Taro Paste

In China, dinners usually finished with a sweet soup, small sweet pastry or a fresh fruit platter. The meal is mostly focused on the savory dishes and it is very rare for my family to even order dessert after the main course.

Enter the Taro.

Taro Paste, or Yu Ni, is one of the most popular foods from my home town of Fuzhou. Ranking up there with Fuzhou fish balls and lychee pork, Yu Ni is a dish that is wheeled out any time someone visits Fuzhou for the first time. It is different to many desserts you are probably familiar with - it is very dense, sticky, and, as you can see, not the prettiest thing to look at. Yu Ni is usually served warm in a big bowl and diners can scoop spoonfuls from the middle. 

When cooled, Yu Ni can also be used as fillings for pastries such as mooncake and buns.

As my current schedule is filled with baby Charlie, I haven't had time to make mooncakes for mid-autumn festival this year so I have opted to remind my family of home with this dish.

Judging from the ingredients, I hope it is obvious that this isn't the healthiest dish in the world. This is why Yu Ni is a food reserved only for celebrations or when there are visitors to your hometown. 

What is a specialty dessert in your hometown? Do you always finish a meal with a sweet dish?

Taro Paste

Ingredients:

1kg taro (frozen or fresh)
400g white sugar
180ml vegetable oil

Method:

1. If using fresh taro, remove the skin and any hard bits. Cut into small pieces (around 2cm x 2cm x 5cm). 
2. Steam the taro pieces until soft. The taro should break easily when poked with a chopstick.
3. Mash the taro while it is still hot. The taro should have a smooth texture with small lumps. If you want a smoother, paste-like texture, place the taro into a blender until your desired texture. 
4. Place taro paste, oil, and sugar into a pot. Cook and stir over medium heat for 15-20 minutes until the mixture turns becomes thick and glossy.
5. Serve warm as a dessert, or set aside to cool if you are using as a mooncake filling.

Note: If you are making taro paste for dessert, I would recommend making a half batch. Otherwise, it gets a bit much. Trust me. 

It is best to find a taro that is floury in texture. They are the best. 

Maybe being vegetarian isn't all bad

You may have noticed that most of my recent meals don't contain many fruit and vegetables. You would be very correct.

莲花阁茶艺素食馆 -Lotus Room Tea Art and Restaurant

When going out for dinner, Chinese people rarely follow the "one meat and two veggie" rule -it's more like "heaps and heaps of meat and seafood.. Oh yeah, I suppose we should include one vegetable dish." Sometimes the vegetable dish has meat in it.

Tonight, however, we are going strictly vegetarian.

We crave fruit so much that we have the after dinner fruit before the meal

My wonderfully intuitive father figured out that I'd secretly been craving less meaty foods (by the huge amounts of Longan I'd been eating at home) and took us out to the Lotus Room which is situated in the middle of Fuzhou's famous West Lake. We are actually sitting on top of the lake itself giving us a spectacular view from our room on the second floor.

Our private room

Each room is beautifully furnished in the traditional way and has a side room for Gongfu tea. Despite being in such a great location, our guests have trouble finding the building (as well as navigating the heavy Fuzhou traffic) and we have some complimentary after dinner fruit while we wait for them. Our waitress also brings out hot cups of jasmine tea while we wait.

The non-complimentary fruit platter

..The traffic is so bad that we actually have the time to order another plate. The kitchen elves slice the fruit fresh and it is brought up straight away. It is so satisfying.

Back: Jasmine Tea. Front: Five Grains Soy Milk

I am over the moon when our guests finally arrive and our waitress brings out a warm jug of five grains soy milk to accompany our meals. It is sweet, fragrant and not too thick.

Steamed Lily Bulb(百合) with Blueberry Sauce

This was almost too pretty to eat. Almost. When consumed, lily bulb is supposed to very beneficial to one's heart and lungs -you can find more about its medicinal properties here. The lily bulb was sweet, crunchy and had quite a floury texture and the thick, blueberry sauce was but not too tart.

Individual "ham" and vegetable hand rolls

 All the meat dishes are made from tofu, gluten and flour etc. These hand rolls are expertly made and I was very impressed that none fell apart during dinner. The "ham" salad was very refreshing and full of flavour -they even added some fish floss! I only wish there was more than one for each person.

Fried "Fish" with Dragon Fruit

 The main theme of tonight is "oooooh how did they manage to make this look and taste exactly like meat?" 

How do they do that?

I may even go as far as saying that this fish tasted better than normal fish. It was lightly pan fried, flaky, soft and paired beautifully with a strawberry and dragon fruit jam. Unfortunately, the jam was used more as presentation and not enough was provided for my piece of "fish."

"Duck" with Orange Sauce

Looks and texture wise, this was a bit of a downer -I actually thought it was weird that my dad ordered a dish of burned bread. Taste wise, however, it was delicious. The orange sauce was very intense but not so strong as to smother the taste of "duck."

Kumara Leaves with Goji Berries

I like spinach and kumara leaves taste a lot like spinach -you could put the two in front of me and I probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference for a good few minutes. I was confused by the weird tasting white liquid it was floating in though. The sauce was flavoured with century egg which usually has quite a pungent flavour which I usually like but, in this case, it was very mild and smelled faintly of Rotorua. I enjoyed the dish a lot more when I found out the strange taste was supposed to be there.

Stir Fried Mushrooms

Tofu Pot

With the "meat" dishes out of the way, we were incredibly impressed with the traditionally vegetarian dishes that were served. We were no longer distracted by the novelty of meat for vegetarians but could really appreciate the thought and skill that went into each and every dish. The mushrooms were cooked in a light garlicky sauce that did not smother, but actually enhanced their natural flavour. The silken tofu had been mixed with a little egg before setting to increase its slipperiness and softness as well as injecting it with a little eggy flavour. The sprinkling of caviar throughout the pot gave it a nice little change of texture.

Tempura Eggplant

By now, our waitress had caught onto the fact that I like to take photos of my food and brought this beauty over to me before cutting it up into manageable pieces for everyone. Can anyone say new favourite eggplant dish? Anyone who knows me well would know that I love my eggplant. Up until now my favourite dish had been the "fish scent eggplant casserole" but, now, it has been topped and replaced (not that I would stop ordering it anymore). This dish was amazing -I cannot stop raving about it to anyone who will listen! One, super long, piece of eggplant is finely sliced (but not the whole way through), dipped in tempura, deep fried and then covered with a thick, sweet and sour sauce. The batter was extremely light and crunchy and the center of each piece was so soft that it was almost gooey. I have a massive smile as I write this. Note to self: try to recreate this.

Deep Fried Cream

Lily Porridge with Lychee Pieces

Because we had eaten the complimentary fruit and the second fruit platters, we simply had to order dessert. The deep fried cream was kind of a disappointing finish to the exquisite meal we had -the shell was sickeningly oily and the centers a little chewy. Luckily dessert was salvaged by the lovely sweet porridge and the cream didn't taste too bad when I dipped them in my bowl. The porridge was lightly sweetened, creamy and the small pieces of juicy lychee were very pleasant surprises.

View from the balcony

I have nothing but praise for the Lotus Room. The atmosphere was exquisite and we felt like the busy streets of Fuzhou were miles away. A little part of me wishes I was back in Fuzhou just so I could experience the food all over again. Each dish was refreshing, light and delicate and I would seriously consider going vegetarian if every meal was like this (I can hope, right?).


The Lotus Room can be found at Zhuohai Park, Number 319-3 Guangrong Rd, Fuzhou, Fujian, China. 

Note: "Lotus Room" is not the restaurant's actual name. I translated it from its Chinese name to make it easier to write about.

Falling leaves return to their roots

As any Chinese person would tell you, family is the most important thing. The second thing they might tell you is that they have a very big family. My dad has a MASSIVE family.

My father has two siblings, each of whom has one child -this is quite easy to count. Then we go into the extended family. My poppa has two brothers -the oldest one has 7 children (who then go on to have about 2 or 3 children each) and the youngest one has 10 children (who also go on to have 2 or 3 children) and when you count the fact that their children have even more children, you give up counting and just say there are a lot of Chinese people everywhere. Keep in mind that I haven't even started on my nana's side of the family.

Anyway, the purpose of this trip to Fuqing(福清) was to visit the extended family and see my poppa's resting place and eat lots of food (because, after all, we are in China). We arrived just before lunch and, already, we could hear the sounds of people being busy in the kitchen. We only had a brief window of opportunity to greet everyone before we were quickly ushered into the kitchen for lunch -they must have been waiting for us for quite a while!

Baby oyster soup, Squid, Tiger Prawns and "Haku"

 We started off with a selection of seafood caught fresh that morning and cooked straight away. None of the flavour was lost and it was really nice to be able to eat seafood from the deep ocean instead of the farmed stuff we'd been getting in restaurants. See those things on the bottom right? I don't know what they're called in English -or even Mandarin! All I know is that they're pronounced "Haku" in Fuqing dialect and are a type of small lobster. My cousin tells me they're called "slip lobsters" but I am unable to find it on Google or Wiki (and that's the extent of research I'm willing to do). These little buggers taste wonderful but are amazingly hard to eat -there are countless amounts of little hooks designed to cut you should you try to get into the shell but you will be rewarded with delicious lobster meat if you succeed. 

Sweet Dumplings

Scrumptious peanutty center

Next we had a bowl of sweet dumplings (who cares that we had dessert at the beginning of the meal?). These are one of my winter favourites. They have a soft and chewy outer layer made of glutinous rice flour and have a sweet, peanut center. Heavenly. I immediately forget that there are other dishes coming and have three bowls..

Deep fried frost fish

Battered Prawns

 What do they put in their batter?? It's delicious! It was light. Very light. Each piece of fish/prawn was surrounded by the most heavenly, lightly salted crunch -my mouth is actually watering as I type this..

The chefs

 After eating what seemed like half my body weight in food, I was full and decided to have a wander around the house -oh, did I mention that it's 10 stories high? Anyway, I stumble upon the cooks (great uncle's wife and his eldest daughter) and beg them not to make any more food. They just laughed and told me to keep eating..

Stirfried Vermicelli

"This is the last one, we promise!" said my aunt as she brought this out. They certainly left the best for last. The vermicelli had soaked up the flavours of the pork, oysters and chinese cabbage and, as you can imagine, was simply delicious!

This, my friends, is apparently a snack. Xien Mien with fried egg, prawns, baby oysters, pork and fried seaweed

 After lunch, we visit my poppa and great-grandpop and a few of dad's other cousins. Then, apparently, it's time for a snack. This is one of Fuqing's specialties -Xien Mien are very very thin white noodles cooked in a chicken broth. Everyone who lives in Fuzhou would have grown up with this. You can have it for breakfast, lunch or/and dinner and are consumed in almost every occasion such as birthdays (no matter what age you are), weddings and when you're about to go traveling. The topping is the best so I give in to peer pressure but leave most of the noodles as I'm sure my stomach has not fully digested lunch yet.

Roasted Watermelon seeds

  So what does one do immediately after having a meal sized snack? Rest? Let it digest? No -we go straight to dinner. I'm not even kidding. We literally left the house and walked to the restaurant. We start off dinner with a few plates of watermelon seeds which are the most moreish little snacks ever! They are marinated in soy based sauce before being dried and baked. It was quite enjoyable listening to the loud click of the shells cracking open while the adults talked.

Prawns and Haku

Stirfried Octopus Tentacles

Close up of Haku- little lobster thing

By now I'm sure you all get that seafood is a big deal here. A meal is not complete without a plate of prawns, fish and (note I said and, not or) oysters -don't you worry, the oysters are coming later. The octopus tentacles were very juicy and had a little bite to it and was covered in a light garlicky sauce while the prawns and Haku tasted like they should (yeah, I'm sick of describing seafood now). I get a little bored and start playing with my food -does anyone remember the freaky aliens from District 9 by the way? If not, click here.

Beef and Veggie Stew

This soup was a very welcomed change to all the seafood I'd been having lately and tasted very clear despite the amount of ingredients in the bowl. The pieces of beef had been coated in cornflour before cooking so the meat wouldn't get too tough and the bits of celery added really added to the taste.

Oyster fritters

I told you oysters were coming. These were, by far, my favourite dish of the day. No one can resist the smell of oyster fritters! They were so fragrant and tasty -we even took some home with us for the next day!

Steamed Crabs

Crab Scented Cellophane Noodles

Razor Clams

 The normal person would be full by now. Apparently my family are just eating machines. It's their specialty. The cellophane noodles taste wonderful and, even though my stomach is on the verge of exploding, I have a bowl and savour the taste of the crab meat. The razor clams were fried with golden needle mushrooms in a ginger and garlic sauce which really complimented its natural flavour.

Rex's dad having a ball with his Gongfu tea set

Dried Persimmons

As if feeling a little guilty for feeding us so much today, we are taken back to my cousin, Rex's, place for some Gongfu tea (工夫茶). I have a less modern set at home if anyone wants to try. The black tea we are served is meant to cleanse the body of fatty oils so it is perfect to have after the massive dinner. We also have some dried persimmons to accompany the tea -I couldn't help it, they taste like angels. I've never seen these sold in New Zealand but, if you ever get the chance, please try these. Dried persimmons are sweet, dense and chewy -much like dates but more juicy.

Supper (aka feast)

During after tea time I notice that Rex's mum is not present but keep quiet just in case she's just retired to bed because dinner has rendered her too full to move. Little do I know, she's actually doing the opposite. It seems that she's not yet full and prepared a massive supper for everyone as a pre-sleeping snack. Supper consisted of fried fish, fried baby oysters, baby oyster soup, congee, xien mien and sweet potato dumplings. Sweet potato dumplings are also a Fuqing specialty -kumara flour mixed with glutinous rice flour to form a soft, sticky shell for a center of pork, prawns, seaweed, cabbage and baby oysters (they really like that combination here!

Delicious savoury center -I can help but eat a few

 I leave them to their supper and conversation at about midnight and drift off as I wonder why no one here is obese..

I can no longer walk (26/12/10)

After the wonderfully seafoody meal from the night before, I had completely forgotten about my tooth extraction and, like an endless black hole of hunger, I was ready to be presented with more food. Yummy, yummy food.

You can actually find people like this guy creating deep fried miracles almost everywhere

We started the day by going downstairs for breakfast. This place is literally about 200m away from my nana's house. Breakfast in China is the cheapest I've ever seen and it really seems to hit the spot -mmm.. lots of oil and MSG.

Deep fried rice cakes and Guo Bian Hu

This whole meal cost us 5RMB (there's another bowl of Guo Bian Hu that my dad's hurriedly downing next to me).The Guo Bian Hu has been in Fuzhou for over 400 years and is a favourite of mine. The name "Guo Bian Hu" literally means the sticky stuff from the side of the pot -you know, when you're making porridge or congee? It's basically a really mushy rice soup with the bits from the sides of the pot -yum! The taste is soft and delicate reflecting whatever you want to put in it -this one had some oysters and parsley. 

The rice cakes are made from fine rice powder, formed into a paste and then deep fried. The result is a delicious soft center with a very thin crispy outer layer.

Savoury Donuts  -So cheap, so yummy, so very deep fried

Mum is hungry for more -and when you get 3 for 1RMB, who could resist? Unfortunately, Dad and I are way too full at this point and have to watch her eat the savoury donuts. These had baby oysters and cabbage in them -I wish my stomach was larger.

Look at the cutie baby!

After a quick breakfast (where we run into a lot of nana's neighbours) we go visiting! Today we are visiting more aunties and uncles. They have recently bought a new house so we were invited over for a tour. It looks like a freaking hotel! Also, see the cutie in the middle? That's my cousin's baby. Awesome.

食德福 -Shidefu

 So what happens two hours after breakfast? Lunch, of course! We decide to walk to Shidefu so we feel like we're at least making an effort to counter all the food we have been eating. It's not as flash as the place we went to the night before, but man can they cook!

Go ahead, pick whatever looks nice

Fresh seafood sold by the pound and cooked however you want

 The ordering system is much the same here except all the display dishes are not molds. Mother and I have a ball pointing at random dishes that catch our eye.

Bamboo shoots with Shitake mushrooms

 
The first dish to arrive is a stir fry of bamboo shoots and shitake mushrooms. The dish was full of flavour, the bamboo was wonderfully crunchy and the sauce was light and did not mask its woody flavour.

紅燒五花肉 -BBQ Five flower pork

Translated literally, 五花肉 is "five flower meat" -also a pretty way of saying really fatty pork belly (the different layers of fat apparently make a pretty pattern). This dish was about 80% fat (I counted the layers and then did some math).. Don't be grossed out though, it wasn't sickening at all -in fact, quite the opposite. This was my favourite dish. I'm not sure how a dish full of fat can taste light, but they managed it. The pork was lightly flavoured with a red wine infused BBQ sauce and every bite melted in my mouth and it was too easy to forget that I was eating layers and layers of pig fat.

Stirfried tofu skin with woodear

 The mix of different textures in this dish was incredible. The softness of the tofu skin went well with the crunchiness of the woodear and they were brought together with a delish sweet and sour sauce.

Deep Fried Prawns

The best thing about deep fried prawns is that you don't have to peel them. You can eat the whole thing! Yeah I'm lazy, but so what? It also means that you get all the flavour of the sauces and spices that are stuck to the shell instead of removing them along with the shell.

Deep fried frost fish

Here is Fuzhou's version of fish and chips. Each piece is cut into bite sized pieces, seasoned, lightly battered and then deep fried. I have to say that, if it weren't for the bones, I might prefer these to the deep fried fish at NZ takeaways..

Sauteed Frog -tastes like chicken

Hands up if you think frog tastes like chicken *Lucy puts both her hands up*. It even has little bones like the ones you get in chicken pieces! Oh well.. What I'm trying to say is that you simply must give frog a try -it tastes like chicken in every single way except it's frog!! This dish had a lovely sweet and sour sauce and the floury potato complimented chicken (uhh.. I mean frog) meat very well.

Left: Chicken and seaweed broth. Right: Savoury chives with steamed cornmeal buns

 I really love how all the soups come with their own gas cookers. The broth was very clear and the sea weed was flavoursome.

Stuffed cornmeal bun

 These were simply delicious! The cornmeal buns were very soft and sweet and complimented the savoury chives which were nice and crunchy. I had three.

Beef tendon broth

The Chinese have always been a health conscious bunch. I recall, as a child, being made to eat fish infused with Goji berries for my brain function or lots of chicken broth because it's good for some other reason. Benefits of eating tendons include promoting muscle growth, boosting metabolism, making your nails stronger and making it seem like you're chewing glue. I'm not a fan of the texture but the soup is nice and I'm sure I'd have to eat tendons more frequently to get any sort of benefit from it. I wonder if eating lots of jelly counts as a good source of gelatin..

Fried rice with pork floss

 Fried rice is yummy. Pork floss is yummy. Fried rice + pork floss = double yummy. It was beautiful. That is all.

Hong Shao (Red cooked) Pig Hocks

By this time we were all fantastically full (there was also a whole fish and giant plate of sauteed cabbage) but, being Asian, my aunt and uncle had to order more dishes so there were leftovers. According to the Chinese, being the perfect host means ordering/cooking so much food until your guests have stuffed themselves and can no longer move. Then, and only then, is your job done. Hong Shao, or "red-cooking"is a popular way to prepare meats in eastern parts of China. Simmering in dark soy sauce gives the meat a reddish color and the dish its name. These pig hocks went mostly uneaten. They were pretty awesome hosts.

ORTHODOX Coconut Milk??

食德福 is remarkably good value -all these dishes cost us 445RMB (a third of what we spent last night) and the food was nothing less than absolutely delicious. If you're ever traveling in Fuzhou and on a budget I really recommend this place!

Also, I can no longer walk. 

We are going out for dinner later tonight..


Again, if you're ever in Fuzhou and interested 食德福 can be found at 294 Hualin Rd, Fuzhou, Fujian, China. If you can read Chinese, click on the link and check our their reviews (overall 8.5/10!).