Hong Kong Mooncake Molds 月餅模具

Published: 2013-05-13

Just to share my joy at the latest cool stuff found digging through old dusty boxes at old dusty stores in Hong Kong.  You can definitely still find a treasure or two if you don't mind to taking your time and getting your fingers dirty.  Here are some old wooden mooncake molds, or 月餅模具.  Actually the two on the left are mooncake molds and the two on the right are wooden molds for other chinese pastry/cookies.  They had probably been sitting in that same old box for the past 15-20 years or something.

The store owner, an old man who frowned at me at first but was very nice later on, spoke of the old days of supplying the big Chinese Emporiums in Hong Kong and the eventual die down of demand, etc.  The store itself is done the old fashioned way, with the merchandise piled high in a untidy, seemingly random way.  A lot of rattan and bamboo craft.  Old Hong Kong craft.  Very fascinating stuff.  But, warning, quite dusty!!  I may have to go back for more browsing soon.

Black Sesame Ice Cream 黑芝麻雪糕

The summer's coming and it's time for lots of ice cream!  We tried a recipe for black sesame ice cream that is just out of this world delicious!  It seems even to have supplanted our blueberry ice cream as the family's favorite ice cream flavor.

I think the reason it is so good is that you make the black sesame paste yourself.  We tried this before, roasting and then grinding our own black sesame for Black Sesame Tang Yuan 黑芝麻湯圓 that came out fantastic.  The black sesame is so fragrant this way!  Nothing that you buy or that you get when eating out can compare to it.  Well,  here is something just as yummy with this freshly made paste - the fabulous Black Sesame Ice cream!

Chinese Basic Congee 粥

What's the Chinese equivalent of "chicken soup"?  Why congee, or 粥, of course, that delectable, nourishing and soothing rice porridge cooked by the Chinese since time began. Recently I've been making a lot of chinese pickles, both the rice vinegar pickle and the soy sauce or hua gua pickle and, duh, suddenly realized that having tons of chinese pickles means congee heaven.

So I've started making congee a lot and it's not only easy and fun to make (you can throw most everything in and make delicious congee)  but also a serious nourishing the soul kind of food as well as being very, very good for babies, kids and persons feeling under the weather.  Did you know that Chinese moms always feed their babies congee?  

Little old chinese ladies used to stop us on the street and in the shops to ask us if we were making pork bones congee for our little girl when she was one or two years old.  And when we replied ashamedly "Umm, no...", those poor ladies always appeared very distressed and anxious.  Ah well, it's better late than never.

Chinese Soy Sauce Hua Gua Pickles 花瓜

This chinese Hua Gua pickle is just so easy and delicious that it's ridiculous.  Inspired by the success with our chinese vinegar pickle I was gripped with a nostalgia for the Hua Gua pickles, 花瓜 or 醬瓜,  of my childhood.  These are delightfully crunchy Taiwanese soy sauce pickled cucumbers that Mom bought in little glass jars to go with our congee.

It was such a tasty treat that we used to fight over these little suckers when the Grandma and Mom weren't looking.  There was never enough to go around with three hungry little chinese girls and just a little tiny jar of pickles.  And, just to be clear, hungry little chinese girls can eat alot of food!  Well, now all these years later I have discovered that, as I mentioned earlier, these pickles are just ridiculously easy to make and taste just like the (actually better!) store bought kind (minus the yummy (not!) flavours of chemical preservatives of course.)

The Pleasures of Chinese Cooking

Image from Jeanyee Wong website

Published: 2013-04-15

I was checking out some old Chinese cookbooks (a favorite pastime of mine) and happened upon this great old video made as promotion for a Chinese cookbook called The Pleasures of Chinese Cooking by Grace Zia Chu that was published in the 60's in USA.  

Had to share it, what a cool video!  Check out the big can of "Glutate" at 0:17 (MSG, anyone?) and the little monster heads arranged around the stir fried peas at 1:00!  Oh my gosh, what the heck kind of Chinese food is that!  Hee, hee...

Chocolate Cookies

This is the perfect chocolate cookie to go with the little cup of hot chocolate that I posted about the other day.  It's so nice to have home-baked cookies and these are especially easy and convenient in that you can stick them in the freezer and then bring'em out, slice and pop'em in the oven and ta-da!  Fresh, heavenly cookies!  

But these are not your ordinary chocolate cookies.  Oh, no, not at all. These are Mercedes Benz of chocolate cookies.  So chocolately, double chocolately actually with the chocolate chips, but not too sweet either, slightly crumbly, meltingly just moist and then there's the deliciously unexpected sea salt flavor that blooms on your tongue after a few moments.  What a wicked taste sensation!

Hot Chocolate - One Little Cup at a Time

My little girl doesn't particularly like milk too much so to tempt her I make a little cup of hot chocolate for her every once in a while.  It's a warm tasty homemade treat made all the more fun using the whimsical cups and saucers we discover on afternoon rambles through our neighborhood second hand shops.  

It's similar to the drinks that our Hong Kong coffee shops are starting to offer for children, usually know by the cute name of "babyccino."  My girl loves to play at being 'grownup' and carefully sips her hot chocolate in the most delightfully ladylike manner.  Try it as a special treat for kids (or yourself!) on a chilly day.

Easter Egg Natural Dye

Here's something fun and natural for Easter.  My little girl and I had made Easter Eggs for the first time last year when she was almost 3 years old.  It was really fun and we did a post about our tiny Easter Eggs, but in my heart I was a bit horrified by the obnoxiously bright fakeness of the food coloring dyes that we used and that were eventually eaten into our systems along with the eggs.  (No, we didn't eat the shells but the coloring kinda soaks in quite a bit, doesn't it?)  

So I was really interested when, this year, as I was mentally preparing for Easter Egg making, to see a blog article on using natural dyes to make really beautiful natural Easter Eggs.  We tried it and as you can see the result is quite a looker and very very safe to eat for your little ones. It takes a bit more time and effort but we definitely thought the results were gorgeously worth it.

Chinese Egg Fried Rice 蛋炒飯

Chinese Egg fried rice, or 蛋炒飯, is the quintessential leftover dish.  You open your fridge and you've got leftover rice, leftover char sui, leftover choi sum, etc from yesterday's dinner.  What're you gonna do?  Make chinese egg fried rice of course.   

As long as you have the basics, i.e. rice, egg, spring onion, then you just chop up and throw in whatever else leftovers that you have and you will end up with a easy to make, lip-smacking and creative dish that you can serve instead of plain rice.  (Kids love this!  My dearest Grandma 奶奶 used to make this as an after-school snack everyday.)

Chinese Pickles 酸瓜

Did you know that the Chinese love pickles too?  There are all kinds of chinese pickles, or 酸瓜, from all the different provinces of China.  In Sichuan they even have special pickling jars!

Chinese Pickling Urn
(Image from The Key to Chinese Cooking by Irene Kuo)