In fact, this dish can easily choose their own tastes.If you like hot taste,you prefer to caving many chili. If you do not like, without pepper can also. This dish can also been as a hot pot. So you can eat chicken and taro first,then add in boiling water and scald vegetable to ate. Taro (called yutou, 芋头 or yunai, 芋艿 in China; 芋頭, wuh táu? in Hong Kong) is commonly used within Chinese cuisine in a variety of styles, mainly as a flavor enhancing ingredient. It is commonly braised with pork or beef. It is used in the dim sum cuisine of southern China to make a small plated dish called taro dumpling, as well as a pan-fried dish called taro cake. It is also woven to form a seafood birdsnest. The taro cake is also a delicacy traditionally eaten during the Chinese New Year. In desserts it is used in tong sui, bubble tea, as a flavoring in ice cream and other deserts in the China(f. ex. Sweet Taro Pie). Taro roots can be used for medicinal purposes, particularly for curing insect bites.

Ingredients:
Chicken
Taro
Green onion
Garlic
Ginger
Dry chili (50g)
Sichuan pepper(wild pepper) (50g)

Seasoning:
Chinese chili sauce(50g)
Sugar(10g)
Oil (100g)

Methods:
1.Clean taro and skin all then cube it.

2.Chop ginger ,garlic and green onion then Cube chicken.

3.Boil the cubed taro about 2 minutes and drain water,stand by.

4.Heat up with oil(80g) with sugar until it appear browm bubble,add in Chinese chili sauce and go on fried until oil seemed red oil.

5.Add in garlic,ginger,dry chili and wild pepper until fragrants then add in water.

6.Pour in chicken and taro when water is boiling,go on cook until chicken is well done.

7.Pick dish in the big bowl and cover green onion ,dry chili and wild pepper on the top of dish,heat up with oil(20g) in the pot until boiling then pour on the dish, dish off.

Attention:
If you do not quite understand the last step,you can also be used wild pepper and chili fried until fragrants then pour in the dish.

The final step can be abolished.

It is a custom in Tianjin to eat tangdui on the eve of the Chinese New Year. The most popular tangdui is made of hawthorn berry. Hawthorn berries have their seeds removed and are skewered on a thin bamboo stick, then dipped in hot syrup. When they turn cool, the stringed berries wrapped in crystal sugar look like beautiful stone beans pungently sweet and sour.

Sometimes, the hollowed hawthorn berries are filled with red bean paste, walnut and melon seeds. Today, in addition to hawthorn, a wide variety of tangdui has been developed, including water chestnut, tangerine, apple, pear and crab-apple, etc.

Tanghulu, or crystalline sugar-coated haws on a stick, do not require much promotion among young sweet-lovers in Beijing, despite the increasing competition from new generation snack foods like potato chips, popcorn and chocolate.

About 20 centimeters long, bright red in color with a perfect sweet-and-sour taste, tanghulu are a much-loved traditional confection in the capital city.

Every year as the weather cools down, tanghulu sales start heating up on almost every street corner in the city. Mobile food vendors carry large straw or plastic poles with dozens of tanghulu stuck in them as they make their rounds from one neighborhood to another.

Each vendor has his or her own distinct, rhythmic call. Many of the food stalls in parks, supermarkets or along the roadside add tanghulu to their menus. Buyers can watch the stall owners making the snack on the spot.

“Tanghulu has been my favorite sweet since I was a kid,” said Ma Long, a 27-year-old native Beijinger who works for a foreign company. “Childhood memories of tanghulu still linger in my mind today.”

Back in those days, most children couldn’t afford expensive treats and tanghulu, which cost about one jiao (1 US cent) each, were always the most popular, Ma said.

“Every afternoon on my way home from school, I liked to buy a tanghulu,” Ma recalled.

Although all kinds of snacks are available nowadays, made by either local or overseas manufacturers, Ma remains a staunch tanghulu fan.

“Nothing is more satisfying than eating a tasty tanghulu on a cold day,” Ma said. Ma’s passion for tanghulu is shared by many young adults including 25-year-old Wang Yan, a primary school teacher in Beijing.

“When I was young, my mother once warned me if I kept eating so many tanghulu, I would lose all of my teeth,” Wang recalled.

But the mother’s words did not dampen the young girl’s love of the snack. Every winter, she continued to spend most of her pocket money for tanghulu.

“Even now I can’t resist tanghulu whenever I see them in supermarkets or at streetside snack stands,” said Wang.

Though tanghulu are also popular in many other cities in North and Northeast China, they have become sort of unofficial, non-dancing logo of Beijing.

Auspicious symbol

For many Beijing people, tanghulu is not only a tasty treat, but also an auspicious symbol and highlight of the traditional temple fairs held during the Lunar New Year holidays in Beijing.

Tanghulu sold at the Changdian Temple Fair in Xuanwu District are regarded as the most auspicious ones by many Beijingers.

Dating back to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the temple fair at Changdian was resumed in 2001, after a 37-year halt, and is now one of the largest such fairs in the capital city.

Many of the tanghulu sold at the fair are about one meter long and decorated with colorful flags on the top.

“A visit to the temple fair is not complete without buying one of these huge tanghulu,” said Ma.

Generally most buyers don’t eat them.

They take them home as a kind of auspicious token, which they believe will bring them good luck, fortune and prosperity in the coming new year.

Long history

Legend has it that tanghulu date back to the Song Dynasty (960-1279). Once an imperial concubine of Emperor Guangzong (1147-1200) fell seriously sick and the court physicians failed to find an effective treatment. The worried emperor knitted his brows in despair every day.

Then a doctor from outside the court volunteered to try and cure the concubine’s illness. After examining the patient thoroughly, the doctor wrote out a simple prescription: Simmer haws in sugar and water, and eat five to 10 of them before each meal.

The doctor said the concubine would get well in less than two weeks if she followed the prescription.

Neither the emperor nor the court physician believed the doctor’s words. But unexpectedly, the concubine got better and better and eventually recovered.

The story of the miraculous cure and the making of the healthy food quickly spread among the common people. Some food vendors began putting haws on bamboo skewers and selling them as snacks, and after a bap tism in hot sugar syrup, they became the tanghulu we know.

It was said that the first tanghulu had only two haws: a small one on top and a big one on the bottom, which made the treat look like a hulu , or bottle gourd.

This is why they are called tanghulu today, which means “candy bottle gourd” in Chinese.

And the name has stuck despite the fact that most tanghulu include four to eight haws and don’t look the least bit like a candy gourd today.

Back in the early 1900s, the most-sought after tanghulu were sold in food stores in the Dong’an Market in downtown Beijing. Most of these stores were not very large, but enjoyed a booming business every day.

In addition to haws, a dazzling variety of ingredients such as kumquats, yam, water chestnuts and Chinese dates are used to make tanghulu. But they are all made in pretty much the same way.

Take haws, for example. Wash the haws, take out the seeds, put the haws together on a bamboo skewer, then dip it into boiling syrup and take it out and allow it to cool to harden the syrup.

Ingredients like yams and water chestnuts have to be steamed before being made into tanghulu.

The most attractive varieties are sugar-coated haws with fillings. Each haw is cut open, filled with sweet bean paste, and then trimmed with the edible kernels of melon seeds.

Many tanghulu-makers stress that heat control is the key element in making good tanghulu. If the temperature of the syrup is too low, the tanghulu will be sticky; if the syrup is over-heated, candied coating of the tanghulu will look dark and taste bitter.

Among the many tanghulu makers, only a few have established fame or secured trademarks for their brands.

One famous tanghulu-maker in old Beijing was Xinyuanzhai, one of the oldest shops in the city that made and sold traditional snack food.

Built during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the store was particularly well-known for its special tanghulu product called tangdun.

Tangdun were made with only one large haw,although they were prepared in almost the same way as regular tanghulu. They were juicy and crispy and had a perfect combination of sweetness and sourness, and they were very popular up to the mid-1930s.

The golden days of both Dong’an Market and Xinyuanzhai have gone with the changing times. Few people remember Xinyuanzhai’s tangdun, while Dong’an Market has been replaced by the modern shopping mall, Sun Dong An Plaza, in 1998.

Surviving tradition

Many experts argue that the market still has an insatiable appetite for traditional snack foods like tanghulu and that the business still has potential for further growth.

Over the past few years, some tanghulu manufacturers from other provinces have begun to step into the market in Beijing. And they have come in with their own brand names, such as Gaolaotai, from northeast China’s Liaoning Province.

And Beijing manufacturers are feeling the heat of local competition.

Rising incomes and changes in lifestyle have created new demands that traditional snack foods do not fulfill, said Lu Zhonghua, manager of the Beijing-based Tanghuluwa Food Plant.

“For a long time, the business relied mostly on traditional techniques which had been passed on for generations,” Lu said. “With backward technology and poor management, we had trouble keeping our own tanghulu fresh and selling well.”

Now modern technology and modern management are becoming essential elements if one wishes to survive, Lu added.

Established in 2000, the company now operates over 20 outlets in the city. Most of them are located in large supermarkets and shopping malls. In addition to tanghulu freshly made on site, these outlets also offer packaged products, which have a longer shelf life.

“Packaged tanghulu are welcomed by customers who like to take them home to share with their families,” Lu explained.

Like Tanghuluwa Food Plant, many other snack stores are looking for ways to increase sales.

“Eating trends are changing and we have to display new products to adapt to market trends,” said Zhang Mei, who works in a tanghulu store in Sun Dong An Plaza. Every year, the snack bar presents new varieties with bananas, strawberries, cherries and tomatoes.

“Though the conventional types are still our best sellers, people are also interested to try new products,” said Zhang.

ludaguan (donkey roll about), is a glutinous rice cake. It is made from steamed glutinous yellow rice flour, which is made into a flat cake, with fried bean flour and brown sugar powder sprayed onto the surface, and rolled up into several layers to make a cake.

Chinese Zongzi:
Zongzi is a traditional Chinese food, made of tasty glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves. They are cooked either by steaming or boiling. Zongzi is a popular specialty consumed during the Dragon Boat Festival, which falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, commemorating the death of Qu Yuan, a pioneering poet and patriotic official in ancient China during the Warring States period (475-221 B.C.), served as a minister to the Chu State. Known for his patriotism, seeing his country being destroyed Qu Yuan’s grief was so intense that he drowned himself in the Miluo river. According to legend, as he was deeply loved by the people, the local folk did what they could to search for him in the river. They rushed out in long boats, beating drums to scare the fish away, meanwhile packets of rice were thrown into the river to prevent fish from eating the poet’s body. Another version states that zongzi were given to placate a dragon that lived in the river.
Since then, it has been a customary on this day to enjoy zongzi as a memorial to the patriotic poet. In commemoration of the initial attempts to find Qu Yuan’s body, boat races are also held, and the day is also known as the Dragon Boat Festival.

Different kinds of fillings:

The fillings used for zongzi vary from region to region, but the rice used is always glutinous rice (also called sticky or sweet rice). According to the region, the rice may be lightly precooked by stir-frying or soaked before using. Today’s Zongzi is made similarly, with a serving of rice wrapped in leaves and tied together with string. There are lots of different kinds of zongzi, each with its own particular flavor, shape, and type of leaf for wrapping. The glutinous rice mixture is wrapped in leaves of wild rice, palm or bamboo. Bamboo-leaf zongzi is a specialty of South China. As for flavor, the Beijing style is the sweetest, with coarse bean paste. Guangdong zongzi is either sweet-tasting, with walnut, date or bean, or salty with filling ham, egg, meat, roast chicken. Zongzi need to be steamed or boiled for several hours depending on how the rice is made prior to adding the fillings. Once cooked, the zongzi can easily be frozen for later consumption. Frozen zongzi are available for sale in Chinese markets.
Various shapes:
The shape of zongzi ranges from relatively tetrahedral to cylindrical. Zongzi is usually four-sided with pointed, rounded ends, or pyramid shapes. Sometimes it is in the shape of a cone or cylinder. Wrapping a zongzi neatly is a skill which is passed down through families, as are the recipes. Making zongzi was traditionally a family event with everyone helping out, but that is less common now.
While traditional Chinese zongzi are wrapped in bamboo leaves, the leaves of lotus, maize, banana, canna, shell ginger or pandan leaves are sometimes used as substitutes in other cultures. Each kind of leaf imparts its own unique smell and flavor to the rice.

Firstly, to help digest well, you can drink tea while enjoying zongzi. If eat accompanied by fruits and vegetables that would be helpful to help digest. For those whose stomach can not digest well, too much sticky rice will probably do harm to your stomach. So please pay attention not to eat too much at a time. Secondly, mainly zongzi is made of sticky rice which contains fat, salt and sugar, for instance, a normal meat zongzi will have 400-500 calorie which is approximately half bowl of rice, therefore the maximum per day for ladies is 3 and for gentlemen is 5. For those who have diabetes, please be careful as zongzi contains lots of sugar in it. We’d suggest you not to eat zongzi before sleep. For the left zongzi, you can put them into refrigerator and eat them as soon as possible to keep them fresh while enjoying the good taste.

Chinese food has a bad reputation in the UK. The rice-heavy meals and fatty meat dishes are thought to lead straight to obesity and heart disease. But properly prepared, says Chinese food expert Lorraine Clissold, the very opposite is true: the Chinese way of eating is healthy and fulfilling, fights illness and prolongs life. She also insists, in her book Why the Chinese Don’t Count Calories, that a real Chinese diet won’t make you fat, and that the rising levels of obesity observable in China are in fact caused by sugary, overprocessed Western food. Here are some of her Chinese dietary secrets – and the verdict of two Western nutrition experts, Patrick Holford and Ian Marber.

1. Stop counting calories

The Chinese don’t have a word for “calories”. They view food as nourishment, not potential weight gain. A 1990 survey found that Chinese people consumed 30 per cent more calories than Americans, but were not necessarily more active. Clissold says their secret is avoiding the empty calories of sugary, nutrient-free foods.

Holford says: “The latest research into weight loss shows that calorie-controlled, low-fat diets are less effective than low glycemic load diets, which is exactly what a traditional Chinese diet is.”

Marber says: “There is one calorie in a Diet Coke, and 340 calories in an avocado. Which one is actually good for you? It’s a no-brainer. The avocado supplies you with monounsaturated fats and omega-6, which actually help increase metabolic rate.”

2. Think of vegetables as dishes

Rather than an uninspiring accompaniment to meat or fish, the Chinese treat vegetables as meals in their own right, rather than add-ons, as in the West.

Marber says: “I’m a great believer in combining protein and carbohydrate. There aren’t many complex carbohydrates in vegetables, but they should count as a dish. If the majority of your meal is vegetables, and you add some protein, you’ll always have a perfect meal.”

Holford says: “Vegetables should make up half of what’s on your plate in any given meal, so this fits perfectly with the Chinese diet.”

3. Fill up on staple foods

Without rice, which is low in fat and high in nutrients and fibre, claims Clissold, it is impossible to eat until you are full. Low-carb diets promise to burn fat, but Clissold says that replacing carbs with food that is higher in fat and lower in nutrients is not a long-term answer to weight loss.

Marber says: “I don’t agree. That Chinese person shovelling rice down is slightly pudgy because they eat too much rice. But from a financial point of view it’s very useful, because Atkins-style diets are very expensive.”

4. Eat until you are full

The Chinese eat until they are full, and then stop. Westerners often take a feast-and-famine approach to eating that is ridden with guilt – purging during the week and binging over the weekend, or skipping lunch to make room for cake, The Chinese tend to eat three good meals every day.

Holford says: “Provided that a meal has a high intake of fibre-rich vegetables and a balance of protein and carbohydrate, which a typical Chinese meal would, then you should eat until you are full. But the combination of high sugar, refined carbs (the white stuff) and high fat allows for more food to be eaten in a short space of time before the body’s ‘appestat’ kicks in and tells you to stop.”

Marber says: “What does ‘full’ mean? I think so much of that message is lost in the conspicuous consumption of the Western world. But be careful: it takes a while for the brain to recognise CCK, the hormone released when you are full, so you’re actually full quite a lot earlier than you realise.”

5. Take liquid food

Soup, or a soup-based dish, is present at every Chinese meal, often in the form of a watery porridge, zhou. Western diets can be very dry, and nutritionists compensate by urging us to drink more water, which the Chinese would never do with a meal. Instead, they make a nourishing liquid food part of the meal. And it’s a great way of using up leftovers.

Holford says: “Thirst is often confused with hunger. Also, drinking does tend to fill you up. So soups help you control your appetite.”

Marber says: “I’m a great believer in soups before food. Miso soup, for instance, or anything fermented – these are probiotics, which help release nutrients from the food you are about to eat.”

6. Bring yin and yang into your kitchen

A good Chinese diet balances yin (wet and moist) and yang (dry and crisp) ingredients. Yin foods cool the body down, while yang foods – meat, spicy dishes, wine, coffee – heat it up. The sharing, multi-dish approach to eating in China means most meals contain yin and yang in equilibrium.

Marber says: “You should have complex carbs, a protein and a grain together for many different reasons, one of which is the experience of eating. The typical English bastardisation of Chinese food, chicken and cashew nuts, is a good example: you’ve got the softness of the chicken, the crunch of the nut and the satisfying rice.”

Holford says: “Most protein foods are seen as yang, carbohydrates as yin. The combination of these two helps stabilise blood sugar, which is the key to good energy and minimising weight gain.”

7. Raw power? not necessarily

Chinese people don’t eat raw salad. While raw food has a higher concentration of vitamins than cooked food, Clissold says the research ignores that lightly cooking food makes its nutrients easier for the body to take on. This way, it can conserve energy for other tasks. The stomach is unable to digest too much raw food; this can lead to bloating and weight gain.

Holford says: “The rawer the better. In almost all cases, raw food has more nutrients, though lightly cooking some vegetables can make those nutrients more bio-available.”

Marber says: “I don’t hold with this one. Eating a big salad with lots of different raw vegetables in it is very satisfying, and I can’t believe your average Brit is going to blanch salad.”

8. Use food to keep fit

Chinese medicine prescribes various foods as medical treatments: chillies to promote digestion and dispel cold; garlic to counteract toxins. The ultimate purpose is to ensure all the organs are working correctly to allow energy, or chi, to circulate smoothly around the body.

Holford says: “Two thousand years ago, Hippocrates said, ‘Let food be your medicine.’ But we in the West forgot. Peasant communities tend to have more respect for the cycle of food and how it supports life.”

9. Drink green tea

Green tea eliminates toxins, aids digestion and allays hunger. Scientists have found that it also fights free radicals, which cause cancer and heart disease.

Marber says: “I’m a great believer in green and herbal teas. Green tea is an important antioxidant, but it will only help you lose weight if you drink 40 cups a day. I’m also a great believer in a skinny latte once in a while – or every morning, in my case.”

Holford says: “Traditionally, when the Chinese want another cup of tea, they’ll keep the same leaves and add water to the pot. That’s like only using one teabag a day – which means much less caffeine.”

10. Take restorative exercise

Try regular, gentle exercise such as tai chi. A sweaty workout might shed fat, but it is stressful for your body. Energetic, aerobic workouts are yang – they heat us up – while breathing exercises are yin.

holford says: “Exercise after a meal promotes an active metabolism and helps control appetite. Although no one has worked out how to measure chi, the vital energy that these exercises promote, it’s a real thing that can easily be experienced. Many trials now show benefits to energy levels and immunity from these chi-generating exercises.”

Marber says: “Tai chi gives you a sense of balance, calm and peacefulness. Sweating it out at the gym is the precise opposite, but I can’t help it – I’m vain, shallow and modern. I think we’ve got a really messed-up view of how the body should look, and that it’s how we look, rather than how we feel, that matters.”

If you’re invited to a Chinese home for a meal and you sit down at the dinner table and find yourself eyeball to eyeball with a fish you should be pleased! If a whole fish, a Chinese sign of prosperity, is served at a banquet, it’s customary to point it at the guest of honour. You may then be expected to help yourself the Chinese way, using your chopsticks to pull off pieces of fish, or, if you’re more fortunate, someone may serve it to you, using two spoons to dish it up.

Steamed Fish

• 4 fillets of fish (plaice, sea bass, sole)
• 2 tablespoons sherry
• Pinch sugar
• Pinch salt
• Few drops sesame oil
• 2 spring onions

Mix together the sherry, sugar, salt and sesame oil. Finely chop the onions. Get your wok ready for steaming. Place the fillets on a heatproof dish that will fit inside your steamer and pour the sherry mixture over the fish. Sprinkle the chopped onion on top. Steam for about 10 - 15 minutes or until the fish flakes easily. Serve garnished with chopped coriander and lemon wedges.

Prawn Egg Foo Yung

• 8 eggs
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped celery
• ½ cup finely sliced mushrooms
• ½ cup small prawns
• 1 cup bean sprouts
• 3 tablespoons finely sliced water chestnuts
• Oil for frying
• Beat the eggs with the salt until frothy.

Fry the celery and mushrooms lightly for 2 -3 minutes then remove from the pan and mix in with eggs, prawns, bean sprouts and water chestnuts.Using a small frying pan pour in about ¼ of the mixture and tilt the pan so it covers the bottom. Cook over medium heat until the underside is golden-brown. Turn over and brown the other side. Repeat this procedure for the remaining 3 omelettes.

Egg Foo Yung Sauce

• ¼ pint chicken stock
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sherry
• Few drops sesame oil
• Pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon cornflour
• Using a small saucepan bring the chicken stock to the boil. Add the soy sauce, sherry, oil and pepper. Mix well. Make a paste from the cornflour and water and add, stirring, to the sauce. Continue until the sauce thickens and clears. Serve warm with the omelettes.

Garlicky Fish

• Oil for deep frying
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed very slightly
• 4 fish cutlets (e.g. hake, sea bass, mullet)
• 1 teaspoon grated root ginger
• 1 red chilli, cored and de-seeded
• ¾ pint fish or chicken stock
• 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
• 2½ tablespoons sherry
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoon vinegar
• 4 spring onions, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon cornflour made into a paste with a little water
• Sesame oil

Heat the oil (you’ll need about 1 litre for deep frying) in your wok or a deep fryer to 350oF (175oC). Add the garlic and allow to cook briefly - but don’t let it burn - then remove from the pan. Add the fish cutlets and

deep fry until brown. Remove and drain. If you’ve used a wok for deep frying, now remove most of the oil, leaving just enough to fry the ginger, chilli and garlic until softened. Return the fish to the pan along with the stock, soy sauce, sherry and sugar. Simmer over a low heat for about 15 minutes or until the fish is cooked through.

Remove the fish and keep warm. Add the vinegar, spring onions, a few drops of sesame oil and the cornflour paste to the liquid left in the wok. Bring to the boil and simmer, stirring, until the sauce thickens and clears. Serve poured over the fish. You can, of course, oven-bake your fish cutlets for a healthier version of this dish.

Some of the things to cook with for Chinese are the same as in the West. Others are quite different. However, most Chinese dishes can be prepared and cooked with the equipment found in the normal home kitchen with perhaps, a few smallish additions. A good supply of pots and pans of various sizes should be handy. In general, slow cooking dishes should have thicker pots and faster cooking things should have thinner ones. In the recipes, skillet means any shallow, thin pan which oil can be heated quickly for various forms of frying. Deep frying, of course calls for something deep enough in which to float the pieces to be deep fried.

For the handling of materials being cooked, you can use the ordinary ladle, leaking ladles, and perforated frying shovels.

Of course, you will want to add your home kitchen with Chinese cooking utensils such as a wok and bamboo steamers as you go along and get more ambitious; which you’ll find very useful and indispensable once you put you hands on them. This section is created to make you have a better understanding of the utensils used in a typical Chinese kitchen and help you decide if you want to invest in some.
Bamboo steamers are great for steaming food and are designed to fit inside the wok. The texture of the bamboo allows steam to circulate and evaporate so that less moisture will form on the inside of the lid. The bamboo steamer has the additional asset of allowing more than one layer of food to be steamed simultaneously - just stack a second basket on top of the first. Chinese would boil water in a wok then stack bamboo steamers over the wok, up to 5 layers, with the food needing less steaming on top, and the most, at the bottom. Bamboo steamers are attractive and can be used to serve food as well. They sure will fascinate yours guests!
Tip: To clean a bamboo steamer, simply rinse it with water. Do not use detergent or it will absorb the flavor of the soap and spoil the taste of you food the next time you use it.

The Chinese Spatula : This is a long-handled wide shovel-like blade spatula specially designed for stir-frying in the wok, known as ‘wok sang’ by the Chinese. The edge of the spatula blade is rounded to fit the shape of the wok, and the utensil itself is sturdier overall than the usual Western version, to allow stirring and tossing of large quantities of food as well as removing food from the wok.

The Chinese Wire Strainer - This wide, flat wire-mesh strainer with a long bamboo handle is very useful for removing deep-fried foods from hot oil or noodles from boiling water. It drains oil and liquid more efficiently than those metal perforated types. The long bamboo handle won’t conduct heat and helps keep you farther away from the cooking heat. The most common size for home use is 6″ diameter.

Sizzling Platter - Sizzling-platter dishes, also called “iron-plate” dishes, have recently become popular menu items in Chinese restaurants. These dishes are named for the heavy iron platter that is used for serving. The platter is heated to a high temperature, placed on its wooden tray, and delivered to the table. When hot stir-fried food is spooned onto the platter, the sizzle is very dramatic.

Clay-Pot - Clay-pot dishes are the Chinese version of the American casserole. The main difference is that they are cooked on top of the stove rather than in the oven. The design of the clay-pot assures good retention of heat, so that even if dinner is delayed, the food stays piping hot. Clay-pots add an indefinable richness of flavor to soups and hot pots.

Steaming stand or rack - useful in steaming food.

Long Wooden Chopsticks: The Chinese sometimes use chopsticks for putting food into and taking things out of a wok especially during deep frying, but you may use your fingers, forks or ladles, if you have not learned to use chopsticks.

Chopping block - The Chinese prefer a wooden chopping block over the plastic ones because it does not slip as easily and a big heavy wooden block big enough to hold what you’re chopping is easier to find. However, you can always lay a damp kitchen towel under a plastic board to prevent slipping. Never soak a wooden chopping block. Instead, scrub with soap and hot water after us and keep dry when not in use. Occasionally, you can use vinegar and lemon juice to clean, sanitize and deodorize a chopping board.

Looking for a Chinese restaurant with delicious food and great service? These are three of the finest Chinese restaurants in Springfield to satisfy your craving. This guide provides information on menu choices, prices, hours of operation, and location. Enjoy!

1. Ocean Zen Pacific Rim is a great choice for Chinese food. They offer outstanding cuisine, great ambience, and reasonable prices. They have an extensive lunch and dinner menu with great appetizer choices such as Crispy Chinatown BBQ Chicken Spring Rolls with a Mango Orange Chile syrup (my personal favorite), Blue Crab and Cream Cheese Stuffed Crispy Wontons with a pineapple salsa, and Island Style Crispy Coconut Sesame Crusted Shrimp, to name a few. For dinner, try their Garlic and Herb Grilled Portobello Napoleon with Farfelle Pasta and Balsamic Cream Sauce, Pineapple Citrus Glazed Crispy Wok Chicken with Asian Vegetables, or the Island Style Slow Roasted BBQ Pork Tenderloin with a spicy sweet potato side dish. With 20 dinner menu items and combination plates, there’s something for everyone. If it’s seafood you’re hungry for, they offer Sesame Nori Crusted Seared Rare Ahi Tuna, Pan Roasted Blue Crab Crusted Chilean Sea Bass, and Herb Crusted Pan Seared Alaskan Halibut. Dinner dining hours are 4:30 pm to 10 pm. Dinner menu prices range from $9.95 to 26.95. Check out their website for a complete menu. Ocean Zen is located at 600 E. Battlefield. Lunch is served between 11 am and 3 pm, Monday through Sunday. Dinner hours are 4:30 pm to 10 pm, Sunday through Thursday, and 4:30 pm to 11 pm on Fridays and Saturdays. Contact them by phone at (417) 889-9596.

NUTRITION PROFILE:
Rice flour is the “secret ingredient” in this dish and is used to make the flavorful coating for the shrimp. But if you can’t find it, cornstarch makes a fine substitute. Serve with rice noodles or brown rice and a sprinkle of chopped scallions.

Makes 2 servings

ACTIVE TIME: 30 minutes

TOTAL TIME: 30 minutes

EASE OF PREPARATION: Easy

2 tablespoons lime juice
2 teaspoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon sugar
3 cups thinly sliced cabbage, preferably napa (about 1/4 head; see Tips for Two)
1 small red or orange bell pepper, very thinly sliced
2 tablespoons rice flour (see Note) or cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon five-spice powder (see Note)
10 ounces raw shrimp (21-25 per pound), peeled and deveined
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 jalapeno or serrano pepper, seeded and minced

1. Whisk lime juice, soy sauce, sesame oil and sugar in a large bowl until the sugar is dissolved. Add cabbage and bell pepper; toss to combine.
2. Combine rice flour (or cornstarch), salt, pepper and five-spice powder in a medium bowl. Add shrimp and toss to coat. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the shrimp and cook, stirring often, until they are pink and curled, 3 to 4 minutes. Add jalapeno and cook until the shrimp are cooked through, about 1 minute more. Serve the slaw topped with the shrimp.

NUTRITION INFORMATION:Per serving: 347 calories; 15 g fat (2 g sat, 7 g mono); 230 mg cholesterol; 20 g carbohydrate; 34 g protein; 3 g fiber; 558 mg sodium; 408 mg potassium.

Nutrition Bonus: Vitamin C (190% daily value), Selenium (83% dv), Vitamin A (60% dv), Iron (25% dv).

Exchanges: 2 vegetable, 1/2 other carbohydrates, 4 very lean meat, 3 fat

1 Carbohydrate Serving

TIP:Tips for Two: Refrigerate cabbage for up to 1 week. Add to salads or soups.

Note: Rice flour is made from finely milled white rice. It is often used in Asian cooking for desserts and to thicken sauces. Look for it in Asian markets or the natural-foods section of your supermarket.

Often a blend of cinnamon, cloves, fennel seed, star anise and Szechuan peppercorns, five-spice powder was originally considered a cure-all miracle blend encompassing the five elements (sour, bitter, sweet, pungent, salty). Look for it in the supermarket spice section.