Long-Promised Chinese Cold Noodles

In my first entry I had stated that one of these days I will attempt to make Lian-Mien aka Cold Noodles with my mom's simple recipe. Although I did this many many weeks ago, today is the day I will post the recipe (::crowd cheering::).

Lian Mien (Cold Noodles)

Ingredients (not all pictured)
- 1/4 cup of soy sauce
- 1-2 large cloves of garlic
- 1-2 TBSP of rice vinegar (adjust to taste)
- 1/4 cup of water + 1 TBSP of sugar
- 4 TBSP sesame sauce + water + pinch of salt (amount of water adjusted to thickness of sauce)
- 1 shredded chicken breast
- 2-3 shredded japanese cucumbers
- chili oil (adjust to taste)
- 1 TBSP of sesame oil
- Noodles (enough for 2 servings) - I use Quon Yick (very common) but use any medium-sized noodles for this dish. Thin noodles, such as egg noodles, would not taste very well.

Serves two.

Steps

1. Noodles - boil the noodles to "al dente" and immediately dump the noodles into a colander to let cool. Rinse the noodles with cold water for ~ 30 seconds. After most of the water have been shaken off, move the noodles to a bowl and add 1 TBSP of sesame oil. Mix well. Let it sit to cool off some more.























2. Chicken - cook the chicken breast in hot boiling water for ~20 minutes. Check to make sure the chicken is cooked through before taking it off the stove. Let the chicken breast sit for a few minutes and start the shredding by hand. Yes, one by one is the way to go! I usually will assign this task to someone else (my husband is the lucky one in this case!).

3. Japanese cucumbers - I highly recommond using Japanese cucumbers because they're so crisp and delicious. You can find this in Japanese or Chinese supermarkets. Shred them using your food slicer/shredder.

4. Soy sauce + garlic - place the specified amount of soy sauce and diced garlic into a small bowl. Depending on if you're a garlic lover or not, you can add more garlic and make the portion 1 to 1. You will just have really garlicky breath after the meal.

5. Sugar water - Melt the sugar in semi-hot water in a small bowl (I do the microwave way - it's so much easier!) The sugar water should not be syrup-y or too sweet. The sugar water will help balance out the vinegar and soy sauce.

6. Vinegar - there is no preperation for this ingredient. Just bring the tablespoon to the table and add about 1 - 2 tablespoons to your noodles... adjust to taste!

7. Sesame sauce - last but not least, the most important ingredient of this meal is the sesame sauce. This is pure sesame paste that can be found at the Chinese supermarket. Place the sesame sauce in a small bowl and add about 1 TBSP of water to the sauce, stir, and add more water until the paste turns into a thick sauce-like consistency. Don't worry - if you add too much water, you can always add a bit more paste to get the thick consistency back. Add a pinch of salt for flavor.













To eat:
You prepare the cold noodles for eating by mixing EVERYTHING together! First scoop the amount of noodles you want to eat. Start off with adding 2 TBSP of sesame sauce, 1 TBSP of sugar water, 1 TBSP vinegar, 1 TBSP of soy sauce/garlic combo, some chicken and japanese cucumbers. Add a few drops of chili oil if you like your noodles with a kick. The noodles should have a light coat of sesame sauce to every inch, it should be salty enough for you, and overall have a flavorful and garlicky taste! Add more of any of the ingredients to accomodate your taste buds. I hope this turns out good for you - enjoy!

Food in Vegas

Oh man I've been really bad about blogging!! It's been kind of crazy since I got assigned a new project at work, so I've been working my butt off and neglecting this blog. Although it's still quite busy... I need a freakin' break (besides, it's Friday... can you blame me?!).

I am still eating... more and more. I went to Vegas a few weeks back and would like to display the foods I ate... you gotta have something to eat while downing your alcoholic drink, right? ^_^

One of my "must-hit" places in Vegas is this little stand inside of Paris Las Vegas called La Creperie. It's completely informal - you stand in line, order what you want, find a table next to the stand which is kind of the hotel's "outside" area although it is still indoors, and eat eat eat! I love it because these famous big hotels don't always have bargain meals, so this is one of the rare places.

Dessert crepe - Napoleon (lemon curd with berries)

Savory crepe - Bayonne (prosciutto, béchamel sauce, mozzarella and basil)

Only 8.99 per crepe, either savory or dessert!!

And it totally fills you up!!



Dinner the first night was at Caesars Palace's Cypress Street Marketplace. This marketplace contains a handful of food vendors, from Chinese to Mexican to seafood, salads, sandwiches, and BBQ. It's a great place to come if you want cheap food, informal dining (you see a theme with me?), and if you have a big group of opinionated eaters. This place will satisfy all cravings.

I opted for the fish tacos that night. It was about $13 with a small drink. Deeelicious!

After a semi-hardcore partying night, I really wanted some comfort food to help me "feel better"... so I got noodle soup!! We found the restaurant Noodle Asia inside The Venetian hotel. Knowing that good 'ol fashion Asian food is hard to come by in Vegas, we settled for whatever we can find.

I don't have too much complaint about my Wonton Noodle Soup but the price was just completely ridiculous. $10.95 for this bowl of noodles... and it wasn't even a reasonable portion! I also tried their Hai Gow (shrimp dumpling) and Shui Mai (meat dumpling), each order costing at $5.99 for 6 pieces... that wasn't worth it either. With tax and tip, I ended up spending $20 for this lunch. Oh well, you gotta love Vegas for that!

After lunch, we walked around in search for gelato. We somehow roamed into a new hotel called Palazzo and found it at Espressamente Illy. This shop was bright, clean, and most importantly, lots of different gelato flavors!

From top clockwise - amaretto, mango (mine), watermelon, and hazelnut. I believe you can never go wrong with gelato... :)

The second night we decided to go for a nice meal. When in Vegas, one should try to eat well at least once! We picked Todd English's Olives at The Bellagio Hotel. We had picked this restaurant in hopes to sit at out on the patio and enjoy the Bellagio watershow. Unfortunately, they never guarantee you a table outside with a reservation, so it was either eat at the time we reserved, or 2 hours later. It was so lame seeing water splashing from the window inside the restaurant...

Pictured is the sirloin (I think?) with a generous mountain of fried green beans. Very very tender and the fresh green beans were super.

Halibut special of the night. The fish was also very fresh and tender.







Being a "great" picker of meals (can you sense the sarcasm?), I chose the ricotta ravioli that came with apple sausages. Everything was drenched in this salty tomato sauce, so I didn't like my dish as much.





We then walked around Bellagio and visited the Conservatorium to see the fall decorations. My friend also told me about the World's Largest Chocolate Fountain, so we had to stop by! It was protected by glass, so although there was a crack between the glass walls, using my nose to try smelling the chocolate through the crack was a failed move. So I didn't try my next plan - using my finger.



The chocolate fountain was located at Palio Cafe, which housed Chef Jean-Philippe Maury's pastries. I was too full to get anything, but my friend got the vanilla flan (not pictured). I'm not sure if it was just me or what, but I didn't think the flan was anything superb. Too bad we didn't try anything else... it's OK, there's always next time. Until then Vegas!

Fish Stew One Night, Beef Stroganoff The Next

I try to make dinner every week night so that we don't waste money eating out all the time, although the thought of it is very tempting because I always have to endure a looooong commute home. Bleh :(

Monday night I made Fish Stew (from Simply Recipes again)

Elise says that the most important ingredient to the Fish Stew is clam juice... and when I read it, I was like, ehh, really?! Finding it at the supermaket was adventurous, and after circling the place twice, we finally asked someone. I thought it was a refrigerated item next to the fish counter, but it turned out to be with the tuna cans. OK, cool. When I opened it, I thought I was going to make my kitchen reek of clam juice, but there was practically no smell to it. I wasn't brave enough to try it on it's own though.

I also replaced parsley with cilantro because, for some weird reason, I couldn't find parsley at the Farmer's Market.

I used pinot grigio for the white wine. That was yummy... in the soup and to drink on the side (while cooking, hehe!)

For the fish, I used 7 pieces of dove sole fish. I'm not sure if it's because I left it in the freezer too long or this fish just smells, but the fish smelled. I would probably choose to use another white fish next time. I'm glad the ingredients in the soup covered up the fish stank.


I did exactly what the recipe asked for - cook the onions, garlic, and cilantro. Add clam juice, wine, then fish. So far so good!

I covered the pot and let it cook and boil for about 8 minutes.

Our dinner - fish stew, romaine lettus with kidney beans, cheese, and italian dressing, and drank the rest of the pinot grigio!






























Tuesday night I made Beef Stroganoff (also from Simply Recipes - love it!)


The first thing I realized is that this recipe asks for A LOT of butter (6 TBSP total), so always changing things on my own, I decided to use OO and just a little chunk of butter. Gotta add the butter for taste!

After cooking the meat in the OO and butter, use the pan drippings to cook the onions. Smells so good!



A few more ingredients waiting to go into the pot.

After the onions were sauteed, take it out of the pot and add it to the plate of beef, and add the mushrooms to the hot pot. The recipe asked for another 3 TBSP of butter, but I just added OO this time. Trying to cut down some fat! I sprinkled nutmeg and basil (substituted for tarrgon) to the cooking mushrooms. You can instantly smell the spices goodness.

I then turned the heat to low, and added the sour cream. I put the meat and onions back in the pot. At first when I tasted this concoction, I was like, ehhh, so sour. So I added salt... still sour... more salt... somewhat sour... more salt... then yum! I realized salt is very important to make this sauce taste right.

I couldn't wait to eat it! I've only had beef stroganoff as frozen dinners (sad eh?) so I was anxious to make a good fresh one! I used linguini and boiled some broccoli and green beans.

The husband and I loved it!

Fulfilling and Educational

This weekend I ate some yummy stuff and saw some interesting things. It was fulfilling and educational! :)


I found this interesting fruit in Chinatown so I had to be the tourist and bust out my camera! Thanks to google, I found out what it is: rambutan. It's like lychee or logan... darn, I should have bought some because I love lychee! Nice, I learned something.





We also stopped by San Mateo's Sweet Breams for a yummy taiyaki snack. We got one of everything - azuki (red bean), vanilla, chocolate, nutella, and coconut (flavor of the week). I think there was also an extra one that they snuck in there, and it tasted like custard. That was a good idea and a nice suprise. The shop was cute (they were showing Totoro), the service very nice, and the taiyaki good, but I felt that the price for this snack was waaaay too expensive for what you get! 6 for $3.25 and 12 for $5.50. That's about $0.45 - $0.54 for ONE! And it really is pretty tiny!


I finally got what I was craving for for weeks - gyro salad! After a nice walk around the farmer's market and scored some big and fresh fruits and veggies, we stopped by Gyros House in Mountain View for an early lunch. They piled tons of gyro meat on it (score!) and the bread that came with it was so crunchy and good! The bread wasn't the usual pita bread, but this change was a good one. I almost ate the whole basket!





The only cooking I did this weekend was making Monday's lunch (hehe), which was Honey Mint Glazed Chicken (from Simply Recipes). I found this website one day just being bored at work and surfing the web. It's a great food blog where the owner of the blog, Elise, shares her recipes. She has everything from entrees to appetizers to desserts. She also categorizes it by the types of ingredients, low-carb, occasions, etc. And it's fairly... simple!


Started out with 4 pieces of chicken - 2 legs, 2 wings. I marinated the chicken with white vinegar and OO as the recipe had called it.








Honey and fresh chopped mint in a bowl, prior to adding water. I loooove fresh mint. And growing it in my backyard is really fun too!








I chose to bake my chicken (instead of grilled) in the oven for 475 degrees for 20 minutes. I then took it out and glazed it with the honey mint mix. It was pretty hot that some juices splattered on my hands!





Back in the oven it goes for another 10 minutes.









The result - delicious honey mint glazed chicken. It was so simple and yum!

Pancakes with Coconut Syrup

I am working from home today due to our tree busting open the main water pipe and causing a leak, so had to stay home to wait for people to come out and inspect and all that. The water company and the city's arborist came out, and in the end, they were basically saying the tree (on city parking strip!) and water pipe is our problem and it's our responsibility to fix it. And of course, it wasn't going to be cheap. Great. I love how the city "helps" its citizens out. Just great.

I had time this morning so I made pancakes for breakfast. I've been dying to use the coconut syrup I got in Hawaii!

Pancakes

Bisquick recipe on back of box

1 cup Bisquick
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1 TBSP lemon juice (my own addition)

Mix all that together and you got your pancake batter!

Next step is to pour the batter onto a greased hot grill (I leave the heat on medium).

Look how big and round that is... Pancakes cook pretty fast, so don't let it burn on the grill! You will know it's time to flip it over when you see steam rise from the pancake. You will also see the uncooked batter forming bubbles.

The final product - pancakes, fresh peaches, and coconut syrup. That coconut syrup did taste great!

Chili on a Hot Summer Night

I made chili tonight since I forgot to grab meat out of the freezer this morning before I left for work. Since ground meat (turkey in this case) is one of the easier meat to defrost by microwave, it was decided that it's turkey chili night! My husband loves it when I make chili because I always add a bit of a kick. I like that too. :) This meal is also a good one if you're on a lesser carb diet. It's just full of turkey meat, beans (yay for more fulfilling proteins), and veggies!

I use Rachel Ray's Beef and Black Bean Chili but completely change things around to "make it my own". I figure it's chili, so anything I dump in there should taste good!

Turkey Chili with The Veggies You Love

Ingredients
- 3/4 lbs ground turkey
- 1 green pepper
- 1/4 red onion
- 2-3 cloves of garlic
- 1 can of diced tomatoes
- 3/4 can of kidney beans (I think any beans is fine, but I like kidney. Save the rest of 1/4 beans for a salad or something!)
- 8 oz tomato sauce
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 tsp worcestershire sauce
- 1 TBSP chili powder
- ~1/2 tsp hot sauce (add at your discretion!)
- 1 broccoli bunch (for garnish, another added healthiness to the meal)

Dice the green pepper and red onion into bite sizes. Cut the broccoli into pieces.

Not pictured here is the diced garlic.









These are other characters for the chili-goodness. Diced tomatoes, kidney beans, tomato sauce, worcestershire sauce, chili powder, and hot sauce (purchased in Texas!)

(Note: you see a can of corn in this picture but at the last minute, looking at the amount of chili made, I decided not to add corn.)

Another tip for making a fulfilling and healthy chili, add any kind of veggie you want. I've added mushroom, zucchini, and corn. Anything that can withstand boiling, go for it!!

So as I mentioned before, I used ground turkey for the chili... I chose turkey because it's pretty healthy. I used 3/4 lbs ground turkey (which is half of the 1.5 lbs turkey they sell at supermarkets).

To start making this meal, heat a deep pan with 1 TBSP olive oil. Add the turkey, a sprinkle of salt and pepper, and the worcestershire sauce. Break up the meat with your cooking utensil and brown the meat. When browned, turn the heat down to med-high and add the garlic, onion, and green pepper. Then add the chili powder. Saute this pretty colorful bunch! It smells fairly good by now!

When the veggies look like it's getting some cooking going, add 1/4 cup of water. By now it should seem pretty dry, since we're using turkey, so the water really helps.

Now it's time to add all the canned stuff - diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and kidney beans. It's also time to add the hot sauce - don't go too crazy because as you let the chili boil, the spiciness comes out. Also taste the chili so that it's just right for you.

Once the mix comes to a boil, turn the heat down to medium. Cover the pot and let it boil for a good 4-5 minutes. Check on it... you don't want your veggies to become too mushy.

At the same time as the chili is boiling, cook the broccoli. Boil it in hot water in a separate pot and put it on top of the chili. To make it prettier for this blog, I added two dried snow peas as garnish also - a simple dipping fun.

Our dinner - turkey chili with pomegranate mint drink (POM Wonderful pomegranate mango juice, sparkling water, and chopped mint). The iced cold drink is a nice complement to this hot chili on a hot evening!

Let's Give This A Try

I'm going to give this food blogging a try by sharing my adventures this weekend. Get ready for some pictures and explaining!

Saturday 08.09.2008

I started today with a fulfilling bowl of Cold Noodles (Lian Mien) that my mom is exellent at making. I followed her around as she was preparing the meal and jotted everything down. Next time when I try making it myself, I will post up the recipe and share it with you all. It's her own version of it, so it may be different than the average restaurant ones. This lian mien is delicious, I swear by it!



In the afternoon, I prepared a bruschetta dish for a dinner party that night. I've never made this, so I researched for a simple recipe from Food Network. That's usually my primary source for recipes, unless they have nothing I like and then I just use the handy dandy Google.

This one's from Mario Batali, although I did not follow the recipe exactly and added whatever I felt like the bruschetta needed.

I cut up a few tomatoes and diced it with all the patience in the world... when the tomatoes have too much juice, I just got rid of it because you don't want your bruschetta to be too juicy and wet. I added about 3-4 (average size) cloves of garlic. Diced that with hecka patience also! I initially took off 10 basil leaves from my tiny basil plant in the backyard but it wasn't enough, so I put in 4 more basil leaves. A generous spread of salt and pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil (OO), and tadaaa, you get the topping. The other important part of this Italian appetizer is the bread. I gave this job to my husband, who cut up a loaf of Italian baguette, broiled it in the oven for less than 2 minutes (you have to watch those, they toast fast!!), rubbed it with fresh garlic clove, and then spread some OO on it. It smelled so good!!


Luckily, I didn't see anyone eat the bruschetta and then spit it out, so I think I did an OK job. Phew! I will definitely make this again.

Sunday 08.10.2008

Lunch today was another noodle-fest (as you will see, I LOVE NOODLES!). We went to a San Jose Vietnamese food court and had (one of) my fave Duck Noodles. Unfortunately, I did not jot down what it was called in Vietnamese... I just call it duck noodles. It contains duck (duh), bamboo shoots, vermicelli, special broth, and you can add in cabbage and sprouts. It also came with a side of ginger-like sauce for you to dip your duck in. At the food court is another fave of mine - sugarcane juice! Unfortunately I drank it too fast and didn't get a picture of it...

One of the things I wanted to do this weekend was to make this Peaches and Cream Cake recipe I found online. As much as I want to finish my first entry on a good note, my attempt at this cake failed. The cake did not come out all fluffy and great. It was dense and wet, so I think I either put too much flour, or I used the wrong type of flour. Well, at least the taste itself was good... my husband, being the good husband, really liked it and it didn't seem like he was trying to swallow it down. The cream cheese topping with the peaches was really good. That's all I can say about that.

Mixing the butter, egg, milk, flour, and vanilla pudding mix.

Putting canned peaches over the cake batter.

Cream cheese spread over the peaches and batter, and then sprinkling of cinnamin and sugar on top. In the oven it goes!


The final (unsuccessful) product. I cut a fresh peach, spread some lemon juice on it so it doesn't go brown, and "decorated" the cake. At least I tried, right? But the cake sucked. :(

I will attempt to make this cake again. And I think I better get this cake thing down because I had opened my big mouth and promised to bake a cake for my sister's birthday, which is coming up in two weeks. Maybe I'll just buy a cake and pass it off as mine...?? :P