Artichoke-Roasted Garlic Dip with Artichoke-Rye Crackers

This recipe was my take on artichoke dip, but made with feta cheese, confit garlic, and meyer lemons to give it a more Mediterranean feel! Artichokes are an ingredient that I just love, because they play off of cheese well. That’s because they have this sweet aftertaste that works with the salinity in cheeses like…

Stewed Beef Tongue and Prunes

This is the definition of a granny dish. Stewed meat and prunes. Literally a grandma-inspired dish is there ever was one. It is a giant bowl of brown too, yet this is a dish that I really enjoyed making, and eating. Beef tongue is such an under-loved cut, being more popular in Latin dishes(for lengua…

Crab Cake with Kale Salad

Whenever I purchase lump crab meat, I feel like there is always a doomsday timer floating over my head, making sure to remind me that if I don’t make something/eat this crab meat quickly enough, it will go rancid and my entire fridge will smell for it. These crab cakes were my solution to using…

Chili Crisp Chicken Lollipops with Japanese Pickles and Kale-slaw

For a hot minute, I have been trying to make wings using my air fryer. I love ordering wings whenever we get takeout from our local pizzeria – compared to almost every other cut of chicken besides the thigh, wings have a ton of flavor. They are annoying to eat, and you probably will have…

Chawanmushi with buttered vegetables

Growing up in Torrance, we would go to Japanese restaurants all the time. Whenever they would serve us chawanmushi, it would be my favorite part of the meal. Served in these little tea cups was this soft, delicate egg custard that broke apart when you put a spoon to it, giving way to silky steamed…

Lu Rou Fan Rice Bowls

Lu rou fan, or 滷肉饭 as it’s written in Chinese, is a Chinese/Taiwanese dish that consists of braised meat, usually pork, with rice, and it’s usually served with pickled daikon and an egg that is usually braised or cooked with the stew. At least that’s how I was raised to eat it. The stew is…

Deep Dive: a plated dish

Of the five dishes from the “Namie” pop-up, I would say this was probably the one with the least amount of true Asian influence. While I took more inspiration from Halal/Middle Eastern flavors, it would be a stretch to say that it took influence from Halal-Chinese food, when it was more Jordanian with sprinkles of…

Ricotta gnocchi with squash, fennel, and salsa verde

So this dish was actually inspired from when I was watching The Chef’s Line on Netflix. For those unfamiliar with the program, it’s a cooking competition show that was originally in Australia, before it premiered on Netflix as well. Sadly the show is no longer running, but there were a lot of cool recipes and…

Give you the world: a plated dish

So this dish was actually in my to-do list for about four months. I wrote up the concept back in October, but I never really got around to making it. This dish is an homage to Middle Eastern food, which is actually a cuisine I came to really love during my time in D.C., living…

Munti with tomato broth

I was inspired to make these last summer from a couple different things. Lamb munti, a Turkish dumpling, I learned how to make these from reading Prune by Gabrielle Hamilton. For the broth, I was inspired by a restaurant in Cerritos, California, called Omar’s Halal Chinese, where they do these hand pulled noodles with a smoky…