#chinese food
Tofu and TVP in fermented soy paste - protein filled umami heaven
At a Japanese grocery store, I came across a pack of mapo tofu sauce that didn’t include beef, which can be surprisingly hard. :)
¼ small cabbage, ¼ onion, 2 tsp garlic, ½ cup of tvp (from dry) soaked in chicken flavored vegan broth, and ¾ package of 14oz tofu. Veggies stir fried first, then the tvp, then the sauce and tofu together. Topped with toasted sesame seeds.
So flavorful and wholesome, a taste of it made me cry.
When I decided to reduce meat consumption, I thought I was saying goodbye to certain classics. But fear no more - especially for cuisines that were for so long low on meat and have kept up a tradition of vegetarianism.
Kung Pao Tempeh recipe from The Plant Based Wok. Hannah’s recipes never fail to amaze me.
I’ve written about Wu Liang Ye, New York City’s best Chinese restaurant not in Chinatown, before here. But after a return visit last week, our first time back in over three years since moving to Shanghai, I wanted to post an update, which is… THEY’RE JUST AS GOOD AS EVER!
I went for dinner with colleagues from China and they were equally impressed with the flavors and authenticity of each dish. Here’s a look at some of what we had, and I say “some” as many seafood dishes were not put on the table, but served directly to our plates before I could snap a pic, like their wonderful shrimp and asparagus with garlic.
Appetizer combo with the classic Sichuan cold beef trio of tripe, brisket and tendon…
My go-to dish at WLY, razor clams with a Sichuan peppercorn & scallion vinaigrette…
My fellow diners had never seen a dish like this before and were equally impressed by its taste and presentation…
Double cooked “bacon” with hot peppers…
Shredded chicken in spicy garlic sauce…
Sauteed beef filets in spicy tea sauce…
A tongue-numbing mapo tofu…
And “Ants on a Tree”, which is stir-fried cellophane noodles with minced pork…
While they sell beer, Wu Liang Ye will allow BYOB for special occasions, like this bottle of Moutai that arrived from Beijing with our guests that morning…
With all the changes we’ve seen across this city since coming home, it’s nice to find that things have remained the same here at Wu Liang Ye!
WU LIANG YE
36 W 48th St.
NY, NY 10036
212-398-2308
Shiitake mushrooms are one of the more accessible gourmet ingredients. Fresh, they have an earthy, savory flavor reminiscent of browned meat. Dried, especially at Asian grocery stores, they are notably inexpensive and a shortcut to great flavor. Incidentally, their Japanese name is composed of two characters: shii(椎), the name of the tree on which they grow in the wild and take(茸), a word for mushroom.
Fresh isn’t always best: the flavor of shiitake mushrooms actually improves when they are dried and reconstituted as in our recipe for Doenjang (Miso) Smothered Chicken. Simply steep dried mushrooms in a small amount of boiling water for 15-20 minutes, drain, and reserve the liquid – sometimes referred to as mushroom liqueur – for later use. Dried shiitake is also a key ingredient in vegetarian and non-vegetarian Japanese (dashi, だし) and Korean (yuksu, 육수) soup stocks.
Shiitake are also known as dōng gū (冬菇) in Chinese, pyogo-buseot (표고버섯) in Korean and het hom (เห็ดหอม), literally “aromatic mushroom”, in Thai.
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Asian food in Chicago’s Chinatown
双皮奶 // steamed milk pudding
actually quite easy to make and really yummy! topped it with some frozen mangoes. my late night supper together with some tie guanyin in the background.