Oh, autumn, how I love thee. Despite having the time of my life and eating wonderfully here in Taiwan, I totally missed that glorious transition from summer into fall. Apparently in Taiwan, it’s a hot, humid summer all year round (ok, I have been informed by my relatives that it does get cold sometimes during [...]
One of my favorite Taiwanese confections are 杏仁餅 (almond chess cookies; or, as I like to call it, almond-flavored crack), a sort of marzipan-flavored candy with a crumbly, sandy, shortbread texture. They’re slightly sweet, buttery, with a salty backnote, and pair perfectly with a nice cup of hot tea. However, it’s hard to find these [...]
I’m back in Taiwan! (I’ve blogged my first meal here). I won’t be doing much cooking or baking (there’s too many good things to eat and try here). I do have a few recipes queued up that I haven’t posted yet so I’ll work on that as well as posting about all the things I [...]
Taiwanese breakfasts have always fascinated me. As a Taiwanese-American born and raised in the US, I grew up eating stuff that most of my other classmates probably ate for breakfast: sugary cereals, poptarts, toast with peanut butter or jelly and the like. Once in a while though, my parents would take my sister and me [...]
As some of you may know, my blog was recently hacked; I had several recipes pre-written, ready for publishing when I discovered that the hacker had completely wiped out my wordpress database, deleting all my posts, recipes and comments. I was devastated . . . Needless to say, I have learned my lesson: always keep [...]
I was recently going through my old photos and realized I have a huge backlog of food-related photos that I have yet to write about; recipes I’ve attempted, places I’ve visited and restaurants I’ve tried. I know I haven’t been the most diligent of bloggers, but I hope to change that! If you haven’t noticed [...]
In my ongoing quest to clean out my pantry, I had planned on using up a bag of vegan carob chips that I had bought; however, I had forgotten exactly when I had bought them (first sign of bad things to come?). I had bookmarked this lovely chocolate olive oil crinkle cookie recipe at Nook [...]
If honey, caramel and nuts are your thang, look no further. Modified from recipe for Pine Nut Honey Squares from Baking Obsession. Feel free to substitute any other nut or seed for the cashews in this recipe. Honey Caramel Cashew Bars Makes one 8″ square pan, or 64 1″ squares. What you’ll need: your favorite [...]
As it’s St. Patrick’s Day, I felt the need to bake a soda bread. Googling will take you to a bunch of results for recipes, I based mine off of a traditional version; here the gist of what I did. Whole-Wheat Mini Irish Soda Bread Makes 1 mini-round. Preheated oven to 400 degrees F. 1/4 [...]
These are probably the healthiest and tastiest truffles I’ve made (eaten); I’ve been trying to cut out refined sugars for a long time and while I occasionally enjoy a calorie-laden sugar bomb, my everyday desserts nowadays tend towards the more wholesome and natural. These truffles (given that you have the proper tools and ingredients) are [...]