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Jen Lin-Liu 林留清怡

@jenlinliu

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Author, cook, mom | off-the-beaten path adventures in food & travel | Chinese 🇺🇸 in 🇨🇳 | New 📕 April 2027: The Formidable Mrs. Chao @buweiyangchao

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Amy Tan, an author who I’ve admired since I was a teenager, came for dinner @changchangdc last week. She arrived from the White House, where she received the National Humanities Medal from President Joe Biden. She was gracious and spent a long time talking to my kids about writing and drawing. Her advice: “read, read, read, and think about why you love the things you read.” She’s drawing birds these days and loves sitting and watching them until they stare back at her. “That’s really special,” she said, a sentiment my nature-loving daughter agreed with. Lou, her husband, was equally kind and down to earth. And they liked dinner so much they came back the next day for lunch… thank you @amytanwriter — we love your writing and look forward to your next books and works of art. ❤️ taken in Dupont Circle by @jenlinliu

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4 years ago

Fast forward a few months after visiting NYC and I am in the New York of China … with my dear husband, celebrating our 18th anniversary. 💍

I lived in Shanghai from 2001-2004. I moved there not long after leaving NYC. In my youth, I was looking for the loudest, brightest, flashiest place to be. It strikes me as not just fate that I found my husband not long after leaving Shanghai and stopped looking for the brightest, shiniest things. (He is bright and shiny, but not in the way that NYC and Shanghai are.)

In any case, I am no longer into bright and shiny attractions… I am into tennis… and instead of making him go to restaurants, I made my husband go to the Shanghai Masters tennis tournament, where my favorite player — Carlos Alcaraz @carlitosalcarazz — sadly lost before we could see him play.

So I spent the rest of my days wandering in the stylish old concessions and marveling at how much it had changed … I even walked by my old home without recognizing it!

Love you babe, thanks for putting up with all the tennis and eating over the years. #goatcouplesofinstagram #offthebeatenpath #loveletter #chinamaxxing #shanghaimasters taken in Shanghai 上海, China by @jenlinliu

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10 hours ago

New York, New York …

When I was a kid, I was determined that I would live there someday. I chose my college based on the fact that it was in NYC. I lived there for five years, from 1995 to 2000, and they still rank high as some of the best years of my life.

And now it’s so much fun to share the experience of going there with my kids.

My son’s a big foodie so it works out well.

I forgot how crowded Katz’s deli @katzsdeli can get … and how thick those sandwiches are!

We had a great time at the Stranger Things play …. Definitely put it high on your list if you are even a casual fan of the show. @strangerthingstv

@empire_diner lunch with my literary agent, the wonderful William Clark. @william.m.clark

And came across this typewriter at the High Line Hotel @highlinenyc

And I only watched The Shining for the first time earlier this summer!

#offthebeatenpath #travelwithfamily #nyc #stephenkingfan #authorsofig taken in New York City by @jenlinliu

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8 days ago

More summer memories…

From West Virginia, we made a beeline for D.C., where I went straight to cooking with Lisa Chang, of Mama Chang fame. She is truly one of the best chefs I know … her instincts with using fresh vegetables, her pastry skills, and her BUBBLE SCALLION PANCAKE are all one of a kind! We’re cooking up a project and I can wait to share the details with you in the coming months …

#chinesecooking #dcfoodie #scallionpancake #familycooking #dcrestaurants @mamachangva @mamachangphiladelphia taken in Washington D. C. by @jenlinliu

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14 days ago

From California, we drove to West Virginia, to drop off my daughter at summer camp.

Some of my favorite photos:

-Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs
- Nebraska City, Lied Lodge (and headquarters of the Arbor Day Foundation!) @arbordayfoundation
- Buc-ee’s… be aware of those the traffic jams in the parking lot … makes a 15 minute bathroom break a LOT longer @bucees
- Parkersburg and Davis, West VA

It was my daughter’s first overnight camp. If your child feels nervous about their first overnight camp, take a weeklong road trip to get there… they will be very ready to abandon you!

And then finally DC… which felt like home! (And really has become home after living there for three of the last four years…) 🏠 thank you my lovely friends for the welcome back! I missed you all. ❤️

#roadlesstraveled #familytravel #authorpreneur #wanderlust #foreignservice by @jenlinliu

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22 days ago

You’d think I’d have some great cross-country photos from our drive from California to Washington, D.C.

SORRY! I don’t. 😂

I’ve pretty much blocked out everything about our six-day, 3,000-mile drive across the country—except for this AMAZING sushi restaurant in Omaha, Nebraska: @yoshitomo_sushi

It almost made the entire drive worth it.

They fly in fish from Japan, the presentation is beautiful, and the combinations of flavors are incredible. Some of the highlights:
🍣 Prairie tuna: Imperial wagyu / uni butter / nikiri soy 🍣 Hama toast: yellowtail / tamari brown butter / sourdough 🍣 Truffle scallop: Hokkaido scallop / truffle salt / lemon confit 🍣 Foienagi: smoked eel / foie gras / cherry boshi

But honestly, everything was SO delicious—and right up there with some of the meals I’ve had in Japan.

And there was a cool RBG mural right across the street.

Put Yoshitomo on your list if you ever find yourself passing through Nebraska—which, unexpectedly, was our favorite state on the entire drive!

Great people, great city—Omaha!—and GREAT food.
#asianfoodie #omahanebraska #asianchef #roadlesstraveled #femaleauthors taken in Omaha, Nebraska by @jenlinliu

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a month ago

Shots from the California vacation we hoped would never end.

Mammoth Lakes (and hot springs), Laguna Woods, Laguna Beach (where we spent many blissful months 12 years ago when I was giving birth to my son), more nephew time, pristine Crystal Cove and of course In-N-Out!

It’s funny how my kids find the idea of me growing up in Southern California so exotic.

As far as I may travel or live, I will always be a Californian.

And please don’t call it Cali. 😉
#SouthernCalifornia #CaliforniaLife #FamilyTravel #TravelDiaries #RoadLessTraveled by @jenlinliu

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a month ago

Welcome to the world little one!

(No I didn’t have a baby! I’m too old. But my baby brother and his wife did!)

My dearest nephew:

We have been waiting for you for a long time and trying not to bother your parents or put any pressure on them.

The world is a wild and crazy place but you have two great cousins, two grandparents, an aunt and an uncle, and two parents who will always be thinking of you and doing our best to explain and make sense of what’s happening around you. Some of us will be halfway around the world in China but that doesn’t mean we’re any more distant figuratively from you. As you grow, you will learn that you have a family that loves you very much and we’ve got your back! And can’t wait until you’re big enough so I can do all the things that my own kids have outgrown… (like playgrounds and the spinning tea cup ride at Disneyland!)

Love, your Auntie Jen (you’re supposed to call me Gu-Ma 姑妈 but really I just prefer Jen) 😜 taken in Irvine, California by @jenlinliu

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a month ago

From Utah, we headed west to my home state of California, where one of the highlights of our travels was Yosemite.

We’ve visited more than half a dozen national parks over the past year, and you’d think we would have been completely mountained-out after living in Utah. But somehow, Yosemite became my family’s favorite national park.

El Capitan and Half Dome are just out-of-this-world stunning, and Yosemite Valley feels almost impossibly steep and dramatic. We stayed in Curry Village, dined at Yosemite Valley Lodge, and I was reminded that my love of waterfalls probably began with childhood trips to Yosemite Falls.

But the biggest highlight was the high country north of the valley: Tuolumne Meadows, a part of Yosemite that many visitors skip. While hiking near the meadows, we spotted a California black bear. I’ve always been terrified of encountering a bear in the wild, but it turned out to be such a cool experience—surprisingly magical and peaceful once I realized the bear was not hungry and had absolutely no interest in us. 🐻

And then we buckled in for the next leg of our adventure: a road trip all the way from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic… before moving back to China!
To be continued. 🚙🌎

#YosemiteNationalPark #TuolumneMeadows #FamilyTravel #RoadLessTraveled #TravelDiaries taken in Yosemite National Park by @jenlinliu

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2 months ago

Goodbye to our gorgeous Utah life. 🏔️

A year ago, we moved to Utah to take a sabbatical from our hectic lives. We loved every minute of it. If you’ve ever thought about doing something like this, my advice is: Do it ASAP! Life is too short.

We’d been coming to Utah to ski every year for many years, but moving here was different. We had no idea what to expect.

What we found was exactly what we needed. It was therapeutic to step away from life in a big city—we’d moved from Washington, D.C.—and slow things down.

We watched spectacular mountain sunrises and sunsets almost every day. We were home with the kids. (Somehow, they also turned into blossoming chefs.) We made wonderful Utah friends @roubaixb @andynation24 @maribickmoredesign and wonderful friends and family @reenafoxx @wegnerkirsten @lisaodonnell440 came to see us. We skied A LOT. We hiked, probably more than I would have liked (my hubby’s favorite activity 😂). We visited NINE national parks. And somehow, we even found decent Chinese food.

Best of all, the kids kept up their Chinese at a Mandarin-immersion public school in Utah.

We can’t say enough good things about this place or about the year we spent here. Step out of your routines. Go somewhere unexpected. Do something different. You will be surprised. ❤️

Zaijian Utah! 再见尤他! We’ll be back to see you in the not-too-distant future! 🏔️

#familygapyear #familyadventures #roadlesstraveled #nomadlife #utahlife taken in Draper, Utah by @jenlinliu

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2 months ago

Thank you for all the birthday wishes! Had a beautiful day … on Star Island, New Hampshire.

My head has been spinning with all the travel we’ve been doing since the beginning of June,, and I’ll try to recap it all in photos in the coming weeks … We’ve left Utah and we are traversing the country, before we move to China next month!

What are the odds that on Star Island, we stumbled on a grass tennis court_ the best birthday present I could have asked for, especially on a day that I wished I could have been watching Wimbledon!

Thank you to my husband for the lobster dinner and gelato dessert. Good thing about getting older is that your husband now knows you well enough that he knows how fussy you are about food and knows how to put together the perfect birthday meal.
#foodiesofinsta #nomadlife #chinabound #familyadventures #BirthdayGratitude taken in Star Island by @jenlinliu

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3 months ago

A fun and colorful weekend of cooking by The Kids

carrots with whipped tahini — delicious!!! (from the @nytimes @alexaweibel)
gazpacho
a colorful citrus fruit plate “palette cleanser”
and … delicious strawberry macarons with buttercream, panna cotta, and raspberry compote!

My husband and I dined on the couch while we watched a Coldplay concert. Truly the best Saturday night one could ask for. Thanks to The Kids!

We are joking that our kids should start a class to teach other kids how to make dinner for their parents …

#familygapyear #cookingwithkids #nytimescooking #eatyourcolors #parentingmadeeasy taken in Salt Lake City, Utah by @jenlinliu

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6 months ago