New year cake and mandarin oranges are two standards eaten during Chinese New Year's My family doesn’t celebrate Chinese New Year in a big way. In fact, my dad has always insisted we are NOT Chinese. My siblings and I always took that statement with a...
Golden-hued Madras curry powder Contrary to popular belief, there is no such thing as a generic curry powder. In fact, the term curry powder didn’t exist until the 18th century when local cooks in Madras (now called Chennai in India's southern Tamil Nadu state) packaged a...
Who doesn't love a cookbook giveaway? Just leave a comment on my guest post on RasaMalaysia.com by December 14th where I reminisce about some unforgettable duck. And you might be the happy recipient of The Asian Grandmothers Cookbook. Many thanks to Bee for organizing it! Photo by...
My (baby's) heart beats for sardines Pregnancy does strange things to you. Let me count the ways: 1. Baby brain (If you thought morning-after hangovers were bad … and you have it ALL the time). 2. Multiple aches and pains (Everywhere! Even in places you didn’t know existed). 3....
In this installment, Audrey Low contributes a little snippet that reflects on the kitchen chores she had as a child, plus a whimisical look at an old wives' tale . Of Malaysian-Chinese descent, Audrey is an anthropologist living in Australia. Her blog: papayatreelimited.blogspot.com combines her love of...
When I was a little girl, I hated mung bean sprouts, which we call “tauge” in Indonesian or "dou ya" (literally "bean sprout") in Mandarin. At the market, they’re often labeled simply bean sprouts. It had nothing to do with their bland flavor or the weird crunchy...
I can't believe it's only 3 weeks to Thanksgiving. My husband and I will be celebrating our first Thanksgiving in California but my whole family--parents, sister, and brother with his wife and two boys in tow--is driving down from Seattle to pay us a visit in Pacific Grove. It'll...
We've all had sweet and sour pork at some point or another. If you, like me, have been put off this dish forever by greasy battered pork doused in toxic pink glow-in-the-dark sauce served at a Chinese-American restaurant and/or the supermarket deli counter, take heart,...
