If all you ever had are big meaty crabs from the ocean, let me tell you all about fresh water crabs in China! Though not as big nor meaty as their salt water cousins, these guys are packed with a golden, rich, creamy roe before going into hibernation. Thus, every late fall/early winter is crab season! These crabs, known as Guchenghu fur crab, are traditionally grown in the Gaochun city. After steaming them, dipping them in a diced ginger + aged rice vinegar is the perfect celebration of the end of the season.
Went to a fantastic little Japanese Restaurant recently, different from most Japanese restaurants in the west that focus on ramen and sushi, this place serves Japanese comfort food, big pot of nabe, soba, chawanmushi, donburi, omelet, katsu, broiled fish, and curry.
Cheeseburger is one of those dishes where the simpler it is, the better it tastes. Sure, you can add bacon jam, butter lettuce, or pickled onion in there, but all you really need is just a nice soft bun, a perfectly grilled fatty beef patty, a couple slices of cheese (American or cheddar), some crunchy pickles and mustard! It’s simple, delicious, easy to make, and always a satisfying meal on beautiful summer night!
Woodfire might not be the most accessible, the easiest, nor the most environmentally friendly, way to cook food, but once in awhile, when one is away from their lovely kitchen and precise gas burner on their French Top, wood is all they have, and they’ll need to cook on it. This Turkish Chicken Kebab is perfect for this kind of cooking, by using chicken thigh, the extra fat and collagen is the thigh makes it always juicy, tender and almost impossible to overcook, marinated in yogurt with 15 different spices, creating a crispy crust on the chicken, which retains all its moisture, making them perfect for campfire cooking! Topped with some sweet pickled onions and grilled hot chilies, it becomes the perfect dish for summer camping. Served with this dish is some roti, one of the more traditional forms of bread still ate around Indo Asia, flour, water, oil and a bit of salt is all you need, knead together and let it naturally rise over 3 hours and grilled on a piece of heated stone create the perfect crispy roti! We usually think of “summer flavors” as grilled burgers or hotdog, but really, it’s the “flavor of fire” that are really trying to add to our wood, that caramelization on the surface due to intense heat, that infusion of rich oils from the wood covering every surface of whatever you are grilling. So, expand your tastebud, be creative, grill something you never had before! Summer is not just burgers and hotdogs, but kebabs, bbq pork or beef, smoked mushrooms, grilled fish, charred veggies, roasted yams, toasted nuts, broiled oyster, fresh roti and more!
Sometime when you are rushing from one thing to another, feeling stressed or anxiety about what you are working on, just remember to slow done a bit, go to a dim sum/yum cha place, pour a nice cup of tea, take a sip, and as the steamer cart goes by, ask what’s in each steamer and order something you never had before, grab one or two at a time. Enjoy it, don’t rush, not only Bc they are super hot out of the steamer, but also someone made these little dumplings with their hands, so take a small bite and savor each ingredients. Then take another sip of tea and rinse away everything in your mouth, making the next bite as fresh as the first one. When the cart goes by again, grab something new, or something you like, no one is judging, Bc every single one of those little dishes are delicious! This is just one way to relax, for someone from southern China, dim sum/yum cha is an important part of the day, it’s allows you to refuel, relax, and even reflex. Just like the old Chinese proverb, 心急吃不了熱豆腐, rushing will not always give you the best result, sometime, a little bit slower is a little bit better.
