Life On High

One week before the start of NaNoWriMo, I was waffling about whether or not to try it again. The last few years I had failed miserably at it, especially since November now coincides with a yearly trip back to New York to visit my in-laws during Thanksgiving. But as I read through the NaNo prep blog posts and scrolled through the forum topics, I came across someone’s very sage advice to a NaNo…

What’s Yours is Now Mine: The “Something Borrowed” 2020 Roundup

This is part three of an end-of-year roundup series for the dumpster fire known as 2020. You can check out part one here and part two here. I’ll be the first to confess that I’m both a lazy and shortcut-whenever-possible kind of home cook. When certain recipes call for ingredients that I rarely (or never) use, I tend to try substituting it with something I already have on hand, or skip it…

New Delectables on the Block: The “Something New” 2020 Roundup

This is part two of an end-of-year roundup series for the dumpster fire known as 2020. To read part one, check it out here. Happy New Year! In the spirit of acknowledging that we’re in a new year, our next post in the roundup is all about the new-to-me recipes and food items that I tried out in 2020 and have incorporated into my regular rotation. And if you know me, you know that having anything…

Comforting Classics: The “Something Olde” 2020 Roundup

This is part one of an end-of-year roundup series for the dumpster fire known as 2020. To read more about it, check out the kickoff post here. I don’t know about everyone else, but I did a lot of comfort eating in 2020. I’m not calling it stress eating, as I typically tend to lose my appetite when I’m stressed. But when I was really not having a good day, I definitely gravitated toward the…

So Long, Farewell 2020

Holy guacamole, there’s only a few days left in this dumpster fire of a year and I’m just now trying to rediscover and reclaim my dormant blogging skills that have receded at quite an alarming rate this year. Real reaction to me trying to remember what “blogging” is. While 2020 has been challenging in a lot of unprecedented ways, I’ve realized once and for all that good eating and drinking…

Finally a new installment in my Ingredient Highlight series! We're talking about scallions today.

If you told ten-year-old me that I’d one day be writing about scallions and sharing how I like to eat them, I would have said you were out of your mind. Scallions? Me? Like, actually eating them?

The ONLY food item I would ever willingly eat with scallions in them as a kid were scallion pancakes. Otherwise, I would either try to pick out the scallions or just not eat the dish altogether. I cry…

Everyday Innovation: Dad’s Tomato and Eggs

August 8th was Chinese Father’s Day (or 八八節 babajie as it’s called in Chinese), which is celebrated in Taiwan. This very belated post is my way of celebrating my dad, the original entrepreneur hero of our family. Never one to be content with the way things are, his signature dish perfectly encapsulates the creativity and forward-thinking spirit that my dad brings to whatever he encounters.

A…

Exploring the Cookbooks Throughout My Life

By Savindi, contributing writer

If there’s an egg in the house, there’s a meal in the house,”  is a saying that has stayed with me since my childhood. It’s from The Back to Basics Cookbook, which sadly is no longer in print. But it carries a special place in my heart because it’s one of my first memories of flipping through a cookbook. 

For me, cookbooks hold different meanings, depending…

When this whole quarantine life started a few months back, I wasn’t really fazed about what this meant for my daily meals. If anything, I was looking forward to being able to cook more, now that I no longer had a daily commute to worry about. I should have known though, that a key principle of my cooking basically guaranteed the fact that I’d never become the domestic kitchen goddess I was hoping…

Siblings in Arms: Learning to Conquer and Share the Kitchen

This is the first post by our new contributing writer, Savindi! She’s been a great friend of mine, ever since we met through WordPress in our fledgling blogging days over six years ago. I’m excited to share with you this story about her cooking adventures with her brother and I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I did.

Note: This post is not sponsored by Goodfood meal kits

I will be the…

A Taste Unlike Any Other

Mother’s Day this year consisted of a three-way video call between my parents in Taiwan, my sisters in Southern California, and myself in the SF Bay Area. While this isn’t particularly uncommon for my family, given our long history of being spread out in different parts of the world, we were spread out by necessity this year, thanks to the coronavirus. I started writing this post last fall,…

Last week, my boyfriend and I were pondering (yet again) what we were going to do for lunch. Our fridge was still relatively full, but my tight meeting schedule and his lack of desire to cook culminated in us deciding to venture outside and get takeout somewhere. As I hemmed and hawed over what “somewhere” would be, my boyfriend said the fateful words:

“Want to get Urban on the way?”

Me:

Disclaimer: This post is not meant to be flippant about the very real, very serious consequences of the coronavirus. We’re living in unprecedented times here, but my hope is that we can all be a little more empathetic towards one another. I also recognize that I’m incredibly privileged to be where I am and have what I have. I hope everyone stays safe and healthy; in times like these, online…