I don’t eat Moo Shu Pork – or vegetables, or chicken – very often anymore. Which is a shame, because Moo Shu is a tremendously fun thing to eat. We just so rarely eat out anymore at the kind of Chinese restaurant that serves it. (Chinese restaurants of any stripe are not the most common…
Changes Afoot at Talin Pop-Up Dumpling Shop!
If you’ve stopped by Talin’s wonderful Pop-Up Dumpling Shop on a Thursday in August, you probably left disappointed. And if you’ve wandered through the European area recently – where the dumpling shop has had a few small tables wedged in between the service counter, a glass case full of teaware, and shelves full of pasta…
Sichuan Hot-and-Numbing (Ma La) Chile Oil
Until the last decade, the classic Sichuan flavor combination ma la (numbing and hot) was hard to come by in the United States. Sichuan peppercorns, the only common source of the numbing, tingly sensation called ma in Chinese, were banned from import to the US because they could transmit a kind of citrus canker. Fortunately,…
Eating PDX: Lan Su Chinese Garden Tea House
Last month Arne and I spent a week in Oregon to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary… as well as my ability to eat again. (Sorry, OR friends and family… this was a gooey romantic trip, and we made no room for anyone else.) We had a wonderful time and, of course, ate as much as…
Eating ABQ: Fan Tang
I have no idea why it’s taken me so long to post about Fan Tang. I kind of feel like I’ve failed this favorite restaurant of ours, because I didn’t post about it when it was young and struggling. It’s finally becoming popular – if not as popular as it deserves – and now I…
Eating ABQ: Talin Market’s Pop-Up Dumpling Shop!
NOTE: The dumpling shop’s days have changed from Thursdays and Fridays to Fridays and Saturdays. Do not go on Thursday! You will get no dumplings, and you will be sad! I was so excited when I got the event notice from Talin Market’s Facebook page. All it said was “Talin Market Pop-Up Dumpling House starts…
Recovery Food: Simple Congee with Vegetables
This blog is about good times – delicious food, breezy work, sharing with the ones you love. Happy, simple times. But food and eating are not simple. They are complicated by all sorts of things – social pressures, money issues, environmental concerns (local vs organic, anyone?), and all manner of health concerns ranging from managing…
Sweet-Hot Black Pepper Tofu
Back around Christmas I fell in love with the cookbook Plenty at my favorite local beautiful-things store, Hey Jhonny. (Yes, it’s meant to be spelled that way.) I was desperate to own the beautiful, pillowy-covered, extravagantly photographed object. But I didn’t know if it was a good cookbook, and besides, I was supposed to be shopping…
Moo Shu Pork with Vegetables
Cravings often come on hard and fast. Sometimes you don’t even know where they came from. I know right where last week’s craving for mu shu pork came from, though; I opened my bag of extras from the Los Poblanos CSA and spotted the package of Leona’s tortillas from Chimayo, NM. Something about their nonuniform shape,…
Mussels with Chinese Black Bean Sauce
I love Chinese black bean sauce. I love mussels. And the first time I heard about this combination (thank you, Hanne Blank!), I knew it would be brilliant. The salty, pungent earthiness of the fermented black beans and the heat of the chile against the plump, slick, sweet, briny mussels – this was something I…