
I love that it can go into the oven and withstand high temperatures.

What do you like about cooking with cast iron? Now that I have started exploring more, I understand that not only are salads and fried rice much more than just ingredients in a bowl, but their visual presentation helps add to the full sensory experience. For a very long time, I never understood why food aesthetic mattered so much - a salad was just a bowl of raw veggies, and fried rice was just mixed cooked veggies. I had actually never enjoyed home cooking until this year. How would you describe your relationship to home cooking? As a classic cafe dish, we never actually made it at home, so this is a more grown-up and simplified version (still with ketchup though!). Growing up, it was (and still is) one of my favorites. This is a classic dish if you visit a Hong Kong cafe (cha chaan teng). I am sharing a cheesy baked pork chop rice. Does the dish you’re sharing today have a story behind it? Now that I’ve developed my own cooking style, I know it comes down to the quality of your ingredients - and knowing what mixes and matches - rather than the quantity of ingredients in each recipe. Growing up in an east Asian household, I always found cooking intimidating because I thought it had to involve lots of ingredients to taste good. How does your heritage or culture influence your home cooking?
#PORK CHOPS AND RICE HOW TO#
With her Chinese-Canadian cultural upbringing in her back pocket, Vanessa has learned how to mix and match ingredients in unexpected ways while still paying homage to her heritage (and respect to her mother). The content creator has a hugely popular TikTok, which showcases quick tips and tricks for making any recipe your own. Vanessa Tan is relatively new to home cooking, but she has taken to it effortlessly.
