jai -- first attempt

"jai" in Chinese means vegetarian.

I bought a Chinese cookbook but this wasn't in it. It is a traditional new years dish, food eaten by buddhist monks. So, on the first day of the new year you should have a vegetarian dinner, which is technically Monday but I was sure that I would screw it up so I thought I'd do a practice run at it.

I knew what I wanted to put in it, this has bean threads, soy bean curd sheets, tofu, fat-choy (for the new year), lotus root, shitakes, ginger, garlic, and green onion, with a mess of soy sauce, mushroom sauce, and white pepper. I also had a can of gluten and a can of bamboo but I didn't put it in this time around.

I got the instructions over the phone from my mom: soak all the dry stuff including the bean threads. when you add them, also add water and let it dry up this will cause the bean threads to cook and become clear. they still seemed to bunch up, and of course it wasn't nearly as good as my moms but I will give it another shot. the lotus root is really pretty, there is a whole world of chinese vegetables to play with... exciting times.