One "Sick" Meal.

Alas, I've finally come down with whatever's been going around school. My nose is all clogged, my throat has been phlegm-ing since yesterday, and I look so dead! :(

Gave myself an excuse to ditch my only class today (well, shouldn't get anybody else sick right??) and stopped by the Asian supermarket near my house (amidst so much rain omg!) to get some ginger, green onions, rice, Chinese salted eggs for my version of the "sick person meal" my mom/dad makes when I'm ill. Tried to be classy and threw in some mushrooms (to substitute the pork my parents usually use), and I have to say, the end product looked pretty decent!
You can't really see the chunks of mushrooms in the picture I took, but it was packed in there, trust me. I'm not a big fan of actually eating ginger, but it's supposed to help when you have a cold or your throat hurts, so I chopped it up big in order avoid it easily when I'm eating haha. As long as some of the ginger seeped into the porridge, it should be fine! ...I think. Still ate one piece by accident though.

The salted eggs complemented the rice porridge so well! I'm usually pretty terrible at making Asian meals, but I guess even I can't screw rice porridge up. I wish I had found the marinated seaweed/cucumber thing, too, though; that would've made it even more delish.

Allison suggested I drank some lemon ginger tea, so I made some from the instant packages I had. The instant Lipton lemon tea tastes kinda weird though (or maybe I made it too concentrated) so I poured in some fresh grapefruit juice and added little chunks of grapefruit to make instant "chè" instead! So clever, hee. (Decided to do that after I took the picture; the ginger is in flower formation if you couldn't tell! :D)

Ooh, I think I'll add in some sweet condensed milk as well when I drink it for dinner. My throat feels so much better already! :)

- Jeanne

Meatless Monday!

The other day, I read in a Glamour article that San Francisco is declaring "Meatless Mondays" to promote better health; so being the bandwagon-whore that I am, I attempted said declaration today! :D

One of my favorite-st meals ever (despite being somewhat allergic to soy!) is fried tofu sautéed in tomatoes, served with rice. As mommy is not down here to make it for me, I tried making it myself! :) This is actually attempt #2: tried making it over the weekend and blahh, I still get goosebumps when I think about how tragic of a meal that was. Stopped by Ralph's today and bought canola oil (which actually has more good-for-you cholesterol than olive oil and is tons cheaper) and juicy tomatoes to make the dish saucier, and here was the product:
I made the huge mistake last time of using butter, which gave it this sickeningly overpowering smell; using canola oil made it much better this time around! And instead of dunking in more oil to make it saucier, I opted for plain-ol' drinking water. Also used a tablespoon of fish sauce and Tung Chun Plum Sauce, which I bought to do stir-fry, so the dish could actually have some taste this time. -__- AND HOLY COW, WHO KNEW GARLIC MAKES FOOD SMELL SO GOOD?

I'm so proud it came out okay! But while I was grabbing ingredients from my fridge, noticed that the noodles I bought for stir fry two weeks ago went bad, so had to chuck that out; then realized the white nectarine I had so perfectly chopped up also went bad, and chucked that out (bought two, and after eating the first, realized I might be allergic anyway); and then saw that the cucumber I bought also went really bad, so that went out as well. Probably $5 I lost from those purchases! :( Should really remember to buy only stuff I'm going to cook within the week, but I think the problem is more my fridge's weird temperature fluctuations than my forgetfulness.

Actually was over at Trader Joe's today before I stopped by Ralph's and bought cilantro-jalapeno hummus on another shopper's recommendation (people at Joe's are so nice and talkative!), mushrooms for some pita-bread-pizza concoction I want to attempt, and strips of baked chicken for sandwiches/fried rice. Oh! Also bought a bottle of Joe's Thai Yellow Curry Sauce, which I hope would give a nice kick to the fried rice I'm planning to make later this week. I usually don't go there, but I think I'm going to make it a weekly stop from now on. The prices weren't as high as I expected, and the health selections made me want to scream with school-girl glee.

All in all, only spent around $15 on groceries today! I try to make meals that last at least 2 days, so averaging it out, meals per day is so much cheaper than when I was eating at Subway/Tapioca Express.

This dinner is actually not filling me up much; tofu, soup, and salads never make me feel full, no matter how big of a serving I eat. I think I'll try the hummus with my pita crackers after this, hee. :)

- Jeanne

Many Calorie Intake Today

My mouth just didn't stop snacking today ever since I woke up. I think the only time I did stop snacking was when I stopped to write the paper that I have been putting off the whole weekend. What I learned today was the noodles that are in the Nong Shim bowl noodles, well, I have a suspicion that the noodle itself is already somewhat salty without the powder ingredient. I only took the noodles since I had some leftover soup that my mom packed me. So I threw the dried noodle into a bowl, threw the soup in (after about an hour of defrosting because the container wouldn't fit into my microwave)and gave it a 3 minute run. I gave it another 2 minute run after that. Very. Salty.
After that, I went to the campus store to buy some snacks. I found this gelato ice cream and I immediately snatched it up. It was coconut flavor.
The Real Italian Gelato Massimo. I guess it's as real as it can get...since it originated from Watsonville, CA. I was excited to try it and as I did, the coconut flavor hit me. Hard. Now I love coconuts, but only the fresh ones from tropical areas where I can drink the juice from the coconut and then eat the flesh with a metal spoon. I dislike artificial coconut. So why did I buy this? Like a-many things in life that I do, I have no idea. But fortunately, I also have another ice cream. Ciao Bella Sorbet Mango. Now, I love mangoes, especially the large green ones called xoài tượng (which I once told my sister was called 'elephant mangoes' since xoài = mango, and tượng = elephant in some old archaic Vietnamese). But yes, my favorite mango is that one, sweet and sour, more on the sour, dipped in a concoction of fish sauce saturated in sugar mixed with black pepper. Nothing makes the mouth more watery-unless you're anti-fish sauce. But back to my mango sorbet. It was delicious. Filled with mango flavor and is smooth.

Today was also my San Francisco trip buddy, Kelly's birthday. And she gave me two slices of chocolate cake! A total heaven in my mouth, smooth chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. Which was why there was only one slice left when I took a picture of it. She also gave me bánh bao, or steam buns. It was stuffed with chicken, lettuce, and ginger, although I can only smell the ginger and not really taste it, which is how I like it to be. A thanks to Kelly and her sweet mom for the steam buns. I had asked her mom where she got it from and she said in San Francisco. Another reason to love SF.


Oh yes, and add some very horrible rice that is not rice according to my standards with broccoli, zucchini, and the carmelized pork that my mom made for me added up to my day of random food. And also the three cans of Yeo's soy milk I drank. It would have to be salads for the whole week to get rid of this guilt from today's intake!

Trial and error.

I'm a creature of habit so I usually stick to the brands I know and trust when I go food shopping; but this year, I've been trying to be "adventurous" with new brands so that I could be more flexible when I go shopping. Here's how it's gone down so far:

1. Salsa. I've really gotten into the whole salsa&chips phenomenon, cuz it's such an effortless meal to throw together and drowning the taste of tomatoes with tortilla chips is the only way I can trick myself into consuming that stuff (lycopene = good health AND skin, darlings!). My go-to brand has always been Tostitos, but the other week, I was walking around at the Sunshine Market in UCSD's Price Center and spotted this little baby: Field Day's Organic Salsa (medium heat). The "USDA organic" label screamed at me right away and begged to be given a home in my heavily loaded mini fridge (look for a picture of the pregnant fridge at end of post), so I checked the ingredients to make sure there was no weird preservatives and WELL, it was such an impressive list!

...individually, the stuff they used for the salsa would've cost a fortune, but the bottle was sold for just $3 so being the sucker that I was, I made the purchase. I didn't get around to trying it until last week, and well, verdict?

Bleh, I'll stick to my possibly-GMO'd Tostitos salsa, thanks! The salsa itself was fairly runny (which is how I like it), but it didn't taste "just right" like Tostitos salsa. I'm sure it's not the fact that it's organic that's making it taste so weird, but now I feel all conditioned to avoid all organic salsa brands! Maybe I'll change my mind by the time I finish the entire container (but what are the chances of that, I've already gone halfway through and it still hasn't taste any better), but as of right now, organic salsa is on my avoid-these-products list.

2. Yogurt, I'm an avid fan of Glamour's health articles, so when I heard about how "good" Greek yogurt was, I immediately added that to my list of things to try. Spotted Vosko's on sale during a trip to Ralph's a couple weeks ago, so bought two tubs, which I finally tried yesterday--and SIGH, more disappointment! I bought it plain, so it was well, plain, and didn't hold up to expectations at all. It did leave this surprisingly pleasant aftertaste, however, so I'll give their honey flavored one a try and maybe that'll taste better. (It was just $0.69, I believe, which was tons cheaper than Yoplait anyway!) I bought Stonyfield's yogurt (which has live-cultured bacteria that's supposed to help your digestive system) during the same trip too and it was really good, so at least I have that brand to fall back on.
On a side note, I wish some Viet company would come up with a yogurt brand, because I've never tasted any yogurt that's better than vietnamese yogurt. <3


3. Dark chocolate. My favorite indulgence this year has got to be dark chocolate, which has good-for-you- anti-oxidants AND taste mother-fricking awesome. I eat only 1-2 pieces per day, so it takes a while to actually get through the bars I buy at Trader Joe's, but my aunt from Switzerland gave me a couple bars of Lindt's and HOLY FUDGE, I'M HOOKED. The one below is mango&cayenne, but the one I really fell in love with was fig&caramel (which I've already finished haha). Lindt's is a bit expensive for my budget, however, so I think I'll stick to Trader Joe's brand (3 bars for around $2!) when I have to restock.

And lastly, here's a picture of my fridge to dispel all rumors that I'm skinny because I don't eat:


I'm trying not to get deterred with all the recent fail!purchases lately, but this learning from your errors mistake with food is kinda expensive, lol!

- Jeanne

No Longer A Virgin

I am proudly to announce I am no longer a virgin...driver in San Francisco! Seeing the title might've given some of my mates a small heart spasm (or attack, who knows). But yes, I am proud to say that I have got over my fears of driving the very narrow, very congested, confusing streets of San Francisco-especially on a Saturday. The greatest part of my day started when I (or rather,we, since I went with a buddy=D the buddy system, kids, stay safe!)came to San Francisco and it was bright and sunny! It was actually warmer than the weatherman had predicted, as always ;D
But yes, now to the main point. San Francisco is known for so many culture and that brings so many different types of food together. You basically have a globe within a 2 mile radius! So, of all the wonderful food around the world at my fingertips, what did I start with? Dim Sum, of course! Baby steps, everyone, baby steps (that and Kelly, my buddy paid hahahah).
So we went to S&T Hong Kong Seafood Restaurant for Dim Sum. I can't remember the last time I had Dim Sum in San Francisco, but I always like eating it there. Maybe it's the air, maybe it's the whole street lined with Chinese shops, or maybe it was all the waiters and customers chatting in a language unknown to me. There's just something exciting about that. Anyways, thank goodness Kelly spoke Cantonese because it provided quite a show. I didn't understand anything the waiters said to her and vise versa, but from the laughing and the body language, it seemed really funny.

There was this waiter who came to see what we wanted to order and he jabbed at the number three that we wrote down (as in three dishes of the same thing-it was this really sweet custard like dessert).
He had this incredulous look on his face and the way he asked her, there was a teasing shock. It was really funny.
We also ordered this dish that was beef tripe cooked with soy sauce (least, I think). It was really good. Crunchy and chewy, but in a way that it doesn't give you the worn out feeling after eating half of a bowl of it. I ordered other stuff as well, but I only remember that they are all collectively known as dumplings. Mental note, pay more attention to food names if we're going to blog about it. Baby steps.



Good Dim Sum, great wait staff with an awesome sense of humor, easily accessible by car-which is a true blessing, and of course, adjacent to beautiful Sunset Boulevard on Noreiga Street.
Oh yes and I also went the Asian Art Museum, but the only thing that's close to food there is as I was going up the escalator, I looked into the cafe, and saw this magnificent large bowl of salad that a woman was eating. It looked delicious and so refreshing!
All in all, I am very proud to say that I got through the San Francisco streets without any mishaps (except for getting lost and somehow finding our way again through our great sense of directions; that one pedestrian that I almost did not see, bless him he smiled cheerily and said it was okay...thank you sunny weather). Oh yes...and the scratches I got on my front bumper from scraping against the purple post in the parking garage at Westfield. BUT...good food, good shopping, good museum walk, great pictures, and of course, BEAUTIFUL WEATHER!

Life feels expensive when you have to pay for your own food.

I've never really gotten the whole idea of giving an intro to blogs; it screams self-importance, introduces an air of haughtiness, indulges the optimistically senseless expectation that out of the gabajillion blogs created every single day, yours was important and interesting enough to capture a total stranger's attention long enough to warrant clarification for their sake--and as a happily bitter soul who believes no one gives a damn (read: I would be too lazy to write an intro anyway, even if I had felt otherwise about blog intros in general), I cannot bring myself to do so! Yea, I could've left this first post to one of my more compassionate counterparts who could explain in much gentler terms how we got started on this whole enchilada, but like usual, I really wanted to beat everyone to the bushes (read: I can't fricking fall asleep) so hoho, here we are.

Anyway, to just jump into things cuz it's already 5:00am and I should get to sleep, I've recently made that expensive jump towards healthy and organic foods! It's going to set me back probably a good couple hundred or so every school year, buuut I revel in my snooty belief that I will possibly outlive all my friends (...blessing or curse, really?) In the case that I don't, I will just lovingly curse you all (and all those darn writers of health articles) from beyond the grave. :)

The below is my first attempt at eating healthy; thought of it while strutting down the canned foods aisle of Ralph's while constructing fantasies of my own Semi-Homemade show (starving student edition). Granted, I had to sauté the veggies in tons of butter (with omega-3s!) to mask the taste of veggies (which I absolutely abhor), but whatever bitches, at least I'm getting some.

...oho, the innuendos that could arise from that last statement.

Well all right, signing out!
- Jeanne :)

macaroni tuna salad with red bell peppers, green beans, corn, cucumber, carrots, and way more onions than my skinny Asian stomach could handle: