Sweet dreaming

I had a most interesting conversation yesterday with food writer Crystyl Mo. Those in Shanghai may recognize her name as the dining columnist for the popular City Weekend magazine. But as I found out in our coffee chat, she’s not only a writer extraordinaire but the wife of an ex-chef / now Shanghai restaurateur (who coincidentally opened one of the restaurants featured here in my blog – Hamilton House.) It was our first encounter, but as two food enthusiasts, we were far from at want of an interesting conversation topic, talking excitedly about everything from favorite Shanghai restaurants to real food sustainability … and even touching upon love stores in the kitchen!

I left the conversation on a high, feeling sublimely refreshed, excited, and inspired. Here is a woman who pursued her passion for food in a region for which she had an intense curiosity but in which she had no prior experience. And in her adventures, she has gained expertise in her personal passion, fluency in a new language, and what I, of course, consider best of all, her partner in crime and love of her life …

Reflecting on my own life, I certainly have no regrets and rather can’t imagine feeling more content or appreciative about my present situation … But the encounter got me thinking … dreaming really … Wouldn’t it be fun to enroll in the Cordon Bleu Paris and learn how to make a perfect macaron, supplementing my education with daily tastings of Pierre Herme’s own creations? Wouldn’t it be satisfying to join the real food movement and expand artisanal farmers markets from select California communities to the rest of the country? Wouldn’t it be thrilling (and utterly indulgent) to spend next summer as a budding brand manager for a gourmet chocolatier, brainstorming new campaigns while sampling the sublime taste that is a rich dark chocolate ganache in a freshly made truffle?

It’s fun … exciting to dream … to devise how I can indulge in my utter obsession with food. But to take a lesson from Crystyl’s life, there’s no rush to figure it out. Enjoy life, appreciate the sweet moments, and trust that with passion and love, you will take the right turns, open (and close) the right doors, and choose the right person to share in your adventures with you.

And on that note, I’ll end with one of my favorite pictures … one that I find fitting for this entry in multiple ways … it’s a carefully designed, wonderfully executed sweet ending in a beautiful wedding of one of the most inspirational couples I know.

Happy Chinese New Year

I always heard that spending Chinese New Year (Spring Festival) actually in China would be an experience, but I didn’t realize how overwhelming the celebrations would be. I watched Shanghai ring in the new year with five straight days of incredible (and deafening) fireworks, interesting/superstitious customs, and of course endless amounts of eating.

I had a couple of quite epic meals, thanks to the generosity of both A’s family and other local Shanghainese friends. My NY Eve meal, for instance, consisted of a series of 10 or so cold appetizers and 11 or so hot entrees, including some old favorites such as braised fatty pork thigh and steamed king crab … And accompanied by some new eats including grilled garden snake (for any who are wondering, it tasted like a slightly more dry, chewier version of chicken. Then again, that’s how anyone describes any mystery meat without any particularly pungent flavor.)

I was trying to decide how to encapsulate my Spring Festival eating extravaganza, given that each family eats different things to suit individualized tastes; however, there are a few uniting items that typically appear at most dinner tables. Fish – because it’s more of a delicacy and signals that you will have fish to eat for the rest of the year … Rice cakes (‘nian gao’) – savory and/or sweet because the sound of the word ‘gao’ denotes that you’ll be 'happy' for the rest of the year and reach 'higher' goals … But what I find more particular and a source of pride in every home that makes it homemade is the classic Chinese spring roll (‘chun juan’).

I’ve had these ‘spring rolls’ many times before, but they were always the deep fried egg rolls served in your ‘3-dishes for $4.99’ lunch set available at your local Ranch 99 supermarket. Never had I tasted homemade ones nor realized how delicious they could be. The filling so moist it almost borders on a thick soup … and expertly wrapped in an ever-so-thin and crispy bronze skin. When A told me before that he eats upwards of 20 or so each time he visits his aunt, I was shocked but now that I’ve finally tasted them, I know why. If fresh and carefully fried to avoid the excess oil and sogginess that usually accompanies deep-frying processes, the spring roll is more of a crispy, light vegetable delicacy rather than a starchy, oily sweet-and-sour soup accompaniment.

I have also searched online for the ‘recipe’ to this new years treat so that I could post it on this blog for friends and family; however, there are too many variants that there is no ‘one’ I feel that I can recommend. Each region will make its spring roll differently, so it’s impossible to dictate what the best or most ‘accurate’ method of making it is. Moreover, every family I think has their own recipe and notion of what the correct ‘way’ of cooking them is. But if this is any direction at all, A’s response to my request of his family’s recipe was that it’s made of ‘sliced pork, bamboo shoots, yellow chives, napa cabbage, diced carrots … and a whole lot of awesome …’ The rest I guess is up to your own creativity.