Experiencing Great Food and Travel Together!
“One must eat great food to make great food.” – David Kim
My recipes represent who I am. They have changed and have (hopefully) improved over the years just as I have. However, I have tried to keep two factors constant throughout this evolution: taste and simplicity. Every recipe I create or adopt as my own must be delicious (to me), and relatively easy to make. I hope you will find my recipes to be just that.
Cooking is a very personal skill and art form developed over time. It is also an expression of love. Often times, if you ask someone of their favorite food or food memory, they will tell you that the best (random dish) they ever ate was made by their grandmother. Grandmothers embody those two key elements: time and love. They have been cooking for decades and love to see their loved ones enjoy the food they prepared.
The one common theme you will find in my recipes, other than taste and simplicity, is… nothing. I love eating and cooking all types of food and it shows in my recipes. My recipes also reflect my family’s history of what I call random restaurateurism. My family, including myself, have owned and operated restaurants of many types and cuisine. From fast food to fine dining. Japanese, Chinese, Italian, Burgers, BBQ, Subs, and more. Some of my recipes are adapted from growing up in those restaurants. They may also bounce from traditional Korean dishes to modern French to Texas barbecue to something totally random. Recently, I have been trying to eat healthier and consume less processed foods so my recipes have evolved towards a healthier trend while maintaining yumminess.
A common ‘ingredient’ you will find in recipes is “salt and pepper to taste.” My recipes call for nearly everything to taste. I constantly taste my food while cooking and adjust ingredients to my taste. My recipes may contain a certain set of ingredients, but treat it as a guide rather than a rule so you can make them your own. Are you one of the 4-14% of the population that cilantro tastes like soap? Then replace the cilantro in my recipe with parsley or even omit it altogether. Are you dairy-free? Then replace the butter in my recipe with coconut oil. My final thought on my recipes is this: Don’t be afraid to try new things because you think you may not like it or because you haven’t liked a certain the way it was prepared for you before. I’ve known several people that hate cooked salmon, but have grown to absolutely LOVE raw salmon dishes. As with all things in life, try something new three times before deciding if you like or dislike it.
I really wanted to call this Mexican Street Corn (Elote), but with my healthy adaptations to this recipe, it just wouldn’t be right. It would be like me trying to pass off menudo without tripe, or pate without liver – good, but just not the …
This Creamy Zucchini Corn Pasta Recipe can be misleading because there is no cream nor pasta in this dish. But it is super creamy and delicious, and healthy with the use of zucchini pasta. My spiralizer has been one of my most helpful acquisitions of …
If you’ve ever watched Gordon Ramsay on Hell’s Kitchen, it looks as if scallops were God’s creation to embarrass chefs. You also have to wonder how difficult it is to cook perfectly seared scallops. I am here to tell you, it’s super easy and quick …
This is my Zuppa Toscana Recipe loosely based on that place with unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks. I think they have pasta too… For years, I frequented Olive Garden almost religiously on a weekly basis. Of the hundreds of times I’ve been, I think I …
Every single lentil soup recipe I have come across calls for blending at least partially. So, I always blended my lentil soup. One day, after recently completing a move, I decided to make lentil soup. However, I hadn’t unpacked everything and I had no idea …
My Italian Stuffed Tomatoes recipe is a decent departure from the average stuffed tomato recipe. It isn’t baked in the tomato. It doesn’t contain bread crumbs. Every other recipe that I had found had both of those as an attribute. So, I set out to find …
This Mashed Sweet Potatoes Recipe is a very simple, hearty, and delicious dish made with heart-healthy ingredients. This is another instance where I have been amazed at how well coconut oil and coconut yogurt replace butter and cream – making this dish a bit healthier …
