Chinese Deep-Fried Pork Ribs with Honey Vinegar Sauce

After eating the deep-fried honey garlic pork ribs at King Hua Restaurant - Alhambra, I wanted to try recreating it at home. Lightly batter and fry if you wish, but I decided to just deep fry until the pork got crispy instead. The ribs were then tossed with honey, vinegar, and soy sauce. I was out of garlic and dusted the ribs with sesame seeds instead.

The key is to adjust the honey and vinegar portions to your liking until you get the right balance of sweet and sour. Simple recipe, but packed with flavor.

Goya Champuru (Okinawan Bitter Melon Stir-Fry with Pork Belly, Tofu, and Eggs)

After making Vegetarian Goya Champuru (Okinawan Bitter Melon Stir-Fry with Tofu and Eggs), it was obvious that I needed to make a proper version with pork belly. Oh did I like this version so much better! The unctuousness of the pork belly was absorbed by the tofu and perfectly complemented the bitter melon.

I cheated and simply added sliced pork belly to my vegetarian goya champuru leftovers, but I think my method of pan-frying the meat first to get a slight char also made it more flavorful. Feel free to substitute bacon for the pork belly if you wish.

Taiwanese Minced Pork Rice

On days when I'm too lazy to cook much, but I want something comforting, I often turn to a quick rice bowl for dinner. I almost always have ground pork in the freezer for just such instances. Whenever I go to the Asian grocery store, I buy a pound of ground pork, and if I don't have any plans to cook with it immediately, just stick it in the freezer. Ground pork is a staple in my kitchen since I frequently use it for dumplings, egg rolls, stir-fries, noodles, or as a main dish like this Taiwanese Minced Pork Rice.

Though the preparation is quick and easy, the taste is similar to a braised pork dish because of the caramelized slightly sweet soy sauce flavors. I added just a touch of Chinese 5-spice powder to add some nuance. Instead of just ground pork, you could also use finely diced pork belly or shoulder.

Taiwanese minced pork rice is often serve with a hard-boiled egg and some mustard greens, but I made due with a fried egg for a quick dinner.

Hong Galbi BBQ House - Los Angeles (Koreatown)

I had driven past Hong Galbi BBQ House many times and mentally made a note to check it out some day. So, when Jin of Seeking Food uploaded some yummy-looking pictures of Korean pork ribs, I insisted we go for lunch next time she had a craving. This was not one of the ubiquitous all-you-can-eat Korean barbecue restaurants dotting Koreatown. Not that there's anything wrong with that; as you know, I'm a frequent customer at such establishments.

Hong Galbi BBQ House specializes in broiled pork ribs. Lunch specials feature the ribs with rice pots or stew for about $30. Not all-you-can-eat prices, but enough to feed two people so it evens out.

Dib Iab Ntim Nqaij Hau Ua Kua (Hmong Stuffed Bitter Melon Soup with Ground Pork, Cilantro, and Scallions)

In my experiment to Make Bitter Melon Less Bitter, the last recipe I made was Hmong Stuffed Bitter Melon Soup with Ground Pork, Cilantro, and Scallions. Most of the steps were the same as Canh O/Kho Qua Nhoi Thit (Vietnamese Stuffed Bitter Melon Soup), except I used cilantro and scallions in place of the vermicelli noodles and tree ear fungus. I also added a few stalks of lemongrass to the broth.

The cilantro, scallions, and lemongrass gave the Hmong bitter melon soup a fresher, "greener" flavor, if you will. I love finding variations for familiar dishes and discovered this version in "Cooking from the Heart: The Hmong Kitchen in America" by Sami Scripter and Sheng Yang. The dish is called Dib Iab Ntim Nqaij Hau Ua Kua in Hmong.

The original recipe seemed pretty bland (only 1/2 tsp for six bitter melons), had no fish sauce (which I think the Hmong in Vietnam would have used), and suggested MSG (which I don't add to my cooking). So obviously, I made adjustments and scaled down the recipe. Still, this version was a lovely variation to add to my collection of bitter melon recipes.

Chinese Bitter Melon Stir-Fry with Ground Pork and Black Bean Sauce

While experimenting with several ways to reduce the bitterness of bitter melon, reader Gabriel Ocasio suggested on my Wandering Chopsticks Facebook page to salt the bitter melon and then stir-fry it with black bean sauce. So that's what I did.

Perhaps I've been going about this all wrong? Instead of making bitter melon the star of a dish, if I just treated it as any other squash and stir-fried it with meat and sauce, the bitterness wouldn't be so prominent? Because this recipe was my favorite of the four bitter melon recipes I cooked that day. The salting reduced the bitterness so there was just a slight tinge, which was balanced by the sweetness of the smidgen of sugar and the saltiness of the black bean sauce.

Chinese Bok Choy Char Siu (Barbecued Pork) Wonton Noodle Soup

Since I used the leftover Char Siu/Xa Xiu (Chinese/Vietnamese Barbequed Pork) to make Chinese Char Siu (Barbecued Pork) Bok Choy Chow Fun (Rice Noodle) Stir-Fry, I needed another batch for this Chinese wonton noodle soup with barbecued pork and bok choy. Considering it's one of my favorite noodle soups, I was reminded that I hadn't blogged a recipe until a Wandering Chopsticks reader (Thanks Tu Anh!) mentioned on my Facebook page that she was making my barbecued pork recipe for just that purpose.

For the wontons, I used the Hoanh Thanh Thit Heo Bam, Dau Hu, Hanh La (Vietnamese Wontons with Ground Pork, Tofu, and Green Onions) that I recently made with the niece and nephew, but feel free to use any wonton recipe of your choice. Then it's just a matter of making a broth, boiling some egg noodles, and blanching some bok choy.

Chinese Char Siu (Barbecued Pork) Bok Choy Chow Fun (Rice Noodle) Stir-Fry

At my mom's request, while she was in town recently, I made some Char Siu/Xa Xiu (Chinese/Vietnamese Barbecued Pork) for dinner and had about a quarter pound's worth of leftovers.

I had a good amount of sauce leftover too. I was debating whether to buy some more pork and bake it in the sauce, when I decided that it would make the perfect stir-fry sauce. Just add some fresh rice noodles and bok choy and it won't even look like you're trying to use up leftovers. Of course, you're welcome to make Chinese barbecued pork if you especially want to make this recipe. If you want to cheat and buy some pork from the Chinese barbecue shop, you can use oyster sauce in lieu of excess marinade as the stir-fry sauce. Caution: make sure you use the excess marinade that has already been cooked with the pork, don't use marinade from raw pork.

Since lil' sis loooves bok choy and rice noodles, this dish would have been right up her alley. Except she had a stomachache and wanted to just lay in bed. The lure of chow fun called to her though, so she crept out to the kitchen to pick at the wok for a bit. Then a little while later when her stomach had settled down some more, she came out to eat some more. And more. Now, I'm not saying this dish cures stomachaches, but I swear lil' sis felt much better after eating it! :)

Hoanh Thanh Thit Heo Bam, Dau Hu, Hanh La (Vietnamese Wontons with Ground Pork, Tofu, and Green Onions)

If I could impart only one kitchen wisdom, it would be this: have fun.

Sure presentation matters since a dish that is visually appealing makes you more likely to eat it. And of course, there are ingredients and preparation and all that.

But what it really comes down to is that familiarity in the kitchen, working with ingredients, preparing food to feed your loved ones, none of it happens really if you don't enjoy yourself first. My favorite childhood memories in the kitchen were spent listening to my Ba Noi (Vietnamese Paternal Grandmother) tell stories while wiping banana leaves for her famous Banh Nam (Vietnamese Steamed Flat Rice Dumplings with Pork and Shrimp). As I got older, she'd assign more tasks, teaching me little tricks along the way, such as deveining shrimp with a toothpick or adding salt to kill any bugs when I rinsed herbs. When I cooked, she always praised what I made, no matter how simple.

In contrast, my mother was very exacting about presentation without a lot of explanation about the process. And while there are lessons to be learned there too, I found this method makes cooking seem more like work. Through the years, I've heard from friends and readers who hated being in the kitchen for precisely that reason, that cooking seemed like drudgery, that they were rebelling against the expectation that women had to do the cooking. Or since cooking, especially Vietnamese food, seemed like such a vague process, with instructions being to add a little bit of this and that, that they didn't know where to start. Or that the slicing and folding they did wasn't pretty, so they were shooed away from preparation. All of which makes being in the kitchen no fun at all.

I've been cooking with my niece for a while, and also now with my nephew since he turned 2 years old. I hope they're enjoying themselves as much as I am teaching them. While we've made plenty of baked goods, the niece's favorite foods are noodles and dumplings. I make the filling and separate the wonton skins, but leave the folding all up to them. Sure, their technique needs a bit of work, but after being boiled, you can't even tell.

Roast Pork Loin with Garlic and Rosemary

For Easter luncheon, since it was just family, I imagined an all-American Sunday supper sort of meal -- pot roast, baked chicken, macaroni and cheese. Despite the lack of color, which really gives credence to the slogan of pork being the other white meat, the roast pork loin was quite juicy and flavorful. I cut half a dozen slits on each side of the pork loin and shoved garlic and rosemary into each slit so that they could flavor the meat while it was baking. Since pork loin is very lean, I left the fat on and baked it fatty side up. I figured it was far better for guests to not eat the fat than to have dry pork.

Leftovers were great thinly sliced for a sandwich or served with a simple salad.

Banh Pa Te So Nhan Banh Mi (Vietnamese Pate Chaud (French Hot Pastry Pie) with Sandwich Fillings)

Shortly after trying the special at Au Coeur De Paris Patisserie & Boulangerie - Westminster ( Little Saigon), basically a Banh Pa Te So (Vietnamese Pate Chaud (French Hot Pastry Pie)) with Vietnamese sandwich fillings, I knew I would recreate this at home. Such a brilliant idea!

I made my usual Vietnamese puff pastry pies, then stuffed them like Au Coeur De Paris does with homemade Xa Xiu (Vietnamese Chinese Barbecued Pork), Cha Lua (Vietnamese Steamed Pork Loaf), and Do Chua (Vietnamese Pickled Stuff). Tucked in a few sprigs of cilantro and little hand-sized snacks were perfect.

I was trying to come up with a name to call these, but couldn't come up with anything shorter than what they are Banh Pa Te So Nhan Banh Mi (Vietnamese Pate Chaud (French Hot Pastry Pie) with Sandwich Fillings). Ha! If you're in the Little Saigon area, I highly recommend checking out Au Coeur De Paris' specials, but otherwise, they're easy enough to make at home, they just have a lot of components.

Hot flaky puff pastry stuffed with three kinds of meat and pickles? Perfection.

Goi Bi Soi Tom Thit Heo (Vietnamese Spaghetti Squash Salad with Shrimp and Pork)

Before Goi Bi Soi Chay (Vietnamese Vegetarian Spaghetti Squash Salad), there was actually this savory version I made back in February with shrimp and pork. I initially encountered Vietnamese spaghetti squash salad more than a decade ago, when I was back in Chicago for a visit and staying with a college friend. I had just flown in that day, and was taking a brief nap before a potluck my friend was throwing that evening, when her mom woke me up to help in the kitchen. Still a little groggy, I vaguely remember her fishing the spaghetti squash out of a pot of boiling water and being instructed to separate the strands. I've long since forgotten what my friend's mom included in the spaghetti squash salad, just the sense of urgency as she hustled me to finish before guests arrived.

Now, of course, in the privacy of my own kitchen, the only urgency was trying to cook before darkness set in so I could photograph the dish in daylight. I didn't make it. Not that the recipe is difficult, just that it takes a bit to wait for the spaghetti squash to steam and for the pork and shrimp to boil. I didn't add the thinly sliced cabbage or pickled onions like I did to the vegetarian version so that the shrimp, pork, and spaghetti squash would get central play, although you could certainly add some if you'd like. Just added some chopped herbs and tossed with fish sauce dressing. It's best served warm, as cold, congealed pork fat doesn't taste very appetizing. Though if you omit the pork, a cold spaghetti squash shrimp salad is quite crunchy and refreshing the next day.

Incidentally, when I was looking up how to translate spaghetti squash into Vietnamese, a light bulb went off when I made the connection between soi as the classifier for fibers, such as thread, string, etc. Huh. Learn something new every day.

Thit Suon Nuong (Vietnamese Grilled Pork Chops)

While grilling up Thit Heo Nuong Xien (Vietnamese Grilled Pork Skewers) for my Memorial Day luncheon, I decided I could toss in a few pork chops into the marinade and re-do the photos for my Basic Vietnamese Marinade for Chicken and Pork. Well, I re-did the chicken pictures several years ago by making wings, my favorite meat for the recipe, but never did get around to making pork chops.

I ended up leaving the pork chops to marinate overnight, although you can get away with doing it for only about an hour or so. You can also cook them in the pan, like I've done many times before in the pictures with the basic marinade recipe. They grill up rather quickly if you choose pork chops that aren't too thick.

I served the pork chops simply with rice, steamed cabbage, and an egg doused in soy sauce and Sriracha chili sauce.

Thit Heo Nuong Xien (Vietnamese Grilled Pork Skewers)

For months, Jin of Seeking Food and I had been trying to meet up, but couldn't get together until Memorial Day. Of course that meant I had to barbecue. Well, I didn't have to barbecue, but no Memorial Day is complete without one!

I found a one pound chunk of pork shoulder in my freezer, leftover from when I made Thit Heo Kho Cu Cai Trang Cu Sen (Vietnamese Braised Pork with Daikon and Lotus Roots. The pork made me think about reshooting my Bun Thit Heo Nuong (Vietnamese Rice Vermicelli Noodles with Grilled Pork) recipe long ago. Even though I said grilled in the initial recipe, I didn't have one at the time and just cooked it in my kitchen. Jin was eating low-carb though so the rice vermicelli noodles were out. I had spaghetti squash on hand, but instead of making a rice noodle bowl with spaghetti squash, which would have been a good idea actually, I made Goi Bi Soi Chay (Vietnamese Vegetarian Spaghetti Squash Salad) to serve on the side since I was pairing it with pork skewers.

She liked the Vietnamese spaghetti squash salad so much that I sent her home with some. As for the pork skewers, I was only making lunch for two, so you can easily double or quadruple the recipe if you're making them for a party.

Thit Heo Kho Cu Cai Trang Cu Sen (Vietnamese Braised Pork with Daikon and Lotus Roots)

My dad was in town last month to work on the house again. He can be very difficult to cook for. My dad doesn't like spices or curries, both of which I love. Since my parents have become much more health conscious these days, a lot of Vietnamese comfort foods like Thit Heo Kho Trung (Vietnamese Braised Pork with Eggs) aren't made often, if at all anymore. But after too many meals of fish or venison, my tastebuds were craving pork or chicken, the latter of which my dad doesn't like either (I told you he was difficult!).

When I spotted fresh lotus roots at the Asian grocery store, I started to brainstorm for recipe ideas. I've made Canh Cu Sen (Vietnamese Lotus Root Soup) before, but that was too simple for what I was craving. Perhaps I could replace the hard-boiled eggs in the usual braised pork recipe with lotus roots? I spotted daikon radishes on sale too and it seemed like the perfect foil, the freshness of the radish to balance the earthiness of the lotus root. The daikon also helps tenderize the meat. I used a relatively lean cut of pork shoulder for this recipe to keep it healthier, but feel free to use a fattier cut or even pork belly if you wish. I think a bit of Chinese five-spice powder would be lovely as well, but as I said, my dad doesn't like spices so they were omitted.

Banh Pa Te So (Vietnamese Pate Chaud (French Hot Pastry Pie))

I'm not sure why I haven't posted a recipe for Banh Pa Te So (Vietnamese Pate Chaud (French Hot Pastry Pie)) before. Perhaps I was overthinking it and wanted to wait until I tried my hand at making puff pastry. Or maybe I veered the other direction and thought it was so basic that it didn't need a recipe. I admit, I don't often make a filling specifically for banh pa te so. Rather, if I'm making Cha Gio (Vietnamese Egg Rolls), I use the leftover filling to stuff them or any other leftover filling or meat.

My mom buys frozen puff pastry in bulk and cuts them into squares and brings them down to me. So I almost always have some on hand. They make a great light breakfast or quick snack. But, since one of my readers requested, and in case you wanted to specifically make banh pa te so, here's my recipe.

By the way, I always knew that banh pa te so is the Vietnamese phonetic equivalent of pate chaud (French hot pastry pie), but according to Wikipedia, apparently it's an outdated 19th century term. Blame it on colonialism. Learn something new every day!

With my love for pot pies, well, really, any savory filling in pastry, it's a wonder I haven't posted about this before.

Grilled Coca Cola Fig Jam Ribs

No barbecue is complete without ribs. I was planning on making Pork Ribs with Coca Cola and Strawberry Jam, but didn't have any strawberry jam in my refrigerator. No problem, the Coke was the more important part of the recipe anyway. A little digging around my condiment shelf and a jar of fig jam seemed like the most likely substitute. I made a few modifications to the other recipe, adding in fish sauce and Sriracha for more savory and spicy notes.

Can you believe all that was just one rack of ribs? I had the butcher cut it length-wise. I then cut each side in half, and used one quarter to make a soy sauce and spicy free version for the kids.

Again, I also cooked the ribs in the oven for half an hour to tenderize the meat and speed up grilling time. You can either cook these completely in the oven, which I've done plenty of times before, or cook them on the grill.

Easter Barbecue to Break in My Saber Grill

Like my fancy new grill?



It is niiice! Way nicer than anything I could afford on my own. So I leapt at the chance when Monique Moffit, Director of Public Relations at The Sales Factory, asked if I would like to try the Saber Cast 500 grill. I glanced at the website to read about the grill's features: an infrared cooking system for even temperature cooking, no flare-ups, and less gas usage; all commercial kitchen grade stainless steel; three independent cooking zones; and 24,000 BTUs grill and 10,000 BTUs side burner. Sounds pretty awesome!

I decided to throw an impromptu barbecue for Easter to break in my new grill ie. to rope my guests into helping me assemble the darn thing. Luckily, my brother and cousin Q's older brother, the two grill aficionados in the family, were available and willing to help. So how does the Saber grill compare to their fancy schmancy Weber grills?

Well, let's back up a bit. That all commercial kitchen grade stainless steel that sounded so awesome? That meant a package that weighed more than 200 pounds! The grill was delivered on a pallet and required a mini forklift. This was serious business!

Shu / Siu Mai (Chinese Meatball Dumpling)

I brought Siu Mai (Chinese Meatball Dumplings) to my brother's lunar new year dinner. I know, siu mai are usually eaten in the mornings for dim sum, but I needed something quick and easy. And while I'm perfectly happy getting my fix at dim sum restaurants, there's something to be said about making siu mai at home and eating it late at night.

I'm not so skilled with the shaping. The dumplings waffled to and fro in the steamer. After a few misses, I found it easiest to steam them in a mini cupcake pan. It's cheating for sure, but they come out much nicer if you're not so skilled in shaping them either.

Make them for breakfast, if you want Chinese dim sum at home. Or make them for a late night snack.

Gus's Barbecue - South Pasadena

I've eaten at Gus's Barbecue in South Pasadena four times over the past few years so I figured it was about time to finally blog it. The first visit was back in July 2010. Actually, it was on Independence Day. No one around me was throwing a barbecue that year, and you can't have a Fourth of July without barbecue! So my brother asked if I wanted to check out Gus's with him and his wife.

The atmosphere is pretty classic American. Red stools at the counter. Scenes of old South Pasadena on the walls. We sat at a booth in the far back.