Tamago Sando/Japanese Egg Sandwich

This post is a love note to the oh so addictive egg sandwich that we discovered in the fab Japanese convenience store Lawson and fell in love with instantly and completely!  The phonetic Japanese name of 'Tamago Sando' translates to 'egg sandwich.'  I know, I know, there have been egg sandwiches around for ages and ages, what's the big to-do for one more egg sandwich?  Well, after our last visit to Tokyo, we so longed for our daily Lawson's egg sandwich that I finally put my foot down, no more dreaming ladies and gents, let's make our own!

And it was, wonderfully, so easy to make and so happy to eat!  With a creamy and ever so comforting eggy filling spread onto soft and pillowy milk bread, this humble Tamago Sando Japanese Egg Sandwich is to die for!

Homemade Almond Milk

An absolutely unexpected and most delightful discovery!  It all kinda happened as a offshoot of us making the most delightfully creamy chia seed milk puddings.  If you're familiar with chia seeds, you will already know that these little fiber packed seeds must be soaked in a liquid, wherein they expand, soaking in tons of the liquid and exuding a gel that mixes with the liquid to form a wonderful pudding like texture.  So creamy and delicious but we wanted to find an alternative to using dairy.  And thus we discovered homemade almond milk...an amazing alternative to dairy milk!

Black Sesame Pastry Filling 黑芝麻餡

A spin on the classic Chinese pastry filling, this Black Sesame Pastry Filling is transformed by the addition of extra layers of rich flavors like butter and condensed milk.  Easy to make, deliciously nutty and sophisticated in taste, wickedly black in color, this Chinese Black Sesame Pastry Filling is a soooo yummy and a perennial crowd favorite!

Winter Melon Pastry Filling 冬瓜餡

 

Onward on another new and exciting food filling for our Five Flavors Mini Crystal Zongzi!  This Winter Melon Pastry Filling 冬瓜餡 is a filling that surprised us quite a bit.  I had never realized that the Winter Melon Candy could be used to make a filling!  Even though candied, the winter melon candy still retains the sponginess of the original melon, thus, when transformed into this filling, it soaks up all the flavors it is cooked with, especially the floral hints from the osmanthus flower syrup.  Sweet and delicate, this unique filling is quite delectable!

Matcha Pastry Filling 抹茶餡

Look at this green!  This is another one of the Five Flavors of Filling that we made for our zongzi 粽子 this year.  The gorgeous green comes from matcha 抹茶, the finely ground powder of green tea, used in Japan traditionally as a part of the tea ceremony.  It is also, most delightfully, used in baked goods and candies, the fact of which we exploit today by making this Matcha Pastry Filling 抹茶餡, a creamy, luscious, gorgeously green pastry filling with a unique grassy, sweet yet slightly bitter umami flavor that is out of this world!

Pineapple Custard Pastry Filling 鳳梨蛋奶餡

Wow-oh-wow, look at this gorgeous yellow!  As one of the flavors used for our Five Flavors Mini Crystal Zongzi 五味迷你水晶粽子, this fruity filling starts with a coconut milk custard base and combines it with cooked down pineapple, creating a creamy Pineapple Custard Pastry Filling 鳳梨蛋奶餡 that is bursting with fresh, gorgeous, sweet and tart tropical flavors!

Coconut Milk Custard Pastry Filling 椰香蛋奶餡

We start with the creamiest and most basic flavor of the five as we begin our tour of the Five Flavors Mini Crystal Zongzi 五味迷你水晶粽子 filling's flavors.  Based on the classic and comforting flavors of custard and coconut, this Coconut Milk Custard Pastry 椰香蛋奶餡 is a milky, eggy creamy delight that is easy to make and suitable not only as filling for zongzi 粽子 but also for all kinds of Chinese pastries and bao!

Five Flavors Mini Crystal Zongzi 五味迷你水晶粽子

Just in the nick of time for Dragon Boat Festival 端午節!  Except well, this post was originally planned to go out much earlier but I've been laid up sick, one of the many sicknesses that children bring back from school.  So let's just say just barely in the nick of time shall we, lol!

We decided to go a wee bit fancy this year for Dragon Boat Festival and thus ended up with a platter of new and exciting zongzi flavors to tickle the palette and please the eyes.  We proudly present this Five Flavors Mini Crystal Zongzi 五味迷你水晶粽子, five different delicious fillings cradled in crystal skins of translucent tapioca pearls, wrapped in fragrant bamboo leaves before being steamed to perfection!

Beijing Style Spring Onion Pancake 北京蔥油餅

I'm sure, dear readers, that you all are probably familiar with the fabulous Chinese spring onion pancake 蔥油餅!  Well, here is an alternate version, a Beijing Style Spring Onion Pancake 北京蔥油餅 that is similar yet different: delicate, super thin, eggy and just as delicious as its more famous cousin.  

This delicate pancake, infused with the savory umami aromas of spring onion and shallot, tis not only easy to make, but nom, nom, nom, perfect for an eggy breakfast or as a hot satisfying snack.  And, if you're feeling extra creative, use this thin delicious pancake to present a variety of other dishes in an alternative fabulously wrapped up way!

Haw Flakes Roselle Ice Cream 山楂餠洛神花雪糕

There is something absolutely sneaky and yet so satisfying about taking a childhood favorite food, a food most delicious and also most childishly fun to play with, and turn that food into a grown up version of itself!

Thus it is with cheeky pride that I present you with one of my favorite childhood candy treats,  haw flakes, a candy made from the hawthorn fruit, now transformed into Haw Flakes Roselle Ice Cream 山楂餠洛神花雪糕, a most elegantly fruity and tangy ice cream infused with the kiss of orange liqueur.   My oh my, some very grown up ice cream-liciousness!

Roselle Hibiscus Tea 洛神花茶

Nothing like a drop of tea, eh?  And even better, a drop of tea infused from flowers!  This beautiful tart and refreshing tea is made from dried flowers, specifically the dried Roselle of the Hibiscus flower genus.  I discovered this flower while researching for an ice cream that I want to make (as the weather grows warmer the desire for luscious ice creams increases, no?)  

After locating dried roselle 洛神花 at my local Chinese herb/spice shop I brewed myself up some Roselle Hibiscus Tea 洛神花茶.  Oh my oh my, what a tea: truly a gorgeous red color, gleaming and sparkling, with a most refreshingly tangy and fruity flavor!

Chinese Lotus Paste Cookie Pastry 蓮子糕餅

Recently we've been all over our new dim sum recipe book, 正統中式點心全書: 師承香港傳奇料理大師 by 吉岡勝美 which translates into 'The Complete Book of Authentic Chinese Dim Sum' by Katsumi Yoshioka.  The Japanese author of this book apprenticed with the legendary culinary master Chef Liang Jing 梁敬, at the 敬賓酒家, a famous Cantonese restaurant in the 80's.  Omgosh, this book, it's so fab! 

Y'all know that dim sum is traditional Cantonese way of eating where bite sized dishes, both sweet and savory, are served alongside of pots of fragrant tea.  Dim sum translates to  'touch the heart' and is one of the Cantonese culinary treasures!

From this recipe book we previously made the Chinese Peony Pastry 牡丹形酥餅, a most delightful pastry that opens silky pastry petals out just like a real flower.  This time we tried another pastry from this dim sum book, Chinese Lotus Paste Cookie Pastry 蓮子糕餅, and were so taken with the results...in other words, can't stop eating!  These small delicate morsels of pastry consist of a flavorful cookie dough wrapped about a lusciously smooth and velvety lotus seed paste filling.  Kinda like a Chinese version of petit fours.  What's there not to love?  

Rosemary Focaccia Bread

I like making bread.  No, wait, I love making bread!  It's so meditative- the mixing, kneading, proofing and baking are just soothing to the soul.  And, of course, eating fresh fragrant home baked bread is such a rewarding experience; there's no better bread than fresh from the oven!

I wanted to share my new favorite bread recipe, Big Bubbly Focaccia, from that most fabulous of bread sites, King Arthur Baking.  I initially tried making this focacia because 1) we looove focaccia and 2) it was King Arthur's 2025 Recipe of the Year (which is a total thing!).  After making it the first time I was flabbergasted by the amazing and easy to achieve results.  This focaccia bread is absolutely fabulous- so airy, tall and light with a most tender and flavorful crumb and a wonderfully golden crispy crust.

We are so in love with this Rosemary Focaccia Bread and have been making it over and over ever since!

Homemade Ricotta Cheese

Have you ever heard of ricotta cheese?  Ricotta is a fresh soft Italian cheese with a creamy texture that is amazingly used in so many delicious sweet and savory dishes!  Simply top on to fruit with a drizzle of honey or smear on toast with a sprinkle sea salt/pepper.  For savory dishes use to make lasagna, stuff ravioli and to top pizza.  For sweet treats use to make lusciously light cheesecakes, pies, cakes and that extra special Italian dessert cannoli.  What a powerhouse of a cheese, amirite?!

Ricotta actually means 'recooked' in Italian, as it is traditionally made by 'recooking' the leftover whey from making rennet based cheeses like parmesan or provolone.  However, there are other simple ways to make this cheese.  For us, as a consequence of making homemade yogurt and failing sometimes, we discovered, to our delight, that ricotta cheese is very easily made at home with just a few simple, always on hand ingredients!  Wow, oh, wow!  What a discovery indeed, yummilicious ricotta cheese, with its mild, creamy, slightly sweet and nutty flavor, moist and soft texture, made fresh and easy peasy at home.  It was my first homemade cheese and it was perfect!

Homemade Yogurt

This delectable something!  Oh, I am pleased as punch that I finally figured out how to make this at home!  Yogurt, delectable thick, smooth and creamy yogurt, homemade without a machine.  Omgosh this makes me so happy!

Previously, I gotta admit, we were kinda so-so on yogurt.  Sometimes good, sometimes okay, sometimes too sweet or a wee bit too sour, fruit kinda goopy, etc.  That and the kinda pricey price point and we never really got into yogurt.  But one fine day I read that making yogurt at home was pretty straight forward and, as I had recently discovered a really great milk, we plunged into our great homemade yogurt experiment.

Chaozhou Oyster Congee 潮州蠔仔粥

This beauty is a classic Chaozhou dish, simple to prepare and oh so delicious and heartwarming to consume.  For the easeful time and effort put into preparing this dish, the tastiness output is off the charts!  This Chaozhou Oyster Congee 潮州蠔仔粥 consists of a smooth rice congee base to which are added snips of flavorful preserved vegetables, marinated minced meat and, most importantly, plump and luscious baby oysters.  A sprinkle of umami packed dried flounder power and fresh green cilantro finish off the congee to perfection. 

Star Anise Rum Raisin Bread Pudding

This easy elegant pudding is our favorite for a mid morning treat!  Usually we'll make it on a relaxed kinda day when we can all sleep in a bit (a weekend day!)  Once we get up it's the quickest and easiest thing to mix up and slip this pudding into the the oven for a midmorning scrummy and most comforting sweet treat.  This Star Anise Rum Raisin Bread Pudding is golden crispy on the top, soft and creamy on the inside, dotted with plump rummy raisins, and touched with just a hint of sweet and licoricey star anise.  So yummilicious...

Beautiful Baklava

Picture this, dear readers.  Nutty aromatic roasted nuts soaked in sweet scented syrup enveloped in devastatingly crispy thin as a whisper pastry layers.  Sound enticing?   This is Baklava!

This baked treat has a history going all the way back to ancient Assyrians of Mesopotamia in 8th century BC, around 2800 years ago!  From then and there the idea of the baklava has spread, appearing in different permutations as a dessert in many cultures throughout in Asia and Europe.  

Delicately crisp layers of phyllo dough packed with roasty chopped nuts, all clung together through the application of a thick sweet scented syrup, a tray of golden baked Baklava is a beauteous thing to bring to a party, sure to get a lot of wows and yummies!  I’ve wanted to make this for a while now but hesitated, thinking that it looked kinda complicated.  Well it’s true, it does look complicated and fancy but it’s actually quite easy to make!  And ever so impressive to show off and munch on after!