Watch the video for a in-depth tutorial on how to make this dish. If you enjoyed watching, please give me a thumbs up/subscribe to me on YouTube!

Shakshuka from the Starbucks Reserve Roastery & Tasting Room in Seattle

Taking the brunch world by storm, Shakshuka is an Israeli dish consisting of eggs poached in tomato sauce and onions. Strangely enough, I first came across this dish at the Pinterest office for breakfast, and then at a trendy brunch place in San Francisco called The Dorian and also at the Starbucks Reserve Roastery & Tasting Room in Seattle. After realizing that the dish only consisted of a tomato sauce, onions, and a chicken or vegetable stock base, I became super motivated to try it out for myself at home.

The thing I love most about Shakshuka is that it’s super flexible: you can easily make it vegetarian, and it’s a meal not limited to breakfast. Because it’s super substantial and savory, it works as the perfect “breakfast for dinner” dish. For my Shakshuka, I added some of my favorite breakfast items: chicken apple sausage and mushrooms. If you’re going vegetarian with this, I recommend adding any vegetable that can withstand the heavy tomato sauce, like zucchini or eggplant. If you want to make a full meal out of it and add some extra protein, I recommend chickpeas or white beans.

Shakshuka with Sausage and Mushrooms

Ingredients (serves 4 people)

• 1 can (12 oz) of tomato sauce
• 4 eggs
• ½ cup sliced mushrooms
• half an onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 3 sprigs of thyme
• 2 links of Chicken Apple Sausage
• 1 tsp cumin
• ⅓ cup chicken or vegetable stock
• splash of white wine
• olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• feta or parmesan Cheese
• chopped parsley for garnish
• French, Italian, or Pita bread

Takes 30 minutes, Makes enough for 3-4 people.

Instructions

1. Chop the onions into small pieces and mince the garlic. Slice the mushrooms and chicken apple sausage so that they are roughly the same size.


2. Add olive oil to a frying pan (one that you'd be comfortable serving this dish out of) and lightly sauteé the onions, garlic, and mushrooms. Season with cumin, paprika, salt, and pepper, and add white wine if you have any on hand, making sure it's fully evaporated.


3. Add the tomato sauce and chicken stock (or vegetable stock if you're making this vegetarian). Toss in the sprigs of thyme and leave on the stove to simmer for about 3-5 minutes. This is your last chance to mix in salt and pepper to your shakshuka—since we will be adding the eggs right after.


4. When the chicken stock has evaporated a bit, create four holes in your sauce to make space for the eggs. Crack each egg into a hole (or, if you're worried about egg shells, you can crack them into a bowl beforehand). Cover the pan for about 1-2 minutes so that the eggwhites cook through, leaving the yolk runny.


5. Add parmesan cheese or feta cheese on top to melt. Finally, garnish with chopped parsley.


6. For the bread to serve with the shakshuka, I simply sliced them into small pieces and tossed them in olive oil, salt, and pepper. I then popped them in a toaster until they turned golden brown. They'll do a great job of soaking up all the tomato sauce and runny eggs!

Hope you can give this simple recipe a try for breakfast—or any other meal, really! Let me know how it turns out for you by tagging @cinders_zhang on Instagram! Support me by saving this recipe on Pinterest, and subscribing to my Youtube channel :) Have fun in the kitchen!

♥ Cindy

Bonjour! It’s been a minute since I visited Paris, but after rummaging through my hard drive, I realized I actually had some great photos left over from my graduation trip!

Paris was one of the first cities I visited after graduating from college, and it was without a doubt the most hectic and intimidating travel destinations I’ve ever come across. But with Amélie and The Devil Wears Prada as two of my favorite movies, I completely geeked out the moment I arrived. Here’s a list of things I think you should do when you visit, as well as some tips and gotchas for each location.

Climb the Arc de Triomphe

Get a panoramic view of Paris on top of the Arc de Triomphe. Like many other attractions around Paris, the Arc de Triomphe does not have an elevator, which means you’ll have to climb up its 284 steps to get to the top. You’ll be rewarded at the end of your climb with a stunning view of the Champs-Élysées, which is an avenue filled with cafés and luxury shops.

Vist the Sainte Chapelle

Sainte Chapelle stands out as one of the most dazzling churches in Paris because it’s surrounded in every corner with stained-glass windows. Try to plan your visit on a sunny day to see the light pouring in from all directions.

Have these must-eat Parisian Treats

Crepes: According to my friend who studied abroad in France, Au p'tit grec—located next to Sorbonne University in the Latin Quarter—is arguably the best place to get a crepe in Paris. After eating there myself, I can definitely confirm that statement. This hole-in-the-wall creperie serves both savory and sweet crepes with gooey centers and crunchy exteriors. Expect to wait in line amongst locals and tourists alike to get your hands on one of these delicious street foods.

Pastries: For the best pastries, the same friend recommended a bakery called Du pain et des Idées. Get the "Escargot Pistache" if they have it—it's not really escargot, just a buttery and flaky (snail-shaped) pastry filled with pistachios and chocolate.

Take a day trip to the Palace of Versailles

Venture out of the city to visit the Palace of Versailles. There you can explore the beautiful Hall of Mirrors and the lavish quarters of Louis XIV. Be prepared to do a lot of walking, as this residence is filled with huge gardens and numerous palaces (hey, the royals probably can’t stand each other and need their personal space!). Prepare to spend an entire day getting lost inside this lavish “estate”, which is realistically the size of a small town.

Getting to Versailles from Paris

The cheapest way to get to Versailles from Paris is by train. Round trip tickets cost about 7 Euros per person. Just head to your nearest Metro station and hop on the train to the “Versailles-Château: Rive Gauche” stop.

Enjoy intimate concerts in Parisian Jazz Clubs

Stray from the standard tourist path and enjoy a drink and performance in Paris’s many jazz clubs. Jazz and Bossa Nova are huge in Paris, and you’ll find loads of locals sipping away in the basement of restaurants or bars enjoying music in a super intimate setting. American jazz standards are the most popular repertoire, and some of the musicians themselves are American and will speak English throughout their entire set. Some of my favorite venues were 38 Riv, New Morning, and Sunset Sunside.

Get lost in the Louvre

When you’re ready to be touristy again, head on over to the Louvre, which contains one of the largest collections of art in the world. The Louvre’s size can seem intimidating and it can take hours to explore the entire thing—so set aside plenty of time for it. The museum is literally a walk through history and is filled with famous masterpieces from around the world. One of my favorite exhibits was the Napoleon III Apartments, which is filled with lavish decor and furniture and is slightly reminiscent of Versailles. It hints that the Louvre was actually a royal palace before it became a museum.

Say hi to the Mona Lisa

Because the Louvre is a major tourist destination, buy your tickets ahead of time and visit when the museum first opens at 9AM. Hurry in to see the Mona Lisa first, since this particular gallery will be flooded with hordes of people and their selfie sticks later in the day.

Head up the Eiffel Tower at night

In my opinion, it’s best to visit the Eiffel Tower at night for 2 reasons: to catch the light show and to see the panoramic nighttime view. Look at the entire city light up as the lift stops on multiple floors. Be sure to keep an eye on your belongings, as pick-pockets love to swarm the area around the tower (especially when you’re in a cramped elevator on your way up).

Explore Montmartre and Pigalle

If you’re like me and loved the movie Amélie, then you’ll love the picturesque neighborhood of Montmartre. This area of town is filled with quaint bakeries and cafés and is a great place to take a casual morning stroll. Head up to Sacré-Coeur—a basilica at the very top of the hill—to get one of the best views of Paris and see the Eiffel Tower in context with the rest of the city. Later in the day, head over to the less-innocent Pigalle neighborhood, which is directly at the foot of Montmartre. There you’ll find the famous Moulin Rouge as well as a myriad of bars and restaurants.

… annnnd a bunch of sex shops 🙃

Stay in a cute Parisian Apartment

Ditch the hotel and stay in a Parisian apartment. I was lucky enough to stay in an artist’s loft which was filled from head to toe with his paintings and sculptures. Most apartments are equipped with the very Parisian windowsill adorned with flowers. However, like the rest of the city, these traditional apartment buildings do not have elevators, which means you’ll probably need to climb some steep, spiral staircases on your way up. Be sure to have the flashlight ready on your phone when you head home at night, since most staircases won’t have its own lighting.

After creating this post, I am hugely considering going back in the near future. Perhaps on a solo trip this time?

I also forgot to mention, Paris, je t'aime and Midnight in Paris are also a few of my favorite films! And you bet I’m itching to watch them again now that I mentioned them here 😓

♥ Cindy

Watch the video for a in-depth tutorial on how to make this dish. If you enjoyed watching, please give me a thumbs up/subscribe to me on YouTube!

Fried rice is a great way to make use of leftovers and a staple dish in every Asian household. There are so many different varieties: the Korean Kimchi fried rice, the after-Thanksgiving turkey fried rice, or just the basic vegetarian egg fried rice with carrots and peas. So in this post, I thought I’d give it a southern flair by adding bacon, frying the rice in the bacon fat, and cooking the entire thing in a cast iron pan to give the rice a crunchy crust at the bottom—almost like hot stone bibimbap.

The idea of bacon fried rice partially came from this YouTube video (which I highly recommend watching): The Untold Story Of America's Southern Chinese, which explores lives of Chinese-Americans living in the Mississippi Delta. The video goes over how they made a living in the Southeast by opening up grocery stores, and delves into the food they ate. Bacon fried rice was one of their signature dishes. Absolutely genius.

You’ll need: 2 scallions, 1 cup of peas + chopped carrots, 4 strips of bacon, 4-6 cloves of garlic, 1 tbsp ketchup, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp oyster sauce, 1 tbsp butter, 2 1/2 cups of leftover cooked rice (preferably cold, straight out of the refrigerator), 2 eggs, vegetable or canola oil, salt & pepper to taste, and sesame seeds and paprika for garnish. Feel free to replace the vegetables with whatever you have left over in the fridge. Fried rice is a great canvas to get creative with.

Now, you might think I’m crazy by adding ketchup, but it’s a very common ingredient to add to your fried rice in Asian households. It’s very common amongst me and my other Asian friends to eat eggs with ketchup, and you can also see this combination in Chinese dishes like Stir-fried tomato and scrambled eggs (番茄炒蛋).

Cooking with a cast iron skillet might seem a bit scary, but you just have to make sure that it’s well taken care of and seasoned properly. Here’s a super helpful video by Tasty that explains how to clean, dry, and season your skillet. Cast iron might take a few extra steps to clean after, but it’s also very versatile in cooking all sorts of dishes (steak, dutch pancake, pizzas, chicken pot pie… just to name a few) with its advantage of starting something on the stove and finishing it up in the oven.

Cast Iron Bacon Fried Rice

Ingredients (serves 2 people)

• 2 ½ cups of cooked rice*
• 4 strips of bacon**
• 2 eggs***
• 2 scallions
• 4-6 cloves of garlic
• 1 cup of peas and chopped carrots
• 1 tbsp ketchup
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• ½ tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp butter
• vegetable or canola oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• sesame seeds and paprika for garnish

* Leftover rice that has been refrigerated (cold and hard) will work best for fried rice. Warm rice straight out of the rice cooker could become mushy in the pan.

** I used a thick-cut uncured style of bacon.

** I use Pete and Gerry's organic free range eggs for their orange yolks.

Takes 25 minutes, Makes 2 servings.

Instructions

1. Chop the scallions into small pieces on a bias. Set aside a portion of the greener ends for garnish at the very end. Mince the cloves of garlic finely.


2. Slice the bacon into small quarter-inch pieces.


3. Fry up the 2 eggs and set them aside to garnish the finished fried rice later.


4. Fry the bacon in a heated cast iron pan and allow it to render its fat. If it doesn't release a lot of fat, you can add extra oil to the pan. Remove the bacon and drain them on a paper towel, leaving the rendered fat behind in the pan.


5. Stir fry the peas and carrots in the bacon fat, then add the garlic, stirring constantly to prevent it from burning. Keep the heat on high and add rice to the pan, breaking up the rice and coating it with bacon fat. Keep in mind that in this case, it's okay if the rice sticks to the bottom of the pan. This will create a hot stone bibimbap-style crust.


6. Add the ketchup, soy sauce, and oyster sauce to the pan, and incorporate them well into the rice. Season with additional salt and pepper if needed after tasting (note that there will be some saltiness coming from the bacon, soy sauce, oyster sauce, and ketchup already).
 

7. Fold the cooked bacon back in, and wilt the white ends of the scallions into the rice. Turn the heat off, and melt the butter into the rice.


8. Add the fried eggs on top of the fried rice and garnish with scallions, black and white sesame seeds, and paprika if desired.


9. Serve in the pan while its still hot, ensuring that the pan doesn't stay on the stove for too long for the bottom crust to become burnt.

Again, let me know how it turns out for you by tagging @cinders_zhang on Instagram! Support me by saving this recipe on Pinterest, and subscribing to my Youtube channel :) Good luck in the kitchen!

♥ Cindy

If you’re anything like me and you hate doing dishes, cooking a pasta dish in one pan is a great way to prepare a meal without worrying about the extra pot of water, straining the noodles, and cleaning up additional kitchen tools. This one-pan pork belly/bacon carbonara is a great way to try out this one-pan technique and only requires 7 common ingredients, most of which are probably already in your pantry—spaghetti, pork belly or bacon, garlic, salt, eggs, parsley, and parmesan cheese.

This is certainly not the healthiest dish—but believe me, it’s so worth the calories. Pork belly is one of my go-to comfort foods, and I love eating it in ramen, pork adobo, Korean BBQ, and hot pot. Because it’s seen more in Asian cooking, it can sometimes be hard to find at the grocery store. If you can’t find pork belly, feel free to substitute it with thick-cut slices of bacon. In these photos, I added a bit of applewood smoked bacon into the mix since I only had a few slices of pork belly left.

Because this dish can become rather heavy with the pork belly, cheese, and egg yolks, be sure to add lots of freshly chopped parsley on top to balance everything out.

One-pan Pork Belly Carbonara

Ingredients (serves 2-3 people)

• 8 oz (230g) spaghetti
• 4 strips of thinly-sliced pork belly or bacon*
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 egg yolks
• parsley
• parmesan cheese
• salt + pepper

* The pork belly slices used for hot pot/shabu shabu would be best!

Takes 25 minutes, Makes 2-3 servings.

Instructions

1. Chop up the pork belly into half-inch pieces. If you can't find pork belly, feel free to use bacon. In my photos, I used a combination of both.


2. Sprinkle salt and pepper onto the pork belly. If you're using bacon, you can skip the salt.


3. Finely chop the parsley and set it aside for garnish later.


4. Chop the garlic into thin pieces to fry up with the pork belly.


5. In a large pan (with a bit of depth), fry up the pork belly or bacon until it becomes crispy and renders its fat. If it doesn't release too much oil, feel free to add a little more canola or vegetable oil to the pan. Add in the garlic slices when the pork belly is mostly cooked, making sure to stir them around often since garlic can burn easily. When the pork belly renders its fat and becomes crispy, take the garlic and pork belly out of the pan and drain them on a paper towel, leaving the rendered fat in the pan.


6. With the heat down, add the spaghetti to the pan and enough water to completely submerge the spaghetti. Turn the heat up and let the water cook the spaghetti, leaving the lid off the pan to let the water evaporate. Move the noodles around to prevent them from sticking together. Be sure to scrape off the bottom of the pan as well to incorporate the pork/bacon fat into the noodles.
 

7. When the water evaporates and the noodles are finished cooking, add back in the bacon and garlic and incorporate them into the spaghetti. If all the water evaporates and the noodles are not yet cooked, feel free to add more water to the pan.


8. Season the noodles and pork belly with more salt and pepper to taste. Note that if you're using bacon, you won't need as much salt since the bacon itself provides a lot of the saltiness to this dish.


9. Turn off the heat and let the pan cool down. Fold in two egg yolks carefully. It's crucial you do this on a slightly-cooled pan so that the eggs don't scramble.


10. Garnish with the freshly chopped parsley from earlier and grate parmesan cheese on top.


11. Serve while still hot, and enjoy family style!

Hope you can give this comforting dish a try, and let me know how it turns out for you by tagging @cinders_zhang on Instagram :)

Happy new year everyone!

♥ Cindy

This post is going to be a bit of a throwback post. When I visited Italy last summer, I brought along several 35mm disposable film cameras to capture some truly candid shots of Venice, Rome, and Florence. This experience gave me an interesting and different perspective to photography. I’m so used to snapping multiple photos, looking at them, and then taking more to adjust for the mistakes in the previous shots. With a film camera, there’s no way to see what you’ve snapped until much later, until you’ve filled up your camera and gotten all your photos developed, so you really have to think hard about the composition of your photo, as well as find that perfect moment to capture.

Venezia

Roma

Firenze

Now, for the cameras:

Color: Fujifilm QuickSnap Flash 400 Disposable 35mm Camera 

Black & White: Ilford XP2 Super Single Use Camera with Flash (27 Exposures) black and white film

I got my film developed at Oscar’s Photo Lab in San Francisco. You can also get them developed at some Walgreens, CVS, and Costco stores.

Hope you enjoyed the photos, and happy 2019!

♥ Cindy

Watch the video for a in-depth tutorial on how to make this dish. If you enjoyed watching, please give me a thumbs up/subscribe to me on YouTube!

Mapo Tofu was one of my favorite dishes to eat growing up. My mom—who’s originally from Sichuan—used to make this this all the time since it’s a effortless staple in a Chinese household. It works as a main or a side, and tastes amazing on top of a hot steaming bowl of rice.

For those who have a fear of tofu: is it because of its bland flavor or the strange texture? If so, it’s probably because you’re cooking it wrong (apologize for my sass).

Mapo Tofu, on the other hand, is full of flavor from the spicy chili bean sauce (which acts as its base) and salty fermented black beans. Traditionally, it’s topped with a red chili oil and Sichuan peppercorns. Its silky texture comes from the combination of the soft tofu with a cornstarch slurry that makes the sauce thick and gooey. The soft texture is balanced with ground beef or pork, which is fried throughly with the chili bean paste in the beginning.

Though the ingredients might seem kinda intimidating, you can buy most of these at your local Asian market. No guarantees, but you can probably find most of these in the Asian section at a regular grocery store as well.

At the usual grocery store: ground beef/pork, tofu, scallions, cornstarch, sesame oil, chili oil

At the Asian grocery store: doubanjiang, or pixian douban (Chinese spicy bean paste), douchi (fermented black beans), Sichuan peppercorns (or peppercorn powder)

Definitely serve this on top of rice, since the dish can be pretty spicy and salty when eaten by itself.

How to make Mapo Tofu (麻婆豆腐) - my mom's recipe!

Ingredients (serves 3-4 people)

• 1 block of soft tofu
• ¾ cup of ground beef/pork
• 3 scallions
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 2 tbsp water
• vegetable or canola oil
• 1 tbsp pixian douban/doubanjiang (Chinese chili bean paste)
• 3 tsp chili oil
• 1-2 tsp ground Sichuan peppercorns or Sichuan peppercorn powder
• ½ tbsp douchi (Chinese fermented black beans) *optional
• 2 tsp sesame oil *optional

Takes 15 minutes, Makes 3-4 servings.

Instructions

1. Chop the lower ends (white parts) of the scallions into 1 inch pieces. Chop the leaves (green parts) into smaller pieces that we’ll use for garnish at the end


2. Cut the block of tofu into half inch cubes. Bring some water to a boil in a large pan and add in the tofu. (You can definitely skip this step, but this process will ensure that the tofu is super soft and silky, and removes impurities from its original packaging).


3. Finely chop the fermented black beans.


4. Add oil to a hot wok. When the wok is hot enough, add in the chili bean paste.


5. Add ground pork to the wok and stir fry it with the bean paste. Make sure you break up the ground pork so that it cooks evenly and is completely coated with the bean paste.
 

6. Add the chopped fermented black beans into the pan. Since these are pretty salty, just a little bit will go a long way.


7. Toss in the roots of the scallions and stir fry it with the sauce


8. To make the sauce thicker, combine the cornstarch with water. Stir it up to make sure it’s well combined. With the heat turned down low, add this mixture to the pan. The slurry will make the sauce and pork really gooey and silky.


9. Toss in the whites of the scallions and stir fry it with the sauce.


10. Toss in the boiled tofu and lightly fold it in with the meat sauce. Be super gentle with it, since you don’t want to break up the soft pieces of tofu.


11. Add the Sichuan pepper powder, sesame oil, and chili oil. If you like your tofu to be spicier, feel free to add more chili oil than what's specified in this recipe. Finally, toss in the chopped scallion leaves and lightly fold them in. You won't need any extra salt since the doubanjiang and douchi already contribute a lot of saltiness to the dish.


12. Spoon the Mapo Tofu on top of a bowl of white rice and top with more scallions.

I loved watching my mom in the kitchen when I was younger, and I’m pretty fortunate to have picked up this dish from her. Because she never really measures her ingredients, it was pretty hard for me to come up with the measurements for this recipe. So feel free to adjust the amounts to your liking—tasting your food while cooking is the best part!

♥ Cindy