Aunt Rancy’s Seaweed and Mushroom Soup

I am fortunate to have a wonderful family (despite our oddball ways). What is more awesome is that I have a very large extended family that includes friends and mentors all over the world who have all taught me more than they realize. That is why Mother’s Day is special — not only do I have my Mommy to celebrate, it is also a celebration of my other “Moms”. And I want to thank my Aunt Rancy for being one of them.

Growing up, the Restaurant Babies (all except for #4) spent summers in Hong Kong where we learned how to eat mango from the peel, how to live in nine-story buildings without elevators or central air, and how to speak Canto-slang. Aunt Rancy and I bonded quickly and easily during these summers. During our teenage years, we stopped spending our summers abroad, but luckily during my last year of official schooling, I had the opportunity to visit Aunt Rancy and Uncle again!

She took me to the gai see or the markets where everyone shops for fresh vegetables and fresh seafood daily for their meals (instead of doing a once-a-week grocery trip). On my last night, we prepared this seafood feast together.

Photo courtesy of Aashoo Tandon. Our seafood feast on our last night in Hong Kong

Aunt Rancy taught me how to make this very simple soup with seaweed and mushrooms. [Read more →]

My mom does many wonderful things for her children – one of which is cooking for us. Whenever she gets the chance, she would make 6-9 dishes and delivers it to my sisters’ place. Here is her latest delivery with a note.
Soup, yu-choy, snow peas, a fish dish with a note attached.

Serena and Teresa Wu have compiled many loving and hilarious submissions on stories of Asian American mom’s on My Mom is a Fob. With Mother’s Day coming up, I’m thinking of ways to celebrate with and honor my mother. What are your plans for Mother’s Day?

Three Treasures Bread Pudding

Please welcome guest blogger Sonia, my oldest sister and Restaurant Baby #1, as she eats down her house with bread pudding.

Yesterday, Restaurant Baby #3 Allison had a fondue dinner party. We were left with a lot of bite-size pieces of bread. You know what that means . . . bread pudding! I love bread pudding, but do not make it very often because Kim does a good job of eating up the bread we buy. No stale bread means no bread pudding.

With Mark Bittman’s recipe from How to Cook Everything, I added bourbon-soaked raisins and apricots, vanilla bean, semi-sweet chocolate chips, and apples (also from last night’s fondue party).

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Please welcome guest blogger Sonia, my oldest sister and Restaurant Baby #1, as she eats down her house with butternut squash risotto.

Eat Down the House: Butternut Squash Risotto with Saffron

Risotto used to instill this sense of awe and respect in me. Wow, you know how to make risotto?! Once I tried making it though, it is actually quite simple. And the major bonus is that you will gain the respect and awe of others . . . which happens to be my goal in life. [Read more →]

Make Your Guests Cook Dumplings

Ingredients for a festive party. At Annie and Hoyu‘s New Year Dumpling Party. Friends who made me cook.

At my dinner parties, friends cook for me. I’m not one to make the cooking process invisible. I make the eaters the cook too.

The way we eat affects the way we interact. As a former teacher, my principal pointed out the difference among students’ interactions at a pizza party versus a Chinese takeout party. The action of breaking bread together and sharing from the same pie creates more camaraderie and consideration, than eating from individual takeout containers. [Read more →]

Please welcome guest blogger Sonia, my oldest sister and Restaurant Baby #1, as she eats down her fridge with her own version of wrapped dates with lap cheong. ~Madeline

Eat Down the House: Dates, Cheese, and Sausage

My dear friends Kags and Lamiyah gave me some very fancy-looking dates from Dubai, UAE. I was deciding between eating them as they are or doing something with them; then I recalled a delicious appetizer I once had at Grange Kitchen — chorizo, dates, and blue cheese.
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Please welcome guest blogger Sonia, my oldest sister and Restaurant Baby #1, as she eats down her fridge with dumplings noodle soup.

Eat Down the House: Frozen Dumplings

Restaurant Baby #4 (aka Kim) and I hosted a Chinese New Year dinner party in January. The day before, Kim and her friends made a huge batch of dumplings. Thanks to the wonders of modern refrigeration in the form of our freezer, to this day I am still benefiting from their hard work. On my days off, I like to wake up early just so I can have my go-to breakfast comfort food, a big bowl o’ noodles complete with dumplings and some veg.
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I did not come from a family of four children but five – Golden Bowl being my parent’s fifth child. Today Golden Bowl turns 30! Happy Birthday.

Below is Kimberly’s This I Believe essay:
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