September 20, 2016 In All recipes, Noodle/Pasta/Rice, Poultry, updated recipe

SUPPLE SLOW-COOKED SOY SAUCE CHICKEN RICE

[ezcol_1half] Sometimes ideas arise upon the complete rejection of another.  This recipe is a perfect example of such. The other day (I say "the other day" a lot, which really means "last year"), I was watching this video on YouTube, a michelin-starred chef explaining how to make his "perfect roast chicken".  Curious, so I watched, as he demonstrated with a straight face on how he cooks his chicken slowly inside a low-temperature oven for 4 hours, then afterwards, finish browning the skin inside a skillet, and after which, injecting the chicken with melted butter. I mean, is this guy serious? I don't even know where to begin.  First of all, the whole notion that one could crisp up a whole, uncut chicken inside a skillet is basically again the laws of physics.  The extremely curvy and maneuvering silhouette of a chicken is exactly the reason why people resort to a three-dimensional heat source to tackle it in the first place.  Steaks, flat.  Chickens, curvy.  Simple logic.  Is he Doctor Manhattan?  Did his pure geniuses allow him to leap into another dimension of space and time to warp his chicken to the skillet?  Of course not!  That patchy-browned chicken looked like it just suffered from a skin-graft.  But you

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September 15, 2016 In All recipes, Seafood

SICHUAN ANGRY BOILING FISH

IT TRANSFORMS WHAT IS OTHERWISE AN UNDESIRABLE AND THEREFORE CHEAP INGREDIENT, INTO THE UPMOST ADDICTIVE, DELICIOUS, AND PLEASURABLE NARCOTIC. [ezcol_1third] It's crazy sometimes to think that I've only left Beijing for 6 months.  It somehow feels longer than that, which is funny because shouldn't happy time fly?  But I think my brain has triggered an automatic mechanism that blocks the whole six-years-chunk of unpleasantness, and started presenting the more palatable reality that came afterwards as the constant norm, that our new life in Hong Kong has always been.  Weird, right?  Though it's not to say that there aren't things I miss about you-know-where, but I mean, I just typically disregard them as the involuntary muscle spasms of a fish right after its head gets chopped off

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September 7, 2016 In All recipes, Bakery/Pastry, Sweets

SICHUAN PEPPERCORN BLUEBERRY OATMEAL PIE

[ezcol_1half] A SERIOUSLY FLAKEY PIE WITH BLUEBERRIES SCENTED WITH FLORAL SICHUAN PEPPERCORNS, MYSTERIOUS AND SUBTLE, AND CREAMY OATMEAL ON THE BOTTOM TO SOAK IT ALL UP [/ezcol_1half] [ezcol_1half_end] Easy as pie.  I’m sorry.  Was that supposed to be funny? Pies are anything but easy.  In fact, it took me two years of really, really, humiliatingly sucking at it; and another three years of total denials and nightmarish phobias; and then another year to pick up the pieces of my self-esteem to try again; and then, finally then, last week, before landing on something that I feel happy enough to share with behind closed door.  And today, six years plus a couple tweaks later, to talk about it openly on the internet.  This recipe is my collected wisdoms on pie-making from years of failures and heartbreaks (think those pies as a house presented with a giant sink hole, sewage flooding and electrical fire, all at the same time). What it is, is a seriously flakey pie, like no-kiddingly flakey, with blueberries scented with a mysterious, floral tone from sichuan peppercorns that is subtle but distinct, and a bed of creamy oatmeals to soak it all up.  The sichuan peppercorns are not gonna make you go “Chinese food!“, ok?, it won’t.

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September 5, 2016 In All recipes, Bakery/Pastry, Noodle/Pasta/Rice, Travel

France Part II, and chicken w/ morels and rice pilaf

[ezcol_1half] ONE OF THE BEST DISHES I COOKED. I AGREE. [/ezcol_1half] [ezcol_1half_end] Lourmarin is what it promises, a picturesque village in the Luberon region in Provence, and more. No matter what kind of cynicism you bring along, or distaste for anything that seems to fit too squarely into Martha Stewart magazines, you come here, you see it, and it's hard not to surrender, even just for a moment, under Lourmarin's somewhat curated but irresistible, undeniable charm. We arrived at 7 o'clock in a summer evening when this village draped with honeysuckle vines and buzzing bumble bees were casted under a slanted, pale blue light. With just one deep breath of its brisk, floral and light beige linen atmosphere, everything felt just right. May I even remind you that this was after 9 hours of driving from Lyon cutting through the gruesome, annual European migration to the south in the middle of August? If it weren't for the highlight of us stopping midway at an orchard, and me may-or-may-not having stolen a bright red apple and ran, the day would've all seem to be in ruin. That ain't pretty. But Lourmarin made it worthwhile. [/ezcol_1half_end] [ezcol_1third] (may or may not have stolen an apple from

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August 26, 2016 In All recipes, Meat, Travel

FRANCE PART I, and Lyonnaise sausage w/ warm beans and sage butter

[ezcol_1half] All the best things in life are clichés. Paris, is a cliché. I've fought consciously throughout my adult life not to fall for it, or at the very least, say it out loud, fearing I'll sound like a girl wanting to model or a guy in a sports car. It oozes unoriginality. But in the end, excuse mine if you will, as we sat predictably at an open cafe at 6:30 am, watching this city in beige and pastel grey slowly waking up in a wash of golden summer lights, acutely aware of its both corny and extraordinary allure. Paris, I succumbed, is Paris for a reason. But I knew that four years ago, when I visited Paris for the time time. This time, I wanted more. And I didn't mean a private jet from somewhere like jettly.com to take me there (although a girl can dream, right?!). I wanted more not from Paris, but from the country that it has instilled great bewilderment for inside my mind. If that was Paris, then what is France? An embarrassingly stupid question no doubt, for a pre-middle age woman to ask but frankly, I'm too old to pretend that

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August 14, 2016 In All recipes, Bakery/Pastry, Dairy

CHEDDAR SNOW BRUNCH CAKE

[ezcol_1fifth]  [/ezcol_1fifth] [ezcol_3fifth] GRATED WHITE CHEEDAR!  ON CREAM CHEESE FROSTING!!  ON TOP OF EGGY SPONGE CAKES!!! Hey, what’s up?  I’m in the middle of my France cross-country road-trip!  But to make you feel good as well, here’s a cheddar snow brunch cake!  It’s got double layers of sponge cake, loads of cream cheese frosting, and yes!, avalanche of grated cheddar snow!!! Gotta go now.  See you on the other side! Kitchenaid mini mixer in the house. [/ezcol_3fifth] [ezcol_1fifth_end]  [/ezcol_1fifth_end] [ezcol_1third][/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_1third][/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_1third_end][/ezcol_1third_end] [ezcol_1third][/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_1third][/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_1third_end][/ezcol_1third_end] [ezcol_1third][/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_1third][/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_1third_end][/ezcol_1third_end] [ezcol_1half][/ezcol_1half] [ezcol_1half_end][/ezcol_1half_end] [ezcol_1half][/ezcol_1half] [ezcol_1half_end][/ezcol_1half_end] [ezcol_1half][/ezcol_1half] [ezcol_1half_end][/ezcol_1half_end] [ezcol_1half][/ezcol_1half] [ezcol_1half_end][/ezcol_1half_end] [ezcol_1half][/ezcol_1half] [ezcol_1half_end][/ezcol_1half_end] [amd-zlrecipe-recipe:122]

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August 4, 2016 In All recipes, Poultry

CHICKEN SATE W/ “DIRTY” PEANUT SAUCE

[ezcol_1half] WHY NOW?  WHY THEN?  NO REASON.  IT WAS JUST A SWITCH TURNED ON, LIKE THE DAY WHEN A GIRL STARTS TO LIKE A BOY. Craving, is a strange thing. It's been 8 years since the first and last time I visited the island of Bali, and not in the almost 3 decades before nor the years after, had I given this thing called sate (or satay) even the slightest attention.  Weird, given that I have, since then, graced through the feeding grounds of Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Hong Kong, trapped in the seduction of rice noodles folding under that intoxicating broths, infatuated with fish heads bubbling inside the sinisterly red gravy, undistracted from the fetish pursuit of just how transcendently sexy it could be, inside the supple thighs of a chicken gently poached in herbed stock and served over rice.  Might I even add that when it comes to meats-on-a-stick, I did plenty damage around the globe. [/ezcol_1half] [ezcol_1half_end] But sate?  Yeah sure I saw it somewhere here and there.  But what, why and how, honestly, I couldn't care less. Perhaps I've always suspected them to be dry, a reasonable doubt given the skimpy amount of meats having to fully char over charcoal.  Or that they, out of the mere once or twice close encounters, appeared to

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