Yi mein – 伊麵 – Flat Egg Noodles

Looking for an easy noodle recipe on this hot, humid, lazy summer day….then came across with this popular dish that I love growing up.  Dried fried yi mein (乾炒伊麵) is a very popular dish served in most Chinese restaurant.  They serve this dish for birthday and wedding banquet as well.  It usually comes together with the fried rice at the end of the banquet, as the noodle represents a long life and/or a long marriage.

Yi Mein is a type of Chinese flat egg noodles, made from wheat flour.  They are known for their golden yellow color and the chewy characteristics.  The noodles are usually available in dried form, and involves soaking to make it “stir fried-able”.  It is usually served with shredded port, mushroom, and sometimes with crab meat.

Now I don’t have any of these noodles on hand, and am way too lazy to drive 20 minutes to the nearest Chinese grocery store to get the noodles.  I have some other noodles in the refrigerator, let’s see if that will work.  I will report on that later this week!

加油 – jiā yóu

Today, my oldest had his first swim meet for the summer. While he was swiming with his teammates, his little brothers cheered him on. In particular, my 2 1/2  year old started saying 加油, jiā yóu, 加油 as he watched his brother swim. I was kind of surprised by this outburst of Chinese as his Chinese is limited to food and some simple instructional words such as go, come, eat, etc. It turned out, there was a Ni Hao Kai-lan episode where Kai-lan and her friends cheered for Ho Ho. The best way to understand 加油 is in a sentence, it basically is the equivelent of  “Go, Name (Ho Ho), Go!

This again affirms my believe television is ok as long as it’s educational! Seriously, if my kids are going to watch tv, at least I know they are learning!

Zongzi – 粽子 – zòng zi

Zongzi is a traditional Chinese food made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves. They are cooked by steaming or boiling.  Just like moon cake and most other Chinese food, there are different versions of Zongzi, and there are different versions of eating Zongzi.  Fillings vary from mung beans, red bean paste, Chinese sausage, salted pork, salted duck egg, to chicken, and taro.  I like to eat mine dipped in sugar, while other people may eat it plain.  My husband likes it with soy sauce.

Zongzi is traditionally eaten during the Dragon Boat Festival.  However, it is a favorite of lots of people, so you can see them in the Dim Sum carts too when you go to Chinatown.

I’ve recently brought one over to my Venezuelan friend’s for her to try.  She loved it.  It reminded her of the Hallaca, a traditional Venezuela dish that she loves growing up.  That was pretty funny.  I have two pictures here of Zongzi and Hallaca, can you tell or guess which one is which?

Ice Cream Bar – 雪糕 – xuě gāo

Chinese language is very interesting, as many of you already know. These two characters, if translated separately, means snow and cake respectly.  In addition, Ice cream, is known as 冰淇淋, bīng qí lín, totally different from ice cream bar, or 雪糕.

Anyway, I found these adorable 雪糕 from H Mart, a local Korean grocery store. These 雪糕 have the shapes of a panda, almost too cute to eat!  There are also many different flavors of 雪糕, including green tea, red bean, green bean, taro, in addition to the traditional vanilla and chocalate flavors.  

My favorite flavor as a child is red bean, what’s yours?

Weekend - 週末 – zhōu mò

I love weekends! Especially weekends during the summer season. The days are much longer and the weather is warm, it allows me to spend lots of outdoor time with the family. In our family, we also like to take little weekend trips to just get away. Recently, we went up to the Berkshires with some friends and took the kids bike riding. It was so much fun we hope to do it again soon.

Memorial Day – 紀念日 – jì niàn rì

Happy Memorial Day everybody!  Let’s get this summer started!

壽 – longevity – shòu

Chopsticks turns 6 today, I can’t believe he is 6 already.  I want to keep him in a time capsule, so he will never grow old.  I remember writing the words of the week Happy Birthday for Dumpling’s birthday, so just to be fair, I should do one for Chopsticks too.

It is considered most fortunate to live a long life, so the symbol 壽 is often found in many decorations throughout a typical Chinese household.  Longevity noodles are usually served at dinners on birthday celebrations, or during Chinese New Year.  Traditionally, longevity noodles are made with a single lump of dough. The dough is stretched, then folded and stretched again until each fold creates thin threads of noodles. The process will not be finished until there are a thousand strands of noodles.

When you get a chance to enjoy it, try not to break off the noodle you are picking up, since it is believed that the longer the noodle is, the longer it suggests your life will be.

I will not be making longevity noodles for my 6 year old birthday boy tonight.  He wants to go out for sushi!  Oh well, I will make him spaghetti for lunch instead then.

Pollen – 花粉 – huā fěn

Loving this weather, we hit 80 today here in the Northeast.  Everything is waking up, including the all the pollen in the air.  My two poor kids have been on medications on 2 weeks now.  Little Dumpling got his first asthma attack of this season, felt so bad for him.

Chinese words are always so funny.  Some can be so poetic and descriptive, yet some can just be so straight forward.  Pollen, for example, is pretty straight forward.  The word 花 means flower, and 粉 means powder.  Yup, that’s it, Flower Powder!  Where as you have words like 花都, Huā dū, literal translation is Flower city.  It actually describes a city full of beautiful things, just like flowers.  How pretty is that!!!

Spring – 春天 – chūn tiān

The temperature is rising, and Spring is finally here!

Lantern Festival – 元宵節 – Yuán xiāo jié

Lantern Festival or 元宵節 is celebrated on the 15th day of the first month in the lunar calendar. This is not to be confused with Moon Festival, which is celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth month in the lunar calendar. Traditioanlly, 元宵節 marks the end of the Chinese New Year celebration as it’s the first full moon of the new year. Once again, families gather together for one last time before returning to work and “normal” life. During the gathering, everyone is to enjoy some 湯圓, tāng yuán, made out of glutinous rice. As you have seen from our previous posts, Chinese people believe in symbolic food, the circular shape of the tang yuan reminds family members to stay together and be united. So don’t forget to eat your tang yuan on 2/28 this year!