Category Archives: Vegetarian

When Sweet, Salty, Sour and Bitter are Just not Enough

By Kian Lam Kho | Published: August 5, 2009
Vegetarian Stock

Vegetarian Stock

As an open-minded omnivore, I enjoy vegetarian dishes as much as meat dishes. On many occasions I’ve successfully made vegetarian dishes for my vegetarian friends. Many were surprised at the diversity of Chinese vegetarian dishes and commented how flavorful and hearty they were. The key to a rich tasty vegetarian dish is to make use of what is known as umami, which is a Japanese word used to express the fifth taste in addition to the generally accepted four tastes of sweet, salty, sour and bitter. In Chinese umami is known as xian (鮮) and making stock full of umami is the basis for a successful vegetarian dish.

Also posted in Recipes, Soup, Stock | Tagged | Series: | 10 Responses

Lily Bulbs: Westerners Plant Them, The Chinese Eat Them

By Kian Lam Kho | Published: May 19, 2009
Stir-fry Lily Bulbs and Celery

Stir-fry Lily Bulbs and Celery

I can’t believe it’s been more than a month since my last post! I’d just completed a major system development project for a client at work. The delivery of this system had taken over my entire attention. Perhaps some of the technologist readers out there might sympathize with me and I ask for your apology. As soon as the project was over I went to Chinatown and was excited to find edible lily bulbs (百合) in season. I was itching to get back to my kitchen.

Also posted in Moist Stir-fry (滑炒), Recipes, Vegetables | Tagged | 9 Responses

Bi-Coastal Chinese Food and Wine Pairing

By Kian Lam Kho | Published: December 9, 2008
Steamed Tofu and Gruner Veltliner

It all started with a cheery comment on my very first Chinese food and wine pairing post back in July. Kirstin, who lives in California and writes the blog Vin de la Table, wrote that she would be interested in attempting a long distance wine pairing joint-post with me. I was fascinated by her suggestion. Pairing European style wine with Chinese food, or Asian food for that matter, has always been a contentious subject among Asian food connoisseurs. Many feel that Chinese food is best paired with traditional Chinese rice wine or liquor, but many others have successfully paired grape wine. So it is with this expectation that Kirstin and I embarked on an adventure to pair wine with a few of my recipes. As part of our joint effort Kirstin created a Chinese food and wine pairing guide to accompany our posts. I hope you’ll find her guide and our posts useful.

Also posted in Cold Dishes, Recipes, Vegetables, Wine | Tagged | Series: | 7 Responses

Boiled Peanuts and a Movie

By Kian Lam Kho | Published: October 15, 2008
Boiled Peanuts

To someone growing up in Asia in the 1960’s “boiled peanuts and a movie” is what “popcorn and a movie” is to the American moviegoers. As a child going to the cinemas in Singapore, I would always encounter boiled peanuts peddlers pushing large steaming kettles, mounted on tricycles, bursting with peanuts selling their fare. My friends and I would purchase packages of boiled peanuts in newspaper cones and bring them into the theatre. We would crack the peanuts noiselessly, as the moist soft shells split easily, and discard them on the floor. At the end of the show the floor would be full of peanut shells and I used to enjoy stomping on the shells making crunching noise as we walked out. But this reminiscing also brought out my feeling of disgust for how filthy that habit was. I’m glad that this practice doesn’t exist anymore.

Also posted in Recipes, Snack Food | Tagged | 28 Responses

Curiously Delicious Bran Dough

By Kian Lam Kho | Published: October 9, 2008
Four Happiness Bran Dough

I was living in Shanghai two years ago when two of my friends from New York came to visit. It was their first visit to China and everything was novel. On the evening of their arrival I took them to the rooftop terrace at a café called New Heights. We had a few drinks and watched the “light show” on the buildings across the river in Pudong. We then headed to dinner at Jade Garden, a Shanghainese restaurant, where I ordered braised bran dough (烤麩). You see my friends are rather well informed when it comes to dining, and rightly so because they frequently venture into New York’s many ethnic restaurants and travel extensively overseas. But they had never heard of bran dough and found it a rather curious dish. It contained tiny pieces of sponge-like dough braised in soy sauce and other ingredients. They weren’t quite sure what to expect initially, but I was confident it would be love at first bite. I was not wrong.

Also posted in Cold Dishes, Recipes | 12 Responses

It’s a Flask, It’s a Vegetable, It’s Bottle Gourd!

By Kian Lam Kho | Published: August 24, 2008
Stir-fried Hulu in Vinegar Sauce

Guess what I found when I was in New York’s Chinatown last week. This beautiful looking hulu! I’ve not seen them before in New York nor anywhere in the U.S. Hulu (葫蘆) is a bottle shaped gourd often seen in Chinese brush paintings. Sages or monks carrying hulu flask are common themes in Chinese art. But these sinuous shaped gourds are also delicious as vegetables.

Also posted in Plain Stir-fry (清炒), Recipes, Techniques, Vegetables | 12 Responses

Cool as a Cucumber

By Kian Lam Kho | Published: August 19, 2008
Garlic Cucumber Salad


Photography by Ron Boszko

When was the last time you ordered a salad or cold dish in a Chinese restaurant? In fact I bet you never have. You probably don’t even associate cold dishes with Chinese food. I can hardly blame you. The majority of Chinese restaurants in America do not even serve cold dishes although they are a staple of a Chinese meal in Asia. Learn how to make this cool cucumber salad.

Also posted in Cold Dishes | 8 Responses

Refreshingly Cool Mango Pudding

By Kian Lam Kho | Published: June 9, 2008
Mango Pudding

Located virtually on the equator, Singapore offers a wide variety of fresh fruits year round. Although many tropical fruits are harvested year round, a small number of them are seasonal. When I lived in Singapore I used to follow these seasonal fruits like people in temperate climates follow changing season. Among the seasonal fruits, mango is the one I always eagerly anticipated. Its season starts at the end of the dry months, which is around July. Local mangoes start appearing in the market around August and continue to be available through October.

Also posted in Recipes, Sweet Dishes | Tagged | 33 Responses

Stir-fry Fortnight III – Plain Veggie Stir-fry

By Kian Lam Kho | Published: March 12, 2008
Garlic Stir-fry Pea Shoots

Garlic Stir-fry Pea Shoots

We take for granted that stir-frying is just combining a bunch of ingredients, frying them in a wok, and seasoning them appropriately; that is partially accurate. What is rarely understood is that there are variations in stir-frying technique. Broadly classified the variations are 1) plain stir-fry (清炒 or QingChao), 2) moist stir-fry (滑炒 or HuaChao) and 3) dry wok stir-fry (煸炒 or BianChao). In this third part of Stir-fry Fortnight series post let me show you how simple it is to make plain vegetable stir-fry.

Also posted in Plain Stir-fry (清炒), Recipes, Techniques, Vegetables | Tagged | Series: | 5 Responses

Bloomin’ Chinese Chives

By Kian Lam Kho | Published: February 27, 2008
Stir-fry Chinese Chive Blossoms and Tofu

Stir-fry Chinese Chive Blossoms and Tofu
Photography by Ron Boszko

When I was growing up I hated the smell and taste of chives, specifically Chinese chives. I remembered encountering Chinese chives in stir-fries with ground pork or shrimp, or sprinkled on top of steamed rice cake. I would always pick the chives off carefully before eating. I do not recall when it was that my palate changed and I began to enjoy Chinese chives. Now I don’t just enjoy them; I adore them.

Also posted in Dry Wok Stir-fry (煸炒), Recipes, Techniques, Vegetables | 6 Responses

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