Spicy Cold Noodles with Beef Slivers for Kitchen Chinese

We, at Cook the Books Club, are currently reading and getting inspired by Kitchen Chinese, a delicious, little debut novel by Ann Mah. Fairly light weight, but I very much enjoyed it, both for the storyline and an up close look at a country headlining the news lately, mostly in a negative way.

 Our protagonist, Isabelle, has come to a standstill in her life, with loss of job, no romance in sight and craving some new horizons.  She decides to explore the family connections in China, where her sister is working as an attorney in Beijing. One drawback being that her knowledge of the language is limited to a bit of "kitchen Chinese" picked up watching and helping her mother cook while growing up.

However, once there, Isabelle manages to land a job at a magazine for the expatriate community in Beijing and connect with a small circle of friends. The relationship with her high powered sister is not so smooth, and they circle one another warily at first.

From the Publishers: "Kitchen Chinese, Ann Mah’s funny and poignant first novel about a young Chinese-American woman who travels to Beijing to discover food, family, and herself is a delight—complete with mouth-watering descriptions of Asian culinary delicacies, from Peking duck and Mongolian hot pot to the colorful, lesser known Ants in a Tree that will delight foodies everywhere. Reminiscent of Elizabeth Gilbert’s runaway bestseller Eat, Pray, Love, Mah’s tale of clashing cultures, rival siblings, and fine dining is an unforgettable, unexpectedly sensual reading experience—the story of one woman’s search for identity and purpose in an exotic and faraway land."

Happy New Year's Jook

The downside to embarking upon a terrific new mystery series, when you've just finished the debut novel, is the wait for a follow up!  Singapore Sapphire, by .A. M. Stuart, has it all - an intrepid heroine, in an exotic locale, fascinating history and really splendid writing. I want to read her next one now!

I would only take exception to the cover.  Who is supposed to be represented here?  Certainly not our brave heroine, Harriet Gordon, an Englishwoman, raised in India.  More from the Publishers:

"Early twentieth-century Singapore is a place where a person can disappear, and Harriet Gordon hopes to make a new life for herself there, leaving her tragic memories behind her--but murder gets in the way.

Singapore, 1910--Desperate for a fresh start, Harriet Gordon finds herself living with her brother, a reverend and headmaster of a school for boys, in Singapore at the height of colonial rule. Hoping to gain some financial independence, she advertises her services as a personal secretary. It is unfortunate that she should discover her first client, Sir Oswald Newbold--explorer, mine magnate and president of the exclusive Explorers and Geographers Club--dead with a knife in his throat.

When Inspector Robert Curran is put on the case, he realizes that he has an unusual witness in Harriet. Harriet's keen eye for detail and strong sense of duty interests him, as does her distrust of the police and her traumatic past, which she is at pains to keep secret from the gossips of Singapore society.

When another body is dragged from the canal, Harriet feels compelled to help with the case. She and Curran are soon drawn into a murderous web of treachery and deceit and find themselves face-to-face with a ruthless cabal that has no qualms about killing again to protect its secrets."

Mapo Tofu and a Memoir of Eating in China

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading our latest pick for Cook the Books Club - Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper, a Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China, by Fuchsia Dunlop, this round hosted by fellow Hawaii resident, Deb of Kahakai Kitchen  Dunlop writes a mostly delicious, sometimes revolting, entertaining, well researched and fascinating account of the food, culture and the peoples of that humongous country, mixed in with just enough history to punctuate her tale.

Fuchsia starts out as a young student of the Chinese language and culture, then embarks upon learning to cook Chinese as well, in the city of Chengdu, Sichuan province.  There she attends the premier Sichuan culinary school as their first foreign student, a woman at that, in a class of about 50 young Chinese men.

Fuchsia continued to travel widely in China and recounts her many adventures over the years with wit, humor and style. She began what became a long term odyssey by deciding to eat whatever was going, and stuck by that, consuming what a majority of us would consider truly horrifying food.  Not just every bit of an animal, but including the odd critter and bug in the mix; some of which may have started out as frugality in hard times, but have come to be considered exotic and expensive delicacies for the wealthy.  Her title is evocative in that sense - sweet-sour.

Manapua for Mark Twain's Visit to Hawaii

For our bimonthly Cook the Books Club, the current selection was Twain's Feast by Andrew Beahrs, a meandering digression on the travels and favorite American foods of Samuel Clemens, then, and what has become of them now.

Really, a meandering lament (say Jeremiah was a contemporary cook) for the lost, or nearly extinct native species, both plant and animal.  Those beloved by Twain, from the now protected prairie hens of Illinois to oysters and mussels once fabulously prolific
on the California coast.  The damming of the muddy Mississippi and etc. etc.  Possibly preaching to the saved here, but lots of fascinating information.  I especially enjoyed all the material on possum and raccoon preparation.

Though tempted to do something from the New Orleans section, as I do love Creole and Cajun dishes,  I thought it would be fun to take a digression, way westward instead, and celebrate Mark Twain's time in Hawaii, since Beahrs did not cover that influential, yet relatively brief period in the author's life.  I found the following story interesting enough to quote most of it, thinking you might enjoy the background information as I did. From a 2010 article for Huff Post Books, by Kate Kelly, entitled Mark Twain and Hawaii: Long Before it was the 50th State:

"Since last spring the literary world has been abuzz about the November 2010 release of the first volume of Mark Twain's autobiography. Twain had left the manuscript with specifications that it not be published until one hundred years after his death, by which time he would be "dead, unaware, and indifferent."

 In the 1860s, a young Samuel Clemens, who had only recently adopted the pen name of Mark Twain, was one of the first reporters to be sent from the mainland of the United States to the Hawaiian islands. He was on assignment for the Sacramento Union to provide their readers with information about what these fabled islands were really like. 

Twain spent almost four months in Hawaii, eventually producing for the Sacramento Union 25 letters about the Sandwich Islands, as he called them. His letters were a huge hit at the time, and the merit of his work lives on. One Hawaiian native, Lawrence Downes, writing recently about Hawaii for the New York Times (5-14-06) notes that Twain provides the "best travel writing about Hawaii...that I have ever read."

During his visit, Twain traveled to the summit of Kilauea, hiked Diamond Head, and made his way through the valleys of the islands. He also surfed, testing out the sport that locals loved even then. 
Samuel Clemens longed to return to the Sandwich Islands and spent many years wondering how and if he could go back. In a later work, Twain writes of Hawaii:

"For me its balmy airs are always blowing, its summer seas flashing in the sun; the pulsing of its surf is in my ear; I can see its garlanded crags, its leaping cascades, its plumy palms drowsing by the shore, its remote summits floating like islands above the cloud-rack; I can feel the spirit of its woody solitudes, I hear the plashing of the brooks; in my nostrils still lives the breath of flowers that perished twenty years ago."
But that first trip became a pivotal point for Samuel Clemens, and he was never able to return for a stay. His stories were so popular that his fame began to grow, and he found himself in great demand.
Writes Twain: "I returned to California to find myself about the best-known honest man on the Pacific coast. Thomas McGuire [Maguire], proprietor of several theaters, said that now was the time to make my fortune -- strike while the iron was hot -- break into the lecture field!"

Around 1860 a number of the Chinese who had left the plantations began to open small businesses in an area of Honolulu known as Chinatown. These businesses were mostly small shops specializing in specific trades such as grocers, jewelers, bakers and tailors, as well as the restaurant trade.

Which brings me to my point - that Sam Clemens would most likely have visited Chinatown during his stay in Honolulu, as he was there in 1866.  Chinese food had became wildly popular by that time, with both foreigners and the local Hawaiians, especially dim sum, the varied and delicious appetizers. One variety of which remains a local favorite - Manapua, the Hawaiian word for Char Sui Bao, tasty little buns with a filling of pork char sui. 

Several years ago I made them for the first time, stating then that I didn't know of anywhere on the Big Island to get any (wanting organic, sustainably raised pork made it a bit difficult of course).  For the recipe see my earlier post.   However, this time I wanted to use my sourdough starter, more likely what the early manapua makers of Chinatown would have used.

A delicious treat, and surprisingly easy to put together.  If you slow roast some pork, you might add  Chinese seasonings to your left-overs, and have the filling without any trouble.  The dough is a cinch to work with, and they can be baked or steamed in a bamboo steamer over a wok, as I did.

Visit the Cook the Books Club page to check out what everyone came up with later in the week, and to see what books are lined up for the coming months if you would like to participate.
 

Char Sui Bao, Manapua, Oh Yeah! I can do my own.

Sad to say, this being Hawaii and all,  I really do not know of a good local place to get these yummy Chinese buns, called Manapua here, a type of Dim Sum.  At least not with nicely raised pork inside, which I do realize, eliminates most everyone.   So, I am now happy to do it myself, whenever the Char Sui Bao mood strikes.  Really what being a foodie is supposed to be about, or am I wrong?

Our Daring Cooks’ December 2011 hostess is Sara from Belly Rumbles! Sara chose awesome Char Sui Bao as our challenge, where we made the buns, Char Sui, and filling from scratch – delicious!

As usual, it just being the two of us, well except for the occasional grandchild, I cut the recipe in half, which gave us ten fat dumplings, filled with Char Sui pork, green onions and fragrant seasoning.   I made the oven, rather than BBQ method of Char Sui, the weather being solid rain for the last few weeks.  Not exactly anything you want to go out and grill in.

Moo Shu Pork with Mandarin Pancakes for Daring Cooks

This is a tale of two dinners.  The first, due to major pancake error, was served on rice instead of the cute, authentic Chinese Pancakes.  And, just so you know, those pancakes do roll out very nicely.  The dough is easy to work with, the recipe simplicity itself.  Just don't stack your uncooked, painstakingly rolled out, darling little cakes, cover them with a damp towel, and then go have a wine and chips break.  It won't work.  You will come back to this:

A gooey, stuck together pile of unusable dough, which you will then have to throw out, muttering under your breath (we won't curse, will we?) and have another glass of that wine.

Also, I must confess, that whilst rolling out the pancakes, there was already some mental grumbling going on.  Like making a batch of crepes is so much easier, and you can use flour that isn't white refined, and said to be bad for you, plus which there are lovely eggs, butter and milk in them.  This is taking too long, I'll never do this again, blah blah blah.  So after all that work, to face actually doing it again, was God teaching me a lesson almost too much, but we persist with challenges around here.

The October Daring Cooks' Challenge was hosted by Shelley of C Mom Cook and her sister Ruth of The Crafts of Mommyhood. They challenged us to bring a taste of the East into our home kitchens by making our own Moo Shu, including thin pancakes, stir fry and sauce.  Deh-Ta Hsiung, a renowned authority on Chinese cuisine, published a beautiful book called The Chinese Kitchen, which was a source for our recipes.

For round two I used the alternate technique given - squished together double pancakes with sesame oil in between, which you pull apart, after cooking.  Just to vary my life. BUT NOT leaving them stacked, uncooked with a damp towel over.  We frequently learn our lessons the hard way.

For the pork stir fry section of the recipe, I used a precious, naturally raised, too expensive, pork butt.  On the plus side, it was slow roasted for our Sunday dinner of pulled pork tacos (which did taste fabulous), leaving plenty left over for both of my Moo Shu attempts.  So, we did get three dinners out of that yummy butt.  My personal opinion of canned bamboo shoots and dried black fungus, being what it is, (say no more) I substituted slivers of fresh carrot and shitake mushrooms.  I will give the recipes unchanged however.