Snacks

In All recipes, Meat, Noodle/Pasta/Rice, Quick Meals, Snacks

Dan Dan Your Face Off

I’m gonna be away for the entire next week…… (walking away from the computer and doing a little touch-down dance…)(wait… wait for it…)(OK I’m back). Tagging along on her husband’s every single business trip to Hong Kong may not be the idea of a modern woman, but for me it’s as simple as the most basic survival instinct. I just have to get the hell outta this, this and this whenever I can.

02.20.2013

In All recipes, Bakery/Pastry, Meat, Snacks

Who Took the “Gua” out of “Bao”?

Everybody, Happy CNY! Yes, only 2 months after Thanksgiving and 1 month after Christmas comes our very own Annual-eat-ourselves-senseless Day. And you think you’ve got difficulty shedding pounds before Valentine’s Day (“Honey, your gut has never looked more sexy!”)? So I thought… in the spirit of Asian festivity and so on, that it’s good timing to honor our newly uprising social icon, one of our most successful cultural ambassador yet to date (and when I say “our” I mean Taiwanese…) – the Brits have Kate Moss and we have this guy. The infamous, the notorious, the little bite of heaven brought to fame by Momofuku, (drumroll) the~~ Taiwanese GUA BAO! ………………………. Oh wait, that’s right. You don’t recognize him. Perhaps because he’s mistakenly known as “the pork bun” or just… “bao”. Phoooph… can you believe it…

02.06.2013

In All recipes, Meat, Quick Meals, Snacks

Fully Loaded Baguette

(繁體) (简体)

Wow! What a weekend last Saturday, uh?! Golden Globes? Did you watch it? What a fantastic sequence of showmanship one after the next uh? First came Jodie Foster’s neurotic ramblings of a speech though I’m not going to argue with the world who apparently thought she was phenomenal. Then Oh-glory’s-the-name-of-vengeance Ben Affleck won best director and fired a bullet with his love-declaration for Gardner right in the heart of who else but J “LOW”! Oh snap!! And how about Ann Hathaway giving all she’s got on an AMAZING performance acting surprised at winning supporting actress! Flaaaaawless! That’s another award in itself I’m telling ya. OH oh and Kristen and Will’s HILARIOUS little team-up was PURE comedy gold! Missed it? Geeet ooout of heeerree!! Finally FINALLY Tina Fay and Amy Poehler’s opening act was marriage made in heaven… come on… I laughed the tears out of myself!

01.18.2013

In All recipes, Bakery/Pastry, Snacks

Slice of Bonci’s

(简体)（繁體)

I assumed that by the time this post is published, the world has crossed into the year 2013. So happy new year, guys. I hope that against all odds, fireworks were ~~blocked~~ enjoyed, champagnes were ~~spilled~~ popped, strangers ~~fought~~ kissed, and resolutions ~~dismissed~~ fulfilled. But truth be told, I am never one to celebrate the fact that another year has eloped with my remaining inventories of collagen, and as far as a new “symbolic reform” goes, I never understand why I have to wait for December. Who’s got time for that? The hope of a new beginning must start now if not last minute, so it could get killed before noon the next day. Last night I said “ENOUGH!” to my thighs and tonight I have lychee gummies on my night stand. Efficiency.

01.02.2013

In All recipes, Poultry, Snacks

Creamy Duck Rillette

The other night during my thrill-less routine of midnight internet-surfing, I came across an article about the mysterious effect of mind has on physical wellness. You know, happy people healthy life kind of thing. (By the way Hello, my name is Mandy and I’m a hypochondriac. Those who are just here thinking there’d be “better-than-Paris” duck, feel free to skip and scroll right to the bottom…). So volunteers were gathered and tests were conducted. In a nut shell, I was diagnosed by the article as the kind who are biologically doomed, incapable of being happy under meditation and will be a sag of meat dripping negativity for the rest of my life, which as far as effect-of-mind-on-health goes isn’t gonna be a long one. It’s settled. I will live short, and whimper.

12.13.2012

In All recipes, Meat, Noodle/Pasta/Rice, Snacks

Wontons for Him

(简体)（繁體)

There are about a hundred activities that are on my list of things to AVOID at ALL COST in Beijing. Taking a cab is one of them. I’m from New York, the international training-hub for cab-EQ and I thought I graduated smoothly with only one slip that caught me off-guard somewhere on Christopher Street. So to say that I have NO tolerance for supposedly my favorite transportation in the world, is saying a lot. If you think New York cab’s got attitude, how about multiplying that by 10 folds then add these to top the cake: a) The car is built to be as safe as a tin can. b) Driver tells you that it’s his second day on the job so that he’s completely CLUELESS on the directions OR how to keep you alive for that matter. c) A thick stench of body odor permeating throughout and you realized only a short stub of screw is left where the window control used to be. d) It’s 104 degrees outside but the AC doesn’t work (they never do) PLUS the window STILL doesn’t open and YES of course… odor, while you are being dragged aimlessly around the city in a lovely tin can. See?

12.06.2012

In All recipes, Meat, Snacks, Vegatables

Chasing Kogi Truck

(简体)（繁體)

I could never live in LA… What can I say? I’m a city person. LA is NOT a city. It’s a glorified suburb if anything, run by GYM-hugging, yogurt-dipping and smoothie-drinking fitness-zombies who cares more for over-sized sunglasses than foods. And I’m afraid we can’t be friend if you told me you want to give up culture in exchange for a place with no seasons… Yeah that’s snow. It’s called winter. But let’s just say in an alternate universe where I fell in love with a cellulite-free buttocks over butter, and a car engine over my vintage bikes, and decided that I COULD actually live in LA… what would I be doing there everyday on my carbon-emitting vehicle?

I would be gladly chasing the Kogi truck.

(Jason: “dude… you live in Beijing…”)

11.21.2012

In All recipes, Dairy, Noodle/Pasta/Rice, Snacks, updated recipe

Egg Crepes

(简体)（繁體)

I think that more than lunch, or dinner, or snacks and what-nots, people tend to have a more fixated idea on what a breakfast ought to be. Even though I may have my Asian background to thank for (if I may) a broader window on other-than-American foods, I’m still sometimes a bit… pleasantly awed by what other parts of the world eat for breakfast during my travels (that’s IF I ever wake up for it… but let’s just pretend I do).

09.18.2012

In All recipes, Snacks, Vegatables

Pretty Little Purple Shoestrings

(简体)（繁體)

I’ve attempted good-old French fries at home before. Once.

And the fact that no song was sung for it in any chapters on this blog, you should know better and NOT to ask what happened. You see, it wasn’t that it was inedible. No no no… who said that?! But the shreds of sanity left in me (surprise) just couldn’t justify the entire process of one-step soaking, one-step blanching and two-steps frying which then are all painstakingly repeated in 3~4 batches. Let alone the giant tub of grease that will never EVER be conscientiously regarded as “fresh” again, ALL for a STINGY amount of fries that (covering my ears) just isn’t all-that-better than outsourced. OK… again you see, the grease is never hot enough. And I could never (maybe you do…) bear to invest the obscene ratio for grease : fries like the restauratns, which is to say… 15:1! And therefore they never come out as goldenly delicious and crispy…

All in all it brings me to say – and believe me that these words don’t come without pain but – French fries are better-off left for professional kitchens.

09.13.2012

In All recipes, Snacks, Sweets

Red Velvet Ebelskivers

(Chinese versions coming soon)

The logic goes that after a feeding-frenzy Malaysia binge-party, that my head and soul should be filled with just Malaysian recipes extravaganza. And THAT IS CORRECT. Believe me, it is. But as sorting through and editing 1,018 pixtures while coordinating everything with the exact location on Google map has proven to be bit more time-consuming than I expected, I’m experiencing a little bit of bloggers-obsessive-anxiety-disorder as I realize that Bloggy has been starving without a new post for almost a week now (yes, I count).

08.24.2012

In All recipes, Poultry, Snacks

The Right Wings

(Chinese versions coming soon)

Did I mention I was going on vacation? Malaysia. 10 days. Be jealous.

08.13.2012

In All recipes, Poultry, Snacks

Salty Crispy Poppers

(简体)（繁體）

Once upon a time in a land far far away, there lived a young girl.

Everyday after school, she took the same road home, wearing her same brown shoes, humming the same little song. One afternoon just like the day before, she passed by the usual food stall on the way, but felt unusually hungry. She realized that she forgot to eat lunch because she was probably too busy chasing boys during lunch break. Remembering what her mother had always warned her about the forbidden street snack, she reached for the changes in her pocket and hesitated. An old, wrinkly lady behind a huge wok of boiling grease smiled at her and said, “Hi there, little one. Would you like to have some Salty-crispy chicken? Oh they are awfully delicious.”

08.05.2012