January 8, 2016 In All recipes, Meat, mobile slider, Seafood, Snacks

LISBON, PLUS SURF’N TURF PORK BELLY AND SHRIMP SAUSAGE SANDWICH

[ezcol_1third] After what seemed as long as forever, but now, feels as short as a blink of an eye, five weeks of traveling in and out of 6 different countries, I am now, finally, back home. It is difficult, if not impossible, to sum up a journey as long as this one in one post.  It began in Hong Kong, then Taipei then back to Hong Kong, then it departed towards London, then Madrid, and Lisbon, then finally, passing by Germany, back to Hong Kong, then back to Beijing.  It was a zig-zaging montage of cityscapes, sounds, smells, flavours, stimulations… but also disorientations, sense of aimless drifts, dubbed by a relentless seasonal flu somewhere at end.  How do I tell such a story I have no clue.  I suspect I would be inadequate but I shall try. I shall try, starting with Lisbon. Why Lisbon?  I don’t know.  I guess there are moments in life that didn’t feel particularly monumental at the times, but somehow, years and years later, they stay with you whenever you feel like looking back.  Lisbon, in the best sense, felt as such.  There are cities where we go to feel the future.  New York, London, places that strut at

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October 12, 2015 In All recipes, mobile slider, Noodle/Pasta/Rice, Poultry

MAMA’S BRAISED CHICKEN LEGS ON RICE W/ FRIED CHILI CAPERS

[ezcol_1third] IT IS, DILEMMA. FORTUNATELY, ONE THAT COULD BE TACKLED WITH A BIT OF REVERSE-ENGINEERING. [/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_2third_end] We don't, most times for good reasons, screw with heirloom recipes.  Recipes that are passed down for generations.  Recipes that our grandmother learnt from her grandmother, so on and so forth, are generally deemed as the sum of all collected wisdoms in a pot, sacred, untouchable.  Recipes that should and will be followed, obeyed even, without any desecrating thought of adding an extra tbsp of mustard here or a dash of unholy spices there, otherwise somewhere inside the dusty family album, grandma's tearing up.  Because this is how it has always been done, as far as recipes go, is an unarguable instruction. But should they be?  My family, for one, doesn't have an "heirloom recipe".  Not really.  My mom is a fantastic cook, which probably isn't a credit to both of my grandparents whom, from what I've heard, were either too short-lived or too much of a diva to teach her anything in the kitchen.  And as far as paying-it-forward goes, she never writes anything down.  So all in all, a single generation and one big approximation, I think, is probably not an heirloom recipe makes.  But, if I were to pass down anything

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September 30, 2015 In All recipes, Meat, mobile slider, Techniques, updated recipe

HOW TO EASILY SOUS-VIDE IN OVEN, WITH OR WITHOUT WATER

FOR THE PAST 35 YEARS OF SOLEMN HATRED FOR WHITE MEAT, OF CLAWING CHICKEN SAWDUSTS OUT OF MY THROAT, IT MEANS TO TELL ME THAT ALL ALONG, I COULD'VE BEEN EATING THIS SUCCULENCE?!! IS THIS A JOKE?!! [ezcol_1half] Let's face it, most of us never took the idea of "sous vide" seriously as a realistic potential in our home-kitchen, now did we? But now there are so many sous vide devices on the market today that it's hard to ignore the growing popularity of it. This French-sounding

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