House fried rice 家常炒飯

Fired rice is the most convenient dish to make. Just throw everything you like together, and you got yourself a nice dinner. I usually use things that are getting old in my fridge to make the fried rice. For example, here I have color peppers, sweet peas, rotisserie chicken (see notes below), eggs and leftover cooked rice.  

Spinach and mushroom risotto 義式菠菜香菇燉飯

I guess you can tell what this week's theme is, that's right, spinach! The recent weather makes the vegetables in my in-law's garden grow really well, so our dinner table is full of my in-law's labor of love. We love starchy and creamy risotto very much, and it's so easy and quick to make. Well, I know my way of cooking risotto is not authentic, so please leave some comments if you have good tips or suggestions.

Celebrating Duanwu Festival 慶端午

Duanwu Festival is one of the major holidays in Chinese culture. It has a very patriotic story behind it. Qu Yuan (屈原) was a poet and statesman of the Chu kingdom during the Warring States period (around 300 BC) in ancient China. He served in high offices, but he was wrongfully accused of treason and banished. The country was destroyed by another powerful enemy twenty-eight years later. In despair, Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the river on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month.

It is said that the local people, who admired him, threw lumps of rice into the river to feed the fish so that they would not eat Qu Yuan's body. This is said to be the origin of zongzi (粽子). The local people were also said to have paddled out on boats, either to scare the fish away or to retrieve his body. This is said to be the origin of dragon boat (龍舟) racing.