I did not come from a family of four children but five – Golden Bowl being my parent’s fifth child. Today Golden Bowl turns 30! Happy Birthday.

Below is Kimberly’s This I Believe essay:
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Please welcome guest blogger Sonia, my oldest sister and Restaurant Baby #1, who challenge you to eat down your house. ~Madeline

Eat Down the House

It is officially springtime (ignore the freezing rain storm that’s expected this evening). Springtime means a lot of things here in Michigan. Besides hopes of warmth and sunshine, it also means spring-cleaning and tax time. Eeks! In preparation to do my taxes, I was looking at my finances and realized that my savings account was smaller than expected. In a manic fury, I started researching how to save more money. “Use your local library.” Check. “Switch to CFB light bulbs.” Check. “Eat out less.” Hmm, that one’s a toughy. Then I recalled something I once read in the food blogs, an “Eat Down the Fridge” challenge.
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Some people have an eye for cars, others collect movies and music. My mother collects jars – the wide mouth glass variety – to be exact. She has bought relish, because it came in a good jar.

My mother has found many uses for jars – like brewing tea. To brew quality tea, one must not over-seep the leaves, which brings out unwanted bitter flavor and added acidity. Every morning she would brew tea for the household, and pour the teapot out into half a dozen different jars.
Ingredients for chrysanthemum licorice tea

In her tea making creativity, she created an herbal chrysanthemum (mums) licorice blend. Mums are commonly brewed with puerh, and sometimes with sugar. Rarely is it brewed alone because of the bitter flavor. She paired mums with natural sweeteners like licorice root, jujube, and longan (dragon eye fruit). This tea looks beautiful in a glass jar. It never fails to start a conversation about herbal ingredients and health.
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The first time I had green tea ice cream was the first time I had green-tea-flavored anything, and I loved it! Subtle in sweetness, and a natural eye-pleaser with its color, I would order it for dessert every time I went out for Japanese. Then, I later came across green tea macaroons at Cha-an; and that’s when it actually occurred to me–you can green tea-ify anything! The secret is getting your hands on matcha green tea powder.  I get it from my local Asian grocery store. It’s now a staple ingredient in my house.  You can add it to cake batter, bread dough, cookie dough, and even eggs and ham! Experiment with it.
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A week before arriving in Michigan for Christmas my oldest sister, Sonia, emailed me with the Hawaiian Oxtail Soup blog post from Elise on Simply Recipes, with a note, “Let’s make this while you’re home!” I enthusiastically agreed, as I had independently booked marked that exact post. Before my pickup at the airport, she had already stopped by the market to grab the fattiest package of oxtail she can lay hands on.

We used dried citrus peel as oppose to fresh, as it’s readily available in our household and commonly used for soups. In Cantonese soups, a handful of nuts, beans, as well as a fruit element (goji berry and dates, fresh fruit, or dried citrus peel) are often added for nutritional value and flavor. These ingredients are not the foreground of the soup, but an element of the broth.
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I am actually not the restaurant baby – I am the second of four daughters (Sonia, Madeline, Allison, and Kimberly). You may have noticed a few guest posts from my youngest sister Kimberly. Kimberly has been the brain child behind Restaurant Baby and my biggest fan. With enthusiasm, please welcome Kimberly on board the Restaurant Baby team!

Check out the new “About” section with our fancy bios:
Writing a bio can be difficult. Here are some great tips from my friend Ariane Hunter

This week Kimberly hopped on a jet plane bounded for Shanghai. She will be in Shanghai for 6 full months of language and culture immersion. Though a world apart, she will be bringing you recipes from the kitchen of family and friends in Shanghai, and I in the Chinese America of New York and Michigan.

The four restaurant babies with our grandma. From left to right: Madeline, Allison, Kimberly, and Sonia.

Squash soups are often made savory, but why not sweet? Over Chinese New Year weekend I had tea with good friends at the Guangzhou Restaurant, where we tried a pumpkin corn porridge. It was delicious and simple enough to recreate at home. The porridge is flexible – it can be an indulgent dessert with a heavy hand in coconut milk and sugar, or daily breakfast porridge.

The recreation made with Japanese Kobocha pumpkin.

When planning a dinner with a savory squash dish, consider making this unique soup for dessert – it’s a great way to use an ingredient two ways.

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Please welcome guest blogger Kimberly, my youngest sister and fellow restaurant baby, who shares with our mother’s lo han jai recipe. ~Madeline

Happy Chinese New Year! Traditionally, the first meal of the new year is vegetarian to counteract the excessive feasting from the night before and to cleanse the body. Growing up, my mom would prepare lo han jai on new year’s eve, and each member of the family will have it for breakfast the following day. While there are so many rich and succulent foods served during the new year, this dish–subtle in its flavors, but bursting with textures–is one of my favorites. If you are not too familiar with Chinese foods, some ingredients here may appear foreign, but they should be available at your nearest Chinese grocery store.

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