i hope you eat good food, grow beautiful things, and have more love than you know what to do with.
Sometimes I fall down the rabbit hole of making things traditionally in order to experience and understand the work and history that goes into food (and subsequently culture.) Mei gan cai kou rou (梅乾菜燜肉) is a dish my mom and grandma used to make–soft fatty …
Everyone hates garlic mustard, generally. I know I wasn’t a big fan even after turning it into pesto because there really is only so much you can eat of it before you can’t. It’s considered a noxious and invasive weed, crowding out everything in it’s …
It’s kind of hard to explain the flavor of indian aster, Kalimeris indica, also known as Ma Lan Tou (馬蘭頭), herby and little cooling on the tongue, a hint of bitterness that you’re almost not quite certain is there, but refreshing and somewhat addictive. Most …
I made this a lot last year when I was growing eggplants and it is still one of my favorite ways to use up a vegetable I otherwise don’t pay much attention to. Cold or hot, over some white rice is just an absolute divine …
I love ganjang gejang which is Korean raw marinated crab, but my mom introduced me to Chiang Xie/嗆蟹 (although pronounced chiang ha in the regional dialect) which is Chinese style raw marinated crab. She bought it from a side dish take out place in Flushing …
It’s spring and one of the first things to pop up in my garden is garlic chives—different than onion chives, the leaves are flat and the flavor similar to ramps but less intense. It’s a popular Asian vegetable and dead easy to grow. With my …
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 …
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 …
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 …
I’ve really been exploring some dishes from my childhood, and this is a simple summer dish that just goes deliciously with some white rice. It’s a chilled side dish that’s really quick to put together! I don’t really have much to say about it other …