Food has to be smelly to taste good

Huh??!!

I realize many of the things I find delicious smells putrid to others. Despite that, I'm unapologetic about the pungent fragrance food from my culture emits. Durians, one of my biggest loves apparently tastes like feet to many. On the other hand, I think stinky tofu is one of the most vile food I've tried, while hubs thinks it's such a delicacy.

For dinner yesterday, I made a fishy smelling vegetable dish that made me wanna eat more rice than I should. Here's my version of spicy long beans with dried shrimps and garlic. This is similar to 干煸四季豆 but with a more southeast Asian twist.

Spicy Long Beans
- 1 bunch of long beans cut into 2 inches sections
- 5 cloves of garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons of dried shrimps cut into smaller pieces and soaked for about 15 minutes
- 3 teaspoons of your fave chilli sauce
- salt to taste

Heat up about 2 tablespoons of oil in a wok. Throw in the garlic and dried shrimps and fried them for 1-2 minutes till fragrant. Stir them constantly so that the garlic doesn't burn. Add in chilli sauce, you can adjust the amount to suit your tastebuds. After coating the garlic and shrimps with the chilli sauce, throw in the long beans. If you find it too dry, feel free to add more oil. Fry for about 5 minutes until long beans are cooked through. You can sprinkle in a few teaspoons of water to create steaming effect to help soften the beans. Before serving, sprinkle some salt to taste. This is optional, my chilli sauce wasn't very salty so I had to add some for taste. If yours is salty enough, feel free to skip this step.

Here are some recommendations for chilli sauce.  I think they are mostly available in Chinese grocery stores.

Amped up brown fried rice with kale

Gotta give it to Gywneth Paltrow for giving fried rice such a good rep. I love fried rice, but it isn't exactly a dish that is known to be healthy. When you go to chinese restaurants and order fried rice, you are expecting a plate of rice and other ingredients coated with oil emitting a wok smokiness. But of course, fried rice is like a blank canvas, you are free to put in any ingredients you like and Ms. Paltrow has chosen kale, scallions, garlic and soy sauce.

My love for kale started when I found out it has the highest nutritious value. I was excited to try out this dish since we already eat brown rice almost everyday and I'm always on the lookout for easy and healthy recipes. However, I made some tweaks to it to up the wow factor. Instead of using regular oil, I used a mixture of roasted sesame seed oil and grapeseed oil. The latter has no taste but just to even the taste out. Instead of using soy sauce, I used soy sauce paste. Soy sauce paste has a sweetness to it that I thinks adds another dimension to fried rice. It is important to buy good tasting soy sauce and soy sauce paste as you don't want to end up with a flat tasting sauce that is simply salty. I use the Kimlan soy sauce paste, it should be available in Chinese supermarkets.

(Amped Up) Brown Fried Rice with Kale

adapted from Gwyneth Paltrow's recipe

- 2 and 1/2 cups uncooked brown rice, cooked

- 1/2 bunch of black kale or 1 bunch of regular kale, cut into thin strips

- 1 tablespoon of grape seed oil and 1/2 tablespoon of roasted sesame oil

- 3 large green onions sliced diagonally

- 4 cloves garlic (I love garlic so I used more)

- 1 and 1/2 tablespoon of soy sauce paste

- dash of white pepper

Heat up the oil in a wok and put in garlic and spring onions. This allows the wok to take in the smell and taste of these ingredients. Next throw in the kale and fry it till slightly wilted. Put in the cooked brown rice and try to separate the chunks of rice so that each grain of rice can be coated with the oil and the ingredients can be mixed in well. Drizzle the soy sauce paste and sprinkle some white pepper over the rice and stir and stir some more and you're done!

This dish is really delicious, thank you Gwyneth!

Fire up the grill!

I guess Memorial Day weekend marks the official start of the BBQ season. Encouraged by the good weather, we bought some grill worthy ingredients to celebrate the long weekend.

I chanced upon the Food Network TV app the other day and saw a grilled corn salad recipe that I liked. That went into the menu, along with Korean spicy BBQ pork and salmon for some antioxidants.

While browsing the Friday farmers market at my office building, I saw some beautiful bell peppers selling at 3 for $2. I decided to work that into my grilled corn salad although the regular recipe included tomatoes instead. I also decided to add some avocado since it has such awesome health benefits. Here is my version of the grilled corn salad.

Grilled Corn Roasted Pepper Avocado Salad

- 1 ear of corn, grilled
- 1 bell pepper, roasted
- 1/2 of a avocado
- juice from half a lime
- salt to taste
- coriander

To roast the bell pepper, throw it onto the grill or on your gas stove. Char the outer skin, wrap it up with aluminum foil to steam it so that the skin can be peeled away easily. Dice the pepper and avocado, remove corn kernels from the cob, chop up a handful of coriander, juice half a lime, add some salt to taste, and you have yourself a great and healthy salad to accompany your grilled meats!

Sam Woo BBQ

We watched a HK movie on Friday night and of course one of the scenes (insignificant one, but of course the one I remembered best) shows this old man buying egg tarts for this old lady.  I've never been one to be crazy about egg tarts, but that all changed a few years back when I travelled to HK and had THE MOST AMAZING egg tart that still has me salivating till today.  That scene set me ablaze on my Yelp app, searching for Cantonese style egg tarts.  Many dim sum restaurants came up, which included Sam Woo BBQ.  Despite having lived in OC for several years, I've only been to Sam Woo less than 5 times.  Somehow I've always associated it with a perpetually crowded and expensive place (I hate waiting for food when I'm hungry).  However, the pictures of Wanton Mee were too good to pass, so we decided to head there for dinner the next day.

Being the greedy peeps we are, and perhaps also because we only had a "just nice enough" portion for brunch, we were hungry at 5pm.  I figured this was a good time to go since we'll probably beat the dinner crowd, people who get hungry at regular times.  When you get to this Sam Woo location, you will notice it splits into 2, the "Seafood" section and the "BBQ" section.  The Seafood section will serve more banquet style food while the BBQ section has their signature Cantonese BBQ dishes and more homestyle cooking. True enough, we were able to get seats immediately.  It didn't take us long to decide what we wanted - Beef Hor Fun and Roast Duck + Wanton Noodle Soup.

Our food came pretty quickly, I slurped the wanton soup happily. While it was delicious, I can't help but think with much certainty there's MSG in it.  I added the pickled green chili to the noodles and ate happily.  For $7.95, you get a big bowl of noodles, 4 succulent wanton with whole shrimp and some ground pork and about 4 generous slices of roast duck.  This dish was definitely a winner.  We later discovered you can tell them to omit MSG for your dishes, will keep that in mind for the next time.

Next was the beef hor fun.  When the server brought it to our table, I was immediately captivated by the wok hei.  Wok hei is the trademark smokiness of good Chinese dishes brought upon by cooking dishes over a great heat.  I had high expectations of this dish which probably contributed to the disappointment even more.  While the sliced beef was tender, it severely lacked ANY taste.  The noodles were also just ok.  Don't know how you can get this dish wrong when the only seasoning you would need would be soy sauce and perhaps some white pepper.  At $7.95, this was a dud. 

Despite having a hit and a miss, I'm certain we'll revisit this place soon, I'm already planning my next order, which will include Chinese ham fried rice...mmm..can't wait!

Sam Woo Irvine

15333 Culver Drive Ste 720

Irvine, CA 92604

(949) 262 - 0888 (BBQ)

(949) 262 - 0688 (Seafood)

Yakisoba Bun

This is not a nutritious meal and it violates carb-on-carb rule, but hubs had it once and liked it so who am I to argue with his taste buds. It makes for an easy to prepare weekday lunch as well. This isn't so much a recipe since it is pretty much putting things together.

Buy a packet of yakisoba noodles from an Asian grocery store which comes with yakisoba seasoning which is a mixture of sweet, salty and tangy, kinda like an Asian BBQ sauce. Prep ingredients of choice to go into noodles. I used napa cabbage and green onions as these are what I had on hand, you can use carrots and other vegs you like.

The noodles will usually be packed into small packets and to make cooking them easier, put them in a bowl with some water and microwave for about 90 seconds. This helps to loosen the noodles which will make your life much easier when you are stir frying them.

Heat some oil in a wok/pan and cook the vegetables first. When they are 90% done, add in the noodles. Mix the noodles and vegetables well and sprinkle the seasoning on top and mix them all together.

Put some yakisoba into a hotdog bun. Add some Japanese mayo and furikake for extra taste. Enjoy!

Tips on costs cutting

With the tax season behind us, I thought I would share some of the things I do on an almost daily basis to spend less.

Draw up a budget

This first step is rather necessary as it highlights to you what you are spending on and how much you think you can allocate to the category. I'm not asking you to stick to it religiously though it would be great if you can. The idea of the budget is to create awareness for yourself.

Minimize eating out

When I was doing an annual budget for us, I was shocked to realize that apart from mortgage, food is the highest expense. When I thought about it, it made sense. Food is something we spend on 3 times (or more) a day, so naturally it chalks up to a rather significant amount even if you are not eating things like steak and caviar everyday. To save on this category, I've decided that we would brown bag lunch on weekdays and limit eating out to 2 meals a week unless there's a special occasion of some sort. If you spend $6 on average for lunch and dinner, and that is a very conservative estimate, you wind up spending about $100 a week per pax. This adds up to $5200 a year! So why not spend a little more time preparing your own meals? Doing so you can potentially cut your costs in half and better still, you get to control the ingredients you use and this may help you lead a healthier lifestyle. I admit this is a relatively easy for me to do because I enjoy cooking most of the time but sometimes when I come home after a long day of work I just want to veg out and get take out. I love eating out as well, sampling food that I don't know how to make or do not have the luxury of time to prepare. However, I truly think this is one way to cut costs significantly and it comes with positive externalities as well. If you simply hate cooking, I would suggest perhaps getting those meal plans that delivers healthy food to you. There are many options out there, so choose one that is appealing to you within your budget.

Patience in shopping pays off

I have a weakness for clothes and it probably doesn't help that fashion blogs I read are always touting new threads. To satisfy my desire to have new clothing on a frequent basis, I opt to buy from wallet friendly brands like H&M. Their fast fashion retail concept + low prices are huge draws. Aside from that, sign up for the mailing list at your fave stores. I realized that many brands offer coupons and sale on a constant basis. I learned quickly not to buy things at certain stores at full price. Be patient and some sort of discount will come your way. If by the time the discount is here and the item you are eyeing on is no longer available, dont dwell on it. You will NOT suffer internal injuries just coz you didn't get that dress you want.

Shop online

I would also advocate shopping online as opposed to shopping in brick and mortar stores. Many retailers offer free shipping outright or if you meet a minimum order. The added advantage to shipping online is that you can get cash back rebates from Ebates (link opens to a referral by me). This is a neat way to save some money on the things you were gonna buy anyway. For online shopping, check out retailmenot.com for various coupons if you do not wish to have your inbox flooded with promotional emails.

Use your credit card

Now, I realize this may not come off as a sound advice. I do not believe in having credit card debts as these suckers have the highest interest rates among all kinds of loans. However, using it wisely can help you save money. It is hard to find a credit card out there that will not give you reward points of any sort. I personally likes those that gives you cash back. Just like the idea on Ebates above, cash back is savings on things you are going to spend on anyway. This includes bills, groceries, gas, etc.

To illustrate the above 3 points, here's what I did for a dress that I love but cost a lot.  By now, many people would have seen the dreamy DVF Zarita Lace  Dress.  The original price was $325 and I wasn't able to justify the cost despite liking it very much as I know it wouldn't get much wear.  When I was out shopping that weekend, the sales associate at Bloomingdales told me they were having their Friends and Family preview sale and many items were 20% off.  The dress was not on sale at that time but I decided to wait since I know the official F&F sale will begin in about a week.  I was right!  Given I've not signed up with Bloomingdale's, I quickly did so and received a 10% coupon for my 1st purchase.  I also bought the dress via Ebates and got another 3% back.  So, this $325 dress quickly whittled down to around $230!

DVF Zarita Lace Dress - Picture from Bloomingdales

Roasted Cauliflower Bleu Cheese Soup

Inspired by Some Like it Haute's immense liking of Soup Spoon's roasted cauliflower bleu cheese soup, I decided to make my own rendition.

Today might have been a bad day to be drinking hot soup but it turned out pretty apt since we didn't have much of an appetite on a warm day. Always finding an excuse to chomp on some yummy and cheap baguette, was also a deciding factor in making the soup. Another plus point is the health benefits as cauliflower belongs to the superfood family of cruciferous vegetables. If you do not like bleu cheese, feel free to leave it out, roasted cauliflower soup is still pretty tasty on it's own.

Roasted Cauliflower Bleu Cheese Soup

- A head of cauliflower (maybe about 1.5 to 2 lbs)
- 1 onion
- 4 cloves of garlic
- chicken stock
- 2 tablespoons of bleu cheese (adjust to your taste)

Chop the cauliflower into small florets and let them flat on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle some salt and pepper. Roast at 380 degrees for about 30 mins

Slice the onions and mince the garlic. Sauté the onions and garlic till soft and fragrant. Add the roasted cauliflower and enough chicken stock to cover. Stir in about 2 tablespoons of bleu cheese. Bring soup to a boil. Add soup to blender in batches and blend till smooth. If you wish to make it slightly richer, add some cream to it.

I'm sure this is not as good as Soup Spoon's but good enough for now!