LivCookEat Finishing Soy Sauce drizzled on dumplings from Dumpling City in Palo Alto.
When tasting a product that’s billed as superior to another, sometimes you end up going back and forth and back and forth, concentrating with all your might to discern whether truly significant differences do exist.
Other times, all it takes is one taste to know that one completely outshines the other.
Such was the case when I tried a sample of LivCookEat Soy Sauce against my usual Kikkoman Less Sodium Soy Sauce.
Granted, I did not do my tasting blind. However, when I had my husband try the soy sauces, I didn’t tell him which was which. Even so, he immediately guessed which one was the LivCookEat Soy Sauce because it tasted far smoother.
Crispy and chewy, sweet and spicy, these pan-fried mochi bao have so much deliciousness going on.
You’ve enjoyed it hot and cold, on the cob and off, and in salads, pastas, soups, and sides.
But have you ever had corn stuffed inside chewy, crisp pan-fried mochi?
With gooey cheese and spicy kimchi folded in to boot?
This perfect trio of ingredients make up the filling for clever “Kimchi & Corn Cheese Pan-Fried Mochi.”
This fun recipe is from “Breaking Bao” (Chronicle Books, 2024), of which I received a review copy.
It was written by Clarice Lam, an award-winning New York City pastry chef who has worked at Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Bakery, Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Spice Market, and the Chocolate Room.
Toronto-born, Los Angeles-reared, and the daughter of parents who emigrated from Hong Kong, Lam’s creations reflect her heritage and travels, melding Asian flavors with global techniques.
As my knife and fork slid into the lofty, fluffy omelet to reveal a mountain of fried rice inside, I immediately felt like I was back in Japan.
Omurice or omelet rice is one of the many delicious mainstay dishes that I fell in love with while traveling through that country. So, when I read that there was a new place in downtown Palo Alto serving it, I was all over it.
Demi is the recently opened namesake restaurant of Chef Demi Ebara, who hails from Kyoto. She is also the owner of Demiya, which has five locations in the Bay Area.
Both concepts specialize in yoshoku food or Japanese-style versions of Western dishes that are homey and comforting. It’s the type of food that you can find served in Japan not only in mom-and-pop places but on upscale tasting menus, too.
The snug, light-filled dining room.A few seats at the counter also are available.
Demiya is more of a fast-casual restaurant with an emphasis on Japanese curry dishes, while Demi is a kicked-up, sit-down restaurant.
Waste not, want not — a soothing tea made from the silks from corn on the cob.
On a trip to Tokyo last year, my husband and I trekked to a charming, out-of-the-way shop specifically for one thing and one thing only.
We ended up, however, equally enamored with something that came with it that was wholly unexpected.
At Shun Raku, opened by two couples, the specialty is Hokkaido soft serve, that impossibly rich, milky, naturally sweet tasting ice cream made from the milk of Japanese Jersey cows. It did not disappoint. When its towering swirls arrived in a cup to our table, so did complimentary glasses of a warm, clear beverage with an attached sticky-note with a hand-drawn smiley face and the words, “hot corn tea.”
It had the delicate, soothing taste of unadulterated sweet summer corn. I’d never had anything like it before. And I was smitten with it from the get-go.
So, when I recently happened upon a recipe for “Corn Silk and Honey Tea,” I just had to try it.
This easy recipe is from the debut cookbook,”Rooted in Fire” (HarperOne), of which I received a review copy.
Sweet Sungold cherry tomatoes get an Indian-inspired treatment in this summery dish.
Each year as spring comes around, I start to contemplate what tomato seedlings to plant in my backyard planters.
All four of them.
Yup, that’s it. That’s all I have room for in my tiny yard.
Three of my four planters call for some mulling. But with the last one, there is never a doubt. That one is reserved for Sungolds, the bright orange cherry tomatoes that pop with as much sweetness as candy.
Many of them actually go straight into my mouth, plucked from the branches one by one while I’m still pitter-pattering in the yard. (Don’t tell my husband.) But some do make it into my kitchen, where they’re destined for green salads, grain salads, pasta dishes, and ricotta toast.
Thanks to New York’s Rachel Gurjar, a Mumbai-born chef, recipe developer, and food writer who attended the Culinary Institute of America, though, I now have another showcase for these itty-bitty tomatoes with the outsized flavor.
Her “Paneer with Sungold Tomatoes and Basil” is like an Indian riff on the classic Italian Caprese salad. It not only subs in the fresh Indian cheese known as paneer for the mozzarella, but adds a pinch of cumin seeds for earthy savoriness. It’s not served cold or at room temp, either, but cozy warm, too.
This inspired recipe is from her debut cookbook, “East to East” (Chronicle Books), of which I received a review copy
