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In All recipes, Featured Attractions, Got Nothing But Time, Meat, Noodle/Pasta/Rice, Soup

TAIWAN BEEF NOODLE SOUP / NIU ROU MIAN

(简体)（繁體) UPDATES AVAILABLE * 2013/03/11: online sources for ingredients added!

I’m gonna start this by saying something that seems completely irrelevant… The Japanese are marketing geniuses. No, not geniuses. Gurus! No no, NOT gurus. GODS!!! It’s like their entire way of life comes with a built-in marketing system that in comparison would reduce Don Draper down to nothing but just a raging alcoholic. I mean really, something about their culture is so mesmerizing that… OH look! Hello Kitty! (slap! FOCUS!) …that they’ve become easily one of the biggest culture exporters in the world, and most evidently in their success in pushing their cuisine into a world domination that’s stronger than the force of nature. Not so long ago who would’ve thought that Americans, the genetically-hardwired loyal patrons of well-done white meat chicken, would pay $200 and UP to surrender their fork’n knife, pick up the chopsticks (some awkwardly) and chew down a piece of raw fish on vinegary rice then moan, “Mmmmm… UMAAAAMI…”. Seriously!! Forget X-men, THIS is where human mutation takes a giant leap!

I’m telling you, it’s crazy. Japanese can sell anything like it has a halo on top of it.

09.28.2012

In All recipes, Got Nothing But Time, Soup

Golden Foundation

(简体)（繁體)

I know that I may have been a little (a little?) explicit about my harsh feelings toward this sad little place called Beijing. But I realized that sucks-ass it may (or certainly) be, moving here is undeniably a blessing in disguise when it comes to how my cooking has evolved. With all the convenience that came with living in New York, I would never have learnt about fresh pasta, layery biscuits, insanely flaky pies, crazy buttery brioche, plus many more that has yet to come next. And of course this, homemade golden broth. One may question if this is really worth its own post. Yes, yes it does. Because it’s NOT JUST your average chicken stock.

09.25.2012

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, Noodle/Pasta/Rice

“C” Is For Cold Capellini

(简体)（繁體)

Despite the respectable effort of window displays everywhere and pretty little fashion magazines who would like us to believe that the next season is upon us and seduce us into stocking up on goose-down parkas or snuggy scarfs, the truth is that the chances of heatwaves is right around the corner on any given Wednesday, and will last well into October for the freakier parts of the world at least. This is a confession coming from a dark corner inside a pre-season shopaholic who, almost every year, excitedly opens a box full of winter goodies sometime in September while sweating profusely in her tank-tops and couldn’t stop the idea of downing a bowl of something really cold… ANYTHING cold.

09.03.2012

In All recipes, Noodle/Pasta/Rice, Seafood

Curry Laksa

(简体)（繁體)

If you haven’t heard of “Nyonya”, chances are you have eaten it instead. Yeah. It may not have been as justly popularized as Thai or Vietnamese, but its low-key awesomeness is in every Southeast Asian restaurant. The word itself means the union between Chinese and Malays, and the fushion cuisine thus born which is PURE MAGIC. So then… why am I struggling to finish this post after writing then tearing (…symbolically) and rewriting again? Because I JUST can’t escape the thought that people would come, and see, and “huh??” and just FADE OUT. And I’m exhausting all my aren’t-really-there writing skills in an attempt to make this sound like a Rachel Ray’s which has let me to a desperate conclusion to say that… it isn’t. Yes, it is complicated and consists of a blinding array of exotic ingredients. And chances are if you weren’t those who have true affection for a bowl of spicy noodles, I’ve lost you somewhere along the second sentence. BUT if you are those like me, it would be worth the while.

08.30.2012

In All recipes, Travel

Malaysia Feeding Frenzy

I’m not gonna bullshit.

This ISN’T about the beaches. This ISN’T about the rain forests or the baby orangutans they wouldn’t let me hold. This ISN’T about those corn-looking twin towers either, or getting up from the bottom and looking down from the top – big whoops. Let’s also spare the traveler’s enlightenment crap cuz there ain’t any, and cut straight to the point. We came here to land our asses from one plastic chair to another and feed ourselves to a mindless pulp. We came here to experience binge-fatigue and then push through it. We came here to stuff these mortal human-casings of ours to maximum capacity until we were absolutely sure that they were going to burst and THEN SOME. This is a senseless, stone-cold-killer guide to how to ~~heart~~burn through KL and Penang without shame or remorse in super hawker style. Here ain’t about looking-good’n-feeling-chic. Just strap on that bottle of pepto and put on that stretchy pants. Now please follow our trail of gluttony. Let’s divide. And conquer.

08.26.2012

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, Dairy, Sweets

Gelato for Breakfast

(Chinese versions coming soon)

If anyone holds secret addiction for trashy tabloid magazine, uheh… which of course I’m not talking about myself because I only read Time and Nat Geo, or Economist and… world-hunger-stuff like that with SUBSTANCE… obviously……. Then they’d known what a friend of a friend whose sister’s cousin had told me that apparently this guy Tom Cruise Whatever and his ~~wife~~ ex-wife Katie Something… got divorced with help from his ex-ex-wife Nicole blah blah. So I heard. Again NOT that I care, but apparently it was over some dispute in their insanely fashionable (polka-dots! Just a wild guess…) Suri’s upbringing that I SO do not know the details of, but one of which I vaguely remember being that… he lets her eats ice-cream for dinner?

08.19.2012

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

In All recipes, Meat, Noodle/Pasta/Rice

“Rice Pie” It Is

(简体)（繁體）

And I really don’t have any other better ideas so “rice pie” it is.

I’m sure we’ve all suffered from this. From Cantonese clay-pot rice, to Korean bibimbap, to Spanish paellas. All are different cuisines of rice plus whatnot, cooked in a sizzling vessel that forms a “burnt crust” of rice on the sides and bottom, which many would argue is the essence of such dishes. OK, now here’s the “suffering” part. What’s the point… of creating those wonderful, delicious, toasty crusts… if all they ever want is… to STICK TO the cookware!? Like taking a lovely prospect to a bar to get’em drunk and they ended going home with the bartender… No? Nobody’s ever suffered from this? It’s just me? OK, well fine. I DON’T GET IT. I like those burnt bits, too and I was there first!! How can it choose the pan over me?! It’s heart-breaking that after my useless HACKING and SCRAPING at an innocent cookware that really don’t deserve this violence, I call it quit and just watch them still happily and ever-so contently clinging onto each other while I ponder with frustration, “why?”.

08.02.2012