What about tea?

Pouring tea
Originally uploaded by KaiChanVong

When you visit a more formal dim sum or Chinese restaurant, you'll be asked for which tea you'd like to be served.

Some of the more traditional places may serve:

Pu-erh (or Bo-Lay) - red tea made from a "large leaf" variety of the tea plant and named after Pu'er county in China. It has mellow or "earthy" taste.

Tie Guan Yin or "iron Buddha" - is a premium variety of Chinese oolong tea (see also below) associated with Anxi, which is in the Fujian province in China. It has an orchid fragrance and heavy yet pure aroma. If it's served in a small and exquisite tea set, by smelling it first and then tasting it, you will have endless aftertaste in your mouth.

If you get a funny look, just ask for one of these:

Oolong - a traditional Chinese tea which is commonly brewed to be strong with a slight bitterness and at the same time having a sweet aftertaste.

Jasmine - tea made from Green or Pouchong tea leaves that are scented with jasmine flowers

Chrysanthemum - tea made from Chrysanthemum flowers having a soft to bright yellow in color and a floral aroma.

Chrysanthemum tea
Originally uploaded by **Shutterbug Gal**

My favorite is probably the Oolong. Its rich flavor nicely offers a nice cleansing balance when enjoying heavier dim sum dishes.

One important thing, when you run out of tea, be sure to open up the tea kettle cap and leave it tilted so the waiter/waitress knows you need a refill.

Sources: Wikipedia and ChinaCulture.org

Onion Pancake

Onion Pancake
Originally uploaded by goyumcha

I hardly buy scallions because they dry up fast and they're usually the first to go in my fridge. So, with a giant bulb of onion left over from making curry puffs earlier this week, I used that instead to make a modified version of the pancake --- the onion pancake with snow pea garnish.

The recipe I used is adapted from Food Network with slight modifications. Mine is fluffier than the ones I buy from the takeouts probably because (1) I did not roll it out and (2) it's loaded with onions (my husband loves onions.)

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Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup sliced scallions (or onions in my case)
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1/2 cup canola oil
Salt and black pepper to taste

Directions

In a bowl, sift flour. Slowly add water in a steady stream while mixing with a wooden spoon. Keep adding water until a ball is formed. [A food processor can be used to mix the dough.] Let the ball of dough relax for about 30 minutes and cover with damp cloth.

On a floured surface, roll out dough into a thin rectangle. Brush on oil mixture, cover with scallion and season with salt and pepper. Carefully roll dough like a sponge cake. Cut into 4 pieces. Take one piece and twist 3 times. Make a spiral out of this and roll again and flatten to achieve a 5 to 6 inch pancake. In a hot non-stick pan, coat with canola oil and pan sear both sides until golden brown. Cut into wedges and serve immediately.

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Prep + cooking time took about 30 minutes. I was about to make 6 fluffy pancakes from this mix.

For the garnish, I sliced snow peas and quickly stir-fried it in the same pan for less than 1 minute.

Sweet Mandarin Cookery School to Teach Dim Sum & Chinese Cooking this Sat Feb 28

Sweet Mandarin Cookery School, an award winning Chinese restaurant and cookery school in Manchester, UK, will be presenting its first cookery school live via Twitter this Saturday at 10 AM UK time.

There's a recipe sheet available for download and to follow along during class. Included are recipes for Sweet and Sour Pork/Chicken and Prawn Toast and other basic Chinese dishes and how tos. This will be interesting. I've never been big on Twitter and definitely look forward to seeing how this class will turn out.

And for those not in the Western European Time Zone, here's a website that can help convert 10AM UK to your time http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/gmt-converter.htm.

Egg White Custard

Chinatown/ NYC
Originally uploaded by nicknamemiket

I love to indulge every now and then and ignore the doctor's advice of staying away from heart-clogging and super-nausea-causing sweets. Many times, I just don't know what really goes into my favorite foods until I start to make it myself. Sometimes the ingredients are just over the top, e.g., lard, re-used oil, etc.

Years ago, as a college experiment, I made egg custards from scratch. They looked, smelled, and tasted awesome. But knowing that they were comprised of well, eggs...many many eggs... it never appealed to me after that. Here's one rendition of the traditional egg custard recipe.

Luckily, Egg Custard King came up with a healthier alternative - the egg white custard. It was nice - light and fluffy - and it still has the same custardy taste as its richer counterpart.

Homemade Curry Puffs

I just spent the last 2 hours slaving away making 3 dozen curry puffs. My husband devoured a dozen in 15 minutes.