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Chè Nhãn Hạt Sen / Longan and Lotus Seed Summer Pudding
Summer in Vietnam can be brutal with the average temperature hitting in the high 80F’s and with the suffocating humidity, it can feel like it’s 100F degrees. I remembered taking two to three showers a day when I was visiting my family in July. As a result, locals turn to refreshing food and drinks such as longan and lotus seed summer pudding served with...
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Honey Milk Bread
Ever since my first trip to Japan years ago, I have been obsessed with fluffy white bread that is drastically tastier than the US version. I could only find this at good Asian bakeries like Tous Le Jour. Due to the pandemic, milk bread was hard to come by. I scoured Youtube and blogs to find the perfect recipe and after a few trials...
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Viet-Cajun Butter Sauce for Seafood
Like all good recipes, I accidentally created this addicting crack sauce (per my foodie family) when I was experimenting with new toppings to take steamed seafood up a notch. In the summer, our family likes to have a variety of crustacean and shellfish. Viet-Cajun style butter sauce has been popular for seafood boil starting in the southern region of the US for a few...
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Refreshing Summer Slaw
I randomly created this refreshing and crunchy slaw during our quarantine when we ran out of everything else. The key ingredients are Asian pear, apple and crab sticks. The family devoured it and kept asking for more. Furthermore, I also found that it keeps very well in the fridge and tastes better the longer it marinates. This slaw goes well as salad for a...
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The Beginner Gardener Series: May 2020 Experience
Gardening is all about trials and errors. You will likely make mistakes, but also gain insights into being a better gardener. Here is my list of successes and failures so far this year: 1- I was over-eager to acclimate my indoor seedlings in late April… and half of them died. Luckily, I overseeded, so I had backups. For one, my cucumbers struggled to...
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Nước Sâm / Vietnamese Herbal Ice Tea
Vietnamese herbal tea is usually served with ice, which makes it a refreshing drink in the middle of a hot and humid summer day. This drink is inspired by Chinese medicine with a focus on ingredients that have “cooling” properties. There are many variations and the one that we are sharing includes artichokes. Don’t be put off by the scary ingredient list as they...
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The Beginner Gardener Series: The 3 essential tools for gardening
When I was a beginner gardener, I made the rookie mistake of buying multiple gardening tools that one would use in a traditional garden, including a trowel, transplanter, cultivator, weeding fork, and weeder. Over the last three years, I found that I could replace them all with 3 tools: a trowel, a weeder, and a Korean traditional garden ho called “a homi”. If I...
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Airline Review: Air France Business Class Paris to NY
*I had written this post before Covid-19 upended the travel and airline industry. I hope we can go back to our wanderlust days safely soon. It is unclear how Air France’s offerings will be impacted by the pandemic. On my recent flight from Paris to NY, I was able to try out Air France’s business class on an Airbus A380-800. This model will eventually...
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The Beginner Gardener Series: Mistakes that I made in Year 1-3 of gardening
As I reflect on my last 3 years of gardening, I realize that I made a fair amount of beginner mistakes. Here are some takeaways that I learned to help you prevent the novice pitfalls. Putting seeds into the ground too late. I decided to save money by germinating seeds instead of purchasing nursery plants in my second and third year of gardening. However,...
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The Beginner Gardener Series: How I develop a passion for growing my own food and gardening.
I have been meaning to write about my journey from being a city slicker to a nature lover. I moved to Boston from NYC when I got married several years ago. After a few years of city living in tight quarters, my husband and I decided to move to a suburb north of Boston to start our family. We could finally have a backyard...
