Notes about Recipes in this book

• Simple congee

  • sarah_gsvptu on February 16, 2026

    Wonderful suggestions for toppings. Love the savory version

• Sesame-soy savory oatmeal

  • southerncooker on May 05, 2019

    I enjoy savory oatmeal, but not sweet so I didn't add the optional sugar. I'm always up for trying a new savory oatmeal and the one from Seven Spoons cookbook is a favorite. I'm sorry to say I didn't like this one. I really thought I would since I often add a soft scrambled egg to my oatmeal and love it. I didn't enjoy the texture of the egg in this. I tried cooking the oatmeal a little more with the egg in it but it didn't help. Also as much as I enjoy soy sauce, sesame oil, and nori, it didn't work for me in oatmeal.

• Condensed milk toast & yuanyang (an HK-style breakfast)

  • southerncooker on March 09, 2019

    I would have never thought to have tea and coffee together nor to add sweetened condensed milk to my peanut butter toast. Both were delicious. A perfect indulgent easy Sunday morning breakfast. I used thick cut Brioche bread.

  • jenmacgregor18 on November 23, 2019

    I loved both the yuanyang and the toast. I put 1/4 c sweet condensed milk in yuanyang. I’d cut back to 2 T to start next time and add half & half. For the toast I used challah. Want 2 try with brioche next time. It’s a lovely treat for a busy Saturday morning.

• Kimchi-brined spicy chicken biscuits

  • southerncooker on March 10, 2019

    I marinated my chicken overnight which was an option in the book. I made the Sunday biscuits also from the book to serve the chicken on.

• Black sesame-stuffed French toast

  • jenmacgregor18 on November 24, 2019

    It didn't wow me. The sesame filling was too sweet for me. I used challah for the bread. Maybe cutting back on sugar in filling...and maybe a little salty counterpoint. miso? and use brioche next time.

• Buttermilk mochi pancakes

  • cklauber2 on July 14, 2024

    The best pancake recipe! Love how tender it is.

• Spiced kabocha muffins

  • TrishaCP on November 02, 2019

    We really enjoyed these muffins. These are easy to pull together once the kabocha purée is prepared. I had and thus used Penzey’s Pie spice for these, and I really liked that flavor here.

• Cheddar-scallion biscuits

  • sarahawker on March 14, 2025

    These are amazing biscuits, the technique is so easy and produces an insanely flakey interior. Lovely with the cheese and scallions or without, variations are provided. Just honestly the best biscuit I've ever made.

• My favorite Sunday biscuits

  • southerncooker on March 10, 2019

    I made a double batch of these in the bigger size for the Kimchi chicken biscuits. I did use the suggested self-rising White Lily Flour and the mixture of whole milk and Greek yogurt. These biscuits were amazing. We loved them.

  • sarahawker on September 25, 2024

    Very simple to make and absolutely perfect. I can see making this my go-to method as they had a lot of flavor and didn't just taste like butter or flour.

• Kimchi egg & cheese

  • southerncooker on March 09, 2019

    I used American Cheese but next time I'll try cheddar. My kimchi was almost too spicy though. I used some leftover housemade that we brought home from an Asian fusion restaurant and it was mighty spicy. Next time I'll try the one I get at our local supermarket or someday I want to try making my own.

  • EmilyR on April 22, 2019

    This definitely is an elevated grilled cheese. I used sharp white cheddar (2 slices) and kimchi. Since it was right after Easter we have a zillion soft boiled eggs my kids dyed so I improvised with cutting one of those in each half of the sandwich. It also made it a bit easier to eat. It would probably be excellent with the addition of red onions, too. A very simple week night meal.

• Char siu pork

  • imaluckyducky on June 26, 2021

    4.5 stars. Took off half a star because the Kindle version has the oven temp set at 275F for one hour which is WAY too low -- try more like 475F for on hour. Otherwise the marinade/sauce and the method of cooking produces very flavorful pork that is reminiscent of Chinatown. Put the pork slices on a wire rack over a cookie pan covered with parchment paper. This allows for the glaze to properly coat and dry over the outside of the pork. The 5yo and the partner loved it! Will make again.

• Gochujang Buffalo chicken wraps

  • southerncooker on May 15, 2019

    I fried my chicken tenders in the air fryer using a recipe from the Skinnytaste Air Fryer Cookbook. This was very good.

• Korean spicy barbecue pork (Pork bulgogi)

  • Maefleur on May 02, 2019

    I modified this for ribs. I cooked pork ribs in the instant pot with chicken broth, the onion, soy sauce, gochujang, and brown sugar until tender. Then added to the puréed marinade ingredients while I prepped the grill. Grilled turning and brushing with sauce until crispy, charred and delicious.

  • Kduncan on May 14, 2019

    We loved this recipe. Really easy to prepare with great results. Even with the 1/2 cup of gochujang did not find it that spicy.

  • imaluckyducky on July 15, 2019

    This marinade is phenomenal and imparts excellent, multi-layered flavor (smoky, sweet, tangy, warmth) even when the meat is not marinaded in it. Actually used the marinade as a sauce for slow cooked pulled pork shoulder, and cooked down the sauce, for pork bulgogi tacos. Excellent.

  • chawkins on April 27, 2020

    Delicious and quite simple once you got the marinade made. I stayed with the lowest amount of gouchujang in the specified range and it was the perfect level of spiciness for us.

• Gochujang sauce

  • southerncooker on May 15, 2019

    This sauce was delicious on the buffalo chicken wraps p. 97. It would be a good dipping or drizzling sauce on other things too.

• Friday night kimchi fried rice

  • southerncooker on May 19, 2019

    I really enjoyed this but son said he thought it needed a little something. Hubby not feeling great and only had a couple bites. I put an over easy egg on mine and well done fried eggs on boys.

  • hirsheys on September 15, 2019

    I don't know if I bought the wrong kind of spam, but I was decidedly grossed out by the catfood like consistency of it. It helped to brown it first (not called for in the recipe, but definitely necessary), and next time I'd use a ham steak instead. 2) The recipe uses the same technique of caramelizing the kimchi that Koreatown uses, but I liked K-town's version better - they ask you to separate the liquid and then reincorporate it in the rice. 3) I agree with McTernan that you don't need to make rice ahead for fried rice and used her smart trick of just lowering the amount of water while cooking the fresh rice, which worked nicely. All in all, the rice came out yummy, but I would rank it third out of the three kimchi fried rice recipes I've tried (Koreatown and Small Victories' versions each have their own virtues...) It also makes a vat - I made half a recipe and will be eating it for days. It's a solid recipe, but just not as good as the other two.

  • hbakke on April 01, 2021

    I would have preferred the Spam be crisped a bit before adding the rest of the ingredients since it doesn't have the most appealing texture. I felt like this recipe was missing something. I added a sprinkle of furikake at the end, but I maybe should have added more gochujang. It was alright, but not my favorite fried rice recipe. This recipe also makes a TON of servings.

• Garlic, ginger & soy salmon en papillote

  • mharriman on April 24, 2019

    Good, tasty. I marinated the salmon fillets for 3 hours and baked them in parchment for 20 minutes, and they came out perfectly cooked. I drizzled some of the remaining heated marinade on top and served over rice alongside steamed baby bok choy. A fishmonger at Wegman’s told me a couple weeks ago to buy their Norwegian sourced salmon when they had it available because it was the best he’d ever eaten, and that’s all he eats now. Wegman’s happened to have it yesterday, so I used it with this recipe. The fishmonger was spot on - Norwegian salmon is a step above the Alaskan wild salmon. So, this was a double find - great recipe and great salmon!

• Bulgogi burgers

  • Emily Hope on April 23, 2019

    We liked these burgers a lot and will definitely repeat -- I made them outside on the grill using the flat side of my grill grates (kind of like a flat top with holes in it) rather than in a skillet -- they definitely got a bit burned on the outside because of the sugar in the marinade, and I had some trouble getting them to smash (might just form patties next time). Still, worth it not to deal with the grease/smoke inside. Skipped the eggs (didn't miss them) and the crispy shallots (sure they would be delicious!)

  • southerncooker on May 12, 2019

    Daughter and I ate ours as written in the book with the over easy egg. Son had his without the egg or fried shallots and added cheese, raw shallots, and pickles. We all ate them on Brioche buns. Son liked, daughter said she did as well but likes Kimchi bacon burgers better. The gochugang mayonnaise was delicious. I enjoyed them. Hubby tasted one and requested a regular burger with cheese on a regular bun.

  • Kduncan on May 17, 2021

    Everything was prepped to the recipe, but decided to grill them, due to smoke concerns, and it was a beautiful day out. Overall these we good, though having to go from grill to egg cooking got a bit tiring. Also the timing is definitely different on a grill, as I didn't enjoy these that much as they were undercooked. (I did not cook the dish due to an injury)

  • Nkrieda78 on April 11, 2022

    We cooked these in a pan as the recipe directs and loved them! An utterly fantastic burger! I added a little gochujang sauce leftover from the wraps from the same book, they were excellent.

  • meggan on April 27, 2022

    Used impossible burger which did not hold together well but the flavor was great. Used store bought fried shallots.

  • Logan92995 on October 06, 2023

    These were awesome. I'm a big fan of Korean, so when I saw a recipe for burgers that tasted like Bulgogi, I was all on board and this definitely delivered! Marinated the meat for 24 hours for maximum marination, and I think it helped make the burgers very juicy. All the added accompaniments for the burgers were delicious as well. The Gochujang Mayo was awesome, and so were the shallots and egg. The only component I could've gone without (due to everything else being so flavorful) were the green onions, which I couldn't distinguish.

• Crispy fried shallots

  • southerncooker on May 15, 2019

    Made these to go on the bulgogi burgers p. 125. They were delicious. I'd eat them for a snack.

  • Logan92995 on October 06, 2023

    Might have overcooked the shallots, but still good regardless.

• Kimchi chicken quesadillas

  • southerncooker on May 19, 2019

    Daughter and I loved them. Son liked them but isn't a big flour tortilla fan. Next time I'll make his on a corn tortilla.

  • EmilyR on April 19, 2021

    Kimchi and cheese are just a great pairing. These are simple and excellent while feeling slightly decadent.

• Red-cooked pork (Hong shao rou)

  • hirsheys on November 18, 2020

    Tasty and rich (I used pork belly), though I’m not sure I need to make it again. It needs some pickles or something to cut through the richness. I used the instant pot and it worked well.

• My great-grandmother's lion's head meatballs (Shi zi tou)

  • Nkrieda78 on May 13, 2022

    Perfectly seasoned and fantastically delicious! Loved these!

  • chawkins on June 03, 2022

    I was going to make half of a recipe because it was only two of us and I only had half of the baby Shanghai bak choy on hand anyway. I had half a pound of ground pork for the half recipe but it looked like it was going to make only two meatballs, so I decided to make a full recipe of the meatballs. As it turned out, with all the other stuff added, I could have gotten mor than two meatballs. Unlike most other lion’s head recipe, this one does not include water chestnuts, so there were no crunchy bits within the meatballs and they were all tender and delicious.

  • shep0012 on February 22, 2026

    This is a great recipe that we make on repeat!

• Shanghai-style sweet & sour baby-back ribs

  • southerncooker on May 05, 2019

    I didn't have the black vinegar called for so I used the suggested balsamic. They turned out tender and delicious.

• A good make-ahead chili

  • vickster on November 03, 2019

    This is a delicious chili, and may be my go-to recipe now. I followed the recipe pretty exactly, except I did double the amount of beans. It's a bit spicy if you add the larger amount of dried red pepper and cayenne, but I like that.

  • shep0012 on November 04, 2023

    We added unsweetened cocoa powder towards the end and quite a bit more salt, and with those tweaks it was absolutely delicious.

  • shep0012 on August 02, 2025

    This has become my go-to chili recipe! We try others and keep coming back to this one.

• Chinese cola chicken wings

  • lilham on September 30, 2019

    I’m from Hong Kong and this is one of my childhood favourite food. I don’t have a family recipe for this (my mum isn’t a cook at all). So I was very excited when I saw this. I followed the recipe as written, except substituting wings for diced thigh fillet. The resulting dish was very salty, much saltier than I remembered. I looked up a version of this on Christine Ho’s blog and she used a lot less soy sauce. I will try her version out next.

• Shanghainese cucumber salad, two ways: quick-sautéed garlic & sesame cucumbers

  • chawkins on September 14, 2021

    Quite good. I used cucumbers from the garden and made the first variation, the one without the vinegar.

• Shanghainese cucumber salad, two ways: smashed cucumbers with vinegar, sesame & soy

  • Barb_N on June 17, 2020

    I did not smash the cucumbers, nor did they release much liquid because they were tiny ‘poppers’. Simple, quick and tasty side. I served alongside One-pot gingery chicken and rice with peanut sauce from Bon Appetit.

  • imaluckyducky on May 25, 2023

    5 stars. Perfect accompaniment for searingly spicy dishes.

• Easiest sesame-soy salad

  • southerncooker on May 26, 2019

    Perfect salad for a hot day.

• Green beans & minced pork

  • tlight on June 09, 2019

    Made this using dry sherry as it's what was on hand. Very yummy. Would make again. Would rate it 8 of 10.

  • cklauber2 on November 05, 2023

    I've made a similar family recipe before, but this was so much better. The oyster sauce is really what makes it, but it is strong!

• Ginger shrimp & green peas

  • Kduncan on May 14, 2019

    This was very easy to make and really good.

  • southerncooker on May 20, 2019

    Great work night supper. I marinated my shrimp while some brown rice was cooking. I used black pepper instead of white. The optional 1/2 teaspoon chili garlic paste gave it a nice spicy kick. I didn't have the optional Chinkiang black vinegar so I used balsamic since she suggested doing that in another recipe.

  • Barb_N on February 25, 2020

    Like southerncooker I found this an easy weeknight dinner - served over noodles. I skipped the pepper, and with the chili garlic paste, I didn’t miss it.

  • chawkins on December 26, 2023

    I made half a recipe using a mix of large and small shrimp, about 4 oz of each, because that was all the large shrimp I had in the freezer that needed to be used, even though this dish is traditionally made with small shrimp. Quite easy and the taste was good, but I did not like the texture of the shrimp. I think the ginger in the marinade made the shrimp mushy. If I made this again, I would leave the ginger out of the marinade and stir fry them in the oil to flavor it before adding the shrimp.

• Garlicky bok choy

  • Kduncan on May 14, 2019

    My husband liked this way more then me. I found it a bit bland. I also think there wasn't enough garlic in the original recipe.

• Chinese scrambled eggs & tomatoes

  • southerncooker on March 10, 2019

    Delicious served over rice as suggested. I used grape tomatoes since they taste better this time of year and she suggested them when you can't get great tomatoes. I did add a pinch of sugar, also suggested, while cooking the tomatoes.

  • AndieEats on December 12, 2022

    Cooked with a mix of on the vine tomatoes and grape tomatoes. Delicious served over rice as suggested.

• Korean cheesy corn

  • southerncooker on May 04, 2019

    I omitted the cilantro since hubby and son have the soap gene. I got some great corn on the cob at our local Walmart. Very good, reminded me of Mexican street corn without the spice. Instead of transferring the corn to an oven safe baking dish after cooking the corn in the cast iron skillet, I just left it in it and mixed in the mayonnaise before topping with the cheese and putting in the oven to finish.

• Sesame-miso potato salad

  • southerncooker on May 29, 2019

    This was a nice interesting version of potato salad. We enjoyed it.

• Asian pear and jasmine crumble

  • eclairea on May 22, 2025

    Really enjoyed this, though would probably halve the sugar. It really does develop more flavour the next day.

• White peach & lychee cake

  • eclairea on September 21, 2025

    A nice soft cake with floral notes from the lychee. Took too long to make for what I ended up with, so many steps for essentially a snacking cake. Would bake again if I had an abundance of peaches and lychees that needed to be used up.

• Peanut butter mochi cake

  • southerncooker on May 26, 2019

    Delicious!

  • eclairea on May 19, 2026

    A big hit! One of the easiest mochi recipes I’ve ever made, it came together so fast and I didn’t need to bust out my mixer. Made for a friend’s birthday and everyone loved it. I used red-skin peanuts (skins removed) for the topping and they didn’t brown, but they were roasted. Turned out great!

• White peach green tea

  • eclairea on September 20, 2025

    Fresh and delightful

• Hong Kong coffee tea (Yuanyang)

  • southerncooker on March 09, 2019

    Coffee and tea - who would have guessed it'd be this good? I used English Breakfast tea (one of the choices) since that was the only one I could find. Instead of both sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk, as well as additional sugar, I only used the sweetened milk.

  • jenmacgregor18 on December 02, 2019

    I was surprised how much I liked this. It is a really good combination. I also used English Breakfast tea. And sweetened condensed milk with half & half, instead of opening evaporated milk.

  • AndieEats on December 12, 2022

    I made this with English Breakfast tea, using half sweetened condensed milk and half evaporated milk. This had the right mouth feel, reminiscent of a cha caan teng, which had been lacking in other recipes I’ve tried. Would definitely make this again.

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