Posted by Bel.C
When I go to the Chinese restaurant for Dim Sum, I always order the daikon radish cake (蘿蔔糕) or taro / yam cake (芋頭糕). However every time after I taste it, it always disappoints me, there aren’t enough ingredients and flavor in it, plus the texture is either too mushy or too hard. They just never taste the same like home made rice cake. Back home my grandma’s cousin sister (姨婆) always made a big serving of taro cake for us, fully loaded with ingredients and flavor. She truly made the best taro cake. I missed it so much that I decided to try this complicated dish.
Taro or Yam Cake (芋頭糕) is not that kind of sweet cake that you find in dessert, in fact it is a savory cake made with the main ingredients of taro or yam and rice flour. It is also one of the Chinese New Year recipes that you can prepare. Traditionally it is cooked and steamed for long period of time in a big round deep mold. When it is done, they are cut into cute diamond shapes. Now they can be found in dim sum cuisines, usually cut into slices, you can either eat it as original or pan fried for extra crunchiness and fragrant.
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Posted by Eric.N
One of my favor party starters is Chinese egg roll. It is made by wrapping a combination of vegetables and meat in a sheet of dough, and then it is deep fried until golden brown. I love eating it since I was a kiddo. Well, I suppose everyone especially kids like the crispy food. I still remember my family always prepared this dish during the Chinese New Year. My sisters and I would help my mom to wrap the egg rolls, and then my mom would deep fry them. Believe it or not, I could finish up 20 egg rolls continuously in less than 10 minutes.
Since my home isn’t equipped with a fryer, it took me quite sometimes to deep fry all the rolls. For those with a fryer at home, you have advantage of doing this. Anyway, if you never try this recipe before, I personally recommend you to at least try making it once at home even you don’t have the fryer. Trust me, you will enjoy toward the last bite of the last roll!
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Posted by Eric.N
One of my favorite appetizers is the Deep Fried Taro Ball with Shrimp. I still remember when I was a kid, my mum always prepared this dish for my family. The taro ball is like a size of a golf ball, with a shrimp tucks inside it and leaving the tail outside forming like a curve drumstick. The taro ball is then deep fried till golden brown, it is crunchy on the outside with the crisp of the bread crumbs, but still tasted soft and sweet on the inside.
Well, it had been quite some time since the last time I had eaten this. I really can’t wait till my next hometown visit to have my mum making this again. So I called my mum to get the recipe and tried to to prepare this appetizer for the first time.
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Posted by Sam.H
Tuna cracker is one of the most popular appetizers/snacks for parties or events. It is always a good starter while we are hanging around waiting for the opening. Serving with appetite wine is a good combination too. I love to serve tuna crackers because they are easy and fun to be made – and yet, delicious. Also, the tuna cracker itself is like an art of a chef’s presentation.
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Posted by Sam.H
One of my favorite snacks is Salt-pepper chicken. It is a Taiwanese style popcorn chicken. We call it Yan Su Ji (鹽酥雞) in Chinese. Salt-pepper chicken is one of the popular snacks that can be easily found in most Taiwanese restaurant(s) or boba milk tea stations. Thus it is always my first choice of snack whenever I hangout with friends at some local Taiwanese restaurants here in LA.
I like this Taiwanese style popcorn chicken because of the salty and peppery favor & the crispiness of it, as well as the tenderness of the chicken meat with enough marinated juices preserved.
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