I never sleep alone. One side of my bed is always occupied with cookbooks, magazines, and notebooks. The drawback of this, besides occasionally waking up with a pen under my back, is reading food articles and looking at glossy big photos of pasta can and has lead to late night snack attacks. Two of my favorite sleeping companions for the past few months are Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc at Home and David Chang’s Momofuku. Both books are filled with gorgeous photos and recipes that are meant to inspire and teach. It explains the basics and what you can do with it. So besides the munchies danger, late night cookbook reading has also produced and given me lots of cooking ideas and dishes. One of these dishes is a Roasted Pork Tenderloin Sandwich with Apple and Pickled Carrot Slaw and Caramelized Onion Mustard.
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February 16th, 2010  
 Asian, Holidays
For me, Thanksgiving is my once a year cooking marathon. The one day where it feels like I’m cooking from sunrise to sundown. For my mom, the Lunar New Year is her epic cooking day. Grating 13lbs of turnips and turning them into 10 batches of turnip cake (lo bak go) is nothing more than a routine for the holiday. Braising pig’s feet with dried oysters, steaming two chickens, mixing up a big bowl of ginger scallion sauce, and cleaning and decorating the house with bright red and pink flowers are just five out of the hundreds of things to check off on her to do list. Watching the pace she works at while self examining mine, I shake my head in shame. There is just no comparison. When I was a child I always wonder if she enjoys the craziness, or is it simply just a task that’s been passed down and oblige to do every year. She tells me that it’s not the work that she enjoys, but the results and influence it has on me. The Lunar New Year reminds me and helps me stay connected to my Asian culture, but more importantly it keeps me connected to her…her turnip cakes, her style of decorating the house, her passion for cooking, and her spirit of reminding me how important one day can be. Thanks mom.
 Trays of Chinese Turnip Cake called "Lo Bak Go" in Cantonese are topped off with a generous amount of chopped scallions and cilantro. There’s also a few trays of Year Cake with Red Bean called “Hong Dao (red bean) Nian Go (year cake)” in the background all ready to be passed out to friends and family. Continue reading »»
UPDATE: February’s Beet ‘n Squash YOU! winners are announce. Check out Gourmet Fury and She Simmers for the winners and all the participants entries. Congrats to Noodle Fever and Don from Foodie Prints on winning this month’s fight! March is battle sweet potato. Can’t wait!
I am very suspicious of people who tell me they hate mushrooms. I just don’t think that is possible. The only time I don’t like mushroom is when it’s served raw in a salad, but other than that my favorite pizza topping is mushroom, 80% of the time I always add mushrooms on my burger, I love mushroom omelettes, sautéed mushrooms and onions goes great on everything,.….I just love mushrooms! When I found out January’s Beet ‘n Squash YOU! vegetable was mushroom the problem wasn’t trying to figure out what to cook but I needed help narrowing down my list.
Two of favorite mushrooms are creminis and shiitakes. I grew up eating the dried variety of shiitakes and didn’t even know it was possible to buy or cook with fresh ones until I was in my teens. Dried shiitakes have an intense earthy deep flavor and are perfect in braises and soups. Fresh shiitakes are less intense in flavor then the dried ones, but it still has that earthy quality. I love adding fresh shiitakes in a tomato sauce or simply grilled. Creminis, which are the older varieties of button/white mushrooms, are perfect when cooked with caramelized onion and topped on burgers and cheesesteaks.
After a few days of thinking I finally narrowed down my list. I wanted to make mushrooms with pasta. Not very exciting right? While there is nothing wrong with a simple mushroom and pasta dish, I love mushrooms in either a red or white sauce, I had to do something different. In comes the mentaiko!
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My tiny kitchen cabinets are not bursting at the seams, it has already exploded. As I started to cook more throughout the years I’ve accumulated a large collection of print out recipes, subscribed to a handful of food magazines, a mountain of baking trays, pans, seasonal molds and cookie cutters I regretfully bought, and boxes of neglected kitchen gadgets that includes a juicer, an ice cream sandwich maker, and a fondue kit. I have a feeling I will bust out the fondue kit in the near future though, hopefully. I know my small kitchen can’t handle any more cooking thing-a-ma-jigs I believe I desperately need, but tell me how could I turned down a Le Creuset French Oven. It’s simply not possible.
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December 5th, 2009
Breakfast, Vegetables
It’s that time of the month again! Maybe that’s a bad sentence to start this post, but I just don’t know how else to word it. For the past 30 minutes as I’m writing this, I’ve been typing and pressing backspace faster than Sandra Lee can pour hot water on dried onion soup mix and call it stock. ZING!!! I’ve been feeling very tired and uninspired to write and cook lately, and finding myself getting caught up on things that shouldn’t be weighting me down. It’s been only a few days into December and I’m starting to feel this might be my hump month. I’m ready for a new year. So, as I was saying, it’s that time of the month again! It’s Beet n’ Squash time!
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Whenever I think about Korean food, I can’t help but be transported back to my college years of standing in line in front of a white Korean lunch truck outside Temple University’s SAC building and just waiting, waiting, and more waiting. If you wanted to grab something fast to eat between your classes, this was not the place to order. What it was though, was a good change of pace from the usual college fares of pizza, greasy Chinese food, and whatever expensive crap they were trying to sell kids who got stuck buying a meal plan for the semester. It was not the most amazing Korean food I ever had, but it did jump start my interest in the cuisine.
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November 12th, 2009
Asian, Fish & Seafood
I was completely surprised and thrilled when Bee from Rasa Malaysia asked if I would be interested in guest blogging on her blog. Of course I said YES! Rasa Malaysia is one of my favorite food blogs on the web. Bee always has the most drool worthy photos and recipes. Most importantly to me, many of the Chinese recipes, such as Lobster Yee Mein (Lobster Noodles) and Three Cups Chicken, she post on her site are dishes I grew up eating and always wanted to make. So please be sure to check out my guest post, Shrimp Dumplings (Har Gow/虾饺), over at Rasa Malaysia!
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I always knew I will return to my birth city, but I never expected it to be this year. While this was my third time back to China, my first visit was in 1991, this would be the first time I ever traveled north of the country to Beijing. My trip begins in Guangzhou, and I spent the majority of my time in the city and traveling outside to its nearby districts Shunde and Dinghu. Hong Kong and Macau was also on my itinerary and finally my last stop was in Beijing.[Continue Reading]
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