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Showing posts with label pork. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pork. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Homemade Cantonese Soup—Ching Po Leung


Cantonese cuisine is famous for its slow-cooked soup (called lo foh tong in Cantonese dialect). The Cantonese soup is a clear, non-oily and non-greasy broth, simmering with Chinese herbs and meat. It is a must-have dish at a traditional Cantonese family dinner, because people in Canton believe that the slow-cooked soup is good for their health.
I haven’t found any real authentic Cantonese soup at any restaurant in Boston so far, so let’s homemade one of the most famous traditional slow-cooked soups--Ching Po Leung, with only 10 simple and easy steps!
Ching Po Leung (a mix of Chinese herbs)
Ingredients: two pound of pork chop, one bag of Ching Po Leung (which is a mix of Chinese herbs that you can find at any Chinese supermarket), salt
Cooker: a pot that can hold at least half a gallon water (around 8-10 bowls of water)
Step 1: cut pork chop into chunks
Step 2: boil one gallon of water in the pot
Step 3: put the cut pork into the boiling water for 5 mins
Step 4: take pork chop out of boiling water, and wash them with cold water (it helps to wash off the fat of pork chop, so the broth is clear and non-oily)
cut, boiled, washed pork chop chunks
Step 5: wash the Ching Po Leung with cold water.
7 kinds of Chinese herbs in Ching Po Leung: on the left, from top--Jade Bamboo, Dried Foa Nuts, Lily Pulp & Barley
on the right, from top--Lotus Seed, Longan Meat & Chinese Yam
Step 6: put the washed Ching Po Leung and pork chop and half a gallon water into the pot
washed Ching Po Leung in the pot
washed pork chop and Ching Po Leung in the pot
Step 7: boil the water, and then turn down the cooking heat to slow till the water is boiling
Step 8: slow cook the soup for an hour and a half
this is how it looks after an hour and a half!
Step 9: add salt according your personal preference, and then the soup is ready to serve!
yummy soup served in a bowl
Enjoy your homemade delicious and healthy Ching Po Leung soup :)

Monday, November 15, 2010

BEST Summer Rolls in Allston


Besides Pho (Vietnamese noodle soup), Le’s Restaurant has the BEST summer rolls I’ve ever tasted in Allston!
Summer Rolls
Fresh Summer Rolls (GOI CUON in Vietnamese) have fresh and nutritious ingredients like “shredded lettuce, mint and rice vermicelli”, and you can choose either “sliced pork, shrimp” or “a traditional combination of sliced pork and shrimp”.
fresh ingredients
All the ingredients are wrapped into “a softened rice paper”, which is so delicately made that you can see the ingredients through the rice paper. The low-fat rolls taste so fresh and flavorful, with peanut dipping sauce.
transparent rice paper
Fresh summer rolls also have vegetarian options, served with tofu.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Hong Kong Style BBQ in Chinatown


In Hong Kong, BBQ meat is one of the very important dishes at family dinner, as well as in big holiday feast. Vihn-Sum BBQ restaurant, located at 58 Beach Street, Boston, MA 02228, has some of the best Hong Kong style BBQ meat in Chinatown.
The restaurant doesn’t have much decoration, but it is very clean and spacious, with two floors.
We ordered a BBQ combo including everything—roast duck, roast pork (char siu), roast pork chop, and roast pig (siu yuk). All of the BBQ meat were authentically and traditionally grilled, very juicy and tender! Yum yum!
Hong Kong Style BBQ (from top: roast pork chop, roast pork, roast duck & roast pig)
They also have a take-out BBQ booth, where the skillful butchers cut the BBQ meat quickly and precisely according to your order!
Another dish we ordered was Shredded Chicken. It was a cold dish that came with a lot of vege like carrots, tomatoes, green pepper and red pepper, and white sesame on top. Not really Hong Kong/Cantonese style shredded chicken, so I don’t recommend it…
Shredded Chicken
Vihn-Sun also has a broad Hong Kong style menu, from sandwich, congee to milk tea. I’ll follow up with another review about it soon!!

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Taiwanese food in Allston


One really good Taiwanese restaurant in Allston is Jo Jo Taipei (I had a post about its lunch special earlier). Today, let's explore some of its best authentic Taiwanese dishes. Hope you are excited like me!! :)
“Three Cups” Chicken is a very popular dish in Taiwan, and the name “Three Cups” is originally from the three cups of required sauce for this dish, including soy sauce, rice wine and sesame oil. It comes in small portion, but still a small pot of delicious chicken. Recommend it!
“Three Cups” Chicken
Pork Chops with Sweet and Sour Sauce is a typical dish from Southern China, tender pork chops perfectly seasoned with homemade sweet and sour sauce, yum!
Pork Chops with Sweet and Sour Sauce
Sauteed Pig’s Kidney with Chili Sauce: I know I know, it is pig’s kidney, but if you wanna try something new and authentic like several of my friends, I think there is a good chance that you’d love the perfectly cooked dish with onion, green and red pepper. It is mild spicy though.
Sauteed Pig’s Kidney with Chili Sauce
Salted Fried Jumbo Crab: the flavor and the seasoning were great, but the crab was not that jumbo… The crab was so skinny, and honestly I could get much meat from the crab… It should be a perfect dish during the crab season though!
Salted Fried Jumbo Crab
Bow Bin: snowy-like crushed ice with fresh, homemade, sweet toppings (including red bean, jelly, etc.), and dressed with corn syrup and condensed milk. It is just a perfect refreshing dessert to finish off a big and satisfying meal!
Bow Bin

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Cantonese Noodle in Newton

Today, my badminton teammies and I really craved for Cantonese noodles, and really wanted to explore one new restaurant that we have never been to, so we decided to try this noodle house—No.1 Noodle House, located at 51 Langley Road, Newton Center, MA 02459.


It is petite noodle house, nothing fancy about it. Like in a fast-food place, we ordered our noodles at the counter, and grabbed chopsticks and napkins by ourselves, but the only difference was that our waitress brought the dishes to our table. The owner and most of the staff are friendly Cantonese people.

I really recommend their Laksa, which is coconut milk and curry noodle soup. We ordered two Laksa—Seafood Laksa and B.B.Q. Pork Laksa. The noodle soup is a perfect combination of slightly sweet coconut milk and mild spicy curry. Yummy!
Seafood Laksa
B.B.Q. Pork Laksa
I don’t recommend any of their Stir Fried Noodles. We order two of them—Beef Stir Fried Noodle and Seafood Stir Fried Noodle, both of which were dry and had plain flavors…

Beef Stir Fried Noodle
Seafood Stir Fried Noodle

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Sichuan Food in Cambridge


After the Sichuan intro in last post, now let's taste some real authentic Sichuan cuisine!!

Thailand Café, located at 302 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, is actually a Sichuan cuisine restaurant, despite its name—I am still confused why it is called that way. It is not a spacious and fancy decorated restaurant, but it is close to Harvard and MIT, and it has some good dishes (not every dish is great though). Here are the dishes we ordered:
Roast beef, tongue & tripe with chili-peanut vinaigrette: it is a hot appetizer. It is one of the best house special dishes. Tender beef with flavorful chili-peanut vinaigrette. Yummy! Strongly recommend it if you are into spicy food.
Roast beef, tongue & tripe with chili-peanut vinaigrette
Poached chicken with chili sauce: it is a hot appetizer. Tender chicken with authentic Sichuan chili sauce, and a mixed flavor if you eat it with the peanut on the top. Another dish I'd recommend :)
Poached chicken with chili sauce
Double cooked Chinese style bacon: it is not a spicy dish, so you might want to try it if you are not a big fan of spicy food. But I’ve had better in other restaurants which I’ll write about later.
Double cooked Chinese style bacon
Chong Tsing dry hot chicken: not recommend—it is supposed to be a hot dish, but to me, it is neither dry nor hot enough.
Chong Tsing dry hot chicken
Braised whole fish with Sichuan chili sauce: not recommend—it is supposed to be a spicy dish, but still, it is not spicy enough, and it even tasted a little bit sweet…
Braised whole fish with Sichuan chili sauce


Szechuan Beef on FoodistaSzechuan Beef

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Sichuan Brunch in Belmont


HI foodies, how do you like the previous post on Shanghai brunch? I hope you love brunch as I do, because... we are gonna do Sichuan (which is spelt as Szechuan in many Chinese restaurants) brunch today!!

Shangri-La, located at 149 Belmont Street, Belmont, MA, 02478, is the place my friends and I would go to when we crave for a traditional Sichuan brunch. Be aware that they are usually super busy on weekends. Here are the dishes we ordered:

Roast beef in soy sauce (cold dish): perfectly cooked beef, chewy but not too chewy, not like the well-done steak nor the soft stewed beef.
Roast Beef in Soy Sauce
Beef noodle soup: tender beef and soft and thick noodles with flavorful soup.
Beef Noodle Soup
Five flavor beef with pancake: I don’t know for sure if it has exact five flavor, but definitely tasty beef and crispy pancake.
Five Flavor Beef with Pancake
Steamed pork chop with rice flour: a traditional Sichuan dish that not every Chinese restaurant has to offer. A mixed flavor with soft pork chop and sticky rice—strongly recommend it if you have never tried.
Steamed Pork Chop with Rice Flour

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Chinese Lunch Special in Allston

For Chinese food lovers, one advantage of living in Allston is that you can easily find a decent, authentic and inexpensive Chinese lunch special around the neighborhood.

Jo Jo Taipei, located at 103 Brighton Ave, Allston, MA 02134, is one of my roomies’ and my favorite places when we crave for good Chinese food for lunch but don’t wanna spend too much money and time.

From Monday to Friday, each lunch special combo costs $6.99, including a soup, dish and rice. Pretty good deal! Here are four combos that my roomies and I had for lunch today. Yum yum :)
Shredded Pork with Garlic Sauce
Beef Sauteed with Long Horn Peper
Fish Fillet with Sweet and Sour Sauce
Spicy Szechuan Twice-cooked Pork