It’s Not Too Sweet

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Growing up, birthday cakes had to be bought at the Korean bakery because the ones from the American grocery store had too much sugar. Getting ice cream on a Saturday night was not a full family affair because my parents never had the craving like my two siblings and I did. I always thought my parents were crazy whenever they would deny dessert at the restaurants in which we dined — but at the end of the meal, it worked in our favor, as we had more to share between the three of us.

However, once in a blue moon, when my parents did indulge in a dessert, it was met with extensive praise. Instead of the typical ‘yummy’ or ‘this is delicious,’ we’d hear the welcoming ‘it’s not too sweet,’ the highest compliment you can receive in the kitchen. So, in honor of that phrase, here are a few desserts I’ve made that my friends and family have graciously classified as ‘not too sweet.’

Donuts

These donuts were a product of a very sad day. As I write this, I do not remember what happened, but I am extremely grateful for it because the outcome of the night was spectacular. On the left are cinnamon sugar donuts that had my roommates coming back for thirds, and on the right are strawberry shortcake donuts made with a ‘not-too-sweet’ cream complimented with fresh strawberries. 

Lincoln Le/The Hoya
Lincoln Le/The Hoya

Caramel Galore

The first time I’ve ever dabbled with making caramel, I almost burned my apartment down. Today, I wouldn’t call myself an expert, but I’m certainly better at it. On the left, for a friendsgiving dinner, I made an upside-down orange cake, elephant ear cookies, and mini apple tarte tatins. On the right is an upside-down lemon cake that I made after I was fixated on making upside-down desserts. My opinion? I like the orange one better.

Lincoln Le/The Hoya
Lincoln Le/The Hoya

Cannoli

These cannolis were a crowd favorite when I brought them to work at the Democratic National Committee during my summer internship. They must have left a great impression because I was hired afterward. If you ever need tips for getting jobs, consider making cannolis! However, the caveat to this is that cannolis now weirdly remind me of democracy.

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Banana Bread

In my book, carbs, fruit and (limited) sugar are components of a successful dessert. I made this banana bread for a Christmas dinner with my friends, and when I took a bite of it, I audibly complimented myself. To this day, I have yet to make another banana bread as delicious as this one because I don’t remember which recipe I used to make it. Not saving the recipe will probably keep its place as the most regretful mistake in my lifetime. 

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Strawberry Cake

This strawberry cake is the most labor-intensive dessert I’ve made to date. The batter requires two different whipped components mixed together, and the icing makes for a third whipped component. I didn’t have a stand mixer so my roommate and I took turns hand whipping the batter and icing. I think I gained a couple of pounds of muscle that night. 

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Muffins

Muffins were the first baked desserts I made when I started my cooking journey. They were easy to make and made for a great grab-and-go breakfast. After a few learning opportunities, I tapped into making different types. On the left are candy cane bark muffins, and on the right are lemon poppy seed, chocolate chip, and blueberry muffins. 

Lincoln Le/The Hoya
Lincoln Le/The Hoya

In my family, and many other Asian households, words of affirmation come last among the love languages. But that doesn’t mean the love wasn’t there. My parents would cut up fruit for my siblings and me during late nights of studying, make our favorite meals before a big exam or performance, and let us choose where to eat for dinner every weekend. They taught me food can be its own love language  — and when you share it with others, that understanding is there.

So when I make a dessert, I always make sure there is enough to go around. Although it wasn’t clear then, I understand now why my parents choose food over words. It’s impossible to explain with text — you’ll have to take a bite of my ‘not too sweet’ upside-down orange cake to understand. 

Come Over for Dinner!

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If there’s one thing my friends know about me, it’s that I love to cook. It’s my all-time comfort and stress-relieving activity. Whenever I’m feeling down — or just bored, I’ll be in the kitchen…or on TikTok, or on TikTok in the kitchen. It’s also my favorite thing to do when I want to procrastinate. If there’s a paper due in the next couple of days, I’ll pregame with some blueberry, lemon poppyseed and chocolate chip muffins. It’s all part of the process. I like to justify my procrastination by telling myself that to nourish my mind, I need to nourish my body. In hindsight, I think that adage holds true. I can’t think on an empty stomach, and I don’t think others can either. It’s important to recognize the needs of your body. If it’s telling you to cook a five-course meal the night before an exam, go ahead and do it!

Me in the kitchen.
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No kidding, I’ve done that before. It’s currently less than a week before the start of finals and I still keep making dinner plans with people. But like I said, I’m nourishing my friends’ bodies so that their minds can find nourishment as well. There aren’t any losses here (except maybe my bank account). Anyway, here are some occasions when I’ve asked some people to come over for dinner.

The First Supper

This was my first dinner party. I invited some friends over to grub on some pasta inspired by TikTok and Gigi Hadid, as well as eggplant parmesan, caprese salad and an upside-down peach cake. Fun fact: I bought the long serving dish and the large glass baking dish from the thrift store a couple of days prior for this dinner. I’m proud to say it turned out well, and I’m still using both today.

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VSAxDinner 

I hosted this dinner for some friends from Georgetown University’s Vietnamese Student Association (VSA). I was extremely excited to have them over because I hold VSA and the people in it close to my heart. That night, I made Japanese curry with carrots and potatoes, tonkatsu, white rice, scallion pancakes, miso soup, banana bread and muffins. As you can see, the white serving dish has now become part of my dinner party mise-en-scene.

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Taco Wednesday

This dinner was a particularly fun one to make. When cooking, I love to incorporate as many colors as possible and this “Taco Wednesday” dinner hit the spot. I served flour tortillas with shrimp, chicken and veggie fajitas, corn salsa, and a cilantro-lime cream sauce. It was delicious and gave me an excuse to bust out the cast iron.

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Charcuterie Galore

I hosted this dinner for my internship cohort with the office of Rep. Karen Bass. We’re all pretty much in the same age group and started working within the same couple of days. I made two charcuterie boards (one with meat and one without), a kale persimmon salad, another caprese salad and pizza (not pictured, but you can see the toppings). I always enjoy making pizza dough because it’s fun to see how tall the dough rises overnight.

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Friendsgivings

These next two dinners were friendsgivings I hosted during Thanksgiving break. It was refreshing to see all my old friends and be able to share my newfound skills with them. In the first picture, the star of the show was the turkey my sister made. She cooks the turkey in pieces, allowing for full flavor impact in each bite. In the second picture, the highlights were the upside-down orange cake, mini apple tarte tatins, and elephant cookies for dessert. Fun fact: I burned my upper lip pretty badly taste testing the caramel and ended up having to throw it out because it turned out burnt. I’m still suffering from that battle wound today. Sigh.

Lincoln Le/The Hoya
Lincoln Le/The Hoya

Sometimes I look at other people singing, dancing, drawing and painting and get a little disappointed because I can’t do any of it (trust me, I’ve tried). But, as of recently, I’ve begun to realize that my artistic ability comes with making food, conducting dinner parties and creating a welcoming environment for my guests. It takes a bit of work but it makes me elated to see other people happy to eat and enjoy each other’s company. It makes everything worth it in the end. So if you’re ever in need of a nice meal, company and some body and mind nourishment, come over for dinner!

Finding Culture in the Kitchen

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When I first talked to my mom about moving into an off-campus apartment as a first-year in college, she laughed at me. “What are you going to eat?” followed the 30 seconds of laughter. Eventually, after having a serious conversation about moving to the DMV, we made it happen. This past January, my parents and I packed up all of the suitcases in the house and flew into Virginia, ready to start this new chapter in my life.

After landing and checking out the apartment, one of the first things we did was hit up the local Asian grocers. My mom kept adding items to the cart, saying, “You’ll need this,” and, “This is easy to use.” In reality, I had no idea what I was going to do with any of the items — unless it was a snack I added myself. After checkout, I ended up with the most intimidating ingredients on the planet (at the time). There was fish sauce, chicken bouillon, oyster sauce, Chinese cabbage, salmon, gochujang and a bunch of other items that I couldn’t pronounce, let alone cook with.

When I tell you I was off to a rocky start, I mean it. I didn’t touch half the grocery items in my pantry for at least two weeks for fear of messing something up. But as mentioned in my previous blog post, all it took for my confidence and determination to set in was to just try out a recipe. I started with rice and eggs, then moved on to fried rice, pad thai and stir-fries. Once I got comfortable with the items in my cabinet and fridge, I experimented on noodle soups, fried wontons, and a few classic Vietnamese dishes. After making every dish, I would FaceTime my mom to show her how proud I was of myself. Through the screen, I was able to see how proud she was too. For a split moment, it felt like we were eating together at home again.

Here are a few of the dishes that my mom was proud of:

I was desperately craving something to slurp on, so I called my mom to ask how to spice up a broth and we came up with this! This is a simple noodle soup that I made with a basic chicken bone broth seasoned with chicken bouillon, fish sauce, soy sauce, ginger, garlic and a bunch of mix-ins.

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This dish is a classic Vietnamese staple called Bánh Xèo. My mom would make this every once in a while and it always hit just the right spot. Although my version wasn’t nearly as good as my mom’s, it still felt like home.

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This dish is called Chả Cá or Vietnamese fried fish cakes. My mom overnighted a huge box of food for me, and this was part of the package. All I had to do was let the paste thaw and fry it in some oil!

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This dish is called Bò Lúc Lắc, or “Shaking Beef,” but the more fun name and what I like it call it is “Twerking Beef.” I would order this at the Vietnamese restaurant by my high school all the time and had the sudden urge to recreate it. All I can say is that it was a mighty fine idea.

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This next dish is called Chinese Broccoli in Oyster Sauce. My family used to order this every time we would eat out at a Chinese dim sum restaurant for lunch. To satisfy my craving, I decided to give it a try and I was successful!

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Now, this last dish hit super close to home. Living in South Florida, my family is full of fishers. During the summer, there was always fresh fish at the house, usually caught the morning of. Luckily, I found a local butcher in Georgetown that sold sashimi-grade tuna and was able to recreate a classic poke bowl!

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Living so far away from home and attending a predominately white institution, I was genuinely afraid of losing some of the culture centered at home. However, I quickly came to realize that some of the best forms of culture are created in the kitchen. Cooking is my way of keeping in touch with my roots (and it reminds me to call my parents every day). My mom even tells me I’m starting to cook better than her — but everyone knows nothing beats a home-cooked meal from your parent.

Header Image: MENTAL FLOSS

How ‘MasterChef’ Changed My Life

My love for “MasterChef” all started when my roommates forced me to join them on an episode of “MasterChef USA.” We had just recently moved into our cute little apartment (that creaks whenever you make a step) in Rosslyn, VA. The WiFi had just been installed, and my roommates decided that we had to have TV bonding night. I made sure to grab my phone as I never really enjoyed the fast-paced cooking reality shows. I ended up finishing the first episode only because I was hoping for some sort of “idiot sandwich” comment from Gordon Ramsay.

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In two short weeks, we finished the entirety of “MasterChef USA” season 10. Since we’d moved in, I’d eaten rice and eggs every day for breakfast. A simple meal, for sure, but I began to imagine how I could make my meals reflect the beauty of the meals on “MasterChef.” After many attempts, my eggs looked great and my sister even complimented them, and my sister never compliments anything of mine! Then, of course, the attention seeker in me decided to post the eggs on my Instagram story. All it took was one person to swipe up for my pride to build.

Every meal after that has become a competition with myself. How can I make my meals look pretty enough to rival the ones on “MasterChef” and make my IG look pretty enough for validation from my followers? Let me show you a few of my greatest creations below.

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These were the eggs that started it all. My mother and sister approved, so that’s all it took for me to gain enough confidence to share on my IG.

Thanks to my roommates’ “MasterChef” addiction, I actually found myself getting better with my skills in the kitchen. I was cutting faster, adjusting the heat properly, and seasoning just how it should be. On top of those, my food photography skills were improving as well. Take a look below!

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This is my friend’s, Kiran, and my version of Chicken Tikka Masala.

In this recipe, my friend Kiran and I made our version of a Chicken Tikka Masala, something I was terribly craving since moving up to Virginia. I’d say we cheated on this recipe, because we used a store-bought sauce. It was good, but we found ourselves adding garlic, onions, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and a heck ton of paprika.

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This is a simple version of spaghetti and pan-fried shrimp.

Now this dish was a banger. It was my first time cooking pasta without anyone’s physical help, and a few noodles may have ended up on the wall (apparently if they stick, it’s al dente).

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This is a ham, turkey, and cheese sandwich with corn salsa and chips on the side.

This meal above was one of my favorites because of all of the colors involved. It also took a little more work because I pickled the onions in the sandwich myself. The corn salsa was something my sister made all the time, but I never had the courage to try it out myself.

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This is my version of deep-fried panko shrimp.

I actually gained a few pounds after eating these fried shrimp bits (jk … maybe). I’ve always had a fear of hot oil (*flashback to past traumatic experiences with popping oil burns*) but built up the courage to try out frying some shrimp because I was in the mood for something greasy. To be fair, I paired it with a salad to make it healthy.

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This is a simple one: pancakes with some fresh strawberries and syrup.

These pancakes were extremely fun to make — partly because this was my first time making them from scratch. I didn’t realize how easy this dish is to make! After that morning, I vowed to never make pancakes from the box ever again.

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Another simplified version of spaghetti and parmesan chicken (but no parmesan, oops).

When I say this spaghetti dish was memorable, I mean it. Despite how delicious this may look, it was probably one of the worst things I’ve made: It was very bland and undercooked. After giving myself some time to reflect (I literally sat on the couch and thought about this), I realized my mistakes: I didn’t let the chicken set to room temperature before frying it, I didn’t pound it flat enough, and, most importantly, I didn’t season it properly. It wasn’t my proudest moment, but I’m glad I know how to improve myself for round two.

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Overall, my experiences in the kitchen were entirely new adventures for me, inspired by my new love of “Masterchef.” Many of the recipes I shared on my IG story were actually my first attempts at them. When someone asks me what my favorite thing to make is, I always struggle to answer because I’ve only ever made everything once! Wait a couple of months and ask me that same question, and hopefully, I’ll have an answer ready to tell you.