Steamed Black Bean Spare Ribs (蒸豉汁排骨) Recipe

Steamed spare ribs in black bean sauce... dim sum time anyone? ;)

The aroma of black bean marinated spare ribs, healthily steamed and served dim sum style :) 

> Origin: Chinese
> Cost: Inexpensive
> Ease: Very Easy

 This is one of my favourite Chinese dishes. Whenever my family and I go to dim sum, my parents know to always order this for me because they know I love it. My mother used to make this for dinner all the time when I lived at home. When she bought a new steamer, she gave me our old one (there's a giant hole in the top from where my sister put it on the stove), and I decided I'd make this for myself too! It's very very simple, you can even marinate the spare ribs beforehand and freeze them so that they're ready-to-steam! This version is exactly like the version you get at dim sum restaurants when you can yum cha, so definitely try it out if you're a fan (like me)! 

Mapo Tofu (麻婆豆腐) Recipe

Delicate Szechuan spice with the soft texture of tofu :) 

Spicy chili tofu mixed with marinated minced pork in Szechuan style served over rice

> Origin: Chinese
> Cost: Inexpensive
> Ease: Moderate

I always loved Mapo Tofu. It's a really easy dish to make if you're feeling Chinese food, but you don't want to put any effort in. The hardest part would be finding the ingredients in a non-Asian-invaded city (*cough*Hamilton*cough*). That being said, I imported all my materials (firm tofu, chili sauce, black bean sauce) from my hometown, Markham, when I go back for the weekends. This dish is really customizable. I know there are many people who prefer it to be less 'saucy' and more dry, so they add less water and oil when cooking. Some people like it more spicy, others like it more black bean-flavoured. That being said, this recipe is very 'traditional' restaurant style (minus the MSG). Best is served over fresh jasmine rice, but for the sake of I-am-a-poor-student-and-I-have-no-rice-ness, I used short grain rice, which honestly wasn't bad. I hear there's also a Japanese variation of Mapo Tofu. I'd like to try that someday...... in Japan.