I’m supposedly Asian, so I realized only this today, that Chinese New Year is this coming weekend. Although I have already invited people over, I overlooked one key aspect: Food. :smack:
I think I’m good on the Chinese traditional stuff, but I want to “integrate” some American dishes for the other guests, preferably that have a Asian influence. Also preferable is something easy.
Hard to go wrong with chicken wings. You can make an Asian version that has some fire and spice and they will probably love it.
Moved MPSIMS --> Cafe Society.
Americans like “Asian chicken salad” which tends to have mandarin oranges and crunchy noodles in it. Google for a myriad of recipes.
You can buy pre-packaged egg rolls which probably can be heated up in the oven instead of fried by hand. I know those actually ARE Asian but I’m one of those super-picky eaters and even I love those.
IMHO anything with sesame, soy sauce, teriyaki (yup, I know - Japanese) or mandarin oranges is going to be considered “Asian influenced” by your typical non-gourmet American.
Takeout?
Too tacky, although… I’m tempted…
Braised Beef Short Ribs, maybe do them in the crockpot if you want to make it easy.
I once made some pretty good American, sweet-style, baked beans with Dried Mung beans, molllases, fish sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic and onion. It was pretty good… you might want to add some of the red Chinese rock sugar, and some five spice … and of course pork to really make it special… probably be especially suited to the crockpot.
You could go the American Soulfood/Southern Lucky New Years Dinner Route, and integrate it with some traditional Chinese condiments and ingredients… Do the Asian binary for Fried Chicken, Black Eyed Peas (lucky coins), Greens and Likker. For example, you could do a traditional Chinese Braised Chicken Wings (or Turkey, or Duck, or Goose Wings!) with a fresh mung bean or soybean salad with some asian flavors , and some quick stir fried/braised Gai-Lan with XO sauce and Garlic.