Gift Bearing Huggy Bear Cookies

Just in time for this merry season, we present our latest Christmas cookie, our Gift Bearing Huggy Bear Cookies!  This is one of the slew of Christmas cookies we've made this year and my little girl and I think it's the cutiest of the lot!  Little animal cookies bearing wee gifts in their arms are too cool for school, doncha think dear readers?

Homemade Turkish Delight Candy

I first discovered the mysterious name 'Turkish Delight' when immersed in magical world of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, reading of poor Edmund lost in wickedly wintry Narnia and captivated by the evil White Witch, the Queen of Narnia, after one deliriously delicious bite of Turkish Delight candy.

"Is it dull, Son of Adam, to drink without eating," said the Queen presently.  "What would you like best to eat?"

Turkish Delight, please, your Majesty," said Edmund.

The Queen let another drop fall from her bottle on to the snow, and instantly there appeared a round box, tied with green silk ribbon, which, when opened, turned out to contain several pounds of the best Turkish Delight.  Each piece was sweet and light to the very centre and Edmund had never tasted anything more delicious.  He was quite warm now, and comfortable." -The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

Baked Sweet Potato 烤番薯

Dear readers...winter draws ever nearer.  And as the chill winds of the season sweep over us what should appear on street corners all over Asia but the wonderful street hawkers that sell roasted sweet potato.  OMgosh, the aroma of that roasting sweet potato!  So good!  That hot plump sweet potato is exactly the thing to hold in your chilly hands.  Not to mention that first luscious bite of the creamy, sweet hot potato flesh.  Just the thing to warm you up and put you to rights inside and out!

And if, poor darlings, you don't have a friendly neighborhood sweet potato hawker, don't worry a bit, we're here to save the day!  Cuz, guess what, you can easily make superb baked sweet potato at home that tastes just as good as any you can get from a street vendor. 

Baked sweet potato 烤番薯 is so super simple to make.  And oh so yummy to eat: hot, sweet and creamy.  It just warms the ol' heart, it does.

Best and Easiest Pie Crust Ever

Do you love pie?  At our house we love, love, love us some pie!  There's just something so elegantly yummilicious about scrummy pie fillings neatly tucked into a golden flaky crust.  

The only thing is, pie crust is kinda a bitch to make, imho, what with having to blind bake, dealing with dough shrinkage after the bake, sometimes not flaky enough, sometimes not tender enough, etc.  We've tried all kinds of pie crust recipes until we finally found the ONE!

This is the one and only pie crust recipe that we use anymore.  The Best and Easiest Pie Crust Ever is just that, easy peasy, there's no blind bake and it bakes up perfectly golden, buttery and flaky every single time!  With the holidays just around the corner, get ready to make some pie!

Flat Croissants Dipped in Chocolate

Have y'all heard of these lovelies?  Flat croissants, that's right, completely flattened croissants are all the rage right now!  These flat croissants began in South Korea, then got picked up by some TikToker's and the rest is history.  They are now everywhere, at least in HK.  

Why flatten a croisssant, for gosh's sake, you may be asking.  Indeed, at first, that is what I thought.  Why the heck would anyone want to flatten the darn things after making so much effort to puff it out with layers upon layers.  But after I finally tasted one of these flat croissants I changed my mind!  The many, many layers of the original croissant, when flattened, create a crispy kinda of cookie now wrapped inside a caramelized exterior.  And to top it off many of these flat croissants are further dipped in a flavored coatings, yum!

We decided to recreate these flat croissants in time for my little girl's annual school picnic.  There was a bit of struggle at first but once we got the hang of it the going was pretty easy.  Check out our guide on making flat croissants with all our tips and tricks to make the going smooth and easy as peasy.  Result?  Only totally yummilicious caramel coated crispy on the inside amazingly flat croissants dipped in luscious chocolate and sprinkled with your favorite sprinkles!  Nom, nom...

Fruit Juice Chia Seed Drink

Dear readers, this food story starts with one word: 'regular'.  As I'm sure y'all would know, being 'regular' sometimes can be an annoying problem.  So just add more fiber, amirite?  Easy peasy, amirite?  But what happens when one tries prunes, more veg, more fruit and more fibery food and the 'regular' problem still persists, what is one to do?

And all that jazz led us to this new drink we're making in our house these days because we discovered the amazingness of chia seeds!  Easy and quick to make, this Fruit Juice Chia Seed Drink is super yummilicious and super good for the 'regular' you!

Chicken Congee 生滾雞粥

Another classic congee dish: the comforting Chicken Congee 生滾雞粥, a creamy rice porridge infused through and through with yummilicious chickeny flavor and dotted with lusciously tender chicken pieces. 

Congee 粥 is a traditional Cantonese type of rice porridge, wherein the rice grains are cooked down until deliciously thick and creamy before being served with different meats and aromatics.  This congee is made with the 生滾 method, translated as "raw boiled" method.  Raw ingredients are cooked directly in the congee itself, allowing the flavors of the raw ingredients to permeate the congee.  

We've previously used this method with our fabulous Fish Congee 魚粥.  You'll find that it's an easy way to make a most yummilicious and comforting congee!

Chaoshan Raw Pickled Seafood 潮汕生腌海鲜

More traveling eats!  We’re still got more to talk about the absolutely marvelous food we had on our trip to Chaoshan 潮汕 area of Guangdong 廣東.  Oh dear readers, it was so fabulously food fulfilling!  It’s always so lovely to find yourself in a place where everything you eat is delicious, amirite!?

Pssst...check out our other traveling eats posts from this trip, Shantou Street Food 汕頭街頭美食 and Chaoshan Beef Hotpot 潮汕牛肉火鍋.

So this post is about the Chaoshan speciality, Raw Pickled Seafood 潮汕生腌海鲜.  Fresh, fresh seafood pickled in soy sauce, wine and aromatics is a rare delight.  It’s a straightforward process to make, requiring only soy sauce, aromatics, a touch of oil and a bit of time.  The only and important! trick to raw pickled seafood is that the seafood has to be super duper fresh.

We had heard about the famous Chaoshan raw pickled seafood of course.  Oh, how I had drooled away when watching the first season of Flavorful Origins documentary series featuring Chaoshan cuisine.  Omgoshdarnnitall!!  Pickled crabs!  Pickled shrimps!  Pickled every kind of shellfish!  So amazing the raw pickled seafood of Chaoshan!  

Chocolate Lava Mooncake 巧克力流心月餅

Oh chocolate, oh chocolate, how much do I love thee, let me count the ways...

So many ways amirite, fellow chocolate lovers?!  I love chocolate in everything, be it sweet or savory.  Nom, nom...can never get enough of that dark chocolately goodness...  So it was that this year for Mid Autumn Festival 中秋節 I decided that we needed some chocolate to celebrate the moon!

Thus was the birth of a new styled mooncake, a Chocolate Lava Mooncake 巧克力流心月餅, a concoction of moist chocolate flavored filling with a secret heart of molten chocolate ganache, all wrapped in a tender golden skin.  Wasn't too sure how it would turn out, with the lava center and all, but OMgosh it was fantastic.  We were tickled pink with this chocolatey mooncake!  And the center, it was all melty!  Yeah chocolate chocolate!!

Chaoshan Crab Congee 潮汕砂锅粥

Oh, so pretty, amirite?!  We've had lovely, lovely seafood on our minds after our recent trip to Chaoshan 潮汕 where we feasted, among other things, on marinated raw seafood of all kinds, omgosh, sooo good.  (We're still writing that amazing experience up so stay tuned.)  So yummilicious seafood been on our minds alot lately.  

Inspired by our trip and the wonderful food consumed we made this simple congee that is a delectable treat for all seafood lovers.  Just fresh crab and some rice and you're on your way to this authentic super duper Chaoshan Crab Congee 潮汕砂锅粥!