1. Black Pepper Smoothie The first time I tasted black pepper and smoothie was in a restaurant. The chef suggested sprinkling a little freshly ground black pepper on a lime and lychee smoothie.

I compared the taste before and after adding pepper, and it was indeed better after adding pepper.

On the one hand, the taste experience is richer; on the other hand, the spiciness of black pepper makes the sourness of lime and the sweetness of lychee more clear and three-dimensional.

After that, when I had sweet and sour smoothies at other restaurants, I would always add a little freshly ground black pepper.

2. Sea salt: When making ice cream for dessert, if you want to better bring out the sweetness, you often add some salt.

The same goes for adding high-quality sea salt to ice cream. Good sea salt can also bring more complex and interesting flavors to simple ice cream.

For better sea salt, try French Salt Flower.

Even the boxed ice cream you buy home can become more exquisite and delicious.

3. Star anise, cinnamon, cloves, lemon, brown sugar, and red wine. This wine is usually drunk at Christmas time abroad.

But I think it has a nice flavor and is very warm, making it a delicious winter drink.

The method is very simple. Throw a 750ml bottle of red wine, 100ml of water, one star anise, a small piece of cinnamon, two or three cloves, half a lemon, and a tablespoon of brown sugar into the pot. Turn to low heat after two minutes.

Simmer for an hour, uncovered.

Finally, strain out the seasoning and let it cool down a bit before drinking.

4. Red onions with chicken This is a common combination in Taiwan. The English name of red onions is shallot, which often appears in Western food and some Cantonese dishes.

There are three ways to prepare shallots.

One is raw shallots, add oil and soy sauce, and then use them to dip the white-cut chicken. The slightly spicy shallots paired with the white-cut chicken taste amazing.

One is scallion oil chicken. Put red onions on the chicken, steam the chicken directly, and finally pour hot oil and soy sauce. Compared with the plain chicken, the spiciness is gone, but the aroma is different.

The third cooking method is to fry the shallots until they are golden brown, then make the shallots crispy, and then eat them with the chicken (or dip them in sauce), which also has a completely different taste.