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.
Tostones is a classic across Latin America and definitely a favorite of ours at The Woks of Life. These days, some takeout Chinese restaurants are actually serving up fried plantains on their menus. They’ll slice the plantains, freeze them in single portions, and quickly drop them into a fryer when ordered. That’s a method you could potentially use
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Before we start, let me clarify something. I don’t pretend to know how to make every dish China has to offer. It’s a big country! But when I make up my mind to learn how to make a dish (usually one I personally love), I’m big on research. I study the origins of the dish,
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Pork Potstickers are always a favorite, but they can sometimes be a pain to make—all those folds can be difficult to get a hang of if you’ve never done it before. That’s why we’re posting this easy potsticker recipe—the lazy cook’s potstickers that require NO complicated folding whatsoever. Ok, I just wanted to repeat that
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Whenever we visit my grandparents in Queens, it’s all about where to go for lunch. Soup dumplings at Nan Xiang Dumpling House, Malaysian curry noodle soup at the hole-in-the-wall place I can’t actually remember the name of, cumin lamb noodles at Xi’An Famous Foods, or a trip to the food court in the New World
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Cantonese Wonton Noodle Soup is such a basic, no-brainer bowl of noodles that you’ll find at most Cantonese restaurants. But if you’re not near a Chinatown or Cantonese place, you’ll definitely want to give it a try at home. It’s so easy to put together! If you’re not in the mood for a classic wonton noodle
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With this blackberry apple tart, I laugh in the face of seasonal-food-enthusiasts! Funny story. I was walking around the other day, and came upon a street stand selling blackberries at $1.50/box. How could I refuse? …I need funnier stories. But a couple days later, when I discovered that said blackberries were looking a little (dare I say it?)
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Fluffy apple cider pancakes make a fall weekend just that much better. Last weekend, we went apple picking, with the colors of fall in full effect. It’s already a bit late in the season to be picking apples, but there were still plenty of fruit ripe for the picking and plenty of fresh apple cider. This recipe
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Fall is a great season for comfort food, and potatoes are definitely comfort food. So what recipe could I do with potatoes that hadn’t been done before in the blogosphere? There’s a famous Chinese dish called Twice Cooked Pork, or 回锅肉(hui guo rou) of Hunan origin, where pork belly is blanched, and then stir-fried with leeks,
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It’s obvious that China has no shortage of noodle dishes and Chinese noodle soup recipes. More than you’ve probably ever heard or dreamt of. The variety is as expansive as China’s geography, and EVERYTHING is delicious. But among the many noodle dishes (and noodle soups in particular), one stands out, Lanzhou Beef Noodle Soup. Consisting of
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This one has been on our hit list for a while now. A dim sum classic, the restaurant version of which probably contains copious amounts of lard, these Chinese Roast Pork Puffs are definitely an I-don’t-really-want-to-think-about-what-I’m-eating-right-now-because-it-tastes-so-awesome-but-I’ll-probably-have-to-spend-three-hours-on-a-stairmaster kind of food. Somehow, the fact that we use puff pastry for these roast pork puffs instead of lard-based dough
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Hello citrus season! Adorably tiny clementines are back in grocery stores again, and it’s time to celebrate with adorably tiny desserts! To make these, I basically took a pound cake batter, added orange liqueur, citrus zest, and clementine juice, and made a citrus glaze to go on top. If that isn’t winning at life, I don’t know what is.
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So I’m probably the LAST person on earth who would endorse a dish involving a whole fish. But here I am. Doin’ it. You may not know this about me, but I was once a long-time shunner of any and all seafood–everything from innocent filets of salmon to the most non-threatening tuna salad sandwich. I would balk at
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A while ago, we posted a traditional yet versatile Cantonese Soy Sauce Pan Fried Noodle recipe, and we’ve since seen how people have made that recipe their own by adding whatever ingredients they happened to have on hand. It’s always great to rummage around in the fridge and be able to use what you have to put
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I can guarantee the following: if you carefully follow the instructions below and do everything I tell you to do in this post, this sandwich will take its place among the best you’ve ever had in your life. It will blow past the Top 10, and at least crack the Top 5. Trust me. We’ve
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When my roommate and I come back to school after summer’s over, we always have an initial outpouring of crazy stories and funny things that we saw and did while we were away, and this September was no different. It’s almost like a back-and-forth ping-pong match of humorous anecdotes—one of us says something, and then
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Here is another familiar comfort food from Shanghai. As far as Shanghainese cuisine is concerned, this dish is as relevant as Hong Shao Rou (Red Cooked Pork) or Shanghai Soup Dumplings. My grandma used to make this dish with a big spoonful of the good stuff–lard. In those days, pork fat was saved and stored like
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This dish is inspired by street food we found during our trip to Xi’an. It was “tieban dofu,” or griddled tofu, using Xinjiang spices like cumin and chili. It’s tasty, healthy, and vegan! But the good news with this dish is that it has so much great flavor, you’ll never feel deprived despite its meatlessnes,
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Ok, so we acknowledge that crab isn’t the easiest critter to prepare. But Curry Crab is such a delicious and tasty dish…you just have to try it if you haven’t before! We always manage to prepare a few dishes during crab season, while the crabs are at their best. I had this dish in Macau last year,
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