It’s that time of year again when parents all over the country are pulling their hair out trying to put together easy-to-prepare, somewhat healthy lunches for their school-age kids. While my son loves a ham-and-cheese and peanut butter sandwich as much as the next four-year-old, he...
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...
It's summer--it's hot, it's humid. Let's cool down with an iced dessert or drink. Here are some favorites: 1. Ice Kachang (Singapore, Malaysia) Beneath a mountain of shaved ice drizzled with red, green, and yellow syrups--plus condensed milk!--you might find agar-agar strips, red adzuki beans (kachang means...
When pickles and tea are put together in the same sentence, one might think of lahpet thoke, the Burmese pickled tea salad I first savored at San Francisco restaurant Burma Superstar. Or perhaps one’s favorite victuals—I for one love pickles and tea, but usually consumed...
For this month’s Let’s Lunch challenge, we were tasked with making three-ingredient recipes. Now I've seen and attempted five-ingredient recipes but three ingredients? That's a tough one. As often happens in life, things organically fell into place. Last month, I wrote a story on building a gluten-free...
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,...
You might think me crazy for craving rice pudding in the middle of summer. But this past week or two, we’ve had a deluge of thunderstorms here in northern Virginia. And we all know there’s nothing more comforting than curling up on the couch with a...
When I was a little girl, I was quite the snacker (who am I kidding, I’m still a snacker!). Although potato chips and Planters Cheez Curls were readily available, I went for more “local” snack items like Chickadees and Twisties, or perhaps chili-coated tapioca crisps. As a...
My parents aren’t natural storytellers (perhaps I should ask more often?) but every once in awhile a gem from their childhood pops up. Like this one story my mum recently told me: Ma remembers always waking up from her afternoon naps to the intoxicating aroma...
The Vietnamese sandwich, a.k.a. bánh mì, is the epitome of cheap, good food. In fact, so remarkable is the bánh mì’s reputation, the New York Times Magazine devoted an entire article to this glorious sandwich. The article also suggests that Seattle, with its thriving Vietnamese community,...
