May 2025 🃏

you gotta know when to hold em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away

** A FUN EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT ALL THE WAY AT THE BOTTOM**

May - is Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. It includes the entire Asian continent, including East, Southeast, and South Asia, as well as the Pacific Islands of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia encompassing a vast and diverse array of countries and regions across Asia and the Pacific Islands. We are suppose to take this time to reflect and celebrate the important role that Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AANHPIs) have played in our shared history of this country (America).

All through my life I have never felt like I totally belonged to any one culture. I was born in Singapore and grew up in Indonesia and Hong Kong. I am Chinese by birth but English is my first language and the language we spoke at home. My paternal grandmother, my mama, would constantly call me a banana. Yellow on the outside but white on the inside. Implying that at my core, I was a Western girl with an Eastern face.

When I was growing up the ideal image that was perpetuated in the media was to be Caucasian. Blond hair, blue eyes, the complete opposite of what I am. I spent most of my childhood trying to assimilate and push away any desire to have a deeper relationship to my culture and its language. Something that I would regret to an extent as an adult. Sure I celebrated Chinese New Year every year, Lantern Festival, Mid Autumn festival and what not but I didn’t truly appreciate it’s cultural significance till almost my mid twenties by then I had moved almost ten thousand miles away from home.

In saying that, I have never felt completely accepted by the Asian community in the states even though I am very much a Chinese person. This sense of inadequacy started from college orientation and has followed me through into my adult life. I wasn’t Chinese enough for my grandma and because of that was I not Chinese enough to be accepted by the Chinese community in America? I am not an American citizen so I don’t even fall into the Asian American category, or do I? Now deep into my 30’s (be honest Stacey you’re pushing 40) I the feeling of not being enough of anything still looms over me.

My cookbook 50 pies, 50 states is about finding a way home, a home that you end up creating for yourself. This home can be made up of your family, the friends that have become your family and everyone in between. I have found a home that I have made and built on my own, not totally Chinese not totally American, something in between. Somedays more Chinese, some days a little more Western.

As the years pass, I embrace that line that I skirt on that is all mine. My experiences and travels have lead me to live a life that is all my own. Someone that was born very far away from the place she has chosen to call home. Whether the people in that country that look like her accept her or not.

I am Chinese enough and I’ll bake you a pie to prove it.

The Perfect to Me, Apple Pie

This spring/summer my obsession has once again returned to the apple pie. Is it because I am considering my next move on my journey in America, to become a citizen?
Either way here you have it the perfect apple pie to me with a little yuzu added in, in place of traditional lemon. There is cheddar cheese in the crust too for a little more salt and depth.

It’s great a la modé or even showered in more grated cheese. xo

Active time: 30 minutes
Bake time: 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes
Total time: 3 hours, 30 minutes

Makes one 10-inch pie

INGREDIENTS

For the crust:
Cheesy All-Butter Crust (see recipe below), rolled out, one for bottom crust, one cut into 1-inch- wide lattice strips
1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
Egg wash
Finishing sugar

For the filling:

6 medium Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
2 tablespoons yuzu juice, I love the one from Yuzu Co.
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

For serving:
Sliced extra-sharp Cabot cheddar cheese

DIRECTIONS

Make the filling: In a large mixing bowl, toss the apples with the yuzu juice and the 2 tablespoons granulated sugar. Set aside for 30 minutes.

In a medium mixing bowl, mix the 3/4 cup granulated sugar, the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Drain the apples and add to the sugar mixture. Mix together until well incorporated and all the apple slices are coated.

Assemble the pie: Preheat the oven to 375 F. Fit the bottom crust in a greased 10-inch pie pan. Sprinkle the teaspoons of flour and sugar on the base of the pie. Fill with the filling.

Weave the lattice strips in a simple basket weave pattern on the top. Trim any excess crust along the edge leaving enough to roll and crimp to seal. Brush the crust with egg wash, sprinkle with finishing sugar, and place on a baking sheet.

Bake the pie: Bake the pie on the center rack for 1 hour, rotating every 15 minutes, until golden brown and the filling is bubbling. Bake an additional 5 to 10 minutes if the lattice needs additional browning. Let cool for at least 2 hours before serving with slices of cheddar cheese. Best enjoyed after a little kiss on the cheek too!

Cheesy All-Butter Crust - Double Crust

INGREDIENTS
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup Cabot extra sharp cheddar, grated
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 cup cold water
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup ice

DIRECTIONS
Stir the flour, salt and sugar together in a large bowl with a flat bottom. Add the butter pieces on top of the dry ingredients. Using your fingers, toss the butter in the dry mixture so each cube is coated. Use a pastry blender or your fingers to cut or rub the butter into the mixture until it is in pieces a bit larger than peas (a few larger pieces are okay; be careful not to over-blend). You want to be able to have big butter chunks in your crust: It helps create a flakey effect, as well as adding delicious Active time: 30 minutes

In a separate large measuring cup or small bowl, combine the water, cider vinegar, and ice. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the ice water mixture over the flour mixture; do not add the ice, which is just there to keep your water cold. Using your hands in a circular motion, bring the mixture together until all the liquid is incorporated. Continue adding the ice water mixture, 1 to 2 tablespoons at a time. Carefully mix until the dough comes together in a ball, with some dry bits remaining. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently until it comes into one mass; you don’t want to overwork it.

Shape the dough into a flat disc (if making double recipe, first separate the dough into two equal portions), wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, preferably overnight before using.

Wrapped tightly, the dough can be refrigerated for 3 days or frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw frozen dough overnight in the fridge. hits of flavor!

What I am…

WATCHING: SINNERS
I mean who hasn’t at this point told you to get your ass to the movies and watch Sinners. I have my friend Rachael to thank for this. I am not a scary movie person, I am a rom com, period piece, animated movie person. She begged me to go, she told me I would love it. I would be lying to you if I didn’t spend the entire trailer portion of the movie with my head hidden behind my medium AMC popcorn while I nursed my fountain diet coke for comfort.
Once the movie started, everything changed. I don’t want to say to much as to not give it away but please please go! The music in the movie is perfect, the costume design (note the washed out blood stains). This movie reinvigorated why I love the movies so much, the devil is in the details.

LISTENING: S.G. Goodman
I will say this was a tough album to recommend not because I don’t love the music I really do BUT I have a deep and irrational fear of turtles. The terrapin on the album cover straight up spooks me out!! I’m sorry you can’t trust anything that can live that long…but enough about me!!! Let’s talk about the wonder and beauty that is the music of S.G. Goodman! She is about to put out a new album that she is getting ready to tour, your girl has tickets for her Bowery Ballroom show (one of the best venues in the city if I do say so myself) and I truly cannot wait to see her live for the first time.

Give it a go but also return to the S.G. song that started my obsession. The opening chords will rip your chest open and then pull you back onto the dance floor for soft sways enveloped in the arms of someone that you love.

Tyler Childers does an incredible cover of this song that I wish I got to see him sing live when he did his two nights at Radio City Music Hall a couple years ago. I went to the first night with an old flame and he didn’t sing this song but on the second night he let it rip. A sign perhaps of things to come.

DOING: Demo and Dine: The United States of Pies with Baker Stacey Mei Yan Fong at the James Beard Foundation Platform
Sunday July 13th at 2:00pm at Pier 57, 25 11th Ave, New York, NY 10011
TICKETS HERE
More info below! I’ll be baking with the help of my friends over at Organic Valley, Farm to People and Wyman’s berries! All Moxie for the Maine pie carried by hand by one of my favorite Mainers, Nate!

Join the Author of 50 Pies, 50 States for a Baking Demonstration and Pie Tasting Inspired by Regional American Flavors

Growing up in Singapore and Hong Kong, Stacey Mei Yan Fong learned that there is nothing more symbolically American than a slice of pie. After moving to the United States, Stacey turned her passion for baking into the ultimate cross-country culinary project: 50 Pies, 50 States: An Immigrant’s Love Letter to the United States Through Pies. Stacey created 50 pies, each representing a different state through their unique flavors and ingredients. From a Sweet Tea Peach Pie with Pecan Crumble in honor of Georgia, to a savory Mashed Potato Pie with Hash Brown Crust in celebration of Idaho, the IACP award–winning cookbook is a whimsical road trip of regional food culture.

Join Stacey for an afternoon of sweet indulgence as she shares exclusive tips and tricks, including how to make her signature scalloped pie crust. Guests will enjoy slices of three different types of pie, each representing a different region of the United States.

Copies of 50 Pies, 50 States: An Immigrant’s Love Letter to the United States Through Pies by Stacey Mei Yan Fong are available for purchase with tickets or at the event from our friends at Kitchen Arts & Letters.

I hope to see you there!

Till we meet in June!
xoxo
Stacey