All recipes

In All recipes, Condiments, Featured Attractions, Vegatables

lard and shallots

Perhaps you have heard of this. Perhaps amidst that journey you’ve always wanted to take, physically or culinarily, you’ve left a little trail of footprints through this Southeast island distancing itself from China, sensed the disturbance in its waking yearnings to voice out. Chances are you weren’t charmed by its political ambiguity or perhaps even curious but that’s all right, because that’s not what we truthfully know of either. What we know of is this, our last fair stance on independent nationality, what even brought you to take an impression on our not-much-ness, the last pride. This, Taiwanese street foods.

06.27.2013

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

hypothetically wild salmon onigiri

I am not, by a screeching far cry, someone who could hypothetically reach a life with no regret. Contentment to me is an overrated product of philosophy, not of nature, and therefore more often than not, I find myself restlessly curating for a much-er life. I benched more tablewares in the cabinet than the actual number of guests I could ever gather to my hypothetically dinner party. My closet is for someone who apparently comes across great occurrences that call for more than one (ok, five) sequinned Flapper dress. I limited myself to only four vintage-designed bicycles (so far) which I imagine cruising so hipster-ly through Williamsburg where our hypothetical loft resides, just above the hypothetical farmer’s market, where I buy hypothetical hydrangeas on weekends. Hey, I could go Paris on you but I want to keep it real.

06.24.2013

In All recipes, Seafood, Soup, Vegatables

tummy yumyum tomato soup

Who here shares a rooted enthusiasm for heads raise their hands (… what?). To an undiscriminating extend on varieties, I love all types of heads (… what did I say?…), duck, fish, chicken, whatever. Not that there’d be a fight but I seize it from the table at every encounter, nose-up thinking I am the only person in the party who knows what. I’m a head-snob. And on behave of myself, I’m filing a complaint towards America where under-informed citizens don’t appreciate heads, or serve enough of them (I think I hear agreement of some sort…). I go quietly fury especially when I see shrimps heads being discarded on their plates, thinking they must be CRAZY passing that intense creamy foie-gras of-the-sea that’s just one loud sucking away. Tsk tsk tsk… unworthy of a good head.

06.20.2013

In All recipes, Bakery/Pastry, Seafood, Snacks

poorman’s lobster roll

Right. I apologize for my “rare” unprofessionalism last time. Can we start over? I promise I’ll keep it together this time because oh boy this faux-lobster roll is too delicious to miss out on. But it’s strange to compose this post because the day I cooked it, my doggy-Armageddon-day had not been realized, and staring back on the make-funny-“when life gives you shrimp, make lobster roll”-line that I drew up then to mock my general cheap-ass style, it now seems to actually speak to me on a philosophical level… My words-in-past is making contact with my present inner-self. Wooh~ (believe it or not this is me keeping it together).

06.17.2013

In All recipes, Bakery/Pastry, Sweets

breakfast milk tea & honey pound cake

I’m going to push my opinion-quota by saying that the US is the least tea-cultured among the other places I’ve lived in (Taiwan, Vancouver, Hong Kong… Beijing). Americans aren’t particularly keen on tea, evidently as some may now defensively refer to Snapple’s along this line as a clownish counter-argument, and now… they shall stand to be mocked by public (no, it’s too late to take it back).

06.13.2013

In All recipes, Poultry, Snacks

gateway charcuterie – goose prosciutto

I have not gone mad I assure you. I think. This is not a slap on my own face regarding what I just said about people not keeping it realz, I assure you again. I think… Yeah, I’m pretty sure. I tell you why.

06.10.2013

In All recipes, Bakery/Pastry, Dairy, Meat, Snacks, Vegatables

the infinite kitchen sink hand pie

Sometimes I get a little personal when I take a stroll through the expansive, razzle-dazzling and star-crusted cosmic jungle that is food-blogosphere. I really don’t mean to compare I really don’t. Wise man once said that… “Go… just do your own things” or something… you know but put in a MUCH more profound and scholarly terms. But the thing is (and it’s a big thing) that I can’t help but feeling like Gimli the dwarf when self-put besides the others, whom I’d like to call the blogger-elves of the Woodland Realm (birds chirping pls) because I mean really, just REALLY, do people SERIOUSLY live like that? Prancing with in-season-only, tree-ripen fruits and vegetables galore by the farm-stands and POOF! an effortless display of fairy-salad and angel-tarts on a oh-my-granny-just-left-me-this antique table. Or picking WILD FLOWERS in pastel tea-dresses surrounded by rainbow and songs and THAT’S what she EATS on weekends!? For REALZ? I bet their body parts self-shave, too…

Yeah. I’m jealous.

06.06.2013

In All recipes, Bakery/Pastry, Vegatables

rock’n potato roll

There were many aspects in life turned unexpectedly different after moving to Beijing. I didn’t expect that in any foreseeable lifetime, I’d accessorize a biking trip to the grocery with an industrial-grade gas-mask instead of a summer straw-hat. I didn’t expect neither that instead of battles on sample sale weekends, I’d be fighting other choking victims online in a gas-mask-shortage-frenzy when the days get worse. Yah I know there’s a general wisdom to be applied here somewhere… positive psychology and affirmations do-kid-yourself kinda BS or whatnot… but then comes the unexpected irony.

06.03.2013

In All recipes, Meat

steak’s anatomy

You people… yes YOU, who can’t stop yapping about how the “grilling season” has begun. Wooh omg~ let’s break out your Cadillac stainless steel monster-grill and park it so handsomely on your beautiful Martha Stewed deck, under that family peach tree looking out into your Ina-garden and get everybody all Bobby Flayed-up on your marbled rib-eye. Whatever, yah-dah yah-dah ya-dah… Yeah, you people. Please. Just. Zip it. SHUSH!

05.30.2013

In All recipes, Bakery/Pastry, Dairy, Sweets

like-crack-er ice cream brownie sandwich

I know I know there must be a food-blogger authority staking-out behind a cyber-corner, waiting to ticket me just as soon as I violate the meter by hitting the “publish” button (just any second now…). TWO ICE-CREAM POSTS IN A ROLL?! BACK TO BACK!? God I have some thick-skinned nerve occupying a parking spot on this competitive block in Blogger-hood! Uh-hum… the official statement is that my sheer excitement after spotting a “cracker cheesecake sandwich” on Donna Hay via pinterest, has driven me to share it for the public-greater good regardless of my personal content-diversity agenda. And we know that all official statements are largely based on truth and integrity.

05.27.2013

In All recipes, Dairy, Sweets, Vegatables

winter warmth ice cream

Drop down on a point back in time, all the way back in my 500-sqft studio in New York when I was joyfully smooching a pint of Ben’n Jerry’s which I casually grabbed from the downstair 24hr-deli, and tell me that in the not-so-distant future, anytime-access to my beloved collection of ice cream-babies would be a thing of the past… I’d cover their ears (hush hush… bad people… bad people…) then tell you nicely to go kiss your own mad arse. Hey, I was a young, naive and ignorant little shit who thought New York City wasn’t the center of the universe. Can I please get it back if I apologize?

05.23.2013

In All recipes, Got Nothing But Time, Meat

creme brulee-d pork belly confit

Naaah, don’t have to thank me for this. Glad to do it. Well… don’t hate me for it either. If you are finding this angelically beautiful but appallingly offensive all at the same time, I can’t help you. Just as the curtain of the swimsuit-season is about to go up in all its rudeness and the rim of jello hanging over your jeans is being increasingly disagreeable, I’m putting this on your HD retina-display screen. I’m bad. But again, gelatinous pork belly confit under a jacket of perforated crispy skin and a lace of amber-like caramelized sugar… Pass?… Nah, you’ll have to go to the beach fat.

05.20.2013