weeknight dinners, and other culinary adventures
I finally, finally saw Crazy Rich Asians this past weekend, and it was a wild and delicious ride. I know this is a food blog, but I have so many thoughts about the movie, I have to share them! However, SPOILER ALERT – minor plot points and my very strong opinions follow, so if you … Read more
James is obsessed with katsu curry. When we lived in Boston and he was a postdoc and I was a grad student, both with infinitely flexible schedules and excellent procrastination techniques, we would go for lunch all the time at his favorite place, Fin’s Sushi & Grill. Despite the name, we would both invariably order … Read more
Introducing for your spicy, numbing food pleasure, Szechuan peppercorns! I love spicy food, and I love Szechuan food in particular. Chili fish, chili green beans, spicy chili peanut noodles all get my mouth watering! Besides chili, an incredibly underrated staple spice that gives Szechuan food its distinctive, tongue-tingling, numbing flavor is the almighty Szechuan (also … Read more
I present to you, the humble but delicious taro! Or, the humble malanga! Folks, I must be honest – I don’t actually know what this thing is called. I’ve always been told growing up that it was taro. However, I’ve since seen it labeled as both taro and malanga in supermarkets, and what I’ve found … Read more
My dad’s family is originally from Northern China, where wheat is the staple crop and reigns supreme. The food there is dominated by wheat-flour products such as noodles, dumplings, and steamed buns stuffed with salty pork and cabbage or sweet red bean paste. My mom’s family is from the south of China, in Guandong, where … Read more
I went to the Chinese supermarket last weekend, so fair warning – what follows is going to be an absolute slew of Chinese recipes. Whhheeeee!!! I love Chinese food. Being Chinese myself, this is hardly surprising, but I can’t go probably more than two weeks without eating a bowl of rice. When I was 18, … Read more
When James moved from the steepled city of London to the steepled city of Boston in 2014 (fun fact! James emigrated on my birthday! #destiny), he brought these little BBC cookbooks with him. They’re tiny little 6-inch-by-6-inch jobbies, and they look like cookbooks for children, or really dated cookbooks that rely too heavily on processed … Read more
Fried rice is my comfort food, my heritage. I grew up eating egg fried rice for breakfast, which my mom would make frying up leftover white rice with heavily seasoned scrambled eggs and a handful of bright green scallions. I still remember waking up for school, hearing the sizzle of rice meeting hot oil, smelling … Read more