We celebrated my mom’s sixty-sixth birthday during our visit to California this summer.  In our family, along with many others from the Shanghai/Yangtze Delta region of China, the sixty-sixth has always been cause for major celebration since, by traditional standards, it is a milestone for a long, full life.  Legend has it that the guardian of the after-life will come calling soon after a person reaches this milestone.  To ward off this unwanted visit, a person has to eat sixty-six pieces of meat.  Somehow, this mass consumption of meat renders the person undesirable.

So, in the spirit of preservation, my sister and I both prepared dishes with sixty-six pieces of meat.  Mine was  紅燒, or soy sauce braised (a very traditional Shanghai method) while my sister sliced a grilled steak into sixty-six pieces.  With all the meat consumed, let’s hope my mother lives a doubly-long life!

Many of you already know that my family is in LA and we go there often to visit. My kids all love the trip despite a 5 1/2 hour long flight each way. When asked why they like California so much, their first comment is always “because Po Po (maternal grandmother) makes us yummy food”. They are certainly not wrong on that front, my mother is a great cook, and this is one of her receipes that my 2nd son loves. In fact, he had 6 egg rolls in one sitting!

Ingredients:

1 head of napa cabbage (about 3lbs), thinly sliced
1/2 lb pork, julienned
1 can bamboo shoot, julienned (optional)
1 package of square egg roll wrapper (I personally prefer Wei Chuan brand)
3 tbsp canola oil, divided
1½ tbsp to 2 tbsp flour
Salt to taste

Directions:

In a large wok, or sauté pan, heat about 1 ½ tbsp oil until hot, then sauté the julienned pork until cooked. Remove. Add the remaining oil, and sauté the cabbage. Once the cabbage is wilted, mix in the cooked pork. Add salt to taste.

At this point, use 2 to 3 tbsp of the liquid from the wok/pan and mix with the flour to create a slurry. Pour in the slurry back to the wok/pan to thicken the mixture. Chill the mixture in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours until cold.

Take out 1 egg roll wrapper on the table, position it like a diamond. Place about 1½ to 2 tbsp of the mixture in the center, in a rectangular shape. Fold the wrapper from the bottom first, then left, then right, and finally roll the whole thing upward.

To fry the egg roll, you’ll need enough oil to cover at least ½ inch from the bottom of the wok/pan. Once the oil is hot, slowly place the egg roll in the hot oil, turning once if the top is not covered in oil, and remove the egg roll when the whole thing turns golden. Drain on paper towel lined towel, and enjoy while hot.

In my family, we serve ours with Zheng Jiang vinegar (similar in taste to balsalmic vinegar) and plain congee. Yum!

Note: use a small sewing needle, pierce the egg rolls a few times so that the steam can escape while the egg roll is being fried. This way, it’ll prevent the egg roll from exploding in the pan.

I will admit that my in-laws are a huge part of my kids’ Chinese language skill.  My mother-in-law used to read Chinese board books to Chopstick when he was an infant, then gradually moved up to more age appropriate story books.  It’s really amazing how much the kids can pick up.  Chopsticks used to impress a lot of people with his knowledge of construction trucks names in Chinese.

For this Grandparents Day, why not get some great Chinese bilingual books for a private Chinese tutoring session and bonding time with the Grandparents?  Check out some of my favorites here, I guarantee that both generations will love them.

I didn’t grow up with my grandparents, so I often envy my kids’ relationship with their grandparents.  (except for the “occasional” disagreement withthe parents and in-laws on how to properly raise my kids)  The truth is, the kids’ grandparents are definitely being taken advantage of by us, and that they are probably under appreciated.  They provide great and free babysitting services, and not to mention the extra food to take home.

For this Grandparents Day (September 13th), I will definitely show my appreciation through the kids.  I thought about presents, but then I thought they will enjoy quality time spent with them instead of tangible presents.  I used to play Chinese Checkers and Chinese Chess when I was little, it’s probably too ambitious to teach my 5 and 2 year old but hey, never too early to introduce the concept.  And I am sure the Grandparents will enjoy the games too!

Grandfather – 爺爺 yé ye, 外公 wài gōng

Grandparents Day is coming up soon, September 13th this year to be exact.  Let’s make sure that we all know how to say Grandfather properly. 

爺爺 yé ye is for the paternal grandfather, while 外公 wài gōng is for the maternal grandmother.  Don’t forget to make sure your kids say it with a kiss, they will love it.  We all need to stock up on those free babysitting vouchers.

Grandmother – 奶奶 – nǎi nai – 外婆 – wài pó

Chinese families have historically been rather large, hence the 1.2 billion, which would have been even higher if not for the one child policy for the past 30 years. This large family structure led to a rather complex nomenclature to clearly distinguish familial relationships. While, for example, we use the same set of terms for both maternal and paternal grandmothers (i.e., grandmother, grandma, etc.), the Chinese have different terms – nǎi nai (奶奶) and wài pó (外婆) for paternal and maternal grandmothers respectively. If you think this is complicated, wait until we start discussing aunts and uncles.