Food Photos by MJ Klein
I know it’s been awhile since we showed you any homestyle Taiwanese cooking. So, we’re going to make up for that right now! Hui-chen’s sister Hui-ling and her son were visiting. The sisters decided to do some cooking, so they made a ton of dumplings, including wontons.
Without any further delay, let’s get right into the photos!
This is the base meat, consisting of ground pork and spices.
March 21 UPDATE BELOW:
There are much easier ways to do it. This was the method that was thrust upon me. I had no choice in the matter.
Wednesday evening my wife found me standing outside the restroom, staring at the sink. Apparently I couldn’t figure out how to turn on the water for my shower. When asked, I couldn’t tell her what the problem was or even how long I had been standing there. We estimate approximately 45 minutes of me staring at the sink.
Then things got bad.
Food Photos by MJ Klein. Food by Hui-chen’s mother!
Oh my. I was introduced to yet another heretofore unexplored family tradition, and one based on cooking. Hui-chen’s mother has yet another original recipe up her sleeve that I didn’t know about, and I got to check it out up close and personal.
It starts out with this meat mix, which is similar to dumplings.
Photos by MJ Klein
Truth be told, my wife cooks some fantastic meals. If I photograph every one of them it would fill a blog in of itself. Even though I only photograph a portion of the meals she prepares, there are still many photos. Good thing that I host our photos on flickr!
Even more food photos by MJ Klein
Teppanyaki (teppan’yaki?) is a type of Japanese cuisine that uses an iron griddle to cook food. The word “teppanyaki” is derived from teppan (??), which means iron plate, and yaki, which means grilled.
So, now you know where this style of cooking originates. We don’t use an iron griddle, but rather a modern version of it - a teppanyaki pan. One puts a bit of oil in the bottom and heats up the pan, then adds food to it. What makes the flavor unique is adding your own personal sauce mixture to the cooking food. Here, let me show you:
This is the teppanyaki pan after the first round of food has been added and before the sauce. The removable pan sits on a base and is heated by induction. The range of heat control is excellent. You can boil, fry and keep food warm without burning it. This is a very versatile pan and it’s really great for unexpected guests because you can throw an excellent meal together in minutes.
This is another example of a finished teppanyaki dish that we recently enjoyed. Next I’ll show you what the first dish looks like after adding the sauce and then we’ll let the dish brown up nicely.
FOOD PHOTOS my MJ Klein. This is your last warning!
As a responsible blog owner, I have to take reader comments seriously. For example, loyal reader and food article junkie Joanna left this comment on Part II:
“oh my gosh. this is torture. TORTURE!
Let’s please see the finished product?
Let’s please eat the finished product???”
The only responsible thing to do in this case would be to finish the article series and show the finished product. Until TheNHBushman 2.0 is released though, you can’t eat the articles. But we’re working on that.
As you recall last time, Hui-chen was in the process of deep frying the meatballs. She says that it’s a family tradition to deep fry them so they retain their shape when added to other dishes. Just don’t cook them until they are crispy or you won’t like it.
Food Photos by MJ Klein - YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
This mixture marinaded for 2 days in the ice box under extreme cold conditions! The entire icebox smells like garlic! Hui-chen added cooked sticky rice and tofu to the mix, and then formed them into balls for cooking:
Photos by MJ Klein
Attention: FOOD PHOTOS!
Recently reader Naruwan said:
“Care to share the meat ball recipe? They look damn good. My wife made some good ones recently with a sort of tomato-veg sauce slathered on top and served with brown rice. It was deeelicious!”
Well, the truth is, Hui-chen is a bit shy about writing in English (and in fact she has only ever directly replied to one post herself), but she informed me that she was going to make another batch of meatballs and that I should write about it so readers would know how she makes them. So here goes:
I’m sure it comes as no surprise that ginger is an important ingredient. Hand chopped is the only way to get it just how you want it. UPDATE: Hui-chen reminded me that she also chopped garlic and added it to the bowl. I knew that garlic was an ingredient but I spaced and forgot to mention it.
This is the mixing bowl with the ingredients added. Now it all has to be mixed up by hand.
Here are the actual ingredients (sorry about the crappy photo). In addition to the chopped ginger, we have (top row, L to R) sesame oil, rice wine, soy sauce (bottom row L to R) black pepper and salt. Again, no surprises to any lover of Taiwanese food.
Part II will feature the results.
Photos by MJ Klein & Hui-chen
Caution: FOOD PHOTOS!
It’s been awhile, and I’m sure that many readers are wondering if we’ve been grilling lately? You betcha! We decided to throw an impromptu grill party featuring Hui-chen’s version of the marinade. We just love spontaneous parties!
My lovely wife tending to pork ribs on the grill
I set the grill up on the sidewalk right outside Shao-hui’s place, up against the curb. I took a guess about what time we would be eating and I lit the charcoal about 1.5 hours in advance. It turns out that my guess was right on the money and our 2 special guests arrived just as the first batch of ribs was about to come off - perfect timing! Here are our 2 guests arriving:
Photos by MJ Klein Dishes by Hui-chen
Back by popular demand, even more home-cooked dishes. Our readers love food photos, so here are some more to satisfy your appetite!
This pork and green bean dish was really great. It’s all gone now, I assure you!
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