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The requisite Chinese meal for the evening was shiao long bao. My parents taught me how to make them (very similar to potstickers, but the dough is different). They were excellent and I got to use my bamboo steamer and new electric wok (the wok was purchased mainly for hot pot, but it works for the steamer too). [Did I mention that McGuckin is having a HUGE sale? I love that place.]

how to wrap the shiao long bao

steamin’ and ready to eat

For dinner I made gi pien guo ba tang (chicken sizzling rice soup) and chinese stir fried rice. Now, I want to point out that I don’t like the typical stir fried rice that has ham, celery, peas (peas! the horror), and other crap that white people like in their fried rice. My chinese stir fried rice is good stuff. I dice lean pork loin and mix it with cornstarch, soy sauce, and sesame oil. I sauté diced onion (for the love of god, don’t use sweet onion), scramble some eggs, and julienne chinese preserved mustard green. [Note: Chinese preserved mustard green is like this magical salty, crunchy ingredient that makes a number of authentic chinese dishes – only in asian grocery stores]. Steam short grained white rice and stir fry these babies together:

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Like a good Chinese granddaughter and Chinese granddaughter’s husband, we set out at 4 am today to drive up and see Grandma for the weekend. Travel was fast, but there was still considerable traffic for such early hours. Californians are on the move now that school is out. Speaking of school being out… I stopped by Caltech graduation on Friday to hear Sandra Tsing Loh give the commencement address. I ran into Jack (my old house president) and the deja vu feeling was a little weird being back at my undergrad stomping grounds with a Caltech bud.

For some reason Friday was a crazy busy day.

city hall

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