Category Archives: videos

Chinese New Year 2011 (Chinese Lunar Year 4709)

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Eating and cooking in the same space. That’s how we do.

As promised, I bring you the Chinese New Year 2011 post. This year, Shef and I were fortunate to make the trip back to sunny California for some 70 degree weather and feasting with friends at the annual West Coast Chinese New Year family dinner. Check out this old post for the background on this event as well as classic recipes.

As usual, Cheryl and Cam were kind enough to host the event. Unfortunately, it happened to coincide with a bout of stomach flu brought home from science camp by my niece, Maia, for the benefit of her little brother, Dylan, who began suffering its ill consequences right as the party got started.  Poor kid. He’s already so skinny.  So, Cheryl and Cam, being great parents, took turns tending to Dylan who was quarantined in their bedroom as the rest of us ate up a storm. The only stomach pains we were feeling were from overeating.  Speaking of overeaters, for the first time, Sari and Jake (of churrusco fame) and their two kids Yuji and Hana made the trip up from LA to enjoy the festivities.  And enjoy they did as you can see from Sari’s photos which she somehow managed to take in between stuffing her mouth.  Or, she’s really good at multi-tasking.

But to be fair, Sari was not alone in her mouth stuffing. We were all doing our part because there was so much delicious food, some of which you’ll see in the video below. Perhaps I’m not the best multi-tasker because I missed out on a bunch of things, most notably, Erik’s delicious faux eel and tofu (the wonders of dried shiitakes!) and the mountain of delicious desserts.  Big thanks to all the featured cooks and eaters whom I will now list in no particular order: Jake and Sari for bringing your stomachs and prepping skills, PK for being Korean,  Cheryl for your low-cal brussel sprouts  with bacon, Jean for her dumpling expertise, Thu for her PORKalicious egg rolls and Vietnamese expertise, Dave for his ridiculously good banh mi, Shalini for her tender lamb curry, Marissa for her delicate adobo and her mad videography skills, Minh for his dumpling cooking and Vietnamese seal of approval, and Matt for the oh so special boiled chicken.  The Lunar New Year would not be the same without all of you. Gong Hay Fat Choy!

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Hana’s Healthy Soba

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Hana shows this dumpling who's boss

Here’s the latest and greatest from my youngest contributor, four-year old Hana (seen above sampling a dumpling).  This time, she takes on something a little more involved than ants on a log but as usual, she demonstrates her ease and charm in front of the camera as she guides us through the preparation of this healthy and delicious soba.  Me thinks she might have a future in this business.   Enjoy!

-C. Ting

[From Hana (as channeled by her food obsessed mom, Sari)]

Dear Uncle Clarence,

Here is my favorite meal of all time and I video’d myself for you.  I even take my healthy soba to pre-school in my lunch box sometimes.  My friends think “What the hell is that? It kinda stinks…” but I don’t care–it’s goood!  I make it myself and thought you needed my recipe on your website.  I got confused and called the Japanese yam (which my mom thinks is taro in English but maybe not?) many different things.  It’s real name is “tororo” but I said, tororo, totoro and daikon and something else.  They are all white and weird except for Totoro so it’s all the same.

Hope you like it!

–Hana

Hana’s Healthy Soba

Serves 4

1 package Soba (boiled and chilled in ice water)
3 cups Tsuyu (homemade or store-bought)
Grated Yamaimo (“Tororo”/Japanese Mountain Yam – skin peeled, grated)
Natto (2 packages with tsuyu packets mixed in)
3 Japanese Cucumbers (julienned or chopped however you like)
1 cup toasted Sesame Seeds
2 cups dried nori (in thin strips)
Green Onions (thinly sliced)  and Grated Ginger (optional)

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Taco Time with Matt and PK

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Al pastor features prominently on their trailer. That's NOT Matt or PK in that picture though

Exactly one week ago, I found myself flying to the Bay Area in order to enjoy the annual Chinese New Year potluck feast (more on that in a future post) with family and friends at Cheryl and Cam’s house .   Now,  let me ask you this. What is the best way to whet one’s appetite for the mountain of food that accompanies any Chinese New Year celebration?  Why, tacos, of course!  Fortunately it’s become somewhat of a tradition that whenever I fly into Oakland, if Matt or PK is picking me up, the first thing we do is head over to International Boulevard, home to numerous taco trucks, where we gorge ourselves on tacos.  In this case, we headed to Tacos El Gordo #2 (don’t know where #1 is, but I’m glad to know there are two).    According to Matt (and the picture on the side of their trailer)  it’s known for it’s al pastor (marinated, slow spit-roasted pork) which because of it’s spicy seasoning and roasted crunchy bits has always been one of my favorite meats of tacos, burritos or tortas.  But equally delicious at Tacos El Gordo are the suadero, cabeza and (Mexican) chorizo.  But don’t just believe these written words.  Watch the following video because seeing is believing.

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C’s Hot Wings!

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My attempt at plating. Anyway, you get the idea. Wings and drumettes with sauce.

Alright, I meant to put this up before the Super Bowl, but I got waylaid by Chinese New Year’s festivities (stay tuned for a future posting).  So football season is now officially over.  But really, who needs to watch grown men running around in skin tight pants, head butting each other in order to enjoy spicy and delicious chicken wings?  I, for one, do not.  And neither should you.  It’s always the right time for hot wings.

Here’s the recipe (as usual, quantities are suggested):

Ingredients:
8 oz chipotle peppers in adobo (or from 1/2 cup to 3/4 – depending on how spicy you want it)
2 – 3 tsp to of fish sauce
1-2 tsp of vinegar
1 tbsp of ginger
1-2 tsp of garlic
2-3 tbsp of plain yogurt
2 1/2 lbs of chicken wings

Here’s how you do it:

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PK’s Yeast Infection…

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… fortunately it’s of the sourdough variety – as in Matt’s sourdough starter.  Sure, PK’s been in possession of the starter for a while and indeed has become quite the waffle master, but until this past week, PK had yet to make a loaf of bread. That changed this past weekend when PK attempted his first loaf. Now he’s got the bread bug, and  bad. For the first loaf, perhaps he bit off a bit more than he could chew, attempting a full wheat loaf which came out super dense owing to the fact that he used too much wheat flour (I think two cups). Here’s a picture.

PK's very first loaf: dense wheat (with a shape only a mother could love)

PK says he got through about half of this loaf before he realized he just couldn’t eat something more dense than several of the heavy metals on the periodic table combined.  But not to be deterred, he quickly got back on his horse and baked another loaf which according to all accounts -namely PK’s – he nailed.  Here’s his spin on the recipe:

1/4 c starter
1 5/8 c water
3 1/4 c flour
1/4 c wheat flour
3 tsp kosher salt
Sprinkled with cornmeal
Oven 475-480
20 mins with lid

15-20 mins without lid

Behold...PK's second (perfect - according to PK) loaf.

PK's second loaf has a nice airy quality

And as an added bonus, here’s a short vid of PK thoroughly enjoying his bread. Here’s to many more perfect loaves in the future, PK.  Welcome to the club.

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