Food 101

What Is Oyster Sauce? (Plus 10 Oyster Sauce Recipes to Try)

hollis — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 01:37:32 +0000

Learn about what goes into making oyster sauce and how to integrate the Asian ingredient into delicious meat, vegetable, and stir-fry dishes

What is oyster sauce?

Oyster sauce is a thick, dark brown condiment made with sugar, salt, water, cornstarch, and oyster extract. Despite its name, oyster sauce isn’t extremely fishy in terms of flavor. Instead, it hits on sweet, salty, and earthy notes.

Table of Condiments: Asian Sauces: Shelf Life

tum — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 19:50:20 +0000

It is pretty obvious when your tomatoes have turned, but how often should you replace your condiments? Asian Supper explores the shelf life of many popular Asian sauces like fish sauce and oyster sauce.

We have all been there... You open your fridge. You grab a bottle of soy sauce and do the sniff test. You flip over the bottle looking for the expiration date and think about the soy sauce’s shelf life. You try to remember how long ago did you buy it and when you last used it.

3 Wine Questions: How do you know if wine has gone bad?

SpinTheBottleNY — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 06:43:59 +0000

Learn more about wine basics and increase your wine knowledge from our expert wine blogger, at SpinTheBottleNY. She answers our readers questions about wine this month.

Learn more about wine basics and increase your wine knowledge from our expert wine blogger, at SpinTheBottleNY. She answers our readers questions about wine this month.

How to Say “Vegetarian” in 10 Asian Languages

hollis — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 19:46:32 +0000

Working or traveling in Asia? Learn how to ask for meatfree meals while eating abroad

You may have no problem ordering your favorite entrée sans meat in America, but step outside the USA and it could be challenging to maintain a vegetarian diet while working or traveling overseas—especially in Asia, where dozens of languages are spoken.

Tanghulu: Chinese Sweets: Haw Candy

tum — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:14:24 +0000

Traditionally, tanghulu has a hardened sugar coating that comes from dipping the haw fruit skewer in sugar. Tanghulu is a traditional winter snack in northern China.

Tanghulu literally translated means Candied Haw on a Stick (bīngtáng húlu 冰糖葫芦). Tanghulu is a traditional winter snack in northern China, especially in Beijing. Traditionally, tanghulu has a hardened sugar coating that comes from dipping the skewer in sugar. There are less common varieties with a chocolate coating or sesame sprinkles. Traditionally, tanghulu uses the Chinese hawthorn fruit (山楂 shānzhā), but other fruit can be used, such as apples, kiwi, strawberries, etc.

Chopsticks Etiquette

tum — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:28:29 +0000

Learn the don’ts of proper chopstick etiquette.

Approximately one-third of the world's population use chopsticks. Chopsticks (筷子, "kuàizi") are thought to be more than 5,000 years old. They originated in China and began to spread to Korea, Japan and Vietnam by 500 A.D. In Asian cuisine and culture, chopstick usage contains a superstitious element. The editors of AsianSupper walk you through the don’ts of chopstick usage.

Soybean Series: Making Yuba, or Tofu Skin

tess — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 14:55:20 +0000

Fun with soybeans, part II. Learn how to take soy milk and make delicate yuba.

In our first soybean series post, we soaked dried soybeans and made soy milk, which is a necessary step in making other soy products, like tofu. In this post, we take the next step, which is take that fresh soy milk and make tofu skin, also called yuba in Japanese or fu pi in Chinese.

Soybean Series: Making Soy Milk

tess — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 18:18:19 +0000

A cup of soybeans can turn into soy milk, beancurd skin, soybean puree, tofu and so much more. We kick off part 1 of our soybean series with the basics: making soy milk.

Ah, the wonders of soybeans!

We will be the first to admit that we're a little late to the "let's make soy products at home" party. It's only after we realized how much we were spending on soy milk that we decided to try to make it for ourselves.

What Do I Do With: Pork Sung (Rousong)

tess — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 02:45:26 +0000

Who knew meat floss could be so versatile?

I've always been curious about ròusōng. I'd seen it on the top of buns at Chinese bakeries, occupying a wide swath of an aisle over at my local Chinese grocery store, and most intriguingly -- constantly stocked in a friend's cupboard.

After wondering for a while, I finally asked what it's used for -- and the answer I got was: pretty much everything. A cross between a snack, condiment and all-purpose flavoring, ròusōng, also called pork floss or meat floss, is a great topping for rice, bread, congee, tofu and, as I learned from Wikipeda, soy milk!

Burmese Food Basics with Tin Cho Chaw

tess — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 22:20:37 +0000

New to Burmese cuisine? You're missing out, big time. Click on to learn the basics - and find out how to win a Burmese cookbook!

Burmese food has been one of our favorites ever since we were exposed to it while living in San Francisco, land of relatively plentiful Burmese restaurants, including Bay Area darling Burma Superstar. To me, the flavors of Burmese food are a perfect marriage of the smoky flavors of Indian food, the breadth and style of Chinese food, and the freshness and zing you find in Southeast Asian cuisine, like Vietnamese and Thai. Yet it still remains very distinct, with classic Burmese soups like Mohinga and Oh Noh Kauswer a perfect example.

The King of All Fruits: Bizarre Facts about Durian

tum — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 05:01:05 +0000

Never has there been a fruit that polarizes like durian. Here are four little known facts about the fruit that we love to hate or hate to love.

Never has there been a fruit that polarizes like durian; a light green, spiny, melon-like fruit from southeast Asia tastes delicate, creamy, and bittersweet. Here are four little known facts about the fruit that we love to hate or hate to love.