Jellyfish Salad 涼拌海蜇

A really weird yet delicious Chinese delicacy food is marinated jellyfish salad.  That's right, jellyfish, those delicately glowing  creatures of trailing tentacles and mushroom bodies that float like so many deadly but beautiful sea fairies through the ocean's waters.

Humm, how ever did my Chinese ancestors ever figure out you can eat this?  Well, I guess this is just more proof that the Chinese eat everything under the sun!

Birthday Cake for my Little Girl

It was recently my little daughter's 3rd birthday and she decided quite early on that she wanted a birthday party with all the works (...Mommy, I want a birthday dress and birthday cake and party decorations and presents...) just like she always sees in the birthday parties in those endless cartoons she watches.

So with the ridiculous but amazing heroism latent in all mothers, I decided fulfill these wishes to the best of my ability. I mean, my little baby who could barely speak (and walk) just a few mere years ago was now asking specifically in her little baby voice for, among other things, a "birthday cake!"  And on her own initiative!  What kind of mother could possibly refuse?  Even though I am no cake maker by any means.

Chinese Pu-erh Tea 普洱茶

Published: 2012-06-17

Dear reader, if you have never had the experience of '茶', or 'chinese tea', you must try it at once.  There is nothing that can make you feel more authentically 'chinese' than to have a proper cup of chinese tea.  The true chinese sits around all day with a good cup of tea, just as those in the west sit around all day with their cups of coffee.  Ahhh!  A time to relax and contemplate the world.  

Bubbly hot water swirled expertly into the delicate chinese porcelain holding the small handful of dried tea leaves, cover for a minute or so and then lift the lid: poof!, a misty puff of the delicately tender fragrance of chinese tea to please your senses.  Holding your sleeve out of the way (if you have long flowing sleeves, that is) carefully pour out the tea into your teacup, hold under the nose a moment to appreciate the aroma and then take the first carefully appreciative sip.

Stir Fry Crabs with Ginger and Scallions 姜葱蟹

This is the best crab dish.  Bar none.  Even better than the popular curry crab dishes that abound (which I think are overrated anyways).  Just fresh crab, ginger and scallions.  A simple trinity of three foods to create an absolute.  Absolute of taste, that is.  Simplicity and decadence on the same white plate.

For this Stir Fry Crab with Ginger and Scallion, or 姜葱蟹, we picked up from the wet market a mud crab which is a more meaty crab.  But any crab will do for this dish as long as it is fresh. And there are all kinds of crabs, an abundance of choice really, at the wet markets in Hong Kong.  

Ah, to live by the sea!  What a dream come true.  Of sorts anyways.  We have all the seafood we can possibly cook and eat but are stuffed like sardines into shoebox sized homes piled in towering, untidy heaps along a polluted harbor.  Sigh...