My friend’s wife went to Taiwan for a month. Maria and I invited him and another couple to our house for a 家常飯 “jia1 chang2 fan4,” or 便飯 “bian4 fan4” which literally means a casual dinner.
I made many side dishes and a few main dishes using simple ingredients and light seasoning. Many of them were vegetable dishes more suitable for summer time.
Several of them came out very nice but Chicken stuffed with sweet rice was a huge disappointment.
The following two were excellent:
- Sweet pepper stuffed with shrimp and tofu with oyster sauce reduction. I added cilantro to shrimp and tofu to enhance its flavor.
- Deep-fried tofu with plums and dates in honey and wine sauce. The thick and savory sauce complemented the tofu nicely. It was simple to do as well but it took almost one hour to achieve the desired consistency at very low heat.
You might call both dishes 功夫菜 ”gong1 fu1 cai4” because both took a long time and extra efforts to make.
I also made this vegetable dish which was a healthy addition at the end: snow peas, winter bamboo shoots and 白果 “bai2 guo3.” 白果 “bai2 guo3” is the seed of 銀杏樹 “yin2 xin4 shu4” or Ginkgo. 銀杏樹 “yin2 xin4 shu4” has been found as early as 270 million years ago and are widely available in China and other parts of the world including the United States, Canada, Korea and Japan. It can grow up to 120’ tall with trunk as big as 12’ in diameter.白果“bai2 guo3” has long been used for cooking and medicine in China. It is said that 白果“bai2 guo3” is good for asthmas patients and older men with frequent urines problems, among other benefits.
This is what ginko’s leaf looks like.
I’ll do the deep-fried tofu with plums and dates again because it is a such an easy dish to make. It is also a crows pleaser too.
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