...a few weeks ago, I bing-watched the entire season 8 of MasterChef and remembered how much I wanted to compete in MasterChef. Maybe I will one day :). Then last weekend, I visited Salt Lake City to see some of my friends. They reminded me of how much I loved to cook and shared my food with others...
Read MoreChristmas is in a week and you are still figuring out what dessert to bring to that Christmas gathering? Are you attempting to give your love one a homemade gift? Or if you just simply want to try a new dessert this Christmas -- I've got a solution for you!
Read MoreFesenjan (pronounced Fe-sen-joon), a Persian delicacy, is a rich and tangy Iranian chicken stew, with walnut and pomegranate paste. My professor/mentor in college, who is Iranian, first introduced this dish to me in 2013. Since then, I made sure to show up at any gatherings he was bringing food, because I know for sure Fesenjoon would be there.
Read MoreAs Vietnam is a coastal country, our people have been very creative with how they cook seafood. One of Vietnamese unique seafood recipes is seafood patties. You can literally make patties out of any kind of seafood - shrimps, fish, squid, etc. These patties are traditionally served as the protein dish of the meal, along with rice and vegetables.
In my post today, I will share with you our traditional recipe and my fusion take on this Calamari patties - both casual and high-end dining.
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Say goodbye to your Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte, because Yen's Crawfish Etouffee is about to be your new Fall's favorite :)
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How often do I snack? Every 2 hours.
If you snack as often as I do at work or at school, out of either boredom (I feel you!) or hunger, this Snack @ Work series is for you! I want to share all my recipes for quick & easy snacks that are also healthy.
Read MoreThey say you don't know what you have until it is gone. This may sound a bit dramatic for a post about food, but it is one of the reasons why I started this blog. It took me going half way across the world to appreciate the little things I had at home, like the sound of summer rain in Hanoi, or the scent of dita bark flower in the fall (hoa sữa). In the fall, it is Mid-Autumn festival, an ancient festival that revolves around children.
Every year, on August 15th in Lunar calendar, the moon is believed to be at its fullest and brightest, hence the name Mid-Autumn. This festival dates back as far...
Read MoreYou may know this already, some recipes allow certain margins of error, that even when you fail, your dishes would still turn out alright :). That is not the case for French Macaroon - you either get it or not (as you can see from my pictures below, 2 weeks apart.) This is one of the dishes that I am obsessed with and have always wanted to learn. I tried my first batch in 2012, and it did not turn out close to the first picture. My second try was a month ago, and though they tasted like a macaroon, they did not look like one. Third time's the charm, I finally got it right!
Read MoreOne of my colleagues called me Yen Crawfish because of how often I talked about crawfish boil. I was first introduced to this dish in May 2015, while visiting D.C., and got hooked to it ever since! If you have never seen one, crawfishes look like mini lobsters, but are so much more flavorful in my taste. Since May 2015, I have tried crawfish boil at every city I visited, and attempted to made my own boils several times. Unfortunately, in Salt Lake City, I was only able to get the frozen kind in Walmart, until 3 weeks ago when I learnt that I can actually catch live crawfishes here in Utah. What's better than making your favorite dish from scratch?!
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![[Snack @ Work] Cilantro/Parsley Sour Cream Dip](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/577208a96b8f5be39516e756/1473648813373-IZ0ZGAP3IAW98K4R60IU/DSCF3907.jpg)
