I think what made my grandmother such a good instinctive cook, despite having spent a large portion of her life outside the kitchen–much of the time playing mah jhong apparently–was that she was a savvy eater who knew how to sniff out great food. It wouldn’t take her long to suss out the best market…
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Sit a spell…or the pleasures of afternoon tea snacks from the Chinese bakery
One of the positive things about being quarantined and not working in an office on a set schedule is that I’ve been able to focus some (okay, a lot) of my creative energy on cooking and baking projects, which consequently provides me with ample snacks to indulge in with my afternoon tea. In the beginning…
And now for something sweet…please
No matter how stuffed I feel after feasting on a dozen or so different types of savory dim sum, I ALWAYS make room for sweets. I swear I must have a 2nd stomach reserved just for dessert. As a child it was an almost painful exercise in restraint for me to sit through the savory…
Baby, take a bao
We’re 11 weeks into sheltering in place and it seems not only are people over self-isolation, many are done trying to bake sourdough bread–either out of frustration over flabby or dead starters, flour shortages, one too many failed loaves, or simply because warmer weather is driving them outdoors and away from their ovens. I get…
The sticky subject of rice
In early March, during the nascent days of pandemic toilet paper and hand sanitizer hoarding, mom dispatched me to buy more rice which she’d heard through the Chinese grapevine was also flying off the shelves. She was in a tizzy because that 25lbs bag in the downstairs pantry was clearly insufficient to get us through…
Art of the Wrap…or dumpling traditions
There’s this now famous scene about halfway into the box-office phenomenon that is Crazy Rich Asians (2018) where the obscenely wealthy Young family gather around an ornate dining room table of their matriarch’s impressively vast estate to make dumplings, decked out in stylish designer clothes. The scene is set up so that the elder members,…
Fry Happy…or tales of a fearless frequent fryer
At the start of quarantine I made what many people would consider an impulsive, if not excessive purchase–35lbs. of cooking oil. No, it was not pandemic-induced temporary insanity. I did not accidentally click on the wrong item while grocery shopping online with Instacart. It was a calculated move. You see, I like deep-frying stuff. I…
Cracking the (egg) custard tart code
I get lost…a lot. Before GPS in smartphones my questionable sense of direction led me down dead-end streets, cul-de-sacs, and roundabouts more times than Guy Fieri has driven through “Flavor Town.” Okay, even with GPS I still occasionally manage to take the wrong exit or miss a crucial turn. You can imagine, then, what it…
Chinese Bakery Buns…or I’ll take one of each
There have been only a handful of times in my life when I didn’t live in relatively close proximity to a Chinese bakery/cafe, or at the very least, within driving distance–my college years in Santa Cruz (a veritable culinary wasteland when it came to authentic Chinese cooking) and my brief stint working/living in Monterey. I’d…
Steamer Basket Time Machine
Steamer Basket what?! Weird title I know–mixed metaphors, film reference to Hot Tub Time Machine (2010), Chinese food, me lifting up a steamer basket lid to travel back in time. Stick with me on the visuals. Lately, being mostly stuck at home in self-isolation with my mom–passing the time watching the latest video uploads from…