As a teen, I had a real passion for fried rice and, since I was a vegetarian at the time, I thought that ordering takeout Chinese vegetable fried rice at least twice a week was a fairly healthy choice.
I could literally eat an entire takeout container and call it dinner. Now that I cook at home more frequently and often have leftover rice, I find that making my favorite takeout dish at home is cheap, healthy and delicious. The trick to making the best fried rice is to use day-old rice that has been in the fridge and slightly dried out. My version is made with hearty short-grain brown rice, and gives you two servings of vegetables (which usually means about half a cup).
Find a healthier version of Chinese vegetable fried rice after the jump.
"We've had our fair share of flames and failures" ruminate the couple behind culinary blog Love and Olive Oil: "Like any good relationship, cooking has its ups and downs."
Tell us about it! We've mangled many a simple recipe over the course of the years. But so long as our end results look as tempting as this duo's ginger-and-brown-sugar-spiked Mongolian Beef, which was inspired by a P.F. Chang's dish, we'll keep hanging out in the kitchen.
Traveling to China? Peripatetic couple Audrey Scott and Daniel Noll of the Uncornered Market blog have a five-part series demystifying Chinese food and eating habits. The series includes a lesson on fiery Sichuan cuisine and the Xinjiang cuisine of Western China, tips on how to identify and enjoy various types of dumplings, a discourse on hot pots, and a "grab bag" of other must-eats. The pictures are luscious as well.
Obviously there's way more to Chinese food and cooking, but the series is a good start for those who don't know that there's anything beyond General Chao's Chicken.
Last week, ABC News revealed in an article that a baby formula from China was made illegal in the U.S. after the death of a Chinese infant was traced to its food. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials believe there is reason to be concerned that some formula from China may have slipped into markets serving Chinese consumers in the United States even though its sales are prohibited.
This concern is based on an FDA probe in 2004 that found this Chinese formula on the shelf of Chinese grocery shops. Do you remember that, in 2007, deaths and illnesses of hundreds of cats and dogs were linked to pet food ingredients from China? FDA officials believe that the Chinese baby formula may be tainted with melamine, the same ingredient found in that pet food. The FDA relieves concerned parents by affirming that U.S.-approved baby formula is safe.
A little over two years ago, my daughter was born. At the time, I was in moderately decent shape; although I smoked, I ate fairly well, walked all over the place, and generally kept my weight in an area that my doctor and I considered acceptable. However, my daughter's birth, my decision to quit the demon cancer sticks, and the fact that I spent an insane amount of time on the couch with her quickly bore fruit. Within six months of her arrival, I had packed on about 20 pounds.
After I had to buy new, larger pants, I decided that enough was enough. I started going to the gym, watching what I eat, exercising more, and generally trying to regain my svelte, pre-fatherhood body. I spent a lot of time looking in the mirror, looking at my measurements, and looking at my diet. When I moved to New York, however, my weight loss began to slow, sputter, and even reverse a little bit.
It wasn't too hard to figure out why I wasn't losing weight like I used to. While I was busy looking at the scale, I wasn't looking at my neighborhood. On the bright side, the Vietnamese restaurant near my apartment has several relatively healthy offerings and the taco truck a couple of blocks away is great if I don't order cheese, sour cream, and fried meat. However, the Dominican bakery, with its seductive tres leches cake, the Puerto Rican Cuchifritos stands, and the various pizzerias, Chinese food joints, and Gyro restaurants all taunt me with their wares. While I'm pretty good at avoiding the siren song of KFC, Burger King, and all the other fast food places, I am a sucker for homemade, high-fat goodies.
New York Times reporter Jennifer 8. Lee traveled the world to crack the case of the fortune cookie's cryptic origins, hunt for the infamous General Tso and track chop suey back to its creator. Turned out, many of the answers were closer to home than she'd ever imagined.
Q: What makes you pick a particular Chinese restaurant from all the ones around it?
A: Well, I tend to like Chinese restaurants that cater more to Chinese people rather than to an American palate. They may both serve General Tso's chicken, but you can look at a Chinese menu and know if they expect a more Chinese clientele. For example, cold appetizers -- especially jellyfish – is a giveaway. Lamb dishes are also ore Chinese. Anything with whole fish, and certain kinds of noodles: cold noodles, dan dan noodles.
Yesterday, as I hunted through Flickr for a picture of a Chinese take-out box for the post about weekly meal patterns, stumbled across the image you see above. It is a crocheted take-out box, complete with handmade shrimp and noodles. The little red pagoda is embroidered on in nearly spot-on likeness. I am boggled by the level of detail that this crafter put into this project.
MSNBC had a wonderful in-depth piece about the phenomenon of Canto-Western cuisine, i.e. old-school interpretations of Western dishes by Hong Kong chefs.
I heard of this style of cooking years ago, but never knew much about it, or just how oddball some of its fusion dishes are. Imagine starting your meal with a prawn and fruit salad topped with a dollop of mayonnaisey cream.Follow that up with an app of Swiss sauce chicken wings. Here comes your steak sputtering on a sizzle plate awash in soy sauce and garlic gravy. If you're not in a meaty mood, get some fried rice layered with tomato or cream sauce.
If ever you go for dim sum on a weekend late morning or early afternoon, you might come across these tiny, ruffled dumplings. At first glance they look like every other dumpling, but when you bite into them, you know that there's something special going on inside. Xiao long bao are "juicy dumplings," which are filled with not only a regular meat and vegetable stuffing, but with broth. How does the both get inside the dumpling?!?!
Kuidaore enlightens us by trying her hand at xiao long bao at home. The key is a broth made with pork rind, which "is a miraculous thing extremely rich in albumen and collagen." When the pork rind is simmered in water, it converts into a gelatine that can be cut and added to the dumpling filling. When the dumplings are steamed, they "melt" back into broth.
We're familiar with chives, the long, thin green blades that are most often used as a mild onion-flavored
ingredient in cooking. Garlic chives, however, are similar to regular chives, but have a flat, rather than hollow,
tubular blade. As the name indicates, they have a garlic flavor.
I rarely see regular garlic chives outside Asian cooking. Koreans pickle the blades in a seasoning similar to
kimchee, producing what is called "boo-choo kimchee." However, only recently have I tasted yellow chives,
thanks to my Chinese brother-in-law and his family. Yellow chives are "blanched" by shielding them from
sunlight as they grow, the same way white asparagus are grown. These albino chives still have a mild garlic flavor
and are one of my new favorite dishes when they are stir-fried with beef or pork. I only have to wonder if they have any
nutrients.
While some of us may have already broken our 2006 New Year's resolutions, we do have
a chance to start over, as this weekend marks the beginning of the new lunar year. Year 4703 is the Year
of the Dog, and New Year's Day is Sunday, January 29, 2006.
Everyone knows it's the Year of the Dog, but do we really know what that means? The Dog is a
symbol of loyalty, warmth and caring, so hopefully, we can expect a year of harmony, relative to the clamor that
was the Year of the Rooster last year. Chinese astrology goes even deeper, though.
We won't go into all the element and animal combinations, but if you want to know the detail, 4703 is actually the
Year of the Fire Dog! Like a hot dog? Yes, but don't jut go to LA's Pink's or Chicago's Portillo's and have a
chili cheese dog to celebrate the new year!
There are a lot of traditions associated with Chinese New Year, and so many of them have to do with food! Between
now and Sunday, expect a few posts with restaurants, recipes, and other ideas to celebrate the new
year...again!
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A little over two years ago, my daughter was born. At the time, I was in moderately decent shape; although I smoked, I ate fairly well, walked all over the place, and generally kept my weight in an area that my doctor and I considered acceptable. However, my daughter's birth, my decision to quit the demon cancer sticks, and the fact that I spent an insane amount of time on the couch with her quickly bore fruit. Within six months of her arrival, I had packed on about 20 pounds.
The Super Bowl is almost here. Check out some 
While some of us may have already broken our 
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