Hungry Bear and I love bamboo shoots, but we've never cooked with fresh ones until recently. During the winter time, we always see fresh bamboo shoots in our local Asian markets, but hesitated to buy them until a few months ago.

Neither one of us knew how to peel them, so we searched the Internets and discovered it was relatively easy to prep bamboo shoots. Here's an informative video that shows how they are found and prepared. The bamboo shoots in the video are boiled to remove their bitterness. We're not sure why it is necessary because the shoots we get are not bitter, so we simply peel them following these steps.

Hungry Bear is always searching for good Chinese food cookbooks and her latest find is The Seventh Daughter by Cecilia Chiang. One of the dishes that caught her eye were these star anise peanuts. They are a good alternative to salted peanuts or honey roasted peanuts.

Hungry Bear made this simple snack a few weeks ago and they were a big hit. They are salty and a little crunchy. I love the aroma of the star anise and when they are cooking, the smell reminds me of a bowl of pho. I found it difficult to stop eating them and I'm sure you will too.

Zha ziang mian, aka Chinese spaghetti, is one of Hungry Bear's favorite comfort dishes. It has everything she likes... sweet, salty, spicy and carbs! The rich meaty sauce is nicely contrasted by the cool refreshing vegetable garnish.

It's a popular item in Northern China and legend has it that Marco Polo got his inspiration for Italian spaghetti after spending time in China. Growing up, Hungry Bear often had this dish served with regular spaghetti noodles, but it's best served with Chinese noodles. We included a photo of the brand we like in the slideshow.

We've been really bad about taking pictures of our Sunday nite dinners lately. Sometimes we just want to eat and not deal with the photography, especially when dinner is not at our place. It's a pain in the butt to lug around the DSLR and tripod to our friends place and figure out the lighting conditions. After accidentally dropping our point-and-shoot camera on the strip in Vegas (long story), we recently got an ultra-compact Canon SD1100IS, which is great for discrete restaurant shots.

This past Sunday, Hungry Bear and I went over to Jane's place for dinner. It was a perfect opportunity to test out our little camera. For dinner, Howie (who is a much better cook than he lets on) made mapo tofu and stir-fried green beans. Jane and Garry made angel food cake with a lemon glaze and creme brulee. We would have taken pictures of dessert, but Jane and Garry weren't happy with their results. We thought they tasted perfectly good.

Chinese white cut chicken (bái qie ji) is a classic New Year's dish and an everyday comfort item for most Chinese home cooks. It's just a poached chicken served with a scallion-ginger sauce. While it may seem plain and simple, it takes some practice to master the cooking method and produce a juicy and flavorful chicken.

Hungry Bear turned to a recipe from The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen for directions. The end result was a white cut chicken that was moist and delicious. I loved dipping the chicken into the scallion-ginger sauce and spooning the sauce over steamed rice. Who knew a poached chicken could be so good!?!