Chinese Street Food & Snacks – A (Small) Sampling

Tags

China, Chinese, Food, Ice cream, Meat, red beans, Sichuan, Snacks, street food

When in China, most likely you’ll be on foot or on a bicycle (at your own risk!) when not in a taxi. There’ll be lots and lots of walking, and you’ll see snacks everywhere. Who could resist? Here’s a list that merely scratches the surface of the matter, but with options that are healthy and delicious and a little more exciting than simply stocking up on fresh fruit and sugar-free chewing gum (though the gum variety is worth checking out!).

One of my favorite snacks I had while walking in the streets of Chengdu, where small fry kitchens and food carts abound:

This was a sweet cake made by preparing a paste from glutinous rice meal and water and steaming it wrapped in a corn husk, similar to a tamale. The cake was moist and while it was sweet, it didn’t just coat your mouth in sugar stickiness. Wonderful! 🙂

When we were in Leshan, a city in Sichuan that hosts a 70 meter high buddha carved into a mountain covered in temples, we made the mistake of thinking of the trip as a road stop along the way and lugged our luggage up and down the mountain for 2 hours in the boiling sun. To cool down, we went for ice cream. Ice cream comes in odd varieties in China (for example corn ice cream in the shape of corn on the cob), but a traditional, locally made variety looks kind of like a white popsicle:

Unfortunately, nowhere on the wrapper does it list the flavor, and I have been racking my brain ever since what that flavor was. Mildly sweet, not at all overpowering, it was great and refreshing. The best I can come up with is a subtle resemblance to coconut, but I don’t think that was it. If anyone knows, *please* let me know! This is a wonderful snack on one of the many hot Chinese summer days for relatively few calories compared to milk- or cream-based ice cream.

Staying in Sichuan, we decided to hike up Mount Emei, one of the four sacred Buddhist mountains in China. Let me tell you, an 11 hour hike covering 14 miles, steeply uphill on stairs, not paths, to reach the summit at 10,100 feet, left me in dire need of protein to refuel. I opted for beef jerky.

Little did I suspect that even beef jerky comes in the Sichuan variety. They must have just rubbed this stuff in Sichuan pepper paste! Well, I was very alert after, and it was actually very tasty, even though my water consumption went way up afterwards. Jerky is a staple in convenience stores and snack shacks or carts in rural areas, so be on the look out for it if you need a protein kick and are tired of eggs. Not low in fat or salt, but not too bad.

And the final snack I found at a little street kitchen in the hutongs of Beijing. I *adored* this:

What you see here a paper thin meringue-like containers shaped as a triangle. The filling is your choice:

I went with red bean paste, because I love all things red bean. Not too sweet, perfectly balanced and light, this is a fairly low calorie snack with protein and sweetness! Of course, if you opt for a cream-base filling, that doesn’t hold true. And as an added bonus, they come in the most adorable little paper bag:

What are some of your favorite snacks? Do you eat snacks on a regular basis, or try to avoid them? Anything you found while traveling that you wish you could get back home?

Sweet And Sour Eggplant

Tags

Chinese, CSA, Food, Recipe, Vegetables

Here’s a confession: I used to hate eggplant when it wasn’t in moussaka-form in Greece. I really, really hated it. I even tried grilling it healthily a few times, and I must have done something fundamentally wrong, because eww!

Then came China, with wonderful muslim eggplant dishes, and my curiosity was re-awakened. Enter my CSA, which presented me with the most gorgeous Chinese eggplant ever:

Now, Chinese eggplants are good for beginners because they are so much sweeter, more tender, and less bitter than the average thick, almost black Italian variety we tend to find in grocery stores around these parts.

And lo and behold, eggplant sweet and sour was prepared in my kitchen, and I tasted it, and I saw that it was good.

Ingredients:
– Chinese eggplant
– clove garlic
– 1 tsp minced ginger root
– 1 tbsp dark rice vinegar or balsamic vinegar
– 1 package sweetener
– 1 Sichuan pepper or half a small, hot pepper
– 1 tbsp soy sauce

Steps:
1. Preheat broiler while chopping garlic, pepper and ginger root.
2. Slice eggplant into 1/4 inch thick slices. For Chinese eggplant, peeling isn’t necessary; for Italian eggplants, you’ll want to peel. Sprinkle slices with salt and let sit for 10 minutes to draw out moisture.
3. Wash off salt, pat dry and broil eggplant slices for 5 minutes until tender on a foil-lined sheet.
4. Over medium heat, brown chopped ingredients in a sprayed pan.
5. Add vinegar, soy sauce and sweetener and stir well.
6. Add eggplant slices, simmer for about 5 to 10 more minutes, and enjoy!

Ironically, by now I am addicted to eggplant, even the regular kind, to a degree where my wife pokes fun at me and my CSA members know to find me if they want to trade in their eggplants for something else.

Have you become a staunch believer when it comes to certain ingredients? What’s your take on eggplant? Yay or nay?

My Very First Thanksgiving, My Very First Surgery, And A Mini-Survey Of Thanksgiving Traditions

Tags

Fruit, Poultry, Sweets, Thanksgiving, United States, Vegetables

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m German. Want proof? Check out my dazzling Dirndl-action!

Obviously, we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving per se in Germany, although there are harvest festivals (which are not a big deal and which don’t involve turkey). So when I moved to the United States in 2005, my then-girlfriend-now-wife’s family graciously welcomed me into their home and shared their traditional Thanksgiving with me. What can I say? It was wonderful. Turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, fresh cranberry sauce made in an ancient meat grinder, fresh baked bread, and most of all, my mother-in-law’s unbeatable, incomparably delicious stuffing (bread, celery, sausage) and her famous chocolate-pecan pie. And pumpkin pie. And ice cream. I met other members of the family, had a wonderful time feeling at home away from home, and I ate, and I ate, and I ate.

Curiously, that night I woke up in horrible pain, which didn’t subside. When the tight, convulsive cramping in my right lower abdomen wouldn’t subside, my father-in-law first suggested appendix issues, then scratched that since the appendix is located on the left side. He gave me Tums. They didn’t help. When I didn’t get better the next day and following night, my mother-in-law and wife took me to the emergency room, where I was X-rayed, poked, prodded, and finally diagnosed with a collapsed gall bladder filled to the brim with gall stones. Turns out high fat meals can trigger attacks. Go figure. They wanted to operate then and there, at which I burst into a teary-eyed, stumbling explanation that, look, this was Kansas, and I had mid-terms in Ohio coming up, my first semester in America, and we have plane tickets already, and my wife has to go back, what will I do? Well, the doctors gave in, let me fly back to Ohio with instructions to immediately go to the ER there.

2 days later I had outpatient surgery. Before the surgery, a smiling Russian second-in-command surgeon asked “Ahhh, gall bladder, is from baby?” “No,” I replied, “is from turkey.” (Well, in all likelihood it was from the stuffing or the pies, but hey, I was under duress). When I woke up, I found out after 2 more shots of morphine that I lack morphine receptors. Since I didn’t stop convulsing in pain, the nurses fed me a cookie, gave me a painkiller to swallow, and I was much, much better. Two days worth of chicken broth and a very coddling girlfriend later, I was back to normal, passed all my midterms with an A and craved chocolate-pecan pie.

Each year, I get asked which organ I intend to lose this year. Ah, Thanksgiving. I loved it.

Now for a bit more interesting fare, brought to you courtesy of the suggestion by wonderfully helpful Oh Cake!. I went and queried friends, colleagues and acquaintances about their Thanksgiving food traditions, and where their families originated from. I sampled English, Irish, German, Danish, American Indian, Swedish, Hungarian, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Scottish, Italian, Spanish, Slovenian and Vietnamese, from 5th generation to directly immigrated like myself.

What I found was that the vast majority closely adhered to the gold standard – turkey, gravy, pumpkin and/or apple pie and/or pecan pie. Popular items all across the board were stuffing (bread or cornbread based), green beans, potatoes or sweet potatoes, mashed or scalloped, or with marshamallows, squash dishes and cranberry sauce. But there were a few standouts and particular stories I enjoyed and thought I’d share:

“My grandma also makes homemade egg noodles (roll out the dough and cut the noodles by hand with a knife). She makes them that day and they dry for hours on the dining room table. All the women sit around and cut them as they dry enough while chatting. And the kids always run by and steal the uncooked noodles.” – German descendent tradition

“With my sibling food allergies we didn’t have an extravegant thanksgiving, most of my childhold we had lamb cooked in a crock pot with banana squash, yams, and rice.” – British/German descendent

“We always do different things. I’ve made traditional japanese, indian, american, mexican and chinese food for thanksgiving (not all at once)” – Swedish descendent

“Wine-soaked cranberry sauce and tarhonya (a Hungarian noodle dish). Before my great-aunt died we had her amazing bread, now we buy baguettes to eat with our butter (did I mention the butter? we really, really love butter in my family). My grandmother makes sós stangli (Hungarian cheese straws), which get passed off to friends the next day because we’re all tired of them (she does nothing, ever, besides bake these). For dessert: Hungarian pastries, and a new version of rice pudding every year.” – Hungarian descendent, many recent immigrants

“My family goes with each family part making turkeys in different ways, but usually roasted and stewed. Also rice with different kinds of beans. In Puerto Rico pies aren’t very popular, but instead we make pumpkin flan. My aunt will make some escabeche of green bananas. – Puerto Rican studying abroad

“I try to make something native american, specially mayan or aztec, to show respect and appreciation.” – Mexican-American immigrant

“Butternut squash, corn, homemade bread, parnips – cut legthwise and fried in butter, rutabegas – boiled and mashed, sweet potatoes (no marshmallows!). My family is really adamant that we stick with very traditional food – Lots of root vegetables and what I would think of as late harvest food.  – Irish descendent

“An old Scottish recipe that has been in our family for years and its pretty simple – oatmeal, butter, and onions” – Scottish descendent (I am particularly excited about this stuffing because I was promised a sample!)

“Growing up, my family incorporated a lot of Italian-American food into Thanksgiving. We always had a lasagna and antipasto earlier in the day before the actual “traditional” dinner of roasted turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes etc.” – Italian descendent

“Empanadas as appetizers to honor our latin roots and I also insist that she make a tomato/onion/lemon juice “dressing” which you can drizzle on the turkey in addition to regular gravy.” – Spanish descendent

“Duck (or turkey, but only if the kids insist)” – Vietnamese immigrants

“We use mashed green plantains to make the stuffing, add some seasoning, usually a lil bit of bacon, garlic and some people like to add raisins.” – Puerto Rican studying abroad

I hope you enjoyed this mini-study of Thanksgiving traditions! I, for one, would like to try almost all of the listed menus! Who knows, if I stay here permanently, maybe I’ll add a German twist on my Thanksgiving dinners, too. Are there any specialty items inspired by your family’s roots that simply must be there come Thanksgiving?

Eating Out On Niu Jie – In the Muslim Quarter Of Beijing

Tags

China, Chinese, Chinese muslim cuisine, Fish & Seafood, Food, halal, Meat, Restaurant, Vegetables

Niu Jie, which translates as Ox Street, lies at the center of Beijing’s Muslim quarter, which houses several mosques and a multitude of restaurants offering Beijing-style Muslim cuisine, also known as qingzhencai or huizucai. (The oldest mosque in Beijing is the Green Mosque and dates back to the 10th century!)

Muslim cuisine in China can be separated into Southern and a Northern, or Beijing, schools, both of which employ halal methods of slaughtering, but differ in the use of proteins. Northern Muslim cuisine focuses mainly on beef, while Southern proteins are usually mutton or lamb, along with duck, shrimp and geese. Islamic restaurants can easily be identified by Arabic writing.

While in Beijing, we couldn’t miss the opportunity to visit one of the many huizucai restaurants, which offered a mixture of Southern and Northern-style dishes:

True to Beijing-style restaurants, rice has to be ordered separately and comes in tiny bowls, and might actually be offensive because it implies there wasn’t enough other food, or that you didn’t enjoy it. Westerners like us of course get cut some slack there. We enjoyed a variety of dishes, and couldn’t pass up one made with mutton:

The mutton was crispy and came in a mildly spicy brown sauce, but, being mutton, wasn’t the easiest to bite through while being held with chopsticks.

This was probably my favorite dish, though it was closely rivaled by sweet and spicy eggplant that I failed to picture before we devoured most of it. Shrimp, cucumber and red peppers in a light, somewhat sweet sauce. I don’t usually like warm cucumber, but this was wonderful!

And finally, a Beijing-style beef dish. This came with tons of fat on the meat and swimming on the sauce, which wasn’t wonderful to me. However, the Chinese often leave on significant amounts of fat and enjoy it very much, and you can even specifically order “fatty beef”. Most likely it’s an acquired taste.

Overall it was a very interesting experience, and while I loved two of the dishes, two others didn’t really win me over. I’d definitely recommend the experience to visitors, as well as a trip to the Green Mosque!

Do you eat halal food, or follow other specific preparations? How easy/hard is it for you to travel or eat out? Have you discovered other cuisines that offer interesting additions to your standard fare?

Dim And Den Sum – The Original Cleveland Food Truck

Tags

Asian, Food, food truck, Meat, Review

The first ever food truck to hit the streets of (Greater) Cleveland was Dim and Den Sum, run by chef Chris Hodge. That name seem familiar? That would be because his second food truck is none other than the Hodge Podge Truck of The Great Food Truck Race of Food Network fame. Dim and Den Sum launched in may 2010 and was an instant success, paving the road for some of the other trucks I’ve already reviewed.

And as mentioned before, my wife’s work does a great job recruiting food trucks, and so we managed to catch Dim and Den Sum right before they shut down for the cruel Cleveland Winter.

Dim and Den Sum offers an eclectic menu of interesting choices with an Asian twist that usually is announced ahead of time online, on Twitter and on Facebook. My wife chose pork pot stickers that were so tasty, they were gone before I had a chance to take a picture. However, they were also a bit steeply priced. I, on the other hand, settled on the PBLT sandwich:

Pulled pork, bacon (missing in this photo, sorry!), lettuce and tomato with a Sriracha aioli that had a pleasant kick. (Though my wife points out that that’s spinach, not lettuce…) The sandwich was huge, and in those bites where all flavor components came together it was delicious. Unfortunately the pulled pork was heaped on so generously that you had to separate the halves of bread, and only one side had the aioli, so the other side came off a bit bland.

The food was great, and would have deserved a pretty high rating, but unfortunately I witnessed a rather unfriendly rebuff to a customer ahead of me in line, and bad service has always been a pet peeve of mine. The other people manning the truck were very friendly though.

Bottom line? Well, it’s the original Cleveland food truck, don’t miss it! Great Dim with really interesting Sum, but due to the service issue mentioned above I’ll rate the experience a 3.75/5. Nevertheless, I’ll definitely give it another try come Spring!

Stuffed Peppers With A Puerto Rican Twist

Tags

CSA, Food, Local, Meat, Puerto Rican, Recipe, Sofrito, Stuffed Peppers, Vegetables, Zucchini

So last week I posted about sofrito, the mother of all sauces in Puerto Rico. Now, let’s use this stuff in a less traditional way!

My CSA share included red bell peppers and zucchini, and so stuffed peppers were in order. But rather than do a typical version, I tried using sofrito to flavor the stuffing, and loved the end result. So here goes:

Ingredients:
– 2 red bell peppers
– 4 oz ground lean beef, turkey, or soy crumbles
– 1 medium roma tomato
– 2 slices cheddar or cheese substitute
– 1 medium zucchini
– 1/2 cup sofrito

Steps:
1. Carefully cut out tops of peppers and remove seeds

2. Blanch peppers in boiling water for 15 minutes, make sure peppers are covered. Also preheat oven to 375F

3. Meanwhile, spray a large pan, brown the meat and chop tomato and zucchini. Add zucchini, tomato and sofrito to the meat and cook at medium heat for 5 minutes

4. Place the boiled peppers in a sprayed, oven-safe dish and spoon stuffing mixture in

5. Top with cheese-slices and pop into the oven for 20 minutes.

6. Enjoy without burning your mouth!

Substituting in soy crumbles and cheese substitute, combined with the fresh vegetables makes this a very low calorie (and even vegan!) dish with an international twist.

What ways have you found to spice up traditional comfort foods or update old recipes to rekindle your enthusiasm?

Mangosteen – A 50/50 Chance Of Deliciousness.

Tags

China, Chinese, Food, Fruit, Mangosteen

One of the tastiest fruit I discovered in China was the shan zhu, or mangosteen.These are the fruit of an evergreen tree originally native to Indonesia, and are also widely used in Chinese and other traditional medicines.

Mangosteen are about the size of a mandarin orange, but come in a rock-hard purple rind. The problem that this rind poses is two-fold: You have to crack it (best done with palms and force, knives have been broken on these fruit!), and you have pretty much no chance of telling whether the fruit is just right or completely rotten (hence the 50/50 chance).

Now, once cracked, the rind will reveal white, orange-like segments that separate very easily and form a beautiful contrast to the dark purple outer layer:

The flavor is sweet, and doesn’t really compare to anything I’ve had before. But believe me, it tastes wonderful enough to risk the 50% chance of finding rotten segments. The texture reminded me somewhat of juicy, ripe plums, not oranges. Nutritionally speaking, the fruit is low in calories with only 63kcal per 100g of edible fruit portion. They are high in fiber, and fairly rich in folates. They can’t compare to stars like dragonfruit, but they’re tasty and good for you, nonetheless.

My advice? Try it! And sometimes the fruit vendors magically know which ones will be good, so just smile and nod and let them select for you.

Does anyone know the trick to selecting a ripe mangosteen? Are there foods you never can trust but are willing to risk it every single time in hopes of success? Or have you abandoned any that you thought weren’t worth it?

The Nosh Box – A Comfort Food Truck!

Tags

Cleveland, Confort Food, Food, food truck, Meat, Nosh Box, street food, United States, Vegetables

That’s right, Cleveland has still more food trucks to offer. Today: the Nosh Box, a truck serving mid-Western comfort nosh with a Tex-Mex twist to hungry Greater Clevelanders.

 

The Nosh Box is owned by Sandy and chef Kelly Waddell, who post the day’s menu and location the night before or morning off on Facebook and Twitter. Unlike some of the more exotic menus I’ve highlighted before, the Nosh Box is all about those indulgent comforting items:

 

They’re most famous for their Clevelander – fried bologna on Texas toast with all the fixin’s and the legendary Double Wide – Texas Toast topped with two kinds of cheese, bacon andmac’n cheese! Not necessarily a truck to recommend to dieters and health food lovers, but great for that indulgence we all need sometimes. Or as the Nosh Box chef put it: “Someone asked my if I had a lean body type. 🙂 I told them yes I do, I lean on anyone that gets in my way !”.

For my first nosh experience, I had a naan-bread pizza topped with fresh marinara, parmesan and mozzarella, onions, tomatoes and mixed greens:

 

It was

One of the greatest things about this truck is their special deal: bring back a reusable container and get a free drink! Now that’s a wonderful and generous offer to reduce waste.

Bottom Line:

Thanks to Kelly and Sandy for serving in freezing temperatures!

Cha Dan (Tea Egg) Recipe

Tags

China, Chinese, Eggs, Food, Tea Eggs

Since tea eggs, or cha dan, have been popping up in my Chinese breakfast and Chinese egg obsession posts, I figured I’d offer you a recipe.

I fell in love with cha dan during our trip and have been making them faithfully each week for a nice protein-rich kick start to my day. And so tasty!

Ingredients:
– 12 large eggs
– 1/2 reduced-sodium cup soy sauce
– 4 tea bags (black is best)
– 1 tsp black peppercorns
– 1 tsp cinnamon or one cinnamon stick
– 2 tsp Chinese five spice powder

Steps:
1. Cover eggs with water in a large pot, bring to a boil and cook for 3 minutes.

2. Shock eggs under cold water. Make sure to reserve the boiling water; we’ll use it later!

3. Crack eggshells with the back of a knife

4. Add all other ingredients to the boiling water in a rice cooker, set to warm and add the eggs. Simmer for a minimum of 3 hours, but the longer the better (I often do 48 hours).

5. Let cool slightly before peeling

6. Enjoy tea-marbled, delicious goodness.

Are there any recipes you’ve brought home from your travels that have become a staple in your diet?

Sofrito, the Puerto Rican All-Purpose Condiment.

Tags

CSA, Food, Puerto Rican, Recipe, Sauce, Sofrito, Vegetables

My CSA shares included cubanelle peppers several times, and, being German, I really don’t know much concerning peppers other than bell and Hungarian peppers. I was completely clueless what to do with these.

Fortunately a Puerto Rican fellow graduate student in my Department beamed at the mention of cubanelles and launched into an explanation. Turns out cubanelle peppers are pretty much the only peppers used constantly in Puerto Rican cooking, and when I asked what recipe a first timer to the cuisine should make, I was immediately told to go with sofrito.

Sofrito is a sauce that goes on anything, especially starches such as rice and beans, but also on meats. It can be eaten hot or cold, and is both intense in flavor and in aroma. A great post on traditional sofrito can be found here.

So here’s the recipe Alice gave me for sofrito:

Ingredients:
2 cubanelle peppers
10 cloves garlic
2 medium tomatoes
1 red bell pepper
1/2 vidalia onion
1 large bunch cilantro

Steps:
1. Remove the seeds from the peppers and roughly chop
2. Roughly chop the tomatoes
3. Peel and roughly chop the onion
4. Remove the stems from the cilantro

5. Add all ingredients to a food processor (this was the inaugural recipe for the wonderful Warrior Handheld Blender that my wife surprised me with!). You should get about 4 cups of sofrito, which freezes really well when pre-portioned.

6. Use on rice, chicken or pork, or stir fry rice and beans. I used it here to top steamed turnips (also in my CSA haul!).

Your entire kitchen will smell intensely of Puerto Rico, and your taste buds will thank you! 🙂
Do you have other recipes you like to use cubanelle peppers in?