Ingredients:

• 3 cup, cooked white rice. I use a rice cooker to prepare the rice.
• 1-2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup ham, diced
• 1/2 cup of green onion, diced
• 2/3 or 1 cup of Kimchi, cut into small pieces
• 4 Tbsp. of cooking oil
• ½ tsp. of salt
• 3 Tbsp. of ketchup
• Pinch of seaweed

Procedures:

1. Add cooking oil to the frying pan and heat over medium high heat. Pour in the egg mixture and stir fry until the eggs are firm and separate. Then add green onion and stir fry for another 30 seconds. Add ham, rice, ketchup and salt, and stir fry until the fried rice is evenly coated with ketchup.
2. Add kimchi into the fried rice and stir fry for another minute.
3. Serve on a plate and garnish with a sprinkle of seaweed powder if desired.

Where can I purchase kimchi?

You can purchase Kimchi at any Korean supermarket. Kimchi is available in a variety of flavors and levels of spiciness.

Ingredients:

part (a)

• 4 pork chops, boneless
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup cooking wine. Note: I used Taiwanese cooking michiu wine, not to be confused with Japanese sweet rice wine.
• 1/8 tsp white pepper
• 1/8 tsp five-spice powder
• 1 tsp Chinese barbecue sauce
• 3-4 cloves garlic, chopped

part (b)

• 1 cup bread crumbs. Known also as Panko, a flaky bread crumb used in Japanese cuisine as a crunchy coating for fried foods
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2/3 cup tapioca starch or corn starch
• 6 -8 Tbsp. of cooking oil

Instructions:

1. Flatten the pork chop, then marinate with the seasonings and ingredients listed in part (a) for at least three hours.
2. Place the tapioca starch, beaten egg, bread crumbs in three separate plates.
3. Dip both sides of each pork chop into the above ingredients in the following order: first, tapioca starch; second, egg mixture; and third, bread crumbs.
4. Heat the cooking oil in a wok and sear the pork chop first. Then cook the meat over medium-high temperature heat until it turns golden brown on both sides.
5. Cut the pork chop into slices and serve.

What is Chinese barbecue sauce?

Chinese barbecue sauce, unlike the barbecue sauce you might find at KFC, doesn’t contain tomatoes. It’s a flavorful concoction of ingredients ranging from hoisin to black bean paste. You can pick it up in most Asian grocery stores, but if you can’t find it in a store near you, the classic barbecue sauce is readily available for purchase online.

Hint

Flattening the pork chop will increase the tenderness of meat. When dipping the pork chop slices into the bread crumbs, gently press both sides of the pork chop into the plate to ensure that the crumbs stay in place.

I also like serving this dish because it gives me the opportunity to serve my family dragon fruit, the tangy, brightly-colored fruit that is a cross between a kiwi and pear. Dragon fruit is so popular in Taiwan that diabetics use it as a food substitute for rice. In this dish, it plays dual roles of distinctive garnish and fresh salad ingredient.

Ingredients:

• 1 bag Langostino (frozen and cooked), approximately 12 ounces
• 1 bag bamboo shoots, sliced into fine strips
• Optional – 3 Tbs spoons capelin roe (masago). Be sure to save a tablespoon of this for garnish
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, cut into pieces of nearly 1 inch each
• 1 tsp white sugar
• 1/8 tsp white pepper or seafood seasoning
• pinch of salt, to taste
• Dragonfruit or kiwifruit for garnish

Instructions:

1. Prepare langostino as indicated on the package. Usually you can just defrost and use langostino immediately. Sometimes I also immerse the langostino into boiling water for about 15 seconds, rinse with cold water and wipe the pieces dry with a paper towel.
2. Mix langostino with all of the other ingredients in a bowl.
3. Place the mixture on a large big plate and decorate with slices dragon fruit or kiwi and garnish with capelin roe. Makes 8-10 servings.

Where can I get the Langostino and bamboo shoots?

Langostino can be purchased at Trader Joe’s in 12-ounce packages or from Costco. Bamboo shoots can be purchased at any Asian supermarket.  The shoots come with vacuum-packed in the vegetable section or ice-packed in the frozen section.

What is capelin roe?

Capelin roe is one of the ingredients of making sushi. You may recognize it as the tiny orange roe commonly seen in sushi rolls.

Photo courtesy of Quinn Dmbrowski

The Hakka are an ethnic group from the southeastern Chinese provinces. Many people in Taiwan (including my brother-in-law) are members of this group and speak some version of the Hakka dialect.

Hakka cuisine is the cooking style of the Hakka people, who were once nomadic and eventually came to adapt their culinary styles to the regions where they travelled. Some of the most popular Taiwanese dishes, such as salt-baked chicken, stuffed tofu and lotus-leaf rice, originate from Hakka cuisine.

Pork belly is a staple of many Taiwanese dishes, as some of you may already know. This recipe for Hakka bacon uses Hakka-style salting techniques to produce tender, savory slabs of pork belly.

Ingredients:

• 2-3 strips of pork belly* (approximately 1 ½ to 2 lbs.)
• 2 to 3 tbsp. coarse salt or sea salt
• 6 cloves garlic, chopped
• ½ tsp five-spice powder
• ½ tsp cinnamon powder
• ½ tsp black pepper powder
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 3 tbsp of cooking wine
• 1/3 to ½ cups of soy sauce

Instructions:

1. Marinate pork strips in coarse salt for at least three hours. Keep the meat in the refrigerator during the marination process.
2. Rinse the pork belly and dry with a paper towel.
3. Marinate the pork strips with the rest of seasoning for at least 6 hours. Again, keep the meat in the refrigerator as it marinates.
4. After you have marinated the meat, transfer the pork strips and the marinating sauce to a skillet or wok. Add 1 to 1-1/2 cups of water, then cook covered over medium-low heat until the meat is thoroughly cooked. This should take 40 minutes.
5. Slice the pork when it cools and serve.

What is pork belly, and where can I get it?

Pork belly is a boneless cut of fatty meat from the belly of a pig. It is the same as fresh bacon and can be ordered from a good butcher or online from a variety of retailers, such as Niman Ranch. This is what uncooked pork belly looks like:

Make-Ahead Tip

You can make large quantities of this dish and store in freezer. This dish is a convenient pairing for a variety of different dishes. You can slice and serve it, stir fry the pieces with vegetables, add to a piping-hot bowl of ramen, or use it to accent a platter of fried rice. The sauce can also be strained and saved for later use, for example, as an flavor-enhancement for a dish of dry noodles.

Ingredients:

• 20 pieces medium-large shrimp, peeled, deveined
• 2 pieces calamari steak, cut into strips
• 1 cup fresh scallops
• 2 packs udon*
• 2 romaine hearts, cut into chunks
• 2 tomatoes, sliced into wedges (optional)
• Shredded green onion, to taste

Seasonings:

• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp cooking wine
• Black pepper, to taste
• Cooking oil
• Seasame dressing (or any salad dressing you prefer), to taste

Instructions:

1. Separately marinate shrimp, calamari strips and scallops in cooking wine with a pinch of salt.
2. Cook udon as indicated by the instructions on the package.
3. Heat one tablespoon of oil over medium-high in a skillet. Pan fry both sides of the shrimp, the calamari strips and the scallops separately until the pieces turn light golden brown. Sprinkle black pepper to taste and set aside.
4. Place cooked udon first in a large salad bowl. Next, place romaine chunks over udon. Then place all the pieces of cooked seafood on the top of romaine.
5. Decorate the salad with sliced tomato wedges and garnish with shredded green onion.
6. Serve with dressing. Makes 6-8 servings.

What is udon, and where can I get it?

Udon are pencil-thick Japanese-style noodles. Note that each package of udon usually contains 5 small packs. This recipe calls for two udon packs. You can buy udon either fresh or frozen from Asian grocery stores; for fresh udon, check in the refrigerated shelves next to the dumpling skins and other noodles. Here is a package of udon: