Make Burma Superstar’s famous tea leaf salad — in the comfort of your own home.
If you’re a fan of Burma Superstar’s signature Burmese tea leaf salad, you’ll be glad to know it’s never been easier to make a version at home now.
No more hunting around fruitlessly for fermented tea leaves or any of the other specialty ingredients needed. Burma Superstar’s new Burma Love Foods Company has put together a Fermented Tea Leaf Salad Kit. It’s vegan to boot.
The kit.
The kit, which should be kept refrigerated until used, comes complete with the already made fermented tea leaf dressing made with organic tea leaves, as well as Burmese Crunchy Mix, which is a blend of crispy yellow split peas, toasted sunflower seeds, fried garlic chips, sesame seeds and roasted peanuts.
A wonderful mix of ingredients creates a powerhouse of nuttiness in these cookies.
Are you making a list and counting it twice…
To figure out which cookie you should make and eat next?
Then, prepare to add this one to it.
“Toasted Sesame-Chocolate Chip-Cashew Cookies” is an unexpected mix of so many good things you love that you wonder why nobody thought to put them all together before.
It comprises more than 150 cookie recipes. There are short-cut ones such as “Santa Heart-Shaped Cookies” that make use of Betty Crocker cookie mix. But if you’re more inclined to make your cookies entirely from scratch, there are plenty of those types of recipes, too, including boozy “Bourbon Old-Fashioned Cups” (that includes bourbon and Angostura bitters), “Sparkling Orange Ricotta Sandwich Cookies” that makes use of orange juice, orange zest and candied orange slices, and “Chocolate Coconut Cookie Tots” (that require no baking at all).
Sonoma duck breast with apples and cider jus at The Kitchen.
The Kitchen in Sacramento offers a Michelin-starred dining experience like no other.
It is like fine-dining in the middle of a rollicking three-ring circus with Executive Chef Kelly McCown its ring leader, bellowing warm welcomes, directions for the evening, and goofy jokes the entire time.
Banish any thoughts of a starred restaurant being staid, stuffy, stiff or oppressive. This is as far from that as it gets.
Earlier this fall, my husband, his nephew and I decided to check out the restaurant, paying our own way. Although my husband and his nephew grew up in Sacramento, this was the first time for all of us to The Kitchen, which opened in 1991, and has long been regarded as one of the Capitol’s best restaurants. We figured there was no time better than now, when the Michelin Guide expanded this year to encompass the entire state of California, and awarded Sacramento’s only star to The Kitchen.
Nothing quite prepares you for this singular experience, though. Dining at The Kitchen is like dinner and a show — all in one.
Executive Chef Kelly McCown at the center of the open kitchen.
The dining room is taken up by the open-kitchen that has seats all round it. Around the perimeter of the room, there are more tables, all bar-height — all the better to see the kitchen that’s akin to a theater stage, only with flames and the most delicious smells.
A spread of sushi — before the dinner even starts.
Immediately, you’re encouraged to walk around most anywhere — through the wine cellar, into the courtyard, into the open kitchen, and into the back production kitchen.
Beyond the tree and wreath, add a little more green to your holidays with this spectacular matcha cream pie.
With a new year dawning, let’s all be brave enough to pledge to trust our gut instincts more.
I know so many friends who agonize over situations — analyzing, re-analyzing, and plain over-analyzing — before taking action, even if they know in their heart immediately what they should do.
I’ve been there many a time, myself.
Case in point: this “Matcha Cream Pie” recipe, which appeared in the Wall Street Journal in September.
It’s a recreation of the signature dessert at Stonemill Matcha in San Francisco by Pastry Chef Mikiko Yui.
It’s a dazzler, covered in a cloud of orange zest-scented whipped cream. It’s only when you cut into it that it truly reveals itself with its dramatic deep green filling made with matcha.
Red Boat has long been the fish sauce of choice for discerning chefs and fastidious homecooks.
Now, the artisan producer has branched out into making other products featuring Red Boat, the artisan fish sauce that’s made from only two ingredients: black anchovies and salt.
I had a chance recently to try samples of two new and fun products from the company that was founded by Cuong Pham, a former Apple engineer. When he couldn’t find any fish sauce brands in the Bay Area that had the purity and balance of what he grew up with in Saigon, he decided to make his own.
Now, Pham has partnered with a few gourmet food producers to make these specialty items. First up, Red Boat Caramels, which are made in partnership with Pasadena’s Little Flower Candy Company.
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), of which I received a review copy. 
