We’re over the hump of Thanksgiving! Congratulations–you’ve made it past the turkey anxiety, the stuffing recipe selection that may or may not have escalated to existential crisis, the crossroads that is homemade or canned cranberry sauce, and of course, all those priceless family squabbles at the dinner table. Now it’s the next day, and you’ve got […]
Rice, Noodles & Pasta
The Woks of Life Rice, Noodles & Pasta Recipe Collection
Sticky Rice Stuffing (Can Also Be Made Gluten-Free!)
Sticky Rice Stuffing. It’s gonna be all the rage this Thanksgiving. For any adventurous Thanksgiving cooks who want to try something other than a traditional bread stuffing or dressing this year, this is the recipe for you. We’ve actually been making this sticky rice stuffing for years. It’s featured in one of my all-time favorites––Roast […]
Seafood Congee (海鲜粥)
Lately, I’ve been rethinking a common Chinese staple: porridge, aka “congee,” “粥 (zhou),” or “稀饭 (xi-fan).” In China, Northerners like it plain (白粥), but Southerners like plenty of additional flavor. Some of our family’s favorites (mostly from Bill’s Cantonese side of the family) are Pork with Thousand Year Old Egg Congee (皮蛋廋肉粥), Fish Fillet Congee […]
Sweet Potato Gnocchi Bake with Bacon and Sage
With fall comes hibernation season–the huge sweaters, fuzzy blankets, hot cups of tea, and deliciously cheesy, savory deliciousness that one craves when the air outside is chilly. A surprisingly easy fall dish to make is sweet potato gnocchi–the gnocchi only requires a handful of ingredients, and it’s no more difficult than making dumplings a la chicken […]
Bacon & Scallion Egg Noodle Stir-fry
I will fabricate any excuse to put bacon in recipes, as many of you well know (see: my bacon-wrapped pork chop sticky rice bake, my leftover Thanksgiving turkey ramen with chopped bacon on top, the totally gratuitous addition of bacon to my recipe for Kimchi Fries––I could go on). This Bacon & Scallion Egg Noodle […]
Bo Kho: Spicy Vietnamese Beef Stew with Noodles
Bo Kho is a spicy and flavorful Vietnamese beef stew that makes for a pretty epic bowl of noodle soup when you’ve maybe had your fill of pho or are looking for something a little different. I’ve had Bo Kho at only a couple of places over the years, and they’ve been pretty wide-ranging in […]
Lobster Sticky Fried Rice
This Lobster Sticky Fried Rice is not your everyday fried rice. As you can see, it’s got plenty of huge pieces of decadent, tender lobster! The addition of lobster makes this dish truly special, and it’s definitely worthy of being on a holiday or Chinese New Year dinner table, even though it’s not traditionally served […]
Ginger Scallion Hokkien Noodles
Hokkien noodles originate from Fujian (Hokkien) province in China but are quite common in both Malaysia and Singapore. These particular Hokkien Noodles––Ginger Scallion Hokkien Noodles, that is––are a 10-ingredient wonder, and they take just 20 minutes to prepare from start (i.e. walking into your apartment after a long and trying day) to finish (i.e. parking your butt […]
Sticky Rice Stuffed Chicken Breast
This sticky rice stuffed chicken breast is a beautiful thing. I’m probably going against the grain quite a bit here, but chicken breast is one of my least favorite foods. While most Americans overwhelmingly prefer white meat, I’m a dark meat girl myself. I just find it to be more flavorful and less dry overall. […]
10-Minute Sesame Noodles Recipe (Ma Jiang Mian)
Sesame noodles, or ma jiang mian (麻酱面) are a Shanghainese classic. Remember my Culinary Tour of Shanghai post? I said in that post that if you ever visit Shanghai, you must go and have the sesame noodles (and a few other favorites) at Wei Xiang Zhai, 味香斋, located at #14 YanDang Lu, near HuaiHai Zhong […]
Braised Eggplant with Minced Pork – 肉沫茄子
Lately, we’ve turned to posting quite a few “home-style” dishes. Braised Eggplant with Minced Pork (肉沫茄子) is another one of those easy dishes that you might see on the table at your parents’ or grandparents’ house! Though, as I typed out the Chinese characters for this dish, I was surprised to see that 肉沫茄子 (rou […]
Chengdu-Style Sichuan Fried Rice
A good bowl of Sichuan fried rice ––ANY fried rice, really––can work wonders on your outlook on life. It’s an all-in-one meal with starch, veggies, meat, and, of course, it’s the perfect vehicle for your favorite hot sauce or chili oil. Over the years, we’ve posted many fried rice recipes: Shrimp Fried Rice Supreme Soy […]
Quick and Easy Coconut Rice
Rice. It’s my favorite carbohydrate (which is saying a lot, considering what a bread and pasta fiend I am), and it’s infinitely versatile. While we’ve done plenty of rice dishes in the past, from fried rice to sticky rice rolls, we haven’t talked much about how you can make different types of flavored rice. Flavoring […]
Basil Mint Pesto Pasta Salad with Tomatoes & Strawberries
Growing up, my sister and I considered pasta salad to be “special occasion” food––mostly because we would rarely see it on the table at our house. Or on the picnic table, for that matter. This isn’t to say that we didn’t have family barbecues––for Memorial Day, the 4th of July, or just a summer Saturday. But […]
Beef and Egg Stir Fry Rice Bowls
Beef and Egg Stir Fry is one of those dishes that provides both comfort and satisfaction at the end of a busy day––especially during the workweek or on a lazy rainy Sunday. “Easy-to-make” and “easy cleanup” are hallmarks of our simplest, most loved go-to dishes (which we keep in a handy list: Quick and Easy […]
Japchae – A Korean Noodle Stir Fry Favorite
Japchae is a simple Korean noodle dish jampacked with a rainbow of vegetables and accented with a hit of flank steak. It’s a recipe that’s been requested by many of our readers, so this day is long overdue! Japchae is made with Korean potato starch glass noodles, which are surprisingly light, and (it doesn’t happen often […]
Easy Korean Beef Bibimbap Recipe
Bibimbap was my first introduction to Korean food. Meaning, “mixed rice,” a bibimbap recipe is comprised of warm rice topped with different seasoned vegetables, sauce like gochujang (korean red pepper paste), and often meat and/or an egg. It’s all mixed up, and usually just eaten with a spoon (no chopsticks needed). It. Is. Awesome. It […]
Jianshui Zong (Alkaline Rice Dumplings – 碱水粽)
Happy Dragon Boat Festival! You’ll have to look elsewhere for your dragon boat races, but we do have a pretty special Alkaline zongzi recipe to share with you today as a holiday treat. Jianshui Zong (碱水粽), also known as Lye Water Rice Dumplings, or Alkaline Rice Dumplings, are a Cantonese-style rice dumpling popular this time […]
20-Minute Chicken Pho
I’ve made no secret of my love for pho. Exhibit A: the painstakingly researched recipe for a traditional beef-based pho that I posted over two years ago (side note: WHY DOES TIME GO BY SO FAST!?), and even the instant ramen campfire version that Kaitlin and I cobbled together in Sequoia National Park. But sometimes, […]
Korean Black Bean Noodles (Jajangmyeon)
I was first exposed to Korean Black Bean Noodles during my more youthful, bouncy days of K-pop fueled ardor, when I would routinely listen to Big Bang, 2PM, and Girls Generation, and binge-watch Korean dramas with subtitles between finishing homework assignments. Watching all the Korean BBQ-eating, bibimbap-mixing, and jajangmyeon slurping made it pretty inevitable that I […]
Crispy Salmon Skin Rice Bowls
We don’t like wasting food. As food lovers and food bloggers, it’s pretty much tantamount to a crime. Sarah and I once had friends over for dinner, and we juiced half a lemon. At the end of the night during cleanup, one of said friends picked up the lonely second lemon half, and–in all seriousness–asked […]
Salmon Pasta with Green Goddess Pesto
I love green goddess dressing. Ever since I discovered it through our Green Goddess Salmon Burgers, I’ve been completely smitten with the stuff. And it’s really no wonder–you throw some of the best, most delicious herbs out there (i.e., basil, parsley, dill, tarragon, chive, and scallion) into one delicious sauce. OF COURSE IT’S GOOD. So I’ve […]
Oyakodon (Japanese Chicken & Egg Rice Bowls)
Everyone needs a good one-pan meal in their back pocket. Something that can be whipped up with minimal effort, time, and cleanup. My favorite approach is usually to cook something that’s served over rice. (Considering everything that you all know about myself and my family at this point, I suppose that doesn’t come as much of a surprise. […]
Curry Mee Malaysian Noodle Soup
Today, we have another awesome noodle soup recipe for you guys––Malaysian Curry Mee. And I’m pretty excited about it. As you can probably tell, The Woks of Life has been in a noodly mood lately. We recently published my mom’s wild mushroom noodle recipe, as well as her AMAZING beef noodle soup (my sister and […]
Soy Sauce Braised Wild Mushroom Noodles
We’ve partnered with Pearl River Bridge to bring you this post. Enjoy! These Soy Sauce Braised Wild Mushroom Noodles are earthy, flavorful, rich, and savory, all with the benefit of being totally vegan! Yes, that rarest of times has come again, where we have a great vegan recipe to share with you all. Usually, aside […]
Braised Beef Noodle Soup (红烧牛肉面)
I’m not going to lie–if you put this Braised Beef Noodle Soup and my Spicy Beef Noodle Soup side by side, I would choose the latter. It’s not much of a surprise, since I’ve been known to post some of our more throat-burning, tongue-numbing spicy Sichuan dishes, but for readers with tamer taste buds, this […]
15 Minute After-School Special Noodles
15 Minute After-School Special Noodles is a recipe that has been our constant companion over the years. When I was eleven years old, my parents finally (“finally?”) deemed me and my sister old enough to stay home alone from when school let out at 2:45 to when they came home from work at 6:30. Before […]
Pad See Ew – Thai Rice Noodles
Pad See Ew is what I would consider Thai fast food, right up there with all of our favorite takeout noodle dishes––like lo mein, pan-fried noodles and Drunken Noodles. It comes together quickly as long as all the ingredients are prepared ahead of time and ready to go into the wok! It’s no wonder this […]
Long Life Noodles – Yi Mein (伊面）
Long Life Noodles (yī miàn, 伊面) or yi mein, symbolize longevity and can always be found on the banquet table at Chinese celebrations. Long noodles, long life, right? (We should make a t-shirt.) Actually, any type of long noodle symbolizes longevity, but Yi Mein (also known as e-fu noodles––try not to get confused by all these […]
Steamed Pork with Rice Powder (Fen Zheng Rou)
I know many of you are planning special dishes for the upcoming Chinese New Year festival. Today, I want to talk about a distinctive Chinese New Year dish––Steamed Pork with Rice Powder, or Fen Zheng Rou (粉蒸肉). This is not a dish that appears on restaurant menus. Not even in China. Nor is it a […]
