Making dumplings (水餃)

I hand-made dumplings for the first time in 10 years today!

Here's roughly how I made them (total yield was 35 dumplings):

Ingredients:
1. 1/2 lb ground pork (see Note 1 below)
2. 7 chives, chopped into small sections
3. 7 water chestnuts, coarsely chopped
4. Liberal amounts of sesame oil, white pepper, soy sauce and tsao-hsing wine
5. Dumpling skin (I used the Hong Kong 水餃 one from Ranch99)

Note 1: I found out that using ground pork is not a good idea; the meat ends up being a lump and doesn't have the nice chewy texture. Next time I will buy a chunk of pork and chop it up into small pieces (oh I can already imagine the pain in my arms).
Also I didn't use enough chives.. the chive flavor didn't get through the meat (though it smelled really good before being cooked!). Next time I will use a higher chive-to-pork ratio.

Instructions:
1. Mix the pork with the chives, water chestnuts. Add enough seasoning to your liking for flavor.
2. Put a portion of the pork onto the center of a dumpling skin.
3. Wet the entire edge of the dumpling skin with water (this makes the dough stick to itself). 
4. Fold the skin into half, and make 6 pleats on one side of the skin, 3 on each side. Press to seal tight. (A video demonstration can be found here). 

To make boiled dumpling, simply place in water or your desired soup base. I used plain water this time and the dumplings tasted a little flour-y, so I will experiment with using either salt-added or chicken stock-added water.

To make gyoza, heat up some oil on a pan, and fry the dumplings until they are halfway to crispy. Then add some water to the pan and let the dumplings simmer as the water boils away. This will help the dumplings cook more quickly. Keep simmering in water as long as you think the meat filling is still raw. When the filling is cooked, proceed to pan-fry the gyoza until you achieve a nice golden-brown skin.

Condiments I used to pair with my dumplings were chili with soy sauce (you can use dark or light), and vinegar with chopped ginger.

Freshly-made dumplings

Gyoza with chili+soy sauce and vinegar+ginger

Boiled dumplings

Golden Island Cafe (San Francisco)

We were in the area for a haircut and decided to try this place while passing by. 

Yelp reviewers said that the fruit here is fresh and the mango sago is especially popular. Indeed it lived up to the reviews. We are fans of sago, and this didn't disappoint! I also had the steamed/curdled milk with ginger, which was nice too. It was a little soft, but that was ok! Not too expensive for dessert, at $4 for each item. The menu looked pretty authentic to Hong Kong cafe cuisine, so we will probably try the food next time!

1300 Noriega St

(between 20th Ave & 21st Ave) 

San Francisco, CA 94122

Neighborhood: Outer Sunset

(415) 759-9118

http://goldenislandsf.com/

Dinner at home (Fried rice)

After spending 4 weeks away, I really missed cooking in my own kitchen!
So on Sunday my boyfriend and I made soba, mushrooms sauteed in oyster sauce, pan-fried salmon, and asparagus! It was our first time cooking asparagus and it turned out pretty well. All we did was to mix together some olive oil, black pepper and garlic, drizzle that over a line of asparagus (tough ends chopped off), and placed it in the oven at 400F.


On Monday I made fried rice, broccoli and mushrooms in oyster sauce, and black bean chicken. 
For the chicken I used black bean sauce from Lee Kum Kee, and just steamed it. 


This is how I make fried rice:
1. wait for the rice to finish cooking in the rice cooker, leave to keep warm
2. stir-fry onions, garlic and carrots in the pan 
3. beat 1 or 2 eggs, add some white pepper and soy sauce
4. loosen the rice in the rice cooker
5. pour the raw egg over and rice and mix well. This will help to coat every grain of rice with egg, instead of having lumps of egg in your fried rice
6. Before the egg gets cooked by the hot rice, pour it all into your pan with the vegetables (add more oil if necessary), and fry everything up

Having food in San Francisco during ASM

ASM (American Society of Microbiology)'s general meeting is held this weekend in San Francisco, and it's been lots of fun! Also we've been having good food too!
Last night we went to Fang, a Chinese restaurant along Howard St, and had my first Chinese moriawase meal. Very interesting experience, and yummy too. Dishes that came up were: 1. gyoza with sweet chili sauce, 2. braised pork and leek in chinese bun, 3. chives chinese pancake, 4. fish soup with crab meat (flavorful with a bit of spicy taste, probably from ginger), 5. fried chicken with sweet potato slices drizzled with sweet and lightly sour sauce, 6. peppercorn and black bean sauteed fish slices, 7. sauteed mushrooms and garlic, 8. honey deep-fried pork ribs with marinated bak choy
We also ordered wine (also first time drinking western wine at a chinese restaurant, normally a no-no for me), and the Gewurztraminer was good too.
This afternoon we went to Osha, a Thai restaurant along 3rd St, and it was delicious yet not over-priced too. We had 1. pad thai, 2. crab fried rice, 3. spicy eggplant, 4. larb with lettuce (surprisingly a little spicy), 5. green curry, 6.thai iced tea/coffee. Yum! Much better than what I've had so far in the Bay Area..


http://www.fangrestaurant.com/
660 Howard St
(between Hawthorne St & 3rd St) 
San Francisco, CA 94105
Neighborhood: SOMA


http://www.oshathai.com
311 3rd St
(between Folsom St & Saint Francis Pl) 
San Francisco, CA 94107
Neighborhood: SOMA

Cooking Papa Restaurant (Santa Clara)

Cooking Papa is one of our favourite Hong Kong restaurants in the Bay Area. The food is pretty authentic, and the portions hearty yet affordable. We like their HK milk tea, lemon tea, roast duck, char siew, ricerolls etc. Basically everything we've had so far haven't disappointed yet. Not only are the ricerolls thin enough, they don't scrimp on the ingredients, but also they give you peanut sauce and sweet sauce without having you to ask for it. Believe me, I've gotten weird looks at some other places when I asked for those sauces ( apparently people have not heard of them before..?). Plus, if you order the dough fritter (you tiao) riceroll, the dough fritter is always still hot and crispy.
I also applaud them for getting fishballs right (it's rather difficult to find a place that makes Hong Kong fishballs with the right taste, texture and bounciness), which came with their fish soup noodles. My boyfriend also likes getting their sha-yong (chinese doughnuts), which arrives hot, fluffy and coated with sugar.

Posting photos of our latest trip..

We had the appetizer plate (fried tofu, fried chicken wings, curry fishballs), on-choi with fermented shrimp paste, and honey pepper spareribs. Yummy!

My only problem with the food so far was the MSG in the watercress and fish broth soup, that irritated my tongue when I had it for leftovers the next day. Still delicious though.

On a non-tastebud related note, it never fails to fascinate me that they play video clips of the chef cooking his key dishes. Really plays on human psychology. The food certainly looks appetizing, and they show how generous they are with their portions. Very effective advertisement that acts on your subconsciousness and makes you order more dishes than you intended. Almost everyone orders the sha-yong for dessert. After all, who can resist after watching the same clip 3 times during your main courses??

There are two branches, one in Santa Clara and the original in Foster City. Whenever we have the time, we like going to the Foster City one, it being on the waterfront, with pretty good views of the nice houses across the canal. 

http://www.mycookingpapa.com/

2830 Homestead Road	949A Edgewater Blvd
Santa Clara, CA 95051	Foster City, CA 94404

Chinese Minestrone soup

Being Cantonese we do like drinking soup with our meals. Soup can concentrate the nutrients stored inside the ingredients, which can sometimes help detoxify the body, or increase blood circulation.
Chinese Minestrone soup is really simple and can be whipped up with less than 20 min of preparation time. It is nutritious and helps you hydrate yourself after a long day.


Ingredients:
1 onion
1-2 tomato(es)
1 potato(es)
1-2 sticks of celery
1 carrot
As much pork as you like
some salt for seasoning


Even though I wrote down the quantities for most ingredients, this is really all just for reference. Just add more of whatever you like to eat, but just to note that :
     1. The onions, tomatoes, carrot and celery help to make the soup sweeter
     2. The pork helps to add flavour to the soup
     3. Good-tasting soup is a balance of the above contrasting elements. Some salt is required (but not too much) to bring out the flavour of the soup, if not it will end up bland.


Instructions:
1. When choosing pork, get the cut that has a bit of fat, so that the meat will be more tender after boiling. I personally like pork shoulder strips and find pork loin chops too tough. If possible, the presence of some bone will enhance the meaty flavour. 
    Fresh pork is usually red like blood (but don't choose extremely bloody meat, it means it's been badly handled). Dark red and yellowish-brown means it's starting to turn bad.
2. Cut the pork into medium sized pieces (around 5-10 cm long)
3. Chop the celery and carrot into small-sized pieces (around 2-3 cm), the tomato into 6 parts, and potato into chunks. I like to have my onion pieces big, so 2 cuts (1 along each axis), ie. into 4 parts, should do it.
4. Put everything into boiling water and simmer for 30-60 min, or until the pork is cooked, and the vegetables are soft to your liking.
   It might be a good idea to skim off the light-brown foam that floats atop the water, to remove the slight meat stench.
5. Add salt to season, and serve.


If you need more flavour while eating the meat, you can dip it in dark soy sauce and diced garlic or chili.