肉末茄子 Sweet Crispy Eggplant and Pork

If you keep walking past that bright purple vegetable in the Asian section of your grocery store why not pick it up next time you are out and give this recipe a try. It is absolutely delish. Your kids will have no clue they are getting a serving of vegetables. This tastes a little like chunky french fries in a sticky sweet sauce tossed with delicious bits of caramelized ginger, garlic and crispy pork. I love to add a garnish of fresh green onion and cilantro to compliment the sweet ginger sauce and step the dish up to "oh my Gosh!". My dish turned out a little too crispy due to me snapping at least 100 photos during the cooking process, and it was still absolutely to die for. 

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腊味萝卜糕 Golden Crispy Sausage Diakon Radish Cakes

I discovered Diakon cakes while living in Taiwan at the very delicious, ever so popular and plentiful breakfast shops found at almost every corner. I couldn't get enough of this rich, moist and flavorful savory cake with it's golden crispy crust and soft springy inside. Shop owner's were often very surprised and quite amused when I asked for Diakon Cakes instead of one of their many Western influenced dishes. There amusement always put a smile on my face and I would think "who can resist, who can resist..". Does this picture make you want to makes some and eat it right now or what?

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蛋花玉米汤 Sweet Corn Egg Drop Soup

Egg drop soup is a well known dish outside of China and versions of egg drop soup are too many to name. The recipe I want to share with you today is a thick and creamy sweet corn egg drop soup. I fell in love with this soup at Mcdonald's of all places in Taiwan. The Mcdonald's version has big delicious chunks of ham inside the soup. 

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黄瓜炒鸡蛋 Refreshing Cucumber Egg Side

This is a super simple but delicious recipe. Egg and cucumber might sound like an odd combination to us westerners, especially since we think of cucumber as something you serve cold, never cooked. But think of it this way; fluffy, incredible moist and flavorful egg draped with thin slices of cucumber that have been cooked just long enough to soak up many delicious flavors but still refreshingly crisp. Are you now thinking, "hey I can see how that would actually be an amazing combination. Now I really want to try some". I hope that is what you are thinking.

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Cabbage and Bacon

This is a delicious way to enjoy cabbage. Alternatively you can leave out the bacon for an even simpler, garlic cabbage stir-fry which is just as yummy in my opinion. 

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番茄炒鸡蛋盖饭 Egg in Tomato Gravy over Rice

This post features a simple and basic recipe for Tomato Egg. Tomato egg is a very popular home style dish in Taiwan and across China. It is a dish that is often done to taste and so there are many variations that exist. I love them all. For another version of this dish check out this recipe for Sweet and Sour Tomato Egg.

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炒蔬菜 Mixed Greens Stir-fry

  Getting our daily greens just got easier with this awesome recipe. I have never inhaled greens like when I was in Taiwan and China. They are never overcooked or bland and the flavor is always outstanding. I have been wanting a recipe for greens that is just as delicious as I have had in Asia for a long time but have never been able to find one that was even near as good. So yesterday I sat myself down with a bunch of ingredients and we had a really good talk.

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烤地瓜Roasted Yams

Today's post is a super simple recipe.

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腰果玉米 Cashew Corn

Wow, do Chinese ever know how to make vegetables show stoppers and I love it.

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拍黄瓜 Easy Cucumber Side Dish

Both Mike and I have really liked pihuanggua

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台式凉面 Taiwan Style Cold Sesame Noodles

This is a delicious cold sesame noodle dish. This is both a popular street food and home cooked dish in Taiwan. When I lived in Taiwan I would often grab cold sesame noodle out of the fridge at 7-Eleven for a quick and delicious lunch. The one at seven eleven came with two sauce packets- a sesame sauce and a sweetened vinegar sauce like you see in the photo below. In home cooked recipes all ingredients are just mixed into one sauce.

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凉拌木耳洋葱 Cold Wood Ear Salad

This may not be for everyone, especially if you are not a fan of wood ear mushrooms, also known as jew`s ear or jelly ear. But for wood ear fans like me, you will love this.

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菠菜炒大蒜 Garlic Spinach (Two Versions)

 The Chinese word 菠菜, in English translates as Spinach, can mean any of several plants grown as leaf vegetables. Examples of these are: Chinese pea sprouts, Ong Choy, Malabar spinach, ect. You may use any green you like. 

 I am giving you two different sauces that you can experiment with and switch up. One is a brown garlic sauce made with oyster sauce and the other is a simple white garlic sauce.

 This recipe has lots of favor and is such a simple, quick and healthy side dish that pairs well with just about anything.

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酸甜西红柿炒蛋 Sweet and Sour Tomato and Egg

Tomato and Egg has been a favorite of mine for a long time. Quick and easy to prepare and so tasty.

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兰豆/大白菜腊肉 Snow Peas or Cabbage and Bacon

 

This is a flavorful vegetable side dish that is done using Chinese snow peas but sugar snap peas can be replace if Chinese snow peas are either hard to find or expensive in your area. You could add in other vegetables as well for texture variance, I really like adding some green cabbage). A good quality bacon really makes a difference in this dish. Doesn't bacon make anything taste amazing?!

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干煸四季豆 Dry-Fried String Beans and Minced Pork

There was a restaurant in Beijing called XiaoWangFu that all the westerners we knew would get together at. They were really good at catering to westerner's taste while remaining authentic. All my westerner girl friends raved about this dish.

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青椒炒鸡蛋 Green Chili and Egg

The is a very simple, quick veggie side. It is also my husband's favorite egg/veggie Chinese dish. On this blog you can also find Tomato Egg and Spinach Egg.

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青椒土豆片Braised Bell Pepper and Potato Slices

 

There are some really cool techniques used in this dish that make it really unique in a delicious way. I love the technique of frying the potatoes in melted sugar, whoever thought of this is brilliant. It doesn't make the potatoes sweet as much as it just adds a ton of flavor and texture, similar to what frying and salting does to the humble potato when making french fries. This technique is used frequently in braised meat dishes also and really brings out the flavor of the meat as well.

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蒜蓉西兰花 Garlic Broccoli

This is a very tasty way to enjoy broccoil, so flavorful and fresh. In fact, this is without a doubt my favorite way to enjoy broccoli and it is so simple and quick to cook up.

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香辣土豆丝 Garlic Chilli Potato Wires

This is a really stunning dish to look at and the flavors of crispy potato with cilantro and chili is wonderful.

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