Beijing Roast Duck

One of the reasons I love food so much is the way it brings people together. You can share a meal with complete strangers and in the end feel like family. It's a commonality that connects us all.

I've been thinking a lot about the intro to this recipe. I could tell you a nostalgic story about my family and keep this place clean from current events and politics for fear of alienating some of my readers, but ultimately that's not what I want my blog to be. I want to talk to you like real people who live in the real world. I want to tell you about my struggles, and I want you to tell me about yours. I can't blog about the food that's supposed to bring us together while the world we live in falls apart. So here goes:

I don't want to live in a world where people are murdered while driving home or selling CDs because they are unfairly judged by the color of their skin. Or a world where the officers who risk their lives to protect us are gunned down in retaliation because of the uniform they wear. Or a world where families celebrating a national holiday are mowed down by a terrorist in a goddamn truck.

I wish we as a human race could have more empathy for each other. That sounds so childish to say, and I understand we will never live in a peaceful utopia where hunger, poverty, and racism don't exist, but is it really so naive to ask for an end to the senseless violence? What can we do? What more can we do than post some heartfelt words on Facebook that will be all but forgotten in a week? My answer is I simply don't know. But I will try my best to figure it out.

After Thanksgiving Turkey Noodle Casserole

Did you guys have a wonderful Thanksgiving? We started cooking wednesday night, and besides eight hours of much needed sleep, it was non-stop until thursday night; a constant flow of pies, casseroles, and rolls from our oven. When people started arriving, I was still in the middle of frying onion strings for the green bean casserole. It made its way into our bellies soon enough. We ate too much food, drank a few too many drinks, and had a jolly old time.

Though turkey is usually the star of the show, to be completely honest, it's the sides I look forward to most each year. But despite my lukewarm feelings, the big bird always makes its way onto our menu partly because of tradition, but mostly because I love repurposing the carcass to make turkey noodle casserole after we've grown tired of eating the standard leftovers.

The friday after every Thanksgiving, I place whatever is left of the turkey into a large stockpot, cover it completely with water and let it simmer for hours while we camp out in front of the tv until dark. When the stock has finished and cooled, I take the carcass out, pull off whatever meat is left on the backbone, and store everything in the fridge until we feel like making the noodle casserole (usually sometime during the weekend). It's a wonderfully therapeutic end to a frantic few days.

Chicken Liver Mousse and a Saveur Nomination

Last week, after wiping the snot from my face following a twenty minute session of both sobbing uncontrollably and laughing like a maniac, I finally managed to read through the entire email telling me that my little blog here is a finalist for the Saveur 2015 Blog Awards in the best new voice category. This space here, which is not even a year old, is up for an award? Is this really happening? Eeeeeek!

One year ago, let's see...I had just left my job in Chicago and was in the middle of a harried apartment search in New York, getting rejected one too many times. My hair was on fire, I thought we'd be homeless, and creating a food blog was the furthest thing from my mind. If you would have asked last-year-me what this-year-me would be doing, I would have said something along the lines of "have a soulless cushy job in consulting (what I had been doing), and eating at the Chef's Table at Brooklyn Fare (cause I'm so fancy)." Instead, I started a food blog and took a six month hiatus from office life; it turned out to be something I now pour my heart and soul into everyday. I did land another corporate gig, but left that after four months because nope, just nope, and now I'm broke as a college kid because I decided to go back to school and transition into an entirely different career path (I'm going to be a web developer!). Sometimes it all seems so overwhelming, but I'm doing what I love everyday, I'm happy, it's worth it. And before we move on to the rest of this post, I need to thank you. All of you. You guys and your overwhelming support mean the world to me, and I'm so honored to be a part of this amazing food community.

Pork Chop Over Rice

I have a confession. I misled you. That last post about tea eggs...it was actually a teaser for this post right here. Although those marbled beauties are fine and dandy to eat alone, their real destiny is to play a supporting role in this plate of porky goodness.

When I was a teenager and lived with my parents in the Dallas suburbs, we used to go to this hole-in-the-wall Taiwanese cafe that served shaved ice, pork chop over rice, and a bunch of other Chinese street food that I don't particularly remember. I woke up one day about a month ago with a serious craving for those same fried pork chops from my days of yore. And instead of wandering over to Manhattan to find a place in Chinatown, somehow my squirrely brain went straight to the least logical resolution: I have to make it myself! This is the recipe I finally landed on (with some help from this amazing YouTube channel).