In an interview with the Food Network, Chinese food expert Nadia Liu Spellman explained hoisin sauce, a condiment that is new to my refrigerator as of this week. “I would call it the ketchup of Chinese cuisine, because it’s used as an ingredient but also as a finishing sauce and condiment,” Liu Spellman said in …
Continue reading “‘Hoi’ can’t recommend these Mongolian noodles enough”
One of the most popular questions I get from people when they find out I write a recipe column is whether I have had any food fails when trying new dishes. The answer is a resounding yes. And if you were to ask me what the biggest fail of all time was, I would, without …
Continue reading “Prepare a honey of a meal for dinner this week”
As soon as the weather starts to warm up, it’s time for Joey and me to start going through all the grilling recipes he sent me over the winter. The first one up is this week’s recipe, which features a Polynesian-inspired sauce over a spatchcock chicken. If you’re not familiar with spatchcocking, it’s a technique …
Continue reading “‘Lei’ the foundation for a delicious grilled chicken”
An article from “Eat This, Not That” by Cheyenne Buckingham breaks down all the differences between Italian and Asian noodles. I started wondering a bit this week, after I bought a package of lo mein noodles and the finished product really didn’t look a whole lot different from spaghetti, so of course, I had to …
Continue reading “You have to try this delicious ‘mein’ dish tonight”
“Well, these are a disaster,” I told Joey, pulling my baking sheet out of the oven. “I guess they won’t be going in the column.” Earlier in the week, I was excited to try a recipe I ran across that used soy sauce in chocolate chip cookies. It sounded just weird enough that I had …
Continue reading “‘Soy’ vey: These cookies were quite the weird experiment”
I was so glad this week that the smoke detector in my kitchen isn’t particularly sensitive. As I sauteed thin slices of steak on my stovetop, the room filled with a fine smoke that my exhaust fan just couldn’t keep up with. I am normally really nervous about cooking anything on high heat. I think …
Continue reading “Make a great Asian dish like you’ve never had ‘beef’ore”
I have made a lot of dishes over the years that are extremely recognizable to many Midwesterners. From cornbread and biscuits to casseroles and pies, I haven’t made too many recipes that scared folks off. This week, though, I’m afraid that I may have upped the fear factor for some of you who aren’t overly …
Continue reading “‘Eggs’plore a new treat with Mayak Gyeran”
On evenings where there isn’t much on television and we can’t decide on something to stream from the myriad of services we subscribe to, Joey and I will often find ourselves scrolling through our respective social media feeds, sending each other funny or interesting videos from our spots across the couch from one another. Quite …
Continue reading “Don’t tarry(yaki), and make this chicken dish today”
When my sister and I were growing up, my mom always joked she was going to open a restaurant called “I don’t care,” thanks to the number of times we uttered the phrase when the family was choosing where to eat. On the occasions when we did care, there were certain places that turned into …
Continue reading “Sprinkle in something new with peppered beef”
One of the first meals Joey and I had inside a restaurant after we were officially vaccinated for COVID-19 was to try out some local spicy garlic ramen we heard about online. The restaurant serves its spicy ramen in levels, with each level getting progressively hotter. Joey started off asking for a relatively high number, …
Continue reading “Spicy ramen makes ‘miso’ happy”