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.

When I think of orange chicken, it's usually of the Chinese fast food variety with way too much flour/cornstarch coating and a cloyingly sweet sauce. Therefore, it's not exactly a dish I crave for. However, I recently came across a recipe in Bee Yin Low's Easy Chinese Recipes  that looked lightly crisp and was not overly dressed with sauce. In fact, she uses fresh orange juice and omits the dried orange peel, which is hard to come by unless you have an Asian market in your ho

Kung Pao anything is going to be spicy. I've had Kung Pao chicken in some restaurants where there were more chilies than chicken - now that's overkill! My version has some kick to it but is probably more on the medium scale of spicy and is extra saucy. I also like adding sliced fresh jalapenos and button mushrooms, not traditional ingredients, but I think they work really well in this dish. Gil loves the sauce and thinks it tastes even better the next day.

I adapted this recipe from The Woks of Life and it is simply delicious! Where I digressed was in tenderizing the chicken with baking soda before cooking. If you can't find Chinese broccoli, broccolini is an excellent substitute. Great served with steamed white rice to soak up all that delicious sauce!

Hainanese chicken rice, a very popular dish in Singapore and Malaysia, traces its origins to Hainanese immigrants from Southern China. The simplicity of this dish belies the complexity of its flavors: it's essentially chicken and rice cooked in chicken stock, flavored with aromatics like ginger, scallions and garlic, and served with a chili-garlic-ginger dipping sauce on the side. Traditionally, a whole chicken is poached for this dish, with some of the stock reserved to cook

This dish is similar to beef with black pepper sauce, except it's not as laden with black pepper. For this version, I was inspired by the Steak Stir-Fry (Chow Steak Kow) recipe from the Woks of Life's website https://thewoksoflife.com/steak-stir-fry/  . They have amazing recipes on this site!

A classic Chinese dish that pairs extremely well with white rice. Most of the labor is in the prep, i.e., chopping the veggies & slicing the beef. I like to kick this recipe up with a bit of fresh jalapeño or Fresno chili.

A saucy, flavorful dish that's great served with steamed white rice. I adapted this recipe from Weichuan's Chinese Cuisine II . The original recipe called for Chinese broccoli and beef tenderloin or sirloin, but I used regular broccoli and flank steak instead.

By most accounts, this dish is of Cantonese origin. The key ingredients are sliced beef, onion, garlic, ginger, and bell peppers seasoned with soy sauce, oyster sauce, Worcestershire sauce, sesame oil, rice wine, sugar, and a generous amount of cracked black pepper. I took a cue from Bee Yin Low's version in her cookbook Easy Chinese Recipes  and added some Maggi Sauce to the marinade. Delicious served over steamed white rice!