Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan

Author Website

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

April 11, 2015 By cheryl

Café Andamiro (Edinburgh): Stellar Korean

Yuk Gae Jang

As you’ve probably gathered from some mutterings on this blog, I’ve had rather low expectations of the Asian food scene in Edinburgh.

There is one Vietnamese restaurant in town. (Well, two if you count Saigon Saigon, which really is a Chinese restaurant that decided to go with a slightly more exotic name.) And my trusty Edinburgh food gurus over at Asian Cajuns inform me that there’s pretty much only one place that serves good ramen in the city.

There is, however, a narrow street right by the University of Edinburgh that is speckled with ethnic food joints. When I mentioned to Lar over at Asian Cajuns that I’d sampled — and adored — the Korean place Kim’s Mini Meals along that stretch, she immediately asked, “Did you go to the other Korean place a few doors away? It’s good.”

Another Korean place? I had to see for myself.

The very next day, I headed straight over to the charming Café Andamiro …

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Asian, Comfort Food, Japanese, Korean, Scotland, Soup, Stew, Tales From the Road, Travel Tagged With: Bulgogi, Burdock root, Cafe Andamiro, California roll, Chicken teriyaki, Dessert, Edinburgh, Japanese, Korean, Korean fried chicken, Okonomiyaki, Pork katsu curry, Scotland, Spicy, Stew, Tea, Yuk gae jang, Yuzu

May 30, 2012 By cheryl

Wordless Wednesday: Tea.

Tea, by Sam Taylor, author of “Body of the World.”

 

Related Posts Widget for Blogs by LinkWithin

Filed Under: Tales From the Road Tagged With: Body of the World, Poetry, Sam Taylor, Tea, Wordless Wednesday

October 7, 2011 By cheryl

Cheese & Onion Sarnie: A Working Man's High Tea

If you’ve never had high tea in Singapore, add it to your bucket list.

These feasts, often buffets,  typically unfold over a few hours in posh hotels — all the better if they’re of the colonial variety such as the country’s fabled Raffles — and feature heaping tables of sweets (scones, clotted cream, jam, tiny tarts) as well as hearty servings of local savory dishes such as curry, noodles, steamed Chinese buns and more.

I always look forward to the scones, cakes and tarts — what proper post-Colonial Anglophile wouldn’t? But it’s often the dainty finger sandwiches that I covet first. Cucumber, sweet curried chicken — I can never get enough.

So when my monthly virtual lunch-group, the Let’s Lunch bunch, decided on doing high tea for October,  little sandwiches immediately went on my docket …

[Read more…]

Filed Under: British, Let's Lunch, Recipes, Snacks Tagged With: Assam, British, Cheese and Onion, Earl of Sandwich, High Tea, Let's Lunch, London, Lunch, Sandwich, Sarnie, Tea, Tesco

November 19, 2010 By cheryl

Lin Heung Tea House: Hong Kong Dim Sum, The Old School


IMG_6339

Because we are in Hong Kong, dim sum is a must.

My dear friend Jeanette and I — two women who have been driven by our stomachs in the 20 years that we have been the best of friends — we wake up in the cool grayness of Hong Kong bleary-eyed and starving.

Even in the fog of sleepiness, our mission is clear — we stumble out into the dusty bustle of mid-morning Hong Kong and make our way toward Central. On a corner of narrow Wellington Street lies our destination: Lin Heung Tea House, a dim sum place that has been around since 1928 and is packed most mornings with regulars who head there for a morning dumpling fix, strong pu erh (or po lei as it is known in these parts) and some quality time with the day's newspaper …

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Breakfast, Brunch, Cantonese, Dim Sum, Hong Kong, Restaurants Tagged With: Beef balls, Beef tendons, Bun, Cantonese, Cart, Central, Char siew bao, Cheong fun, Chicken feet, Dim Sum, Dumpling, Egg yolk, Har gow, Hong Kong, Lin Heung Tea House, Lin yong bao, Lo mai gai, Lotus paste, Po Lei, Pu Erh, Roast pork bun, Shu mai, Sweet soy sauce, Tea, Wellington Street

July 10, 2010 By cheryl

Pfeffernüsse: Victory Sweets

IMG_4478 

My mother called the other day, saying she’d been thinking it was time for a change.

Time, specifically, to take down the massive German flag that’s been hanging in my girlhood bedroom in Singapore since the 1990 World Cup. (And the discovery of the wonder that is Jurgen Klinsmann.)

There were protestations, of course — the Germans were doing well in this year’s World Cup. They might win it all again! Why jinx things by folding up my precious flag?

That point, of course, is moot right now. After getting trounced by the Spanish earlier this week, the Germans take to the field today — not to fight for the World Cup. Instead, third place is theirs — if they’re lucky.

Now, when I’m stressed or depressed, I tend to storm the kitchen. So, what to make for this occasion?

“Time to write about some octopus recipes!” my friend Kevin suggested. (Given that I don’t sanction the rallying cry to grill Paul the Psychic Octopus, who predicted, to his German aquarium’s dismay, that Spain would knock Germany out of the semi-finals, I decided to ignore this.)

Something more humane, perhaps. Cookies, for example, seemed harmless enough.

And Martha Stewart had just the recipe …

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Baking, Cookies, German, Holidays Tagged With: 1990 World Cup, Aquarium, Black pepper, Ceylon, Christmas, Cookie, Danish, Dutch, Flag, Football, German, Germany, Ground pepper, Jurgen Klinsmann, Martha Stewart, Nuts, Paul the Octopus, Pebernødder, Pfeffernusse, Psychic, Singapore, Soccer, Sweets, Tea, Uruguay, White pepper, World Cup

  • 1
  • 2
  • Next Page »

Copyright © 2025 CHERYL LU-LIEN TAN · Site design: Ilsa Brink