Baked Squash and Potato Croquettes (Korokke) Croquettes, no matter their origins or ingredients, are a delicious, deep-fat-fried snackfood. Fry them if you want, but I prefer a much less greasy and messy method--baking them. Korokke, the Japanese version, is often filled with kabocha squash. I think...
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...
Ask anyone of Chinese descent and they’ll most likely tell you stir-fried eggs and tomatoes was a staple dish on their when-I-was-growing-up table. Just like lola’s pancit or obachan’s niku jaga, each family has their own rendition of this homestyle, comforting dish. Yes to Shaoxing Chinese...
One morning last week, my husband came back inside the house after loading the car and declared," It feels like fall outside!" My heart sank, then rebounded. My mixed feelings were understandable: I was sad that the end of summer, as well as warm, sunny weather,...
Even though I come from good stock—my dad has the greenest of thumbs--I’m not much of a gardener myself. My attempts at growing tomatoes and mesclun last year were not well rewarded. I blame it on the intense sun beating down on our back patio practically...
I still crave many dishes from my childhood, like ayam goreng kunyit (turmeric fried chicken), pastel panggang (a shepherd’s pie of sorts), and roti bakso (sweet pork buns). Some, I’ve tried to recreate in my own kitchen and others, I patiently wait for. I do...
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...
I love eggplant: Eggplant in baba ghanouj, eggplant in spicy tomato sauce, eggplant cooked fish-fragrant-style, the list goes on. As much as I enjoy eggplant in all its permutations, one thing I don’t do much of is cook eggplant. I don’t care for the tedium of salting...
Instead of celebrating Lunar New Year like the Chinese, Koreans and Vietnamese, the Japanese celebrate the Western New Year on January 1st. This wasn’t always the case. It was only in 1873, five years after the Meiji Restoration (the revolution that transferred power from the Tokugawa shogunate to...
My earliest memories of eating sweet corn are set in the mountainous region of Puncak, two hours from Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta. Puncak, with its brisk mountain air, panoramic scenery and cool climate, was and still is a popular destination for city dwellers. My relatives often...
