Mini Peach Croissant Pouches

So, it's been a while since any of us here at The Nom Nom Club posted up any food experiments. So for the Labor Day weekend, I made mini peach pouches. My mom gave me a bunch of really crunchy and sweet peaches she bought at the flew market, but I left them out and within a few days they got soft. What better to do with soft peaches than to make baked desserts out of them!
I wanted to try pie, but I didn't have enough peaches (I only had 3), so I went a little off the recipe and experimented. It turned out great and tastes like peaches stuffed in a Pillbury croissant --because that's what it is.

It is very easy to make with minimum ingredients, which is always good for a student short on monetary funds :)













Ingredients:
1 - Pillsbury Croissant dough
3 - large peaches
1/3 - cup of brown sugar

Step by step:
-Wash and peel the peaches. Cut them up into small chunks.
-Toss the peach chunks into a saucepan, add brown sugar, stir around, and very important, keep the heat low. This will allow the sugar to caramelize, the peach juices to release, making a very sweet stuffing without burning your pan or the peaches. Also, this allows you with time to get out the Pillsbury Croissant dough.
-Open the canister of Pillsbury Croissant dough. This is my first time opening that thing and it scared me as it popped out with an airy boop! Carefully, roll the dough out and tear the sections up. Everything is already pre-made so it makes everyone's job easy
-When the peaches are golden and and the juices are syrupy thick, turn off the heat and let it cool a bit.
-Ladle in the desired amount of peaches you want onto the section of croissant dough. Try to keep it small because the dough section is pretty small. When you roll it up, the stuffing might come out, especially the juices if there's too much. I've tried several ways: rolling on a pan, making a cup from the dough, but they all are capable of holding relatively similar amount of peach stuffing.
-Roll up the bundle. Crease and pinch all the openings so nothing can seep out when you're baking.
-Take a little bit of the syrup from the pan and dust the top of the croissants with them. This will give the croissant a caramelized, golden shine once baked. 
-Set in baking pan and bake at 350F for 10 mins (as instructed in the canister).
-Take out and enjoy! If you have extra peaches in the pan, like I did, use it to top the croissant.

Milestone for Jeanne.

I've did it. I've really did it. No, it's not that I've received an acceptance letter from pharmacy school. It's that I'VE HAD SANDWICHES FOR TWO WEEKS STRAIGHT! If you know me at all, that's a huge accomplishment. It sounds so high-maintenance, but I can't even eat the same kind of meals for three days without gagging. I start avoiding it long enough for it to spoil, so I would have a legitimate reason to throw it out. Bizarre, I know.

I haven't had sandwiches for every meal, of course. That would be silly. ;) What happened was that I made similar sandwiches to the ones I posted the other week for a couple of days, but somewhere along the way, I remembered that I didn't like tomatoes all that much, and it made me avoid meat-filled sandwiches for a while. During that time, I made sandwiches with Ralph's Hazelnut spread and Ralph's Natural Crunchy peanut butter for breakfast/lunch. I remember getting tired of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches really easily, but for some reason, the peanut butter and hazelnut spread combo has been working for me. Half the jars are gone! And I've finished one whole bag of bread!

The other day, after my PSYC 1 midterm, I decided I really wanted to try making a risotto-inspired dish so I could use up the terrible American rice I bought from Ralph's. I stopped by Henry's Marketplace to buy a small can of tomato paste and chicken breast slices (and grabbed 3 pears, 3 oranges, and 2 onions while I was at it for total of $6!) Gathering rice, tomatoes, butter, canned corn, organic chicken stock, and some lactose-free milk, I worked at it for an hour or so before giving up. I couldn't get some of the rice to fully cook, and naively thought if I put it into my rice-cooker, it would solve the problem. That ended up doing nothing except making my "risotto" into a more porridge-consistency. But the good thing was that the dish smelled really good (probably because the chicken I haphazardly marinated turned out great) and I packed it up into my glass containers to bring to school. Had some yesterday and the occasional crunch of uncooked rice was quite nasty, but I think once I solve that problem, this recipe is a keeper.

Early this afternoon, I made tomato egg drop soup to finish off the remainder of the chicken stock. Sadly, I covered the bowl with saran wrap and left it in my room, only to come home and discover that a fly flew and DIED in it. I googled to see if it was safe to eat the soup, and found mixed opinions. I decided I was too grossed out anyway, and dumped the soup and instead made myself the two lovely sandwiches you see above. =D I sautéed some onions that I had pre-chopped from the failed-risotto day, and added it to the turkey, egg, monterrey jack cheese and buttered toast sandwich.

Also, I stopped by Trader Joe's today to pick up some prepackaged Rotisserie Chicken Slices, Chicken and Vegetable Potstickers, Spinach Tortellini, and a can of Turkey Chili (I tried a sample of the chili dogs they had and it was delicious!) Stopped by Ralph's to get more bread(!), and picked up two jars of spaghetti sauce. Also got fresh green beans for $2 from the farmer's vendor right next to Trader Joe's. I spend too much time at the market. :( Need to come up with better schedule.

Lastly, I've decided I'm going to try eating Trader Joe's frozen foods instead of keep wasting time making dishes that turn out terrible. The ones I picked up today were just $2 apiece, so 5 frozen meals for the week will just be $10! I figure if I combine that with sandwiches for lunch, I won't wear out my tastebuds. Will update y'all on how that goes!

Jeanne discovers bread.

So ok, total lie. I haven't been living under a rock for so long that I haven't seen bread until this week. But recently, I've been eating so infrequently that I suppose my brain subconsciously has an orgasm every time it sees any image of food online. Ok, more lies, not just any image of food. My palate is too delicate (read: I'm too picky) to fantasize about just any dish. ;)

This particular dish I came across last week wasn't some concoction that's recently rocked the culinary world. In fact, every kid in America has probably had it at some point or the other. What the frick is this dish, you say? *drum roll* The cheese sandwich.

Maybe because I've been stressing over school so much lately that I find reason to get distracted by the littlest thing, but holy cow, as soon as that scrumptious snapshot on All Recipes registered in my visual association cortex, I knew THAT MEAL HAD TO BE MINE.

So yesterday, I stopped by Ralph's and got Van de Kamp's Honey and Oat Bran bread, Land O' Lake's Monterrey Jack cheese, Challenge Butter's Spreadable Butter with Canola Oil, and some Roma tomatoes and spinach. I wasn't satisfied with the collection of deli meats at Ralph's, and I vaguely remembered that the Trader Joe's next door had some pretty delicious-looking stuff, so I stopped by there next. My plan was to buy this huge chunk of pre-cooked Rosemary-infused chicken breast they sell for $5, but when I got there, I realized I probably wouldn't have time in the morning to keep slicing that thing up to make sandwiches (read: I remembered my laziness) and decided to check out the pre-sliced pre-cooked deli meat instead (God, I'm lazy.) That turned out to be the better deal, since there was a wider selection of meats and the ingredients seemed mostly natural. I grabbed the Peppered Turkey Breast because it had 2% more Iron. Well ok, the actual reason was that the ringlet of pepper on the brim of the slices were pretty, and I'm a sucker for visual stimulus.

That night, I buttered up the bread before frying it on the stove and piling sliced pieces of turkey, cheese, tomatoes, and spinach on top. In that order. (Ask the boyfriend; he'll tell you I'm very particular with my sandwich arrangement.) I didn't get around to eating it until late this afternoon, and had to reheat it in a toaster oven at work. By the time I actually sat down to eat it, however (had to walk from workplace to student center), it had gotten cold again! But one bite into that mighty thing and ohhhh my gooodnesss, that didn't even matter. I usually don't eat tomatoes, but the ones I picked were firm enough that my usual gag reflex to fresh tomatoes didn't kick in. Unfortunately, the spinach was a whole other story. It tasted like bad dried seaweed! I stomached it for the first half of the sandwich, but when I got to the second half, I decided I didn't want the pieces ruining an otherwise perfectly good meal so I picked them all out. I asked the boyfriend, Master of Eating Veggies, whether spinach was supposed to taste like that and he said no...so either I picked bad spinach, or it's just me. :( I've seen recipes where people use spinach in omelets, so I might try that out to use the rest of what I have...

After that success, I spent the remainder of the day zoning out in class, thinking about what other combinations of sandwiches I could make. By the time I got home, I decided that I wanted to make the one pictured above (a turkey, tomato, cheese and egg).

Lesson here is sandwiches are so easy to make! Who knew?! It's so nice not having to slave hours making meat entrees to eat with rice. I'm going to try making them more frequently so I don't have to buy lunch at school, but as Allison said, I really should be careful to not overdo it because I tend to get tired of repetitive meals very easily. ^^;; And God forbid I get tired of this; it's going to save me so much lunch money!

Poached Eggs for Dinner

Desperate times call for desperate measures and when one is hungry, the mind is like a fountain of knowledge and creativity to come up with ways to satisfy the growling stomach. Take eggs, for example. Eggs is the man's best friend...well in terms of quick meal...not so much for the cholesterol. However, I have found out that poached eggs is like heaven. It makes you feel healthy for eating eggs! Not to mention it is very easy to make. Though, don't expect perfection the first time around. Toss in a few slices of toast, a salad, and some egg soup and you've got yourself a quick, light meal. Note: definitely not the meal for the carnivorous eater who have ran a marathon.

Poached eggs:

-1-2 eggs. Depends on how much you want to eat.

-saucer/pot of boiling drinkable water

1. The secret to poached eggs is to gently add the eggs into a pot of hot water and keep the whites localized around the yolk. If you're comfortable with breaking the egg directly into the saucer, yay, if not, break the egg into a cup and then gently slide the egg into the pot. Use a spoon to fold the whites over the yolk and keep the whites from scattering arou

nd the water. If you want, you can put a lid over the pot and cook the egg to your desire. Take note that poached eggs taste best when the yolk is still liquidy. Gently and carefully fish the egg out of the pot. Sprinkle some black peppers on it if you prefer. Repeat the same methods for the other eggs.

*Note: Do not put the egg into boiling water. Heat the water to boil, then lower the heat.

2. Another way to do this, which I've f

ound on youtube, is really fun. But you've got to be quick. Take a spoon and stir the hot water in circular motions so that you create a swirling effect. Quickly, slide th

e egg into the water. You'll see that the swirling action would help localize the whites around the yolk. And it's fun to watch.

3. Now, the pot of water you have may have some egg whites that "fell off" the whole egg, but luckily you can turn that into egg soup. Add 1-2 tomatoes to the pot, salt for flavor, and add a spoonfuls of beaten eggs into the soup. Cook until the tomatoes are soft. The soup should have a salty, yet tangy flavor.

3. Salad of your choice and toast.

Canh Chua College Style!

Hello fellow college students who are hungry and dying of a home cooked meal because after a whole week of eating pasta, chicken, and burritos for lunch and dinner, your heart just wants to give up...literally. So I understand that making a home cooked meal is hard, especially Vietnamese food since there are so many different types of spices and herbs you have to incorporate into the food to give it that exploding Southeast Asian flavor; not to mention those spices and herbs can be expensive and difficult to find (if you're in a city that does not have a large Asian community). But, all that aside, to help the poor, starving college student who wants to reminisce the scent of his or her mother's cooking, but does not know the traditional way (or does not have time), here is a simplified version of canh chua.

Canh chua is Vietnamese sour soup. It's literally called sour soup in Vietnamese! Traditionally, it would be cooked with catfish or cá trê (in VN). I don't think we have cá trê in the U.S., or not to my knowledge. It is best with catfish, but it could also be substituted for salmon or chicken ( I will go into the best type of chicken sour soup later). I don't like chicken much and I love salmon, which is a good thing because frozen salmon fillets are easier to work with in comparison to catfish. After all, we are only college students with no prior knowledge in cooking. The main ingredient to make the sour soup sour is usually tamarind (me in Vietnamese) and sometimes we would add pineapples to give it a more flavorful taste. So onward to the simplified version of canh chua, where everyone can make it. It takes about 20 minutes max once you have all the ingredients at hand.

Ingredients:

-A bag of tamarind/sour soup seasoning

-A fillet of salmon

-A can of Dole pineapple chunks in juice NOT syrup.

-Bean sprouts

-Tomatoes

-Bạc hà (it's a spongy, stalk-like veggie, usually found in veggie section in Asian supermarket).

-Leek OR shallots

-Ngò ôm (herb for seasoning)

-Fish sauce OR mushroom seasoning OR salt (I prefer the first two over the last)

-Tofu (optional)

-Red peppers (optional)

1. Heat up the pot and put a bit of oil in it. Dice the leek/shallot. Put it into the pot and stir it around. Add in the salmon fillets.

2. Once the salmon is slightly seared, add water to the pot. Fill half a pot.

3. Add half a bag of tamarind seasoning in. Stir. Wait for pot to boil. When the water boils, there will usually be frothy bubbles. Carefully spoon them out. Cut tofu into squares and put them into the pot.

4. Cut the tomatoes into quarters. Add tomatoes. Drain the pineapples from the juices (you can keep the juices if you want) and add the pineapples chunks. Bring pot to boil again.

5. Add bạc hà. The bạc hà doesn't take that long to cook. Lower the heat if the soup starts to boil.

6. Taste the soup. Too sour or not salty? Add some fish sauce/mushroom seasoning/salt. Not sour enough? Add a bit more of the tamarind mix. Too salty? Add some water or some of the pineapple juices that you saved. Keep on it until you get the flavor you want.

7. Add in the bean sprouts.

8. Wash and dice the ngò ôm. Garnish the soup with it.

9. If you want red peppers for spice, cut the red pepper into small pieces and put it in.

10. Eat and enjoy!

To me, this is the simplest version of canh chua. Now, onto the chicken canh chua. Usually in Vietnam, there would be an herb called lá dang. It provides the sour taste to the canh chua, totally different from the tamarind. In America, we don't have lá dang. So we have to improvise. My Mum uses rau chua, literally called sour herb. Those who eat bánh xèo should be familiar with rau chua.

So enjoy this simple recipe and remember, every time you cook something, you come up with alternative ways to make it better and more unique. I hope I can learn how to make cá kho tộ, so I can have canh chua cá kho tộ. First, I have to learn how to make the catfish...

Cơm Chiên Nước Dừa và Khốm (Tropical Fried Rice)

It's my fifth week of college so far and everyday I thank my mother for making me food so that I would last through several weeks without buying any food. However, there are those moments, especially after a big midterm week, that I have an affinity for the kitchen. This weekend in particular was very nice. I had a sudden random idea of making coconut rice and then mixing it with pineapples and a bunch of other ingredients to make fried rice. I haven't a clue where I got the idea from...probably from mixing up xôi ngọt and xôi mặng (sweet sticky rice and salty sticky rice). So I went to the market and got everything I needed to experiment on this idea of mine. Luckily, I have people in the apartment willing to try my experiment. The good thing was that they seemed to like it. I must say, the hardest part would probably be cooking the rice with coconut milk in the traditional way. But that's just my opinion.

-3 cups of jasmine rice (gạo)
-1 can of coconut milk (nước dừa sữa)
-1 cup of water (nước)
-1 can of Dole chunk pineapples in 100% pineapple juice or if you're really awesome, use fresh pineapples (khốm)
-2-3 links of Asian sausages (lạp xưỡng)-Snow peas (đậu hòa lan)
-Ginger (gừng)
-Green onions (hành)
-Soy sauce (nước tương) for seasoning-Salt (muối)

1. Wash 3 cups of rice in a non-stick pot. Add 1 cup of water to the rice and 1 can of coconut milk. Mix. Heat up high until the pot boils. Then lower the heat to medium and let the rice cook. Remember to keep the lid tightly on the pot. Check on it regularly to make sure the cooked rice doesn't get burnt at the bottom.

2.Cut the links of sausages into small slices. Put them into another pot to fry it up. No oil is required since the fat from the sausages would be enough to keep it moist. When sausages turn a full dark red, transferred sausages to bowl.

3. Peel ginger and cut it into tiny square pieces.

4. Cut snow peas in half and put them in

to a pot. Add a small amount of water into the pot; don't cover the peas with water. Sprinkle in some salt and some ginger (don't use all the ginger, only a small portion). Cover the lid and let the peas steam on medium high heat. Check on the snow peas regularly and take it off the stove when it's steamed to your desired texture. Some people like it soft, some prefer it more crunchy. Drain any remaining water and transfer snow peas into bowl.

5. If the pineapple chunks are too big, cut it to smaller size. If you're using from a can, drain the water. You don't need the water because the pineapple

chunks will still retain enough water to flavor the rice later.

6. Cut the green onions into tiny pieces and set it aside.

7. When the rice is finished cooking (soft, liquid all gone), add in the sausages, pineapples, snow peas, ginger, and green onions. Toss the rice. This is the frying part of the fried rice. So stand there and fry the rice up. Make sure to break any large chunks of rice that may have been stuck together because they were at the bottom of the pot. Don't worry if it's a little burnt; it's what happens when you cook rice the traditional way.

8. Add soy sauce to flavor the rice to your liking. I didn't make this too salty because I didn't feel adding heavy soy sauce to coconut scented rice would make it nice to me. So I added a little bit of soy sauce. If you used a lot of the sausages, you probably don't need the soy sauce since you can eat the rice with the sausage and it'll give the salty factor to your rice.

9. Done, and eat!


3 cups lasted me two days...well I had several people eating it, so I think if I were to eat it alone, I would last me longer. But no problem, just throw it into the fridge, and when you want to eat it, take it out and fry it up again. I don't know, however, how long it would last since it has coconut in it. But then again, you shouldn't be eating fried rice all week anyways.
Cheers and good luck on college cooking!

Gỏi Đu Đủ Xoài

Been totally lazy to upload anything lately, but I've recently tried a twist to the regular gỏi đu đủ that we usually eat with kho bò. Now I love mangoes, from fresh fruit to ice, cold treats; therefore I decided to add mangoes to the recipe. It's a shame I didn't take a picture because it looked really good with a mix of the sprinkles of green from the Thai Basil (rau huế), the green papaya, the yellow of the mangoes, and of course the kho bò.

-1 lb of shredded green papaya (you can find this at the Asian supermarkets in the vegetables section)
-1 very firm green mango, slice to thin strips, like the shredded papaya
-1 to 2 bags of beef jerky, depending on how much you eat of it. You can use a scissor to cut it into strips.
-Thai basil leaves. Give it a rough cut.

Sauce. You can use soy sauce or fish sauce. I prefer soy sauce.
-1/2 cup of soy sauce
-1/2 cup of vinegar
-2 teaspoons of sugar
-Chili sauce
Mix everything into a bowl and then make adjustments to your liking, whether you want the sauce to be saltier (add more soy sauce), sourer (add vinegar), or spicier (add chili sauce).

When you eat, just put everything into a bowl, mix in the sauce, and enjoy. People sometimes complain that there's not enough kho bò to the amount of papaya and mangoes, but I like it that way. It is after all, gỏi, so there should be a larger about of the fruits.

Even though I put chili sauce into the sauce, my dad prefers to eat the gỏi with more chili sauce, so when he eats, he adds more chili sauce. He was basically sweating while eating. I can never go that hardcore unless its bún bò huế. So cool to the tongue from the cold and water infused papaya, but very spicy afterwards. A nice summer treat, I would say.

Balsamic Glazed Salmon

Today I tried to make Balsamic vinegar glazed salmon. It was several weeks ago that over a series of emails between my friends. Who knows what we may have been talking about, but it came to the topic of balsamic glazed salmon and one friend said it was really good. So today, I decided to make it. I used the base recipe from Epicurious and then added some stuff and replaced some stuff to make it my own style. It came out very good for something I never made before.


I followed the recipe (kinda). I didn't really used the quantity since in cooking I'm an eyeballer, which means I prefer to just pour, sprinkle, splash, etc, whatever amount that I "feel" would suffice. I had to make two batch of marinade since the first batch wasn't enough with all the salmon steaks I cut up. Also, instead of orange juice because I didn't have oranges, I used Cutie tangerines--the small tangerines that are oh-so cute (hence the name! ;]) I also used a spoonful of honey to add some sweetness into the marinade. I read the comments on Epicurious and found that some people said adding white wine makes it better, so that's just what I did. I love adding wine into marinade/sauce(remember my strawberry shortcake, ladies?). I can't tell the presence of white wine, but I think that's because I only added a tablespoon of it. But from chemistry, I know that alcohol has a bursting reaction to heat...so good to me! =] Something else I did differently was use the tangerine peels. I cut the peels into strips after I squeezed all the juices out and added them to the marinade. When I fried up the salmon, I also fried up the tangerine peels. They were incredibly good to eat after they caramelized in the sauce; they had this tangy, sweet, citrusy-bitterness to them.
In addition, I made my veggies! Red and green bell peppers, tomatoes, chives, fresh rosemary that was left over from the marinade, and of course, stir fry it up with the marinade sauce that was left over. Totally incredible!

My dad wondered if the balsamic vinegar glazed salmon was an American cuisine, then what was the tangerine for. I simply told him it was my attempt at fusion...I think I have a new love for fusion food.

Love from Allison!
(\ /)
(^.~)
(")(")

Honey Walnut Shrimp

My sister decided to make honey walnut shrimp. It's like the only thing that she goes back for seconds and thirds at the buffet and the only plate she herself can wolf down at the restaurant. She never made this before, so today was her first try. It turned out pretty well actually, give hilarious moments such as when she tried to get a broken eggshell out of the egg whites and how she dropped the shrimp when she was picking it up. Like I said, hilarious. Now I had my doubts. I ate her home made cookies before...they tasted well, but well...they can break teeth. Not to mention when she was mixing in the mayonnaise, honey, lemon juice, and condense milk, it looked totally funky. However, it turned out quite well. Delicious actually. The walnuts were kind of funky because they weren't fresh. So I suggest using the fresh walnuts since it would be crunchier. Overall, kudos to my sister. So here's what she shared:

-Shrimp, peeled and deveined, dipped into egg whites and covered with corn starch, and fried in a skillet.
-Sauce: mayonnaise, lemon juice, honey, and condense milk mixed together unless you get a desired taste and a slightly liquid concoction.
-Walnuts: heat up sugar and water and put the walnuts into the pot. After it boils, drain and leave walnuts on wax paper so the sugar can caramelized.
-Mix the fried shrimp with sauce and walnuts..and eat!

Bánh Xèo (Vietnamese Crepes)

Hello! My finals are over and my summer has started, which strikes much envy from my fellow asianposse blogger(s). So in my first weekend home, my mom made bánh xèo, which is a godsend to someone who has been eating the boring food at school and the ever non-healthy friendly spam and rice (four days in a row...ugh, my doctors would be so not pleased). =D She has her own garden of green lettuce and Vietnamese herbs and she said that the lettuce and herbs were too fresh to pass over eating bánh xèo. I was perfectly content with the idea.
I don't eat bánh xèo much because it's not technically my favorite food, but it's been a while since I ate it and when it's a while since you ate something (especially within the Vietnamese cuisine..IT IS HEAVEN).
So, here it is...bánh xèo, a recipe of my mom, and she probably learned it from the women she went to English class with. Yes, my mother went to class to learn English, but she ended up gaining a zillion of recipes instead. ;]
You will need:


-Bánh Xèo mix (found in every Asian supermarket I know)

-Crisp Fried Powder mix (found right next to the bánh xèo mix)


-Pork (you can use only the lean part or you can buy the one with the part meat, part fat and skin)
-Small-sized Shrimp
-Onions (halved and sliced into thing strips)
-Scallions (diced)
-Bean sprout
-Milk
-Salt (a pinch)
-A pinch of MSG (I know! but...if you eat Asian cuisine, you need MSG or else it would taste all bland)
-Oil

Accessories to accompany the dish:
-Red or green leaf lettuce (I prefer green because it's a bit crunchier than red)
-An array of herbs (Fish Mint-diếp cá; Peppermint-húng cay; Spearmint-húng lũi; Sorrel-rau chua; Vietnamese Coriander-rau răm; Vietnamese perilla-tía tô). Remove the leaves from the stem, wash them several times, and let them dry.

-Fish sauce (made with fish sauce, water, lime juice, garlic, red peppers, sugar)

Directions:
-Mix in half a bag of bánh xèo mix with half a bag of Crisp Fried Powder mix, and 3 cups of milk. Add in the diced scallions, a pinch of salt and a pinch of MSG, and mix until the powder dissolves. Let the mixture stand for about half an hour. Use this time to prepare the other things.

-Clean and wash the pork. Put it into a pot and fill it with enough water to cover it. Boil it. When done, drain and leave the pork out for it to cool a bit. Slice the pork into small strips as shown.

-Peel the shrimp if you've bought the one that isn't pre-peeled. Wash with some salt, drain, and set it aside.

-Gather pork, shrimp, onions, bean sprout, and the bánh xèo mix to one area for efficiency.
-Pour oil into a medium size skillet and let it heat up.
-Put in onions, let it sizzle for several seconds.
-Put in several shrimp and mix them around until the shrimp is cooked.
-Pour in the bánh xèo mix, enough to make a thin layer. This would be easy to do if you put in about one soup ladle and roll the mix around in the pan so the liquid would be spread across the skillet.
-Immediately scatter the pork onto the bánh xèo. Quantity is up to preference.
-Scatter in a handful of bean sprout (again, quantity is up to preference).

-Check the bottom to see if the bánh xèo is browning on the bottom. If it is, fold it in half and put it onto a plate.
-Add oil and repeat again to use up all of the mixture. Depending on the skillet size, this recipe makes about 10-12 bánh xèo.

Fish sauce:
-Pour a bowl of hot water and let it cool down a bit.
-Dice in 3-4 cloves of garlic and 2-3 red peppers and put them into an empty bowl.
-Put in about 4-5 teaspoons of sugar
-Cut a lime and squeeze the juice in. (You can use half or all depending on the size. You know you have enough lime juice when the contents look smoothie-like)
-Add in the half of the water from the bowl, slowly, and stir the contents at the same time.
-Add in the fish sauce until the color looks light reddish brown. Taste and begin to perfect the sauce to your taste buds. If it's too salty, add some sugar and water. If it's too bland, add more fish sauce. Remember, it's the sauce that makes or breaks the cuisine.

Bánh xèo is traditionally eaten by wrapping the lettuce and herbs around it, making it sort of like a spring roll, and then dipping it into fish sauce. However, like my sister likes to eat them (without getting her hands dirty), put everything into a plate, pour fish sauce over it, and eat it with a chopstick. =]
It's a very good dish with all the nutrients needed daily: fibers, proteins, starch. But gosh, with the way my mom likes to cook everything I want to eat, I will need to exercise more!


Much love from Allison to the rest of the posse who have their finals coming up! <3

Hunger-pangs creativity.

The other day during the bus ride home, I was SERIOUSLY fricking hungry. Between the hazy, delirious thoughts of "urgh, am I at my stop yet?" and "God, I hate taking the bus", I started fantasizing about the sort of delectables I could consume once I reached the house. I came up with the idea for a quesadilla-ish meal to finish off the Trader Joe's chicken that I've had for like, two weeks, and the Oroweat Whole-grain and Flaxseed bread I've had for like, a month (really disturbing, I know). But alas, when I got home and smelled the bread, was totally disgusted and the idea got trashed, along with the bread. I can't remember what I ended up eating, but this morning, I woke up thinking, HRMM, I want a tuna-melt sunny-side-egg sandwich!

So I "borrowed" two slices of bread and an egg from their kitchen, and made what turned out to be the best sandwich I've had in a long time! :) Very impressed with my own brilliance, hee. Some other stuff that went in were: the remaining Sriracha-sauced tuna salad (left-over from Friday's sushi meal), organic bell pepper, cilantro & jalapeño hummus (it's like a bottomless tub, I swear!), Monterrey jack cheese, and honey mustard. I'm usually not very good at making sunny-side-up that comes out right, but it came out perfect today! The outer yolk was nice and firm while the inside was slightly runny; exactly how I like it. :)

I downloaded Photoscape the other week, so got to try out the "selective coloring" technique today after looking around for tutorials. That's their little cousin behind the sandwich. She likes to snoop around to ask for bites when I'm eating. :/ See the devious grin?

- Jeanne

ETA: Oh yea, yesterday, cooked up the short-grained-rice rice porridge with massive amount of water, and huh, you really can't mess up rice porridge! We ended up going to a Vietnamese restaurant to eat (com tam, yum), but now I'm at a peace of mind that I have an edible tub of rice porridge in the fridge to eat my perusal. :)

Semi-homemade.

I've been so kitchen-productive the past couple of weeks!
These are some of the stuff I've made these past couple of weeks:
- (top left) fried rice with Trader Joe's Thai Curry Sauce, Joe's plain rotisserie chicken, one egg, green beans, onions, carrots. Wasn't a life-changing recipe, not trying this again any time soon until I figure out where I went wrong...
- (top right) macaroni&wheat noodles, Joe's rosemary rotisserie chicken, Joe's organic sweet peas (so cute; super small!), celery, and mushrooms cooked in alfredo sauce, topped with Kraft's Monterrey Jack cheese and SensiblePortions'garlic & chives pita crackers. Was all right; should've added less veggies and more alfredo sauce since I like it creamy.
- (bottom left) more fried rice. Tried to keep it more normal this time and just used the curry sauce, sweet peas, celery and eggs. Added fish sauce too, but came out sort of weird. I can't make good fried rice for some reason! :'(
- (bottom right) Hahaha, the ultimate comfort food: plain rice with dried&shredded pork (which my mom bought for me). The simplest food to prepare always taste the best!

I made some chicken wraps the other week too, but forgot to take a picture. I've also been really into the whole salad thing lately since I bought a bottle of Litehouse's Honey Mustard, which is SERIOUSLY THE ANSWER TO LIFE OMG.

Went to the asian supermarket near my house to buy some short-grained rice to make sushi, and omg rice brands are so confusing! "New crop!" "Premium!" "Harvested using new technology!" they all scream. WHAT DOES THAT BLOODY MEAN? Anyway, ended up buying Shirakiku's premium short-grained rice (because I could actually see the content) after spending like, 15 minutes debating between the brands. Then went home and read other people's reviews on the brands (hrmm, maybe should've done this BEFORE I went?) and apparently Nishiki medium-grained (slightly cheaper) would've worked out fine, too. Despite currently taking a social psychology that covered sales tactics just two weeks ago, I still get suckered in by packaging, sigh.

Attempted to cook it in a pot today since FoodNetwork does that, but came out so weird I just ended up adding more water to make rice porridge. -__- [Short-grained rice isn't very good for making rice porridge, btw; does NOT produce porridge consistency at all.] So for second batch, cooked it in the rice-cooker and it came out pretty decent! Some other stuff that went in:
- Mizkan Rice Vinegar
- Shirakiku toasted sesame seeds
- Chicken of the Sea tuna salad (I added Sriracha Sauce)
- some made-in-China roasted seaweed
- Persian cucumbers
- organic green bell peppers
I topped it off with Trader Joe's Cilantro & Jalapeño Hummus (from the other week!), honey mustard*, and Marukai's pickled ginger. I guess maybe because I had really low expectations of how it would come out due to the troubles with the rice to begin with, but maaaan it came out loads better than I expected! The cucumber I bought was kind of bitter, though; should buy the Japanese variety next time. Also bought imitation crab when I went Marukai Market today; am really looking forward to making the next batch of sushi! :)

*Had some mashed sweet potatoes with honey mustard for "desert". Did I already mention how obsessed I am with honey mustard??

I've yet to figure out what to do with that weird rice porridge, urgh. Suggestions?

- Jeanne

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!