Hong Kong Milk Tea is a magical, highly caffeinated, wonderfully smooth morning drink that I had for the first time in its true glory on our trip to Hong Kong. Always served piping hot and perfectly sweetened, it has just the right amounts of evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk. It gives you a jolt […]
Portuguese Custard Tarts (Pasteis de Nata)
Portuguese Custard Tarts are a deliciously flaky dessert that migrated to Macau and became a local favorite. This custard tart recipe yields buttery, sweet tarts with an aromatic custard that gets baked until it’s just scorched on top. The first time I tried Portuguese Custard Tarts, or pasteis de nata, wasn’t in Portugal, but in […]
Easy Rough Puff Pastry
This easy rough puff pastry made from scratch is buttery, flaky and so delicious that after your first batch, you’ll be thinking of countless ways to use it. Your homemade puff pastry will have a richer, more buttery flavor that will beat store-bought puff pastry any day, and you won’t have to worry about eating […]
Hot Dry Noodles (Re Gan Mian, 热干面)
I can’t talk about Hot Dry Noodles, or 热干面 (pinyin: rè gān miàn), without getting a little personal. During the Great Leap Forward in the late 1950s, my parents left home and traveled to vocational schools in poor villages near Wuhan, 武汉 (capital of Hubei Province, 湖北). Those schools promised potential students three meals a […]
Easy Irish Soda Bread with Raisins
We’re bubbling up this easy Irish Soda Bread recipe originally published by Kaitlin in 2014, re-tested and re-photographed five years later––on St. Patrick’s Day 2019. We’ve also updated it with metric measurements. Enjoy! With the frenzy of green food coloring and corned beef & cabbage sweeping the food blogging community in this yearly moment of […]
15 Peanut Recipes, from Savory to Sweet
Our latest featured recipe collection is here! Peanut recipes. Why, you ask? Well, these days, our family is always on the prowl for ways to make healthier and more conscious decisions when it comes to what we eat. We always make sure to incorporate our dark leafy greens, olive oil, and avocados, but we recently […]
Three Cup Chicken (San Bei Ji)
Note: This Three Cup Chicken recipe was originally published on July 20, 2013. It was one of the very first recipes on The Woks of Life (we started the blog in June 2013). Since our older recipes are some of our family’s favorites, we’ve updated this Three Cup Chicken recipe (San Bei Ji) with new […]
Spicy Crispy Pork Noodles (Made with Spaghetti!)
Sometimes you’re craving something really really really TASTY, and oftentimes the secret to that craving is lots of salty, spicy goodness. That’s why today, we’re offering up these Spicy Crispy Pork Noodles made with one of our favorite store-bought sauces, Lao Gan Ma. We’ve done a few recipes now that showcase our favorite—really China’s favorite—chili […]
String Bean Chicken Stir-fry (A 20-Minute Recipe!)
This 20-Minute String Bean Chicken Stir-fry is another weeknight staple from me, The Woks of Life’s resident lazy weeknight cook. It’s no secret that I love recipes that can be made in 20 minutes or less. The fewer ingredients you need and the less time spent at the stove, the better. While I do love […]
Braised Instant Pot Pork Belly
This Braised Instant Pot Pork Belly results in easy, tender, and delicious pork belly, and makes for an easy meal with lots of slow-cooked flavor. Many of you are probably familiar with the the classic Shanghai dish, Hong Shao Rou or Red Braised Pork Belly. This isn’t that recipe. Because let me tell you a […]
Bourbon Chicken
Bourbon chicken is a kind of Cajun and Asian hybrid dish that’s evolved over the years in Chinese take-out restaurants and local mall food courts. In fact, bourbon chicken is neither particularly Cajun nor Asian. It seems like a distinctly American creation, fusing multiple cultures in a particular time and place. That aside, it’s a […]
Asian Pork Chops: A Quick & Easy Family Recipe
Note: This Asian Pork Chop recipe was originally published in January 2014 as one of the first recipes on the blog. Our older recipes are some of our family’s favorites, so we have updated this recipe with new photos and stories as of February 26, 2019. This Quick and Easy Asian Pork Chops recipe has […]
Cumin Potatoes (Vegan/Vegetarian!)
If you love lots of spice, you’ll love these Cumin Potatoes! Anyone looking for “meat and potatoes” will find that even though this is a vegan dish, it’s a “meaty” one that’s perfect for vegetarians and meat eaters alike. Many of you may be familiar with Cumin Lamb, and this dish is inspired by the […]
Dumpling Sauce Recipe: How to Make Dumpling Dipping Sauce
There are few single food items in this world more perfect than a Chinese dumpling. Chewy, thin dough wrapped around juicy, delicious fillings of endless variety, they’re delicious whether they’re fried, steamed, or boiled, and they’re ideally served with a deliciously contrasting dumpling sauce. I say “ideally” here, because all too often, dumplings don’t get […]
Ma Lai Go Chinese Steamed Cake
Ma Lai Go Chinese Steamed Cake is a fluffy brown sugar sponge cake typically found on dim sum carts in Southern China and Hong Kong—the few places where you’ll find it done right, and where it’s quite popular. But whether you call it ma lai go (Cantonese) or ma la gao (马拉糕, or sometimes 马来糕, […]
Hamburger Fried Rice
Hamburger Fried Rice is a quick and easy weekday dish you can whip up in no time. Mixing together some simple ground beef, onions, frozen peas, and leftover rice can create a delicious meal. Top each serving off with a runny fried egg drizzled with sweet soy sauce, and bam! You have just kicked up […]
Philly Italian Pork Sandwich (DiNic’s Copycat Recipe)
If you’ve spent time in Philly, you know that cheesesteaks are great and all, but the real treasure is the beautiful Italian pork sandwich, heaped with pulled pork, smothered in drippy broccoli rabe (or spinach, depending on who you’re talkin’ to), topped with peppers, laden with a base of gooey provolone cheese, and served on […]
Cantonese Instant Pot Braised Beef with Radish
Cantonese Beef Stew is a dish that always popped in and out of my childhood. Sometimes it would be bubbling away in a clay pot at a Chinatown restaurant, and sometimes it was scooped out of a big pot at home. The tender, gelatinous pieces of beef and melt-in-your-mouth chunks of radish in a thin […]
Savory Tang Yuan
Tang Yuan (汤圆) are a traditional sign of Chinese New Year, made with sweet and savory fillings. You’re probably most familiar with the sweet version of these round glutinous rice dumplings (the direct translation is “soup ball”), usually filled with sweet sesame paste, red bean paste, or sweet peanut paste, served in hot water or […]
Kung Pao Tofu (Vegan/Vegetarian!)
You may be thinking that kung pao dishes like this kung pao tofu fall within the realm of American classics like General Tso’s Chicken––an invention of Chinese immigrants to please American palates that has no real basis in authentic regional Chinese cooking. It’s true that Kung Pao is a staple in Westernized Chinese cuisine, but […]
Buffalo Chicken Dip
Until a year or so ago, I was completely oblivious to the no-holds-barred, unapologetically American––nay, Western-New-Yorkian––concoction that is Buffalo Chicken Dip, or as it was introduced to us, Chicken Wing Dip. Buffalo Chicken Dip is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. All the great flavor you expect from a plate of buffalo wings is […]
Cantonese Cha Guo Savory Rice Cakes
Cantonese Cha Guo (茶粿), or “tea cakes” are a delicious savory treat made with glutinous rice flour and stuffed with a savory pork filling of dried shiitake mushrooms, dried shrimp and daikon radish. These savory cha guo rice cakes are more well known among Hakka Chinese people or kè jiā (客家) which literally means “guest […]
Chinese New Year Menus for All Skill Levels
We originally published this post last year, but it had such a great response that we’ve updated it and bubbled up for new Woks of Life readers who may not have seen it yet! Happy Chinese New Year and Happy Wokking! It’s almost Chinese New Year! As the big day draws closer, it’s time to […]
Pork Rib Stew with Foo Jook and Chee Hou Sauce
Pork Rib Stew with Foo Jook and Chee Hou Sauce is simple homestyle Chinese cooking at its best. Foo Jook, or dried tofu skin, stewed with pork ribs and sweet Chee Hou sauce is a delicious comfort food combination, and a great Chinese New Year dish to boot! I make this Foo Jook Pork Rib […]
Chinese Shrimp Cakes
Shrimp cakes. This is very much a home-cooking dish and popular in coastal cities in China where shrimp are plentiful. The key to a good Chinese shrimp cake is maintaining the shrimp’s natural sweetness and crunchiness. This is why I actually like to recommend using frozen shrimp––they are immediately frozen at their freshest state, and […]
Chinese Carrot Rice Cake (Hu Luo Bo Gao – 胡萝卜糕)
Chinese Carrot Rice Cake (Hu Luo Bo Gao – 胡萝卜糕) is a great variation on the more common and traditional Chinese Luo Bo Gao, or turnip cake made with daikon radish. This version uses carrots, which is a more familiar and easy-to-find vegetable, but yields a similar texture and a great color! (Now, in case […]
Shanghai Home-style Noodle Soup
This Shanghai Home-Style Noodle Soup (上海烂糊面 – shanghai lan hu mian) is a creation of clever mothers during desperate times. This comforting noodle soup is made from simple ingredients, with slightly over-cooked noodles that expand and therefore become more filling. Hear me out! Back in the (old) days, my grandmother would make this noodle soup […]
Winter Lamb Stew with Spicy Sausage
With most of the holiday decorations back in storage for the year and what seems like daily “gale warnings” popping up in my weather notifications this past week, it looks like that time of year is fully upon us here in the Northeast: full-on winter, without the holiday cheer to distract us all from the […]
Instant Pot Pho
Nothing satisfies my deepest cold weather food cravings like a big bowl of piping hot pho. Unless you have a favorite Vietnamese spot nearby, however, it can be difficult to get your hands on a bowl. Which is why I developed and posted a full pho recipe on The Woks of Life back in 2015. […]
Boiled Daikon Radish: A Healthy, Tasty Side Dish
Today, I want to introduce you to one of my favorite winter vegetables––the brilliant daikon radish, and an extremely easy and delicious recipe that Bill loves every time I make it, boiled daikon radish. (I’ve convinced the girls as well of how delicious it is!) This boiled daikon requires no oil, no wok, and no […]
