Things you put in your belly: Dragon Fruit

Apparently there are two varieties of dragon fruit Mama Chan is trying to grow. This red kind and one that is white with black seeds. I prefer this red kind more because it is sweeter. If you were to ask me what it tastes like, I would say it tastes like nothing...really it is just sweet. It is not even like candy sweet. It's just slightly sweet. I do like the texture. The seeds are really crunchy like sprinkles, and I LOVE SPRINKLES. DROOOOLLLLL HEARTSSSSS DROOL SOME MORE.

Things you put in your belly:Tutti Frutti Yogurt

I LOVE YOGURT, but I hate all of those flavors that they come in except the original. I like the original with granola. I love granola. Granola are like healthy sprinkles because they are sweet and crunchy, and they stay crunchy despite being covered in yogurt. I also like berries. Berries are delicious and healthy, like granola.
GRANOLA. Apparently granola can be an adjective to describe something now. It means something to the extent of people who like yoga and healthy lifestyles but overly so. INTERESTING.

Things you put in your belly: Salt-fried Crab from Seafood Village

Seafood Village is the restaurant that we choose to go to for our greasy Chinese food fix. It is delicious there. Like MSG, salt, garlic, and oil like no other. It will beat your choice Chinese restaurant up and leave it on the street to wither up and twitch on the sidewalk.

Mama Chan also told me how to make it. You deep fry some garlic (YUMMMMM) and cover the crab with a cornstarchy rice flour mixture and deep fry that, and then toss everything together in a big wok with a big flame. Toss in a lot of salt, chili, and green onions, and EAT IT.

Fried garlic are like little chunks of gold in your mouth. 

Sadly, I do not eat meat or seafood so I will just have to enjoy this photo.

Oh, and the Chinese name for the restaurant is 避风塘 in Monterey Park.

Things you put in your belly: Mango Salsa

Sissy Chan made this. How fabulous is she. Mangoes, shallots, cilantro, and (later added) chili flakes. I want to swim in an ocean of this stuff.

Things you put in your belly: Longan

I got these from my aunt, who got them from one of her customers at her restaurant. Home grown and delicious.

Places: Solvang

I am moving to Santa Barbara soon! So I will be in and out of LA and SB. Friendie, British Cousin, and I went to my dorm/apt, and then we headed off to Solvang (NOTE: NEVER EVER TAKE THE 154 IF YOU CANNOT DRIVE THROUGH MOUNTAINS). It was interesting. I can honestly say, I've never seen anything like this. It was kitsch, funny, and fun allllllll at the same time. We stopped by the Danish Mill Bakery for an apple boat. FREAKING DELICIOUS. So oily, flaky, crunchy, crispy, and sweet. I can eat 100000000000000000000 of them if someone could pump my stomach immediately after. Go for the danish. DANISH. If you can make me a danish as delicious as this, I will marry you.

Places: The Counter in Pasadena

Went to The Counter in Pasadena with British cousin and friendies. We split the fries/ sweet potato fries. I appreciated their shoe stringy like quality. I had the veggie burger bowl (I love bowls, taco bowls from CHIPOTLE AKA THE BEST AND MOST WONDERFUL FAST FOOD EVER). For the set price you get to choose what you want from each list (if you want extras, they list the price added on the side). I had the organic greens, veggie patty, sharp provolone, olives, jalapenos, sun dried tomato vinaigrette, and pickles. The ingredients were FRESH, and the only worry we had was if the combinations we picked would work together or not. IT WORKED. Service was friendly, but I felt like I had to be really friendly back. All in all super duper duper duper. BECAUSE BOWLS ARE THE WAY TO GO. GO. GO.
 

Recipes: Vegetarian Dim Sum

I really like dim sum, but being a vegetarian, there are not many options. The only restaurant I know of that serves all veggie dim sum is Fine Garden in Rosemead. At regular dim sum places they have veggie things, but most of them are sweet pineapple, custard, or taro buns that are baked or steamed. You also get funny looks at regular dim sum places...after all, they are probably thinking "Why don't you eat meat? It is so DELICIOUS?" But who am I to read minds. It's an invasion of privacy.

SOOOO....I made vegetarian dim sum at home. Note: These are not vegan friendly, but the egg white can be left out to be made vegan friendly. Actually, I only added the egg white because Mama Chan said so, and I don't think it was necessary.


Vegetarian Dim Sum

Shu Mai wrappers (The one I use has a pink and clear plastic cover that sports a happy looking panda)

Shark fin melon (steamed and squeezed to be a dry as possible, can also be left out, but it gives it a nice texture)

Chinese celery stems (can be replaced with cilantro leaves AND stems, washed and chopped)

Vegetarian meat paste (chinese markets have this, if you can't find it replace it with tofu and some seasoning for flavor)

Vege shrimp (diced)

A large spoonful of cornstarch (about 1-2 tablespoons depending on how watery you ingredients look)

1 egg white

Mix everything together, minus the Shu Mai wrappers. Season with salt and white pepper to taste. If it is reallllllly watery, then strain out the excess fluid ( Save it, it makes for a great soup flavoring). Wrap it up and brush it with oil if you want it to look nice, and steam it for about 20-30 minutes. Honestly, it doesn't matter how you wrap it, but it looks nice with an open top so people can see whats inside like regular shu mai.

HAR HAR HAR. Good luck. Took me ages to perfect the recipe. Enjoy it!

xoxo

Places: Lovebird Cafe in Alhambra

Went to Lovebird Cafe in Alhambra with cousin, who is applying for med school right now. I had the veggie meatball sandwich, but I am going to try the veggie turkey next time. Bread was good, but it needed more cheese. CHEESE IS DELISH.

Oh yeahhhh, good luck GINNY!

xoxo

Places: Fosselman's Ice Cream in Alhambra

So I went with friendie to Fosselman's in Alhambra and had the coffee cookie ice cream. It was pretty good! It was two things that I LOVE, so I don't see how anything could have gone wrong. Friendie had matcha (ground up green tea leaves), which was pretty ok, and isn't her top cute! She is so fabulous. I do suggest going to http://fosselmans.com/ to check out the flavors they have. It is pretty awesome. The flavors are pretty yummy, but the base it basic so expect no SUPER AMAZING reaction. But very much tolerable, very much so.

PS: Sorry I have been MIA for the last few days/ weeks. I have been BUSY ok? hahahahahahaha LOVE YOU

Places: Extraordinary Desserts in Balboa Park, San Diego

I had a Danish Parisenne or something. It had a complicated name. It was pretty delicious. It had the sugar crystals on top that you could crunch and munch on, but not enough PINEAPPLE! WHY!?! WHY WERE YOU STINGY ON THE PINEAPPLE?!?! It had vanilla custard on the inside, which was good. The Extraordinary house coffee was pretty yummy. It is in San Diego, but that is veryyyyyy fall from LA. My ass hurts from all the sitting and driving.

http://www.extraordinarydesserts.com/

Places: Brioche in East LA Pt. 2

So I talked about the macaroons at Brioche. Here they are! Also carrot cake and opera cake. OMG SO DELICIOUS. Why are they delicious? They are not heavy or oily, and they are not too sweet. I am not a fan of my mouth being invaded by sugar crystal soldiers cutting my taste buds into smithereens. You know how I roll. It has to be balanced. BALANCE IS ESSENTIAL IN LIFE, AND BAKED GOODS ARE LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love you. xoxoxo

Places: Brioche in East LA

I met college best roomie this weekend, and we caught up over at Brioche, which is a small french bakery over on Whittier. I had the iced coffee, which is pretty good, meaning that there was nothing I hated about it. The shiny goodness was the pastries. I had a cranberry orange scone. SCONESSS ARE DELICIOUS. I like them better than donuts because they are not as greasy, but they are covered in powdered sugar goodness. I also liked the pretty plate.
College roomie bestie is applying for med school (ie: that which destroys one social life). She is suffering, but it is for the sake of a good lucrative future. Oh yeah, she mentioned helping people too. I love college roomie bestie. She is so on top of it.

On another note, I bought some macaroons, which they are famous for, and cakes to go home. I will share later.

http://www.briochepastries.com/

Places: Fine Garden in San Gabriel Valley/ LA

In the SGV area, there are a lot of Chinese vegetarian restaurants, but this one is by far my favorite because there are two AWESOME things: almond tea (top) and vegetarian dimsum (素点心). There is almost no such thing as vegetarian dimsum, but this place has it. The almond tea is super duper too. They basically put a puff pastry on top of almond tea and bake it. Puff pastry and almond tea, nothing can go wrong.There are only two words that can describe this place: 好帮。 The only down side is that it is PRICEY. A bit for Chinese food.

http://www.finegardenveggie.com/


EAT IT. IT IS DELICIOUS.

Gardening: Chili and Basil

Chili, sweet basic, and thai basil from my garden. All natural and organic yo! Hahahahaha My mission to become self sustaining is slow but progressive! I need more land to plant things. I started to plant onions, different varieties of chilies, and garlic. Hopefully, they all grow. The tomato and zucchini  seem to be kind of major fails, probably because I planted them too late in the season.

Life goal: Survive by farming on three acres of land.

Places: Big Man Bakes & Blossom in LA

I spent the day with my office husband yesterday. We went to the Art in the Streets exhibition yesterday at the Geffen Contemporary. (Will post about that later). We also were planning to go to Nickel Diner, but sadly it was closed. Note: IT IS CLOSED ON MONDAYS. BUT we found other wonderful things. We went to Big Man Bakes (http://bigmanbakes.com/), which had AMAZING CUPCAKES. Now, I love baked goods, and this was a delicious baked good. OH had the chocolate on yellow cake, and I had the lemon. Big thumbs up on both. I heard that their red velvet is delicious as well. I really want to try the carrot cake one next time.

We also went to Blossom( http://www.blossomrestaurant.com/), which is a vietnamese restaurant. It was really good too! Prices were reasonable. Service was good. They had young coconut ($3.50). HUZZAHHHH!! I had the veggie spring rolls ($4.50), which was super good. I liked the atmosphere the best. There seemed to be two parts to this restaurant. One side was more traditionally restaurant-ish, whereas the side we sat on was like a wine bar/ cafe/ tea house. It had a more modern feel to it with big windows. LOVE BIG WINDOWS.

Next post will be art in the streets, which is free on Mondays!

Dim Sum+ Egg Tarts= Delicious + Notes

 

Dim sum is awesome. Egg tarts are awesome. I have no idea what's in them, but they are awesome. Sadly, I learned that my body hates carbohydrates because I gained two pounds from eating dimsum, which is for a vegetarian like me, all carbohydrates.

On another note, I volunteered at Tzu Chi. It's pretty fun, and I get to practice a lot of Chinese. WOOOHOOO.

Next notes: RIP Amy Winehouse. I really liked your song, "Rehab." also RIP the victims of the Norway massacre and bombing. The NYtimes says there are at least 80 dead. May you all rest in peace. All of you left us too soon, but I hope you can find peace.
I read that the gunman/bomber laughed while he shot the young people, and he was cited to be an extremist. This incident reminds me that we need the entire world to strive for tolerance, respect, and love. There's just not enough in the world.

落泊糕: Radish Cake deliciousness.

This is one of my favorite things to eat, and my mom recently taught me how to make it. It's called 落泊糕 in Chinese, or if we translate it, it's called a radish cake. Even though it's cake, there's nothing sugary about it. Although it lacks sugar, I would argue with anyone on this earth if they had the gall to say it wasn't one of the sweetest savory things they have eaten.
Now, traditionally it's made with meat, like ground pork, sausages, dried shrimp, etc.., but since I'm vegetarian again, I made a vegetarian version. There is also a variation of this dish called 芋头糕 made with taro instead of radish.
Making it was easier than I expected, so I decided to shareeeee <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

 落泊糕/ Luobogao/ Radish Cake Recipe

White Radish/ Daikon: about 1-2 cups grated or thinly sliced
(Apparently daikon prevents subcutaneous fat accumulation. HUZZAH!)

Rice flour (not sticky rice flour): 1 cup

Water: 2 cups (or if you like your cakes a little more solid, use 1.5 cups)

Optional delicious stuffs:
Mushrooms: 1/2 cup finely chopped, and stir fried with onion and garlic
Veggie meats: 1/2 cup finely chopped
Green onion: 1/4 cup finely chopped
Sesame seeds: roasted, for garnishing

Basically you mix all the ingredients together, and put it on the stove on medium heat for about 5 mins to make it a little bit more viscous. Why do we want it a bit more viscous? That way whatever you put into your nice little cake won't all float to the top. Even distribution is nice when you eat nice food. YES?
After, you put it in a pan, and put that pan into a steamer. The steamer has to have water in it that is already boiling. You know how when you preheat an oven to make things deliciously and evenly? Well, my lovely voracious eaters, this is the same concept.
Steam the monster for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes take off the steamer cover as quickly as possible. WHY?!?! because you want to prevent all that water that has accumulated on the cover to avoid falling onto your beautiful cake, don't you? Let it steam without a cover for 5 to 10 mins. If the top of your cake is still wet. Take a paper towel and soak up all the excess water from the top. Sprinkle the sesame seeds. Let it cool for about 20-30 minutes. YOU ARE FINISHED!

Now eating it is also varies from person to person. You can eat it as is, or you can slice it up and pan fry/ shallow fry it. Don't deep fry it because rice flour just absorbs oil like no other being on this planet.

Now, aren't you so fabulous.

OH YEAH, you can also freeze it. It can keep for a couple months. When you want to eat it, just resteam or pan fry.

One more thing for my fellow vegetarians. Try to avoid putting tofu because there is a lot of excess water in tofu. If you really want tofu in there, get a dryer tofu/ firmer tofu, or you can get pressed tofu or something called 豆腐干/doufugan/dried tofu. This comes in different flavors (soy sauce, five spice, etc..). Get the plain ones.

LOVE YOU. K. THX.

sisters

Sisters are awesome, and this one is especially awesome. Those are Louie Bottega macaroons. The blue one is earl grey flavored, and the green is pistachio.

Eats: half & half

So there is this boba place that opened on Atlantic Blvd in Monterey Park. There is usually a huge line. At first I thought, why does everyone think this is so good. THEY SERVE IT IN A TUB! A LITTLE TINY TUB! SOOOOO CUTE.I got the boba with black sesame milk tea. Apparently, they can also add grass jelly, honey boba, red beans, etc... The downs: cash only, crappy sitting area, no wi-fi. 

http://www.yelp.com/biz/half-and-half-tea-house-monterey-park