Red China

Hello All,

Tomorrow I leave for China. I'll be gone for 2 weeks so you won't be hearing from me here (although, let's be honest, I let weeks go by without posting all the time).

I'll be thinking about you (and my blog) while I am gone. Hopefully I'll be taking lots and lots of pictures of food (as well as, you know, the Great Wall and the Terracotta Warriors and some of the other wonders China has to share). I have a recipe ready to post when I return. In fact, I had hoped to post it this week, but it wasn't meant to be. Too much to do and not enough time.  

I'll miss you (but really, not too much because I'll be in China).  

Take Care,

Me

For Picky Eaters

My 25th birthday cake, Shanghai, China (notice how many n's they used in my name...)

Months ago, when I first launched this blog, HK, a good friend of my family who has also been like a second father to me, asked if I would write something for him. He wanted me to write a short piece about food/dining etiquette for the missionaries he works with outside Reno, Nevada.

I promised to do so but then months passed and I never got around to actually writing the article. I've spent quite a bit of time however thinking about it because it's actually an issue that is near and dear to my heart.

Matt trying snake scales at a restaurant in Shanghai.

From a culinary perspective at least, Reno might be at the top of my list of non-scary food locales in the world. However, regardless of the fact that the missionaries there aren't likely to be served anything truly frightening, they will still refuse to eat food that they don't like/enjoy. This frustrates HK because he feels like this kind of attitude reflects poorly on the missionaries, and by extension, our church. For these reasons, he was hoping I could whip up a little literary something to help explain why it's important to be a more open-minded eater when you are in someone else's home.

BBQ squid at a night market in Taiwan.

I just want to make clear at the outset that I don't have any issues with specific, overarching dietary choices people make. I recognize and respect that people limit/control their diets due to many personal beliefs, convictions, and health concerns. I myself make choices about what I eat/drink based on my own religious beliefs. I do however lose patience quickly with people who don't have any defined dietary limitations but will refuse to eat something prepared specifically for them merely because they don't like it. The below article, which I sent to HK this week and have decided to also share with you, is directed at those individuals.

Here's hoping my thoughts on this topic don't deeply offend any of my readers. However, if you disagree, please feel free to comment and we can get a mini discussion going.

The Limits of Personal Preference

Americans are spoiled. We hear this a lot, and sometimes it's justified and sometimes it's not. In one particular area however, I have found this statement to be almost universally true. We are overwhelmingly spoiled when it comes to food. We are raised in a society where its OK to not like certain foods, and where, for the most part, our likes and dislikes are indulged rather than eradicated.

Pigeon head in Shanghai.

It seems to me however, that at a certain point in one's life, some of our pickiness can and should fall away in certain situations. In particular, when you are a guest in someone else's home the simple fact that you don't like something isn't really a good enough reason to refuse to eat it.

As a missionary in Taiwan, I didn't have the luxury of refusing to eat something that didn't appeal to me. From a cultural perspective, it would have been extremely rude to tell the host or hostess that I wouldn't eat something they prepared simply because I didn't like it. I can't pretend that I wouldn't sometimes try to avoid certain dishes on the table, but it was never overt and I was rarely successful. Taiwanese people have a habit of putting food in your rice bowl, and once it is there you really have no choice but to eat it. Because I wasn't always able to avoid food I didn't want to try, I've tried such lovely dishes as Stinky Tofu, Rice in Pigs Blood, and Cow's Stomach.

Kenny's birthday BBQ in Taiwan.

Unfortunately, in America we don't seem to have this sense of propriety when it comes to eating in other people's homes. Even as adults, we feel like we can simply explain that it's a food we don't like. With friends and family that is usually fine. But as a guest in the home of someone you have only recently met, it should not be OK.

When people open their homes and their kitchens to you, it's important to graciously accept whatever food they have prepared on your behalf. Although this may not be widely acknowledged in our culture, I still feel that a host or hostess will be much more impressed/favorably disposed to a guest who tries all the food that has been prepared. Every dish requires time, effort, and money on the part of the cook. To be told that something will go to waste simple because the guest doesn't like it is probably the quickest way to find yourself in your host's bad graces.

Hot pot in Shanghai.

Thanks to my time in both Taiwan and China, I have fallen in love with many foods that I hated as a child. I have a wise friend who pointed out that as a child there were many foods she didn't like but when she gave them a chance as an adult, she found that she really liked them. Our palates change both as we grow and as we encounter more of the world. If we stick to the limits we impose on ourselves as children, we close ourselves off from many of the great things the world has to offer. While food may only be one small aspect of our life experience, it's probably the way in which our lives are the most often and most immediately impacted. (The End)

In honor of off-putting foods, I'm pairing today's musings with a recipe for mussels. I thought this recipe would have more of a Chinese flavor to it, but although I was mildly disappointed on that score, I was, on the whole, thrilled with the end result. Delightful. Mussels are one of those foods I came to love while living in Asia, but if you haven't yet been converted, give this recipe a try one night (preferably with someone who already does love mussels so if you still find yourself unconvinced they won't go to waste).

Black Bean Mussels

Adapted from this recipe in Gourmet magazine

2 lb mussels, scrubbed and beards removed - I bought my mussels at Salt Lake's most respected fish market but as it turned out, they no longer sell fresh mussels. The fishmonger explained that they had too many problems with bad mussels when they were buying them fresh so now they sell a brand of pre-cooked, frozen mussels. I was a little skeptical, but they turned out great so you should be fine with either fresh or pre-cooked/frozen in this recipe.

1/4 c. diced red bell pepper

1/4 c. diced yellow pepper

1/4 c. finely chopped red onion

1/4 c. finely chopped scallions

1 T. minced garlic

1 T. minced fresh ginger (I used my Microplane for this, so it was grated, not minced)

1 T. Chinese fermented black beans, rinsed in cold water (available at Chinese grocers)

1 c. heavy cream

2 T. rice wine

1 1/2 t. soy sauce

1 1/2 t. oyster sauce

1/2 c. chicken broth

1/2 t. freshly ground black pepper

Combine all ingredients in a large, heavy pot and stir to combine. Bring to a boil, then tightly cover and cook over moderate heat until all the mussels open wide, about 3-6 minutes. Discard any mussels that remain closed after 6 minutes.

My Beverage of Choice

When I got my mission call to Taiwan, aside from being generally ignorant of what waited for me there and overwhelmingly confused by the fact that I was going to Asia and not France (as I not so secretly hoped), at least one element of life in Taiwan had me seriously excited: soy milk. Random, I know.

My first taste of soy milk at the MTC.

I don't remember now why soy milk had me so excited. It might have had something to do with the high calcium content in soy beans. At a relatively young age I watched my grandmother suffer the often excruciating pain of osteoporosis, so the importance of incorporating calcium into my diet made a lasting impression on me.

Or it might have had something to do with the fact that a number of my friends in high school were vegetarian, and for that reason I was excited about making soy milk part of my diet.

Regardless of the reason, I was determined to not just like, but LOVE, this beverage. That determination may have made me more open-minded than some of my fellow missionaries. Whereas most of the Americans I served with eventually came to like soy milk, I was a die-hard soy milk convert from day one.

The thing about soy milk in Taiwan is that every little breakfast place/stand makes it fresh daily, so it's a much different beverage from the stuff you buy here in the States. You go down to your favorite place for a 汉堡 (hamburger), 蛋饼 (dan bing), or 油条 (you tiao) and you grab a cup of fresh soy milk to go with it. In Taiwan its always sweetened and generally you have the choice of buying it hot or cold. Taiwanese breakfasts are one of my favorite food things on this planet and soy milk is a major reason for that.

However, despite my love of freshly-made soy milk, up until recently I had never tried to make it myself. As it turns out, that was silly because it's ridiculously easy. In the past month I have made it 3 times. When I told a couple of friends I was working on this for the blog they were shocked that you could make soy milk at home. You can, and in my humble opinion, should. Although the entire process takes about a day, the actual hands-on time required is minimal, and that minimal amount of effort is well-worth the end result.

豆浆 (Soy Milk)

- This really is an easy recipe (Look! Only 3 ingredients!). You may look at my lengthy instructions and get freaked out, but don't. I just wanted to be really clear about each of the steps, but it is a simple process.

2 c. dried soy beans - You can buy these at Asian grocers. I assume you can also buy them at places like Whole Foods.

7 c. water

Approximately 1/2 c. sugar, although you should sweeten it to your taste

Supplies: Cheesecloth

Soak soy beans in a large bowl of water for approximately 12 hours (or overnight). Discard any beans that immediately rise to the top. I like to put the soy beans in a big bowl in the morning and let them soak all day. Then before I go to bed I do the next step...

Drain/rinse soy beans. Add the rinsed beans to a blender and add the 7 cups of water. Puree until the beans are broken down into very small pieces. I do this in 2 batches. After each batch dump the blender contents into a large pot and cook over medium high heat for about 20-30 minutes. You'll want to keep a close eye on the pot and stir it often. The soy beans will settle on the bottom of the pot and can burn easily, which as I learned in Taiwan, yields a very unpleasant beverage. I'll be honest though, I don't keep a very close eye on my pot. I tend to stir it every 5 minutes or so, but I'm careful not to stir the contents on the bottom so that if they do burn, I don't infuse the whole pot with that flavor. So far that has worked just fine.

After you've cooked the soy milk mix you want to strain it through a couple layers of cheesecloth. I like to let the pot sit on the stove overnight so that the milk cools down. Then in the morning I line a colander with a little linen bag that a woman in Taiwan gave me. As most of you will not have one of those, just use a couple layers of cheesecloth. Put the colander over a pot and then pour the soy milk mixture into the colander. Once you have poured it all in, grab the ends of the cheesecloth and squeeze out as much of the milk as you can. Obviously, if you try to do this right after you have finished boiling the soy milk, its somewhat painful, which is why I let it sit for a little bit. Discard the soy solids and put the pot back on the stove. Add sugar to taste, and heat briefly over medium-high heat. You just want to get the sugar dissolved and the milk warmed up again because warm soy milk, especially in the morning, is one tasty treat. If you decide you're not a fan of hot soy milk, by all means, skip this step. Just add the sugar and you are good to go. The milk will keep for a couple of days in the fridge.

If you try this and find you like it, the recipe scales up very easily. You can't really go wrong with the amounts. Just add a good amount of water when you blend the beans because then you will have a larger batch. I usually figure 3 c. of water for 2 c. of soaked soy beans.

Homecoming

Its been almost 7 years since I left China in December of 2001. I never dreamed it would take me this long to make my way back again, and yet, life has a way of taking us down unexpected paths. While we go about living our day to day lives, doing what needs to be done, years pass and some of our dreams and aspirations are sacrificed as the vision we have of life changes.

For a long time I assumed that I would live most of my life in Asia. I thought that after I graduated from college I would return to either China or Taiwan and spend, basically, the rest of my life there. But when I finally graduated I decided to move back to Boston instead, and from there life, as it is wont to do, took me down another path.

My trip to China next month has been many years in the making, but now that it is almost upon me, I can't help but feel fully the truth of the saying, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder."

I decided to go to Beijing for the Olympics in the summer of 2001. I can pinpoint the exact moment in fact. It was a Friday night in Shanghai and I had just enjoyed dinner at Pizza Hut with a couple of friends. After dinner we walked down to Nanjing Rd.（南京 路）to watch and wait with a gathered crowd as the International Olympic Committee announced which city would host the 2008 Olympic Games. As Beijing was announced the crowd went wild and I vowed that I would make it to those games.

This week, as I held my Olympic tickets in my hand, my trip next month suddenly felt real for the first time.

Many things had to align to make this trip happen and yet somehow, they all have. I have tickets to 7 Olympic events, a plane ticket that, miraculously, did not completely break the bank, hotel reservations in the 3 cities we'll be visiting, and best of all, 3 fantastic friends to travel with. Now that the trip actually feels real (and I've confirmed that Air China has given me back my seat on the plane) I can hardly wait to go. I'm giddy with excitement and thrilled to have an opportunity to share a place I love so much with a few of my closest friends.

Before leaving you today, I wanted to share a dish I first tried in Shanghai. This dish is actually pretty common in American Chinese restaurants so there is a good chance many of you have tried it before. Making it at home was a bit of a revelation for me. Its so easy, but honestly, so tasty. When I made it for the first time I decided on the spot that this would be my new go-to recipe when I want to impress people with my Chinese cooking skills. If you give it a try, let me know what you think.

Spicy Green Beans with Hoisin Sauce and Garlic

Adapted from Kylie Kwong's Simple Chinese Cooking

Note on peppers: You can use any pepper in this recipe, but I call for red ones below because they look pretty. Pick a pepper that complements your desired spiciness, and remember that you can remove the seeds if you want to lessen the heat. If you pick a spicy pepper be sure to wear gloves when cutting/working with the pepper.

2 lbs. green beans, stem ends trimmed

4 T. extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 t. salt

Freshly ground black pepper

2 red chilies, sliced into thin rings

3 T. hoisin sauce

3 cloves of garlic, finely minced

1/4 t. salt

1/4 t. vegetable oil

Optional (but highly recommended): Maldon Sea Salt, flakes

Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat oven to 475 degrees. Line 2 heavy-duty rimmed backing sheets with aluminum foil. In a medium bowl toss the green beans with olive oil, salt, and a few grinds of pepper.

Spread the green beans out on your baking sheets and roast until tender, slightly shriveled, and slightly browned, approximately 15 minutes.

While the beans are cooking, combine the chilies, hoisin sauce, garlic, salt, and vegetable oil in a large saute pan. Cook sauce briefly over medium-high heat, approximately 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat.

Once beans have finished roasting add the beans to the sauce and cook over high heat for 2-3 minutes until the beans are thoroughly coated and the sauce feels a bit sticky. Serve immediately.

If you have Maldon sea salt, sprinkle the salt over the beans after you've put the beans on a serving platter. I can't tell you how much I love the taste of the salt with these beans. The salt melts just a bit and provides a wonderful flavor. To be honest, Maldon sea salt is good on everything. I love it. If you haven't tried it before I recommend picking some up. Or just come over to my place one night and try some of mine.

Leaning Towards Laziness

A while ago, when I was having a hard time getting motivated to do any cooking for this blog, I had a brainstorm one night. I thought I could indulge my laziness and still come up with something for the blog by introducing my dear readers to various products found in Chinese supermarkets. At the time, I popped open a can of Apple Sidra, took a few pictures, penned a few words, and voila! A blog post with very little effort involved.

However, it seemed like a cop-out at the time so I never posted it. But as I've thought about it since then though, I've decided that the idea has some actual merit. Chinese grocery stores/markets are popping up all over the place. There is even a great one around the corner from my apartment here in suburban Utah. Asian markets are great because most of the products, to include (most importantly in my opinion) produce, are cheap. If your only goal is to pick up some fruits and vegetables and maybe some fish, then you don't need an education in Asian cuisine to shop there. However, if you are willing, and maybe a little bit daring, there is a world of fun products to be found throughout the store. The question is, where to start? Without a guide of some kind, I think it can be hard, possibly overwhelming, to pick out products that are likely to suit your palate. That's where I come in. Every now and then I'll post an introduction to one of my favorite Chinese products. If it sounds like something you are likely to enjoy, or piques your curiosity, you'll hopefully be able to pick it up at a Chinese market near you.

Peanut Rice Balls

I'll just say right now that I love food products made from glutinous rice. It may be an aquired taste, but for whatever reason, I love it. In Taiwan you can eat glutinous rice all sorts of ways. In my second area, 草屯 (Cao Tun), there was a little lady who rode around town on a bicycle with glutinous rice and a couple different filling options. You'd flag her down and she would make little glutinous rice packets stuffed with the filling of your choice (sugared ground peanuts for me). At dim sum I love ordering the deep fried sesame balls, where the sweet filling is enclosed in a ball of glutinous rice and then rolled in sesame seeds. There is something about the slick, sort of sticky texture of glutinous rice that I really like, so I'll admit that it's not so much the flavor, as the texture, that has won me over.

Anyway, at some point during my mission one of my Taiwanese companions introduced me to these little peanut rice balls. You buy them frozen at the grocery store and can also buy ones stuffed with black sesame seeds (芝麻) or red beans (红豆). You bring a pot of water to boil, throw in a little bit of sugar to sweeten up the water, and add as many of the balls as you want. Let them boil for about 7-10 minutes and then serve. I pour them into a bowl with a little bit of the "broth". You don't actually drink the broth, but just fish out the balls.

This is obviously not fine dining, but for those of us with a strange passion for glutinous rice, its a quick and easy way to get a fix whenever the urge strikes.

FYI, this is my favorite brand. It's from Taiwan and is actually the same brand I ate when I lived there. I've tried other brands and the rice balls have fallen apart pretty easily in the water, which I don't like. You want a ball thats got enough body to keep the filling inside while it boils away.

Addendum: Spicy Sichuan Beef

Tonight I had a BBQ at my parent's house in honor of my friend Lyn and her husband Adam who are visiting from New Hampshire. I meant to take lots of pictures. Made sure to put my camera in my bag and pulled it out when I got to the house. But alas, somehow the whole evening passed without my taking even one shot. I probably should have remembered to bring my camera outside with me if I was planning on taking pictures.

Anyway, aside from being bummed that I didn't get any pictures of their kids, or even of us, I'm also bummed because I had meant to take a picture of one of the items I prepared. I decided to BBQ kebabs, and found a couple of recipes online that looked good. But thinking back on one of my last posts, I also really wanted to try grilling steak with the Hoisin sauce from the Spicy Sichuan Beef. 

I ended up trying it out on a steak kebab. I don't really have a recipe, because I just worked off of the sauce from the Sichuan Beef post. I used jalapenos this time, but totally cut out the spice by removing the ribbing and seeds (my parents have been frustrated with me of late because they claim everything I cook is too spicy for them to eat). I finely chopped the peppers and sauteed them in a little bit of oil with some grated ginger and finely minced garlic. After about 5 minutes I added approximately 1/3 c. Hoisin Sauce, mixed well, and let it cook for a few minutes more. I then let it cool. I cut the steak into cubes and about an hour before I wanted to put it on the grill I mixed it with the Hoisin sauce in a Ziploc bag. Before grilling I slid the meat onto skewers and then grilled 'til done. Everyone loved them. Very tasty. So I definitely recommend this method of preparation. You could easily add some veggies to the kebab (any kind of pepper would be good). Last note, I didn't use the Sichuan salt and pepper because I didn't want the mouth-numbing flavor. If you like that taste and have some of that mix lying around, I'd recommend sprinkling it on the kebabs when they come off the grill.

Carry Me Back to Old Virginny

At the beginning of May, my sister and I traveled back to Virginia for the Richmond NASCAR race. It was a great weekend, because although I lived in Virginia for over 2 years, I never spent any time in Richmond.

As we learned over the weekend, Richmond is a great city to explore. It has a rich history, vibrant cultural life, wonderful restaurants and beautiful old neighborhoods. For many years now, as various members of my family have lived or traveled on the East Coast, we have loved exploring Civil War battlefields and sites. Richmond, of course, played an integral role in the South throughout the Civil War, so it was very interesting to visit Civil War sites within the city. I finally visited the White House of the Confederacy, where a quite burly man decked out in General Stonewall Jackson gear intimidated me just a little. We drove Monument Avenue, where I snapped the below pic of the statue commemorating the great Confederate Calvary general JEB Stuart. We visited the brand new Civil War museum, built at the Tredegar Iron Works on the banks of the James River (I highly recommend the museum if you ever find yourself in Richmond).

However, the one element that made the weekend particularly entertaining, considering our reason for being in Richmond, was meeting other NASCAR fans and crews as we wandered the city. At the Civil War Museum we even met a couple of pit crew guys for the 83 Red Bull Toyota. To my everlasting regret, I did not get a picture with them. Maybe next time. That lesson has definitely been learned.


And of course, we went racing. The crowd in Virginia was decidedly different from the crowd we encountered in California when we went to the race in Fontana last fall. There were more than a few moments when we kind of caught ourselves asking how we ended up at a NASCAR race in the heart of tobacco country surrounded by, hmmm, not-so-gentlemanly types wearing, I'll be honest, offensive t-shirts. Thank goodness that was just Friday night. Saturday we had a blast. Everyone around us was great, with the exception of the man behind me who, oh so kindly, offered me a pinch of his snuff. If I didn't believe wholeheartedly that he was mocking me (I don't know, maybe my Trader Joes Oriental Rice Cracker mix and bottled water gave me away as an a-typical NASCAR fan) I might have warmer feelings for even him.


Anyway, what does all this have to do with today's recipe? Well, today's dish is something I have craved since I moved to Utah last year. When I was living in Virginia someone, I don't remember who, introduced me to Endo Sushi, a little Sushi place in McLean. I loved that place. I'll admit that I'm really not much of a sushi connoisseur. I like it, but I'm not super-educated or super-adventurous when it comes to sushi. I love going for sushi with people who really know sushi. I can have them order, and I always love what I get. But when I go alone I tend to stick to the few things I feel really comfortable with.

I loved Endo not for their sushi, which I do like, but instead because they served a cold tofu salad with lunch. It had a wonderfully tangy dressing and I loved it. I've actually thought about it a lot since I left Virginia but really had no clue how to go about trying to recreate it. Then, right before I left for Virginia I made a recipe one night for my brother and sister-in-law that sounded like it might fit the bill. Although it was good, it really didn't come close to imitating the salad I remembered. I thought about Endo, and this salad in particular, the whole weekend I was in Virginia, but unfortunately never had a chance to make it there for lunch. When I got home I decided to give the salad another go, and was finally able to work out a version that comes pretty darn close to the salad I remember. I'd gladly serve this salad to anyone. I actually did serve it to my parents, who thought it far too spicy, and yet I still caught my Dad going for seconds. I think its a great way to introduce tofu to the uninitiated so give it a try and let me know what you think.


Chilled Tofu Salad with Spicy Dressing

1 package Silken tofu, chilled - I like the kind you find in the refrigerated section, packed in water

Dressing:

3 T. light soy sauce

2 T. finely chopped cilantro stems - If you can find cilantro with the roots still on, chop those too

1 1/2 T. grated/minced ginger - I use my Microplane for grating ginger (see above photo). This is quite possibly my favorite kitchen tool.

4 green onions, finely chopped - use white/light green section only

2 T. Kecap Manis - This is a sweetened soy sauce you can find in Asian grocers

1 1/2 T. rice vinegar

1/2 t. chili oil

1/2 t. sesame oil

1/4 t. red pepper flakes

1/2 T. sugar

1/8 t. salt

Combine all dressing ingredients and whisk until well blended. Drain the tofu, and cut into slices. Carefully invert tofu into serving bowl. Silken tofu breaks up really easily so you want to be as gentle as possible with it. Pour dressing over tofu. Serve.