Pickled Cucumbers

This pickled cucumbers dish was a staple item for me growing up.  A popular Chinese dish, I always order it whenever I am eating at a Taiwanese restaurant.  My mom also knows that I love this, so she will remember to make it when it's hot out.  It's been hot out, so I decided to make it for myself!  It's quite a simple dish to put together... I may be pickling more often now.

Pickled Cucumbers

Ingredients
- 8 Persian cucumbers
- 2 1/2 tsp salt
- 8 cloves of garlic, smashed
- 4 Tbsp rice vinegar
- 2 1/2 tsp sugar
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- garlic chili sauce, to your desired spiciness (I only put a dash for taste)

Steps
1. Wash the cucumbers and cut it in half length-wise. Cut it again length-wise to produce 4 long slices.  Cut the slices in half (or thirds, depending on how long the slices are) into 2 or 3-inch pieces.

2. Toss cucumbers with salt and let it sit for 20-30 minutes, to let excess water drain out.

3. Drain water and mix in smashed garlic, rice vinegar, sugar, sesame oil, and garlic chili sauce (optional).  Mix well!

4. Place it in the refrigerator overnight (about 24 hours for best results) and enjoy!

Serves 2-3.

Crunch crunch.  The garlic gives it a little extra kick!

Summer Dessert with Nectarines and Apricots

One of the common questions I get while being pregnant right now is: do you crave anything?  Sometimes I think long and hard about this because I don't really think I do.  I do not have crazy cravings such as pickles dipped in chocolate or fries dipped in ice cream (although I already do love this with McDonald's soft serve and their french fries... hmm, I want some right now), but I guess I do crave something, and I eat A LOT of it... fruits!!

This started back during my first trimester, when I avoided eating a lot of things because nothing seemed appetizing to me.  I felt like I had to force myself to eat my lunch or dinner (especially dinner... I just wanted to go to sleep!), but the only thing I enjoyed eating were fruits.  It was apples, oranges, and bananas at the time since it was winter.  Now that summer is here, I am a much happier pregnant lady!  I get to enjoy items such as watermelon, cantaloupe, pineapple, peaches, nectarines, plums, apricots, pears, cherries, and the list goes on and on... you know those Costco-sized watermelons?  I can eat one all by myself in less than a week.  I LOVE FRUIT!

My current love for fruits inspired me to make a quick dessert for the family last Saturday night.  I have sooo much fruit in my fridge, why not share?  This was a delicious and fulfilling galette, especially with a big scoop of Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream!

Nectarine and Apricot Galette
from Simply Recipes

A few variations...
...instead of using 2 peaches, I used 1 nectarine and 4 large apricots.
...mixed 2 tsp of sugar and 1/2 tsp of cinnamon together to get cinnamon sugar, and generously sprinkled the mixture on the crust (after the eggwash process) to give it a bit more of a sugary taste.  If you have coarse sugar, it's even better!
...I actually forgot the small chunks of butter to be placed on top of the fruits, but I don't think it mattered much.  You can opt out if trying to save some fatty calories (quite little though).

Happy fruits.

Alternating nectarine and apricot slices.  Fold the corners to wrap it all up!

Mouthwatering...

Just Pictures: Big Island Eats

In terms of cooking, I've been MIA for awhile. The reason?  A certain tiny human being has taken over my life and I am either too tired or too achy to step into the kitchen and whip up something.  Yes, we are expecting and our ever growing baby boy is currently at 27 weeks!  We cannot wait for his arrival this late September!

Before the baby's arrival, we decided to have one last go at a real vacation and spent a week on the Big Island of Hawaii.  It was an amazing, relaxing, and food-filling week of sun-soaking, island-exploring, and food-tasting fun.  Take a look at some of the great things (and a couple of "THE BEST" things) we tasted:

Da Poke Shack

Because I cannot eat raw fish (trust me, I was kicking myself over and over again the entire week), I have to rely on my hubby's equally good taste buds to let me know if this place was good. With a raving 5-stars from 223 reviewers on Yelp, and the hubby grinning, savoring each bite of the fish every time he had it, I knew I was missing out on something big.  Daily, there are usually about 4-6 choices of poke, and you can choose 1 or 2 styles of poke, a side, and a big blob of white or brown rice with nori (seaweed) flakes sprinkled generously on top.

Top to bottom: sesame poke with kimchi mussels and white rice; Pele's Kiss with crab salad and brown rice.

Yes, I am drooling along with you.  To top it off, this place was literally right outside our rented condo, so I have to walk by it every day, watching everyone enjoying the delicious poke!  I'm not sure if we'll ever be back, but if we get the chance, I am definitely going to try it, multiple times!!

Island Fruits

Left to right: kona mango - it's just so much better in Hawaii; apple banana - tangy and sweet banana; papaya -  a MUST!

Rotana's Thai Cuisine

One of THE BEST I've ever had - a super fresh papaya salad.  It was the perfect combination of green papaya, tomatoes, carrots, peanuts, lime juice, and fish sauce.  There may be other secret ingredients.  I can eat this every day! 

Sam Choy's

A nice meal with amazing views to round out our week on the Big Island.

Left to right: complementary salad and coconut curry soup, lava flow (virgin and non-virgin), and Kona chicken wings.

Top to bottom: braised short ribs on a bed of chow mien and Kona orange duck with a side of brown rice.

Scandinavian Shave Ice

One can't go to Hawaii without eating some shaved ice!  Super fine ball of ice drenched with mango and passion fruit syrup, with a delicious macadamia nut vanilla ice cream in the center.  Creamy and fruity!

Two Ladies Kitchen

Another THE BEST, AND THE MOST AMAZING MOCHI I HAVE EVER HAD.  EVER EVER HAD.  EVER.  If you are going to visit the Big Island, I highly recommend visiting this small store in Hilo downtown for amazing mochi.  Their signature strawberry mochi is out of this world, and it really is THE freshest thing we've ever had.  I've had the same strawberry mochi in Japan and it wasn't as good as the ones here.  It is as big as your head and can seriously fulfill you with just one.  The nice lady that helped us also gave us an extra one for the road - how nice!

We also tried other flavors, from top left to right, clockwise: lilikoi (passion fruit), marshmallow, peach, chi chi (milk-flavored), peanut butter, and brownie.  We were not able to finish them all in one day, but because they are SO fresh, it was still delicious the next morning.  After we finished them all, we were sad that we did not get 2 or 3 more boxes!

It was a great excuse to get away, and maybe we should have went on multiple babymoons. :)

We love Hawaii...

Baby and Me (at 19 weeks)