Buddha's Delight | Luohan Zhai 羅漢齋

As with all other aspects of life, for the Chinese even religiosity is tied to their love of food.  This delectable dish is the Buddha's Delight or Luohan  Zhai, 羅漢齋, famous vegetarian fare that traditionally was eaten by Buddhist monks (who, as you know, are forbidden to eat meat).  Nowadays, the Buddha's Delight is a popular festival dish for ordinary folk as well, to particularly be served on the first day of the Chinese New Year.  

For the Chinese, this eating of vegetarian dishes at the very beginning of the new year becomes their act of piety and cleansing.  No church going, no confessions: just the supreme sacrifice of eating vegetarian fare (delicious vegetarian fare, I might add).  For us, however, it was mostly something special and easy yet spectacular to cook up for a simple Chinese New Year celebration at home.

Steamed Pork Patty with Salted Fish 鹹魚豬肉餅

Another entry in our Chinese Salted Fish dishes for the jolly old Salted Fish lover (or bold new adventurer!).  It really is worth exploring Salted Fish, even though it may seem over whelming at first.  I still remember the first time I tried anchovies and thought to myself, whoa, what the heck is this stuff?!  And now I love and appreciate anchovies tremendously.  

Chinese Salted Fish is like that, I think, as are many, many other wonderful foods that you come know slowly, exploring and questioning, until the taste blossoms and you fall in love.  Or at least in serious like.  Really, people nowadays don't have time enough for relationships with their food.  

I did not particularly like Salted Fish at first.  But now?  What can I say... What can compare with the unique taste and texture of this humblest of preserved fish created with mere salt, the loving rays of the sun and Father Time.  Anyways, to celebrate the Salted Fish yet again, we have here another classic Chinese dish, Steamed Pork Patty, paired with the Chinese Salted Fish.  Yummy, yumm, what a rice killer!

Steamed Fish with Salted Fish 生死戀

This dish has the most interesting Chinese name, 生死戀, which is the same as the title of the 1955 movie  Love is a Many-Splendored Thing starring William Holden and Jennifer Jones.  It is a most interesting movie to check out if you are interested in old Hong Kong.  You can see for yourself how different and beautiful Hong Kong used to be.

Anyways, the literal translation of 生死戀, is "life, death and love", referring, I'm assuming in the case of this fish dish, to the "live" (or recently alive) fish on the bottom, the "dead" (salt/sun baked preserved) fish on top and the "love" is their consummation of flavors in this delectable dish.  So I thought it was really cool that this dish and the glamorous Hollywood movie have the same exact name.  What a quinky-dink!  I wonder which came first?

Hong Kong 1950's

Chinese Salted Fish 鹹魚

Isn't salted fish just so beautiful!?

Hanging from multitudes of ceilings everywhere, dangling in the gentle breeze by twisted bits of red nylon rope, sometimes exposed in all its wrinkled dried glory, sometimes rather politely wrapped up in a a fold of white paper: maybe you have seen them before while walking through streets the older parts of Hong Kong.  The Chinese Salted  Fish, or 鹹魚, is a Cantonese classic, a food stuff of legend.

In the early days, the peoples of the south, being near the sea and thus a plentiful supply of fish, began to salt and dry in the sun the fishes that they caught so as to preserve them for future need.  It became known as the "poor man's food" because a little bit of Salted Fish, being so very salty, goes a long long way with your rice and thus became a firm dinner favorite with the poor population.

Garlic Steamed Scallops over Glass Noodle 蒜茸粉絲蒸扇貝

One of the wonders of living in Hong Kong is the fresh seafood that you can get here on an everyday basis.  Where else in the world are people so snobby about their seafood that they demand it alive until the moment that it is ready for cooking?!

And so we can go to our local wet markets and find an awe inspiring assortment of the freshest seafood of all kinds on a daily basis.  And so we happened upon a catch of fresh scallops, a huge tank full, still alive and kicking. (Well, not 'kicking' exactly.  I think scallops more likely are 'waving'.) The wet market lady shucked the top shells upon our request and then we were off, laughing with glee at our incredible find for the night's dinner.  

And how to cook this treasure of the seas?  Simply steamed in all its fresh glory of course!  And so we made Garlic Steamed Scallops over Glass Noodle, or 蒜茸粉絲蒸扇貝, where the scallops are steamed til just tender while the garlic and scallop juice infuse the bottom bed of delicate glass noodles with a deliciously fresh and tasty flavour.  And how can you beat serving on the shell for presentation?  Yumm, umm.  Beautiful, delicious and easy to make!

Chinese Steamed Egg Custard 蒸蛋

Smooth, creamy, warming, comforting and quietly good tasting - that is a food to die for, is it not?  One of my personal favorites in this category of comfort foods is the Chinese Steamed Egg Custard or  蒸蛋, which most Chinese probably grew up eating at the family table.

But come the time for me to make it by myself in my own grown-up little kitchen, I discovered to my dismay that this deceptively humble little dish is much more elusive than its simple appearance warrants.  I made it again and again, but alas could not achieve the glass like smoothness that should have been. 

 Confused, I thought longingly back to my Grandma, seeing her in my mind's eye as she casually whipped this dish together: me, helping to stir the eggs, Grandma adding the water and salt by eye and then lowering the bowl into our old beat up rice cooker that still required water to be added around the cooking container.  And then, presto!, the perfect steamed egg custard time after time.  I didn't even know that there were other steamed egg textures possible!   But then, there you go, that's Grandma magic for you.  

Chinese New Year Turnip Radish Cake 蘿蔔糕

There is nothing so comforting as comfort food.  Something that soothes, takes you back to your childhood, safe and sound, experiencing the delights of the palate with no holds barred, no reference points.  Just the pure delight of yummy or not yummy and filling the tummy.

For most Chinese many of the annual festival foods will qualify for this definition of "comfort food" and the Chinese New Year radish cake is definitely one of the top challengers. This is a traditional, homey, almost countryside kind of food, but full of knock out yummy soothing comforts for the city enslaved tongue.  

Most people in Hong Kong don't make this kind of stuff for themselves anymore, preferring to enjoy the convenience of buying them pre-made from the many stores that profit from the Chinese New Year gorgings that all Chinese indulge in.  Even the older generation nowadays prefer to enjoy this kind of convenience, much to the detriment of my romantic idealizations of the elder generations keeping of the traditional torch and so on.  But nothing, of course, comes close to homemade taste...

Tiramisu - What More Could You Ask For?

In a rather delightful story of origin the story goes that tiramisu, which means "pick me up", was a dessert favored by courtesans of Venice who needed quick sweet bursts of energy throughout their busy days.  I liked this very much because it seemed so right that this lusciously decadent dessert belong to the category of sexy. Cream, chocolate, cake, coffee and luscious mascarpone cheese.  And a generous drop of rum.  What more could you ask for?

Oil Poached Salmon - Simply Tender

I don't know about y'all (as they say in Texas), but for me watching cooking shows is one of my favorite forms of relaxation.  It just always seems so interesting and...comforting, I guess.  Yes, I know that sounds kinda weird, but surely it is more relaxing than watching the endless blood and violence and perversity that seems to populate the usual TV shows these days.  

So anyways as we were watching all these cooking shows we noticed a cooking technique that, frankly, we had never heard of before.  Oil poaching.  It seemed so weird the first time we saw it but we quickly realized that the technique is similar to water poaching, which is commonly done to excellent effect in Chinese cooking.  

So one day we decided to do some deep fry (which we seldom do) chicken midjoints (which didn't come out so great) and as a consequence of having all that oil in the pot already we decided that we might as well try oil poaching the nice salmon fillet that we had also bought for dinner.

Chinese Steamed Crab 清蒸花蟹

Actually in a way there is nothing particularly Chinese about this Chinese Steamed Crab 清蒸花蟹.  It's a simple straightforward preparation that celebrates fresh seafood for its sea sweetness and tender succulence.  

Or maybe I should take that back.  Thinking about it, this dish is actually very representative of the manifestos of Cantonese cookery.  Freshness first, then simple yet subtle preparation to bring out the best of the natural taste of the fresh food. Anyways this is one of the many styles in which the Chinese eat crab which they love in general with a passion.

One of my earliest food memories is of having my mother, who loves crabs but for some strange reason will never admit it, absolutely astound me with the dexterity and speed with which she crunched her way through a mountain of crab shells with the utmost of ease.  I mean, from my youthful perspective, those crab shells were like iron shields and my mother was Superman or something.