COOK
Recipes, techniques, and home cooking in Beijing
Ah yes, unabashed dumpling porn. But seriously folks, this dumpling (jiaozi 饺子) is nothing short of awesome – our instant addiction made clear why a friend dubbed it nothing less than “crack jiaozi.” Not only does this little nugget taste fantastic, the red-cabbage-stained purple wrapper makes it nearly as lovely to look at as to eat. Unlike other parts of China, Beijing dumplings are typified by an astounding variety of fillings beyond the common shrimp-pork-cabbage combo. Most restaurants serving dumplings will have dozens of fillings available, including tomato-and-egg, the Muslim-influenced lamb-and-cilantro, eggplant-and-egg, zucchini-and-egg, preserved vegetable-and-green beans, peanut-bacon-and-green pepper (another favorite), and so forth.… READ MORE | 2 Comments
Tags: Baoyuan, COOK, dumpling, guoba, red cabbage
Is there an easier dish to cook that’s this ridiculously addictive? I’d say…no. And will have words with anyone who dare say otherwise. I had a craving for this simple fare one day, bought two heads of cabbage and ate nothing else for three meals straight. Yet after I demolished both heads, I found myself hankering for another plate on day three. A tad embarrassing, but honestly, what’s not to love? The cabbage is sweet and salty, juicy but still mildly crunchy, and it’s even undeniably good for you. But if I am to be honest, the crux of the addiction is the hint of chili – not enough to make the dish spicy, yet leaves a tinge of fragrance on your tongue and in the air. … READ MORE | 7 Comments
Tags: cabbage, chili, COOK
One of the surprising wonders of living here is discovering some things you coveted back home are actually easy to find in China. I’m not talking about Sichuan peppercorns, or a big bottle of beer for 3 kuai (40ish cents). I’m talking Meyer lemons, one of the sought-after treats from my life in Northern California. This little treasure is actually native to China, as I found out last year through the fabulous Hawberries & Kumquats (thanks Shelley!). No one seems quite sure what a Meyer lemon’s origin is, but this luscious citrus is best described as a cross between a lemon and an orange – slightly sweeter, thinner skinned… all the bright lemonosity you’d like yet without the sour pucker or bitter peel you’ve learned to expect. Thin skins means Meyers don’t travel well, so unless you’re lucky enough to live near Meyer lemon trees…… READ MORE | 10 Comments
Tags: COOK, lemon, LIFE, maison boulud
Just when you thought I was done waxing poetic about the joyous versatility of a toaster oven, we embarked on a bagel adventure. Probably due to the sudden at-home bagel craze evident throughout the blogosphere, a number of our Beijing friends have recently been pumping out these boiled-then-baked-then-toasted brunch staples at home. We were inspired. We wanted to make our own, schmear on an ungodly amount of cream cheese, and stuff ourselves into an enjoyable Sunday carb coma. I was drawn in by the short baking time (10ish minutes) that seemed so very doable in our toaster ovens, and Christine was enraptured with the aesthetic possibilities of decoration (she was salivating over the visuals of pink Himalayan salt and black sesame). … READ MORE | 15 Comments
Tags: bagels, bread, COOK, toaster oven
The genius of this dish is undeniable. Let’s call it a salad. But a salad made mostly from shoestring fries, tossed with leeks, ginger, green onion, cilantro and chilies, laced with the unmistakable zing of Sichuan peppercorns. The best version of this spicy fried potato salad (xiang la tudousi 香辣土豆丝) we’ve had to date is at a grimy little chuan’r restaurant that sits on the corner on Jiu Gulou and a little hutong that leads to Bed Bar, one of the original Beijing hutong bars that now are casually replicated throughout our neighborhood. We’ve only hit it up after 3am and usually after indeterminate glasses of Jamesons or Mojitos. The obvious question then is, is this deep-fried tangle only tasty at ungodly hours after numerous whiskeys? Hell’s no. As you might suspect, fried potatoes spiked with the addictively numbing hua jiao (花椒) is delectable anytime.… READ MORE | 4 Comments
Tags: COOK, deep-fry, Fuschia Dunlop, potato, Sichuan
Sometimes, you just get the urge to shred something. Particularly as it (almost) feels like spring, and the markets around Beijing are finally filling back up with a loads of fresh vegetables, a sight for sore eyes after a winter of buying limp, overpriced turnips and making seemingly endless pots of stew. Inspired by the crack carrot salad at Yellow River noodles, when we spotted this orange toy set of mandolins and veggie carving tools, we had to have it. Easy choice, as this swanky set of plastic fun cost us a mere 7 kuai (1 buck).… READ MORE | 4 Comments
Tags: carrot, COOK, PREP, shredder, yellow river
So it’s not Chinese food, but baking a (relatively tasty) loaf of sourdough in the confines of a tiny Beijing kitchen with an even tinier toaster oven is surely worthy of a blog post. In my neighborhood, it’s nigh impossible to find the crusty sourdough loaves that were the staples my life in San Francisco.
While my loaf can’t even begin to compare with the complex flavors and yeasty goodness of true SF sourdough, it’s cheap, easy, and elevates my toaster oven from well, a mere toaster into a magical gestator of some pretty awesome toast. And as a bonus, the flat smells great and it heats up the sub-zero temperatures in my kitchen.
It only… READ MORE | 5 Comments
Tags: bread, COOK, mantou, sourdough, toaster oven
Rumor has it that this winter in Beijing will be even colder than the last. Considering last winter was one of the coldest in Beijing history and necessitated my purchasing not one, but TWO down jackets to make it through to spring without losing limbs to frostbite, I am more than a little worried. Not only does the prospect of mind-numbing cold displease me, Beijing’s desert climate adds another layer of issues – my body feels intensely dry both inside and out, and I invariably will develop a hacking cough that for once has nothing to do with the pollution. I know, I sound grouchy. My solution this year is to shut up, and just drink loads of this ancient recipe to combat the inevitable dry cough that will invade shortly.… READ MORE | 7 Comments
Tags: asian pear, chuanbeimu, COOK, cough, soup
I love love love figs. Love them fresh or dried, in a lovely red wine reduction, on my toast, stirred into yogurt, laced with honey… you get the point. Living in California, getting my hands on these fleshy little creatures was never an issue, but since moving to Beijing, I kind of gave them up. That is, until a serendipitous dinner at Maison Boulud and a chat with their chef blew my mind – figs do indeed grow here, and are brought to Beijing from Yunnan or Xinjiang. In Chinese, it’s wuhuaguo (无花果) or no flower fruit. Being a nerd, I immediately looked up why it’s named such – it turns out that fig trees have no… READ MORE | 9 Comments
Tags: COOK, fig, fig compote, sauce
I am obviously obsessed with pork. I never got why they called it “the other white meat” because people who prefer chicken seriously need to have their heads examined. In China, the pig is taken pretty seriously. Beef is niu rou (牛肉), or cow meat, chicken ji rou (鸡肉) or chicken meat, but pork? Usually just rou (肉) – as the default Meat (with a capital M) of choice. As I’ve previously documented (blog post here), the Shanghainese know how to fry up a fine piece of pig, but to me, nothing brings out the flavor and porky potential like Cantonese roast pork (烧肉 shao rou, or siu yuk in Cantonese).… READ MORE | 12 Comments
Tags: COOK, pork, roast pork
