seasonal dessert recipe

in this season, Guangzhou rains a lot. it almost rain few times a day, or keep raining all day long. the weather is humid and you will feel tacky and very sleepy all the time. so  in the season, Cantonese will eat something which helps the body to dehydrate. you can also drink a cup of coffee to achieve that, but for non coffee drinkers, I would like to introduce this recipe of dessert. 

red bean sweet soup

use your hand to measure

(serve 3-4 people) 

1. red bean              3  grabs

2. red ricebean        1 grab

3. coix seed              1 grab

4. rice                         1 grab

5. figs                        few (depend on your favour)

6. dates                    3-5 

7. jaggery                 1 (depend on your favour)

a. soak the fist 4 ingredients over night.

b. put everything into a pot, pour in  about a liter of water. 

c. cook until it was boiled. 

d. pour in a slow cooker and keeping cooking for about an hour. if you didn't have a slow cooker, use the same pot, and turn the fire to smallest after it was boiled, and keep cooking for about an hour.

e. put a slid of jaggery, and keep cooking until it was melted. 

Recipe：Cantonese dessert---Papaya Tremella fuciformis sweet soup 木瓜炖雪耳

My mum's little papaya tree harvested 4 large papaya recently. we gave some to friends and left one for me. but the papaya is too big too eat it in one time, so I have to think about use it to make some dessert. today I made Papaya Tremella Fuciformis sweet soup.  

Ingredients:  serves 4 people 

Papaya  some,  diced 
Tremella Fuciformis   1/2 bloom
Sugar    1/4 cup of cube sugar 
                1/2 piece of jaggery sugar     if you cannot found these sugar, you can use white sugar

few slices of ginger               

all ingredients can be found in supper market, both Chinese and Thai supper market. 



how to choose Tremella Fuciformis:
avoid to buy those are extremely white. the one showed on the first picture is the good quality one. my friend brought from Taiwan.   

You can found the left one are much whiter than those on the right. It is might be treat by  sulphur dioxide. it is really difficult to buy non sulphur dioxide  treated tremella fuciformis in China, (food security has been a problem~). so I suggest to sock the  tremella fuciformis  and leave it over night. I allergic with sulphur dioxide, so I have to make sure it was erased before cook.  

sock it over night, and you will see their volume has enlarged a lot.

wash them again then put into the slow cooker along with the diced papaya. 

add some water in about 1L, when choose the mode of making soup. 

for those use fire stoves: strong fire cook until boiled, then turn into small fire and keep cooking for about 30 mins .

cube sugar

jaggery sugar

add sugar in and raise the temperature and cook the soup until the sugar was melted.  

serve in hot. or 

put it into fridge after the soup to cool down to room temperature. 

 most of people will use cube sugar, but I would like to add half jaggery sugar.

why? different sugar actually taste slightly different, you can do some experiment, and try to found out what fit your favour.  But I think this combination tasted better. 

 tremella fuciformis is quite equivalent to bird nest,  both of them full of collagen, which is good to skin and lung!!!!  while its price is just 1/10 of bird nest. 

the beauty expert Paula Begoun said when wrinkles appears on your skin, it is almost impossible to get ride of them, skin care products are only visually help you to solve the problem. collagen can help you to prevent wrinkles.   

Recipe：Cantonese dessert Papay milk pudding 木瓜炖蛋

An easy homemade Cantonese dessert.

Ingredients: (serves 2 people) 

Milk X1 bottle ( about 220ml ) I prefer buffalo milk,Canton is a region that produce very good buffalo milk.  egg  X1
sugar 2-3 table spoon (depend on your favour)
papaya ,diced, some

1. prepare ingredients 

2. bit the egg gently with a fork, try to not creat too much bubbles.

3. when you feel the liquid became mixed, add in sugar.

4. when they were mixed, gradually pour in milk, and simultaneously whisk the mixture gently until it was fully mixed. 

     

5. pour the mixture into 2 rice bowls, and add in some diced papays.

6. put then into the steamer, and steam about 10-15 mins ( time depands on the power of your stoves)

voilà~how easy to make! the process is less than 20 mins. serve in hot or put in fridge to chill it. 

its up to you, 

enjoy it!  

local restaurant Guangzhou --- Xiang Qun Restaurant 向群饭店

Recently recommended this restaurant to a Japanese friend, then he told me he and his friends extremely satisfied with it. he said, this is really local, really Cantonese. to be honest, i will not recommend this restaurant unless a friend really required a local atmosphere. the food is good there is no doubt,just... there is once, i took female friends to this restaurant, they really hate here. and since then i really careful to recommend it. 

if you OKAY with second hand smoke, loud talking(if you understand Cantonese, it is quite funny to hear what people is talking about. they use really funny local slang), squeezed seat, only serve cheap tea...just for enjoying food, and get close to local life, there defiantly the right place. and their waitress are all really nice.

 food that I recommend

1.Scallion ginger soya source chicken  姜葱淋鸡

2. 捞肚尖 

this I don't know how to translate. 肚尖 is a part of an organ of a pig, but I really don't know which part, although the waitress has explained.... if you don't accept organ, DO NOT order this. 

how is was tasted? --- crunchy

ingredients : Scallion, ginger, coriander, soya source and 肚尖 

3. sweet and sour fried fish with cedar nut 松子鱼

4. stew goose 碌鹅

5. Cantonese roast pork  叉烧

6. Soup of the day  例汤

soup of the day is a must have. soup  is a very important part of the Cantonese culture. 'soup of the day' use the seasonal ingredients, which fit the our body's needs of nutrient in the current climate. 

Address: No 853-857 Long Jin East Lu, Li Wan District. Guangzhou

 荔湾区 龙津东路853-857号(近光复北路)

Tel: 020-81885146

it is better to reserve a table in advance, the restaurant is always full.

Nearest Metro: Xi Men Kou 西门口

The Chen Academy 陈家祠 

traditional snacks in the old town: Shang Xia Jiu pedestrian street上下九步行街

Shang Xia Jiu (上下九) is one of the pedestrian street in Guangzhou. initially, the street was created to let tourist feel the local culture. 19th century Cantonese style building can been seen on the street. however, the street currently become a commercial street. all the shops sell cheap and bad quality apparels.
  but in this area, you can find the most local  flavor of snacks.

Caution: there are a lot of pickpocket on this street, so you must watch out your wallet and mobile all the time.
and I don't suggest you go there on weekend, unless you want to experience what is so called "people mountain people sea"（人山人海）.

1. Chan Tim Kee Fish skin  陈添记鱼皮

this small restaurant is located in a small alley, quite difficult to be found if you didn't ask for direction. but if you had asked, just ask someone in the nearby shops, you must found it. the restaurant is in an old Xi Guan Style building. 

they was given a good food certificate by a famous foodie. 

only three type of food on the menu

1.traditional little boat porridge  7 CNY (it was selling on the boat, so the name was gained. ingredients: fish,egg,pork,peanuts, rice and scallion) 

2. steam rice rolled noodles with soya source  3CNY   (ingredients: rice, soya source, white sesame seed )

3. crunchy fish skin  22CNY  (fish skin, sesame seed, sesame oil, peanut, ginger,coriander and scallion)

this is the fish skin, their famous product! Yummy! I love it! 

from left to righ: fish skin, porridge, rice rolled noodles

the restaurant is on this street: BaoHua Lu. If you were walking on this street, search this  road board, and the jewellery shop, the alley of the restaurant is just on the left of the road board.   

when you walk in the alley, you will found a lot friendly people telling you they are selling fish skin, ignore them ! that is the fake restaurant! the real Chan Tim Kee is the second restaurant on the alley.just keep walking until you have seen the Chan Tim Kee trade mark.  

2. Shun Kee ice cream

just the alley next to Chan Tim Kee, you can find Shun Kee ice cream shop. if you ask staffs in Chan Tim Kee, they will tell you how to come here.

it was an ice cream shop, but nowadays sell other kinds of food. it became a cantonese fast food restaurant. you will find rice, noodles, soup, snacks and desserts here. 

but the most famous food here, is --- coconut  ice cream! 

ice cream menu was highlighted. you can find many aspects of ice cream here, such as, mango, and durian ice cream. but the most famous one is ---- coconut ice cream!  13CNY for one scoop. it taste as good as the gelato in Rome. 

3. Man Kee Yi Xin Chicken  文记一心鸡

if you asked who makes the best chicken in the world, I can tell you it is not KFC, cantonese do much better than it. if you walk out from the front door of Shun Kee Ice Cream, cross the road, and go into the alley which on your right hand side, you will easily find Man Kee Yi Xin Chicken restaurant. try the canontese taste of chicken cuisine. 

4. Ginger vinegar  

if you walk on the Shang Xia Jiu pedestrian street, keep walking until you see a famous restaurant Taotao Ju （陶陶居）,then ask people in the shop near by: where is the Shi Ba Pu Avenue  ( 十八浦大街 )? they will show you the way. and you will found the avenue is just a small alley. walk into the alley you will easily found some small shops selling Ginger vinegar. 

what is Ginger vinegar? it is a very nutrient food. Cantonese make ginger vinegar for pregnant women few days before giving birth. this nutrient food can help women's recovery of health. and also the family will give some ginger vinegar for friends to share their happiness. 

Ginger vinegar contains ginger, sweet vinegar, pork feet and eggs. it taste sweet and sour, you will feel the aroma of ginger but won't taste too much flavour of spice. ginger help to keep the body warm, pork feet contains a lot of collagen and calcium, and eggs contains protein, I think vinegar help all this element to be assimilated. one of my French friend questioned if animal collagen can be assimilated by human being. well, believe or not, the traditional Chinese medical science say 'yes'. which means eating skin is good for skin. this is a food for ladies. 

when you walk into the alley, the first ginger vinegar shop on your left--- Sam Ban Foo (三板斧姜醋）, is the best tasted,  however, I much prefer to go to the third shop:  How Jee ginger vinegar （好姐姜醋）. as I like the owner How Jee's  sweet personality. she is very talkative and always show her friendly smile. 

eggs is my  favourite part of ginger vinegar, in a cold weather, to have a bow of ginger vinegar, the whole body will just warm! 

you can also find other kind of food here. one of my favourite is -- blood jelly. you may think it is bloody and scary. Muslim, Jewish and many western people don't eat blood, but chinese is a very eco nation, since an animal has sacrificed, we must thank it and try to don't waste any part of its body. not mentioned that, traditional Chinese medical science thinks pig blood is good for lung.

it tastes salty, as salt was used to make the pig blood solidificated.

if you are open minded about food, you will enjoy a lot time in this area. 

I also made a phase table of these shops and  food names. print it out, and it can be made as a small card for you to ask for direction, and order food. 

 if you still don't know how to get there, don't hesitate to email me. I might show you around the area if i were free.