Chinese New Year is fast approaching and rest assured we will have several upcoming posts for the holiday. Since we are living in the States, this is largely a holiday celebrated with lots of food and not much else. This year in Kitchenland we will be sharing gift ideas, food adventures, kid fun, and cultural traditions with you.
To get the ball rolling, I wanted to invite all of you to participate in our Chinese New Year Blogtivity – Dim Sum Of All Fears. Not the most brilliant of titles I know but let me explain. I love to cook Chinese food of all kinds but I feel there is definitely room for improvement. There are things that I need to fine tune and there are other things that are flat out intimidating to me. I LOVE dim sum and if you’ve been to a dim sum eatery (versus one that merely serves dim sum on the side) you will know what I mean when I say that it is overwhelmingly awesome! They are both delicious and most often very beautifully presented and while I’ve made a couple types of dim sum, I’ve been too scared to really dive in and try making all of my favorites.
THE GIVEAWAY AND CHALLENGE
Let's conquer our fears together! For this challenge, we will be offering one (1) lucky winner an adorable pair of girl and boy chopstick trainers from Chopstick Kids. Really, they may seem like a kid item but I bet you know at least one adult that could benefit from these! To enter the drawing it really is too simple:
- Leave one (1) comment below and tell me what food(s) you fear to make and why. Can be any type of food.
- You must live in New Zealand, Hong Kong, or the US to qualify :)
- Entry deadline is midnight February 9th.
That’s it! For a bonus entry you may do the following:
- Make the food you fear to make.
- Blog about it, or for non-bloggers email me (thekitchenpost{at}gmail{dot}com) between Jan 26th and Feb 9th. Include pictures and recipe if you can!
The winner will be chosen in a random drawing by judge Aedan and announced on February 10th. Best of luck and good fortune to all of you this new year!
Jackie,
ReplyDeleteI love your blog. So, so cute. And this giveaway is Awesome. i served my mission in Hong Kong and so am a diehard Chinese food (real, authentic Chinese food) fan. My husband and I recently found a really good Char Siu Baau recipe and actually made it. I wish I had taken pictures. They tasted so wonderful and though I was completely intimidated to make them, they really weren't that hard. Bil and I were talking about diong something to celebrate the New Year--maybe we will have to make a dim sum spread. I love dim sum. I also have a great shrimp dumpling recipe. OK, I will make some of these thinsg and put them on my blog...
Jackie,
ReplyDeleteSeems my friend already commented! The person I thought mostly about was her when I read this entry...she LOVES to cook and served her mission in Hong Kong. She would do it anyday. Me, on the other hand, I don't get intimidated to cook because it isn't hard making hamburgers and fries, or fried chicken and mashed potatoes...why try something I don't know if I will like? hehehe
Just joking...but....we'll see about trying any new and intimidating recipes out on my boring, hate all cool food husband and oldest son -- who inevitable rub off too quickly on my 3 young eat-everything type kids.
Love the blog....
Dear Jackie, Those chopsticks are SO CUTE & you're right I'm one of those clutzy adults that could benefit from using them!!! Your cooking skills are AMAZING!!! I would be intimidated to make almost anything you make!!! I just make simple basics (My Mother-in-law told my family that they broke my will to cook by being picky). I do like to cook & LOVE to look at recipes. Maybe someday I'll get more into cooking again!! Enjoy reading your blog...hope all is well!!!
ReplyDeleteLove, Debbie
If you need a taste-tester, I'm in.
ReplyDeleteOn an unrelated note, the place where you can get 5 cents back when you use your own bag is County Market.
--dave
I have an irrational fear of making steamed cakes...which I have GOT to get over since there are so many yummy Japanese recipes out there for steamed cakes... I don't know what it is, maybe worrying that I won't seal up the containers tight enough and all of my hard work will be for naught when water gets in or something? Pathetic, I know!
ReplyDeleteLooks to me like other than Fuji Mama, no one is afraid of cooking. They are merely intimidated or want to be your taste tester. But I want those chopsticks so I am going to admit that I have a fear of making anything with chocolate because I don't have a real sensitive taste for chocolate but my wife does, so I am afraid I won't get it right. There are only two of us in the running right because "intimidated" doesn't count, right?
ReplyDeleteZach, your the lawyer so maybe I should take your advice. Although would intimidation be considered a sort of sub-category of fear? ;)
ReplyDeleteI'm really not afraid of cooking anything... when I really think about it. It's eating it that I'm afraid of at times. But even then, I think comparatively I'm a pretty brave person. I did however, go outside my comfort zone and made Ratatouille last night. I will blog about it soon because... well, one of my fears was realized :) I don't like eggplant, it looks scary, feels scary and frankly... tastes scary :)
ReplyDeleteStay tuned.
I love to cook and as I thought about your challenge, I realized that I fear cooking a lot of things. Anything that uses a weird ingredient, takes way too much time to make, or makes too big of a mess! So that rules out a lot of things. I would like to challenge myself to make more things that I have never tried before. One dessert that I have always wanted to try, but never have is a Baked Alaska. So, maybe I will give it a try in the next week or so.
ReplyDeleteI have thought carefully about this, but it wasn't until I was in the grocery store this morning with Hannah and I saw some absolutely beautiful purple and white striped eggplant that I realized what I fear cooking. I love the idea of eggplant, the color, the smooth texture, but the few times I have attempted to cook with it, I have been grotesquely disappointed. I wish the sight of those beautiful eggplants (I oohed and aahed over them with Hannah, and then when she asked if we could buy one, I had to admit I had no idea how to prepare it) caused a leap in my heart and a bulging bag of them in my cart, but I know they would either go bad in my vegetable drawer, or go bad on my dinner plate. Will I attempt to cook with it for the lure of a bonus entry? I fear it would just be a barbaric waste of a beautiful vegetable.
ReplyDeleteI love to cook, too, but have been scared to try pastries. I can bake fine, but have difficulty with decorating, etc. Though, I did finally overcome my fear of cream puffs this year. Who knew they were so easy? Check out my site. I posted a dim sum recipe that I think you will love!
ReplyDeleteI have a fear of (brace yourself)... cause it's really lame... making kung pao chicken. I have no idea how to make it and the one time I tried neither me or my husband liked it at all. I have searched high and low and cannot find a recipe that seems like it will work!
ReplyDeleteFish scare me. I can't get over the idea that something so pricey and tender could be ruined by my hands. Thus, I do not buy or cook fish. Yep. Silly.
ReplyDeleteJackie,
ReplyDeleteThe oddest food I ever saw in China was river cockroaches. I saw them in a bucket at a riverside food shack along the really dirty Pearl River Delta in Zonghsan China. They were next to a bucket of snails. i decided to eat the snails cooked in hot chili sauce and deferred on the roaches. I eat about anything buyt draw a line at big nasty insects.
So I gues the food I am loathe to make would be roachbao, or roach-hagow (though the name rolls right off the lips). BABA
Okay if I gave a prize for grossest option I would say my dad wins... ewww!
ReplyDeleteI am afraid to cook angle food cake. I made it once in high school and it did not rise or get fluffy I have not tried it since
ReplyDelete