!!!Tortoise Herb Jelly!!! (Guilingao)

Today, I want to introduce my favorit dessert - Tortoise Herb Jelly (Guilingao).

Some people may surprise with "what? tortoise?" --

Right !!! ----

Chinese people must be very familiar with Guilingao,,  is a jelly-like Chinese medicine dessert!

Tortoise Herb Jelly (Guilingao):

In traditional way, It was made from two main kinds of ingredients:

   1.The powder of bottom shell from “Golden Coin Turtle”.

 The golden coin turtle is one kind of endangered turtle, even if it has been commercially farmed in China. Therefore, the traditional-made tortoise herb jelly is extremely expensive and rare.

2.  Chinese medicine herb -China roots smilax glabra (Tu Fu Ling)

China roots smilax glabra is an important herb in Chinese medicine. According to older Chinese pharmacy record, it helps people to excrete toxins and improve circulation of blood.

Since the high price and rarity of golden coin turtle, the turtle-derived ingredients are sometimes replaced by other, more commonly available, turtle species. But, more often in today, turtle herb jelly sold as a dessert, which does not contain any turtle shell powders but has the same herb additives.

The turtle herb jelly is dark brown, not sweet but a little bit bitter. People usually eat it with sweeteners such as condensed milk, syrup, and honey. As my personal recommendation, fruits and condensed milk are the best partners with herb jelly. Moreover, refrigerate better.

We can enjoy this kind of dessert in some Chinese dessert cafeteria,,,however,,,if u r interested in the real traditional Guilingao,,,you'd better go to China !!

"Pissing ^^^ Shrimp "

Mantis Shrimp ----

In China and some Asian country ,,,Mantis Shrimp is one of the popular sea food..and is my favorite sea food as well !!! We also call it 'Pissing Shrimp" in Chinese. (Because when people pick it up, it always shoot a jet of water)

However, I never seen pissing shrimp in the market at bay area!! Not even the frozen one!!!




There are more than 400 species Mantis Shrimp in the world, they are aggressive and solitary creature,,,they have sharp claws and good eyesight

They like hiding in rocks!!!

Pissing shrimp looks a little bit like lobster,its shell is also hard,but for me ,,,i love Pissing Shrimp much better than lobster,,,Pissing Shrimp's meet tastes much softer than lobster after cooking!!

In Chinese Cuisine, Pissing Shrimps are made into different kins of delicious dishes,,::


The most delicious cooking way i like is boiling in the salt water,,
this cooking way keeps the origrinal taste of pissing shrimp, very fresh :

Deep fry in the oil:: Crispy & smell good!!

Fry with papper salt:

Make into soup:

 Those are famous Chinese ways of cooking,Pissing Shrimps are also well known in some other cuisines,,like Japanese, Mediterranean and Philippines,,

Once you go to somewhere have Pissing Shrimps,,you must try them,,,you will love it !!!

Century EGGS!!!!!!! Is that crazy eggs???

Today my topic is EGGs!




However, for some American people, this kind of eggs is crazy!!!!

                                                                        ---Century Eggs!!





                    

Months ago, CNN reported that the "World's Most Revolting Food" is Chinese Century Eggs!!!According to this report, it seems like Century Eggs are just like little monsters! And they scare  people a lot!!!

Why they r so scary ,,even more horrible than woodworm,dog meet, tarantula, etc....

Here are some comments that people make:::::

“It’s awful -- it tastes like the devil cooked eggs for me,” said Holwerda. “It tastes like something that used to be an egg, but made some really horrible choices."

“I'm actually in the middle of a month-long project for my blog. There have been some memorable ones so far, but none as awful as century eggs.”

Why people hate them maybe because of the odor of sulphur and ammonia after Chemical reaction!

However, for Chinese people, or lots of Asian people, Century Eggs are just eggs, a kind of persevered eggs!! It's very common traditional Chinese food ,,, it does tastes very special but delicious!!

  People use it to make 
                    Soup  ..      
                      

                     Porridge...

 
                     Dishes  ..     

                            
                      Custard Tarts...

CNN's report enraged lots of Asian people,especially Chinese people. Actually,,,those people who make really bad common on Century Eggs may barely try those food above,,or they never try it before,,,and they just make common by it's smell and appearance,,,so this is kind of unfair for people who eat Century Eggs every day!!

Just like,,,,,,,
                  Chinese people never understand why other people hate century eggs so much,,,
       and          other people never understand why Chinese people love    it            so much,,,


This is what we call Culture Difference,,we should understand each other!
                    
  

Cute Dry SeA fOOd.......

Last weekend, I went to my aunt’s house, she cooked me Yummy chicken soup!!!!!In the soup,,i found this

                                  The cute little thing in the spoon!!!

like a little Squashed rabbit---

May hard to imagine what it is by first glance~~

Actually, for a lot of Chinese people, when they cook soup, they add some dry sea food in it, so that the soup will be tastier, for example, like dry little oyster , but this one is not oyster ,,


                                it is dRy razor cLam!!

it's original face :

Dry razor clam tastes like little dry oyster, hoWever, it cost much lesser than oyster.so is very popular in cooking!!

Razor clam is high in protein & calcium ,,,it's also used for Chinese medicine~~

i never seen live razor clam in the U.S.. but it's everywhere in southern China,,,
i m so missing the Yummy razor clam dishes in my hometown ,,,,,,

,,I LoVe dilicious FoOd ...

Good Night !!!!!