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It had been a fun and busy long weekend filled with luncheons, dinners and friend gatherings for the celebration of Tiger Year. On the other hand, I had a romantic Valentine’s Day dinner with my lovely boyfriend. Everything was just great. Here once again, I wish everyone a good start in the Chinese New Year and wish all the couples a happily ever after (有情人總成眷屬).

On the first day of Chinese New Year, I’ve prepared the well known vegetarian dish so called the Buddha’s Delight or lo han jai (羅漢齋). It is traditionally consumed by the  Buddhist monks who are vegetarians. However this dish has grown popularity over the years and now can be found in most Chinese restaurants for serving. For Buddhists who are not solely vegetarians will also practice vegetarians on the first and fifteenth day of the month based on the lunar calendar. Therefore this vegetarian dish has become more and more popular and eventually become a traditional dish for the Chinese New Year.

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I was doing my regular grocery shopping at the Asian market and I happened to see the wood ear or black fungus.  It’s been a while since the last time I’ve cooked a dish with the wood ear. Perhaps it was a year ago or so.  So I just grabbed a pack of wood ears home.

Wood ear (木耳) is actually an edible fungus used mainly in Asian cuisine and they are sold in dried form.  Also known as tree ear, this fungus grows in masses on dead wood or elder tree and it resembles a human ear when it is fresh. As I know, the wood ear has no flavor of its own, but it will soak the flavors of the ingredients when it is cooked with.

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