jZepp

The Chopstick Chronicles: Kumquat: The Dwarf Orange of China

by eating china

On the day of Chinese New Year's Eve, just as I was leaving our local produce market, a car swerved towards the curb. I noticed the car because it pulled up with a jerk just a couple of feet from a family trying to cross the road. The driver bolted from the car to a stall in front of the market. The back seat of her car was already packed with groceries. Clearly, it seemed, the banquet that evening for her large extended family, was her responsibility. She had stopped at the market for a last minute purchase. When I say, 'a car swerved towards the curb', towards is all I mean, as there remained between the curb and the side of her car, enough space for a skilled driver to manoeuvre another very compact car, such as a Mini. A couple of minutes later she rushed back carrying a potted kumquat bush bearing dozens of tiny orange fruit. She placed it on the passenger seat beside her and drove off, ether oblivious or unconcerned at the line of cars she had been blocking on the narrow street behind. I was glad I didn't feel as harried as she looked, but I was only cooking for three while she might be cooking for thirteen, including a domineering mother-in-law.

2 Days in Montreal (Simplified)

Drive six hours north.

Roam around the shopping malls.

Meet friends at L’Express.

Drink Sancerre rosé.

Watch with awe as Caveman eats

plate of raw ground beef.

See Salon des Vins.

Attempt to talk with vintners.

Crap, I don’t speak French!

Walk and see some sights.

Feast on raw fish at Juni.

Drink junmai sake.

Savor warm croissant.

Hop in car. Plug in iPod.

Drive six hours home.

-- WG

The Chopstick Chronicles: Chinese New Year's Eve Dinner

by eating china

This is our modest New Year's Eve dinner for three people. From left, clockwise: Steamed Fish, Guangdong-style Preserved Sausages with Leeks, Ginseng Chicken, Boiled Dumplings, Stir Fried Mustard Cabbage. The New Year dishes are imbued with great meaning. Here is what I found out:

Whole Steamed Fish
Fish is a metaphor for abundance. Half the fish is eaten on New Year's Eve, the other half is eaten the next day – symbolizing that there is a surplus to carry through from the old year to the new year.

Guangdong-style Sausages with Leeks
In past times, the most commonly eaten meat was preserved. Eating preserved meat such as these sausages relates to self-sufficiency.

Ginseng Chicken
A whole chicken including head and feet, symbolizes prosperity, particularly at work, and family unity.

Boiled Dumplings
Jiaozi supposedly reminds people of ancient coins. On New Year's Eve these dumplings must be eaten whole, in one bite, lest your future good fortune be left in tatters.

Stir Fried Mustard Cabbage
Mustard cabbage is one of the great vegetable staples in Taiwan. Another name for it is longevity vegetable.

The Chopstick Chronicles: On the Eve of the Dog, a Fish

by Eating China

The Chopstick Chronicles: Chinese New Year (Year of the Dog)

According to the Chinese calendar, Sunday January 29 is the first day of year number 4,704 – the Year of the Dog.

The Chopstick Chronicles: Tea Bush

"Better to be deprived of food for three days, than tea for one."
– Chinese proverb

by Stephen, Taiwan

The Chopstick Chronicles: TV Dinners

Sometimes I think of Taiwan as one big convenience store. It is just so easy to buy all kinds of things, day or night. Food especially. Just about everywhere you look there are small, rustic restaurants. I am talking about your proper, walls-and-a-roof-sit-down place, rather than roadside stands, though there are plenty of these too. Typically they sell tasty traditional food that is cheap and quick – if you order at the counter on your way in, the food might be on the table even before you settle into your seat. However, if you are looking for a nice, quiet eatery where you can chew and chat, then you'll need to find one without a blaring television set, and that is not an easy thing to do. 

Pomegranate Image

Following the excellent image of a seed-packed pomegranate by Digital Eyes I thought a recent photo by me would provide an alternative view of the fruit. So here it is! Not half as luxuriant as the digital eyes interpretation...

[Photo by Andrew Barrow]

Gifts from the Bounty: Breadfruit

This beautiful cannonball shaped fruit with the bland taste and versatile use of a potato is deliciously included in this recipe to prepare crab rolls with a twist! To make it even more delectable, serve it with a colorful guacamole salad.

But, first, lets go through some very interesting facts to uncover the beauty and wonders of this unique food from the tropics:

When the crew of the H.M.S. Bounty mutinied in the South Pacific, it was carrying "breadfruit". Captain Bligh's goal had been to transport the seedlings from Tahiti to the Caribbean, so that natives there would have a substantial source of food.

Breadfruit seeds, leaves, and blossoms are also eaten. The seeds have a pleasant nutty flavor. Only very young leaves may be eaten. If the blossoms are picked when just ripe, before they are brown and hard, they may be eaten also.

Traditional methods of preparing breadfruit include baking in ground ovens or roasting over hot coals. It may be fermented by burying it in layers between leaves. The fermented breadfruit is removed from the pit, mixed with coconut cream, and baked into a sour bread.

Today, it can be prepared by traditional methods, or baked, steamed, or fried. The fruit is pricked with a fork before baking or roasting it, so that it does not explode. Bake it in a moderate oven (180°C or 350°F) until soft, about 1½ hours. When steaming or boiling breadfruit, peel it first. Mature grated breadfruit may be used instead of wheat flour in some recipes.

All varieties can be divided into two classes:

Read MORE...

Edible Flowers: The Red Velvet Rose of Love

By Melissa in Panama

I discovered flowers were edible back in my early pre-chef adventures, when I had the perfect height to hide in my great grandmother's garden and eat her favorite miniature white roses without being found. Those were great days full of pure innocent adventure and joyful rewards from mother and father nature.

The diversity and mystery of our tropical rainforest always captured my attention. Learning the value of natural medicine through my life, the healing benefits of plants and flowers, have helped me develop a natural instinct to preserve the traditional knowledge that has been carried by our cultures over the ages.

In the kitchen, this beautiful flower has a very important roll. It might sound a little odd because of the rose's romantic connotations, but in fact, roses have been eaten since ancient times. Romans were used to sprinkle rose petals on food, the table, and all over the banquet hall.

Rose petals, fresh, dried and crystallized can be added as a garnish to a salad, made into an infusion for tea and other beverages, desserts, as well as prepared into candies, marmalade, sauces, rose sugar, and soups. Rose petals, rose water and rose syrup are still widely used in the cuisines of the Middle East. Greek baklava, for instance, is originally served with a drizzle of rose syrup.

The best quality flowers for consumption are the young and fresh. Consumers have to be cautious to eat only flowers that were produced for that purpose and to avoid flowers from retail florists where they may have been treated with modern systemic pesticides and chemicals not intended for consumption; they have made the flowers highly toxic.

For some edible flowers, it is important to eat only the petals to avoid the bitter taste found in the rest of the flower. But, when it comes to roses, petals from all varieties are edible as well as the leaves which are used in some concoctions with curative properties that are prepared in Latin America.

The following excerpt has been extracted from "Rosita Arvigo's: Rainforest Remedies, One Hundred Healing Herbs of Belize":

Read More