Japanese Gyudon aka Beef Bowl

Japanese gyudon (gyu is beef, don is rice bowl in Japanese), a variation of sukiyaki, is one of the popular dishes from Japan in the States.  It's an easy one-dish meal to prepare at home.  Kids normally like it a lot.  We just made it again recently at home so here's the recipe ...

Indonesian Slush Ice Drink

Because Indonesia is a tropical country, there are countless of cold drinks available year round.  Instead of ice cream, we drink or eat slush ice drinks with fruits, jellies, beans, fermented casava, avocados, and others as the added ingredients, sprinkled with syrup and condensed milk (optional).  It is my favorite snack drink of all time.  There are other similar slush ice drinks throughout Asia but each country has its own twist to it.  It is popular in the Bay Area now but it is either Chinese or Vietnamese version of the drink.  So here's the Indonesian style.

Japanese Cold Ramen

For hot summer days, some of us crave for "cold" food to cool us down.  Japanese cold ramen is one of those foods.  I believe it is a Japanese version of Chinese cold noodle.  According to my husband who used to live in Japan for a few years, Japanese eateries serve this ramen noodle with ice cubes underneath the noodle on the serving plate.  I did it once at home, it was kind of interesting and unique.  Without the ice, it is still perfectly a good meal.

I have always use store bought cold ramen noodle kit package, they come in fresh noodle package located in the refrigerator section or dry cold ramen along with other dry ramens in most Asian markets.  There are a few fresh cold ramen Japanese brands but I only know of one dry cold ramen brand (see photos below).  Making the noodle sauce from scratch is actually quite easy - peanut sauce, hot sauce, or sweet vinegar sauce, and more.  I believe peanut sauce is more popular or well known compared to the others.  I will update this post once I have tried it myself.

Burmese Ginger Salad

Southeast Asian salads from Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and Burma (at least these are the ones that I am familiar with) share common ingredients and flavor in my opinion, such as lemon juice, peanuts, fish sauce, cilantro, shrimp, and more.  The following ginger salad recipe is no exception.  I have an earlier post for Vietnamese Lotus Stem Salad recipe in this blog as well if you are interested.

Who would have thought of using ginger as one of the main ingredients in a salad, I have always use it as a flavoring ingredient in steam fish, stews, or stir fry but never in a salad.  When I was first introduced to it by my friend, Jasmine, who was born in Burma, I liked it right away.  It gives a very different aroma, texture and flavor to the salad that I never had before.  Of course, there are variations of ginger salad recipe but this one is Jasmine's version of it and I have made this salad many times over.

Braised Tofu With Green Onion

This is one of my family favorite vegetarian dishes.  It only has two main ingredients with few seasonings for braising.  Needless to say, this recipe is another one that is easy and simple to concoct when you don't have much time to cook.  My sister told me that she read somewhere in a Chinese newspaper saying that tofu should not be cooked with green onion.  It has to do with some kind of yin-yang energy balance in the body when the two ingredients are combined.  I have not heard from anybody else about it and we really love the taste and flavor of green onion tofu, so we still make this tofu whenever we have craving for it.  If I find out more concrete information about this issue, I will update this post accordingly.  In the meantime, my family will continue to cook and enjoy this simple and delicious dish.

Korean Soft Tofu Stew aka Soondubu Jjigae

Kimchi soft tofu stew (soup) is a popular Korean dish.  It is comforting to eat on a cold day.  We make it often during cold winter months.  As some of you may know, kimchi has properties that can strengthen your body immune system which comes in handy during cold season.

 
My Korean friend, Maria, has shown me how to make it her way (without the kimchi), it's a bit more elaborate compared to this quick recipe.  She makes the soup broth from scratch with chicken but often I don't have the time to do it, I just want something quick and easy.  So the following recipe is how I make this tofu soup.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate chip cookie is an all time American favorite cookie for all ages.  In the corporate cafe where I work, these cookies are gone in a fly, especially when they just come out of the oven - warm and soft.  Kids would snap them in a hurry whenever they see chocolate chip cookies.  They come in soft or hard/crunchy textures.  I like the soft one.  Chocolate chip cookies are readily available at most food places but nothing beats homemade ones - they are fresh, natural, and no preservative.  There are myriad of chocolate chip cookie recipes out there and of course, I have not tried all of them but from the few that I did, I prefer the recipe below.

Sauteed Chard (simply delicious!)

This is a simple recipe that is almost impossible to go wrong. Chard is highly nutritious and considered one of the healthiest vegetables out there.  It has bitter taste that fades with cooking; thus giving its distinctively robust flavor and texture.  I was surprised to find out how easy it is to cook chard and you can be as creative as you want by adding or changing things to the recipe.  Feel free to experiment by adding bits of ham, beans, or parmesan cheese and try different wine or sake.  You may remove the butter and olive oil mix and use regular cooking oil instead. The end result still tastes great.  Even my son who is not particularly fond of vegetables enjoy this sauteed chard.

Chard is great with fish or beef steak or pasta.  I added parmesan cheese on this serving; giving more zing to the final flavor.