Ming Tsai, Romy Dorotan, Tru Lang, and Ming Cao Serve Up Holiday Memories, Favorite Dishes

The Lunar New Year kicks off Feb. 10. It’s the Year of the Dragon, which will mark continued power, nobility, honor, luck, and success, according to the traditional Chinese zodiac. The dragon is the fifth of the twelve year cycle of animals — Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig. Festivities in Boston and around the world will feature family, food, and fortune (good or bad) for all. Continuing its annual tradition, SAMPAN spoke with renowned chefs, local and distant, about their personal memories of Lunar New Year at home and in America. Traditions may be altered and adapted to fit the times, and family participation may ebb and flow like an ocean’s current, but the ineffable importance of serving great food during Lunar New Year remains.

Celebrating With Chef Ming Tsai

Chef Tsai is a James Beard and Emmy Award-Winner, philanthropist, T.V. personality, and entrepreneur. He is the creator of award-winning restaurants, author of five cookbooks, was host and executive producer of the longest-running cooking series on PBS, Simply Ming and just shot a new mini series titled Simply Ming: Better For You. In 2022, he became Iron Chef Tsai as he joined the cast of 5 world-class chefs in the Netflix series Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend.

In 2020, he launched an East-meets-West frozen food line, MingsBings . They are now available in over 5,000 grocery stores nationwide, including Sprouts, Publix, Market Basket, Wegmans, Whole Foods, select Targets, and at iconic venues like Fenway Park, Tropicana Field, and Hard Rock Stadium. With the mission of “Eat Good. Do Good” he delivers delicious, convenient and better-for-you meals to households while also giving back to foundations like Dana Farber and Family Reach.

Beyond his contributions through MingsBings, Chef Tsai lives by a “Do Good” mentality. He is the Chairman of the National Advisory Board for Family Reach and has helped raise over 11 million dollars for the foundation since 2012. He is an ambassador for World Central Kitchen and has raised over a million dollars for the organization. This year, Chef has participated in many fundraisers and events to support Maui Relief, Family Reach, The Jimmy Fund, Closer to Free, just to name a few.

Here, Tsai reveals his special family tradition:

In my family we always make and eat bings and dumplings on Lunar New Year. I usually have to work in my restaurant, Baba, so I honor this tradition by running a special of double fortune bings. If I am at home to celebrate, especially with my parents back in Ohio or Palo Alto, we serve a lot of whole main courses to bring wholeness into your new year! Whole steamed fish, in scallions and soy, flashed in hot oil. Red roasted duck, head on, feet on, everything. Braised for 3 hours in soy sauce and brown sugar, it’s a sweet duck, you want to eat sweetness into the New Year. We have at least 2 or 3 green leafy vegetables, because green is the color of money. Wok stirred watercress, bok choy, and gai lan (Chinese broccoli) are common. We always display big bowls of oranges because they’re believed to bring good luck and happiness. At Baba, I will run a dessert special of an orange and ginger flambé, served over Nian Gao (New Year Sweet Rice Cake) or Ba Bao Fan (Eight Treasure Rice). Nian means sticky, it also means year, you always want to eat sticky sweet desserts to propagate sweetness for the next year.

Other traditions, especially when I was in Taiwan, is that my grandparents would repaint their front door red. Red is believed to attract the gods and symbolizes good luck and prosperity. As kids we were given red envelopes filled with money. The real importance is the red envelopes themselves, they symbolize good wishes and luck for the new year ahead. I now give these to everyone I work with. On New Year’s day you’re not supposed to do any manual labor, that’s why dumplings were all done the night before. You’re not supposed to sweep, clean, wash clothes, or even wash your hair on New Year’s Day, so we would also clean the house completely. Like spring cleaning, to start fresh in the new year. I have carried this tradition over to my company, MingsBings. We aim to produce a better for you product hence our current motto, a new year, a new you!

Year of the Dragon Pork and Cabbage MingsBings

By Ming Tsai 2024 (Serves 4)

Dumplings are always eaten on Chinese New Year because they represent ingots of gold, which implies fortune. These are double dumplings, so double fortune!

Ingredients:

• 3 cups chopped Napa cabbage
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 pound ground pork (don’t get lean pork, the fat is good for juice and flavor)
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons minced ginger
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 3 stalks scallions, sliced, save 1/4 cup of green scallions for sauce
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
• 1 package spring roll wrappers
• Kosher salt and cracked black pepper to taste
• Grapeseed oil, for sauteing
• Egg wash (1 egg mixed with 1 tbsp of water)

Ingredient List for Dragon Dipper

• 1/4 cup Spicy Chile Crisp, sambal or your favorite hot sauce
• 1/2 cup rice vinegar
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 2 tablespoon sliced scallions

Instructions

Sprinkle the cabbage with 1 tablespoon of salt and let stand for 30 minutes. Place the cabbage on a clean dish towel or cheesecloth and squeeze out any water. The dryer the cabbage the better. In a large bowl thoroughly mix the cabbage with pork, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, scallions and sesame oil. Cook or microwave a tester to check the seasoning.

Make the bings: Place a good mound of filling in the middle bottom of the wrapper. Lightly brush all 3 sides, fold in the right side then overlap with the left side. Brush more egg wash on top and fold the bing on itself vertically twice to form a rectangle. Press down to seal.

Cook the bings: Coat a sauté pan with ¼ inch of oil over medium-high heat. Place the bings folded side down and cook until the G,B&D, about 2-3 minutes. Flip and cook the other side. Check the temperature by inserting a thermometer into the center of the bing. It is ready when it reaches 160℉, transfer to a cutting board.

Meanwhile, make the dipping sauce, mix together Spicy Chile Crisp, vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil and scallion greens.

Slice bings diagonally and serve. Enjoy!

Filipino New Year: Chef Romy Dorotan

Amy Besa and her husband, chef Romy Dorotan, have been at the forefront of preserving and promoting the traditions of Filipino food in the New York restaurant business for the past twenty-nine years. In 1995, they started with Cendrillon, a Filipino, Pan-Asian place in Soho, then at Purple Yam in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn. A Purple Yam Malate, their first branch in the Philippines, opened in 2014, in Amy’s childhood home in one of the oldest historical districts of Manila. The duo also co-authored the cookbook, Memories of Philippine Kitchens, the recipient of the Jane Grigson Award for distinguished scholarship, research, and the quality of its writing, by International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) in 2007.

In a conversation with Alexander Orquiza, Associate Professor at Providence College in Providence, RI. posted at www.centerforartandthought.org, Besa reflected on Filipinos being “enamored, bedazzled and bewitched” with all things American, especially its food, but Filipino food itself not being mainstream in American cuisine:

“The question does not even ask why our love for American food is not in the least bit reciprocated. Filipinos themselves are oblivious of their taste preference. I guess it reflects upon how this worldview accepts American food as a default—that it is loved and eaten everywhere, it is a universal food and no one even questions why we eat it all the time.”

Besa and Doroton’s 2006 book Memories of Philippine Kitchens: stories and recipes from far and near, part memoir and history, looked at how the essence of Filipino food came from family kitchens of Filipino homes, passed down through the generations, melding native traditions with those of Chinese, Spanish, and American cuisines. From lumpia, pancit, and kinilaw to adobo and lechon (the art of the well-roasted pig), the authors document dishes and culinary techniques that were rapidly disappearing and in some cases unknown to Filipinos whether in the Philippines or abroad. With over 100 unique recipes, Besa and Dorotan documented the role of food in Filipino society, both old and new.

The Chinese Influence from the Bottom Up

Ask a Filipino to name typical Filipino dishes and he or she will invariably list pancit and lumpia. I encounter dumbfounded looks when I mention that these are Chinese in origin. Much of Filipino home cooking traces its roots to Chinese ingredients, cooking methods and seasoning. The influence of the Chinese came with the traders who brought noodles, ducks, duck eggs, soy sauce, soybeans, sausages, and other affordable, accessible foods that could be eaten on a daily basis.

Since the sixteenth century, poverty and social upheaval in mainland China have caused a massive influx of Fujianese and Cantonese into the Philippines. As Chinese merchants and traders settled throughout the country establishing small businesses, they intermarried with local Filipino women. It was a common practice among the Chinese who came to the Philippines to take a Filipino wife to gain acceptance within the community while maintaining a family in China. Today most Filipinos have Chinese blood in their veins and most Filipino cooking bears the traces of this legacy.

Whenever I enter a room where cigarette smoke and the smell of frying oil hangs heavy in the air, it brings me back to the panciterias of downtown Manila. During the 1950s and ’60s, Ambrose Chiu, my Uncle Gaudencio Besa’s best friend, was a stockholder and corporate officer of Panciteria Moderna, which provided my earliest exposure to Chinese food and culture. My mother recalls the dishes there, among them nido (bird’s nest) soup, sweet and sour pork, prawn and ham coated in batter and fried, steamed apahap (sea bass) fish in white sauce or fried with sweet and sour sauce (similar to escabeche), fried young pigeons served with crunchy kropec (shrimp-flavored crackers), fried rice, and different varieties of Chinese pancit.

The influence of Chinese cooking in the Philippines is primarily Fujianese-Cantonese. While the stir-fried, noodle-based Cantonese cuisine is easier to trace to its Chinese origins, Fujianese influences are more subtle. Fujianese cuisine is reliant on pork (and pork lard), as the area was very poor and mountainous and did not have enough land to produce vegetable oil.

Serving Up Pancit

The word pancit (or pansit), comes from the Hokkien words pian-e-sit, meaning “something that is conveniently cooked.” How this food of convenience came to mean only noodles is lost in the mix of history. What is more salient is that Filipinos saw the potential of the noodle, turning it into dishes made with ingredients readily available to them. The pancit Malabon, named after a fishing port north of Manila, is made with rice noodles topped with oysters, squid, and mussels. Inland towns tend to favor pancit luglug, which are rice noodles with a shrimp juice and ground pork sauce, garnished with fried garlic, fried tofu, hard-boiled egg, crushed chicharron, smoked fish, chopped scallions, and boiled shrimp.

Filipinos use a variety of noodles made from egg (Canton), rice (bihon), mung bean (sotanghon), wheat (misua), and whole wheat (miki). They are usually sautéed with vegetables, as in pancit guisado and pancit bihon.

Tikoy, a sticky cake made with sweet rice flour, seems to be the preferred snack during this time of the year in the Philippines. In my family, we get Christmas baskets from Chinese friends containing many goodies like Chinese ham, biscuits, candies and always, a round cake of tikoy. We usually cut this up into little slices, dip them in egg and fry them. I suppose this is done after the Christmas season and would coincide with the lunar new year.

We make our own tikoy at Purple Yam which we pair with Romy’s homemade champoy (salted plum) ice cream. Attached is the photo of our tikoy which we used as part of our Chinese New Year menu. Now we serve it regularly because our Filipino customers love it so much.

Memories of Philippine Kitchens, Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan, Abrams, NYC, 2006 & 2012

Pancit Malabon With Sidebar Recipe

Fried Garlic Serves 4 to 6

Sauce:

• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 small garlic clove, minced
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups shrimp juice
• 1 tablespoon achuete seeds, soaked in 1/2 cup water for 20 minutes
• 1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce, or to taste

Pancit:

• 1 pound thick tubular rice noodles, soaked in warm water for 15 minutes
• 1 cup chopped fresh pechay or bok choy, boiled for 30 seconds and drained
• 1 cup small shrimp, peeled, deveined, boiled until light pink (about 3 minutes)
• 1 cup shucked oysters, gently simmered with their liquor until their edges curl, about 3 minutes
• 1 cup squid, cut into 1-inch pieces and sautéed in 1 tablespoon canola oil until firm, 3 to 5 minutes
• 1/2 cup flaked smoked tinapa, trout, or mackerel
• 1/2 cup crushed fried pork rind (chicharron)
• 3 cloves fried garlic (see Sidebar)
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup chopped wansoy or cilantro
• 2 hard-boiled eggs, sliced
• 6 calamansi or other limes, halved and seeded
• 1/4 cup fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons kalamansi or other lime juice

1. For the sauce, in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat warm the oil. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the shrimp juice and flour until mostly smooth. Add this mixture to the saucepan with the garlic. Cook over medium-high heat, whisking, until slightly thickened and smooth, 3 to 5 minutes.
3. Press the achuete seeds in the water until the water turns deep red. Discard the seeds and add the water to the saucepan. Cook, stirring, until the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 5 minutes. Add the salt, pepper, and fish sauce. Taste and add more salt, pepper, or fish sauce if needed. The sauce can be made a day in advance. Store in a tightly sealed container and refrigerate until ready to use. Reheat over low heat to serve.
4. For the pancit, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the noodles and cook until softened, about 5 minutes, depending on the thickness of the noodles. Drain and transfer to a large bowl. Pour about 1/3 of the sauce over the noodles. Add about 2/3 cup of the blanched penchay to the noodles. Reserve a few of the cooked shrimp, oysters, squid, tinapa, and chicharon for garnish. Add the rest to the noodles and gently stir. Transfer to a serving platter and pour the remaining sauce over all. Garnish with the remaining penchay and the reserved seafood. Sprinkle the fried garlic, scallions, and wonsoy on top. Arrange the sliced eggs over the top and place kalamansi halves around the sides of the platter. Serve with the fish sauce, mixed with kalamansi juice, on the side.

Sidebar Recipe: Fried Garlic

This is one of our favorite garnishes, and we also like to use it as a garnish for our fresh lumpia dishes.

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 6 garlic cloves, sliced

Heat the oil in a small skillet over low heat. Add the garlic and fry until nicely browned, about 5 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the garlic to a paper towel-lined plate. Reserve the oil and use it in place of your usual oil to add flavor to sautéed dishes and the like. Romy likes to use the oil to baste roast suckling pig.

French Connection: Chef Tru Lang

Born in France and raised in Boston to Chinese and Vietnamese parents, Tru studied Political Science at the University of Massachusetts before starting to cook professionally. His career has brought him to kitchens throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. In April 2017 he began a 6-month trip around kitchens in Tokyo and Taiwan, before landing in Vietnam for the first time in his life. He spent a month exploring this beautiful country solo on a motorbike, riding from south to north. In December 2017, Tru relocated permanently to central Vietnam and has been living and cooking there since.

Tru founded MÙA Trà Quế restaurant in Hoi An in 2020 with the intent of focusing on the core pillars of community, sustainability, and traditional culture in Vietnam. In 2022 he co-founded MÙA Craft Sake in Ho Chi Minh City, a collaboration with Heiwa Shuzo sake brewery from Wakayama Japan. The only one of its kind in SE Asia, MÙA Craft Sake brews sake with rice grown in Vietnam, and is served in a taproom with a unique Vietnamese and Japanese inspired menu drawing from Tru’s travels and experiences in Japan.

MÙA was listed in the Top 25 Restaurants of Robb Report Gourmet Collection 2023. Their mission has always been to put the spotlight on local Vietnamese ingredients to respect the traditional way of eating and living according to the seasons, with the MÙA Hội An community, their diligent farmers and fishermen (and women) made the menu and experience possible.

From the June 2022 feature story in www.thedotmagazine.com Tru Lang’s MÙA Hội An Is In Season (by David Kaye)

His [Lang’s] chef’s journey stateside included a number of other stops – the three Michelin starred San Francisco restaurant Benu, a stint at Boston institution T.W. Food, and even one at the Boston-based Bon Me food truck project before he wound up at Journeyman. Would he like to set up a food truck in Hoi An, we ask. “I would love to have a dim sum food truck in Hoi An, somewhere by the river near the old town. I think we would kill it! But in Saigon, there’s so much amazing street food I’d be hard pressed to justify putting a food truck on the road…”-

Childhood Memories

Lunar New Year, growing up in Boston, was always a raucous affair. Several days before, we’d begin preparing dishes for a traditional midnight dinner on New Year’s eve (團年飯) to celebrate the end of the year and welcome a new one. In the morning we’d wake up to traditional Chinese songs blasting from the stereo, fragrant hot longjian tea brewing in the pot, the smell of sizzling glutinous rice cake (年糕) and turnip cake fried with a beaten egg crust. In the afternoon we’d make the drive to Boston Chinatown to revel with the crowd, breathing in the acrid sulfurous smoke from firecrackers, their red wrappers coating the sidewalks for the day. We’d nod our heads in rhythm to the banging of drums and dancing lions. Lunar New Year in my family is always one of the most important times of the year, and the flavors and dishes we cooked and shared with each other will always help us recall those happy times. I hope this recipe can be a part of your readers’ holiday celebrations.

My recipe is our family version of Vietnamese braised pork with egg (thịt kho tàu). My father was raised in Saigon and my mother’s side of the family is Vietnamese, so I guess this is our take on Chinese-Vietnamese New year! Pork belly is seared in cubes and cooked for hours in a caramel and coconut broth with hard boiled eggs until tender and completely saturated with the flavorful sauce. Traditionally this recipe is made with coconut water but our family likes to use coconut cream or milk for even more richness and body. I’ve slightly modified it to make it a bit easier. Goes amazing with a bowl of white rice.

Vietnamese braised pork with egg (thịt kho tàu)

Ingredients:

• 2 lb pork belly skin on, cut in 1.5-2 inch cubes
• 1 pc Star anise
• 1 tsp ground Black pepper
• 1/2 tps Cinnamon
• 1 clove Garlic minced
• 1 each White onion quartered
• 5 each 10 minute hard boiled egg, peeled (use duck eggs for extra flavor)
• 1t whole Red chili
• 5 tablespoon Fish sauce
• 5 tablespoon Soy sauce
• 10 tablespoon Sugar
• 350ml coconut cream (1 can) (can substitute with coconut water)

Technique:

Cover the pork belly with cold water in a pot and bring to a boil. Drain the meat and rinse in cold water, set aside in a bowl and marinate with fish sauce, soy sauce, minced garlic, black pepper.

In a small pot cook the sugar until a deep amber color. Turn off the heat and add some water to melt the caramel and stop the cooking.

In a larger pot, heat a small amount of cooking oil. Sear the pork cubes until golden brown. Add all of the rest of the ingredients into the pot, cover with just enough water. Cook on medium/low heat for 1,5 hours until pork is tender and eggs have absorbed the juice to become a light brown color. There should be enough braising liquid to just cover the meat. Season to taste with more fish sauce if necessary.

Let rest overnight for the flavors to even out and penetrate the meat. When cool, skim off the excess fat.

Reheat and eat with white rice!

Maki With Chef Ming Cao

Since 2016, Chef Ming Cao has been the Executive Head Chef of Sushi and a partner of the JP Fuji Group. A local legend, Chef has won many competitions and received numerous accolades including American Culinary Federation, first place at Assembly Row’s Chowdah Pot and the Kendall Square Association’ BYTEs, Taste of the South Shore, Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce Small Business of the Year, and INC 5000 Fastest Growing Companies in America. Chief Cao has developed unique dishes which successfully blend Chinese and Japanese influences in spices and techniques. One such conceptualization is his very popular Ming’s Mango Maki.

Bringing Everyone Together

When I was little, my parents were farmers. Our family never really has enough money to buy the food we wanted, except at New Year time. For New Year, they bought the best food they could afford for the whole family. My dad was an excellent chef, I remember he would make a lot of amazing food. One dish that I loved was a sweet and sour fish dish, which inspired me to create my own special version. To this day, I share this dish with my family every New Year. Sometimes when you have food that is so good you just forget everything else in this world, except the love for your parents and the things that they have done for you.

New Year is a lot like Christmas. We visit families and friends. When you go to your aunt’s or cousin’s house, we won’t say “Happy New Year”, the first thing we say to each other is “Gong Xi Fa Cai 恭喜发财,” wishing prosperity and best of luck. Unlike Christmas, instead of looking for toys, kids are hoping to get red envelopes filled with money. We call it “Lucky Money”. As a kid, every time I opened my red envelopes, it was the best moment !

Nowadays, I spend New Year with all my staff and students. JP FUJI Group has 9 different restaurants and they will cook their own Lunar New Year dinners. We don’t give them a budget; they can create the dishes they like. I try to go to all the locations and celebrate with them. In Boston, we’re fortunate to have access to a diverse range of fresh ingredients, creating a dining experience where everyone can enjoy a royal feast. Food is something that can bring everyone together especially at New Year.

For me, New Year is a day to slow down. It’s really a time to appreciate your family and everyone you love and everyone who loves you.

Ming’s Mango Maki Recipe

Ingredients:

• Short Grain Sushi Rice
• Japanese Nori (seaweed for maki making)
• Sushi rice vinegar /seasoning
• Shrimps (sizes 21/25 Fresh or Frozen)
• Asparagus
• Mango
• Tuna (sushi grade)
• Spicy Mayo(store bought or make it yourself)
• Tempura Crunch (store bought or make it yourself)
• Makisu (Sushi rolling mats)
• 6″ Skewer
• Sesame seeds

Steps in preparation:

• Sushi rice
  • wash the rice thoroughly
  • combine equal parts of rice and water for cooking
  • after cooking, cool down the rice sightly before adding sushi vinegar

• Shrimp
  • skewer the raw shrimp from the tail (this keeps the shrimp from curling when cooking)
  • boil the shrimp and cool down in ice bath
  • peel, devein and butterfly the shrimp from the bottom of the shrimp

• Asparagus
  • boil the asparagus and cool down in ice bath
  • cut into 6 to 7 inch long pieces

• Tuna
  • pat the tuna try and chop the tuna into fine pieces
  • in a bowl mix tuna, spicy mayo and tempura crunch together

• Mango
  • peel the mango and cut the mango roughly to the length of your index finger

Building Your Own Maki

Step 1
layout your nori with the shiny side up over your makisu; making sure the makisu is horizontal, and the nori is about ¾ inch from of the makisu
grab about 4 oz of sushi rice/ roughly a little bigger than a racquetball size
starting on the left upper corner of the nori, slowly move the sushi rice from left to right
using both hands and with 4 of your fingers from each hand, slowly move the rice down to cover the whole sheet of nori
sprinkle sesame seeds on the rice

Step 2
flip the nori over with the rice laying on the makisu
place 3 of the shrimp you butterflied about ¼ inch from the bottom of the nori
lay 1 piece of asparagus over the shrimp, then 3-4 pieces of mango next to the asparagus
starting from the bottom of the nori, pick up the makisu with your both your thumbs under the makisu, 4 fingers of each hand are placed on top of the ingredients to keep them from falling out
with a rolling motion away from you, move the makisu and roll forward

Step 3
spoon some of the spicy tuna mixture and place it evenly over your maki      
using a piece of saran wrap, cover the entire maki evenly

Step 4
place the makisu over the maki and press firmly to adhere the spicy tuna to the maki
cut your maki into 6 or 8 pieces while the saran wrap is still over the maki
remove the saran wrap after cutting

Your Ming’s Mango Maki is complete. Plate it the way you want to display your work of art!

Sweet and Sour Striped Bass

Ingredients

• 1 live striped bass
• 1 orange
• 1/2 lemon
• 3 slices of ginger
• 2 tablespoons of ketchup
• 1-1/2 cup of white vinegar
• 1-1/2 cup of sugar
• 1 tablespoons of pineapple juice
• 1/2 tablespoon of cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon of A1 steak sauce

Steps:
prepare crispy striped bass by deboning and deep-frying the filet coated in cornstarch for 3 and a half minutes
mix the following ingredients in a mixing bowl: squeeze the orange, lemon then add ginger, ketchup, white vinegar, sugar, and pineapple juice
heat the sauce in a pan, stirring for 2 minutes
pour the flavorful sauce over the fried fish
customize by adding diced mango, red/green peppers, and onions according to personal taste

Enjoy your delicious dish!