Chinese Pickled Radish 醃櫻桃蘿蔔

I think we have been going a bit pickle crazy recently.  But how can you resist the urge to pickle?  Once you get started and see for yourself how easy and delightfully yummy your own homemade pickles are?  We have made Chinese Pickles  酸瓜 and Chinese Hua Gua Pickles 花瓜 and they are sitting pretty in our little fridge.  Homemade jars of pickle are so gorgeous!  I like to take them out just to admire them.  

The other day I happened upon some cherry radishes lying around and I made this easy Chinese Pickled Radish 醃櫻桃蘿蔔.  Now we also have a beautiful jar of pickled radish in the fridge that we can dip into any time for a tart, crunchy, slightly spicy snack.  And it's a PINK PICKLE! How cool is that?!  My little girl definitely thinks it's super cool.  

Dried Shrimp Steamed White Rice 蝦乾蒸飯

One of the many gastronomic pleasures that living in Hong Kong brings is the ease and variety of the chinese dried seafood available.  One need only go to their local wet market or, better yet, to the long stretch of Des Voeux Road West in Sheung Wan which is known locally as 香港海味街, or Hong Kong Dried Seafood Street.  Fascinating to explore even if you aren't there for actual buying; one would never have imagined that there were that many things in the world to dry and eat!?

Mango Ice Cream

Everyone loves mango.  Even people who are allergic to mango love mango.  Like my mom, who's allergic just to the skin of the mango (kinda weird, but that's what she claims).  She actually makes me peel the mango for her and feed it to her by hand.  Apparently, these extra steps allow her to be released from the allergy towards the mango.  Can you see the lengths that mango lovers will go to?  It's just plain crazy with diced mango sprinkled on top!

But than again, I can totally understand why. Golden and oh so very fragrant!  Sweet with just a touch of sweet sourness, an almost crunchy yet slippery mouth feel, there is nothing like the mango.  Mango is the Queen of fruits.  And how can one possibly resist a queen at the top of her game?

So the other day when I saw a beautiful Taiwan golden mango at the market I was irresistibly pulled into buying it. And naturally after that we made delicious homemade Mango Ice Cream with it.  Ah...these summer fruit ice creams!  They are the reason that I can love the summer...

Tomato Egg Drop Soup 番茄蛋花湯

In our little family we sometimes argue about Chinese food.  Mostly due to the fact that our respective families come from different provinces ( I am from Jiangsu and he is from Guangdong) and that means that we were raised eating different kinds of Chinese food.  

What a lot of people don't realize is that the difference between provinces in China are similar to differences between nations in Europe.  The differences range from extreme (as in I cannot for the life of me understand your version of the Chinese oral language) to vaguely similar (as with Chinese food which all seem to be based on similar ingredients but vary wildly as to the final product).  

So it was with pleasant surprise recently that we came up with the same taste requirements for this wonderful classic Chinese comfort dish, Tomato Egg Drop Soup, or 番茄蛋花湯.  This is a really, really easy light soup that tastes way better than you think it could.  It goes wonderful with a chinese dinner and is dynamite for these hot summer days because it tastes just as good cold as hot.

Chinese Smashed Cucumber Salad 拍黃瓜

An easy classic favorite: a cool summery chinese cucumber salad for these long summer days.  People pay bucks for this chinese cucumber salad in restaurants and I'm not sure why.  I've never liked the restaurant versions.  They always seem so sloppily made, you know either too sweet or too sour, or waaay too garlicky (uck, one of the top food sins in my humble opinion).  

Anyways why pay those big bucks for it when you can make it so easily and cheaply at home?  And, believe me, this little chinese cucumber salad, or 拍黃瓜, that you make yourself at home will taste way better than any restaurant version.