chinese Archives - Chef Lovers

Asian Chicken Salad

We have a soft spot in our hearts for Chef Hari Nayak . He is the author of the cookbooks “Modern Indian Cooking” and “Spice” and the executive pastry chef of Halo Fete, America’s first ice cream patisserie, in Princeton, New Jersey. What makes him a treasure? He co founded “World Chefs Cooking For Life” along with NYC chef Vikas Khanna, a non profit organization that has raised funds for 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, the Tsunami, as well as multiple other causes such as assisting travelers with disabilities and art education for the blind.

Hari typically creates modern versions of traditional Indian cuisine for his viewers, but in this recipe video he shares a very easy to make Asian chicken salad with a citrus soy vinegar dressing. And this recipe is fairly low carb as well, assuming you don’t serve it with a big piece of crusty buttered baguette like we do!

[pro-player width=’550′ height=’353′ type=’video’]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYd9exDzL3c[/pro-player]
Read on for the written recipe Continue Reading

Asian Recipes

Happy Chinese New Year! Celebrate with Shanghai noodles and shrimp

Monday, January 26th, 2009 is the beginning of the Chinese New Year, which this year celebrates the Ox. The festival starts according to the Chinese lunar calendar, the astronomical point of the second new moon after the winter solstice, and ends traditionally 15 days later.

Food, Legends, and Semantics

In Chinese mythology there was a beast named Nian or “Year” in Chinese. On the first day of the New Year, Nian would gobble up food crops, livestock, townspeople, and even children. For protection against Nian, the townspeople placed food in front of their homes, with the hopes that he would eat the food, and would not be hungry for more.

Foods have symbolic meaning in Chinese culture. For example, noodles are a symbol of longevity and long life. Mandarin oranges are symbolic of good luck, but in this case, it is a matter of semantics, the word orange in Chinese sounds like the word “Ji”, or the name “jīn jí” which means good luck, golden luck, or good fortune. Here’s another one: Pomelos, a fruit in the grapefruit family, sound very much like the chinese words “to have”, and so they signify abundance in the Chinese culture.

This video from the CBS early show features Chef Chris Cheung from China 1 restaurant in NYC, as he not only explains Chinese food traditions for the New Year but also demonstrates his recipe for a simple and authentic Shanghai noodle soup with shrimp, that you can easily prepare at home.