Tibetan Momos and 978 other ways to enjoy summer

By Phyllis Louise Harris
July 2014 

The Richfield Farmers Market offers a special treat on Saturday mornings…freshly steamed momos filled with meat or potatoes and vegetables. These treats from Tibet are among the many things to enjoy this summer in Minnesota.

Did you know that on Wednesday afternoons, noon to 4:00 pm, in July and August you can shop at a Farmers Market at the Minnesota Zoo? 

Or that there are 30 wineries in the State of Minnesota and most have tasting rooms to sample wines before buying? Some sell snacks, many have beautiful picnic grounds and some invite you to help them stomp the grapes in September.

Or that the Carmel Apple Orchard Inn in Staples is a small bed and breakfast offering overnight stays and a gourmet breakfast plus apples in the fall? (www.carmelapl@arvig.net)

Or that there is a grower in Motley with 4 acres of gladiolus offering 1400 varieties of these tall, stately flowers that bloom until the first freeze? (wwwburtsbees@brainerd.net)

You will find information on all of this plus hundreds more things to do and see (978 in all) in Minnesota this summer and fall in the 2014 Minnesota Grown Directory from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.  And, it is free! Just go to www.minnesotagrown.com and order your copy or look in the online guide for every single listing.

In Nevis visit a ranch with more than 400 emu (www.emumagic.com) where you can take a guided tour and purchase feathers, oils and leather.

In Long Prairie visit Leatherwood Vinegary and learn more about their fine-wine vinegars made from locally grown fruits. (www.leatherwoodvinegary.com)

In Battle Lake, Moll’s Berry Farm has been operating for 50 years offering strawberries and raspberries that the whole family can pick themself. (www.mollsberryfarm.com)

Garden Fresh Farms in Maplewood offers a look at the future of farming with their year-round indoor farm. (www.gardenfreshfarms.org)

In Winsted, Carlson’s Orchard Bakery and Restaurant is a destination in itself with their 120-seat restaurant in a 1930 dairy barn. Enjoy music and hayrides most weekends, a kids play area every day and a fall celebration October 12 and 19 with pork chop dinners. And, of course, lots of apples. (www.carlsonsorchardbakery.com)

In Vesta, the Holmberg Orchard offers family fun in September and October with apple pies, apple crisp, caramel apples, straw stacks and hayrides to the pick-your-own pumpkin patch. (www.holmbergorchard.com)

In Worthington, Grandpa’s Fun Farm Fall Festival includes meeting farm animals, strolling through mazes, walking along trails, enjoying carnival games, playing miniature golf and more. (www.grandpafunfarm@frontier.com)

In Glencoe the Dunlooken Farm is a CSA offering a variety of vegetables that also offers horseback riding lessons. (www.dunlookenfarm.com)

 Minnesota also has a distillery in Hallock at Far North Spirits. (www.farnorthspirits.com)

From Ada Tomato to Zumbrota Farmers Market, there are so many things to do and see the summer will not be long enough. (But then, it never is!) Get your free Minnesota Grown Directory today and start planning trips to the area’s most delicious and interesting sites. Some of them are in your own neighborhood.


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Read more about Asian food in Minnesota and try more than 160 recipes in Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875, now in bookstores and on amazon.com.  

Buy online:  Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875  

Watch the EMMY® award winning “Asian Flavors” television show based on the book on tpt MN. Check local TV listings for broadcast times or view the show streaming online at: http://www.mnvideovault.org/mvvPlayer/customPlaylist2.php?id=24552&select_index=0&popup=yes#0

Farm fresh asparagus with Asian flavors

By Phyllis Louise Harris

May/June 2014

Now that spring has finally arrived and farmers’ markets are opening we can look forward to the wonderful farm fresh food we have been missing all winter. Asparagus will be one of the first vegetables to arrive.

While we often see asparagus boiled and served with hollandaise sauce it is very versatile. It can be used in curries, stir-fried with a little ginger, steamed, oven roasted or grilled. All treatments start with the same preparation. Snap off the tough ends of the asparagus spears at the point that they easily break away from the tender portion. If you prefer even ends rather than the ragged ends left by the snapping, trim the ends after snapping. Some people even peel away the outer layer of the lower spear to make it even more tender. Wash the spears and if you are going to stir-fry, roast or grill them, dry them with a paper towel.

For grilling, brush the asparagus spears with vegetable oil. Place them on a hot grill turning them until they are brown on all sides and just barely tender, but still crisp.  Remove them from the heat and brush then with a light soy sauce then re-grill them for a few seconds. Not too long or they will burn. Serve warm with lemon wedges.

Another Asian twist is marinating the boiled spears in seasoned rice vinegar. Boil the prepared asparagus spears in plain water just until they are fork tender (about six to eight minutes). Drain and immediately plunge them into ice water. Let them cool completely then drain thoroughly. Place the spears in a container that keeps them flat in layers. Mix one part seasoned rice vinegar with an equal part of water and pour over the spears. (One bunch of asparagus spears usually takes about one cup vinegar and one cup water.) Add enough marinade to cover the spears. Cover the container and refrigerate for at least four hours or up to eight hours. Drain the spears and serve cold. I sometimes decorate the spears with slices of roasted red peppers.

The spears can be left in the marinade over night and are good the next day. But, at some point the vinegar will start to change their bright green color into more ashen hues and while they are still good to eat they are not quite as pretty. (Fresh green beans that have been boiled until just tender are also good in this marinade.)

Most supermarkets now carry seasoned rice vinegar as well as plain rice vinegar. They are easy to tell apart. The seasoned vinegar is a pale tan color while the plain vinegar is perfectly clear. The color comes from the seasonings that include soy sauce.

Visit your local farmers’ market and see the wide array of wonderful food available each week fresh from the fields. For a free guide to Minnesota’s markets go to www3.mda.state.mn.us. Filled with information on pick-your-own food, farm stays, wine tastings and so much more, it is a great guide for day trips around the state.

Happy summer!!

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Read more about Asian food in Minnesota and try more than 160 recipes in Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875, now in bookstores and on amazon.com.  

Buy online:  Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875  

Watch the EMMY® award winning “Asian Flavors” television show based on the book on tpt MN. Check local TV listings for broadcast times or view the show streaming online at: http://www.mnvideovault.org/mvvPlayer/customPlaylist2.php?id=24552&select_index=0&popup=yes#0

Everyone is a critic!

By Phyllis Louise Harris

April 2014

Everyone is a critic!

The March issue of Mpls/StPaul magazine announced its food critics’ 50 top restaurant choices in the area. It also contained the readers’ choices. Interesting how different the lists were.

When I lived in New York City, Friday was the day the New York Times food critic published the week’s restaurant review. If the review was good, those in the know stayed away from that restaurant for at least a month until the crowds died down. If it was a bad review, the restaurant would probably not last a month, so not to bother.

Minnesota food critics have never had that kind of impact on local restaurants. In fact, many followed the crowds and let diners choose the ones they favored. Today there seems to be a wide gap between food critics’ choices and diners’ favorites. Perhaps it is because everyone can now be a critic and post their opinions online anytime, anywhere.

Some professional food writers are instructed by their editors to be controversial. Some are expected to be entertaining. A few actually understand a wide variety of cooking and bring the reader a knowledgeable look at the food under review.

There is nothing more devastating to a new restaurant owner after spending months of planning, endless menu revisions, and perhaps millions of dollars to open only to have a “professional” food critic complain about the lighting, or the service, or the signature dish, or even the urinals in the men’s room. (It actually happened to a brand new restaurant). While most restaurants can survive beyond a bad review, it just takes that much longer to find their audience. Once loyal diners start coming back and bringing their friends the restaurant can be successful for years to come, despite the critics of any kind.

There are more than 9,000 restaurants in Minnesota with many successfully run by creative, talented people who have a passion for food. Yet they now have to endure the online “amateur” critics who complain that the food was not like mother’s…not like home cooking.  Of course it’s not! If you want home cooking, stay home.

We once took friends to a well-known restaurant in Manhattan that served amazingly delicious grilled meats. One guest ordered the rack of lamb, well done. When it was served it was absolutely perfectly cooked, and indeed was well done. But, the diner sent it back because it was not charred black, the way his mother used to cook it for him. To this day, I do not know how he could even chew the thoroughly burned lamb he eventually ate.

There was one Twin Cities newspaper critic who dined at an exceptionally good Chinese restaurant several years ago and ordered Green Beans with Preserved Vegetable – a traditional Chinese dish. When the green beans were served she complained that they were wrinkled and wrote it as a negative in her review. Of course they were wrinkled, they were supposed to be that way. It is not possible to have green beans with smooth skins after they have been twice cooked in hot oil.

I am often asked to name my favorite restaurant. I always answer it depends on what I am looking for. I have favorite restaurants for soup, chow mein (yes, I do eat chow mein), dessert, hamburger, ribs, stir-fries, tempura, noodles, steak, omelets, and more. In other words, I know what chef cooks a particular dish in the way I most enjoy it and that’s where I go. It makes no sense to me to expect every chef in every restaurant, to cook any dish I may be in the mood for in a manner that pleases me.  It’s not going to happen.

In addition to old favorites I enjoy going to new restaurants, sampling dishes by chefs I have not met and being surprised by some of their most delicious flavors and textures. Perhaps that is why I have loved writing about Asian food in Minnesota and around the world for forty years. There is always the possibility of a delightful surprise under every curry leaf, beneath every bubbling broth, along side every bowl of rice. Who would have thought Ann Kim’s kimchee pizza would be so good and make such a hit with Minnesota diners. Or Thom Pham’s cranberry curry would take on a life of its own for more than fourteen years. Or that Reiko Weston’s first sushi bar would start a whole new kind of food craze in Minnesota.  This is the real fun of dining out.  Discovering good food with delicious surprises. So, negative reviewers, if you don’t like a particular dish, don’t go back, but keep your disappointment to yourself. It may become the favorite dish of the decade.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE PERENNIAL PLATE

Daniel Klein and Mirra Fine are finalists in the 2014 James Beard Awards for Video Webcast, on location for The Perennial Plate, Europe and South Asia. (See the March column for more information on this talented team.)

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Read more about Asian food in Minnesota and try more than 160 recipes in Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875, now in bookstores and on amazon.com.

Buy online:  Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875 

Watch the EMMY® award winning “Asian Flavors” television show based on the book on tpt MN. Check local TV listings for broadcast times or view the show streaming online at: http://www.mnvideovault.org/mvvPlayer/customPlaylist2.php?id=24552&select_index=0&popup=yes#0

The Business of Food As You Have Never Seen It Before @ theperennialplate.com

by Phyllis Louise Harris

March 2014

Across the world food brings people together in a way nothing else can. Daniel Klein found hundreds of examples of this during his three-year effort to produce the James Beard Award winning online documentary series, “The Perennial Plate.” Along with his partner (and now wife) Mirra Fine, Daniel travelled through thirteen countries to learn more about the food of the world from the people who make it.

From the farmer in Japan who fought to keep acres of farmland from being turned into housing developments so that he could continue to grow wheat and then opened a restaurant to turn that wheat into flour and wonderful udon, to the coconut growers in Sri Lanka who find a use for every part of the coconut tree, the team met the people who produce the food we all need and want.

In our world of supermarkets and instant meals we tend to forget the effort made by so many people who spend their lives keeping our plates full. Daniel and Mirra went back to the sources and found a passion among food producers worldwide.

“We wanted to revive the human connection to food and the business of food,” Daniel said. “We wanted to create a series with a positive approach to food production and to get people thinking about the food they eat.” And, they wanted to have fun doing it. They also wanted to change eating habits and to talk about sustainability. What they did surprised them both.

In November of 2009 the first episode of The Perennial Plate was all about turkeys – raising them, killing them and eating them. It is a short, graphic film that some people find too realistic to watch. It is the piece that convinced Mirra to become a vegetarian. “Turkey” ran on the Internet and the series was born. Every Monday for the next year a new short film focused on the food of Minnesota, attracting an audience of about 10,000 viewers who were watching and commenting on each episode. In the second year Daniel and Mirra travelled throughout America and then decided it was time to go abroad. They selected 12 countries with centuries-old culinary traditions and where travel was relatively easy. That included China, Japan, India, Sri Lanka, Spain, Morocco, Italy, Turkey, Argentina, Mexico, South Africa and Ethiopia. Intrepid Travel thought it was a good idea and became a sponsor.

The intriguing thing about the series is the visual way the team tells a simple food story in three to five minutes. One of my favorites is “Tea for Two,” episode number 117, April 2, 2013. It is a very sweet story of a couple in Sri Lanka whose marriage was arranged for them by their parents and has lasted for 35 years. Today, the couple manages their small tea farm handling everything from the growing to the picking and delivery as a team. In those few short minutes the viewer is suddenly involved with this loving, hardworking pair as they go through their daily routines together, making their own contribution to the world through their beautiful Ceylon tealeaves.

The series also touches on some of the problems of sustainable farming with a cranberry grower in Minnesota who is trying very hard to maintain production while bugs and weeds are killing his crops.

One of the most fascinating stories follows the Dabbawalla of Mumbai where every weekday 4,000 men deliver 175,000 lunches from homes to workers at their jobs. In Episode 115, March 10, 2013, we see a deliveryman stopping at home kitchens to pick up hot lunches packed in special containers. As each pick-up is made it is added to dozens more on a large board that is balanced on the head of the deliveryman as he bicycles through the crowded streets to make each delivery. Other lunch containers are added to hundreds more on a commuter train for a quick ride then delivered on foot. Surprisingly, no delivery is lost and not a single lunch is spilled. Then the deliverymen make the same route in reverse to deliver empty lunch containers back to their homes. As one of them said, bringing good, home cooking to the people at work is very important.

Daniel is an experienced restaurant chef with a film background and Mirra has a wealth of marketing and film experience. Together they have created a food series that educates and entertains in a memorable fashion. I have been a food writer for more than 40 years and found each episode a new lesson in the business of food and gained a new appreciation for the people who spend their lives producing it. Their passion, their dedication, and their hard work clearly transmit to the food we all enjoy everyday. The series is truly enlightening!

Today, Daniel is editing the final episodes of the three-year project. Each three to five minute piece takes three hours to film and additional time to edit. By July the project will be finished but will live on at www.theperennialplate.com. In reviewing the past three years Daniel found that across the world most people want good, real food whether they grow it or buy it. He also found a number of surprises including the episodes that went viral reaching two million viewers. As to his goal to change eating habits, Mirra’s entire family is now vegetarian.

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Read more about Asian food in Minnesota and try more than 160 recipes in Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875, now in bookstores and on amazon.com.

Buy online:  Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875 

Watch the EMMY® award winning “Asian Flavors” television show based on the book on tpt MN. Check local TV listings for broadcast times or view the show streaming online at: http://www.mnvideovault.org/mvvPlayer/customPlaylist2.php?id=24552&select_index=0&popup=yes#0

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

by Phyllis Louise Harris

February 2014

Happy New Year of the Horse! According to Chinese legend the year ahead will be filled with adventure, progress and activity. Sounds good to me!!

While the Chinese New Year 4712 started January 31, traditionally the holiday continues for 23 days so there is plenty of time to celebrate. Chinese food expert Katie Chin tells us how on her website www.thesweetandsourchronicles.com. She starts with Long Life Noodles with Chicken to ensure longevity. Then she follows with Whole Steamed Fish with Ginger and Scallions for a year filled with abundance. Next she serves Firecracker Shrimp for good luck and she includes recipes for these dishes to cook at home. Essentially eating anything red, or yellow or round, or long noodles or whole fish or chicken will help ensure a really good year ahead. Better yet, go to your favorite Chinese restaurant to enjoy their special New Year menu or create a good luck menu of your own. By the way, lobster (whose shell turns red when it is cooked) is a traditional good luck dish, so do enjoy!

For more than 30 years I have written about the joys of the Chinese New Year and the deliciously traditional ways to celebrate it.  But, this year I did something different….I went on a picnic!

Each year in February I am so tired of the snow, cold and ice that I “escape” to the tropical climate at Bachman’s floral and garden store at 6010 Lyndale Avenue South in Minneapolis. Here among the red and yellow tulips, the aromatic hydrangeas, the bright yellow daffodils, and the lush green plants I can enjoy selections from Patrick’s Bakery and Café at a patio table in the wonderfully warm, sun-filled greenhouse. What a joy! There is not a flake of snow in sight and I can dine without my coat. While there is also not a single Asian flavor on the menu, I can select “lucky” foods from Patrick’s array of quiche’s, sandwiches, salads, cookies, and wide selection of heavenly pastries. I can always find something yellow or red or round or whole in this array.

Bachman’s first opened in 1885 selling potatoes, lettuce, onions and squash grown on their land that now houses the Bachman operation. They did not start growing flowers until 1914 and today Bachman’s is one of the largest floral and nursery operations in the country. So it is probably fitting that they have started holding annual winter farmers’ markets. This year the Kingfield and Fulton Winter Farmers Markets will be held on Saturdays, February 22 and March 22 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lyndale greenhouse. Shop for locally grown and produced cheeses, meats, prepared foods, canned goods, crafts and fresh produce from 30 local vendors. For anyone missing a weekly trip to the farmers’ market this winter, this will help tide you over until spring.

Author Beth Dooley will also be at the February 22 market selling and signing her book “Minnesota’s Bounty,” a guide to shopping and cooking food from local farmers’ markets. And on March 22, “The Minnesota Farmers Market Cookbook” will be featured with cooking demonstrations by Tricia Cornell.  Both book events will be held from 10 – 11 a.m.

Start the Year of the Horse off right! Celebrate with good dining, new activities and adventure. Gung Hay Fat Choy! May you have the best of years.

                              
                     
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Read more about Asian food in Minnesota and try more than 160 recipes in Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875, now in bookstores and on amazon.com.

Buy online:  Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875 

Watch the EMMY® award winning “Asian Flavors” television show based on the book on tpt MN. Check local TV listings for broadcast times or view the show streaming online at:
http://www.mnvideovault.org/mvvPlayer/customPlaylist2.php?id=24552&select_index=0&popup=yes#0

Turning Over a New Leaf

by Phyllis Louise Harris

January 2014

Beautiful, hot, soothing tea…the world’s most consumed drink next to water…was about to be banished from my kitchen until I talked with the man who knows more about tea than anyone I know, Bill Waddington. Apparently I am no longer able to tolerate the caffeine in tea (there can be a lot of it) and did not want to resort to herbals or tisanes

“No problem,” said Bill. “The CO₂ method of removing caffeine actually eliminates some of tea’s bitter flavor, but keeps the full flavor of the tea leaves.” And, he should know! Founder and owner of TeaSource, Bill carries more than 250 varieties of tea and blends in his three stores and catalog. The only decaffeinated tea he carries uses the CO₂ method.

Years ago I had tried decaffeinated tea, but found it tasteless. Not so today. There are a number of flavorful decafs at TeaSource including Earl Grey Decaf, English Breakfast Decaf, or Sencha Decaf, the Japanese green tea that is so aromatic and soothing.

Like most everyone else I get stuck in a rut on food choices until some creative chef or culinary expert challenges me to try something new. And, Bill does that on a regular basis.

No matter where tea is grown or how it is processed all 3,000 varieties come from the Camellia sinensis plant. The differences in flavor are created by geography, growing conditions, cultivars and processing. So when tea was allegedly discovered by an ancient Chinese Emperor after a tea leaf dropped into his cup of boiling water, it was from the same tea source we have today, Carmellia sinensis. Over centuries tea leaf processing has evolved to create a wide variety of flavors and now even flavorful decaffeinated tea.

There is also the choice of caffeine-free herbals and tisanes made from other plant leaves and bark, fruit, herbs, flowers and spices. But, please don’t refer to them as “tea.” They are not made from the Cameillia sinensis plant and are simply called herbals or tisanes.

So my new leaf for the New Year is to try a variety of decaf teas at TeaSource and come up with some new “favorites” that don’t put me on the ceiling.

Happy New Year!!!

Learn more about tea at TeaSource in St. Anthony Village, St. Paul’s Highland Village and Eden Prairie. Or get a copy of the 2014 TeaSource catalog. Also visit the new TeaSource blog beyondtheleaf.wordpress.com or teasource.com for online shopping and additional tea information. TeaSource has a variety of tea classes throughout the year. Check their website for dates and times.

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Read more about Asian food in Minnesota and try more than 160 recipes in Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875, now in bookstores and on amazon.com.

Buy online:  Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875 

Watch the EMMY® award winning “Asian Flavors” television show based on the book on tpt MN. Check local TV listings for broadcast times or view the show streaming online at:
http://www.mnvideovault.org/mvvPlayer/customPlaylist2.php?id=24552&select_index=0&popup=yes#0

Asian Cookbook Gifts for the Holidays from Minnesota Authors

by Phyllis Louise Harris

December 2013

Minnesota is home to thousands of Asian cooks, chefs and home cooks who have made their traditional cooking a part of our culture. A few wrote cookbooks to provide cooks with traditional dishes that can be made in everyone’s kitchen. Surprise someone on your list with cookbooks that capture the flavors of the Asia Pacific Rim. Here are just a few available in bookstores and at amazon.com:

Raghavan Iyer’s Indian Cooking Unfolded published this fall by Workman Publishing Inc.

Raghavan just returned from a 40-city tour of the U.S. and Canada where his fans lined up to get his newest cookbook. Indian Cooking Unfolded features 100 easy recipes using 10 ingredients or less so even beginning cooks will find Indian cooking truly a pleasure. The seven fold-out cooking lessons make things even easier. He will be making another book signing appearance and tasting December 20 at Kitchen in the Market in Minneapolis. For details call 612-568-5486.

Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875 published last fall by the Minnesota Historical Society Press

This one-of-a-kind cookbook went on to be the basis for the EMMY® winning television show “Asian Flavors” produced by Twin Cities Public Television and now available for viewing on their TPT MN channel reaching all parts of Minnesota. I created the book to bring together stories about a few of the many Asia Pacific Minnesotans who have enhanced our culinary experiences. Raghavan was included in the book and contributed four chapters of additional stories.

Wing Ying Huie and his father Joe Huie brought their Chinese home cooking to Duluth through their popular restaurants. David Fong was the first to bring Chinese food to Bloomington and after 55 years he and his family continue treating Minnesota diners at David Fong’s Chinese Restaurant in Bloomington, his daughter Amy’s Fong’s Restaurant and Bar in Prior Lake and his son David, Jr.’s D Fong’s Chinese Cuisine in Savage. Leeann Chin created the areas’ largest and most recognized chain of Chinese restaurants. Reiko Weston opened Fujiya, the first Japanese restaurant in the state and Supenn Harrison introduced residents to Thai egg rolls at the 1976 Minnesota State Fair, then went on to create the chain of Sawatdee Thai restaurants. Home cooks also shared their traditional dishes with friends and neighbors including Mena-li Canalas and Abe Malicsi who share their Filipino food traditions with nearly everyone they meet. The Minnesota Hmong community has brought a wealth of new flavors to this land they now call home. The book includes their stories and recipes, and dozens more.

Asian Flavors also includes more than 160 recipes from more than 14 Pacific Rim countries, a historical timeline of the growth of Asian food in Minnesota and gorgeous four-color photography by Tom Nelson. It is an ideal gift for the history buff, anyone who likes to read about people, and cooks who want to try some of the many dishes now a part of Minnesota’s heritage. Even if I did write it, Asian Flavors is truly special!

Crying Tiger: Thai Recipes from the Heart by Supatra Johnson published in 2004

It does not need to be a new book to be important. When Supatra published the recipes of her homeland, Thailand, she created a book that gives readers a tour of the country and a wonderful collection of recipes. At ACAI we used it to teach Thai cooking to a group of food scientists. Some of the favorites of the class were Pad Thai, Pork with Peanut Curry Sauce, Steamed Walleye with Vegetables and Pumpkin Coconut Soup. All easy to make and all delicious! Supatra and her husband Randy own and operate Supatra’s Thai Restaurant in St. Paul where she is the chef offering a wide variety of Thai dishes. She also offers Thai cooking classes. For a copy of Crying Tiger and a wealth of information about Thai food visit their website at supatra.com. Or visit the restaurant at 967 West Seventh Street.

Everyday Chinese Cooking by Leeann Chin and Katie Chin published in 2000 by Clarkson Potter Publishers

This oldie but goodie was created by the legendary Leeann Chin and her daughter Katie to offer readers simple Chinese recipes for fun, family cooking. It is still a treasure of flavorful dishes that any home cook can create. Diners will recognize many of the dishes served in the Leeann Chin restaurants even today. For chow mein lovers, it includes Canton-style Chicken Chow Mein that is made with chicken, snow peas, shitake mushrooms, and bean sprouts flavored with fresh ginger and oyster sauce: not a stick of celery in sight. With more than 150 easy-to-follow recipes, Everyday Chinese Cooking is an ageless gift that keeps on giving.

Or pick up a copy of Katie’s newest cookbook Everyday Thai Cooking published this fall by Tuttle Publishing. She dedicates the book “For my late mother Leeann Chin, an amazing chef and teacher who continues to inspire me everyday.” Clearly Katie also loves Thai cooking, so much so that her husband took her on a trip through Thailand for their honeymoon. Now living in California with her husband and children, Katie continues to refer to her Minnesota roots and her mother’s amazing food. Everyday Thai Cooking is a beautiful, colorful cookbook that is as much fun to read as to use.

These are just a few of the wonderful Asian cookbooks by Minnesota authors that are great for gift giving or just to enjoy yourself. Happy holidays!!

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Read more about Asian food in Minnesota and try more than 160 recipes in Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875, in bookstores and on amazon.com.
 
Buy online:  Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875 

Watch the EMMY® award winning “Asian Flavors” television show based on the book on tpt MN. Check local TV listings for broadcast times or view the show streaming online at: 
http://www.mnvideovault.org/mvvPlayer/customPlaylist2.php?id=24552&select_index=0&popup=yes#0