The Sweet and Sour Squirrel Mandarin Fish is actually a traditional ShangHai dish. It is famous across the Eastern China. The ShangHai cuisine is famous for the sweet and sour flavour. Therefore, sugar is a must seasoning in ShangHai families’ kitchen. This dish is not very popular in other parts of China as most Chinese actually does not like sweet and sour dishes. Spicy dishes seems more popular in China. However, this dish gives a good presentation for festivals and parties; therefore, you can find it at almost all the Chinese restaurants. Also, Chinese people like to have it on the dinner table of the new year eve, because the name of the dish has the meaning of happiness and a good fortune. And fish in Chinese normally stands for a wealthy life in the following years. Therefore, it is normal that Chinese likes to cook this dish during the spring festival.
Poached sliced beef in hot chili oil is a representative dish of poached Sichuan cuisine. The sliced beef tastes tender, smooth, strongly spicy, and oily but not greasy. It is numbing, spicy and of a hot temperature, similar to the Sichuan boiled fish. In this dish, the beef should be as tendon as the chicken meat.
For cooking lovers, the best way to celebrate birthdays is a table of yummy dishes, decorated nicely, and probably have a bit of drinking with best friends and lover. I always prefer to have my birthday party at home rather than go to a fine restaurant. Of course yesterday we had a birthday party, with cuties balloons, beautiful flowers, elegant musics, and for sure, an amazing dinner. 
The tradition of tea in East Asia Countries is pretty much similar with the tradition of coffee in Western Countries. I got a book introducing traditional teas from a local bookshop in South Melbourne. And after read it, I thought it would be meaningful to write some of my own understandings about Chinese tea cultures. I was born in a family which loves drinking teas. My dad has a room storing his tea collections, tea cakes and tea pots. He told me that teas have to be stored in a cool and dry place, so the first thing after he bought our new home last year was to arrange a tea room! It gets air cons all year around, and the temperature in that tea room is kept at 18 degrees 24hours a day, 7 days a week, and 52 weeks a year! My daddy taught me a lot of things about the tradition of Chinese teas, and therefore, I am now more like a tea girl rather than a coffee girl, which is quite different from most young generations! I also have a presentation corner at my Melbourne home, full with teas and tea pots that I brought from China. Friends like to have a peaceful Sunday afternoon, siting at the living room, talking and laughing, and drinking tea. Especially after a indulgent party with lots of yummy foods, meats and cakes, we always like to drink some tea, as the tea can nourishing our stomachs and get rid of most fats from our body.
Szechuan style red oil wonton is made with the unique Sichuan style red oil, vinegar, soy sauce and the sesame oil. I’ve introduced how to make the red oil in one of my previous recipe. Please follow the following link. http://ariels-love-kitchen.com/?p=224
Almost every small street restaurants in Sichuan provide the red oil wonton and red oil dumplings. It is also known as one of the most famous dish in Chengdu, the capital city of the Sichuan province. The wonton soup in the Sichuan cuisine is quite different from that in the Shanghai version or that in the Cantonese version. This dish is extremely featured by its soup broth or more precisely the red oil dressing.
I meant not to introduce this recipe to you because actually it is impossible to get all the correct ingredients outside my hometown. And therefore this recipe is meaningless really. But I thought it would be a great chance to talk something about my hometown. I am not exactly a citizen of Chongqing, I was born and grown in a small town called YiBin, where I spent almost 16 years there with my parents. It belongs to the Sichuan province. and in my memories, it is quiet and peaceful 😉 The YangZi river flows through the town and feeds people there. Even not many Chinese knows the town, but most of them get familiar with the spirit brand called Wu Liang Ye, which is oriented from my hometown. I was born there, in a hot summer day. Mommy had a whole 20kg watermelon the night before she gave birth to me. So she always calls me a watermelon baby haha 😉 And I went to primary school and secondary school there as well, I was quite an excellent student at that time haha…and at the year 2006, I moved to Chongqing because daddy arranged me to a famous collage there called the NanKai high school. And it was at the year 2006, I left my hometown and became a city girl. I back in there every year during the spring festival as people like backing in their origins in Chinese traditions.
And the dish I will introduce to you is one of the most popular dish in my hometown. The sticky rice bun is, of course, made from sticky rice, with a rich filling which is a mixing of pork minces and the YiBin sprout. It is almost impossible to get the authentic YiBin sprout outside the YiBin town, that’s why I said at the first beginning that this recipe is such a hard one to make. However, if you really want have a try, you can always get sprouts from most Asian grocery shops. But those sprouts tastes a little bit different from the YiBin sprout. The YiBin sprout has a bit sweet tastes, mixing with the aroma of sprout minces, while other sprouts don’t get that sweet tastes. So you might get a slightly sour flavour if you use the normal sprouts other than the YiBin sprout. Well, my friends told me that some Asian grocery shops do sell the YiBin sprout minces with small sealed bags. So do ask sellers whether they have the YiBin sprout.
The Steamed Bun in Chinese is named as Man Tou (馒头), which is a basic staple in the northern part of China. But it is also served in almost all places in China, and mostly it is served as a breakfast with congee or soy milk.
In China, there is a famous Chinese documentary television show called “A Bite of China”. At the first episode of the second season of this show, it introduced this special cream which is originated from Tibet. Tibetans make this using the Tibet butter and honey, mixing and boil them together and it becomes a kind of thick cream. It can be used as a cream on toasts, or as a side cream for any desserts, cakes or chips. This thick cream has a combined flavour of honey and cream, it is rich and appetising. And it smells like you are in the spring garden, full with beautiful blossoms, fresh and happy. This is also my favourite cream topping on toasts.
