One of my favorite vegetable side dishes is Chinese garlic green beans, which I learned to cook from Mama Lin. The beauty of that dish is the irresistibly soft texture and vibrant green color of the ...
Written by Diann Leo-Omine & Lisa Lin, Photos by Lisa Lin
The arrival of spring means the arrival of produce that you’ll only find this time of year. Consider it the season of limited edition ...
Cheung fun (腸粉, rice noodle rolls) is something that my family always orders at dim sum. Typically, we get cheung fun with shrimp or minced beef wrapped inside a thin and soft rice noodle sheet. ...
You’ll notice a list dominated almost entirely by citrus this month! That’s because winter is indeed the best time for so many varieties of citrus, especially in the Sacramento area. I’ve said it ...
Nian gao (年糕) is a steamed cake that people make to celebrate Lunar New Year. In Mandarin, 年糕 is pronounced nian gao, and the pronunciation in Chinese is neen go. “Nian gao” is the most common English ...
WHAT IS LOTUS ROOT?
Lotus root is a rhizome of the lotus plant (蓮藕/莲藕 in Chinese; 蓮根/れんこん or renkon in Japanese). According to Diane Morgan’s Roots (2012), this aquatic plant is native to Asia, the ...
Lunar New Year celebrations aren’t complete without a batch of Mama Lin’s 迎年圓, literally “rice cakes to welcome the new year.” In the Toisan dialect (台山話), it's pronounced ngan nan zyuan (note that ...
Dried shrimp is a very common ingredient in Asian cuisine. In Chinese, it is called 蝦米/虾米 (traditional vs simplified characters) and pronounced xia mi in Mandarin or ha mai in Cantonese. Another ...
Written by Diann Leo-Omine & Lisa Lin, Photos by Lisa Lin
Happy new year! This January produce guide is coming a little late this month because I've been busy moving into our new house! It's ...
Every Lunar New Year, Mama Lin will steam fat goh (發糕, also known as fa gao), lightly sweet cakes that open up and blossom once they’re steamed. As a matter of fact, many Chinese families steam fat ...
Thank you to Bob’s Red Mill for sponsoring this post!
Over the years, I’ve received many inquiries about tofu substitutions for people who are allergic to soy. In the back of mind, I’ve thought ...
Many of us think about the winter solstice merely as the shortest day of the year, but in Chinese culture it is a very important festival. Dongzhi (冬至), which literally translates to “the extreme of ...