Seaweed, Tofu & Pork Mince Soup

This seaweed, tofu & pork mince soup is very quick to make. It's simple, tasty and nourishing, suitable for serving all year round.

Seaweed is commonly used in oriental cuisine like Japanese, Korean and Chinese. I often use the seasoned seaweed to add flavours in soup, sometimes cook soups with the unflavoured ones, that normally comes in dried sheet form.

Just soak a sheet of seaweed in water until it softens. After rinsing thoroughly, it’s ready to cook with other ingredients I like.

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Baked Pork Chops with Rice (Classic Chinese Recipe)

This Baked Pork Chops with Rice dish is very popular and well-liked in Hong Kong. The melted cheese covering tasty pan-fried pork chops on a bed of fried rice makes everyone enjoy digging in.

This Baked Pork Chops with Fried Rice (焗豬扒飯) is a classic Cantonese cuisine that I started to eat when I was a little kid.

Even though my lovely daughter has adapted to Western foods, she loves this dish very much. Whenever we go into any Chinese café (茶餐廳 Cha Chaan Teng ), she would definitely order this dish. She’d never miss it at any time.

If you’ve tried this dish before, I think you would share the same feeling that this classic Chinese cuisine is very tempting.

This time I added some fresh mushrooms that most Hong Kong restaurants seldom use because fresh mushrooms are very expensive in Hong Kong. After stir-frying the mushrooms with other vegetables, I cooked the delicious tomato sauce.

The special part of this dish is the fried rice with the baked loin chops and melted cheese on top. When it comes out from the oven, both the flavor and color of the dish are very attractive.

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Hot and Sour Soup (酸辣湯)

No matter the weather is cold or hot, this classic hot and sour soup, originated from Sichuan China, is suitable for every occasion throughout the year. It’s tremendously appetising and delicious. No wonder this soup is well-liked and popular around the world.

Every family has their own version around different countries, using different ingredients though. Basically, this hot and sour soup contains wood ear fungus, bamboo shoots and tofu, sometimes pork blood (豬血) is added. Give it a go if you want, or dare, or you can find some pork blood at your local area.

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Satay Beef with Vermicelli Noodles

Satay beef with vermicelli noodles are traditionally cooked in an earthen pot (clay pot), a very popular dish on many Chinese restaurants' menu.

This dish can be made in an earthen pot (clay pot), or any kind of deep pots, very simple and easy to make. The vermicelli noodles took up and absorbed all the flavours of the delicious satay sauce, beef and vegetables.

I’m particularly fond of consuming the noodles and don’t need any rice at all, yet it’s a dish perfectly going with a bowl of steamed rice. Making this dish is very flexible. You can add as many vegetables as you like.

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Pandan Dumplings (Tangyuan)

Tangyuan (dumplings 湯圓) traditionally served on the day of Chinese Winter Solstice Festival (冬至), that fell on 22nd December this year. They are mainly made from glutinous rice flour, with different kinds of fillings or without any at all, boiled in syrup.

Chinese families in southern areas will eat tangyuan on Chinese New Year’s Eve too. My mum used to cook us some at midnight on that day, with a symbolic meaning of bringing harmony in the family.

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Braised Vegetables with Red Fermented Beancurd (南乳炆齋)

This is a must-eat dish during Chinese New Year. Needless to say, I grew up with this Braised Vegetables with Red Fermented Beancurd dish. The red fermented beancurd is the soul ingredient to make all vegetables sing.

During Chinese New Year, we’d have plenty of delicious snacks, desserts and great meals, including lots of meat, like chicken, pork, duck and fish - you name it, you have it.

On the first day of Chinese New Year, my mother used to follow the Chinese tradition and prepare a vegetarian dish. It’s cooked in a large amount and kept in a large pot. Whenever a lunch or dinner is set on our table during Chinese New Year, this vegetarian dish would be served as a side dish as well.

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Baked Red Bean Coconut Cake (Chinese New Year)

The texture of this red bean coconut cake is a bit chewy, yet soft and smooth enough for easily digesting. The taste is so delicious. I especially love the crispy edges. This coconut cake is best served warm or hot out of the oven. 

During the busy Chinese New Year’s celebration week, we have lots of different cakes (gao 糕). Yes, we can’t celebrate without all the traditional cakes, radish cake, taro cake (aka yum cake), sticky rice cake and water chestnut cake.

Except for all these must-have cakes, I pretty like this baked coconut cake.

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Chinese New Year Cake (Sticky Rice Cake 年糕)

Chinese New Year is a time of enjoying many delicious foods and snacks. One of popular desserts eaten during this festive season is Chinese New Year’s cake (nian gao 年糕), that made with sticky, glutinous rice flour (mochi flour) with brown sugar because it’s symbolic of growing taller, achieving higher every year, that signifies a prosperous year awaiting ahead.

2025 is the year of snake (Chinese zodiac)

It’s often served warm as it is. However, in Hong Kong, people like to have the steamed sticky rice cake, sliced and then pan-fried with egg. If it's pan-fried without egg, the texture would be slightly crispy outside and still pasty inside. When some relatives or friends come to visit them (bai nian拜年), they’d serve the sticky cake warm, with some other snacks, like turnip cake and taro cake.

Update: If you have an electric pressure cooker, Instant Pot, you might like to take a look at this radish recipe with video tutorial.

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Steamed Tofu with Minced Prawn (蝦膠蒸釀豆腐)

Tofu is one of my favourite ingredients in Chinese cooking. Although it’s cheap and common, it could be served in an elegant way to impress my family and friends, just by adding a bit of prawn/shrimp meat paste.

Every time I have this dish, I love taking a close look at the springy prawn ball sitting on top of the silky smooth tofu before taking a big bite. It’s an incredible feeling that you can feel all the flavours bursting out in your mouth at the moment you bite them.

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Golden Pomfret in Spicy Tomato Sauce

The pan-fried golden pomfret is so meaty, going so well with the delicious spicy tomato sauce, with a touch of sweet and tangy taste. This dish is very appetizing and comforting. It can be served with a bowl of steamed rice.

I’ve tried to cook golden pomfret with Sriracha sauce and tomato sauce several times. My family loved this dish very much.

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Turnip Cake/Radish Cake (Chinese New Year)

Turnip Cake (aka radish cake) is a must-eat snack during Chinese New Year traditionally. You also easily find it at many dim sum restaurants through out the year though.

Normally we don’t have any holidays during Chinese New Year season in Australia. As for this year, Chinese New Year coincidentally falls on the same day as Australia Day – 26 January. Fantastic ! We’ll get one day off for celebration. In the meantime, I start to make some Chinese cakes for this special season. The first one is my most favorite, Turnip Cake (aka radish cake).

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Cashew Chicken Stir-Fry (Video)

Ever tried adding some crunchy cashews in your stir-fried dishes? I grew up with this traditional stir-fried dish, cashew chicken stir-fry. It’s good for a daily meal or even family gatherings. 

Cashews will add an interesting texture and make a contrast of the tender chicken meat. You can use any vegetables for the stir-fry instead of using celery. It’s very easy to make and flexible for you to add any vegetables you like.

In traditional Chinese cooking, cashews are often deep-fried in oil in order to make them crunchy. If you have an oven, simply bake them in an oven. Or pan-fry them in a pan without any oil. The result will be equally crunchy, and you can consume less oil.

As for chicken meat, I like using chicken thigh as the texture is good for stir-frying and the price is cheaper. You can use chicken breast if you want. It won't make any difference in taste.

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Braised Chicken with Radish

The sweetness of both radish and carrot makes the meat taste even better. If you like packing lunch for work or school, this dish is a great choice.

Radish is in season here. Price is crazily good, under 1 dollar per kilogram. They are beautiful, sweet and juicy, not like those taste bitter and with woody hearts.

In Chinese cooking, we often like to balance radish with carrot as radish brings cooling effect on our body in Chinese medicine's perspective.

I like the white and red colour combination too. The sweetness of both radish and carrot makes the meat taste even better. If you like packing lunch for work or school, this dish is a great choice.

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Red Bean and Coconut Milk Soup (Pressure Cooker Recipe)

No soaking required, dried red beans can be turned into tender enough with “sandy” consistency just around an hour. Are you intrigued to try? If you are like me, here's a quick recipe for making red bean dessert with a pressure cooker. If you still want to make red bean dessert over stove top, please see the notes below the recipe.

Whenever I make our traditional Chinese red bean soup, I need to soak the beans for at least 3 hours or overnight before cooking about one to two hours, depending on how I like the consistency. I’m a big fan of all kinds of red bean desserts but couldn’t make any if without any planning ahead.

So I searched the internet high and low and tried to see if there’s a kitchen gadget that could help me out.

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Chinese Dumpling Soup (上湯水餃)

The dumplings in soup (上湯水餃) are really flavoursome as you'll have more ingredients and more texture in the fillings if you enjoy it in a traditional Hong Kong noodle restaurant.

Every time I went into a noodle shop in Hong Kong, I’d definitely order either wonton or dumpling noodle soup. Are there any big differences between these two noodle soups? The fillings of both are mainly pork mince and prawns. But for dumplings in soup (上湯水餃), there are some extras, wood ears, mushrooms and bamboo shoots. More ingredients mean more delicious.

Wood ear has a crisp texture. So you can imagine how balanced the texture of each dumpling you’d enjoy of every bite. When it comes to making your own dumplings in soup, you can skip anything except the wood ears. I just feel wood ear is the signature ingredient that makes these dumplings so special.

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Cake Wrapped in Paper (Hong Kong Cupcakes)

Cakes baked in paper are very popular in Hong Kong. You can easily get them from many bakery shops there. Armed with this recipe, you can bake some for yourself or your family at home.

If you have a chance to travel to Hong Kong, I recommend you to have a go for it. You won’t be disappointed except you buy the not-the-good ones. I guess you can’t find them anywhere else except in Hong Kong.

I used to go to an old café with my father to have afternoon tea when I was a little kid. The café was very cozy and would sell freshly baked cakes and breads around 3 to 4pm.

Although the café was not big, their cakes baked in paper (纸包蛋糕) was very popular that attracted many customers. A long queue would line up in front of the entrance of the café.

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Beef Brisket in Clear Broth (清湯牛腩)

This beef brisket in clear broth dish goes perfectly with vermicelli or egg noodles. Just add a few bunches of Chinese bok choy and cook in the soup. Then you and your family can enjoy a tasty light meal.

I had luck to spot this lean beef brisket from a nearby Asian butcher. Why not got some back home and cooked up for hubby as he’s a big fan of beef brisket?

Every time I cooked beef brisket, I’d make the traditional flavoursome stewed beef brisket in Chu Hou sauce, a fool proofed dish for anyone who wants to try Hong Kong cuisine.

This time I tried another classic beef brisket soup dish that I grew up with and it’s still popular in Hong Kong. The cooking method for both mentioned dishes is similar. As for making this beef brisket soup dish, the key to success is preparing a delicious clear soup base, not a cloudy one.

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Twice Cooked Pork (Cheater’s Version)

This Twice Cooked Pork, along with Mapo Dofu (麻婆豆腐) and Kung Pao chicken (官保雞丁) is one of my favourite Sichuan-style Chinese dishes. The English name of this dish is well translated from its original Chinese name (回鍋肉 Hui Guo Rou ), that literally means "meat that has been returned to the pot".

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Imitation Shark Fin Soup

Imitation shark fin soup is a very popular snack sold by street hawkers in Hong Kong. Why? Now you can make this delicious street food at home.

In Chinese wedding banquet, guests can enjoy 8 to 10 expensive dishes. It would definitely include a shark fin soup. Not only does this soup take a long time to cook, but also is shark fin tremendously expensive. That’s why this soup won’t be on a family’s daily menu.

Yet many Chinese like this soup very much.

According to Wikipedia in Chinese, many hawkers started selling this soup on street many years ago. Initially they sold genuine shark fin soup in early days as they could buy broken parts of shark fins from restaurants. Then they cooked shark fins with dried black fungus, egg and water chestnut flour. It’s widely accepted by Hong Kong people. The soup was sold in little bowls.

So it’s called 碗仔翅 in Chinese Cantonese (literally translated into English that is “Shark Fin Soup in Little Bowls”).

Nowadays, the hawkers use cellophane noodles instead of genuine shark fin simply because no restaurants would do so anymore as the price of shark fins has been growing up.

Thus, Imitation Shark Fin Soup has come into place. People still love this imitated version, as it tastes delicious, not expensive and easy to prepare.

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Scallion Pancakes

Scallion pancake (aka green onion pancake) is a classic Chinese snack, traditionally pair with a cup of soy milk. It's soft, tender inside and crispy outside. It'll make you want more for sure.

What’s your favourite for lunch?

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