Good Food
Food to usher in the Year of the Rooster
Chinese New Year festivities kick off this weekend. We asked journalists and food writers for their favorite holiday foods, from sticky rice balls stuffed with sweet black sesame to chewy Lanzhou-style hand-pulled noodles. Plus, a history of Chinese food in the US, techniques for drying persimmons, the Chile Pepper Bible and sprouted almonds at the market.
By Evan Kleiman • • 56m ListenPhoto: Nanjing New Year's salad (Yuki Sugiura)
In this episode
6 storiesRing in the Chinese New Year at home
For Christine Zhang , Chinese New Year celebrations are not complete without dumplings, whole fish, chicken, pork, long noodles and sticky rice balls stuffed with sweet black sesame paste. Zhang and her colleagues at the LA Times have compiled their favorite Lunar New Year recipes in a nifty interactive post .
Read the story12 minChow chop suey
Chinese cuisine has a long and complicated history in the United States. In the 19th century, food helped Chinese immigrants find their footing on America's unfamiliar and discriminatory soil. Culinary historian Anne Mendelson surveys this journey in her new book, Chow Chop Suey . Music: "Skin"
Read the story12 minJonathan Gold's Chinese New Year's food crawl
Not up to cooking the Lunar New Year feast at home? LA Times food critic Jonathan Gold has got you covered. From long chewy Lanzhou-style hand-pulled noodles to fried lobster the size of a Spaniel floating in aromatics and chiles, here are Jonathan's suggestions for restaurants where you can usher in the Year of the Rooster.
Read the story8 minThe art of preserving persimmons
Persimmons are often given as good luck gifts this time of year. When raw and unripe, they practically beg you not to eat them, making your mouth feel like it's covered in a cashmere sweater. When ripe, persimmons are a mushy mess. Yet Sáša Woodruff reports that there is a way to turn the persimmon from dire to sublime.
Read the story6 minThe chile pepper bible
Because they're easy to cultivate, dry well and are simple to transport, the affordable chile pepper and its profuse varieties have been what Judith Finlayson refers to as "gastronomic democratizers" since the days of Columbus. Finlayson is the author of The Chile Pepper Bible .
Read the story12 minThe market report: Sprouted almonds
At the Santa Monica Farmers Market this week, Laura Avery hears how to sprout an almond from Fat Uncle Farms vendor John Carpenter, and learns the difference between a pistachio and almond tree from the farm's Amanda Bergman. Sprouting almonds, Carpenter says, simulates nature. "Anytime you sprout an almond, you release a phytic acid in a seed.
Read the story6 min
