Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan

Author Website

  • Home
  • Bio
  • Books
  • Events
  • Work
  • Blog
  • Contact

July 17, 2012 By cheryl

Chicken Cutlets Meunière: A Book Club Find

A lovely thing about writing a book about food: People want to feed you.

There were gifts of chocolate in both Paris and San Francisco. In Chicago, a reader showed up at my Women & Children First book signing with a box of home-made beef rendang (Indonesian-style beef curry) so tender and so delicious that I still think about it with great longing. And in Singapore, a very sweet cookbook author came to my Books Kinokuniya reading bearing a packet of fried carrot cake — so freshly cooked it was still hot! — from a hawker stall so popular you generally have to line up for half an hour just to snag a plate.

Just as thoughtful as the food offerings have been the recipes readers have shared. Some have been in their families for generations; others are more avant garde.

And among them all is a recipe so simple (and terrific) that it’s now part of my regular rotation: Chicken cutlets Meunière, gleaned from a charming little book club in New York City …

[Read more…]

Filed Under: American, Poultry, Recipes Tagged With: Asparagus, Banana bread, Book Club, Chicago, Chicken Cutlets Meuniere, Florida, Haroset, Kinokuniya, Liang's Bistro, Nuts, Omnivore Books, Pesto, San Francisco, Singapore, Slice of Mooncake, Tampa

May 27, 2012 By cheryl

Pier 23 Cafe (San Francisco): Bacon, Oysters and A Beer

If you, like me, head to the Ferry Building each time you come to San Francisco, you’ll know the problem that lies ahead.

After all the honey sniffing, cheese poking and book browsing you’ve done, a question inevitably arises: Where to get a lovely drink and nibble with a sweeping view of the water and Bay Bridge?

If it’s anytime after 4:30 p.m. or so and you’d like a comfy spot in the Ferry Building — good luck. Some of the places there have such terrific happy hours that you’ll be battling swarms of commuters and tourists all looking to belly up.

On a recent visit, however, my friend Matt had a better plan. Outside, on the Embarcadero, he started going north, pushing head-on into thick gales determined to blow us back. After a few minutes, our struggles were over when we came upon a little shack of a building.

From the palm trees plastered on its side and the kitschy neon sign that said “Pier 23,” I knew this would be the perfect spot …

[Read more…]

Filed Under: American, Bacon, Boites, California, Restaurants, Snacks, Tales From the Road Tagged With: Bacon, Bay Bridge, Beer, Embarcadero, Ferry Building, Oysters, Pier 23 Cafe, San Francisco, Wine

May 25, 2012 By cheryl

Mama's (San Francisco): Eggs Worth The Odyssey

I have been called “the world’s most easily bored person.” By someone who knows me well, too. (And yes, despite such insensitive name-calling, we remain married.)

And so there are very few meals for which I would happily line up more than an hour — if I’m going to subject myself to all that boredom, the food had better be nothing short of earth-shattering.

In San Francisco, the one place that commands a wait of at least 90 minutes on most days and still has my devotion is a little corner restaurant on Washington Square Park called Mama’s …

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Breakfast, Brunch, California, Restaurants, Tales From the Road Tagged With: Bacon, Breakfast, Brunch, California, Californian, Eggs, French toast, Mama's, North Beach, Omelette, Restaurant, San Francisco, Washington Square Park

May 21, 2012 By cheryl

Fishermen's Grotto (San Francisco): A Taste of The Old Wharf

It’s not every day that I look forward to eating at a cheeseball tourist trap.

The Fishermen’s Grotto in San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf, however, holds special meaning. Thirty years ago, when the sous chef was an undergrad at Stanford University, his father would breeze into town from their Iowa homestead and whisk him away to San Francisco.

There, the man would regale his son with stories of his own youth in 1950s San Francisco — and invariably, these trips would land the pair at a little place in the wharf. The old man would order a Shrimp Louis, remarking with prickly nostalgia that the pricey platter of creamy shrimp “used to cost just $3.50 back in the ’50s.” And over heaping plates of shrimp and fish, he would share the colorful stories of his bygone years.

So when the sous chef and I found ourselves in San Francisco last week, a visit to the old hangout became a must.

Battling sidewalks jammed with tourists and street artists offering to sketch our portraits, we wended our way along the breezy waterfront and found it: Fishermen’s Grotto, the very first restaurant in Fisherman’s Wharf …

[Read more…]

Filed Under: American, California, Fish, Restaurants Tagged With: California, Clam Chowder, Fisherman's Wharf, Italian, Restaurant, San Francisco, Seafood, Shrimp Louis, Tourist

March 15, 2011 By cheryl

Taqueria Las Comadres (Oakland, Calif.): Our Little Secret

There are several things that set my stomach aflutter whenever I step off a plane in San Francisco: a simmering hot bowl of pho topped with bright pink thin slices of steak still gradually turning brown at Pho Tan Hoa in Union Square, the roast chicken at the always lovely Zuni Cafe.

Once these items have been checked off the eating list, however, a new craving inevitably sets in: Mexican. While New York does have any number of decent Mexican places, the tacos and enchiladas at California’s ubiquitous taquerias always seem — to me — far superior.

So, when a break in book events and book store visits recently led me to Oakland, where my friend Ann casually mentioned an excellent little Mexican joint nearby, I immediately said, Let’s Go …

[Read more…]

Filed Under: California, Mexican, Oakland, Restaurants Tagged With: Bay Area, Beef, California, Chicken, Enchilada, Mexican, Montclair Village, Oakland, Pho Tan Hoa, Pork, Quesadilla, San Francisco, Tacos, Taqueria, Taqueria Las Comadres, Tostada, Zuni Cafe

  • 1
  • 2
  • Next Page »

Copyright © 2023 CHERYL LU-LIEN TAN · Site design: Ilsa Brink