It has taken me so long to write about the time we spent in Hong Kong last winter. I’m not entirely sure why. Perhaps because we were there for long enough to feel like it wasn’t a trip, so there’s no clear narrative, but not long enough to make it feel routine. I’m not sure how best to structure our stories and experiences to share with you, but at the end, it’s probably best to just start writing.

We had a wonderful time in Hong Kong, and I’d go back in a heartbeat. Hong Kong is this vibrant, slightly chaotic, proud, country full of contrasts. It is at times loud and bustling and wonderfully modern and at times ancient and mystical and steeped in tradition. Pristine luxury shopping malls smelling of expensive perfume bump up against Buddhist temples filled with incense smoke. Michelin stars are awarded to French tasting menus and hole-in-the-wall dim sum joints. You can spend $30 on a cocktail or $2 for a bowl of noodles, and both will be delicious. The iconic skyscrapers packed together in Central fade suddenly and without warning into green mountains, blanketed with hiking trails.

A friend who visited several months after we’d left told me afterwards “I wasn’t expecting it to be so Chinese.” And he’s right. The international image of Hong Kong is of a massive, modern, high-tech city, full of expats and expensive clothes and big business. And it is that, in parts, but it’s also old, and pungent, and a little run-down, and very traditional. The international glitz is fun, but for us, the real draw was outside of the glamorous neighborhoods: the hole-in-the-wall dumpling restaurants and the sleepy seaside island towns. In five weeks we barely scratched the surface – for a small country there’s a lot to explore.

Hong Kong is a food-lover’s dream travel destination. Everything is good, and you can find pretty much anything, for a price. There’s an amazing hipster coffee scene (if you’re willing to spend $7 on a latte), 61 Michelin-starred restaurants (more than London and Chicago and Madrid), wet markets where you can buy any meat or seafood you can think of, and incredible local Cantonese cuisine. I tried things I never thought I would – abalone and shark fin and literal birds’ nests – and had some of the most memorable meals of my life.

When we got back from Asia I wrote down all the recipes I wanted to eventually share here – noodles and dumplings and soups. The other night I was reading through that list and when I got to “Shanghai Noodles with Pork, Mushrooms, and Cabbage” I had the most visceral food memory. Those noodles – fat as a pencil and utterly slurpable and chewy and coated in an addictive, salty-sweet brown sauce – were unbelievable. I struggled to recreate them at home – that sauce! Those fat noodles! – but after several rounds of trial-and-error I finally have a reasonable approximation.

The first recipe I tried wasn’t saucy enough and the second was far too salty. I ended up ditching the pork because it wasn’t adding anything, and experimenting with my own sauce. Ideally I would use thick fresh egg noodles but I couldn’t find any, so I made do with fresh udon. Now that I know how to make them, these are actually very easy. Once you have the sauce ingredients, you could whip them up on a weeknight with no problem.

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Shanghai Noodles with Mushrooms and Cabbage

Thick, eggy Shanghai Noodles covered in a slurpable, sweet-salty sauce and stir-fried with mushrooms and cabbage. Inspired by an extended trip to Hong Kong.

Adapted loosely from The Daring Gourmet, with sauce inspiration from BBC Good Food. 

• Author: Katie at the Kitchen Door
• Yield: 4-6

Ingredients

• 4 TBS dark soy sauce (don’t substitute regular soy sauce!)
• 2 TBS peanut butter
• 2 TBS honey
• 1 TBS sugar
• 2 TBS rice wine vinegar
• 1 tsp hot sauce
• 2 TBS plus 2 tsp sesame oil, divided
• 1 TBS fish sauce
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 1 TBS canola oil
• 2 portobello mushroom cups, cleaned and cut into 1/4 inch thick slices
• 1/2 lb shiitake mushrooms, stems removed, caps cut into thin slices
• sea salt
• 5 cups shredded napa cabbage
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 3/4 lb. thick fresh egg noodles or fresh udon noodles
• 2 fresh scallions, chopped, for garnish

Instructions

1. In a medium bowl, combine dark soy sauce, peanut butter, honey, sugar, rice wine vinegar, hot sauce, 2 teaspoons of the sesame oil and the fish sauce. Whisk until very smooth.
2. In a separate small bowl, whisk together the chicken stock and the cornstarch until smooth. Set aside.
3. Heat half of the remaining sesame oil and half of the canola oil in a wok over medium-high heat. Add the sliced mushrooms and sprinkle with sea salt. Cook until golden brown on both sides and tender, about 5-6 minutes, stirring often. Transfer the cooked mushrooms to a plate. Add the remaining sesame oil and canola oil to the walk along with the shredded cabbage and the minced garlic. Cook quickly, just until wilted, stirring frequently.
4. Add the sauce and the noodles to the pan with the cabbage. Use tongs to coat the noodles in the sauce, then add the chicken stock with the cornstarch. Continuously toss the noodles in the sauce until the sauce is glossy and thickly coats the noodles. Add the mushrooms back to the pan and toss a few more times, then remove from the heat. Serve immediately, topped with chopped scallions.

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Hello from JFK’s terminal B! I am on my way home from Bogota, where I spent most of last week for work. It was the first of several trips I’ll take there this year, and while I didn’t have much free time to explore, I did get to explore the food. And it’s good – hearty stews of chicken, rice, and plaintain; lime and coconut shakes that taste like key lime pie in a glass; and big bowls of beans, beef, corn, and chorizo. Plus a little bit of avocado on top of almost everything for good measure. Despite the difficulties of exercising at 8,600 feet, I struggled through a few workouts just so I could keep indulging.

As much as I enjoyed eating my way through the city, I will say that I’m looking forward to a few vegetable-driven meals this weekend to recover. I’m thinking that perhaps another batch of these Soba Noodles with Asian Pesto will be just the thing The light, bright flavors of these noodles are just right after a weekend/week of heavy eating – and getting an eyeful of color on your plate in the middle of January doesn’t hurt, either. The pesto is adapted from a favorite Ming Tsai recipe – it skips the garlic and cheese, adds jalapeno and ginger, and complements the basil with cilantro and mint. It’s a little bit sweet and a little bit spicy, and a whole lot of green. Here I’ve mixed it with soba noodles, edamame, raw carrot “noodles,” and red pepper, but other vegetables would not be out of place either. It’s a flexible recipe, just right for reminding ourselves that eating vegetables can be delicious, even in the middle of winter.

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Soba Noodles with Asian Pesto

Pesto recipe adapted from Ming Tsai. Serves 4.

• 1/3 c. canola oil
• 1 jalapeno, stem removed and pepper cut into chunks (remove seeds if you don’t like much heat)
• 1 1/4 c. salted and roasted cashews, divided
• 1 inch fresh ginger, peeled
• 1/4 c. freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1 c. fresh basil leaves
• 1 c. fresh cilantro leaves
• 1/3 c. mint leaves
• 1 TBS honey
• salt and pepper to taste
• 8 oz. soba noodles
• 1 c. frozen shelled edamame
• 2 carrots, cut into “noodles” using a julienne peeler or spiralizer
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and finely diced

1. Make the pesto: add 1 TBS of the canola oil, the jalapeno, 1 cup of the cashews, and the ginger to a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add the orange juice, basil, cilantro, mint and honey, and begin processing, slowly drizzling in the rest of the canola oil until a smooth consistency is reached. Stop the processor and season to taste with salt and pepper.
2. Cook the soba noodles according to package directions. 2 minutes before they are done, add the edamame to the boiling water. Drain and set the noodles and edamame aside. Roughly chop the remaining 1/4 cup of cashews. Toss the noodles with 1 cup of the pesto, the carrot “noodles,” the chopped cashews, and the chopped red bell pepper. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve room temperature or chilled.

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I’ve been tinkering around with mac’n’cheese recipes lately, which I’ll admit, is a dangerous thing to be tinkering with, waistline-wise. But we’ve entered that season where a bowl of extremely cheesy, creamy macaroni covered with crunchy golden-brown breadcrumbs is more perfect than just about any other kind of food, and I’m willing to run a few extra miles each week in the name of finding a great recipe to get us all through the colder months.

I’m not going to go so far as to claim that this is the perfect mac’n’cheese recipe, because I know that’s just going to open up all kinds of room for debate. What I will say, is that this is a really, really good mac’n’cheese recipe, and one that I would be happy to devour any day of the week. I’ve added just enough sweet Italian sausage and sauteed apple and onion to add a bit of textural interest and flavor contrast, but not enough to detract from the main event, which is of course, cheesy noodles. This recipe really lets the cheddar cheese shine – it’s the only cheese in the sauce, and is enhanced by a smidge of nutmeg and a spoonful of mustard, both flavors that go well with cheddar, apple, and sausage independently. And please, go the extra mile and make your own buttery, toasted breadcrumbs from scratch – it’s really easy and completely worth the extra 5 minutes it will take you. Now go add these ingredients to your grocery list – it’s officially comfort food season!

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Sausage, Apple, and Cheddar Mac’N’Cheese

A Katie at the Kitchen Door original recipe. Serves 6.

• 3/4 lb. sweet Italian sausage
• 1 large onion, peeled and finely diced
• 2 apples, cored and cubed into 1/2 inch pieces
• 3/4 lb. medium pasta shells
• 1 1/2 c. milk
• 4 TBS flour
• 6 TBS butter, divided
• 10 oz. sharp cheddar cheese, grated
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 2 tsp mustard
• 1/2 medium baguette
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Heat a large saute pan over medium heat. Squeeze the sausage meat out of its casings, and use the back of a wooden spoon to break up into bite-sized pieces. Cook the sausage until browned all over and fully cooked through, stirring frequently. Use a slotted spoon to remove the sausage from the pan, and place it in a 9×13 inch glass casserole dish.
2. Drain all but 3 TBS of the sausage grease from the pan. Add the diced onion and the cubed apples to the saute pan with the remaining sausage grease, and saute over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the onions and apples are soft, about 8-10 minutes. Scrape the apples and onions into the casserole dish with the sausage, and season the apples, sausage, and onions to taste with salt and pepper. Remove the saute pan from the heat, carefully wipe clean, and set aside.
3. Cook the pasta shells according to package directions, then drain and set aside.
4. Warm the milk in the microwave or in a saucepan over low heat until it is just steaming but not yet simmering. Place 4 TBS of the butter in the saute pan and melt over medium-low heat. Once melted, add the flour and stir to fully coat with the butter. Cook the flour-butter roux until just beginning to turn golden brown, about 2 minutes. Do not let it burn. Once the roux is golden brown, slowly drizzle the warm milk into the pan, stirring as you do so. When all the milk is added, cook the sauce until it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, then remove from the heat. Add the grated cheese to the sauce a handful at a time, stirring until it is melted (do not add the cheese while the sauce is still on the heat, as this will cause the sauce to break!). Once all the cheese is incorporated, stir in the nutmeg and the mustard, then season to taste with salt and pepper. Add the cheese sauce to the pasta shells and stir to coat, then add the pasta to the casserole dish with the other ingredients. Stir to evenly mix the ingredients in the pan.
5. Break the baguette into large chunks and quickly process in a food processor or blender to form medium-size bread crumbs. Add the remaining 2 TBS of butter to the saute pan and melt over medium heat, then add the bread crumbs to the melted butter. Saute, stirring frequently, just until the bread crumbs are golden brown, about 3-4 minutes, then remove from the heat and season to taste with salt and pepper. Sprinkle the bread crumbs evenly over the top of the casserole dish. Place the casserole dish on a baking sheet (to catch any drips), then place in the oven and bake until the top is golden brown and the sauce is bubbling, about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and serve warm.

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August’s fitness goal isn’t a fitness-goal per-se – it’s less about exercise and weight loss than it is about overall health. Despite my concerns about backsliding in July, I managed to keep the scale slowly moving downwards, getting in a solid but not stellar 4 workouts a week. I stuck to my 8 different kinds of exercise commitment too: running, strength training, ballet, hiking, swimming, cardio kickboxing, jump rope, and rock climbing. It’s fun to use your body in so many different ways. What I have not been so good about in recent weeks is keeping my stress levels in check. Work has been busy and time has been short, and I found myself teetering on the edge of illness three times in July. I know what works for my body – sleep, hydration, and mental down-time – but sometimes I fail to prioritize those things. So for August, I’m focusing on taking care of myself and giving myself room to breathe. Partly this involves 10-minute morning yoga sessions at least once or twice a week, partly it involves stretching and turning all the electronics off before bed, and partly it involves toting around big thermoses of herbal tea. I’ve also been toying with the idea of learning to meditate – I’ve never tried it, but like the idea. All together, these things do not make a goal, just a focus area: relax. In a way I’m giving myself a month off from rules – and that’s part of the point.

This same mentality explains the quietness around here in the past few weeks. I love blogging, but some weeks it’s just too much to cook, shoot, edit, and write on top of everything else going on. This month I’m actively cutting myself some slack on the blogging front: certainly not giving it up, but also not beating myself up for delaying a post 1 or 3 or even 5 days from when I had originally planned it (this post being a prime example). That said, we have a gorgeous haul of garden produce this week, and I’m really excited to crank things up in the kitchen again – I’m currently experiencing a refreshing burst of creativity, and I can’t stop writing down recipe ideas. Most of these ideas seem to center around zucchini and summer squash, which are practically rolling out of our fridge every time we open the door. Zucchini noodles are a popular way of using up the abundant vegetable, but I find a bowl of raw zucchini strings a bit unappetizing. Mixed half and half with green tea soba noodles, though, I could eat a whole lot of it. I tossed this easy combination with an Asian-inspired honey-ginger-soy sauce and a few handfuls of sliced herbs, and Trevor and I gobbled it up. You could get creative and add sliced carrot, bell pepper, and scallions for additional flavor and crunch, but I wanted to keep this version all green. However you decide to spin it, it’s a healthy and refreshing summer lunch.

In September we’ll be back to regularly scheduled programming – both on the fitness goals and blogging frequency front. Despite the fact that I’ve been out of school for three years, September still feels most like the time for new beginnings, and so August feels like the ramp-up period for that. Alternatively you might think of August as the last month of sunshine and lazy summer weekends before diving back into the meat of the year – so take the time to stop, breathe, and enjoy it. That’s what I’m doing.

Past Fitness Challenges

January: 10 Visits to the YMCA; Recipe: Gluten-Free Olive-and-Feta Corn Muffins
February: One vegan meal every day; Recipe: Pakistani Chickpea Pulao with Sweet-Hot Date-Onion Chutney
March: Run 40  miles in 20 days; Recipe: Chocolate-Dipped Almond Butter Cookie Bites
April: Walk 8,000 steps a day; Recipe: Herb-Flecked Spring Couscous
May: 180 minutes of Nike Training Club; Recipe: Warm Arugula Salad with Maple Mustard Dressing
June: Fresh fruit/veggies at every meal; Recipe: Chickpea Crepes with Grilled Curried Chicken and Mango Salsa
July: 8 different types of exercise; Recipe: Homemade Spinach Wraps with Chopped Greek Salad Filling

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Monthly Fitness Goals: August // Green Tea and Zucchini Noodles with Honey-Ginger Sauce

Zucchini noodles are a great way to eat lots of veg, but I can’t quite get over the feeling that I’m being tricked out of eating pasta, so I like to mix them 50/50 with other noodles. This quick recipes mixes zucchini noodles with green tea soba, honey-ginger sauce, and lots of basil and mint.

• Author: Katie at the Kitchen Door
• Prep Time: 15
• Cook Time: 10
• Total Time: 25 minutes
• Yield: 2-3

Ingredients

• 8 oz. green tea soba noodles (or regular soba noodles)
• 1 large or 2 medium zucchini
• sea salt
• 3 TBS olive oil
• 1 TBS grated fresh ginger
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and grated
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 2 TBS honey
• 2 TBS soy sauce
• juice from 1 Meyer lemon
• 15–20 leaves fresh basil
• 15–20 leaves fresh mint

Instructions

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the soba noodles according to package directions. Drain and set aside.
2. Use a julienne peeler to cut the zucchini into long noodles. Place zucchini noodles in a colander and salt liberally. Place colander over a bowl and let drain for at least 15 minutes.
3. Heat the olive oil in a small pan over medium heat. Add the grated ginger and grated garlic and fry until golden brown and fragrant, about 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent sticking. Remove from heat and stir in the sesame oil, honey, soy, and Meyer lemon juice until a smooth sauce is formed. Add the sauce to the soba noodles and toss to coat.

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The Book: I want to open this review with a statement that’s much stronger than those I usually make in these posts: if you like Thai food (and who doesn’t), and you like to cook, you should buy a copy of Thailand: The Cookbook. With 500 traditional recipes, absolutely stunning photography, and the gorgeous design typical of Phaidon books, I already know it will be one of my favorite books this year, even if I mostly use it for daydreaming about the jungles and coasts of Thailand and colorful plates of Pad Thai and Papaya Salad. I wish I could let all of you flip through my copy, because I’m having a difficult time communicating how gorgeous the pictures are. They are certainly given pride of place, taking up full pages and even multi-page sections, and are drenched in rich colors that show up beautifully on the luxe matte paper. It’s mostly food photography, and an impressive portion of the 500 dishes are represented, but the landscapes and portraits are jaw-dropping. There’s not very much in the way of narrative here, but the recipe section is encyclopedic and decidedly authentic, meaning you will find, in all likelihood, hundreds of new-to-you recipes – I certainly don’t have any other cookbooks with recipes for Fried Crickets with Herbs or Spicy Dried Buffalo Skin Salad. Recipes within sections are often variations on a theme and are organized in a very logical progression, for example, moving from Spicy Vegetable and Fish Soup to Spicy-and-Sour Tilapia Soup to Spicy Eel Soup to Spicy Shrimp Soup. Given this, I’d imagine that if you cook enough different recipes from this book, you would develop a sort of intuition for Thai cooking and flavors.

One of the beauties of Thai cooking is how fast it is. Sourcing the ingredients will easily be the most time consuming part of preparing most of these recipes, with many prep and cooking times under 15 minutes total. Many of the recipes are also scaled to serve 2 or 3, which is convenient for a couple like us. There will definitely be recipes that are impossible to make outside of Thailand – I doubt I’ll be coming across banana blossoms or giant water bug eggs in my local market – but don’t let that scare you away from this book, as there’s more that’s accessible than inaccessible, especially if you have a good Asian grocery nearby, or even a well-stocked Asian Foods aisle in your Wholefoods/Kroger/Shaw’s. In short, for anyone with a love affair with Thailand and its sweet and spicy food, this book is a must buy – personally, I’m so excited to finally have an authentic Thai cooking resource in my collection.

The Food: The first recipe I tried out from Thailand: The Cookbook was Drunken Noodles with Pork, because, well, who doesn’t love drunken noodles? I was looking for a recipe for lunch that would be filling but not too heavy, quick to prepare, and for which I could find the ingredients at the small specialty butcher around the corner, as I only had about an hour before we needed to leave the house. Whipping up these noodles was dangerously easy – a handful of chilies and garlic pounded into a paste, a few thin strips of pork tenderloin, a bowl full of Chinese broccoli and mushrooms, and a quick sauce of soy sauce and sugar, stir-fried one at a time over high heat, and in 10 minutes I had a steaming bowl of sweet and spicy noodles, just as good as the ones from the takeout spot down the street. These noodles are definitely going into my “quick and craveable” dinner rotation. I’ve barely cracked the surface of this book, but after my first foray into authentic Thai cooking, I’m even more excited to delve further into these recipes.

Recipe Shortlist: Thai Pork Fried Rice with Fried Eggs; Chicken Curry Puffs; Thai-Style Hot Pot; Dragon Fruit Frappe; Spicy Strawberry Salad; Chicken and Coconut Soup; Beef Massaman Curry; Green Chicken Curry; Grilled Duck with Tamarind Sauce; Coconut Custard with Fried Shallots; Sesame and Sugar-Coated Peanuts; Jasmine Flower Flan

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Disclaimer: I received a review copy of Thailand: The Cookbook from Phaidon, but I was not otherwise compensated and all thought and opinions are my own.

Drunken Noodles with Pork

Recipe from Thailand: The Cookbook. Serves 2.

Note: There were a few items I had to substitute based on what I could find at the store – 2 serranos for the bird’s eye chilies, broccoli rabe for the Chinese broccoli, chopped red pepper for the baby corn, and baby shiitakes for the straw mushrooms. I tried to keep the substitutions very close in flavor profile to the original ingredients. I’ve included both the original ingredients and my substitutions below.

• 7 oz. flat rice noodles
• 2 TBS vegetable oil
• 3-4 cloves garlic, pounded to a paste
• 5-7 red and green bird’s eye chilies, pounded to a paste (OR substitute 2 serranos)
• 3 1/2 oz. pork tenderloin, sliced into thin strips
• 5 oz. Chinese broccoli, stems removed, leaves chopped into 1 1/2 inch pieces (OR substitute broccoli rabe)
• 7 baby corn, halved lengthwise (OR substitute 1/2 c. of chopped red bell pepper)
• 5 straw mushrooms (OR substitute 1/2 c. baby shiitakes)
• 2 TBS soy sauce
• 1 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 handful of Thai basil leaves

1. If the noodles have been kept in the fridge, wrap them in cheesecloth and steam in a steamer for 2-3 minutes until warmed through. Alternatively, heat in a microwave for 1 minute. If noodles are dry, prepare according to package directions. Set aside.
2. Heat vegetable oil in a wok over medium high heat. Add the pounded garlic and chilies and quickly stir-fry for 30 seconds, until sizzling and fragrant. Add the pork slices and stir fry for 1 minute, or until cooked through. Add the broccoli and baby corn and stir-fry for another 1-2 minutes. Add the prepared noodles, soy sauce and sugar, and stir-fry for 1-2 minutes until the noodles are soft and fully flavored. Remove from heat, stir in the basil, and serve immediately.

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