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.
-
Chinese New Year: Fireworks Up Close
Updated:View Post: Chinese New Year: Fireworks Up CloseThe day has arrived, and the Year of the Horse has officially begun. It was a pretty casual New Year here in Beijing. After a Skype session with Kaitlin in the morning, we made dumplings, ate peanuts, cooked a chicken…
-
Apple Cream Cheese Tart
Updated:View Post: Apple Cream Cheese TartHappy Chinese New Year, everyone! The Year of the Horse starts tomorrow, and being a Horse myself on the 12-year Chinese Zodiac cycle, this is only the second time it’s happened in my lifetime. It also–disturbingly–means that according to the…
-
Chinese New Year Recipes
Updated:View Post: Chinese New Year RecipesThe Lunar New Year is upon us! Though back in the U.S. we don’t get so much as a sick day off for this holiday, here in China, we get a week off work. Beijing has emptied, as most of the…
-
CHINA TRAVEL TIPS
Updated:View Post: CHINA TRAVEL TIPSBefore two of us moved to Beijing in 2011, we were relatively new to traveling in China. We’d made one trip in 1997, and went back ten years later in 2007. But that was about it. Now that we’re living…
-
Crispy Duck Wrap
Updated:View Post: Crispy Duck WrapThis crispy duck wrap dish is a bit more complicated than most, but it’s worth it. The duck legs are braised to perfection, de-boned and then wrapped in a scallion pancake blanket and pan-fried until crispy. We then used the…
-
Vegetable Five Spice Tofu Stir-Fry
Updated:View Post: Vegetable Five Spice Tofu Stir-FryWe’ve been making some version of this vegetable five spice tofu stir-fry dish for dinner once a week for as long as we can remember. It’s healthy, vegetarian, and very easy to make. Recipe Instructions Wash and julienne the five…
-
Chinese Chive Frittata with Tomatoes
Updated:View Post: Chinese Chive Frittata with TomatoesFrittatas are traditionally an Italian dish, but the Chinese have a similar chive frittata dish, often using Chinese or garlic chives. You can find them at the Chinese grocery store, and if you can get the seeds, they grow like…
-
Pumpkin Granola
Updated:View Post: Pumpkin GranolaThis is pumpkin granola is our family’s favorite granola recipe. It’s relatively low in sugar and fat compared to other similar recipes, and the inclusion of the pumpkin gives the granola the perfect crunchy, slightly “clumpy” consistency. We’ve tried the…
-
Easy Mushroom Noodle Stir fry
Updated:View Post: Easy Mushroom Noodle Stir fryThis easy mushroom noodle stir fry is a great dish for mushroom lovers, as well as vegetarians and vegans alike (just leave out the pork). We were looking for a simple dish to try out the black mushrooms we recently…
-
Shredded Pork Stir-Fry
Updated:View Post: Shredded Pork Stir-FryIn China, you’ll see a lot of dishes with the description “Yu Xiang,” (鱼香), which literally means “fish fragrance,” or “fish flavor.” There’s actually no fish involved in the dish, and there are tons of different versions. In the U.S.,…
-
Quick and Easy Braised Tofu (Hongshao Dofu)
Updated:View Post: Quick and Easy Braised Tofu (Hongshao Dofu)This braised tofu or hongshao dofu is my grandpa’s favorite dish when we go out to eat at this little Cantonese restaurant on Division Street in Chinatown. I have to say that this is a pretty crazy authentic homemade version,…
-
Cranberry Orange Cookies
Updated:View Post: Cranberry Orange CookiesThe house is officially occupied again! We’ve all made the pilgrimage back to NJ for Christmas, and the holiday shenanigans have officially started. We barely had time to remove the thin layer of dust on the furniture and crank up…
-
Pumpkin Pie with Pecan Streusel
Updated:View Post: Pumpkin Pie with Pecan StreuselI’ll keep the intro short on this one, folks. A couple months ago, I made this pie for the first time. My dad, the world’s nit-pickiest pie eater, with over forty years’ pie eating experience, named it the best pumpkin…
-
Savory Chinese Turnip Pancakes
Updated:View Post: Savory Chinese Turnip PancakesWhen I was a kid growing up in upstate New York, we kids made pancakes frequently for breakfast on Saturdays. One day, my father suggested that we make a savory version of Chinese turnip pancakes. These days, all sorts of…
-
A Bi-Continental Thanksgiving Turkey Recipe
Updated:View Post: A Bi-Continental Thanksgiving Turkey RecipeUPDATE: Check out the recipe for the marinade AND how to roast your turkey! (Note: in this recipe, I really should have pulverized the garlic until it really became a smooth paste, but the food processor I was working with wasn’t cooperative.…
-
Tricolor Pepper Steak with Leeks (A Pepper Steak Makeover)
Updated:View Post: Tricolor Pepper Steak with Leeks (A Pepper Steak Makeover)A very traditional and perhaps forgotten Chinese takeout dish is Pepper Steak, which is simply beef, green bell peppers, and yellow onions cooked in a brown sauce. Honestly, this wasn’t one of my favorite dishes to cook in the restaurant,…
-
Garlicky Broccoli Stir-Fry
Updated:View Post: Garlicky Broccoli Stir-FryIf you’re one of those people who hates broccoli, then you probably haven’t had it like this before. One thing that Chinese cuisine does particularly well is make vegetables that taste really really good including a broccoli stir-fry. We don’t…
-
Chinese Spare Ribs
Updated:View Post: Chinese Spare RibsThis Chinese spare rib recipe is exactly what you want in a Chinese takeout-style or restaurant-style BBQ rib—a little sweet, juicy, and full of nostalgia! Our recipe comes from my father, who cooked Chinese food in the Catskills of New…
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!
