Chinese Baked Pork Chop Rice 焗豬扒飯

One of the best "if you are really starving and in need of 'comfort food'" food ever.  Hummm...  Did that make any sense? Well, you know what I mean!  Or, to be absolutely correct, you will know what I mean after you try this Chinese Baked Pork Chop Rice, or 焗豬扒飯.  

This is a local Hong Kong classic, an absolute standard at all the cha chaan teng, or 茶餐廳 in Hong Kong.  Cha chaan teng is the name for the local style dinners/cafes that dot the culinary landscape of Hong Kong.  Small affordable chinese food eateries that serve up fast, greasy food in big portions; interiors done up with lots of fluorescent lighting and rows of small eating booths.  A cha chaan teng has to have a decent Chinese Baked Pork Chop dish to serve to the hungry masses if it wants to be taken seriously as an eatery!

Chinese Pan Fried Salted White Herring Fish 香煎曹白咸魚

Yum, yum...  My mouth is watering already!  If you've never tried Chinese Salted Fish before, why not start at the best?  This amazingly deliciously tasty treat is a very traditionally Cantonese way to prepare Chinese Salted Fish, or 咸魚 and you can only really make it properly with the right kind of fish, the best kind of salted fish: Salted White Herring, or 曹白咸魚.   

This is the best way to have Chinese Salted Fish!  This Chinese Pan Fried Salted White Herring Fish is a dish that we all (young and old!) fight over when it appears on the dinner table.

Four Seasons Peace Vintage Drinking Glass 四季平安玻璃杯

Dear reader,  do you remember these lovely Chinese glass cups?  You might just have used one of these now vintage glass drinking cups in a day long past.  We were so lucky (dance, dance!) to find a complete set of these glass cups on one of our rummages through second hand stores in Hong Kong.  I grabbed them at once!  You can't find these anymore!  I'm not sure how old these are but at least 3 or 4 decades would be my guess.  So here they are, so sweet and so lovely, an innocent and perfect reminder of a happy bygone Hong Kong Chinese era.

Classic Chinese Steamed Fish 清蒸鱼

I've been meaning to write about the amazing Classic Chinese Steamed Fish, or 清蒸魚, for the longest time.  I mean, we have this fish dish all the time at home!  It's simple to make and a simply amazingly delicious way to prepare fresh fish.  

This is the great shining example of the spare beauty and elegance of the traditional Cantonese way of cooking.  Fresh, fresh food combined with specific precise cooking methods that allow the natural flavors of fresh food to blossom.  A dish that you can make at home with a minimum of fuss.  A super yummilicious, tender, sea sweet fish dish gently flavored with aromatics and a drizzle of fine soy sauce that will get you to eat delicious, healthy fish all the time!  This is simply one of the best fish dishes of all time!

Fried Dace with Salted Black Bean 豆豉鯪魚

Do you know of this iconic Chinese canned fish Fried Dace with Salted Black Bean, or 豆豉鯪魚?  I'm pretty sure that if you're Chinese you will have grown up eating this delicious and unique canned fish at one point or the other.  I'm also pretty sure that even if you're not Chinese you've probably seen this can of fish somewhere before.  It has been a staple (a star even!) of Chinese canned food for many, many decades.  

We have an interesting little story about Fried Dace with Salted Black Bean that comes from my 老公's father who grew up in Guangzhou, China in a time when culture and food culture was flourishing there.

Fried Dace with Salted Black Bean Stir Fried with Indian Lettuce 豆豉鯪魚炒油麥菜

A classic Cantonese Chinese dish is the Fried Dace with Salted Black Bean Stir Fried with Indian Lettuce, or 豆豉鯪魚炒油麥菜.  Even our jolly wet market vegetable guy had to admit, chuckling, that there's no way around it: if you're going to cook Indian Lettuce, or 油麥菜, there's nothing better to go with it than the fabulous Fried Dace with Salted Black Bean, or 豆豉鯪魚.  

It's soooo easy to make this delicious dish cause you just open up a can of Fried Dace and stir fry it with the lettuce and Voila!  Classic, yummy, delicious Cantonese Chinese fish and vegetable dish!

Chinese Porcelain Spoons 中式湯匙

I lust after Chinese porcelain.  It's so seriously beautiful to me.  Sometimes I dream about it. (I know, I know, I'm really weird!)  Those beautiful, iconic, hand painted pieces of art that the Chinese use ever so casually as their dinnerware.  Gold edged, milky white, delicately patterned or decorated with miniature hand-painted scenes of flying dragons or pagodas on lonely mountains, these gleaming smooth spoons, bowls and plates always grab me by the throat.  I WANT THEM ALL!

Alas for me (but luckily for my 老公!), my house is too small (but of course it is, I live in Hong Kong!) and my pocketbook too limited to buy all the beautiful chinese porcelain that I find.  So most of the time I just stare at the porcelain loveliness and drool.  

However, we also like to poke around the old and second hand shops in Hong Kong and every once in a while we score some beautiful old porcelain ware, thrown out by their modern ex-owners (to be replaced by BPA infused designer plasticware).  We, on the other hand, a family of luddites confessed, lovingly scoop home and squirrel away our treasures.  Recently we discovered a stash of lovely old Chinese Porcelain Spoons or 中式湯匙...