- Documenting the journey through my kitchen, a pinch of salt at a time.
Posted in Cantonese, Main Dish, Poultry, Recipe, Vegetables on Aug 12th, 2010
Feeding people graciously and lovingly is one of life’s simplest pleasures: a most basic way of making life better for someone at least for awhile. — Anna Thomas Black bean sauce reminds me of traditional Cantonese home-style cooking. I grew up having a variety of dishes made with black beans and black bean sauce, including [...]
Life itself is the proper binge. — Julia Child And then there is dessert, another brilliant binge that we all shamelessly enjoy. Even for those who say they don’t like sweets, custard with fresh summer berries is a pleasing dessert for anyone to indulge in. This is exactly what panna cotta is all about. It’s [...]
Posted in Recipe, Side Dish, Vegetables, Vegetarian on Jul 6th, 2010
Hello, Summer! Along with a great season comes great produce such as asparagus, at least for another couple of weeks. While our country is generally very season-agnostic when it comes to produce, I am fortunate that I was able to catch the tail end of asparagus season, which is typically April through June. I am [...]
If you are what you eat and you don’t know what you’re eating, do you know who you are? – Claude Fischler As you may have already guessed, there is really no such thing as a baby turkey, or at least people don’t serve it. The story behind the phrase goes back to my childhood [...]
We all have our default, go-to, quick fixes when it comes to food. For those of us who like sweets, there is probably a mental list of one to five things that we consider our guilty pleasures. You know, those things you cannot resist from a dessert menu even though you already need to unbutton [...]
Posted in Cantonese, Main Dish, Meat, Recipe, Vegetables on Feb 22nd, 2009
I promised one of my readers that I would create a post and recipe for a more Chinese version of beef broccoli, so here it is! The main difference in this version is the type of broccoli used. In my family, Chinese broccoli is as common as eating spinach or lettuce — a weekly staple, [...]
Posted in Beverage, Brazilian, Recipe, Travel on Jan 21st, 2009
While Chicago and other cold parts of the U.S. is welcomed with nail-biting, chilly, below-zero winter weather (like now), there are other places on Earth that are pleasantly embraced with the warmth of summer (those in the southern hemisphere). I was fortunate to visit one of these places in November, and by the title of [...]
Posted in Cooking class, Italian, Pasta, Recipe, Technique on Dec 21st, 2008
Earlier this month, I attended a pasta making class at Terragusto, one of my favorite Italian restaurants in Chicago (it might be safe to say, one of my favorites, period). I truly admire their emphasis on cooking with fresh locally grown foods, and how they value quality over quantity in what they serve. Plus, their [...]
Part I demystified the process of making homemade stock, which may have led you to think, what now? Oh, the possibilities…To make things simple, I ended up cooking Vegetable Orzo Soup, my spin-off of chicken noodle soup. It may seem way vanilla to you, but I have always craved chicken noodle soup of some sort [...]
Thanksgiving dinner was pleasant this year. I enjoyed the traditional fixings of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and broccoli casserole with Sean’s family. After dinner, I proceeded to seize the item in the kitchen that I had been eying all evening: the turkey carcass. I finessed this endeavor by simply being the only person [...]
