Fave Reads 2012

That time of year again. At the start of a new year we reflect on the previous and in that sense you don't only get reviews of my baked goods, those I've enjoyed in and around NYC, but also books I read this year that I thoroughly enjoyed. In 2011 my Goodreads goal was to read 50 books and I read 54. This past year my goal was to read 52 and I read 60. For 2013, the aim is 54 at minimum. And I still have about a dozen or so titles from last year's Book Expo to read.

Please note that these books are listed in no particular order.

• Easy Chinese Recipes (2011) - Thanks again to Tuttle Publishing for helping me host a giveaway of one of my new favorite cookbooks! While you don't read a cookbook per se you do experience it and when recipe after recipe is good you know you have a winner. I have made scallion pancakes a good half dozen times since August. Like I said in my review of Bee Yinn Low's book: once you make her recipes you will never go out to buy Chinese food again. It's easy, as the title says, and delicious. Seriously if you have any hesitation don't. You don't need fancy tools or anything but a handful of ingredients and the tenacity to go forth and cook!
• Days of Blood and Starlight (2012) - Pretty much anything Laini Taylor writes I will love. This is guaranteed. Last year the first book in her new series threw me for a loop, and it's sequel, Days, has me chomping at the bit for the final installment next year. I warn you Days is much darker, bloodier, and grittier than Daughter of Smoke and Bone as is the main character of Karou--still reeling with guilt when we left off in the first book. Read a page of Laini's stuff and you'll fall in love, I promise you. Just do it. Do it now!
• Live By Night (2012) - Last year I read two Dennis Lehane books and picked The Given Day as one of my faves read last year. Night is a follow-up, kind of, to that following the youngest brother Joe who was just a kid in Day. We follow Joe into his life of crime, drastically different from that of his dad and older brothers, and how he carves out a life for himself but not after lots of pain and sacrifice. As I said last year Lehane has a way with prose and especially with dialogue (I told him this when I met him at Book Expo). I'd read about the Coughlin family for years to come.
• Where Things Come Back (2011) - John Corey Whaley's debut got heaps of praise and deserved it. He won the Printz Honor, was chosen by Pulitzer Prize winning author Oscar Hijuelos as one of the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35, an honor not given to a YA book before, and a William Morris Debut Award. This book is heartfelt and well written and has two stories that you're not sure where they're going to go but ultimately see how lives can affect one another adversely or for the better. This was one of those books where I deliberately missed my train stop to keep reading. Can't wait for his next work.
• The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors (2010) - Michelle Young-Stone was at an event at WORD Brooklyn with Heidi Durrow last year and in hearing her and Heidi give such warm advice to aspiring writers I instantly wanted to read her book. I was not disappointed. Lightning Strike Survivors follows the lives of two kids (who grow into adults), and those connected to them, who've been affected by lightning. Young-Stone spent years writing this book and got her big break with her agent and in writing about these characters you feel that she knows them, has lived with them even. This is another book I didn't want to end and was a bit disheartened when I saw I was on the last page.
• The Handmaid's Tale (1985) - Margaret Atwood is a huge name in literature and in dystopian/sci-fi. My friend and critique partner Kim recommended this book to me and it's a classic. Many new tales YA especially are often based on the premise posed by Handmaid's Tale. The prose is straightforward but very visual and colorful. The ending may leave you hopeful or terrified depending if you're an optimist or pessimist (aka realist). I find the ambiguous ending and the steady way the world became something much worse for women and families a spectacular piece of storytelling. A newly released illustrated version was also released this year, kind of pricey but stunning.
• The Fault In Our Stars (2012) - Okay, who didn't love this book? It's great! Automatically hit the best-seller list and captures something devastating with wit and grace. So good. John Green is a major name in YA publishing, especially being a male writer in YA who writes fully fleshed characters, male and female, so well. Many people cried. I didn't  however it doesn't mean I didn't feel anything. When I finished it I was all kinds of choked up.
• Breed (2012) - Chase Novak (aka Scott Spencer) wrote this tale about a couple willing to go the extra mile to have kids and they do in fact losing themselves to carnal urges they cannot explain but are traced back to some shady IVF practices. I've been a fan of Spencer's work reading his NBA nominated A Ship Made of Paper and Endless Love. So when I found out he wrote it I picked it right up at BEA.
• Between Shades of Gray (2011) - Ruta Sepetys has had her book mixed up with that other Shades of Gray book this year. But hers is not a romance at all. It's a heartbreaking tale of young girl watching her family lose everything at the rise of Hitler. This is based on Sepetys' Lithuanian family who was trafficked along Europe and ended up in Siberia for years. The first line is one of the most haunting things you'll ever read in fiction, be it YA or adult focused. It's a tale that doesn't shy away from the bad parts but also gives you hope at every turn even when you're hit again and again with the atrocities. I also read the ARC for her upcoming YA book Out of the Easy. Hard times and well-written. I'd recommend it as well.
• The Night Circus (2011) - Erin Morgenstern was a huge name at Book Expo in 2011 when Night Circus first came out and it was well deserved. Her debut novel provides visual impact on every page is lovely and telling and lyrical. She has a way with description painting a literal portrait. Some may not love it but I think if you enjoy beauty and words than you'll be into this one.
• Cloud Atlas (2004) This was a book club pick and I am glad it was. The film came out in 2012 but the book is just amazing! How David Mitchell kept everything together, created such vast worlds new and old and current and languages whole new languages threw me for a loop. Admittedly the beginning sagged for me but it picked up as we went forward in time and then backwards. Amazingly structured and I learned a lot from the writing and enjoyed the typesetting design as well.
• Swamplandia! (2011) - Shortlisted for the Pulitzer in 2012 (when there was no winner in the Fiction category) Karen Russell built an interesting world. This was another book club pick but on my list since I'd read the interview Poets & Writers did with Russell around the time of publication. This is another tome that has multiple POVs, mainly Ava in first person and her older brother Kiwi in third (and I do enjoy me some multi POV books) but the language, the detail, the growth of these people and revelations they deal with are great and I see why it was shortlisted.

Other books I enjoyed reading in 2012 include Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward (I agree that this'll be an American classic), A Working Theory of Love by Scott Hutchins, The Raven Boys (book 1) by Maggie Stiefvater, Blasphemy (story collection) by Sherman Alexie (Check out the story 'Cry, Cry, Cry'), State of Wonder by Anne Patchett, Once Upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell (Yup, another kick ass female protagonist), Prodigy (sequel to Legend) by Marie Lu, and The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin.

Here's to more books in 2013 old and new! My list of what I want to read continues to grow and there's just not enough time. But the time I do spend reading I thoroughly enjoy.

Winner "Easy Chinese Recipes" Giveway & New Cookbook Giveaway!

Thanks to everyone who 'liked' pages and visited my site and are fans of Rasa Malaysia's site. I'm happy to announce the winner of a copy of Easy Chinese Recipes deemed by Rafflecopter is.... Carmen Nuland.

Congrats, Carmen! I'll email you for your address and will make sure to put the book in the mail via USPS ASAP. Thanks again to Bee for spreading the word and Tuttle Publishing for aiding in this giveaway. And if you didn't win many of these great recipes can be found on rasamalysia.com so you can see how awesome they are for yourself. And I have another cookbook giveaway!

So the deal is that this giveaway officially starts tomorrow at 12:01am (EST) and will end on October 1st 12:01 am (EST). I'll post the Rafflecopter link for entries in a post tomorrow AM.

Happy cooking!

Rasa Malaysia's "Easy Chinese Recipes" & Cookbook Giveaway!

Being from an urban environment and because of the availability of hole-in-the-wall Chinese takeout stores I have always had a place in my heart for Chinese food. Chicken and broccoli as well as lo mein were staples for me. I never understood why some went straight for chicken wings and fries when you could get that anywhere. For me Chinese takeout meant something I couldn't get at home. Upon expanding my horizons and getting to know friends of East Asian descent and knowing that what we got in the takeout stores didn't resemble the actual traditions, I was interested in having the more authentic brand. But, I was pretty fearful of the process and technique involved in making an East Asian dish outside of one I defrosted.

So hearing the words: Easy. Chinese. Recipes. And knowing Bee Yinn Low (via her website Rasa Malaysia) wrote a cookbook of Chinese cuisine (published by Tuttle Publishing), I was intrigued.

I sat down, I mean really sat down, with Easy Chinese Recipes and didn't just skim it but read the details of what captures flavors I have enjoyed since I was a child--noting that Bee also mentions the difference between the takeout Americans are used to and the more realistic aspects of Chinese cuisine--as well as many of the 'How to's to make dishes similar to the way I'm used to with the right tools, sauces, and preparation.

First off, sauces are not meant to be thick like gravy and dishes aren't doused in them as I am used to. Also there are a handful of key condiments used in these dishes. I knew soy sauce was one but had no idea that oyster sauce was the other or that baking soda was used to aid in the tenderizing of meats when cooking.

I chose recipes that I could make a comparison against, ones that I have had in Asian restaurants/takeout/frozen, so that I had a basis for what I expected the taste to be for the dishes I made.

The Dishes

Beef and Broccoli

Even Bee notes that beef and broccoli is one of the most popular dishes in American takeout stores.

I didn't tenderize the meat (Bee has a section on how to do so with beef, pork, and poultry as well as making shrimp bouncy) for this dish and went all in with cutting flank steak against the grain and marinating (15 minutes). Then I prepped the broccoli, made the sauce and instant rice on the side rather than steamed long grain rice.

Using a large non-stick wok I prepped the beef, blanched the broccoli, added ginger to the oil, returned beef for final cooking, adding broccoli and sauce and voila I had my very own beef and broccoli! The sauce was a mixture of soy sauce, oyster sauce, toasted sesame oil, white pepper, sugar, corn starch, and water and really brought me back to the flavors I have eaten over the years from takeout.

I may have over cooked the beef though. Tenderizing the flank steak may have gotten that smoother texture I'm used to. The main difference between what the frozen P.F. Chang's and the takeout place down the hill and this recipe is the lighter aspect of the sauce as well as the rougher texture I got from the meat. However, if I had had dishes side by side and the meat had been perfect I would've chosen what I made.

Cashew Chicken (sans cashews)

I made this after work as well. And I chose to take Bee's advice and tenderize the chicken before marinating it and making the dish. The additional sides to this are cut up peppers (red and green, but I used red and yellow) and roasted cashews (which I took out since I'm having orthodontic work done), in addition to the sauce. Ginger is prevalent in many of the recipes so make sure to have a bunch of it ready and minced, same goes for garlic.

After tenderizing the meat (letting chicken sit in baking soda and then thoroughly washing before marinating) I half cooked it, added the minced ginger, and then the peppers and re-added the chicken. The sauce was light as well but clings and adds a great flavor (hooray for oyster/soy sauce mix!)

I am IN LOVE with this dish. The chicken was so tender even the next day after nuking it and several days later eating remaining leftovers. The peppers melted in my mouth and all the flavors were amazing! I know one of the best things about Chinese food is texture and if you get that right then everything falls into place. And this one knocked anything I've had in takeout/restaurants out of the park! So I'll be making this again and again and again.

Classic Shrimp Fried Rice

I didn't follow the steps to make the shrimp bouncy in this instance. I had made the rice the night before as Bee suggested and went with brown long grain rice which has a grainier texture than white long-stemmed rice/jasmine.

The seasoning/dressing for this is quite light mainly soy and fish sauce with sesame oil (another new love of mine) and white pepper.

As with all the other recipes I tried you partially cook the protein, in this case you have two proteins with scrambled eggs and shrimp. Cook the eggs first then partially cook the shrimp, take those out and add garlic & ginger, return the shrimp with frozen peas and carrots, cook for a bit then add rice, eggs, and seasoning and mix well.

Again: enjoyable. This is best eaten soon after making, not when it's piping hot but still very warm. The shrimp and peas and carrots and egg and seasoning were great with the rice and a nice meal in itself. And what I noticed was that the seasoning was, again, not heavy. I was worried the flavors wouldn't be there. "Less is more" pervaded in all of Bee's recipes, particularly this one. The flavors melded and each one worked together and was not too salty as the takeout you'll  get nor was it greasy. I used low sodium soy sauce for all recipes but I think even without it the fact that you're adding light touches really does let the umami flavor break through on the fried rice. Again, I prefer Bee's recipe over takeout/restaurant/frozen foods that I've had of this variety.

Vegetables with Oyster Sauce

In Easy Chinese Recipes this is listed as Chinese broccoli (gailan) with oyster sauce. But since I did not like the gailan I found I went with another favorite, bok choy, and figured I'd see how this worked. I followed all the same steps of blanching the bok choy and cooking the sauce (again oyster and soy) and sprinkled this atop the vegetables. Man, oh man was this great! The sauce is not thick, more watery and you may want to add more bok choy than I did to make sure the vegetable isn't swimming in the sauce. Again, not too salty but with a familiar flavor that compliments the Classic Shrimp Fried Rice I ate it with and the Cashew Chicken I had it with the day after. I love bok choy for it's watery flavor and crispy texture. It reminds me of fennel but less intense in taste and for anyone who has had bok choy in an Asian restaurant you know that it works well with a light, meaty flavored sauce atop it. This is a new go-to sauce for me.

Shanghai Fried Noodles (with chicken instead of pork)

After trying, and failing, to find flat rice noodles I went with this recipe as it reminded me of lo mein.

Shanghai noodles are made of wheat and thicker than lo mein noodles. The base sauce here is significantly soy based (I used low sodium soy and dark soy sauce for color) along with white pepper and sugar (more staples in dishes with sauce in Easy Chinese Recipes).

Instead of pork, which is noted in the recipe, I made it with chicken, tenderizing it again beforehand.

Spinach and green onions are included in this dish and it's nice to have something green in there with all the noodles and protein.

I was worried that all the soy sauce would make this too salty even with low sodium because of the two used. But once I mixed it with the noodles and added chicken and spinach it was not a problem. This is not a slurpy, greasy mess when you eat it at all. It doesn't leave a huge oily mess on your plate but caters to having subtle flavors. The chicken was perfect, lightly toasted on the outside and a perfect moisture on the inside. I was glad to eat this over several nights.

Green Onion Pancakes

This was the most time intensive recipe (not hours or anything just longer than 30 minutes or so), and that is because you have to set the dough aside and also roll several out to prepare pancakes for frying. Also, I lost track of what stage I was in so re-rolled some balls more times than necessary.

I was worried that I didn't put enough green onions (scallions) into the dough. The basis for the dough is flour, water, and salt with little more additions besides the scallions and a brush of oil then more for deep frying. Scallions are darned strong (in smell and taste). I've always enjoyed eating scallion pancakes when going out for dim sum with friends. That with some hoisin sauce...awesome.

The frying went quickly. You have to make sure not to overdo it which may be hard as the oil gets hotter and hotter the more you cook. They came out golden brown then a bit browner and my whole apartment smelled of scallions (not complaining).

I waited a few minutes for the first batch to cool and then took a bit. I don't use acronyms when describing things but O.M.G! These were just as good as the ones I've had in restaurants and, you know what I'm going to say, less greasy. The grease factor may be because I often let things sit on paper towels and pat them to get rid of as much oil as possible where you may get the pancakes right out of the fryer in a restaurant. But the flavor even with less scallions than I had thought (because I had cut them up a bit bigger) was there! It pervaded in every part of the pancake but not so much you felt a need to hold a hand up  to your mouth to cover up your breath. Minimal salt and accompanying sauce was unnecessary. It worked on its own.

The Verdict

After eating each meal I didn't feel too full or lethargic, nor was I too thirsty which can happen with the overly salty ways and MSG found in many takeout eateries (though many may proclaim they do not have MSG). Specifically the fried rice and green onion pancake were lighter for me compared to their restaurant/takeout/frozen counterparts. The flavors weren't too bold in that they overwhelmed but each had a distinct taste I could place that was effective and delicious. I really, really enjoyed every dish I made. No offense to the places I've grown up eating at but I'll probably be making these dishes on my own from now on unless a major ennui hampers me in the kitchen.

Bee's book helped me realize that Chinese cooking can be easy and healthier and tastier! Easy Chinese Recipes also gave me a lot of faith in myself, of being able to make a quick meal for friends and family and have it be better for them than what we've grown up with in NYC. What is also great is that many dishes serve two so making them won't leave too many leftovers in the homestead if you're cooking for yourself.

The only critical thing I can say is, as someone who bakes, I wouldn't have minded a larger dessert section. Easy Chinese Recipes is divided up by appetizers, dumplings/dim sum, entrees (pork and beef, chicken, seafood, vegetable, noodles & rice), and dessert/drinks. There are five dessert recipes in total, including custard tarts and shaved ice.

However, the major benefit of Easy Chinese Recipes is the amount you learn and the fact that you get wonderfully tasty sauces and succulent meats goes beyond any critical thing I could say.

The Giveaway

I definitely want to share my new love and ease of cooking Chinese food at home. And I'd like to thank Rowan at Tuttle Publishing for being generous in helping me with this giveaway. 

So here's the deal, from September 3rd to September 17th (12:01am, EST) I'll be running a giveaway. There are a few ways to enter: make a comment on this post (once a day if you like), liking Tuttle Publishing's and/or Rasa Malaysia's Facebook page and noting both via Rafflecopter (below).  Rafflecopter will choose a winner at random and I'll be in touch about an address and send the book to you via USPS.

Check out Rasa Malaysia for new recipes and some from her cookbook. Also check out other cooking titles from Tuttle Publishing. Personally, I'm really looking forward to Paleo Indulgences. :-)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

MIA for Writing Conferences

Just an FYI that I'm traveling for the next couple of weeks, so there'll be no updates until early/mid-August. First stop is Napa Valley for the Napa Valley Writers' Conference. I'm psyched to be in Tayari Jones' fiction workshop and will be discussing one of the pieces from my linked story collection. It's been one of the hardest stories for me to tackle and I finally (read: finally) found the right way in which to tell this character's story, so we'll see if I'm on the right track. Some of us attendees have been connecting via Google Groups and I'm already indebted to their generosity and kindness regarding rides and such. And I'm super stoked about staying in a cottage during my stay in Napa. Pics will be taken!

After that I'm headed to New Mexico. First few days will be with a friend I met at the Postgraduate Writers' Conference three years ago (and you know how much I loved that conference) to see the sights of Albuquerque before she drops me off in Sante Fe for the Glen West Workshop. I'm also excited to be in a workshop with another author I admire, Sara Zarr. The workshop is YA focused and I'll be workshopping another story from the collection from a teenage boy's POV. So I'm intrigued to hear what others think, and to see Santa Fe.

Needless to say there'll be lots reading and artist immersion (and possibly drinking) over the next two weeks, well at least in Napa Valley. And then it's residency application season!

So far I've been blown away by the manuscripts I've been reading for both conferences and I cannot wait to meet my workshop groups.

When I get back I promise a nice summary of events and then a cookbook giveaway of Rasa Malaysia's Easy Chinese Recipes. (Thanks to the generosity of Tuttle Publishing.)

Have a great summer. Stay busy and creative! 

Tuttle Publishing at Book Expo: An Introduction to a Publisher Merging East & West Cultures

At Book Expo of America (BEA) I noted visiting the Tuttle Publishing booth. I had received an email about their having items available from their cookbooks. And as I love books (particularly cookbooks) I knew had to stop by. I follow Bee Yinn Low on Twitter and via Facebook and her book was recently released by Tuttle for making Chinese cuisine. Tuttle Publishing is a leading publisher of books on Asia while also including Europe, Australia, and the Middle East in the mix. Many of their titles center on providing information on Asian culture ranging from cuisine to language to architecture. At BEA Tuttle provided samples of some of the cuisines in their new cookbooks. Namely desserts from Sushi Secrets by Marisa Baggett and Paleo Indulgences by Tammy Credicott. A trend with many of Tuttle's cookbooks seems to be 'easy.' Allowing for a range of possibilities from the novice cook to the one who spends many hours in the kitchen perfecting recipes. What was most interesting to me was the possibility to make dishes that are exotic and seem difficult in my very own home and learning the step-by-step techniques that could quell my concerns of difficulty.

Samples from Sushi Secrets were delicious. One that stood out for me were the lemon mango bars, citrusy (but not too much), light, and sweet so that the fruit flavors melded well and the texture was that of a lemon bar but a bit more solid and less gooey. What struck me was that Marisa is someone who has specialized in sushi and made it her own with a southern twist which also makes it accessible to those within the United States. It's not just a 'fun time' treat that you may be afraid to try but a dish you can do with lots of variety in your own home and compile many different flavors (some classic, some fusion).

I have to say that I was floored by the pecan sandies from Tammy's  Paleo Indulgences book! These were sugary, crispy goodness that I could not get enough of. I was caught between not wanting to be the glutton that returned to the booth over and over for a taste and wanting more to be able to properly identify how delicious it was. As someone who's made gluten-free items these were not brittle to the touch and I was informed by one of the Tuttle reps that the treats were not only gluten-free, but soy free and made with natural ingredients rather than saturated items. So, needless to say I will be purchasing both of these books ASAP.

And speaking of purchases....

Tuttle Publishing is being quite generous to Book Expo attendees and customers in general by offering a 40% discount on your entire web purchase from now until mid-July. Enter code BEA2012 to get an automatic discount on books purchased through Tuttle's website.

And please stay tuned! In August I will be doing a review and giveaway of Bee Yinn Low's cookbook Easy Chinese Recipes. If you're also a fan of Bee's you know she has a knack for making great dishes look simple and has some great sponsored giveaways! Thanks to Susan Robertson & Rowan Muelling-Auer (Tuttle Publishing) for helping with the giveaway!