This year, Lunar New Year falls on February 8th. To welcome the Year of the Monkey, why not have a dumpling party? If you've thrown a dinner party, you know how complex it can be to feed an eclectic mix of guests in this day and...
One of my favorite snacks as a kid was spicy tapioca crisps, or chips as preferred in the U.S. These crisps are potato chips’ exotic, far-flung cousins made with tapioca (also called cassava, manioc, yuca) instead of potatoes and shellacked in a sweet, spicy, tangy...
Time: 10 minutes, plus 2 hours chilling time Makes: 6 servings As odd as the combination of ingredients in this dish may sound, they actually play very well together. And it's a wonderful, not-so-ordinary, way to use up the bushels of fruit that show up in summer. After...
Last Saturday, I had two cooking demos at the Freer and Sackler Galleries in downtown D.C. as part of their Lunar New Year family day celebrations. The weather forecast predicted snow (they were actually right!) and I was expecting maybe 5 people to show up at...
Choose love. These two simple words have been on my mind since they popped out at me from a friend’s Facebook post a few weeks ago. She was recapping her past year and she ended her reflection with “When in doubt, choose love.” They could mean many...
Supposedly, summer bade us farewell several days ago. The signs are all there: the sun dips lower in the sky, shadows lengthen, and the occasional nip in the air gently reminds me that summer is winding down and autumn is nudging its way in. However, all around me,...
One of the most common questions I get asked about my cookbook is: “Which one’s your grandma?” My sad reply: “She’s not in there.” I didn’t really know either of my grandmothers. My paternal grandmother, whom I called Oma, (I wrote about her in this post) lived...
