London based Chinese-food chain Ping Pong Dim Sum is coming to D.C. Is it a coincidence that UK noodle franchise Wagamama is opening just down the street? Who knows. But it certainly is a welcome addition to DC’s sleepy little Chinatown.

Unfortunately, there’s not much in the way of ping pong (actually, there’s NO ping pong), but there’s modern dim sum fare and neat cocktails. I’m pretty sure that the sign in Chinatown said it would be opening either late this year or early next year. Keep your eyes peeled!

Make dim sum convenient for you by making it yourself, in the comfort of your own home. Last night, I threw a party at my house and struggled to think of an idea for an appetizer. The recipes in my Martha Stewart Hors D’ Oeuvres Handbook are so uncool, plus I didn’t want to look like I was trying too hard (I mean, we still play Kings and Beer Pong at my parties). I actually didn’t end up making shrimp toast, (if you have to know, I made spinach-pesto pinwheel sandwiches out of lavash bread) but I realized afterwards that shrimp toast would have been far more interesting than a garlicky, mojo-killing pinwheel sandwich.

Everyone likes dim sum, and a lot of people don’t realize that some of the dim sum offerings are super easy to make, like shrimp toast. Here’s a recipe from my Asian mom’s cookbook, which I’ve slightly modified to the modern palette (because the original recipe calls for ham, and that’s such a Filipino thing to put into a Chinese dish).

And just to preface the recipe, it’s called “dim sum series part 1″ because I’ll be posting more dim sum recipes later.

Recipe:

1 lb cooked shrimp, minced
1 tsp ginger juice (honestly, I don’t know how you would extrapolate the juice out of a piece of ginger, so 1/2 tsp finely chopped ginger would be fine, but if you want to go ahead and eke the juice out, be my guest)
1 tsp white wine
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp MSG (for a truly Chinese experience….you don’t have to put this in, obviously)
1 tsp cornstarch
6 slices bread, trimmed and quartered (use plain white bread, but if you have access to an Asian bakery, get Japanese or Korean bread for this, it’s a bit sweeter and has a finer texture)
2 tsp chopped green onion
cooking oil for deep frying

Mix first seven ingredients together. Spoon a heaping tbs of shrimp mixture on each square of bread. Sprinkle with green onion. Heat cooking oil and deep fat fry bread squres, first with shrimp side down, then with bread side down. Fry until bread turns GOLDEN BROWN. Remove from oil and serve hot. I like this with Thai chili sauce.

photo courtesy of Easy Fast Food.

My mother gave me a copy of “Let’s Cook with Nora” for Christmas, and so I found this recipe for ho to tay that I wanted to share with everyone in Tita Jean’s honor. This isn’t her recipe, it’s Nora Daza’s (the Filipino version of Martha Stewart circa 1970s).

Recipe:

Combine ingredients for the filling together: 1/2 water chestnuts (or singcamas, which you will not find here in DC), 1/4 c green onion, 2 tsp soy sauce, salt, pepper 1 tbsp cornstarch, 1/4 c shrimps, chopped, 1/2 c cooked ham, chopped, 5 pcs dried mushrooms (any kind) soaked then chopped.

Broth:

2o pcs. wonton wrappers
8 c. chicken broth
20 large shrimps, peeled
1 chicken breast, sliced
1 tbsp. cornstarch
1 egg white
1 carrot, diced
5 pcs. dried mushroom, soaked then sliced
1 bunch Chinese cabbage, cut into bite sized pieces (see photo)
1 c. pea pods

Wrap filling in wonton paper. Set aside. Boil chicken broth, drop shrimps in. Coat chicken and pork with cornstarch and egg white mixed together. Add to broth. Simmer until done. Add dumplings in. Simmer 5 minutes, put in mushrooms, veggies and season with salt and pepper. Cook until done.

Dude, if you can master this, more power to you. My Tita Jean made it fresh for us during our Christmas party and the whole thing was just really authentic and delicious. Good luck.

I love daikon radish, but I find that the only way I can really use it is when I’m making sinigang, a sour Filipino tamarind-based soup stock with meat and vegetables. The problem with daikon radish is that it smells really, really bad while it’s cooking (my uncle likened it to a soiled diaper). I’ve got seven roommates, and I’ve learned that either I’ve got to omit using daikon radish in my sinigang, or cook when they’re not home.

But on with the pickles! Don’t say that you haven’t eaten radish pickles, because almost every Asian culture has some kind of version. The Koreans make this into a particularly good kim chee, and the Japanese serve it as a mini-dish to eat before a main course.

Recipe:

1 1/2 c cubed daikon radish
kosher salt
1 tbs rice wine vinegar
1 tbs water
2 heaping tsp sugar
drizzle of sesame oil

In a mixing bowl, toss daikon radish with a bit of kosher salt and set aside for about 30 minutes, until the liquid from the radish is released. Drain. Rinse the salt off the radish and pat dry. Add the rice wine vinegar, water, sugar and a bit of sesame oil and stick it in the fridge for about 8 hours. This keeps for about 2 weeks in an air-tight container.

You can make variations of this with napa cabbage and carrots. I recommend eating this as an palate-cleanser with heavy Asian dishes such as duck, Chinese 5-spice beef or broiled chicken.

Buchi is fried ball of sweet rice flour filled with red kidney bean paste (very popular in Japanese and Chinese desserts) and covered in sesame seeds. Filipinos buy it during the Christmas or holiday season and it’s best served fresh out of the fryer.

The texture of buchi is interesting — it looks deceptively dense on the outside, but when you bite into it, it’s surprisingly light and airy, like a fried donut. The dough is kind of glutinous and gooey, kind of like mochi, but it’s counterbalanced with the crispiness of the outside and the crunchy sesame seeds. And the bean paste filling is nutty, smooth and intensely sweet.

I love buchi, and it always reminds me of Christmastime with my family. I could eat about three of these in one sitting, which is probably not too healthy.

Here are the essential items that every Asian pantry should have:

Fish sauce
Sesame oil
Dark soy sauce
Long grain white rice
Ginger
Garlic
Green onions
Rice wine vinegar
Mirin sauce
Ponzu sauce
Hoisin sauce
Sriracha
Sweet and sour Thai sauce
Chinese five spice
White pepper
Star anise
Fresh coriander
Lemon
Honey
Thai chilies