Thai basil drives me crazy. It's difficult to find in a regular supermarket and impossible to grow. (My Italian basil grows like a weed indoors, in a crummy plastic pot.)

A lot of people think that Thai curries are so hot that they will blow your head off. Not true.

Some Thai dishes need a dipping sauce, such as grilled or barbecued meats, fried spring rolls, dumplings, and fish cakes.

Fried rice is a great addition to round out some Thai food you whip up in a wok. Plus, it’s a great way to use up the leftover white rice from a previous meal.

Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand, has a somewhat different cuisine from the rest of Thailand, partly because it’s close to Myanmar, China, and Laos…

I’m a big fan of fast food. No, not the crap you buy from a drive-through. Not even those salt bombs you pick up at the supermarket because you are pressed for time. 

Last time I was in Sydney, my friend Kaoru gave me a packet of flavoring she said would spice up simple sushi rice. I thought it would be a good base for a rice bowl with some tuna.

I love dim sum.

This is a simple one-pot dish with Vietnamese flavors. A clay pot is a great tool for making this but you can also use a Dutch oven or heavy sauce pan.

There’s generally not much beef in Vietnamese diets but this recipe is a classic. And it’s simple to make.

The Vietnamese prefer to leave the shell on the shrimp because, they say, it keeps the shrimp moist.

Szechuan Chicken is tasty and quick to prepare. A little chopping, a quick stir fry, and it’s ready to eat. Serve it with some steamed Jasmine rice.

One of the great pleasures of late summer is finding ripe tomatoes in the farmers' market.

Forget about cooking a turkey for Thanksgiving. Let’s face it, it’s a big old boring bird that is dried breast meat drowned in gravy.

One of the easiest and most delicious pasta dishes is made with clams and mussels. This takes no time at all (less than 20 minutes) and is pretty hard to mess up. (Just don’t overcook the seafood.)

Crispy breaded chicken served with juicy market-fresh tomatoes. A rustic European-inspired recipe from WeTravelToEat.

There are a zillion Chinese stir-fries. I've been trying to perfect a few favorites for weekday meals.

There's nothing more classic in Vietnamese cuisine than Pho. (No it's not pronounced "fo" but closer to "furr" or "faa".)

There’s something about this preparation that elevates it from the usual Chinese chicken stir fry. 

I went to a cooking class a few years ago in Beijing called Sesame Kitchen that was located in a tiny kitchen deep in one of the authentic hutongs in the city.