You may have noticed some changes around here. Most noticeably, where is Appetite for China and why is it now called Cinnamon Society?

When I first started this blog in 2007, I had recently moved from New York to Beijing and was exploring China for the first time as a temporary resident. I wanted a blog to record my travels around the country and my experiments in the kitchen to reverse engineer all the new dishes I was trying. Because of Appetite for China, I made a bunch of new friends in the food world, started teaching cooking classes, and eventually started writing cookbooks.

But this need to change the blog’s name has been 12 years in the making. When I moved back to the US in 2009, I knew I wanted to write about more than just Chinese food. (And I had already been doing that for newspapers and magazines.) But my partner at the time, who is now still a good a friend, kept telling me that changing the site name would hurt my SEO and to just leave it.

As much as I hated feeling pigeonholed into writing only about Chinese food, I kept the name. And my interest in blogging waned. I just felt so stuck and limited to writing about a country I no longer lived in. I still loved the cuisine, but I became much more passionate about creating inventive, healthy takes on foods from around the world. (I also got a ton of spam every week from Chinese export companies, but that’s a whole other story.) And so I blogged less and less.

Two cookbooks and a dozen years later, I’m reminded of this quote often attributed to novelist George Eliot: It is never too late to be what you might have been. Even if this name change leads to some confusion for a while, I now feel more liberated to write about any kind of cuisine or dish I want. And I actually feel excited to experiment and blog again.

And Cinnamon Society is still a nod to the site’s origins. In the US cinnamon is mostly associated with baking, but in Asia it’s used much more in savory cooking. It’s one of the key spices in 5-spice powder. And it’s essential to some of my favorite savory Chinese dishes, like marbled tea eggs, red-cooked beef, soy sauce chicken, and Taiwainese pork belly buns.

To celebrate the blog’s new makeover, here is a recipe from Red Hot Kitchen that has been highly requested. Ironically, it still is a Chinese-ish recipe, but one that developed here in the U.S.

Whenever I teach Sichuan cooking classes, students often ask me about the cold noodles tossed with a spicy peanut sauce served at their local Sichuan takeout. “How do we make those?” they would wonder. In reality, the Sichuan peanut noodles most Americans know are actually Western riffs on dan dan noodles, traditional spicy noodles dish topped with a thick, sesame pork sauce. Although born out of American Chinese restaurants, these new world Sichuan-style peanut noodles are no less hearty and delicious. This is my vegan version, noodles coated with a tingly peanut sauce infused with Sichuan chili oil. They are so addictive I’ve never had any leftovers.

Sichuan Peanut Noodles

Yield: 4

Author: Diana Kuan

Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 20 MinTotal time: 30 Min

These vegan Sichuan peanut noodles are coated with a lip-smacking sauce infused with Sichuan chili oil.

Ingredients

8 ounces baby bok choy
10 ounces dried thick wheat noodles, or 16 ounces fresh noodles
2 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons minced or grated ginger
8 fresh shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and caps thinly sliced
½ cup smooth peanut butter
¼ cup Sichuan chili oil
3 tablespoons soy sauce
¼ cup Chinese black vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon crushed red chili flakes
1 teaspoon freshly ground Sichuan pepper
1 cucumber, peeled and julienned
2 teaspoons toasted white sesame seeds
2 scallions, finely chopped

Instructions

Trim the rough tips off the baby bok choy. Separate the leaves, rinse under cold water to remove any dirt, and dry with clean kitchen towels. Cut into thin, bite-sized pieces.
Bring a pot of water to boil and cook the noodles until al dente, or the minimum amount of time according to package instructions. Drain immediately, rinse with cold water, and drain again. Toss with the sesame oil until well-coated and set aside.
Heat the vegetable oil in a large pan over medium heat. Gently cook the minced garlic and grated ginger until just fragrant, about 30 to 40 seconds. Remove from the heat and set aside. Add the mushrooms and cook for 1 to 2 minutes until they begin to turn golden. Add the bok choy and cook for 30 seconds; they should be lightly cooked but still retain a crisp snap.
Prepare the sauce: In a medium bowl, whisk together the peanut butter with 2 tablespoons of water until smooth. Whisk in the Sichuan chili oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, crushed red chili flakes, and Sichuan pepper. Stir in the toasted garlic and ginger.
Pour the sauce over the noodles and toss thoroughly, making sure all the noodles are well-coated with the toss. Transfer to a large bowl or deep serving dish and add the cucumbers, mushrooms, and bok choy on top. Garnish with the sesame seeds and scallions on top and serve. Toss before dividing into individual bowls.