Month: November 2018

New Noodle & Hot Pot restaurant near Kings Automall serves up seven kinds of soup-based delights

What this restaurant offers is nothing short of cuisine immersion. Come hungry, be prepared to cook your food at the table and eat like a “local” (as in Chongqing, near Sichuan). Best to come with a group of hungry eaters; that way, you get to sample more variety. Not all soups are spicy but if you’re a “spicy” thrillseeker, I’d recommend the “nine-box spicy” soup. The use of beef fat and more than 25 different ingredients in the stock sets the flavor and heat level off to the stratosphere. I mean it–it’s pretty much liquid fire.

Photo by G. Yek: Noodle & Hot Pot’s bone soup, left, and nine boxes spicy soup, with assorted ingredients.

Click here for more: Noodle & Hot Pot

Pumpkin Sticky Rice Balls (南瓜汤圆)

Just in time for Thanksgiving, traditional Chinese sticky rice balls get a New World makeover with the incorporation of pumpkin. Pumpkin, a staple in “New World” America, gives these sweet, chewy rice balls their own identity. This recipe centers on pumpkin–two ways. The first (and easier) variety is to simply incorporate the pumpkin into the sticky rice dough. The second variety uses the pumpkin as a filling and involves a couple extra steps including a slightly more involved preparation of the pumpkin filling. Either way, these sticky rice balls are perfect to share with friends and family, and may even put a smile on a few faces.

Photo by G. Yek: Pumpkin Sticky Rice Balls (done 2-Ways) served with Ginger Infused Light Syrup

Click here for more: Recipe for Pumpkin Sticky Rice Balls

Here are 9 great Thanksgiving dining options if you can’t — or don’t want to — eat at home

Food and Thanksgiving go together like hand and glove; traditionally, the two would leisurely converge at home with family and friends. But that’s not always the case for everyone. Here are my recommendations for eating out this year. There’s a little something for everyone including those who may have to work on Thanksgiving.

Photo from WCPO File

Click here for more: 9 Thanksgiving Dining Options

Artisanal cheesemaker sets up shop in Lebanon

We are fortunate to have artisans like Cecilia Garmendia of Lamp Post Cheese. While many people can turn out cheese (with enough workshops and tutorials), few are inspired to tease out the “terroir” of the cheese through the patient research and development of unique cultures inherent in raw milk. This is still work in progress but she is on it. Ultimately, this will translate to cheese that echoes the flavor of the land. Oh by the way, Cecilia has a PhD in biology which is to say, she’s got the science covered.

Photo by G. Yek: Cecilia Garmendia in the Tasting Room

Click here for more: Lamp Post Cheese