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.
Learning how to wrap egg rolls at home may seem difficult, but with a few tips, you’ll wonder why you didn’t try making them sooner. Our family used to run a Chinese restaurant, and we wrapped thousands of egg rolls. In this post, we’ll show you in detail how to properly wrap the perfect egg
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This Osmanthus Cake has a moist, dense yet airy crumb, with a subtle sweetness from the addition of osmanthus syrup and vanilla. Since this perfect yellow cake emerged from the oven, with it’s dark, thick crust, it has become our latest obsession. It’s the perfect dessert dressed up with whipped cream and berries (or just
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Shanghai Pan-Fried Pork Buns, or shengjian bao (生煎包) / shengjian mantou (生煎馒头) in Chinese, are iconic. Breakfast, brunch, lunch, or snack, people love them as much as the celebrated four Shanghai breakfast warriors. The combination of umami filling dripping with juicy “soup” and the crunchy pan-fried bottoms are simply extraordinary. You really have to try
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Kaitlin first published this post about her magical trip to Maine almost a year ago. In a recent escape to nature (and different circumstances, with masks and conscientious crowd avoidance), I also took a cautious road trip to Maine this past week with Justin, guided by my sister’s post. I discovered more spots, experiences, and
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Our vegan queso is so good, you may find yourself forgoing your go-to cheese substitutes (or, dare I say it, cheese?)! Whether you’re looking to eat plant-based, are lactose-intolerant, or just want a healthy alternative, with delicious add-ins like tomatoes, peppers, and vegan chorizo, you’ll never look back. How to Make Perfect Vegan Queso The
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This home-cooked Beef Lo Mein recipe tastes just like what you’d get at a Chinese takeout restaurant (or better, because it uses more vegetables than your typical takeout). It’s also easy to make. If you love lo mein, it’s a must-try recipe! Note: This recipe was originally published on November 13, 2013, but has since
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Apple pie is the quintessential fall dessert. My version features an extra flaky crust (the secret is less water in the dough than most conventional pie crust recipes call for), and a tender, not-too-sweet apple filling. With a scoop of vanilla ice cream, it’s perfectly balanced! Rethinking Pie Crust A traditional double crust pie dough
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You’ll see white pepper in the ingredients lists of many of our Chinese recipes. In fact, if pepper is in a Chinese or other Asian recipe, it’s almost always white pepper rather than black. But what is white pepper exactly, how is it different from black pepper, and how is it used? As such a
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This Chicken Mei Fun (also sometimes spelled mai fun) recipe is a basic home-style thin rice noodle dish. If you’ve built an essential Chinese pantry of just 10 ingredients, you should have everything you need to make it. A Flexible Noodle Recipe This chicken mai fun recipe is also super flexible! As more and more
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This vegetarian hot and sour soup is a meat-free version of a Chinese takeout favorite that also happens to be one of our most popular recipes on the blog! You won’t miss the meat, as hot and sour soup already traditionally gets umami from vegetarian ingredients like dried shiitake mushrooms. How to Make Hot &
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Hi everyone! As you may have noticed, things are looking a little different around the blog. We’re SO excited to announce and launch our new site design today. Don’t panic! It’s the same old Woks of Life, with all your favorite content. It’s just much prettier and easier to navigate! Let me give you a
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Nothing is quite as daunting as walking into the kitchen with the expectation of churning out bakery-quality bread. However, this multigrain bread recipe will help you do just that! Our multigrain bread is made with our favorite homemade 9-grain blend, with all the detailed instructions you need for foolproof results. It’s as indulgent as it
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Multigrain flour has become a mainstay in our house. Made with a blend of our favorite grains and seeds, it’s a healthy base for baking all of our favorite breads at home! Making A Wholesome Multigrain Flour Judy has always been a stickler for eating multigrain breads, and I can attest that we have Chinese
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Pad Thai is like a warm blanket. It’s a comfort food of our age, with those chewy noodles, crunchy peanuts, the sweet and tangy sauce, and plenty of chives, bean sprouts, and chicken to make it a full meal. To develop this recipe, I carefully pored over many videos of street food vendors in the
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This post on Mohonk mountain hiking has come out of a family tradition of visiting over the years. Recently, our family drove up to see my dad’s childhood friend, who still lives in the area, and made a random weekday trip back to Mohonk for lunch and some socially distanced hiking! Read on for a
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Snow Skin Mooncakes have taken the mooncake world by storm! They’re snowy white rather than the traditional golden brown pastry, and people have gone gaga for them. With the Mid-Autumn Festival coming up, I knew I had to develop the Woks of Life version of the recipe. What Are Snow Skin Mooncakes? In Chinese, the
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Our Singapore Noodles recipe tastes just like what you’d get at any Chinese takeout or Cantonese restaurant (or maybe better). This updated version of our original recipe (published 11/4/13) includes more detailed instructions as well as recipe improvements and a video! We hope you give it a try and enjoy this iconic dish! If you’re
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Our Chinese Salt and Pepper Tofu recipe is a vegan/vegetarian interpretation of a classic Cantonese flavor pairing. If you love the combination of salt and white pepper as much as we do, this recipe will become a new favorite! White Pepper: An Underrated Ingredient White pepper is really an underestimated ingredient. You all loved Kaitin’s
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