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Is this banh mi salad a banh mi? Yes, because banh mi means bread and sandwich in the Vietnamese language. This salad uses elements of the banh mi sandwich to create a light and refreshing summer dish. Bread is the star and this banh mi salad is a great way to use day-old baguette. After…
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Fall 2018 Asian Cooking Classes!
Responding to people who asked about Asian cooking classes, I just opened two for October and November. These are hands-on and located in Santa Cruz, which means you’ll get to learn in a small class situation (there’s a limit of 12 people per class), and I’ll be carefully choosing the ingredients. The cooking classes are…
A Stunningly Good Apricot Ginger Jam Recipe
Apricots originated in China and then spread westward, writes Joyce Goldstein in Jam Session, her new book on fruit preserving. I knew that ginger started out in southern Asia so Joyce’s apricot ginger jam recipe seemed like a natural Asian combination of ingredients. I’ve been fixated on apricots because its seasoning is winding down around…
Air-Fried Sweet and Sour Ribs Recipe
Chinese cooking is incredibly varied, which is why sweet and sour dishes are not all the same. For example, Cantonese-style sweet and sour pork with pineapple chunks and sweet-tangy sauce is different from Shanghai-style sweet and sour ribs (above), which are devoid of fruit and appear dark and lusty. The sweet and sour ribs look…
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…
Sichuan Boiling Fish Recipe (Shui Zhu Yu)
The first time I ordered boiling fish at a restaurant I expected some sort of spectacle — maybe a bubbling pot delivered to the table. Nope, what I got was a large bowl filled with just cooked greens and delicately cooked fish filet pieces in lots of salty-spicy-funky gravy topped with loads of chile and…
Instant Pot Northern Indian Lamb Curry with Pumpkin (Gosht)
Several factors collided to result in my making this northern Indian curry, one of which was an Indian man who told me that he owned five (5) pressure cookers, some of which were Instant Pots. He was a Silicon Valley techie and loved using them to prepare foods of his heritage. The second motivation was…
Simple, Thrilling One-Bottle Cocktail Recipes: The Phuket and My My My Tai
I love cocktails but mostly save them for the weekends, when I have time to gather all the spirits and prep ingredients and garnishes. Plus, the weekends are when I have time to recover from drinking the cocktails. As I get older, I don’t drink alcoholic beverages as often, or with as much gusto, as…
Lobster Tail, Lily Bulb, and Ginger Stir-Fry Recipe
It had been many years since my family celebrated Tet together but for this year, Lunar New Year fell on Friday and the long President’s Day weekend. My dad has been dealing with some health issues so my husband and I drove about 7 hours to spend the weekend with my parents. I also volunteered…
Sriracha Pimento Cheese Recipe
Many people from the American South are familiar with pimento cheese but I didn’t try it until 2013. It was so fun and addictively good to eat that I been making it ever since. The cheese was properly cut into small dice so you could taste its flavor. I’ve made it from a recipe in…
