A taste of Jiang Xi

Gosh~~~ such a cold day today. Tomorrow is going to be even colder. -_-"""

Xin's parent is in U.S. now to have their 2-month vacation (Ehhem! Should be cooking for Xin for these 2 months. :P)

Last week Friday, Xin invited us to her house for a dinner cooked by her mom. *lucky*




When we reached, her mom was still busy cooking with her 12th dish!! Gosh~~~ we were shocked with the whole table of foods.




A signature Chinese dish. Whole fish cooking in different methods. This version, she was using soy sauce and fresh chili. Very nice. Reminded of my mom's cooking.




She cooked 2 versions of chicken. One was this chicken that was marinated with 5 spices before cooking so that the spices flavour penetrated the chicken nicely.




The next one was a soysauce chicken cooked with rehydrated dry squid. The umami of the squid brought out the umami of the chicken.




We have sliced Chinese sausage. I have been missing this stuff. Make a fried rice with these sausage, it is going to taste so good.




Drief tofu stir fried with Chinese chive. This dish was simple yet nice. The kind of home cook that will make me want to use my chopsticks before a proper meal. :P




I like this one. It was actually a dried bamboo shoots that brought all the way from Jiang Xi cooked with chicken. The texture of the bamboo shoots were unique, giving me a pleasure moment of chewing them. Ate quite a lot of this one.




This was a pride dish by Xin's father. The 5 spices beef. It was Neal's favorite too. Need a good experience in cooking this dish with good flavour, perfect texture and beautiful outlook. Xin's father sure made it perfect. Great dish!




It is very common for Chinese cuisine to use animal internal organs as a cooking ingredient. This was actually chicken gizzard cooked with spicy green chili. One would be deceived by its "mild" outlook. The fact? It was the most spicy dish of the night. The chili masked the unique smell of the gizzard nicely.




My favorite dish of that evening. I have been missing king trumpet mushroom for a long time. While in Japan, it was a common mushroom I would buy as it was cheap. In U.S., it is considered as expensive for me. Furthermore, the supermarket near my house does not sell this mushroom. Xin's mom simply cooked it with sliced pork with some simple seasoning, but this was exactly the kind of mild and yummy food that I have been craving. Love it!!




A Chinese cooking would not be perfect without this signature dish - stir fry green veggie. ^_^




Anyone of you able to guess what this was by its outlook.

This was actually a gelatine cubes from pig feet. It was cook until the whole pig feets were melted, making the fat separated from the gelatine. Then the gelatine was frozen in the refrigerator. The gelatine turned hard before it was cut into these thick slices.

A very impressive cold dish. It looked so simple, yet it actually involved quite a long time to make this dish. It was very soft and melt in one's mouth easily. I would never be able to guess it was actually gelatine if they didn't tell me.




The pretty mommy was cooking in action! ^_^




She was actually cooking the last dish. This was a special dish from Jiang Xi. The rice noodle was a handmade version from Jiang Xi province only. It released a very unique "rice" aroma that would make you think fermented seasoning was used, it was the aroma of the rice noodle itself. She cooked it with sliced beef and black fungus. Crunchy texture of black fungus with the al dente noodle, definitely was an alluring texture for me.

The special aroma of that rice noodle... it was a unique aroma I have never encountered from other noodles. Strange, but I was getting addicted to it.




This was something great. The Chinese "cheese" - fermented tofu that is called Tofuru in Mandarin. Usually, one could easily get it from an Asian supermarket. However, this was a special one. You could only get it from Xin's grandma. Yap, it was made by Xin's grandma. ;)

Flying all the way from Jiang Xi to N.C. just for her beloved grandchild. I was really happy when I saw this. My favorite to go with a bowl of hot porridge.

That evening, I ate with white rice. One of the best Tofuru that I have tasted. So creamy and flavourful. Spicy and salty. By adding a bit of sesame oil in it, brought out the taste even better. This was like a durian, either you love it, or you hate it.

I love it. Hehe.




Look at all the happy faces. Oh yes, a great meal sure brought many happiness to everyone. ^_^

Just when we thought the foods were "too many choices"...




Xin's mom brought out another bowl of clear tofu and silver fish soup. *slurp* Definitely something great for a fish fish who loves soup so much.

Yap, I am a soupaholic. :P Not so much on the thick soup, more to this kind of clear soup. I can gulp down 3 big bowls of this soup as a meal. My mom never worry she might cook a too big pot of soup as all her three children love soup like crazy. :P I miss her soup!

It fact, Xin's mom reminded me of my mom so much. I really felt a kind of intimacy when talking to her.




Xin is surely one lucky girl. Her mom even cooked a pot of green bean soup as dessert for us! I love this kind of dessert. Simple, mild and nice thing to rinse a heavy meal.




But then , we also had some heavy Western style desserts again. :P

*burp* *burp*~~~~~

I was so full that night.

Thank you so much.
楊妈妈,楊爸爸... 真谢谢你们为我们煮了这么棒的一顿好吃又感動的正宗江西菜肴. ^_^