vegetable oil

Chicken Karaage (Japanese Fried Chicken)

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Fried chicken, whether it’s Southern, Japanese, or Korean, is one of my favourite foods of all time. Put simply, it would be on the menu for my last meal. It’s one of those dishes that strikes the perfect balance between flavor, texture and richness. The only downside about a really great fried chicken (calories aside), [...]

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Coconut Shrimp with Spicy Orange Sauce

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Cravings are a weird thing. Like little goblins, these self-destructive compulsions clamber up from the bowels of human nature, despite our best efforts to suppress them. I usually pride myself in avoiding packaged and processed foods, but there are times when I can’t help but succumb to a craving for something fast and fried. The [...]

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Ebi Chili

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Ebi Chili (エビチリ) is a Chinese-style Japanese dish created by Chen Kenmin in the 1950′s. Chen, originally from the Sichuan province in China emigrated to Japan, opening Shisen Hanten (Sichuan Restaurant) in 1958. He later went on to introduce Chinese dishes to households all over Japan through TV appearances on NHK. While there were many [...]

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Chicken Piccata

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I realize I’m dating myself a little here (and giving you a glimpse into my maturity level), but whenever I hear the word Piccata, I can’t help but lift my shirt over my head, raise my hands in the air and quote the great philosopher Beavis: “I am Cornholio, I need Piccata for my bung-hole!”. [...]

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Spring Roll

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Like their thicker skinned cousin the egg roll, spring rolls are a popular staple at Chinese-American restaurants. As a kid, I never much cared for either variety because there was often more wrapper than filling and what meager filling they held tasted more like tired fryer oil than anything else. All that changed while I [...]

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Beef Rendang

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This Beef Rendang was one of the dishes I learned how to cook one rainy afternoon at Russel Wong’s home (yes, the Russel Wong from Bourdain’s Singapore espisode). His wife Judy can cook about as well as Russel can shoot a portrait, after an afternoon sweating over a wok, we were sitting down with friends [...]

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Best Nikuman (Baozi)

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Nikuman (肉まん), also known as Bāozi in China, are the Asian equivalent to sandwiches in the West. With a savory meat and vegetable filling wrapped in dough and steamed, they make a complete meal that can be eaten on the go without utensils. While convenient, I’ve always been a little weary of the mystery-meat filled [...]

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Pork Sugo with Strozzapreti

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Fall is one of my favorite seasons. The golden sunsets cast long shadows, vermillion leaves scurry around in circles carried by the brisk autumn breeze, and in the kitchen, it’s the season of slow-cooked melt-in-your-mouth roasts and home warming braises. Perhaps it’s driven by some primal nesting instinct, but as the thermostat falls, I yearn [...]

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