Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Chinese Food: What's Hot Now: Top Shanghai Recipes

Chinese Food: What's Hot Now
These articles that had the largest increase in popularity over the last week // via fulltextrssfeed.com
Top Shanghai Recipes
Feb 29th 2012, 11:03

Despite being named after the bustling East China seaport, Shanghai cuisine really reflects the cooking styles of neighboring Jiangsu and Anhui provinces. It is characterized by a more liberal use of soy sauce and sugar than other parts of China. Red Cooking â€" slowly simmering poultry in soy sauce and seasonings â€" is a popular cooking technique. You’ll also find a greater use of alcohol: Drunken Chicken is a local specialty. Finally, Shanghai cuisine is famous for its exotic seafood dishes.

1. Beggar's Chicken

According to legend, this dish was invented by a starving beggar who baked a chicken he had caught by covering it in mud and cooking it over an open fire. In this simplified version of the recipe, the chicken is wrapped in aluminum foil before cooking.

Chinese Recipe Name Origins- Learn how other Chinese recipes came by their unusual names.

2. Lion's Head Meatballs

Oversized meatballs, meant to represent lion’s heads, are slowly simmered with bok choy in chicken broth. The shredded bok choy greens represent the lion’s mane.

3. Pearl Balls

Ground pork and seasonings are shaped into meatballs, rolled in glutinous (sticky) rice and steamed. Using glutinous rice makes the balls translucent and “pearl colored" after steaming. Pearl Balls makes an excellent appetizer or a main dish.

4. Drunken Chicken

Designed to be served cold, Drunken Chicken has been marinated overnight or longer in a combination of rice wine or sherry and seasonings. The key to preparing Drunken Chicken is to use a good quality of rice wine or a nice dry sherry.

5. Yangchow Fried Rice

What distinguishes Yangchow fried rice from Cantonese fried rice is that the individual grains of rice are cooked in the egg, and soy sauce, oyster sauce or other seasonings are not added. Cooked ham can be used instead of the roast pork.

6. Four Happiness Pork

Here is another example of red cooking, where pork is slowly simmered in soy sauce, sherry, and seasonings.

7. Soy Sauce Chicken

Soy sauce chicken is an example of "red cooking," where food is slowly simmered in a mixture of soy sauce and seasonings.

8. Shrimp With Green Tea Leaves

Shrimp is stir-fried with Dragon Well green tea leaves, harvested in the hilly regions of Hangzhou in Zheijang province. If Dragon Well is unavailable, substitute another high quality green tea.

9. Sizzling Rice Soup

A restaurant specialty, sizzling rice soup makes crackling sounds when crisp rice is added to the hot broth.

Learn more about how to make sizzling rice (also called crispy rice or rice crusts)

10. 1,000 Corner Shrimp Balls

This recipe can be found in "Everyday Chinese Cooking: Quick and Easy Recipes from the Leann Chin Restaurants," and includes a dipping sauce.

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Chinese Food: What's Hot Now: Wonton With Shrimp and Pork

Chinese Food: What's Hot Now
These articles that had the largest increase in popularity over the last week // via fulltextrssfeed.com
Wonton With Shrimp and Pork
Feb 29th 2012, 11:03

This is a basic recipe for wonton with a pork and shrimp filling. Deep-fry the wonton or boil in soup as desired. For extra flavor, use fresh water chestnuts.

Yields about 35 - 40 wonton

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 pound boneless lean pork
  • 1/2 pound shelled and deveined medium shrimp
  • 3 water chestnuts
  • 2 slices ginger, or as needed to make 1 teaspoon
  • 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
  • 2 teaspoons soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine, dry sherry or rice vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
  • a few drops sesame oil
  • Freshly ground white pepper, to taste
  • Wonton wrappers, as needed

Preparation:

Finely chop the pork and shrimp. Peel the water chestnuts and finely chop. Mince the ginger until you have 1 teaspoon.

Combine the pork and shrimp with the water chestnuts, minced ginger, oyster sauce, soy sauce, rice wine or sherry or rice vinegar, sugar, sesame oil and white pepper.

To fill the wontons, lay one won ton skin in front of you. (Cover the remaining won ton skins with a damp towel to keep them from drying out). Moisten all the edges of the won ton wrapper with water. Place a heaping teaspoon of won ton filling in the center.

Fold the wonton wrapper in half lengthwise, making sure the ends meet. Press down firmly on the ends to seal. Use thumbs to push down on the edges of the filling to center it. Keeping thumbs in place, fold over the wonton wrapper one more time. Push the corners up and hold in place between your thumb and index finger. Wet the corners with your fingers. Bring the two ends together so that they overlap. Press to seal. The finished product should resemble a nurse's cap. Repeat with remaining wontons.

Alternate method: Place the teaspoon of filling in the middle of the wrapper and twist to seal. The final result should resemble a money bag or drawstring purse.

Boiling the wontons: Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the won tons, making sure there is enough room for them to move about freely. Let the wontons boil for 5 - 8 minutes, until they rise to the top and the filling is cooked through. Remove from the pot with a slotted spoon.

Deep-frying the wontons: Heat oil for deep-frying to 360 degrees. Add wonton in small batches and fry, turning occasionally, about 2 minutes or until golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.

Wontons can be prepared ahead of time up to the cooking stage and frozen. Thaw before cooking.

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Chinese Food: What's Hot Now: Fortune Cookie History

Chinese Food: What's Hot Now
These articles that had the largest increase in popularity over the last week // via fulltextrssfeed.com
Fortune Cookie History
Feb 29th 2012, 11:03

Answer: Where does the fortune cookie come from? The easy answer is that the fortune cookie as we know it today - with its distinctive shape and a fortune wrapped inside â€" is not Chinese at all. Modern day fortune cookies first appeared in California in the early 1900’s. Tracking down who invented the cookie that no Chinese take-out or restaurant meal would be complete without is tougher. Most sources credit either Makoto Hagiwara or David Jung. Of the two, Hagiwara, seems to have the stronger claim.

Hagiwara, a Japanese immigrant who had served as official caretaker of the Japanese Tea Gardens since 1895, began serving the cookies at the Tea Garden sometime between 1907 and 1914. (His grandson, George Hagiwara believes the correct date is between 1907 â€" 1909). The cookies were based on Japanese senbei â€" grilled rice wafers. According to some sources; the cookies contained thank you notes instead of fortunes, and may have been Hagiwara’s way of thanking the public for getting him rehired after he was fired by a racist Mayor.

Meanwhile, Canton native David Jung had immigrated to Los Angeles. In 1916 he founded the Hong Kong Noodle Company. He claimed to have invented the fortune cookie around 1918, handing out baked cookies filled with inspiring passages of scripture to unemployed men. However, even the Los Angeles Almanac website admits that there is no surviving documentation showing how he came up with the idea.

In 1983, the San Francisco Court of Historical Review held a mock trial to settle the issue for once and for all. (The Court has no legal authority; other weighty culinary issues they have settled include whether or not chicken soup deserves its reputation as “Jewish Penicillin”). During the trial someone provided the judge with a fortune cookie containing the message: “S.F. Judge who rules for L.A. not very smart cookie.” In fairness to Daniel M. Hanlon, the real-life federal judge who presided over the case, his decision rested on weightier pieces of evidence, including a set of grills. Still, it came as no surprise when the Court sided with Hagiwara and ruled that San Francisco is the birthplace of the fortune cookie.

Equally unsurprising, Angelenos ignored the ruling. Many sources continue to credit Jung with inventing fortune cookies. But for now, Los Angeles (County) will have to be satisfied with being the official birthplace of the Cobb Salad and the Shirley Temple mocktail.

Or maybe not. Yet another possibility is that the fortune cookie was invented by a Japanese American living in Los Angeles. That is the claim of the proprieters of Fugetsu-do confectionary, a family owned and operated bakery in the Little Tokyo district of downtown Los Angeles. According to the Kito family, the idea for the fortune cookie originated with their grandfather, Seiichi Kito, who founded Fugetsu-do in 1903. While the confectionary quickly became famous for its mochi â€" sweet round rice cakes accompanied with everything from sweet red bean paste to peanut butter â€" at some point Kito began making fortune cookies and selling them to Chinese restaurants. According to sources his inspiration was omi-kuji â€" fortunes written on slips of paper found in Japanese Buddhist temples. (Today, you’ll find omikuji-senbei - “fortune crackers” - sold in bakeries in Japan). Their website alludes to a 1927 letter crediting a Japanese American living in Los Angeles with inventing the fortune cookie. Visitors to the shop can still see the original fortune cookie molds on display in the front store window “collecting dust and memories.”

But where does the inspiration for modern-day fortune cookies come from? Despite the fact that fortune cookies have proved about as popular in China as a plate of cooked spinach is to the average five-year old, their origins may be Chinese after all. Every fall (the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar, to be exact) the Chinese celebrate the mid-Autumn Moon Festival. Children hear the legend of how, in the 14th century, the Chinese threw off their Mongol oppressors by hiding messages in Mooncakes (which the Mongols did not like to eat). On the night of the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, the rebels attacked and overthrew the government, leading to the establishment of the Ming dynasty.

Still, a legend is only a legend, no matter how charming. And today's Mooncakes don’t contain messages. But some believe that during the American railway boom of the 1850’s, Chinese railway workers came up with their own substitute for the mooncakes they were unable to buy: homemade biscuits with good luck messages inside.

Like the mooncake legend, no proof for this story exists. And, thanks to the exhaustive efforts of Japanese researcher Yasuko Nakamachi, we now know that at about the same time the Chinese railway workers were laying down track, “tsujiura senbei” (rice cakes containing paper fortunes) were being made at the Hyotanyama Inari shrine outside Kyoto in Japan. Nakamachi uncovered an illustration in an 1878 book showing a man grilling tsujiura senbei outside the shrine. (source: Jennifer 8 Lee, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles).

So, where do fortune cookies come from? At this point, the weight of historical evidence seems to agree with a man interviewed for the movie “The Killing of a Chinese Cookie” who states: “The Japanese invented the fortune cookie, the Chinese advertised it, and the Americans tasted it.” Still, as author Jennifer 8. Lee says, it’s “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside a cookie.”

Learn More Fortune Cookie History
Japanese American Fortune Cookie: a Taste of Fame or Fortune
A History of Fugetsu-Do
Fortune Cookies are Really From Japan - an article by Jennifer 8. Lee Book Review: The Fortune Cookie Chronicles

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Chinese Food: What's Hot Now: St. Patricks Day

Chinese Food: What's Hot Now
These articles that had the largest increase in popularity over the last week // via fulltextrssfeed.com
St. Patricks Day
Feb 29th 2012, 11:03

March 17th is St. Patrick's Day - time to hoist a pint of green beer in honor of Ireland's most renowned personage. The popular saint is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland. Every March 17th, the Irish pay homage to St. Patrick by feasting on traditional Irish dishes.

Birthday for a Buddhist Goddess

Around the same time, the Chinese celebrate the birthday of the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy. Kuan Yin is considered to be the perfect loving mother and the embodiment of compassion. Given these feminine qualities, it is surprising that Kuan Yin was originally thought to be a male god. Worship of Avalokiteshvara, whose name means "observing sounds," or "the lord who takes note of the world," originated in northern India and spread to China by the 1st century AD. It's not clear why the Chinese transformed Avalokiteshavara into a female form, although it may be that they felt the qualities he embodied were more suited to a female deity. In any event, Kuan Yin was widely depicted as a female by the ninth century AD.

It is believed Kuan Yin has the power to relieve suffering and bestow prosperity; women having trouble conceiving pray to Kuan Yin for children. Kuan Yin is sometimes depicted as having one-thousand hands, each with an eye, enabling her/him to direct a compassionate gaze on all of the world's misery.

Although St. Patrick may lack similar powers, he is revered in Ireland for good reason. Born in Britain of Roman descent, as a youth he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and forced into slavery. For six years he labored as a sheep herder before escaping from his master and returning to Britain. Despite this traumatic experience, he returned to Ireland after having a prophetic dream. Once there, he had remarkable success in converting the Irish from paganism to Christianity. (Another story, unproven, is that he drove the snakes away).

There are many legends surrounding Avalokiteshvara, who is probably the most popular of the Buddhist gods. In one legend his head splits with distress over the number of sinning souls in the world to be saved. In another, he cries with exhaustion and his tears turn to lotus flowers. One of the more celebrated legends surrounding St. Patrick has him using the three-leafed shamrock to illustrate the idea of the Holy Trinity (father, son, and Holy Ghost).

While St. Patrick's day falls on March 17th, the birthday of Avalokiteshvara or Kuan-yin is celebrated on the 19th day of the second lunar month. In 2011 this falls on March 23rd. Something else that both of these celebrations have in common is food. Traditional dishes served on St. Patrick's day include soda bread and pigs trotters. Since noodles are associated with longevity in Chinese culture, it is not surprising that vegetarian noodles in soup is the traditional food that marks Kuan-yin's birthday. Other festive dishes are served as well: while some contain poultry and fish, vegetarian food is more common, in accordance with stricter Buddhist beliefs. Some devout Buddhists actually observe a period of fasting starting on the first day of the second moon to give the day more religious significance. Below are some recipes to help you celebrate these two traditional springtime holidays.

"May the road rise to meet you, may the wind always be at your back…May God hold you in the palm of his hand."

(Irish Blessing)

Recipes

St. Patrick's Day Recipes

Barm Brack

Beef and Guinness Pie

Dublin Coddle

Corned Beef and Cabbage Video

Beef Stew and Suet Dumplings

Grilled Pig's Trotters

Irish Colcannon - a simple side dish with mashed potatoes, Kale and spring onion

Apple Barley Bread

Irish Coffee

Chinese Recipes

Chinese Pig's Trotters - a confinement dish with ginger, black fungus, sesame oil, and chilies.

Pig's Trotters - another version with black rice vinegar

Buddhist Sour Soup - with tamarind pulp and giant taro

Buddha's Delight (Jai) (a vegetarian dish served on Chinese New Year Day and other festive occasions)

Stir-fry Fish Cubes

Stir-fried Lettuce - something green for St. Patrick's Day!

Szechuan Guacamole - a fun fusion appetizer that would go great with chips and Irish beer! Learn more about Chinese cuisine by signing up for my free bi-weekly About Chinese Cuisine newsletter

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Chinese Culture: What's Hot Now: 228 Day

Chinese Culture: What's Hot Now
These articles that had the largest increase in popularity over the last week // via fulltextrssfeed.com
228 Day
Feb 29th 2012, 11:06

228 Day is a national holiday on Feb. 28 in Taiwan to remember the victims of the 228 Incident (二二八事件) or 228 Massacre (二二八大屠殺).

What Happened on 2-28?

>p>The February 28 Incident actually began on Feb. 27, 1947. Lin Chiang-mai (林江邁), a widow, was selling cigarettes in a park in Taipei when two agents from the Monopoly Bureau approached her and tried to take her money and goods. At this time, the government had a monopoly on sales of tobacco and alcohol.

Lin resisted and one of the agents hit her in the head with his pistol. The commotion caught the attention of onlookers who gathered around. In an effort to escape the angry mob, one agent fired his gun into the crowd, killing one bystander. The agents ran away, and the crowd burned their truck.

The next day, 2,000 demonstrators walked from the park to the Monopoly Bureau to demand the execution of the two agents, the resignation of the Monopoly Bureau’s director, and a revision of monopoly regulations. Finding the Bureau’s gates locked and guarded, the crowd moved to Governor-general Chen Yi’s (陳儀) office, where guards fired at them. Two demonstrators were killed and several others wounded.

In another part of Taipei, two Monopoly Bureau agents were killed after bystanders saw them allegedly mistreating two children who were selling cigarettes. The angry crowd also ransacked a Monopoly Bureau office. Meanwhile, a radio station reported a demonstration was taking place and scores of people gathered in Taipei’s streets.

Two days later, demonstrations spread throughout Taiwan, including the island’s nine largest cities. Some Taiwanese who had received military training from the Japanese wore their old uniforms while protesting in the streets. Since much of Taiwan’s military and police force had been sent to Mainland China to fight the Chinese Communists in the Chinese Civil War, there wasn’t enough military and police presence to stop the crowds.

Taiwanese not only turned on the Mainlander-dominated provincial government but also vented their frustration on Mainlander civilians too. Some 1,000 Mainlanders were killed. Many went into hiding or barricaded themselves inside government buildings or at a camp in northern Taipei to avoid being killed.

In an effort to end the violence and protests, Chen Yi met with an unofficial group called the Committee to Settle the Monopoly Bureau Incident, which included business professionals and members of government organizations. During negotiations, the Settlement Committee submitted 32 Demands to strengthen provincial self-rule and secure basic political and civil rights.

The demands included: autonomous status for Taiwan as a province of the Republic of China (ROC); increased Taiwanese representation in the provincial government; freedom of speech, press, and assembly; the right to strike; the disbanding of independent police forces; economic reforms, including the abolition of the Monopoly and Trade bureaus; and measures to curb abuses by Mainlander soldiers against Taiwanese civilians, including abolishing the ROC military garrison on the island.

Chen Yi stalled negotiations while requesting military reinforcements from Mainland China. He then denounced the Settlement Committee and reinstituted martial law, which would not be lifted until Jul. 15, 1987. Troops began arriving in Taiwan Mar. 8 and proceeded to rape, loot, and plunder at will. The military regained control of Taiwan’s major cities by Mar. 13 and the rest of the island by Mar. 21.

Once the provincial government had retaken control, a campaign to locate and purge political enemies began. While the government initially reported that only a few hundred Taiwanese were killed, several thousand (some estimate upwards of 20,000) were murdered, thousands were jailed, and roughly 3,000 dissidents fled the island.

The 228 Incident was the beginning of the White Terror (白色恐怖, Báisè KÇ'ngbù) period in Taiwan. During the White Terror, which reached its height in the 1950s and did not end completely until martial law was lifted in 1987, thousands of dissidents were charged as communist subversives and killed or jailed. During this period, public discussion of the 228 Incident was forbidden.

What Led to 228?

From 1895 to 1945, Japan occupied Taiwan. Following Japan’s surrender of Taiwan in 1945, the Nationalist Party-led ROC government took control of Taiwan. Chen Yi was appointed governor of Taiwan.

During this post-War period, there was widespread discontent among Taiwanese with the Mainlander-dominated administration, which many viewed as worse than the previous Japanese colonial authority. Many Taiwanese felt that Mainlanders were draining Taiwan’s wealth and resources and excluding Taiwanese from jobs, especially in the public sector and the military.

As the central government in Nanjing focused on fighting the civil war, many young Taiwanese men were conscripted into the army, sometimes forcibly, and sent to the Mainland to fight the Chinese Communists. The Taiwanese complained of a breakdown in public safety, citing abuses and a lack of discipline on the part of the ROC police and military on the island.

Perhaps the most important factors in sparking the incident were economic. Inflation soared between 1946 and 1947 while the provincial government enforced monopolies over key commodities and nationalized property and assets formerly held by the Japanese colonial authority. The incident on Feb. 27, 1947 was the spark that ignited a firestorm of rage against the government.

What Do People Do on 2-28 Day?

å'Œå¹³ç´€å¿µæ—¥ (Hépíng Jìniànrì, Peace Memorial Day) was not celebrated until after 1995. On Feb. 28, 1995, President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) the first Taiwan-born leader of the post-War period, publicly apologized for the massacre and declared Feb. 28 a national holiday. Lee became the first public official to discuss the taboo subject. The 228 Memorial Museum, located inside the 228 Peace Park (二二八å'Œå¹³ç´€å¿µå…¬åœ') was opened in Taipei in 1997.

Government offices, schools, and most businesses are closed Feb. 28. The president rings a commemorative bell for the victims and bows to the victims’ families. 228 peace parks and monuments have been erected in Taipei and Kaohisung and serve as a constant reminder of the atrocity.

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Chinese Culture: What's Hot Now: Oracle Bone Inscriptions

Chinese Culture: What's Hot Now
These articles that had the largest increase in popularity over the last week // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Oracle Bone Inscriptions
Feb 29th 2012, 11:06

 Related Resources
• Chinese Writing
• Chinese Characters
• Chinese Names
• Dictionary

• Food & Recipes
• Dragon & Phoenix
• Chinese Story
• Articles by Topic
 

Oracle bone inscriptions (or Jia Gu Wen in Chinese Pinyin), the earliest Chinese writing scripts, are the ancient Chinese characters carved on tortoise shells and animal scapulas. The oracle bone inscriptions were mainly used for divination and keeping records of events happened in the late Shang Dynasty (1300 BC - 1046 BC). The bones are invaluable for us to understand the Shang Dynasty.

Discovery
A scholar, Wang Yirong, first found the oracle bone inscriptions in 1899. Some unknown characters on the 'dragon bones,' one of the ingredients of his medicine, caught his attention. The bones were then traced to Anyang in Henan province, the capital of the late Shang Dynasty, where there have been over 150,000 oracle bone inscriptions excavated till today.

Studies
A great deal of knowledge of the Shang Dynasty has been learned from the studies of the oracle bone inscriptions. Many books about the inscriptions were published. The first book by Liu E was published in 1903. A good collection of the inscriptions was published in a book called 'Jiaguwen Heji' by Guo Moruo et al. It includes 41,956 inscriptions selected from the oracle bone inscriptions found before 1973. The total 13 volumes of the book were published during 1978 and 1982. From the studies of many scholars, about 2,000 characters among the more than 4,500 different characters found on the bones have been identified. The remaining unidentified characters are mainly places, names, etc. So experts can basically read the inscriptions now.

Contents of the inscriptions
The inscriptions were mainly used for divination during the Shang Dynasty. The rulers of the Shang Dynasty were very superstitious so divination was basically a daily activity for almost everything, such as weather, health, farming and fortune. The bones not only were used in divination as a tool, but also in recording the activities and results on them. The inscriptions were classified into four categories in the book 'Jiaguwen Heji,' i.e., classes and country, society and production, cultures, and other. The oracle bone inscriptions are the earliest written records discovered in China.

Next page > Chinese Characters

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Chinese Culture: What's Hot Now: Daily Chinese Horoscope: Feb. 28, 2012

Chinese Culture: What's Hot Now
These articles that had the largest increase in popularity over the last week // via fulltextrssfeed.com
Daily Chinese Horoscope: Feb. 28, 2012
Feb 29th 2012, 11:06

Today is day 37 of the lunar calendar. Today is 2-28 Day in Taiwan.

Today is a good day for:

  • Worshipping
  • Starting schooling
  • Meeting friends
  • Repair
  • Groundbreaking
  • Moving in beds
  • Pest control
  • Burial

Today is a bad day for:

Lucky Hours:

3am-7am, 9am-3pm

Unlucky Hours:

1am-3am, 3pm-5pm, 7pm-11pm

See more daily horoscopes:

Daily Chinese Horoscope: Feb. 2012

Daily Chinese Horoscope 2012

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