Our adventures in China just keep on goin’! On the third leg of our trip we visited the City of Guilin in the Guangxi Prefecture which is located in Southern China, near the border of Vietnam. Our visit to Guilin was our chance to see the beautiful countryside of China. When we arrived in Guilin, we finally experienced the very hot and humid weather we had anticipated in China. Despite the heat, I found Guilin to be quite delightful only...

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Since last week’s post  when I started sharing our recent travel adventures to China, I thought about coasting through the next few travel posts without sharing any recipes, but that would defeat the purpose of my foodie blog / ongoing digital family cookbook project, a.k.a Bebe Love Okazu. I got away with it the last post with Part I: Beijing, and no recipe, but I will start this post by sharing the second leg of our trip, Xian, and...

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Home sweet home! Sunny blue skies and mild California weather. Love it! AND there’s nothing like sleeping in your own bed after a long trip. For two weeks, my family and I were half-way across the world sightseeing in China with my in-laws. Bet you didn’t even notice I was gone, huh? I drafted a few blog posts prior to our departure and scheduled these to be published while we were on vacation. Sneaky, huh? :)   North Beijing...

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Agedashi tofu is one of my favorite Japanese appetizers. We order this regularly if we happen to be dining at a Japanese restaurant, but interestingly, it’s not something my Mom made for us when we were growing up. I think this is because the tofu is fried. On a good note, it’s only fried for 3 to 4 minutes. (Does that really make a difference? Probably not, if it’s fried, it’s fried, right!) Big Onechan also loves...

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The convenience of having a Japanese supermarket near my home is that I can pop on over to the store to pick-up a few things, but more importantly, I can buy sashimi for a really simple and quick dinner. We don’t feed Big Onechan sashimi since her idea of sushi is an avocado roll or tamago, and Bebe E is too young for sashimi, but when I need a quick dinner for Bebe Dada and I, my go-to item is inexpensive wild maguro (tuna) from the...

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  While at first we might think of spaghetti as uniquely Italian, my instant go-to-kid-friendly spaghetti with meat sauce is, by my standards, American-faire, not Italian. Then there is pasta as it relates to Japanese cuisine. There are Japanese pasta dishes that are definitely not what I consider Italian cuisine, but it is uniquely Japanese and… I absolutely love it! As a child and throughout my teens, my Mom often took me to visit our...

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  A long time ago, I went to our friend’s holiday potluck and someone brought this great, kid-friendly dessert of fresh apple slices with a creamy, crunchy, sweet caramel dip. It’s been over two years since that potluck but I never forgot this dessert. I’ve made this dessert twice in the past year and it’s a great dish for when you don’t have a lot of time. It’s very simple and very quick to prepare. Perhaps...

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  Great news! Bebe E graduated from “Tadpole” to “Guppy” at her swim school! (In other words, from beginner to intermediate.) Hurray for Bebe E! OK… I admit that I am an overly proud parent who is using this blog to boast about her child’s accomplishment, but seriously, can you blame this first-time parent?!? Rather than continue to gloat about Bebe E’s achievement, I will share with you the school...

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