i hope you eat good food, grow beautiful things, and have more love than you know what to do with.
Obligatory disclaimer that there is a risk of eating food raw, especially seafood. Proceed at your own risk. Also included is the disclaimer for safely eating the tomalley (cooked or raw) of crustaceans, also proceed at your own risk. I have been craving ganjang gejang, …
Normally “gua bao” is made with melt in your mouth fatty braised pork, with cilantro and crushed peanuts for traditional Taiwanese fare. That will probably be a recipe for another day. Instead, this is a simple roasted pork belly, spiced and done in the air …
The only issue I have with this particular rice topping is that…. a whole head of cabbage gets cooked down to just a few small jars of this delicious dish and it disappears in a flash. Bakke miso, which is made with the Japanese butterbur, is the basis for this particular… condiment? I don’t have butterbur, but cabbage is in season and what better way to use it up than for this?
Every morning, I have a sunnyside up egg, a bowl of rice, and this to start off my day. Sometimes I pour hot water into a bowl with a scoop of this to make an instant miso style soup. It’s simple and refreshing and a light and delicious and healthy too! You can add onions or scallions as well to create a different flavor.
Any thick leafy veggie can do—kale, bok choy, Chinese mustard, etc. so explore and see what you come up with!
This was the recipe that gave me absolute joy to work with, not because it’s exceptionally difficult or anything but because the homemade version 1. tastes NOTHING like the store-bought version, and 2. it tastes 3000x better. It’s the recipe that made me yell “what …
This is it. The trip we’ve been waiting for! (This week needs to go by faster.) The kids are finally old enough to go (and have had both their Covid vaccines) and I’ve been bubbling with excitement! It’s not just for a (much needed) vacation …
This is less of a “recipe” and more of a discovered-a-traditional-way-of-eating-something-that-blew-my-mind. I always have bottarga/karasumi/wuyuzi which is the cured roe of mullet (a specialty of both Italy and Taiwan) in my fridge at any given time—it satisfies my cravings for something salty, briney, and full of the flavors of the ocean. I was wondering what to do with it, since the normal ways of eating it had begun to bore me—on eggs, on spaghetti, by itself with slivers of daikon and scallion and garlic, etc. and I discovered this buried among my Google search.
Traditionally, had I gotten my hands on carta di musica (translated as sheet music—a type of traditional super thin Sardinian cracker), I’d be using that, but as it is regular thin crisp crackers do wonderfully. Something about this combination is indescribable in both simplicity and flavor, I ended up enjoying it immensely, each bite a reminded me just how much I love it.
This actually isn’t my recipe (nor much of a recipe at all, more of a narrated process)—it’s my mom’s and it’s definitely not from around these parts, but from Costa Rica! Speaking of that gorgeous Central American country that my parents fell in love with …
So as part of the whole experience, the first floor rear unit is themed with Studio Ghibli Easter eggs hidden around the unit. I grew up on Studio Ghibli films, and for the most part they were positive and nostalgic and just lovely. I say …
I haven’t had a chance to break out my bento boxes lately but decided to TREAT MYSELF today with blowfish tempura and soba. This style of soba, tenzaru, is eaten cold, with a small teacup or bowl of soba soy sauce (mentsuyu), and delicious and crispy tempura on the side. Usually served with wasabi, grated daikon, and scallions, you dip the noodles in the broth before eating. It’s a popular summer dish and a great way to deal with an abundance of blowfish.
This is one of those northern atlantic blowfish years where they swarm the waters on the south shore of Long Island and you pull them up as quickly as you can drop a line down. They are voracious and aggressive eaters, with delicious tender, flaky white meat that holds well to frying and stews. Unlike their Japanese counterparts, they are one of the few puffer species that don’t have toxins (although it is still advised to stay away from the organs.)
Next up on the blowfish series: Blowfish corn chowder with potato dumplings. Okay, so the only reason I made potato dumplings instead of straight potatoes in this chowder is because I’m really into low waste and had leftover mashed potatoes and tempura batter (which mixed …