A friend of mine once asked me for a fried rice recipe and I gave them my trusty chicken fried rice with gai lan recipe. I followed up with them the next day to see how it went and they said it was good, but something was different. They asked me what “gai lan” was and I explained to them that it was Chinese broccoli. They said that they weren’t able to find it at their local grocery store and used regular fleurette broccoli and that by using soy sauce, would rationalize it as being “Chinese“. After I stopped pounding my head against the wall, I tried to figure out if the problem was my friends or the fact that I didn’t specify where to get the ingredients… especially after I found out that their pantry soy sauce was the kosher-gluten-free variety.
Jason
Jason
Hey there, my name is Jason. I love food and making delicious discoveries in Montreal. What do you want to eat? I'll tell you where to go. Welcome to my Blog!
I would love to say that this recipe for mapo tofu is a secret family recipe, passed on from generation to generation… but it’s not. My mom has a version of this dish that she makes for her grandkids that is more mild, less spicy and child friendly that she has adopted as her own signature recipe. “Mapo” translates to a name you call your grandmother. I grew up eating this dish and up until I was older and saw this dish listed on a restaurant menu, I thought this dish was something specific to our family; without an official name having calling it “grandma’s tofu” all this time. Adapting my mom’s recipe, I’ve developed this version that’s a spicier, a bit more authentic and true to a traditional typical szechuan dish.
Do you like dim sum? Of course you do, what kind of monster doesn’t like dim sum; the ritual of lining up on Sunday mornings at your favourite dim sum house, listening to aunties sing the contents of their steamers in a memorized song as their push their carts along a predetermined carpet-worn circuit. If waking up early on a Sunday morning isn’t your thing, but dumplings are, I’ve got a recipe for pork and shrimp shu mai that’s going to knock your groggy weekend socks off and scare the Sunday morning breath of out your mouth.
