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Popcorn chicken is a classic street food in Taiwan, and absolutely exists in almost 90% boba shops’ menus. However, my love for popcorn chicken constantly fights with the fact that these yummy pieces have been deep-fried in hot oil…! I have tried popcorn chicken using both oven and air-fryer. Now I am sharing my modified recipe to make “healthy”, easy, juicy, yummy popcorn chicken using air-fryer and the reasons for the use of milk in spice mix, the use of baking powder, baking soda, mochiko, tapioca flour in flour mix.
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First time making paella was at the virtual team bonding event. I was surprised at how straightforward the process is to complete the dish and how tasty it is. Closing to the holidays with friends gathering and might have different preference over chicken, pork, beef, lamb, seafood, etc., paella is actually a great dish to include diverse ingredients, cook in bulk and share with friends!
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Quarantine gave me the opportunity to cook for 4 people in total everyday, as a science researcher, my nerd side came out and thanks to my friends, I was able to do “control experiments” on different sauces for seafood pasta. I want to share with your my report on amount of half and half and Parmesan sprinkle to add for seafood pasta! For seafood, I have shrimp, clams and scallop marinated with salt and pepper.
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Cheap, common, yet well-known braised beef flank with radish 蘿蔔牛腩 can be found either as street foods or as well-plated delicacy in Cantonese restaurants, dim sum, lunch, or dinner. It might sound abstract but this dish really represents Cantonese value and spirits: low-key in life, but not low-quality.
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Couple’s Delight or Fuqi Feipian (Szechuan) / 夫妻肺片(川菜) is one of the two side dishes that I always order in Szechuan restaurants. ? Anecdote about this dish: originally, the “Fei 肺” (lung) in the dish name is originally another Chinese character “廢” (waste) with the same pronunciation, referring to all the organs (beef tongue, beef tripe, beef heart, etc. ) used in the dish. These parts are not the most valuable and used to be discarded as waste, until a couple followed by many other chefs transformed them, crowned this representative Szechuan cold dish today, and thus changed the character from “waste” to “lung”, hinting the organs used in the dish, STILL! Lung is not usually used!
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White cut chicken 白切鷄 and soy sauce chicken 醬油雞 are almost on every table in Cantonese restaurants. Cantonese loves chicken, and loves the origin flavor of chicken, thus strong spices are not commonly used for cooking chicken. Both of these chicken cook in boiling water for 30secs and dip in ice water to have chewy skin, then for further marinating. I did not expect soy sauce chicken to have such straightforward process. Nevertheless, this is nothing compared to the taste of soy sauce chicken from hometown!!
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Good wonton noodle soup is hard to find, with a good combination of shrimp wonton, pork bone broth and chewy jook-sing noodle 竹升面. The best wonton noodle soup in memory was still the one of a small shop beneath bridge near home. Either in steaming, humid hot summer or chilly, cold winter, sitting on small standing stools with red paddings, rubbing neighbors’ shoulders in the crowded restaurants and having one bowl of wonton noodle soup with my parents will always chill the summer nights, brighten the winter darkness. Wonton noodle soup is another taste of home for me.
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Another very classic Szechuan dish is twice-cooked pork — first cook in mid-low water for 20-30min, second-cook in pan for stir fry. Traditional twice-cooked pork is cooked with garlic sprouts 蒜苗, but if unable to find this, bell pepper is usually used instead. Sweetness of bell peppers compensates the spicy, crispy pork belly very well!
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Last time making lobster was a mess as we were too scared to clean the lobster when they waved their claws at us!! This time the lobsters were quieter when we cooked them, better cleaning, slicing enabled us to cook lobsters in three different ways this time: Cantonese style ginger scallion stir-fried lobsters 薑葱炒龍蝦, Steamed garlic lobster tail 蒜蓉蒸龍蝦尾, Steamed lobster claws 清蒸龍蝦爪
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Back home at restaurants, garlic spare ribs are ordered every now and then. Since they are usually DEEP FRIED, they can rarely appear MORE OFTEN! Now I have my PINK air fryer, I can make this delicacy much healthier! Usually, garlic spare ribs has a taste of sweetness from Chenpi 陳皮 and are sprinkled with zest, both of which I do not have. But if you have them, add them for marinating! If you don’t, I think fermented bean curd 腐乳 (and sugar 😉 )do the trick for giving it extra flavors closer to home!
