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.
I think we can all agree that it’s been pretty hot this summer. While preparing something in the kitchen is often the last thing we want to do in the heat, it can be really worth it. There are so many tasty summer treats you can whip up at home that are cooling and downright
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The weather has been scorching hot, so I think you will appreciate this easy and light Asian Chicken Salad with Lemon. A Surprising Ingredient While you don’t often see lemons in Asian-style salads of this type, it really is one of the stars of the dish. Offering a more mellow acidity than lime, as well
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This eggplant unagi (or rather, “unagi”) is indeed reminiscent of a Japanese eel, with a similar sweet, savory sauce. But instead of eel, the main event is eggplant! Where We Got This Idea In our family, sharing recipe ideas is a constant…a way of life. Sometimes, ideas come from simply reading over old recipes, eating
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When it comes to this cooked lettuce with garlic oyster sauce, simplicity is the name of the game. Once you prepare this easy recipe, it’ll become clear that you don’t need to over-work for a tasty dish. Cooked Lettuce? Yes, cooked lettuce! In Chinese cuisine, cooking lettuce is not unusual. Actually, it’s more often cooked
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These Chinese curry puffs are a delicious dim sum or Chinese bakery item, with a savory curry beef filling and flaky pastry. They make an amazing party appetizer, potluck item, or quick snack. They can also be made in advance and baked “to order” whenever you want to enjoy them! Make the pastry yourself using
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More adventures in plant-based cooking continue! This time we have Mushroom Larb, a vegetarian take on a Laotian favorite made with browned bits of oyster mushrooms, plenty of herbs, and fish sauce. Flexitarians can opt for the standard fish sauce, but we have thoughts on vegan alternatives below. Southeast Asian Plant-based Recipes We love eating
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This Chinese-style spicy beef salad recipe is a delicious starter, appetizer, or addition to a main meal that can be served slightly warm, cold, or at room temperature. The beef is blanched and tossed in a spicy, garlicky dressing bursting with flavor. The Easiest Way to Thinly Slice Beef The best way to thinly slice
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One of the quintessential ingredients in Five Spice Powder, star anise (bājiǎo, 八角) is a unique spice with a variety of uses in Chinese cuisine. What Is Star Anise? How Does It Taste? Harvested from a small evergreen tree that grows mostly in southern China and Southeast Asia, star anise is a fruit with six
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Roast Pork Lo Mein is often overlooked by home cooks, because it calls for the Char Siu roast pork you can usually only get at a Chinese restaurant. But we have a great char siu recipe, and many of you are making it at home and keeping it in the freezer for pork fried rice,
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This “cheesy” version of homemade Chex Mix (or Gardetto’s snack mix) is super easy to make at home, and you can make a boatload of it in one go. But this isn’t a recipe that involves dehydrating cheese into dust or robbing mac n’ cheese boxes of their flavor packets. (Though that’s a pretty good
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This Roasted Cherry Tomato Pasta Puttanesca is made with a thinner “sauce” of roasted tomatoes that clings to the starchy pasta after you toss it all together. It’s summer dinner perfection, but you can enjoy it anytime of year, as long as you can buy sweet grape tomatoes or cherry tomatoes! If you have larger
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Kaitlin here. It’s already the end of June, which seems entirely improbable. 2020 dragged on, and for a scary bit there, it seemed like 2021 might be one big repeat of last year. But 2021 is passing at lightning speed! I think it’s because we’re all scrambling to make up for lost time, and the
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Beef and Pickled Mustard Greens is Cantonese home-cooked comfort food. Haam choy, sweet bell peppers, and melt-in-your-mouth velveted beef make for a simple, quick, yet delicious recipe. Homemade Pickled Mustard Greens Although you can buy neatly vacuum-packed pickled mustard greens at your local Chinese grocery store, my family has always made it at home. My
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Ever since I discovered the wonders of Chicken Adobo (check out our chicken adobo recipe here), it was just a matter of time before it was time to make another adobo recipe! Today, it’s all about Pork Adobo! Note: This recipe was originally published in December 2016. We’ve updated it here with additional detail and metric
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This “meaty” Spicy King Oyster Mushroom Salad is a tasty, refreshing Chinese-style cold appetizer. It’s sure to satisfy, and only takes a little bit of prep to pull off. If you’re like me, king oyster mushrooms have entered your regular rotation at mealtimes because they are a snap to prepare, and are so versatile for
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We have some b i g news, everyone. The Woks of Life (that’s us: Bill, Judy, Sarah and Kaitlin) is finally publishing a COOKBOOK! After 8 years exclusively online, we’re making the jump to print, and we couldn’t be more thrilled about it—and to share this news with you at long last!!! Over the past
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You probably haven’t yet heard of Salted Egg Yolk Sauce, but it’s already made its way into Asian supermarkets, and it’s a sensation waiting to happen stateside. Salted duck eggs are already trendy and beloved in China, and especially in Singapore. It’s a brand new food item on the sauce shelf (perhaps the most fun
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The first time we had a dish like this eggplant string bean stir-fry was at a random Hunan restaurant in the Bridgewater, NJ (Fortune Cookies on York Rd). It’s amazing how immigrants from China can come to the U.S., set up shop in a sleepy town, and bring some of China to the suburbs. This eggplant
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