As with Lily, Tori’s home cooking is decidedly Chinese. Fresh garlic, ginger, and scallions are in abundance, and the refrigerator is stocked with hoisin, black bean, and chili garlic sauce. Her go-to marinade involves Sake or Shao Hsing rice cooking wine, soy sauce, and garlic, with Chinese Five Spice and curry powder on hand. She counts her carbs, avoids wheat, but enjoys the occasional short grain brown rice, chow fun, and Shiraki yam noodles. When the weather turns chilly, she often fixes congee or Asian style soup for breakfast, and her most popular Christmas dinner featuring Tori’s Crispy Mandarin Duck!

Recipes the Pan Steamed Snapper and Chicken Cabbage Soup can be found in The Ninja’s Blade Book Club Kit.

Recipes for the Beef Chow Fun and Hoisin Hickory Ribs can be found in The Ninja Daughter Book Club Kit.

As Tori wrote The Ninja’s Oath she often sipped on a sublime blend of Japanese sencha and Shanghai osmanthus flower tea.

And after Lily and Uncle ate tea eggs in a scene with J Tran, Tori shared her recipe and an excerpt on the Mystery Fanfare blog. These beautiful eggs, flavored with Chinese five spice powder, ginger, peppercorns, a hint of sugar, soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, and tea make a memorable treat for yourself, family, and friends.

Whenever Tori has goose, chicken, beef, or pork bones on hand, she whips up a pot of congee. Although it’s typically eaten for breakfast, Tori enjoys it any time of day or night, especially on chilly days or when she doesn’t feel her best. Lily is comforted by congee—called jook in Cantonese—in several Lily Wong books.

In The Ninja’s Oath, Lily teaches Ma how to fix quick kim chee eggs. Pour sesame oil in a pan, toss in the kimchee and greens, then add a few eggs. “Shouldn’t I beat the eggs first?” Ma asked. “You want to do this right or quick?” “Quick,” Ma said. “Then crack the eggs and mix them while they cook.”

To get in the mood for The Ninja Betrayed, try this classic yuen yeung Hong Kong coffee milk tea. It’s named for the opposites-attract pairing of Mandarin ducks, a symbol of conjugal love in Chinese culture. Yuen yeung has a complex ratio of three parts coffee and seven parts Hong Kong style milk tea. The following recipe makes it a little simpler to make at home.

Or, you can try Tori’s Low-Carb, No-Sugar Version, which is a blend of Assam and Darjeeling black teas brewed in a cup of hot unsweetened almond milk with a splash of half-n-half mixed with a long shot of decaf espresso!

Yuen Yeung Coffee Milk Tea Recipe

Simmer 2 cups water with 3 tsp black loose-leaf tea for 3 minutes.

Add 1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk and simmer for 3 more minutes

Brew 1 cup of black coffee.

Strain milk tea and mix with coffee.

Note: You can also use evaporated milk sweetened with sugar to taste. Or try my low-carb, no-sugar version below.

Lily Wong trains in Ninjutsu, Wushu, and (to a lesser degree) boxing. She began her martial arts experience with Wushu and competed in this beautifully athletic art from childhood through her first year on the UCLA Wushu team. At age twelve she met Sensei, a ninja master, and began training with him in secret. After dedicating herself as a protector of women, Lily augmented her training with Parkour, mountain climbing, running, and biking. Since her mother never allowed Lily to post or be tagged on videos of her performances, we can only share demonstrations by her creator, Tori Eldridge.

PS: If you’d like to see more of Tori’s Tips for self defense, visit her YouTube Channel.

In an effort to end domestic and interpersonal violence, a portion of the initial book sales for THE NINJA DAUGHTER went to Peace Over Violence, a Los Angeles non-profit building healthy relationships, families and communities free from sexual, domestic and interpersonal violence.

The fictional organization in THE NINJA’S BLADE (Forsaken Children: City of Angels) was inspired by the real and noble Children of the Night, founded by Dr. Lois Lee in 1979, dedicated to rescuing children and young people from prostitution and sexual exploitation.