Category: Chinese New Year

shanghai xun yu smoked fish

Chinese New Year / East (Jiangnan, Shanghai) / Fish & Seafood / Non-Spicy / Restaurant Classics

Fish Vendor’s Shanghai Smoked Fish (Xunyu, 熏鱼) | Zoe Yang

Shanghai Smoked Fish, Two Ways Shanghai smoked fish (熏鱼, xūnyú) is a favorite in my family—on the rare occasions when we go out to eat, it’s a must-order. On one such occasion years ago, I vividly remember my dad telling me to eat up because this dish is very special and difficult to make: “It’s smoked! We can’t do that at home.” Somehow, I never questioned this, and so no one in my family ever tried to make smoked fish.  I hope you’re not discouraged yet, because this is the...

Chinese New Year / How to Cook With Caiziyou / How to Cook With Chinese Black Vinegar / How to Cook With Chinese Spices / How to Cook With Shaoxing Wine / How to Cook With Soy Sauce / Non-Spicy / Pork / Restaurant Classics / Southwest (Sichuan, Yunnan)

Jiujiu’s Sichuan Tangcu Paigu (Sweet and Sour Spareribs, 糖醋排骨)

Not Your Strip Mall’s Sweet and Sour Pork Everyone has That Dish they dream of reverse-engineering for themselves from a favorite restaurant or dinner party: Mine is this one, my dajiujiu’s 糖醋排骨 (tángcù páigǔ), or sweet-and-sour spareribs. I recall the vinegar-blackened, syrupy-sweet pork of a kind I’d never tasted in my mother’s economical, health-conscious cooking. I didn’t know ribs could be like this, glazed and decadent and sour-bright from the tang of aged vinegar. You’d be at a loss to find a gastrique as storied as my jiujiu’s in Paris....

Chinese New Year / East (Jiangnan, Shanghai) / Fish & Seafood / How to Cook With Sesame / How to Cook With Shaoxing Wine / Non-Spicy / Noodles / Plant / Pork / Poultry / Restaurant Classics / Soups & Stews

Yangzhou Dazhu Gansi (Simmered Tofu Noodles, 大煮干丝) | Zoe Yang

A Jiangnan Test of Skill There is no dish more exemplary of Jiangnan cuisine than the Yangzhou classic 大煮干丝 (dàzhǔ gānsī), simmered tofu noodles. Every ingredient is an homage to the Yangtze River Delta—duck gizzards, miniature river shrimp, slivers of chicken and rich Jinhua ham, baby greens, fresh mushrooms and, of course, the tofu itself. I didn’t know all this on the first day of cooking school in Nanjing, 12 years ago, when I came to class dutifully toting the above ingredients. In fact, the other reason—perhaps the main reason—my...

Chinese New Year / Dessert / How to Cook With Huajiao / How to Cook With Sesame / Non-Spicy / Vegetarian

Sichuan Pepper + Sesame Oil Fat-Washed Cocktail Recipes

Sichuan-Inspired Classic Cocktails Look no further than these Sichuan-inspired fat-washed cocktail recipes for a new way to step up your hosting game. With a little 藤椒油 (téngjiāoyóu) rattan pepper oil and toasted sesame oil, you can use fat-washing to infuse your drinks—I’m drawing on the martini, gin fizz and Manhattan—with an unexpected savory hit rivaling the experimental chops of your favorite bar. For home cooks and serious chefs, the intense payoff of tengjiaoyou/rattan pepper oil (a variety of green Sichuan pepper) creates a bright, citrusy, mildly electric buzz unlike any other...

Chinese New Year / Cold Dishes / How to Cook With Chinese Spices / How to Cook With Shaoxing Wine / How to Cook With Soy Sauce / Non-Spicy / Plant / Poultry / Restaurant Classics / Vegetarian

How to Make Chinese Tea Eggs (Chayedan, 茶叶蛋)

Marbled Tea-Boiled Eggs A skill I’ve gradually accepted as necessary in my life is learning how to make Chinese tea eggs. These fractured “tea leaf eggs”, 茶叶蛋 (cháyèdàn), continue brewing through an overnight marinade of black tea, aromatic spices and soy sauce that seeps into each crack, creating its beautiful stained glass veneer. Soy saucey and tea-fragrant without being overpowering, chayedan previously came to me by the dozen (if not hundred). Out of stockpots, massive vats of never-ending tea egg, volunteer aunties might dole one out on our post-service Sunday...

Sichuan Steamed Pork Belly With Yacai

Chinese New Year / How to Cook With Caiziyou / How to Cook With Douchi / How to Cook With Huajiao / How to Cook With Soy Sauce / How to Cook With Yacai / Instant Pot-Friendly / Non-Spicy / Pork / Restaurant Classics / Southwest (Sichuan, Yunnan)

Sichuan Steamed Pork Belly ft. Yacai (Xianshaobai, 咸烧白)

Sichuan’s Ninth Great Bowl I rarely eat in my dreams. Even when I have been capable of lucid dreaming, I never recall eating. I do daydream, however—constantly—about the creamy, succulent slices of pork belly layered like so many perfect pleats across a steaming bed of Yibin yacai in traditional Sichuan 咸烧白 (xiánshāobái). Xianshaobai is a prayer sung in pork fat (too much lean meat and the magic disappears): classic, class-defying comfort food. No one is above xianshaobai. Xianshaobai is regional, like dumplings and 粽子 (zòngzi): The exact composition and style...

Chinese New Year / Fish & Seafood / How to Cook With Caiziyou / How to Cook With Doubanjiang / How to Cook With Dried Chilies / How to Cook With Huajiao / Plant / Restaurant Classics / Southwest (Sichuan, Yunnan)

Stovetop Chongqing Kaoyu (烤鱼): Wanzhou Grilled Fish

Pan-searing a Modern Chongqing Specialty I first ate Chongqing 烤鱼 (kǎoyú) in the underbelly of a Chengdu mall (real ones know it’s all about those random mall basement restaurants). That was back in 2015, and Chongqing’s explosive grilled fish scene has lingered in the back of my mind ever since. Buried between colorful layers of crunch, spice, fermented douban umami, fresh vegetables and sour paojiao, charcoal-grilled kaoyu takes the fiery flavor bomb of Sichuan hotpot and combines it with street food favorite 烧烤 (shāokǎo), Chinese barbecue. Naturally, Chongqing kaoyu is also known as 烧烤鱼...

Dongpo Pork

Chinese New Year / East (Jiangnan, Shanghai) / How to Cook With Shaoxing Wine / How to Cook With Soy Sauce / Non-Spicy / Pork / Restaurant Classics

Ode to Dongpo Pork (东坡肉) | Zoe Yang

A Poet’s Ode to Pork and Hongshaorou Dongpo pork (东坡肉, dōngpōròu): pork belly cubes braised in soy sauce with ginger, scallions and other aromatics. If this is sounding a lot like red-braised pork (红烧肉, hóngshāoròu), don’t worry, it’s not just you. The number of Baidu search results for “difference between dongporou and hongshaorou” suggests that even Chinese people aren’t clear on the nuances. Here’s how I think about it: hongshaorou is your generic, workhorse pork braise. It can accommodate different cuts of pork; it can veer sweet, savory or spicy,...

Chinese New Year / Dessert / How to Cook With Sesame / Non-Spicy

Miso Caramel Ice Cream w/ Maple Sesame Swirl

Headfirst With Sesame Paste Dessert Rivers of salted, maple syrup-infused sesame paste sing throughout this miso caramel ice cream base. Molten sugar bronzes the quick-simmered milk and cream first; then, the same cornstarch that coats stir-fries in glossy velvet suspension turns this yolkless ice cream thick and creamy and ready-to-sling, straight from the freezer. The result: A perfect multitasking ice cream for this holiday season. It is as versatile as vanilla but a hundred times more glamorous. Spin a quart the night before a potluck and save yourself the mayhem...

Shaoxing Drunken Chicken

Chinese New Year / Cold Dishes / East (Jiangnan, Shanghai) / How to Cook With Shaoxing Wine / Non-Spicy / Poultry / Restaurant Classics

Shaoxing Drunken Chicken (Zuiji, 醉鸡) | Zoe Yang

A Classic Jiangnan Cold Dish It’s a rare occasion that I get to write a Jiangnan recipe with zero familial baggage. Blame the Methodists who converted my family into teetotalers sometime in the late 1800s, but when I called my mother to ask about Drunken Chicken, she asked, “Is it made with 酒糟 (jiǔzāo)?” Close, but no. Drunken Chicken (醉鸡, zuìjī), a stalwart of the Chinese poached chicken oeuvre, is made by marinating cooked chicken in 黄酒 (huángjiǔ), yellow wine—most famously the huangjiu from Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province. Jiuzao refers to...

Chinese New Year / Cold Dishes / How to Cook With Huajiao / How to Cook With Sesame / How to Cook With Soy Sauce / Pork / Restaurant Classics / Southwest (Sichuan, Yunnan)

Homestyle Suanni Bairou (蒜泥白肉): Sichuan Garlic Pork

A One-Night Homestyle Special Consider this classic Sichuan dish the next time you want to impress a table: 蒜泥白肉 (suànní báiròu), thinly sliced pork (“white meat”) smothered in a red-oil garlic-paste concoction. The hardest part of suanni bairou is slicing the meat, and even then, the tantalizing red oil dressing hides any number of shoddy knife-work sins. Balanced by the fresh crunch of raw cucumber—or my favorite, spring celtuce, pictured above—your guests will be too busy sopping up every last drop of sauce to notice how simple suanni bairou really...

Toothpick Lamb From a Sichuan Master Chef

Beef, Lamb & Game / Chinese New Year / How to Cook With Caiziyou / How to Cook With Dried Chilies / How to Cook With Shaoxing Wine / Restaurant Classics / Southwest (Sichuan, Yunnan)

Toothpick Lamb From a Sichuan Master Chef (Yaqian Yangrou, 牙签羊肉)

Finger-Licking Flavor Have you ever had the famed toothpick lamb at L.A.’s Chengdu Taste or Sichuan Impression? Or perhaps at another of the ever-growing list of stellar Sichuan restaurants in our land? If you have, you probably wish you could make these crispy lamb nuggets adorned with a cumin–chili–huajiao spice mix at home. If you haven’t, believe me, you want to make them at home. We’ve been chomping on these on every visit to Los Angeles for years, but I’ve never actually had them in Chengdu and never seen them...