Refresh Your Grocery List with 5 Essential Chinese Ingredients

"Grocery List Refresh" is a simple way to update your pantry with must have ingredients in cooking a certain cuisine. Why is it important to refresh your grocery list? Because if you have the ingredients on hand you will be more likely to try out a brand new dish, or infuse new flavor into your staples. Think of it like traveling at your very own kitchen table...!

Earlier this month, we challenged you all to do 3 simple things to help you live like you're traveling. One of these is to celebrate a holiday from another culture. I decided to introduce my family to Chinese New Year and so I enlisted Amy, our neighborly expert on asian cooking.. and together we picked out a special Chinese New Year's Menu to cook up for the celebration. 

Grocery List Refresh

5 MUST-HAVE Chinese staple ingredients:

Organic Sesame oil 
Cooking rice wine
Soy sauce 
Oyster sauce
Organic White pepper powder

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Shopping List : Chinese New Year's Menu 

And now as promised here is your shopping list for the dinner if you want to cook along!
(Now you can't say you forgot, no excuses remember!?) Besides the above 5 here are all the ingredients you'll need for the Chinese New Year menu. 

Chinese Scallion (Green Onion) Pancakes With Soy-Ginger Dipping Sauce (蔥油餅配姜汁醬油)

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 8 bunches of scallions 
• vegetable oil
• fresh ginger, grated
• a pinch of red pepper flakes

Chicken Pot Stickers (雞肉鍋貼/餃子)
• 1 cup cabbage, shredded
• 3/4 pound ground chicken
• 1 (12 oz) package of Pot Sticker Wraps 

Vegetarian Chop-Suey (羅漢齋) Semi-Home Made
• 1/2 a medium yellow onion
• 1/2 carrot
• 20 Vegetarian Protein Sticks
• 1 pound of baby Bak Choy
• 1 pound of mushrooms
• 1 can (14.5 ounce) vegetarian chop-suey

Coconut and Azuki (Red Bean) Glutinous Rice Cake (椰汁紅豆糯米糕)

• 1 bag (16 ounces) glutinous rice flour
• 11/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cups castor sugar
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 1/4  cup vegetable oil
• 1 can (13.5 oz) coconut milk
• 6 oz evaporated milk
• 3/4 cup prepared red bean (Yude Azuki)
• 1/2 cup sweetened coconut flakes

Love it? Share it! - We are dedicated to sharing stories that spark ideas and are meaningful to you. The best way to let us know is to post a comment, like below or pin it on Pinterest! ~ For more ways to Live Like You're Traveling, follow us on Feedly, Bloglovin, Pinterest, or Facebook. 

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IDEA138: Cook a Chinese New Year Meal

about 11 years ago

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Dim Sum Like a Pro - What to Order

about 11 years ago

Dim Sum Like a Pro - What to Order

{ Above : Steamed Sticky Rice - meat stuffing wrapped in lotus leaves }

Dim sum can be intimidating. Carts are zooming past you from all directions...filled with mysterious bamboo containers and the room hums with what seems to be a secret communication between the many attendants and guests. Well today I'm arming you with insider knowledge. Consider it your must-have list (more advanced delicacies will be saved for another day) Imagine for a moment that I will be your *friend* that takes you out to dim sum...who will do the ordering for you.  
 

Shall we begin? 

• • •

The bill. There will be some furious scribbling on on a bill like this each time an attendant hands you a dish. All of the dishes are considered small, medium or large and are charged accordingly. Don't even worry about this.

• • •
We have to start with a round of dumplings. Immediately.
All kinds of dumplings! Potstickers, steamed shrimp and veggie ones. One of everything!
They come in cute little bamboo containers... we just can't go wrong!

• • •
Then we move on to root vegetable that is not as common....Taro Cake 
Crispy on the outside and soft (potato-like on the inside with savory little pieces of meat and shitake). Fantastic with soy sauce and a dash of chili oil! - We may have to order a couple as I might have one of these to myself...  

• • •
Then we flag down a cart to get fluffy steamed BBQ Pork Buns with a semi-sweet and salty filling. This is almost always a favorite for the table.

• • •
By this time, I will have ordered a large bowl of Hot and Sour Soup for the table.
We'll need it to help wash things down...and just because my all-time favorite soup! 

• • •
Now just to balance things out a bit...we get in some Chinese Brocoli with Oyster Sauce

• • •
And just when we think we've had our fill of little dishes...I put this light and refreshing dessert in front of you. Almond Jello with fruit. A childhood favorite! I used to make this at home all the time...just the smell of almond extract would make me so happy!

• • •
And just because you need to try this too...we squeeze in ONE more. Red bean pastry.
It has a crispy chewy rice skin with a sweet red bean paste filling.

Are you full yet?!  The great thing about all these little dishes, is that you end up trying a variety of flavors, but not necessarily feeling stuffed at the end. In the spirit of trying something new this week...we are going to start a new tradition of celebrating Chinese New Years by introducing friends to dim sum at our local Chinatown. And with this little cheat sheet...now you can dim sum like a pro without me!  
 

• • •     LESSONS LEARNED    • • •

Even if you're feeling adventurous,
it doesn't hurt to have a guide.

Get everyday adventure ideas @LiveLikeYoureTraveling  

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IDEA138: Cook a Chinese New Year Meal

One of the best ways to learn about another culture is to eat their food! Lots of little insights are revealed when we eat what our neighbors eat.  Even more so if we try to learn to cook a few dishes ourselves. What I found helps with getting started with cooking a brand new cuisine is to:

1 - Pick out a few inticing dishes to try.
In this case we are putting together a Chinese New Year dinner menu.

2 - Figure out the staple ingredients.
You should have these on hand so that when the inspiration strikes you're ready - Next week we will give you a full grocery list just in time to cook our Chinese New Year dinner.

3 - Choose a motivating factor.
Learning something new requires effort and energy. It's also something that we tend to push aside because we're busy, don't feel like it that day, think it's too hard, or the WORST one... we'll do it "later." You know that "later" never comes!! So, we really need to give ourselves a bit of a deadline and then a reward for getting it done. So my self imposed deadline is the start of the Chinese New Year (January 31st) and my reward will be introducing my family to a beautiful new tradition! (And watching my darling 3 year old Mo, eat with chopsticks, while my other darling, red bearded Vito, tries but can't.)  

• • •

So without further ado we're so excited to introduce the lovely and neighborly Amy from sunny California. She is going to hold our hand and help us get started with Chinese cooking! Amy blogs delicious and beautiful Chinese recipes (and not only) over at uTry.it and well - we accept the challenge Amy! We want to TRY IT! 

Let's get to know Amy a bit better... 

There goes Amy, noshing on something delicious in New Orleans. 

Who taught you to cook? 
My parents love to cook. I'm their sous chef since I was a little girl (don't even remember how young! And no, my parents are just home cooks, not professional chefs.) So, I guess the passion for cooking runs in the family. But I didn't really start cooking on my own until I moved out to college. I explored so much in my dorm's kitchen.  ;) I started to "play with" my food (or you can call that recipe development), when my parents are not there to tell me "no"! hahahaha....

Do you still have family where you're from? How often do you visit?
I still have relatives living in Hong Kong (where I was born and raised), mostly from my Father's side of the family. I go back every few years to visit.  

How important is it that your kids eat Chinese food? 
(I asked Amy this because since the birth of my first son, Mo, I am much more into re-discovering and making Russian food so that he is familiar with the same foods I grew up eating, sort of a cultural injection. I wonder if, especially for those of us who do not live in the place we were born, having kids makes us yearn for our roots.) 

Hmm...good question.  I didn't really think of it much as I cook and eat Chinese food all the time.  It was just a natural thing to do.  My kids had been eating and tasting Chinese food since they were in my tummy, so they better like it too when they're out! Just kidding!  :-P  I encourage my kids to try different types of food, Chinese or not.  If they don't like it, it's okay.  But at least, give everything a try at least once.

What is your favorite Chinese dish?
Mapo Totu, that's also my kids' favorite.  

How does your family celebrate CNY? What is one family tradition follow with your family? 
It is the tradition that on the Eve of Chinese New Year, supper is a feast with immediate family.  On the New Year morning, children will greet their parents by wishing them a healthy and happy new year (Gong Hay Fat Choi), and receive money in red envelopes. Another tradition on the Chinese New Year is that the families are to visit the oldest and most senior members of their extended family, usually their parents, grandparents or great-grandparents and so forth.  Along with our visits, we always bring some delicious treats. 
 

Thank you Amy for being a good global neighbor
and guiding us how to get started with Chinese cooking! 

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Chinese New Year Menu

Chinese New Year wishes are all about having a long, happy and sweet life full of luck and abundance. It's perfectly OK to wish for a raise, more money and success! I can get behind all that! It's also about honoring the elders in your family and strengthening family bonds. The foods you eat are in turn very symbolic of these concepts.  (For full recipes, cooking instructions and even a video just click through to Amy's blog.) 

Chinese Scallion (Green Onion) Pancakes With Soy-Ginger Dipping Sauce 
(蔥油餅配姜汁醬油)

More Family Togetherness. These yummy pancakes are perfect to start the dinner with by having everyone share these and collide with each other trying to dunk at the same time. Get that family bonding moving along!

• • •

Vegetarian Chop-Suey (羅漢齋) Semi-Home Made

Health and abundance is represented by eating vegetables and also to balance out many meat and fish dishes that are usually present at a Chinese New Year banquet. 

• • •

Chicken Pot Stickers (雞肉鍋貼/餃子) With Video Tutorial 

Of course there must be these delightful crescent shaped dumplings. Amy tells us they resemble the shape of a traditional gold nugget, in Chinese called (元寶). The dumplings represent wealth for the family.  

  • • •

Coconut and Azuki (Red Bean) Glutinous Rice Cake (椰汁紅豆糯米糕).

A new year wish to be more successful, to be able to reach your goals and pretty much improve or 'rise up' is symbolized by eating rice cake. Amy says that Rice Cake in Chinese (年糕) sounds exactly like "grow (taller) every year", and so we should eat this cake and rise higher!

Well, I think this is more than enough for us to get started with. And while we're at it, why not pick out a few essential accessories, perhaps a garland of Chinese Palace Lantern Lights and a few Year of the Horse Envelopes for lucky money and if you have young kids here is an adorable book you can read together about Hannah the horse! 

A few parting "instructions". If you've never attempted to make Chinese food don't stress out and feel like you have to acquire a whole new set of utensils, new kitchen equipment and restock your pantry full with exotic ingredients, a lot of the time starting something new is much, MUCH easier then you've first imagined and then you want to kick yourself in the kneecap for not trying it earlier! Now go browse the recipes, decide on how you'd like to celebrate, and next week we'll be back to give you a shopping list to take to the store with you so you'll have NO EXCUSES!  

(Photo credit: All photos except otherwise marked via Amy)
 

• • •     LESSONS LEARNED    • • •

If you want to learn to ride you must get on the horse! 

Get everyday adventure ideas @LiveLikeYoureTraveling

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Refresh Your Grocery List with 5 Essential Chinese Ingredients

about 11 years ago

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IDEA137: Bring Good Luck with a Chinese New Year's Tradition

I feel pretty lucky to know another home outside of the U.S...to know another language...a whole very different culture from the American side of me. I was born in Taiwan and with Chinese New Year's coming up and all, I figured I'd give you a little glimpse into what fond memories I have of my hometown AND to give you a peek into some of our Chinese Traditions. 

I'm hoping that some of this *luck* will rub off on you this week! 

• • •

{ 18 Peaks Park, Hsinchu, Taiwan }  
Taiwanese people are serious about their parks. It's a way of life. Zen-like parks are everywhere. You'll find old and young enjoying the flowers and many hiking trails overlooking mountain peaks and views of the city.

• • •

{ Hsinchu Noodle Stand } 
We are pretty darn serious about our food as well. And I don't think my husband really understood
why I love noodles so much until he tried them for himself in my hometown. 

• • •

Every time I smell the exhaust of scooters...I am instantly transported to a bustling scene like this.
Although it's a small island, it should not be understimated...my grandmother had dial up before I did!

• • •

{ Sun, Moon, Lake, Nantou, Taiwan } 
Meanwhile in the countryside...it's as though you've stepped straight into a mystical story.
Taiwan's mountainscapes are a favorite. They have a distinct way of layering and fading into the distance.

• • •

{  Chinese New Year's Tradition }
I used to love seeing these red envelopes. They were always filled with LUCKY MONEY 
gifted from my parents or elders! Red is a symbol of good fortune and practically everything is red...This is just one of many aspects of New Year's to bring in luck. Families also clean the house to sweep away the bad luck and making room for good fortune in the coming year. (via @zyucy)

• • •

{ Lantern Festival 2013, Hsinchu, Taiwan } 
This marks the end of the chinese lunar year, and the end of the New Year's celebration.
(My cousin pictured is clearly too excited about this all to keep it to herself) 
 

• • •

New Year's is a big deal. Parade of lights, light up the town along with the lanterns...
(via @ben_issac)

2014 is the year of the Wood Horse, and each year the symbolic animal brings on a certain "vibe" to the year. Not all animals bring good things to the year. Fortunately for us, horse year is considered VERY LUCKY...so get ready for big wins, romance and unexpected adventures!

• • •     LESSONS LEARNED    • • •

Love it? Share it! - We are dedicated to sharing stories that spark ideas and are meaningful to you. The best way to let us know is to post a comment, like below or pin on Pinterest! ~ For More ways to Live Like You're Traveling, follow us on Feedly, Bloglovin, Pinterest, or Facebook. 

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Refresh Your Grocery List with 5 Essential Chinese Ingredients

about 11 years ago

Blog

IDEA138: Cook a Chinese New Year Meal

about 11 years ago

LLYT Challenge : Try Out New Traditions

There is some kind of magic that envelops January... It's the start of the new year and it's impossible not to feel just a little bit like this year ANYTHING is truly possible. So many interesting and exciting adventures await! Ahhhh....

Ok, did you finish giving yourself a hug and twirling around the room with eyes closed? Guess what, those interesting and exciting adventures will not just fall in your lap (well they might if you're lucky) but are you willing to leave it up to chance to have "the best year of your life?" Why not actively pursue those exciting and interesting adventures instead of just waiting for them to happen? That's right, inspiration drill sargent Alla is here! Now drop down and give me 20...and on your knuckles! 

That's the magic of travel, it puts us right in the path of adventures. Whether it's because we have our eyes open for them or simply because we're immersed in a new atmosphere of another culture, we find excitement all around. But this magic does not have to END when we touch town at our home airport. Let's review the first concept of our mission shall we?

• • •

Foster a curiosity for the world and celebrate our differences.

Well that's why we travel right? We want to soak up a new language, discover amazing food you won't get elsewhere or shop in the quaint streets of a charming town... even to see what it feels like to live like a local. The life-long student in us, feels alive with the stimulation of new experiences and learnings. We borrow from other cultures and traditions to enrich our own personalized approach.

 

So what are we going to do about all this? 
How about just 3 SIMPLE THINGS?!!! 

1 - Choose ONE holiday celebration from another culture to celebrate this year. 
Is there one you've always been curious about? Maybe you've seen your neighbors celebrate and it looked like a good time? Maybe your city or a cultural house organizes a celebration. Challenge yourself this year to join in on the party!

2 - Choose a cuisine that you've never cooked before... and learn to cook ONE dish! 
Perhaps a friend can teach you? Or how about a cooking workshop? Why not get in touch with a food blogger and ask them for advice.

and the 3rd... EASY!

3 - Follow a global neighbor on Instagram from a country/culture that you're curious about. 
Choose someone who likes to share views of their country and everyday lives (and their eats!). Ask them questions if you see something you're not familiar with! 
 

You might be thinking, ok maybe I will take your challenge...
but are YOU guys going to do this too? 

Of course!

I'm very infatuated with Asia in general lately and Chinese New Year celebration in particular. My curiosity was peeked through friends that have taken me by the hand and introduced me to this holiday over the years. Amazingly enough a French friend took me to China town in NYC for Chinese New Year to hear the drums and see the dancing dragon collecting money from shop owners. A Panamanian friend introduced me to one of her Chinese New Year traditions of going out for a dim-sum brunch. Both these friends are not Chinese, they just fell in love with the holiday and decided to make it part of their traditions! 

So I in turn would like to introduce my little family to the fun of Chinese New Year and create a CNY tradition in our house! To help me, our very own Mu-Hsien will share a glimpse of a special way to celebrate from her home town and a global neighbor Amy, who writes a delightful cooking blog, will guide me with getting started with Chinese cooking! I'm beyond excited! Of course we are sharing it all with you in case Chinese New Year is on your list of holidays to 'try on'.  

• • •     LESSONS LEARNED    • • •

Love it? Share it! - We are dedicated to sharing stories that spark ideas and are meaningful to you. The best way to let us know is to post a comment, like belw or pin on Pinterest! ~ For More ways to Live Like You're Traveling, follow us on Feedly, Bloglovin, Pinterest, or Facebook. 

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