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  • Decadent Bourgeois Coconut Macaroons

    These ones were impromptu. I’d already had a plan for the day and it didn’t involve dipping things in chocolate ganache- though I am never averse to dipping anything in ganache if the opportunity presents itself. I was on a…

  • Half 荞 Chapati, Half 荞 Noodle: It’s Wonder Dough!

    I’m starting to think this blog should be renamed, “Watch me make flatbreads! That’s all! Kthnxbye!” Although I’ve been busy cooking all sorts of other lovely things for our meals (remind me to tell you all about that spicy chicken…

  • The Hundred Beans Campaign: Red Chili For China

    Shanghai’s frigid and grim season has landed with a cold, heavy thump. Last night in bed, my hands went kind of numb as I tried to read a book under my two thick duvets, with just my head and fingers…

  • 5-Spice Qiézi: Fun with Aubergines

    I should be trying to sleep right now. It’s nearly 10pm and I have an 8am train to catch tomorrow morning, whisking me off to the glittering metropolis of Hefei, the esteemed capital city of Anhui province which is about…

  • Spicy 卡罗来纳州 Style Crock-Pot Pulled Pork

    I should preface this one by noting that I’m sick today. Part cold, part sore throat, part achy dopiness. Which is why I kind of screwed up some key parts of this recipe. If you look below at the recipe,…

  • HangZhou Rearranged Chocolate Apple Cake

    I actually left the flat this past weekend. In fact, I even left Shanghai. For the past two months, I’ve been like the love child of an eccentric hermit and a domestic goddess, holed up in our cozy flat, dusted…

  • Chewy Oatmeal Cookies, to Stave Off the Ennui

    For those of you who notice such things, my other blog, the impractical one,  has been lying fallow for a while now. I have no excuses. It’s not as though I’m swamped with work these days either.  In fact, October…

  • شىنجاڭ‎ Uyghur Irish Stew

    Now this one…this one’s going to be a search engine disaster in the making. It may also be the one that gets me pushed over the proverbial edge of the Great Firewall. Sorry. This stew is technically a basic Irish…

  • Autumn’ish Roasted Garlic and Pumpkin Soup

    This one is technically a two-parter, as I made the soup at the same time as I threw together the Xinjiang Irish stew. The stew will come later. I don’t want to confuse everyone with too many different things under…

  • Gnocchi with Pesto Cream Sauce à la Wok

    I’m in the middle of a personal dilemma of sorts this week. I’ve been feeling extraordinarily exhausted and unmotivated, craving hibernation and inactivity and solitude as much as possible. However, my inner cheerleader (damn her!) has been trying her best…