Chinese Sweet Chili Sauce 甜辣醬

We discovered this delicious sauce in during the zongzi madness at the end of May.  We made the oh so melt in the mouth Northern Taiwan Zongzi, an absolutely new experience for us in that all the ingredients are cooked and seasoned before finally assembling as a zongzi.  To go along with this zongzi we also made this Sweet and Spicy Chili Sauce 甜辣醬 which ended up being a revelation in itself! 

This sweet chili sauce not only perfectly complemented our zongzi but also surprised us by its absolute deliciousness of taste: tangy, sweet and spicy all at once.  It is the perfect sauce to use as a dip for wontons, dumplings, potstickers, spring rolls, chicken wings, and noodles.

Kidney Mango 腰芒

As our dear readers will know, we like to share the love when we find new and yummilicious fruits.  Well, we've found a new one!

We discovered this gem of a mango recently.  Though, to be honest, this fruit has been hiding in plain sight.  We just never noticed these little guys cuz these mangoes are so small and humble looking, as well as being really affordable!  I guess I just thought that these little mangos weren't going to be worth the work of peeling and pitting.

So that was it until one fine day when, on the casual recommendation from the fruit lady, my hubby brought a bagful of these kidney mangos 腰芒 home.  Wow-wee, what a wonderful surprise!  Seriously, we've tried all kinds of mangos but this had to be the best mango ever!  

Broccoli Vegetable Pizza

Okay, guys, I gotta confess...I honestly never thought that veggie pizza could be this good.  This Broccoli Vegetable Pizza was so yummilicious I couldn’t stop moaning 'OMG, this is so good' over and over as I devoured my first slice.  Embarrassing but true.  

I think this might be the tastiest pizza I have ever had, homemade or restaurant served.  It was so devastatingly good that I was seriously bummed out that I only made one veggie pizza out of the four pizzas we made that night.  Darn it!  But guess what?  Next time it's gonna be veggies all the way!

Northern Taiwan Zongzi 台灣北部粽子

It's that time of the year for the Dragon Boat Festival also known as Duan Wu Festival 端午節!  This festival celebrates the death of the poet and minister Qu Yuan 屈原 (340-278 BC) who advised against an alliance to the displeasure of the Chu emperor who then exiled him.  When the alliance led to the eventual downfall of the Chu kingdom as he had foreseen, Qu Yuan threw himself into a river in grief and despair.

Apparently he was well loved for the local folk rushed out in boats (ie dragon boats) to try to save him.  When that failed they dropped balls of sticky rice (ie zongzi) in the river so that the fish would feed on the rice and not on Qu Yuan's body.  Kinda of a disturbing ending but whatever...

Sweet & Sour Yummilicious Sauce Braised Fish 好味醬酸甜魚

This lovely dish is our alternative to the traditional preparation of Chinese Sweet and Sour Fish (see our post on Traditional Sweet and Sour Fish here) and, what can I say, it's amazing!  So much so that we nicknamed this new family favorite as '好味醬魚' which very roughly translates to 'Yummilicious Sauce Fish.'  Because it really is that yummilicious folks!

According to my 老公, this succulent dish is the creation of the old chef of Luk Yu Tea House 陸羽茶室, one of the most historic restaurants in Hong Kong as well as being one of the top restaurants serving traditional Cantonese cuisine.  During this chef's time at the restaurant this dish was a favorite order.  

Later he passed on this recipe to his good friend William Mark Yiu Tong 唯靈, the famous HK food critic.  It is interesting that this dish is a 'fusion' type of dish when you look at the ingredients and yet it was created quite a while ago.  

If you're a seafood lover you've got to try this amazing dish!  Honestly we prefer it over the traditional sweet and sour version.  Savory, slightly sweet, slightly tart, this multi flavor layered Sweet and Sour Yummilicious Sauce Braised Fish 酸甜魚 rocks the f**king boat in the flavor department and we're left licking the plates afterwards.  This, my friends, is the real deal...

Peanut Tang Yuan Dumplings 花生湯圓

Time for more of those sexy tang yuan dumplings!  These lovely little sweet morsels of lusciously soft and tender rice dough hide hearts of ooey gooey delicious fillings like sesame, red bean paste or peanut.  We're making the nuttily delicious Peanut Tang Yuan dumplings 花生湯圓 today, a general favorite among tang yuan fans.  

While we noted that most recipes for peanut tang yuan used store bought peanut butter we decided to make it the traditional way, from scratch!  Our made from scratch Peanut Tang Yuan Dumplings 花生湯圓 are not only easy to make but also super yummilicous, with a tender yet chewy skin concealing a luscious heart of gooey aromatic roasted peanut filling highlighted with hints of caramel and vanilla.  

Chrysanthemum Wolfberry Tea 菊花枸杞茶

The weather been a-changing and the winds a-blowing and it's finally officially warm and sunny in Hong Kong!  And, as promised, here's our version of spring in a cuppa tea, just the thing to cool you right down on a warm day.  

This beautiful, easy to brew,  Chrysanthemum Wolfberry Tea 菊花枸杞茶 is infused with the light, entrancing floral fragrance and punctuated by bursts of plumply tart wolfberries.  Cooling to the body, calming to the nerves, boosting to the immune system as well as being super easy on the eye, a more soothing healthy tea tonic is naught to be found.  Let's hear it for Flower Power!

Longan Jujube Tea 桂圓紅棗茶

Here's another one of the easy to make drinks we've been exploring making at home cuz we think it's great to make your own healthy drinks instead of buying them.  This Chinese "tea" will delight your throat and sooth your tummy; it's simple and quick to prepare yet very yummy.

The "tea" is not actually a tea but a simple simmer of Chinese dried fruits.  This Longan Jujube Tea 桂圓紅棗茶 is a delicious sweet drink, infused with the delicate florals of longan fruit and the rich undertones of Chinese jujubes and accented with the tart juiciness of wolfberries.   This tea is a warming tea and will help calm your mind and to have better sleep.  

I've been waffling about whether to do this post now or not as the weather here in HK has been having a topsy turvy month, first cold one day, then warm the next and then repeat.  Finally I've decided to do the warming one for now and a cooling one a bit later when the weather really does decide to change for good.  That way, dear readers, you can choose according to your needs!

Macerating Your Fruit

Dear readers, this one is for all you fruit lovers.  Spring is here at long last and the markets are filled with all kinds of delectable friuits.  Yum!  I'm pretty serious when I buy fruit, trying my very best to choose the best ripe fruit, checking for the right color, the right hardness or softness, the good smell, no bruises, etc.  And still, sigh, sometimes, I end up with fruit that's totally 'meh'. 

Tasteless, lifeless fruit.  Why even sell such fruit, amirite!?  So disappointing!  😞   

At other times, I forget the fruit that I bought and stashed in the fridge for too long (I'm quite absent minded) and when I rediscover them they look sad, shriveled and resentful (my bad).  I have however discovered that there is a super simple fix for both these cases of fruit gone sad.  

A bit of sugar, a bit of time and the magic of maceration will turn your Plain Jane or neglected fruit into plump, juicy, flavor intensified fruity superstars!  It's time to Macerate your Fruit!

Winter Melon Tea 冬瓜茶

This delightfully soothing and refreshing Winter Melon Tea 冬瓜茶 is something we recently discovered when eating out at a local Taiwanese restaurant.  It was so refreshing and good I couldn't believe that I'd never come across this delicious drink before!  

Apparently it's a widely enjoyed beverage in Taiwan and super healthy to boot, chock full of vitamin C (boosts immunity!), antioxidants, magnesium, phosphorus and calcium.  Super good for your health!  Winter melon is considered cooling to the body in Chinese medicine so this is the perfect refreshing drink as the weather starts to warm up.  

It was a serendipitous discovery as I've been obsessing recently over the issue of drinks and the fact that modern life seems to requires that a lot of drinks be purchased and lugged home.  I always wondered, what did folk do for drinks back in the days before supermarkets and convenience stores?  They made them at home, of course, and thus my search has been to discover traditional healthy teas and tonic drinks that can be easily made at home.   

What a cool thing it is to have a constant supply of delicious easy to make healthy tea/drink in fridge to sip whenever one is thirsty!