Little Chi is my nickname in Chinese.  I really don’t know how I became interested in cooking and baking.  I wasn’t even allowed in the kitchen (too hazardous for kids) when I was growing up.  My mom doesn’t cook and I was raised in the part of the world where cooking was considered “menial”.  Of course, the opposite is true now.   My first brush with “cook-o-sphere” was actually in San Francisco.  I was in college at the time and out of the blue I bought the Christmas issue of Gourmet.  It was a special issue featuring Christmas dinner at Julia Child’s house.  I remember she made a lovely Bûche de Noël and a cream soup that she used rice purée.  It was the first time in my life that I actually feel like cooking.  But I soon forgot about it as I got caught up with college life.  I kept that magazine like a precious rare book in my luggage for 17 years.  Unfortunately, I had to throw it away after I moved back from France.  Along with many of my books, it wasn’t properly stored while I was away and nasty orange molds took residence.  Bad molds, bad.

While in France, I started this blog as a sort of semi-journal to keep in touch with friends and relatives in different parts of the world.  Somehow it evolved from a “life in Paris” to “eating in Paris” thing.  That said, I didn’t post everything.  Sometimes I just want to sit down to a nice meal without having to whip out my camera every now and then.  I have also edited, deleted, and rewritten some posts.  I have resolved not write about places I don’t like.

Ever since moving back to Bangkok, I find myself in the kitchen more and more often. I have also begun to amass cooking books at a quite alarming rate.  Cooking is definitely a test of patience. One can work on a dish for hours or days and there is no guarantee it will turn out as expected. I still get upset when that happens but when something turns out the way I like, it feels as if I have plucked a star from the sky!