A tale of three cities

Earlier this month I took a weeklong trip to China. I visited its three most prosperous cities: Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. The trip was eye-opening as both Beijing and Shanghai have changed immensely since I visited almost a decade ago. I could feel the booming Chinese economy while I was there.

Striking architecture: future CCTV Tower in Beijing, construction has resumed after a serious fire last year

In Beijing, huge plots of land downtown have been transformed into glistening shopping malls and office towers. I reckoned none of the buildings on the street where I stayed was more than ten years old. Keep in mind Beijing is an ancient city, then you recognize the scale of the changes. These can be good or bad, depending on your perspective. The question lingering in my mind: what sacrifices ordinary citizens had to make for them to happen?

Not interested in international brands that filled downtown to the brim, I ventured out to find remnants of old Beijing. My find? A century-old pastry shop dated back to the Qing Dynasty called Daoxiangcun (稻香村;  roughly translated into “Village of Fragrant Rice”). I liked it so much that I went there multiple times during my stay, and brought some of its products back to the US as gifts.

Daoxiangcun started as a single store but has now grown into hundreds of outlets across China. There are tens of outlets in Beijing alone. It sells all kinds of sweet and salty, probably bad-for-you snacks. Most of them are uniquely Chinese, but there are also many Western items. It allows you to buy only one piece of an item so I got to try MANY things.

Some sweets I tried: traditional pastries with fillings of adzuki bean paste, mung bean paste, red date paste, black sesame seed paste, osmanthus paste, pineapple paste; walnut and honey cakes; wafers with peanut paste; fried dough in twists (mahua). Savories: ready-t0-eat shredded tofu sheets, marinated tofu nuggets and mock meat.

Daoxiangcun treats VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Almost everything tasted great and was good value. I knew I wouldn’t go wrong as many locals buy Daoxiangcun products for themselves or as gifts. The cost of living in Beijing is surprisingly high (many categories are on par with Hong Kong), so Daoxiangcun is a relative bargain.

I spent two days in Shanghai with my parents. My dad was kind enough to suggest going to a vegetarian restaurant for dinner because both my mom and I are vegetarians. I found Jichancao (吉祥草; roughly translated into “Auspicious Grass”) on Dianping, China’s version of Yelp.

Jichancao’s storefront

Located in the leafy former French Concession, Jichancao has a modern, Zen-style décor with a small Buddhist bookstore appended to it. We ordered savory dishes (pumpkin stew, braised tofu, etc.), Northern dim-sums (steamed dumplings, Chinese flatbread/shaobing), noodles, and sweet rice dumplings to round out the meal. Overall the food was delicious in a Shanghainese way (greasy with a hint of sweetness). The meal was not expensive either given Shanghai’s living standards.

Braised tofu with tomatoes, mushrooms, napa cabbage, Chinese celery

(From left) Pumpkin stew, sweet rice dumplings, Chinese flatbread with diced dill fillings

The most elaborate meal I had during my trip was in Hong Kong. My mom managed to book a table at the talk-of-the-town Amy’s House (愛美素食坊), a vegetarian “private kitchen” in a residential building that serves only one table during each meal period. We had lunch there, and chef Amy presented eight courses typical of a Cantonese dinner banquet. Completely self-taught and now in her late 50s or even 60s, Amy created an innovative feast of different flavors and textures from appetizers to desserts.

The best course was the coral seaweed salad appetizer with shredded carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, and guavas. Then there were imitations of Cantonese classics such as pan-fried shark’s fin, steamed chicken, and braised pork belly. Amy gave each dish a poetic name and asked us to guess its ingredients before putting it onto the table. The entire experience was like a show.

Best in show: coral seaweed salad with wasabi soy sauce

More appetizers: spring rolls and fried Chinese squash

Pan-fried imitation shark’s fin topped with braised pumpkin and snow peas

Imitation steamed chicken (tofu sheets) topped with bok choy, minced ginger and spring onions

No doubt Amy is a masterful cook given the complexity of each dish, but the cooking sometimes masked the original flavors of the ingredients. I found the imitation braised beef taste too much like real beef too. Don’t get me wrong: the meal was wonderful, and I appreciated that my mom arranged it for me.

Back in the US, I felt even more grateful to be living in the Bay Area. Although Amy bought her ingredients fresh from the market daily, the quality of the produce here seems better.

Like the last time I was in Hong Kong, I enjoyed eating at home with my family the most though. Too bad I only had time to do this once on the trip.

To my family and friends, happy 2011 wherever you are!

Homecoming for Dad’s birthday

One main reason that I chose to visit Hong Kong in early July, even though it’s the hottest and probably most uncomfortable time to be in Hong Kong, was because I wanted to be with my Dad on his birthday.

Dad’s birthday this year was a landmark birthday according to Chinese customs (I won’t say how old he is!). So our family took it a little bit more seriously.

Since Dad loves eating out, the three of us - Dad, Mom, and I – went to a fancy restaurant on his birthday. But we also had a special dinner at home a few days earlier, and invited my two grandmas and two young cousins to come.

Spread for Dad’s birthday dinner at home

Between the two meals, the home-cooked dinner was more memorable to me. Part of it was I hadn’t eaten at home for nearly 3 years; more important, getting the extended family together is not an easy feat.

We put out an impressive spread. I wasn’t involved in the cooking, and the meal wasn’t all-vegetarian.  Dad likes seafood, and the only two vegetarians at the table were Mom and I. We had steamed fish, slow-braised sea cucumbers with shiitake mushrooms and dried scallops, and sliced abalone stir-fried with vegetables. Both sea cucumbers and abalone are considered luxury ingredients in Cantonese cooking.

But there were many vegetarian dishes too. They included stir-fried Chinese broccoli, braised tofu and brown mushrooms, a stir-fry medley of mung bean sprouts and several other ingredients, and ready-to-eat mock meat (wheat gluten) one of my Grandmas bought from a Chinese vegetarian restaurant. For soup, essential in a Cantonese meal, we had a clear vegetable soup that had simmered for hours.

I thoroughly enjoyed the dinner because of the familiar, comforting flavors I had missed since I lived on my own in the US. Also the intimate chatter over the table. It amazed me how the simple joys of family life, once seemed so remote, resurfaced as if I had never left.

Californian cherries and Chinese birthday buns as desserts

To round up the dinner, we ate cherries imported from California (!) and steamed Chinese birthday buns with egg yolk and lotus seed filling, accompanied by hot tea. I later bought a cheesecake, Dad's favorite, as the birthday cake for our restaurant dinner.

Blueberry cheesecake for Dad’s birthday

Behind Dad’s unassuming demeanor, he loves Mom and me and is committed to our family’s well-being fervently. I know it's a small gesture, but I’m glad that I could spend Dad’s birthday with him. I hope it won’t be long before we see each other again.

My best friend in weight control

Fire-roasted tomato soup with rainbow chards, black-eyed peas, and Tofurky vegetarian sausages

Almost all of the food media I’ve read recently had a feature on soups. This is hardly surprising since eating soups is a great way to stay warm during the winter. How can I offer a fresh take on a much-written topic? 

While I am not on a diet to lose weight, I’ve found soups to be very effective in making me feel full with relatively few calories. Obviously I’m not a dietician, but I feel confident to share my experience because I’ve read a lot and tried different things to maintain my weight successfully.

The high water content of soups is key. I drink a lot of water at work not only because doctors tell us to do so, but it also helps me stave off hunger, especially on a drowsy afternoon. I am able to resist junk food most of the time because of this. The same applies to soups, and thank god, they are a lot more flavorful.

The other point about soups is more subtle. I strongly believe we eat with our eyes – figuratively, not literally of course. I am intrigued by the findings by Prof. Brian Wanshik, bestselling author of Mindless Eating and founder of Cornell’s Food and Brand Lab. His research reveals that we respond to visual cues when eating, so we subconsciously eat more if we have a bigger plate, for instance.

Soups “trick” us in believing that we’ve had a lot of food by their sheer volume. Whereas the ingredients in one serving of soup may take up a small plate only. When I eat soup at home, I deliberately use smaller bowls so I can have multiple helpings to reinforce this “illusion.” You think it’s BS? It works.

Then there are practical reasons for having soups. I cook soups over weekends to use up ingredients in my fridge. Soups are forgiving so less-than-perfect ingredients do not affect the outcome noticeably. Even when a recipe calls for broth, I just use water without losing much flavor.

As always, my soups are easy to put together, usually in less than an hour. I don’t have a blender so pureed soups are out of my league. Because I often work after I return home now, I haven’t tackled time-consuming soups as much as I want.

Easy miso-soup with spinach,  tofu, and enoki mushrooms topped with nori seaweeds

Two things the more weight-conscious of you probably know already: soups made with a lot of cream, potatoes, etc. probably won’t help you with your weight. Same if you eat a lot of bread with your soup, as I tend to do.

Losing weight is hard.

Not exactly a diet recipe but good for a cold night: rice noodles with mixed vegetables in spicy broth

Enjoy the three soups I bring you today at least: fire-roasted tomato soup with rainbow chard, black-eyed peas, and Tofurky vegetarian sausages (probably my most favorite fake meat); miso soup with spinach, tofu, and enoki mushrooms; and rice noodles with mixed vegetables in spicy broth.

A non-traditional Thanksgiving

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! By the time you read this, you may have had enough of Thanksgiving (or more likely, Thanksgiving food). But let me assure you that I didn't have a traditional Thanksgiving. I didn't eat.

Well, not really. I didn't eat anything that suggests Thanksgiving. The week started promising as I planned to cook a multi-course Thanksgiving meal for myself. I had been collecting recipes and was ready to tackle time-consuming recipes because I could spend hours in the kitchen on a holiday. I was really excited.

Then I found out that I needed to take a one-day trip to Canada on Thanksgiving Day. The days leading up to Thanksgiving were also very hectic, so I barely had time for grocery shopping, let alone planning for my feast.

Because of a string of unforeseen events, it was almost 10 pm when I got home on Thanksgiving. Cooking was out of the question. Fortunately I had bought some yummy Taiwanese bread (more on it in the future) in Vancouver and devoured them while I was waiting at the airport. Definitely not what I expected my Thanksgiving meal to be.

I made up for the disappointment on the following day. Still not in the mood for complicated cooking, I decided to have Chinese-style hot pot (like fondue) for dinner. Hearty and warming, it was perfect for a chilly night when I could hear the wind blowing outside.

I made a broth using ginger, leeks, shittake mushrooms, napa cabbage, carrots, and bean sprouts. Then I added tofu, mung bean vermicelli, and an assortment of vegetarian meatballs and fish cakes that I bought from Layonna, a Taiwanese vegetarian food store in Oakland, into the boiling broth. In 30 minutes I had the meal ready to serve, all simmering in one pot.

Simmering hot pot on the stove

I dipped the food in tamari, chili sauce, and sha-cha (Taiwanese barbecue) sauce. The vegetarian meatballs and fish cakes didn't taste like the real deal, but imitated their texture very well (fibrous for the beef, spongy for the fish cake, for instance). The hot pot was 100% vegan but the broth was intensely flavorful, and I drank it as a soup.

(Not the neatest picture but I got to eat!) Hot pot soup served with condiments

So this was how I celebrated Thanksgiving. No turkey, stuffing, or pumpkin pie, but a meal I am thankful for nonetheless. That I could get these Asian ingredients for the hot pot so easily in the Bay area is a blessing by itself.

Trio of dishes from across China

I can take a culinary tour of Chinese dishes whenever I want in the Bay area because Asian ingredients are much more accessible here. Not Americanized Chinese dishes, but dishes I regularly ate when growing up in Hong Kong.

All three dishes I am featuring today are simple to prepare as always (otherwise I wouldn't have attempted them!). They hail from different parts of China and should satisfy different palates.

Braised Shredded Tofu with Bok-Choy (Shanghai)

For years every Sunday, my family and I visited one of two Shanghainese vegetarian restaurants in turn for lunch or dinner. We often ordered this Shanghainese staple - shredded tofu braised with bok-choy and sliced mushrooms in a light broth. It served as a counterpoint to more strongly flavored dishes my dad liked to order, and it went particularly well with steamed rice.

I can find shredded tofu at any Chinese supermarket in the Bay area so I decided to recreate the dish at home. Simply heat some sliced ginger in oil, throw in all the ingredients, and add some water to bring to boil. Then season with salt, tamari, a bit of rice vinegar, and it's ready to serve. Typical of Shanghainese food, the slight vinegary taste of this dish whets your appetite.

Braised Shredded Tofu with Bok-Choy

Stir-fried Vegetarian Cuttlefish with Sweet Peppers (Canton)

Although the recipe is from a Taiwanese vegetarian cookbook, I assume the dish is Cantonese as I've encountered the original, non-vegetarian version of it many times in Cantonese restaurants. I was quite surprised to find vegetarian cuttlefish at the Marina supermarket in San Mateo. There's a large enough Chinese population in San Mateo to create demand for it.

This dish is supposedly to be spicy. I started with heating some Thai chilies in oil, then I stir-fried the sliced cuttlefish (boiled), sweet peppers, and some leftover enoki mushrooms on high heat. I finished it by seasoning with salt and soy sauce.

Stir-fried Vegetarian Cuttlefish with Sweet Peppers

The vegetarian cuttlefish did not taste like the real deal, but nonetheless it had a convincing fishy flavor and spongy texture reminiscent of fish balls. Definitely an interesting try!

Ma-Po Tofu (Sichuan)

Before you roll your eyes and brush this off as nothing special, listen to this: I've only real, numbing hot Ma-Po Tofu ONCE in the US. And I had it at a nondescript, hole-in-the-wall Chinese take-out place in Washington, DC.

Sichuan-style Ma-Po Tofu requires the use of Sichuan peppercorns and other specialty chilies in the sauce. My limited pantry didn't have them, so I made up the heat with Thai chilies. I sauteed sliced red peppers, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, and potatoes in oil heated with ginger and the chilies, added soft tofu cubes, then I doused the mixture with spicy bean paste thinned with tamari and water.

(Unauthentic) Ma-Po Tofu

The end-product burst with tongue-tingling flavors and served up a variety of textures (silky from the tofu, chunky from the peppers, starchy from the potatoes). This was probably still far from the authentic Sichuan dish, but I was more than happy with it.

Simple faux oyster sauce from home

Oyster sauce - thick, black-brown, savory with a hint of sweetness - is a must-have in Chinese cooking. Made from oyster extract, it's off-limits for vegetarians. Although vegetarian oyster sauce is now widely available, I am reluctant to stock it because of the artificial ingredients and preservatives usually added to it. Fortunately, after some experimentation, I've discovered an easy substitute with an eerily similar flavor that I can make at home.

I am embarrassed to call it out here because it's so simple: just mix tamari/soy sauce and molasses together!

Molasses's flavor is intense so you want to use it judiciously; otherwise the sauce will end up too sweet. Not many recipes feature molasses, so it's a great way to use up any leftover molasses from the all the gingerbread baking in the winter months.

Hearty bok-choy, tofu, mushroom stir-fry

The dish that features my faux oyster sauce today is a straightforward stir-fry of bok-choy, sliced tofu, carrots, shiitake mushrooms, and dried kombu. After heating all ingredients in oil laced with ginger for a couple of minutes, I seasoned the dish with a sauce made from my oyster sauce, toasted sesame oil, water, and a little bit of cornstarch. Like other stir-fries it's a homey, hearty dish, best served with a bowl of steamed rice.

As a dessert fanatic, I cannot resist sneaking in a treat I made recently to round up this post. These date-nut squares are from (again and again) Isa's Vegan with a Vengeance, my stand-by vegan cookbook. Made by layering chopped boiled dates and walnuts on a shortbread crust, these squares are rich, sweet, crunchy, and salty at the same time. They also contain no added sugar since the dates provide the sweetness. If not because I last made a coconut dessert, adding shredded coconut to the topping would be an interesting variation to try.

Sweet, crunchy, buttery date-nut squares

Eggplant three ways

I love eggplant. In all ways imaginable. I like its chunkiness when grilled in large pieces and eaten as part of a sandwich, but also its silky mouthfeel after it's cooked long enough in a stew. So imagine my excitement when I saw a plethora of eggplants - Chinese, Indian, Japanese, as well as more obscure varieties such as Thai and Vietnamese - in farmers' markets during the last few weeks. I wonder if it's because the Bay area has a large Asian population, I rarely saw American eggplants, but it's my least favorite variety anyway.

Today I will share with you three dishes I made recently in which eggplant played a starring role. The first was Italian - pasta shells tossed with diced eggplant and sweet peppers in a quick tomato sauce made by simmering ripe tomatoes until they broke apart, then garnished with chopped parsley. My inspiration came from a similar recipe in Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Suppers. What I liked most about the dish was the pasta shells scooping up the tomato sauce, which exploded inside your mouth when you bit into the shells. Very hearty for the occasional chilly summer might in the Bay area.

Pasta shells with eggplant, sweet peppers, and tomatoes

The second dish was my long-time favorite - Chinese-style braised eggplant with tofu and whatever greens you have on hand. I used spinach in this version. Simply stir-fry minced garlic, ginger, shallots/green onions, and red pepper flakes if you like it hot with eggplant and tofu, then braise the mixture in a sauce made from tamari, toasted sesame oil, molasses/brown sugar, and water. Finish by tossing in the spinach until it starts to wilt. Add some chopped fresh basil for an additional layer of flavor. I've discovered that this sauce mixture (if you use molasses) can make up for Chinese oyster sauce, which is commonly used in Chinese cooking but most commercial versions contain artificial ingredients I want to avoid.

Chinese-style braised eggplant with tofu and spinach, served with brown rice

The last dish was an eggplant masala (aka curry, I just want to use a fancy word). It was really easy to put together and the perfect one-pot meal. I first heated some chopped onions, ginger, and masala powder I picked up from an Indian grocery store in oil, then stirred chopped eggplant, okra, yellow squash, and tomatoes into the mixture, added some water, and let it simmer for 15-20 minutes. I piled the masala mixture onto two slices of a Vietnamese bánh mì (baguette that's lighter and crispier than its French counterpart), topped with green onions, and served them with a cob of cooked sweet corn. Talk about an amalgam of cultures here!

Eggplant masala on Vietnamese bánh mì with sweet corn

PS: Remember to salt your eggplant before cooking. People told me that salting removes the bitter taste of eggplant, although I've never had a bitter eggplant. The salted eggplant absorbs flavors more readily and tastes more superior.

Simple summer cooking: make an open-faced sandwich!

The past few days have been hectic and I often got home late, and all I wanted for dinner was something simple. With the sun out till almost 9 pm, I just didn't feel like burying myself in the kitchen heat longer than I needed. I had bought a batard loaf from Oakland's Arizmendi Bakery, and I got a bunch of summer veggies in the fridge, so I decided to make some open-faced sandwiches.

Call it tartine or crostini, the open-faced sandwich is just some savory toppings on toasted bread. I took my inspiration from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Suppers as well as the July/August issue of Vegetarian Times. Once I heated some chopped heirloom tomatoes briefly in olive oil along with minced garlic and red onion, and finished with a couple drops of balsamic vinegar and seasonings. At the same time, I seared slabs of leftover tofu, then placed the tofu and tomatoes onto the toast, and garnished it with chopped mint. Served warm, the combination was simple, elegant, and delicious. The key is not to overcook the tomatoes so they maintain some structure, and let the tofu beneath them absorb their juices.

Sauteed heirloom tomatoes and seared tofu on toast

On another day I warmed some canned black beans with jalepeno chiles, and mixed them with ad-hoc pickled red onions (simply place the sliced onions in a mixture of apple cider vinegar and some salt and sugar for 15-20 minutes) and chopped parsley. For the sake of adding more colors to my meal, I made a quick Moroccan-style grated carrot salad tossed with olive oil, garlic, jalapenos, allspice, cinnamon, parsley, and lime juice. Then I spooned the two mixtures each on a toast. The entire preparation took just about half an hour. It's good to know that as you bite into the toasts with heaps of toppings on them, you are not piling on calories because there's only one piece of bread. Yeah, I guess this is another advantage of having open-faced sandwiches!

Black beans with pickled onions, Moroccan carrot salad on toasts

By the way, the batard bread from Arizmendi was awesome. The bread literally smelled of wheat and had the right chewiness and crunchy crust. I'd say it's better than the batard from another famed Bay area bakery, Acme Bread Company.

Start Sunday right with scrambled tofu

I used to like eating out for brunch over the weekend a lot. A leisurely weekend brunch is the perfect time to catch up with friends and just shut down the Internet or whatever that keeps me hyper-engaged during the work week. However, the social dimension aside, I increasingly don't find the weekend brunch to be good value. Call me a cheapskate, but it costs much less to prepare typical brunch food (eggs, French toast, etc.) at home, and most places' brunch offerings are mediocre at best. Especially if I want to eat vegetarian, I can use better ingredients and play with infinite variations by cooking on my own.

A favorite among vegetarians and vegans alike, scrambled tofu is a easy-to-prepare, filling, and nutritious alternative to scrambled eggs for brunch. I love tofu for as long as I can remember, but I had only known of ways to prepare it in Asian cuisines until I discovered scrambled tofu. Since tofu has little flavor by itself, you can scramble anything with it and add any seasonings or spices you want. Because I like to clear out my fridge every Sunday, I usually just improvise and throw in any leftover veggies I have. Onions, grated carrots, black olives, mushrooms, bell peppers, herbs such as parsley and mint all go along well with tofu. Occasionally I include chopped nuts to give the scramble a bit of crunch. Feel free to heat some grated ginger, curry powder, or chili peppers/powder in oil first if you want a more exotic scramble. Serve the scrambled tofu with toast or crusty bread topped with butter (I used the vegan Earth Balance buttery spread) and you'll have a satisfying (and colorful!) brunch spread.

Scrambled tofu served with multi-grain toasts

Remember to press the tofu before cooking though so the scramble doesn't get soggy. This feature from Bon Appetit shows how. I like tofu with a soybean flavor but unfortunately most tofu brands in the US taste completely bland. The better ones are Azumaya from Vitasoy and store brands in Japanese grocery stores. Many recipes call for nutritional yeast to give the scramble a more creamy, egg-like texture but I just leave it out (I don't have it in my pantry anyway) and it still tastes great.

Here are two recipes to get you started: a pretty standard one from Isa's Post Punk Kitchen and an Indian-like version kicked up by a splash of garam masala from 101 Cookbooks. But there's really no set recipe for scrambled tofu and I'm sure you can create one that works best for you.