Comments (1)

By Anna, 11 November, 2009 10:21 am

This is another of Dad’s recipes. It was one of his favourites as a child, it was (still is) one of mine and is now the most requested dish by Alex. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, huh?

The aroma is almost intoxicating to me – reminding me of cold, pitch black, Winter evenings full of barely restrained excitement. That would be because when I was a kid, Dad used to do a Chinese banquet for my friends as my birthday party.

Even now, I only have to smell this cooking on the stove and I’m flung back to that great memory. Chopsticks poked into the sides of glasses, rice and noodles everywhere, fighting for the sweet and sour and the danger of the toffee apple and bananas being plunged into iced water.  The sheer exhilaration of unidentifiable wrapped presents.

All that comes back with one sniff of this.

How does it taste? Well, it’s a bit sweet and a bit sour.  Put to one side the thought of the average restaurant orange gloop – unspeakable stuff.  This is the real thing.

Continue reading 'Dad’s Sweet and Sour Pork'»

Comments (6)

By Anna, 13 September, 2009 11:32 am

Chinese chicken and chestnuts is one of our favourites of my Dad’s dishes. It’s sweet, but savoury, fragrant with ginger and sherry but dark with soy, unctuous and delicious. I am talking about the meal, you understand – not my Dad, because frankly, that would be a bizarre description of someone.

He was born in Shanghai and is part Chinese, so has a wide range of dishes in his repertoire – do feel free to request recipes for any of your favourites. If he has a recipe for it, he will have to cook it for us in order that I can blog it. This means we will get to eat it, so please… request away!

As he was the star chef at Chez Jones last Sunday, I am immortalising him and his unctuous chicken on this blog. So here is the Fred Jones guide to this beautiful Chinese dish.

Continue reading 'Dad’s Chinese Chicken and Chestnuts'»