How to Make Strawberry Pudding with Bunny Dango 士多啤梨布甸 + 兔兔糰子

March 2nd marks the Spring Lantern Festival (元宵節) for 2018.  Lantern Festival is a Chinese festival celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month in the Luna Calendar. It’s the Chinese equivalent of Valentine's Day and often celebrate with games of riddles and sweet dumplings, Tang Tuan 湯丸.  Sweet Dumplings symbolized unity of the family.  That’s the reason why it’s often serve in Chinese Festivals, such as this New Year’s Eve, and Mid-Autumn festival.




However, for this year, instead of the regular Tang Yuen, I will be making these Strawberry Pudding with Bunny Dango 士多啤梨布甸 + 兔兔糰子 for a change.  Not only that these are perfect for the Lantern Festival, they are also wonderful treats for Easter!  So these Bunnies serve double duties this year! 



Recently, I felt in love with Dango!  They are the Japanese version of the Chinese sweet dumplings (湯丸).  They are often unsweetened and serve with a sweet syrup on top.  Since I’m not going to add any syrup on these bunnies, I added a small amount of powdered sugar in the dango dough for a hint of sweetness.  Also, I added a secret ingredient in these dangos to keep them moist and fluffy.  Check out my video tutorial on YouTube to find out what it is.  You’ll be surprise how easy it is to make this treat as well.  I love dango because they are easier to make (no fillings) when compared to Tang Yuan, but the texture and flavor are very similar! 



This strawberry budding is slightly sweet and tangy because I used fresh strawberries for the base.  It’s packed with refreshing flavor and the texture is silky smooth!  It pairs really well with the cute bunny dango on top.  If you try out the recipe, be sure to leave a comment below to let me know how it turned out.  Thank you so much for stopping by today and I wish you all a wonderful Chinese Lantern Festival!






Tools and Ingredients Used:

Edible Color Markers (Clickhere for more information)
Unflavored Gelatin Powder (Clickhere for more information)
Large Measuring Cup (Click here for more information)
Skimmer Strainer (Clickhere for more information)
Glutenous Rice Flour (Click here for more information)
Measuring Cups Set (Clickhere for more information) 
Organic Vanilla Extract (Clickhere for more information)
6 ounces Ramekins (Clickhere for more information)
Ninja Blender (Clickhere for more information)
Sieve Set (Click here for more information)




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Hello Kitty Red Bean Dumplings (凱蒂貓紅豆湯丸) for Chinese New Year

Do you enjoy Asian Style dessert dumplings (湯丸)?  Eating dessert dumplings is one of the “must-have” Chinese New Year tradition as the pronunciation of dumplings in Chinese represent the whole of the family, or the united of the family (團圓).  Many traditional Chinese New Year dishes represent good luck or some types of well wishes.  That’s because we all wanted to kick off the new year with a great start, don’t we?   



As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I want to pass on as many of the Chinese cultures and traditions to my kids as possible.  One of my favorite ways to pass on the traditions is through food.  To get them more interested, I often get them into the kitchen to cook with me.  As I was testing recipes last week, My Baby Girl joined me in the kitchen to create these adorable Hello Kitty Dumplings together.  If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen my “recipe testing video”.   You might have noticed that the Kitties on the Instagram video had much bigger noses, and they looked more like piggies!  So, I made some adjustments for this week’s video tutorial to reclaim Kitty’s beauty!   



These dumplings turned out so adorable and delicious.  It was so much fun to make them together with my Kids.  If you haven’t done so, check out the video tutorial above for the step-by-step instructions.  In respond to many of my Dear Readers’ requests, I did a voice over on this video instructions instead of the usual captions-only format.  But by all mean, click on the “cc” button on lower right corner of the YouTube video for Close Captioning if you prefer.   



In my video tutorial, I included a few tips to make these cute dumplings.  So, be sure to turn up the volume and follow along! 



Last year, I shared with you the Black Sesame Dumplings with Ginger Syrup post.  (Please click here to get the recipe).  For these Hello Kitty Dumplings, I filled some with my homemade Red Bean Paste and left the remaining dumplings as plain.  I’ll post the homemade Red Bean Paste recipe below for your reference.  Or, you can also use canned/ready-made red bean paste from the Asian Supermarkets. 



I hope you enjoy today’s recipe and tutorial, stay tuned for more fun Chinese New Year Recipe next week!

Tools and Ingredients used:
Glutinous Rice Flour (Click here for more information)
Food Decorating Tongs/Tweezers (Click here for more information)
Organic Dried Red Beans (Click here for more information)
Ready Made Red Bean Filling (Click here for more information)
Wilton Edible Candy Marker (Click here for more information)

 

Black Sesame Dumplings with Ginger Syrup 薑茶芝麻湯丸

This year, the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節) falls on September 27.  I know it’s still more than a month away.  But there are several traditional treats and desserts that I wanted to share with you.  So, I guess I better get started early!  To read more about this festival and the traditional Moon Cake, you can click here to read my previous post.   Besides the traditional Moon Cake that we eat to celebrate, this dumplings dessert (湯丸) is another must have for this festival.  It’s because the round shape of these dumplings that represent the whole of the family.  After all, it’s a festival to celebrate family and love.




In this recipe, I used the most popular fillings for this dumpling, black sesame.  Well, at least that’s the most popular filling among my family.  Some people like to fill these dumplings with read bean paste, peanut butter, brown sugar pieces, etc.  Well, that would be for another post.  I took a short cut and use black sesame powder for the fillings.  But you can also grind your own from whole toasted sesame seeds if you like. I also paired these dumplings with the traditional ginger syrup (薑茶).  The ginger syrup is only slightly sweeten and packed with fresh ginger aroma.  I also added a little bit of osmanthus 桂花 to enhance the flavor.  It adds a touch of floral sweetness without additional sugar.  But that’s totally optional.  I’ll list the ingredients on the bottom of this post for your reference.




Ready to see how I made these?  Check out my video tutorial below.






I hope you enjoyed watching my video tutorial.  If you haven’t done so, please subscribe to my YouTube channel here.  You’ll be the first to know when I have new video tutorials published. 

If you’re interested, click here check out these Mid-Autumn Macarons that I shared last year.   Oh, and click here to check out those Snow Skin Mooncake as well.






Ingredients and props for this post:
Glutinous Rice Flour (click here for more information)
Black Sesame Powder (click here for more information)
Osmanthus 桂花 (click here for more information)
Cane Sugar 片糖 (click here for more information)
Curled Handle Ceramic Spoon (Click here to see product information)
Bamboo Placemats (Click here for more information)

Lunasia Chinese Cuisine (凱旋宮) Dim Sum Restaurant Review

Last week, we visited San Francisco (S.F.) for the kids’ Spring Break vacation, more about that in the next posts.  We do have some friends and relatives residing in S.F.  So, naturally, I asked one of them to recommend a good Chinese restaurant to us.  Her reply was a little shocking to me.  She said the Chinese restaurants in S.F. are not quite up to par and they would travel to Los Angeles (L.A.) when they want good Chinese food.  I haven’t been to San Francisco for a while so I took her words for it.  So, today’s Dim Sum restaurant review is from one of my favorite Chinese restaurant located in….guess where?  L.A. of course!  Sorry to those folks in S.F., but after trying one of the “better” Chinese restaurants in S.F., I do have to agree with my friend that L.A. has better Chinese restaurants, over all.  



Lunasia is one of my favorite Chinese restaurants for Dim Sum.  Dim Sum (點心) refers to a style of Cantonese food prepared as small bite-sized or individual portions of food traditionally served in small steamer baskets or on small plates.  Eating dim sum at a restaurant is usually known in Cantonese as going to "drink tea" (yum cha, 飲茶), as tea is typically served with dim sum.  The picture above is the tea menu available at Lunasia.  Each one is unique and pairs well with the food.



The picture above is the Pork Dumplings (鹹水角).  This is one of my favorite things to order at Dim Sum restaurants because of the unique flavors and texture. Also, it’s a lot of work to make them at home.  The dough is made out of gluten rice flour so it’s sticky and chewy.  The dumpling is filled with pork, some pickled veggies and this one comes with shrimps as well.  Then the whole thing is deep fried (something I seldom do in home cooking) to obtain the crispy shells.  The picture below shows you the inside of the dumpling.



Next, we have Pan-Fried Turnip Cake (香煎蘿蔔糕), see picture below.  Since I do make my own during the Chinese New Year, I do prefer my own version because I put more fillings into them.  Don’t get me wrong, these are quite good compared to many other restaurants out there.  Also, I don’t make them often as there are quite some steps involved.  So, this is a very good option when we crave for the turnip cakes.



The one in the picture below is the Home Style Chicken Wrap (順德大良雞卷), comes with a sweet and spicy sauce underneath.  The fillings obviously is made with ground chicken, and mixed with some mushrooms.  Then it’s wrapped in bean curd skin  (腐皮) and fried.  The flavor was great and it was quite delicious.  It has the balance of savory, sweet and spicy all in one bite.  The only drawback was that there were only two of us, and this is quite a lot of meat to consume.  So, order this if you have a bigger party to share with.



Next, we tried the Braised Mushroom with Brown Sauce (烤夫), see the picture below.  It’s a very famous dish originated from Shang-Hai (上海).  In addition to the braised mushrooms, there are also wheat gluten (麵筋), and black fungus in this dish, served with a sweet and savory brown sauce.  My Hubby (the Shang-Hai-nese) said this was very authentic and yummy.     



Up next is one of my favorite vegetarian Dim Sum dishes, Veggie Bean Curd Wrap (羅漢腐皮卷).  The fillings were bean sprouts, carrots, mushrooms, and bamboo shoots, all wrapped with Bean Curd and fried to crispy perfection, while the veggies inside are still juicy and tender.  I highly recommended this one.



The picture below is Egg Roll Rice Noodle (街邊炸兩腸粉).  This name was taken from the restaurant’s online menu.  However, the “Egg Roll” doesn't quite fit with the actual dish here.  This is actually the Chinese savory doughnut (油炸鬼), not egg roll, wrapped with a thin layer of rice noodle.  The sauce is a very low sodium soy base sauce, topped with toasted sesame seed.  And it’s perfect to dip into a little Hoi Sin Sauce (海鮮醬), that's serve on the side.  The savory doughnut inside is still crisp and the rice noodle wrapper should be silky smooth and tender.  hm….I love this one!  And not too many restaurants offer this dish anymore because the savory doughnut is another difficult item to make. 



Can you believe the two of us ate so much food, and it was for lunch!?  Yes, we did.  And up next are Shang Hai Pork Dumplings (上海小籠包).  Shhhhh….but I do like those from (here) way better!  But when you crave for these along with other dim sum, go ahead and order these.  These are very decent, in deed.



Last but not least, you can’t go to Dim Sum without ordering Jumbo Shrimp Har Gow (蝦餃皇), a.k.a. Shrimp Dumplings!  These were some of the best Har Gow I've had at Dim Sum.  As the wrapper outside is super thin, the shrimp filling is juicy and super bouncy, just how a great shrimp dumpling should be! 
 


To put things into perspective, check out the picture below to see a comparison of the size of the Har Gow and my fist!  Yup, they don’t call these Jumbo Har Gow for no reason! 



If you’re interested in visiting Lunasia for Dim Sum, you can find more information below.  Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy today’s post.  Take care and eat well!

Lunasia Chinese Cuisine (凱旋宮)
Address and Phone number:
500 West Main Street Suite A
Alhambra, CA 91801
(626) 308-3222

Restaurant Website:
http://www.lunasiachinesecuisine.com/lunasia

Restaurant Hours:
Dim Sum: Monday - Friday 10am - 3pm
Saturday, Sunday and Holidays 9am - 3pm
Dinner: Monday - Sunday 5pm – 10pm
 
 
Restaurant Review Disclaimer: uTry.it restaurant reviews are solely based on our experience at each restaurant we visit.   They were just our opinions.  uTry.it and its owner were not compensated in any way to dine at these restaurants nor to write reviews.

Din Tai Fung Restaurant Review

Still remember my Little Boy with the Din Tai Fung statue picture above?  Yes, as I promised, here goes my Din Tai Fung restaurant review.  The very first time I dined at Din Tai Fung was back in my college days, when I travelled to Taiwan with a few good friends and my Brother.  My friend’s Aunt who lived in Taiwan at the time took us around for sight seeing, shopping, and food tasting (I’m forever grateful for the hospitality!)  The day before we visited Din Tai Fung for lunch, we were “warned” about the long lines and be sure to get there early, otherwise some items would be sold out way before noon.  I didn’t know what the fuzz was all about until I tried my very first Juicy Pork Dumpling (小籠包)!  My world was never the same again!  No exaggeration, by the way.



The picture above shows the famous Juicy Pork Dumpling from Din Tai Fung.  I know, they might not look like much, nor anything spectacular from the picture.  (Sorry, the pictures from this post were taken from my Android Phone, not my regular camera.  So the picture didn’t do justice for these Juicy Pork Dumplings at all!)  But I assure you, go try them when you get a chance.  They are truly an art in every little package and I’m going to tell you why in just a minute.  And yes, there’s always a line at this restaurant, and the wait could be long if you don’t arrive early.  But then, these Juicy Pork Dumplings are totally worth the wait.




Before we get into the details of these dumplings, here’s picture that shows you the people waiting for seats outside of Din Tai Fung.  Yup, a pretty nice outdoor waiting area and it’s always packed too.  There are two locations in Arcadia, California and they are right across the street from each other.  After discovering the new location, I’ve always go to the newer one for easier parking.  Click here for the address and hours.  The new location closes from 3 pm to 5 pm for a break between lunch and dinner.  I always make sure to arrive before 5:30pm to avoid a long wait.  Yes, the seats do get filled up that fast!



Now back to the dumplings!  Each dumpling has a thin and tender dough wrapping the juicy minced pork filling inside.  There’s a small dish of fresh ginger, julienned, for each person.  You simply pour the black vinegar over the ginger and that’s your dipping sauce.  A very simple sauce, yet it compliments perfectly with these rich and juicy dumplings.




See how thin the dough/skin is (look at the picture below).  And if you look closer, you’ll also see the “soup” inside.  Yes, that’s how juicy these dumplings are.  And it’s not easy to make the dough so thin and tender, yet the soup stay intact even when you pick the dumplings up with a pair of chopsticks.  This is why I said earlier that each dumpling is really a work of art!  When you bite into these dumplings, the soup inside will burst inside your mouth.  So, be careful not to eat them when they’re still piping hot.  These Juicy Pork Dumplings are really succulent treats.



I must be too busy eating and didn’t take a picture when I pick up my dumplings with the chopsticks.  But look at this picture below, it’s a picture from the brochure/menu of  the restaurant.  So now, you’ve got the idea.  And yes, I did pick up each dumplings with my chopsticks  and transfer them onto my spoon/bowl.  And you guessed it right, they didn’t break at all during the transfer!  We always place two orders for these dumplings along with other dishes as my Baby Girl can finish 5 of these juicy dumplings on her own, plus noodles, and other things we order.  These dumplings are 'must-try' when you visit.  Din Tai Fung also offers a varieties of dumplings besides the pork ones; such as Juicy Pork & Crab Dumplings (another one of my favorite), Shrimp & Pork Dumplings, Fish Dumplings, Chicken Dumplings, and Vegetarian Dumplings.



The one item that got sold out all the time is the Small Dumplings with Soup.  It’s only served on weekends for limited quantities.  I’ve only tasted them back in Taiwan but not in the L.A. branches.  You know I’m not a morning person, right? 

Besides dumplings, we also ordered Shrimp Noodle Soup, see picture below.  That’s my Little Boy’s favorite and he would asks for this every time when we visit.



The picture below shows the House Beef Noodle Soup.  This is the first time we tried this one and it’s pretty good, especially if you want something lighter in taste and not as heavy.  We usually order A Braised Beef Noodle Soup that is in a deep brown flavorful soup base that is slightly spicy.  So, this clear soup version was a nice change.  The beef is very tender and the soup is very soothing.



This one below is the Pork Chop Fried Rice.  We’ve ordered this one many times and it’s one of our favorites as well.  We’ve also tried the Shrimp Fried Rice before but didn’t order that this time because we already have the Shrimp Noodle Soup.  But all their fried rice are nicely done.  Besides a variety of dumplings, soup, noodle soup, and fried rice, Din Tai Fung also offers Noodles with sauces, fried noodles, a varieties of sautéed vegetables, vegetarian dishes, and desserts.  The only thing that is considered somewhat negative is their portion, they tend to be smaller compared to most Chinese restaurants.  The good news is, you can try a varieties of dishes this way.    You would want to try everything when you’re there.  And so far, I haven’t tasted anything that I don’t like with all my visits.




Hope you’ll give Din Tai Fung a try if you’re in the area or plan to visit soon.  Below is their contact information and link to their website for your reference.





P.S.:  My first "unofficial" lunch date with my Hubby was at Din Tai Fung, back in 2002.  Talk about life changing dumplings!  Maybe that's why, these little Juicy Dumplings are always so special to me.


Click here to Din Tai Fung’s Website

Location #1:
Address: 1108 S. Baldwin Avenue, Arcadia, CA 91007
Tel: 626-574-7068
Location #2:
Address: 1088 S. Baldwin Avenue, Arcadia, CA 91007
Tel: 626-446-8588

Restaurant Review Disclaimer: uTry.it restaurant reviews are solely based on our experience at each restaurant we visit.   They were just our opinions.  uTry.it and its owner were not compensated in any way to dine at these restaurants nor to write reviews.

Chicken Pot Stickers--雞肉鍋貼/餃子—With Video Tutorial

I’m sure many of you have ordered pot stickers when you dine out at Asian restaurants.  Pot Stickers, 餃子 in Chinese, are dumplings originated in China and widely spread to the rest of Asia.  Pot stickers usually consist of ground meat and/or vegetable filling wrapped into a piece of thinly rolled dough.  Boil or pan fry and serve with a soy-vinegar dipping sauce.  Don’t worry, I won’t make you roll your own dough from scratch today! hahaha….I love the pre-made pot sticker wraps because they are convenient and much thinner than rolling your own dough at home.




Ingredients for these pot sticker are very simple.  In this particular recipe, I used ground chicken with cabbage.  You can definitely use any kind of meat you like, ground pork, turkey, even minced shrimp or a mixture of any two.  Ground chicken and pork fillings are the more traditional ones.  I sautéed the shredded cabbage, let it cool and mixed into the chicken along with other marinates to create the filling.  When you’re ready to wrap the pot stickers, have the following items ready.  From the picture below, going clock-wise starting from the top left, the fillings, a pair of chopsticks (if you get good control of them) or use a spoon to scoop the fillings, a small bowl of water that works as “glue” for the wraps, a lightly floured mat/sheet pan for the wrapped pot stickers to land onto, a piece of napkin (yes, wrapping and filling can get messy sometimes, I rather be prepared) and last but not least, the pot sticker wraps.




Simple enough, right?    And oh, thanks to this fry-steam method, cooked pot stickers are golden brown and crispy on the outside, tender and juicy inside.  Don’t worry, we’ll get into all these juicy details with a video below.  Look at these pot stickers.  Aren’t they calling your name?  They are certainly calling mine….especially I know how scrumptious they are.  I’m so glad I still have another batch in the freezer waiting for me whenever I’m ready to cook them.  Oh yes, they freeze really well and I’ll tell you how to do that in the recipe below.  Best of all, you don’t (and should not) need to defrost them before cooking!




Ready to watch the video?  Click away, it’s a short video and so worth watching.  I’ll show you all the important steps in filling, wrapping, and cooking these pot stickers. 




See, no hoops to jump through, right?!  From now on, you don’t have to order the pot stickers from the restaurants.  These will definitely taste better than the restaurants’ or the store-bought ones!   At least, my hubby said so!  (he’s such a smart man…hahaha…)