Dining in--Minneapolis/St. Paul cookbook

Ls Dinner for Six Hot and Sour Soup Egg Rolls Lemon Chicken Mixed Vegetable Stir-Fry Almond Cookies Wine: Wan Fu Leeann Chin, Proprietor and Chef The word popular greatly understates Leeann Chin's Chinese ; cuisine. “They telephone from all over—New York, Seattle, and San Francisco,” proprietor and chef Leeann modestly beams. “First they make a dinner reservation, then they buy a plane ticket.” The success of this restaurant is clearly due to Leeann, for whom food has always been a way of life. In her native Canton her father owned a restaurant and later a grocery store. “All we talked about at meals was the food we were eating,” she recalls. The husband she married in Hong Kong was no different: “He was really fussy about Chinese food; he never let a meal go by without finding some little thing wrong—and not too many compliments. I like my compliments, so I worked hard to improve.” Her five children thrived on the results, but it was not until 1972 that others were introduced to her Cantonese cuisine. She operated at that time a modest sewing business in downtown Minneapolis. To thank her clients for their gifts and patronage, she would invite them home for lunch. Her guests raved about the meals and persuaded her to begin cooking classes. Catering soon followed, which was “a good learning process.” Bowing to demands that she go public with this fare, in 1980 she cautiously sought a location suited to her high standards. She settled upon a space in Bonaventure, Minnetonka’s aristocratic shopping mall, where understated luxury makes a tasteful statement. The restaurant was made as chic as its locale, with walls that eschew harsh angles and instead seem to undulate in curves of sandy beige. Matching banquettes and blond birch chairs cluster around glassed pedestals that house treasures of Chinese ivory. Each table’s slim marble vase bears a single silken iris. The room’s serenity is spiced by a splash of contemporary Oriental prints on the wall and a backdrop of glass that mirrors the room’s raison d’étre, Leeann’s buffet of appetizers and entrées. “Cantonese food is healthier and has more variety than other Chinese food,” Leeann says about her native cuisine, “and it’s fun to cook many different things; that’s why I like my buffet style of serving. That way I can introduce people to so many new dishes. Everybody’s plate is clean when they leave—and that’s a higher compliment than anything else.” Bonaventure Mall Highway 12 & Plymouth Road Minnetonka ——' N Ww as HOT AND SOUR SOUP 6 medium-size dried 3 tablespoons white vinegar black mushrooms Y, cup shredded canned Ya pound boneless bamboo shoots pork loin Y%4 teaspoon white pepper 2’ teaspoons cornstarch 2 eggs, slightly beaten 1’ teaspoonsssalt 2 tablespoons chopped green 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoon onions (with tops) soy sauce 2 teaspoons red pepper sauce 6 ounces bean curd Y2 teaspoon sesame oil 4 cupscanned chicken broth . Soak the mushrooms in warm water to cover until soft, approxi- mately 30 minutes; drain. Rinse in warm water; drain. Remove and discard stems. Cut caps into thin slices. . Trim fat from the pork. Shred the pork into %-inch slices, cutting against the grain. Place ina glass or plastic bowl and toss with % teaspoon of the cornstarch, % teaspoon of the salt, and the 2 teaspoon soy sauce. Cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes. Cut the bean curd into 1’2-inch by 1%-inch pieces. . Ina 3-quart saucepan, heat the chicken broth, vinegar, the remain-