In the chaotic kitchen of a recipe developer, you get a food blog called FoodMayhem.
I'm Jessica, an Asian-American, born and raised in NYC, and that's Lon, my Jewish, white husband. While professionally trained as a French culinary- and pastry chef, many of FoodMayhem recipes are my attempt to preserve and share authentic Chinese and Taiwanese recipes learned from my mom. We don't eat Chinese food every day, so you'll get a little bit of anything we find delicious enough to share: from our Eastern European side; recipes and techniques learned from my restaurant days; restaurant reviews, food travel tips; and a few other juicy bits along the way. Welcome to FoodMayhem!
I posted a Taiwanese Cucumber Salad recipe 10 years ago! It is one of my most loved dishes, meaning my kids love it, Lon loves it, all my guests love it. It’s such a great side dish that I use it very, very often and I get requests for the recipe every time.
During the […]
So, I heard that some people throw out the broccoli stems. What? You only want the florets so you just chuck the whole stem? Promise me you’ll never do that again! Broccoli stems are delicious and crunchy and so amazing pickled! My kids love Quick-Pickled Broccoli Stems!
At the risk of making this sound like a joke, Chinese people will “red cook” anything. The thing is I’m serious. Whether it’s pork, beef, squid, tofu, or eggs, we can red cook it. On a basic level, that means cooking in a mix of soy sauce and a sweetener (sugar, rock candy, or honey). […]
While I went to culinary school and have worked in restaurants, Lon is self-taught. For the most part, it’s the one thing he looks to me for guidance with. Lon is a great home cook though and loves to do it when he has the time, which is not often these days between two kids […]
Ramps are in season and though they are not traditionally found in Chinese food, they make perfect sense in Chinese food. I think of ramps as sweeter, fatter, less pungent Chinese chives. I would bet you could successfully substitute ramps for any recipe that called for Chinese chives. Next, I want to do some dumplings […]
Hello! I’m back from my self-granted maternity leave and I’ve missed you! Hopefully we’ve been keeping in touch on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. As I ease my way back into food life again, I thought that this Chinese Pork Bone Stock would be the most suitable post. After all, I have drank a lot of […]
Fusion food sometimes sounds new and modern, like a fanciful restaurant theme. We forget that borders between countries and cultures have existed since far back in history, where ingredients, flavors, and recipes have been shared.
My late grandma Olia (on the right, below) grew up near the border of China and Russia, where she ate lots […]
For my mom’s birthday (in September), we threw a casual dinner party and had family over. It’s my mom’s ideal way to celebrate. She’s the biggest fan of my cooking (maybe tied with Lon) and I know what she likes which makes it easy to impress her. We started with pizza as an appetizer, topped […]
