All Posts
by date
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.
-
Triple Layer Berry Cake w/ Lemon Cream and Thyme
Updated:View Post: Triple Layer Berry Cake w/ Lemon Cream and ThymeUpdates, everyone! 1. I’m back in the US for a couple weeks, which means my greatest concerns at the moment include: a) when is the plumber going to get here to fix the leak in the tub? b) When is…
-
Corn & Goat Cheese Empanadas
Updated:View Post: Corn & Goat Cheese EmpanadasWhen I was in college, and free food was often the operative lure to entice students to come to any and every campus event, we would sidestep the usual pizza route and order these vegetarian (and totally awesome) corn &…
-
Homemade Chinese Sesame Peanut Brittle
Updated:View Post: Homemade Chinese Sesame Peanut BrittleOur Beijing ayi (ayi literally means “aunt,” but it’s a familiar term given by young kids to any older lady, or to ladies working in childcare, cooking, or cleaning professions) comes to our house once a week to help us…
-
Warm Salmon Salad Nicoise
Updated:View Post: Warm Salmon Salad NicoiseI LOVE Niçoise Salads (Salads Niçoise?)—a brilliant combination of lettuce, tomatoes, olives, canned tuna, eggs, green beans, and potatoes. I love the big blocks of color and all the different textures. It’s everything I want in a big dinner salad:…
-
Easy Roasted Cauliflower Stir-Fry
Updated:View Post: Easy Roasted Cauliflower Stir-FryThis Easy Roasted Cauliflower Stir-fry is inspired by a dish that we order at many restaurants around Beijing. When we first arrived here, we immediately set to trying as many restaurants as we could. Many of the Hunan, Sichuan, and “jack-of-all-trades” restaurants…
-
Chicken Pan-Fried Noodles (Gai See Chow Mein)
Updated:View Post: Chicken Pan-Fried Noodles (Gai See Chow Mein)If you frequent any good dim sum restaurants, you’re probably familiar with this chicken pan-fried noodles dish, called “Gai See Chow Mein” in Cantonese. We always order Gai See Chow Mein when I meet my sisters and all of our…
-
Mango Pie Recipe with Citrus Whipped Cream
Updated:View Post: Mango Pie Recipe with Citrus Whipped CreamA few weeks ago, I was spending a rare afternoon moment channel surfing in front of the TV. We have 900 Chinese channels here in Beijing, and 10 English ones, so…this is what channel surfing at our place usually looks like: CNN:…
-
Ratatouille Baked Eggs
Updated:View Post: Ratatouille Baked EggsWith Mother’s Day coming up in a few days (mark your calendars, forgetful fools! May 11th), we had to post a Mother’s Day Brunch recipe. I remember when we would make breakfast in bed for our mom growing up. We’d get…
-
Fast Dubu Kimchi (Tofu w/ Stir-fried Kimchi & Pork)
Updated:View Post: Fast Dubu Kimchi (Tofu w/ Stir-fried Kimchi & Pork)In the field of evolutionary psychology, researchers have found that conflict among siblings is often the result of a basic drive for each sibling to carve out their own niche within the family. To put it in other terms, a…
-
Chicken Penne w/ Asparagus and Peas
Updated:View Post: Chicken Penne w/ Asparagus and PeasDuring the workweek, I actually have a pretty flexible schedule. My job involves a lot of work that can be done online remotely (read: me sitting on the couch in my pajamas all day, tapping furiously at the keyboard for…
-
Red Cabbage Salad w/ Crispy Spring Onions and Potato Sticks
Updated:View Post: Red Cabbage Salad w/ Crispy Spring Onions and Potato SticksCold dishes are a common appetizer in China, especially in Beijing. All menus have a variety of these cold dishes just as sure as you’ll find mozzarella sticks, wings, and potato skins at a Friday’s. While having a weekday lunch at…
-
Sichuan Three Pepper Chicken
Updated:View Post: Sichuan Three Pepper ChickenThree Pepper Chicken has become a classic Sichuan dish. It’s made with crispy wok fried chicken, caramelized bits of garlic, and the three peppers are long hot green peppers, Chinese dried chili peppers, and Sichuan peppercorns! We used to eat…
-
A Young Cook’s Library: The 5 Most Influential Cookbooks of My Childhood
Updated:View Post: A Young Cook’s Library: The 5 Most Influential Cookbooks of My ChildhoodI’m a nostalgic person. I like black and white photographs. Sepia is even better. I like old, cracked things. I watch way too much American Pickers for my own good. And I keep piles of strange and sentimental junk in…
-
Dim Sum Sticky Rice Lotus Leaf Wraps (Lo Mai Gai)
Updated:View Post: Dim Sum Sticky Rice Lotus Leaf Wraps (Lo Mai Gai)Dim Sum. One of those all-is-right-with-the-world meals, perfect for a weekend morning (also there’s totally this smokin’ hot seating host at the local place we go to in NJ, so there’s that. We suspect he’s the owner’s son, and I’ll…
-
Easter Eggs
Updated:View Post: Easter EggsOur family has never really been big on Easter. We usually have a big summer July 4th or Labor Day BBQ for family and friends; we pull out all the stops for Thanksgiving, whether we’re in the US or in Beijing;…
-
Lemon Basil Yogurt Cake
Updated:View Post: Lemon Basil Yogurt CakeIt’s a relatively rare occurrence when the sheer delight and originality of a new recipe totally and completely makes your day. Today is that day, my friends. Okay, so at first glance this cake does kind of look like jalapeño…
-
Savory Soy Milk Soup w/ Fried Dough (Dou Jiang)
Updated:View Post: Savory Soy Milk Soup w/ Fried Dough (Dou Jiang)This Savory Soy Milk Soup with Fried Dough, or Dou Jiang You Tiao, is a popular breakfast/brunch item in China. It’s the simplest thing you’ll ever make, after a quick trip to the Chinese grocery store. It’s basically a soy…
-
Shanghai-Style Braised Pork Belly (Hong Shao Rou)
Updated:View Post: Shanghai-Style Braised Pork Belly (Hong Shao Rou)This Shanghai braised pork belly recipe, or hongshao rou, is simpler than you think to make, with just 6 ingredients (plus water). Since we first published this recipe in 2014, soon after we first embarked on this journey to document…
Welcome!
We’re Sarah, Kaitlin, Judy, and Bill– a family of four cooks sharing our home-cooked and restaurant-style recipes.
sign up for our newsletter and receive:
our Top 25 recipes eBook
Our email newsletter delivers our new recipes and latest updates. It’s always free and you can unsubscribe any time.
Save Your Favorite Woks of Life Recipes!
Create an account to save your favorite dishes & get email udpates!
