Hi Guys! I am back from the Chinese New Year trip back to my father-in-law's house in the center of China--Hubei. It is a small city in Hubei province but quite near to Hunan.
It is my second time spending a Chinese New Year in Hubei after the first visit 4 years ago. Last time, we eat lots of food and dishes outside. But now, eating out is not a good choice, since we have our 2 years old daughter. So we decide to make all the meals at home expect for the wedding banquet and birthday banquet.
Besides the common stir fries, dumplings, tangyuan, niangao etc. There are several interesting inspirations from this trip.
We have a large batch of vegetarian spring rolls (no meat, just carrot, bean thread noodle, eggs, mushrooms, and some celery)
And fried tofu balls. Have you ever tasted tofu and minced pork tofu balls? They are super tender!
A braised fish is indispensable for every Spring Festival eve dinner table.
Following is really a killer--Kourou(扣肉, turned over steamed pork with preserved vegetables ). The type of preserved vegetable is named as Meicai (梅菜) is a popular ingredient in China. And this dish is widely enjoyed too.
Can you guess what's this? It is pork intestine stir fried with spiced rice. I know that many of you do not eat pork intestine. But it is really yummy. The cleaning work plays an extremely important role for removing the odd taste. Usually we use add flour or starch and then message to clean twice and then turn over and clean it with clean water. The spiced rice is a specialty in Hubei, rice is wrapped with mixed chilis and then fried with oil until crisp.
The family reunion is over and Elaine is back home to start new year！I wants to thank all of my dear readers for your continuous stopping by, commenting, thumbing up or pining! You guys make the last year so perfect and complete.
Now we are planning our new content structures for the coming 2016! If you have any suggestions (more videos? more life content?) about this little website or want to request a recipe, please leave me a comment!
Anita
I would love to see the recipe for those vegetarian spring rolls!
Elaine
Get it, Anita!
Kora
Please share with us the recipe for kourou
Elaine
Hi Kora,
I have that plan too!
Rachel
Lovely blog you have, Elaine. Love all the dishes that you cooked!
Elaine
Thanks Rachel!
Linda
I am new to your blog and Instagram. Thank you your lovely photos and interesting writing. I'll be happy with anything!! I love Chinese food and although I've been to Sichuan province, I don't feel like I tasted enough of the local food so anything you write about or do or video, will make me happy!!
I 'm happy you had a good new year.
Elaine
Thanks Linda for your kind words. There are really a large group of yummy food and dishes to share.
Naomi
Gong Xi Fa Cai Elaine! I think your website is amazing. I realised that many people have started to understand more about Chinese food. That it's not all about sweet and sour chicken Here in London, there are a lot of restaurants that have opened up where they just specialised in specific areas of China. For instance, Sichuan, Hunan, etc.
Elaine
Thanks Naomi! Gong Xi Fa Cai.
Chinese food is really not only about sweet and sour chicken or cantonese dishes. There are lots of great dishes in different areas. I am hoping to introduce them all on the blog. And I am quite happy to know that there are other restaurants with yummy food originated from other cuisines in UK. Hope people in your country will love them too.
Susanne
Hope you had a pleasant time with your family. 4 years seems to be a long time to see your father in law - hope he had a chance to see you at your place in the meantime.
I do not have a specific wish, only that you continue to blog what you like so you do not loose your engagement. I'm always looking forward to your postings and am reading them as soon as my rss feeder tells me that there are news.
That said, I would be interested in the recipe for the minced pork tofu balls. Possibly I would not be able to cook them due to lack of the proper tofu. But I love to read recipes, and maybe at some time I stumble on the right product and remember where to look for a recipe for it.
Elaine
Thanks Susanne.
4 years really is a long tim. As we are quite busy with work, they visit us a lot. I will bring more interesting recipes on the blog, just like the previous 2 years with the hope of sharing more Chinese cooking theory with Chinese food lovers. Thanks so much for your kind support. Although we never meat in person, I feel you are my old friend.
Hope you have a great year, a happy year, Susanne.
Ibeth
I love your blog! Thank you for sharing your inspiration and enthusiasm for food!
Elaine
Thanks Ibeth for such a sweet comment!
AiPing | Curious Nut
Oh my, that kau rou and fried intestines look out of this world!!! Few days more till the end of Chinese New Year. I'm trying to enjoy it while it lasts. 🙂 I'm sure you are too! Have a great year ahead. Can't wait to see what you're going to cook up.
Elaine
haha, this is our last Chinese New Year now! And I am still enjoying it too!
Jessi
Hi Elaine,
I am in China (Shandong) right now but have to go back to Germany soon. I have been searching so hard to find some real Chinese recipes to cook back home. I love all the different types of food here and just thinking about those sweetened, starch-thickened dishes in the German-Chinese restaurants gives me the creeps. Thank you so much for sharing these recipes!
By any chance, do you have a recipe for Sichuan Boiled fish? I only had it with that name and don't know much more about it. It was a huge bowl full of white fish pieces, bean sprouts, chilli, sichuan pepper and red soup/sauce.
Keep up the great work and lovely fotos - they make my mouth water from just seeing them. I am looking forward to many more recipes to save my Chinese-food cravings back home 🙂
Elaine
Hi Jessi,
Thanks so much for the lovely comment. Here you are, the Sichuan boiled fish recipe:https://www.chinasichuanfood.com/boiled-fish-sichuan/.
Janet
I love your blog, my family loves the food. Tonight we had your dry fried beef rice noodle and vegetarian mapo tofu. I've also made your pork meat floss a couple of times. I haven't used my bread machine for years. So happy I kept it. Thanks for the asian sauces tutorial, too. I was able to shop for the sauces at the asian grocery store with more confidence and less confusion. What about recipes for 1) sesame da bing, 2) vegetarian da bao, 3) you tiao, (deep fried devils). Thanks again for your hard work on a great food blog.
Elaine
Thanks Janet for the wonderful comment and I love your suggestions. I will schedule your requested recipes in the near future.