Cooking Blog

Longanisa Gumbo is a rich Louisiana-style stew that weaves together Cajun and Filipino flavors. The dark roux is cooked with bell pepper, onions, celery, tender shrimp, chicken and a sweet sausage called longanisa. Then, instead of your average white rice, it is served with fragrant garlic fried rice.

Truffle Kobe Beef Risotto merges Japanese and Italian flavors – resulting in a dish that might be damn near the best thing you’ve ever had (seriously, I’d hate to toot my own horn but I am leaning on the horn all the way home on this one). We took arborio rice and cooked in a sweet yakiniku sauce until it’s perfectly tender, then combined it with leeks, onions, roasted mushrooms and thinly-sliced American Kobe-style beef. The risotto is finished with shaved parmesan, green onions, and truffle oil.

The pho quesadilla dip is made from thinly sliced filet mignon marinated in pho flavors, rice noodles, chopped herbs, and melted mozzarella cheese – all stuffed between toasted flour tortillas and served with a pho broth, sriracha, and hoisin sauce.

Pork Belly Mac n KimChi(eese) melds together creamy macaroni and cheese with the sweet and spicy flavors of kimchi and the deliciously fattiness of pork belly. I had my doubts about combining kimchi with cheese but it surprisingly worked incredibly well! This dish combines the very best of western and eastern cultures.

We sweetened up the beloved avocado toast with condensed milk, fresh mango, a coconut milk sauce, and rice crisps to make the Mango Sticky Rice Avocado Toast. Creamy avocado is mashed and mixed with condensed milk, spread onto toast, topped with thinly sliced mango and drizzled with a sweet and salty coconut milk. Rice crisps finished off this dish to add texture.

Pork Tonkatsu Flatbread is a Middle Eastern / Japanese “pizza” of sorts. Soft flatbread is topped with fresh parmesan cheese and crispy pork tonkatsu and baked to a slight crisp. Thinly sliced cucumber along with a tonkatsu and tzatziki sauce is then added to the mix. As a finishing touch, the flatbread is topped with green onions and black sesame seeds.

Paella Spring Rolls is what I envision a Spanish-Vietnamese wedding would serve (and perhaps it’s already happened!). Shrimp is marinated in smoked paprika and oregano and cooked with a sofrito of onions, parsley, garlic, and of course the star ingredient of any paella – saffron. Along with sliced Chinese style sausage, the spring rolls are stuffed with Vietnamese ingredients such as rice vermicelli, Thai basil, chives and mint, and Spanish ingredients such as lima beans and roasted peppers. All of these beautifully fresh ingredients are rolled into a rice paper and the spring rolls are served with a zesty peanut-tomato sauce topped with the saffron-infused sofrito.

Crispy fries and fried shrimp tossed in a white gravy, cheese curds, candied walnuts and drizzled with a bit of honey – this is Honey Walnut Shrimp Poutine. This creation combines the sweetness of the Chinese-American dish Honey Walnut Shrimp with savory flavors from the Canadian-born poutine. The result is a mound of rich and creamy fried goodness!

This recipe combines the southern flavors of baby back ribs with Taiwanese spices and ingredients. The ribs are slow-cooked in an oven with a brown sugar dry rub until the meat falls off the bone. They are then brushed with a sweet and spicy Taiwanese barbecue sauce, stuffed in a bao and garnished with a spicy cucumber slaw, pickled mustard greens, peanuts and cilantro.

Tres Leches Fried Bananas is inspired by the popular street food – turon (deep fried bananas), and the rich and sweet tres leches cake. In this recipe, we marinated bananas in a tres leches sauce, wrapped them in egg roll wrappers, fried them up and served them with a thick, decadent tres leches sauce.

Kalbi Short Rib Loco Moco takes the classic Hawaiian loco moco and swaps out the hamburger patties for tender kalbi short ribs. The dish is served with white rice and topped with a black garlic gravy and fried egg. You get a hint of sweetness from the short ribs, which is tenderized with kiwi, a full, rich profile from the gravy with a tangy, balsamic-like kick from the black garlic, and of course creaminess from the fried egg.

At the intersection of meat, carbs and salt is the lomo saltado drunken noodles (extremely healthy for you btw). Tender ribeye steak is marinated in Asian-Peruvian spices and flash wok fried with homemade french fries, tomatoes, red onions, thai basil leaves and wide rice noodles – culminating in a sweet, salty and wildly flavorful dish.

Nashville hot chicken bánh mì is a spicy fried chicken sandwich with a Vietnamese twist. The recipe starts with boneless chicken thighs soaked in buttermilk, double-dipped in flour, and pan fried. The chicken fat and oil mixture is then tossed in cayenne pepper, chili powder, paprika, dark brown sugar and garlic powder and brushed onto the fried chicken. It’s served in a crusty French baguette lined with cajun mayo and topped with fresh cucumber, cilantro, jalapenos and pickled carrots and daikon.