These Go With Drinks
Another Way to Use Five Spice
These tiny Back Ribs dusted with Five Spice powder are perfect as an accompaniment to drinks. Just another way to use this versatile flavoring, still so little-known outside the Rim. Continue reading
A Fusion Dish
Star Anise Meets Ginger and Soy
Beef Pot Roast
While there is no tradition of Pot Roasts in Asian cuisines, y ou can cook a Pot Roast with Asian flavorings to make a simple main dish.
The Star Anise, Ginger and Soy Sauce give this dish an Asian flavor. Continue reading
A Sichuan Dish
Black Tea Meets Star Anise Meets Brown Sugar
This dish is adapted from the Sichuan classic Tea-Smoked Duck, substituting Game Hens for the larger bird. It has the intense, robust flavors characteristic of Sichuan, which transfer nicely Continue reading
The Other Important Chicken
Typical Family Cooking
Soy Sauce
This is the other important Chinese Chicken recipe you need. Red-Cooking 紅燒 is the Chinese name for a cooking method that Continue reading
Chicken Meets Anise Meets Ng Ka Py 五加皮
A Cantonese Formula
A Spring Chicken, steamed whole, needs only a cup of Stock or Water. Cooking time depends on the tenderness of the Chicken. It is done when Continue reading
An Alternative to Table Salt
Good on Fish and Chicken
Sichuan Pepper, Hua Jiao
This is a Seasoned Salt that is good as a substitute for Table Salt, and also versatile in cooking. It works well for cooking Chicken, any Fish Steaks or Fillets. It can also be used to flavor Rice, Pasta and Vegetables.
The recipe is adapted from Jean-Georges Vongerichten and was served at restaurant Vong in Manhattan in place of ordinary Table Salt. Continue reading
A Classic Cantonese Formula
Tomato Catsup Meets Hoisin Sauce
Cantonese Style Baked Spare Ribs
There is no end of good recipes for Chinese-style Spare Ribs. This one may be the best of them all — the decision is largely a matter of personal taste. But they are very easy to make, delicious and the recipe is easy to follow and fool-proof.
The recipe was received many years ago from a Chinese-American friend of Cantonese origin living in San Francisco. It reflects the way her family made Spare Ribs, baked in an ordinary kitchen oven and in some ways cannot easily be improved upon. Continue reading
Durian Cake and Zuberbuhler’s Special
Raffles, Maugham and Lord Jim Country
“At the end of the tenth century Canton carried on direct trade with the Malay Peninsula.” —Friedrich Hirt and W. W. Rockhill [1]
Tang Dynasty Camel
From the Silk Road, 8th Century
For centuries the Malay Peninsula has been an important corridor in the southern sea route of the Spice Route.
The Strait of Malacca was an important Continue reading
Hard Boiled But Soft Inside
Mottled Like Ancient Porcelain
“Tea eggs are one of those ways of hard-boiling eggs so long that they are soft inside.” — Buwei Yang Chao [1]
Tea Eggs
Tea Eggs, as Dr. Chao says, are a Chinese way of hard boiling eggs for a long time so that eventually they become soft again. Not soft-runny, but soft and dry-tender, as far as the yolks, and soft and firm but not leathery for the whites.
The Eggs are boiled with tea leaves and the shells are crackled but not removed. As a result, when you shell them, the Eggs are a mottled color like ancient porcelain.
A Top Chicago Chef
Blue Crab and Chinese Celery
“I’ve cooked since I can remember. When my mother wasn’t there, I was the one who cooked.” — Andy Aroonsameruang
“One of Chicago’s very best chefs.” — Michael Nagrant
A leading food writer has said that Andy Aroonsameruang is one of the great chefs in Chicago, not just a great Thai chef.
Andy’s Thai Kitchen
Andy wasn’t trained as a chef. A native of Chachoengsao, a town in Central Thailand near Bangkok, he moved to Chicago in the mid-1990s to do graduate study. He earned an MBA from Dominican University in suburban Chicago.
To help with expenses, Andy worked at various side jobs, including cooking at a Thai restaurant. He had never studied cooking formally, but he did have Continue reading