Dimsum Cart #12

i'm back!

2010-09-03T16:45:00.000-07:00

since i'm a student again, i guess it's time to continue my chronicle of the horrible things i cook and eat. i'm in a grad program now, which equals even less time to cook than before.

therefore, i have invested in a slow cooker. usually on sundays, i'll make up a giant pot of something to always have at hand for the entire week. this past week, it wa

s chicken soup. unfortunately, this is the only picture of it, before it's cooked. and i'm sure you don't want to see what's left in the pot a week later. a 4 lb chicken, 5 celery stalks, 4 carrots, 1 giant onion, 2 bay leaves, black pepper. now, that was fun without a vegetable peeler or chopping board.

SlapChop

2009-05-12T21:32:00.000-07:00

this is food related, so i guess it's allowed here. if you're not familiar with the SlapChop, it's an infomercial gadget, presented by the guy who does ShamWow! as well. curse the remix for being so catchy!

Furikake

2009-05-12T20:06:00.000-07:00

hello there faithful readers. it's been a year hiatus, but it's never too late to post cell phone pictures of bad food!

i was running late to work and pulled out what i thought was a takeout box of leftover fried rice for lunch, just enough to tide me over til a real lunch after i finished. i was in a rush so i grabbed the wrong box, of course, and ended up with a container filled with some not-so-good-quality white rice. an hour before i was supposed to be off, i found out that i'd have to stay longer, so i was stuck with my unappetizing rice. what's a Bao to do when there's not even a stray soy sauce packet around to flavor restaraunt rice? the answer is simple: leftover Cooler Ranch Doritos furikake!

i only had the doritos b/c they were past their "fresh" date and therefore no one but me wanted to eat them. before you ask, no, it didn't taste gross. after crushing them in the bag for tiny pieces, the chips were just crunchy enough to add some texture and the savory cool ranch flavor went quite well with the rice.

other chip flavors that would compliment rice well:

nacho cheese

wasabi

sour cream and onion

ketchup

taco

flavors that would not taste good:

mesquite bbq

dill pickle (pringles now makes these)

chili cheese

pizza

sweet potato

anyone with what they think would taste good rice rice? bugles perhaps?

inactivity

2008-03-19T04:51:00.000-07:00

been in kind of a cooking slump lately, so haven't made anything interesting lately. only thing of note was a beef stew maybe a month ago. thank goodness i am not the only cook anymore or else it'd be rice and sauce every day.

happened to be in sd last week and tried the loco moco at the hawaiian bbq place next to taco motion in PB. it was delicious. the hamburger was so meaty tasting... kind of tough, b/c it was like all meat, but meat factor made up for that. wish the cabage underneath was cooked or something though. aside from that, i was really really hungry, and that was dinner, then breakfast and lunch for the next day along with 3 red delicious apples.

"lookie what the cat threw up!"

2008-01-22T00:16:00.000-08:00

once upon a time several years ago, trader joe's sold something called a "spicy lemon soda". it was immensely unpopular and at one point, they'd sold it at 2$/6bottles to try and get rid of it. and it still did not disappear fast enough. i, however, have a taste for sweets that usually come in combinations of spicy, sweet, salty and by extension, loved the soda. it kind of burned and left a warm almost roiling feeling in your tummy when you drank it.

one day, a year and a half ago, i had a cold with a stuffy nose and really couldn't taste anything. then i figured i might as well try and concoct something warm and flavorful, and perhaps sinus clearing with expectorant properties. what happened was that really gross looking hot lemonade with a teaspoon of cayenne pepper in it. it didn't taste very good. but the chili did help with the phlegm and i'm sure the lemon bits gave me much needed vitamins.

HK student lunch

2008-01-15T09:42:00.000-08:00

had lunch with my cousin today. she has to go to school (she's 16), but gets a 1 hour lunch break, so i took 2 minibuses down to her school and met here there just as she got out from class. most students in HK don't eat in the school canteen b/c it is overpriced and the food sucks. they usually go to nearby "tea restaraunts" or bring lunch/go home during their ample lunch breaks and order combo meals that come with a drink. for example, she got a roast pork and wintermelon stew with rice and a cold milk tea (2.83 US$). i got a "student set meal" of bacon (and supposedly pork chop) on top of spaghetti covered with a goopy unspicy curry sauce and a cold milk coffee (2.31 US$). unfortunately, i was a bit rushed this morning to make it on time, so i left my camera at home. food here can be crazy cheap like that to cater to students, or really expensive. i mean, a full hot meal with choice of drink for under 3 bucks is unheard of in the states. although.. i must say that local student/kid fare is pretty gross. teens seem to like eating things like creamy tomato goop covered rice and spaghetti with ham or spam on the side. i had to try a student meal though, hehe. but next time.. i'll stick to the more traditional fare like my cousin. oh oh, even better, i was hungry 3 hours later because i didn't eat much of that stuff.. so i went to a thai restaraunt and had afternoon tea there. gotta love the brit influence. for 2$ USD i had a hot lemon tea and a bowl of thai style pork chop rice noodles with bean sprouts. i think one reason why food is cheaper here is b/c portions are nearer to CharSiuBao-sized meals. so if you eat a lot, you can order different stuff for variety! yum yum.

is it.. tea time?

2008-01-10T05:06:00.000-08:00

baked beans on toast. not a big fan of heinz. this is some other brand.. maybe it's bush's or henry's store brand. van de camps pork and beans rank pretty high on my list however, they are not to be confused with baked beans. extremely filling and satisfying. and flatulence inducing.

korean feast

2007-12-10T04:46:00.000-08:00

i wen to the zion market with my korean friend, who admittedly knows nothing about food, but can read labels in korean *grin*

this was going to be dinner for two.. but somehow it ended up being dinner for 4 + leftovers. i think we got a little food crazy. lighting in the kitchen is always too dim. top- grilled salted mackerel, right- dukbukge, bottom- laver, left and counterclockwise- tofu pockets with seasoned rice, kimchee, spicy sweet fishcake, seasoned cucumbers, soybeans. plus the ubiquitous rice.

pear season!

2007-12-10T04:36:00.000-08:00

actually, it's not pear season anymore. and if it was pear season, maybe it was in the beginning of october. i really don't know, but that's when massive amounts of pears started arriving in the markets. maybe getting an almanac would help... if i were a farmer. i think i bought one of every pear i could find that day, minus the really expensive ones (aka organics) of course.

seckels, bartlett, d'anjou, starkrimson, comice

taco rice

2007-12-10T04:25:00.000-08:00

well, i made this a year and a half ago, and i don't think i posted anything about it.. remembered making this due to mmm-yoso's and others' reminiscences about taco rice. i didn't have any lettuce, cheese, or tomatoes... but tacomeat+onions+sauce on rice is close enough. it probably doesn't taste nearly as good when made by professionals... it tasted pretty bad, in fact. that's why there's some bbq sauce on the top in hopes that it could be salvaged--i mean, bbq sauce makes everything taste better.

rice bowl

2007-12-09T21:56:00.000-08:00

bulgogi and kimchi on rice for late night snack.. some months ago.

the meat was but a fraction of several pounds i'd bought from DB marketworld and cooked with onions previously. even reheated.. it's ooooohhh soooo yummmyyyy.

sweets from someone sweet?

2007-12-08T22:10:00.000-08:00

"...the candy man can because he mixes it with love and makes the world go 'round..."

that's what little Charlie Bucket would have you believe, but as the oompa loompas pointed out, they'll make your teeth rot out and get fat if you eat too much. however, i still have a fondness for novel candies (especially gum) despite the melodic warnings from little orange men. these are some of the edible souvenirs The Brain brought back from a trip to the far east.

the inserts from the xylish gums have some sort of cartoon printed on them and can be folded into a smaller sized box when your supply dwindles.

clockwise from top: xylish sugarfree fruity mint, lotte "bitter" yuzu and grapefruit flavor, whiteen sugerfree strawberry mint, haitai smoke-breath neutralizer(?) gum, glico "peach mint" watering kiss mint

not seen in the first is the xylish hypercool mint which is like chewing listerine. it's so strongly minty that it is almost bitter. the best tasting ones was were the peachmint and fruity mint.

stay tuned for the part 2 of the candy series! (probably in 2 months)

i spy

2007-12-05T12:52:00.000-08:00

with my very own eyes:

12 motorcycle policemen

1 firetruck

3 police squad cars

1 FBI agent

1 building twinkling like a christmas tree

1 news van

2 news helicopters

1 jacque cousteau-esque exploder-chamber thingie

1 person trancing out and dancing to the beat of the evacuation alarms

... just kidding about the last one

starbuck's coffee

2007-12-05T09:04:00.000-08:00

stinks. it's waaay too bitter (the mild) and leaves a sour aftertaste even when black. i really gotta ask my uncle what the name of the cafe near echo park with the 10 thousand dollar coffee maker is. mmm.. it was so smooth...

maybe i just like coffee less concentrated than most. i've taken to making my own coffee, but as i'm not at HQ and desperately crave caffiene... there is no other alternative. i love dark chocolate covered expresso beans, but that might not be a good breakfast. i mean, without bacon and fresh blackberries, it's just not a balanced meal.

the lowly potato

2007-11-19T02:24:00.000-08:00

As my brother says, I am a eater of the most lowly and humble groveling foods that our society can offer. this group would include beans, gruel, and potatoes. my dinner a few nights ago only strengthen his statement. after a really long day i just wanted something to fill my belly quick so i could go to sleep and hopefully wake up rested for my exam. dinner turned out to be a microwaved yukon potato with some butter and a bit of kimchee, just for an added side excitement. yes, once again i ate a starch and pickled vegetables for dinner. guess it's a step up from ketchup. those vitamins sure come in handy... let me suffice to say that i made up for that meal by a much better one during the weekend. o-toro/kaki/unagi wa totemo oishii desu yo.

it's ridiculous how many pictures i have yet to post about. it's been busy times, so i'll get around to it eventually, especially when i'm an ex-college student.

Charred

2007-10-26T16:01:00.000-07:00

It's been nearly one month since my last post, but this post is unfortunately not about food. I was starting to get cabin fever and the smoke was starting to get to me, so I left San Diego with a friend from Diamond Bar. We actually tried to leave the night before... but all northbound traffic on the 5 was shut off past Pendleton at night. La Jolla isn't too close to the fires, but I wanted to be closer to family...

These are some pictures I snapped from the car as we went north on Wednesday. It was mid afternoon. These are what I think parts of the Horno fire along Camp Pendleton and Oceanside. There were even flames right across the freeway from the San Onofre nuclear power plant (it probably wouldn't be good to have that catch on fire or burn power line poles.. so there was a lonely firetruck guarding the area) and right behind the inland border checkpoint. There was scorched land all the way up to the asphalt in many places. But those weren't places next to homes. It looked like Mars or an apocalypse outside.

I hope this will turn out ok. Thank you to everyone who's helping out.

http://www.fire.ca.gov/ http://www.kpbs.org/news/fires

this is near the same area past San Onofre on a drive up mid-august.

boiled potatoes

2007-09-27T16:24:00.000-07:00

always looking for cheap food options, i've taken a page from America's pioneering ancestors who had to make do with what little they had. here i've concocted a potato stew flavored with salt pork. (maybe i'm just watching too much of Frontier House)

2 slices of bacon (er, salt pork is a little bit tooo unhealthy.. it's more fat than pork!) chopped up into a cold pot. heated on medium until the the fat started to melt all liquidly from the bacon. took 5 smallish-medium potatoes, sliced them up into fries as thick as my thumb, and threw those in the pot along with whatever veggie i had at hand. this time, it was cubes of a zucchini. stirred it around a bit, then added some packaged veggie stock (stockpiled from the Days of Lost Wisdom) and water in a 3:1 ratio, enough to cover an inch in the bottom of the pot, at least. put a tiny sprinkle of chili and ~1 tbsp of vinegar for flavoring. After boiling, cover pot and simmer on low for 20-30 mins (or until the taters get cooked). usually tastes better if allowed to sit a while before eating or reheated.

note to the brain - yes, sausages too

icy refreshing chicken broth

2007-09-02T15:43:00.001-07:00

here's a couple things i made a while back. don't let the first picture deceive you, it's not as untasty as it looks. i split one of those little mini eggplants down the middle, filled it with garlic, dribbled salt and olive oil over it, and then pan grilled it slowly that the juicy insides would slowly cook itself.

these were the toughest, waxiest, limpest green beans i could find. they were also on sale for a ridiculously low price. after letting it age for almost another week (i kind of forgot about them...) i decided it was time to work my magic on 'em. i tossed them in a pot with some water, shrimp paste, fish sauce, and fried garlic and set it to simmer for a looong time. so soft and tender afterwards.. almost.. mushy. but not suite. they were too tough to start out with to get mushy. my roomates all made faces and closed their doors. i am evil.

last of all, this is what i ate for dinner last night? the night before? it's all a blur with the lovely moloko vellocet they gave me. and the wooden choppers aren't quite ready to handle solid food yet plus they need to be aged and treated. ah.. cold jook with dried green shiso leaf on top. and nothing beats an icy refreshing chicken broth with an ice cube floating around in it...

Ouchies Food

2007-08-31T02:38:00.000-07:00

i'm missing some teeth. actually, i've exiled them from my mouth and have replaced them with wooden dentures, just like george w. the first. had to fast for the anesthesia, and boy, was that some good stuff. i had to try really hard to keep from cracking up at the dr.'s instructions. afterwards i was really numb. and yes folks, i have a drinking problem. i keep missing my mouth!

so what's am i eating today? lots and lots of cold chicken broth. and very recently, a very small trader joe's blueberry and cream yogurt. i don't usually like yogurt unless used in savory dishes, so either i'm really hungry, or this stuff really is good. i'm trying to avoid reading food blogs. everything sounds tasty right now. even those weird american sushi rolls with cream cheese in it. hmm, kind of reminds me of a snack i used to eat as a kid. i'd spread a slice of ham with cream cheese, roll it up, and viola, deliciousness.

scrambled eggs

2007-08-12T14:55:00.000-07:00

the brown bits in the egg are that "tianjian preserved vegetable" in the background. it's been a while since i've eaten any sort of 冬菜 or 菜脯 with scrambled eggs as a meal at home or in a restaurant. chinese comfort food? i'm a sucker for anything preserved, salty, and spicy. one of my favorite dishes in the whole wide world is 梅菜扣肉。i wonder where i can find Hakka and ChiuChow style food down here in SD? i always have a craving for preserved lemon duck soup. it's a rarity nowadays of sorts. not many restaurants seem to want to go through the trouble of making it, and places that do make it only make a limited amount of it per day and you have to order it in advance.

you can't find good preserved lemons in the supermarket. that is the kind of thing little old ladies who smell like mothballs (ah, memories) make at home. hmm.. who can guess what my next project is going to be?

fried tofu s&p

2007-08-11T02:19:00.001-07:00

so.. i finally did it.. i took the plunge... and decided to fry something. using more than a few tablespoons of oil.

i've been wanting to fry this for a while, but have always had some other form of protein around until i've cleaned out everything except for the costco-sized bag of chemically chicken breasts that were most likely grown not on a chicken, but in a tank with all the other clones. used firm tofu that i drained and squashed the water out of with a use of two plates and a heavy bottle of soy sauce. the heat was somewhere on med-high with canola oil. i got the crispiness right. it took ~5-10 mins per batch. i have no idea how restaurants make it so tasty. they must put in an entire handful of meijing and spices. before the cornstarch coating, sprinkled ~3 tablespoons of a mixture of salt, white pepper, 5 spice for a block of tofu, and still not enough flavor. maybe it was b/c i didn't add msg? need to flavor more aggressively. and the green onion and chilies topping... i don't know how they do it. mines didn't come out dry and almost with crispy bits like theirs.

in the background you can see the lovely brown veggie curry. japanese style curry with carrots, zucchini, onions, potatoes.

btw, the muffins at Henry's are delicious. i'm not just saying it b/c i like the market. trader joe's breads and things always have a weird dough-y taste...

x marks the spot

2007-08-08T00:35:00.000-07:00

so i was at the store and i saw a pyramid of angel food cake. so i decided to splurge a little. now that i had that.. well.. certainly i can't eat it alone. it would be like eating my way through a vast empty dessert without an oasis in sight. so i bought some berries to go with it. but just berries and cake can be like a fair maid in a saharan sand storm, so i had to buy cream to smooth things out.

i added a tsp or two of sugar and some cocoa powder to the heavy whipping cream to make chocolatey whipped cream. oh, be sure to use a real whip. the cream actually gets fluffier when it cringes away from the whips.

this lovely presentation was designed by one of my lovely apartment mates. note the pirate themed "x marks the spot" strawberry. thar be treasure here, folks.

this was my roomate's cake. i didn't want her to murder me in the middle of the night, so i tried to make it pretty. however, lighting at my desk isn't exactly the greatest.

i dumped my cake and berries into the bowl i whipped the cream in. extreme laziness.. AND i get the most cream. hehe.

"The Whole Food Meal"

2007-08-08T00:22:00.000-07:00

i don't like energy bars. they usually have this weird gritty protein stuff in it, taste like codfish oil, and leave a chalky feeling in your mouth. the closest i'll come to something like that is probably a granola bar, but then those are waaay too sweet. i need to start making my own. anyways, one day, long long ago at school, i was hungry. having spent most of the night awake, i didn't really feel like eating any junk food. didn't want a killer tummy ache. shunning junk food, i skipped the food court and decided to try my luck rummaging around in the student store for something semi-healthy and still tasty. somewhere in between the little debbie ho-hos and the chalky gross cliff bars i found this:

the pro bar. no pictures of the thing. it was brown. i ate it. only saved the wrapper. i'm not really one of those super organic wheat-grass infused Juice Tiger types, but i figure that the people who do buy this stuff tend to be rather particular. the blurb on the back is about how everything in the bar is raw, contain raw dried fruit, raw seeds, raw unprocessed natural cane juice, raw etc etc. i think they had to put in lots of oil to hold the thing together, or it'd be too dry. that kind of showed when i took it outside to eat with my carton of OJ. it started exuding oils from all the nuts and stuff. however, it was tasty. did not taste like cardboard or overly sweet, nor was it heavy and preservative-y tasting. has a nice identifiable mix of protein (nuts) and carbs (rice, oats). i deem this bar safe for consumption.

liver and lotus root. not together unfortunately.

2007-08-07T23:49:00.000-07:00

the market had some nice looking liver... i rinsed off the liver slices, dried them, then dredged them in some masa corn flour (the stuff to make tortillas from) that was mixed with some salt and pepper. then pan fried them.

a hunk of re-toasted french bread (not from that stale loaf) and slices of lotus root stir fried with a little salt.

some slightly freezer burnt slices of beef cooked up in garlic and worcestershire sauce, and chunks of zuchini and tomato cooked with some garlic salt, garlicky mashed potatoes.

2007-08-04T13:13:00.000-07:00

some canned dolmas and marshmallows over a firepit, a lightnin' jack's bbq sandwich. i need to eat more... time for the market.

nothing to declare

2007-08-02T02:54:00.000-07:00

stir-fried up some lotus root with soy sauce as a snack. then i cheated.

a friend came down to visit and found a reason to go to izakaya sakura. i'd always wondered what was there when i first saw it while visiting the pancake house. my friends had suspected a shady storefront for the mafia. i guess we were wrong.

despite comments from a college student (not me) "dude, these waitresses are pretty cute", the place was not engaged in any other sort of shady business. just good good food.

i feel like the "hillbilly housewife"

2007-07-31T02:01:00.000-07:00

i eat the same stuff a lot. preparation is noteworthy though.

1 fist sized hunk of frozen ground beef
1/2 half a frozen jam jar of tomato sauce
half an onion, diced
cooked pasta
garlic salt

threw everything into a pot without thawing and simmered for half an hour before dumping on top of pasta. if you call melting a jar-shaped chunk of frozen tomato sauce "simmering".

point of this: illustrate how i use old jars to hold food and keep food in 1-3 meal sizes in sandwich bags separately for easy preparation. space is tough to find in a fridge when sharing it with 3 other people. pitchers and tall kimchee jars make great containers for soup. small used up caper jars and such are really good for holding freshly made salad dressing, sauces, etc. also good for storing leftover coffee for the next day's reincarnation as iced coffee. it's also fun to drink out of jars...

hummus. kind of. not really.

2007-07-31T01:50:00.000-07:00

since i like hummus and it's a great source of fiber and protein, i decided to try making some myself. the market stuff is usually too chemically for me.

didn't quite follow a specific recipe, but combined a couple. i took a double handful of dried chickpeas and soaked them for a day in a jar of water. rinsed them out, then simmered for an hour with some salt. skimmed off the flotsam and jetsam at the top. drained peas, then used a potato masher on them. this.. was a bad idea. it was really hard to mash.. and all the recipes ask for using a blender or food processor. which i don't have. i added the juice of 1 lemon, half a cup of olive oil, 3 medium sized closed of pressed raw garlic, salt and pepper. i didn't have any tahini so i used toasted sesame seeds (i also need a mortar and pestle) and a few drops of sesame oil instead.

the taste.. seemed ok. it's not as zesty or sesame seedy as restaurant hummus.. and it was definately chunky and grainy, even after 10 mins of mashing. so it's not really hummus except for the fact that i started out intending it to be. but it was edible. i think next time i'll just skip the paste texture and just put my garbanzo beans to better use in a salad or soup.

french bread dinner

2007-07-31T01:24:00.000-07:00

ahh, another uncolorful brown food dish. but brown is tasty. so i have my camera back, and i guess that leaves me no reason to not post again. my schedule's also slacked a LOT so i'm happy and having a real summer break!

as i haven't shopped for food in over a week, i didn't really have much left in the fridge for dinner tonight. i did have half a loaf of really dry, stale french bread (almost week old), half an onion, and some leftover meat from a potluck at home. being ghettofabulous and not wanting to waste semi-edible food, i sliced up the bread, dipped it into a mixture of borrowed egg, milk, water, salt and pepper, and cooked it int he frying pan. just like savory french toast. made the bread crunchy on the outside, moist and dense and soft on the inside. better than i'd expected on a whim.

next was the half an onion. sliced it, and sauteed it with a mixture of salt, chinese white pepper, and 5-spice powder. if that sounds like asian S&P, you're right. onions tend to get soggy 'cause i don't like the bite of them. i can't wait to try frying something S&P. usually more than a couple tbsp of oil intimidates me.

partways through looking at slices of brain in class, i got a really big hankering for pork rinds. guess what i got at breaktime. i don't usually eat stuff like that, but i think once in a while (say a year or so) is fine. what's really really really tasty that i'll definately eat more than once a year is fresh chicharonnes from the mexican meat market somewhere in pomona. the crispy skin layer.. the fat layer (not to be eaten), and the suuuper delicious meat make it... *starts dreaming* yumm...

shirataki noodles

2007-07-08T20:42:00.000-07:00

shirataki noodles 1 pkg
couple slices of presliced sirloin that was on sale at zion korean market
half an onion, thin wedges
mirin
soy sauce

heated a pan with a little bit of vegetable oil in it. tossed in the beef when it was good and hot and cooked for a min or so. tossed in the onions and let those cook underneath the beef for a couple of mins, adjusted heat to simmer. splash of mirin (2-3 tbsp?). larger splash of soy sauce (3-4 tbsp?). i think all recipes i found said to add dashi, but i didn't feel like making any so used water (~1 cup). simmered for almost 20 mins. now you have crazy chewy noodles. i like the beefy taste, but the beef comes out a bit tough at the end of that simmering. the piece i fished out and munched on early on was perfect. now.. how do i get the beefy flavor in without turning my meat tough?

whilst that was cooking, ate some bread (b/c shirataki noodles have no calories, i would starve if that's all i ate) and prepared this cucumber salad.

3 persian cucumbers sliced bite sized
grated daikon (from the rest of the hunk i didn't use in soup)
1 green onion sliced
some cilantro
1 korean pepper sliced
little splash of soy sauce
big splash of rice vinegar
some fish sauce
some ginger, grated
sprinkle of sugar
little bit of sesame oil
a few tbsp of water

poured straight from bottles, etc into a tupperware with the cucumbers. close lid. shake.

simple soup

2007-07-08T01:35:00.000-07:00

1 lb pork meaty bones (i used spareribs)

1 foot long length of a big daikon

salt to taste

rinse meat. boil a large pot of water, drop the bones in and boil for a few mins, then turn down the heat to very low and simmer. skim off the froth and other undesirable junk from the top. i hour before done, drop in cut up pieces of daikon. i think i've seen any size from .5 inch cubes to fist sized chunks. today, i favored inch thick pie wedges 'cause i like bite sized nuggets of daikon joy. it doesn't really matter how you cut up the stuff in the pot as long as it fits, i think. total simmering time was 2 hours. really should get a crock pot. i guess other people would call it broth. but i always grew up calling it soup.

i found the recipe below online. it sounds so gross that i'm willing to try it. the ground beef and onions sound good.. by themselves. the next question is, where do i get the canned chinese vegetables and canned bean sprouts? fresh is easy.. but canned?

CHINESE SOUP
1 1/2 lb. ground beef or turkey, optional 1 can V-8 juice or tomato juice 1 can water chestnuts, drained 1 can bean sprouts, drained 1 can Chinese vegetables, drained 2 stalks celery, diced 1 med. onion, diced 1/4 c. soy sauce 1 can French style green beans, drained Cook ground beef and onions. Drain off grease. Add all other ingredients and simmer 45 minutes. Keeps well in refrigerator.

a pressing matter (aka, mashed potato sandwich)

2007-06-29T03:13:00.000-07:00

as i mentioned, i've been trying to save money and time lately, so i bought food in bulk. that costco -sized bag o spinach is still around and today, it's being reincarnated as a topping on my pizza. a friend took me out to dinner at Leucadia last night and lucky for me he doesn't like leftovers, esp soggy pizza. doggy bag, please! woof!

also on the pizza is some fresh smushed garlic in olive oil. buying a garlic press has been one of my better investments. comes with a thimble-like insert for easy cleanup. another one of my recent investments is a potato masher. it's so much easier to use than a fork. i'm probably 10x more likely to make something mushy now. behold, my magical mashing stick! and the smushinator x2000!

remember those potatoes from last sat? here they are in a delicious portable sandwich format. all your fiber, vits, butter, carbs, more carbs, and more carbs in one on-the-go package. i ate the same thing for lunch the day before, except with a fried egg in it too, when i still had eggs left.

fancy yogurt and and semi-homemade eats

2007-06-23T21:49:00.000-07:00

i really don't know how those frozen yogurt places manage to stay in business. you know, the fancy ones with the fruit they scoop over the top. first off, it's pricey, second.. it's just frozen yogurt with fruit, cereal, and sprinkles on top! do they really get enough money from the occasional desserter to pay the rent and make a profit?? ok, nevermind, i probably just offended thousands of devotees to pinkberry. i guess i am just too cheap. there's a place in PB that offered free samples.. dolci mangoli or something like that along the the main drag of garnet. i can say i've tried it.. and it was good, i guess. but still!

anyways, here's what i had for dinner tonight. mashed potatoes with dill (dried, b/c the fresh stuff is hard to keep.. and cheaper), garlic, and almost half a stick of butter (to make up for not having any milk/cream around). spinach salad with plums in some sort of "oriental" dressing filched from a roomie (thanks!). some overly salty chicken breast that came pre-marinated in tequila lime stuff. it tastes like chemicals and is unnaturally tender. i blame the need for convenience. i am now in school Mon-Sat. joy.

Colorful food contest entry

2007-06-23T21:39:00.000-07:00

take this, sir orang3!

my entry is "white light", containing all the wavelengths in the visible spectrum. it's waaaay more colorful than yours. maybe. ok, nevermind, you win. i can't remember if i presented this beautiful bowl or boringness yet. it's bamboo fungus and tofu. that i made quite a long time ago.

1 pkg bamboo fungus
1 block tofu
1 can no sodium chicken stock
~.5-1.0 tbsp cornstarch
soy sauce to taste.. and for lack of color.

soaked the bamboo fungus in warm water for... as long as the package says. something like 20 mins, drained. washed a couple more times b/c they're usually full of dirt and grit. last time i made it, i didn't wash enough, and i had crunchy bamboo fungus... it was not appetizing. however, i was hungry and a little dirt doesn't hurt. boiled for whatever the package said.. 2 mins? drained again, and put it into a new pan (sand and grit was at the bottom of the other one), dumped in some tofu and the chicken stock, simmered for a few mins, added the cornstarch mixed in with soy sauce to thicken the sauce. scoop on rice, consume.

apple licorice

2007-06-20T02:38:00.000-07:00

snacks. i'm digging through some old pictures (b/c i've left my camera back at a friend's place up in LA) and i found this er, vibrant photo of one very addicting snack. can't remember if i posted it before. but it's apple flavored licorice. the market sells all sorts of flavors, which they order from some other company.. i've seen the exact same types of licorice sold at The Fruit Stand near Price Club--Costco. but.. they are much more expensive there. i think i will stick to the traditional fruits and veggies there. anyways, they usually sell out of this flavor first at the market, leaving an empty spot next to the nasty pina colada and strange grape medicine flavored licorice for weeks before they get more in stock. so i stocked up. they don't really taste like real apples and don't contain any licorice root flavoring, but they're still neon-green delicious. here are some comments from ppl who have tried it:

"that's special."

"the taste reminds me a bit of soap but somehow i can't stop eating it"

ginger tea

2007-06-14T03:20:00.000-07:00

i've always been prone to motion-sickness. when i was a kid, i'd pretty much throw up every time we went to the market. it's no surprise that my parents didn't take very many road trips when i was a kid. one of the few trips i managed to survive exists today as a memory of being intensely dizzy and as a picture of me looking grumpy and scared at the grand canyon. i'm don't get motion-sick so easily anymore... but a trip to school and back on the bus when i'm tired is enough to make me feel quite ill. for some strange reason, the bus ride didn't wear off as usual, and after trying to keep my head from swimming for an hour or so in the library, i gave up and went home to find a remedy. i've found that there's nothing better than ginger tea to fight off nausea. the way my mom makes it is to peel some fresh ginger, slice it up, and cook a nodule in some water with a chunk of "slab/sheet sugar". i think that's the translation of it. it's like a little brick of regular sugar sandwiched by brown sugar. i didn't have any of that, so i substituted some honey instead. ~1 inch ginger sliced into ~2-3 cups of water, boil, let sit half an hour to extract all that gingeriness. pour into cup, add honey to taste. sweet and spicy!

Solving the Omnivore's Dilemma

2007-06-05T19:53:00.000-07:00

Solving the Omnivore's Dilemma
Professor Michael Pollan gives talk about his new book

Ioana Patringenaru | May 1, 2007

What’s for dinner? According to New York Times Magazine contributor and UC Berkeley professor Michael Pollan, our very survival as a species depends on how we answer this seemingly simple question. He will explain why during the latest installment of UCSD’s Revelle Forum Series June 12 at The Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla.

part 2 of 3 cup chicken

2007-05-23T22:22:00.000-07:00

chronologically, this post should have come first, but i thought it'd be more appetizing to present the food before the stuff that's growing on this plate.

so we had a food and water contamination experiment a couple of weeks ago in class where we had to collect food and water sample, then try and find out what was growing on them. more specifically, we were looking for fecal contamination. remember those alfalfa and spinach scares?
realizing i could do homework and cook at the same time, i got a water sample from rinsing out the styrofoam package for the chicken into an old sterilized jam jar and brought that to lab the next day. after incubating a sample for a few days at around body temp and adding some prepared reagents for a diagnostic test (Colilert), the sample was shown to contain E.coli. then i streaked it out onto an EMB agar (not as yummy as almond flavored agar-agar) plate and grew it on and tried to identify just one of the isolated colonies (there can be a bunch of different bacteria in a sample). in case you're curious, it's Serratia liquefaciens.

anyhow, long story short--cook your food thoroughly! oh and no need to worry about drinking fountains.. all samples from there tested negative. however..someone's kitty water bowl, Mission Bay, and Los Penasquitos creek are teeming with contamination. oh, and if it hasn't killed you yet, don't worry. no need to rush out and buy that antibacterial Palmolive stuff (which actually works. maybe i'll take a picture of that at work. still not going to make me use it though).

here's an excerpt from my lab report to explain what's going on:

The largest source of potentially pathogenic microorganisms in water is animal feces. Some enteric diseases can be spread from infected to healthy persons through fecally contaminated water supplies. Typhoid fever and cholera are examples of enteric diseases that can be caused by bacteria in water. (1)
A common test for water safety depends on the presence of coliform (any organism that is like E. coli, an enteric bacteria) bacteria in a sample. E. coli, an enteric coliform, is the more reliable sewage indicator since it is not normally present in soil, while E. aerogenes has been isolated from soil and grains. In addition, E. coli lives longer in water than other intestinal pathogens, therefore if no E.coli are present, one can assume that there are no other intestinal pathogens present. (2, 4)... Coliform bacteria have the key characteristics of being small gram-negative rods, non-spore forming, lactose fermentation in the presence of bile with acid and gas production, and production of a green metallic sheen on eosin-methylene-blue (EMB) agar. EMB agar is a selective medium whose dyes usually inhibit the growth of gram-positive bacteria. EMB agar is also a differential medium because it differentiates bacteria that ferment lactose with the production of small to copious amounts of acid. That green metallic sheen on EMB is formed by the excretion of so much acid during acid fermentation that the dyes precipitate in and on the surface of the coliform colonies. (1, 4)

part 1 of 3 cup chicken

2007-05-23T04:02:00.001-07:00

can you believe that it's been more than a month since my last post? time sure flies by fast when there isn't enough of it. haven't been inspired to cook very much or at all, and having lent my camera to my aptmate for a spiffy project, pictures and tasty eats have somehow eluded me. i think the last time i've actually cooked anything other than rice was sometime a week ago.. or was it two weeks since the snow peas and beef? so let's see what i've been subsisting on:

toast
coffee
rice
coffee
granola bars (some of you will know my efforts to foist them off on you at every chance i can get)
sardines
vitamins
coffee
pasta
beans
bagged salad... ew, right? what has been happening???

i hope that this supreme laziness and apathy towards food will soon pass. in the meantime, here's something i made a couple of weeks ago out of curiosity. presenting part 1 of 3 cup chicken. and yes, there will be a part 2 sometime in the near future.

hearing TheABC enthusiastically rave over the best 3 cup chicken he's ever had, i decided to try to make my own just to see if it'd be any good. so 3 cup chicken is this chinese dish whose name comes from the (or so the story goes) 1 cup of oil, 1 cup of soy sauce, and 1 cup of wine used to cook chicken. decided to recreate this dish in the spirit of the the SCA (Society for Compulsive Authenticity) by using exactly one cup of each ingredient... plus a half a bulb of garlic, some ginger, and a couple stalks of green onion.

put all the aforementioned ingredients into a pot, along with a few teaspoons of sugar and set to boil. once it hit boil, i tossed in some chicken thigh pieces, and after reaching boil again, turned the heat down to a simmer. kept it like that for about 20 mins b/c i was afraid to under cook the chicken (the pieces were pretty thick) then fished them out. as you can see in the picture, one piece has been disfigured to check for doneness. it looked and smelled great.. but was waaay too salty. i think i'll cut back on the soy next time, or the cooking time and use smaller pieces.

btw, i used sesame and vegetable oil, rice wine, and dark soy. using merlot and olive oil is not recommended.

Classy eats

2007-04-13T00:16:00.000-07:00

Hi all, guess I've been either very busy, lazy, or somewhere in between for the past few weeks. maybe i'm just grossed out that the stuff i grow e.coli and s.aureus (remember those antibacterial soap commercials? of which i don't really believe in, btw) on smells like beef bullion and chicken broth. yum. i also feel rather guilty at leaving this thing neglected, esp when i found that Yummy 4 My Tummy linked to me! wow! i guess i have to post some more then. got a lot of catching up to do.

had a big craving for hamburger and meaty goodness. hamburger mixed with garlic salt and other stuff can't remember, pattied, with a slice of mozzarella melted over the top. collard greens and linguine and some generic sauce.

oatmeal, frozen broccoli (so darned convenient when there's nothing fresh) in chicken broth, and a stalk of celery with slightly diluted negi miso as a dip.

broad rice noodles stir fried with cabbage and chili, oyster sauce, fried garlic, and fried shallots. i always keep a jar of fried shallots and garlic around now top use as topping on rice and other boring dishes when i really don't have time to cook anything. the chili is this jar of dried crushed chilies in hot oil... it's in chinese and there's a picture of a Very Stern Lady on the label. also, the noodles aren't very brown or colorful. i assure you it's only cosmetic.

this a a rather horrendous and unappetizing picture. i steamed some pork short ribs with rice wine and pickled plums, and i over-steamed it b/c i was paranoid about the pork being thoroughly cooked. especially since there's bone involved. also didn't bother to cut it before tossing it in. looks like some sort of alien worm-like creatures swimming around in barf.

a snack. canned pineapple slices from the "buy it now before we throw it out" rack in the back of ralphs. who can resist at 70 cents a can? was going to prepare some chinese big sausages with them, but forgot. instead, they've been rinsed of that horrible syrup and sprinkled with cayenne pepper. and what's left of a carrot.

food is steadily getting worse. this was during finals week. the oatmeal is kind of dry, i have hunks of spam spooned straight from the can on it, and some leftover kabocha on its last days. i consider spam to belong to the "meat" food group. some ppl don't.

pasta with basil and anchovies. truly a dish with conflicting flavors. herbal and salty. kind of like bamboosalt toothpaste. i bought so much basil that i made a salad with it....

unagi with cucumbers. then spam when i still had lots of leftover sushi rice. you can see how pretty my handiwork is. i cut my hand earlier that day, so i was trying to make things mostly with one hand. i don't think i'll ever make this at home again. everything from start to finish took waaay too long and was a big mess. note the ugliest pillow-shaped onigiri ever in the back. it all goes into the biological blender anyways. i'll leave it to the pros. i'll just end up tossing stuff on top of rice next time.

almost a month later for dinner tonight... and i did in fact toss it on top of rice. unagi no kabayaki on rice with a pickled plum and some pickled radish strips. of course the eel came prepared and frozen. this was what was left over from making sushi at home. and some miso soup with frozen broccoli in it. this was another one of those 5 min meals, not counting the rice.

a kobocha and sharpening my knife before i attempt to hack it open. i don't have a whetstone or a fancy sharpener, so i use the bottoms of ceramic cups.

lemon and soy simmered kobocha squash. from Washoku. i was in a cooking mood that night. this tasted really good. i used a whole lemon's juice instead of half as suggested.

greasy stir fried chinese liver sausage and garlic chives.

Orang3's collard greens with a few mods. i used some chicken broth instead of water, a pinch of sugar, and some chili peppers so it'd have a bit of kick. here it is with some dried noodles. what are they called? dried onion noodles? it's was whatever was sitting on the counter at my brother's place.

another condiment fried rice. this time it's chili, fermented shrimp paste, and garlic.

midnight snack tin for the delaying hunger in the library. they've allowed a new policy of snack foods being allowed inside the library after ppl brought them in anyways. most people go there to study anyways, and not read library books.

Nutty Nuggets Meatloaf

2007-04-12T02:12:00.000-07:00

we're packrats. well, kind of. my aptmates eat out at fast food a lot and usually bring back extra ketchup packets and the like. here's two containers full of sugar, ketchup, mustard, honey... pepper, parmesan... and more. i myself own no bottles of ketchup so i will be dipping from the reserves to use as a sauce for my meatloaf. i've had meatloaf topped with cheese or gravy, but what i like the most is a simple ketchup sauce.i've never made meatloaf before b/c i don't really like it and think it tastes boring and a waste of good hamburger meat.. but if it means a creative use for Nutty Nuggets, I'll give it a try. winged it on the recipe with whatever i had. i just know that at least an egg, an onion, and cup to lb breadcrumbs are supposed to be used. perhaps it's why the loaf crumbled when cut.

1 small zucchini blendered to veggie goo
1 large brown onion halfway between chopped and ground? pulverized?
1.5 cups nutty nuggets
1.5 lb 85% ground beef
1.5 tsp salt
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 egg
2 stalks green onions
2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
15 ketchup packets

i think i baked it at 350? 450? for either 45 mins or an hour. can't remember. the cut was me checking to make sure it was thoroughly cooked. note how exquisitely handcrafted and artisan the loaf is. should have made a snowman shape. the nutty nuggets made the loaf crunchy for the first day.

this is it on its 5th day, i think, in pan-fried reheated form. it didn't keep shape very well. i think i'm in a spicy phase. i've been adding chili flakes or pepper to everything lately, and one comment i got from a taste-tester was that it was too spicy. gotta work on that. did however, elicit several comments that it "smells like meatloaf". not sure if that's a good thing.

Quick post

2007-04-12T02:08:00.000-07:00

Promise i've got a better one coming along soon.

last night i had a can of chili and tossed in some Nutty Nuggets. yes, the same old Grapenuts-like cereal i tried to eat several months ago. apparently, they don't get stale. they start that way already. i'd been saving them for meatloaf (or a duck pond), and was reminded by Anonymous who commented. guess what i'm making this weekend.

Breakfast of Champions

2007-03-22T10:38:00.000-07:00

The wakeup breakfast of champions or those who must not fall asleep must contain three things: mozzarella, caffeine, and chili peppers.

similar stuff, different taste

2007-03-13T20:08:00.000-07:00

not a good picture at all, but i made some brisket simmered in soy. the liquid i used to cook it in was roughly (very, didn't measure anything) half a cup of soy sauce, a cup of water or more to cover the meat in a small pot, two stalks of green onions, a chunk of ginger, a large splash of rice wine, half a star anise, a spoonful of sugar. forgot if i added anything else.after it boiled, i put in the meat in one big chunk, let it go to a boil again, then simmered on low for half an hour. then let it cool and put it in the fridge overnight to soak up the flavor. then stored in a tupperware with the liquid and sliced some off that hunk of meat whenever. having a crappy electric stove that was either full boil or not at all really anooyed me. took maybe 10 mins before i could manage "simmer".

rigged up a steaming thing with small wire rack underneath a large bowl, which was set in a pot with some water on the bottom. steamed up some chicken tenders all cut up, rehydrated chinese mushrooms with some of the liquid, woodear fungi, rice wine, a spoonful of cornstarch to coat, green onions, little bit of soy. yeah, it sounds like what was above, but it was in different proportions, and tasted very very different from the lo shui beef stuff.

broiled tofu brushed with negi (green onion) miso. i made some of this miso a few days beforehand ala Washoku cooking mirin, green onions, and other stuff into it and stored in a jar in the fridge. i didn't had fried tofu, but did have extra firm tofu, so broiled that in the toaster oven until it was starting to get brown, then spread the miso on top with a spoon and sprinkled some sesame seeds on it. broiled some more until it was nice and toasty. *note* the first time i tried this, i didn't want to wait for broiled, so tried to do this in a frying pan. it ended up way too hot and the miso burned. flavor was a lot more subtle than you'd expect.

turn, smile, shift--repeat

2007-03-11T07:53:00.000-07:00

to prove that i really do eat the same thing over and over and over again simply b/c i eat by myself so there's surplus and it saves time to reheat something.. or just repeat a recipe when i'm not feeling very motivated. stats on this dish: repeated twice during the week

tuesday [see last post]

wednesday - fried chicken on the side version

thursday - [alas, took no picture]

friday - spicy version

sat - it's late at night and i'm hungry NOW! version

not seen are the other things i prepared too, notably mi goreng satay instant noodles, negi-miso pan-grilled tofu (it didn't work.. the miso burned too fast), and lo shui (鹵水) beef brisket. and tons of buttered toast and dry cereal (milk went bad).

oh, and phil's bbq is tasty. mm... pork ribs. the website lies. the new location is on sports arena drive off of the 8. and why oh why is there no on-ramp to the 8 W coming from the 5 N? am i missing something???

constructive time again (revised with "recipes"!)

2007-03-07T00:02:00.000-08:00

wow, it's been a rather time since my last post, and a rather long time to post this one b/c i have so much catching up to do. i guess i got lazy.. but as always, i keep coming back for more punishment. also hadn't been cooking much during that period, somehow i lost motivation. but i managed. too bad i was too lazy to take pictures during those super blah days. it's surprising to see what i scrounged up. there were so many days where i was happy eating rice topped with fried shallots, soy, and fried garlic... anchovies... shrimp paste.. pickled radish... you get the picture.

reflecting on childcare whilst partaking of a grand meal in my car twixt studying one long rainy saturday night. remember, hugs = bad. canned sodium-filled foods = good. i've taken to carrying a can or two of something in the boot of my car for unforeseen pangs of hunger, no cash, or no time. recipe: none! pull top off can.

this.. was mediocre. generic garlic and basil flavored canned tomatoes and pasta. recipe: prepare pasta according to directions on package. open can o tomatoes. spoon contents of can o tomatoes over pasta.

lemon lime chicken. not nearly as good as it looks. i didn't really marinade the chicken for long so it didn't have enough flavor. recipe: too untasty to even list.

a prize to whoever can guess what this is. and no, it's not the moon or a white dwarf somewhere up in the cosmos.

so i bought some of that thick-cut bacon. it doesn't come in anything less than a lb. was really hungry that night, and literally had just bacon and leftover rice ready. so, a very ghetto thick soy sauce fried rice. and a mozzarella stick donated by my kind roommate. recipe: dump cold rice into a hot pan with some oil. cook until hot and a lil crispy. douse on some soy. stir some more. eat.

snacktime! these were the last cherries of the season. recipe: choose carefully when buying, rinse, and eat.

a very eggy death. the hummus could only look on in horror.

i'm amazed i didn't have a heart attack with all the bacon i ate that week. i cooked up some diced potatoes in bacon grease, cilantro, more bacon and smokey bbq sauce. i thought it'd be interesting. it was. quite good.. i mean.. you can't go wrong with bacon and bbq sauce..... even together. recipe: dice potatoes. toss in a frying pan. search through the fridge for some sort of vegetable or herb. chop and toss in with potatoes. search through the cabinets for something more interesting than salt and pepper (bonus points if you find bbq sauce. extra bonus points if you use fish sauce or peanut butter, or both). mix in with potatoes and cook until they're not raw anymore.

my aptmate made everyone a special brownie heart for valentine's day! aww.. someone's got a crush. recipe: be nice!

chinese new years dinner. i made it home for the end of year dinner with family, but i left the next morning. so here are some of the tasty take-homes in a completely unappetizing arrangement. radish cake, succulent roast pork, and pea leaves. recipe: wash leaves. boil water. put leaves in boiling water. remember to take them out if you want to eat them.

corned beef hash and a fried egg. recipe: canned corned beef. or fresh... but hold on there, that's kind of too high-class for the char. dice and cook potatoes in a skillet. then throw on the corned beef later, breaking up the really large chunks. cook until things aren't raw and the corned beef starts to get crispy.

Mexi-hattan clam chowder. so i was trying to make manhattan clam chowder from joy of cooking and ran short of a few ingredients. for one, i didn't have regular stewed tomatoes. but i thought i did. after i'd dumped the can into the soup, i realized that this was the green pepper and jalapeno flavor... what was i thinking when i bought it??? ick.. my soup smelled like enchiladas. and tasted a little bit like it too. recipe: follow joy of cooking's manhattan clam chowder recipe. but only use half the ingredients and make ethnic substitutions as appropriate.

hungry studying one night, i lumped some leftover rice together, slathered it with sweet soy and sesame seeds, then popped it in the toaster oven. kind of too crunchy on its own though. think i'll make ocha zuke next time. recipe: shape leftover rice in hands. get creative. you can make things in the shape of hearts or like the eiffel tower. set toaster to broil and well, broil until it's brown and crunchy. note* uneven/not flat shapes tend to burn easily.

fresh "guac" on toast. fork mashed avocado, pepper, salt, cumin, and lil bit of lemon juice. <--recipe

miso in a cup. don't remember what type of miso paste this is. it's very mild though. recipe: heat water in a mug and then stir in miso paste. cut in cubes of tofu if you need sustenance. garnish with sliced green onions.

pasta with canned tomatoes (muir glen brand... they're quite good, not tinny), fresh basil, garbanzo beans, and an olive or two. this was rather refreshing cold, especially when compared to that other canned tomato pasta stuff from a while ago. i ran outta vegetables this during the week, and being in busy study/project mode, didn't have time to go to the market. somehow i ended up with a large container of basil and i've been eating that as veggie... my breath was really herbally fresh for a few days.

celery and chicken stir fry in black bean garlic sauce. recipe: stirfry a few stalks of celery. set aside. stirfry ~2 diced up frozen chicken breasts from costco in a little (NON-OLIVE)oil, black beans, and garlic. when it's almost cooked, dump the celery back into the pan. and cook until you are no longer in danger of e.coli and listeria.

Elizabeth Andoh's temple vegetable stew from Washoku

CharSiuBao's turnstile vegetable stew ala Washoku. the recipe's in there with different veggies. it's a stock (kombu and bonito flakes) with carrots, daikon, nira, and fresh wood ear fungus. shouldn't have added the "gau choy" ish niri though. made it a bit bitter. recipe: you will have to read her book. (hint* throw things into a pot.)

a sad day

2007-01-24T03:43:00.000-08:00

o tiny spoonful of havarti cheese
and half a subway sandwich shared,
the instant noodles (shrimp) did not please,
so bread and jam were thus paired.

such accursed meals to fill the day
when at school all day, i slave.

in lab, i cook, but not for delight
it does not stave my hunger's plight.

avocado orange salad and kimchee spamwiches

2007-01-16T18:54:00.000-08:00

after spending most of my break in HK (read about similar adventures at The ABC) eating out or having someone else cook for me, i became soo lazy that i still don't feel much like making my own food. but, i have no desire to starve, so here goes.

yeah, more veggie stew in a tomato base with Northern beans, eggplant, celery, onion

Lara (of veggie lasagna fame) came over for dinner and this was the salad she made with what was around.. orange/juice, tomatoes, avocado, and celery with some olive oil and salt. celery has been scientifically proven to taste better when cut "hotdog", rather than "hamburger" style.

very oily progresso chicken noodle soup mixed with leftover veggie bean stew. leftover steak from dinner with Lara cut and stirfried with blackbean, garlic, and pepper sauce.

roomie's toasted poorboy. bologna, other deli meats, swiss cheese.

thai red curry. chicken breast, onions, celery, carrots, eggplant. cooked it in a canned, but very tasty sauce.

fried kimchee spamwich - all the other PB&J kids will envy your sack lunch

tilapia curry???

2007-01-04T04:51:00.000-08:00

I don' t know how to use curry powder. so of course, i try without finding a credible recipe out of what could be either a sense of adventure, or sheer laziness. i seasoned some tilapia fillets with salt and a bit of curry powder. a bit later, put some oil into a pan with smushed garlic and some more curry powder in the hopes that that'd bring out some of the aroma and flavor into the oil. then i tossed in my fishies, some onions, and half a bag of frozen peas that had last served as an icepack for my puffy cheeks when i got my teeth out. it didn't taste half bad. but it still seemed rather bland compared to the real stuff. i want to make the type of indian food my neighbors make--so strong and aromatic that you can smell it all the way down the hall and around the corner.

the finals crunch

2006-12-07T07:51:00.000-08:00

haven't really been cooking anything moderately time consuming or complicated (aka more than 1 ingredient) this quarter 'cause it's been super busy with school, work, extracurriculars, etc. don't think i've had a quarter with this much multitasking before. or been very motivated to cook. it's kind of boring cooking for myself at times, 'cause my usually primary goal is to just make something nutritious and filling FAST. sorry, racheal ray, your 30 minute meals aren't quick enough. can we cut it down to 5? therefore i've been eating a lot of cereal, bread, pasta, exploded hotdogs, frozen dumplings, and other boring yet filling repeats. plus coffee. i don't like drinking too much coffee, but i can't stand that acrid instant stuff anymore so i'm thinking of buying a coffeemaker. i was so against having bad bad caffiene close at hand that i actually turned down a coffeemaker one year. i doubt i will buy Luwak "processed" coffee though.

anyhoo, i always try get in a good amount of nutrients at some point of the day and eat balanced food, even if it sucks. so here's some very unappealing pictures of food. forgive how i always post in a largish size rather than thumbs. until someone has a solution that takes less than 30 seconds, they're simply too much work for lazy me.

baked monterey jack quesadillas and a hardboiled egg. the black spots are ants. i like the protein on protein crunch.

some of that mutigrain hot cereal that i finally had the patience to stir every 5 mins on low for half an hour. with a large dollop of strawberry jam and butter. i should make a photo album of just porridges, gruels, and congees. it'd be exciting.

the promised frozen dumplings, wood ear and pork. some really delicious premade dumpling sauce. and some pork and beans. gotta get the fiber from somewhere...

look what happens when i invite a friend over to study and for dinner. they get the star treatment of eating canned/prepared food on the floor of my room on a pile of newspapers. some persian cucumbers, fried spam, kimchi, and hot fully baked par-baked bread from TJ. Are you thinking Tijuana?

surprise surprise. the rest of the loaf, some more persian cucumbers, and a turkey drumette i hoarded with me from thanksgiving. ok, so you've got 5 dollars in your pocket and you walk into your choice of an overpriced Ralph's or a slightly frou frou new age Trader Joe's. you get to choose one carb, and 1 veg/fruit. what do you choose? for me it was a pound and a half of persian cucumbers and a loaf of parbaked bread. that was some good bread and cucumbers. i could eat that for two days straight, literally.

a baked natural casing hot dog, more pork and beans (can you tell i bought the super large can size?), and some plain XO stirfried pasta (repeat with udon... rice... [carb]...). my roomate tried canned pork and beans for the first time... she hadn't tried them before b/c she told me they were considered hick where she was from.

BBQ baked chicken, greenbeans in a tomato garlic mush, and quesadillas x 5 were the most elaborate i got in a while and i didn't even take a picture.

snacktime! apples, blackberries, and sliced up radishes.

do you think this is a message?

business time continues

2006-11-19T08:36:00.000-08:00

i'm not really sure how i managed it, but i somehow haven't been to the market in 2 weeks. note all the instances of kimchee. just.. two more weeks to go.. gah! super-crunch time = more strange semi instant food concoctions.

on top of rice: some prepared marinated kelp bowties from 99, some kimchee, some ong choi (hollow heart vegetable) i stirfried with fermented shrimp paste and garlic.

yeah, so i don't really care about presentation, and i like all my foods to be separated, so uh, it always looks bad. i bought this chicken from costco who lasted me almost a week in several reincarnations. ah, the dear soul. this was her first appearance at the dinner table. that grey mass is eggplant sauteed in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, a pizza packet of red pepper flakes, and garlic. not much to look at, but it was tasty.

i got hungry.. so i decided to have a midnight "snack" of that poor rotisserie chicken, kimchee, stircooked lotus root, and yu xiang egglant.

a meal made with leftovers. a previously frozen peach bun from someone's wedding. and some more kimchee. i have a large jar of it, and must consume it so it stops stinking up the fridge for the roomies. also needed some more veggies. kimchee's a veg! kind of. see The ABC's post. that goopy vegetable stuff had gai lan in it. i was very disappointed though.. limp and overcooked. and in goopy sauce! i hate goopy sauces!

gai lan.. chinese broccoli.. is my favorite vegetable of all time. sliced into scallop egg white fried rice and just plain boiled/pan cooked with a dribble of oyster sauce on top is the best. regular broccoli stems taste a bit like it. it's almost never on sale though =(

i stayed up most the night studying for exams. bad, i know. anyhoo, i finally went home in the morning to eat breakfast which consisted of coffee, some multigrain hot cereal, and a tin of smoked herrings before leaving immediately for school again to take a test. that's right. herrings. don't think i drank much of the coffee, but it was nice to have around smelling good and warm even though those tiny little pull-out desks barely have room for a sheet of paper. a cup of coffee is like my security blanket during crunch-time in class.

udon, gai lan with oyster sauce, kimchee, and some frozen bourbon chicken my roomate didn't like. mmm.. free protein... this was actually my second dinner that night. i'd had a can of chef boyardee beef ravioli (mm.. reminds me of elementary school hot lunches) an hour earlier b/c i was HUUUNGGRRRRYYY at school. i keep all sorts of instant food in my locker just in case, along with a can opener. i think there's also half a dozen bagels in there right now...

it's the biscuit stick man! this guy, and his band of gun-slinging brothers, traveled all the way from Hong Kong to get eaten by me. the japanese says.. bisuketto! i cannot read the chinese, alas.

my teeth (and dignity) hurt

2006-11-19T07:50:00.000-08:00

i've always wondered what Grapenuts cereal was like. so i bought a box of generic Nutty Nuggets right next to it on the shelf. the name was a warning. it was health-packed, but it tasted like cardboard and reminded me of super extra hard bread crumbs. even BBQ sauce failed to make it better. i'm not quite sure what to do with them now. i wonder if it'll work in meatloaf? or perhaps i'll feed the birds..

fried rice with lap cheong, broccoli, eggs, green onions. it's brown 'cause i used lotsa that thick sweet soy sauce.

udon, cabbage, and a fried egg.

part of a dried preserved duck leg that i reconstituted in the rice pot.

more ong-choi (insert boring picture here)

egg flower soup. 2 eggs whisked into my boiling soup. my standard 1 can chicken stock, 1 can ceramed corn, 1 can water recipe with a bit of corn starch for the thickener. top with green onions (not shown).

i usually only eat it at home, 'cause i can't finish it fast enough, but i hadn't been home for months so i'd been craving roast duck for weeks. positively dreaming about it. ok, never ever ever ever go to sam woo in san diego for roast meats ever again. i went tehre to get my duck when i went grocery shopping b/c it was convenient. they have horrible service. first, the roast-mastah wouldn't let me get the duck i wanted, then he berated me for only ordering half of a duck, and as a final insult, he skimped and didn't give me the whole half a duck! i didn't notice the last insult until i went home and found that there were no parts above the shoulder. when i was there too, i wasn't watching carefully enough... he had another duck on his chopping board so i thought some of the pieces were someone else's. i'm pretty sure he did it was because i was young or thought i was some spoiled rich kid. b*****d. however, the quacker was tasty.

it's business time

2006-10-22T22:50:00.000-07:00

i've been super busy lately, so i've been eating really nasty crud. or eating out. i'm also ashamed to admit, i have eaten at mcdonalds twice in the past week out of fatigue and convenience.

right after i went to the market. it's vegetable bean beef soup. cooked it really slowly so the brisket didn't get tough. brisket is cheap! yay! ginger in it was not a good idea. it tasted funny, but it provided all the veggies and nutrition i needed. for a week.

i'd left my rice cooker at The Estate and didn't retrieve it until recently. that's why when i had a hankering for fried rice, i had to find a substitute... i needed some sort of grain since i'd run out of bread and pasta, so i cooked up some sausages and chinese leeks... except i didn't have leeks so substituted green onions and put that on top of oatmeal...

a couple stalks of limp celery, and an onion. sauce makes everything taste delicious.

i had cabbage, carrots, and onions. what a luxury. now i only have cabbage to enjoy.

this was from the rare week that i had both fruit and cereal (cheerios) at the same time. just white nectarines and cereal...

i'd run out of both rice and pasta, but i had some canned green beans left for dinner with a granola bar and a pear. oh joy.

i was really really hungry so my roomate offered this masterpiece. it's a hot dog wrapped in pilsbury cruissant dough.. it was delicious. note how gourmet it is. it's a "blackened pig in a blanket"

it's business time, so i packed myself a quick lunch to eat during a study break. pasta, and tossed some frozen chicken into the water to they'd cook at the same time, and some canned green beans. just garlic and olive oil for flavor. exciting huh? i'd run out of cabbage at that point. i'm sure the cabbage would have given it +394 mana.

i filched a slice of chicken pizza from an unsuspecting box that was sitting on the countertop when i hobbled back home during the witching hour. pizza is proven to ward away evil spirits, werewolves, and vampires when drowned in BBQ sauce.

first year, the dorms didn't have any stoves or ovens. there was a broken microwave and a toaster oven that shorted out halfway through the year. this is what i had stashed under my bed in case of emergencies.

tea broth

2006-10-03T00:42:00.000-07:00

for lack of a teapot or pitcher, i make my roasted barly (muji cha) tea in a pot and store it in this classy plastic tupperware-ish thing.

here's some udon sitting in a mixture of 1:1 canned chicken broth and that tea. sounds weird, but it's surprisingly tasty. not too salty, light, and kind of smoky tasting. some more mushrooms. and part of someone's chunk of roast beef. i'm not sure how old or whose it is, but i found it at The Estate and took it back with me thinking it was my frozen foil wrapped hunk of leftover ground beef. and yes, i ate the mystery meat.

fruit punch sangria

2006-10-01T02:50:00.000-07:00

bread, microwaved zuchinni, stircooked brisket. brisket is a bad choice for anything but slow cooking. but i'm hungry and impatient. it wasn't too chewy. add a little water to the bowl of cut up veggies, cover, then microwave. usually a 1 serving size for me is like 3 mins on high. less if it's less dense. the crispy brown thing is fried beef... my aptmate was breading and frying stuff that night. including homemade banana dumplings or whatever they're called.

mushrooms. heated 1-2 tbsp butter in a pan and added 3 cloves of smushed garlic, half a chopped onion, and then 3/4 lb white mushrooms (sliced ~1/4 in thick). sprinkled random dried herbs like savory, basil, celery salt on. after they turned kind of brown and exuded liquid, then added some red wine and cooked until the liquid was almost all evaporated.

chicken. chicken tenders from costco defrosted in microwave, sprinkled some garlic salt on em, tossed into an oiled pan on med-high heat. haven't got the timing right yet. still need to cut 1 open to figure out when it's -just- cooked. i don't like tough chicken.

rosemary bread from la brea bakery via costco.

in the corner you can see my "sangria". i figured that if i was going to have wine out i may as well drink some of it. though mixing it with fruit punch (from kiddy birthday party concentrate) just isn't the same as what the spaniards make... i don't suggest you try it.

the non-mandatory potluck

2006-09-26T16:47:00.000-07:00

a couple of weeks ago, we had a bit of a going away party for my friend Lara who is spending part of the year studying in spain. it seemed cheap and fun to eat in so we planned a "food-optional" potluck. as some of my friends noted, it's probably better off that way unless we wanted frozen burritos for dinner and stomachaches for dessert. i made some appetizer-type things with a recurring theme of about 3 ingredients in different combinations.. kind of like pho. seriously, those pho restaraunts could cut their menu in half if they just had a single listing of types of meat to put in their noodles instead of listing every possible combination of rare steak, well done flank, tripe, etc. hmm.. i'm deviating. well, i had rounds of toasted french bread i'd rubbed with garlic and topped with either tomato with herbs, thick-cut ham, or brie cheese. and on a brilliant suggestion from a comrade in college cooking, wrapped some of those foul pillsbury instant croissants around fillings of vegetables (leftover from lara's dish) and ham and baked as the istructions dictated. it didn't turn out tasting bad and people thought they were cute.

much cuter was the vegetable lasagna lara and her friend made from scratch! check out the bell pepper octopus and sea star. that ups the tastyness 10x because of the cute factor. it had bell peppers, mushrooms, zuchini, tomatoes, onions, and a whole lot of other stuff in it which i can't remember. they layered it with mozzerella and topped with parmesan and a little bit of gorgonzola. the gorgonzola really added a bit of kick to it.

that and a really ripe pineapple was enough to feed 7. i heard that a good way to tell if a pineapple is ripe is to smell it and if you can pull out one of the topinner leaves easily.

mmm green beans and daikon

2006-09-26T16:13:00.000-07:00

salad. lettuce, green beans blanched in chicken stock, olive oil canned tuna, capers, minced garlic, olives, green onion, chili pepper, lemon juice.

tossed a couple whole italian squash and simmered in canned chicken stock + random dried herbs and those pizza parlour hot pepper flakes. added couple handfulls of tender green beans to simmer ~ 3 mins before finish. soup plus a veggie fix.

taro bread from 99 ranch. soft purply bread with ribbons of sweet taro paste baked into it. and yes, i eat off of newspapers. they make classy recyclable dishes.

i didn't want to feed my friend rice and kimchee for dinner so scrounged around for some "instant" food. luckily had a can of thai tom yum soup into which i threw half a diced daikon, a package of soft tofu, green onions, and an egg. then separately cooked some "fresh" store-bought udon left over from a couple days before and served with the soup. frozen chinese dumplings. the canned soup (from 99) had slivers of ginger, lemongrass, etc in it and was surprisingly good.

didn't have a camera around when i made this gross sounding dish of hamburger meat and diced onions. tossed a bunch of seasoning into it including bbq sauce. had it with more of that simmered squash and some pasta.

Got Crabs? Let's Party!

2006-09-14T00:32:00.000-07:00

in japanese katakana, "Paa-tii Tai-mu"

yummy. very crunchy. coated in some really-bad-for-you orange sesame glaze. very salty. very good with drinks. different parts of it had different tastes... i like the rich innards, brain, and goo tasting parts. dunno what it actually is? in chinese it's "蟹膏" ?

mort the tort eats

2006-09-13T01:40:00.000-07:00

so i've been really really busy these days and my camera charger is up in LA (where i am not) so haven't been keeping track much. been eating a lot of salads, and tons of seasonal fruits. figs, raspberries, srawberries, peaches, concord grapes, watermelon, regular grapes, mangoes, etc. mort has also been enjoying the fruit.

here's a video of him eating bananas...

p.s. how convenient for me that qqq stole the video and it is already up.

lotus root soup and mango sticky rice

2006-09-06T01:28:00.000-07:00

home-cookin' style soup. don't have all the ingredients my mom uses for this, but i make do..

4 fresh lotus root bulbs
handful of dried shitake mushrooms stems trimmed and reconstituted
handful of soaked and rinsed dried foxnuts (i have no idea what they are)
1 lb of mysterious "Prok For Stew" (i usually use shoulder. pretty much anything except for superlean expensive loins and chops will do =)

broke apart the bulb segments from eachother to wash out any mud that may be in the holes. dumped everything in a large pot including some of the mushroom water (watch out for the sediment) and covered with water. brought to boiling on med-high heat and skimmed off the frothy gunk. reduced heat to low and simmered for an hour and a half (my mom uses a slow cooker overnight) salt to taste. after cooking, i sliced up the root to serve with the soup. and as with most soups, it takes about a day for the flavors to get really good.

mangos with steamed coconut glutinous rice

2 cups glutinous rice
1 can of coconut milk
.5 cup sugar
1 tsp salt

first time trying out a south asian recipe. been craving this dessert for weeks, but going out to restaraunts is too expensive for this cheapskate! soaked the "lo mai" (not regular rice. it's sole as "sticky" or "sweet" or "glutinous rice") overnight in a bowl withjust enough water to cover. the next evening, put the glass bowl in a steamer for 20 minutes. if using a bowl like me instead of leaves to hold the rice, steam for longer.. my rice came out just barely cooked. oh, i lied.. i skimped on the coconut milk b/c i didn't want a heart attack and like things on the light side. i heated in a small saucepan about 3/4 can of coconut milk and .3 cup of sugar and the salt. when the rice was done, i mixed most of it into the rice and saved some to spoon over the mangos.

a few things from august

2006-08-29T22:31:00.000-07:00

smoked salmon and shallots with capers and lemon on rice

kale with garlic, apple cider vinegar, chili pepper, sugar

mishmash of leftovers plus new food. smoked salmon, capers, shallots on thickly buttered french bread. sauteed turnips and turnip greens. half a salted and peppered broiled tomato. some bruschetta for the un-special pieces of bread.

a bowl of really old leftover mashed potatoes and shawerma from a Mediterranean place. the kimchee is not from there.

the eggplant disaster. ok, it wasn't that bad. but don't use corn masa in place of flour to batter and panfry these. kind of gritty. there's some pork chops hidden there that've been marinated with grated onion, garlic, mustard, chili sauce, and uh, lots of other stuff. i found the recipe in Joy of Cooking for Deviled Pork Chops. i did no tuse the suggested slow cooking for and hour and a half technique suggested though.. i cooked it on the stovetop.. came out a bit tough. was very flavorful though.

kimchee, gluten and peanuts, rice

really really bitter mustard greens, egg, mozzerella on bread

trader joe's chili

young coconut and its juice. i hacked it open with a hammer.. i left my chinese limb-chopper cleaver at home...

french bread margherita

2006-08-07T22:57:00.000-07:00

shredded fresh sweet basil covered with slices of fresh mozzerella on top of a baguette, toasted, then topped with slices of roma tomatoes. got the basil and tomaotes at a farmer's market.. they're delicious...

and a golden kiwi fruit.

spam and mangos

2006-08-06T19:55:00.000-07:00

been pretty busy lately. shrimp marinated in curry powder, preserved lemon, wine. (tasty!) diced zucchini and eggplant, onions, tomato sauce, curry power, tons of smushed garlic, don't remember what else. leftover insipid seafood paella (where that giant shrimp is from).

fried lower sodium spam on toast, a mango. crazy tasty.

some really weird tasting green beans, onions, eggplant, XO sauce. *note to self--lemons not good in that* roasted pork back ribs. rosemary, garlic, honey, olive oil, vinegar, salt/pepper. bland. needed longer and stronger marination than half an hour.

i've been eating watermelon every day for over a week. can't get enough of the stuff. but a change in dessert once in a while isn't bad. that night, we had pita bread toasted with garlic/salt/pepper/olive oil, canned Manhattan clam chowder, XO sauce stircooked greenbeans. went out for desserts with claire (extraordinary desserts had an extraordinarily long wait. went to little italy instead.)--her strawberry napoleon was delicious. my tiramisu wasn't nearly as photogenic.

recycled food

2006-07-24T21:58:00.000-07:00

remember that ketchup shrimp?
july 10th - the two minute meal

july11th - the last of the bugs

honey, garlic, vinegar, soy, zuchinni

continental breakfast

2006-07-24T21:36:00.000-07:00

if toast, orange juice, milk, sausage, and little packets of jam are considered a "continental breakfast" in america, then would this be an american "continental dinner"?

salad, steak, bread. some turtle food (lettuce), a tomato, couple radishes (lightly cooked with lemon juice b/c they were too spicy!), basil, lightly seasoned with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, celery salt, pepper. "english muffin bread". suggested "deck of cards" sized piece of meat marinated with some mystery BBQ seasoning and beer.

who is simon??

2006-07-19T01:48:00.000-07:00

while on a quest to find something (which ended up being too expensive) at the uppity fashion valley mall we found out that iron chef japan #3 was going to make an appearance. or rather, he just did and we missed it? i couldn't help but think of mall tours for n sync and brittney spears. and tiffany for the older crowd...

rice noodles tossed with lemon, some asian basil-y herb, and spicy XO style sauce. mix it up with some sliced up lettuce and lao shui eggs, beef, pig ears, and duck wings/tips (prepared from 99 ranch) and there's a quick meal. it doesn't sound like it would taste good together, but it did.

next week, i'm making some turtle soup, turtle jelly, and turtle on the half shell. (turtle power!)

ketchup shrimp

2006-07-09T20:14:00.000-07:00

i'm not sure if there's anything quite like cooking for oneself. it's pretty satisfying to just create something, but then when it comes time to eat.. meh. it's a little boring.

my brother came down this weekend, and since he seems to like food tons more than me, there was a preponderence of it sitting around. he cooked up some chicken, potatoes, and onions with coconut milk in a dish we call "Portugese chicken" at home. it's like a light curry chicken without the curry. anyhoo, long story short, he went back up to LA and i'm left with a fridge full of food including some raw flank steak that needs to get cooked SOON and over a lb of shrimp. not wanting to waste fresh shrimp, i froze half and made the other half into "ketchup shrimp". i have no idea what kind of cuisine it is, but it's probably one of those home-cookin' conglomerations. it's probably in the top 5 of my favorite dishes--at least the way my mom makes it. i'll ask her for the recipe some day. until then, here's a variation of it:

.5 lb raw shrimp
couple tbsp rice wine
tsp sugar
few cloves of garlic smushed or diced
.5 onion diced
1-2 tsp oil
a sprig of geen onions cut into cm lengths on the diagonal
2-3 tbsp ketchup (lee kam kee brand--it taste a bit different from the heinz. sweeter and more spices)
salt to taste

rinsed the shrimp. sometimes i leave the heads and shells on b/c i'm lazy and the legs are fun to eat and sucking on the brains is tasty). this time, i shelled and beheaded them b/c they absorb more flavor that way. marinated them in the rice wine while prepared the garlic and onions. i poured a lil oil into the pan and tossed in the garlic and onions. when they started to get kind of aromatic, ~.5 a min later, i tossed in the shrimp and wine and stirred them around 'cause they cook rather fast. put in a pinch of salt. dumped in the green onions. when the shrimp just started to turn pink all over, i reduced the heat from med-hi to low and poured in the ketchup. not sure how long it took for that.. but it couldn't have been more than a min or two. shrimp cooks real fast if you don't want it to be tough. stirred around. just for a short while then put on a plate and garnished with some green onion.

this came out a bit different from my mom's version. i think she adds a bit of vinegar and uses different proportions. no onions too. they're a mess if the shells are still on. it's also quite a bit more saucy.. mm.. tasty sauce on rice..

spinach and tofu

2006-07-09T01:13:00.000-07:00

curiously enough, i ate some horensou no shio gome ae (something like that) in a restaurant which turned out to be a very delicately flavored dish of spinach mushed up with tofu and covered in bonito shavings--quite similar to my mash up of two different leftover dishes here. what can i say? i'm a natural. corruptor of respectable dishes.

poverty pasta day 2

2006-07-07T00:51:00.000-07:00

for dinner: some reheated pasta (yesterday, made a large potfull to last a couple of days) covered in trader joe's pesto sauce. the meat is some cut up stirfried carne asada (flank steak) that seasoned with salt, pepper, and some "BBQ" (onion, garlic, chili powder, etc) seasoning i found. i usually jsut use garlic salt, though. i also found some pretty fresh leftover lettuce and made a salad with radishes. the dressing for the salad was a squeeze of lemon, some salt, and beef juice from the carne asada. with the pasta pre-made, it was a 10-min meal.

gobbled down a slice of pizza and some strawberries for lunch. was in a hurry, but i love perq meals. when i only have to cook once a day, i'm more likely to make something tasty.

there's also a coffee machine here. found some abandoned coffee and have been making iced coffee to carry around with me in plastic bottles. it's sooooooo much better than instant.

poverty pasta

2006-07-06T02:15:00.000-07:00

got sick of eating leftover okonomiyaki (that thing was a monster!) for dinner so made some pasta. i'm not sure where this pasta came from, but it says that it's not for sale or redistribution. i'm too lazy to fetch the package, but it's from teh USDA... i think it's poverty pasta? someone gave it to me, i didn't steal it! i had it with some asparagus bequeathed to me by The Estate's last occupants, sauteed in butter and capers. diced in a bit of marinated artichoke hearts and added some white wine (both abandoned). squeezed some lemon in. that tasted ok enough, so wanted to make a cream sauce now.. and uh, added some cream. it really didn't do much. i was too lazy and hungry to look up recipes on how to make cream sauces or what flavors go well together, so i kind of just tossed stuff in... also put in fish sauce and some oatmeal. j/k. also was too tired and lazy to bother with preparing meat, so there's two fried eggs too. sprinkled some parmesan/romano (def not from teh green can) on top. it tasted good enough 'cept that there wasn't enough sauce to coat all the spaghetti.

Tajima

2006-06-30T02:07:00.000-07:00

Tajima Japanese Restaurant

4681 Convoy Street
San Diego, CA 92111
(619) 576-7244

is it just me, or are all SD japanese restaurants closed between lunch and dinner from 2:30 to 5:30? not that i'm complaining. just so you know so you don't drive all the way there to eat dinner at 4:30. then cry at the unlit neon "Open" sign at Ichiro minutes later too. the mexican food place nextdoor wasn't bad though. what was it called? Humbertos? Albertos?

the marinated baby squid started off alright, but then the taste got stronger and stronger the longer it sat in its sauce until it became uneatable. the texture of the raw squid was a bit slimy and goopy, but it wasn't bothersome. the waitress mentioned that most people didn't like it. when she asked later what i thought.. (that it was a little strong) i couldn't think of "tsuyoi aji" (strong taste) so resorted to english. she came back all confused smiles with a "straw".

ikura ochazuke... i hadn't tried (or found) ochazuke in other restaurants before. pleased!

not a sushi place.. and that's why i like it! i'm hooked. thanks for taking me there, you. it would have just been oatmeal again. =)

Mexican pastries

2006-06-30T01:44:00.000-07:00

i went walking around Pomona with a friend two weeks ago when we found this mexican bakery called Mercanera or something like that. i wish i had a camera on me.. there were cookies and pastries from floor to ceiling all along one side of the store. we stopped in to share a guava turnover, and a plastic cupful of crema fresa (sp) which turned out to be a rich mixture of yogurt and heavy cream (i think) with diced ripe srawberries mixed in. it was smooth creamy fruity death. the turnover turned out to be really flaky and tasty, and at only 45 cents each, so we went back for more! I ended up buying up all sorts of pastries i don't know the names of to bring to friends' places. forget the asian traditional fruit. dunno exact address, but it's across the street from the Washington Mutual on the corner of Towne and Third. they also sell tamales and some really old looking chicharrones.

all i need is a yurt and some koumiss*

2006-06-30T01:36:00.000-07:00

currently enjoying a nomadic existence! just a quick food update until i get settled someplace permanent. it's hard to keep food in the car... now behold the non-aesthetic proof!

i did, however, make some comfort food tonight to curry favor with my benefactors. i remembered my roomate making some Cheeseburger Helper several months ago, and decided to recreate it without having to actually buy that cheesy stuff. bought some generic DELUX shells and cheese (i'm pretty sure it was delux b/c the cheese wasn't in powder form), cooked that up. cooked (that means "All Brown") up 3/4 lb of ground beef so it was still kind of chunky, as opposed to crumbly. Drained the pasta well, threw it into the pan with the beef, then mixed in the cheese sauce packet. Depending on the audience, i'm either being too vague, or too redundant. Please follow cooking directions on the package. It helps, it really does. The stuff tastes like death. We can't stop eating it. gross picture, but that's what i have saved for lunch tomorrow.
a variation on a simple tofu dish my mom makes at home sometimes. steamed tofu, covered in a lil soy sauce, sesame, and freshly sliced shallots that've been quickly tossed in hot oil. shallots are expensive, and i still had that jar of friend shallots sitting around, so guess what my substitution was. it looks 10x more appealing when you don't eat in tupperware on the carpet.

this is what happens when i'm up all night studying and feel productive. not plain oatmeal. but still lazy.

and this is what happens when i wake up late and need to take food on the go b/c i know i'll be starving for hours otherwise. semi-plain oatmeal. and in one of those tins that TheABC ate from in Class 302. i saw a flimsy version of this selling in the school bookstore. i guess it's "cool" and "vintage" now. my parents used this one 30 years ago. still works and not rusty.

here's some garlic + spinach with sesame for the heck of it. doesn't match flavors though. spinach is a pain to clean. too many bugs and mud. there's some of that leftover tofu block i've been hacking away at for a while now.

and no pics of the german sausages i simmered with onions or the garlic smashed potatoes i had them with. it looked pretty gross. the former was all pale and goopy (onions), but it tasted alright.

in an ironic turn of events, i found a job at one of the dining halls again. luckily, it's not the fat camp.

*koumiss = fermented mare's milk

Yan..ni Can Cook!

2006-06-16T19:07:00.000-07:00

i love puns, especially bad ones. in lieu of grotesque food, i give you grotesque photoshop! Yanni rocks.

...instant cup ramen...

2006-06-11T03:06:00.000-07:00

that means that it's nigh on finals time and i don't feel particularly energized to cook after coming home from the library at 12am. i caught myself calling Dieckmann condensations "graceful" in there. bad sign. even better, managed to hit up both Chipotle (barbacoa burrito) and Roberto's (some funky tasting jamaica and and nibble of carne asada fries) in one day. those are just two of the college eat-out staples nearby. a little bit gross. i did start out this morning with a big cup of iced "lemon drop" (lemon myrtle and black) tea from Infusions of Tea. that place is a kind of frou frou and new-agey, but the tea is soooo good. it's small and has a really chill atmosphere that just makes me want to sip tea and space out in some odd zen-like way. so refreshing... the starbucks 2 shops down is all hustle and bustle and loud caffiene-filled madness. there's 3 starbucks within a 2 block radius from me =/ gimme Muir Woods any day of the week. they might not make a mocha frappachino, but you can get caffiene, "The Paul Park", and a "Hot Josh". i think i'm just biased b/c i hang out in that area a lot and it's cheap. oh yeah... if you swing by just before closing on fridays, and a certain someone is around... free pastries! bring your own mug and it's even cheaper (and uh, not create so much waste).

Infusions of Tea
8750 Genesee Ave., Suite 258
San Diego, CA 92122
(858) 450-6500
http://www.infusionsoftea.com/

Muir Woods Coffee Shop
in Muir, underneath the Summit dining hall
UCSD

liver and onions

2006-06-05T21:21:00.000-07:00

so i was at the market today, when this little old lady asks the butcher if he's got any beef liver b/c there's only chicken livers all packaged up... turns out he hadn't cut them up yet so i asked for an order too. and that's how i ended up with this delicious fresh bloody beef liver.

yum. (the plate is watery b/c i'm rinsing the livers off)

looking for recipes online revealed two main schools of cooking:
1. liver is sauteed or pan fried
2. it's browned, then baked in an oven
i'm lazy, so i picked the first method. Second, there were recipes that used bacon fat and had onions that were baked, then there were ones that didn't use bacon but had onions carmelized in butter. i, wanting to maximize artery-clogging tastiness, decided to use both butter and bacon fat in my recipe. i call it the Fatkins diet.
here's one and a half sliced onions carmelizing on med heat in about half a tbsp of real butter. it took forever!

removed, and set aside, then added 4 strips of thick-cut smoked bacon to the pan to crisp up and release their fatty goodness in order to cook my liver in. removed bacon. then i dried the liver off with paper towels and dredged them through some flour mixed with salt and pepper. threw those into the pan at med-medhigh heat and cooked each side about 2-3 mins... i think. didn't want anything raw so got it to just the edge of crispness on the outside. which turned out fine b/c it was just done on the inside--cooked, but tender and not tough. dumped int he onions and bacon with the liver to warm back up and let them get friendly with eachother. the liver sucked up the bacon flavor nicely and the onions were soft and buttery.
doesn't that just look like a big mess of heart-attack?

that was accompanied by pasta in a pre-made made putanesca sauce. that's a sauce that contains garlic, olives, capers, anchovies, etc. smelly stuff. the stuff i bought didn't have that much kick to it.. it wasn't bad though.

*update*

a splash of fish sauce and half a packet of crushed dried chili peppers from someone's pizza takeout fixed the sauce. kind of.

Gwendolyn's Eggman

2006-06-04T01:45:00.000-07:00

"I am the Eggman.."

"..I am the Walrus. coo coo cachoo.."

Beatles - I Am The Walrus

salty, bitter, sour... and tastes like burning

2006-06-04T01:35:00.000-07:00

*from over a month ago*

this is, without a doubt, the most dispicable thing i will eat or drink this week. it looks like someone ralphed an orange into my cup. which really isn't that far off from
what it really is. still in that strange food mood and wanting to cure a lack of appetite, i decided to try a tested and true remedy--chanh muoi in the form of a salty lemon drink. i haven't really done any research, but it seems that for chinese food, picking any two out of salty, sour, sweet in combination is supposed to whet the appetite. i can't really prove it, but i point to the various preserved salty orange or lemon peels, plums, and olive snacks out there that claim on the back of their packages to relieve drunkeness, motion sickness, lack of appetite, etc. the phrase for it is 開胃 (hoi1 wai6). (lit. to open the stomach)

i was rummaging around my small stock of odd preserved foods when i rediscovered a dusty jar of vietnamese style pickled lemons. go to any vietnamese place and you'll be able to find a beverage called salty lemonade or salty lemon soda. usually it's a preserved lemon mashed up with sugar and with carbonated water and ice poured over it. tonight.. i decided to make my own version. it was a big mistake. especially with the series of mutations it underwent out of desperation. first off, it wasn't sour enough. and it was kind of bitter. so i added some sour tamarind powder. which made it taste slighty revolting. it now tasted like pulpy sinigang gone wrong. in an effort to make it taste less revolting, i added some cayeanne pepper. it failed to drown out the bitter, acrid, spicy taste. after a few sips (it burned) this nasty concoction went down the drain.

fried rice, "stircook", and egg burrito

2006-06-04T01:30:00.000-07:00

fried rice. sliced chinese sausage and broccoli stems with soy sauce and garlic. i like broccoli stems more than the flower/leaf parts. the taste and texture is similar to chinese broccoli, gai lan.

veggie uh.. stircook. ~15-20 mins

assorted fresh vegetables: broccoli florets, green beans, soy beans(ok, frozen), italian squash
minced garlic
small amount of water to cover bottom of pan
~2 tbsp oyster sauce
~.5 tbsp cornstarch mixed with a small amount of water

for wimpy electric stoves without good heat, i sometimes have to drown things in water and kind of parboil a bit or else i could be standing around all day waiting for something to cook. that's b/c flat pan + odd shapes = bad heat contact. cut, chopped, prepared, etc. cooked veggies with garlic for a few mins until the green beans just start to change color, then drained most of the water, and put in the oyster sauce. then added cornstarch slowly, stirring, to thicken up the sauce.

breakfast omelet in a flour tortilla. i had the heat too hot and had to flip it prematurely, so it's all kind of folded up. looks overcooked, but it was actually quite fluffy and soft. ~5 mins.

2 eggs
a few tbsp water
a few tbsp cream (or a good splash of milk is what i use usually)
~1/3 diced italian squash
salt
seasoned with hotsauce.

whisked everything together in a bowl with a fork, pour into hot pan at medhigh heat and flipped it. try for when the bottom just starts to get brown (unlike above = too hot or waited too long). give it a few seconds.. topped with hotsauce. consumed.

bargh, such boring food.

just a sandwich

2006-06-01T06:21:00.000-07:00

a sack lunch minus the sack, juice box, and fruit snack. aka, just a sandwich. pan broiled zucchini (with some chicken broth 'cause it was starting to dry out), store-bought smoked turkey, avocado, feta cheese on some fresh wheat bread. don't like eating regular supermarket bread like wonderbread or orowheat anymore. you know, the kind you can keep unrefrigerated for 2 weeks in the tropics and still be fine. it kind of tastes funky and has a sour aftertaste.. maybe it's the preservatives and extra sugar? anyhow, it's pretty hearty, and like ~20% day's fiber with the veggie?

oatmeal cookie.. maybe?

2006-06-01T05:59:00.000-07:00

i have a hard enough time getting and being able to store ingredients for normal cooking, so i don't usually bake. you know, baking powder, brown sugar, etc. on a lark, i found a few recipes for oatmeal cookies online and adapted them to fit my deficient pantry and 25 dollar a week grocery goal. what a surprise the ingredients are.

1.5 sticks butter
1.5 cup oatmeal
1 cup flour
.5 tsp salt
1 egg
.66 cup sugar
1-1.5 tsp vanilla extract
two handfuls of dried cranberries
juice from half an orange

melted the butter and mixed with the egg, then added that in portions to a big bowl with the dry ingredients and mixed. poured in the almost forgotten vanilla. had half an orange--so why not add that in too? formed into semi-flat lumps with spoons and baked 2 batches at 375 for 10-12 mins until they were golden brown.

the result? a bit moist, buttery and kind of nutty flavored, and more like a mini scone than a cookie. comments received:

"these are really good!" <- she was really hungry
"it's not sweet enough" <- my roommate who bakes. in my defense, i only added half the sugar recommended b/c i don't like really sweet stuff like cake and danishes
"are these Tollhouse?"<- my flatmate who is the queen of all foods frozen and instant.. especially easy mac
"...is this peanut butter?" <- dubious sense of taste suspected

goma ae

2006-05-26T01:27:00.000-07:00

goma ae some sort of japanese spinach dish using sesame (i think goma = sesame). i found a bunch of recipes online, and they all contained soy sauce, and some sort of sweetener or sake. boiled up a bunch of spinach.. ~2 mins to cook it. stuck them in some cold running water to cool. squeezed out the water (and probably a good deal of vitamins, oh well) then chopped into 3-4 cm lengths. dressed them with about a tablespoon of soy sauce, 2 of some weak mirin (a sweet sake), and some sesame seeds i toasted in my frying pan.

garlic mashed potatoes

2006-05-23T23:51:00.000-07:00

i took 3 large russet potatoes, boiled them for an indeterminate amount of time until they were cooked. took an entire bulb of garlic, peeled the cloves, then tossed that in the boiling water to cook for 5-10 mins before the potatoes were done. drained them. then smashed em as well as i could with a wooden spoon. i mixed in maybe 1 cup of Trader Joe's chicken broth, 1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream, a tsp of margerine and a scattering of finely chopped green onions. added a lot of liquids to keep it from being dry. didn't really keep track of how much stuff i used. but it came out really rich and garlicky (the whole apt, in fact) and the roomies approved. except for the extreme lumpiness. hey--the lumpy gives it character. it's um.. vintage.

fresh blackberries and homemade whipped cream

2006-05-23T01:06:00.000-07:00

step 1: pour heavy whipping cream into small container and shake shake shake! (much easier than whipping it... with chopsticks)

step 2: note the thick, but not stiff, consistancy of fresh whipped cream on top of some really really really ripe and sweet blackberries. in season, and really cheap right now. for berries, that is.

step 3: take another messier picture and eat the yummy mess

soup + crunk

2006-05-22T04:43:00.000-07:00

what i ate when i got sick last week.

this stuff is gross. stay away. only potable for the truly crunk.

Lunch at the Estate

2006-05-15T01:38:00.000-07:00

lunch was soooo good. i wish i had a camera with me, but even so, i probably wouldn't have used it. it'd feel more than a little weird to me to whip out a camera when eating in the company of other people who aren't used to that particular eccentricity. after all, i'm no food critic or photographer.

went over to katie's and they'd prepared a very french feeling lunch of baguettes and smoked salmon. spreads like butter and little bowls of toppings like lemon, capers, and minced red onions made it feel very rich despite being very simple, yet flavorful, fare. i also tried some homemade mayonaise with a hardboiled egg. i usually hate mayo with a passion, but this stuff wasn't bad fresh, made with mustard, oil, egg, and whatever else was put in. the light yellow mayo was more like a very thick creamy sauce than the fluffy oily stiff white stuff in kraft. for dessert were fresh strawberries sliced up with a little sugar and a dollop of creme fraiche. btw, i do not eat slow! i'm er, savoring!

salad and.. more gruel please?

2006-05-14T04:06:00.000-07:00

salad tonight. bought a bag of spinach, arugula, red leaf, etc. mix. diced in some avocado, sliced a couple mushrooms, half an ear of fresh corn, some canned tuna, feta cheese, plus some crunchy shallots. dressing was lemon juice and zest, olive oil, salt, pepper. the other half of corn on the cob. the last of the onion bread. behold my lack of aesthetics!

here's some 粥 i made with dried flounder. used brown and calrose rice mixed together. messed up b/c i didn't stir frequently enough so the bottom burned a little, but salvaged it so it doesn't taste like an ashtray. topped with chinese pickled cucumbers and some green onions. seasoned with salt.

Hot Mango Relish

2006-05-11T23:10:00.000-07:00

some onion and poppy seed covered round bread i got from the co-op toasted and accented by some mango relish. I have not one, but two jars of Patak's Mango Relish (one is mild and the other hot). Patak's jars o' stuff can usually be found in any american market with an ethnic food section, though pickled garlic and chutney are probably the only types you'll find. it took me several months to find a place that sold hot mango relish after the nearest albertson's stopped carrying it. behold my genius.. all i had to do was head on over to the DB Indian video rental and sundries market at the intersection of Prospector and Golden Springs. it's in the same plaza as the ACI institute (the SAT place) and Al Jibani Halaal middle eastern market, by the middle school. shelves and shelves of pickles, spices, and a whole bunch of other funky things.

here's what the mango relish looks like inside the jars. er.. delicious? almost to the bottom! the hot one is the drowned in red oil. oooh.. the oil.. is very tasty indeed because the salt, mustard, chile powder, fenugreek, acetic acid, and "spices" (how descriptive of the label) flavor has imbued the oil.

old and moldy posts

2006-05-10T16:22:00.000-07:00

so i got bored and didn't feel like studying, so i finally posted some rather old things here that have been rattling around in one place or another that fit this food theme.

for clarification, i lived in dorms without stoves during 2004. had to eat in the dining halls. but i had a rice cooker, microwave, toaster oven, and an electric cooker. in 2005, i lived in campus apts, so i still had to go to dining hall, but the apt had a kitchenette as big as a closet. now i live in an off campus apt with a very big kitchen. alas, no more meal points to spend in the dining halls.

shortribs and green beans

2006-05-09T00:29:00.000-07:00

i got really hungry. 15 mins. since i don't usually have them, here's some ACTION SHOTS!

finished product

my standard rice wine, garlic, sugar, soy and chili sauce for the green beans (got 'em at the "farmer's market" at school on tuesdays). leftover pasta. beef shortribs quick marinaded and cooked with soy, vinegar, rice wine; used 1:8:1 ratio, respectively. the green beans got some meaty flavor 'cause i cooked 'em in the same pan right after the meat. short ribs were a bit fatty, but it was a tasty fatty. and like all shortribs, lots of connective tissue = tearing apart with teeth and hands. grr, me animal. me eat more animal! just enough left over for another meal...

breakfast was eggo waffles and coffee with choco syrup. btw, those are corelle dishes. unfortunately, the "butterflies" are in LA.

the daily edition

2006-05-07T06:34:00.000-07:00

my friend decided to go on an oatmeal diet. that lasted for 5 days, tops. and broke it with a quarter pounder and apple pie, or something like that. so for your benefit, what i ate in the last 24 hours:

stovetop oatmeal with dried cranberries
some cinnamon toast crunch cereal
little bit of liverwurst
big bowl of pasta in a hon tsuyu (soy and bonito fish flavored) broth
a powdered donut
a honey tangerine
a mc donalds ranch blt combo with fries and a coke (gasp! i ate something other than dessert at mcdonalds for the first time in months, and the third soda in the past month. it was damned tasty)

and the day before yesterday:
oatmeal with dried cranberries
coffee with a shot of peppermint syrup (soooo good!)
ONE banana chip
pasta with olive oil, garlic, cayeanne pepper
3 frozen bbq wings
pita and pesto hummus
stirfried celery
orange juice
a couple strawberry flavored egg roll biscuit things
two fried eggs
some more pasta
some lentil soup

hmm.. in hindsight.. not as much veggies and fruit as i would like.. i haven't made a trip to the market in two weeks. tomorrow would be good.

so here's the funny thing about mcD's. i was over at a friend's house playing cards and watching shows.. typical chillout, until i got really really hungry. thus the walk to the mcdonalds. it was 12:50 when we got there, and they didn't let us in because they close inside service at 1am so we had to walk through and order through the uh, drive thru. kind of funny, as there was a car in front of us, and a car behind. so i got up to the pickup window when i notice this spectacular machine inside. man.. i wish i had a camera. apparently drinks are not dispenced by hand any more. there's this cup holder carousel underneath the soda machine that looks like it fills the cups automatically with ice and the appropriate soda after pushing a button or two to queue up the next few drinks. after one's filled, it rotates and auto fills the next cup. frees up the guy to do other stuff.

dunno how i feel about that though. it's efficient and all but.. makes me think about the balance between humans and technology again. not for this specifically as for other more important interactions and tasks. i think some technology is gratuitous when there are humans to do it. and yes, even when it seems demeaning... somehow replacing a person with a thing is even more so.

something's fishy...

2006-05-06T05:03:00.000-07:00

fish sauce. my aptmate has a mini Cock brand bottle of fish sauce (24 fl OZ flying lion brand bottle is mine. richer and less salty--cock brand sucks). The label has a seal of a rooster on it and there are squid, pompano, shrimp, and crab pictured. None present in the sauce itself, which is an extract of salt, fermented anchovies, and water. Traditionally, fish sauce is made in barrels in which layers of fish and salt are alternated, and allowed to sit around and ferment until you get this glorious salty savory brown juice. It's actually not fishy tasting and complements pork. I've seen it used watered down and mixed with other liquids as a dip, a marinade, in stews, and with braised vegetables. There's probably plenty more uses for it that I don't know about. It's more of a south asian (esp. viet and thai) sauce. on an interesting historical note, the ancient Romans also used a fermented fish sauce called "garum" which was even mixed with wine. the vietnamese name is nuoc mam. i call it yu low in cantonese. but chinese are more likely to eat and cook salted dried fish 鹹魚 than use fish sauce 魚露 jyu4 lou6 , i think. "salty fish and diced chicken fried rice" is a popular and very tasty fried rice typically found in cantonese restauraunts. it's one of my favorites. this menu for the canteen at The Chinese University of Hong Kong has a couple of dishes that use the flavorful stuff. i think dried fish is seen as a slightly lower class type of food, but some salty dried fish (whole or fillets) can be quite expensive--i've seen some selling for 30 dollars a fish!

fried egg, rice. to the right is something i was playing around with that actually turned out decent. it's canned squid sliced up and cooked up with yellow crookneck and italian squash, and bamboo shoots in a saltyish shrimp paste (it might be made with brine shrimp... which i once owned in the form of Sea Monkeys) and garlic sauce. i was thinking of those stewed seafood and vegetable dishes in flip cuisine.

realizing that the cholesterol from squid and eggs were going to do me in, i wanted to make something that wasn't so killer and discovered a burning craving for teriyaki. i'm so lame, i only wanted the sauce, but not that lame.. so there's a pitiful stirfried onion to make it a little less sad.

i was really hungry when i got home last week so i started making a fried egg... which wasn't enough, so then i fried up some rice with soy sauce, minced garlic, and chili garlic sauce... which seemed kind of ghetto, so i sliced up some chinese dried sausages and threw those in too.. but it seemed lacking so i mixed in an egg... but it needed finishing touches so i sliced in some green onions... and then remembered i had some leftover squid... then decided it needed a bit of crunchy shallots to top and.. well, i got this strange looking fried rice.

somehow, there weren't enough food groups present, so i stirfried a bunch of celery in a thai basil chili garlic sauce.

no need to stir things up: offals and otcs

2006-04-28T02:39:00.000-07:00

i've had a bout with the flu, it's been exam time and life outside has been calling so i've been pretty busy. been on a bit of nasty food binge lately with liverwurst and cream cheese sandwiches. on toasted oat bread it's extremely rich and sufficiently liver tasting. and yes, i have bought fresh red bloody liver to make liver and onions before, and i'll do it again. and it will be here. liver, however is not my favorite offal. that belongs to ngau pong, the spongey lung-like organ one can find in the dimsum dish 牛什 ngau4 zaap6 (lit. cow miscallany) that comes sliced so that you can see the air cavities inside. but that's a story for another time.

oh, and doesn't this just sound wrong? how can you not need to stir natural peanut butter? unless it's chockfull of emulsifiers and preservatives.. it's going to settle. something is slightly off.

i get so hungry when i read any food blogs. my bland food only seems bland when there's something for me to daydream about. down gluttony!

btw, of the two roberto's taco shops on mira mesa, the one by the strip joint has better salsa and a kick ass condiments bar loaded with hot carrots and radishes. it, however, is not as good as the roberto's 2 blocks up the street which is in a less seedy plaza. the end.

bento bloggers

2006-04-12T02:30:00.000-07:00

i am fascinated with bento lunches. i used to make lunches similar to that in HS except they were almost always ugly, and usually only had 1 or 2 "sides" to accompany rice or pasta. the bento people have waaay too much time on their hands. variety is also not an option when 4 people share one medium sized fridge. they're so pretty though... for now, i'll just look and drool. here are some american bento blogs i found, they ahve links to other bento stuff on flickr and whatnot too. not quite pokemon shaped onigiri caliber, but the devotion is evident. although i find that some probably look prettier than they taste (raw broccoli, ick). the phenomenon of online bento blogs is really amazing..

http://mito.typepad.com/photos/bento/index.html

http://mrbentorodeo.blogspot.com/

http://www.getinmybelly.org/gimbarchives/cat_bento_boxes.php

Pomona Fish Market

2006-04-07T00:52:00.000-07:00

imagine hushpuppies, popcorn shrimp, homemade coleslaw, and fried catfish with hotsauce. now imagine the little korean lady who runs the store rushing around taking orders at lunch at the outskirts of the funky revitalized artists' district in Pomona where it starts to blend back into the general shabbiness of the surrounding city. down the street is a dilapidated electronics repair shop and some vacant storefronts.

you've never lived until you've had a fried oyster sandwich. imagine an MSG coated crunchy outside and soft oyster resting on a bed of that slightly sweet relish coleslaw in a crunchy grilled hamburger bun. it was soo tasty until i started to get a bit sick of that coleslaw(i normally hate the stuff or anything containing mayo or cream) and felt like retching from the mayo-ness of it. about half the people that went in while i was waiting ordered the catfish combo. it's obviously the favorite, so i think i'll try that next time... with the fried zuchini. i swear i liked it!

wo meiyou mayo.

midnight snack

2006-04-06T23:44:00.000-07:00

small eats from the local korean market (DB MARKET WORLD, 21080 Golden Spring Dr, Diamond Bar, CA) and leftovers from a chinese feast with the Magic Guys (as in, the Magic the Gathering). clockwise from the upper left corner: sichuan style spicy stirfried green beans, korean sesame marinated bean sprouts, korean spicy squid, peppersalt fried cod pieces ;)

so the story about the chinese feast. in the food court of a plaza on colima and nogales (fullerton?) across from the HK supermarket... there's this not-quite restuarant not-quite fast food place that serves a lot of cantonese style food among other things. it's like a big mishmash of popular dishes. they have this great deal where you can get 3 dishes for 10.99 (at dinner!) and if you order 6 dishes, you get a tureen of complimentary soup of the day. all this stuff is family style and includes the bottomless bucket of rice that's present in a lot of southern chinese restuarants in america. note that this isn't necessarily the case everywhere as some restaurants have less wasteful carts filled with rice from which servers will dole out a bowl at a time. this style is prevalent in higher class places and was quite common in HK. anyway, the 5 us us ordered peppersalt fried rock cod, spicy stirfried geen beans, a braised vegetarian dish containing tofu beancurd and cabbage, snap peas and shrimp in a garlic sauce, and i can't quite remember the last two... i think one was a leafy green called "hollow heart vegetable" stirfried in a fermented beancurd sauce, and.. yeah, can't remember it. must not have been a tasty one. i'll fill in the chinese names for them soon when i figure out how to use the language input for windows.

i think we walked out of there completely stuffed and with leftovers for a little over $26. this meal was immensely more satisfying than lunch that day at the cheesecake factory which really isn't that good and a bit overpriced. 3 people ran a bill over $55 for two entrees and a few extras! my friend ordered a "pad thai linguine" which came out to be a pasta dish in a goopy peanut flavored sauce. no bean sprouts, fresh herbs, chillis, tomatoes, lime, any type of bite at all. just an insipid attempt at fusion food. the buffalo chicken blazers(?) tasted neither like chicken, nor spicy hot sauce and they had this weird mushy consistency b/c the meat was blended with the sauce before being formed into patties. it tasted like something from a tv dinner. some of the celery that came with that still had mud on it. i'd expect that from a hole in the wall or a cheap eats place, but not from there! the tiramisu cheese cake was pretty good. seeing as it's the cheesecake factory, they'd at least get that right. yeah, ok, you get a lot of food.. but for the quality, it's not worth it. bling is not better. too cruddy to be anything but a standard chain restaurant. yeah, that place has a big X from me.

lazy me

2006-04-06T23:36:00.000-07:00

so i've been kind of uninspired to do anythin gover break. since The ABC does such a great job of writing about food that somehow seems very similar to what i ate (i wonder why) you can check that out. his blog is infinately more interesting. and not just food.

the ABC presents:

Chinatown Restaurant (唐人街飯店)

and some other stuff. like noodles. and stuff.

making teriyaki sauce w/o the teriyaki sauce

2006-03-29T01:40:00.000-08:00

i've been itching to make this for a while.

~couple tablespoons of mirin (a sweetened sake), ~tablespoon or two of rice wine, ~tablespoon of soy sauce, a splash of asian chili sauce (NOT hot sauce), a small splash of rice vinegar, two cloves of garlic chopped, and a squirt of sesame oil. put raw chicken tenders in it to marinate. pan fried chicken and sauce separately. added a slurry of cornstarch and water to sauce to thicken. caution: the sugar in mirin burns, so keep adding water to the pan to deglaze/keep from burning. so far, i haven't found a way around having sweet things burn in the pan other than drowning it. it'd probably be ok with a ton of oil, but that's just ick. to thicken sauce.. add a slurry of about 1 tsp-1tbsp cornstarch with 2x times water to pan and stir stir stir until it gets thick enough. adjust concentration with water. don't use flour. cornstarch thickens things at a low heat, which is good for sugary liquids. flour doesn't start to thicken until it's "cooked", which usually means boiling temp and it's finicky and hard to judge just how much is enough b/c of that delay.
how's my non-recipe trial and error sauce taste? better than with storebought sauce like mr. yoshida brand teriyaki (by the third try). and with a kick. that stuff is no good for marinating and usually is too salty and even more full of sugar than homemade. that means it's only good for pouring over the top of food when done cooking, the flavor won't penetrate the meat, and it'll burn faster than you can say--well, fast.

dinner at that darn squirrel's house:

some very typical taiwanese foods present such as taiwanese style sausages over pineapples, congee, scrambled eggs, and some not so typical stuff like pan grilled miso marinated salmon on a bed of lettuce, spicy oil/sauce mixed noodles, congee, and pillsbury biscuits among other things. it's been years since i'd eaten anything at home cooked with pineapples, so i forgot completely about that canned commodity. will recreate. curiously enough, for cantonese ppl, congee is usually eaten for breakfast only, and usually not with a slew of side dishes like you would see in northern or taiwanese cuisine. for HKers, it's eaten like cereal at breakfast. but for them, it can be eaten like a bowl of rice at all meals. more on zuk in this post here on the ABC's site

unfortunately, no pictures of either of these as i was too lazy

2006-03-21T09:44:00.000-08:00

someone suggested larger photos. ok.

more of the viet style noodle stuff, this time with the meatloaf. you can see the chewy pork skin bits embedded in the meat. i suppose this would be called banh-somethingortheother. i can't get enough of this stuff. plus it literally takes a minute to throw together.

also included in the meal... boiled watercress and some henry's canned split pea ham soup.

what to make for "breakfast"? it's 9am and i made super lame curry with celery and eggplant. instant curry bricks from House. hot isn't hot enough, added cayenne. also, too salty. but convenient.

Vinh Hung Supermarket

2006-03-19T11:36:00.000-08:00

10550 Camino Ruiz
San Diego, CA 92126