Before cooking, the sausage is soaked in warm water (55 C) for about an hour and then rinsed to remove excess salt. Finally it is boiled for 20 minutes and ready to eat. It is mainly served as its own dish. Left overs can be cut into fine pieces and used in fried rice. Flavor is compared among aunties and grannies, along with compliments and next year's requests.

This is nothing like your store-bought sausage because for one, the meat is chopped not ground or minced. You really feel like you are chewing on something. Secondly, you know exactly what you are eating, not isn't questionable body parts or left overs. After avoiding sausages for a long time, this makes me consider eating them again.

What I actually meant to say was Winter Solstice Day which occurs the 22nd of December every year. Roughly translated, it can be called Winter Coming Day although honestly, it really felt like winter 'done came' through these parts. Any advice for this island girl on how to keep warm?

The longest night of the year is usually spent with family and friends eating a dinner of dumplings and mutton, both of which are considered heating foods. One mao ( a Chinese ten cent) is placed in one of the dumplings, so everyone bites carefully until it is found. The winner is granted good luck for the rest of the season and the dumplings are eaten at leisurely pace one more.

Lovely bowl of steamed dumplings

Sauces and soups are the key to a great dinner

Mutton and vegetables cooking in a well seasoned soup

Recently, I found my own form of 'luck' in these sequential one yuan (a Chinese dollar). So happy that they were not hundreds so I am perfectly content with saving them.

Strawberries!!

Don't they look yummy....I guarantee you they taste even better than they look. These fruits are placed on a bamboo stick and then coated in a sweet syrup made from rock sugar 冰糖 Bīngtáng. Rock sugar is preferred because it offers a more complete flavor than ordinary white sugar.  Although it contains mor e calories, its full taste allows you to use less of it, therefore eliminated that concern, if it is one of yours. All this transforms the fruit, already packed with nutrients, into a super duper snack for the winter.


Originally, Chinese hawthorns were used because of their contrasting sour taste. Over time, however, other tart fruits and even nuts have been introduced to this enjoyable winter snack.


Chongqing winter weather rarely drops below zero, so we can safely thank the northern states of China for sharing this with the rest of the country.

Freshly wrapped dumplings ready to boil

Let's have a quick vocabulary lesson: A Caribbean dumpling is a tight dough of flour, water and salt that is boiled and served with salted fish, stewed chicken or steamed provision. Shapes vary from island to island and include long rods, table tennis balls or flat pancake. A Chinese dumpling uses a flat, thinner dough which is wrapped around minced meat or vegetables with a sophisticated, decorative close. Like Caribbean dumplings, technique is of paramount importance, and a skilled master can fold as many as 100 dumplings in 15 mins.

Cool cake or 凉糕 Liáng gāo is another great snack for the summer and even autumn months. It's a starch jelly-like pudding with a very simple taste that makes it easy to eat. And you actually feel cooler after a few minutes of eating. I had the amazing opportunity to make my own, free of preservatives and had so much fun making different flavors.

凉糕

When it comes to Chinese desserts, 'chocolaty' and 'creamy' aren't the first words that come to mind. And that's actually a good thing. After eating heavy meals, something more relaxing on the tummy should be considered and that's where Chinese desserts take the cake, no pun intended.  They balance salty with sweet, spicy with bland or hot with cold right next to yin and yang, food for the spirit man.

One night, after a pepper-laden dinner, there came Snow Fungus soup to rescue my roaring insides. From the first bite, I immediately knew that the world would be a little safer that night.



Tremella fociformis is commonly known as Snow, White Wood or Silver Ear Fungus and is the main ingredient in this soup. It works well for anti-aging, dry coughs and boosting the immune system when eaten over a long period of time. In the short term, it cools down the digestive and circulatory system so it's perfect on hot days with hot food.

The soup is so easy prepare. It can be flavored with nuts, fruits and spices to blend with the soft, yet crunchy yumminess of the fungus so feel free to make it as nutritious as possible.

Snow White Forest Soup

When I told my Shanghai teachers that I was moving to Chongqing, they warned me of the two things: beautiful women and spicy food. I know right...they sound pretty harmless, just another cultural memoir.Two years later and I've grown a stronger heart and a stomach of steel. In Chongqing, every meal contains chill pepper seeds that have been ground to bring out the latent flavor. And just when you thought that pepper only burns, turns out there is the numbing kind called Chinese prickly ash  or 花椒 (huajiao) which literally means flower pepper. Like it's impossible to pick a beautiful rose without being pricked, this pepper brings both intense flavor and sensation. My first time, I thought my teeth were trying out some new Jamaica dancehall moves. However, I have actually grown accustomed to it and I find that my food is bland without it.

That been said, these peppers also form the foundation of the main dish of Chongqing-Hot Pot. A well seasoned soup is used as the base to cook vegetables and meats of all kinds. Even steamed buns 馒头 (mantou) and dumplings饺子(jiaozi) are added to the mix. It's said that many years ago (and I really do mean many) when the economic struggle was real for many citizens of the city, collecting scraps of food from the ‘overly' fortunate was the creative spirit that birthed this wonderful meal. If you are truly a Chongqing ren, you and your friends or family will gather around a Hot Pot at least 4 times a week.


Below, I feature my take on Hot Pot with my classmates using a pre-packed soup mix. It's main ingredients are beef tallow, chili pepper, prickly ash pepper, salt and *side eye* mono-sodium glutamate. A truly homemade version will be made up of whatever you can find in your kitchen, so don't hesitate to try this dish in your spare time.

Chongqing Bowl of Fire