New Take on Appetizers!

Looking for new appetizer ideas? Check out this site!

 They're super easy, too!

Asian Tea Smoked Chicken Lettuce Skewer

Traditional Japanese Miso Soup

Great for Fall and Winter, even Spring!

Hearty Shiitake Mushroom and Miso Soup

Recipe courtesy of Tyler Florence

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch scallions, sliced thin, white and green parts separated
• 1 (1-inch) piece fresh ginger, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
• 8 cups water
• 3 (6-inch) pieces dried kelp (kombu)
• 1/4 cup bonito flakes
• 3 ounces dried shiitake mushrooms
• 1/2 cup light miso
• 1 pound baby bok choy, cut in quarters
• 8 ounces firm tofu, cut into cubes

Directions

In a large soup pot over medium heat add the scallion white parts, ginger, garlic, and sesame oil. Cook for 1 minute and add 8 cups water. Rinse the kombu and add it to the pot along with the bonito flakes. Bring it to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes - do not let it boil. Remove the kombu and set it aside. Add the dried mushrooms and miso to the pot and let it simmer gently for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the mushrooms are hydrated and tender. Add the bok choy and simmer until it is tender, about 10 minutes. Add the tofu and cook for another 5 minutes. Ladle into bowls and garnish with the reserved green parts of scallions. You can also top it with slices of the Campfire Pan-Roasted Chicken and garnish with the Crisp Soba Noodles

 
Here's a link to another blog I love, complete with a recipe for the heart-warming traditional Miso soup.
See: Mimi's Recipe

Becoming A Chef!

We have given recipes for several different types of food in all courses of a meal. These are easy to make meals that even you and me as college student could whip up. I myself have never thought about going further beyond cooking in my small little kitchen. This might be because without step by step directions like the ones we have given, I would be a TERRIBLE cook. I've never been the one to step up and want to cook a meal every night. Don't get me wrong I love a good new recipe I can experiment with, but there are limitations. For those of you who just can't take that apron off, here's a video with suggestions of what is needed to become a "top chef" Enjoy!

Becoming a Chef

Other recipe blogs

There are several other recipe blogs just for the mere fact that we as Americans LOVE food! I was searching for other blogs on food and came across one called FoodBlogs. The tag line is "discover, learn, share." This is exactly what I wanted to do with this blog and hope you have gotten some great recipes from us! This blog in particular is place for anyone to share great food or new recipes. I think having blogs on different foods is a great way to express yourself and maybe even your culture. Here is the blog go check it out for more great recipes!

Food Blog

Eight Precious Pudding

When it comes to Chinese cuisine desserts are not as prominent. Dessert to Chinese people often means something less sugary such as fruit. Also for much of their history many people did not own a refrigerator to be able to chill desserts. 

This following recipe is traditional for Chinese banquet setting!

What you will need

1 ounce lotus seeds

2 cups cold water

2 ounces Chinese red dates

2 cups glutinous rice

1/4 cup sugar

3 tablespoons oil

1 red maraschino cherry, stemless

1 cup any candied fruits

1 cup red bean paste

How to Make It

Add lotus seeds to cold water in saucepan. Bring to boil. Simmer on low heat 20 minutes. Drain and cool. Split into halves. Set aside.

Put red dates in bowl on rack in pot or in steamer. Steam covered over boiling water 30 minutes. Set aside.

Put rice in pot with water level 3/4 inch above rice. Bring to boil. Simmer 20 minutes. Stir in sugar and remaining 2 tablespoons oil. Mix well. Set aside.

Grease medium-sized bowl heavily with oil. Place cherry in center. Arrange lotus seeds, red dates, and candied fruits in circles around bottom and up to edge of bowl, glazed side down.

Spread a layer of rice mixture over fruits carefully so as not to spoil the design. Spoon a layer of red bean paste over the rice. Cover with another layer of rice. Pack tight.

Place bowl on rack in pot or in steamer. Cover. Steam over boiling water 1 hour. Remove pudding carefully by running flexible spatula around edge. Put serving plate over bowl and invert bowl.

Serve pudding with Sweet Almond Sauce - Boil 3 tablespoons sugar in 1 cup water, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Stir in 1 teaspoon almond extract. Thicken with 1 tablespoon cornstarch dissolved in 2 tablespoons water.

Source: http://chinesefood.about.com/od/d

No Reservations

I know we usually have a theme per week and post recipes about it, but I thought i'd share something a little bit different today. I'm a big fan of Anthony Bourdain and his show No Reservations. Basically Anthony Bourdain travels to different parts of the world and tries different types of their local cuisine. I think it was around two years ago when he did a special on the Philippines, which I enjoyed a lot because it's where i'm from. I attached a clip that you can watch a little bit of that special. It's a fairly long show so this isn't the whole thing or even close to it, but if you find it interesting I definitely recommend watching his show --

Ariana

Chinese Restaurants...

There are a few Chinese Restaurants that I like around Santa Clara. Here they are..

Fu Lam Mum. This restaurant is in Mountain View and I like a lot. They serve dimsum twice a day which is basically small portions of different types of dumplings, meats, and all sorts of other kinds of things. It usually gets pretty full in the mornings when they have dimsum since it's a really great place to go.

Here's a link to the website and some of the yelp reviews that they have!

Another restaurant I really like that's kind of Chinese Fusion is Sino. It's on Santana Row so it's pretty close to school. They also have some dimsum dishes, along with other typical Chinese cuisine. Check out their menu here.

A place that I found recently is called Cooking Papa, and I think it's really great. I'm from the Philippines and we have a lot of Chinese food there. I was craving for it pretty bad one night and I ended up finding this one on yelp. It had really good reviews so I tried it out and was really happy with it. I think I went twice in two weeks. Here's the website, and another link to the yelp reviews that it has. I definitely recommend this place.

If you want something quick and easy, there's always Panda Express! There's a bunch of different locations and they serve a huge amount of food. It's not authentically Chinese, but it's pretty good anyway!

Hope you enjoy!

- Ariana