China – Grandma’s Cooking

I’ve said this a million times, and I’ll say it again. My grandma is the best cook in the world.  She’s a cook, not a chef. A chef has recipes and rules, and a chef must cater to the critic’s palate. Grandma caters to my critical palate, but she makes her own rules and recipes simply don’t exist.

A chef will slave over combinations of just the right seasoning and taste, but Grandma just throws in a dash of this and a pinch of that. And when she throws a dash of this and a pinch of that onto a leg of fall-off-the-bone Lamb, the savory explosion will stun your taste buds and blow your mind.

In case my description of the lamb didn’t convince you, let me set the record straight. When I say my grandma is a cook not a chef, I say it because I’m proud of her. Chefs can make all kinds of fancy things, but sometimes the simple things are best. Plain old Pork and Vegetable Dumplings put the best of all food groups into a neat little package of meat and vibrant veggies wrapped in a chewy carb.

The secret to any good dumpling dipping sauce is garlic, and few people love pure garlic more than the Chinese. I too love the tingle, the sting, and the undate-able breath.  I love it raw, I love it chopped, I love it cooked. I love garlic, but I love Garlic Scapes even more. The green sprouts that spring from partially-planted cloves of garlic make many light layers with a combined kick of garlic and leek.

I haven’t had much luck when it comes to dates, and I don’t think my breath is to blame. But I always have a great time with my dates when they’re embedded in a homemade Steamed Bun. Maybe my mother made these because she knew they were the only dates I was going to get... As much as my mother nags, sometimes my mother is right. She always told me to find a date that’s attractive on the inside and out, in which case I really can’t do much better than her Pork Buns, which have the perfect proportions of crunchy chives to round out the fatty ground pork. My grandma may be best cook in the world, but in my mother’s case, let’s just say the date didn’t fall far from the tree.

Because the Best Meals Are Cooked at My Auntie's Home...

What's the point of a food blog if you can't showcase the best meals you've ever had? One of the best meals I've ever had didn't cost me a thing because apparently my auntie is one of SoCal's best chefs. And if my auntie didn't live way out in Diamond Bar, I'd have to quit blogging because I'd never go out to eat again. I won't bore you with too many details of food you can't have, but my auntie's cooking, though it's far from fine dining, does deserve this spread.

I've had plenty of Shumai in my time but I've never seen these tasty little pockets of stuffed with ground pork and sticky rice.

It's just chicken with boring green beans, right? Wrong! Homemade smoked chicken permeates the garden-fresh green beans for a fantastic flavor. 

We don't do sesame chicken. Americans do sesame chicken. We do spicy chicken wings with...well...I don't know what sauce used, but I do know it's addictive...

She can do smoked and she can do savory. She can do hearty as well. Here's a hearty soup with pork rib and corn.

Fish with sour cabbage stew sounds like so many bad ideas, but not when it's hot and sour...

This is quail or cornish hen. Not sure which one because my Chinese is just that bad. All I know is that it's beautifully braised, so like you should do with everything else on this table, don't ask questions, shut up and eat!

My Cooking

Even interns have time to make a simple meal! Here's my easy-as-pie beef, zucchini, and egg noodle spicy Stir Fry!

My Cooking

My favorite Chinese peasant dish. Tomato, egg, salt, and a dash of sugar. Made just like grandma!

Home Cooking – Jinzhou

Every foodie knows that the best meals are made at home.

There is no substitute for farm-raised Chicken delivered in a mule-drawn cart stewed with homegrown green beans and potatoes fresh out of grandma’s backyard garden. Truly. There’s no going back to tasteless grocery-store white meat after that.

Spareribs that fall off the bone are sprinkled and spattered with sugar and vinegar fulfill any meat craving.

Tomato and Egg is made with the same ingredients every time, but tastes as different as the people who make it. My grandmother’s has no equal, but my uncle comes pretty close.

I dub this dish Candied Sweet Potato, but expect none of the soggy hot mess you get from US restaurants and retirement homes at Thanksgiving. Each square of sweet potato is evenly coated with a layer of molten sugar, which hardens instantly upon dipping in cold water for a crunchy shell with a hot gooey center. The one pictured here wasn’t homemade, and my mother makes it better, but I live for this dish, and I just had to set you salivating.