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.

 

Teriyaki Chicken

Everybody seems to like teriyaki sauce, be it with chicken, beef, fish or other ingredients.  The most popular one is probably teriyaki chicken, my family is no exception.  We make it once in a while when we crave for it.  Although it is healthier to make the sauce from scratch and it is not very difficult to do so, most of the time we opt to use store bought sauce for convenient sake.  We have tried a few different brands but we prefer "Mr. Yoshida's marinade & cooking sauce - original gourmet, sweet & savory".  We get it at Costco.  The one thing I don't like in the ingredients is the high fructose corn syrup, which is probably why the sauce is really good.  As long as we don't eat it too often, I would say it's not a big deal.  I do try to avoid high fructose corn syrup whenever I could in foods or drinks.  I have tried to make teriyaki sauce from scratch a long time ago but I recall it didn't turn out very good and have never tried it again since then, which I should.  When I do, I will post the result and update this recipe.  In the meantime, here's teriyaki chicken recipe using ready made sauce.

Homemade Roasted Almond

Nuts in general are good for you.  Almond is no exception, it is a rich source of Vitamin E & B, dietary fiber, essential minerals, and monounsaturated fat.  It also contains phytosterols which is linked to lowering cholesterol in our body.  Raw almonds retain the most nutritional values compare to roasted ones; however, roasted almonds taste better and crunchier, in my opinion, so I am sacrificing some nutritional elements in exchange for better taste, which is fine with me.  For convenient sake, usually I buy roasted almonds but when there is a good deal on raw almonds, I don't mind roasting them myself.  The following is my recipe:

Stir Fry Tomatoes with Eggs

The dish is a staple in many Chinese home cooking.  It is a great simple recipe for something quick, easy, and delicious; and requires very few ingredients that you might already have in your kitchen.  It is a vegetarian dish but contains protein in the eggs.  It has a bit of sweet and tangy flavor to it.

Chayote Squash with Vermicelli Noodle

This is definitely a comfort food for me.  My mom was a great cook and she made this dish on a regular basis at home many years ago.  I never had the exact recipe from her so I made up my own, especially on the amount of ingredients but this recipe is very forgiven, no matter how much ingredient you use, it still tastes good, in my experience.  To label it as a Chinese or Indonesian dish is a toss up, I don't exactly know the origin of it, perhaps it is a Chinese-Indonesian home-cook dish.  I do not remember eating it in any Asian restaurants as far as I know.  Chayote squash is also popular in Mexican or South American cuisines.  Again, it is a simple and very easy to cook recipe.  My family loves it whenever I make this dish.

  

Thai Ground Beef Stir Fry

This is a very simple and easy recipe for a quick dish.  A friend of mine, Anita, was gracious enough to share this recipe with me.  This recipe came from a Thai cooking class that she took years ago.  She told me the ingredients and I adjusted the amount according to my taste as well as adding onion and sweet soy sauce into the ingredients.  This dish tastes better the next day after the ingredients got absorbed into the meat, in my opinion.  If so, you may want to add the green bell pepper and Thai chili when you are ready to eat so they don't get soggy.  You can serve this dish with steamed rice or dry cooked noodle seasoned with some oil so the noodle does not get sticky and the oil gives some fragrant to the noodle.  I usually use fried shallot oil.

Enjoying Fresh Oysters at Oyster Farm in Tomales Bay, Marin Co., CA

My family went to Tomales Bay vicinity in Marin County, CA for on-site oysters eating experience in the summer of 2011.  It was the second time around for me and my son but it was the first experience for my husband.  My son enjoys the on-site oysters eating experience, he was looking forward to going back again.  I think it might be our annual outing for oysters from now on.

grilled oyster sprinkled with lemon juice & tapatio hot sause ready to eat ... yummy

Vietnamese Grilled Pork Chop

This recipe came from a Vietnamese cookbook but I do not recall the title or the author now.  I have tried it many times and didn't have to modify it in anyway, it's Asian style BBQ flavor.  You can use any type of pork chops but I prefer the "pork butt" pork chops or sometimes they are called "pork chop steaks" because they are a bit fattier and therefore juicier.  I also tried it broiled instead of grilled but grilling is still the best way to cook it if possible.