Stir fried Chinese Brocolli with ginger

Looks like a great menu!

I had to look up some of those dishes. Your menu sounds fabulous!!

Any time I cook Chinese I always make Sweet chili shrimp as one of the dishes since it is so quick and easy. Then I can spend more time on the other dishes.

Hoisin baby back pork ribs is a great appetizer that can be prepared ahead of time and doesn't take up stove top space.

All your dishes sound great! I agree about the vegetables. If your absent hands don't come home, you could buy some preprepped greens, like baby spinach or TJ's Power to the Greens. You could also do a stir fried pea pod dish (though the supposedly prepped ones are merely washed and not strung or trimmed) in no time, adding nuts or water chestnuts for crunch. Or there's cabbage and leeks, which is more chopping than other prep. We've been getting leeks that don't require soaking, just slice partway through and run water through the layers.

John, a friend who'd lived in Hong Kong gave me a coffee table cookbook published by the Hong Kong gas co. Their recipe for hot & sour calls for coagulated chicken blood. Does yours?

For greens, I would add stir-fried bok choy, especially since the ingredients are so readily available.

I don't know if I've ever had Taiwanese food. In San Francisco I mostly had Cantonese and in L.A. I've mostly had Sichuan and Mandarin.

I agree with you. Serving them a Chinese meal would be a challenge. Indeed, as you said, Taiwanese are used to fairly high culinary standards where they come from.

How about something crazy? Serve them a culturally interesting Chinese meal!

Serve them your revamped upscale version of American version of "Chinese" food.

Chop suey, egg foo young, almond chicken, General Tai's chicken, moo goo gai pan, sweet and sour pork -------- at the end serve them fortune cookies.

Give them a history of the evolvement of American Chinese food since the first Chinese arrived in the "Golden Mountain" California.

Have fun!

dcarch

Your Auntie is coming all the way from Taiwan to eat Chinese food? Wouldn't she want to eat something American, or is she testing you to see how much we mess up their food?

Of course, everything I come up with seems to be Italian! Have fun! Nancy

John, your menu sounds delicious to me and I wouldn't even know what to add for something green, other than seaweed salad or the bok choi that Lars suggested.

My Aunt Yoshiko was Japanese, something else altogether and the only greens I remember her cooking was a stir fried kind of thing made from spring dandelion greens.

Have fun, even though you're cooking without DD...

ANnie

Cousin and sister are excited about Chinese home cooking so I am committed!

Um. Dried sea cucumber is $140 a pound. I shall have to do my sums carefully. An audible may be required.

Sounds amazing. Important to prepare dishes you are familiar with.

I'll bring the fresh veg. Darn it we are not neighbors. About as far apart as one could be.

I would offer to bring Din Tai Fung. Hijiki Spring Rolls, and Shitaki/WhiteMiso glazed baby BokChoy. (I need to send Kate a macro-greens kit)...after the 29th I'm taking a few months off so I will follow up on that.

I don't have a DinTF recipe as I wing-it. Persian cukes as the skins are tender edible, roll/bang with a rolling pin before slicing long jewel slices rolling/turning. I never drain the liquid. I use it in the 'sauce'. Use it to soak chia seed as a thickener....lots of fresh ginger, szechuan peppercorns, toasted sesame seed and oil...

A shame DD can't attend but obviously a brilliant student and knows what her work load allows.

I love pea shoots. Maybe you could put them under your fish Please video yourself as you prep this meal, we'd all like to enjoy it vicariously.

I had steamed baby bok choy arranged into a flower shape recently at a Chinese restaurant. Each little bok choy was a green petal. There were sauteed mushrooms in the center, with brown sauce although any type of sauce you like would do.

Audible #1. No sea cucumber. Too expensive to experiment with in a large dinner where I don't know if 2 or 12 people will eat it. Going to seafood place tomorrow for the live fish and will look for something to stand in for the platably-named sea slugs.

Audible #2. DD is coming home! Mind you, I think she'll sleep much of the time but I'll still put her in charge of a dish.

Audible #3. Picked up some pork belly.

Will have to do some prep tonight. Tomorrow I'm going to see a piece of furniture (for the espresso machine) in the morning and SWMBO is going to a MLK Day rally, so it'll be busy.

DD is coming home to rest. She's been working on a large painting. The initial steps are to design a pattern of text images on the computer, project that on canvas, outline the design on the canvas. Sometimes she composes the text, this one uses a line from The Snows of Kilimanjaro. That has to be done in one sitting; she worked from dinner until 6 am on Tuesday. Then the design has to be hand painted, very precisely. She expects this painting to consume 150 hours. She paints 6+ hours at a stretch, after which she reports aching all over and being exhausted. So she's ready for a break.

John, I'm glad your DD will be home, especially since it seems like she needs a rest. That's quite a painting project she's working on, wow.

Maybe being in the kitchen will be a little relaxing for her.

Annie

Crikey. Daughter is rather busy!

Totally off topic, but I don't understand the use of the word audible in this context. I'm curious. Can you explain, please?

I'm sorry, Islay. "Audible" or "calling an audible" is American slang. It means making a last minute change to plans.

The term comes from the sport of American football. Normally the team's plans ("plays") are decided by the coaches. But the quarterback player can change the plan, in the seconds before play begins, by calling an audible command to his teammates.

Yes, I wondered about the sea cucumber idea - my FIL was the only person I knew who really loved them but hardly ever got them because of the cost. We went to a wedding banquet one time and the host had ordered a dish of them for each table. I think FIL scarfed the whole plate up by himself!

We like the bitter veggies, so we're partial to large leaf pea sprouts aka pea shoots, Shanghai bak choy or gai lan. All are easy to find right now since they're in season. Gai lan can be served room temp with the usual drizzle of ho yau (oyster sauce) so the advance cooking works well for complex menus.

Takes longer to rinse and chop than to cook it, LOL.

OT: Unasked for advice for your dear daughter. The aching comes from a combination of concentration, tension, and poor body alignment/lack of a variety of movement. If she starts good habits now her body will thank her when she gets old. During moments of inspiration, it's okay to let all considerations go and just get whatever it is done while the inspiration is burning hot.

There's a lot of chore work involved in making art, however, as your description of her process above demonstrates. During such times, the concentration involved may be necessary, but not the lack of breaks. Set an alarm--something that won't startle but will be heard or sean--to go off every 20 minutes (ideally) or every hour (maximum). When it goes off be dutiful. Finish the stroke, put down the brush, and move away from the canvas and anything that can spill.

Jump up and down a few times. Turn the head back and forth (not back!). Swing the arms. Get the blood flowing. Then stretch up all the way getting the spine aligned, shoulders down, square to the hips, legs straight, knees over toes, butt tucked. Don't lock knees, but curl the spine down keeping the hips aligned. Hang loose. Curl back up with hips tucked, stretching the spine while rising. Extend the arms and stretch the fingers out wide as far as possible. Relax, repeat 5-10 times.

Head held straight and level, roll the eyes to look down while stretching the jaw open, look up while closing the jaw, look right while moving the jaw to the right, look left while moving the jaw to the left. Then opposites: Look up will stretching jaw down, look down while stretching jaw up, look up while closing jaw, look left while stretching jaw right, look right while stretching jaw left.

Jump up and down or dance around a little. Get back to work--preferably with conscious standing/sitting with spine and feet aligned, feet flat, weight equally distributed to both hips, and head/neck relaxed and not bent or otherwise held in unusual position.

This all should take a minute or two. Her body, especially the nerves from her hands to neck, will thank her.

Dinner went well!

DD handled assembling the shao mai and lo mai gai, I only had to make the filing, sticky rice, etc. The lo mai gai needed more soy sauce but it was okay.

We had two sea bass, steamed with scallions, ginger, leeks, mushrooms, sake. I didn't have any Chinese rice wine but sake works. The little seafood place I go to for live fish usually has live bass, perch, and rockfish. There are sometimes other finfish, but those are the main choices for steaming.

The meat dish was beef short ribs. They were pressure cooked with stock, soy sauce, sesame oil, Worcestershire sauce, then refrigerated until shortly before dinner, when they were deep fried then stir fried in sauce. This is a reliable recipe and always comes out pretty well at worst.

The steamed rice was cooked with a large bouquet garni of cilantro and another of purple mint. It smelled very fragrant.

I didn't cook the pork belly quite long enough. It was tasty, with honey and salt, but a little toothy. The bok choy was steamed and fine, nothing exciting.

The hot and sour soup turned out great, if I do say so. It was essentially a restaurant soup minus the heavy cornstarch thickening.

Everyone had fun and my little cousin says she and her wife may come stay with us in March, which would be great.

DD insists that shao mai must be topped with something colorful.

Short ribs.

Far left is little cousin.

Steamed fish is a perfect food. Easy, fast, healthy. Live fish is a little spendy, and I haven't tried steaming a dead-when-bought fish.

Oh, I forgot the lychee gelato. Popular. My sister likes it more than other gelatos I've made, except possibly the nutella gelato.

Cousin enthusiastic about a shao mai. DD sneakily taking something from my plate.

When cousin returns, she says, this has to be hooked up and working.

Thanks for satisfying my curiosity! I love learning about word uses.

You have found a table for that monster! Very stylish too. Dinner looked wonderful.

Gorgeous looking dinner!

Loved everything. The menu, the pictures, the enjoying faces! and that you got the espresso machine into the room. It fits?! How cool that all kinds of things are coming together for you.

Thanks for sharing! The pics added the perfect touch. It's always so much fun to peek!

Last pic - the lo mai gai. Lotus leaves are pretty and add a little scent.

John that was on FAB dinner party. Thanks for sharing with us!

Looks like you pulled off a great dinner, John. I joined you in spirit with microwaved General Tso’s chicken.

what a spread. you can come cook, I mean visit, ANY time ...

LOL FOAS!!!!

John, the spread looks great as do the company. The dishes look tasty. I agree with your daughter--I've never seen shao mai with colorful on top (but very limited experience). It looks great! And I bet a little carroty crunch goes well too. :)

The machine really does look good and seems to just fit right where it is. Congratulations on your success.

These bigger dinners are funny, I seldom get to sit down at the table or even eat the food other than tasting before the dishes go out. Usually I pop in and out of the dining room, re-emerge during dessert and chat a bit, then go back in the kitchen and get started on washing-up. This leaves SWMBO to bear the hostessing duties, which she does bravely.

My New Year's resolution is to work on dinner parties that are more "cook-ahead".

Fabulous dinner! Good for you to pull it off!

Yeah, I totally get that John. That perfect balance between memorable food and/or memorable company. I often err on the side of the food and then realize that no one would have missed that extra dish or the reason this or that dish went untouched is I had too much food, etc. I once made a beautiful "Almond Joy" two tier cake with coconut frosting and everyone ooohed and aaahed over it and no one wanted a slice, everyone filled up on drinks and appetizers and they were all concerned about their weight. I ended up having to eat almost the whole cake over a long period of time, which was delish . . . at least to start. At a certain point, not so much . . . My last dinner party was at my dad's, for family friends. Food was great, way too much, folks left feeling stuffed, I had a ton of salad left over, and I hardly visited at all.

The good, maybe, thing is, I can make it through an entire big dinner party and barely eat anything. Very diet friendly :-)

John, what a spread! The dumplings look delicious and the carrots do add a bit of color. I would love to have a taste of each dish. I do enjoy good Chinese food. Know what you mean about being so busy cooking that hosting takes a back seat; I try to cook ahead for the same reason. Looks like you all had a good time and I'm sure your aunt appreciated the effort you made in her honor.

John, it all looks delicious and your guests certainly look happy. The coffee machine fits there perfectly, and it's beautiful, so as soon as you have the "make ahead" dinner party thing down, you'll be spending your time making coffee instead. (grin)

I also have a problem with cooking and hosting simultaneously. Even if I manage to get everything on the table and sit down I'm constantly getting up to get something that I forgot, or that someone wants or making room for something else. I've enver figured out how to get past that.

Heck, I don't even need to have a dinner party. Elery's daughter and SIL were here and I have Mother and between to people who don't know where anything in the house is and Mother with her walker, I'm seldom sitting down at all.

Annie

I think we should have a thread on dinner parties with menus such that the cook never has to leave the table once eating begins. "The Sociable Cook". I could use the lessons.

DH never eats at any dinner parties. Way too social and tending to cocktails and SousCheif duties. BUT, he likes early taste testing. Sampling charcuterie cheeses and meats and devoured a recent spring roll first taste testing. He fills up a bit before any guests arrive...

I tend to sit-down and enjoy but survey the table for 'troubles' that need tending or restocking. My chair is a quick jump to the kitchen...

I think that is a fantastic idea, John. DH and I entertained a small delegation from China several years ago. I really wanted to have them in my home with “home cooking,” but I also wanted to visit with them. I ended up hiring a private chef who came into my home and cooked. I got to enjoy my own party for a change.

Food looks yummers, John!

I miss good Chinese fare. I'm three hours from either NYC or Boston, and their respective Chinatowns, and frankly, Americanized with its sugars and blandness simply does not appeal.

I'd love to try sea cucumber some day.

Great looking dinner! And how wonderful to be able to seat so may people at your table.

I was just as puzzled by "audible" as Islay Corbel. Am I the only American who never heard it used that way?

No, cloudy, I’d never heard of that, either.

John, that dinner looks marvelous. Not just the food, but the whole occasion.

I've never heard that usage for 'audible' either. Maybe a regional thing?

Y’all obviously don’t watch enough football! :-)