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.

Korean-style Zha Jiang Mien (Noodle), aka Jiajangmyun

I have been missing from my blog for a while now due to other commitments, aside from family - working full-time and taking classes in Hospitality Management Program at a local community college.  My goal is to be able to continue updating my blog on a regular basis or as often as possible.  So, here is my next recipe.

A Korean friend of mine made this noodle dish and I liked it a lot.  This is a Korean version of the Chinese Zha Jiang Mien that is very popular in Korea.  The recipe below is from my friend, Maria Lee.  It is a quick one-dish meal for either lunch or dinner - it has carbohydrate, protein and vegetable in it.  Serve with picked radish as a side dish.

Thai Style Cole Slaw

Fusion has becoming a trend in the foodie world.  This is mainly due to the adaptation of flavor, texture, or taste to accommodate the general public's palate.  At the same time, more and more Americans are exposed to ethnic foods through its myriad of immigrant population.  As a result, some chefs in the States have integrated two or more different cuisines or ingredients and come up with a new flavor and dish.  Chef Ming Tsai from his PBS show - Simply Ming calls it "East meets West".  Of course, fusion food actually is not a new phenomenon.  Older immigrants from Italy, England, Germany, and others had already influenced many of the American staple foods.  We would generally label them as "American" because of the fact that these fusion of food or ingredients have been long assimilated into the mainstream.

In any case, this Thai style cole slaw recipe is one of them.  The recipe comes from my culinary class.  It makes a good side dish or salad to either Western or Asian main course or BBQ.  It has a combination of peanut, sweet and tangy flavors and the texture is similar to regular cole slaw - crunchy.

Chinese Radish Cake aka Turnip or Daikon Cake

I have been missing from blogging for a couple of weeks now due to my cold/flu that is still lingering now, I can't wait until I am back to my normal health.  Every time I get really sick, I always appreciate it when I am healthy.  We always hear this saying - we take things, in this case - health for granted when we are well, and then realize what we are missing when we are sick.  Well, life goes on ...

In any case, here's a recipe for the radish/turnip/daikon cake.  For simplicity sake, I'll call it radish cake here.  It's typically served in Chinese dim sum in China, Hong Kong and overseas Chinatown restaurants.  This radish cake is also common in Chinese New Year celebration.  Like many Chinese food, there are symbols/meaning of certain food eaten at certain festivals, the same is true here but I forgot what why some Chinese eat the radish cake for New Year.  I will update this blog once I confirm it.  I try to make it once a year during Chinese New Year if I can.

It is usually cut into square-shaped slices and sometimes they are pan-fried before serving - to make the outside layer crunchy and soft on the inside.  This is a savory cake, nothing sweet about it.  It's delicious to dip it with a little hot sauce when it's ready to eat.