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Last weekend, we grilled up some beef short ribs, Korean galbi style. On the side, we also grilled some sugar snap peas, okra, and mushrooms. A peanut sauce accompanied the snap peas, while I tossed the mushrooms and okra in two chili dressings. The juicy juicy meat was served with steamed rice, a quick cucumber [...]
For the second year, culinary all-stars strutted their skills at the highly anticipated Austin Food & Wine Festival. This year’s event was significantly better organized. There were shorter line ups, folks generally got to see the demos that they wanted to, and where was no manic elbowing inside the Grand Tasting Tent. The move over [...]
Last night was the 2013 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards. I did not attend this year. Instead, I was at home battling taxes and baking cheesy popovers to go with some leftover crawfish and okra bisque. Woo! But alas, I learned that Laura Sawicki (La Condesa and Sway) won best pastry chef. That reminded me of a [...]
Josh Kaner, the brave soul that transformed a run-down barbeque on 290 W into an inviting pizzeria, does not hold back. Armed with a 20 year old sourdough starter, hand kneaded pizza dough, and house made mozzeralla cheese, he declared his pizza as the “best pizza in Austin“. He did not make this claim naively. [...]
So, you’re visiting Austin for SXSW and you’re looking to hit up the best restaurants and bars that this vibrant city has to offer. Welcome! Since I’ve received so many requests, (for good reason, because Austin’s food scene is the bomb diggity) I believe it’s worthwhile to compile my favourite spots into a post. Look [...]
This Lunar or Chinese New Year, we attempted to make as much of our Chinese meal from scratch as possible. In reality, depending on who you ask, it wasn’t a traditional menu. There were no whole steamed fish or chicken, abalone slices on vegetables , dried oysters stewed with hair-like seaweed, or any of those [...]
I really don’t have much to say. It’s Friday night and I’m tired. In spite of that, here’s the recipe for the best lo bak go (???) that I’ve ever had, just in time for Lunar or Chinese New Year. Exaggeration? You be the judge. I posted a photo on Instagram earlier and did not [...]
It’s another amazing year’s end and 2013 is upon us. Looking back, 2012 has been an exceptional year of eating, or rather, feasting. I do consider myself very blessed in many areas of life, and food is a highlight that I cannot ignore. If I had to name my best restaurant meal of 2012, I’d [...]
Alas, my blog has fallen behind. Between my new job in Austin (woohoo!) and operating Vancouver Food Tour, I have little free time left. I’m absolutely pooped by the end of most days and somehow manage to drag my butt to boot camp. Between all of that, we still try to cook and entertain as [...]
Even though I am away from Vancouver, I made it a point to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving this year. For one, the thought of seeing all the celebratory food that my friends were enjoying back home would have been too much to bear. Secondly, Thanksgiving is one of my favourite holidays and I wanted to share [...]
I perk up like a puppy that hears the mailman approaching when my husband texts me 2 simple words: “Happy Hour?” And that’s exactly what happened last week. When I got the text, I quickly hopped into a cute dress and fixed my hair. Since we were attending a composting class at City Hall, we [...]
These are probably the ugliest photos that you’ll ever see of me but I don’t really care right now. For the past few months, my face has been swelling up mysteriously. Namely, my eyes and lips have swelled up at alarming rates without warning. At first, I thought they were bug bites but there weren’t [...]
I came, I ate, I conquered. I spent an entire month in Vancouver setting up Vancouver Food Tour‘s new Vancouver Brewery Experience. (Historic Molson Coors opened up its doors to the public for the first time since 1953. VFT is operating the bi-weekly guided tours + beer tastings!) Use the special code “friends” to get [...]
Here’s a throwback to a quiet little happy hour of the best kind in Florence, Italy. Ristorante Trattoria ZàZà Firenze -Piazza del mercato centrale, 26/r – Firenze Tel. 055/215411
I’m enjoying Vancouver’s lionized summer right now, as you can tell from my gluttonous twitter feed. Whenever I’m in town, I have endless catching up to do – both with friends and with restaurants. Once I arrived, my quest to check off all the new establishments from my list immediately began. Actually, an infallible bowl of flat [...]
The title says it all. Go read all about this brothel-turned-speakeasy in my latest article in Serious Eats – Bartender’s Choice: What to Order at Midnight Cowboy in Austin.
This morning, while still in my sweaty pilates gear, I discovered a video that made me fall down laughing. My abs got a second workout from watching this. It’s called Mixologist by Fog and Smog, the same talent behind the viral Wholefoods Parking Lot music video. The hook goes, “Hey Mr. Mixologist, did you have [...]
I spent July in Austin TX… and survived. Yes, it was atrociously hot but after spending most of my life in Vancouver, I’m just grateful for sunshine. It felt strangely normal to sweat from open pores. I still have not adjusted to the intensity of the sun though. I feel blinded every time I step [...]
I love a good watermelon salad, especially for summer dinner parties. Not only are they juicy and refreshing, they’re also economical and easy to throw together. The obvious challenge of serving watermelon is that it’s watery. If I served the watermelon as-is on a plate, it’ll get weepy and dilute the other flavours. I tried [...]
So we decided to infuse the chilies into liquor to encapsulate the floral, fruity chili heat without searing our taste buds off. Using gloves (of course), I sliced two chilies up, removed the seeds and added them into a 750mL bottle of mid-shelf vodka.
When I first published my article, 5 Summer Cocktail Recipes from Hawksworth in Vancouver, BC, on Serious Eats, a rather cranky reader commented right away. “Summer cocktails from Vancouver? Current summer menu? Vancouver is yet to have a summer! …“ Fair enough, he had a point. June was down right miserable. Fortunately, summer is finally [...]
For once, I don’t have much to say. This post is little more than a recipe for my best salsa recipe. It’s so utterly simple that it’d be silly not to make it – right now. The key to this salsa is charring the tomatoes, jalapenos, and garlic to smoky blackness. Once that’s done, it’s [...]
Do people still follow the Atkin’s diet? Or South Beach? Now, I don’t judge. I like the idea of cutting refined carbohydrates out of my diet but in reality, it’s a sheer impossibility. Tell me, what can’t the potato do? Many of my favourite foods and guilty pleasures are made from this starchy tuber. Tater tots, [...]
Y’all weren’t joking around when you warned me how HOT Austin gets. Naturally, there’s no better way to cool off than with a few icy and refreshing cocktails. Recently, the new kid on the block in East Austin is Weather Up. You may recognize that name from Kathryn Weatherup’s two other cocktail establishments in NYC. [...]
Tofu, the delicate and versatile product made from soy beans and water, is not highly regarded in North American cuisine. I consider it tragically misunderstood. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard people gag at tofu. But for a person to say “I don’t like tofu” is as sweeping as saying “I don’t [...]
I’ve never been a chocolate fan. If you slid a slice of black forest cake or a propped a stack of brownies in front of me, I might take a bite or two. I will, however, unabashedly face-plant into any dessert made with fresh, seasonal fruit. Add whipped cream or a fluffy mousse and I’m [...]
Every so often, a dining opportunity arises that actually excites me and it’s rarely in a restaurant setting. Nice meals are a dime a dozen but genuinely engaging culinary experiences are few and far between. Owen Lightly of Butter on the Endive is the brains and hands behind Chef in Residence: a Collaborative Food Project [...]
It’s mango season again so I thought I’d sneak in a simple tropical dessert recipe. Using sweetened rice or beans in desserts is very common in many Asian cultures, especially in the Southeastern region. Here, a deeply purple, long grain rice is the star. I made this rice dessert that I grew up with for [...]
A week or so ago, I visited Swift’s Attic in Austin, a buzz-filled restaurant that recently opened on Congress St. above The Elephant Room. This time, I had two missions under my belt for Serious Eats: to taste every cocktail on the bar menu, and to sample their most popular dishes. By the end of [...]
If you’re traveling to Tokyo and want to stay near the action, Shinjuku and Shibuya are two districts with plenty of hotel options. They are both pulsating and vivacious areas that house incredible shopping, entertainment, and of course, eats. I stayed in Shinjuku on my last two visits to Tokyo because: the hotels are a [...]
Thursday is the new Friday so kick your shoes off and shake up one of my favourite summer gin cocktails. Citrus (typically an orange slice) is essential to the Negroni, a classic Italian gin based cocktail. Having fallen in love with Texas grapefruits, which are sweeter, juicier, and less fussy to eat than other grapefruits [...]
When in doubt, always ask a local. We relied on the kindness of friends while we planned our trip to Tokyo. Having yet to meet Marc of NoRecipes.com while he lived in NYC, we made it a priority to share a meal in Tokyo where he now resides. He suggested that we meet at Chomoranma [...]
Let’s play restaurant or home kitchen. Here is a series of mobile food photos that I took in April. Can you guess where they were taken without reading the caption? If you see something I made that you like, feel free to ask me for the recipe. Happy Friday!
My last post showed that Austin Food and Wine Festival kicked off to a great start. Wow, has it almost been a week already? Below are a couple mobile photos that I snapped of my personal favourite moments. To read my full recap and see a huge slideshow of photos, head over to my article on [...]
Austin Food & Wine Festival seized the live music capital and transformed it into one epicurean weekend. While I couldn’t attend every event, I enjoyed much of the festivities with a keen appetite and camera in hand. (Some stumbling was definitely involved.) Below are photos of my most memorable bites on Friday night, starting at the [...]
One balmy afternoon a few weeks ago, I propped up on the bar stool and braved 11 cocktails at Bar Congress for this Serious Eats article. I’ve always adored the drinks here, especially when paired with the enticing bar snacks from their sister restaurant, Second Bar + Kitchen. I was excited to sample the new [...]
To kick off Austin Food & Wine Festival, I attended the issue launch party at Malverde, La Condesa‘s sister lounge. This was no regular issue launch party. It was a full on celebration for Laura Swaicki, La Condesa’s pastry chef. She’s recently been crowned the “best new pastry chef” title in Food & Wine Magazine. [...]
To conclude our morning at Tsukiji Fish Market’s tuna auction, we dodges past vendors that sped on trolleys loaded with boxes and bee-lined towards the restaurant section of the market. Packed within a small block lines rows of small, traditional Japanese restaurants. They sure take advantage of their location. The only way the fish and [...]
We’ve just landed in Tokyo, Japan. After checking into our hotel and grabbing a bite to eat, our first thought was “what are we going to do tomorrow?” Feeling jet-lagged and knowing we were going to be wide awake at 4AM, there was no better time to take a tour of the tuna auction at [...]
With fresh fruits and vegetables come the dreaded fruit flies. These teeny tiny buggers aren’t harmful but they do multiply and are highly irritating. When the weather turned warm, we noticed more and more flying around in our kitchen. I used a very simple and all natural method to trap and kill them. Now, I [...]
Our honeymoon was the pinnacle of our culinary adventure together thus far. With shared passion for food and photography, we trekked through Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka with covetous vigor. After a whirlwind of indiscriminate face-stuffing, we concluded our trip with further gluttony in Hong Kong. I’m unfolding our journey backwards for a moment by starting [...]
It’s hard to believe how long it has been since I’ve written a post. The Mr. and I’ve have been away on our honeymoon for 3 whole weeks, travelling and feasting through the ultra cosmopolitans, Japan and Hong Kong. I’m crying inside as I edit photos from our trip, reminiscing every mind blowing bite we [...]
I skimmed over James Beard Awards 2012 Semifinalist list after the announcement yesterday. My gaze darted from one column for another, pausing at names of restaurants and chefs that I recognized. I was pleasantly surprised to see Anvil Bar & Refuge in Houston listed as a nominee in the Outstanding Bar Program category. I kick my shoes [...]
In the Best Restaurant Meals series, I curate my most noteworthy nosh from the past week(s) with mobile photos. After spending 2 months in Austin Texas, I was jonesing for proper Asian food so you will see a theme here. It was nice to be home, despite the gloomy and frigid weather. Good thing the food [...]
My ears perk up when I heard that Latitude Restaurant opened a sister restaurant and bar in Chinatown. I became even more intrigued when I found out that their food and cocktail menus are inspired by Southeast Asia. Will this newcomer rise up to join the growing list of the best cocktail bars in Vancouver? [...]
“So, how’s married life?”, I’ve been asked countless times by friends after our recent wedding on 11.11.11. My usual answer is “can’t be better”. What I really mean to say, without wanting to sound sappy is “it’s a dream come true”. After meeting in the most unlikely way and jumping through numerous hoops, we are [...]
After a long day of photographing food in Austin on Wednesday, the last thing I wanted to do was cook. So I whipped this hearty hummus up in no time, plopped my butt on the couch, and caught up with Top Chef Texas. (What are the chances that Top Chef Texas’ finale was shot in [...]
Last year, bartenders in San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland made some of the best cocktails that have touched these lips. I’m always on the quest to experience the best cocktails that every city I visit has to offer. At the end of the day though, I’m just fortunate to live in two cities with thriving [...]
As food lovers, my husband and I centered our wedding theme around our shared passion. Apart from having fantastic (dare I say) food for our dinner reception, our decorations were food themed as well. In particular, my wedding bouquet, my maid of honor and bridesmaid’s bouquets, the boutineers, the corsages, and even the reception table [...]
