Coconut Sticky Rice Pudding

Disclaimer – this is in no way a Chinese recipe, but I put it together this weekend, inspired by a Food & Wine recipe from Pok Pok in Thailand, and it was so good I had to share! And it works wonderfully at the end of a Chinese meal. And it’s very simple. And it [...]

The Original Chicken Rice Bowl

In Southern California, with its large Asian population, the “rice bowl” is a common item in many restaurants, from the ethnic mom & pop shop (many of which make a great one!) to fast food joints (both those that qualify as Asian, like Yoshinoya, and downright American ones, like Jack-in-the-Box, all of which are pretty [...]

Basic Stirfried Noodles – Lo Mein

Noodle dishes make frequent appearances at banquets and birthday parties in China – the long noodles symbolize long life, so they are never broken or cut before serving.
While the kids and my husband tend to prefer soupy noodles (see Pan-Asian Noodle Soup post, for example), I have a weakness for stirfried noodles, called lo mein [...]

Chinese Red Beans & Rice

Perfect protein for vegetarians, especially if you use brown rice! Most cultures have a version of beans and rice – I’m not sure this recipe is really Chinese, but it works and it’s popular with kids. Try to find the tiny red adzuki beans, or substitute mung beans or another small colorful variety – black beans [...]

Eight Jewels Rice

Dessert is rather an anomaly in a traditional Chinese meal – sometimes there is a sweet soup made of beans and/or barley, but most often fresh fruit is served. Nowadays you can find all sorts of fancy western-style cakes and pastries in China, but true Chinese desserts are few and far between. Some restaurants in [...]

Pork and Cabbage Dumplings (Jiaozi)

Homemade dumplings are a great quick supper, particularly if you make more than you need and can freeze some for later. It’s also a great party food – have the guests come ready to help wrap their dumplings! Kids also love this activity – just be sure hands are washed and be able to put [...]

Spicy Cold Noodles with Sesame Tahini (Dandan mian)

This noodle dish is originally from Sichuan and appears on many a restaurant menu with varying degrees of spiciness. You can buy chili oil in most conventional grocery’s Asian section, or if you live near an Asian market, try some of the ones you see that have the chili flakes still in them (which is what [...]

Stirfried Noodles (Chow mein/Chao mian)

This is the ultimate “what’s in the fridge” dish: to the basic recipe, you can add whatever ingredients you happen to have on hand or whatever catches your eye at the market! I’m giving a simple, vegan version here, but you can also add some marinated, stirfried beef, pork, chicken, or seafood. Fresh Asian noodles are [...]

Rice Porridge with Pork

The most common combination I have encountered for this savory porridge is lean pork shreds and chopped 1000-year-old eggs, which are duck eggs preserved in lime. The egg white becomes black and gelatinous, and the yolk turns greyish and very strong-smelling. It’s an odd color for a food, but the eggs add a wonderful, almost [...]

Rice Porridge (Congee)

One of my husband’s favorite comfort foods is rice porridge – zhou in Mandarin, also called congee. It makes a warming breakfast (the kids like it with a sprinkling of sugar), a hearty lunch, and nothing beats it for when you have tummy troubles – we serve it when someone has the flu, and I [...]