Chocolate Lava Mooncake 巧克力流心月餅

Oh chocolate, oh chocolate, how much do I love thee, let me count the ways...

So many ways amirite, fellow chocolate lovers?!  I love chocolate in everything, be it sweet or savory.  Nom, nom...can never get enough of that dark chocolately goodness...  So it was that this year for Mid Autumn Festival 中秋節 I decided that we needed some chocolate to celebrate the moon!

Thus was the birth of a new styled mooncake, a Chocolate Lava Mooncake 巧克力流心月餅, a concoction of moist chocolate flavored filling with a secret heart of molten chocolate ganache, all wrapped in a tender golden skin.  Wasn't too sure how it would turn out, with the lava center and all, but OMgosh it was fantastic.  We were tickled pink with this chocolatey mooncake!  And the center, it was all melty!  Yeah chocolate chocolate!!

Chaoshan Crab Congee 潮汕砂锅粥

Oh, so pretty, amirite?!  We've had lovely, lovely seafood on our minds after our recent trip to Chaoshan 潮汕 where we feasted, among other things, on marinated raw seafood of all kinds, omgosh, sooo good.  (We're still writing that amazing experience up so stay tuned.)  So yummilicious seafood been on our minds alot lately.  

Inspired by our trip and the wonderful food consumed we made this simple congee that is a delectable treat for all seafood lovers.  Just fresh crab and some rice and you're on your way to this authentic super duper Chaoshan Crab Congee 潮汕砂锅粥!

How to Eat Fresh Lotus Seeds 新鮮蓮子

Dear readers, can you guess what this is?  An alien landscape, you say?  Why yes, it does look quite like the weirdly pocked surface of some far off, mysterious planet.  With a gleaming round space pod just landed in the middle of the bumpy green landscape.  

As you've undoubtedly guessed already, this is not at all a glimpse of a far off world .  Rather this is the image of something close at hand, a rather common earth occurrence, its humble beauty perhaps taken for granted.  Tis the closeup of the seed pod of the wonderfully multipurposed lotus flower.  We recently got to try the fresh lotus seed, plucked straight from the pod, for the first time.  Man-oh, it was divine!  Seriously, I would have never guessed that it was so good.