In the Kitchen

The Chinese New Year is just a few short days away, but being in Italy you cannot even tell. Instead of throwing myself the usual pity party, this year I decided to take matters in my own hand and invite some friends over to celebrate.

They were more than excited to come. Now to plan the menu.

Now I have a very embarrassing confession to make: I don't really know how to cook Chinese food.

How did this happen? Well, back home, mom always did the cooking. Then in California, there was never a need to cook Chinese when anything and everything was available just around the corner.

So I had this one weekend for a quick crash course so our guests don't go hungry. Fried glass noodles, check. Shrimp fried rice, check!

Oh, I should mention that I had to, uh, look up how to cook jasmine rice over the stove. No we don't have a rice cooker and I haven't cooked white rice once in my 2+ years here. I know, embarrassing!

And I made wontons! I was forced to. I tried to find some but there was nothing decent looking at the store in Chinatown. I did pick up the wonton skins from the tiny frozen section.





And it was surprisingly easy with the help of our mini chopper. I did a trial run boiling some up and it was tasty too.





I don't think I'll ever buy them ready-made again.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone