Tomato & Egg

This is one of the simplest dishes I've ever learned. As a college student living away from home (where I was always well-fed by grandma :P), I would often make this dish. Although I think my tomato/egg dishes come out decent, I still find my grandma's (and grandpa's) tomato/egg dish more tasty! Either way, it's still a dish worth making, especially since it is simple to make.

Ingredients

4 tomatoes, chopped (I use either roma and/or hot house tomatoes, but if you can find really red ones, they'll make your dish more colorful)
2-3 eggs, beaten
1 stalk of green onion chopped
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced ginger
salt and sugar (amount depends on personal taste)

Steps

1. Heat oil in wok (or skillet) and add ginger, garlic and half of the green onions. Fry for several seconds.
2. Add tomatoes and fry for 1-2 minutes, add water such that the water nearly covers the tomatoes.
3. Reduce heat to a medium and allow tomatoes to simmer until they are soft and somewhat mushy
4. While tomatoes are cooking, fry the eggs in a separate pan - basically make scrambled eggs
5. Add salt and sugar to tomatoes (adjust based on your taste)
6. Add eggs and the rest of the green onions to the tomatoes, which should be soft and somewhat mushy, cook for 1 minute or so
7. Take out and eat!

Repeat while cooking

If you're like me and don't know how to speak any mandarin (well other than 'ni hao ma' = how are you) then you're in luck! I've compiled some terms (and will add more as I learn more!) that you can practice saying while you cook. Since this is a website mainly devoted to Chinese cooking and movies, these terms will naturally be related to words/characters common in Chinese cooking and movies. Hopefully, this will help with learning a bit of  mandarin (whether it's useful is another story).

*note: the blue words, pin yin, are linked to the MDBG Chinese-English word dictionary (very helpful for hearing how the word is pronounced)

Food/Cooking

green onion = 葱 - cōng​
ginger = 姜 - jiāng
garlic =  蒜 头 - suàn tóu
noodle = 面 - miàn​ ​

soup = 汤 - tāng​

congee = 粥 - zhōu​

shrimp = 虾 - xiā​
pork = 猪 肉 - zhū​ròu

beef = 牛肉 - niú​ròu​

meat =肉 - ròu​

Movies/Entertainment
 
movie = 电影 - diàn​yǐng​

Tea Eggs :)

A couple of days ago, we made tea eggs. Yes, that's right, they're eggs that are boiled in tea (and of course other spices). They are considered a tasty snack in China (and here in US too) and can be found being sold by street vendors. I would say that our tea eggs were pretty good, but maybe not as good as the ones sold by street vendors :P.

Tea egg recipe:

12 hard boiled eggs
2-3 tea bags of Black tea and/or Green tea
1/2 cup of light and dark soy sauce
5 Star anise
1 cinnamon bark
1-2 orange peels
2 tbsp sugar
10-15 peppercorns
salt to taste

Steps:

1. After the eggs have been boiled, gently crack the shell all around (this allows for marbling)
2. Place the eggs back into the pot and add enough water to cover the eggs
3. Add tea and spices into the pot
4. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 2 hours (or longer for a stronger taste)

Enjoy :)