You know those steamed pork belly buns that seem to be everywhere in New York now, from the Momofuku restaurants to Baohaus to your neighborhood ramen place? The ones that more or less descended from Taiwanese gua bao and Japanese kakuni buns? I can practically live off these perfectly portable and juicy specimens. But in [...]
Tag Archives | Snacks
Tangerine Salsa, Two Ways
Wherever I am these days – whether it’s Beijing, San Francisco, or Tampa – I am surrounded by tangerines and clementines. (The latter is possibly better known in California as Cuties®.) These in-season cousins of the orange make excellent snacks, especially when you’re trying to fight off the seasonal cold. And they’re CHEAP. At a [...]
Pumpkin Hummus
When I lived in the US, I was addicted to hummus. I would go through a tub a week, eating it with pita, raw vegetables, and (secret’s out!) even plain rice if the cupboards were empty. I would make long treks from West Harlem to Atlantic Ave in Brooklyn just for hummus and pita from [...]
French Toastettes with Foie Gras
The only highlight of being left at home while your significant other goes to Europe is receiving food gifts when he returns. Jacob went to a conference in Hungary a few weeks ago and traipsed around Eastern Europe afterwards. I stayed in Beijing, fuming about the ridiculous cost of a Beijing-Budapest ticket in August (and [...]
Goji Oatmeal-Almond Cookies
In the past few years, goji berries, or 枸杞 (gouqi) in Mandarin, have become one of those new “it” foods highly touted in the media. Everyone from health gurus to fashion magazine editors raved about how gojis were rich in antioxidents, good for your eyesight, and so on. As a kid I had eaten them [...]
Recipe: Water Chestnut Cake with Ginger
Along with lucky red envelopes, I received a gift for Lunar New Year that I could use immediately in the kitchen: a package of water chestnut flour. Water chestnut cake (ma tei gow in Cantonese) is another snack, along with turnip cake, that is eaten all year round but especially during Chinese New Year. It’s [...]
Recipe: Turnip Cake (Law Bok Gow)
From a Chinese-American kid’s perspective, Chinese New Year is a holiday as cool as, or even better than, Christmas. You get lots of red envelopes full of money, big boxes and tins of candy, and big meals for at least 3 to 5 days straight. You don’t have to pretend to like any of the [...]
Candied Walnuts Without an Oven
Back in the good ol’ US of A, I used to make candied nuts for snacks or holiday treats using the standard American oven. You know, the kind that comes in every house from coast to coast, from California McMansions to tiny tenement apartments in the Lower East Side. (The one in my LES tenement [...]
Appetite for China is all about fresh and simple Asian cooking. Welcome and bon appetit!
