Dandanmian

This is such a deceptively simple dish to make, provided you have a well-supplied larder. For the ragu, I browned ground Nicky Farms wild boar (pork would work, obviously) with a little bit of sesame oil, a few cloves of minced garlic, finely diced zha …

Wild Boar Mapo Tofu

You can make this quickly by using store-bought Sichuan chile oil, but it’s also nice to mace yourself toasting Sichuan peppercorns and facing heaven chiles in your wok to make mala oil from scratch. Nicky Farms ground wild boar mapo tofu, because sometimes you need …

Peking Game Hens

Peking-style @maryschicken game hens, stuffed with garlic and lacquered with maltose, homemade five spice, and soy, then smoked over mesquite, green bamboo, and branches from my peach tree. The little birdies are available at @newseasonsmarket. SO TINY AND TENDER! I served these baby beauts with …

Hop To It

  I wrote about the history of hop farming and Chinese hop farmers in Oregon.

Yo Dawg I Heard You Like Flowers

Yo dawg I heard you like flowers So I made a beautiful bowl of egg flower soup with rich homemade chicken stock, vermilion-yolked backyard eggs, fresh arugula and garlic chives from the garden, and some sweet frozen corn kernels, and then since I heard you …

Pork fried rice with kimchee and dou miao

…or, What To Do With Leftover Shogayaki and Rice. Hey, Xin Nian Kuai Le, everybody! I really hate posting this bowl of beige and blur after all the pretty and the comfy, but it’s Chinese New Year and I’m making burritos for dinner tonight. I …

Shanghai-style nian gao with soy-braised short ribs and broccoli

I dunno. I totally made this up. A few weeks ago Scott and I ate at Castagna, in the more casual cafe (we save the restaurant for fancy occasions). Scott had the cassoulet (of course) and I had their pasta dish de la saison: maltagliati …

“Chinese” Chicken Salad

I’ve put on a few holiday pounds that are kinda stressing me out, because it’s not even cookie and fudge go-time yet. I haven’t really felt much like cooking lately, or even eating, which is kind of weird. I was craving salad, however, and decided …

Vegetable fried rice

This is all I have to show for my blogless week. I’ve been trying to, once again, wittle down the produce drawer in the fridge, and have been cooking a bunch of uninteresting pasta and stir-fry with the various vegetables. Do you know how “meh” …

Oh Shit, We Are in Canada! Part I: Jade Dynasty

So, sorry I haven’t been around much. I was in the field all last week with no internet (except on my phone, like I’m gonna blog on that thing), and yesterday Scott and I got a wild hair up our asses and came to Vancouver, …