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.
Buddha’s delight, or luo han zhai 罗汉斋 (Mandarin), or lo han jai (Cantonese), is a vegetarian dish well-known in Chinese and Buddhist cuisine. The dish is traditionally consumed by Buddhist monks (who are vegetarians), but it has also grown in popularity throughout the world as a common dish available as a vegetarian or healthy option in Chinese restaurants. The
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A Chinese New Year is not a New Year without fish, and you MUST have two of them: one for New Year’s Eve and one for Chinese New Year’s Day. That’s why, on the eve of Chinese New Year, we’re posting this Chinese Braised Fish (red cooked fish), or hong shao yu recipe for all
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This savory turnip cake (sometimes called radish) lo bak go is a very traditional dish often served at dim sum houses, and when I was a kid, it always showed up on the table on Chinese New Year’s Day. As a result, it’s been etched in my mind as a wonderfully delicious tradition. Having sampled versions
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Vegan char siu bao or cha siu bao (i.e. vegan roast pork buns). Does that even make any sense? Well, yes and no. Obviously, there is NO pork in these buns. But they taste remarkably similar to the traditional pork cha siu bao that many of us know and love. So, if you’re looking for
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Pea Tips or pea leaves are gaining popularity as more people are informed of their sweet, delicious existence and search for them on Chinese restaurant menus. We’ve already covered a recipe for these, but we wanted to do a redux version with new photos. Pea tips are the tender leaves of a pea plant and they
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As we mentioned in our Chinese New Year Menu post (2015), Braised Pork Belly with Arrowhead Root or cí gū mèn nan ròu in Mandarin 慈菇焖腩肉 (the dish’s name really rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?) is a must-have dish in our house for Chinese New Year. In Cantonese dialect, Bill’s family has always called
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The Year of the Goat begins on February 19th this year. In China, Chinese New Year is celebrated with travel, travel, and more travel. Usually, this is due to the fact everyone working in the big cities travel back to their home towns and villages to reunite with their families, eat good food, including traditional and authentic
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This Coconut Curry Chicken recipe is beyond easy. You can literally start cooking before the prep work even starts. I don’t know why it took us this long to publish our coconut curry chicken recipe. It’s one of my absolute favorite meals. Curried chicken is a quick, crowd-pleasing one-pot dinner that’s great for a weeknight. Not
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When I perfected the recipe for fried calamari, it was a total no-brainer to make this Cantonese Salt and Pepper Squid. Prepared in a similar manner to Cantonese Salt & Pepper Pork Chops, the fried pieces of calamari are tossed in a mixture of crunchy stir-fried garlic, ginger, and hot green peppers. Traditionally, the squid
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This butternut squash lasagna is the perfect winter food. It’s warm, cheesy, and comforting…awesome for curling up on the couch in front of the TV with your dinner. The way I look at it, most of your run-of-the-mill lasagna is pretty summery–tomatoes, basil…maybe some eggplant or zucchini. THIS butternut squash lasagna recipe features ingredients that
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If you’re not sure why we’re doing this post, or who this adorable pup is, click here to catch up. (Don’t worry, you didn’t miss much!) We’ll be sharing our experiences as new puppy parents soon, but for now, we’ve got pictures. Hence, Barley’s first snow – her first playtime session in the white stuff!
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Shumai or Siu Mai wasn’t necessarily always our first choice at Sunday dim sum. It was usually dominated by steamed pork ribs, chive dumplings, sticky rice, and congee. But in the end, we always had a little room on the table for some traditional shumai, and it would end up on the table in one way or
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If you find yourself short of one dish to serve for dinner, make some Chinese steamed egg also know in Cantonese as “wat don” or “slippery egg”. If you want something to warm you on a cold day, make steamed eggs. If you’re too lazy to make a complicated dinner? You guessed it. Steamed egg. You
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Okay, first of all, let’s not mistake this Chicken with Garlic Sauce dish with what’s on your Chinese takeout menu. This is about 99 times better. Trust me on this. Secondly, winter bamboo is in season. You can now find them in your local Asian market. They are somewhat expensive (prices range from $3 –
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This roasted braised duck recipe is so good. With a few special ingredients and a little time, you’ll have an amazing, special dinner on your hands. After living in Beijing for three years, I’ve had many versions of Peking Duck, and I can honestly say that I’m not that crazy about it. How can I
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Soy Glazed Chicken Breast with Ginger-Scallion Sauce was inspired by a dish that virtually all Chinese people have enjoyed at one point or another, poached chicken or bai qie ji. But it is an inevitable truth that at some point, you are going to want to eat bai qie ji without having to poach a
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Hey Woks of Life Readers, Sarah here. Today, we’re officially introducing you to Barley, our new puppy who will (hopefully) become the perfect dog, hence the puppy chronicles. We have our hopes. We have our doubts. But mostly, we have biodegradable poop bags and a 32 oz. bottle of Nature’s Miracle Stain & Odor Remover. If
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Tiger skin peppers or hu pi jian jiao (虎皮尖椒) is a popular Sichuan dish. The name comes from the color of the peppers after they’ve been seared in a hot wok, which resembles a tiger’s coat. Some imagination may be required but it’s a cool name and a very tasty and addictive dish for spicy food lovers.
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