Hungry Bear is always searching for good Chinese food cookbooks and her latest find is The Seventh Daughter by Cecilia Chiang. One of the dishes that caught her eye were these star anise peanuts. They are a good alternative to salted peanuts or honey roasted peanuts.

Hungry Bear made this simple snack a few weeks ago and they were a big hit. They are salty and a little crunchy. I love the aroma of the star anise and when they are cooking, the smell reminds me of a bowl of pho. I found it difficult to stop eating them and I'm sure you will too.

I want to congratulate my friends, Micky and Lawrence, on the birth of their second child, a beautiful baby boy, named Kian. Micky is a great cook and we always look forward to her meals. One of her unique creations is this egg, mint and cucumber canapé. She often makes it for her infamous Christmas party spreads.

The canapés are tasty and super simple to make. They only require cutting up an omelette and slicing a cucumber. Top them with a piece of mint and a splash of hot sauce and voilà. They are light and easy to eat during a party.

A few months ago, Hungry Bear saw Gourmet's onion tart recipe and wanted to make it. She was reminded of an amazing leek tart that she had at Le Charm in San Francisco. We've seen a lot of nice looking leeks at the market, so she tweaked the recipe slightly and made a leek and onion tart.

We bought some beautiful leeks several weeks ago, but sadly, we accidentally let them rot in the fridge. Undeterred from this mishap, we bought some more leeks yesterday and Hungry Bear finally made the tart.

Vietnamese fresh spring rolls? Summer rolls? Salad rolls? What do you call these things? It's goi cuon in Vietnamese. The literally translation is salad (goi) roll (cuon). Whatever you call them, they are light, refreshing and delicious. Most restaurants serve salad rolls with nuoc cham, a fish sauce based dipping sauce, but did you know, it's ten times better with a spicy peanut Hoisin sauce.

A few weeks ago, Hungry Bear had a major craving for goi cuon after Nikki, a.k.a. Canary Girl, asked me to share my recipe. My version is a common shrimp and pork salad roll recipe that most Viet people make. As long as the ingredients are fresh, especially the lettuce and herbs, the salad rolls are going to be good.

I made goi cuon this past Sunday night as part of our Vietnamese/Chinese New Year celebration dinner with our SND friends. Every time I make a batch of salad rolls, I have more respect for my mom's ability to crank these things out. They are easy to make, but time consuming to prep and roll. My mom can probably roll 2 or 3 batches in the time I can make one. Next time, I'm just going to do the prep work and we'll have a salad roll rolling party.

Crab or lobster? Which crustacean do you prefer? I'm a crab person, without a doubt. Yes, it's more work to eat crabs, but crab meat to me is more flavorful and sweeter. Each summer, when I lived in Delaware, we would get a bushel of Old Bay seasoned Maryland blue crabs and a keg of beer and have a crab eating fest. Hungry Bear is sick and tired of hearing this story every time someone brings up blue crabs, so I'll stop reminiscing now.

Through the years, I've looked for a good crab cake recipe and tried out many of them. I've tried recipes with fillers of white bread, saltines and breadcrumbs. I've tried ones with eggs, mustard, mayonnaise, Worcestershire, Old Bay and many other ingredients. In the end, my favorite recipes were the ones with simple ingredients that didn't overpower the taste of the wonderful crab meat.