Dragon Festival in St. Paul, Minnesota

Dragonboat races aren't just for China and the coastal cities: for 12 years the Dragon Festival in St. Paul, Minnesota has been celebrating the vibrant and growing Asia-Pacific culture here in the Midwest.  This year's event took place July 12-13, right in the thick of Minnesota's festival season. The venue as always is Lake Phalen Regional Park, where a number of dragonboats are permanently stationed for practice through the warm season.

The Twin Cities area is home to a number of businesses and educational institutions with deep links to Asia, and many of them sponsor dragon racing teams, such as Wells Fargo, Boston Scientific, Medtronic, Seagate, Hormel, and Target. There are also community and family groups who participate. My daughter's school, Yinghua Academy, also had a team this year!

Team booths

The racing is really a chance to get friends and family together for a day at the lake 

Many corporate sponsors also set up advertising tents. Political candidates' teams were out in force, as well as local cultural centers and gift & bookshops.

Wells Fargo makes a really strong / cute effort to tune its messaging to specific cultural audiences.  The company has also just recently opened its first office in Beijing & they brought materials used to kick things off there to show folks here in MSP.

In addition to the boat races and vendor / sponsor booths, there were also a number of stages for performances and fun-fair activities for kids.

The festival has consistently advertised and gotten PR from local media - free events are always popular but it is nice to see strong turnout from the general Twin Cities population (also helped by the diverse participation among the racing teams.)

Practice sessions took place during morning hours, and competitive heats in the afternoons.  Competitive matches would be between two teams, two races each, best time overall advancing to the next tier. There would be four boats on the water at any given time so you would get to see a race every five minutes or so; one pair racing while the other pair paddled back to the starting point and rested... 

From the shore it was easy to hear the drumming and chanting of the race teams

And plenty of excitement for each heat!

Food of course is terribly important when celebrating Asian culture! I think back to our first visit in 2006 and being disappointed at the range & quality of offerings -so was thrilled at the diversity available this year!  Food trucks are catching on in MSP & were here, as well as a half-dozen local East and SE Asian restaurants.  Two different places selling bubble tea! 

We need to get some of these guys into the Minnesota State Fair! They all certainly proved they could crank out high-quality tasty dishes for a festival crowd.

Chinatown, Manhattan, NYC

Had the opportunity to spend a few hours walking around Manhattan's Chinatown last month; here are some photos from my trip:

Easy access from Midtown on the subway; exit on Canal Street. 

The district has been steadily growing west and north - I saw signs in Chinese for blocks beyond the traditional boundary! 

Last time I was down here was in 2000; passing through to dinner in Little Italy. I distinctly remember this fishmonger's shop! Glad to see it's still there and doing well!

The vibrancy on the street and of course the signage reminds me so much of Hong Kong...

I had dinner at the Great N.Y. Noodletown on Bowery - just a come-in-sit-down place; family run for sure.  In Hong Kong style, sat at a table with three other groups!

I wanted something simple but authentic - ordered the Beef Chow Fun.  Excellent chewy rice noodles, the beef was nice and tender. Nutty smoky flavor.  Far more than I could finish and no fridge in my hotel room so no leftovers for breakfast :(

Scalding hot glass of tea in the upper left corner, just like in HK.  Plastic cup that almost burnt my hand the stuff was so hot ... but I knew the drill, hot drinks cool you off on a summer's day.  And once it cooled off a little, was a nice flavor complement to the noodles.

Try getting a giant plate of food for THAT price anywhere else on the island!

Was wishing I could have had several more dinners that night...

Shot of Starbucks taken from the front door of a Chatime - yes the corporations and franchises are all over the place but then so they are back in Asia. That makes them just as culturally appropriate as anything else!

Sadly, no NYC Chinatown insulated tumblers at Starbucks - so I didn't buy anything there.

Great family-travel destination whether you have a couple hours or a whole day; there were plenty of shops I'd have loved to look around in but most specialty stores close around 7 pm.  Groceries & eateries of course open much later.

Cheng Heng restaurant, St. Paul, MN

There's kind of a running joke in the Twin Cities about restaurant reviews in the local media that all the places to eat here are located in Minneapolis or rarely its western suburbs. On the St. Paul side of the line, there's nothing except the same five joints that our grandparents went to when we were kids.

While it offends the civic pride of those of us on the eastern side of the fence, it has meant that there's more seating available for us at some really exceptional places. However, starting next year our downtown-to-downtown LRT goes live, and I suspect a lot of people are going to discover the gems scattered along what we call the Midway district, and in particular the "Little Mekong" neighborhood just west of our State Capitol building.

One such restaurant we've recently tried is Cheng Heng - a family-run place featuring Cambodian dishes.

The phrase "hole in the wall" definitely applies - it's in a tiny strip mall on the south side of University Avenue. There's a small parking lot next to the building and a few on-street spaces - but the Western Avenue LRT stop is a half-block away and that's going to be extremely convenient for visitors staying in either downtown.

There's nothing pretentious about the decor - but it reminds us of so many places we've eaten at in Asia: a small shrine in the entryway, hand-painted murals, wood carvings from the old country. There are two good-sized seating areas, and they were both almost full at lunchtime on a Saturday! Lots of families, and a nice mix of all the different people who live around here coming in. They have a case of bakery items and cold plates for take-out, and the sit-down service was speedy (we were getting plates within 5 minutes of ordering.)

Prices are very affordable - my wife, daughter, and I had lunch for less than $30.

I had the Banh Hoy - steamed rice noodles with stir-fried beef and shrimp. The beef melted in my mouth and the shrimp were very fresh.

My wife had the Chha Mekatain - with the chicken and brown sauce (they also do it with a curry which also looked wonderful.) The fun noodles were perfectly cooked and the Chinese broccoli was crisp and clean.

We look forward to eating here again and bringing friends - a couple years ago I would never have considered even getting out of the car in this neighborhood, but I'm glad to have put away my skepticism. From talking with the restaurant owner, it's plain to see the determination of these businesses to not just survive but succeed - and with the imminent start of the train service, I think this area will be the new pride of the Twin Cities!

United Noodles' Unideli, Minneapolis MN

Have often tweeted ( I'm at @weninchina ) about the great food being served at United Noodles' own Unideli.  Here are some more photos from lunch our family had there a couple weekends ago:

The Unideli is open for lunch and early dinner.  Most items are cooked-to-order so expect about a 5-minute wait after ordering at the counter.  Find a seat & they'll call your name when your food is ready.  

There can be a good line going on weekends, we like to get there about 11:00 before the crowd shows up!  

You could probably have a reasonable meal with just the "appetizers" - here's a couple taiyaki - deep-fried batter (tastes a lot like waffles) with sweet red-bean filling (tastes a lot like chocolate).  These are awesomely great on a cold winter's day.

Takoyaki, served in a little bamboo boat!  Lots of bonito flakes, Kewpie Mayo, and other furikake on top...  The puffs are steaming hot when you get them so give them a little bite to let the heat out, but then gobble down a minute later!  Nice chewy fried texture on the outside, pancake-batter creamy on the inside, with a nice meaty chunk of octopus!

I tell the owner he really needs to get a stand at the Minnesota State Fair to dish up snacks like these; they're totally festival foods back in Asia...

We've been trying different ramen bowls in recent visits - see how creamy that tonkotsu looks that my daughter's digging into!  That's from pork fat that's been boiling for hours and hours!  Man, it's good!

Here's a different recipe, more of a clear broth.  The swirly piece at the top is chewy and meaty (processed fish - kind of like those "crab" chunks) - and check out that nice hunk of BBQ pork on the left ... there are several more pieces like that underneath!  (The vegetables are really flavorful too.)

Que Nha Restaurant, St. Paul, MN

 Now that our little family lives in the heart of the Minneapolis / St.Paul metro area, we've been able to explore many new neighborhoods and restaurants that we just couldn't quickly reach before. St. Paul's University Avenue corridor is a short hop away now, and this neighborhood is in the middle of significant changes - first, a strong increase in Asian populations and businesses, and second, the building of the Twin Cities' second light-rail line - which will connect the two downtowns in 2014.

We checked out the well-reviewed Que Nha Restaurant tonight, located on the corner of University and Victoria (immediately on the Green Line's Victoria station, very convenient.)

The restaurant is spotless, and at 4:30 on a Saturday afternoon, ready to serve that evening's customers. They have a deli counter as well as sit-down service, so great for grab-and-go lunches.

  

The extensive menu covers all the Vietnamese classics, with a strong selection of seafood (and even goat), with a broad set of southern Chinese dishes available as well.

Our daughter heard they had congee - and talked about it nonstop on our drive there...  here's the big, happy pot it came in (about 2/3 gallon):

And inside was a generous helping of beef, plus ground peanuts, cilantro, green onion, and garlic.

My wife had a grilled chicken on rice with crispy vegetables. The glaze on the chicken was very light, with a nice BBQ tang.  Chili oil in the sidecar for dipping.

They weren't able to make Banh Xeo tonight, so I ordered a curry chicken with vegetables and was mightily impressed.  Ate the whole thing...  the curry was not overpowering & had a nice sweetness from just a bit of coconut milk and crushed peanuts.  The sauce was really nice when I mixed it with rice; the gentle heat from the curry felt good after being in Minnesota's blustery cold.

And the congee was a big hit ... our girl ate three bowls of the stuff (and I had a bowl too.)  Enough for leftovers to have for breakfast tomorrow!

Recipe time - Korean Beef Skewers & Ramen Noodle Salad

We love to try new dishes at our local Asian restaurants - and on the road, of course - but we also have a lot of fun making favorites at home, too. Our recent Mid-Autumn Festival meal featured a couple of company-pleasers I'd like to share with you today:

Clockwise from top: steamed rice (from our Zojirushi rice-cooker), deep-fried sesame-red-bean balls, the Ramen Noodle Salad, carrots and edamame, grilled pork tenderloin marinated in Cha Siu sauce, Korean beef skewers, and a lazy-susan of various fruits.

My wife suggested I try making Korean beef skewers based on a recipe from Oprah's magazine. I compared it to several other recipes I found on the internet and ended up borrowing some of this, some of that...  The pear is the special ingredient, and it adds sweetness to the slightly spicy sauce. You'll want to prepare this the day before you grill; the marinade works best if you let it soak in overnight.

Ingredients:
About 2 lbs. beef - a sirloin or similar grilling steak - cut into large cubes, about 1.5" to 2".

1/2 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 to 2 tablespoons of sriracha (a common Asian hot sauce)
4 teaspoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil (check your Asian market for this)
2 cans of sliced pears - drain the juice
1 teaspoon five-spice powder (the ultimate Asian staple seasoning)

Preparation:
Everything goes in the mixer (except the steak... ) for a quick and rough blend.  Pour the mixture into a gallon Ziploc bag, add the beef cubes, and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight.

Grill these on bamboo skewers that you've soaked in water for about 20 minutes.  Rotate the skewers for even heating - I find about 15-20 minutes total cooking time is sufficient.

The marinade is a nice rich orange color going on.

This Ramen Noodle Salad has been a consistent winner at potlucks, and packed with all sorts of good nutritious things. You'll want to use your largest mixing bowl, as it makes enough for a full office party...

Ingredients:
1 bag of pre-chopped coleslaw salad mix (or you could do it the hard way with a head of Napa cabbage, carrots, red cabbage...)
5 green onions, sliced (I like to cut them on the diagonal instead of straight down; this is a Cantonese cooking trick that brings out more of the oniony flavor)
1/2 cup sesame seeds (most recipes have you sautee them in butter; not worth the time & trouble)
1/2 cup roasted almonds
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup sunflower seeds (pumpkin seeds make a nice seasonal touch, you could use pine nuts too)
1 small head broccoli
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon five-spice powder
1/2 cup salad oil (canola or something very light, I keep cutting back on the oil)=
1/4 cup toasted sesame oil (this adds unique nuttiness)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 cup cider vinegar (I've tried xiaoxing wine but haven't been happy with the results)
2 packages dried Ramen noodles, crushed

Preparation:
Thoroughly mix the sugar, five-spice, and liquid ingredients in a smaller bowl and set aside.

Place the coleslaw mix, ramen noodles (take out the seasoning packets...), and all the fruits, nuts, and vegetables in your large bowl. Toss these ingredients a couple times.

Whisk the liquid mixture again - you're wanting the oil, vinegar, and sugar to be well-blended - and pour over the dry ingredients.

Again toss the salad - thoroughly distribute the dressing and make sure the smaller pieces are evenly spread through the bowl.  Cover this with clear wrap and let sit in the fridge for several hours / overnight before serving.

Tonkatsu Ramen, a new family favorite!

My wife tried something new at the always-awesome United Noodles here in Minneapolis this weekend: tonkatsu ramen.  It's now one of her "happy foods"- and likely one she'll ask for when cold & flu season rolls around!

Look at that wonderful milky broth (it's not cream, but part of it's pork fat) - the bright red pickled ginger, the beautiful chunk of pork...  This bowl is HUGE - the same size you'd get a serving of pho in!

There's a tea egg in there too - nice rich flavor.  When you stir the ginger into the steaming broth, the whole bowl becomes sweetly aromatic. Plenty of bean sprouts and bok choy are mixed in with the chewy ramen noodles - this was easily a two-person serving.

Our Mid-Autumn Festival Meal!

We had some old friends over last night as an excuse to have a Mid-Autumn Festival (Moon Festival) meal!

Clockwise from left: Deep-fried sesame balls with red-bean filling (usually a breakfast snack, but good for noshing at anytime); Ramen-noodle salad with broccoli, and green onion & cilantro on the side; carrots and edamame; grilled pork tenderloin that had been marinated in Cha Siu sauce; beef skewers using a Korean pear sauce recipe; a lazy-susan with various lucky fruits; dipping sauces; and jasmine rice

Chocolate and pumpkin-spice cupcakes with white frosting (because it's the Moon) ... instead of mooncakes.  If I'd had more time I'd have tried making a shortcake cupcake with strawberry jam filling, for something that looked more traditional

And right on cue, the moon came up and filled our backyard with brilliant light all night long!

Fresh Dragonfruit Time!

As a tropical crop, Dragonfruit are in-season pretty much all the time. At your local Asian market (like United Noodles or Uwajimaya) you'll find them with other fresh fruits & veggies - and also in the form of canned beverages. I've also come across dried dragonfruit slices, notably at Trader Joe's.

My daughter's recovering from surgery on the back of her throat & on a liquid diet for another week, so we've been making a lot of smoothies. She loves mango (your Asian grocer probably has the freshest selection, by the way) but I wanted to make her something different. United Noodles just got a delivery of dragonfruit, so I picked up a couple yesterday.

The fruit are almost the size of a softball, with an intimidating-looking scaly rind. Ripe ones have just a bit of give to them. Getting at the flesh is surprisingly easy (certainly compared to peeling a mango).

You don't want to keep the fruit too long; much like an avocado, when it's ripe you want to use it. (However, you can freeze sliced dragonfruit for later use.) Place the dragonfruit on a clean cutting board, and with a cleaver or other large knife, slice it right down the middle.

 Notice there's no pit or core in the middle - it's more like a kiwi, but the seeds are evenly distributed.
(There are "pink" and "white" varieties. The pink one here gives a brilliant color juice, so wipe up any spills quickly...)

From this point, you can scoop out the flesh with a spoon, or work off the rind (I cut around the inside to 'pop' the flesh out) and slice the fruit into chunks.

One dragonfruit will give you about a pint of sliced flesh, a surprisingly hearty amount. Store the sliced fruit in the refrigerator & use it within a couple days; you can also freeze it, which works well for making smoothies.

The taste is very subtle - the little seeds have a tiny crunch like a kiwi (and don't tend to get stuck in your teeth), and the flavor is somewhere between white grape and pear. I'd say the pink ones have a bit more flavor than the white ones, having tried both.

Of course, the smoothies made with this fruit have a kid-pleasing electric purple color!


(I have many Asian fruits described at http://weninchina.com/Food/Tropical_Fruits.html - as well as entries for a number of other Chinese favorites!)