The Archives

• Singapore, cooking, home cooking, huzhou, recipes, travel

  In My Head I’m Gone

  03.17.10 | Permalink | 3 Comments

  One might think that after 5 weeks of non-stop travel, and not the resort kind, that one would be ready to get home and get back into the groove, back to the familiarity and the friends and beds and bathrooms of established quality.
  Well one might be wrong.
  There. I said it. WRONG.
  Because actually, I didn’t (don’t?) [...]

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• Christmas, baking, butter, home cooking, huzhou, mysterious ingredients, recipes

  The Bun Also Rises

  12.27.09 | Permalink | 3 Comments

  Every year for Thanksgiving, my family and I headed out to the desert for a potluck lunch with my grandparents’ friends and their families. Though the location changed a few times, we were always out in the desert, eating turkey and hiking and playing volleyball.
  Every year one of my grandmother’s good friends, Susan, would [...]

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• cooking, holidays, home cooking, huzhou, recipes

  The Huzhou Food Jew is a Lonely Eater

  12.13.09 | Permalink | 4 Comments

  If anyone in my life has influenced my cooking, it would be my paternal grandmother, Nana. Both my mother and father are good cooks, but with the triple whammy of an ultra-picky daughter, working, and, you know, raising two kids, they didn’t have a lot of time to devote to culinary endeavors until I was [...]

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• Thanksgiving, baking, butter, cake, chocolate, cooking, dessert, holidays, home cooking, huzhou, recipes

  Pre-Pear-ed

  12.02.09 | Permalink | 5 Comments

  Western/American holidays in China have a totally different meaning than they do at ‘home.’ Having a Christmas party or a Thanksgiving dinner is, at least for me, more about nostalgia and comfort than about the actual holiday. I didn’t have a big party at my house so that we could all think about the Pilgrims. [...]

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• Thanksgiving, butter, chocolate, dessert, home cooking, housecleaning, huzhou, unruly chefs

  Elbow Butter

  11.24.09 | Permalink | 2 Comments

  This pretty much sums up everything I don’t like about cooking and baking:

  Not to mention that this time of year, hot water usage comes down to: shower or sink? Given that I usually opt for the hot shower, doing the dishes becomes a numbing chore in the literal and figurative sense. But if dishes [...]

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• Gerald, cooking, home cooking, huzhou

  Extra Sharp

  11.16.09 | Permalink | 2 Comments

  I can hardly believe that this wasn’t my idea:

  But the idea man behind buttering two pieces of bread and melting some cheese between them (Edam and cheddar, if you’re curious, Gerald) deserves credit, as well as a spot on the Plate of Wander cast of characters.
  Meet George.

  He doesn’t smile in photographs.
  I think the last time [...]

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• baking, cooking, dessert, entrees, home cooking, huzhou, mysterious ingredients

  Butter Me Up

  06.08.09 | Permalink | 4 Comments

  I am proud to say that I was a very…unique little girl. You’ve heard about the whole Singin’ in the Rain thing, and at the start of this blog I believe I mentioned how, when I was 5, I was so enamored of the name Crystal that I made my parents call me Crystal. Crystal [...]

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• chicken, cooking, entrees, home cooking, huzhou, mysterious ingredients, unruly chefs

  Arroz By Any Other Name

  05.20.09 | Permalink | 2 Comments

  Erik’s Chinese Peruvian Arroz con Pollo

  Two chicken breasts, two chicken legs
  Salt, pepper, cumin
  2 teaspoons (ish) grated ginger
  Olive oil
  Diced pork, about a hand full
  5-6 cloves crushed/minced garlic
  ½ large yellow onion, finely diced
  Cilantro, about one bunch
  Spinach, about one Chinese bundle (maybe 4 cups?)
  1 really large carrot, finely diced
  1 ear of corn, kernels separated from stalk
  Some form of [...]

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• home cooking, out and about, students, travel

  Lin’An Me: Student Home Invasion Part II

  01.05.09 | Permalink | 1 Comment

  Previously on Plate of Wander: The Laowai Exodus, Lin’an: At Least We have Two KFC’s, Stuff the Waiguo Ren, and Nicolas Cage Should Stick to Authentic Charlie Kaufman Films

  While my electric blanket and I slept cozily, I felt a little bad that I had displaced wee Yao Kai.

  But, unlike a lot of typical fourteen-year [...]

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