People often ask me, what’s the biggest challenge I have when traveling to other countries?
I don’t know about you, but for me it’s definitely language barriers. Now thanks to SpeechTrans, I’ll be able to communicate in Portuguese while in Brazil this time! It eliminates language barriers
What’s your favorite treat? It’s something unforgettable. Something that you just want to have another bite, close your eyes, and enjoy every seconds of the amazing tastes and textures. Whenever you have it, it always brings you joy and a smile on your face.
Luckily, for me there are many memorable bites, including the exquisite langoustine made by chef Eric Ripert of Le Bernadin, the super juicy Taiwanese sausage that I got on the street of Taipei, the instantly melt in your mouth kobe beefs from Momokawa, and of course, there is this…
The 24 layers of goodness at Lady M. Yes! You taste every layers of fun. It’s so luscious and creamy but yet so light and delicate. It’s so satisfying but yet not overly sweet. The caramelization on the top adds more flavors of perfection to the cake as a whole. If Millie Crepe is a person, I’d say, I’m falling in love!
10 ounce of salmon, center cut
1 ounce of minced pork
3 table spoons of vegetable oil
4 table spoons of soy sauce
2 scallions, thinly sliced vertically into thin strips
Procedure
Place the salmon on a plate and put aside. Then, boil water in a pan until fully boiled, put the whole plate in the pan, and make sure that the level of the water is lower than the plate, so the water won’t go in. After all, we want steamed fish, not boiled fish. Steam for about 5 minutes until the salmon is fully cooked.
Mean while, heat another pan until hot, add vegetable oil, minced pork, soy sauce, and lastly scallions in the pan. Let it cook for about 2 minute.
Carefully take out the plate and pour the sauce on it. Done! Easy right? If I can make it, I’m sure you can too! Let me know how this goes for you.
In this episode CiCi is joined by Ben Hedges, host of Learn Chinese Now, to go over some essential Mandarin Chinese vocabulary for ordering food in Chinese restaurants. Ben and CiCi order Kung Pao Chicken and Mapo Toufu, two classic Chinese dishes from Sichuan province.
t originated from the Jin Dynasty during the early 12th century. Due to the cold weather in the region, people are accustomed to eating very hot food, and so cooking techniques such as casserole, hot-pot, and roasting were developed. In the 1930′s, the last emperor Fuyi established his Manchurian Imperial court in Changchun and Changchun became a political center of the time. Other than the Imperial chefs from the Forbidden City in Peking, many famous chefs from Shandong went to work in the imperial kitchen. They combined the Shandong and imperial cuisines with the local Jilin folk cuisine and developed today’s Northeastern Chinese cuisine.
The main body of Northeastern cuisine is the local folk cuisine using casserole, stir-fry, qiang, and marinating techniques. It also includes traditional techniques used in the imperial court. Northeastern cuisine utilizes the native crops of its mountainous land to its advantage, and is famed for its wild game dishes. Knife skills, shovel skills, command of fire and fire temperature are important in its Chefs’ training. Cooking techniques make use of quick stir-fry over high heat, stir-fry over low heat, stewing, barbecuing, glazing and so on. Its dishes are tender but not rare, well-done but not tough. It is rich in flavors and its dishes are sumptuous and substantial.
Cantonese cuisine originates from Guangdong Province and is made up of cuisines from three principal areas: Guangzhou, Chaozhou, and Dongjiang. Cantonese cuisine is known for its wide use of ingredients and creativity. Since the Han and Wei Dynasty (206 BC — 265 AD), Guangzhou (also called Canton) has been a major port city in South China. It is situated in the subtropics, bordering on the South China Sea. The rainfall is abundant; the area is rich in produce; fresh seafood and delicacies abound year round; and different fruits and vegetables are always in season. Cantonese chefs are known for their creativity while imitating other cuisine styles.
Cantonese cuisine has absorbed the features of other Chinese cuisines including that of Shanghai, Yangzhou, and Peking. It chefs are great at customizing food based on the patron’s likes and dislikes and making adjustments according to seasonal and climatic changes. Its summer and fall dishes are lighter while its winter and spring dishes are rich and more flavorful. Cantonese cuisine pays a lot of attention to texture and flavor. Its basic flavors are sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, salty, and fresh taste. Cantonese cuisine has a lighter taste compared with other Chinese cuisines.
Szechuan cuisine carries very strong local characteristics and is mainly comprised of local food from Chongqing, Chengdu, northern and southern Chuan region. Szechuan cuisine employs close to 40 different techniques in its preparation including: braising, basting, dry-steaming, oil dripping, and different kinds of frying—stir fry, pan fry, deep fry, quick fry, dry stir-fry, soft fry and so on.
Szechuan cuisine pays particular attention to “balancing the flavors” and regards flavor as its foundation. The six basic flavors concerned are tingly spicy, hot spicy, sweet, salty, tangy, and bitter, and more flavors are produced through the combination of two or more of the basic flavors. The secret of the famous “hot” Szechwan cuisine lies in the skillful use of hot chili peppers for its vibrant red color and subtle spicy fragrance. Szechuan cuisine has 24 basic flavors, the most among all the Chinese cuisines.
They can be categorized into 3 types:
1). Spicy category: tingly spicy, chilly oil spicy, sour-spicy, tingly pepper spicy, home-cooking flavor, Lychee spicy, Yushiang flavor (fish flavor spicy), orange flavor, strange flavor, and so on.
2). Savory category: garlic flavor, ginger flavor, mustard flavor, sesame flavor, smoke flavor, soy flavor, five-spice flavor, wine flavor and so on.
3). Fresh sweet sour category: salty savory, tomato flavor, sweet wine flavor, lychee flavor, sweet-sour flavor, fermented bean flavor and so on.
