Moroccan Baghrir – Thousand holes pancake

[ezcol_1half] Long been a destination on my bucket list - and one that had taken us way too long to fulfill - we finally visited Marrakech in December 2018.  I sort of did and didn't know what to expect.  A dancing mirage somewhere in between the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, the face of Marrakech carried mysterious, exotic and imaginative beauty in my mind, like a place only in story books, almost unreal. But of course, in reality, Marrakech is anything but unexposed.  We arrived to find an ancient city, like all the others of her kind left only with the pillars of tourism industry, whose beauty, flaws and dignity are laid bare for the world to entertain with.  Her plastered skin glowing in pink and orange, her sometimes unequivocal display of chaos and neurosis, and her remedial serenity and reflective pools inside the earthen walls of her beautiful courtyard houses, all of which was once for herself, now all is but a reluctant theme park for foreign passers.  This could be a difficult dilemma for any city, especially a poor one like Marrakesh, where her livelihood brings out both the best and worst she has to offer.  Within the walls of

COOKBOOK PRE-ORDER AND PREVIEW: MAPO TOFUMMUS

"IN 2012, IN A FORM OF SELF-ABANDONMENT, I STARTED THIS FOOD BLOG. SEVEN YEARS LATER, I AM ABOUT TO PUBLISH A BOOK ABOUT THIS JOURNEY." [ezcol_1half] I sat here for hours struggling with how to begin the sentence. Stranger things have happened in this world I'm sure, I mean I could swear I saw a sea creature that looks like a glowing condom on the internet, but from where I stand, it doesn't get more inexplicable than what I'm feeling right now. It began in 2012. It was just about two years into our miserable six years-long residence in Beijing. In a form of self-abandonment almost, I started this food blog. With no enthusiasm or objectives, setting out more to be a concession than a declaration, I did what I thought was throwing the white flag to all my other grander ambitions in life, that I was going to be that person, "a blogger", a non-job made up by people whom I judged, past tense, to be minimally interesting that they had to put themselves on speaker. It wasn't brave. It wasn't inspired. It was never expected to arrive anywhere. I was standing on the edge

Super rich coconut, orange and mango panettone

[ezcol_1fifth]-[/ezcol_1fifth] [ezcol_3fifth] see you next year, my friend In a few days, we are going to pack our bags and head to Paris then Marrakech for our holiday vacation.  I probably won't see you much on this blog during that time, which is why I'm throwing you a fat-bomb now to sustain your optimal winter-time figure all the way untill a new year comes. What a new year if one can't make a diet resolution to fail utterly at? This is what I call, the Crazy Rich Asian Panettone, lubed up with 12 egg yolks, coconut milk, and an ungodly amount unsalted butter and unrefined coconut oil.  This indecent level of fat not only keeps the crumbs sinfully moist, but also provides a backdrop of coconuty aroma where it pairs beautifully with speckles of dried mango and persimmons tinged with orange zests.  It could serve as an awesome "self-enrichment" during the holiday seasons but also, as we all secretly desire, as an ill-intended gift for our frenemies whom we would like to see de-shaped on that first depressing day back to the office.  Either way, we win. So see you next year, my friend.  You've been lovely. [/ezcol_3fifth] [ezcol_1fifth_end] [/ezcol_1fifth_end] [ezcol_1quarter][/ezcol_1quarter] [ezcol_1quarter][/ezcol_1quarter] [ezcol_1quarter][/ezcol_1quarter] [ezcol_1quarter_end][/ezcol_1quarter_end] [ezcol_1quarter][/ezcol_1quarter] [ezcol_1quarter][/ezcol_1quarter] [ezcol_1quarter][/ezcol_1quarter] [ezcol_1quarter_end][/ezcol_1quarter_end] [ezcol_1quarter][/ezcol_1quarter] [ezcol_1quarter][/ezcol_1quarter]

Japanese fried chicken (karaage) w/ salmon caviar (ikura)

[ezcol_1half] "  Ikura's intensity lies in its sticky and viscous brininess that liquifies and oozes around the tongue after each pops.  When you think about it, a sauce, almost.  " We came home from a long weekend in Kyoto and, if I may, I want to talk about me and karaage for a bit. For those who aren't familiar, karaage, aka Japanese fried chicken, is and should be regarded as a league of its own, standing far apart from the classic American fried chickens or the recently popularized Korea-style fried chickens.  It is none of those.  Karaage is boneless, cut into medium to large-size chunks, without sauce, and almost always, as gods intended, uses dark meats only.  Flavor-wise, due to its mildly sweetened brine, its juice runs almost nectar-like, secreting from its firm and bouncy muscles following the crunch of karaage's trademark white-speckled crusts.  Served simply with lemon wedges and Japanese-style mayonnaise called Kewpie — also a distinction from American/European mayonnaise but that's another story — such formula has become an establishment in the Japanese diet, celebrated everywhere from restaurants, department stores, convenience stores and even train stations.  Clearly as popular opinions suggest, there's nothing wrong with it for sure. I used to adore

Boneless “turkey purse” w/ stuffings and peppercorn gravy

[ezcol_1fifth]-[/ezcol_1fifth] [ezcol_3fifth] "  An completely boneless, flabby, perfect roasting pouch engineered by nature that is 360 degrees encased in skins, ripe for any stuffings and cooks in one hour only  " Be hold, the answer is here. If you are one who is unreasonably attached to the grunt and unpredictability of the Thanksgiving turkey tradition, look away.  For this post could and will impose onto you, the liberation from the struggle. For this point on, you will no longer look at turkey in the same light; you will no longer see it as a rigid object that takes an enormous space in the fridge to brine, a conductor of anxiety that takes forever to cook in the oven, a pending obstacle course that requires professional skills to carve.  No you will no longer. From this point on, you will witness the way of turning turkey into an utterly boneless, malleable, flabby sack of skin and meat; deflated, deconstructed, a perfect roasting pouch engineered by nature that is 360 degrees encased in skins; a floppy blob that takes up little space in the fridge; a miraculous poultry-pocket ripe for any stuffings of your choosing and cook gloriously and evenly in the oven, if you can believe

Honeycomb macaroni w/ porky cream

[ezcol_1half] "  Together, each cylindrical chamber separates easily with a brisk crack where the melted cheese are harvested and mingles with the cream sauce laying bare.  " On October 22nd 2018, in the darkness of the night, I laid on my eyes on Margeaux Brasseries's "honeycomb macaroni" for the first time, and heard destiny calling. At first it seemed that our connection was immediate and reciprocal, even through the barrier of the computer screen, that there was an understanding without words, that we instinctively knew each other's needs and wishes, requirements and rewards, that I knew how to make it happy, and it too, wanted to be mine.  We would hit it off.  We would be an item.  We would hold hands at dinner parties and whisper secret jokes only we could understand.  We would complete each other. But apparently, it had other ideas. Six days later after two catastrophic failures at making this dish, it became increasingly clear that the affection was one-directional only. But could I blame anyone else but myself?  No.  Because I took it for granted.  I made the classic mistake in a relationship when things felt so given, so seemingly straightforward, I forgot that it too, requires attentions to details.  First time

The shroomiest mushroom risotto, without breaking bank

when powdered and browned in hot grease, dried shiitake's exponentially multiplied surface areas darken and deepen boundlessly, releasing every molecules of that shroominess that would otherwise cost you a limb [ezcol_1half] If you have ever found yourself frozen in front of the mushroom isles at your local Whole Foods Market, cold sweats dripping down as you struggle to understand how on earth could a fungi — categorically no different than the molds crawling underneath your drywalls — be charging sometimes more than $50 per pound, while feeling utterly shitty about yourself, well, this recipe is for you: Poor man's mushroom risotto. I'm speaking from a place of deep empathy.  Having been born as a relentlessly cheap human being, I understand the hurt when even a dickhead-shaped vegetation that lives off of decomposed matters could take one look at me, and smirk.  A brainless, judgy brainless sponge that grows next to if not on top of rotten shits, thinks I'm not good enough.  Who do they think they are?  By the way I'm not talking about the cheap mushrooms like White Buttons, pfff

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