eau de chocolat

I love perfume and I’ve never had the luxury of owning a bottle of perfume, only eau de cologne or eau de parfum. Watered down versions of scent. Or should I say, alcohol-ed versions.
Alcohol is a volatile substance, serving as the vehicle for smell. When we spritz some cologne, one waits for the alcohol to [...]

ok again

Hihi. Sorry I haven’t updated you in awhile but I have been writing a lot, I promise. I’ve been taking a non-fiction food writing class with an awesome instructor, Thy Tran. She’s been pushing my writing buttons, or more so, making me really explore the stories contained between the recipes, memories and food reflections that [...]

new beginnings (again).

i am a lucky girl.
maybe, blessed is what really describes it.
i am blessed.

chinese wedding party 101

Awww hell, and it wasn't even a Chinese wedding dinner party…

A friend of mine from San Diego who is getting married in July had just sent out an email to all his guests about the intricacies behind a Chinese wedding banquet — food playing a central role to the celebratory event. At the last wedding [...]

i like it hot.

there are a few things i've learned from my tatay. i learned how to wash rice before cooking it (called saing). i learned how to shuffle a deck of cards right before playing solitare. i found the pleasure in sitting quietly on a spring afternoon listening to baseball on the radio. but the two things [...]

thank you to all who have taught me how to pipe rosettes

piping buttercream is now my favorite meditative ritual. its like painting, only, the canvas is an edible, shareable 9-inch circle or rectangle.
part of the theory of “each one, teach one”, (coined by frank laubach, the “father” of literacy) is the idea of active learning, which paolo freire also theorized in pedagogy of the oppressed. this [...]

japanese food takes a long time to prep no wonder why its $$$$!!

my mom and i went shopping at mitsuwa yesterday. it’s wintertime so what i was happiest the most about seeing on the shelves were the boxes of meltykiss, ahem, meltyblend. this year, aside from the standard royal cacao, they have in stock royal almond!

inside the box reads, “gently melts in your mouth like [...]

random cake pic

everyone likes cake.

tres rosas circa 1987.

99 ranch

besides the honey balls, my favorite thing to get here is the produce. where else can you get a huge pack of portobello mushrooms for $2.71?
sweet pink pomelos are also in season!

my favorite books at the moment:

Tip #2 – ‘Baby chickens’ are just as tender and favorful as cornish game hens but have more [...]