Teh Salty Melon

Piee's New Home

2009-12-19T20:22:00.003-08:00

I have permanently moved to simplypiee.blogspot.com

See you there. =)

Alice's Summerthing (97.3 FM) + Soy Milk recipe

2009-07-14T22:39:00.000-07:00

EDIT!!!
I have a confession. I'm a horrible food blogger. I was so excited about devouring the food we had that I didn't take any pictures!!! ahhhhh!! /tucks tail between legs

Last year, I wanted to go to Alice's summerthing too, because Lifehouse was playing for free!. Sadly, I had work. This year...I am unemployed with plenty of free time. I told JSB about it and we decided to do a picnic. As we were putting our picnic together, we thought we made too much food. Turns out we didn't make enough!

We made:

Pasta salad with salami, onions, and celery.
-delicious!

The Salad. I realize it seems "plain," but that's the way I like mine. Not overly saucy.

Sandwich: sourdough slices with spinach and melted mozzarella cheese.
-also yums! Simple, and easy enough for JSB to make! <3

Fruits in separate containers: lychee, apricots, mangos, white nectarines.
-sweet and juicy, but the nectarines turned into a nice shade of brown. =( At least it still tasted delicious.

Lychees and Apricots.

Ginseng with honey jello.
-great idea, poor execution. What went wrong? Needed more knox! It tasted fine, but it was practically melting before our eyes.

It was an awesome day. The sun was out with a minimal amount of breeze, which is super rare in SF. I loved it. I was lounging around on the grass reading a book and listening to the awesome free music. For those that are curious, the bands that played were Parachute, Sugar Ray, Matt Nathanson, and Gavin Rossdale.

The only negative aspect of my day was my sunburned face (forehead, nose, and cheeks). Dammit, time to break out the sunblock like sunblock obsessed JSB! She is practically a vampire when it comes to the sun. She refuses to stand in it. If she has to be in it, she puts on sunblock right away, covers her face with her hands too, and wears a cap.

Oh oh, I was also productive in the morning before I left. I had soaked some soybeans the night before to make soy milk. I recently discovered how to make it a few days ago. The process is extremely simple and cheap to make.

Soy Beans.

Soy Milk
Adapted from Just Hungry and Beauty and the Biscuit

Serving size: Unlimited

Ingredients:
cheesecloth (or any other type of material that will strain tiny granules)
dried soybean
water
blender
a big pot

Directions:

Important key point: 2:1 ratio of (water: soybean). That's it! You can make an endless supply of soymilk now.

Soak dried soybeans overnight in a bowl of water that covers the soybeans by at least 2 inches.
The next day, pour out the water. Put 1 cup of soybean and 2 cups of water in the blender. Blend until all the big chunks are ground up. Pour into the pot. Repeat until all the soybeans are used up. Remember: 2 to 1 ratio (water to soybean).
When all the soybeans are ground up, make sure the soy mixture in the pot is not past the halfway point.
Time to boil. As the soy mixture is heating up, skim off all the foam from the blending process. You have to be observant at this point. Watch closely, because as soon as the soy mixture hits its boiling point, it will foam quickly. The moment you see it happening, turn the heat to the lowest setting or if you're scared, just turn the heat off.
When the foam subsides, turn the heat to medium/low so that the soy mixture is at a gentle boil, but not at the point where it will start foaming.
Boil for 20 minutes. Stir often to prevent the bottom of the pot from burning, which will give the soy milk a burnt taste.
When time is up, take another container, place a strainer on top of it, and the cheesecloth on top. Ladle soy milk on top of cheesecloth. When the cheesecloth is filled with soybean fiber (called okara), pick it up and squeeze to take out the remaining soy milk. Repeat until all the soy milk is filtered!

Yums!! Fresh and delicious soy milk for consumption! You can drink soy milk unsweetened, but I prefer my soy milk sweet so I add sugar.

Creme Puff v1.0

2009-07-12T18:24:00.000-07:00

Cream Puff.

The scary attempt at cream puffs...

Creme puffs are surprisingly easy to make. The recipe came together perfectly. The only thing I would improve is piping the mixture instead of using a spoon.

oooh....Shiiiny!

I also found out I need to work on tempering chocolate. My chocolate came out horrible.

Driiip.

Next time, I also want to work on a custard filling for the cream puff.

Pizza

2009-06-14T23:23:00.000-07:00

Mmmm...the finished pizza.

For the past week, I've been dreaming and craving for cheese. Mac n' cheese, grilled cheese sandwich, and even a slab of cheese would make me happy. I decided today to make pizza to satisfy my cheese craving.

Drool once.

Drool again.

JSB and I made pizza dough from scratch and it turned out better than we expected. I decided to play safe and stretch the dough on a surface instead of tossing it.

My huge air pockets on the crust.

JSB preferred the more dangerous route of tossing the pizza. She did a pretty good job and it showed on the pizza.

JSB's perfect pizza crust -- the magic of tossing the pizza crust.
(JSB's picture)

As you can see, my dough crust shows all the air pockets from the yeast, but JSB's was dense, smooth, and perfect. Another lesson I learned was that a pizza stone or pizza baking pan is necessary. The pizza crust turned out wonderful, but the center of the pizza was soggy. Lessons for next time.

Okra Chips.

2009-06-11T21:48:00.001-07:00

Ingredients: Okra, Palm Oil.
(Haha, oh... I wish I made this! But nope, store bought. Price? ~$3. Was it worth it? Good to try. Serial buyer? Maybe not.)

What was good (or maybe bad)?

Lost the slime.

It retained that "okra flavor."
It was weak... but it was definitely there.
"If you suck on it, the flavor intensifies." - says piee.

Onigiri.

2009-06-03T21:47:00.000-07:00

:) I got a new "toy" for my birthday. Onigiri Rice Molds? Wooo! I went home immediately after school and sister piee used left over sushi rice to make some cute onigiri! hahahahha, it was her first time... so they are not even close to perfect. Still, they were delicious!!

Weee! Piee is cutting the shapes out! Hahahah!!

There is a little cucumber surprise inside each
onigiri!

Isn't it pretty?

Double Chocolate Cookies

2009-06-01T03:37:00.000-07:00

Milk and Cookies.

Ah yes, another late night creation. This project occurred approximately between 11:00 PM and 12:30 AM. This is my second attempt making this type of cookie. I made several adjustments to the recipe, and it turned out a lot better. The top of the cookie was crackly and crispy similar to a brownie crust. The inside was even better. It was soft, chewy, and full of chocolaty goodness. I should warn those with a super sweet tooth that these cookies do not taste sugary sweet at all. It is more on the bitter side with a hint of sugar to calm the taste buds.

That's right, high quality chocolate from TJ'S!

Double Chocolate Espresso Cookies
Adapted from Last Night I had a Dream About You and Feed my World

Serving size: 16 cookies

Ingredients:
1 oz. of an unsweetened chocolate bar, chopped
1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) of butter (I used salted butter. If you are using unsalted butter, add a pinch of salt)
1/2 tablespoon of instant coffee granules
1 1/2 tablespoons of chocolate powder
a little less than 3/4 cup of sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup of flour
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate, chopped into chunks

Direction:
Melt unsweetened chocolate, a few chunks of the semi-sweet chocolate, butter, and coffee granules in the microwave. Start with 40 seconds and stir the mixture. Continue microwaving in increments of 15 seconds and stir. When the chocolate looks nearly melted, continue stirring and the chocolate will melt completely without burning. Set aside and allow it to cool.
Beat eggs and sugar in another bowl. Stop when the mixture is thick, creamy, and lemon colored.
Add the chocolate mixture to the eggs/sugar and combine until blended.
Preheat oven to 325 F.
Sift the flour and baking soda over the liquid mixture. Add vanilla, chocolate powder, and salt (if you used unsalted butter). Mix.
Stir in semi-sweet chocolate chunks and stop when all the ingredients are evenly distributed.
Drop rounded teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheet.
Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until the tops are puffed and cracked.

All neatly stacked together.

Chocolate Souffle Version 1.0

2009-05-30T21:50:00.001-07:00

The finished product.

This was a spur of the moment project. It turned out decent, but it could have been better. The souffle had the perfect amount of chocolate, but the fluffiness was lacking. I am pretty sure I did not whip the egg whites long enough. Practice makes perfect.

For those that are interested, the recipe came from Taste Buddies

It's been awhile....

2009-05-18T09:53:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe with the lack of updates, but I miss this baby dearly. Without a working camera at my college apartment, it feels like a part of me is missing. For example, on Saturday, my roommate and I made mochi with filling. I filled mine with chocopies and my roommate filled her's with the the traditional red-bean. Oh, the finished mochi-es were gorgeous. I tried taking photos with my cellphone, but it didn't do the final product justice. I sent a picture to JSB, and it looked like white blobs.

Pretty soon, I'll be moving back home where I will be living with my parents again like a failed college graduate. I am extremely disappointed with myself that I can't find a job. There are several things I wished I did differently during my college career. My current plan is take some classes at community college, find a job or internship, and network like crazy!! I NEED TO KNOW MORE PEOPLE! On the bright side, I will be able to pour my love and hardwork into this blog again since I will have a working camera at home.

Steamed Egg, Anyone?

2009-04-29T17:43:00.000-07:00

Good as a quick snack or a side dish for dinner.

Ingredients

1 egg
3/4 cup of water
1 teaspoon of oyster sauce (or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil
1 tablespoon of chopped green onion

Instructions

Beat an egg in a rice bowl.
Fill the rest of the bowl with water.
Stir in some oyster sauce.
Steam on low heat/simmer for 7~10 minutes.
Pour a little sesame oil in for flavor.
Garnish with green onion.

--JSB

Don't you hate it when...
you type a brilliant and amazing post and immediately after your lovely computer freezes, or you accidentally click the save button AFTER realizing you deleted all your work?

Ah, it's a horrible feeling. :(

My Wishlist

2009-04-25T21:04:00.000-07:00

-a springform pan
-silicone spatula
-whisk
-cupcake pan
-digital kitchen scale
-candy thermometer
-dehydrator

2009-04-12T17:48:00.000-07:00

...Yum.

Heheh.
Mixed Green (dressing = mayonnaise + roasted garlic/salt/pepper).
Grape Tomatoes. Chicken. Mango.
Tehehe.
<3 style="text-align: left;"> I remember when I was younger (&& even now!), Dad would be the first one to finish his meal at dinner. He would then proceed to eat fruit. Of course, the first thing you would do would be to peel the skin. Whenever one of us (siblings&I) would ask for a piece... he'd give us a piece (i.e. core, skin, -basically anything but the flesh you're eying at-). Such a sweet Daddy, I know. Eventually, he'd cut us a huge slice of whatever he was eating, but the only way he was willing was if he put it in our bowl of rice. For what reason? I never really knew why. But I guess it's a good thing, cause he conditioned me to not mind it when different food touch each other.

Hahaha. These days whenever I pack my lunch to school, my friends get excited to see what kind of random crap I put together. I don't think it's a big deal at all. One time I had leftover stir-fried chicken on one half of the Tupperware and had cubed papaya on the other side. I used 2 slices of bread the separate the two sides. Hahahah. It's not too strange is it??

--JSB

My Birthday Cake

2009-03-28T19:04:00.000-07:00

Chocolate Chip Banana Cake.

I didn't plan to bake my own birthday cake today. I saw ripe bananas, and I thought, "Oh, let's try out Pink Peppercorn's chocolate chip banana cake." I've been eying that recipe for the past 3 weeks. When I discovered that we only had nonfat milk, I was bummed, because I couldn't make my own buttermilk substitution. I decided to improvise the missing ingredients.

For manipulating so many ingredients, the chocolate chip banana cake turned out really well. My mom, dad, and JSBanana loved it. It came out soft and moist with a crispy crust. Perfect. As I was saying earlier, this wasn't suppose to be my birthday cake.

As usual, my mom makes random comments. She said, "Oh, is that your birthday cake? Yay, that means I don't have to buy you one tomorrow." I stood there staring blankly at her thinking, "Did she seriously say that?" I gave a sigh and said, "I guess that's my birthday cake..." Mom exclaims,"That means I save money tomorrow! Thanks, Piee!" Weee....I love my mom.....

A Slice of the Cake.

Chocolate Chip Banana Cake
Adapted from Pink Peppercorn

Ingredients:

-2 tbsp of butter
-2 tbsp of cream cheese
-a heaping 1/4 cup of granulated white sugar
-2 tbsp of apple sauce (I used cinnamon flavored)
-1 tsp of cinnamon
-1 egg
-a dash of mlk
-2 1/2 bananas (mashed)
-1 tsp vanilla
-3/4 cup of wheat flour
-a little less than 1/4 cup of wheat germ
-1/4 cup of flax seed
-a heaping 1/2 cup of rolled oats
-1 tsp of baking soda
-1/4 tsp of salt
-a hand full of chocolate chips
-1.5 tbsp of walnuts (you don't need this, I only wanted to use up the last bit of walnuts that I had)
-1 tsp of brown sugar (Used as a topping, NOT part of the batter)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Cream the butter, cream cheese, and sugar together. Add the applesauce, cinnamon, and egg to the mixture. Mix well.
3. Stir in milk, bananas, and vanilla. Combine.
4. Add in the rest of the ingredients: flour, wheat germ, flax seed, rolled oats, baking soda, and salt. Mix.
5. Gently combine the chocolate chips and walnuts with the rest of the ingredients.
6. Pour the mixture into an 8x8 inch dish lined with parchment paper.
7. Sprinkle the 1 tsp of brown sugar on top of mixture.
7. Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when the cake is poked.

The finished product.

2009-03-19T23:26:00.000-07:00

You know what I realized? Most of the things I posted up was snacks and cafe food.... Not much of me actually cooking. Ah! Piee encouraged me to take the culinary class in my next year of high school. In order to join the class, students need special approval from the teacher... so I went to see him and he told me to write up my experiences with cooking. "Luckily, I have a food blog with my sister!" I thought. I went through the blog to see what I've done. ... Sadly, I couldn't find anything worthy... Augh. failfailfail.

And just to continue the trend :

$0.99
These are pretty good. I guess you can call them shoe-string fries/chips. Seasoned so it tastes like those instant noodle ramen and a tad sweet. HAHAHAHA. MSG to the max!! Spicy, but not too much. It's good. Worth the money. I don't know the regular price, but I got it under a dollar cause it was in the "expired section" of the store Ichiban-Kan!

$0.99
Nothing special. Like a regular gummy. Flavor was boring.
Expensive -- even when I got it on sale!

I remember way back when lychee konjac jellies were the hottest thing.
They were banned because kiddos choked and died from them....
Now they're back in straw form. (or maybe they've always been there....)

--JSB

Apple Crisp

2009-03-08T20:50:00.000-07:00

Apple Crisp.

This was a hit with the family. This is a great way to eat dessert without over eating, because it only serves 6 small ramekins. Besides, apple crisp tastes the best when it is fresh out the oven. There won't be any leftovers--I can promise you that!

This recipe originally came from Joy of Baking. I modified the recipe to fit 6 ramekins and some ingredients to fit my family's taste buds.

Apple Crisp
Adapted from Joy of Baking [My family loves cinnamon, oats and nuts, but prefers the sugar on the low side. Adjust the recipe accordingly.]
Serves 6 small ramekins.

Ingredients:
Topping:

1/4 cup of all purpose flour
1/8 cups of granulated white sugar
1/8 cup of light brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
3 tablespoon of butter
1/3 cup of old-fashioned rolled oats
1/4 cup of chopped walnuts

Filling:

2 small Granny Smith Apples (approx 2.25 inches wide)
1 large Fuji Apple

Note: make sure the ratio of Granny Smith to Fuji is 1:1.

Cinnamon
Honey

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. I used a toaster oven. If you are using an oven, put the rack in the center.

Topping Directions:

Put the flour, sugars, spices, butter, oats, and nuts into a bowl. Make sure to cut the butter into tiny pieces before you mix it into the bowl.
Use a fork and butter knife to combine the mixture until it is crumbly and the ingredients are equally distributed.
Set aside.

Filling Directions:

Cubed Apples.

Slice the apples into small cubes and put into a bowl.
Sprinkle cinnamon on top until it suits your taste.
Mix the apples and cinnamon until evenly coated.

Apples with Honey.

Scoop the apple mixture into each ramekin. (You may have left over apples) Leave approximately 1/4 of an inch of space from the top of the ramekin.
Drizzle honey on top of the apples.
Put a thin layer of the toppings onto each ramekin. Use all the toppings.
Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. My oven sucks so it took longer than 20 minutes.
Remove from oven or leave the oven door open to allow the apple crisps to cool.

Toppings.

Enjoy!

Peasant Pies

2009-03-07T19:52:00.000-08:00

This is a delicious pie store in San Francisco. The pies are tiny-- approximately 3.5 inches. They make a great snack. Here is my review on yelp:

"Wow! These were goooood! The pies exceeded my expectations.

I went with my friend. He got the Spicy Eggplant and I ordered the Apple Cranberry. Usually I don't like savory pies, but this eggplant pie tasted super. It had the right amount of filling and crust combo (and I am not a big fan of crust).

I love sweet pies especially apple pies. The Apple Cranberry was really good. There was a lot of apple slices and some cranberries. I never thought of using applesauce as part of an apple pie filling, but it worked really well! The only thing I would change is that I wished the pie was warm.

Next time, I will be trying the Spicy Clam Tomato Sauce pie. Mmmm. I can't wait."

The obligatory pictures:

Spicy Eggplant.

Inside of Spicy Eggplant.

Apple Cranberry.

Inside of Apple Cranberry.

Peasant Pies
1039 Irving St
(between 11th Ave & 12th Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94122
(415) 731-1978

Junkyy.

2009-03-03T18:57:00.000-08:00

Stress, to me, always comes with junk/crap food. Unhealthy food. Erg, I try to eat better. I don't think my diet is too bad, but I've been skipping both breakfast and lunch recently. Ah. Time. is. running. out. I don't have time to pack my lunch these days, and I end up buying lunch at school-- which isn't too bad; except sometimes they are sold out. Boo.

School, itself. Clubs. It's killing me, but I'll be fine. Craving for both sweet and salty crap. :))

Maybe the reason I haven't been putting many posts up is because I'm too embarassed to cook at home when people are around. Haha! I'm not close to even being a good cook. Hopefully, I can get into the Culinary Geography 3-4 class for my last year in high school. I need special approval, because it's for students who've taken 1-2. Rwar, I talked to the teacher and he asked me to write about my experiences with food. Techniques I know and things I've made before.... Looking back at this blog-- *ahem* there's not much I can say.

I cooked pasta on Sunday for lunch, and apparently Piee confessed to me later in the day: Actually, JSB, I woke up to the smell of burnt garlic. I didn't want to tell you, cause you'd lose all hope, but since you brought it up.... Mmm-- yeah.

(Sunday's Pasta)
>.<" Atleast it doesn't look burnt.
Corkscrew Pasta. Edamame. Egg. Chicken.
Lemon Juice. Chilli Flakes. Garlic. Salt+Sugar.

:OO

Most definitly one of my favorite snacks.
Chocolate covered Frozen Bananas.
Hahaha, finally, I can redeem myself.

Popcorn. Pork Floss. Spring Onions.
Harharhar. Who could resist?

-JSBanana

Chocolate Bliss.

2009-02-26T18:06:00.000-08:00

Green --> Matcha Powder

Brown --> Cocoa Powder

Lalala. Okay, photos aren't everything. Ick. I find this photo of our truffles very... ugh-- lose my appetite. But you know what? Truffles mean ''dirt.'' [according to Piee] so HAH. --Except... these look worse than dirt... like moldy dirt. WTF?

These were really simple to make. 1 cup of Heavy Whipping Cream + 1 pound+Chocolate. I used 72% Pound Plus from Trader Joe's

Recipe in a short(?) and crappy paragraph:
Grind up the chocolate into little tiny pieces. Boil heavy whipping cream. Pour heavy whipping cream over chocolate & let it sit for 5 minutes. Stir ganche (chocolate+heavy whipping cream). If mix isn't melted, ... melt it over boiling water. Let it cool./Put into fridge. After it's set a bit, you can use a spoon (or your hands) to roll the ganche into little balls. Melt chocolate for shelling the ganche balls. [Tempering chocolate creates a nice crunchy crispiness to it. 88-90°F (31-32°C)]. Cover ganche balls with the tempered chocolate. Toss this into a bowl of powder & roll it around. Ta-da. Repeat till your arms fall off.

**Step to Step (with photos!) can be found at Cooking for Engineers.

Well, we ran out of chocolate to temper to shell the ganche... therefore we had extra ganche.

Piee had the brilliant idea of making fudgsicles-- which were actually really good.... but I'll never let her know that. (Hah, Hah, PIEE. Come home soon-- or there will be none left for you !!)

The chocolate chunks sank to the bottom of the fudgsicle.
Yummyy.

Rough Recipe:
Use truffle/ganche mix & add milk.

-JSBanana

Just a random note

2009-02-23T12:07:00.000-08:00

I feel awful not updating my blog. I don't know if it happens to the rest of the food bloggers, but I have this sense of quality control. When I first started blogging, I took pictures of ALL my food even the poorly made ones. I was so proud of myself.

Now that I have had this blog for a few months, I am slightly embarrassed by my older entries. I am tempted to take them down, but I stop myself. In a way, the older entries shows how I grew in both my cooking and photography skills.

I notice that when I cook or bake now, I try to take the best photo that I can. I try to make my dishes presentable, but it doesn't always work out. I get frustrated by the photos I take sometimes and I can't decide whether to post it or keep it on the camera. I want to post it, because I made it and the dish tasted the good or it was a funny failure. However, I also feel that no one wants to look at unappetizing photos. /sigh

Unscrambled Scrambled Eggs.

2009-02-22T18:30:00.000-08:00

Dad asked for an omelette. Instead of using the nonstick pan-- I decided to use the wok. Er. UberFAIL. It ended up being an unscrambled scrambled egg stuck to the bottom of the wok. ... and burnt-ish. Poor baby. The omelette had no gut.

-JSBanana

Napoleon.

2009-02-04T19:39:00.000-08:00

Aiiyah.

Guilty. I ate 1/3 of this... under a minute.

Crispy and flaky crust.
Soft and moist cake.
Rich but fluffy cream.

Who could resist?

Lemon Souffle Pudding

2009-01-31T15:40:00.000-08:00

Ooooh, so pretty.

When I get upset, I drown myself in food. No, I don't binge eat. Instead, I bake something. The act of mixing the dough, whipping up eggs, and washing the dishes calm me. I am not sure why this works for me, but mentally I feel almost at 100% again.

The Lemon Souffle Pudding was not a product of my bad mood, but this post is. I recently discovered that blogging calms my mood too.

I first saw the Lemon Souffle Pudding on Joy the Baker's site. Wow, it looked amazing! I knew I had to try it. The souffle was delicious and easy to make. It wasn't overly sweet or too sour. The flavor was just right. The cake part was light and went well with the custard bottom. I find that I liked the souffle more after it had been in the fridge, because I like the pudding part cold.

The family gobbled it up, before I could take a nice shot.

Dung Tart

2009-01-08T18:28:00.000-08:00

Dung Tart.

I realize the tart is rather unappealing. What can I say, this creation was spontaneous and the color scheme was unintentional. I had a craving for sweets and chocolate around midnight. I was going to bake double chocolate espresso cookies, but my mom said she didn't want to get fat. I listened to her and thought of something else. I discovered that we had about a tablespoon of leftover cream cheese so I thought, "What the hell...chocolate cheesecake it will be!" The crust was simple: butter, flour, and powdered sugar. I mixed the ingredients together until it was crumbly. Then I pressed the crust into a ramekin and baked it until it was golden on the edges.

Mmmm. The crust.

The crust turned out perfect. Flakey, buttery, and sweet. Oh the filling....the deceiving filling. In my head, I pictured a fantastic and delicious looking chocolate cheesecake. Instead of a chocolate cheesecake filling, it became chocolate mousse. I melted semi-sweet chocolate and mixed in the cream cheese. I mixed it until it was fluffy like mousse. This is where I ran into my problem. I didn't know how to apply the filling. My dear, JSBanana, suggested that I put the filling in a ziploc bag and pipe it onto the crust. "Good idea!" I thought! How wrong I was! ahhhhh! The wonderful idea turned into a pile of TURD!! DUNG! The lemon wedge did not improve the visual imagery too much. So here I am staring at a pile of dung tart that I'm suppose to eat. Despite the disgusting presentation, it tasted decent.

note to self: must work on presentation.

Scallion Omelette with Rousong.

2009-01-04T21:28:00.000-08:00

I was first inspired to do this recipe when I saw ChowTime's post for Pork Floss Pancake... because the pancake part looked like an egg.... =_=" I looked up the entry cause I wanted to find the recipe... and that's when I found out that it was actually a pancake... not an omelette. /Shrugs. Good time to improvise, I guess.

I was saving this recipe for an afternoon snack or after school snack, but i ended up eating this for breakfast! Why you ask? Read the previous post! I don't really know what I did for this cause everything was approximate.

Scallion Omelette with Rousong

INGREDIENTS
2 eggs
1 "drop" of oyster sauce (to taste)
1 stalk of scallion
1 handful of rousong (肉鬆)
1 "drop" of milk

DIRECTIONS

1. Mince scallions. Beat eggs. Mix in oyster sauce, milk, and minced scallions.
2. Heat and oil up the pan. Pour in egg mix and cook like an omelette.
2. At the finish dump in the rousong.
4. Roll the rousong with the omelette and slice into bite-sized pieces.
5. Enjoy! :)

-JSBanana

Sunday Morning Pancakes.

2009-01-04T21:20:00.000-08:00

I'm not a pancake person, but I had a sudden craving for it last night. I did a quick Google search on a pancake recipe and found this: Good Old Fashioned Pancakes. The recipe yields 8 servings, and since I was cooking for just my dad and I, I halved the recipe. (Strange... I had to use half an egg for this....)

I never knew that it was such a simple recipe.

Good old Fashioned Pancakes
(4 servings)

INGREDIENTS

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1-3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoons white sugar
1/2 cup and 2 tablespoons milk
1/2 egg
1 tablespoon and 1-1/2 teaspoons butter, melted

DIRECTIONS

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk, egg and melted butter; mix until smooth.
Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

** I copied this recipe from AllRecipes.

Perfect [[Easy&Simple]] Recipe for KitchenNoobs, like me :)

Since my dad was the only one awake, I made some for him too. Guess what? He ate ALL of them! I ate the first one, but that one was the "tester" and was a flop. I offered him one, and he gobbled it up right away.... I just finished another one and put it on a plate... and when I turned around... HE ATE THAT ONE TOO! ... He didn't even bother putting it on his own plate. =_+" He used a different set of utensils too. Aiiyah. His response: It was so good and such good service. I thought you wanted me to eat it. :) *insert innocent face. >:[
--> A few seconds later. Mmmm... that was good. Ergg, I'm so full. **walks out of the kitchen. Ahh! What kind of Daddy is that?!

Good thing there was enough batter for another pancake... another pancake A QUARTER THE SIZE OF THE ONES HE ATE! Course, I was still hungry after that, so I had Breakfast Part II, Scallion Omelette with Rousong.

-JSBanana

Guts Out Sesame Gluty Balls.

2009-01-03T16:23:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to do this post for ages.
The idea seemed great...
but it was executed extremely poorly by yours truly, moi!
=> I forgot to add sugar to the gluty balls... so it tasted like flour.

I didn't like it, but I don't think it deserves to be in the hall of fail.

Interesting story... with this.
The family was out, so I was home alone. I usually would do anything to keep myself being the only one home... cause my imagination always gets the best of me, but I had things to do, such as homework. Oh man... winter break is officially over. Woohoo... school is back. =|

For lunch I had some homemade wontons and I was feelin' for some dessert afterwards. Something quick and simple. Sesame soup with tong yuen.

-CO
ran to park.
omgomg. dad told me to run back in... crazy

Freeze Dried Mold :D

2009-01-02T16:36:00.000-08:00

Something new! :) :) :) It's a wee bit more expensive than the usual Cup-O-Noodles, but hey-- it's organic. >.<"

Who knew that instant noodles could taste so good!

(Except... I did not realize that it was instant until I put the noodles into the pot of boiling water... AH.... extra pot to wash. T_T)

... && That was my first thought. Oh... you don't see my thought? ... You know why? Because I wasn't thinking of anything. Um... *STARES* ... WTF is THAT?

Dude... it looks like a block of freeze dried mold.

Egg. Mushrooms. Soup Base.
That's my guess.
>.> IDK.

I wouldn't mind eating this again. I would probably eat it again very soon... it it somehow magically appears in the noodle drawer. :)

Flavor was good.
Noodles were chewy.
Mushrooms tasted... surprisingly real...

--JSBanana

Pretzels and Whole-wheat Raisin Buns

2009-01-01T14:36:00.000-08:00

A break from school is a chance for me to experiment with new recipes. This time I choose to play with a raisin bread recipe. The directions seemed easy. Overall, it turned out pretty well except for my pretzels...Because I plumped up too many raisins for the bread, I decided to use the leftover yeast and raisins to make pretzels. First, pretzels have a saltier dough base and silly me forgot that. As a result, the sweet raisins combined with salty pretzel dough is an unpleasant combination. Second, I got lazy and skip the boiling process....that had a strange effect on my pretzels. They grew quite big in the oven and it was overly dry as seen below....

Note: I'll give the recipe for the pretzels after I make them properly.

Bunny Pretzels.

Raisin sticks.

(These are aliens & that is a spaceship...
NOT underwater creatures & submarines!! ):

Ah...The main event:
Wow! I was surprised by the results. During the dough making process I ran into an unexpected problem. After I mixed everything together and put the dough into a warm spot for it double in size, IT DID NOT DOUBLE IN SIZE!! Heck, I'M NOT EVEN SURE IF IT GREW AT ALL!!!! I panicked. I cried (dramatically --not for real) to my mom and to my sisters saying how it was ruined and we will have flat bread! It grew so little in size that it did not even fit the bread pan! My mom had this brilliant idea of cutting the dough into smaller sizes so it became raisin "buns." Well, I listened to her since I was too distressed to think of anything else. Phew! The raisin buns turned out wonderful! Soft, fluffy, warm, and moist with juicy raisins! The moment it came out of the oven, the family gobbled them up and there were no left overs. Poor grandma, she did not get any. JSbanana promised to give her some too! tsk tsk...one should never lie to their grandma!

Post-baked Raisin Buns.

Incorporating raisins into Dough.

I should mention that the family kitchen lacks proper baking tools. I had to improvise. First, a fork was used to "brush" the buns with egg wash. However, the method was clumsy and the buns were not covered evenly. I decided that I had to use something else and it disgusts me too. I decided to use my fingers to dip into the eggwash and gently rub the buns. I knoooow! The hygiene of the buns have just gone down. I didn't know what else to do!!!

*Legend of Photo*
Fork - Silicon brush

Second, we did not have a rolling pin. The improvised tool was a nice cylindrical glass. It won't pretty well. Check it out below:

Poor man's method of a dough roller...

Recipe for Raisin Buns was adapted from Daily Delicious
Changes I made:
1. The loaf turned into buns.
2. Used whole wheat flour instead of bread flour.
3. Added too many raisins =X

Smoked Salmon and 7 Grain Bagels.

2009-01-01T14:20:00.000-08:00

Since I was a puny little kid , I never liked smoked salmon....
It's raw fish....
It's mushy and soggy....
Ick. It's like eating worms.
WHY WOULD PEOPLE EAT SUCH A THING???

To solve the problem, Mom would toast the salmon for a few minutes to cook it! :) Using the toaster oven, I set it t-- actually... I don't even know what the numbers or buttons mean on the toaster oven. I've gotten so used to using it that I never even read whatever it said.... =_=" Erg... Cooked it till it was nice and crispy! :D

-JSBanana

**Photos taken by Piee<3 !!

Celebrating the New Year.

2009-01-01T13:57:00.000-08:00

Wooohoo! It's the New Year!! What else is there to say? Out with the old, in with the new. A second before the clock strikes 12 midnight, it's 2008... and a second after... it's the new year.

/shrugs.
Party time.

Nothing much. Piee and I did the usual. [[Sit out in the kitchen watching Channel 2 for the countdown in NYC: Times Square.]] Haha. How pathetic. Open a bottle of Apple:Pear Cider... cause I'm too underaged for real drinking. >.<" Piee garnished with pear bits. HAHAHA. It was actually supposed to be pear slices, but the pear was rotten at the core! So she switched it up with a slice of lemon.

Sonoma Sparkler. Nothing special. I prefer Martinelli's over that anytime. This w as the second bottle we tried. The first one was blood orange flavor... tasted like jacked up apple cider. This time-- the one with the pear essence-- was... interesting. Haha. You could taste the sweetness of the pear but... you still-- I can't beat the original!

--JSB

Guacamole (Piee's improvised recipe)

2008-12-24T15:05:00.000-08:00

When you get a craving, you have to satisfy it even if your ingredients are pretty mismatched. Since the beginning of December, I've been craving guacamole. Every time that I want to make it, there was no avocado. Finally, avocado appeared and I was missing everything else. Thus, the creation of this half-assed attempt at guacamole.

The finished product.

Oh look! White onions, garlic, and cilantro.

Oh boy, no jalapenos. Must use Vietnamese chili sauce for the "spice."

Wooo! One proper ingredient: AVOCADOS.

P.S. Vinegar was used in place of lime.

Final verdict: it satisfied my craving. Will I do it again? Maybe...

100% Sweet Cafe

2008-12-24T15:04:00.000-08:00

It's not the first time I've been to this place. This cafe has both traditional Chinese desserts (i.e. grass jelly and Tofu-fa) and new Asian fusion desserts. The traditional desserts were pretty good. It's the new items that have issues. First up:

Crystal Snow Wraps

Overview of wraps.

Close up of wraps.

These were the strangest desserts. Visually, they seem okay. Taste: fresh mangos and strawberries were really good. The interesting part is the wrap. First off, the wrap does not even look apetizing at all. It looks like slime. The texture is even worse. It's chewy, slimey/silkey, and it almost feels like you're trying to chew a condom. Yah, not a good experience for my tastebuds. The wrap is slighty sweet.

Mango Deluxe (or something other weird name)

oooh preeeettty.

That's all it is. A pretty picture. This item was approximately $5 and it did not even taste good. The bottom was packed with shaved ice. Topped with a small amount of mangos and aloe vera. The brown shapes you see is an unknown ingredient. NO ONE could figure out what it was--there were 6 of us. Oh gawd, the ice cream. The artifically flavored mango ice cream was disgusting. It tasted of sugar and cream with an odd aftertaste.

100% Sweet Cafe

2512 Clement St
(between 26th Ave & 27th Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94121
(415) 221-1628

Andes Chocolate Mint Cookies

2008-12-23T23:57:00.000-08:00

Wow. A post after nearly two weeks. I have a good excuse, it's called finals!! yay! We love that time of the year . Finals kicked my butt for two weeks straight: I had between 0 - 4 hours of sleep per day. Studying and working on projects for hours. It was simply amazing! /end sarcasm.

When I returned home, I asked my friend what kind of cookie he wanted to eat. He said, "mint cookies." Thus, the creation of Andes Chocolate Mint Cookies. Cookies on Foil.

Oh my, this is delicious! Crispy on the outside and soft chewy on the inside. It's not that sweet, but its full of chocolate minty goodness. I promise you.

The Recipe: Andes Chocolate Mint Cookies
adapted from a friend's chocolate chip recipe

Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup butter
- a little less than 1/2 cup sugar
- a little less than 1/4 cup brown sugar
-1 egg
-1 tsp vanilla
-1 cup flour
-1/2 tsp salt
-1/2 tsp baking soda
-1 pack of Andes Chocolate Mints (coarsely chopped)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. Mix butter and sugars then add egg.
3. Sift flour, baking soda, vanilla extract, and salt. Mix well.
4. Add chocolates.
5. Use a teaspoon to spoon lumps onto a cookie sheet.
6. Bake for 13-14 minutes (adjust the time to your oven. My oven SUCKS so it needs to be baked longer.)

CHERRY BLOSSOM BAKERY.

2008-12-08T20:41:00.000-08:00

When we have nothing better to do, Piee and I usually go out for walks on Clement Street. It's one of my favorite places because there's a lot of different places to go--ranging from bakeries to hair salons to grocery stores to restaurants to video stores to clothing stores to fish stores. No doubt about it; name one thing--and it's sure to be found here.

I grew up here. Since I was young, my mom would bring me here to shop for groceries with her every Saturday. School was just a few blocks away; after school my friends and I would walk the street and get something to munch on. My family would be busy either at work or studying even in the summer; because I no longer attended summer school after the elementary and middle school days, I would take a stroll on Clement daily. This past summer (2008) I had a job, in which I looked after Kindergarten to 5th Graders and taught them math and English basics. Again, it was just located around the corner. Every day at lunch, my co-workers and I would walk around Clement trying to find something to eat.

We took our usual route, but something new popped up. It was a new bakery named Cherry Blossom Bakery. We went in to take a glance, and I saw my favorite thing to get in a Chinese bakery. 紙包蛋糕. (jyutping: zi2 baau1 daan6 gou). literally: paper wrapped cake. They had the usual ones... and they had these GINORMOUS ones on the shelf right above it. :) They called 'em "flower cake." ... but they were the same thing as the normal ones... except double the size and... supposedly shaped as a flower. /shrugs. tasted good either way. :)

Paper Wrapped Cake is to JSBanana
as
*Milk Tea is to Piee.

Flower Cake: $1.20
Paper Wrapped Cake: $0.70
Milk Tea: Bland. Tastes like it came from tea bag.
Flower Cake: Not too sweet. Could be moister.

Cherry Blossom Bakery
844 Clement St
(between 10th Ave & 9th Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94118

(415) 876-2727

--JSBanana

Ginger Lemon Tea

2008-12-03T13:07:00.000-08:00

Warms me right up.

I woke up this morning with a slightly congested nose and an itty bit of a sore throat. It didn't help that the weather was freezing. I dragged myself out of bed and to class. When I returned home, I decided to make a soothing drink that will warm me up. This drink mostly tastes like lemon with a hint of ginger and sweetness.

Ingredients:

1.5 inches of ginger
1 whole lemon squeezed
1.5 pieces of rock candy (optional: You can replace rock candy with honey or sugar. Adjust to your preference)
approximately 3 cups of water

Ginger Pieces.

Rock Candy and Lemon.

Directions:

Slice the ginger into thin pieces.
Squeeze a whole lemon and set it aside.
Boil water.
Put the ginger into pot of water (It's okay if the water is not boiling yet)
Once the water is boiling, put the rock candy in the water and wait for it to dissolve. You can stir the mixture to help speed up the process.
Once the sugar has dissolved, turn off the stove and pour in the lemon juice. Mix it.
Serve it in a cup and garnish with a lemon slice.

One Sample, Thai Iced Tea, and a horrid Strawberry Popsicle

2008-12-02T23:19:00.000-08:00

One Sample: Kashi: Tasty little Cookies -- Oatmeal Dark ChocolateThe packaging.

I generally do not enjoy packaged cookies, because they are often too sweet to me. But WOW. These are good! They don't taste as processed as other cookies and they are soft and chewy. The best part: it's not sugar overkill. The chocolate chips give the cookies just enough sweetness. In addition, the cookies contains 3 grams of fiber and it is all natural. Yums for a "healthy" cookie.

Slushy Thai Iced Tea

Slushy form of Thai Iced Tea.

I realize that picture of Thai Iced Tea does not resemble the drink at all except for the color. After my first class this morning, I needed a caffeine fix. I had thai tea leaves and condensed milk in the fridge. I boiled water, soaked the tea in the water, and a generous spoonful of condensed milk to give some sweetness and creaminess. I was about to pour myself a glass of Thai Iced tea when I realized that I had NO ICE!!! =( Yes, I had a sad pouty face.

Suddenly, I had this brilliant plan of putting the Thai Iced Tea in the freezer to facilitate the cooling process. Silly me. I fell asleep for about 2 hours. My Thai Iced Tea became frozen so I had to let it melt and mash it with a spoon. Ta-daaa! My delicious Thai Iced Tea transformed into SLUSHY Thai Iced Tea! Taste wise, it was normal. Nothing awkward or strange...just a different form. Will I do this again? Yup, except I will make sure to stay awake so the tea won't be completely frozen.

The Awful Strawberry Melona Bar

Picture of Melona from samsclub.com

One word: Gross.
Description of the taste and texture: Imagine a strawberry pocky. Good. Now imagine the creamy artificially flavored strawberry coating. Good. That's exactly what the strawberry melona bar tasted like. It was a disgusting artificially flavored strawberry popsicle. It was creamy and and overly sweet. I would not buy it again even if it cost .01 cents!

Chicken Katsu

2008-11-30T19:52:00.000-08:00

Remember my first post on katsu where I ate part of the fish? Yeah...This time I did not take a single bite of the chicken katsu. I held out and gobbled the rest after one snapshot. Shame on me. Directions are self explanatory:

Ingredients:
-1 chicken breast
-Tempura mix
-Panko
-Salt
-Enough oil to submerge one side of a chicken slice

Directions:
1. Slice chicken into thin slices.
2. Add water and salt to the tempura mix
3. Cover the chicken slices in the tempura mix
4. Coat both sides of the chicken evenly in the panko
5. Heat up the oil. To test if the oil is hot enough, put a wooden chopstick against the bottom of the pan. If you see "bubbles" rising to the surface, the oil is hot enough. (make sure it's a wooden chopstick if you use this method)
6. Put the chicken in the oil and flip to the other side when the panko turns golden brown.
7. When the other side turns golden brown, take out the chicken and place onto a paper towel to soak up the excess oil.

REAP THE BENEFITS.

2008-11-24T17:07:00.000-08:00

Piee and I volunteered for the Green Festival 2008 on Saturday (11/15) because we're good and kind-hearted people. ;D

OKAY. OKAY. I lie. It's because I knew we'd get a lot of freebies. :O I volunteered for Green Festival 2007 with a volunteer club from school last year. (I always believed that middle schools&high schools required a specific number of volunteer hours because... FREE CHILD LABOR!!! >:O Hours working can last past 8 hours.... and we don't get breaks. Instead, clubs threaten to take hours away if we slack. -.- Abusive.)

From the year before, I remember bringing home a lot of samples and the atmosphere was really light. People are so happy & smiling. :)

Perks of volunteering for Green Festival:
1. freebies
2. free entrance
3. ...and since I'm too lazy to type it out myself, I searched on GF (Green Festival... not girlfriend...)'s site & found this:

Good enough reasons? I think so.

Piee + JSB freebies
:) We're Chinese. What do you expect?

All of JSB's freebies:
Lotion, Drinks, organic Apples, Chips, Hemp Seeds (ready to eat), Dish Washer Soap, Pens, organic Honey, Gummy Rabbits, Herb Seeds (to grow), Chico Bags, Soy Sauce, Oatmeal, Dried Mangoes, Chocolate Bars, Magnets, Stickers, Pins, etc.

JSB's Food Freebies

=============================================

After finishing our shift for the Green Festival, we headed to Pâtisserie Philippe because it was only a block and a few steps away from the SF Concourse Exhibition Center, where GF was located. Piee treatedx33

Cassis Macaroon $1.50
+ Green Tea Macaroon + $1.50
+ Chocolate Truffle +$1.00
+ Pistachio Meringue +$0.00 (sample)
+ Chai Meringue +$0.00 (sample)
= Happiness(: =$4.00

Cassis Macaroon. :)

Soft, but crispy.
Fluffy and tasty!

It's out of the way, but I will return!

Pâtisserie Philippe

655 Townsend St
(between 7th St & 8th St)
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 558-8016

www.patisseriephilippe.com

--JSBanana

UM MA SON.

2008-11-22T17:22:00.000-08:00

Friday nights. This Friday was sad. You know why? Because Piee didn't come home due to a heavy load of homework. ): Haha. It's Saturday today. It felt really weird because without Piee home, I went to sleep amazingly early. The weekend really went by fast because I accomplished nothing! Sleep for 10 or more hours or so and-- that's one whole night/day gone. ):

I know I mentioned before that Friday nights are when Piee and I stay up to cook and chillax, but it's also the day that the family goes out to eat, instead of staying home for home cooked meals. We're a regular of this place. Um Ma Son: "Mom's Hands."

Banchan(반찬)--
"...refers to small side dishes served along with cooked rice in Korean cuisine."
Kimchi. Seasoned Bean Sprouts. Seasons Cucumbers. Dried Fish. Pickled Radish.
Simply the best.
At most Korean restaurants, they ask you if you want anymore/refills.

My family goes to this restaurant frequently,

so the owner of the restaurant recognizes us.
We didn't order this, but she made us some.
Japchae(잡채)
"...made from cellophane noodles, stir fried in sesame oil with sliced beef and various vegetables (typically thinly-sliced carrots, onion, spinach, and mushrooms), flavored with soy sauce, and sweetened with sugar."
One of my favorite dishes.
Flavor is good, but it's too oily for my taste.

Mmm.
Tofu Soup.
Whenever my family eat Korean cuisine, at least one of us orders the tofu soup.
Silky smooth tofu. Chile soup. Sliced/Minced vegetables.
The stone pot keeps the soup boiling hot--
even a few minutes after they serve it to you.
Typically--they bring out a chicken egg and ask if you want it in your soup.
If you do, they crack the egg on the table and drop it into your soup.
Mix it up a bit and it will cook all the way through!!

My favorite dish would be the Dolsot Bibimbap(돌솥비빔밥).

aka. Stone Bowl Mixed Rice.
Seafood trumps out beef anytime.
Minced squid and shrimp, who could resist?!
BeanSprouts, ShreddedCarrots, Egg, Seaweed, Spinach.

Haha, of course-- the best part about eating from a dolsot
would be it gives you crispy rice at the bottom of the bowl.
Also, it keeps your food warm while you eat it!

Um Ma Son

5850 Geary Boulevard
(between 22nd Ave & 23rd Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94121
(415) 831-8662

--JSBanana

FAIL: TURNIP CAKE.

2008-11-15T22:46:00.000-08:00

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2008

?

The recipe called for lap cheurng (Chinese sausage), but I substituted it with Chinese ham. Why? Simple answer. Because we're out of lap cheurng & we have Chinese ham. HAHA.

WHY?! Why is it so crappy?:
1. Too much mushrooms/ham/shrimp
2. Not enough "base." So basically-- it was entirely mushrooms/ham/shrimp.
3. The recipe states: "Pour the batter with the turnips, stir to get a sticky consitency." (Mine wasn't sticky. It was liquidy.)
4. MANY OTHER THINGS.

How to fix it:
1. The recipe didn't call for shrimp. It said it was optional. ... I should have lessened the amount of mushrooms & ham to fit in the shrimp.
2. *See above
3. ... Add more flour/put less water. (Okay, I admit it-- I put some extra water... when cooking the turnips... and I didn't drain the water before mixing in the batter.
4. FOLLOW THE RECIPE.

... I shouldn't mess around until I actually become pro at cooking. If that ever happens, of course.

Mom being mom said it was good. HAHA. No, mom's usually pretty honest. I think she really liked it. She says I set my standards too high. Read:

Me; NOOOO!! HOW'D IT TURN OUT SO MUSHY?!?!?!?!
Mom; Mmm. Tastes good. Tastes like the steamed ones in the restaurants.
Me; NOOOO!! I WAS PLANNING TO BRING MY AWESOME LO BAT GO TO SCHOOL FOR LUNCH TOMORROW. NICELY BROWNED & FRIED & AHHH. IT'S RUINED.
Mom; O_O HAHA!! BRING TO SCHOOL?!?! You set your standards wayyy too high.
Me; ... it's so mushy... i can't even fry it. T_T
Mom; ^^ That's why I'm using a spoon to scoop it.
Me; ... WAIT.... .... YOU MEAN.... IT ONLY TASTES GOOD TO YOU BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T THINK IT WAS GOING TO TURN OUT EDIBLE?!?!
Mom; hey. i can't expect too much from you.

-_-''

--JSBanana

**
Actually. Everything was fine until I mixed everything together & steamed it.
The Turnips were cooked well & the filling mix was stir fried well. Tasted good & not over/undercooked. ):

LAVA CAKE.

2008-11-15T20:39:00.000-08:00

Yummy. LAVA CAKE. MOLTEN CHOCOLATE CAKE. CHOCOLATE FONDANT.
Another Friday Night. Of course we need dessert.
Although we didn't stay up till 5 o'clock like last week, we made great dessert.
Quick, easy, simple.

Lava Cake. Switched it up a bit.
Matcha Lava Cake? Mmm.

An Unreliable Molten Chocolate Cake Recipe. :)
(Makes 2 Servings.)
Ingredients:
30 grams/1 oz of butter
45 grams/1.5 oz of chocolate
15 grams/0.5 oz flour
30 grams/ 1 oz of sugar
1 egg
"a wee bit" of cocoa powder

1. Preheat oven to 275*F
2. Butter up 2 Ramekins & dust 'em with the cocoa powder.
Tip: Put a wee bit of butter in a ramekin & microwave for a few seconds till it melts. Crinkle up a napkin & completely rub the butter in the interior of the ramekins.
TipII: When dusting the ramekins, some cocoa powder in one ramekin then put the other one on top (as a cover/top would fit) & shake it till the ramekin can no longer be seen!
3. Melt the chocolate & butter together.
Tip: Break the chocolate into smaller pieces if they're coming from a bar, and melt it using the microwave. Stir occasionally so the chocolate doesn't burn.
4. Wisk the eggs & incorporate the sugar & flour.
5. Combine the chocolate/butter mix with the eggs/sugar/flour mix.
6. Pour mixture into cups & bake 'em for a few minutes till the top of the cake is cooked....
Tip: Cooked is when you poke the top with a fork or toothpick & it doesn't come out as the same batter as you put in.

I'm not a fan of Maccha, but Piee is. We made our batter together & split it right before we baked it. In Piee's cake, she put "a generous amount" of maccha in it. (I hate these vague words. -- They remind me of those tv shows. "Okay, now put a dash of salt." WTF. YOU PUT A WHOLE FREAKIN' TABLESPOON IN! O__O ~~ but I guess I understand it now. These things really depend on your personal taste, so they can't really put a limit on how much to put in.)

Matcha.

Right before putting into the oven.

Mmm.

Attempted presentation? >.<" We were so hungry that we just gobbled it down. At least I did. -.- While Piee was still taking photos of her lava cake, she asked me how I liked it. She realized that no one was responding to her & looked up. ~I finished the plate already. Yes. 30 seconds flat. "JSBANANA!! SAVOR." ~What is savoring?

--JSBanana

Lychee Ice Cream aka "snow flake" cream

2008-11-11T20:46:00.000-08:00

I have this huge annoying paper due soon, but I was procrastinating and found this simple recipe for Lychee Ice Cream.

Deciding to continue my quest of time-wasting, I proceeded to make this simple dessert. (Yesterday, Nov 10)

Yup, That's all the Ingredients. (oh, and sugar)

Yay...canned Lychee... /end sarcasm

Mmmm....Limes...Who's up for Lime + Coke + Rum? =)

Because I don't have an ice cream machine, I resorted to that "put-bowl-in-freezer-and-stir-every-half-hour." I think I stopped stirring after 3 hours and simply allowed the mixture to freeze overnight.

[The Next day aka TODAY]

I woke up excited. I couldn't wait to try this "masterpiece." Let's just say it tastes interesting. Interesting isn't always a bad thing, but it's not what I expected.

Taste: It was scrumptious....tangy with the aroma of lychee in every bite.

Texture: This is the "interesting" that I was referring to earlier. The texture had NO resemblance to ice cream. It was not icy or creamy. It was "snow-flakey" Yes, That's right. SNOWFLAKE! You know how snow flakes melts immediately on your tongue and it tastes "fine" almost like it isn't there. That's the texture of the ice cream. Once the ice cream is in your mouth, it melts immediately -- no creamy residue or icy coldness. It's a delicate texture.

Granola on "snow flake" cream

Let's make a snowman!

I shall call this variety of ice cream: "Snow Flake Cream"

The Recipe: Lychee Ice Cream
From Ma'ona

Serves 6-8
1 20oz can lychees
1 pint heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
juice from 1/2 lime
Drain the lychees, reserving their syrup. Coarsely chop the lychee then combine all ingredients including the reserved syrup. Freeze according to the directions for your ice cream maker.

Making Ice Cream without Ice Cream Machine
From Ma'Ona

Pick and prepare a recipe. Several of mine are provided below.
Transfer the mixture to a wide bowl. A larger surface area speeds up the cooling process.
Chill the ice cream mixture thoroughly in the fridge. This may take as much as a couple hours if you've made a variety that required cooking the ingredients.
Transfer the bowl to the freezer.
After about half an hour, remove the bowl. The edges should be partly frozen and the middle slushy. Beat vigorously for 2-3 minutes until smooth, then return the bowl to the freezer. Keep in mind that you're helping to break up ice crystals, introduce light air bubbles and facilitate even freezing.
Repeat step five twice more then let it sit until frozen.

FAIL: CHOCOLATE COVERED BANANAS.

2008-11-09T21:52:00.000-08:00

FAIL. FAIL. FAIL. FAIL.
HOW DID I FAIL?!
It's melted chocolate with frozen banana.
WHAT?!
I burnt the chocolate... with a microwave.
NO. that can't be.
I intended to do that.
Yum... crispy chocolate... with a hint of... roasted-ness....
WHO WOULDN'T WANT THAT?!
No, I am NOT in a state of denial.
WHATTHEHECK?!
Mm.. melted chocolate with crispy chocolate chunks.
That's what I'll call it....
Girl, you're just asking for cancer.
AHh.

I hit the 1 minute option. Weewhooweewhoo. It the plate spins in the microwave. *beep. I take it out, half the chocolate is still unmelted. I put it back into the microwave & beep it for another minute. I know, it'll burn if I do it so long. I really meant to stop it and take it out around 30 seconds... but I felt that a few seconds wait wouldn't be too long. I mean-- come one... I just needed to finish one more problem on my French homework.... *DAMN. I smell it burning. I stop it with 7 seconds left.

Before... when everything was fine and dandy....

oh... just a weee bit burnt.

I still ate it....
it tasted a bit bitter....

--I refuse to sign my name on this ugly post.
(but i'm in the tag still) v see below.
^ i was framed.

Do you ever get that feeling...

2008-11-09T16:10:00.000-08:00

Friday, November 7, 2008

Mmmm, Friday night dinners. The family always eats out for dinner on Friday. We chose to go to a Vietnamese restaurant because it's fast and light-- plus, we wanted to get dessert afterwards since it's right across from My Favorite Cafe.

Pho Garden

2109 Clement St
San Francisco, CA 94121

Although I originally planned to go to My Favorite Cafe with the family, I skipped it because I was feeling full from dinner. I wanted to pick up photos from Walgreen's, so I convinced Piee to go with me saying that I'd get her a Melona Bar copy. It turned out that the corner store that sells it closed for the night, so we got ice cream instead.

Cone: Mocha Fudge
Cup: Mocha Chip
Single Scoop : $2.50
Total: $5.00

Joe's Ice Cream

5351 Geary Boulevard
(between 17th Ave & 18th Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94121
(415) 751-1950

After finishing our cones/cup-- we headed back home.
Friday Night Ritual.
Brought books to study & articles to read for school-- but of course we did none of that.
Instead we... Ate food. Made drinks. and Talked.

Piee was feelin' for drinks, so she made 2 cups of Dark and Stormy.
From what she told me, the ingredients are ginger beer, rum, and lime.
Cup on the left: Piee's
Cup on the right: JSBanana's
~~ I couldn't handle the rum nor the bitterness.... So I had sugar in mine. HAAHHAHA! and a lot more ginger beer than rum. BTW. The ginger beer isn't alcoholic.~~

We made crepes too. We made 'em before, but that was long ago. I was shopping with Mom this one time and I saw crepe mix & I asked her to buy it for me. We came home and tried the mix... it's not good. Tastes weird, leaves your crepes thick and mushy, and it has preservatives! It's better to and very easy to make it from scratch.

Scratch may be better, but we still has half of the mix in the cupboard-- so we used it.

The box mix.

Lemon Juice & Powdered Sugar.

Cinnamon & Powdered Sugar.
aka. Dandruff girl.
presentation FAIL.

Chocolate Powder.
Who's brilliant idea was it to put powdered everything?
It sure wasn't me, but it must have been stupider for me to be the one eating it.
It was when I was eating this crepe when I said:
Piee, do you ever get that feeling that if you eat one more bite... you'll vomit? Well, yeah... that's what I'm feeling now.
Crepe in my mouth & my throat refusing to swallow. In both hands I had a part of the crepe.
Just 3 more pieces.

MMmm, jam.

Of course--save the best for last.
Chocolate Chips.
The only decent one, I say.

Mmm. mojito pops... from a week before.
This one dropped....
Might as well take a picture of it.

--JSBanana

Freebies and everything else

2008-11-06T23:17:00.000-08:00

On election day, starbucks was giving out free coffee so I had to get my fix. I really needed it too. School has been a killer and sleep doesn't exist in my world anymore. Not only did I get free coffee, I got free Bear Naked granola in the mail! It tastes healthy --in a good way. It's not overly sweet and it would probably taste super on yogurt.

Yesterday (Nov 5), I was craving sweets. Being the cheapass that I am, I refused to spend money on candy. On my way back home, I remembered that I've been meaning to make caramelized banana with rum sauce. I didn't have the rum, but I had sugar and ripe bananas. I decided to try and make the caramel. It's easier than I expected, but it hurts when the caramel splatters (when I added the cream).

When I took the first bite, oh my god...IT WAS SUPER GOOD AND IT WILL PROBABLY BE SUPERB with the rum. The caramel had a hint of vanilla and banana essence. I was eye-balling the measurements so I can't type out a recipe. When I make the complete dish with rum, I promise a recipe.

Curry Chicken Breast...

Burnt the outside...

But SUPER JUICY On the inside!

VEGETARIAN GOOSE.

2008-11-06T21:13:00.000-08:00

It's been one of my favorite dishes since forever. Vegetarian Goose. The one plate I crave for every time I enter a dimsum house. I love foo juk/beancurd sheets on its own, but it's even better when it wraps flavorful goodness!

The recipe is fairly simple. I based this dish on Fresh from the Oven's recipe, but I also googled around to find other methods to cooking vegetarian goose.

Slice up some carrots, wood ear mushrooms, and shiitake mushrooms. The recipe didn't call for bamboo, but I added some anyway. Stir-fry the mix till cooked. Wrap the ingredients into foo juk wraps & sear both sides of the "packages(??)"/wrap.

It turned out rather nicely. I honestly wasn't expecting it to come out like it did b/c I truly am my own worst critic. The wrap was tasty, but my filling turned out really flavorless. My dad found it a little bit too greasy; I agree on that. Need to cut down on the oil. Overall-- it was decent. I will make this again!

--JSBanana

EGG-IN-A-HOLE.

2008-11-04T19:39:00.000-08:00

~~
I'm a part of the green team at my school. We're looking for places around campus to create compost sites or gardens. We currently DO have a garden, but no one ever takes notice of it. Today we paid a visit to it... and the gardener there is growing squash! Aren't they cute?

<------------>

Mwahaha. My friend asked me other day if I could perfect an "egg-in-a-hole." My first reaction was... WHAT? WHAT IN THE NAME OF TEHSALTYMELON IS AN EGG IN A HOLE? He showed me a picture of it on google.images... so basically it's a slice of bread... with a hole... filled with egg. Creative? Haha.

Egg-in-a-Hole. Egg in the basket. Egg in the window. Egg in a nest. Pirate's Eye. Frog in a Hole. (just to name a few.)

I don't think a recipe is needed for this... but here it is:
1. Take a slice of bread & make a hole in the middle. I used a cup.
2. Butter the pan.
3. Place the slice of bread in & crack an egg in the middle.
4. Flip the bread when over 50% of the egg is cooked.
5. Cook to your desired egg style.
6. Serve right off the stove!

--JSBanana

My friend suggested the perfect idea for asking a guy out. Confess with an egg-in-a-hole. =.=

Tofu Fa (PART II), Mojito pops, and MORE

2008-11-02T18:35:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy busy weekend. We made tofu fa , mojito popsicles, and a midnight snack on Friday night. On Saturday, we made our family dinner.

Making tofu-fa sounds easier than it actually is. It's another fail. It coagulated better than JSbanana's attempt, but the consistency was off. Must continue practicing...

TOFU-FA. fail II.

I love rum, especially dark rum. I also love Mojitos. When I stumbled upon this recipe for mojito pops, I had to make them and introduced JSBanana to mojitos...although she's underage. oopsies. Hey, if she's going to drink in college, might as well train her to differentiate the good from the bad stuff. I used Myer's dark rum, because of the stronger aroma and taste compared to light rum like barcadi. I apologize for the lack of a completed photo, maybe sometime this week when we actually eat one.

Cookie Monster?

Squeezing the Limes.

After making the mojito popsicles, I was working on my absentee ballot so I could mail it in. When I was halfway through it was approximately 1 AM and I was hungry. Soooo I made:

Midnight Snack.
Banana. Peanut Butter. & Honey. on bread.

Saturday Dinner: Mom didn't know what to make for dinner so we offered to make it.

Piee's & JSBanana's Dinner.
~~
Asparagus Salad w/ Bell Peppers & Button Mushrooms.
(Dressing: Basalmic Vineager, Dijion Mustard, Olive Oil, Fresh Pressed Garlic, Lemon Juice)
Stir Fried Carmalized Shrimp.
Garlic. Green Onion. Ginger.

OMELETTE.

2008-11-02T18:06:00.000-08:00

Yes, my first omelette.... AND it's not a fail! SUCCESS! YEEEEEEE!!! :D

Mushrooms & Bell Peppers.
I should have used the extra SPAM in the fridge.
Ahh.

Tehehe.
ROFL. Not that this photo is yummy looking.
I just thought it was funny.
I originally wasn't planning to post this one cause I think that it's hella ugly,
but it's funny.
I was just taking a photo of the omelette in the plate, and since my dad is into photography-- he started "dressing" the plate for me. -_-'' He said my photo needed more color... so he just dumped chunks of papaya and 2 ... unripe... jujubes....

--JSBanana

FAIL: TOFU-FA.

2008-10-30T22:02:00.000-07:00

豆腐花. 豆花. fail.

(right after pouring the soymilk into the gypsum paste.)
(1 hour later.)

It doesn't sound hard does it? Soymilk. Gypsum Powder. Corn Starch.
EASY PEASY!
.
.
.
not.

HAHAHA. now this is a WARNING: do not watch this video unless you want to lose your appetite.

Well, hahahaaha. I'm left speechless too.
The instructions say to wait for the soymilk to coagulate for an hour & not to disturb it.
When I first poured the boiling soymilk into the gypsum paste... it turned into THAT--the pictures above. Simply bits of... silken tofu? After I waited an hour, the solution was exactly the same as an hour before. Nothing happened.

Were my proportions wrong? Did I miss an ingredient?
Aiie!

--> Maybe tomorrow, maybe the day after tomorrow. Sometime over the weekend. More experimentations with tofu-fa to come. <-- ((Yes, I have a strange habit of playing with my food. Lol, especially ones that I mess up. Is it weird? It warms my hands up and the gushiness of it makes me happy. >.> I sound crazy. I know. + I took 2 videos-- one forking around it with a spoon and the other seen here. I felt that the ones using my hand captured the real look of the tofu-fa.))

A SHOUT OUT TO THOSE IN THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA.
FOOD RELATED EVENTS HAPPENING IN SAN FRANCISCO.

Green Festival.
(November 14, 35, 16.)
~It's a really fun event. I volunteered for this last year (& will again with Piee.) A lot of sampling and a real light atmosphere. Haha.~
There IS and admission fee, but it is totally worth it.
If you volunteer for this event on any of the days, you do not need to pay for any of the other days.

Fabulous Food Festival.
(November 8, 9.)
This is their first annual festival, so there isn't much about it.
But click the link above for more information.

--JSBanana

P.S.: I DID NOT MASH UP THE TOFU-FA. I TOOK THE PICTURES&VIDEO AS IS. That's how it coagulated.

Bean Sprouts and Shrimp

2008-10-29T23:07:00.001-07:00

Weird combo...most definitely. Tasty, absolutely!

BLUEBERRY VANILLA ICE CREAM.

2008-10-29T19:49:00.000-07:00

I remember I bought the Haagen-Dazs ice cream to go along with my lava cake, but I never had the time to make them. The blueberries were bought for me by Piee for my birthday. YUM. I also put Pocky Sticks in there. ... Practicing presentation skills, I suppose.

--JSBanana

Egg Sandwich!

2008-10-29T12:26:00.000-07:00

Being the awesome college student that I am, I finish my homework during breaks and do not have time for a good lunch. I found myself starving and unable to concentrate so I knew I had to make something....THEN I saw it....

I had sourdough slices sitting on the counter...
Fresh green onions waiting for me....
and....eggs....

AN EGG SANDWICH~! I haven't had them babies in years. I used to make them so that I could hide the flavor of wheat bread...This time around, this was perfection. All my favorite ingredients combined into one awesome quick lunch!!!

Looks good, huh?

MY FAVORITE CAFE.

2008-10-28T23:14:00.001-07:00

Hm. No, it's not my favorite cafe. It's the name of it. 老友記 in Chinese. I brought my friend here after school one day. :D (8/29/08)

The curry fishballs are the best. You know why? Cause the sauce is perfect! The fishballs are chewy/bouncy too. (Why does it seem like I have a habit of describing food as "bouncy?")

Black Glutinous Rice with Mango Juice & Chunks
Yum, I always order this one when I come here. The juice is sweet and the rice is cooked just right. It's not too mushy nor uncooked.

This was something new to me.
Milk Tea Pudding.
*drools
Creamy with a flavorful milk tea punch.
Too bad when I went the next time with my sisters, it wasn't the same.

My Favorite Cafe
2110 Clement Street
San Francisco, CA 94121

--JSBanana

GUILINGGAOinsiderEdition.

2008-10-28T18:15:00.000-07:00

I have a stomachache. It's a special stomachache. Why? Because it prompted me to write a post! Haha. I bought a box of instant guilinggao powder for Piee and myself a while ago. Although I'm not an avid fan of it, I decided to try some. Haha. PIEE IS RIGHT. The solution solidifies really quickly. Right before your eyes - that kind of quick.

The taste is bitter. The texture is like grass jelly. (I wonder why.)
So the original/real guilinggao is very costly and is made of turtle shells!
Buying mine for $3.59 for 12 packs.... Well, that pretty much states it all.

The instructions were simple: Mix one bag of instant guilinggao powder with 5 oz of boiling water. Stir quickly.

Ingredients.
Japanese Honeysuckle (flower) - Traditionally, the Chinese use this flower for fevers, headaches, cough, thirst, and sore throat.
Chrysanthemum (flower) - The uses of this flower are the same of the Japanese Honeysuckle. Some put this flower on their eyes to alleviate the strain. Another popular use for this flower is to make tea out of it.
Poria (sclerotium) - Poria is a fungus that is considered all around healthy, though it may lead to diuresis.
Pearl powder (concha margaritifera) - Pretty straight forward. It's crushed up pearls. Clear, smooth, healthy skin.
Mesona (whole plant) - Mesona is the base of grass jelly!!! It's put into guilinggao for the coagulation process.

(1 of the 12 packs)

[[Actually, now I'm curious to see grass jelly coagulate.... gulinggao = so fast.]]

"Its medical effects include clearing away Heat and to eliminating Wetness, enhancing blood circulation and the growth of muscles, relieving itching, removing acnes, lubricating the intestines and easing constipation, treating yin deficiency and restoring the kidney, preserving a good look and refreshing oneself, etc."

--Cultural China

--JSBanana

FARMER'S MARKET VIRGINS.

2008-10-28T17:50:00.000-07:00

back to...
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Piee picked me up after volunteering. Yay for free lunch. Since I was volunteering for an event, they provided lunch for me-- I just split it with Piee. Yippe, they were passing out free Jamba Juice too. What was it? Strawberry Wild? I think so. IT'S GOOD. New favorite flavor. I think... I had... 5+ cups?! Haha.

+ Dad got us two new cameras. Testing, testing. 1 2 3.

Okay. I thought that these were the nastiest things ever. They're made by Luna & are energy gummies? Luna Energy Chews. The flavor is bad. The texture is bad. But the after taste is the worst.

Piee & I were having a decent conversation, enjoying our Jambas... and then IT HAPPENED. My eyes suddenly drift to my left and *BOOM. feet. how beautiful.

Deep Fried Squids.
one of my favorite snacks.
SweetHeart Cafe
♥ 909 Grant Ave,
San Francisco, CA
(415) 262-9989

----->
blast back to the future... (or rather... one week later from last Saturday... then 3 days back from today? my math is horrible.)
Saturday, October 25, 2008

It was Piee's & my first time going to the Farmer's Market. The trip was fun, I guess. Yes! I added an "I guess." The atmosphere seemed really light and fun. I have never seen so many vibrant colors in one place. Samples were everywhere.... It's just that we didn't have any. Don't ask me why because I don't know. It's probably because I look young (I AM YOUNG!! What am I talking about?) and they didn't take us seriously. It's funny. When we walked by people who were handing out samples, we locked eyes and they simply broke the connection by gazing up in the sky... randomly. Just.Lovely.

The dates, or jujubes, were really sweet. They're smaller than the kinds that Mom usually buys. I was surprised because the ones that we usually eat are crispy with a tint of sweetness, not to mention much bigger. These that Piee and I bought were petite, extremely sweet, and juicy. We bought 2 or 3 handfuls of these for $5.00/lb. Expensive?

The soft, wrinkly ones are the best. Sweet just like the dried Chinese ones, but juicy and fresh.

Haha. This plum was huge. Very sweet.

Tomatoes.

Eggplant.

The colors are so vibrant.
Purple Bell Peppers.
I had them once. They taste really sweet, and had a nice flavor to it.
You could tell that it's a bell pepper by the taste, but it does have an interesting twist to it.

The okra was huge and looked oh so fresh!

Basil.

Chicken!
They serve food at the Farmer's Market. I didn't know that, but I probably was the only one that didn't know.

1 Potato... 2 Potato... 3 Potato...

[[ Too bad I didn't take a picture of it, but I felt that the only person that treated us like everyone else was the person giving out samples for this nuts and chocolate stand. Almond Bark. I really have to get some next time. I didn't get any this time b/c it was a really hot day-- I thought that it might have melted in my bag since I was going to be out for the entire day. (We went to the market in the morning... In fact-- it's ONLY opened in the morning. 8:00am-1pm, I believe?) It melts in your mouth! ]]

~~ We headed to Fisherman's Warf after browsing the market *

They have this machine that makes donuts. A mixer is at the top and when the batter is ready, it basically poops out donuts directly into the boiling oil. A conveyor belt pulls the donut along through the oil, through the air, until it hits the bottom rack for it to cool.

Trish's Mini Donuts

Pier 39, Building B, Level 1
San Francisco, CA 94199

(415) 981-4318

The walk from the Farmer's Market to Fisherman's Warf tired us out, so we went to cool down at a nearby Barnes&Noble.

... As I sipped my tea, I read Southern Living (10/08)
There was a page of recipes where they traded off ravioli skin for wonton skin.
WHAT?! Am I the only one having the O___O face about this?
--> By the way, is it illegal to post a photo of their magazine w/o their permission?
Uh Oh....
--> YES. CLICK ON THE PICTURE. larger image & you can read the actual words. i found it interesting.... their substitution.

~Playing with food.~
We went out. had lunch. then sat on a bench to rest-- again.
INTRODUCED PIE TO THOSE DELICIOUS FRULIER GUMMIES.

radioactive.
x_X"

Long, long, long post.... If it were me... I wouldn't have even read it all.
But then again, this is a blog for Piee & my adventures with food.
Come join us by reading this if you'd like.

--JSBanana

Photos: Piee, JSBanana

A Bad Day for A Sad Meal

2008-10-27T13:52:00.000-07:00

Last night's dinner. An interesting combination: rice, Chinese BBQ pork, and zucchini. That's it for now...I'm in a sour mood.

Tofu FAA!!!!

2008-10-24T02:15:00.001-07:00

http://chowtimes.com/2006/03/21/sweet-soy-pudding-tou-foo-fa/

PASSION ICE.

2008-10-23T18:52:00.000-07:00

Yum. I saw these on sale for only 50 cents. Usually they're sold for over 2 dollars, but on JBox it sells for $1.80. Eeek. I prefer them over Kasugai's melon gummies because the flavor is much more intense + the texture is softer and chewier. I don't know if this makes sense but these gummies here taste "juicy."

--->
On another subject, I had shaved ice for dessert. It was boiling hot today and we were out of ice cream. I decided to take out and use the Hawaiian shaved ice machine that Dad bought several years ago. Yum. Passion fruit syrup + ice. The best.

--JSBanana

Chinese Flat Rice Noodles

2008-10-21T11:31:00.001-07:00

It's been awhile since I had a decent lunch. I went with something more traditional today and extra healthy! First, the mushrooms were chopped.....

Next, I had to defrost the shrimp.

Not shown: chopped carrots boiling in chicken broth.

Flat rice noodles purchased from an Asian grocery store that's pre-cut.

My favorite part...GREEN ONIONS!!! Ooooh...oogle at its fresh green hue. Check out the nice gradient from the minced onions =D

THE FINAL PRODUCT!!! I'm drooling now. Time to eat, no more blogging!

Guilinggao: Version 1.0

2008-10-19T20:32:00.000-07:00

THURSDAY: my awesome awesome lunch =) It was curry fried rice.

Onto the main show of today:

Guilinggao is an asian herbal jelly that's supposedly healthy. It is also a dessert. Guilinggao has a bitter taste so it is best to have it with some sugar. The consistency is similar to jello with a lot of knox added to it. In other words, it's a very firm dessert.

I made it from an instant powder packet, which means I needed to add water. It doesn't sound hard right? OH no no...it turned out BAD. You see, the finished product should have a smooth surface like jello (as I mentioned earlier).

If you dare to continue, please scroll down to view the butchered product. I also apologize to JSBanana for ruining the gift. =(

The swamp like surface:

The chunky bits:

Relief is here! SUGAR!!!
Sugar on top of the murky bits:

Mmmmmm....moooore sugar!Goodbye lovely sugar!

Note to self: sometimes... the directions can be helpful
Sorry for the poor quality of pictures. The camera had a hard time picking up the shades of black and the lighting was harsh.

MOCHI.

2008-10-16T18:43:00.000-07:00

糯米糍. mochi? Haha, I'm actually not too sure. They're called lo mai chi in Chinese.

Grinding the peanuts. I was planning to use the blender, but when I poured the peanuts out from the original bag, I realized that they were easily crushed. So I decided to put the peanuts in a bag and crush it! The closest object to me was the measuring cup.... >.>

Hahaha, I made two batches of mochi skin. One with Matcha and the other without. I couldn't find a decent way to steam both batches at the same time... so I put one bowl in another. -.-' Haha, a few minutes later I realized that I forgot to add an important ingredient! The oil. I had to take the mixtures out... and I found out a better way of stacking the bowls. >.> [[Bowl, Plate, Bowl]]

Yummy, after steamed for 15 minutes.

Yumm. The prepared mochis. I made a hole in my first attempt. Haha. (the middle flab of skin....)

Peanuts and Sugar filling.

Red Bean filling with Matcha skin.

Haha. The big mess that I needed to clean up afterwards. That wasn't even half the dishes!!!

-->

WHAT?!!??!

Sorry, CJ-- but we don't have enough to spare. ):

--JSBanana

WALKY WALKY.

2008-10-15T18:29:00.000-07:00

Walky Walky. I went to my favorite Asian grocery market two days ago, and one of my favorite things is buying new snacks to try. I haven't seen this one before, so I decided to buy it. It's basically tiny, tiny pieces of pretzel sticks covered in chocolate. (In other words, tiny Pocky.)

--Eeek!
Piee and I made drinks on Friday night! Pictures. (:
(Late post b/c I was a too lazy to edit the photos. The lighting was really bad.)

--JSBanana

P.S. EXPECT ANOTHER POST TOMORROW. ;D

Curry Chicken and Tofu

2008-10-08T20:30:00.000-07:00

As usual, my simple and quick dinners.

Below is cubed tofu that's warmed up in a pan. On top is green onions with a dash of salt to give it some flavor. Yummy and healthy!
This is curry chicken pan-fried with a bit of butter. Oh my gosh, it's crispy and juicy. ^.^

GINGER HIT MILK.

2008-10-08T19:54:00.000-07:00

My version of a Sesame Soup with Tofu Fa (黑白). Since I didn't have any tofu-fa at home, I used my old recipe of "Ginger Hit Milk" (薑汁撞奶) and added Sesame Soup with it on top. :D

--JSBanana

CHOCOLATE COVERED STRAWBERRIES.

2008-10-07T22:51:00.001-07:00

--JSBanana

CHICKEN POT PIE.

2008-10-07T22:37:00.000-07:00

Yes,
baking a chicken pot pie in a square dish = no good.

The shape may have been poor, but the flavor pretty delicious! ^^

Salad was good x3

Baby Spinach Salad with Fresh Raspberries,
drizzled with Honey Dijion Mustard Dressing.

--JSBanana

[[piee made this dinner!]]

Cooking Mishaps

2008-10-05T19:42:00.000-07:00

1) Do not attempt to fry a half-frozen fish.

2) Baking a chicken pot pie in a square dish does not work.

3) When the instructions read: "Stir quickly," follow it. Do not stir slowly.

Short Ribs with Bean Sprouts

2008-10-01T21:22:00.000-07:00

As usual, simple dinners for the lazy and broke college student. It's short ribs with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a dash of sugar. It's pan-fried to perfection.

Bean sprouts were tossed with soy sauce, minced garlic, and sesame oil. yums~~

Stride Gum

2008-09-24T19:14:00.001-07:00

I love getting freebies in the mail!

Garlic "Dao Miu" and Chicken

2008-09-24T12:52:00.000-07:00

/le sigh

The difficulties of trying to translate Chinese vegetables into English names. Help me out if anyone knows the English version. The extra confusing part is that there are two types of "dao miu." There is the smaller leaf one, which is the type that I ate. The other better tasting tender one is the large leaf type. A popular way of cooking "dao miu" is stir frying it with A LOT of minced garlic. The aroma of the garlic and the natural scent of the vegetable is a unique combination, but it smells soooooo daaaarn good.

For my dinner tonight, I attempted to stir-fry garlic "dao miu" with some chicken to give myself protein. Results: large leave "dao miu" is much better. Hands down. On to the pictures:

A bed of greens and chicken.

Blurry green fuzz!

Short Ribs with Tofu

2008-09-23T00:33:00.000-07:00

Ah yes....another day of college student's dinner. There is no doubt that my presentation and photography skills are sucking in this post. I am exhausted and just wanted to eat my dinner. Alas, I needed to pause for a moment to document my cooking journey. I present you my awesomely blurry photos:

Katsu Tilapia and Eggplant!

2008-09-21T19:20:00.000-07:00

I usually hate anything that has to do with fish. When my mum gave me some fish to take back to my apartment, I was scared to cook it. I decided to make katsu tilapia and eggplant. Now, I never did this before so I was a complete newb. The process was along the lines off...

-mix batter
-dip fish and eggplant in it
-roll around on Panko
-heat up oil on frying pan
-FRY until it was golden brown....

This resulted in:

I never deep fried eggplant in my life, but it turned out AMAZING! Crispy on the outside and tender on the inside the way eggplants should be. gaaaah /droolz. The sad part was that I ran out of batter so I had to stir-fry the rest of the eggplant, which did not turn out too well. (No pics of bad eggplants though. hahah)

MY FISH!! THIS WAS PERFECT! Like the eggplant, crispy on the outside and moist, tender, and flaky on the inside. It was not overcooked at all! If you look closely, I took a bit out of the fish before I took the picture. I could not wait. hahahah.

A-MAZING SANDWICH.

2008-09-21T15:23:00.000-07:00

Yummy. Quick & Simple lunch... made from leftovers!

Green Onions seasoned with Piee's special recipe... that I jacked from her. HAHA<3 jsbanana =" Hard">

Final Product of the Open Faced Sandwich x]

AND... DESSERT. a cheesecake square.
made by yours trulies!
(see previous post!)

-JSBanana

CHEESECAKE.

2008-09-20T22:13:00.000-07:00

Yumms. So piee and I have this horrible habit of staying up on the weekends and baking. We stayed up last night... and made CHEESECAKE STICKS! x]

YUMMY(:
~

Pouring the Crust in.

We used real vanilla beans!
They're so expensive, $14.99 for a jar with 2 beans?
Piee, correct me if I'm wrong.

Pouring the filling into the pan. Just about ready to bake!

DIG IN !

-JSBanana

EDIT: This recipe by Baking Bites was used. Thanks!

Curry Fishball and Bok Choy

2008-09-19T00:44:00.000-07:00

I'm tired so this entry is going to be a quickie. I made bok choy infused with sesame oil with curry fishballs.

Note: I ate more than that. That was my attempt at "presentation" lol.

The Poor College Student's Version of "Sushi"

2008-09-17T19:29:00.000-07:00

When I went grocery shopping on Monday, I brought a pack of Korean made seaweed. I haven't tried it before and I wanted a taste of it today. Using my "creative" skills, I decided to make imitation sushi. Yay!

Ingredients used:
- Jasmine rice with Japanese vinegar, salt, sugar
-dried shredded pork
-chicken breast
-Korean seaweed
-lettuce

I felt that if I just had chicken and seaweed, I would not have enough proteins. This is why the lettuce appeared and lettuce wrap with sushi rice was born! On the whole, it tasted pretty darn good....maybe my taste buds are weird =P

Pan-frying the Chicken for Juicy Goodness

Semi-Used Ingredients

Close-up of my "Sushi"

Close-up of my Lettuce Wrap

Plate of FOOOOOD! ::GOBBLE::

-Piee

CREAM PUFFS.

2008-09-16T21:51:00.000-07:00

--> Quickie photo post.<--

I've been craving Beard Papa's cream puff for the longest time, but I haven't been able to get one cause their location is too far and I've been pretty busy with school.... So I made some custard puffs myself!

These are actually really simple to make.
It only requires flour, sugar, eggs, salt, milk, water, and vanilla.

Mixing the shell batter.

Baking in the oven.

Straight out of the oven.

THE FINISHED PRODUCT. !!

I was disappointed with the custard that I made. Next time, I think I'll just make the shell and stuff it with bananas. Haha, it'll be like a modified banana cream pie. >.>

-JSBanana

Curry Chicken with Onions

2008-09-15T19:42:00.000-07:00

My lazy dinner with blurry pictures. I need better lighting in the kitchen. =/

It was a very simple dish. I sliced a chicken breast into tiny pieces and used about 2 tablespoons of curry powder to marinate it. For veggies, I used a red onion. I pan fried the chicken first to give it a nice crisp then I threw in the onions to semi-cook it. Wait several minutes...and I'm done! yay! dinner for me!

-Piee

FAIL.

2008-09-14T18:57:00.000-07:00

I think I'm going to drive away all our readers for this post....

So Piee forwarded me a recipe on how to make a chocolate cake in 5 minutes (in a mug and with the microwave. how cool is that!). Being the food fiend I am, I just had to try it. I basically followed the instructions, but I added some chocolate chips on the bottom.

To me the flavor was bland, and I'm actually glad that I added the chocolate chips. The thing though was that all the chips sunk to the bottom. The consistency of the cake was... really bouncy. Haha, can you even describe food as bouncy? Mwaha. Be happy, I took a video for you guys. Lol!

~Brace yourselves.~

The consistency of the cake... like I said-- for those who didn't believe me-- the cake is bouncy!
(I should have bounced it on the table, but I didn't think of that till now.)

-JSBanana

Bitter Melon Experiment -- Dinner

2008-09-11T00:50:00.000-07:00

I have never made bitter melon before, but it turned out better than I expected. I cubed a chicken breast and chopped finely some ginger and garlic. I sliced the bitter melon into thin pieces. I threw all that on a non-stick pan and stir fried it until the bitter melon was cooked, but still had a nice crisp to it. Seasoning wise: A LOT of sugar, some salt, a bit of garlic powder, and approximately 2 tablespoons of soy sauce. Taste wise: pretty good for an experiment. XD

I also went to a froyo place near campus. yeah, froyo tastes the same to me everywhere and I have tried about 4 different places. I'm going to save my money and not bother with froyo anymore.

-Piee

Lunch of a Broke College Student

2008-09-10T12:42:00.000-07:00

I have decided to start off the blog with what a poor college student eats. It's quite sad. No other explanation. It's bean sprouts over egg noodles, topped with green onions and Shredded Dried Pork. The nutritious value is probably below zero. hahah. I have included newb pics with bad lighting to start off the first post.

-Piee