World Cup of Yum

Roasted Turnips Dduk

Cookbook Club – The Red Rooster Cookbook For June’s Cookbook Club, we used Marcus Samuelsson’s The Red Rooster Cookbook: The Story of Food and Hustle in Harlem. I made the Roasted Turnips Dduk. Go to my Cookbook Club site for a taste of all the southern comfort food with Samuelsson’s multicultural twist. For now –…

LocoL Restaurant Review

Gold Dig #40 LocoL is a fast food spot in Watts, which I think makes it onto Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list as much for its mission as for its food. I fully support this. While the food might not compare to high end places where one dish will cost you as much as a whole tray…

Pizza Party II

Anthony made another batch of his homemade pizza dough and seriously amazing homemade pizza sauce, so it was time for another pizza party (drool over our pizzas from the last party here)! We’re hoping to make this an ongoing regular thing, though this may be the last one for a few months given that we’re…

Creamy Feta Red Pepper Vodka Pasta

Did you know there’s such a thing as creamy feta? I didn’t. But I bought it accidentally once, and have been a fan ever since. I happened to have some creamy feta when I got in the mood for vodka pasta, and decided to see if I could use it instead of cream, which I…

Pork Bok Choy Boats

Everybody loves a lettuce wrap. But what’s even better? A bok choy boat! Lettuce is bland and tends to be just a flimsy vehicle for delivering the filling into your face. Baby bok choy has a nice flavor and crunch, which complements the filling nicely and serves as a sturdier scoop. It also presents nicely, so…

Lincoln Restaurant Review

Gold Dig #39 Lincoln is one of just a couple Pasadena eateries that make Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list. They do breakfast and lunch, a nice selection of baked goods, and good Stumptown coffee. The building is a refurbished machine shop, which they have transformed into an airy space with lots of natural light, a view…

Tea Time II

We had so much fun at Tea Time, that we decided to do an encore presentation. We had tea and sweets again of course, but also expanded into more of a full-on meal – no complaints here! We’re hoping to make this an ongoing occurrence, and I’m personally hoping the feast continues to get more…

Elote

Elote, a.k.a. Mexican corn on the cob, is a magical treat that always induces warm fuzzy feelings for me. Perhaps because it’s the kind of food you usually get from a street cart or at a fair, and then eat while walking around. I like to make an Elote bar at BBQs, where people can…

Mian Restaurant Review

Gold Dig #38 Mian is a noodle house in the San Gabriel Valley (what I like to think of as LA’s real Chinatown). It is one of two restaurants by chef Tony Xu that makes Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list – the other is Chengdu Taste (check out my Chengdu Taste Gold Dig too). It’s a fairly…

Sweet & Spicy Broccoli

My mom taught me this awesome trick to make broccoli a gorgeous color and great crunchy texture. You basically throw it into boiling water, then immediately pull it out and run it under cold water. Then you can quickly stir-fry it over high heat to infuse whatever flavors you’d like – I like these spicy…

Dry Okra

Cookbook Club – Madhur Jaffrey Indian Cooking The cookbook for May’s Cookbook Club was Indian Cooking by Madhur Jaffrey. I chose the Dry Okra. Go to my Cookbook Club site to see all the Indian cooking we did. For now – my dish! When I’ve eaten okra dishes in the past, I liked the taste…

B-day Bites

Through the Cookbook Club, I have made some incredible friends. I am so grateful to have them in my life. And a nice bonus to having a bunch of chef friends… they can put together a pretty mean birthday feast 🙂 This was a meal full of all of my favorite things – seafood, grilled…