...call for a big bowl of Southeast Asia fusion noodle soup by Tuk Tuk.

Herbal aromatic broth with Asian greens, spring onions, side of Hoisin sauce and sriracha, fresh herbs, chili, lime and quail egg wonton.

It can be served with specialty five spiced duck, marinated prawns, grilled beef with soybean paste, Char Sui pork (slow cooked Cantonese style pork with star anise, dark soy and fresh ginger), grilled chicken breast or mushrooms and tofu. 

Everything is blooming in the garden today!

Preparations for a fluffy cozonac with butter, orange zest and Corinthian raisins.

A traditional Easter meal in our family infuses the Romanian tradition with our mixed background (Italian, Greek, Turkish). It usually starts with a series of appetizers, and apart from the Romanian traditional starters such as salata de boeuf, we use the occasion to invent at least one two appetizers each year. This is part of the Easter fun! Aside from the "inventions", the beginning of the meal will usually include a fish, cheese and cold meats platter. 

Painted eggs are the star of the meal, and it is the custom in my family to eat them with a delicious roasted beet-horseradish garnish and the omnipresent during this time: spring onions and spring garlic.

As the tradition says, everything coming next will be the little lamb: lamb sour soup (borș de miel), lamb roast and drob de miel. 

Ahhh the dessert...finally! :)

Traditional Romanian sweet bread, cozonac. 

This year's special dessert creation, my sister Diana's blackberry brownie (totally yum).

Wherever you are, feel our joy and celebrate with us!

(click on the photos for the story)

An outstanding foodie experience came on the way home, in Agigea, Romania: ​Pescăria lui Matei

Thao Uyen

Finally it’s corn season, at least here in France. I’m so happy that the season has come at last! I’ve been waiting and waiting since last year. Vietnamese people love corn. The proof of that is in their cuisine: they create many dishes with it, mostly desserts but also soups and street foods. I decide to dedicate my next posts of August to corn with its strange yet delicious dishes and I will also cover on how to choose good corn and its many benefits.

This is a simple boiled corn snack in Vietnam, a tribute to my generation and older ones. Nowadays this boiled corn snack is not very popular but it was not the case 20 years ago. After 1975 peace came back to the country, but the wars and its many bombing episodes left the land barren and the population devastated. Rice was so scarce and people had to search for other carb sources, among which are the popular sweet potato and corn. Around the end of the 80s and 90s, boiled corn became a snack and comfort food for many, me included. Back then children of the whole neighborhood played and went on many adventures together (what I actually mean is they got into mishaps together). Children used to sit in a circle with a whole pot of boiled corns and eat and joke around while those corns sweeten their childhood. The ears of corn are usually boiled whole with their silk intact for added benefits, like this:
​

Today the country has changed so much and boiled corn is no longer a substitute for rice. Corn nowadays is a versatile ingredient. Vietnamese people are a whole creative lot. Now they have grilled corn with spring onion oil, corn soup, fried corn cake, corn sautée with shrimps, corn pudding (not just one type of pudding but dozens) and the list is not exhaustive. However boiled corn remains for me, and for many Vietnamese of my generation and older ones, a sweet comfort food.

Thao Uyen

Summer can be irritatingly hot but the beauty of it is incomparable.
Looking at these blooms etched in the rich blue sky feels like something wonderful is about to happen.