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...
On February 19, 2015, we will welcome the Year of the Sheep. And so begins another round of eating because a new year celebration isn't a celebration without lots of food! I’ve written many posts on Lunar New Year foods: from a Singapore favorite, raw fish...
General Tso’s chicken may be the emblematic go-to dish at Chinese restaurants across North America but this supposedly Hunan dish is virtually unknown in China. In her 2013 cookbook Every Grain of Rice--Simple Chinese Home Cooking, Fuchsia Dunlop explains that General Tso’s chicken was actually invented by...
I’ve consumed my fair share of herbal/curative/restorative soups and drinks. My mom is an occasional believer of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and as a child I was subjected to hocus pocus potions sporadically. Many were bitter, even revolting, concoctions prescribed for persistent coughs, colds, and other ailments...
As immigrants, our Thanksgiving tables are likely to be vastly different from the garden variety spread of roast turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. Two months ago, I was talking to people about their melting-pot Thanksgiving food traditions for an article that just came...
This October, my other baby, The Asian Grandmothers Cookbook turns 5! It’s been a crazy ride. The hardback has sold out and the paperback is well on its way. (Nonetheless, I’d be ever so grateful if you helped me out with this :)). To celebrate, I’d like to...
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...
Sort of randomly, I came across an article extolling the wonders of pastéis de nata, or Portuguese egg tarts, in a British magazine of all places! Now I’ve not had true Portuguese egg tarts, but many a dan taht (romanized for 蛋挞, ‘egg’ in Chinese, and...
The annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival has kicked off and runs from June 25 to 29, July 2 to 6 on the National Mall in Washington D.C. The spotlight this year is on China (and Kenya). Every year, the festival’s highlights include food booths and cooking demos (at...
