the petite pig

an attack on grammar (and diversity)

after my recent "meet the pomegranate" blog post, i received this comment from a reader:
"First, this is NOT the proper way to process a pomegranate.  You do not cut it if half.  You cut a small section of the top off, score the rind, then separate it into parts.

Second, why do you people not capitalize properly.  You are in America.  We speak and write English in America.  When I see English grammar butchered, it drives me nuts."

i'd like to first thank him or her for his suggestion.  i received a comment from another reader suggesting this same method, so i definitely plan on giving it a try later today when i make my favorite meat sauce: a pomegranate-balsamic reduction. 

second, i'd like to suggest to him or her that he definitely has a place in the kitchen of gordon ramsay but probably not on my blog.  one thing i love about writing "the petite pig" is the feeling that i'm part of a larger food community where homecooks (like myself), avid eaters and even professional chefs can come together over our common love of food.  it's a community where ideas, recipes and techniques are shared openly.  it is not the restaurant kitchen of some hotheaded celebrity chef where there is barking and ordering and a right way and a wrong way to do things.  i do not run my kitchen that way and i definitely do not write my food blog that way.

third, and my real issue with this reader is his or her's second comment.  "why do you people not capitalize correctly.  you are in america.  we speak and write english in america."  i've had other readers take issue with my stylistic choice to not use capitalization.  despite the criticism, it's a choice i stand by.  it worked for e.e. cummings.  why can't it work for me?  but i feel that this comment is not an attack on my freedom of expression but on the value of diversity.

i realize that i live in america.  but america is a melting pot of cultures and people and of course, their food.  i feel incredibly lucky to be exposed to so many cultures without traveling more than a few steps outside of my door.  it is the immigrants of america that have helped make the american food scene what it is.  more than ever, we in america can experience the assorted tastes and foods of all those that make up the world. 

i'd like to think that all of us are in a better place because we have access to so many cultures but i know this isn't the view held by all.  i grew up in a small apartment in maryland with five of my family members.  dinners were cozy and chinese.  one of our favorite meals was fried fish, which as some of you may know creates a pungent smell.  this dish particularly upset one of our neighbors, who felt the need to post a public letter encouraging us to move because we and our food were not appreciated.  it was the first time in my life where i felt the demeaning nature of racism.  this reader's comment called upon those feelings again.  to me, this reader might as well have written, "why do you people not cook properly?  cook american?"   

english is not my first language.  american food is not my first taste.  but it doesn't mean that i don't belong here.  what doesn't belong is any tolerance for racism or food fascism.  neither are welcome at my table or my blog.   

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thanks to everyone who offered their comments.  this post is now closed for comments so we can get back to the heart of this blog: food.

announcing clementine

two months ago, i offered a sneak preview to my latest culinary venture.  after much back-and-forth with my web designer, i'm proud to announce that clementine culinary productions (whose acronym ccp may or may not have something to do with the chinese communist party) has launched and has even lined up a few dinner parties for the month of june.  although just a part-time undertaking, i'm excited to be taking my knife skills on the road.  many names were suggested for the venture (thanks to all those who emailed me with their thoughts) but the final selection of clementine came to me while i was out grocery shopping.  i picked up a clementine, and it just seemed like a natural fit for the name of a petite food entertainment company.  clementines symbolize a token of good fortune in chinese culture so a jar of clementines will be left at the end of each job, to leave just that with each party i feed.

if you're living in the bay area and interested in giving clementine's services a try, you're in luck.  most recently, i've been working with the founders of organicpicks, a great new website providing a community-based directory for organic living, and we've partnered for a promotion running through june 30th.  write five reviews of various green-oriented services or products on their site, and you'll be entered in a drawing to win a tuscan-inspired meal by ccp (aka me) for six in your own home.  not too shabby, eh?  yes, armed with my arsenal of pots, pans and knives and repertoire of italian recipes, i will drive to your home and cook in your kitchen and serve you and five of your guests dinner.  talk about the good life.  and even if you don't win, you can still get all of that.  you'll just have to fork up some cash.

 

and if you're looking for some tips on entertaining and how you can best take advantage of farmers market season (which has finally arrived in full force for all that great summer produce), check out the article i've written for organicpicks on "easy entertaining at home."

all photos by the wonderful allan hsu.

a beer convert and quixote winery

i was raised to be a beer drinker. i suspect that when i was born, my father set out on a mission to ensure that his daughter would be different than all the other little chinese girls out there, commonly known as the lightweights of the lightweights who prefer the fruitier cocktails. looking at old family albums, there are several photos of me as a toddler strategically situated next to a beer can.  i can only assume this is my father's doing.  and well, his hard work paid off because until this day, i consider myself a die-hard beer drinker over any other libation. 

until this past year, i've remained my father's beer-drinking daughter. i've scoffed at the snootiness of wine, all that jargon people throw around when waxing the merits of a pinot noir over a merlot (and i suspect that over half of them are just reciting paul giamatti’s lines in 2004’s sideways). i imagined wine drinkers as people with names like "sir jeeves" who sample 1987 bordeauxs (hmm, not even sure if '87 was a good vintage of bordeaux?).  they take grand dramatic sips of the stuff and after some thoughtful contemplation, pronounce the emotional judgment of their taste buds: "yes, i feel we've aged this bordeux just long enough to allow some of the tannins to subside while exposing the ripeness of the grape which creates the most velvety sensation on the tongue."  me: "ahh yes, sir jeeves i do agree with your titillating description.  you've expressed my very same thoughts!"  ok, no, not really because i have no idea what you've just said.

yes, i'll admit i was a bit wine ignorant (and probably still am).  i saw the world in grape or grain.  you are either a wine drinker or a beer drinker.  wine drinkers took themselves too seriously (and had names like sir jeeves).  beer drinkers knew how to have a good time (and had names like joe).  who wouldn't want to be part of the latter group?  but as my food tastes have become more sophisticated, i've felt the social pressure to venture into the world of wine.  after all, when was the last time you were at a fine dining establishment and they handed you a beer list?  my foray into the wine world has not been easy and i can’t say i’ve gone all too willingly, fearing that i’ve been a traitor to my roots (i took my father wine tasting in sonoma recently and he kept asking them, "so do you have any thing other than wine?"  we are definitely not wine drinkers.).  however, i have reached a point where perhaps there is room on my table for both a pint and a wine glass. 

it seems that more and more, the two worlds are converging. the microbrew has become the indie band of the beer world. in other words so popular that it isn’t even indie anymore. beer isn’t just an ale or a lager anymore; or pale or dark. there are beer reviewers, beer magazines. more jargon to describe beer as there is to describe wine.  beer, it’s not just for your regular joe anymore.

on the other hand, wine seems to have watered down its reputation to appeal to the regular joe. we can all walk into a trader joe’s and get a decent bottle of wine for under ten bucks (some of my favorites in the under ten crowd are: cellar #8’s 2004 merlot, twin fin’s 2004 pinot noir and 2005 hello my name is syrah).  there’s even a wine blog called the budget vino, dedicated to reviewing wines under ten bucks. labels are becoming more fun and less stuffy. wines with names like fat bastard fly off the shelves.  yes, it seems that the world of wine has changed (for the better).

that’s why it was so refreshing to come upon a winery like quixote on a recent trip to napa.  quixote was started in 1996 by carl doumani (previously of stags leap winery and also father of lissa doumani of terra and ame) after he decided that napa was taking its place in the wine world just a little bit too seriously.  through quixote, doumani was able to recapture the fun in wine again with the help of friedensreich hundertwasser an austrian architect. taking six years to build, quixote is hundertwasser’s only design in the states and is well worth a look for its playfulness and divergence from the rules of conventional architecture. from the color to the lack of straight lines, the place is a bit alice in wonderland. for any of you who have been to barcelona, you will definitely be reminded of gaudi’s “what was he smoking?” style.

tucked away from the main silverado trail, quixote is a nice departure from the chateau after chateau like structures that line napa’s main artery.   tours and wine tasting can be arranged by appointment through lew price (lew@quixotewinery.com), the general manager.  at no more than eight to a tour and tasting group, the whole feel of quixote is personalized and intimate (but never snooty).   it's more of a museum tour than a winery tour if anything and on a nice day, the wine tasting happens outside with the pacific palisades as a backdrop.  i could get used to this whole wine thing, eh?  i even came out with two bottles of the 2003 quixote petite syrah and two bottles of the 2004 panza claret, which may be one of the best wines i've ever tasted.  i would describe it as a full bodied wine with just the right blend of spices and fruit.  just kidding.  i have no idea what it was except for really, really good. 

now how 'bout a pint of beer?

my introduction to western food

i think when people find out that i love to cook, the first question i usually hear is, "what kind of food do you like to make?  chinese?"  i'm never offended by the assumption.  after all, i did grow up in a very traditional chinese family and ate my share of native fare.  however, i think because i grew up mostly eating chinese food, i found everything non-chinese to be the exotic.  as an adolescent, all you want is to "fit in."  you don't want to be that weird kid who gets fed worm juice instead of cherry-flavored robitussin when you have a cough (yes, this is a true story - my grandmother is quite the human eastern apothecary).  for us eating out meant going for a bowl of pho (vietnamese beef noodle soup), dim sum or a noodle joint.  for my parents, the thought of going out for a western meal was just too foreign for them to handle.  a meal without jasmine white rice on the side was not a meal at all in their eyes.  i remember asking my mom if she could make some spaghetti for me, just like all my friends got to have for dinner.  her response to my request was spaghetti noodles stir-fried in ketchup.  you have to give the woman credit for trying to please her brat of a daughter.  yes, for years i thought spaghetti with tomato sauce was spaghetti with ketchup.   

i think the first western restaurant (not counting my many trips to mc donalds and popeyes chicken) i got my parents to take me to was a t.g.i.fridays when i was about eleven.  to me, this little trip to a national chain restaurant was the treat of my life.  in my head, i was going to three-star michelin dining (not that i knew what michelin was at this point in my life aside from the tires).  my parents delegated the duty of ordering to me, something my dad always got to do when we went out.  i felt like the responsibility of introducing my parents to the world of western food was on my shoulders.  yes, this was my chance to convert them from chicken's feet (which i happened to love anyway) to chicken tenders.  i felt completely lost perusing friday's classic red, white and black menu.  after all, my breadth of exposure to western food consisted of what my friends'  parents fed me at their homes and school lunches of tater tots and grilled cheese.  i can't remember what i chose for myself, but i decided on nachos for my parents.  as most of you know, dairy is not a big part of the chinese diet.  my mom and dad didn't know quite what to do with this platter of tortilla chips with this blob of orange goo on top of it and this sour curdled milk? -  what was this big mass of "stuff"?  yes, my desire to turn my parents onto american food didn't go over too well.  their tastes for food has definitely broadened since then (most probably forced by me).   and well i have since learned that spaghetti with tomato sauce doesn't involve america's favorite condiment.

so, the answer, "yes, of course i love to make chinese food."  but i also love to try out the exotic, which to me is what most americans consider the traditional.  this past sunday dinner, i entered the exotic world of southern cooking.  i decided on something new and something i knew was going to be good: chicken & dumplings and mac 'n cheese.  the chicken & dumplings came from one of my new favorite cookbooks called all about braising mostly because it's provided me many excuses to use my dutch oven.  the dumplings (made by my roommate michelle) were dropped and they really were fantastic.  different of course than chinese dumplings which are filled with meats and vegetables, the south defines their dumplings as light nuggets of bread.  these involved a mix of flour, parsley and nutmeg and then were simmered in the braising liquid of the chicken which infused them with rich flavor.    

liz, an experienced southern dumpling maker, found the petite pig through a blog written by a future literary magnate friend of mine who has set out to rescue the aspiring writer.  i found out through her that southern dumplings are rolled and not dropped and she was kind enough to pass along her grandmother's recipe to me.  hope she doesn't mind me sharing it with you all. 

In a medium size bowl mix one large egg and an egg sized lump of Crisco.  I mix this up with a fork.  It won't be smooth, just get it sort of worked together.  Then add in an egg shell of water. Add a pinch of salt.  Mix a bit more.  Then slowly....add in your flour...little bits at a time, say no more than a 1/4 cup. Mix it up. It will become pasty.  Once it looks a bit like wet dough, cover your work surface with a good bit of flour. Dump the dumpling mixture onto it and knead until the dough won't take any more flour. Then you get out the rolling pin and roll it out. It should be a bit thinner than pie crust.  Then take your knife and slice them into 2x3 inches rectangles, or close to it.

 

Now, I cook the chicken, a whole one, first off with about 3 onions.  Remove the chicken, set aside to cool.  Once cool, debone. Strain the broth to remove the onions and some of the fat.  Bring the broth back to a boil.  Now drop the dumplings in, I collect about 6-12 in my hand and dump them in one at a time.  Repeat until they are all in there.  Give it a stir and turn the heat down, put the lid on and let them steam.  I usually cook them 15-25 minutes.  Stir periodically....when they look done, they will be a bit puffy.  Add the chicken back in.

 

There is a definite knack to this....I've been making them for 15 years now and mine still don't compete with my grandmother's...but she is 88!!  Guess she's had a bit more practice than I have.

thanks liz.  if any of you southerners have some of your exotic recipes to share, please pass them along.   i always look forward to something new in my kitchen, chinese or not.

a preview of what's to come . . .

all photos by allan hsu.

i found out this past weekend after two full days of non-stop cooking that orchestrating a food photo shoot is not an easy task.  i set out on this great adventure this past saturday thinking that i could put together fourteen dishes in one day.  by the time six o'clock rolled around and i was just halfway through my menu, i realized that maybe i started out a bit ambitious.  so one full day of cooking turned into two to take all the photos i needed for a new website i'm launching in two weeks time.  don't fret though!  the petite pig is not going anywhere.  i'll still be here once a week (twice a week if we're lucky) to talk shop but i have to admit, all this food blogging has gotten me hungrier than ever about food.  after lots of profound (or perhaps just confused) existential thought, i decided to take a sabbatical from my career as a living-out-of-my-suitcase consultant.  i now work a normal, home-by-six 40 hour week and have rediscovered time, time to do things.  it's pretty amazing. 

so you ask, what have i been doing with all this time?  have i figured out the meaning of life?  well, no, and probably never will but i have figured out one thing: that i love food and it's about time i take this show on the road, so i'm trying to get two food businesses up and running.  the first is going to be my own personal chef/private dinner party thrower/cooking instructor/just let me feed you business.  i may have to end up naming it just that unless one of you readers have any suggestions for me?  if you do, deadline is until saturday to email me.  if i choose your name, a multi-course dinner for you and three friends awaits you.  the second business is still too fledgling to reveal much, but i'll make an announcement when the time is right.

back to this photo shoot.  no food website would be complete without lots of shameless food porn.  as a result, my friend allan hsu (anyone need a photographer?  cause after you see these photos, you'll want to pay him just to come take pictures of your bowl of 5 cent ramen) endured two full days of the type-a chef that i can be to help me capture the food porn that i envisioned.  fifteen dishes . . . lots of food requiring lots of 1) help and 2) eaters.  i emailed a dozen friends to do just that.  they responded to my plea for help and came bearing gifts of wine, appetites and bravery.  they acted as makeshift sous chefs, photo-assistants, food-stylists, taste-testers, but most importantly, wonderful supporting friends.  there were a lot of moving pieces, food scattered everywhere, a summer roll wrapping lesson thrown in there but twenty plus hours of simmering and searing later, we had exactly what i was hoping for: beautiful make-you-salivate photos.  drained, i fell into a chair, my body ached but it was definitely the most rewarding cooking i had ever done.  stay tuned for www.jessdang'spersonalchef/privatedinnerpartythrower/ cookinginstructor/justletmefeedyou.com.

oh, and just in case you were wondering.  here's the menu from the weekend:

lobster and shrimp chowder
pan-seared shrimp in parmesan baskets with pancetta and pesto
sausage, chicken and bacon rolls with a butter apple, thyme and sage sauce
frisee and orange salad with walnuts
mixed greens with asian pears, craisins and goat cheese
duo of summer rolls: poached shrimp & cucumber and ahi tuna & avocado
duo of salsas and guacamole
sausage and portobello pizza with arugula
pan-seared chilean sea bass with cream of corn and red pepper coulis
rack of lamb with polenta, sauteed mushrooms and fried leek strings
black truffle mac 'n cheese a la dave martin of top chef season 1
viet trio: sweet fried rice with thai basil, caramel chicke and shaking beef with mango
panna cotta with balsamic-strawberry sauce
shots of tiramisu

gung hei fat choy

chinese all over the world celebrated another new years over this past weekend. we welcomed the year of the boar with all the traditional fanfare that comes with the holiday: wishes for success and good health for the upcoming year are exchanged between friends and family; little children enjoy newfound wealth with each red envelope they receive; sacrifices are paid to the ancestors and the gods; but most importantly,there is so much food unique to the holiday. on new years eve, chinese families gather for the traditional reunion dinner tuan nian fan. being a superstitious bunch, there are certain dishes that have to be eaten on new years eve  to ensure a great year. fish will be part of any new years menu as the chinese word for fish sounds similar to the chinese word for luck. a large vegetarian spread is also prepared usually featuring a moss that is pronounced fat choy which is also the same sound as the phrase for fortune. whole chickens and whole roast pigs are often used to pay respect to the ancestors and gods in a ceremony involving incense and prayer before making their way to the table.

tuan nian fan, as many of you can guess, is my favorite part of celebrating the new year guo nian. growing up in an immigrant family in america, chinese new years was the one holiday i knew we always got right and always celebrated with complete devotion to all the traditions. it was the equivalent of what most american families have to christmas or thanksgiving but with the tradition and celebration factor multiplied by a factor of ten. my mom who is the cleanest person i know indulged in the tradition of new year spring cleaning, sweeping away all the bad from the previous year preparing the family for all the good luck of the coming year. my grandmother sewed me a new dress so i would have a new outfit to start the year in. red signs with auspicious chinese phrases painted on them in calligraphy hung in our apartment. i wouldn't wash my hair on new years day so that i wouldn't wash the future year's luck away. my dad and his brothers would close down the chinese restaurant they jointly owned in bethesda for the evening, and all our family and friends would gather for a night of festive celebration and eating. i pranced from relative to relative in my newly sewn dress , collecting my stack of red envelopes filled with five, ten, sometimes even twenty dollar bills. as a young child, i definitely thought chinese new years was the party of the year, and some of the most memorable moments of my childhood are from those parties.

my family resigned from the restaurant business long ago, so the celebration has moved into the home and out west. every other year, all six of the dang children (my dad and his five siblings) with their spouses travel from as far as singapore to california for a larger gathering to celebrate both my grandma's lunar birthday and the new years which happen to coincide. unfortunately, this was an off year, but i still made it down to the OC to spend the holiday with my grandma, aunt & uncle and cousins. we feasted on a number of my favorite chinese dishes (shark's fin soup with crab meat & peking duck) for grandma's 84th birthday this year at at sam woo restaurant, a cantonese institution in irvine. my aunt made a huge traditional spread for our tuan nian fan with lots leftover to ensure that there's surplus for the rest of the year. i left the prancing for red envelopes to my nine and eleven year old cousins, aaron and ben but otherwise, the holiday remains much the same to me - full of family, food and traditions and still the best party of the year.

2006, retrospective

moments of 2006 to share . . .
music by devotchka, "you love me"

weekend rituals

every weekend, i sit down with my cookbooks and we have a lengthy conversation. we talk about what’s in season. we talk about exotic new ingredients. we talk about what new recipes i should attempt. ok, so we don’t actually “talk” but every weekend, i look forward to this time, where i get to be surrounded by the thoughts of chefs – professional and amateur, the seasoned and the rookies, the unconventional and the traditional – and it is almost like i can hear their creative thought processes; it is like i can hear them talking to me, like we’re sitting in the kitchens of their homes and they’re sharing with me the secrets of their craft. when i read a cookbook, i feel that i’m not only reading a biography but also learning about the tangible creations that have come out of a chef’s culinary journey. to me, flipping through the pages of a cookbook, is like going to an exhibit of an art museum. with both, you come to understand an artist, just through different mediums.

with a pretty hectic work schedule, this is not only my time to indulge in this passion of mine but without this time to think and plan, i would never be able to pull off cooking as much as i do during the week. each weekend, during this time, i select what recipes i’d like to try during the week. some are new, some are old standbys and some are new versions of old standbys. most are tailored in some way so they are practical for post-long-day-at-work kitchen ventures with the more time and labor intensive recipes reserved the for the weekend. after making my menus for the week, i will usually proceed straight to the grocery store (or in my case grocery stores) with my list in hand, and each night when i come home from work, everything i need for that night’s menu is waiting for me in my kitchen.

this last week, i chose two new recipes: cook’s illustrated the best recipe’s macaroni and cheese and michael chiarello’s baby back ribs with espresso barbeque sauce from food network favorites. combined with a couple of old standbys and some usual improving, i had 4 (relatively) quick-and-easy meals for the week.

saturday menu
roasted rack of lamb with a red wine reduction sauce
parsnip risotto
sautéed leeks and red peppers

this was a good weekend meal due to the risotto which takes a great deal of attention to prepare properly. i have made risotto dozens of times, but this was my first time using parsnips, which was inspired by march’s bon appetit.

monday menu
pork chops with a balsamic-fig apple sauce (recipe found below)
macaroni and cheese
slices of granny smith apples

these pork chops are my new spin on the old american classic, pork chops and apple sauce. the sauce can be made with white wine and a sweet vinegar. on that particular monday night, i used the subtle sweetness of a riesling to cut the tartness of the vinegar and the granny smith which i make into an apple sauce using my lemon zester. a friend recently gave me a bottle of balsamic-fig vinegar which was perfect for this sauce. if you can’t find that, try cider or champagne vinegar. and to the s the mac ‘n cheese recipe can be served straight out of a pot, an alternative to your typical baked mac ‘n cheese, which is ideal for a quick weeknight meal with the added bonus of saving you from washing a baking dish. i used both monterey jack and wisconsin sharp cheddar, as well as a couple shreds of gruyere.

tuesday menu
omelette with pesto sausage and cheddar
mixed greens salad with strawberries, blueberries, pecans, in a balsamig-fig dressing

for those of you who read my entry on february 22, 2006, you know that i love turning breakfast fare into simple dinners. if you’ve got some eggs and cheese lying around, you’ve got yourself something easy to make and eat. getting home at 8 that night, it was definitely the fastest thing i could whip up.

wednesday menu
baby back ribs with an espresso bbq sauce
roasted baby potatoes with white truffle oil
buttered corn

i think i’d have to vote this meal *meal of the week.* perhaps its my love for southern food, but there is something about licking bbq sauce off your fingers that makes ribs so delicious and so fun to eat. and truffle oil? – perfect for adding a bit of sophistication to even the most “down-home” of dishes.

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pork chops with balsamic-fig apple sauce
serves 4
cooking time: 15 minutes

4 pork chops, about 1 inch thick
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper
1/2 cup riesling (substitute with white wine or other dessert wine)
1/2 cup balsamic-fig vinegar (substitute with other sweet vinegar such as cider)
3/4 cup chicken stock
2 large granny smith apples, 1 peeled and sliced, 1 unpeeled

sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides of pork chops. heat large skillet over medium-high heat. coat pan in olive oil. place pork chops in hot pan and sear for three minutes on each side. lower heat to medium. continue cooking on each side until meat reaches 160 degrees. remove from skillet and cover. remove skillet from heat and deglaze pan with riesling. lower heat to medium-low and add vinegar and chicken stock. let liquids simmer and reduce. when sauce begins to thicken, use a microplane/lemon zester or cheese grater and grate in unpeeled granny smith. cook for an additional minute. serve over pork chops. garnish with granny smith slices.

the meaning of wontons

"the next food network star" series

entry number one: the meaning of wontons

wontons in chinese actually means to swallow a cloud.  i shared this fact in my audition tape for “the next food network star” in which i try desperately to talk about myself, my philosophy on food and make a bowl of wonton noodle soup in under three minutes. 

so, now is probably a good time to rewind a bit to explain how i, a 24 year old management consultant, came to try out for a reality tv cooking show.  let me begin by introducing myself to those that don’t know me:

my name is jess(ica) dang and like i said before, i am a 24 year old management consultant living in california's idyllic bay area.  i work for a boutique strategy consulting firm in which i conduct all sorts of qualitative and quantitative analyses, play with NPV forecasting models and make pretty power point presentations.  that is my day job.  in the evenings i moonlight as a lover-of-all-things-food.  i read about it; i cook it; i eat it; i dream about it.  the time that people devote to thinking about sex, that’s the time i devote to thinking about food.  to me, they are probably interchangeable, both represent the hedonistic pleasures of life. 

my parents immigrated to this country when i was 20 months old from vietnam, although we are ethnically chinese.  my father worked in the restaurant industry and as a result i grew up in food.  i do not know whether i was a product of my environment or if it was just in my nature to eat but i ate everything - everything from fish eyes to tripe to pate to even swallowing my chewing gum.  by the time i was ten, i had tried cow brain, frog legs (which does surprisingly taste like chicken), snails, abalone, and many, many other edible (and some not so edible) specimens.  i ate enough for someone twice my size and from my love of eating grew my love for cooking.  my freshmen attempts were disasters at best.  at the age of nine, i chose to surprise my mother on mother’s day with a waldorf salad.  for those of you who do not know what a waldorf salad, it involves fruit and mayonnaise.  need i say more?  yeah, i didn't think so.  she took a bite, smiled and politely set it aside.  no, i was not a natural-born-chef despite being a natural-born-eater.  unfortunately, they are not one and the same. 

the turning point in my culinary path occurred the summer after my junior year in college.  i was twenty and made the decision to take a huge loan that i could not afford so that i could study painting and drawing in firenze (florence for all you americans out there), italy.  it was worth every last dollar i shelled out and pound that i gained.  i ate like calories meant nothing – pastas, pizze, two to three new flavors of gelato a day, pastries in between classes, chianti at lunch.  my gastronomical reputation preceded me – people in my program would meet me, and say, “oh, i’ve heard about you - you’re the girl that eats?”  yes, 6 weeks, 11 new pounds later, i was the girl that eats – there was no denying it.  but in between all the long restaurant meals and café visits, i stumbled upon the food markets of firenze too.  i was in love - strolling through the narrow avenues of these markets in a trance, contemplating all the possibilities that existed.  on days where we wouldn’t have organized meals, i’d stop by the market, pick up some cured meats, greens and grains and cook away.  i had no idea what i was doing – i couldn’t read italian so picking up a cookbook wouldn’t help so i was better off improving my dishes.  i came back to the states that summer inspired, inspired to discover, to create, to experiment with all-things-food-related.  and four years later, i’m still doing just that. 

so, now that i have taken you on quite the detour into my life, lets get back to wontons and this  audition tape of mine.  it is a typical weekday in mid-october.  i’ve put in my necessary hours at the day job and rush home so i can start playing in the kitchen.  i get home, put down my bags, turn the tv on to the food network for background noise and start grabbing tonight’s dinner’s ingredients out of the fridge.  i’m chopping an onion when i hear a commercial advertising the return of “the next food network star” for a second season.  audition tapes would be accepted through october 31^st.  i unfortunately did not catch season one, but i think, “how hard could it be to be a cooking show host (apparently, pretty damn hard as i soon would find out)?”  so, i chop my onion, and think, “hey, i can do this.  i can cook and i can be somewhat entertaining when i need to be.  no harm in at least giving it a try, right?”  a couple days later, i’ve borrowed a video camera and a tripod from the library and am set on putting this tape together.  piece of cake, right?  well, about a dozen takes later, i’m thinking, maybe this isn’t going to be as easy as i had originally thought.  i begin to question whether i really want a chance to win my own cooking show all that badly.  time is ticking.  the camera and tripod are due back to the library at 9:00 pm.  the clock on my microwave reads 8:42 pm.  i am down to one last wonton wrapper, and i have no choice but to leave it up to fate.  if this audition tape is meant to be, i have one more chance to make it happen.  taking a deep breath, i start the timer on my microwave one last time.  roll tape . . . 3 short minutes later, i have completed my mission.  i talk about myself, “hi, i’m jess dang and i grew up in the food industry with my dad in the restaurant business . . .”; i talk about my cooking philosophy, “food is not just something that provides sustenance but should be made and received with great gusto and heart . . .”; and demoed how to make my all time favorite comfort food, wonton noodle soup.  hmmm . . . did i remember to mention that wontons means to swallow a cloud in chinese?  i sure hope so. 

stay tuned for entry number two . . .