Making Char Siu One More Time

Although I cook Chinese food at home, there are certain foods only Chinese restaurants can do right. Tried as I dared, I couldn’t make dumplings or dim sum, nor could I make the famous char siu (Chinese barbecue). I decided to make char siu one more time after I saw a lively food blog. The guy did a great job showing us how to make char siu at home. I thought, why can’t I do that? It looks delicious and easy.

I have tried many char siu recipes I got online, not good at all. Maybe I found the char siu recipe I have been looking for. I followed his instructions on the website, at least I thought I did anyway. I used pretty much the same ingredients listed there. Except I don’t think pork shoulder is the preferred choice of meat. But what am I supposed to do? It’s not like I have a friend working in the meat department. We can only get what’s available in the store. Regardless, I was confident that I could make restaurant quality char siu this time.

After working in the kitchen for a whole afternoon, I could not be more disappointed at the char siu I made. Although it wasn’t all that bad, it certainly did not have the right flavor of real char siu. It didn’t look like the restaurant char siu either. So what do I do from now on? I buy char siu when I go to Chinatown in Chicago.

Celebrate Summer – Grill It!

The weather personnel warned people that it is going to reach 100 degrees today, pretty much like the past couple days. Yesterday was 101 degrees, which was unbearable. We were warned not to fire up the grill outside. But we have already made plans to have a barbecue lunch with friends today. Summer is always hot anyway. And we can’t grill in the winter. What is it going to be, grill or no grill?

Of course I take the extreme heat warning seriously. That’s why we decided to start the grill early in the morning. By the time the sun was out, we have prepared the meat, chopped the vegetables. By about 7 o’clock we were already cooking in our backyard. Our neighbors woke up and smelled barbecue. No, it was not a dream.

Asian barbecue pork chops. 

Grilled chicken in two flavors. 

I love the basket, can’t grill without it. No more dropping food to the bottom. 

Now we can enjoy the food inside. The man who invented air conditioning is my hero.

The sweet cherry tomatoes and long beans were picked in our garden. Fresh!

Our friends came over and we had everything ready to put on the table. Everybody loved the grilled vegetables. That gave me an idea to create a recipe for the next cookout. Yes, I am always thinking even when I am eating. We had a great time celebrating 4th of July ahead of time. Red, white, blue.