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When Pancakes Are Not Enough

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View From Living Room  I came downstairs expecting a Hmong breakfast but found pancakes instead. “Interesting,” I thought looking around the living room. I could have sworn I smelled the nutty scent of cooked rice creeping up the staircase earlier this morning. Turning into the kitchen, I realized I was correct. The homestay family had prepared rice with an assortment of colorful side dishes. Except, it wasn’t for the guests. “The pancakes are for you,” my tour guide said, motioning to the living room door. “Thank you, but can I eat here?” I asked, pointing to the mosaic of prepared meats and vegetables on the kitchen table. She smiled but shook her head, gesturing me to leave the kitchen and join my friend outside. Disappointed, I trudged to the dining table that held our morning feast. The pancakes weren't the fluffy monstrosities you see in the states. They were thinner and denser, like Russian blini. Accompanying the pancakes were a plate of Thai bana...
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Comfort Food: Good Even When It's Bad

Here's a piece I recently wrote for Roads & Kingdoms, an online  journal  for food, politics, travel, and culture. The website is definitely worth checking out! Jianbing in Flushing My eyes take in the food stalls as I walk though the dingy underground shopping mall. Dumplings, pork, and chives hugged in freshly kneaded dough bubble in a foamy pot. Tempting, but not what I’m looking for. Spicy wood ear mushrooms sprinkled with chili peppers and other Sichuan cold dishes beckon to me, but my mind is elsewhere. The options in Flushing’s Golden Shopping Mall are endless, and some stalls, like Xi’an Famous Foods, have even become tourist destinations for those seeking something unfamiliar. But my purpose here is different. I’m not searching for a window into another culture, but a reminder of my own past. I used to visit Shanghai every summer. I was born there and moved to the U.S. when I was four. In Shanghai, muggy August days bled into crisp, cicada-filled nigh...
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Trip to Savannah and Charleston

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I've been trying to write this post for the last month, but have failed time and time again.  Maybe it was because the sheer task was daunting.  Maybe it was because I knew that once I start, it would be hard to stop because it was such an eye-opening experience.  As a Northerner who has only previously ventured as far as North Carolina (Florida doesn't count), my knowledge of the South and Southern cuisine is embarrassingly narrow. I wanted to see the South, especially cities such as Savannah and Charleston that are so rich with history.  Although it lasted only four short days, I learned, experienced, and tasted a culture that was so deeply embedded in history. Savannah: Collins Quarter: In a historic city with a generally older population, you might wonder where the younger generation likes to eat.  Although people usually imagine the South as a place of unchanging, traditional home-cooking, it has been proven that global cuisine is no longer...
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Restaurant Week Round Up: NYC

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New York City restaurant week is a spectacle to say the least.  The number of participating restaurants is overwhelming, with over 350 places offering lunch, dinner or both.  There is also probably no other city that has as many Michelin star restaurants offerings these $25 and $38 prix fixe deals.  This all generates quite a stressful situation for me, because with a dizzying number of options and limited time, there are so many ways to go wrong, but also so many ways to go right.  Morimoto: I decided to try out Morimoto at Chelsea Market for lunch.  Although, I usually don't visit chain restaurants and Morimoto also has a location in Philly, the restaurant week menu looked enticing, so I gave it a shot.  The prix fixe was actually the same as their usual lunch bento sets, except at a slightly cheaper price.  Each bento set came with miso soup, mixed greens salad, pickled long beans, and pickled cucumbers. My friend got the Morimoto dry a...
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Restaurant Week Round Up: Philadelphia

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Restaurant Week is both a beauty and a pain.  It's a great opportunity to try new restaurants and snag deals at old favorites, but this perfect excuse to eat out for both lunch and dinner can leave a hefty dent in your savings. For this summer's Center City Restaurant Week, I decided to exert some self control and only booked two dinners (I actually tried to book a lunch as well, but sshhhh, no one needs to know).  Here is my impression of Supper and Jamonera: Supper: As a fervent believer of Yelp reviews, I was a bit skeptical going into Supper because the restaurant only had three and a half stars (I know, I'm a snob) and there were complaints of the food being overly salty.  With my inexcusably limited knowledge of Southern cuisine, I was expecting the meal to be on the heavier side, salty, and with lots of fried components.  The predictions came true, but surprisingly, I ended up loving these aspects of the meal. For appetizer I ordered the devil eggs. ...
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