I’ve been meaning to bake a mochi cake (also called butter mochi) for the longest time--maybe 10 years?--ever since I first used mochiko for the mochiko chicken recipe in my first cookbook The Asian Grandmothers Cookbook. A few weeks ago, I finally did. I was inspired by...
Last week, as I was digging through my CSA box anticipating what goodies lay within, I pulled out one ear of corn after another. 1-2-3-4...
Three years ago this August, I gave up caffeinated coffee. I still drink decaf coffee and I still drink tea, both black and green. However, I feel like a disgrace to my Seattle-bred espresso habit every time I order a decaf, soy milk caffe latte. Yes,...
Diwali (also called Deepavali), or the Festival of Lights, celebrates the triumph of good over evil, light over darkness. Celebrated by Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and some Buddhists, it falls between mid-October and mid-November according to the Gregorian calendar. In 2015, Diwali lands on November 11th. New...
Nutella was the peanut butter of my childhood. I ate the rich, creamy chocolate-hazelnut spread slathered one-inch-thick in between slices of white bread. I scraped it out of matchbox-sized containers with an accompanying plastic spoon (they were sold in snack packs similar to these). And I...
My first taste of the lychee (also spelled "litchi") fruit came from a can. I can still remember biting into soft, milky white flesh, a sweet floral taste bursting in my mouth. It was definitely love at first bite and it’s stuck with me. When I was...
It’s not often that something that tastes so good is actually good for you too. And you'd never expect it from something as sweet and milky as Yakult! Yakult, a fermented dairy drink from Japan, was a childhood favorite of mine. It’s essentially a probiotic drink containing...
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...
I don't know why, but snowy days and cold weather tend to bring on a bout of nostalgia. The temperatures dipped into the teens and about 10 inches of snow fell on Tuesday, unusual for Northern Virginia. As I was curling up on my couch and...
When it comes to anecdotes about chocolates and life, the most famous quote of all has to be Forrest Gump’s: "Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." Recently, I discovered another quote in a book by...
