Over the weekend, when I was standing near a display of Okinawan Sweet Potatoes, I overheard a conversation between a man and his friend that piqued my ever-present food interest. And because I don’t always listen to my mama by not talking to strangers, I asked the man dressed in a white long-sleeved shirt and black slacks to elaborate on his enthusiastic exclamations about these sweet potatoes.

He told me how he liked to bake them on a low heat for a certain length of time. I figured that he, a waiter who’s been working for many years at the oldest Chinese restaurant in my city’s Chinatown, probably knew a thing or two or three hundred about cooking, so I’d better listen up.

Continue reading »

It takes some effort to make a good stir-fry. The vegetables should be cooked just until they’re crisp, and the meat or seafood should be tender. And if you want to make it an interesting stir-fry, the ingredients should be of varying colors and textures.

It’s for those reasons that snow peas are one of my least favorite stir-fry ingredients. I usually have them in stir-fries at restaurants and I’ll eat them if they’re in the dish, but I’ve always found snow peas limp and boring.

So would I like their taste any better if they came in a chip-like form?

Continue reading »

Oh, wasabi, how you make my nasal passages burn, but I wouldn’t have you any other way.

Continue reading »

I apologize for what I’m about to show you. Because it may scare you a little like it did me.

You may be thinking, “What’s the big deal, Cindy? It’s just a plastic bottle of mayonnaise.” Oh yeah?

What about this Kewpie doll image? If the doll could talk, can’t you imagine it saying something like, “Ma-ma, I want a hug. Hug me, ma-ma.”?

Once the packaging with the kind-of-creepy doll image is removed, you get a bottle that’s convenient to grip and squeeze. Out comes a thin strand of tangy, creamy, and rich mayonnaise quite different in taste than American-style ones.

Or you can unscrew the cap to reveal the star-shaped inner opening, and have fun squirting the mayonnaise into different shapes, much like you would with a pastry bag and frosting.

Like this shape.

And this one.

Since it was only my second time trying this condiment, the first being on sandwich bread, I wanted to use it with something familiar again.

Continue reading »

Do you have meals that linger in your mind months or years after you ate them? I can count just a small number of such meals, and experienced most of them at out-of-state restaurants (perhaps the long distances have added to my fond memories?).

One dish I savored at the time and still think about at least 10 years later is Scrambled Eggs with Garlic Chives and Shrimp. I had ordered it at a nondescript Chinese restaurant in a college town. What the restaurant lacked in decor and ambiance it made up for with its simple yet delicious food.

Continue reading »