Romantic Valentine's Day Menu for Two

What better way to celebrate Chinese Valentine's Day than feasting on the world's most famous aphrodisiac - chocolate? Here you'll find a menu for a romantic chocolate fondue, complete with Asian fruit and sponge cake for dipping.

Of course, chocolate isn’t the only aphrodisiac. Luscious mango, shrimp, and even ginger are all rumoured to help rouse passions. You'll also find several menu ideas and recipes featuring these “foods of love.”

Decadent Chocolate

• Easy Chocolate Fondue With Fruit Dippers, or
  
  
• Chocolate Fusion Fondue
  
  
• Steamed Sponge Cake for dipping
  
  
• Chocolate Dipped Fortune Cookies - In a hurry? Feel free to use storebought fortune cookies instead of homemade to dip in the melted chocolate.

Ginger Theme
(ginger's reputation as an aphrodisiac comes from its ability to stimulate the circulatory system)

• Potstickers With Ginger Dipping Sauce
  
  
• Ginger Beef
  
  or Ginger Garlic Peppered Beef
  
  or Grilled Ginger Chicken
  
  
• Ginger Ice Cream

Mango Fiesta

• Shrimp and Scallop Shu Mai With Spicy Mango Sauce
  
  
• Mango Chicken Stir-fry
  
  
• Mango Ice Cream

Quick and Easy

• Gyoza with dipping sauce (you can purchase frozen potstickers ahead of time and just prepare the sauce).
  
  
• Shrimp Lo Mein With Three Vegetables
  
  
• Fresh fruit in season

Cantonese for Lovers

• Spring Rolls,
  
  
• Lobster Cantonese,
  
  
• Stir-fried Spinach, or
  
  Steamed Asian Vegetables
  
  
• Ginger Ice Cream

Sensuous Seafood

• Potstickers With Prawn and Cilantro
  
  
• Maddy's Special Fried Rice With Chicken and Prawns, or
  
  
• Bow Thai Pasta with Shrimp (posted on our forum by ANGUS4U),
  
  
• Steamed Scented Rice
  
  
• Steamed Pears With Honey

A Few More Recipe ideas: (nothing too heavy, and keep the garlic down!)

Singapore Noodles With Shrimp, or

Shrimp With Lobster Sauce (Cantonese version)

Shrimp With Lobster Sauce (take-out version with white sauce)

More Dessert Ideas:

Chocolate Spring Rolls? - One of my readers tried making these at home. Using cooking chocolate as the filling, he uses a piping bag to pipe the chocolate to the proper length for the spring roll. It is refrigerated, and then rolled into the spring roll wrapper. The spring rolls can be frozen until required and deep-fried in the normal manner. For a couli, he suggests marmalade or pureed mango, or perhaps some berries in season topped with whipped cream or ice cream.

More About Chinese Valentine's Day: Qi Qiao Jie (Chinese Valentine's Day) Celebrations

Written by Rhonda Parkinson

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