I’ve sat down to type this several times over the past years, but I never was 100% sure it was the right time. To be honest, I’m still not totally sure this is the right time, and sometimes I think the right time might have already come and gone. But now is a pretty good time. HapaMama was the brainchild of those early days of motherhood, when I had more ideas than I knew how to make come to fruition. I was fortunate enough to go a playgroup one day and meet a mom named Eddy, who knew how to do graphic design and build websites. The year that my older kid went to kindergarten, we flipped the ..read more

Whole steamed fish, tangerines with the green leaves attached, dumplings curved into ingot shapes. The foods of the Lunar New Year are round and whole, representing the unity of the family, as well as health and prosperity for the coming year. Wholeness of the family is a big thing in Chinese culture. The word for everybody is represented by characters which literally mean “big” and “family”. The gang’s all here! But how to celebrate the new year when the whole family can’t be together?  I’ve been thinking about how to celebrate the closure of the Year of the Rat and the beginning o ..read more

These shortbread cookies are earthy, nutty, and slightly salty. A bit of buckwheat flour accentuates the hearty flavor of the black sesame powder and gives the cookies a sandy texture. The edges are rolled in two kinds of sesame seeds for crunch and a pretty trim. Slice and bake dough is great to keep on hand for a quick dessert. Ingredients Makes approximately 2 dozen cookies 1 c. butter 2/3 c. sugar 1 1/2 c. All-Purpose flour 4 Tbsp. buckwheat flour 1/2 c. black sesame powder 1 tsp. sea salt (fairly coarse, I used Hawaiian sea salt) 2 Tbsp. white sesame seeds 2 Tbsp. black sesame seeds Blac ..read more

One of the most iconic Taiwanese foods is the bah tsang (or zong zi, in Mandarin). These bamboo leaf wrapped glutinous rice dumplings are a traditional food for celebrating the Dragon Boat festival (Duan Wu Jie, which falls on June 28 this year), as folklore has it that a Chinese poet drowned himself in a river over his unrequited love. Apparently, this river was home to some vicious flesh-eating fish. So the search party, desperate to keep the flesh-eating fish from devouring his body, threw bundles of rice wrapped in leaves, to stave them off. But in Taiwan, bah tsang are not just a holiday ..read more

This is the third installment in my series from my travels in Taiwan this summer. Vignette showing bowls of vegetables and rice, set up as a shared meal for six cell mates in the Jing-Mei White Terror Museum in Taipei How much do Taiwanese people love to eat? So much that even a museum dedicated to commemorating the injustices of the island’s forty-year period of martial law includes many exhibits involving food. This is the White Terror museum, located in New Taipei City. Originally a military training ground, it was turned into the Jing-Mei prison for suspected political dissidents ..read more

This is the second installment in my series about our trip to Taiwan. Read on to find out how we travelled to Kenting in southern Taiwan to relax by the beach. The early morning view from my hotel balcony in Kenting, Taiwan. Seriously.This was my third trip to Taiwan in as many years. But during my last two visits, I didn’t have a chance to venture beyond Taipei and its immediate vicinity. With limited vacation time this year, our family wanted to take a beach vacation and we also wanted to visit my motherland. So we thought a good compromise would be to go to Taiwan and schedule a mini-ge ..read more

We went to Taiwan in June, and I’m finally recovered from jet lag to tell you about it. This will be the first of several parts, so check back for more… Six years after our last family trip to Taiwan, we made another visit last month. As usual, we flew red-eye, arriving at Taoyuan airport shortly after 5 a.m., Taiwan time. Exhausted and bleary-eyed, we met my dad and uncle at the airport, and they drove us first to Taipei, where we feasted on soy milk, shao bing-you tiao, fan tiao, and many other delicious breakfast items. Right now, I’m going to whet your appetite by showing you so ..read more

What is Agarianaa? An art show organized by Asian American Women Artists Association featuring art that showcases the contributions of Asian Pacific Americans in Agriculture. Greenhouse full of stories about Asian Pacific American farmers at AGARIANAA, on exhibit at SOMArts in San Francisco. I’m honored to be one of 24 artists, mostly Asian American women, who are part of this exhibit. My piece is pretty low-key… it’s called ‘Heart’s Delight’, sort of a play on the old nickname ‘ Valley of the Heart’s Delight’. Doesn’t Heart’s Delight sound like a Chinese phrase? Can’t you imagine t ..read more