I’ve actually never seen Mongolian chicken anywhere in China. It’s an American Chinese food in my mind, but it’s inauthenticity doesn’t make it any less delicious. It’s a deeply umami, slightly sweet, sleek and sticky lick-your-fingers flavor bomb as well as a textural journey of crunchy chicken mingling with tiny pops of green onion, effectively offset by a fluffy cloud of white rice. In the absence of a vegetable, this dish could be a bit cloying, which is why I upped the amount of ginger; it adds just the right amount of freshness so as not to detract from the well known flavor profile of this dish, but to just hum in the background as a way of harmonizing the other strong flavors.
Read MoreThis chicken souvlaki is actually, dare i say it, better than what I had in Greece, especially with all of the accompaniments I use, which enable a different experience with every bite, but never a bad one.
Read MoreYou should all know by now that Kung Pao Chicken, which I refer to simply as KPC, is my favorite meal on the planet. Obviously I love all food, but I could eat KPC for every meal and be perfectly happy. Unfortunately, the numbing sweetness of Sichuan peppercorn is crucial to my enjoyment of the dish, and since moving to the Bay Area, I’ve actually had a surprisingly hard time finding it in the Asian markets. I’ve been thus unable to satisfy my KPC cravings since before Covid started - the Chinese restaurants in my area don’t include Sichuan peppercorn in their KPCs for some reason. Maybe they also find it difficult to source? Anyway I finally went to work a few weeks ago for the first time in over a year and stopped by some obscure Vietnamese market near the office, about 40 minutes from my house, and omg they had some in stock! I rushed home and made as many Chinese dishes as I could think of. Obviously KPC came first.
Read MoreMy quest for spice has lead me down some pretty deep rabbit holes, culminating finally in this beautiful Thai masterpiece of a dish, which is simultaneously fresh and sweet and tangy as well as an ultimate embodiment of the screaming, scorching hellfire that can only be expected from a dish that literally drips with the oils of 15 Thai chilis.
Read MoreI don’t care if it’s basic - Chicken Tikka Masala is my all-time favorite thing to eat… but since I moved from San Diego to the Bay Area two years ago, I haven’t been able to find even one restaurant with an acceptable rendering of my most favorite dish. Now, at last, I have finally found a recipe I love, so I can make this for myself and eat it for every meal for the rest of my life like I’ve always wanted to. That’s it - life goal accomplished!
Read MoreKung Pao Chicken has been an obsession of mine for several years - I even considered writing a cookbook called Kung Pao Kitchen - and I finally found a good recipe for it. Obviously there are tons of regional variations of this classic Chinese dish, and this actually isn’t my favorite version (no Sichuan peppercorn - huge bummer), but it’s by far the best I’ve made with ingredients which are readily available in most US supermarkets. It really tastes like something you might find in an American Chinese restaurant, like, a good one too. I’ve made it probably 8 times in the past two months, and I’m really happy with the little tweaks and improvements I’ve made over that time. I made it for dinner tonight actually, and I couldn’t think of any way to make it better, which almost never happens.
Read MoreI’ve been growing Thai basil and Japanese eggplants in my garden since July for the express purpose of making Thai green curry from scratch using only ingredients I grew myself. I even got a curry tree (who knew that curry leaves came from a tree?)… but then some kind of bug or something burrowed its way into my eggplants and stunted their growth so my dream is dead. Meanwhile, my basil plants are growing out of control, so I just trimmed the bushes and threw the wok on the stove, and 20 minutes later this beautiful bowl of chicken was sitting in front of me. P.S. I grew that nasturtium flower from a seed!!!
Read MoreContinuing on with my Eastern European theme, after my recent trip to Budapest, i had to try my hand at making goulash. American goulash, from what I can tell, consists of elbow macaroni and canned chili, which I find to be fundamentally abhorent, so when I tried the true Hungarian version, I was blown away. Obviously they inundate it with Hungarian paprika (actually an import from Turkey, I learned), and it almost served the same purpose as MSG in Chinese food - it basically enhances the amount of drool that you invariably and uncontrollably produce after consuming a tiny amount of it. Other than that, there’s not much to it. I think it’s not really necessary to add much. It’s perfect in its simplicity.
Read MoreLife has been crazy over the past couple months. But mainly it’s been mega hot summer misery - Every time I cook, I end up needing a shower after just to clean off all the sweat. Boiling water and cooking meats especially is a killer on the temperature inside the house. Opening windows is clearly not an option, because spiders live outside. Needless to say, kitchen time has been kept to a minimum. That being said, I still require pasta.
Read MoreI went to Maine (Portland is pretty cool!) over the weekend for my brother’s bachelor party. I can’t remember much of the weekend, but I do remember being generally cold. After living in California for 8 years, I am absolutely no longer acclimated to the weather in the North East. Anyway, what do I crave when it is unbearably cold outside? Soup!
Read MoreI made this soup three times this past week. It took me about 20 minutes total, each time. Cleaning is a breeze because you basically only need a pot, a pan, and two bowls. But that’s all logistics. the flavor is the true success of this dish. The Miso mixed with the fat from the pork results in this beautiful velvety broth. The Fresno chili is no joke - they pack a spicy punch and cut the richness. The orange and lime serve a similar purpose, and add some sweetness. The ginger is fresh and bright. The rest is a textural dream.
Read MoreTo be honest, Bolognese is a bit of a luxury item in my home. It has three kinds of meat in it…. THREE! That, paired with the sheer amount I produce, makes it a pretty cost-prohibitive meal. But fuck it, this is worth the splurge.
Read MoreAnd I’m back! After a few crazy months in Taiwan and all over the US, I am back in California and ready to ruin your New Years diets. I don’t have a kitchen, so I’ll be posting recipes for some old Instagram posts until I’m able to be a fully functioning cook in my own home. In that vain, this post will have the recipe to the Thanksgiving Stack I made, well, for Thanksgiving, about a million years (one month) ago.
Read MoreIt sounds nasty. It looks nasty… like… surprisingly nasty. But it's actually good. I promise.
Read MoreFor those of you who don't know, I am not a chef by any means. I work at a leading laser manufacturer in the semiconductor industry, which is even more boring than it sounds. Anyway, I work with a lot of mechanical engineers and software engineers from India. I asked around for everyone's opinion on the most spicy dish they could think of. Obviously I got a thousand answers because everyone I work with is from different regions within India, but I did manage to get two whole votes for a single dish: Chicken Jalfrezi!
Read MoreOk! Visitor season is officially over! I now have time to blog again! And what do I do when I have time? Pizza!
Read MoreHot sauce-marinated pulled pork and Mexican rice and (not pictured) garlic-sauteed kale and fried eggs all wrapped up in a giant chewy flour tortilla? There's literally nothing to not like about that.
Read MoreEssentially, I live in Mexico, and I'm soaking up all of the Mexican-American culture I can before all of my wonderful south-of-the-border friends are deported from my beloved San Diego, which owes so much of its charm to their presence, so here is some chicken tortilla soup.
Read MoreBolognese is the first recipe I ever cooked out of a cookbook with Jess (wife)! It was my idea to make the sauce, unknowing that Jess was Buddhist and did not eat pork. I just thought, hey, I'm Italian and I have never actually made Bolognese sauce before, so let's do it! Jess, ever the angel, did not mention that she was morally averse to eating or cooking with pork, so she just helped chopping veggies and stirring the flavors together and we talked about Harry Potter.
Read MoreMy wife (Jess) doesn't eat red meat, but she does when I make shepherd's pie!
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