Full recipe + printable recipe card below. Enjoy!

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Full recipe + printable recipe card below. Enjoy!

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Full recipe + printable recipe card below. Enjoy!

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Hope you’re having a great week! In the last newsletter, I shared all of our Bangkok recommendations, and today I’m sharing the second half of the trip: four days at the beach, followed by a quick overnight stop in Hong Kong before heading back to LA.

We had such an amazing time. It felt like the perfect way to celebrate the cookbook being out in the world and to mark the end of the book tour. Thank you so much to everyone who came to events along the way. It’s truly a chapter of my life I’ll never forget.

As always, my cookbook Maxi’s Kitchen is now available for purchase at your local bookstore or online:

Order Your Copy

Thank you for your support 🤍!

Inspired by our trip to Thailand, here’s a recipe for mango sticky rice. I wanted to recreate the version I fell in love with there, and I’m so happy with how it turned out. It has the perfect balance of gentle sweetness and a hint of saltiness, with a nice creaminess from the coconut milk. I hope you give it a try!

What I Cooked Last Week! ↓

Mango sticky rice

I became obsessed with mango sticky rice in Thailand. It’s subtly sweet with a touch of salt, and has this creaminess from the coconut milk. The chewy rice pairs so well with the fresh mango.

Mango Sticky Rice

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You can download the PDF recipe above and watch the video here :)

Thailand Part 2: Two Beaches and 24 Hours in Hong Kong

When Doug and I were planning the trip, we knew we wanted a mix of city and beach. I sometimes get a little restless if we stay in one beach destination for too long, so we decided to split this part of the trip between two beaches: two nights in Railay Beach and two nights in Koh Yao Noi.

We flew from Bangkok to Krabi in the south, then took a 15-minute water taxi to Railay Beach, which is on a peninsula only accessible by boat. Doug had been there about ten years ago on a trip with friends, and he felt it had changed quite a bit since then. (It reminded him of how Tulum has become more of a tourist destination over time.) There used to be very little in the area, whereas now there are more hotels, restaurants, and small shops, as well as plenty of places to get massages.

Even so, Railay Beach was absolutely stunning. There are three beaches in the area, all surrounded by dramatic limestone cliffs that rise straight out of the sea. Doug had told me it would feel unlike anywhere I’d been before, and he was right. The sunsets were especially beautiful.

Since our hotel was right on the beach, we spent most of our days lounging by the water, sipping tropical drinks, and reading. I’m currently on the third book in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series, a fantasy romance with a female protagonist. I had read the first two books about a year ago, so it was fun to pick the story back up again. The hotel also served a simple but incredibly refreshing drink made from watermelon blended with ice, which I now want to try recreating at home. We also loved the iced Thai teas so much!

This time around, we made an effort to stick to our daily workout routine, which we don’t always manage to do on vacation. It actually felt really good. That small dose of endorphins helped me relax and feel grounded throughout the trip. I did a mix of Melissa Wood-Tepperberg’s no-equipment Pilates videos, along with weights and jogging in the gym when it was available.

Our favorite meal in the Railay Beach area was at Kohinoor, an Indian restaurant run by an Indian family. I never would have expected to find such fantastic Indian food in Thailand, but everything we ordered was excellent. We loved the chicken tikka masala, saag paneer, samosas, and naan. And of course, on the walk back to the hotel, we stopped for a foot massage.

After two nights in Railay Beach, we took another water taxi to our next destination for a completely different feel.

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Full recipe + printable recipe card below. Enjoy!

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Full recipe + printable recipe card below. Enjoy!

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Hope you’re having a great week! Doug and I just got back from Thailand and had the best time. We spent the first three days in Bangkok and ate so many incredible things. It was my first time in Thailand (Doug had been once before), and I hadn’t realized just how massive Bangkok is. It felt like one of the biggest cities I’ve ever been to. We were so impressed by the infrastructure, the huge malls, and the elevated pedestrian walkways that make it easy to get around. Below, you’ll find the highlights from our itinerary, including our favorite noodle dishes, my obsession with mango sticky rice, and the best matcha I’ve ever had.

First, here’s a recipe for creamy mushroom meatballs that I love serving over mashed potatoes. They’re tender and perfectly moist thanks to panko breadcrumbs soaked in milk, a technique I learned from my mom. The meatballs simmer in a delicious mushroom sauce that pairs so well with the potatoes. I hope you give them a try!

As always, my cookbook Maxi’s Kitchen is now available for purchase at your local bookstore or online:

Order Your Copy

Thank you so much for your support 🤍

What I Cooked Last Week! ↓

Creamy Mushroom Meatballs

These meatballs turn out perfectly moist from breadcrumbs soaked in milk and grated Parmesan. They get simmered in a creamy mushroom sauce, which is so delicious served over mashed potatoes.

Creamy Mushroom Meatballs

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You can download the PDF recipe above and watch the video here :)

Three Days in Bangkok 🍜🥭

Bangkok feels incredibly alive, with so much energy, traffic, and movement everywhere you look. On our first day, we made the mistake of taking a taxi to our food tour. It was supposed to take 30 minutes but ended up taking an hour because of traffic, and punctual me hates being late. After that, we stuck to the trains, which are clean, efficient, and pleasant to ride. We also loved the elevated pedestrian walkways that let you cross busy streets without dealing with traffic lights. They make it so easy to get around on foot.

Some of the best food is actually in the malls, which are filled with great restaurants and food courts and are also where many locals go to eat. The air conditioning probably helps too. We happened to visit during the hottest season, which we hadn’t realized when booking the trip, and I even bought a little handheld electric fan to survive the heat whenever we stepped outside.

We stayed at Rosewood Hotel, which we absolutely loved. The service was incredible and the breakfast was delicious. It felt like a true five-star experience. Because there are so many beautiful hotels in Bangkok, prices are quite competitive, and you can often stay somewhere luxurious for much less than you would pay in cities like New York or Paris.

We landed at 11am, dropped off our luggage, and immediately headed out for our first meal. The closest restaurant I had saved on my map was Thong Smith at Central Embassy, a mall right next to the hotel. We put our name down and grabbed a matcha while we waited.

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Hope you’re having a great week! My book tour wrapped up last Wednesday, and to celebrate the milestone, Doug and I planned a trip to Thailand. I’ve been working around the clock on marketing the cookbook since the holidays, so I wanted something special to look forward to right after. I thought I might feel more burnt out from all the travel (my mom and I went to 10 cities in one month!), but the tour ended up being so fun and energizing. By the end, I was ready for a change of scenery and something a little adventurous.

Today, I’m sharing a behind-the-scenes look at how Doug and I plan our trips, from finding the best flight routes to choosing hotels and mapping out where we want to eat. I’m also including my favorite tips for researching ahead of time, plus the resource I always use to uncover hidden food gems. 🍜

First, here’s a recipe for soy sauce marinated eggs. They’re deeply flavorful and remind me of the eggs you get with ramen. I love serving them over warm rice with a little butter or toasted sesame oil. The recipe is very simple and uses just a handful of ingredients, but the eggs need to sit overnight to fully absorb the marinade.

As always, my cookbook Maxi’s Kitchen is now available for purchase at your local bookstore or online:

Order Your Copy

Thank you so much for your support 🤍

What I Cooked Last Week! ↓

Soy Marinated Eggs

These marinated eggs are infused with sweet-savory flavor and so easy to make. Just like the ones served with ramen, they’re delicious over warm rice with scallions and sesame seeds.

Soy Marinated Eggs

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You can download the PDF recipe above and watch the video here :)

All Our Secrets for Planning a Great Trip ✈️

We like to divide up responsibilities when planning a trip. Doug usually handles researching and booking the flights and hotels, and I take care of all the food.

For flights, Doug typically starts researching on Kayak, which scans across airlines and shows different route options. We don’t recommend booking directly through a third-party site like Kayak. We use it just to find the best route, then book directly through the airline’s website, since it’s much easier to make changes that way if needed.

For this trip, we knew we’d need a connection since we were flying straight from Houston, the final stop on my book tour. If the trip involves a long journey, we prefer to do the longest leg first, followed by a shorter one. In this case, we flew 17 hours to Taipei and then 3.5 hours to Bangkok. We do have some airline preferences based on loyalty programs, but the most affordable option this time was Eva Air, a Taiwanese airline, so that’s what we booked.

Doug knows a lot about hotels. Although you might think he’s just an Instagram husband (lol!), he’s actually an entrepreneur and founded the hotel app Safara (you can download the app here). Safara lets you book any hotel globally and earn consistent rewards regardless of hotel chain affiliation or not. They curate the best boutique hotels all over the world and have a really cool feature where you can keep track of past hotels you’ve stayed at, rate them, and share your recs with friends. It’s fun!

I personally love Safara’s hotel curation and used it to pick all of the hotels for my book tour. There’s a range of price points, including hidden gems that can be harder to find on your own, and they also pull together hotels featured in the press, so you don’t have to sift through dozens of articles. When choosing a hotel, we usually start by identifying the neighborhoods that feel interesting to us, and then look for hotels within easy reach of the restaurants we’ve saved on our map.

While Doug is researching flights and hotels, I start building a list of restaurants.

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Hope you had a great week! My book tour officially wrapped up this week in Texas, and along the way I had so many wonderful conversations. One question kept coming up again and again: how did I first start cooking, and what led me to launch a blog on Instagram? It made me realize I’ve never really shared the full story here, so I thought it would be fun to give you a little overview in today’s newsletter.

First, here’s a recipe for a healthy carrot ginger soup my mom and I have been making for years. It’s made with just a few ingredients (carrots, onion, and lots of fresh ginger) and has such a smooth, creamy texture. Served with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of fresh chives, it’s so delicious.

As always, my cookbook Maxi’s Kitchen is now available for purchase at your local bookstore or online:

Order your copy

Thank you so much for your support 🤍

What I Cooked Last Week! ↓

Healthy Carrot Ginger Soup

My mom and I have been making this soup for years! It’s shockingly creamy and luxurious, though it’s made with just a few simple, healthy ingredients.

Healthy Carrot Ginger Soup

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You can download the PDF recipe above and watch the video here :)

My Story: How I Got into Cooking

I’ve always loved food. As a kid, I was a bit overweight because I loved to eat so much. I was never picky and honestly can’t think of a food I didn’t enjoy. I always joke that I learned to fold a wonton before I ever held hands with a boy, which is actually true. I learned so young that I can’t even remember a time when I didn’t know how to fold them.

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Full recipe + printable recipe card below. Enjoy!

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Full recipe + printable recipe card below. Enjoy!

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Hope you’re having a great week! I’ve been having so much fun on my book tour and have loved meeting so many of you in person. Last week I was in Costa Mesa on Thursday for an event at Williams Sonoma. We had such a fantastic turnout, with over 200 people in attendance. I felt so honored that so many of you came out, especially because I remember before the tour started worrying that no one would show up. I also surprised everyone by bringing Kimchi, and she was such a hit.

Then on Friday, we had a really special event with the bookshop Now Serving in Chinatown. It was a beautiful night and the outdoor setting felt so magical, with lanterns strung overhead lighting up the space.

Next week_, I’m heading into the final stretch of the tour! On Tuesday, I’ll be at the San Antonio Botanical Gardens for a speaking engagement, and on Wednesday I’m off to Houston for a local TV segment and in-person book signing. That same night at 1am, Doug and I are flying to Thailand, with a connection in Taipei. We’re so excited for this trip and can’t wait to share all the delicious foods we’ll eat along the way.

Today I’m sharing an ode to the salad tostada, one of my favorite things to make when the weather starts to warm up. It’s been really hot in Los Angeles lately, already in the 90s, and it’s starting to feel like summer. On warm days, I always crave something cool, fresh, and crunchy, and the salad tostada hits all the right notes. You get the crisp tortilla base topped with a bright, flavorful salad, so every bite has that perfect crunch. Below you’ll find three of my favorite salad tostada recipes, along with my go-to method for baking tortillas in the oven for the crispiest base.

First, here’s a recipe for the best ever carrot snack cake. It’s incredibly moist with little pops of texture from the walnuts. A tangy cream cheese frosting brings it all together. It’s a recipe that will stay in your family for years to come. I hope you try it!

As always, if you haven’t yet, you can purchase my cookbook at your local bookstore or online:

Order your copy here

Thank you so much for your support 🤍

What I Cooked Last Week! ↓

Carrot Snack Cake

This carrot cake is impossibly moist, perfectly spiced, and comes together with the yummiest cream-cheese frosting. Decorate with mini carrots on top, and it’s both cute and delicious!

Carrot Snack Cake

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You can download the PDF recipe above and watch the video here :)

Three Salad Tostadas to Make This Spring

A note about tostada shells: I love making my own in the oven using corn tortillas and a little oil. It’s something my mom taught me, and it couldn’t be easier. I like using the standard-size corn tortillas from Guerrero because they crisp up beautifully. Just drizzle a couple tablespoons of oil onto a sheet pan and rub both sides of each tortilla in the oil. Sprinkle with a little salt, then bake at 400ºF on convection mode, flipping halfway through, until golden and crisp. They’ll continue to crisp as they cool, creating the perfect base for a fresh, crunchy topping.

Southwestern Salad Tostadas

This is the recipe that started it all, and the first salad tostada I ever developed. The salad is colorful and balanced, with beans, corn, Mexican cheese, romaine, tomatoes, and avocado, all tossed in a healthy cilantro-lime dressing. It feels both light and satisfying. When I first shared this recipe, I was so happy to see how much people enjoyed it.

Find the recipe here.

Shrimp Ceviche Tostadas

The topping isn’t technically a salad, but it has the same fresh, vibrant feel. Traditional ceviche involves curing raw seafood in lime juice, whereas here I boil the shrimp for 2 minutes (until just cooked through), then toss it with crunchy jicama, red onion, tomato, jalapeño, and lots of lime juice. Spread a thin layer of cilantro-lime crema on the tostada before adding the shrimp mixture. It’s tangy, creamy, and so delicious.

Find the recipe here.

Chopped Salad Tostadas with Avocado and Dill

This version leans Mediterranean, with lemon, dill, red cabbage, cucumber, tomatoes, and of course avocado, which pairs so well with the crisp tortilla. It’s finished with a sprinkle of flaky sea salt. The first time I tried it, I loved the mix of bright flavors and crunchy textures.

Find the recipe here.

I hope these recipes inspire you to try one or all of them this spring. I always love dreaming up new salad tostada combinations, so if you have ideas for other toppings that would be delicious, let me know! Now that the book is out in the world, I finally have more time to focus on new recipe development again, which feels really exciting.

Wishing you a relaxing, wonderful weekend!

Love,

Maxine

Full recipe + printable recipe card below. Enjoy!

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Full recipe + printable recipe card below. Enjoy!

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Full recipe + printable recipe card below. Enjoy!

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Hope you’re having a great week! The past few weeks have been such a whirlwind with my cookbook publishing and going on book tour. I’m so grateful to everyone who has come out to the events. It’s been really special meeting so many of you in person.

Last Wednesday, I also found out that the book is a New York Times bestseller! This was always a dream of mine, and now that it’s happened, I feel really happy and honestly a little relieved. I realized I had been putting a lot of pressure on myself during the big marketing push leading up to publication.

Part of me feels like I should take a break after moving at full speed for so long, but I’ve also been feeling really inspired lately, thinking about new recipes I want to develop and starting to brainstorm some longer-term projects. Doug and I actually just planned a trip to Thailand right after the tour wraps, which will be a really nice way to celebrate and reset.

This week, I’m sharing a few things I’ve been loving lately, including the best Vietnamese food I’ve had in the US (from one of my book tour stops!), a seeded cracker recipe I can’t stop eating, and a show I’ve been watching on my flights.

Below, you’ll also find a recipe for a ramen crunch salad my mom and I recently made. It has two kinds of cabbage, napa and red, plus lots of crunch from toasted ramen and almonds. A sesame-soy dressing gives it tons of flavor. We served it at a dinner party and everyone loved it!

As always, if you haven’t yet, you can purchase my cookbook at your local bookstore or online:

Order your copy here

Thank you so much for your support 🤍

What I Cooked Last Week! ↓

Ramen crunch salad

My mom and I made this for a dinner party, and everyone went crazy for it. The salad is full of colorful veggies and a sesame-soy dressing. Tossed with crunchy ramen and almonds, it’s such a winner!

Ramen Crunch Salad

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You can download the PDF recipe above and watch the video here :)

A Few Things I’ve Been Loving 🤍

Vietnamese food

As you may have noticed, I really love Vietnamese food. It might even be my favorite cuisine. I love the balance in so many dishes: hearty but still light and fresh.

Before going on the book tour, I spoke with a reporter who told me about an amazing Vietnamese restaurant in Charlotte, North Carolina. So when my mom and I stopped there for my event, we decided to check it out. The place is called Lang Van, and it turned out to be some of the best Vietnamese food I’ve had in the US. Definitely better than anything I’ve tried in New York or Los Angeles.

Our favorite dish was the bánh xèo, a super crispy rice flour crêpe filled with herbs and bean sprouts. You dip it in a nước chấm sauce, which is sweet, tangy, and salty from the fish sauce.

We loved the meal so much that when we got to Seattle, we went looking for more Vietnamese food and tried Tamarind Tree. It was very good, though not quite as delicious as Lang Van. And when I got back to Los Angeles, Doug and I went to a spot in our neighborhood called Viet on Fletcher. They make a great spicy chicken pho and really good shrimp rolls.

Now I’m inspired to try recreating the bánh xèo from Lang Van, so stay tuned.

Seeded crackers

My brother’s girlfriend gave my mom a recipe for these delicious, healthy seeded crackers. They’re incredibly simple to make. You just pour boiling water over a bunch of seeds with a little olive oil. The flaxseeds and chia seeds form a gel that binds everything together. Then you spread the mixture onto a sheet pan, sprinkle a little Parmesan and salt on top, and bake.

They’re so nourishing and satisfying that I even brought a batch with me on my book tour to snack on between events.

Here’s the recipe:

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Hope you’re having a great week! I’ve been on the road for the past two weeks for my book tour. We kicked things off in New York on pub day with Alison Roman, then my mom and I traveled to DC, Charlotte, Chicago, Seattle, and San Francisco.

Today I’m sharing three cozy recipes I love to make at the end of winter (I can’t believe spring is just one week away!) along with a few more stories from the book tour.

If you haven’t yet, you can pick up Maxi’s Kitchen at your local bookstore or order online:

Order your copy

As always, thank you for your support. It’s been such a surreal and exciting experience finally getting to share my book with you all 🤍

Book Tour & Three Cozy Recipes to Carry Us into Spring

On our way from Charlotte to Chicago, our first flight was canceled because of weather, so we were scrambling to find another route. We managed to book a connection through Detroit that was supposed to get us there on time. We were already on the plane in Detroit, just about to take off, when Chicago had another ground stop. Long story short, we were delayed again and didn’t make it to the event until 9pm!

But it was so sweet that so many people stayed, even though the event was supposed to start at 7pm. My aunt, her friends, and my cousin were also there, which made it extra special.

With all these flights, my mom has been reading my cookbook on the planes. She went through it page by page, reading all the stories behind each recipe. It was such a nice reminder that cookbooks are meant to be read, not just cooked from.

It’s been so fulfilling to meet people in real life. I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who has taken time out of their busy schedules to come see my mom and me. I’ve especially loved getting to chat with each person. So many people have shared sweet stories about how my recipes have helped them through different phases of life. One woman told me she recently separated and has been learning to nourish herself by cooking my recipes. Another person drove 2.5 hours to Charlotte just to come support me. He’s been watching my videos and cooking my recipes for years. I almost cried when he told me!

I’ve also loved meeting all the mothers and daughters who have come to events together. One girl even FaceTimed her mom with me so I could say hello! She told me they often send my recipes back and forth and make the same dishes.

It’s been really fun to hear which recipes have made it into people’s dinner rotations, because it’s different for everyone. Often it’s a recipe I shared years ago. It makes me glad that I cook such a range of cuisines, because hopefully there’s something for everyone, no matter your tastes.

Meeting so many of you in person has brought new excitement to my work. Even though I’m a bit tired from being on the road, the events have left me feeling really energized. For me, the most important part of the tour is making time to speak with everyone who comes by, even if it’s just for a few minutes. I can’t tell you how appreciative I am to those of you who have traveled from near and far. You’ve made this tour so fun and special.

As I’ve been traveling around the country, I can see how spring is starting to peek through, but it’s still pretty chilly in most places. So I wanted to share these three cozy recipes I love to make this time of year as we transition from winter to spring.

Coconut Lemongrass Chicken with Bok Choy

This dish is so fantastic and surprisingly easy to make. It’s beautifully balanced and packed with flavor. First you marinate chicken with seasonings and lemongrass, which gives it a lovely citrusy aroma. (I can usually find lemongrass at a regular grocery store.) Then you make a coconut broth with shallots, chili for a bit of heat, and a splash of fish sauce. The result is creamy, tangy, and incredibly comforting. I recommend serving it over freshly cooked jasmine rice to soak up all that broth.

You can find the recipe here.

Chicken Parm Meatballs

If you love chicken Parm and meatballs, this one’s for you. It’s basically a fusion of the two. The meatballs are made with a combination of ground chicken and chicken sausage for extra flavor, and then topped with melted mozzarella and Parmesan. It’s a super comforting meal that still feels light enough for a weeknight.

You can find the recipe here.

Grandpa’s Korean Fried Rice

Everyone loves fried rice, and this is the way my Korean grandpa used to make his. It has bacon, napa cabbage, onion, and carrot, plus gochujang, a fermented Korean chili paste that gives the rice a delicious sweet and spicy flavor. Topped with a fried egg, it’s deeply savory and so satisfying. If you have leftover rice, it comes together in about 20 minutes.

You can find the recipe here.

Wishing you a wonderful, relaxing weekend!

Love,

Maxine