Tag Archives: chinese

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I have something to confess- I hate holidays. I mean I LOVE Halloween, but I am not fond of the food traditions for American holidays. Unless I am making my own spread, I am not a fan of Thanksgiving. It usually involves me asking my husband what he wants, and then making it. My family on the other hand- seems to love it. But if you left it to me, I would rather be eating Chinese take out. I am pretty sure last year we had no Christmas dinner planned with family members and I told Jon all I wanted to Chinese take out. He thought I was kidding. I WAS NOT. We got home from his parents, and I sulked that it was too late to get general tso tofu, and he just stared at me in disbelief. He offered to get Chinese the next day, and it is never the same.

So my happy vegan memory was when I was able to get that Chinese take out. I can’t remember the exact year, but at some point in high school, I remember spending the 4th of July with my Mother. It was pretty un-American. We ordered Chinese food, watched Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, then watched the fireworks from our front yard (barely.) *sigh* Those days are over. Especially my favorite thing about the 4th of July, the fireworks display in Red Bank has been stopped, which is shame.

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I don’t know what I got that night, but there is a good chance it was spring rolls, various apps, and possibly moo shu. I don’t know when I first discovered this dish, but it is one of my take out favorites. For starters you get SO much of it. It is pretty much a veggie stir fry that you serve in little pancakes with hoisin sauce. Traditionally you use pork, but any Chinese take out place will make it vegan, or any meat of choice. 

I rarely get it anymore, mostly because I might get Chinese take out once or twice a year. But making it at home is super easy. In fact, it is much faster when you use a food processor to shred all the veggies. Make prep easy, and the clean up mostly just a food processor, wok, and cutting board. To make the recipe easier I used pre-baked tofu from a local tofu factory. But you can make your own 5-spice baked tofu.

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Most everything is cheap and easily accessible in an American super market. But there are two ingredients that might be hard. The American version of this dish is served with a thin Chinese pancake called a spring pancake. I’ve read reviews saying you can find these in the refridgerator section of Asian food markets. You can use a flour tortilla that you would use for a taco (that’s what I did) or you can serve it next to rice, which is the traditional Chinese way of serving the dish.

I used small oyster mushrooms for this dish, but you can use any type of mushrooms you like. I would try and stick to something like button mushrooms, shiitake, or baby bellas. Thinly slice the mushrooms so they are small and fit well in the wraps.

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I received this book as a Christmas gift. It seemed like a well thought out gift since I love Asian cuisine and I am a vegan. I was pretty excited about the book since it featured recipes outside of popular regions. Hema Parekh reaches out further than India, Japan, and China and puts recipes from Burma, Malaysia, Vietnam, and South Korea. Parekh writes about how she got married and moved out of India to Japan, where she learned to cook. The book is a mixed bag of emotions for me, as I feel like there could of been so much potential for it.

Photos

All the photos are clustered in the middle of the book. I hate this sort of set up, especially since the book is divided by country instead of food “types.” The style of photography is very outdated, all the dishes have clay-red hue. I don’t think there was a photo that I saw and thought- that’s what I want to try and make. 

I wish there were more photos as most cookbooks featuring specific regions of cooking have recipes for dishes I’ve never heard of. So having a photo would help me visualize what the end result should look like. This particularly important for dishes where presentation is very important like dumplings and Japanese cuisine.

Set-up

I can’t help but compare this book to Vegan Eats World by Terry Hope Romero. Terry features cuisine from a larger range of countries, and organizes all the recipes by styles, soups, salads, curries/stews, etc, etc. Parekh on the other hand groups all the recipes by nations, then divides them up by style. So there would be a chapter from India, then listed in that chapter would be soups, desserts, curries, rice, etc. In some ways it is an easier for planning dinners, in other ways it is hard to search around. Especially since many dishes overlap each other. Dumplings are eaten outside of China, so if I was planning a meal I could include them as a side for most dinners.

The book has an introduction but only as a way for the author to say hello. She jumps into the recipes, which would be find if the purpose of the book was not to teach a new cuisine. It would of been nice to have an overview of the ingredients, subtle differences between noodles, and rice types over the countries. There is an ingredients reference at the end of the book, but I didn’t find it till I got towards the end. If anything she could of put page numbers next to ingredients to help guide readers.

The visual representations of the recipes is okay. Since the photos aren’t set up next to the recipes it can be a little frustrating and demanding of the imagination of the reader. The text for the ingredients are small, making it harder to try and piece together the end result.

Writing

There is a lot of confusion in the book, much of it is cultural. Parekh is writing as an Indian living in Japan, which makes the translated names of the dishes confusing. She lists the dish as an English translation, then puts the original name in small text next to it. For example samosas are listed as Crispy Pumpkin Turnovers (the recipe mentions how they normally made with potatoes, not pumpkin) This translation problem continues with ingredients and dishes as she mentions the japanese translation over the English. The most obvious example is that she gives a recipe for Chinese dumplings, but lists them as “gyoza.” This isn’t a problem if you know some Japanese cuisine, but most American’s would recognize dumpling over gyoza.

Aside from the cultural issues, I’ve spotted several spelling/typing errors. There are even issues with recipes, as she leaves out when to add ingredients to recipes. These are not issues that only happened once, but several times. Clearly this was a rushed publication.

Overview

Parekh’s life story seems to shape the outcome of the book. There is a large bias for Indian and Japanese food. Those two chapters make up at least half of the recipes, pushing the other nations into weak collections. This bias extends to the ingredients, listing them under their Japanese names. For example many of the noodle listed for China are of Japanese styled noodles. Yes, there is style overlapping, and some differences. But the point is that if you are making a Chinese sesame noodle, it probably doesn’t call for udon noodles.

This naturally creates confusion for the book. This is a book written by a woman in Japan, for people who probably don’t live in Asia. Some ingredients are going to be easy to find, some will not be. Because of this reason it would be extremely helpful to have a very detailed ingredients guide. Going into detail about common ingredients, and what would be good replacements. Some recipes already do this, some don’t. It also worth mentioning that I live in a culturally diverse area, I live near a Korean, South East Asian, and Indian market. I am sure there are more ethnic markets, I just never found them yet. Some ingredients are hard to find, or are very seasonal.

My other problem with the book is that is wavers back and forth from super authentic to completely not. I have no problem from straying away from tradition and giving a fun twist to a recipe. But in some ways it seems that Parekh doesn’t change things in ways that could honestly make them better. There isn’t ANY innovations to try and add more flavors. Many of us know that Asian cooking use fish and meat by products (think oyster sauce). Parekh seems to take a recipe, remove the offending ingredients, like maybe fish sauce, and calls it quits. This leaves many bland recipes. Nor does Parekh seem fully educated about vegan products, listing one recipes with worcestershire sauce, which contains anchovies. Yes there are vegan versions, but they aren’t common.

I have to say I am sorely disappointed with this cookbook. It was rushed, and I am unsure of who the audience is. Is it for people who live in Asia with easy access to the ingredients? Or is it for anyone, anywhere in the world? I can say there I found some inspiration in the recipes, but mostly because I wanted to make them taste better. All dishes seemed pretty bland and relied heavily on fats, which I am not particularly fond of. 

Recipes

This cookbook I tried my best to pick at least on recipe from each country spotlighted in the book. Since there were a lot of recipes featured from Japan and India, there is naturally more recipes tested from those countries.

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Man, now that Vegan Mofo is over, my reading material has completely changed. Plus my mind has shifted gears. I am looking at old post drafts and thinking “Oh yeah, I should still post that!” But I think this week’s collection of reading materials really shows the shift. Yeah, some are vegan. Some aren’t. Some are VERY VERY not vegan. I debate how it relates to this blog even. But I just thought it was so cool that I had to share.

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Not All Who Blogs Bakes by Specs and the City

Melissa has a super cute photo collection of her recent baking journey. Not many words, but sometimes I think visuals are more powerful. I have a lot of beef with pinterest and blog. It creates weird standards. Perfect homes, crafts, cupcakes, holiday decor, clothes, drawings, cupcakes, cupcakes, oh and cupcakes. 

It seems that every blogger bakes and crafts, and that might not be everyone’s thing. It seems that there a cliches that are forming for female bloggers. Baking and fashion seems to go hand in hand. Melissa just made a photo series of her fight against blogging stereotypes rather that writing about it.

Side note- I am always down with ice cream and beer.

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The Future of Animal Rights & Vegan Teen Tips by The Vegan R.D

I think it is important that parents learn about veganism when their kids make the transition. There is a lot of confusion and myths that surround veganism, which can scare parents. Educating parents help keep them active with their children’s interest, and understand them better. It might not convert them, but might cut in their animal consumption.

The article gives some basic tips to make eating easier for teens. Parents can use the information for tips on what to look out for with their kids needs. Some tips are just for easy preparations. For example they suggest freezing extra grains for easy reheating. A tip that helps everyone out really.

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How to Dye Your Armpits by Offbeat Home

There seems to be a lot more buzz about armpit hair. I shave my armpits. I just don’t like the feel of hair there, and I have no idea how my husband bears it. I am fairly certain if I was a man I would still be shaving my armpits. But I really applaud women who are stepping up and are willing to let it all grow out because they just don’t like to shave there. It has become a HUGE social taboo. If I didn’t shave my legs, it would be okay. But armpits? It would make me a social outcast.

As I mentioned before, visuals can be louder than words. Something about saying “I want my armpits to match my cute hair” is a big smack in the face to social norms. It something that is really weird, but it looks so rad.

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Chinese Space Children Painting

I’ve got a weird soft spot for Soviet Realism and art for communist propaganda. Then there is the weird world of Chinese Space art. I’ve seen a few before, as a way to get children excited about space travel. But some paintings are simply put odd. Many include traditional gods and goddesses waving to children in space. Other make little to no sense, like a naked baby talking on the phone. This small collection is really fun, and I hope everyone else enjoys them as much as I do.

Yeah, this link has little to do with food, fashion, feminism, but it does have to do with art (my love) and little with Sailor Moon (both Alexa and my love). I mean Sailor Moon comes from a space colony from the moon. So these kids are just trying to find her. Right?

Jessica’s Feminized Atmosphere by The Daily Show

Both Alexa and I have had our fair share of cat calls when living in Philadelphia and New York City. Some people find it flattering, most don’t. I know that once I moved back to the burbs it really has made me paranoid. I cringe at thought of passing by men and construction sites on my walk to work. Most of the time it is honking from cars rather than shouts.

I love this short by Jessica Williams. She pokes a little fun at the situation, and brings some awareness of how messed up cat calling can get. And I can totally relate. I avoided walking by one side of a HOSPITAL since I was constantly being harassed by the men. Seriously, a hospital.

I remember having even guys at my school get cat called by other men. This really creeped them out, and probably helped them understand how girls feel. I mean shouldn’t they feel complimented that all these guys think they look good? Duh, no. It’s creepy and annoying. Yes, some people like it, but most people don’t.