Ten Chinese Proverbs to Live By

We’ve all seen and heard a million and one Chinese proverbs, but you can’t deny that there’s an ancient wisdom to each. Every quote is inspirational, a life lesson that everyone can learn and grow from. But with so many Chinese proverbs floating around the Internet, it’s easy to get overloaded.

We’ve picked out 10 of the best Chinese proverbs going around to make your life a little easier.

1. A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows public opinion.

2. If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.

3. A man should choose a friend who is better than himself. There are plenty of acquaintances in the world; but very few real friends.

4. If you get up one more time than you fall you will make it through.

5. If you don’t want anyone to know, don’t do it.

6. When you belong to a minority, you have to be better in order to have the right to be equal.

7. To encourage talent is to create it.

8. He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.

9. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

10. Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.

Introducing: Roses and Diamonds Tea for Mothers’ Day

Roses & Diamonds Tea

Ah, yes, Mothers’ Day is coming up. A day where we tell our mums how much we love them. A day where we show them how much we care. A day where we can finally sit down and breathe because our week of stressing about what to get her is over. This year, don’t leave it to the last minute. Call us biased, but we recommend buying tea for Mothers’ Day.

Your mum is special, so we wouldn’t suggest you give her just any tea. Our tea masters have been hard at work at HQ putting together a tea just for Mothers’ Day, and it’s as beneficial for your health as it is tasty. This special edition Mothers’ Day tea is called Roses & Diamonds, and it’s full of goodness. We’re selling them as beautifully wrapped sachets (each sachet makes two cups of tea) and you can buy 5 sachets for $7.5, 10 sachets for $14, or 25 sachets for $31.

Roses & Diamonds tea contains the following, all-natural ingredients:

• Wolfberries – a ‘superfood’ known for their nutritional value and high antioxidant content.

• Chinese hawthorn slices – used primarily as a digestive aid. Recent research has shown that polyphenols derived from the fruit of the tree have anti-tumor activities on skin, indicating a potential use in preventing skin cancer.

• Pure Rose – restores energy and regulates immune system, circulation and energy flow. It also gives your skin a healthy glow while balancing and neutralizing the body.

• Sultanas – beneficial for digestion, detox, and for your skin.

• Chinese dates – nourishes blood cells.

• Mao Feng green tea – one of the highest quality green teas going around. This classic green tea has a fruity and nutty taste and has high levels of antioxidants and other natural chemicals. It reputedly helps reduce the incidence of cancer, promotes healthy skin tone and reduces the effects of aging. With high levels of vitamin C, fluoride and calcium, Mao Feng also promotes healthy teeth and bones.

• Sweet Tea (Tian Cha) – Chinese sweet tea is a traditional Chinese tisane (herbal tea) made from the leaves of Chinese Blackberry (Rubus suavissimus). These leaves contain a natural sweetener called rubusoside, which is 200 times as sweet as cane sugar. The tea has long been used to alleviate kidney symptoms, and a recent Japanese study also indicated that it has anti-inflammatory effects and helps fight allergies. Sweet Tea has been used for thousands of years by the Chinese for beauty, weight loss, aging, cancer prevention, and general strength. The caffeine-free leaves of the Chinese blackberry plant brew up an extraordinarily sweet tea with close to zero calories.

We know every day is Mothers’ Day. But on May 12, mums everywhere deserve the best.

Please note: our stores are now taking bookings for Mothers’ Day sittings! Give us a call and treat mum to the best Chinese food in Melbourne… if we do say so ourselves!  

The Best Function Space in Melbourne

Impress your guests and host your next function at Oriental Teahouse

Another business lunch. Another cocktail party. Another sit-down dinner. There aren’t many choices when it comes to hosting functions these days. At Oriental Teahouse, we’ve realized that people don’t want the same old, which is why Oriental Teahouse is a function space with a difference.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a birthday party, hens night, conference or wedding, we put a stylish (and delicious!) oriental spin on your event. Think big and invite up to 300 people, or think small and book one of our private dining rooms. If you want to think differently, we can even put on an exclusive dumpling making masterclass or tea appreciation session for your special occasion.

We’ll make the foodies full, the cocktail lovers giggly and everyone happy. Best of all, you can relax and leave the hard work up to us! Our spaces are decorated with everything from birdcages to Chinese artefacts and we’re happy to put your own spin on your event too. Download our brochure for more information on our spaces, including the Emperor’s Mezzanine and The White Room.

To book Oriental Teahouse as your next function space, phone our Events Manager on (03) 9804 7963 or email us at enquiries@orientalteahouse.com.au

Earl Grey Tea Macarons Recipe

How to make Earl Grey Tea Macarons

Image from Building Buttercream Blog

Ingredients

4g Oriental Teahouse Earl Grey tea (available here)

115g almond meal

230g icing sugar

5 egg whites

70g sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp salt

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 150°C.

2. Line two baking trays with baking paper and trace circles on the paper as a guide for when you pipe your mixture. Flip paper over so you don’t get pen on your macarons!

3. Blend almond flour with Earl Grey in a food processor, then sift the mixture and icing sugar together. Set aside.

4. Combine the egg whites, sugar and salt. Mix with beaters on medium for 3 minutes. This will be your meringue mixture.

5. Increase mixer speed to medium-high. Whip for another 3 minutes, then switch to high and whip for another 3 minutes.

6. Add vanilla and beat for another minute on high.

7. Place the dry ingredients into your meringue and fold with a spatula, until just combined. Careful not to over-mix. If you pick up a spoonful of mixture and place it back in the same bowl, it should ooze back into the mixture in about 20 seconds.

8. Transfer the batter to a piping bag. Pipe batter out until you almost fill the circle you drew.

9. After all the macarons have been piped out, carefully bang the tray onto your bench top a few times to remove any air bubbles.

10. Let the macarons sit for an hour.

11. Bake for 18 minutes, then remove and cool completely before peeling the macarons off the paper.

Meringue Buttercream

Ingredients

3 egg whites

1 cup sugar

¾ cup butter

½ tbsp vanilla

pinch of salt

1 tsp rosewater (optional)

1-2 drops pink food colouring (optional)

Method

• Cube butter and leave out at room temperature

• Simmer water in the bottom of a double broiler, making sure it doesn’t boil. Whisk eggs whites and sugar together in the top part. Whisk until mixture is 70°C.

• Transfer to a mixer bowl and whip at a medium speed until the mixture is room temperature.

• Lower mixing speed and add the butter, one cube at a time. Mix until the buttercream turns more solid, as opposed to liquid. If you are having trouble getting it to thicken, refrigerate the mixture then try again.

• Add vanilla and salt, and rosewater and a food colouring if desired.

Putting it all together

• Match similar-sized macaron pairs

• Fill a piping bag with buttercream.

• Pipe some buttercream on the bottom of a macaron, then carefully sandwich with its pair until the buttercream reaches the edges.

Red Dates: A Chinese Superfood

Goji berries. Chia seeds. Acai berries. Quinoa. We know how obsessed Melbourne is with ‘superfoods’. But have you tried our Chinese superfood, red dates? Also known as hong zao in Chinese, this native southeast Asian is used in rice porridge, soup, desserts, buns and in some of our teas.

Red dates are extremely rich in nutrients. They are up to 80 times hght in Vitamin C than apples and chockfull of Vitamin A, Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron and magnesium. Red dates are said to improve immunity by stimulating the production of white blood cells, as well as being good for the liver by decreasing cholesterol. There is even research to suggest they suppress cancer cells.

In Chinese herbal medicine, red dates are believed to build up the warm half of the yin-yang balance in the body, strengthening the spleen and stomach, nourishing blood and relaxing the mind. Red dates are also marketed as an anti-aging food for women in Chinese medicine.

Aside from all the benefits, we love the way red dates taste! Especially when they’ve soaked up tea. Next time you order one of our teas with red dates in it, don’t let them go to waste.

Some of our favourite teas featuring red dates include:

- Happy tea 

- Relaxing tea

- Ginger and Barley tea 

Welcome to the Dumpling Studio

Guest post by Poppet’s Window

We’re in Coburg, standing outside a small warehouse. The door opens suddenly and a smiling Chinese man – who I later find out is called Liang – opens the door and gestures emphatically for us to follow him inside. Huge sacks of flour and shelves full of shiny bottles of soy and rice vinegar line the walls.

Liang hands us hair nets and leads us through a plastic sheet covering the door. We follow him into a large open space. About ten people stand on each side of a stainless steel bench, hand-making dumplings for Oriental Teahouse and laughing at private jokes. Nearby, two men are chopping up orange Peking duck, while another staff member slowly stirs strips of wagyu beef in a giant wok full of broth. But it’s the dumpling table that is the most fascinating.

There are a number of dumpling masters, qualified senior chefs who have been crafting dumplings for eight years or more. Their hands move at lightening speed: rolling, pulling, stuffing, folding. Unless you’ve made dumplings for nearly a decade, you can’t be called a dumpling master. One gentleman has been making dumplings for over 40 years, and between just four dumpling masters, there is over a century’s worth of dumpling making experience. They won’t even let other staff members steam the dumplings, should they do it incorrectly.

From start to finish, including cooking time, a single handmade dumpling takes one and a half hours to prepare. It’s for this reason that Oriental Teahouse freezes their dumplings as soon as they’re made. It’s necessary to freeze the dumplings fresh, so that when they’re steamed and served at Oriental Teahouse, you can taste the love and effort that has gone into each one.

It may sound simple enough, but it didn’t tale me long to figure out that there are lots of steps in ensuring that the dumplings are perfectly prepared. Firstly, they have to be made by dumpling experts with the best ingredients possible. Next, the dumplings have to be put in the freezer room so their freshness is preserved. Following that, the staff have to remember to rotate the stock, to make sure that the dumplings served retain their taste and texture, and so that there is no wastage. The dumplings then have to be transported with care. Once they are cooked, they have to be served as soon as possible so they don’t cool too much or appear tired on the table.

About fourteen members of the Oriental Teahouse family work in the Coburg dumpling studio. Each one has the precision of an artist. They spread their passion by bringing their Chinese culture to hungry mouths, one dumpling at a time. In other words, without their hard work and practiced hands, Oriental Teahouse would not exist.