Happy Thanksgiving

Hotpot picture of an old event. We have hotpot for Thanksgiving as well, but with a lot more vegetables and balls (shrimps, beef and pork balls).

Haven't update for a long time

Haven't update for a long time. I am not really back, lol... The last post seemed like a lie. Anyway, I have been really busy with midterms. One midterm per week and sometimes two, not having enough sleep.

Hopefully I will have some time to update soon. I do plan to have a hotpot event with friends, plan a thanksgiving party, Christmas meal with family and something for my birthday. Would love to update some of those food pics here.

I am back

Haven't update for a month. I am back :D  I'll try to be more active.

My Version of Chicken Quesadilla

 

Ingredients:  cooked white rice, chicken breast, shredded mozzarella cheese, red onions, tomato sauce, tortilla skin

Directions:

1. Cut the chicken breast into small pieces and marinated in soy sauce, salt and sugar for a few hours
2. Stir fried the chicken after it's  marinated
3. On a piece of tortilla skin, put in appropriate amount of cooked chicken, cooked rice, red onion pieces, tomato sauces and mozzarella cheese
4. Fold the tortilla skin  in half to cover all the ingredients
5. In a hot pan, put in the quesadilla
6. Cooked for about 30 seconds on each side or until the skin the appropriately crisp/brown
7. Ready to serve

My version of Guacamole

Ingredients:

Red onion, cilantro, tomato, avocado, white vinegar, Asian hot sauce, salt and pepper

Directions:
1. Wash the vegetables thoroughly and soak in salt water for 10 minutes to get rid of any dirt
2. Cut  the onions, cilantro and tomatoes into small pieces and put them in a bowl
3. Add in an avocado into the bowl  and smash it with a fork, but don't smash it completely. Leave little chunks in for better texture
4. Add in a little bit of vinegar ( cause I don't have lime), hot sauce, salt and pepper
5. Mix everything together well
6. Ready to serve

Garden Tomato and Basil

Love this flavor, never tried it before. It's pretty good in my opinion.

Mycitycuisine.org - A Traveler's Guide to Local Cuisine

Hey everyone, www.mycitycuisine.org  is looking for contributing writers. It's a traveler's guide to local cuisine. If you are interested in writing topics related to food, please visit the site for more details. It should tell you the guidelines for applying on the home page.

A Big Meal For My Friends

A picture of everything I cooked today besides the wings and the ducks. My friends arrived an hour later than the scheduled lunch. We were too hungry so didn't take a close up of each dish or else the food would look a lot better in pictures.

List of dishes I cooked:
Pickled cucumber chicken soup
Seafood tofu with special sauce I mixed
Onion potatoes
Mixed seafood with mushroom
Fishcake fried egg
Egg pancake
Scallion pancake

Will write recipes for each when I have time...

Enjoy your weekend =)

Simple Tomato Egg Drop Soup

Tomato soup is easy to make and good for any season of the year. It's delicious and nutritious. This is a typical Cantonese version family recipe . Every family make it a little bit different, but the main ingredients are always tomatoes and eggs.  The tastes are similar as well and below is my family's version.

Ingredients: tomatoes, scallions, ginger, eggs, sugar, salt

Directions:
1. Cut the tomatoes, scallion and ginger into pieces
2. Heat up the pan with a teaspoon of vegetable oil
3. Add in gingers and stir fried for a while until it smell good
4. Add in tomato slices and stir fried for about a minute or two
5. Pour in a cup of water or two depending the amount of tomatoes you have
6.When it's boiled, put in appropriate amount of sugar and salt ( the taste is suppose to be sweet and sour,  and brings out the flavors of tomatoes)
7. Add in scallions (optional)
8. Add in an egg and stir a little
9. Ready to serve ( you can eat it alone or eat it with rice as a vegetable dish)

Summer Goal

So busy now a days, my goal is to update once a week to keep this blog alive. I will be posting on the weekends :) Hope everyone is having a good summer.

Spicy Shrimp and Stir Fried Dish

will update recipe soon

Sensei's Fruit Facts

1. Oranges are the most commonly grown tree fruti in the world.

2. A plum's skin is well know for having a laxative effect.

3. Watermelons are 92% water.

4. It takes the energy from 50 leaves to produce one apple

5. Unripe pineapples are toxic.

Fruit Facts

Playing this game called Fruit Ninja. The cool thing about this game is it tells you fruit facts every time you play, I will be updating some fruit facts here.

Sensei's Fruit Facts:

The Kiwifruit is declared as the national fruit of China.
There are over 400 varities of Kiwifruit in China.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers in the world. We love and appreciate your hard work for raising us.

Flower Kiss Candy

Flower Kiss Candy taste really good. It refreshes your breath with sweet and fruity flavor. Highly recommended if you like candies that smell  and taste good.

Homemade Dumplings

Made some dumplings over spring break with ground pork, dried mushroom, cilantros, rice wine, Chinese cabbages and other spices

Pad Thai

Had pad thai with friends in a Vietnamese restaurant near Union Square, the food was great. But my friend said the service was horrible, they wouldn't let us change to a bigger table.  It cost $9 including tax and tips for each of us. We had lunch specials.

Bake Potato Fries

Ingredients: 2-3 potatoes

Directions:

1. Wash the potatoes and dry them with tissues or towels

2. Cut the potatoes into equal size stripes

3. On the baking sheet,  spray cooking oil all over

4. Lay potato pieces in the baking sheet and coat them with oil and pinches of salt 

5. Preheat the oven to 420 F

6. Put the tray of potatoes in the oven and bake for about 30 to 40 minutes ( cooking time varies depending on the size of your potato strips and oven )

7. When it's done, serve it with ketchup, salt and pepper or anything

World's Best Pizza

Found an interesting article on the world's best pizza,  top 6:

#1 Naples, Italy
#2 New York, USA
#3 Sao Paulo, Brazil
#4 Osaka and Hiroshima, Japan
#5 Chicago, USA
#6 Rome, Italy

http://travel.yahoo.com/p-interests-39283338

Stir Fried Eggplant with Spicy Sauce

Stir fried eggplant with chicken pieces are plain, but adding Si-Chaun spicy noodle sauce to it makes the dish so delicious. In addition, a hint of cilantro and pepper flakes make it even better.

Pan Fried Buns with Tea

Safe Food Plastic

This video is interesting and useful, information that you don't want to miss

Fishball noodles

Mushroom Egg Omelet

Garlic bread with mushroom, ham omelet. It was delicious.

Xi'an Dishes

A friend said that she'll bring me to this Xi'an place, http://www.xianfoods.com/menu.php?c=4. I checked out the link, the dishes look good. Though there are not a lot choices, but its still worth a try. If you are in the Flushing area and want to try some authentic Chinese food, maybe you can give it a try.

The Cumin Lamb noodle above is one the dishes that I wanted to try the most. I am looking forward to go there and will update if I did. Please let me know your thoughts on this place.

Note: The lamb noodle picture is from the website:  http://www.xianfoods.com/menu.php?c=4

Beef Fried Rice

Recipe coming soon...

Stir Fry Noodle

Homemade Mini Size Pizza

Ingredients: French bread, tomato sauce, cheese (any type you like), any type of meat ( ham, turkey and chicken, etc)

Directions:

Assembling the pizza

1. Cut the french bread into sizes your prefer

2. Use a spoon to drizzle tomato sauce over the bread, just enough to cover the surface or the amount you like

3. Put the meat of your choice on the bread, above the sauce

4. Put the cheese on top of everything, make sure you cover almost everything

Cooking

1.Preheat the oven to 425 F

2.On a baking sheet, spray oil all over it or just pour some oil on the baking sheet and use a paper towel to wipe it all over

3.Put the pizza you assembled on the baking sheet

4.When the oven is ready, put in the baking sheet on the middle rack

5.Cook  for about 5  to 10 minutes or until the cheese is golden brown ( Check once in a while to make sure that the pizza is not burn, oven's cooking time varies)

Tip: You can preheat the oven while assembling the pizza, so you don't have to wait for it to preheat

Note: I was kind of in a rush, so I didn't  wait for the oven to preheat before putting in the pizza. The overall cooking time with the preheat was about 15 minutes ( 10 for preheat and 5 minutes when the oven is ready). But I feel that the cheese really started to cook after the oven is ready

Trader Joe's Mango Chunks

I went to Trader Joe's yesterday and brought a bag of mango chunks. When I was looking at it, I wondered what can I do with frozen mango chunks, but I brought it anyway. After dinner, I pour some out and shared  with my roommates. We all took a piece and put it in our mouth, all of a sudden our faces were scrunch up because it was too cold. It was so funny. When I looked at my roommates, they look like they have toothaches.

Anyway, I figured out a way to eat it without hurting my teeth, lol... just eat it the way you eat an ice popsicle. It's not very sweet, but not sour. It tasted good in my opinion but I was expecting a sweeter taste to it. I still don't know what to do with those mangos besides eat them. If you have any ideas or recipes, please let me know in your comments.

LinMarie's Bourbon Chicken

I finally find a bourbon chicken recipe that has good reviews, by LinMarie. You can check out her site on the link below. I am planning to give this a try some time next month.

The recipe is for 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs bonless chicken breasts
• 1 -2 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger
• 3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/4 cup apple juice
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup soy sauce

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a large skillet.

2. Add chicken pieces and cook until lightly browned.

3. Remove chicken.

4. Add remaining ingredients, heating over medium Heat until well mixed and dissolved.

5. Add chicken and bring to a hard boil.

6. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

7. Serve over hot rice and enjoy.

Read more: http://www.food.com/recipe/bourbon-chicken-45809#ixzz1Hkkx9TaZ

Bourbon Chicken

I went to the mall today and got some bourbon chicken, it's delicious. Haven't eat this for a long time cause they are usually found in the mall and I don't live near any. I really like it and want to learn the recipe.

Note: the picture above is from the Internet, but the chicken looks almost identical to the ones I ate today

Delicious Elbow Pasta

Ingredients:
Elbow pasta, Prego tomato sauce, ham steak, onions, boiled egg, cheese

Directions:
1. Bring water to a boil and put pinches of salt in a pot
2. Add in elbow pasta
3. When the pasta is done, drain the pasta well and put it aside
4. In a pan, put in a small amount of oil
5. Put in a bit of chopped onion, cook for about two minutes
6. Add in hams (chopped in cubes) and stir
7. Add in the drained pasta and stir
8. Add in Prego tomato sauce or any type you like
9. Stir and cook for a minute or two
10. Add in pinches of black pepper and salt to taste
11. Ready to go into a bowl
12. Finally, add in a boiled egg and some cheese u like on top of the pasta. The heat of the food will melt the cheese.

Chef Jason Hill’s Guacamole Recipe

I really like Chef Jason Hill's simple guacamole recipe, just want to share it with everyone

3 ripe avocados, peeled
1 ripe roma tomato, chopped
Small bunch cilantro leaves, chopped
4 green onions, chopped
1 tablespoon sliced jalapenos
1 fresh lime, juice only
2 cloves garlic, minced (optional)

In a bowl, mix together avocado pulp and the rest of the ingredients. Mash well with a fork and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Spicy Shrimps

Ingredients: Shrimps, dried pepper, hot pepper sauce, soy sauce, rice wine, salt, ginger and garlic

Directions:
1. Cut and wash the shrimps
2. Slice the ginger and mince the garlic
3. Heat up the pan with oil
4. Stir fry the ginger, garlic, and dried pepper until they smell good
5. Add in the shrimps, salt, hot pepper paste and continue to stir fry
6. Add in the rice wine and soy sauce
7. Cover the pan for 30 seconds to a minute
8. Ready to eat


Credit: This recipe is from someone on http://www.6park.com/, I translated it into English

Grass Jelly Drink

Mesona chinensis drinks are good for getting rid of bad breath.  It also known as "Grass Jelly Drink", it's delicious in my opinion but some may not like the herbal taste. The drink usually looks like black jelly in a glass of coke except the taste is different. It's sweet and tasty.  I highly recommend trying it.

Some people make these drinks at home, but most people I know buy it in the supermarket. There are different brands , they can be purchase at the Asian supermarkets. The picture I shown here is only one brand. I am not a supporter of the brand or anything, just a picture I happened to find on the Internet.

Healthy Dried Green Beans

I learned that Chinese dried green beans are good for getting rid of acne. It can be purchase in any Asian supermarket.

Three uses of Green Beans I learned:

1.Put the green beans in a pot and boil.
  Turn off the fire once it’s boiled, pour out the water to drink and don’t add any sugar in it.
  ( This water is good for getting rid of acne)

2.You can use the beans for other uses such as making green bean soup or ice cream.

Note: Everything above I learned from family and some Chinese Wiki, I am not sure if it is 100% correct.
But my family always make green bean soup, recipe will be in another entry

Red Beans and Coix Seeds

Red beans, corns, and coix seeds are healthy and good for getting rid of abnormal accumulation of fluid beneath the skin (Medical term= Edema). Red beans are also good for people with low blood pressure. But don’t add too much sugar when cooking it.

Red beans can be made into delicious desserts like read bean soup, read bean ice cream and red bean smoothie, etc.

Velveeta Cheesy Bacon Brunch

Love this recipe by Kraft

Ground Pork Eggplant

Ground Pork Eggplant ( one of my favorite dishes)

Ingredients: Ground pork, eggplant, garlic, soy sauce, rice wine, salt and sugar

Directions:
1. Wash and slice the eggplants
2. Mince the garlic
3. Heat up the pan and stir fry the garlic
4. Add in mince pork and stir fry
5. Add in eggplant and stir fry
6. Add in salt, sugar, soy sauce, and rice wine
7. Heat up for another 10 min
8. Done!

Spam Musubi

I encountered this on the Internet, very creative:

Easy Chicken Pasta

I found this recipe on the site below, everything is copied from there

Ingredients:
8 oz. thin spaghetti
1 bunch broccolini, cut in 2-inch lengths
1 medium red sweet pepper, cut in bite-size strips
1 lb. skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
Salt and ground black pepper
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 cup bottled peanut sauce
Crushed red pepper (optional)

Directions:
1.In Dutch oven cook pasta according to package directions, adding broccolini and sweet pepper during the last 2 minutes of cooking. Drain. Return to Dutch oven and set aside.
2.Meanwhile, halve chicken breasts horizontally. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. In extra large skillet cook chicken in hot oil over medium-high heat for 2 minutes each side, or until no longer pink (170 degrees F). Transfer to cutting board. Slice chicken; add to pasta and vegetables. Heat through. Add peanut sauce. Pass crushed red pepper. Makes 4 servings.

Source: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/food/recipes/chicken-and-pasta-in-peanut-sauce-534114/

Delicious Egg Pancake

The pictures are self-explanatory:

Ingredients: Eggs, flour, veggies, carrots, sausages, salt, oil

Directions:
1. Cut the veggies, carrots, sausages into small pieces
2. Crack the eggs into a bowl and stir
3. Add flour in to the bowl and stir
4. Add in all the ingredients into the bowl and stir
5. Put oil in the pan and heat it up
6. Pour everything from the bowl into the pan
7. Fry until it's cook on one side
8. Flip to the other side and cook until done
9. Ready to eat


Credit: http://pop.6park.com/life6/messages/23520.html

Sweet Ginger Soup

I just found a recipe for making ginger soup. It's quick and easy. Ginger soup can help to keep the body warm, relieve menstrual cramps and make you feel better if you catch a cold.

Ingredients: ginger, red date, brown sugar

Directions: 1)Put in appropriate amount of water, sliced ginger and red dates in a pot and bring it to boil
2) After the soup is boiled, put in appropriate amount of brown sugar
3) Boil it for 5 more minutes
4) Ready to serve

Reference to red date if you don't know what it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jujube

Wonderful Onion Chicken

I made simple and delicious onion chicken tonight, it’s so good that I can’t resist eating it at 12 in the morning:

Recipe coming up soon...

Perfect 10 Ingredients for Guacamole

I love guacamole and this is something I learned from YouTube, itsjudyslife. Her fiance Benji was sharing the recipe. I thought it was great, so I just write it down here to keep a note for myself, so I can make it next time. I also want to share this with everyone else.

Ingredients:
Avocado
Jalapeno
Onions
Tomatoes
Cilantro (keep stem and leaves chunks)
Limes (roll and squeeze)
Black pepper
Salt
Cumin (Optional)
Hot Sauce (Chinese)

Notes:
1. Sprinkle salt and pepper on avocado
2. Cumin (very little)
3. Mix everything ( spread everything evenly)

Simple Noodle Soup

Toppings: Fish tofu, spicy radish, some vegetable

 


Toppings: Fish tofu (Fish Cake), some vegetable, preserved vegetable, boiled egg

Directions:
1. Bring a pot of water to a boil
2. Add in the type of noodle you like and let it cook
3. After the noodles are cooked, drain and put it aside
4. Bring another pot of water to a boil to prepare the soup
5. Put in chicken powder or stock, your favorite meat, favorite vegetables and fish balls
6. After everything is cooked, put in the noodle you cooked before
7. Add in soy sauce, salt and tiny bit of sugar or any sauce you like