Japanese Tag

In All recipes, Bakery/Pastry, Dairy, Sweets

THE IMPLODING HONEY CUSTARD CAKE

“I HAVE PROOF OF ITS ABSOLUTE TAKEOVER ON THIS SIDE OF THE PLANET… HERE SEE!”

You must think me mad. I know. I’d think the same thing if I were you, entertained in front the computer witnessing the mental meltdown of this blogger who’s rocking back and forth, murmuring about what’s obviously a tragic kitchen disaster… if only to herself. Maybe that happens sometimes… just maybe. But not this time. I know what this must look like. A melting cake? A tragically deflated sponge cake that’s foaming uncontrollably in its mouth? Oh shit it’s an epileptic cake! Go ahead, mock it, have a good one. Then I want you to quiet down, sit in a circle hand-in-hand like tiny eager pre-schoolers and braise yourself for an unexpected cake that will. Change. Your. World.

Ready? It’s Japanese.

(or, as a reader newly pointed out, Portuguese as well)

04.11.2014

In All recipes, Noodle/Pasta/Rice, Soup, Top Posts In 90 Days

SPICY MISO RAMEN-EXPRESS

I set out to take the first post of 2014 easy… I did. I thought perhaps a harmless little breakfast pancake can be nice, glistening syrup under the hopeful morning light that symbolizes a new start within me… Or, perhaps, a statement-recipe like a creme brûlée and ham french toasts-sandwich that’s simple, but flaunting and strange enough to revitalize this blog’s otherwise-subtle individuality in the year to come… Or better yet, perhaps a complete slacker-post on a summary of everything that could and has gone wrong in my kitchen in 2013… kinda hey~ here’s a fine collection of things you probably don’t wanna eat but don’t I sound really cute talking about it?

But instead, this came out… And believe me, although it may not look remotely that way, this is taking-it-easy, well… as far as Japanese ramen goes.

01.04.2014

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

SPICY SALMON MINI HAND ROLLS

Let me cut to the chase with this one. Because along with what has officially come as the “holiday/party season”, also came a bubbling frenzy of ideas that harasses my otherwise unambitious nature to just relax through it all. I mean really, really self-tormenting thoughts, such as the fixation on the idea of a Christmas goose (goose!… I must’ve lost my mind.), the racing finger-snapping sounds that repeats “hors d’oeuvre, hors d’oeuvre, hors d’oeuvre!” and then “cookies, cookies, cookies!”, plus a reignited and very unhealthy obsession to tackle the ever–evil, ever-defiant croissant dough which, let’s not kid ourselves, will end in tears (I wonder where that came from…). All in all I mean, I’m busy.

But then, speaking of hors d’oeuvre…

12.10.2013

In All recipes, Bakery/Pastry, Dairy

THANKSGIVING ROUX BREAD

For the innocent sake of running an adequate food-blog, I’ve been slowly sucked down to a rabbit hole passing the disorienting stage of flying pies and falling biscuits, deep down to the world of cultivating gas-farting micro-organism on my kitchen counter (quite deep when you actually think about it). My falling journey has brought to you and myself, things I wouldn’t even think of doing just a little shy of 2 years ago, things like palm sugar brioche, dreamy Hokkaido milk toast, Taiwanese gua bao, Roman Bonci’s pizza, creamy carbonara pizza, clarified butter English muffin, pillow beignets and this rocking potato roll.

If I look into the mirror right now I wouldn’t recognize myself.

11.22.2013

In All recipes, Noodle/Pasta/Rice, Seafood

SALMON POKE-D YOU. YOU SHOULD POKE BACK

Two weeks ago when I stood in front of the ordering-counter in the most celebrated poke (a Hawaiian appetizer mostly made with raw seafood and other seasonings) joint in Honolulu, I found myself deep, once again, in a familiar dilemma. I could on one hand, dig through the baffling complicatedness for the source of the tuna without certainty on any given answers which would probably result in an ill-informed purchase anyways, or, I could entirely forgo the option of tuna as a food source just as I’ve been doing for quite awhile now. After all, I hadn’t tasted a bite of tuna, raw, cooked or canned for let’s say… almost 3 years.

10.15.2013

In All recipes, Snacks, Vegatables

corn and seaweed tempura popper

Before talking corny, you know how sometimes when parents, despite their best intentions no doubt, can suffocate us with all their unnecessary concerns followed by… uh… understandably agitating gestures? God don’t you just hate that? So freaking un-cool is what it is! And just to make it perfectly clear before I confess anything, I am still with you. You know, “Team Kids”. But yesterday… I think I may have done exactly that… ok and then some.

08.21.2013

In All recipes, Meat, Snacks, Vegatables

pork belly shiso yaki

Before I met Beijing, there was another affair I had a brief, bitter-ending engagement with and his name was I believe, Hong Kong. We spent an abusive 18 months together right after New York… ah New York. It was such a transcendent love, great love, Mr. BIG-GREAT that anyone else who followed was predetermined to never live up. Without the enlightenment of other perspectives, I couldn’t love a city with EVEN SMALLER living-square footage than New York… EVEN MORE CROWDED streets than ant-hills, EVEN UGLIER buildings than Taipei and many many EVEN-MORE-NESS to feel sorry for myself about. Like I said, I had no perspective. I had no idea that Hong Kong was already Aidan.

07.04.2013

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, Dairy, Meat, Noodle/Pasta/Rice, Quick Meals

Gold on Gold Curry Fried Rice

Guys I’m not kidding. You see. Every time I prepare posts to be published when I am away, they all turn out to be some kind of everything-must-go-fire-sale for the fridge. Well, an Asian’s fridge at least… to rid of some leftover rice, some ground meat and aromatics that are going to sprout while I was away. Because pre-departure meal is but a solution, right? But this is MORE than a solution. In fact it’s so unbelievably great it may cause you troubles.

02.26.2013

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