemies always go head to head like hermit crab and gastropod shell. But here in Shanghai, there is a …
Read more »
Long long time ago, when I saw salmon fillets in British supermarket for the first time, I was so excited: “Salmon sashimi!” My boyfriend (at that time) said: “Are you sure? This salmon is not purposely prepared for sashimi, maybe not safe to eat them raw.” “So how do you eat them?” I asked. …
Read more »
Sometimes I quite understand why kids in UK have problems of eating vegetables, because the most used way of cooking them is boiling, and then served with salt and pepper. I have to say, I am sorry, I hate vegetables too if I have been given these everyday. Do I eat boiled vegetables at …
Read more »
Working at home is not easy, the laziness is keeping growing in your blood and you are keeping fighting them back. I always found difficult to have a quick lunch without eating boring sandwiches. Today’s lunch time, I reluctantly moved myself to the fridge and opened it……what can I do? I found some sausages …
Read more »
I will try my best to describe the quantity of condiments in my dishes, but as you know, cooking is always down to personal taste and experience. Especially there are quite a few strong spices and sauces in Chinese cuisine, do please taste your dish when adding more in ^_^ Here are some handy measurement …
Read more »
Things can’t be better: golden crispy batter outside, tender succulent pork meat inside, and all within less than 30 minutes! I am not joking, this is not expensive filet cuts but normal pork chops, and every one can do it. Usually this is a deep fry dish, but keeping in mind of environment friendly, …
Read more »
When talking about mum’s recipe, it’s always the family’s favourite. I can still remember the first time my mum making this recipe when I was in primary school. She came back with all the ingredients, but NO oven. Actually no families had ovens in their kitchen at that time! People in China are used …
Read more »