The Things I Ate (And Learned)

If we’re Facebook friends, you’ve probably noticed my 8 million photos of my trip to Toronto to help my grandmother, Nana (rhymes with Ghana) celebrate her 100th birthday. Aside from being the Cutest Person In The World, my Nana is also the kindest and gentlest. Here she is beaming her beautiful smile with me, five of her seven great-grandchildren, and our extended family.

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We go up to Toronto every year to visit my Nana and have what we call Cousin Reunion. We catch up on each other’s lives, let the kids play together, and most of all, we eat. Meals are a way we express love for each other and we must love each other more than any other family on earth, because we eat an obscene amount. So here’s a breakdown of just a small portion of the dishes we had.

Lest you think (realize?) I’m just a flabby who’s only about eating, I’ve also interspersed some words of wisdom from my Nana, as translated by my aunt. Thanks, Auntie Cecilia!

1. Siu Mai – these little pork and shrimp dumplings are Hazy’s favorite. She can put away about 10-12 of them.

2. Cha Siu Bao are barbecued pork buns and George’s favorites. Don’t come between him and his cha siu bao or you may lose a finger.

And also, sorry about your missing finger, Isaac.

3. What’s better than a lobster roll? Lobster sautéed in a ginger garlic sauce. The best part of getting stuck at the kids’ table was being one of only three people at a table of 10 who ate lobster. Hahaha, suckers!

Like, see how I compared myself to the people who had to share all their lobster? Peace.

17191854_1287796064636549_1983142898168757136_o (1) — 4. Peking Duck – they carve it at your table, and then you put the crispy duck skin pieces in a savory thin crepe with hoisin sauce and scallions. IT’S AMAZING.

Like take the last piece of Peking duck, Marco.

17358765_1291115597637929_1146010502269318398_o — 5. Steamed soup dumplings – the Chinese steam everything, with wonderful results.

17358616_1291115934304562_6483395181563918156_o — 6. Case in point – steamed chicken (looks gross, tastes delicious)

17192293_1287796074636548_3280800905283557347_o — 7. Steamed egg (also delicous) 8. Duck (made with the rest of the Peking duck) with lettuce wraps, kinda like that PF Chang dish but legit 9. Baby bok choy with papaya, because why not 10. Sweet & sour pork

11. Crabby Pouf* (that’s a real crab claw that’s then surrounded by ground shrimp and crab and deep fried)/*Not it’s official Chinese name

12. Noodles. So many noodles that my 1/4 Chinese girl learned how to use chopsticks.

e.g. Hazy showing off her proud bones with those chopstick skills.

13. Rice noodles stuffed with fried taro root stuffed with shrimp (RiTaShrimp?)

14. What remains of Gai Lan (Chinese broccoli) 15. Fried rice 16. More noodles

Like if you just gave your son the last Char Siu Bao without expecting anything in return. (Although a thank you would’ve been nice, George.)

17. Har Gow (steamed shrimp dumplings, remember what we said about the steaming?) 18. That’s pan fried turnip cake in the background, wearing little seaweed belts

17218319_1291115967637892_7681122965211872757_o — 18. More dumplings (these are veggie)

19. Gelatin – I’m not going to lie to you. The Chinese are not the best at dessert, at least not unless you’re really into real gelatin and sweet soups.

For example, it was my pleasure to give my gelatin dessert to Matty.

17309793_10158375645340156_5511629952090612310_n — 21. Pistachio & vanilla cake – thankfully, my cousin Josh and his fiancé Sandra came to the rescue with a good old-fashioned (and fancy!) birthday cake

Josh & Sandra must have learned some Di Zi Gui, which is basically teaching kids how to be good people.

We also ate, but didn’t manage to get pictures of: salted chicken with ginger dipping sauce, steamed (!) black bean spare ribs, whole steamed (!) fish with ginger and scallions, pan-fried pork dumplings, winter melon soup, pea shoots, the most amazing tofu with scallops, and many more things that my brain has probably blocked out so my body doesn’t go into emergency shut down mode. I hope my extended family will let me know if I missed anything (I promise not to tell my body, guys).

What’s your favorite Chinese food?

4 thoughts on “The Things I Ate (And Learned)”

Mattie says:

March 17, 2017 at 11:24 pm

I seriously adore your Nana and all of her smiles and wisdom.

Also, my favorite Chinese food is not remotely Chinese. I just can’t resist crab rangoon. Thanks to having an iron stomach, though, I would try every single food you mentioned.

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1. hellonatashao says:
  
  March 18, 2017 at 7:47 am
  
  Thank you! Also, don’t be so sure. I’m always surprised to discover things I thought were totally American (fried rice, sweet and sour) show up at authentic Chinese restaurants. And the Chinese love their crab!
  
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