a culinary genealogy
Below, view all our posts in chronological order, starting with the most recent. To browse recipes by category, course, or collection, visit our Recipe Index. Also be sure to check out our How-To section and Chinese Ingredients Glossary.
Mango pudding (pronounced, mángguǒ bùdīng in Mandarin, or mong guo bo ding in Cantonese) is a refreshing and lightly sweet dessert. It has just five ingredients, which let the mango flavor shine through. A refreshing treat for the hot summer days to come, we’ve been enjoying it after long afternoons working in the garden! Let’s
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We’ve rounded up 30 of our favorite Chinese cold dish recipes (known in Chinese as liángcài – 凉菜) for warm weather cooking. These cold dishes are not only designed to be tasty and refreshing, they also get you in and out of the kitchen quickly. You can make them ahead as well, so all you
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This recipe for chicken zucchini dumplings is perfect for first-time dumpling making. Not only is the filling tasty, it uses a combination of ingredients that you can find from your local grocery store. No specialty vegetables needed! Note: this recipe was originally published in August 2017. We’ve updated it with clearer photos and instructions, metric
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This recipe for steamed garlic ribs with taro combines three of my favorite ingredients: juicy pork ribs, sweet garlic, and buttery taro. If you’ve never tried taro, now is the time! Some people (Sarah) say that the taro is the star of the dish, which I can definitely understand. It is similar to a potato,
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There are few meals more suited to a hot summer day than a bowl of Chinese cold noodles. This suān là (酸辣), or sour spicy cold noodles recipe is at once refreshing and deeply satisfying. It’s also easy to throw together, and you can make it with dried spaghetti! Spaghetti for Chinese Cold Noodles? Yes,
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If the bright green color of this scallion rice wasn’t enough to catch your interest, can I just say—this is our new go-to side dish for just about ANYTHING. Chinese, non-Chinese you name it, it’s just plain delicious. Serve it with grilled fish, chicken, beef, alongside stir fries… It just GOES. Not to mention that
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This recipe for zucchini with glass noodles is a variation on a Cantonese recipe that my dad made when Kaitlin and I were growing up, and that his mother made for him. I like using ground pork or chicken, though the original Cantonese version features dried shrimp. You don’t often see zucchini in Chinese cooking,
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Welcome to our How to Grow Chinese Vegetables series: Bok Choy edition! In this post, we’ll talk about how to grow bok choy (also sometimes spelled, pak choi). (If you aren’t sure what this series is or why we’re doing it, check out the introductory post of the series.) We’ll cover different varieties, ideal growing
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Among beef stir-fry dishes, this beef and pepper stir-fry is one of our favorites. It can be mild or spicy, depending on which peppers you use, and is very simple to make. Combine these two ingredients, and you have a real winner of a dish! It’s simplicity makes it a good candidate for a regular
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If you’re a fan of spice and lots of garlic, this recipe for Spicy Garlic Enoki Mushrooms will become your new go-to recipe. With just 9 ingredients and a few steps, you’ll have a tasty light meal or side to make over and over! Obsessed with Enoki Mushrooms? I don’t remember the first time I
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Chao He Cai, a stir-fry of clear noodles, eggs, chives, carrots and bean sprouts, is Chinese home-cooked comfort food. Just like our tomato egg stir fry, it’s a modest dish. While it’s not shouting from the rooftops like some showier recipes, it’s what one would whip up at home on the regular—not simply because it’s
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We’re overwhelmed (in a good way!) by everyone’s responses to our announcement about The Woks of Life‘s new HQ. Thank you everyone for your kind words and excitement around the next steps for our family and the blog! In that post, the photos we shared were mostly from last fall and winter, but a crazy
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This Sichuan boiled tofu, or shuǐ zhǔ dòufu gān (水煮豆腐干) is an adapted version of Sichuan boiled beef—a delicious recipe from my mom. This new version is vegetarian, vegan, and also totally delicious. A local restaurant inspired us to make this dish, as they had a version of it on their menu. It was such
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Time for our newest zongzi recipe: zongzi with pork belly and meigan cai (preserved vegetables). We’re celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival today, and we’re doing it this year with these tasty parcels! Combining Two Classics This recipe combines two classics: sticky rice zongzi (sometimes called sticky rice “dumplings” or “Chinese tamales,” though “sticky rice parcels”
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This easy shortcut wonton soup base is perfect when you want an extremely quick meal. A little of this and that from the pantry (see our 10 Essential Chinese Pantry Ingredients list) makes wontons you fished out of the freezer taste like they’re floating in a tasty broth, when the soup was actually made in
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The Woks of Life HQ has moved! Last year, in our busiest months of editing, cooking for, and photographing the cookbook, we had to pause. Not for a break (though that would’ve been nice), but to pack up everything from our family home and move somewhere new. (And then…unpack all the things over the next
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Mapo Eggplant is exactly what it sounds like—the familiar flavors of everyone’s favorite Mapo Tofu recipe, with the replacement of tender, silky eggplant. Why Mapo An Eggplant? For some reason—some folks out there are STILL holding down the fort on hating tofu! I can’t fathom why, when tofu comes in so many different types and
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The Dragon Boat Festival is coming up (It will be on Friday, June 3rd this year), and that means it’s time to make Zongzi, or sticky rice dumplings! Luckily, we have a few zongzi recipes you can try, including savory and sweet. We also have a lazy version for those of you who aren’t feeling
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