中国新年(Chinese New Year)

Chinese New Year is a traditional Chinese celebration to celebrate the turning of the Chinese calendar. Usually it last 15 days which makes it one of the longest holidays in China. On the day before Chinese New Year Day, Chinese families get together for a reunion dinner, called "Nian Ye Fan". The house of the eldest member of the family hold the dinner. The meal is pretty large, and usually includes meat and fish. It also features a communal hot pot because Chinese believe it shows the coming together of the family. They also present specialty meats and seafood; mostly set aside for this dinner and other special occasions for the rest of the year. Some of the food items served include the following:

 

羅漢齋 (Buddha's delight)

  An elaborate vegetarian dish served by Chinese families on the eve and the first day of the New Year. A type of black hair-like algae, pronounced "fat choy" in Cantonese, is also featured in the dish for its name, which sounds like "prosperity".

Chicken

Served because it is seen that any family  will be able to afford a chicken for Chinese New Year.

Uncut noodles

Uncut noodles represent long life and longevity, though it's not limited to the New Years.

Yu Sheng (Raw Fish Salad)

Eating this is said to bring good luck. It's usually eaten on the 7th day of New Years, but can be eaten throughout the period 

港式蛋(Hong Kong Style Egg Tarts)

Hong Kong Style Egg Tarts

Ingredients:

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup of butter
• 10 eggs beaten
• 2 dash vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 cup evaporated milk

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, mix together the confectioners' sugar and flour. Mix in butter with a fork until it is in small crumbs.
2. Stir in the egg and vanilla until the mixture forms a dough. The texture should be slightly moist. Add more butter if it is too dry, or more flour, if the dough seems greasy. 
3. Shape dough into 1 1/2 inch balls, and press the balls into tart molds so that it covers the bottom, and goes up higher than the sides. Use 2 fingers to shape the edge into an A shape.
4. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). 
5. Combine the white sugar and water in a medium saucepan, and bring to a boil. Cook until the sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and cool to room temperature. 
6. Strain the eggs through a sieve, and whisk into the sugar mixture. Stir in the evaporated milk and vanilla. Strain the filling through a sieve, and fill the tart shells.
7. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown, and the filling is puffed up a little bit.

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麻油鸡翅膀(Sesame Oil Chicken Wings)

Sesame Oil Chicken Wings

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds chicken wings
• 1 1/4 cups water
• 10 Tablespoons dark soy sauce
• 5 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 1 clove crushed garlic
• 1 green onion chopped
• 1/4 cup sesame oil

8 servings

Directions:

1. Cut the chicken wings into 3 separate portions. 
2. In a large skillet, combine the chicken, water, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, garlic and green onion. 
3. Stir together and cook for 15 minutes over medium heat.
4. Add the 1/4 cup sesame oil and simmer for another 15 minutes over low heat. 
5. Bring mixture to a boil and add dash of sesame oil. 
6. Remove from heat, let cool and serve.

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如何火锅是我家庭的一部分(How Hot Pots are a part of my family)

Every once in a while, even on summer nights, our family would enjoyed sitting together at the dining table, and savoring a delicious hot pot. For those who don't know, a hot pot is a East Asian cooking technique, which has a metal bowl with stock simmering in the middle of the table. Different food items, are then cooked in the simmering stock and enjoyed at the table.

A Hot Pot going strong.

  









We do ours slightly different. We have a sectioned pot with two differently flavored broths in each section , so that each family member could chose their favorite one. Mom always added some things in advance to the actual eating, so that their ready to take out when it's time to eat. We also made sure we had a bowl with a small amount of soy sauce. After that, the pot is placed on a gas cooker. Then, we're ready to start eating. Some of my favorite thing in there include: enoki mushrooms, tofu, bean curds, and rice cakes. We talk a lot during these occasions, although I can barely understand them since I can't understand Chinese. Despite this, it's only a minor set back as we happily help ourselves to what we want from the selection of items. Sometimes we even cook oysters, and romaine lettuce.We usually spend time with each other the most during hot pots, so that's why the hot pot seems important to me, and is a part of my family tradition.

餐厅评论 (Restaurant Review): Sea King Shark Fin Seafood Restaurant

 Sea King Shark Fin Seafood Restaurant, is a Chinese restaurant that's located on 1558 Merivale Road in Ottawa. My family's most recent visit, was on Christmas Eve, just 4 days ago, and I really enjoyed the experience. 
The actual restaurant was located just downstairs of the building, so we had to go down a set of stairs first. 

The Restaurant building

When we arrived, my sister and I took a little bit of time to admire the fish in the make-shift Koi pond near the entrance. The pond was filled by a water fall, just above the pond. There was also a TV showing Chinese programs which can be heard from the back table of the restaurant. Even though there was no music, the tv made up for this fact.  

The pond

Once we were seated, some of the waitresses came by, and offered us some of the dim-sum from their carts. We accepted a few, which were very nice. Chicken feet, and Shrimp rice dumplings were one I especially remember, were really good. After the appetizers,(sort of)we had a main course of Shredded Duck and Vegetable Mun Vermicelli.This dish consisted of rice noodles in some type of soup, along with veggies, and shredded duck. The service was great, so was the atmosphere, and the restaurant tries it's best to guarantee healthy dining. I'll give it: A 4/5 rating
Click here for the website.       

喜欢意大利面 (Love the Spaghetti)!

That looks really good!

Recently, our class did a lab on making and cooking spaghetti, which I enjoyed very much. We first worked on making the sauces and dough for the spaghetti in one class. With a partner, I mainly worked on making the garlic-infused oil, and tomato sauce we were going to use. The garlic oil turned out to be a bit of a challenge, and we ended up burning some of the garlic pieces. But, since garlic cooks really fast, it easy for it to get burnt, so I'm okay with it. We didn't wash out the pan before doing the tomato sauce, because it was more convenient, since the tomato sauce also needs oil in it's recipe. The next day, while the toppings were reheating, we started rolling out the dough in a KitchenAid attachment that rolled out the dough. I still remember how one of my classmates accidentally spilt oil onto the heated stove and Chef Christoff (sorry) had to clean it up before it burst into flames. Once the dough was thin enough, we added another attachment that sliced the sheets into the desired shape of the noodles. Then we cooked the noodles for a few minutes, divided it up into separate bowls, then spread the oil and sauce on top. I really enjoyed the experience, and would like to try it at home sometime.