October 14, 2020 In All recipes, Bakery/Pastry, Sweets

Brûlée Coconut, Palm Sugar, Pork floss sticky buns

"  It's savoury-sweet kinda thing, you know, obviously, but also smokey around where a mixed aroma of coconut, butterscotch and bacon meet and greet.  " [ezcol_2third] What in the world is pork floss?! And where the hell do you get palm sugar?!  Or both, for that matter?! Ok fine, so I knew this is gonna be a hard pitch.  And I'm probably not helping my case when I tell you that pork floss, invented by an anonymous Chinese likely on a night of massive insomnia, is a brownish cotton ball made of predominantly pork, which is cooked, shredded, then painstakingly dehydrated while being tumble-fried inside a wok until what used to be muscle tissues have then transformed into super fine, fiber-like fluffs.  Whaaat?!  And as if that's not mind-bending enough, its flavor profile wonders in between savoury and sweet with a maple bacon or jerky-like porkiness oozing into your sensory space as your mouth grapple to understand this textural anomaly. It's really just like any other culinary ingenuities that took form initially as a means to tackle food preservation before refrigeration, but ended up being cherished by its culture even till this day.  Stretching from southern China down to Southeast Asia, hey, pork floss matters. 

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June 15, 2017 In All recipes, Bakery/Pastry

BIALY STUFFED W/ CREAM CHEESE AND HONEY DATES

SWEET GIRL BIALY, WHO CARRIES SOMETHING WITHIN HER HEART WHEREAS IN A BAGEL, IT'S JUST AN UTTERLY HOLLOW HOLE [ezcol_1half] What's a bialy, if you don't already know? I'd like to think of bialy as the ugly sister of bagel, who comes without the shiny crust nor a robust PR campaign, but, in my opinion, ultimately wins hearts and minds through slow and quiet diplomacy.  Or at least it should, if only in your kitchen.  Think about it.  Bialy and bagel practically shares the same dough, which isn't a difficult one if I might add, but that's about as much sameness as bagel's gonna tolerate from her sibling.  Not a fault of her own, but bagel, being held to her finicky New Yorker status and all, is somewhat of a

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May 15, 2017 In All recipes, Dairy

THE BEST, YET, ONE-SKILLET CREAMY EGG

[ezcol_1fifth]  [/ezcol_1fifth] [ezcol_3fifth] THE RESULT WAS AN ONE SKILLET, BLINK OF AN EYE, ELEGANT AND REMARKABLE QUILT OF EGG MAGIC Ever since I published a self-proclaimed genius recipe for my magic 15-seconds creamy scrambled eggs, I didn't think a better one - and by "better" I mean it in the context where you need a speedy and easy recipe for morning eggs - could ever come across my path, which proves, again, that I know nothing. A glimpse in one of the episodes in Anthony Bourdain's Return To Catalunya, in a fairytale land far far away they call Barcelona, there under the sparkling dim lights in a snuggly tapas bar, I saw it.  Quiet and flashing by, one can assume that among the dazzles of celebrity TV personalities and seemly endless flow of Spanish culinary bewitchment, this egg dish wasn't even the heroine of the night.  But I saw it, I noticed, a hot cast-iron skillet cuddling what seemed to be the most beautiful, golden blanket of creamy eggs.  We locked eyes.  None of us said a word.  But just from that split second of eye contact, me and it, almost telepathically, we understood something deep about one another. From its wet and almost undone surface, its slightly firmer

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September 14, 2015 In All recipes, Bakery/Pastry, Dairy, Sweets, updated recipe

HONEY WHIPPED RICOTTA-STUFFED SCONES

[ezcol_1fifth]  [/ezcol_1fifth] [ezcol_3fifth] THE THICKENED AND EMBRACIVE RICOTTA-MASCARPONE MOISTENS THE CRUMBS LIKE A SCONE CARRYING ITS OWN CLOTTED-CREAM [/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_1fifth]  [/ezcol_1fifth] [ezcol_3fifth] Sometimes, we wait for the perfect recipe-publishing moment to present itself.  Iced dairies to fend off the heat in August

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August 26, 2015 In All recipes, Bakery/Pastry

CRISPY YEASTED AND EXTRA “MALTY” WAFFLES

WITHOUT GOING ALL "DIASTATIC" ON MYSELF, I CAN SIMPLY TURN TO AN ASIAN HOME-ESSENTIAL THAT COULD ADD THE EXTRA "MALTINESS" TO ALL BAKED GOODS The brass spoon is made by the amazing Ann Ladson. [ezcol_1third][/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_1third][/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_1third_end] In between the various degrees of educations throughout my life, formal or social, if you asked me, I'd probably say that I expected the least practical return from my continuous study in all of Disney's animated movies around the 90's. More specifically, the cartoons, the classics, starting somewhere with The Little Mermaid and ending abruptly with Tarzan. All the magic produced at the height of Disney's prime according to my verdict, before digital animations barged in and all of a sudden, for no reason at all, everybody and so did the magic, literally or figuratively, all just stopped singing. Call me nostalgic, or even outdated, I rekindle with those movies from time to time, almost needfully, like talking to a childhood friend who never grew old. As far as I'm concerned, they don't make shit like that anymore. But anyhow, my point is, as much as I treasure the purity and endurance of this relationship that has regretfully outlasted many, little

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June 5, 2015 In All recipes, Vegatables

CLOUD-9 CHIPS-LIKE POTATO HASH, AND THANK YOU

[ezcol_1fifth]  [/ezcol_1fifth] [ezcol_3fifth] CLOUD 9, LIKE HOW YOU MADE MY DAY, AND YOU'LL NEVER WANT TO EAT POTATOES ANY OTHER WAYS AGAIN Today, I woke up, and as I spent the next 1:30 hours removing microscopic dead leaves off of my succulent-babies with an eyebrow tweezer, I was utterly oblivious of the surprise that was waiting, patiently, in my email-box.  A tweet from Molly telling me of the enormous gift, from you, for name Lady and Pups as the winner for Best Photography for Saveur's Food Blog Award. I am speechless.  Looking at the other candidates whose photography make me want to lower my head into a bucket of sour cream, I am, absolutely, without words.  At times like these, to show gratitude, I guess people make grand gestures.  But grand-ness doesn't reflect how I feel.  How I feel, as I'm typing, is humility.  For the past 3 years, including times when I didn't exactly deserve it, humbled by your support, tolerance, for giving me the benefit of the doubt, and above all

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