This recipe is my take on a very common Dim Sum dish, consisting of fresh shrimp wrapped in rice noodle rolls, which are then steamed and served with a light, sweetish soy sauce. You can make the rice noodle rolls yourself if you like, but it's a tricky proposition and time consuming if you're a novice, so I just buy the rolls premade from the 99 Ranch Market (most Asian markets will stock this in the same section where they have their other rice noodle products). Just make s

Stuffed bell peppers are de rigueur in the pantheon of Dim Sum fare. Oftentimes the stuffing consists of shrimp paste, but I prefer a combo of shrimp and fatty ground pork. The key to the filling is to have a paste-like versus crumbly texture, and I use a food processor in pulse mode to achieve this.

A popular dim sum dish and tasty appetizer. You can always use fresh shiitake mushrooms but rehydrated dried shiitakes have a distinctively earthy flavor which I prefer. The filling is a classic combination of shrimp and ground pork, a bit of fresh ginger and garlic, chopped napa cabbage, minced water chestnuts (for texture) and seasoned with sesame oil, black pepper, soy sauce, a pinch of sugar and rice wine.

I've had some version of these dumplings in a couple of Dim Sum restaurants over the years but can't seem to find a recipe for it in any of my cookbooks or online, so I decided to concoct my own. You can use Gyoza or dumpling wrappers for the wrappers, since they are readily available in most mainstream supermarkets.

Ahhhh...this dish makes me flashback to childhood memories of those times (and many there were) when me and my sis got conscripted by my mom to fill and crimp dozens upon dozens of these delectable "water" dumplings. Didn't complain back then and won't do it now because water dumplings are a quintessential and totally delicious repertoire of Chinese home cooking. To clarify for those not in the know, water dumplings are boiled in water (hence their moniker) but they can also

Another dim sum staple. Many moons ago (circa 1986), my grandmother did a test run of this recipe on one of her weekend cook fests at my apartment in Montebello. It was fantastic, and I've been striving, out of nostalgia, to duplicate her perfect rendition. After much trial and error, I've come to the conclusion that too much rice flour makes the radish cake one tough cookie. So here's the refined version.

My mom used to make these 'fresh' Taiwanese spring rolls (albeit only once in a blue moon) when we were kids and they really are da bomb. They're not the typical fried spring rolls that most folks are familiar with, but rather an almost burrito-like rendition that uses fresh and delicately thin dough wrappers filled with a mixture of pork, pickled radish, assorted veggies (bean sprouts, cabbage, carrots, bamboo shoots, shiitake mushrooms, etc.), sliced hard tofu bean cakes, c

Jellyfish salad, a refreshingly light dish tossed with fresh cucumber, carrots, daikon radish, red chilies, and a dressing of rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil and garlic, was a staple in my childhood in Taiwan. Oddly enough, I never knew I was actually eating "jellyfish" (yup, not a euphemism for some mysterious marine plant, a la seaweed, but the real deal) until I was an adult and living in LA. As kids, my sister and I were both stung by these suckers while t

Wontons are not hard to make but are slightly labor intensive because they are on the small side and you have to make so many of them (2 lbs. of filling will yield 50-60 wontons, which is about the number of wrappers you'll get in a typical package of wonton wrappers). If you have an hour or more to spare though, it's totally worth the effort. Come to think of it, that's probably why my mom decided to have kids. I have 'fond' memories of my sis and I back in the day having oo

For years I've been obsessed with the idea of cooking up and hosting a grand Chinese New Year banquet in the tradition of those 10+ course feasts that my grandparents used to make for the occasion back in Taiwan. Both my grandpa (Ah-Kung) and grandma (Ah-Ma) were fabulous home cooks, so emulating their dishes has always been a totally daunting task. Their main courses always included steamed whole fish with scallions, ginger and garlic, sautéed jumbo prawns in a sweet and sou

This is my take on a recipe made famous and ubiquitous by the PF Chang restaurant chain. I prefer to use ground pork rather than ground chicken in this preparation and the sauce is a tad less salty than the PFC version. The fresh lettuce leaves are perfect wraps for the flavorful meat filling.

This recipe is my version of a dish my grandfather used to make. Can be served at either room temperature or cold out of the frig.

This is my take on a Chinese-style spicy cucumber salad. I had some leftover veggies in the frig (daikon radish, carrots and a red bell pepper) and didn't want them to go to waste, so decided to add them to this dish. Super easy and even better after marinating for at least 24 hours before serving.

This sweet and sour pickled cabbage is a traditional condiment in Taiwan. There's no oil and just a hint of chili for a very mild spice kick. And for those in the know, it's also a staple and must-have side with stinky tofu. Green cabbage, readily available in most supermarkets, works great for this recipe. But if you can find "Taiwan" green cabbage in an Asian market, I'd go with that. Very refreshing and yum!

A great summer appetizer since cucumbers taste great whether cold out of the frig or at room temperature. I adapted this recipe from Huang Sau Yen's Chinese Culinary Arts for Today , one of my mom's Taiwanese cookbooks from the 1970s, which she bequeathed to me when I came to California in '83 .  The Szechuan peppercorns are what distinguish this dish with their unique, aromatic, slightly tingly peppery flavor.

I adapted this recipe from two sources: Fuchsia Dunlop's Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking and Mrs. Chiang's Szechwan Cookbook . It's a classic cold dish/appetizer which consists of sliced fresh cucumbers, minced garlic, chili oil, vinegar, sesame oil, sugar and soy sauce with the addition of ground Szechuan peppercorns, which make the flavors distinctively 'Szechuanese.' The peppercorns are uniquely 'spicy' with a numbing rather than chili-hot quality to them.

This dish is a popular item on the Dim Sum menu. They are not beef balls a la Rocky Mountain oysters, but rather steamed meatballs made from finely minced ground beef that has first been marinated in baking soda (helps to tenderize), then seasoned with, amongst other things, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, pepper, minced ginger, cilantro, and a small amount of grated orange peel. The addition of cornstarch, egg white and water makes the meatballs extra smooth, moist, lig

A traditional Taiwanese dish, the three main ingredients (other than the chicken) are sesame oil, soy sauce and rice wine. The name "Three Cup" suggests that you should use one cup of each of these ingredients. But in my version (for 2-3 lbs. of chicken) I actually use 1/4 cup regular soy, 1/4 cup dark soy, 1/4 cup rice wine, and 1/4 cup of sesame oil. IMHO, one cup of any of these in this recipe maybe too much of a good thing...To die for served over steamed white rice! Pre-

This Cantonese-style/Southern Chinese dish is either ingeniously delicious in its simplicity, deliciously simple in its ingenuity, or just plain simple and delicious (I opt for the latter). It's essentially a poached wine, salt, sesame oil-rubbed whole chicken that's sliced or perhaps hacked is a better term (I'll explain later) and served with a ginger-scallion-oil dipping sauce. Yup. That's it. No more, no less. The typical way of serving this dish is to literally hack the

My maternal Grandpa (Ah-kung) used to make this dish to perfection. I can't quite replicate it, but here's my best rendition. Ah-kung was originally from Fujian province in China, and tended to use a liberal amount of vinegar, soy and sugar in his cuisine (spice was not part of the regimen). I have such fond memories of his perpetually happy countenance and super cool laid-back personality. I miss him dearly.