While I love making kimchi, I can’t imagine making it in a traditional kimchi fermentation crock--called onggi—and then burying it in the ground. Although if you’d like to try it, you can buy one stateside from this guy. Just so you know, fermenting in general doesn’t...
There are many recipes for this delightful sweet chili sauce, some requiring it to be cooked down to a syrupy consistency, using up a lot of time and patience, neither of which I have much of. So I prefer to thicken it with starch, which...
With July 4th right around the corner, it's time to get serious about grilling. And if you've ever been a victim of tough, dry meat fresh off the flames, you'll want to read this. I'm not going to talk about techniques or equipment--I'll leave that to the...
Some grandmas send their grandchildren books. Some send LEGO's. Others send perhaps a hand-knitted hat or hand-sewn dress. My mom sent my son Marie biscuits. And not just a couple of packages, but 10 of them. Granted my 5 year-old loves these biscuits—he can devour five or six at...
Cookbook author and teacher Andrea Nguyen has done it again! I just received a complimentary copy of Andrea's fourth book in eight years, The Banh Mi Handbook—Recipes for Crazy-Delicious Vietnamese Sandwiches, and it's set to launch another culinary revolution. Banh mi has its roots in the French snack of...
I’ve been thinking about kaya a lot lately—that creamy, unctuous coconut egg jam that was the foundation of many a childhood breakfast. I ate kaya at home between toasted sandwich slices (Gardenia, of course). I ate the holy trinity of Singapore breakfasts--kaya toast, soft-boiled egg,...
Technicolor Vietnamese Pickles (Do Chua) Asian pickles do not adhere strictly to Western pickling methods (quick pickles, salt-brined etc) nor do we have a tradition of canning using sterilized jars and such. This method is a combination of quick pickles and salt-brined pickles and they'll keep...
One of my favorite Asian herbs, lemongrass, and its long, slender form is fast becoming a common sight here in the Northwest. You can often find the stalk with its variegated colors--from white to yellow to pale green--three to a bundle at Asian markets, and...
A very important person once said, “You can’t argue with taste.” This V.I.P. happens to be my dad. He'd make this declaration while pouring kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce, literally “sweet sauce”) over whatever food was on his plate, be it fried noodles (normal)...
I’m a peanut sauce convert. There I said it. It’s true, I never liked peanut sauce. It probably has to do with the fact that my mom always served peanut sauce with boiled vegetables, i.e. the popular Indonesian dish gado- gado. C’mon, do boiled vegetables sound appetizing...
