Birthday Weekend - Eat, Play, Drink!

Beverages, of course :)

I'm about to turn another year older, not another year wiser.  Not sure how it feels to be in my "early thirties" vs. just a girl who's 30, but who cares.  30s are the new 20s, and birthday celebrations call for a weekend of eating, playing and uhh...drinking (beverages)!

Day 1 - Poultry Night!

My EPD weekend started off with a night of indulgent feasting at my favorite Peking Duck place, Made in China, with MMa. 

My sidekick for the night

Favorite dish #1 - beggar's chicken (叫化鸡)

Napa cabbage cooked with dried shrimps and chilies

Favorite dish #2 - Peking duck!!!  As MMa says, "mmmm...duck fat goodness"!

Overpriced 炸酱面 (zhajiang mian) - but so yummy!

Dessert platter for 2 - the best ones were the chocolate cakes with fresh whipped cream and the lychee mousse cake.  Not a fan of the creme brulee that was adrorned with caramel popcorn and had pieces of corn inside!

Day 2 - Gastronomic Greek Madness, Drinks at Second Floor, and a Latte :)

We celebrated 5 people's birthdays this weekend - Joyce turned 30, WS turned 30-something, Vincent turned 30-something, Shilong turned something, and I too turned 30-something!  To celebrate our birthdays, we organized a dinner party at Argo (my fave!), drinks at the bar Second Floor, and then some of us ended up at Club Latte during the wee hours of the night!

Group dinner at Argo, with the back of Baby Boy's head, front and center!

The Birthday Crew - Shilong, Wen Szu, Moi, Joyce and Vincent!

The girls - Joyce, Andrea, Moi, Pamela and Deb.  Apparently there's a fad going on in Korea right now.  If you throw up your hand next to your face, it's suppose to make your face appear smaller (??????)!

Joyce, Steve and Jarter.  Why does Jarter look so sad????

Mikey and me with Kieun and Vincent

Carlie, Joyce, Jarter, Moi, Chi Chi!

ANIMALS!!!

The party continued onwards at Second Floor

Karen and Wen Szu...such a cute couple!

Another girls pic!

Only a year and a day apart from each other :)

 Pretty flowers from Fumi - thank you so much Fumi!!!

Day 3 -Brunch at the St. Regis...Upper East Side Style!

Spotted: Brunch for J at the St. Regis today!  Can you handle free flowing champagne and food?

We look so prim and proper - Eva, Joyce, Moi and Carlie

Happy Birthday Joyce!

Sugar overload for Mikey

Chocolate covered strawberries

Tea time?

The gang at the Regis...

Ok, that concludes my E-P-D weekend.  Thanks everybody!!!

Dina's Farewell at Dali Courtyard

One of our favorite couples, Ray and Dina, recently landed gigs in Sydney and moved out of Beijing.  We're excited (and slightly jealous hehe) for their new beginnings down under, but also sad to see them leave! :( 

Ray actually left a few months ago, but Dina stuck around for awhile until last Friday.  We celebrated her farewell dinner at one of our longtime favorite restaurants - Dali Courtyard.

The gang :)

Whenever my friends and family visit Beijing, I usually like to bring them to Dali Courtyard.  It's located in a hutong, and the rustic setting creates a cozy and homey environment.  The outdoor courtyard is a lovely place to enjoy dinner during warm summer evenings, and the best part about the restaurant is that it's a 100 rmb set meal - you don't need to order, and the minute you tell the wait staff to 上菜, they will bring out a mixture of dishes composed of different meats, veggies and fungi.  Yunnan food is known for its different kinds of edible fungi and dried mushrooms, and all are very yummy and tasty!

The girls!

Stir-fry dried mushrooms

Tofu skin

 Spare ribs

Another delicious mushroom dish with peppers and green veggies...

Dried beef cooked with Sichuan chilies

Prawns cooked with mint leaves

Fish baked in spices.  Dip it in a hot and sour sauce

过桥米线 ("Crossing the bridge" rice noodles)

After dinner, we celebrated Dina's last night at Vics.  Unfortunately, the camera "stopped working here", but it was a festive night, and we wish Dina and Ray all the best in Aussieland!

Cooking class at the Hutong Cuisine

To continue our recent domestication craze, a group of us took a private cooking class last Sunday evening at The Hutong Cuisine.  Since most of us were amateurs in the kitchen, we signed up to learn the basics - gong bao ji ding (宫保鸡丁)，Sichuan dry stir-fried green beans (干煸四季豆)， hot & sour soup (酸辣汤)，fish fragrant eggplant (鱼香茄子)， and a braised beef/radish dish (牛肉烧白萝卜)。  Yes, most of these dishes are for foreigners, but who cares, they're also delicious!

The school was located near Nanlouguxiang.  When we first showed up, we stepped into a narrow alleyway that led us into a hutong.  I thought the surroundings were really cute and rustic!

Chef Zhou greeted us at the doorway with her pup Dou Dou (豆豆).  Turns out Mike and I showed up 30 minutes early so we sat around and relaxed in the courtyard for a bit.

豆豆 really liked Mike (and Mike liked him too)!

Then Pamela joined us :)

Finally, Deb and Dina showed up and the class began.  Here's Chef Zhou explaining each of the different ingredients and what to prep for each dish

Hong you dou ban jiang (红油豆瓣酱) - a key staple in the Sichuanese kitchen

Shaoxing rice wine (绍兴) - another key ingredient in the Chinese kitchen

Trimming green beans :)

Have you ever seen a round eggplant?

Pam and I cooking side by side

Unfortunately, our camera died at this point so we didn't take any pictures afterwards.  I'll have to wait for my friends to send me theirs so we can see the rest!

Anyway, Mike decided to try his new recipe collection tonight.  So he made his favorite dish - gong bao ji ding!

Mike's gong bao ji ding!

Guest Blog from Cornholio Mike:  my hair looks awesome in the picture!  i made hot and sour soup also but it looked like crap so asked emily to take it out.  i forgot to buy peanuts for the gong bao ji ding.  uuhhhh....this blog thing is boring!  later....

Recipe - I know a lot of you have your own version of gong bao chicken, but thought I'd share anyway.  For those of you who have only eaten the American take-out version, this one is much spicier and authentic!

Gong bao Chicken, Courtesy of The Hutong Cuisine
Ingredients:

• Chicken 300g, cut into 1.5 cm cues
• Roasted peanuts, 1-2 tbsp

Spices:

• Garlic, 2 cloves sliced
• Ginger, same amount as the garlic, minced
• Spring onion
• Dry Sichuan Chilies, one handful.  Remove the seeds if you don't want the dish to be too spicy
• Sichuan mala peppers (fire numbing kind), 1 tsp

Marinade:

• salt, 1 quarter tsp
• Shaoxing wine, 2 tsp
• Light soy sauce, 2 tsp
• Corn starch 1 tbsp

Seasoning to add during cooking:

•  Shaoxing wine, 2 tsp
• Dark soy sauce, add enough to give the chicken a nice brown color (but not too much!)
• Light soy sauce 2 tsp

Thickening sauce:

• A pinch of salt
• Sugar, 2 tsp
• Black vinegar, 1.5 tsp
• Corn starch 1 tsp
• Water, 3 tbsp

Instructions:

1. Add the marinade to the chicken and set aside for 15 minutes
2. Heat 2 tbsp of oil to the wok.  Add the Sichuan mala peppers to the wok and fry them for about 10 seconds until they turn dark brown.  Take out the peppers.  Add the ginger, garlic, spring onion, and Sichuan chilies and cook until the chilies turn light brown.
3. Add the chicken to the wok and stir-fry until the chicken pieces start to change color and separate from one another.  Add the seasoning, and stir fry for one minute.
4. Mix the thickening sauce and add it to the wok, stir-fry for a few seconds.  Add the peanuts, mix it quickly and voila, now you have gong bao ji ding!

New Blogger in Our Community!

Haha, if you haven't seen it yet, our fellow friend Sharon caught the blogging bug and launched her very own! 

Enjoy!

http://mylifeinthedash.blogspot.com/

東坡肉 - Five Layers of Fat (Happiness)!

My first encounter with 東坡肉 (dong po rou) was during orientation week at SHSID in 2007.  I remember sitting in the cafeteria with Jamie and Melerie and biting into the juicy, succulent piece of fatty pork.  To the other foreigners, it was a disgusting block of fat, jiggling in the middle of our trays and oozing with oil.  But to those of us who grew up eating chicken feet, thousand-year-old eggs and beef tripe, this piece of pork was simply divine - it melted in our mouths and the sweet soy sauce coated our lips.  Mmmm...

Recently, I watched Anthony Bourdain travel to Harbin, China in his show No Reservations.  His travel buddy took him to a local Chinese restaurant that served 東坡肉, in which Anthony described it as "5 layers of happiness."  As I was watching the two men devour the pork, I decided to make it myself.  After all, my mom has been lecturing me about why I should cook Chinese food instead of fattening my waist line with cakes and macarons. 

So here we go - I'm going to fill my tummy with pork belly instead.  I went to the Bookworm (a foreign library/book store/cafe) yesterday, bought the cookbook The Food of China: A Journey for Food Lovers (btw, it's an awesome Chinese cookbook), walked over to our local Chinese supermarket, Jingkelong, and picked up the ingredients.  Here's the recipe (and a picture of my dinner!) -

Dong Po Pork (東坡肉)

Ingredients:
1 kg of pork belly, rind on
2 TB of oil
6 spring onions, sliced
8 slices of ginger
100 g of rock sugar (I used slab sugar from my cupboard instead)
2 1/2 TB of dark soy sauce
2 1/2 TB of light soy sauce
1/2 cup of Shaoxing rice wine

Scrape the pork rind to make sure it is free of bristles.  Blanch the pork in a pan of boiling water for 10 minutes, then drain well and dry thoroughly.

Heat a wok over high heat, add the oil and heat until very hot.  Add the pork to the wok.  Run across the kitchen and hide when the oil pops and the pork explodes from intense heat.  Cook the pork until well browned and the skin is crisp and brown.  Drain the pork.

Put the spring onion, ginger, sugar, soy sauces, rice wine and 1/2 cup of water in a clay pot.  Bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved.  Add the pork, cover and simmer for 2 1/2 - 3 hours, or until very tender.  Remove the pork and drain, straining the liquid.

Enjoy the pork with a bowl of steamed white rice.  Break the pork into small bite size pieces and let it melt in your mouth.  Don't forget to drizzle your rice with the sauce!

And btw, did I mention Mike (To)Fu made ma po tofu tonight?

 

Dinner is served!