Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan

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October 1, 2010 By cheryl

Doenjang Jjigae: Tofu & Seafood Stew (Commoners' Food)


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You could say I haven't exactly been the kind of daughter-in-law a Korean mother would have wished for.

I can't speak Korean. (I don't think being able to say "kalbi" and "bulgogi" counts.) And while I'm awfully good at eating Korean food, well, making it is another matter entirely.

I'd never attempted many Korean dishes simply because they seem terribly complex — each stew, each grilled meat I sample is always bursting at the seams with complicated clusters of flavors. How could I ever replicate those tastes in my little Brooklyn kitchen? No, no, it was always far easier to just throw in the spatula and hop on a train to New York's Koreatown.

After spending some time in the kitchen with my mother-in-law in Honolulu for book research last year, however, I started to come around. 

Since she lives in Hawaii and I live in New York, it's been impossible to keep the lessons going. So I've been turning to a blogger whom I deeply admire — and adore — who's essentially a one-woman Korean cooking school: the irrepressible Maangchi.

Many of her recipes are incredibly simple — foolproof, almost — and watching her videos helps you figure out whether you're chopping things the right size or grilling meats to the right doneness. Recently, I had her to thank for a lovely tofu and seafood stew I'd been craving …

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Asian, Korean, Recipes, Seafood, Stew Tagged With: Anchovies, Brooklyn, Doenjang, Doenjang jjigae, Garlic, Green onions, Hawaii, Honolulu, Kimchi, Korean, Koreatown, Maangchi, New York, Onion, Potato, Scallions, Seafood, Shrimp, Stew, Tofu, Zucchini

March 5, 2010 By cheryl

Kitchen-Sink Stir-Fry: Spring Cleaning Your Fridge


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It’s hard to think about spring when there’s still snow on the ground in New York. But one must be optimistic — which we are over here in the Let’s Lunch crowd.

Fresh off our breathless postings on aphrodisiac-laced dishes in February, our thoughts immediately turned to warmer times as we debated what to make next for our monthly virtual lunch date.

How about “spring cleaning (the fridge?)” Stephanie over at The Cosmic Cowgirl suggested.

And so, kitchen-sink recipes to help you springclean your fridge it was.

Now, since I have several solid grocers (and one neat butcher) within a 2-minute walk of my Brooklyn apartment, I tend to buy as I cook. (I’ve never really been one to stock up my fridge like there’s no tomorrow, anyhow.)

Nonetheless, there are a few basics that I must always have in my fridge: Bacon, tofu and some sort of ground meat, usually pork or beef.

Bacon is a wonder that must be consumed on its own, in my book. (Or, in a bacon explosion. Or a BLT. Or … I digress.)

But what to do with tofu and ground pork? The possibilities are endless …

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Let's Lunch, Meat, Recipes, Singapore, Singaporean, Southeast Asian Tagged With: Aphrodisiac, Bacon, Bacon explosion, Brooklyn, Cornstarch, Erlinda, Fridge, Ground beef, Ground Pork, Kitchen sink, Let's Lunch, Mushrooms, New York, Oyster sauce, Pork, Recipe, Scallions, Singapore, Snow, Soy sauce, Spring, Spring cleaning, Stir fry, Tofu

September 8, 2009 By cheryl

Scissor-Cut Rice: One Handsome (Tasting) Meal


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My New York friend Mark likes to tell the story of how, on his first visit to Singapore, he stopped a group of people near a hawker center, asking them which was the best place to eat in the area. 

“Big scissors!” was the immediate answer.

Which may seem an odd name for a food establishment to some. But in Singapore, the word “scissors” indicates that this is a stall in which you buy a plate of rice, point to a bunch of dishes (usually holding items like tofu, fried eggs or pork chops) and the hawker then piles what you’ve chosen on the plate and snips it all up into bite-size pieces with — you got it — a big pair of scissors.

While this could come across as a rather unorthodox way of serving a meal, let me tell you, places with the word “scissors” in their names often churn out pretty darn satisfying food. In Mark’s case, his meal — which he still regularly recounts with great gusto and yearning — was at Big Scissors Curry Rice at Maxwell Food Centre. 

Recently, I had the good fortune of discovering another gem in the “scissors” category: Beach Road Scissor-Cut Curry Rice. 

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Hainanese, Hawkers, Rice, Singapore, So Good It Must Be Bad For You, Tales From the Road Tagged With: Beach Road Scissor-Cut Curry Rice, Big Scissors Curry Rice, Fishcakes, Ikan Bilis, Jalan Besar, Maxwell Food Centre, New York, Pork chops, Red-light district, Shopping Center, Singapore, Tofu

August 7, 2009 By cheryl

Burgers: A Marriage of Shrimp & Tofu


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I now appear to have a regular lunch date with a gregarious bunch of new friends.

We love to cook and we love talking about cooking — so this little thing about never having met hasn’t exactly stood in the way of our growing friendships.

It all began with a lazy Sunday morning conversation on Twitter when three women, one in Paris, one in San Diego, and one in New York, started craving BLT sandwiches. That blossomed into our first intercontinental BLT lunchdate, which nudged us to new levels of creativity.

Ellise in Paris made a beautiful BLT with chipotle mayonnaise and Poilane bread and Karen in Atlanta created a mouthwatering grilled fontina cheese BLT. Nicole in San Diego actually baked a truly unusual Basque sheepherder’s bread for her BLT. (You’ve got to check out Nicole’s sheepherder’s bread pictures — it was a yeasty architectural wonder if I ever saw one.)

Our virtual lunch left us (temporarily) sated — but hungry for more.

So, for our next lunch, we decided to tackle another standard: Burgers.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Let's Lunch, Recipes Tagged With: Asian sesame oil, Bacon, BLT, Burger, Chili, Cilantro, David Chang, English muffins, Ginger, Grass-fed beef, Hoisin, Jicama, Korean, Lettuce, Lunch, Mango, McDonald's, Minced Chicken, Momofuku, New York, Paris, Salad, San Diego, Scallions, Shrimp, Singapore, Soy sauce, Tofu, Tomato, Twitter

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