I’m currently in Mexico at the beautiful ClubMed Ixtapa resort with my good friend, Diane of WhiteOnRiceCouple and my brother. It would be silly to call this a “work trip,” since we’ve done more relaxing, napping, eating and drinking than actually working, but I guess that’s the whole point of ClubMed, right? They’re hosting us for a wonderful Food and Wine festival and I’ll be posting more when I return. In the meantime, enjoy this recipe for Grilled Fish Tacos with Roasted Corn and Pepitas.

***

All my friends from “not-Florida” and are gushing about their cozy Fall dishes, how it’s time to break out the dutch oven and that finally, they can start wearing boots without looking like a summer fashion faux-pas. And I’m just here loungin’ in my swimsuit, sipping iced tea, toes dangling a $3 flip-flop and beaming from ear to ear, gently shaking my head.

Don’t get me wrong, I love long braises and warming stews, but Fall is just starting to breeze in and it’s still too damn hot to turn my kitchen into a sauna. Fall is finally grilling time. Oh, sure, we grill plenty during the summer, but pity the poor person with grilling duty outside in the middle of the sweltering, suffocating summer heat, which usually is my husband. It’s worse especially when we have a dinner party and I have to hand him his sunglasses, hat, sunscreen and a mountainous platter of foods to be grilled.

I get the glare. He heads outside. (more…)

See shot-by-shot commentary of photos that led up to the money shot.

From my weekly food column in Tampa Tribune newspaper

Rock Star Chef Kerry Simon

A couple of weeks ago during a trip to Los Angeles, I bumped into rock star chef Kerry Simon at every kitchen fanatic’s dream bookstore, The Cook’s Library. What elevates Kerry to rock star status? Well, how about the fact that Rolling Stone tagged him with the unofficial title “Rock ‘n’ Roll Chef.” OK, that reason ALONE is enough for me to swoon all over him.

Chef Kerry Simon

My brother Jay and I met up with one of Jay’s friends, who has a Hollywood job so bizarre HE HAD TO WHISPER IT IN MY EAR, and so our hodgepodge group - a food writer, a cardiologist and a … um … let’s call him a “gay reality show researcher,” dined at Simon LA, Kerry’s signature restaurant.

I have a love-hate relationship with restaurant reviews. I love it when it’s a great restaurant and the critic’s eloquent trail of words tickles my taste buds and seduces me onto the plate. But you know what? It’s like the biggest frustrating tease when the restaurant is 2,471 miles away, and there’s no way to actually enjoy the meal in person!

I’m not going to tantalize you with play-by-play of my four-course meal, which would be cruel because it was totally rock-star phenomenal. Instead, I’m doing one better. I called Kerry up and asked for a recipe. He obliged and sent along his Lamb Chops with Curried Pears.

One thing about restaurant chefs giving you recipes is that they normally feed, like, 50 people, and some of the cooking techniques may be a bit difficult for home cooks. So, I’ve simplified his recipe and scaled it down so you’re not inviting all the families within a 2-mile radius to dinner.

I think you’ll really enjoy it. Chef Kerry is a master of taking a few simple ingredients and coaxing the flavors and textures into something so sublime, surprising and sexy. (more…)

Wonton Noodle Soup

My Wonton Noodle Soup is a finalist at the Whole Foods Budget Recipe Challenge! Can you believe it?

Need your help, please. There are 6 finalists and the winner is decided by votes! And because I’m up against blog-friends, Karina, Rachel and Katy. They are all really pretty, super-talented and I love them dearly.

But.

I’m going to play dirty….real dirty.

I’m gonna throw out all I’ve got, baby.

The Bribe Card:

By voting (which is done by commenting) you get a chance to win $500 from Whole Foods.

The Cute Kid Card:

Here. Let me pimp out my kids again:
Andrew and Nathan helped me make the wontons.

Awwww…aren’t they cute? NOW GO VOTE FOR ME!

The Save You Money Card:

Wonton Noodle Soup only costs $2.98 per serving. Like, way cheaper than a Double Cheeseburger Meal Deal.

The Second Bribe Card:

Ok, so that first bribe really wasn’t from me. You are entered into the $500 drawing no matter who you vote for and the money comes from Whole Foods!  hehehe.

So, here’s the bribe. If I win (and I can only win IF YOU VOTE FOR ME!) I get TEN $25 Whole Foods gift certificates. I will give NINE of them away to random voters on Whole Food’s site.

Oh, what happened to the TENTH gift certificate? I’ve already promised the boys $25 worth of jelly beans if they told their teachers to vote for me.

The I’ll Do Your Ironing Card:

Um. No.

It’s a Close Race! (it really is!):

But please, purty pullleeeeeze come vote for the Wonton Noodle Soup recipe? You’ll have to register to vote and voting is simply done by commenting on the recipe at Whole Food’s site. You’ll automatically be entered to win the $500 Whole Food Prize plus my NINE $25 gift certificates.

(photo from Whole Foods when they tested my recipe)

Dude. What the hell are you still doing here? GO VOTE FOR ME ALREADY!

(click on photo for shot-by-shot food styling and photography analysis of some of the photos that led up to the “money shot”)

Chinese restaurants in China don’t really have Chinese Chicken Salad on their menus, it’s a creation of Chinese-American restaurants! According to Cecilia Chiang, author of The Seventh Daughter: My Culinary Journey from Beijing to San Francisco(one of my all time favorite Chinese American cookbooks), lettuce was rare and imported in China, and “salads” referred to pickled items. But, I still love a good Chinese Chicken Salad, especially if it’s got a tangy, sweet sauce and crunchy bits of fried wonton strips.

But please, Applebee’s restaurant, can we rename your “Oriental Chicken Salad” to something more hip? Asian Chicken Salad or Chinese Chicken Salad would be much better. Oriental is such a dated word…so..19th century!*

Recipe for Chinese Chicken Salad is below.

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Food Styling and Photography

Many of you requested that I continue posting my shot-by-shot analysis of all the failed photos that led up to this one that I like…my “money shot.” I also show you my photo setup - which really doesn’t change too much during the “NOT-winter” season. I use natural light as much as I can, and when dreary winter comes along, I switch to using my Lowel EGO lights.

Vegan Yum Yum just posted a fabulous write up on food photography - make sure you check it out.

In the meantime, here’s my shot-by-shot analysis of the Chinese Chicken Salad photos!

For more food photography posts, I have a whole category called “Food Photography/Blog Tips.”

(more…)

When Elise asked me to be a guest writer for Simply Recipes, we decided to take Chinese favorites and make them better, lighter and easier to cook at home. So, I grabbed a take-out menu from the local Chinese restaurant and I will be working my way around those recipes for you. The first dish that popped out was Sweet and Sour Chicken.

If there’s one thing that I detest, it’s greasy fried food covered in goopy Chinese take-out sauce. Okay, so sometimes I like that stuff, but it usually those cravings come at 3 o’clock a.m. during a certain time of the month.

But, I digress.

This recipe for Sweet and Sour Chicken doesn’t deep fry, but instead uses a method for creating a delicate, smooth and succulent chicken that goes perfectly with a lighter sweet and sour sauce. The secret is in the chicken marinade, specifically using egg white and cornstarch, which creates a super-light coating all around the chicken. It won’t be a crunchy, deep fried coating, but I think it’s a nice alternative, both texture-wise and weight-wise! (more…)

I’m a guest writer over at Martha Stewart Everyday Food! Have you been to their website? They’ve got thousands of recipes, all of them simple and perfect for dinner tonight.

My kids made Thai Curry Beef Skewers and Grilled Banana with Dark Chocolate for them. Come on over to Martha Stewart Everyday Food’s website and take a look. The recipe for the MUST MAKE dessert inspired by the lovely Andreaa is over there.

I love it when my two young sons — 3 years old and 5 years old — help me in the kitchen. It’s good to nurture an interest in responsible nutrition and teach them correct food pairings, like how super-thin, shatter-crisp Lay’s potato chips are much better stacked between a hamburger bun and patty than something big and smushy like a chocolate Ho-Ho. (more…)

So, what do you say to break the ice when you meet one of People Magazine’s 50 Hottest Bachelors?

bluhbhlubhlbuhbbbbbb

We’ll I’m going to let you guess what I said (and let you win something cool)

A few nights ago, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dave Lieberman, who was showcasing tapas dishes using beautiful olive oil from Spain. My friends, the Culinary Sherpas did the food styling for the event and for the media. (more…)

We were quite a boring family when I grew up in North Platte, Nebraska. There just weren’t very many super exciting things for a Chinese immigrant family to do in the small town and we lived on a dirt road, across from the empty field lot, next to the traffic light in the middle of nowhere. Usually on weekends, we’d stay at home. But once every couple of months, when we were feeling a bit frisky and itchin’ for some variety, we’d all pack in our puke green Chevrolet Impala station wagon (complete with the lovely wood paneled sides) and drive to the nearest Asian market - Denver, Colorado, which was four and half hours away and four and a half hours back. It was good to be near our peeps, stock up on Asian ingredients and pick up a Chinese newspaper, our only link to what was happening back home. Oh, those were wild times. (more…)

For the past year, Andrew has been asking me, “Mama, can I do a cooking show with you?” and I’ve kinda resisted, mainly because a 5 year old boy…specifically MY 5 year old boy is quite unpredictable. How do I know that he’s not just going to blurt out my dirty laundry on LIVE TV???

There’s no bleep button on the control board (I’ve checked) and even if there was, how would I signal the producer to bleep out the part when Andrew would spontaneously shout out, “My mama dances naked on the bed to ‘Careless Whisper.’”

Like, totally embarrassing to let the world know that I still, even after the gerbil incident (wait, was that a different dude?) and knowing that he’s so totally gay that I’d fling my naked body at George Michael if he rang my doorbell. (more…)

I’m getting so close…I can smell it! So far, I’ve written 90 recipes and shot over 65 photographs…but I’m a little behind - and still have 30 more photographs and another 15 recipes to go.

I must give great thanks to a hardcore team of testers who have been relentlessly testing, suggesting and tweaking my recipes for the past couple of months. I’m sure by now, they are all Asian’d out at dinnertime! But big hugs and eternal thanks to Katherine, Susan, Phil, Susan, Daphne, Arlyn, Diana, Michael, Patsy, Shasta, Renee, Helen, Kim, Claudia, Regina, Silvia, Joon, Jaime, Susan, Joel, Richard, Bonni, Marion, Audrey, Carmen, Christine, Brian, Rory, Tina, FriedApplePie, Gail, Robin, Lexi, De Hendrix, Tauie, Danielle, Jennifer, Sarah, Ashley, Cindy, Lisa, Jeff, Owlhaven, Barry, Juliana, Madam Chow, Kathleen, Lynn, Sara, Sowjanya, DmOrtega, Melanie, Suganya, Patsy, Andrea, Wiffy, Margy, Patti, Ed, Valerie, Eneri, Marvin, Jude, Joel, Emily, Lynne, Sandy, Courtney, Will, Anne, Melissa, Shana, Micha, David, Nicola, Margy, Jim, Laura, Ric, Tiffanie, Claire, Betty, Thuy, Kindra, Xavier, Shasta, Patti, Foodiebear, Lauriel, Dickie, Cinzia, Li-Chia, Su-Eng, Jacqueline and Christina.

While the testers have done a fantastic job, I’m a little behind. I still have about 15 more recipes and another 25 photos to take. I will say that I totally underestimated how long it would take to write this book. I mean, I write on this blog twice a week and write for the newspaper weekly and it’s like no big deal. And you have to understand that I CRAVE spontaneity and loathe anything that has to do with deadlines, long term planning or being a responsible human being.

Let me tell ya, the ONLY hesitation I ever had with agreeing to write a cookbook was having this massive, dark cloud hanging over me called a deadline. Not just a regular “due by next Monday” thing, but a MASSIVE BEAST of a deadline called 18 month project. (more…)