Burnt Basque Cheesecake

I’m not a huge baker, but lately I’ve been enjoying trying new dessert recipes. Maybe it was the holiday season that got me in the mood. Desserts can sometimes be challenging to get right but they are pretty simple to make. It’s always nice to have a sweet treat throughout the week that you made yourself! I’ve had a Burnt Basque Cheesecake a few times in the last year even though it’s not a common dessert you find at restaurants. I had been wanting to test it out myself for a while. Although I generally like graham cracker crusts, the burnt edges of this crust-less cheesecake is different. It’s light and sort of cake-y. I thought my version was pretty good! You can freeze it too if you don’t want to eat the entire cheesecake on your own or you can even gift it.

BURNT BASQUE CHEESECAKE (serves 6-8)

Ingredients:

·       18 oz cream cheese

·       ¾ cup sugar

·       3 eggs

·       ¾ cup of heavy cream

·       1 tsp vanilla extract

·       3 tbsp flour

·       ¼ tsp salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

You will need a 6 or 7-inch spring form pan. Line it with parchment paper with the edges sticking out above the pan.

Mix the cream cheese with the sugar. Then add eggs and mix again thoroughly. Pour in the cream and sprinkle in the salt and vanilla extract. Toss in the flour and mix again.

Pour batter into the spring form pan. Place a baking sheet underneath. Bake for about 60 minutes. Oven times may vary. Check cheesecake at the 50-55 minute mark just in case. The cheesecake should be slightly jiggly in the middle and burnt on top. My oven requires me to bake things a little longer. I actually had to broil it for a few minutes to get the burnt crust and then I accidentally sort of overburnt it a little. Thankfully, this recipes allows room for that and it turned out okay! Hopefully, your oven won’t require you to do that! Let cool for about an hour before serving and then refrigerate the leftovers.

P.S. What dessert should I try making next?

Hello 2022!

Happy New Year! I’m a little late writing my first post of 2022 because…frankly, I’m still processing lol. The month of December was such a fog. I caught a cold from, I think, the one night I chose to go out with a big group of people for Santa Pub Crawl. It wasn’t Omicron, but who knows anymore with all this talk of false negatives. However, I didn’t have those related symptoms and I tested twice and was negative. But other people I had interacted with that night tested positive for Covid. I hadn’t been sick in 2 years so this felt strange.

In today’s pandemic climate, you really can’t see people or go out in public when you’re sick, even if it’s not Covid. So I had to cancel all my plans over the holidays and then semi-isolate. I hadn’t seen a single person in over 2 weeks from before Christmas and into the new year. It was so depressing. As much of a homebody and introvert as I am, it still took a toll on my mental health. The last couple years of pandemic have been so exhausting. I’m exhausted. And I know I’m not the only one, but wow. This is never-ending. Even with the vaccine and the booster.

I spent Christmas at home solo eating soup. By NYE, I still had residual symptoms but I felt better. I had more energy and was comfortable venturing out. Since I couldn’t see anybody and had such a lonely Christmas, I wanted to do something nice for myself for New Year’s Eve. I wanted to treat myself to a gift (because retail therapy does work some of the time) but the designer item I wanted was sold out after I had my heart set on it all week and I waited in line for an hour. That was disappointing. So then I went to the grocery store to pick up stuff to make myself a nice dinner that consisted of more than just broth—spaghetti arrabbiata with burrata and pumpkin tart.

But I still felt off mentally. I really didn’t want to carry that negative feeling into the new year but it was really hard to shake off. I had been isolated for over 2 weeks. I worked over Christmas and NYE holidays because I was available (since I had to cancel all my plans) even though I was sick. I hadn’t really been drinking much alcohol for the last four months since I’ve been on a hydrating kick and sort of lost my enjoyment for cocktails, wine, and bubbles. Once I felt better physically, I learned that a lot of my friends and their families caught Omicron and therefore, had to isolate and were not available. On the first work day of the new year, my work laptop died and I lost some of my work and a lot of time. Spent those first 2 work days trying to resolve that situation on top of being on a tight work deadline. I know these setbacks seem small, but I just kept feeling defeated.

By the end of the first week though, I did find that sold out item (I called incessantly to inquire) that I wanted to gift myself and it did bring me some joy. I connected with a new friend in the neighborhood and we both decided we’re commited to getting out of our sweatpants (although I love love sweatpants) and out of the house more. I signed up for some events, met some more new people, and also went on a couple of new hikes. I’m trying to do all the things while being Covid-safe. I’m not entirely there yet, but I’m trying. It would be nice if there was one simple solution that always worked, but there’s not.

It does feel good to get dressed up again and see people so sharing with you some of my recent outfits because I don’t have that much else to share at the moment. I have purchased so many sweats, joggers, and hoodies in the last 2 years! I also have several new, unworn outfits that still have tags on them sitting in my closet. These outfits need to be worn! Another reason to get out more! Human interaction/connection, exercise steps, fresh air, and to wear my unworn outfits! Even though I enjoyed being out again in the last 2 weeks, it definitely felt like work to get dressed up, go out, and socialize, being the introvert that I am. And everything seemed more expensive. Prices have increased and quality and service have declined a bit—all natural side effects of the pandemic. It’s also an adjustment going from isolation and only spending money on necessities to paying for entertainment and fun again. I could really use a massage too.

Life right now is strange. Gotta find all the little things that bring you joy. It has been raining a lot in LA lately and I like it. The gloom and overcast matches my mood and it’s comforting. It will all disippate soon though. Follow the light and eventually the fog will clear, right?

Fortunately, Chinese New Year is in 2 weeks and I will have another shot at resetting for the new year.

The Perfect Pumpkin Tart

Typically, pie is not my favorite dessert with the exception of pumpkin pie. A pumpkin tart is even better because it has the perfect ratio of filling and crust. Most pumpkin pies or tarts tend to be a little too sweet for me. Because it’s the holiday season, I thought I’d try making it myself. And it was so easy and so good! I was actually impressed with myself. Lol. It’s probably one of the best pumpkin tarts I’ve had in my humble opinion :) Give it a shot and let me know what you think!

THE PERFECT PUMPKIN TART

INGREDIENTS:

CRUST

·       1 cracker sleeve of graham crackers (9 cracker sheets)

·       6 tbsp butter

·       1 tbsp sugar

·       Pinch of salt

FILLING

·       1 can of pumpkin puree (I prefer Libby’s)

·       ½ cup + 1 tbsp brown sugar

·       3 eggs

·       ½ cup heavy cream

·       1 tsp vanilla extract

·       Pinch of salt

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt butter on stove.

Crush graham crackers in a food processor until it looks like sand. Pour into a bowl. Mix with melted butter, sugar, and salt. It will then look a little like wet sand. Add crust mixture into a nonstick removable bottom 9-inch tart pan placed on a baking sheet. Spread mixture evenly along the pan. Using the bottom of a measuring cup, flatten the crust. Set aside.

Mix the ingredients for the filling. Stir evenly. Pour over the crust in the tart pan. With the tart pan on top of the baking sheet, place in oven. Bake for 45-50 minutes at 350 degrees.

Allow to cool completely before serving. Serve with whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.

November Birthday in Oaxaca!

Each year, I try to plan a new adventure for my birthday. Usually international with the exception of last year, pre-vaccine. It softens the blow of getting older and helps me reframe the occasion to be a more joyous one. Once September hits, I get that back-to-school fall feeling even though I have not been in school in years. That nervousness of starting a new chapter, not knowing what to expect. That anticipation of the cold and dark winter coming. And that looming birthday, which marks the end of my personal year and forces me reaccess my life. Travel (and vacation) gives me something to look forward to and helps me get my mind off the stresses of adulthood. After such an amazing road trip to Valle de Guadalupe this past June, I decided to return to Mexico and explore Oaxaca. Many Californians like to visit Cabo, Playa del Carmen, and Puerto Vallarta, but I’m not really a beach resort type girl and I’m not a fan of the super touristy spots. I love quaint little towns, countrysides, nature, small little beach destinations, and boutique or unique accommodations.

My friend in Missouri joined me on my annual birthday adventure and we met up in Mexico City. If you’re meeting your friend at the airport in Mexico City, make sure you know your arrival terminal. We arrived at different terminals and it took us awhile to find each other. She had to take the tram from Terminal 1 to meet me in Terminal 2 and it took an hour to wait in line for a taxi. Make sure you purchase a taxi ticket and wait in line first thing. Traffic in Mexico City is pretty bad. Also, another tip. If you travel to Mexico in November, it’s super cold at night! Pack warm clothes. Except for a couple hours in the afternoon, most of the time, we were freezing! I packed mostly dresses! It felt colder than what the temperatures showed.

We only had a couple days in the city so I can’t say we had that much time to really explore the city other than visit some delicious restaurants—Cha Cha Terraza, Contramar, Quintonil, and Gin Gin—and take a boat ride at the Xochimilco canals. Cha Cha Terraza had a fun lively vibe for dinner and drinks on their upstairs terrace. Contramar had great seafood. Gin Gin is a great bar/lounge down the street from Contramar and has really good cocktails and music. Quintonil is super upscale with an option for a tasting menu. Even though Quintonil is a special culinary experience, it was a little stuffy. Indoors. No vibe. No ambiance. It was also expensive for Mexico standards. You could get an amazing meal at a more fun restaurant for half the price or less. We also stopped at Cafe Toscana next door to Buna cafe in Roma North for a snack and glass of wine mid-afternoon one day and both places were really cute.

In Mexico City, we first stayed at the Sofitel in Cuauhtémoc, which felt like downtown. Even though the area is close to Condesa and Roma North, it was very busy and not as nice. We also stayed at The Orchid House Hotel in Polanco, which I loved because it’s small and boutique. Polanco is Mexico City’s upscale neighborhood. It’s quaint, charming, and walkable. I would definitely stay here again. I had previously wanted to stay at Brick Hotel in Roma North, which is also a cute area, but the rooms were all booked. If you prefer the big hotels, but want to stay in Polanco, you could do The W or The Intercontinenal.

From Mexico City, we flew to Oaxaca. It is a short 1 hour flight. And just as I imagined, Oaxaca was amazing! So quaint and charming! Arts and crafts sold by street vendors. Markets with an array of textile, leather handbags, hats, and jewelry. Cobblestone roads. Decorative flags lined the street. Colorful buildings with beautiful exterior artwork. Old churches. Boutique hotels, delicious food, and great cocktails. Every meal we had was better than the last. I was in heaven!

One thing to note is that I made the majority of the restaurant reservations about two months in advance. Thinking that it would be warmer in Oaxaca, I chose many outdoor rooftop venues for dinner. While Oaxaca was hot during the day, it was even colder than Mexico City at night. Some of the places had heat lamps but they weren’t always working. On two different nights, a couple restaurants mentioned that they ran out of gas for the lamps, which made eating very uncomfortable. I would recommend dressing very warm or doing the rooftop spots during the day for lunch to enjoy the view.

We dined at Los Danzantes, Tierra del Sol, Casa Oaxaca, Criollo, and The Terrace on top of Hotel Los Amantes. While the food was good at all the restaurants, my favorites were Casa Oaxaca and Criollo. Criollo was where I had my birthday dinner and it was super special! The chef from Mexico City’s world renowned Pujol is part of the Criollo team. The only option at this restaurant is to enjoy their 6 course surprise tasting menu, which included a variety of Oaxacan dishes. Each plate was artfully presented and delicious! Casa Oaxaca was a pleasant surprise for lunch. They have rooftop dining. I loved the fresh table-side salsa, the sweet potato wrapped squash blossoms, the agua chile, and their corn-flan dessert. I had never had a CORN flan dessert before and I loved it! Tierra del Sol has a nice rooftop terrace view. They had really good tacos de lechon with chicharron wrapped up in what looked like a banana leaf. It was so good that we came back the next day on my birthday for lunch! The other dishes weren’t as good but we could have ordered the wrong items since they didn’t have an English menu. One thing I learned on this trip is that I love chicharron on everything! I ordered soup several times while in Oaxaca and it often included chicharron in the soup with Oaxacan string cheese, which is also very delicious. Downstairs in the same building of Tierra del Sol, there’s a little cafe that sells Atole, which is a soothing hot corn and masa based beverage that Oaxacans often drink for breakfast or at night. It comes in different flavors. Try it! It’s interesting and different. I liked it. Los Danzantes also served really good food. That’s where we dined on our first night in Oaxaca. But that Sunday night, it was really quiet. We had tortilla soup, mahi mahi and fresh garden tomato ceviche, and fresh short rib pasta.

Upstairs from Los Danzantes is their partner speakeasy bar called Selva. There’s no sign. The entrance is roped off with a man guarding the doorway. The bar is super charming with prohibition era vibes. Cocktails were pretty and carefully curated. Another bar we enjoyed was Sabina Sabe, which is a lot more casual but has great music and good cocktails. They serve food as well but we didn’t get a chance to try any. The rooftop at Hotel Los Amantes has great views for a sunset drink. They have a small bar downstairs that we liked as well. I think I ordered a mezcal cocktail with pineapple everyday in Oaxaca.

Aside from eating really well, I did a group tour to Hierve el Agua. Helpful tip: exchange your dollars for pesos. You will need it for the entrance fee, for the group buffet lunch, and also for mezcal purchases at the distillery (they have a high minimum for credit card purchases). The tour lasted all day because they include a few stops including a mezcal tasting, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Because of land disputes, we had to take the unpaved, bumpy road up the mountain to get to the pools. Once you get to the entrance/parking lot, you have the option of hiking 45 minutes down to see the petrified waterfalls or just going straight to the pools. Going down was not a huge problem but it was a little exhausting coming back up because of all the steps. It definitely gets you all heated up and ready to jump in the pools. But if you just want to take cute pictures and relax, skip the hike and just go straight to the pools and then you won’t have to worry about packing hiking clothes and sneakers along with your bathing suit and towel. The view was beautiful. Bonus: I made a few new friends on the tour because I went solo. My friend didn’t want to wake up at 7am to join the tour.

My friend and I stayed in 2 different hotels during our time in Oaxaca. The first few nights we stayed at Grana B&B, which is very quaint and quiet and the staff is so accommodating. We had a suite with 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, which was nice. Breakfast was included and is made to order and it was delicious. I don’t normally love yogurt but the yogurt was really good! Yogurt anywhere outside of the U.S. is really good, in my opinion. The location was central. We also stayed one night at Hotel Los Amantes, which has the most beautiful rooftop views. Great for sunset drinks and the food was pretty good as well. It’s made up of 2 buildings across from eachother in a central location not far from Grana B&B, with 2 rooftop restaurants, and a small bar downstairs. We stayed in the Cuishe room with 2 queen beds. While the room was nice, the hotel in general is a little loud because of the atrium and rooftop restaurants. But it was convenient to be able to just run upstairs for a cocktail or snack. Breakfast was included there as well and it was pretty good also.

The people of Oaxaca were so welcoming, nice, and helpful. The tourists we befriended were also so friendly. I loved Oaxaca and would definitely visit again! They have direct flights from Los Angeles to Oaxaca on Mexican airlines. I have to say that the best part for me was the food because as you know, I love food! They use grasshopper in a lot of dishes but it’s unrecognizeable. I’m not a huge fan of mole even though it’s a popular dish in this region. Though I did discover that I am a huge fan of chicharron, Oaxacan cheese, and mezcal cocktails. I love their fresh corn tortilla and chips and salsa. I regret that I didn’t get a chance to have churros or hot chocolate while I was in Oaxaca and Mexico City. Check out my Instagram to see all the yummy food I ate!

I can’t wait to see more of Mexico. I want to visit Guadalajara, the town of Tequila, San Miguel, Matzalan, and maybe Puerto Escondido next. This vacation was such a nice reset. I felt like I was fully able to unplug from work and the stresses of life. It has been such a long time since I’ve been on a week long trip that did not involve any sort of work. Weekend road trips don’t count because you get those days off anyways. I’m already looking forward to another vacay. It has been hard for me to focus on work after returning from such a good trip. Plus, we’re right smack in the middle of the holidays. All I want to do is curl up on the couch and watch Christmas movies. This year is flying by too fast. And my post-vacay blues are setting in. I need to plan my next adventure soon. What’s next on your travel list?

Portabella Mushroom "Al Pastor" Tacos

I love tacos and living in Los Angeles has allowed me to taste a variety of amazing tacos—from taco trucks, to obscure taco stands, to night markets. My favorite would have to be Al Pastor tacos, mainly because it usually comes with fresh pineapple slices and I just love pineapple on everything (including pizza!). But I don’t always want to eat meat. As I’m writing this post, I’m realizing I actually haven’t had tacos OUT in a long time!!! I need to get my booty to a taco truck ASAP! I created a vegetarian Al Pastor recipe so that I would have a healthier option when making tacos at home. Plus, I love learning different ways of making traditional recipes to cater to different diets.

To make Al Pastor tacos, you need Achiote powder. This required me to run all over town for hours searching for the spice! You really have to go to a Mexican grocery store or Food-4-Less. Sometimes it’s available at western markets but that can be hit or miss. And for me it was all miss after miss. I think I went to three western markets on my side of town before I gave up and went further out to Food-4-Less. Even though it was a journey trying to find this ONE spice, the outcome of my recipe made the trek totally worth it! I impressed myself with this dish! LOL. Don’t worry—all the other ingredients are easy to find. Give my vegetarian taco recipe a shot! It’s really good, I promise!

PORTABELLA MUSHROOM Al PASTOR TACOS WITH PINEAPPLE (makes about 12 small street tacos)

Ingredients:

Marinade:

• 1 lb Portabella Mushrooms

• 2 tsp achiote powder

• 1 tsp cumin

• 1 tsp oregano

• 1 tsp garlic powder`

• ½ tsp chili powder

• ½ tsp salt

• ½ tsp sugar

• ¼ cup orange juice

• ¼ cup pineapple juice

• 1 lime, juiced   

• 1 tbsp olive oil

Additional Ingredients:

• small street style white corn tortillas

• 1 cup of fresh pineapple slices

• 1 mixed cup of chopped cilantro and diced sweet yellow onion

• 2 limes, sliced for serving

• salsa

Creamy Avocado & Roasted Tomatillo Salsa (optional):

• 4 tomatillos

• 1 jalapeno

• 1 ripe avocado

• ¼ sweet yellow onion

• 2 cloves of garlic

• 1 tsp salt

• ½ tsp chili powder (for medium spice)

• ½ lime, juiced

• 1 cup of cilantro

Directions:

Clean portabella mushrooms and pat dry. Slice them with medium thickness. In a large bowl, mix the mushrooms with the marinade  ingredients. In a large skillet over medium high heat, add olive oil and  saute mushrooms until cooked through. Set aside. Char pineapple slices in another skillet or keep raw. Warm  tortilla in a separate skillet. Assemble taco with tortilla, add cooked mushrooms, sprinkle cilantro & onions, top with pineapple and serve with fresh lime wedges and salsa. I served mine with homemade Creamy Avocado & Roasted Tomatillo Salsa.

For the Creamy Avocado & Roasted Tomatillo Salsa, roast the whole tomatillos and jalapeno for about 25 minutes in the oven at 425 degrees. Let cool. Then blend in a food processor with the other ingredients.

The Parents are in Town!

Since I moved back to Los Angeles after my two-year stint living in Hong Kong, my parents have not visited me and it has been almost a decade! This past Labor Day weekend, my mother and stepfather finally came to town, and everything that could go wrong went wrong. No running water, racist attack, and my car died in the middle of Hollywood—all within the first two days of their visit.

A water pipe on my street burst the night before my parents’ arrival and I had no running water for 20 hours! The workers from the LA Department of Water and Power were up all night attempting to fix the issue with no idea when the problem would be fixed. When my parents arrived the next day, I couldn’t bring them home after their long flight because we couldn’t use the toilet, wash our hands, or cook. It’s so easy to take for granted the luxury of running water! I took them to lunch at Din Tai Fung for Taiwanese food and then walked around Century City Mall. After a couple hours, we decided to come home with the game plan of walking to a nearby cafe to hang out when any of us needed to use the bathroom. When we got home, the water still was not fixed. My parents wanted to relax after their plane ride and did not want to have to go out again so we were all hesitant to hydrate. Fortunately after a couple more hours, the water came back on before we had to venture out to find a toilet! Hallelujah! Thank goodness I showered and washed my hair the night before.

On their first night in LA, I took them to one of my old favorite restaurants, Tar & Roses, in Santa Monica. I hadn’t been in 2 years and was excited to be able to share the experience with them. I don’t go out to eat that often anymore because I’m finding that the quality and service has changed a lot since the pandemic and I’m usually disappointed. Of course, it’s even more difficult to impress my parents. They are accustomed to delicious seafood in Boston. The restaurant scene in Boston is amazing, unpretentious, less expensive, and always reliable wherever you go. And the pandemic has not changed that. When I was there recently this past May, I found myself impressed by every single meal I ate out at a restaurant.

And then after dinner, we were victims of a verbal racist attack. As we walked back to my car on Santa Monica Blvd and 5th, a white man pulled at his eyes and yelled, “Hey, hey, you Ch*nk family!” Fortunately, my parents didn’t understand what happened. They didn’t understand what the man said or did. But I understood and my blood boiled. I yelled obscenities at him as he walked away. I explained what happened to my parents and they weren’t upset. Or maybe they were and just didn’t show it. They were probably used to internalizing it. But I don’t want this to be something anyone has to “get used to.” My parents survived a genocide and came to America as refugees searching for a better life and it seems like not much has changed since their early days in this country. My mother has already been through so much in this life and I was so upset that she had to experience racism in LA on her first night visiting me.

The incident was triggering. Made me think of the years of microaggressions and acts of racism that I have experienced my entire life. When someone makes you feel less than one day, sure, maybe you can shrug it off. But how about if someone makes you feel less than every day. Or maybe once a week, once a month. Then multiply that by every year you have lived. And now imagine it’s not just one person making you feel less than all those years. It’s someone at work. Someone at school. Someone at the grocery store. Someone off the street. It’s your neighbor. It’s someone in your friend group. It’s not one person you can avoid. Not one incident. It’s everywhere. Throughout different stages of your life. Happening again and again. What does that do to your mental health over time? What does that do to your sense of worth?

Going into the weekend, I was already feeling fragile with some other things going on in my life and also with everything happening in Afghanistan, which is a reminder of what happened to my parents in Cambodia with the genocide. It’s so sad and upsetting. During the early days of the pandemic, I went on walks often to get out of the house. Then I stopped when the violence against Asian Americans, and particularly the Asian elderly, increased. Only in the last couple months, I had been feeling comfortable enough to go on walks again and then this happened. It’s not something I could just easily shake off.

The next day, I took my parents for a Thai lunch at Hoy Ka in Hollywood. When we walked back to my car afterwards, my car wouldn’t start. I had to call for a tow truck and learned that my car battery was dead. Got a jump start and had to spend our afternoon at Pep Boys waiting to get my battery replaced. This was the 3rd thing that went wrong that weekend. I tried as hard as I could to put on a face so that I wouldn’t worry my parents, but the truth is, I felt so beaten down. I’m sure they noticed. I had no appetite. I couldn’t eat. When we came home, I saged the apartment. My mother superstitiously threw rice and salt over my balcony and did a short prayer with insence. Leading up to my parents’ visit, I had already been stressed for weeks with work and it had been on my mind all weekend. That next day, I collapsed onto my bed and napped for two hours. I never nap but I was so emotionally and mentally exhausted and my body couldn’t hold it in anymore. You can try to act like everything is okay, but your body doesn’t lie. Everything was not okay.

People say things happen in threes. That was it for us that weekend—the broken water pipe, the racist attack, and my dead car battery. We spent the rest of their time in LA cooking, eating, and visiting the Venice Canals and the beach. I’m glad my parents visited me but I’m sure it wasn’t the best trip for them. After I dropped them off at the airport, I felt a huge weight lifted from me. I no longer felt pressure to pretend that everything was okay. I felt like I could sort through all my complicated emotions and thoughts without having to fake it. I felt like I was finally allowed to be exhausted and not have to worry about how that was perceived or how it would affect anyone else.

That same week after much contemplation, I decided to part ways with a client. I realized it was not a good fit for me and it had been negatively affecting my mental health for weeks. Sometimes you have to walk away and let go of things that don’t serve you, as hard as it may be. When I made the decision, I came home and napped for two hours! The next day, I napped again. I’ve never napped so much in ONE week! My body was mentally and emotionally drained. And it took me about 5 days to recover. I am just starting to feel like myself again. I’m slowly coming back to life.

It’s ironic that my last post was about feeling good. As easily and quickly as things can go well, things can all come crashing down at once as well. You have to take the good with the bad. Things can change and turn around in a second. But all experiences are learning experiences and we can’t have one without the other.

I would love to add some new recipes to the blog soon. But for now, I need to take care of my mental health, listen to my body, and give myself a break. In the meantime, check out my Instagram for all the yummy food we ate during my parents’ visit!

Life Update

I can sometimes be a sensitive little bunny. I overanalyze things, replay stuff in my head, and sometimes create stories that don’t exist. I can be histrionic, melancholic, empathetic, and deeply affected by my surroundings. I sometimes need reassurance and validation from others. So you can imagine giving up on corporate life and pursuing a personal dream has not been easy for me!

Thinking back on this journey, I didn’t have faith in myself, but somehow (I really have no idea how), I kept persisting and moving forward. And now I’m in year 3 of independently working for myself with 70 recipes, pages of creative memoir stories, and dozens of social media partnerships under my belt. And I’m happy to announce, after turning down a direct publishing offer a couple months ago, I have officially signed with a literary agent! I have to stop for a minute and show myself some love. I never thought I would find an agent that is as passionate about my memoir cookbook as I am. But I found her! I’m in the home stretch and hopefully am on my way to getting published soon!

The last year and a half have not been easy with the pandemic. There have been lots of lows and then small highs or more like mediums and then back to lows again with me questioning whether things would ever get better. During the last couple months I started to feel bouts of intense self-negative talk, existential confusion, and lack of direction. I had finished all of my cookbook writing and didn’t have a concrete plan for what was next for me. I couldn’t find a new client for my consulting business and had gotten lots of rejections from literary agents. I sulked alone in my dark pit for awhile and then forced myself to be social as an attempt to rescue myself. I was ready to admit defeat and accept all the failed outcomes in my life, but then things began to turn around. Within less than 2 months, four literary agents expressed interest in my cookbook, I got a new client for my consulting business, and landed a new social media partnership with a brand I love! I basically have 3 jobs. It’s complicated but also fun to be able to mix things up.

Sometimes my little heart can’t handle the emotional rollercoaster that is life. I’m not good at riding the waves. In fact, I can’t swim so it makes riding the waves a little harder and scarier. Everything passes though—the good, the bad, and the ugly—and you just gotta learn how to roll with all the punches. I am trying to get better at letting go and not attaching myself to certain outcomes. Hope for the best, and just keep moving forward, and whatever happens, happens. And when I haven’t been able to handle my emotions lately, I’ve indulged in donuts and cake. A sweet treat really does help!

My life isn’t perfect. I don’t have everything that I desire. But in this moment, I’m feeling good and I’m going to sit with this feeling of pride, love, and gratitude for a bit.

Indonesian Mie Goreng Noodles

Mie Goreng is a popular Indonesian fried noodle dish made with mixed vegetables, topped with a fried egg, and served with lime and chili sauce. It is sometimes served with meat or shrimp. When I traveled to Bali years ago, I ordered this dish at almost every restaurant I visited. I love noodles and thought it’s about time I try making the dish for myself. I packed my recipe with lots of vegetables because I love vegetables and wanted the dish to be healthier and less carby. Feel free to cut down on the veggies and add protein.

MIE GORENG (serves 4)

Ingredients:

7 oz of dried egg noodles (I used lo mein noodles but you can also use noodles from instant ramen packets)

1½ cups of shredded cabbage

1½ cups of bean sprouts

2 cups of shredded bok choy

1½ cups of scallions, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 shallot, thinly sliced

7 oz of fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp soy sauce

½ tsp dark soy sauce (for color)

½ tsp sugar

1 tsp chili sauce

1 lime, cut into wedges

4 fried eggs

extra chili sauce for serving

Directions:

Cook egg noodles and set aside.

Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add garlic and shallots. Lightly toast.

Add cabbage and shiitake mushrooms and let cook for a few minutes.

Throw in bok choy and scallions and cook lightly. If your veggies start to burn, add a tablespoon or two of water.

Lower heat. Add noodles. Pour oyster sauce, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar, and chili sauce over the noodles and toss thoroughly.

Add bean sprouts and toss some more. Cook briefly.

Turn off heat and set aside.

Fry eggs sunny side up.

Serve noodles with fried egg on top, chili sauce, and lime.