Steamed Dungeness Crab and Egg White 蛋白清蒸珍寶蟹

A bit of silky egg white and a bit of luscious crab meat!

We love all kinds of crab in this household, especially Dungeness Crab.  It is one of the few crabs that preserves sweet succulent tenderness while also being quite meaty.  Unfortunately it is quite expensive in Hong Kong.  

Luckily for us, however, my 老公's mother recently arrived from Vancouver, bringing with her two beautiful Dungeness crabs, still alive and kicking!  Since we had two of these lovelies we decided to prepare them different ways to settle an old argument we've been having forever: is it better to boil or steam crab?

Traditional Taiwanese Cakes

Published: 2013-10-22

My 媽媽 came to us from Taiwan, where she stopped for a while before coming to Hong Kong.  With her came a suitcase chock full of delicious Taiwan snacks and cakes of all kinds.  Here we share about the delicious little cakes that she brought: the Pineapple Cake, 鳳梨酥,  and the Suncake, 太陽餅.  These are traditional cakes that Taiwan is famous for.  As my mom lived in Taiwan when she was young gal, she obviously knew where to go to get the real stuff.  And that, as usual, makes a lot of difference!

Hong Kong Hawker Traditional Fruit Candy

Published: 2013-10-16

My 媽媽's been in town and we've been doing the Hong Kong tourist thing with her.  At the ever vibrant Temple Market the other night we discovered a sweet old lady hawker selling her Traditional Chinese Fruit Snacks.  Most of which, I believe, she makes herself.  (Which is a big deal these days when most things seem to be made either by machines or by someone halfway around the world.)  

This was so cool that I had to tell everyone about it. It's so, so hard to find these kind of hong kong hawkers anymore.  Old fashioned, homemade hong kong candy!!  Wow, what a treat!

How to Fold a Chinese Dumpling 鍋貼包法

Published: 2013-10-06

While in the midst of writing my Chinese Potsticker Pork Dumpling 鍋貼 recipe, it occurred to me (and my mom reminded me) that some folks may not know how to fold the chinese dumpling.  There are many ways actually, some more complicated and some more simple.  

I will just show you the way that I usually make my chinese potsticker pork dumplings.  It looks hard at first but once you get the hang of it it's quite simple and, importantly, quite beautiful to look at and eat.

Potsticker Pork Dumplings 鍋貼

Yum, yum, yum, yum.  We love potstickers!  You can't eat just one of these little beauties and there's nothing quite like whipping up a couple dozen potstickers to keep in your freezer for, you know, those times when you're gripped with terrible tummy hungry grumbles!  

Would you believe that I can eat a whole dinner plateful of these pan fried potsticker pork dumplings in one go!  And when I was a skinny little chinese girl I could polish off two dinner platefuls!  (Seriously, I tell no lie:  I ate a lot then!)  

But, to be honest, to this day, well actually to yesterday, I have never been quite satisfied with my homemade potsticker pork dumplings.  Yes I know, it's a common dish, a chinese comfort dish even, and everyone and their Chinese mother can make them.  But before yesterday my potstickers have always been a little teensy bit disappointing to me. You know...not perfect, not eat and die from eating this yummy food kind of thing.  

So I experimented:  more fat, less fat, more ginger, less ginger, more mixing, less mixing... Ah! The little quibbles that make cooking at lifetime of fun and frustration.  

So anyways, finally, finally, I think that yesterday I made family cooking history and made a batch of very very yummy potsticker pork dumplings that disappeared faster than I could say "Perfect!"  At last!