The Food Addicts

These are the dim sum carts that you will see being shuttled around the restaurants, stopping at the tables with eager eaters to showcase their dishes. If you see what you like, you point and they will place it on your table and stamp the card. When you want to request a certain dish, you can use the handy dandy guide below and ask them in your best Chinese accent.

Steamed Pork Dumplings (Siu Mai: pronounced Shu Mai) - This is probably one of the most popular dim sum dishes. These distinctive steamed dumplings are shaped like a basket with the filling sticking out over the top and filled with pork and topped with fish roe.

Steamed Shrimp Dumplings (Har Gau: pronounced Har Gow) - This is a delicate steamed dumpling with whole or chopped-up shrimp filling. The transparency of the dumpling wrapper comes from using wheat starch in the dough.

Sticky Rice (Lo Mai Gai): This dish is packaged in fragrant lotus leaves which consists of sticky rice, sausage, and mushrooms. This is a picture of it unwrapped and halved so you can see the filling.

Phoenix Talons aka Chicken Feet (Fung Jao) - These are chicken feet that are deep-fried, boiled, and marinated in a black bean sauce and then steamed. This results in a texture that is light and fluffy, while moist and tender. Keep in mind you are eating them for their taste, not their meat - so long as you can overcome your disgust from eating chicken's feet!

Steamed BBQ Pork Buns (Char Siu Bao): These are Cantonese barbecue pork buns filled with barbecue flavored char siu pork. These fluffy buns are made from wheat flour and steamed so they are fresh and hot when served.

Baked BBQ Pork Bun (Char Siu Bao) - This is the other variation of the BBQ Pork Bun, except that it's baked instead of steamed and uses a different kind of dough. Also, its distinctive honey glaze gives it that nice shiny gleam.

Barbecued Pork Pastry (Char Siu So) - This BBQ Pork Pastry is made with flaky puff pastry dough. This has a sticky glaze and sprinkled with sesame seeds. Although the filling (Char Siu) is similar to the ones above, the puff pastry dough is what makes it different in flavor and texture.

Spring Roll (Chun Guen): This classic spring roll is usually filled with various types of vegetables like carrots, cabbage, and woodear mushrooms. It's rolled in a thin flour paper and deep fried. It can be served with a side of Worcestershire sauce. (It's pronounced Ki-Chup if you want to ask for this sauce).

Turnip Cake (Lo Bak Goh: pronounced Law Bok Gow): This cake is made from mashed daikon radish mixed with bits of dried shrimp and pork sausage that are steamed and then cut into slices and pan fried. The texture is dense, moist and slightly creamy.

Here is a picture of the Turnip cake being fried to a golden color on the cart. It's made fresh! It has certainly become one of my new favorites!

Chinese Broccoli (Gai Lan) - This is not your usual dim sum meat dish - duh! However, it's become more popular in restaurants because people like to enjoy all the protein-heavy dishes with a balance of some steamed vegetables. I personally like to order this because it's light and refreshing. The chinese broccoli is served with a drizzle of oyster sauce.

Tofu Bean Curd Roll (Sin Jyut Gyun) - The tofu skin is dried and hydrated during the cooking process. The filling consists of bamboo shoots and pork.

Pork Spare Ribs (Pai Gwat) - This is pork spare ribs that is steamed with fermented black beans. It's juicy, tender, and delicious - one of our favorites!

Chinese Donut Noodle Wrap (Zhaliang: pronounced Jaa Loeng) - This is a large rice noodle that is steamed and then wrapped around a Chinese donut stick. The donut itself is not sweet like your typical American donuts. It's very mild in flavor and has a nice crunch. It is served with two sauces - sweet Hoisin sauce and a peanut sauce.

Fried Taro Dumplings (Wo Gok) - This is a newer addition to the dim sum family and it's getting to be more prevalent in the restaurants we go to. The dumpling skin is made of fried taro that is flaky and crispy. The filling is made of seasoned ground pork and mushrooms.

Egg Custard Tart (Dan tat) - This is composed of a flaky puff pastry dough with an egg custard filling and baked to perfection.

Mango Pudding (Mong Guo Bo Din) - A nice refreshing dessert that is a sweet mango-flavored pudding and typically served over evaporated milk.

Sesame Seed Balls (Jin Dui) - Balls of glutinous rice flour that is filled with yellow mung bean paste, rolled in sesame seeds, and then deep fried.

This is how a typical dim sum restaurant will serve the dishes - in metal steamers or small plates. It's a great place to go with a group of people so that you can share the different options together. Enjoying your tea is also a big part of this meal. Tip: There is a polite way to ask for the teapot to be refilled with fresh hot water: by lifting the lid off and letting it hang loose by the rim. And remember, always pour tea for your fellow guests before serving yourself.

And of course... what do the stamps on these letter boxes mean??? In a typical dim sum restaurant with carts, you are given a card for your table and every time the servers give you a dish of your choice, they will stamp the card in the appropriate box to keep track of your bill. Each restaurant varies in how much they charge, but a good rule of thumb is that the "A" boxes range from $1.50 - $2.50, "B" boxes are $2.50 - $3.50, and "C' are $3.50 - $5.00. If you are worried about the bill, just ask your server what each letter box cost.

Be creative and good luck!

The first thing is to prepare the candied walnuts. In a small saucepan, bring 1 cup water with 2/3 cup sugar to a boil. Next, add 1 cup of walnuts and continue boiling for a few minutes until it has a nice glaze over the walnuts.

Place the walnuts on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and set aside. Don't put them on paper towels or they will stick! And feel free to pop a few in your mouth.

Next comes the shrimp! We used 1 lb. of 41/50 ct. large shrimp that's been peeled and deveined.

For the batter, whip 3 egg whites in a bowl until foamy. Add 1/2 cup cornstarch and season with salt and pepper. Toss the shrimp into the batter mixture to coat evenly, as shown. Make sure you add the shrimp to the batter immediately before frying. Don't let it sit in the batter!

Now the frying begins! Heat oil until 350-degrees and drop a few of the battered shrimp into the oil and fry on each side for a couple minutes until golden brown. You don't want to put all of the shrimp in at once because it will drop the temperature of the oil!

The shrimp should look plump and crispy after the deep-fry bath. Set it on paper towels to absorb excess oil.

For the creamy dressing, stir together 3 tbsp mayo, 2 tbsp honey, 1 tbsp lemon juice, and 1 tbsp condensed milk. Mix it together and taste it to see if you prefer it sweeter or creamier. Once you like the consistency and flavor, add the fried shrimp and toss to coat with the sauce.

Don't forget to sprinkle with the candied walnuts before serving! So for those of you like me who never knew how this dish was made, now you have a clear image of the 3-step process: walnuts, batter/deep fry shrimp, and coat with creamy sauce. We had a few friends over the night we made this and they graciously helped us eat the Honey Walnut Shrimp, like it was candy. I especially like the fact that we were able to control the amount of mayo in this dish so it didn't overwhelm our tastebuds. Overall, we thought it was a pretty good outcome for our first attempt!

Here we used 3.5 lbs of pork shoulder cut into chunks (we removed as much fat from the pork as possible). We are trying to make this a healthier version!

Liberally salt the pork and cook the pieces of pork in a single layer until well-browned. They should have a nice dark color on each side.

Here are the seasonings we used to braise the pork: 1 tsp Ground Cumin, 1 tsp Smoked Sweet Paprika, and 1 1/2 tsp Manzanillo Mexican Seasoning (which is a hand-blend of Mexican oregano, black pepper, Chipotle powder, Ancho Chile powder, Pasilla Chile powder, cumin, garlic powder, garlic flakes, onion powder, onion flakes and coriander) . If you can't get the Manzanillo Mexican Seasoning, just replace this with chile powder and oregano.

Add enough pork stock to the pot so that the pork pieces are two-thirds submerged (around 2 cups). If you don't have pork stock on hand, you can just use water. Add in the above-mentioned seasonings, a couple bay leaves, 1 tsp fresh oregano, and 1 tbsp chopped garlic. Braise this pot of pork and spices in the oven at 350F degrees for about 2 1/2 hrs until most of the liquid has evaporated and the pork is falling apart.

Remove the pork pieces from the pot into a bowl and discard the liquid, because it's pretty fatty.

Traditionally, the pork pieces are deep fried so it gets that nice crispy texture. But since this is a healthy version, we took the pork and scattered it on a baking sheet and broiled on High in the oven until the pork is crispy and caramelized. Just keep an eye on it to determine how crispy and brown you want them. Since we were impatient, we didn't want to wait that long to eat it!

This is a great way to stretch your pork shoulder by making Pork Carnitas at home. These are great to eat as a taco with corn tortillas, tomatoes, shredded cabbage, cilantro, and a squeeze of lime. It can also be eaten with rice and beans - or just by itself. Either way you choose, this Carnitas recipe is delicious with the exotic spice blend and tastes just as fabulous as the unhealthy fried version!

We grow our oranges in a pot in our garden just to control it from growing out of control.

(Sorry for the god-awful picture. I must've drank too much Grand Marnier when I took this.) In a double boiler, combine 5 oz of bittersweet chocolate (we used chocolate chips), along with 2 tbsp coffee and 2 tbsp Grand Marnier. The Grand Marnier is the extra ingredient that gives it that subtle orange flavor. Stir until melted and smooth. Remove from heat.

When chocolate has cooled, whisk in 4 large egg yolks, one at a time. Keep in mind that this is a classic French mousse recipe so it requires raw eggs which will not be cooked.

In a mixer, whip 1 cup chilled heavy cream to soft peaks. In another bowl, beat the 4 egg whites until foamy. Add 1 tbsp sugar and beat to soft peaks.

Fold half of whites into chocolate until incorporated, then fold in rest of whites. Finally, fold in whipped cream.

The chocolate mousse should look like this. Keep in the fridge to chill at least 4 hours before serving.

To serve, cut 4 oranges in half and scoop out the flesh without breaking the skin. Fill the shells with the chocolate mousse, top with whipped cream, and sprinkle with orange zest. This is a creative and fun way to serve the Chocolate Mousse to your guests to add that extra "wow" factor!

The recipe calls for 4 medium onions, thinly sliced. We actually doubled the recipe, but for simplicity sake, we will give you instructions based on the cookbook's recipe. To make things easier on us, we sliced the onions using a mandolin so it comes out fairly evenly. And obviously it's a lot faster.

In a soup pot (not a pan like we used here), add some oil and the onions over medium-low heat. The trick here is to not stir the onions at all until they begin to brown on the bottom.

When the onions begin to brown on the bottom, raise the heat to medium, stir, and continue to cook until the onions are deeply caramelized to a dark golden brown. The total cooking time should be about 30-45 minutes. If the onions begin to scorch, add a few tbsp of water and continue cooking. To the onions, add 2 minced garlic cloves and 1/2 cup brandy and simmer until the liquid has nearly evaporated, about 2-3 minutes.

Next, add 1 1/2 quarts of beef broth... and the herb sachet shown below.

We snipped about 3-4 parsley stems from our herb garden for the sachet.

To this cheesecloth, add some thyme, tarragon, and 1 bay leaf. This gets wrapped up and tied with a string to put inside the soup pot while it's cooking to release the flavors of the herbs without having them get inside the pot.

Bring to a simmer and cook partially covered for 45 minutes to 1 hour, skimming the surface as necessary and discarding any fat. Once the soup is done, remove the sachet and season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Meanwhile, grate about 1 cup of Gruyère cheese. Gruyère is sweet but slightly salty, with a flavor that varies widely with age. It is often described as creamy and nutty when young, becoming with age more assertive, earthy, and complex.

When the soup is ready to serve, fill the soup crock and add a couple slices of toasted French bread.

Sprinkle with a generous amount of Gruyère cheese and broil on high for about 5 minutes until the cheese is melted.

The secret to making a fine French Onion Soup is to give it lots of time to develop flavor. The rich flavor of the base is not due just to the broth, but to the caramelized onions. If you find yourself with a lot of onions and want to make something where onions are the key ingredient, then this is surely a dish to consider. We hope that this post will help show you that it's not a daunting task to make your own French Onion Soup at home.