Anthony Bourdain’s sudden death triggered an outpouring of emotion from all over, but for me, it eventually led me into the kitchen to make wonton noodle soup and refresh my memory of experiences long ago. My first job after college was with the federal government. I was a bank examiner and quickly learned to hate…
Recipes: Noodles
5 Asian Cold Noodle Recipes for Hot Days
A fellow food writer in Georgia wrote last week from what he jokingly called “Hotlanta”. I looked up Atlanta’s weather and it was indeed warm. That made me chuckle but also got me thinking: When the heat is on, it’s time to ponder Asian cold noodle recipes! I categorized them as “cold” but technically the…
Day-After Thanksgiving Turkey Pho Recipe — Pressure Cooker and Multicooker Edition!
Do you cook during the holidays with leftovers in mind? I do. There’s so much involved in pulling off a holiday meal to feed a crowd that I love to bank my efforts by repurposing ingredients and using up scraps. Many Americans make soup from the leftover turkey carcass and vegetable, but what about…
Instant Pot Chicken Pho Recipe
If you want to make pho from scratch but do not have time for a long simmer in a stockpot, use a pressure cooker. This recipe goes with the post I wrote about how to use the Instant Pot to make my pressure cooker pho recipes in The Pho Cookbook. Note a few things before diving…
Peking Meat Sauce Noodles (Zha Jiang Mian) Recipe
In the 1962 Joyce Chen Cook Book, a few pages after the egg fried rice recipe, was something that made me do a double take. I wasn’t sure what Peking Meat Sauce Noodles were until I recognized the characters for zha jiang mian (炸醬麵, “jah jee-ang mee-an”), a popular Chinese cold noodle dish with thinly cut vegetables and…
Turkey Pho Recipe (Pho Ga Tay Quay)
Not long ago someone on VWK asked if I had a turkey pho recipe. I was working on it and it took a while for me to figure it out, primarily because I’m not a turkey lover. As you may recall my mentioning over the years, our family abandoned Thanksgiving turkey in the 1980s when…
Chanterelle and Garlic Butter Noodles Recipe
It’s been years since I foraged for chanterelle mushrooms beneath oak trees near a cottage that we rented out in the country. Alas, after five years of living on septic, we bought a house with city plumbing. We are urban people but I surely missed the fall and winter mushroom season. I only foraged for…
Spicy Beef and Tofu Skin Noodle Soup
I’ve been keeping a stash of frozen chunks of leftover beef for a couple of months, thinking that I’d use it for a Sichuan-style spicy beef noodle soup. A brow-wiper for cooler months. While driving home from Los Angeles last week, my husband said, “I’d love some Chinese beef noodle soup.” We obviously had a…
Sichuan Cold Sesame (or Peanut) Noodles Recipe
After reading the dan dan noodle recipe post, Jay emailed earlier this week asking for assistance with a noodle dish that he was trying to replicate from a Bay Area restaurant named Crouching Tiger (where’s the Hidden Dragon?). He shared his sauce recipe with me and asked me to help him tweak it. I looked…
Vegetarian Dan Dan Noodles Recipe
Meatless Mondays is a great idea but I don’t do it. I’m a mostly meatless lunch person. On the days when my husband is at work, I often make myself a vegetarian mid-day snack. A fried egg with leftover rice and some Viet pickles is among my personal favorites. So is banh mi with tofu…
