Hi there, thanks for visiting and welcome to duanderful!
I’m Lucy. I am normally based in northern California, but I was born in China and spent the first half of my childhood there before moving to the U.S.
My Roots
The first time I returned to China to visit my grandma after 5 years, the first words out of her mouth wasn’t “hi, I’ve missed you”. Instead, she said: “are you hungry?” Food in my family and Chinese culture goes beyond just taste, aroma, nutritional value — it’s what brings us together and creates harmony.
I was raised on Chinese food, which was just “food” to me at the time. Even after I moved to the U.S., I was only exposed to cubed cheese with crackers, pizza, hamburgers, and hot dogs. It wasn’t until I moved out of my small, rural town in upstate New York that I started to explore other cuisines.
How did I live my entire childhood without pad kee mao, tacos, and brazilian cheese bread (pão de queijo)?! I’m not sure, but I wouldn’t want to go back.
To me, one of the great joys in life is to be able to make, share, and eat food with other people. I dabbled in cooking in college, but it wasn’t until these last 9 months as I was cooped up inside that I made over 200 different enticing dishes, giving in to the desires of my tummy. I’m creating this visual food diary and digital recipe book as a fun and creative outlet. Join me as I continue to explore enticing, simple, and sometimes healthy recipes — everything from authentic Chinese food to a variety of other cuisines.
My Values
Safety Tasty first — I am a huge believer that food should be first and foremost delicious. So if you’re going to indulge in something, do it right — add that slice of cheese and eat the full fat ice cream. Life is too short to not enjoy your food.
Other bits:
- Staying active also brings me an immense amount of joy, so I’ll be documenting workouts and fitness tips on here from time to time (maybe even some workout videos…)
- I have a bad memory, so I’ll be documenting other miscellaneous musings and thoughts on here.
- (It was a goal of mine to start a blog in 2020, and although I procrastinated until the last few hours of 2020, I can say that I did it!)
With my recipes, I hope I can inspire some of you to cook scrumptious and (sometimes) healthy food at home, get out of your comfort zone, and always have a full belly~
Some other things that bring me joy:
- flamin’ hot cheetos (a 15+ year love affair)
- the smell of a new can of tennis balls
- friends (both the tv show + real life people)
- Jesus
- my sister: the most curious, excitable, and hungry 9-year old
Oh, and to answer my grandma’s question from earlier: Yes – I was hungry. I’m always hungry.