Junblog

March 7, 2010

Best Mussels Provencale in the City

Where can you find the tastiest Mussels Provencale in the city? Chez Papa Bistrot in Potrero Hill. Sweet mussels steamed in white wine with garlic, shallots, cherry tomatoes, nicoise olives and pastis. Soak up the tasty broth with crusty bread and enjoy the sweet mussels with salty frites. Lunch in the sunniest side of the…

March 4, 2010

How to Make Steamed Mussels Provencale

My favorite way of cooking mussels is to steam them in white wine and to enjoy them with warm crusty bread. Steamed Mussels Provencale is amazingly easy to make and is perfect as an hors d’oeuvres or even a main course. Steamed Mussels Provencale Recipe Recipe adapted from Alice Waters’ The Art of Simple Food…

March 3, 2010

How to Make Lechón Kawali (Deep Fried Pork Belly)

Roasting a whole suckling pig, lechón, is a huge feat and I’m not even going to try. A simpler variation can be easily done at home. Lechón kawali is pork belly deep fried in a kawali, which is Filipino for a wok or a deep frying pan. It is typically served with vinegar or soy…

March 1, 2010

Lechón in La Loma

I grew up in La Loma, an urban residential neighborhood in the city of Manila. My parents, who are both originally from Laguna, a rural province south of Manila, raised my five sisters and me in a tiny house that we rented. My father worked for the government and my mother stayed at home to…

February 28, 2010

WordPress.com to WordPress.org

Success!

February 18, 2010

How to Make Har Gow (Shrimp Dumplings) at Home

Har gow — shrimp dumplings — dipped in soy sauce with chili paste are tiny flavorful umami bombs. Making the shrimp filling is quick and easy but making the dumpling wrappers from scratch is a bit challenging. From making the dough to forming the wrappers, the process is somewhat tedious. If you don’t have the…

February 16, 2010

Top Eight Favorite Dim Sum Plates

From savory dumplings dipped in soy sauce and chili paste to sweet deep-fried sesame balls, here are my top eight picks for my favorite dim sum plates. What’s on your list? 1. Har Gow — shrimp dumpling 2. Spinach shrimp dumpling 3. Chicken feet with black bean sauce 4. Bee’s nest taro puff — fried…

February 15, 2010

How to Make Char Siu Bao: Siopao (Steamed Pork Buns) at Home

Char siu baos are Cantonese buns, bao, filled with a barbecued pork filling, char siu. They can either be steamed or baked. I personally prefer the steamed variety either as a snack or as part of dim sum with Chinese tea. The bao filling can either be savory like char siu pork or it can…

February 10, 2010

Shopping for Char Siu in Chinatown

Shopping in Chinatown is always an adventure. The oldest in North America and one of the largest outside China, Chinatown is undoubtedly one of the most fascinating neighborhoods in the city. The adventure starts once you get on the 30 en route to Stockton where you’ll be greeted by an energetic mob of Chinese ladies…

February 7, 2010

How to Make Chocolate Cake with Chocolate and Peanut Butter Frosting

True to Dennis’s genuine love for all things chocolate and all things peanut butter, we made a chocolate cake with chocolate and peanut butter frosting for his birthday. Okay, I’m actually using the pronoun “we” here very loosely. It was more like “he” rather than “we”. Dennis made his first two-layer chocolate cake from scratch…

February 3, 2010

How to Make Bacon Snickerdoodles

Inspired by Kitchenette’s delightful bacon snickerdoodles, I solicited the help of the Joy of Cooking for a basic snickerdoodle recipe and tweaked it a bit to accommodate the addition of tasty, salty bacon. Bacon Snickerdoodles Recipe Recipe adapted from Irma Rombauer’s the Joy of Cooking For the dough, makes eighteen 3-inch cookies 1 cup all-purpose…

February 2, 2010

How to Make Polpette at Home

Polpette is Italian meatballs. Generally made with beef and pork, combined with some olive oil, garlic, cheese, bread crumbs, egg and parsely and rolled by hand, polpette can be easily made at home. Toss them with tomato sauce and spaghetti to make the beloved American favorite, spaghetti with meatballs. Or grab some crusty bread to…

February 1, 2010

Tasty Kitchenette Lunches in the Dogpatch

Across the street from the old warehouses in Pier 70, Kitchenette serves tasty lunches out of a garage door along Illinois Street. Run by chefs who have worked with the likes of Thomas Keller and Alice Waters, the food is organic, local and delicious. I’ve had memorable lunches at Kitchenette since we moved to the…

January 28, 2010

Crabs in Clement and Crab Cakes in the Castro

Where do you get Dungeness crabs in the city? The first place that comes to mind is, obviously, Fisherman’s Wharf teeming with seafood street vendors and restaurants. But the Wharf gets extremely crowded most of the time unless you go on a rainy weekday. A great alternative is the city’s Asian supermarkets. There’s certainly…

January 26, 2010

How to Make Dungeness Crab Cakes at Home

It’s Dungeness crab season in San Francisco and there’s no better way to enjoy these tasty crustaceans than to make crab cakes! Making homemade crabcakes is an excellent example of why homecooking is so cool: you actually know what ends up in your plate because you made it yourself. Most of the time I wonder…

January 21, 2010

Brining Chicken Thomas Keller-Style

Brining is an excellent technique to cure meats and to season them uniformly. Here is Thomas Keller’s recipe for chicken brine that you can use for roasting or frying chicken. The key ingredient is lemon, which goes wonderfully well with chicken. Adding the herbs: bay leaf, parsley and thyme gives the chicken a wonderful aromatic…