I met my friend, Alisa in my first year of culinary program. She was studying to be a dietitian and needed to take basic culinary classes. When I walked into the classroom (kitchen, in this case) I spotted her and I put down my knife kit right next to her. I was one of the…
Main course
Aparna’s indian spicy green curry with Onion chutney
I love ethnic dance, food and culture. And I was lucky enough to make friends with an incredible woman, ‘Aparna‘ at my dance studio. She is a private chef, cooking instructor and Ayurvedic lifestyle coach – Of course, I showed up in her next cooking class. I’ve never been to India ( the only indian…
Spaghetti with fava bean pesto & maitake mushrooms
Spring forward everyone! Longer daylight. Yay~ we made it through the winter! Although it’s been unusually cold here for the last few days, I decided to head out to farmer’s market. I picked up some fava beans and gorgeous looking Maitake mushrooms. I wanted to cook something ‘farmer’s market’ but I didn’t want one of cold…
Sake & Food Pairing
Besides wine, Sake is my favorite drink (adult beverage, I meant). So when SakeOne (One of very few American sake makers. I think there are only 4…) contacted me, I was thrilled. They were going to send me a box of their premuim sake. Heck yeah! I will trade in food for sake anytime! And…
Saag Paneer
My typical order at an Indian restaurant would be Keema Naan (lamb stuffed naan), Saag Paneer and Chai tea. I can tell how good an indian restaurant is by it’s Saag Paneer as I can tell a good thai restaurant by it’s green curry. Sometimes I find myself glued to a bollywood dance movie and admire how…
Fool Proof Roasted Chicken
We are vacationing in Mexico (yup, the same place) right now. I laid out in the sun too much today- I am like a lobster right now…Mexico sun ain’t the same as California sun….so I sneaked into the room, put some aloe and decided to write a recipe – Fool proof roasted chicken! It always turns out…
Celebrating New Year : Homie style
In Korea where I grew up, one of the biggest celebration is New Year’s day. Solnal is the first day of the first month of the new year and we make this steaming hot, nourishing bowl of ‘Ddukgookk’ (rice dumpling soup. Eating the bowl of New Year soup on New Year’s Day means becoming one year older….
Chicken Piccata
I always have capers in my pantry and at least one chicken breast in my freezer. So if I’m too lazy to go grocery shopping or cook anything else, I usually turn into making chicken piccatta. And tonight was one of those lazy night.I butterfly my one and only chicken breast turning it into 2…
Pot roast
I read a lot of health food books. And whenever I am in the middle of one of those books, I feed my husband only greens, salads, nuts, and seaweed. No meat, no dairy, no fat. It’s been a week. Poor guy. I fed him a big bowl of salad last night and he was…
Chicken pho
Temperature dropped, I can feel the chill in the air…my Uggs came out so did my appetite for Pho. When we go to a vietnamese restaurant, I usually get beef pho with you know, ‘other stuff’ in it. (Tendon, strip, brisket, meatball, eyeball (just kidding)….) As much as I love pho at a restaurant, I…
Homemade pasta night
My chef friend, John Fernadez is an amazing chef who is classically trained in Italy. The other night, we had our friends over at our place for a ‘Pasta night’. We made three different pastas and tiramisu….Seriously I have never had pasta like that in my life. It literally melts in your mouth! Emily (my dear…
‘Mean’ fish taco
Did I say I make ‘mean’ tacos? I mean MEEEAAAANNNN. I moved from San Diego so of course I like my tacos beer battered. Blue moon though. Gotta be Blue moon! (Just kidding. It just happened to be my favorite beer.) And then there are my two secret sauces-white sauce and pasilla chile sauce…Not so…
Roasted chicken with Farro and herb sauce
For me, chicken is one of those ingredients that you kind of ‘have to’ eat to get protein. I always roast chicken breast, cut into pieces and have them in the fridge at all time so we can just grab and munch on it with some hummus. It keeps me from grabbing that bag potato chips….
Grilled Cheese 2.0
My friend, Emily and I used to go to this local restaurant where we get a glass of wine and this grilled cheese – wait for it~~ Blue cheese, white truffle oil and honey! Yes baby. Ever since I had my first bite, my world went upside down. Can you smell this now? No offense to good old…
Grilled sea bass with indian spiced tomatoes
I love simple food. And I love making this simple fish dish whenever I can find fresh white fish that day at the market. Because this is such a simple dish, the key is to toast fresh coriander seeds and grind yourself. Don’t use already-ground coriander. I did that one time and the flavor of the dish…