We are indeed much more than what we eat; but what we eat can nevertheless help us be much more than what we are. — Adele Davis

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Tasting Notes & Recipes
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The lemon, as Neruda explicitly states, is “a yellow goblet of miracles” (exact wording depends on the translation as his poetry has been translated from Spanish to languages around the world). Lemons really deserve much praise in the food world, though. They bring brightness and flavor to so many dishes around the world. So here, my friends, is a salute to a wonderful yellow fruit. Read on, and you shall taste a lemon!

Ode to the Lemon

by Pablo Neruda

From blossoms
released
by the moonlight,
from an
aroma of exasperated
love,
steeped in fragrance,
yellowness
drifted from the lemon tree,
and from its planetarium
lemons descended to the earth.

Tender yield!
The coasts,
the markets glowed
with light, with
unrefined gold;
we opened
two halves
of a miracle,
congealed acid
trickled
from the hemispheres
of a star,
the most intense liqueur
of nature,
unique, vivid,
concentrated,
born of the cool, fresh
lemon,
of its fragrant house,
its acid, secret symmetry.

Knives
sliced a small
cathedral
in the lemon,
the concealed apse, opened,
revealed acid stained glass,
drops
oozed topaz,
altars,
cool architecture.

So, when you hold
the hemisphere
of a cut lemon
above your plate,
you spill
a universe of gold,
a
yellow goblet
of miracles,
a fragrant nipple
of the earth’s breast,
a ray of light that was made fruit,
the diminutive fire of a planet.

Similar to Latin American tamales, I grew up eating the Chinese variation of this family classic, also known as zhong (in Cantonese), or zhongzi (in Mandarin). The term zhong literally means rice dumpling. Tamales and zhong share similar characteristics in that both are wrapped in various types of leaves and take many hours, if not more, to make. I can also safely say that both are typically eaten for special occasions. Notice that I said typically – I have the luxury of enjoying them all year-round because of my awesome relatives who make them for me.

The history behind zhong came about to honor Qu Yuan, a famous Chinese poet who ended his life in a river due to political events. According to popular legend, villagers paid respect to Qu by throwing packets of rice into the river so that fish and other creatures would not consume his body. Zhong now remains as a traditional Chinese food that is enjoyed among families during the Dragon Boat Festival on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month (sometimes around June of of the Gregorian calendar). For me, I suppose I honor Qu at all times of the year

So what exactly is inside a tetrahedral-shaped, bamboo leaf wrapped zhong? There are many varieties, but I have grown up eating zhong with a combination (sometimes all at once if I’m lucky) of the following:

• Glutinous white rice
• Roasted and/or marinated pork
• Shitake mushroom
• Preserved salted egg yolk
• Peanuts
• Mung beans
• Green split peas
• Chinese sausage
• Chestnuts
• Dried shrimp

Yes, this is quite a weird hodgepodge of ingredients that a normal person would probably not put together voluntarily. When used independently, I would say these are pretty typical ingredients in southern Chinese cuisine. Where and when my relatives grew up, not many people could afford these ingredients (or they just weren’t available), so these were considered gourmet in a villager’s perspective. However, the gourmet part of it is still true; many store-bought versions have a fraction of the above ingredients, and some might only have a piece of meat inside. I consider them a wealth of goodies because they all contribute to a rich and flavorful food that truly satisfies your hunger. The bamboo leaves give the zhong an incredibly scrumptious earthy flavor that captures the essence of the leaves. The glutinous rice also brings it all together in a sticky, gooey fashion.

The zhong making process is pretty onerous, and I applaud my relatives for putting so much effort into making them for me. You may also be asking, what could be so complicated about wrapping rice and other goods in some leaves? The main ingredients that hold it together actually require the most work, which are the bamboo leaves and rice. Both ingredients require overnight soaking, and on top of that, the bamboo leaves also need to be washed and scrubbed, one by one. When purchased, the leaves come dry and brittle, so they need some attentive care. The filling ingredients are not as complicated, but the process of gathering and preparing them for zhong-making takes time. The pork typically needs to be marinated, the salted egg yolks (usually duck eggs) need to be separated from the whites, the shitake mushrooms need soaking to revive them from the dried form, and so forth. The rice is flavored with salt and sometimes a pinch of five spice powder.

Once all the ingredients are ready to go, they need to come together somehow. To me, the hardest part is packaging a zhong together to look like a tetrahedral cylinder shape as perfectly shown in the above pictures. I have tried it before alongside with my great aunt, and mine looked awful compared to her perfect ones in which she completes at 10 times the speed of me. And finally, after the wrapping part is finished, the zhong need to be cooked by being simmered in a large stockpot for several hours.

The cooked zhong can then be eaten immediately or cooled for freezer storage. As a busy traveling person, the freezer option works best for me. My freezer is stocked full of zhong, ready to eat whenever I feel like it. I simply microwave one in a bowl, submerged in water, for 5-6 minutes. It’s fabulous. Mine get shipped in my 21″ carry-on luggage bag when I travel from CA to IL – I always wonder if the TSA personnel ever think they are grenades or something from the X-ray machine.

It’s always fun to untie the kitchen twine that holds the zhong together and slowly unravel the leaves, getting one step closer to the yummy goodies inside. I think this process is somehow quicker when one is hungry, too:

I have to be careful because it’s extremely hot, and the steam can be painful. Once unwrapped, the specimen looks like such:

Now it is time to dissect and demystify a zhong, gently splitting it right down the middle (no scalpel needed here; chopsticks work fine):

See, that’s all there is to it! It’s not that foreign anymore, right?

And just as savory French crepes have a sweet counterpart, there is a sweet version of zhong, too (called gan sui zhong in Cantonese, or jianshui zhongzi in Mandarin). I may feature that varietal in a future post. Until next time, readers!

I started to write about food outside of work for genuine gratification and recreation. It has been about two months since my first introductory post, and I am very pleased to have a handful of readers! Comments and feedback have been very exciting to read, and I truly appreciate every single one of them because it turns into motivation to continue coming up with unique topics and recipes related to food.

This leads to my sincere thanks to Aggie from Aggie’s Kitchen who passed on my very first blog award for Let’s Chow!:

Exciting stuff. Grazie mille, Aggie! To reciprocate the generosity, I too will pass on this award to some cool food bloggers I have been following, using these six simple rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on the blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when their entry is up.

As per number 3, here are some Selina factoids:

• I am a huge gymnastics fanatic, and I have been following the sport since I was a child. I had the chance to compete in high school gymnastics and also teach children for a couple years. When it comes to Nationals, Worlds, Olympic Trials, and the Olympic Games, I am glued to the TV. I used to tape record competitions beginning with 1992 through 2004 (yes, VHS) and watch them repeatedly. Now a days, DVDs can be purchased and clips can be watched on YouTube and NBColympics.com!
• One of my phobias is to be followed or when people walk behind me (dragging shoes, floppy flip flops, and the like).
• I have a love-hate relationship with onions. I love them in most soups, stews, salsa, and sauces, but I truly hate eating them raw in sandwiches, or in anything with large chunks of onion.
• I am obsessive compulsive about recycling and reducing waste and energy usage.
• I prefer snowboarding to skiing, hands down.
• I can eat oatmeal every day of the week and not get tired of it.

Now it’s my turn to tag!

• Amy at Delicious By Nature
• Bridgett at La Bella Cook
• Authors at Tasty Meals At Home
• Norman at Green Avocado
• Alex at Just Cook It!
• Jescel at Spice of Life

Cheers,
Selina

Everyone seems to have their morning beverage preference. What’s yours?

For me, I like them all but lately I have been resorting to coffee. It is certainly not an addiction, but simply for pure enjoyment. On top of the beverage, it is essential that I eat breakfast because it really is the most important (and sometimes best) meal of the day. Breakfast definitely takes precedence over caffeine; a morning without breakfast would be very unpleasant

Note: For RSS/Facebook viewers, you will have to visit the actual site to vote on the poll.

Readers, please cast your vote for fun!

We have all seen this image that refers to the mantra “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.” It’s not quite ground shattering, CNN-worthy news. The fundamental principle to this mantra is to follow it in the order that it reads. The real solution is to reduce consumption. Since that is not always feasible due to the growing world population, the next best solution is to reuse what we have. And lastly, there is recycling, which still uses a significant amount of energy in the process, but is still better than throwing it all into landfills, emitting methane for example, and leaving goods that only decompose after a million years (e.g., plastics, Styrofoam).

It is very difficult to draw the line, especially when you want to experience and learn about other cultures’ foods and ways of living. I will likely come back to this topic later on because I think it deserves some further analysis. While we can’t entirely eliminate our worldly food desires, there are some ways that I personally follow to alleviate some CO₂ in the atmosphere:

1. Paper or plastic? Neither: Use reusable shopping bags. I don’t believe this is a fad because the reality of the plastic bag consumption is atrocious. Plastic bags end up in oceans, coastlines, and landfills. From an environmental slide show, if “1 out of 5 people in our country used a reusable bag we would save 1,350,560,000,000 bags over our life time.” That outrageous number with far too many zeros translates to over one trillion. I admire cities like San Francisco and other countries who have taken the step to either ban or charge a premium to use plastic bags. On a side note, I have gotten strange looks from store cashiers because I refused their plastic/paper bags, as if I were some alien. It’s really okay to take the road less traveled. You can take that opportunity to let them know what you are doing to help the environment, or just be an unspoken role model.
2. Recycle food packaging: My Chicago condo building and my client work location do not have recycling facilities, but I will bring my recycled goods to a facility that recycles, like the local recycling drop-off center or the airport. Yes, I bring my bottles and cans to the airport when I travel for work because there is an area right before the security checkpoint with bins. There are a ton of things you can recycle, from paper/cardboard packaging, to plastic bottles #1-5 and #7 (generally), aluminum cans, glass containers, and plastic bag wrappings, etc. If you can, take the extra minute to examine the packaging to determine if it’s recyclable or not. If you aren’t sure, consult me or even Earth 911.
3. Buy in bulk: Along with following #2, buying larger sized items reduces the packaging involved. For example, buying one 20 ounce container of ketchup takes less material than buying two 10 ounce containers. Also, I have started to buy goods from the bulk bins. This includes spices from my local spice shop (e.g., Coffee and Tea Exchange), and also bulk goods such as rice, flour, oats, nuts, and many other things available at Whole Foods or other stores. It is far less expensive, and you can also choose the exact quantity you need. When you buy something in a jar or box, part of the cost comes from packaging and advertising.
4. Buy locally grown foods: Supporting local foods means supporting the nearby farms that grow produce and other goods, also known as CSA, Community Supported Agriculture. The easiest way to do this is to shop at your local farmers’ markets…with your reusable shopping bag, of course
5. Eat less meat: I grew up eating meat as a main source of protein and pure enjoyment and habit. However, the consequences of consuming meat in large quantities does have a toll on the environment, despite my love for medium-rare filet mignon and prime rib. The harsh reality to eating meat is that it takes an enormous amount of energy and resources to raise animals for human consumption. See Mark Bittman’s article, Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler, for an eye-opener.

There are certainly more ways to be environmentally conscious when cooking, eating, and shopping beyond the five listed above. I felt most compelled to list the ones that I currently practice daily, or whenever possible. Please feel free to share your ideas!

Without further ado, I welcome you to my new food blog! At the same time, I am introducing myself to my readers. I have several future blog topics in mind already, so please visit again soon. Since I’m traveling on the road for work now, most of my recipe-related posts will have to be done on the weekends when I can access my materials such as kitchen utensils, pantry items, camera, etc. The weekdays will be reserved for other types of posts. Until next time!