About Jia

I am a health care worker by day and foodie by night. Well in an alternate universe, maybe I'm a chef by day instead.

Cooking has been a big part of my life since... university days when mom and dad dropped me off and insisted that I need to cook more than boiling water for instant noodles. Well that's not true, my love affair with food started when I was a kid - watching grandma marinate pickled cabbage (it's kind of gross and sometimes there's mold floating around but not poisonous I promise), fry pork rinds for snacks, and make dough to fold dumplings. My contributions were little dough animals which mostly get dis-assembled to make "real" dumplings. (Did anyone ask my dough penguins how they felt about that though?)

Recent years, when I joined the workforce and doing super hero work in a major hospital in the city, cooking shows became my fave past time in the break room where I can rest my feet and day-dream of working along awesome chefs like Micheal Smith or Jamie Oliver. Today, no matter how tired I try to cook at least one meal a day. Some days that's just avocado toast. It's hard sometimes because full-time job stress doesn't always agree with this. But at the same time it's important to me - because making food transpires love and care, and really is kind of therapeutic. Now, I love finding recipes, using ingredients I have not used before, take chef show inspirations, and make dishes with my own twists. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. Luckily my audience aka my husband is not picky and my dog Oreo is super supportive.

I also frequent restaurants when I'm not cooking. I live in one of the culinary hubs in the world, Toronto. It's a beautiful city where everyone is from everywhere around the world. That means good food is available from any culture is accessible, authentic, and delicious. To a foodie, this is honestly heaven on earth.

Via this blog, I hope to share my cooking, recipes, ideas,ingredients, and favorite hangout spots around town. Eating is mandatory, might as well have fun with it.