Can you feel it guys? The days are getting shorter, the air cooler. I can smell the hayrides, apple cider, and pumpkins all the way from Beijing. In other words: summer is nearly over, my favorite season is on the horizon, and I have scarves and flannel shirts at the ready. But my nemesis, aka summer—with its white-hot
…
Category Archive: ‘Vegetables’
This vegetable lo mein isn’t so much a takeout dish makeover so much as just a really simple, versatile noodle dish that can be a staple vegetarian meal or a go-to meatless Monday dinner. Vegetable lo mein is healthy, tasty, and very easy to make. In China, fresh eggless hand-pulled noodles are readily available (understatement), so that’s
…
So after we munched on the glory that was our first Frizzled Chive Flower Flatbread, we were definitely looking for other ways to cook our in-season chive flowers. And what could be better than a little chive flower Japanese tempura? We were inspired by the fried zucchini blossoms of the Mediterranean, and it turned out
…
Chinese eggplant with garlic sauce, or “fish fragrant eggplant” (yuxiang qiezi) is a familiar dish in many American Chinese restaurants and buffets these days, but it’s also a dish with many authentic variations in China, and we’re long overdue on sharing our version of this much-loved classic. In most cases, Chinese restaurants make this Chinese eggplant with garlic
…
This simple stir fried garlic baby bok choy dish is the way we tend to prepare baby bok choy almost every week. It’s so quick, easy, and healthy. Summer—and with it, grill season—is fast approaching, and I like this garlic baby bok choy as an alternative to just a regular salad as a vegetable side.
…
This Easy Roasted Cauliflower Stir-fry is inspired by a dish that we order at many restaurants around Beijing. When we first arrived here, we immediately set to trying as many restaurants as we could. Many of the Hunan, Sichuan, and “jack-of-all-trades” restaurants (homestyle cooking with no exclusive regional cuisine) feature this “dry pot” (gan guo) dish of
…
Cold dishes are a common appetizer in China, especially in Beijing. All menus have a variety of these cold dishes just as sure as you’ll find mozzarella sticks, wings, and potato skins at a Friday’s. While having a weekday lunch at a regular place I frequent, I decided to order a shredded cabbage dish to get
…
We wanted to feature this Chinese spinach amaranth vegetable on the blog today, because it’s popping up all over the market, and it’s really just a gorgeous, healthy green that you should try if you haven’t already! It’s called “amaranth”, “amaranth greens” or sometimes “Chinese spinach,” and comes in both green and purplish-pink colors. The
…