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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.
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A Day in Flushing
Updated:View Post: A Day in FlushingThis weekend, my sister and I decided to make a last-minute trek out to Flushing, NY, where my grandparents and cousins live. After a little bit of coordination on my and Sarah’s end to get into Chinatown from our respective…
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Thai Salad with Chicken and Lime Peanut Dressing
Updated:View Post: Thai Salad with Chicken and Lime Peanut DressingThe other day, I had a mega-craving for Thai food. But, alas, I didn’t have any Thai basil on hand, or rice noodles (because of course, like the uh…non-Thai person that I am, the things that I most associate with…
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Pork Belly with Bell Peppers and Wood Ear Mushrooms
Updated:View Post: Pork Belly with Bell Peppers and Wood Ear MushroomsIt’s our next recipe in the “Cooking with Grandma” series! With only five ingredients, it’s amazing how good this is: Pork Belly with Bell Peppers and Woodear Mushrooms. But I think that has a lot to do with what Chinese…
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This Cactus Is Insulting Me
Updated:View Post: This Cactus Is Insulting MeOne thing I’ve learned in Beijing is that everyone is pretty health conscious. That includes drinking lots of tea and water during the day, drinking lukewarm or hot water and never cold/ice water, eating on time and never skipping meals,…
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Cong You Bing Scallion Pancakes with Dipping Sauce
Updated:View Post: Cong You Bing Scallion Pancakes with Dipping SauceScallion pancakes or Cong You Bing (葱油饼) are the quintessential Chinese snack. When we were younger, my sister and I used to come home from school and take a scallion pancake out of the freezer to relieve those after-school hunger pangs.…
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A Tale of Woe, Misfortune & Blackberries
Updated:View Post: A Tale of Woe, Misfortune & BlackberriesSo, uh…I was going to post a recipe today. Blackberry squares. I was excited. There I was… Toasting walnuts. Taking out these lovely frozen blackberries… Thawing them out to perfection… Mixing sugar and butter and yogurt…with lemon zest and vanilla.…
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Meditations on Technology & Memory
Updated:View Post: Meditations on Technology & MemoryMy first cell phone was a cheap flip phone that cost $10. I got it when I was in eighth grade, not too long after an incident at a large outdoor festival when I got lost and a little bit…
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Tilapia and Mixed Vegetable Stir-Fry
Updated:View Post: Tilapia and Mixed Vegetable Stir-FryThis tilapia fish recipe kind of snuck up on me. It’s really simple to make and was my mom’s healthy, tasty, and no-fuss way of preparing those on-sale fillets that we had in the freezer. The first time my mom made…
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Curry Lime Chicken Phyllo Rolls
Updated:View Post: Curry Lime Chicken Phyllo RollsThese Curry Lime Chicken Phyllo Rolls were adapted from Ina Garten’s Crab Strudel recipe, which is awesome. But I’m not an established TV personality who regularly throws around phrases like “good olive oil” and “lunch in East Hampton,” so lump…
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The Beijing Breakfast Dilemma
Updated:View Post: The Beijing Breakfast DilemmaHmm, what to eat for Beijing breakfast … Well, you may be wondering what the choices are. Here’s a good selection: All delicious. So as you can probably tell, my latest dilemma has been a little extra room in the…
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A Go-To Response to Any Question in Chinese
Updated:View Post: A Go-To Response to Any Question in ChineseSo while traversing the streets of Beijing or Shanghai, you may find yourself in a situation when someone will ask you a question in Chinese. Being Chinese American, there were a lot of situations when I was first studying abroad…
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Chinese Broccoli with Oyster Sauce (Gai Lan)
Updated:View Post: Chinese Broccoli with Oyster Sauce (Gai Lan)This Chinese Broccoli with oyster sauce is an easy, ubiquitous vegetable side dish. You’ll find it at restaurants as well as on Chinese home dinner tables. If you’ve ever been to a dim sum place, this is often the only…
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The Woks of Life Home & Garden: Not pretty.
Updated:View Post: The Woks of Life Home & Garden: Not pretty.So a few weeks ago, we weeded all the walkways so that they looked pristine. Just like this: So of course, I was told to keep it that way. To make sure things don’t get out of hand, you know? And…
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Cold Tofu Salad
Updated:View Post: Cold Tofu SaladHere’s the next dish in our “Cooking with Grandma” series: Cold Tofu Salad. In a Chinese meal, you’ll often start with cold dishes. These often consist of cold veggies, tofu, or meat dressed with light sauces and dressings. They’re especially…
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Seared Asian Salmon with Caramelized Onions and Lemon-Cilantro Edamame Puree
Updated:View Post: Seared Asian Salmon with Caramelized Onions and Lemon-Cilantro Edamame PureeSo I made this last weekend for lunch, because I was feelin’ fancy, and I wanted something a little different from the lazy salads I’ve taken to eating for the past few days. I had some salmon and edamame in…
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Finding Beijing’s Best Dinner Deals
Updated:View Post: Finding Beijing’s Best Dinner DealsI am so excited with my recent discovery of 团购 (“tuangou”), which means “group buying.” It’s a Chinese version of Groupon, available in all of China’s big cities, plus some other popular vacation destinations in Asia. It works the same way as…
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Cooking With Grandma
Updated:View Post: Cooking With GrandmaEvery so often, my grandparents will come to the house to visit (i.e. check up on me), because my grandmother wants to make sure that I’m not slowly going crazy living solo (she also calls me daily…you know, just to…
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Blueberry Yogurt Scones
Updated:View Post: Blueberry Yogurt SconesMama had a hankering for some baked yummies so I checked out what we had in the fridge and found some dried blueberries. Inspired by the Summer Berry Pie, I whipped up a quick batch of blueberry yogurt scones. Check…
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We’re Sarah, Kaitlin, Judy, and Bill– a family of four cooks sharing our home-cooked and restaurant-style recipes.
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