Eat The Love - Recipes, Photographs and Stories about Desserts, Baked Goods and Food in general, with a healthy dose of humor and happiness for the food obsessed

Taiwanese Popcorn Chicken aka 鹽酥雞, Yansu Ji or Salted Crispy Chicken

This Taiwanese popcorn chicken recipe is a flavorful fried chicken marinated in garlic, ginger, 5-spice and white pepper before being deep fried.

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A plate with Taiwanese popcorn chicken on it.

If you’ve never had Taiwanese popcorn chicken, known as Yansu Ji (literally translated to salted crispy chicken), it’s a super flavorful fried chicken. Unlike American fried chicken where the flavoring mostly comes from the coating, or Korean fried chicken where the flavoring comes from the sauce, Taiwanese fried chicken starts with a umami rich soy sauce base marinade that permeates the meat of the chicken. In that way, it’s similar to Japanese Karaage, though the Taiwanese version is not served with any sort of dipping sauce, but instead sprinkled with salt, white pepper and a touch of five-spice as well as garnished with fried Thai basil leaves.

It’s a typical street food (and trust me when I tell you the Taiwanese love their street food) eaten by everyone in Taiwan. One bite of it and I immediately thought to myself, this is what Taiwan taste like.

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Semla (Swedish Cardamom Almond Buns)

These traditional Swedish cardamom almond buns, called Semlor (Semla is the singular), are slightly sweet and an absolute delight to eat.

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Semla, a Swedish cardamom almond bun on a cutting board with a dusting of powdered sugar being sprinkled on it.

The weather has been cool and chilly here in San Francisco, though a little bit of gray sky and rain is nothing compared to the madness that other folks seem to be around the country with their snow storms and subzero temperature drops. All of it makes me want to snuggle down deep in my thick comfy sweater and embrace the Scandinavian hygge sensibilities. This probably explains why I’ve been baking things like my Swedish Blueberry Cake and Swedish Cardamom Buns (and also making and eating my Swedish Meatball Stroganoff which is totally comfort food).

But with Shrove Tuesday happening a bit ago (affectionately known as Fat Tuesday), I turned to make Swedish Semlor. The Semla (the singular word for Semlor) is an enriched cardamom scented brioche-style bun that is split open filled with almond paste and whipped cream. It’s a traditional Swedish treat eaten between Shrove Tuesday through to Easter in Sweden (and other Scandinavian countries) but they’re so much beloved, that they appear around Christmas time and are sold all the way through Eastertime. My friend Amy introduced them to me at a local Scandinavian restaurant here in San Francisco and I’ve been obsessed with them ever since. Turns out making them at home isn’t too hard!

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Salted Caramel Pot de Creme (with video)

Salted caramel pot de creme is a rich and decadent custard dessert. They’re the perfect easy, make-ahead dessert to impress anyone!

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Jars of salted caramel pots de creme on a cutting board with a small dish of flaky sea salt next to them.

Pot de creme is one of those overlooked desserts. They sound super fancy, impress most everyone, and taste rich and decadent. But best of all, they’re an easy make-ahead dessert, as they need time to chill in the fridge to firm up. This means you have plenty of time to plan out dinner or the rest of the evening and not have to worry about dessert! And though I’ve made mocha pots de creme and chocolate pots de creme, for all those folks who don’t like chocolate (strange but they exist!) here’s a recipe for my husband’s favorite non-chocolate desert, caramel pot de creme!

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Chinese Pearl Meatballs – 珍珠丸子 (with video)

These Chinese pearl meatballs (珍珠丸子) are a savory pork meatball coated with glutinous rice. It is an easy dish from the Hubei/Hunan region of China.

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A blue plate of Chinese pearl meatballs on a checked cloth napkin with a bamboo steamer basket of more pearl meatballs in it.

Growing up, my mom cooked all sorts of Chinese dishes that most folks associate with dim sum dishes. And though I have a number of Asian dishes on this site, including Taiwanese popcorn fried chicken, Japanese karaage, chicken char sui fried dumplings and Korean fried chicken, I have yet to really share any of the food that she made growing up. Pearl meatballs are one of the easiest dim sum dishes that you can make, as they have a similar savory pork filling similar to dim sum dumplings but don’t require any folding or sealing of the wrappers. They’re the perfect gateway dish to make if you are looking to get into making Chinese dim sum or Chinese food appetizers!

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Roasted Carrots with Za’atar, Pomegranate Seeds and Molasses (with video)

This quick and easy roasted carrots is packed with flavor because of the za’atar spice blend and a drizzle of pomegranate molasses and seeds.

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Roasted rainbow carrots with za'atar spices and drizzled with pomegranate molasses and seeds on a white serving plate.

These carrots are a great and easy side dish to go along with something like my Lamb Tagine, Mediterranean Meatballs or Spiced Lamb and Beef Kebabs. Since the carrots are cooked under the broiler, they cook fast, with a slight smoky char to them. Regular orange carrots are great, but to make the dish extra special, look for rainbow carrots, which are available at farmers markets and upscale grocery stores.

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Cardamom Buns (aka Swedish Kardemummabullar)

These Swedish-style Cardamom buns are a fun, less cloyingly sweet twist on the classic American-style cinnamon roll.

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a cardamom bun on a plate with a cup of coffee and a chemex pot of coffee next to it. Beside the plate is a wire cooling rack with more cardamom buns and two small plates with Belgian pearl sugar and ground cardamom spice in them.

The days have gotten short and brisk here in San Francisco while the nights are long and dreary right now. And though the days will start to get longer soon, I feel like I’ll still be hunkering down for the next couple of months, trying to achieve some Scandinavian hygge, a Danish word for a mood of comfortable contentment.

This of course will entail me making large mugs of coffee, reading lots of books, wearing thick wooly sweaters and socks, and baking up a storm with warm wintery spices. And though I love making cinnamon rolls in all their various forms, from classic cinnamon rolls, red velvet cinnamon rolls, rosemary & pistachio cinnamon rolls, sweet potato cinnamon rolls and, even eggnog cinnamon rolls, I was inspired by a local Scandinavian eatery nearby, to make these cardamom knots.

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