After our event at BookPeople in Austin, Texas, most of the panelists along with a few book bloggers went to a Mexican restaurant a few blocks away. I can’t remember the name of the restaurant (help?) but I did order this fabulous margarita and guacamole, which was made fresh at the table and was super yummy:

Austin

After the event at the Cambridge Public Library, I went to Grafton Street, a restaurant in Harvard Square, with Cindy Pon, Leah Cypess, Holly Black and Sarah Rees Brennan. I ate this butternut squash ravioli and I drank this manhattan:

Grafton Street

In New York I went to brunch with Cindy, S. Jae-Jones and Ellen Oh at the Comfort Diner, where I ate this heart-stoppingly tasty plate of biscuits with sausage gravy, cheesy grits, and eggs (it was all worth it!):

Comfort Diner

Last but not least, while I was in New York I also slipped in a lunch at Ippudo with Juliet Grames, where we both got the set lunch special of the day. It involved grilled eel over rice (mmmm!) …

Ippudo: Grilled eel

… and a giant bowl of ramen that was too good for words. I ordered the spicy one, but I can’t remember the exact name of it. It was TO DIE FOR! This is why I am now vowing that every time I go to New York, I am going to eat at Ippudo. I’ve done it two times in a row now, so I figure this is a very doable Life Goal. It should be yours too, because look at how mouth-watering:

The Ramen of the Gods

Hungry yet?

I don’t know if I’ll be able to blog much in this neck of the woods this week, but if I get a chance I’ll throw up some photos of the food that Cindy Pon and I encounter on our trek from California to New York, since you know neither of us is going to miss a meal.

To start off, here are some photos from the dinner we ate directly after DIYA San Francisco, at Lulu:

Leek and goat cheese tart

Grilled steak, potatoes, and peas

The oddly green gnocchi that Cindy ordered

A delectable panna cotta ordered by Martha Flynn

And here’s where you can find me the rest of this week:

Austin, Texas

Monday, May 9 at 7:30 p.m.
BookPeople
603 N. Lamar
Austin TX 78703

With authors Bethany Hegedus, Malinda Lo, Guadalupe Garcia McCall, Cindy Pon, Dia Reeves, and Jo Whittemore, and moderated by Varian Johnson

Chicago, Illinois

Tuesday, May 10 from 5:30 to 6:45 p.m.
Barbara’s Bookstore
1218 South Halsted Street
Chicago, IL 60607

With authors Malinda Lo, Claudia Guadalupe Martinez, Nnedi Okorafor, and Cindy Pon

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Thursday, May 12 at 7 p.m.
Cambridge Public Library (Main Library)
Lecture Hall
449 Broadway
Cambridge, MA 02138

With authors Holly Black, Sarah Rees Brennan, Deva Fagan, Malinda Lo, Cindy Pon, and Francisco X. Stork, and moderated by Roger Sutton. Books available for sale from Porter Square Books.

New York, New York

Friday, May 13 at 6:30 p.m.
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
208 West 13th Street
New York, NY 10011

Highlighting LGBT YA books with authors Cris Beam, David Levithan, Malinda Lo, and Jacqueline Woodson. Books available for sale from Mobile Libris.

Saturday, May 14 at 1 p.m.
Books of Wonder
18 West 18th Street
New York, NY 10011

With authors Matt de la Peña, Malinda Lo, Kekla Magoon, Neesha Meminger, Cindy Pon, Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, Rita Williams-Garcia, and Jacqueline Woodson, and moderated by Cheryl Klein

I’m giving away not only a brand-new paperback copy of Silver Phoenix, but a signed advance review copy of its sequel, Fury of the Phoenix, which doesn’t even hit stores until April 2011. To win, all you have to do is enter your contact info in the form at the end of this blog post.

I met Cindy online when I first started poking around the YA blogosphere in early 2009, and she has become a real-life friend to me since then. I know that sometimes readers are a little skeptical of authors gushing about their friends’ books, and I totally understand. But I don’t really gush about anybody’s books that often (friends or not), so if I do, you can be sure that I mean what I’m saying.

In Silver Phoenix, 17-year-old Ai Ling flees from an arranged marriage to a lecherous merchant and journeys on a quest to find her missing father. Along the way she discovers a great power within her, which she must use to fight demons and monsters who block her way. She also meets two brothers, Chen Yong and Li Rong, both of whom become her allies. Booklist, which named Silver Phoenix one of the Top Ten Fantasy and Science Fiction Books for Youth in 2009, described Cindy’s writing as “both fluid and exhilarating.” But here are my reasons for why Silver Phoenix and Fury of the Phoenix are worthy of your attention:

• They are different than 99% of the young adult fantasies being published today. There are no angels or vampires in these books. The love interest is not a bad boy with stalker instincts. The main female character doesn’t spend most of her time moping over a love triangle.
• They are both Asian-inspired fantasies written by an Asian American author. What that means is you get a non-Western setting that is also, in my opinion, refreshingly not exoticized. Stuff happens in these books that is based on thousands of years of Chinese mythology, but I’m absolutely certain you have never heard of some of these myths. And all the names sound right!
• Ai Ling, the main character, is courageous and smart. She does things she doesn’t know if she can do. She rises to the challenge presented. And she does it all while trying to never skip a delicious meal!
• The guy she falls for, Chen Yong, is smart and brave. He treats Ai Ling with respect, and he acts like man, not a boy. To me, that’s way sexier than a smirk and an attitude.

Since Fury of the Phoenix is a sequel, I won’t spoil it by telling you too much about what happens. But I will tell you this. Fury of the Phoenix is truly one of the most unique YA¹ fantasies I’ve ever read. It is sexy and thrilling, and I really love Cindy Pon’s style. She writes with an appealing lightness and energy that gives great motion to the story. And, because I can’t resist a little bit of a teaser: Fury of the Phoenix is chock full of pirates, deliciously wicked court intrigue, and lush romance between a eunuch and a courtesan. (I’m not kidding! I loved it!)

There’s one more reason you might enjoy Silver Phoenix: Food! As I mentioned, Ai Ling loves to eat, and there is so much delicious, yummy Chinese food in these books! Cindy has even included a special recipe in the back of the paperback edition; it’s her mother’s own vegetarian mopo tofu. I love to cook, so I convinced Cindy to give me a sneak preview of the recipe, and I tried it out.

Cindy's mom's vegetarian mapo tofu (made by me!)

It is super tasty! I’ve made it several times now. I really love the addition of cherry tomatoes, which isn’t in traditional recipes. It adds a really nice tartness to the dish.

So, if you want to win a copy of the paperback edition of Silver Phoenix and an ARC of Fury of the Phoenix:

• Enter your contact information in the form below. This giveaway is open internationally!
• Comments do not count as entries; you must fill out the form.
• You can get extra entries by tweeting, blogging, or posting to Facebook about the giveaway.
• The deadline for the giveaway is Feb. 15th.
• I will contact the winner shortly afterward.

Thanks for entering, and please do help spread the word!

Updated 2/20/11: The contest is over and a winner has been selected. Thanks everybody for entering!

1. I’m categorizing the books as young adult because that’s how they’re published. But in my opinion, these books very easily cross over into adult fantasy.

Oatmeal cookies with dark chocolate and dried cherries

But I grew up in a first-generation immigrant Chinese American household, and in order to make those kinds of cookies, we’d need, among other things: molasses, cookie cutters, chocolate chips, and loads of butter. Things we didn’t have in our Chinese pantry. One year I somehow convinced my parents to buy a bottle of molasses, but without cookie cutters, I ended up cutting out shapes using cardboard stencils. The cookies turned out to taste like rocks, I remember. It’s not really a surprise. I’d never eaten freshly made gingerbread cookies; nor had my mother, so it’s not like we knew what to aim for.

For Christmas dinner, my mother made Chinese-style roast duck that she salted and hung out overnight in the garage (it was cold out there). We also had shrimp and peas, red-cooked pork, meatballs rolled in glutinous rice, stir-fried vegetables, and maybe winter melon soup. The food was delicious, but I would check out cookbooks from the library and pore over recipes for roast beef and yorkshire pudding, fantasizing about what other people might eat for Christmas dinner.

Years later, I’ve had roast beef and yorkshire pudding. My mom’s roast duck was way better. But for a long time, during the holidays especially, the differences between my family and what seemed like the entire rest of America rose up crystal clear. We didn’t do what everybody else — on TV, in books, and in my school (I grew up in Colorado) — seemed to do.

It didn’t make much of a difference when I was a little kid, but as I grew older and went through adolescence — a period when just about the most important thing ever is fitting in with everyone else — these differences frustrated me. Beneath the frustration, of course, was a yearning to be like everyone else. Maybe if I ate the right food, I’d fit in.

Cutting out sugar cookies

During the holidays, everybody struggles with expectations and demands. Emotions that have been banished for the rest of the year can rise up unexpectedly when you’re forced to spend time with family members whom you don’t normally see.

For queer people, it’s not unusual to be forced to sit through long meals with relatives who openly reject you because of your sexual orientation. For immigrants who are not Christian, Christmas is a time that can make you feel like the most foreign foreigner ever to exist. I’ve been in both situations, and every year at the holidays, I can’t help but remember them.

Maybe that’s why I have a love/hate relationship with the holidays. I think that lately I’ve been veering toward the love side, but that’s because I’ve finally started to figure out how to celebrate this time of year on my own terms. But let me tell you, it’s a battle I still fight, at least internally, every year. Those feelings of difference-as-a-bad-thing haven’t entirely been erased. The media and entertainment industry still make giant fusses about trees and turkeys and gifts — oh, the gifts! — and the pure utter joy of family time (sarcasm intended).

But. One of the best things about being an adult in this country is that you get to choose how to celebrate (or not celebrate) the holidays.

Amy and I have a giant (fake) tree. In many ways, her enthusiasm for Christmas has erased so much of the anxiety about the holiday that I’ve struggled with. And over the years I’ve acquired plenty of cookie cutters, as well as taught myself what good gingerbread tastes like.

This week, I made both red-cooked pork and sugar cookies. Both are delicious. Both are perfect for Christmas.

A note on recipes: The oatmeal cookies are basically regular oatmeal cookies, but with crumbled dark chocolate and dried cherries. The sugar cookie recipe is the basic vanilla cookie dough recipe from Martha Stewart Living’s December 2010 issue. The icing is the quick lemon cookie icing from the Joy of Cooking.

Kelly Liken

On Friday night at Sirens, I went to dinner at Kelly Liken, a restaurant in Vail, Colorado, owned by Top Chef alum Kelly Liken. Remember Kelly? She was the nice, quiet girl who made it all the way to Singapore before being eliminated. I was bummed she got the boot.

Anyway, I dined alongside Sarah Rees Brennan, Cindy Pon, editor Juliet Grames, and Holly Black. We were quite a loud and jolly group seated around the corner of the bar because we didn’t have any reservations. (I think we scared off a couple on a date with our shenanigans. Sorry!) This is an approximation of our conversation:

CINDY: This altitude is giving me a headache. I must maintain my youth and beauty at all times! [drinks nonalcoholic fruity beverage]
SARAH: Jetlag is a lifestyle. Sleep is unnecessary! I am young and can do anything! [drinks fruity alcoholic beverage]
HOLLY: [rolls eyes, drinks scotch]
JULIET: Oh my God I am surrounded by crazy writers! [drinks bacon-bourbon cocktail (yes, really)]
MALINDA: I love it! Crazy writers drinking scotch! Tell me more secrets, Sarah! [drinks scotch]

Here’s what I ate:

Amuse-bouche: butternut squash soup

Duck confit ravioli

Roasted organic golden beets, chevre, frisee, crisp apples

OK, so I forgot to take a photo of this until I was nearly finished. I couldn’t resist!

The remains of my grilled Colorado lamb loin

I actually did not order dessert because I’m not a big dessert fan, but for those of you who are, I took a photo of Sarah Rees Brennan’s dessert:

Sarah Rees Brennan's dessert

After dinner, we were very happy. I’ve stolen this photo from Cindy Pon, which depicts us in a state of postprandial bliss:

L to R: Juliet Grames, Holly Black, Sarah Rees Brennan, me, Cindy Pon

A lovely time was had by all. More about my Sirens experience later!

For the main course, we made the Barefoot Contessa’s Tuscan lemon chicken:

Tuscan lemon chicken

We bought a Mary’s free-range organic air-chilled chicken (they even have a website), and I’m totally convinced that organic chickens taste better than the ordinary bland ones. Grilling chicken can be a difficult maneuver because the chicken tends to burn if the grill is too hot, and then turn out either undercooked or overcooked and tough. This time it worked out really well; the trick was to keep the temperature at a medium heat (we have a gas grill), around 350 degrees. I swear it was the best grilled chicken I’ve ever had.

To go with the chicken, we made a salad of fresh veggies from the farmer’s market, including tatsoi and heirloom tomatoes. And, because we couldn’t resist, rosemary roasted potatoes.

Dinner is served!

For dessert, I made a peach-blackberry pie. I was going to make just a peach pie because peaches are in season, but blackberries were on sale at the farmer’s market and I got three pints for a great price. Blackberries turns the juices purple! Here’s the pie fresh out of the oven:

Peach and blackberry pie

And on the plate:

Peach-blackberry pie a la mode

My favorite part about baking a pie is eating it for breakfast the next morning. I’m sorry it’s gone now!

Hope you’re enjoying the summer fruits near you.

The menu is divided into small plates, salads, pizzas, and large plates. I thought the large plates lacked creativity (there were only four dishes, and one of them was barbecued chicken — not that exciting), but the dishes we ordered were pretty good.

We started off with two small plates to share, and a salad:

Grilled local squid with watermelon gazpacho, fried almond oil, mint, chili

The grilled squid was definitely one of my favorites. I don’t know why I love squid so much; it’s sort of a recent development.

Crispy pork belly with shaved summer squash, basils

The pork belly was good, but I felt like it was a little dry. The shaved summer squash around it was delicious, though, as was the sauce.

Linda's lettuces - roasted necatarine-lavender-thyme-black-pepper vinaigrette, grilled nectarines, almonds

The salad was good, but I thought the nectarines were a bit mealy, which I didn’t like. Luckily, the salad was followed by the standout dish of the night in terms of creativity: a vegan charcuterie plate.

Vegan charcuterie

From top left, going clockwise, we have:

- Eggplant “brandade,” braised Jimmy Nardello peppers, saffron braised olives
- Carpaccio of watermelon radish and turnip, horseradish salsa verde, grapes, grated almond
- Tartar of tomato and corn, roasted tomato polenta
- Bruschetta, crispy tofu skin, avocado, tomato, smoked garlic “aioli”
- Summer mushroom pate, grilled nebrodini mushrooms

The best by far was the summer mushroom pate with grilled nebrodini mushroom — this is the thing in the lower right corner that looks suspiciously like meat. It tasted like meat, too, which actually I found a little disturbing in a dish that was supposed to be vegan, but the mushroom pate was to die for. I could have eaten an entire bowl of it. I also really enjoyed the watermelon radish and turnip “carpaccio,” which was light, crisp, and tangy.

We also ordered one of the pizzas:

Knoll Farms fig pizza with pancetta, spadona, arugula, black pepper, rosemary

The crust on this pizza was perfect (very New York style! awesome!).

Dessert followed, but I forgot to take photos of them. I also tried their organic single-malt scotch, Benromach, which was very smooth; I’ll be keeping an eye out for it in the future.

Overall, I really enjoyed the meal at Gather. I think it’s especially good for vegetarians — and don’t miss that vegan charcuterie, which was fantastic.

Mythopoeic Awards

I’m happy to announce that Ash is a finalist for the 2010 Mythopoeic Awards in the Children’s Literature category! I’m in very illustrious company indeed:

• Kage Baker, The Hotel Under the Sand (Tachyon)
• Shannon Hale, Books of Bayern consisting of The Goose Girl, Enna Burning, River Secrets, and Forest Born (Bloomsbury)
• Grace Lin, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (Little, Brown)
• Malinda Lo, Ash (Little, Brown)
• Lisa Mantchev, Eyes Like Stars (Feiwel & Friends)

This is such an honor! The news really made my day.

Lambda Literary Awards

Last week I took a whirlwind trip to New York where I spoke to a fantastic group of 7th graders in Harlem, ran through Book Expo America, and then attended the Lambda Literary Awards. Ash, which was a finalist in the Children’s category, did not win, but I still had a wonderful time catching up with many old AfterEllen-era folks and hanging out with my editors.

L to R: Kate Sullivan, Emily Kent, me

On the left is Kate Sullivan, my amazing editor at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. In the middle is Emily Kent, my editor at Hodder Children’s Books in the U.K. It was so great to meet her! Afterward, Kate and I went out for pizza, which may sound lame but believe me — I live in California and there is no good pizza in this state (although we make a decent pizza at home). Every time I go to New York I have to eat pizza.

What I Did at BEA

As I mentioned, I sped through Book Expo America last week while I was in New York. I was there to look around, but also to write up a blog post on publishing trends in fantasy for The Torch Online. The piece just went up today, so you can check it out here: What’s Next for Fantasy Publishing? Zombies, Angels, Teens, and Machines!

Lunch Time!

I still have many photos from Ireland that I want to share, but I’ll just leave you with this teaser, since it’s lunch time in my neck of the woods.

This was dinner on my first night in Ireland, at Kyteler’s pub in Kilkenny. I ordered the lamb stew and a Guinness. The stew was so delicious, and the brown bread was pretty awesome, too. My goal for this fall will be to recreate this lamb stew.¹ I’ll let you know how it goes.

1. Probably not the bread, though. I’m not really a baker. The only things I bake are pies.

Last weekend I made a strawberry-rhubarb pie in honor of a friend’s 40th birthday.

Strawberries and rhubarb

The strawberries (organic, from Watsonville, CA) smelled amazing, but they were quite tart (it’s still early for really good strawberries), so I added more sugar than I usually do in a pie.

The filling before baking

Then I baked it.

The pie, fresh from the oven

And finally, we ate it.

Heaven

This pie was truly incredible, if I do say so myself. I did not expect it to turn out so well, because as I mentioned the strawberries were very tart. But to counteract that, I sprinkled the filling (and the crust) with sugar, and also dotted the top of the filling with 2 tablespoons of butter. It worked. Yum. I wish I had some left, but the entire pie was gone five hours later!

Happy weekend! May you get some pie.

Last Sunday we went to brunch at Greens Restaurant in San Francisco. It was a gorgeous day, and the food was incredible. I am totally going back. Here’s what we had:

Omelet with leeks, swiss chard and goat cheese, served with roasted fingerling potatoes.

This omelet was truly amazing. A lot of times, the eggs in an omelet are too overdone or too runny in the middle, but this was perfection. I want to know how the chef did it! And the leeks and swiss chard were perfectly seasoned. It was soooo gooood. And those roasted potatoes? Like candy.

Yukon Gold Potato Griddle Cakes with leeks, smoked mozzarella, fontina and chives, served with eggs over easy, romescu, salsa verde and mache.

The two salsas served over these griddle cakes were delicious, but the griddle cakes themselves were mouth-watering. The potatoes were grated so finely that the cakes melted in your mouth, and they had a crisp, browned crust like the best hash browns ever.

This is what we were looking at while eating:

San Francisco Bay

I love Sunday brunch. There’s just something so relaxing and luxurious about lingering over breakfast and the newspaper. (OK there was no newspaper at Greens, but there was The View!) Hope you’re enjoying your weekend!