'Twas the Night Before Tet (Vietnamese Lunar New Year)

For the past four years, a few days before Tet (Vietnamese Lunar New Year), I'd buy some fruits for my aunts and uncles for their altar offerings. Since superstitions abound during this time of year, I recalled when I had to buy fruit for the altar offering when my brother first bought a house. Silly me, when my mom asked which fruits I intended to buy, I said: apples (No! Apple, bom in Vietnamese sounds almost like bomb = unlucky!); pears (No! Pear, le in Vietnamese sounds almost like li which means disobedient = unlucky!); bananas (No! Banana, chuoi in Vietnamese sounds almost like luoi which means lazy = unlucky!). Umm, so which fruits can I get? Pineapples, thom in Vietnamese also means fragrant = lucky! Papayas, du du in Vietnamese also means plenty = lucky! Oranges, cam in Vietnamese doesn't sound like anything I can think of but from the Chinese side I knew that oranges were like gold = lucky! Phew! At least I got some things right. :P When I dropped off the fruit, my youngest aunt asked if I was making banana bread like I did last year. Oh no, no sweets, but I've got something even better that I brought over that night instead. ***** 1 year ago today, I got sick and made a very plain pot of chao (Vietnamese rice porridge).

German Oven Pancakes

For my Catholic readers, Happy Mardi Gras/Shrove Tuesday/National Pancake Day!


According to Wikipedia, Shrove Tuesday or National Pancake Day, pancakes are associated with the day before Lent because rich ingredients such as eggs, milk, and sugar had to be used up before the 40 days of fasting.

And also a welcome to Jewcy.com readers! In case my regular readers didn't know (I think I might have one Jewish reader who might know?), I, and Dylan of Eat, Drink, and Be Merry both had recipes featured on Jewcy today in an article titled, "Tuesday Taste Test: Happy Chinese Jew Year." "Never has there been a sweeter love affair than the one between Jews and Chinese food," said writer Helen Jupiter. "In honor of that enduring affection, and also because Chinese New Year is this week, we asked a couple of food bloggers to share their favorite Chinese recipes." I told her Jews probably learned to like Chinese food by default. After all, what else is open on Christmas Day except Chinese restaurants? :P Nonetheless, I offered up my interpretation of Shanghai-style sticky rice siu mai dumplings because they resembled moneybags to bring wealth in the Year of the Rat. The Chinese sausage in the recipe can easily be omitted in keeping with Jewish dietary laws. Haha!

So what's a nice Buddhist girl like me doing on a Jewish website, and giving you a recipe for a Catholic holiday? Food baby! Food unifies people! Don'tcha love it? Well, I don't observe Lent but I did have a pancake recipe in my queue. I had always referred to these as Dutch baby pancakes, ever since I ate my first one long ago in Oregon. Turned out, "Dutch" might have been a mangling of Pennsylvania "Deutsch," which means they really are German.

Isn't it beautiful? The pancake falls quickly after it's taken out of the oven so just imagine how lovely and poofy it looked before I took time to photograph it. Traditionally, these pancakes are served with fruit toppings, syrup, lemon juice, or powdered sugar. I like topping mine with cinnamon-sugar apples so it's almost like eating an apple pie.

Chocolate Mochi with Nutella Filling

Huge disclaimer: I've never made mochi (Japanese sticky rice cakes) before. Although I've always enjoyed Fugetsu-do Sweet Shop's soft and chewy mochi. I've wanted to try their chocolate mochi too but at 6 small pieces for $4, just couldn't justify the expense. I thought they were hard to make until I saw Melting Wok's post months ago about nuking mochiko (Japanese sticky rice flour) in the microwave for 5 minutes. She made it look so simple. I knew I'd make it at some point, I just didn't know when. Then in mid-December, Nikki Polani was kind enough to send me a large container of cocoa. Mochi + cocoa = chocolate mochi. And then with World Nutella Day coming up on February 5, I had an idea for the ultimate recipe. Mochi + cocoa + Nutella = chocolate mochi with Nutella filling. Apologies for the indelicate appearance, but rest assured they tasted much better than they looked. Chocolate Mochi with Nutella Filling Adapted from the chocolate mochi recipe from Koda Farms Blue Star Brand mochiko For about a dozen mochi, you'll need: 1 1/2 cups mochiko (Japanese sticky rice flour) 1 1/2 cups water 3/4 cup sugar 1/2 cup cocoa Nutella Mix 3/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup cocoa and set aside. In another bowl, mix 1 1/2 cups mochiko and 1 1/2 cups water, cover and microwave for 5 minutes. You'll get a rather wet-looking mixture like below. Stir to make sure the mochiko is evenly distributed. Then add the cocoa mixture 1/4 cup at a time and mix until the cocoa is evenly distributed. Keep stirring to make sure everything is smooth. Cover and put the mixture back in microwave for another 5 minutes. You'll end up with a mixture that looks like very thick cake mix. Let the dough rest for about 10 minutes or so, until slightly cooled. You want to work with the dough while it's still warm. Oil or flour your hands with mochiko and pat the dough into flat discs. I tried both methods, floured on the left and oiled on the right, and it was still a messy process either way. Spoon a dab of Nutella into the middle of each mochi disc. Then gather the ends and fold into a ball. Place mochi balls on candy cups for serving. Mochi doesn't keep very well. So either eat them all the day you make them (As if that'd be a hardship!) or wrap in plastic and they'll keep for a few days at room temperature. After that, the mochi will get too hard and start molding. Enjoy! I'm submitting this recipe to World Nutella Day hosted by Sara from Ms. Adventures in Italy, Michelle from Bleeding Espresso, and Shelley from At Home in Rome (in spirit). Check back with them on February 5 for a round-up of Nutella recipes from around the world. Who made my recipe for chocolate mochi with Nutella filling? FoodahoLiv and Mochachocolata Rita both made this recipe for a Valentine's Day party. Other Nutella recipes: Egg rolls stuffed with bananas and mangoes with Nutella dipping sauce Bananas, Nutella, and peanut butter sandwiches. ***** 1 year ago today, the "5 things about me" meme.