#chinese food

Hey Folks,

It’s been a long time, over a month since I was last on here, I’m now getting caught up with work, jobs to do, got over the holiday jet lag etc. What a great trip- New England really is such as beautiful and diverse part of the USA, almost everyday there was a change of scenery- historic Boston, stunning wild Cape Cod with it’s beautiful houses and gardens, sweeping river valleys, lush green mountains in the Adirondacks, laid back Portland and a rather quirky Salem. The sea and seafood in general was a major player in our diets- we had some amazing lobster at a place called Thurston’s Lobster Pound on Mt Desert Island, Maine. As ever, I would kill to be able to get such fresh, tasty and affordable seafood here in the UK. I could almost imagine all the Thai recipes I could have used it in.

Not to worry, the one thing I always miss when travelling in either Europe or the US is the lack of spice. Last time we were travelling in the USA, we were in the far south east, being so near to Cuba and also lots of Mexican influences meant we weren’t short of flavours and spices so on this trip we did make one or two excursions in order to get our taste buds going.

Thai however was not on the menu (per se) as at no point did we come across any Thai restaurants I would say that felt authentic and not the usual identical westernised versions.

We did however spend several hours in Chinatown in Boston; right as the day was getting going and just as Saturday evening was ramping up (and the city’s Gay Pride event was winding down- what a fantastic atmosphere there was).

We ended up, at the recommendation of a Time Out article giving ‘The Dumpling Cafe’ (www.dumplingcafe.com) a whirl where their 'juicy pork dumplings’ are particularly recommended.

We chased our juicy dumplings; which are bitten, slurped then topped with ginger with some pan fried dumplings (very much like Japanese gyoza) and some very garlicky stir fried morning glory.

Service was cool, brisk and the food was a little on the greasy side but the flavours were strong, punchy and the food was fresh and tasty.

A few days later we had travelled to Cape Cod where we spent our first full day in the beautiful Provincetown in the 'toe’ of the peninsula. Of all the places on our trip that we visited, this was my favourite spot.

We did a bit of research and heard very good things about a place called 'The Canteen’ (www.thecanteenptown.com) a busy, slightly hipster-ish place which served an eclectic mix of food and local craft beers. My eye was immediately draw to the Vietnamese cod banh mi sandwich and greedy thing that I am, to their intriguing house speciality; deep fried Brussels sprouts in fish sauce.

The cod banh mi was excellent and just what I was looking for but let me tell you something, those ugly looking crisped up sprouts were A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!! wow, so simple but I couldn’t stop eating them- I wanted more! As far as I can tell, the crispy fried sprouts are simply tossed in a nam jim seafood sauce (fish sauce, lime juice, chilli, coriander and perhaps a pinch of sugar). with the local beer, the food went down a treat; do try them if you’re visiting Cape Cod.

And so, normal life resumes once again, and as usual, I’m already thinking of where my next travels will take me….

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

Leftover roasted bbq duck, turns into a homemade gourmet meal. Chinese Dish, noodle soup (one of my fave)

- my copycat of Sam Woo Restaurant Roasted Bbq Duck Noodle Soup

What I cooked during quarantine

- Eggdrop Soup

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.

Noodles in Shanghai

包饺子过程中

It was Chinese New Year so I made dumplings

Don’t insult me, New York D: I will never pay this much for a fake jianbing

Leaving the country for the holidays so I had more beef noodles!