Pork

My mom is a master with this dish - she makes it for all of our birthdays and often with long life noodles on the side. This is my first crack at it, and it turned out surprisingly delish: just a few ingredients and the cooking method is very similar to that which I use for making braised pork bellies. The key is to cook it low and slow until it's super tender. The onion, carrot, and tomato aren't traditional, but they definitely lend a nice boost of flavor to this dish.

Really good sweet & sour pork should not be laden with tons of eggy, floury batter. Sadly, that's what you'll get at a lot of Chinese fast-food joints. The pork should be marinated in a soy-egg yolk-sesame oil-rice wine mixture and then tossed in a light coating of cornstarch just before frying. And you should also double fry the pork to get the absolute best texture (i.e., fry the pork 3 minutes the first time around, remove & drain, then fry it a second time for another 3-5

If you're a sauerkraut aficionado, then you'll love these Chinese pickled mustard greens, sometimes labeled as "Sour Cabbage" and easy to find in most Asian markets. In Taiwanese, they're called "Giam Tsai" (i.e., "salty vegetable"). They're a staple in home-style cooking in Taiwan and mom would usually stir-fry them with sliced pork, minced garlic & ginger with a pinch of sugar and white pepper. She would also add them to a clear broth to make a light soup with sliced pork a

If you love garlic, then this is the dish for you. Vampires will not be visiting you anytime soon after you've partaken of this garlic palooza. I think there are a couple variations of the sauce for this recipe, one of which is classic Taiwanese and reminiscent of what my mom makes- basically just very finely minced garlic with soy sauce, sugar, vinegar and water. Another sauce is spicier with the addition of sliced fresh chilies and/or chili oil (a Szechuan version). Pork be

Ok. There's absolutely not a whit of fish, fish sauce, or anything fishy in this Szechuan dish, so why is it fish flavored? According to legend, a local Szechuan woman had some leftover sauce comprised of garlic, ginger, scallions, wine, chili sauce and vinegar that  she had always used for cooking fish and one day decided to use it in a different preparation. It was so delicious that the rest is history. Nowadays, "Fish'flavored" sauce is used to cook a variety of different