Let’s start with a few well-known online shops in North America:

Amazon.com’s grocery section is loaded with Asian food options.  If you have Amazon prime you obviously won’t have to worry about the cost of shipping. It’s probably worth visiting Amazon first to see if you can find what you are looking for. For those in select areas, you can try Amazon Fresh which is just like Peapod or FreshDirect.

Asian Food Grocer is a trustworthy shop that provides much of what you expect to find in a standard Asian market. Here are a few products that I commonly use in my cooking:

Lee Kum Kee’s Hoisin Sauce is something I use for a sweet, seafood flavor.

Lee Kum Kee also makes a Black Bean Garlic Sauce which I use for home-style pork ribs. Yum!

Actually, just about everything in the Asian Food Grocer’s “Quick and Easy Asian Cooking” section is delicious and, as the title implies, very easy to use.

Marukai’s eStore is a Japanese food shop online which serves North America. Some of my recipes have ingredients that you can find at their shop. Check out their amazing variety of fish options for at-home sushi making!

Also, one Japanese product that I enjoyed a lot in China was Key Coffee’s Drip On brand singles.

If you are looking for a Korean food shop online, look no further than Koamart. When I’m cooking authentic rice porridge and need a side of Kimchi, this imported option is really good. Although the best kimchi is homemade, I think most westerners won’t taste a big difference.

For ethnic ingredients that are not limited to East Asia, I suggest visiting the eFoodDepot, which has an interesting selection of Japanese, Chinese, Indonesian, Thailand, Bangladeshi, Iranian, and more. You might be surprised by what’s on offer there if you are looking for a wider “Eastern” selection.

Generation Tea is also a reliable online shop, specifically for buying tea. The West Lake Longjin Tea in particular is a great flavor. It’s a little expensive, but it’s worth it! Other teas you’ll find at Generation Tea include dark Pu-er, Oolong, Black, Herbal, White, Green, and more! This shop has the most comprehensive offer of tea I’ve seen online and ships domestically (US).

Why not try shopping for healthy and delicious food online?

It’s common knowledge in the US that eating raw vegetables is “healthier” than eating them cooked- it’s also much more convenient this way…  The downside is that we are more susceptible to pathogens carried on leafy greens. This is probably why my Asian friends prefer to ordering dishes that contain veges that have been skinned just prior to cooking, like potatoes, cucumbers, carrots, radishes, etc. Anything that looks the same straight off the farm (like lettuce, spinach, bok choy, etc) are less likely to be cleaned properly in the restaurant kitchen.

Different countries have their own traditional ways of prepping salad. In countries like China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and Thailand the hygiene of its preparation is often questioned. In most cases copious amounts of garlic, peppers, lemon, ginger or other ingredients might be used in order to help naturally kill whatever is catching a ride on the leaves. Here are some samples of “salad” according to Asian tastes.

Thai-syles:

Read how to make the above one at the Nourishing Gourmet.

Korean Styles:

Find out how to make the above one at New Asian Cuisine.

Get the recipe at The Kitchn.

Get your onions, peppers, garlic, and radishes ready to make this one!

Not very convenient? Try making a large salad and keeping it in the refrigerator. That way you can enjoy if over the next few days at school or work. Some types of salad, like Kimchi, can be made and preserved for weeks!

Maybe I avoided it because it was so Cantonese and I missed the Mandarin world a little. Making soup (煲汤) and Morning Tea (早茶) are very Cantonese and have slowly found their place among my all-time favorite Chinese weekend activities. Now, or when I’m ready to move on, they will join me as I explore the rest of China (and the USA).

The one thing that worries me though, is that there are two ingredients that might not be available back home. One is fresh bamboo shoots and the other is fresh water chestnuts. Both must not come from a can… or else the whole thing is ruined, I think.

Stuff to Prepare: (see pic)
a large peeled, sliced carrot.
a fist-sized red onion, sliced.
a fist-sized potato cut into bite-sized chunks.
a full ear of corn, cut into 4 or 5 sections.
a “ham hock” or soup bone which has some meat and a lot of marrow. (Ask your butcher)
5-6 fresh water chestnuts, cut into halves or quarters depending on size.
3-4  fresh bamboo shoots, sliced in half.
salt.

1~  First prepare everything as you see in the pic above. It’s vital that everything is prepped in advance because all you have to do is throw everything in together!

2~ Take the chopped up ham hock chunks and pre-boil them for about 5 minutes. This cleans out the meat and keeps the soup free from some sneaky bugs… at least this is the typical way it is prepared in Guangdong.

3~ You’ll need a soup pot like the one in the picture, so visit an Asian market (or increasingly any Dollar Store) to buy a cheap one. They cost about $4 in China. Fill 3/4 with drinkable water.

4~ When the meat is pre-boiled, drain the gunky water out and drop the meat into the soup pot. This will become our stock and leave some tasty meat chunks to eat between mouth-fulls of veges!

5~ You can put all of the ingredients in at the same time if you want. They will boil together for about 30-45 minutes at least. Then make sure to pour in salt to taste. Don’t start with too much! (See pic)

I usually let the soup simmer after 45 minutes. It can stay simmering for hours if you want. If you want to keep the soup for later, just leave it on the stove top. You should put the leftover soup in containers and leave them in the refrigerator if you indeed to eat some the next day.

Enjoy this traditional, very easy to make soup!

The other day I had a hankering for chang fen; pronounced “Chong Fun” in newspaper-phonetics. It’s not the cleanest option for eats in the neighborhood, but it tastes awesome. Getting good chang fen in China is like getting good pizza in America – the most dilapidated pizza dive is usually the best.

Basically, chang fen is made of rice flour that starts out quite runny- kind of like very runny pancake mix. It gets spooned into a steam tray and spread around as you can see in the photos below. Eggs, meat, chives, etc. are tossed on randomly and then the tray gets put in the steamer. After a couple minutes the tray gets pulled out the the contents get scrapped out. I chose extra egg because I don’t trust the meat in these places…

Others call this simple dish a “noodle”, but that’s hard to justify in my opinion. It often gets scraped in a smoother way which makes it look more like a noodle. My favorite is Shrimp Chang Fen, which you get at morning tea(早茶) in Guangdong (Canton province). Similar versions of this dish are made at chinese restaurants around the world, but I really enjoy eating it in mainland China. Like most ethnic cuisine, it’s better to eat it in the country of origin.

Enjoy!

Ah, it’s Summer time again! Sun, beach, and beer time has come; and nothing excites me more than beer-infused, Asian recipes! First, I love duck, although it is a bit fatty, and can’t wait to start making this tasty dish back home for my family. A friend of mine in Zhuhai suggested it while she was home for a holiday. So, this new recipe of Chinese deliciousness is based loosely on her Guangxi family recipe – so here it goes without further delay!

Stuff to Prep:
a duck, preferably fresh and chopped into bite-sized pieces.
a spoonful of Dou Ban Jiang (chinese bean sauce).
two cubes of Nan Ru (red fermented toufu).
a few spoonfuls of oyster sauce (any brand will do).
600mL bottle of beer (or two cans).
Garlic chunks and Ginger slices.
Black pepper balls (about 10), 1 Anise seed (star-shaped) (enhances flavor)
Chestnuts (optional, but awesome). Salt.
a wok or small pot.

1~ Fill pot 3/4 with water and boil. Meanwhile, clean the duck chunks and leave in a prep bowl. (You’ll boil the duck chunks soon)

2~ Prepare the bean paste sauce in a small dish. Mix together a big spoonful of Dou Ban Jiang, 1or 2 cubes of Nan Ru, and a few spoonfuls of oyster sauce.

3~ When the water boils, put all the duck chunks in and let it pre-cook. Some “pao pao” will cook out and collect on the surface. After a few minutes, take out the chunks and rinse in a strainer. Drain the water from your wok or small pot.

4~ Turn the fire on again and toss the duck pieces in dry. The duck still has oil inside, so you can let it cook out for a couple minutes. Stir with a spatula so that nothing sticks too much.

5~ Take the bean paste and scoop the contents into the wok. Mix with spatula.

6~ It’s crack-open-your-brew time! Pour in your beer. You’ve poured in enough beer if your duck pieces are completely floating. Spoon beer into your bean paste bowl in order to rinse out all of the paste into the pot. (None goes to waste!)

7~ Toss in additional flavorings: garlic chunks, ginger slices, 10 black pepper balls and 1 anise seeds. Stir occasionally.

8~ Leave the lid off of your pan or wok. Let the beer cook the duck and steam away. After about 10-15 minutes the liquid should become a little thick and rich.

There you have it! Awesome beer duck from the same region that is home to a Longevity Cluster,  a town with freakish amounts of people over 100 years old…

Any discussion about Italian food in China is bound to curtail into how pasta originated in China over 4,000 years ago[*]. I would say the Chinese have perfected the noodle over years of trial ‘n error, mostly due to their choice of seasonings. (My favorite Chinese noodles to this day are from the north and are pulled thick just prior to being tossed in a savory broth or pan-fried with seafood.)

Getting back to Italia, and the point of my post today, I’d like to show off my new preference for the decades-old family tradition of “Monday Night S’ghetti!” Like with many of the meals I cook I highlight portion control, so you’ll often just need cereal bowls instead of plates. Also, chopsticks are useful in order to take smaller bites and to drain excess oil from your food.

I bought multi-grained, spiral pasta from the import store here in Zhuhai. Then, I boiled it with a pinch of salt and dollop of sesame oil. (You can use olive oil if you want. Any oil works!)  What is often missing in our S’ghetti Night routine is a big portion of vegetables. So, when the noodles are ready I begin to cook my veges. Follow my simple Green Vege recipe here.  Meatballs are common place at a meal like this. You continue with your normal tradition, although I didn’t add meat in this meal.

Fresh bread with some butter is a common part of the tradition, so this is present too. Dip your bread into your spaghetti sauce to add flavor instead of using butter, which is often how it’s done across the world! Pour your spaghetti sauce onto your noodles, add a splash of grated-cheese if you want, and Voile! The S’ghetti Night tradition has made it’s way back to the Orient, and hopefully it was simple!

Another Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day week have come and gone here in China! This time is important here for two reasons: first, to celebrate the moon at its fullest; and second, to commemorate the founding of “New China” in 1949. Last year was the 60th anniversary, which is thought of as an important age for growth and maturity in a person.

But a romantic evening under a full moon is incomplete without one thing: homemade Dumplings! Last week a colleague invited me to his family’s house to make dumplings from scratch. (Actually, we bought the little dough wrappings… but everything else was really fresh!) I suggest buying dumpling wrappings from your local Asian food store or major grocer chain. Here are “Wonton Wrappers” available on Amazon.

Before we get started, I should mention that dumplings are generally a once or twice a month thing in Chinese households; similar to our pizza or pasta nights I remember from growing up. In this case, it is a great way to bring the family together for a bonding session. 10 per person should be enough. On this most recent occasion, we added a pan-fried fish and a tarot-root soup to make it a full meal for 5.

1~ PREP filling: Fresh meat is crucial to good dumplings. I prefer pork, but you can use anything you want! Grind up about 1 pound (.5kg) and put in a bowl. In the picture we added corn, but I wouldn’t suggest it.

2~ Spice the meat how you prefer, but we used a few splashes of soy sauce, some sugar, and turmeric. It’s better to go light on the seasoning at this point.

3~ Shred celery and carrots. Mix thoroughly with the meat you have prepped. Feel free to use clean hands to mash it all together. (Great task for a kid with some self-control!)

4~ Wrap ’em! Put a little bowl of water and 1 chopstick on your table. Take a wrapper and lightly dab water around the edges. This will work as glue for the dumpling. Then, take a spoon and scoop just enough to fill the middle of the wrapper with room left for a complete, clean seal. Too much filling and the edges will not close. This may take a little finessing…

5~ Boil! After you’ve wrapped what seems like too many dumplings, prepare them for a hot water bath. You’ll notice that the wrap becomes more transparent when they are fully cooked; needs no more than a few minutes.

6~ Dipping sauce is essential. Use a small cereal bowl as a container and fill it 1/3 with soy sauce. Add a spoonful of dark vinegar to that. Use a red-pepper spice and adjust for taste. Small pits of chives work well in this too, but aren’t necessary. Share among 5 people or split liquid up into 5 smaller bowls.

You’re done! See the fish on that plate over there? They were cooked with their heads on and they were delicious! See my version of pan-fried ginger fish here!

Day two of my visit home and I decided to cook up something unexpected!  Big, white, fluffy cauliflower! Woo hoo! First of all, my father looked at the huge serving of cauliflower I had prepared and was anything but ecstatic. …great… Ben’s cooking dull, taste-less, rabbit food… I knew this meal could be a tough pill to swallow, so I had to take out the big guns!

To clarify, my father is a meat-lover. Most dads are. Steak, hamburger, chicken, or pork should fill the air at most meal times.  A major dish at lunch consisting of rabbit food was a little disappointing to say the least. So, I thought… if I could transform the flavor of this vege into something mouth-watering and meaty, what would it taste like?

Let’s Tarantino this recipe so that the food-drama doesn’t go to waste…

* There was silence on our front porch… a small dog could be heard barking in the distance… an orchard medley serving dish sat still, void of its contents… mere drops of flavorful liquid collected in a lonely serving spoon.  My mother had never seen this side of her husband since the day he first set eyes on… the love of his life… (that would be a pulled pork shoulder sandwich). Then, the time came for him to speak…

~

1~ Step one: Cut up your head of cauliflower into bite sized pieces. Let them sit in boiling water for a few minutes before you start cooking. Prepare sausage into bite sized pieces as well. (I used 2 thick links of spiced sausage) Prepare your garlic and ginger slices, and then put them aside.

2~ Cook the sausage pieces in water, turning them often, until they are mostly cooked (brownish). Add water if it gets too dry. After a few minutes, toss in the garlic and ginger.

3~ Then, strain out the water from preboiling the cauliflower and dump them into the pan. They need color, so you could pour some soy sauce over them while constantly turning them with a spatula.

4~ The SECRET: Scoop out nearly 2 big spoon-fulls of Lee Kum Kee’s Char Siu Sauce. It will seem jelly-like, so we’ll need to mix water in with it. As it liquefies, keep mixing the sausage and cauliflower over one another. Cover with a lid.

5~ Cauliflower is thick, so it needs to simmer a while like this. My dish, which consisted of 3/4 head of vege, took close to 5 minutes of simmering with occasional stirring. The sauce should fill about an inch of the pan or wok.

~

* “Wow” was all he said. Just “wow.” But it wasn’t like the wow you say to make someone else feel good about a cool story they just told you. It was more like the wow you say when you witness a grand slam at Fenway. It was more like the wow you say when watching a human-fish win 8 gold medals in Beijing. Wow.

And that is how you make cauliflower with sausage – a dish inspired by real Chinese cooking.

It’s nice to be home! And I’ve been cooking various dishes to show my family that it is easy to cook healthy Asian food, one of the purposes of creating AsianLiving.me!

The first lunch I made included my now infamous Pork Ribs with Garlic and Black Bean Sauce, with spicy Toufu, and Spinach Greens. It was the first time my family had tried these dishes made at home, rather than at a restaurant.

The spicy Toufu was a little new for me. (It’s hard to do Toufu right!) So, let me summarize this basic recipe here:

1~ Put your oil of choice in a pan. Less fragrant oil is better; like vegetable or peanut oil. At the same time, prep your toufu by cutting it into small cubes, if it isn’t already cut. (Harder Toufu, which can be purchased at a local supermarket in the US, is easier to control and doesn’t break apart)

2~ Dump your toufu in and stir continuously with a spoon or spatula (2-3 minutes). Brown your toufu by adding some soy sauce. This is also a good way to salt your food, so you don’t need to add any later.

3~ Toss in slices of green pepper and onions. Add scallions for additional color if you want. Stir around.

4~ Add chili powder to taste and a couple pinches of sugar. Keep stirring! *If the toufu is not too brown, feel free to splash some more soy sauce.

The final result is a spicy, savory toufu dish! People who aren’t health nuts can appreciate this dish along with those you just want to eat healthier meals. Add a meat of your choice if your guests need a little more convincing!

NEXT ARTICLE: Summer Cooking 2010: The Best Cauliflower Dish in the World? (coming soon)

One type of cooking that has always worried me is “steamed” anything! I know white rice is steamed, but how do I actually steam food without another special machine. If you are like me, read about using your rice cooker as a steamer for dishes first, then come back and follow these easy steps.

PREP: Finely mince 2-3 cloves of garlic and put them aside. Keep bottles of sesame oil, vinegar, and soy sauce handy. Salt too. (See image below) Also, use a steamer or your rice cooker.

1~ Slice up the eggplant in half, then into 1/2″ thick strips-lengthwise. This can be altered as you do the recipe more often and develop a preference.

2~ With your cooker/steamer warmed up, place the raw, sliced eggplant strips into the steaming tray. Let them steam for 5-10 minutes.

3~ Pull tray out of steamer carefully… let the tray sit on a cooling rack or kitchen counter. Sprinkle salt over them. After a minute, start pulling the eggplant into strings with chop sticks or a fork. You’ll notice that water is pulled out of the eggplant by the salt.

4~ After draining the water out, you’ll see the resulting mushy stuff that is in the image below. Let it cool for about 5 minutes before adding about a tablespoon of vinegar, a teaspoon of sesame oil, a splash of soy sauce, and the minced garlic. Mix completely.

* This dish is best served cool. You should be able to taste the fragrant sesame with a twang of vinegar.