Chinese Smiling Sesame Cookie Balls 笑口棗

It's almost time for the Chinese New Year 中國新年 and happy, plentiful thoughts of food, food, and even more delicious food are on my mind!  As anyone with proximity to Chinese culture will know, all things Chinese revolve around the copious consumption of all kinds of yummilicious foods.  Nom, nom, nom!!  

We are going to celebrate the snack aspect of traditional Chinese New Year foods this time around and we start with the easy to make, delightfully addictive Chinese New Year favorite, Chinese Smiling Sesame Cookie Balls, or 笑口棗 or 開口笑.  I'm sure you've seen these before, these little crisp sesame infused cookies can be bought everywhere during the Chinese New Year to munch on or to serve your CNY guests.  But I'll bet you've never had them homemade and fresh and I think you'll find they are waaaaay more delicious made at home than bought from any store.

Pan Fried Cheung Fun (Rice Rolls) with Egg 香煎腸粉炒蛋

Recently we were really excited when a new little food shop opened on our street and we saw that they sold all kinds of chinese noodles (like Cantonese egg noodles), and most exciting of all, at least for me, was that they sold really fresh Cheung Fun 腸粉, also known as Rice Rolls or Rice Noodle Rolls.  

Cheung Fun is used for all kinds of dishes, both savory and sweet, but for myself the favorite preparation is the classic Hong Kong snack food Pan Fried Cheung Fun with Egg.  Chewy fragrant rice, just fried egg clinging to the rolls, splashes of sweet soy sauce and oh, the tasty deliciousness of hoisin sauce!  YUMM...comfort food alert!!

Seriously Amazing Chocolate Tart

I wanted to share this chocolate tart recipe because it really is seriously amazing.  Not due to any special skills of mine or anything, let me assure you, this tart is amazing all by itself! 

I had to bring a dessert to a New Year's Eve barbecue that we were invited to and naturally wanted to impress and thus stumbled on this recipe for chocolate tart that seemed easy yet delicious.  But I was wrong...it was super easy and amazingly delicious!  Not just my opinion, this tart got rave stand up reviews from the folks at the barbecue, many of whom are chefs themselves.  

So if you're a super chocolate fan (like we are!) and need to produce an impressive but easy to make dessert, do try this Seriously Amazing Chocolate Tart.  You won't be disappointed, I promise!

Egg Tarts 蛋撻

Greetings for the New Year and hope that you all have had a great holiday season!   I know that we've been really, really busy and have only now had a chance to breath a bit.  

So, in thinking of what to write about as the first post of this grand new year, I had the inspiration to bring in the year with a bit of sunshine and to me there is not a thing in the world that is as sunshiny and cheerful as the absolutely fabulously famous and wonderfully traditional Chinese Egg Tart, or 蛋撻!  

It's something that every Chinese kid grew up with, it's sorta programmed into our DNA or something. Egg tarts are the first 'desserts' I remember eating, my grubby little hand eagerly lifting up a tart from its big pink box, falling in finger lickin love from the first moment with that tender, sweet eggy custard and the cookie like crust.  Ohh...just taking one luscious bite of an egg tart takes me right back to warm and fuzzy times...