Asian coleslaw with sweet sesame dressing

Asian coleslaw with sweet sesame dressing

Here’s one of my basic stand-by side dishes: Asian style coleslaw with a sweet sesame dressing (no mayo!).  It’s pretty easy to prepare, and works well as a quick salad or side to accompany your meal! For best results, use Savoy cabbage (it’s the round head of cabbage with wrinkly looking leaves).  If you can’t [...]

Taiwanese Watermelon Toast (Asian Watermelon Inspired Bread)

DSC_0864 (1)

Earlier this week, I read some articles on the “Watermelon Toast” craze that has hit Taiwan.  Lee Wen-fa (a head baker at Jimmy’s Bakery in Yilan County, Taiwan) created a fantastic watermelon shaped and colored loaf of fluffy Asian style milk bread (shokupan) in order to “encourage young children to eat more during the hot summer [...]

Corned Beef Fried Rice (what to do with leftover corned beef)

Corned Beef Fried Rice

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  I know many people feasted on corned beef and cabbage for dinner tonight to celebrate…  And – it means that tomorrow, packages of corned beef are probably going to be on sale for about 50% off at the supermarket!  The day after St. Patrick’s Day is a great day to fill [...]

Tsao Mi Fun (Taiwanese Stir-fried Rice Noodles)

Tsao Mi Fun

One of my husband’s favorite Taiwanese dishes, is “Tsao Mi Fun” (stir fried rice noodles).  Everyone has their favorite version of this noodle dish (using slightly different ingredients and additions) – and his favorite happens to be the version that his sister makes.  Over Christmas, my sister-in-law decided to make Tsao Mi Fun and agreed [...]

Honey Orange Beef

Honey Orange BEef

Here’s a quick stir-fry recipe that is bursting with orange flavor!  This is a dish that is really easy to throw together quickly – your stir-fry will be done and ready before your rice is done steaming.  Or… if you are planning ahead, you can marinade the meat overnight in the refrigerator, prep the vegetables, [...]

Chinese Dim Sum Taro Cake (Wu Tao Gou)

Chinese Taro Cake - steamed, then pan fried

Do you like Dim Sum?  I LOVE eating Dim Sum… my only problem is that I find the entire experience to be VERY stressful, so it’s a love/hate thing for me.  I find myself craning my neck backwards, looking for all the carts with the food that I want to eat… worried that all the [...]

Homemade Azuki Bean Ice Cream (Sweet Red Bean Ice Cream)

Homemade Azuki Bean Ice Cream

Now that I have my Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker, I’ve been making all kinds of ice cream lately.  Recently, I posted a recipe for Strawberry Ice Cream – which was really good… but I wanted to try making something a bit harder to find.  You can go to the market and choose from a bunch [...]

Asian Style Steamed Fish with Ginger and Scallions

Asian Style Steamed Fish

On our recent trip to the Big Island of Hawaii, we had dinner at the Kamuela Provision Company at the Hilton Waikoloa Village Resort.  We tried the Ginger Steamed Monchong… OMG it was to die for!  So soft and tender… flavored with a tasty ginger-soy-hot peanut oil sauce.  I vowed that when I got home, [...]

Japanese Azuki Bean Bread (Sweet Red Bean Milk Bread)

Sweet Red Bean Milk Bread

Last week, I made a huge batch of dough, and with it… I made Cream Pan (custard filled buns) and An Pan (Red Bean buns).  I ended up with about 1/2 can of sweetened red bean paste (a.k.a. “anko“) leftover… and planned to use it to make a sweet bread that was subtly flavored with red bean.  (I’m [...]

Xigua Niu Nai (Taiwanese Watermelon Milk Juice) and Xigua Zhi (Watermelon Juice)

Watermelon Milk Juice (Xigua Niu Nai)

My favorite summer beverages are fresh Watermelon Milk (Xigua Niu Nai) and fresh Watermelon Juice (Xigua Zhi).  We don’t really live near any Boba tea shops… otherwise I could get Watermelon drink fix pretty easily… so I usually have to make my own during the summer when watermelon is in season. Last year when we [...]