Foodie Paradise: Southern China

Not sure if you’ve noticed, but for the past 2 weeks I’ve been away. It might not have seemed odd that I didn’t have any posts for a while since my blog posts were sporadic last year anyway.

For the past 2 weeks, I’ve been in my home country…and I do mean the country…of Taishan, China. For our trip, we went to Taishan (台山), Taicheng (台成), and Guangzhou (广州).

This post will cover the China portion of my trip. I also went to Hong Kong for 3 days, which I will cover in another post.

This was my second time traveling to China. I went back about 15 years ago, and I barely remember a thing. What I did remember was that the food was always fresh, and really good.

Gary didn’t actually catch his own chicken, but these chickens laid fresh eggs for us everyday!

We arrived in China at about 11:30 in the evening. After going through customs, we were finally out of the airport at about 2 am in the morning (with 17 people, it took a while). I didn’t get a picture of our first meal back, but I did get a video:

It wasn’t moving! I was shaking it with my chopsticks. I promise this stuff isn’t gross! Even Gary ate it!

Our second day back, we met up with some distant relatives of Gary’s. We ate at a local restaurant near the bus station in Taicheng. Seriously, for about $35 USD, we were able to have a 6 course meal, which included fish (in soup and a dish), shrimp, roast goose, and cauliflower (one of the main crops).

The next day, we went to my parent’s home in the village. It’s not actually livable, but people don’t sell their houses in China, even if it’s been vacant for a long time. While we were there, Gary tried sugarcane for the first time.

Gary trying sugarcane. My aunt peeling and chopping it.

He had a little trouble…there was a lot of drool involved. You don’t actually eat it, but just chew it to get the juice, then spit it out.

wild sugarcane growing in the village

There are also lots of star fruit trees that grow. They’ve been around for a long time, and I remember climbing one way back when. The fruits are usually free for all, as long as you let the owner know you’re taking them.

We went to the city to do a little shopping. We had already eaten dim sum, but we couldn’t help but get some street food. We have egg waffles in NY, but these were bigger and fluffier, and what a great idea of them to give each person a stick to skewer them! It was so much cheaper too, at (if I recall) ¥8 for a whole bag, roughly a little over $1.

egg waffles (雞蛋仔)

everybody going after them once we got them from the street vendor

We also went to a McDonald’s while we were in the city. I know it shouldn’t be a big deal, but chain restaurants around the world offer different things. We picked up some pies, but you won’t find apple pie there! They only have pineapple and taro. They’re also fried, not baked. We all thought it made it taste that much better. I personally like the pineapple one better, but they were both good! This cost us ¥7 for 2 pies, a little over $1.

pineapple and taro pies from McDonald’s

One of the things my parents do whenever they visit is to invite everybody from the village over for a dinner. They all meet around the community center and have an 8 course feast for dinner. Nowadays, the current beverages of choice during banquets are Minute Maid orange juice, coconut milk, and a rice wine. Have I mentioned that nothing in China is made with high fructose corn syrup?? All sodas are made with real sugar!

fried rice vermicelli, goose, shrimp, cauliflower, pork, pickled turnips, chicken, vegetables, soup

We went into town where we were looking around at the shops. We heard someone chanting out “豆腐花, 綠豆[sa]” which meant “(tofu) bean curd dessert, green bean tong sui (dessert)”. This guy had recorded his voice and blasted it through a bullhorn. He lured me in from across the street. I thought he had a storefront, but he was selling them from a little cart that he  wheeled around.

The bean curd dessert is a silken dessert with a simple syrup. The green bean tong sui is similar to the red bean one that is served at the end of a Chinese banquet, except it’s made with green mung beans. This one in particular was thinner and drunk through a straw. It was a warm soup, not a cold drink. ¥1.50 which is around 25¢ a cup, great deal! Gary wanted it again afterwards, but we couldn’t find him anymore!

drinking my green bean tong sui

We were in Guangzhou for the last 2 days of our trip. I have no idea where in the city we were, since we had some relatives show us around. We went to a shopping area and walked around. We spotted a lot of storefronts that had drinks and food. One thing that caught my eye was the fresh cane juice made to order!

This guy fed the sugarcane through a machine that flattened and extracted the juice. He then bottled them up and sold them for ¥5 a pop. I like chewing on sugar cane, and the first few sips were great. After half a bottle, I was kind of over it. Oh well.

making fresh cane juice

Our last food purchase before we left were candied strawberries and candied haw (山楂). The strawberries and haw are drenched in a syrup then hardened. I guess you can say it’s similar to a candied apple. They were a nice sweet treat to end the trip at ¥11 for the 2 sticks.

Thanks for reading through the foodie recap of Southern China. Stay tuned for the Hong Kong food portion of my trip!

Chocolate Ginger Sugar Cookies

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Today marks the day for lovers across the nation. What a better way to celebrate than with chocolate, sugar, and a hint of spice. However, I don’t really have anything planned other than the cookie exchange I’m hosting at work today. You see, I’ve never really celebrated this holiday. I’ve always considered it a Hallmark holiday, and I don’t like flowers, or wasteful gifts.

Food on the other hand, is always welcome! One late day at work, I threw out the idea of having a cookie exchange. A few of us at work actually really enjoy baking, so we thought it would be fun. The next holiday coming up would be Valentine’s Day, so why not?

Six of us will be getting together to share the cookies with each other, as well as the rest of the company. Since this month is heart healthy month, we will be putting the cookies out and requesting donations to donate to The American Heart Association. We were originally only going to bake enough for the small group of us, but decided to donate the rest for charity.

I packaged the ones for the group in cellophane and tied it with a red ribbon. The rest will be put out for everybody else. I tried this recipe first when I went over to my parents for Chinese New Year. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, so that was my test batch. I’m glad I tried it out first, because the original recipe yielded 4 dozen, meanwhile mine ended up being 3 dozen. Other than that, these had great chocolate flavor with a nice kick of ginger. When I made it for the cookie exchange, I doubled the recipe and got about 70 cookies. Mine were a little bigger since I used my cookie scoop.

I’m not sure if the cookbook had a typo, or omitted a step in the original recipe, but it didn’t mention when to place the ginger in the batter. I added it in to the dry ingredients and it worked out well. I also think the recipe for the sugar/ginger topping ingredients were too much. I’ve halved that to eliminate waste.

Chocolate Ginger Sugar Cookies
adapted from: The Ultimate Chocolate Cookie Book

 printable recipe

ingredients:
cookie batter:
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 TBSP ground ginger
1 1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup (one stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 TBSP vanilla extract

sugar topping:
2 TBSP sugar
1 tsp ground ginger

directions:
Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease 2 baking sheets and set aside. In a covered container, add the 2 TBSP sugar and 1 tsp ginger, cover and shake to combine. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, ginger, and salt. Whisk until the mixture is evenly colored. Set aside.

In your mixer on medium speed, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, then beat in vanilla. Turn mixer down to low speed, and slowly add the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined.

Using your cookie scoop, scoop the dough and roll into a ball. Roll it in the sugar/ginger mixture and place about 1 1/2 inches apart on cookie sheet.

Bake in preheated oven for about 12 minutes. The cookies will crackle, but the tops will be soft to the touch. Cool cookies on the sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Weeknight Pizza

Let’s say one day, you’re craving pizza. It’s late, so do you suck it up and order pizza, or do you have time to make your own? If you happened to have the cheese on hand, the sauce on hand, the toppings ready, but no crust! No worries! If you have refrigerated crescent rolls left over in the fridge, you can make this pizza! Hypothetical situation of course!

As I mentioned in my previous post, we were trying out the Daiya cheese. I also bought the mozzarella style to make pizza. Once we brought the package home, Gary was eager to open it up and taste it. He did just that, and everyday afterward, he took a little pinch to eat. I told him I was going to use it to make pizza, and I wasn’t sure if it was enough, and since he opened it already, I had to use it up within a certain time frame.

Since I didn’t have time to make pizza dough, and I didn’t have any premade ones, I used up what I had in the pantry and fridge. This came out great, not as good as real pizza dough of course, but a great alternative if you don’t have any. I used the garlic butter flavor, and believe it or not, it’s dairy free (and possible vegan, I don’t remember)! Since there are seams on the rolls, it made it easy to tear the pizza into pieces so you don’t have to pick up the whole thing at once.

The Daiya website said that the cheese melts and stretches. I saw that it melted beautifully, but I didn’t notice too much stretch. It tasted like a real cheese pizza, and I will definitely buy this  again and use it on pizza dough. Of course, with any pizza, add as much or little of whatever topping you like! I used some shredded rotisserie chicken and sliced baby bella mushrooms. Gary said it reminded him of the Elio’s pizza he used to eat as a kid.

Weeknight Pizza
a Cathy original!

 printable recipe

ingredients:
1 tube garlic butter or regular crescent rolls
1/3 cup tomato sauce, divided (jarred or homemade)
1 (8 oz) package of Daiya mozzarella shreds

toppings optional:
baby bella mushrooms, thinly sliced
shredded cooked chicken

directions:
Preheat oven to 375° F. Open crescent package and unroll onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Separate down the middle of the middle of the crescents to make 2 rectangles. Press the other seams to close them up.

Spread sauce evenly onto both pieces of crust. Top with cheese, then toppings.

Bake in preheated oven for 12-13 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

Makes 2 pizzas.

Basic Vegan Shells and Cheese

One of the things Gary really missed since going dairy free was his mac and cheese. Although I’ve made it once before with tofu, he still missed his blue box mac and cheese. I’ve never been a mac and cheese person, and I’ve probably had a taste of the blue box version when he made it once before.

I had heard about Daiya while ago, long before Oprah talked about it, but never tried it. Gary was a little hesitant because he didn’t like how some vegan cheeses added certain products he didn’t like (even though he thought it was great before). As usual when I first showed it to him, I was all excited, but he brushed it aside, and said he’ll take a look.

Fast forward months (or a year+) later, after I told him Oprah talked about it on her show, he decided to look at the ingredients. His normal routine is to look up every ingredient to see what it is, and how it’s made. He really read up on it, and the fact that it’s made with non-GMO products made it a winner. After reviewing, he decided it was time to go to Whole Foods and pick it up!

We picked up both the cheddar style and the mozzarella style. I told him I was going to make shells and cheese, since he missed it so much. I found a recipe from Alton Brown that I was going to adapt. I ended up working late, and when I told him I was on my way home to make it, he couldn’t wait and ended up making it himself. I came home to the obvious pungent smell of cheese. He had already eaten. As I ate mine, he grabbed another bowl. Needless to say, this was a big hit with him, and he thought it tastes almost exactly like the blue box version!

I called this a basic mac and cheese since there are definitely ways to jazz this up with veggies and meat. If you’re dairy free or vegan, definitely try this out!

Basic Vegan Shells and Cheese
a Gary original, inspired by Alton Brown

 printable recipe

ingredients:
1/2 lb pasta shells
1 cup original soy milk
1 (8 oz) package Daiya Cheddar Shreds
1/2 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper

directions:
In a large pot of salted water, boil pasta per package directions. Drain.

Meanwhile, add milk and cheese into a separate pot. At low heat, bring to a boil stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat.

Mix cheese mixture and pasta until well combined.

Serves 3-4

Nutella Crescents

It’s February 5th. Happy Nutella Day!

Our wonderful hostesses, Ms Adventures in Italy and Bleeding Espresso are at it again today! Today, they’re rounding up everybody’s entries for World Nutella Day!

Normally, I would eat Nutella on some whole wheat bread, or straight from the jar! However this time around, I decided to use up the crescent rolls I had left in the fridge to make these Nutella crescents. These came out beautifully, and is best served warm out of the oven.

Are you craving more Nutella? Click the logo above to go to the Nutella Day page for more awesome recipes. I’ve made ice cream and topped crepes with it myself.

Nutella Crescents
a Cathy original!

 printable recipe

ingredients:
1 package reduced fat or regular crescent rolls
8 heaping teaspoons of nutella

directions:
Unroll package or crescents and break apart into 8 triangles.

Place a heaping teaspoon of nutella at the wide end of the triangle, and spread along the length of the triangle.

Roll from the wide end to the tip and shape to a crescent as directed on the package.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Makes 8 crescents