Orange Beef
Hsiao-Ching Chou
This dish is a popular one in Chinese restaurants. It's often deep fried and drenched in a goopy sauce. It doesn't have to be. I use fresh orange peel instead, which results in a brighter flavor.
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Humble Can Be Spectacular
Hsiao-Ching Chou
Meatballs resonate for many cultures. For the Chinese, "lion's head meatballs" are giant pork meatballs braised with large leaves of Chinese cabbage. They're as giant as lion's heads and the cabbage represent the mane.
Read MoreAnticipating Chinese New Year
Hsiao-Ching Chou
Chinese New Year is my favorite holiday. Even though it doesn't take place until February 8, 2016, I'm thinking about it now because I'm trying to create a Chinese New Year class or event for Hot Stove Society.
Read MoreA New Year's Life Journey
Hsiao-Ching Chou
The beginnings of lion's head meatball stew.
Back in 2010, I contributed an essay to Edible Portland about the meaning of Chinese New Year to me. I dug this up recently to share with a friend and wanted to post it here, too. I feel that it was the definitive piece about this particular aspect of my life journey. The eve of the Year of the Sheep (or Ram or Goat) is Feb. 19, 2015, so I offer this piece as a wish for a new year filled with good fortune.
Over the past decade of Chinese New Year celebrations, I've realized that the holiday has served as a milestone marker, a veritable growth chart of my evolution from a career girl to wife to a working mother of two. If hosting a feast was at first a way to gain friendship and stature, the wisdom of age focuses the lens on what has always been: Chinese New Year is a ultimately a time for family communion and reconciliation.
Hot pot