Seaweed Addiction

Before I thought seaweed paper was only for sushi....

...Until I had roasted seaweed paper! It's quite addicting..it's like Lay's potato chips 'betcha can't eat just one'

My bf's folks brought some back from Korea for me, now I have tons of it in my freezer!

I like the little packaged ones, where you just open & eat it up..only flaw is you can end up eating more than a bag..maybe 2, 3, or 4?!

Anyways his folks gave me the big sheets of seaweed. Its all gravy...I just take out my cutting board & cleaver to make my own packaging by storing them in mini ziploc bags.
** don't forget to store them in the freezer...I guess to keep it fresh?! Who knows, haha I just followed their instructions**

One of my next mission is spam musubi! I've never had it with furikake seasoning. Curious to try it on something else besides sprinkling on rice *ding *ding (lightbulb lights up) I got a banh mi idea in my mind! Looks like I got to round up the troops for another tasting ^_^


Right now japanese shrimp tempura is on my mind...how can I turn it into a yummy banh mi?!? think.think.think.
Ahhh my semi eating healthy lifestyle is contaminating my thoughts -_-

bread(carbs)+ fried food+ greasy spread= bad eating
VS
Crispy baguette+shrimp tempura+delicious seasonings=party in your mouth

Hmm it's ok I'll just have my guinea pigs eat them for me...jk....they're welcome to eat at their own risk ^_^

I was lazy & also craving seaweed~
So I fried some eggs, rice & rolled it up with the seaweed...BAM! There you go egg sushi ~
I decided to pack up the extras for lunch! Oh Gosh I can't wait to see the look on my coworker's face.. They gave a funky stare to my spam musubis last time...I wonder what they're thinking now...oh well...yummy in my tummy,best of all cheap ass lunch!

They say seaweed paper is good for you but I'm not sure what's the info for the roasted ones -_-
It's kinda greasy with sprinkled salt.
Blah...I guess I'll google it later...

As for now, I'll keep eating them...I'm pretty sure it's healthier than a bag of potato chips?! :p

Seaweed away~

Later gators,
bmg

Waffle Bus

Back to being a busy bee again...more like being lazy to have a banh mi fling. I can't seem to decide where to go anymore!! So many choices! Hopefully I can squeeze in a fling when I'm in DC!?!

But for now here's my latest foodie venture ~

I guess the new hype lately are food trucks. The first & last time I ate out of a food truck was 'oh my gogi'
It was aite, not something I would ever go out of my way for. My cousins they loved it so much they made weekly trips. Until they figured to make their own batch at home.

There are so many food trucks out there now, I cant keep up! plus I'm too lazy to look up their location, drive & look for parking.
This weekend will be the 'Haute Wheels' a foodtruck festival. Last year I heard it was unorganized, ridiculous lines & wait time, and admission was $15. This year admission is $18! I think I'll past, besides it's mother's day. Cater to my mother..

Any who, my gf suggested the bus for lunch, first food truck for 2012~

Staff are friendly, food truck is nice & clean. Food came out in 10 min latest. If you pay with c/c there will be a $1 fee, so bring cash!

There wasn't a line when I arrived, (around 11:30 ish) about 10 min after ordering a line was forming.

I ordered the chicken fryders, nothing nifty just plain & simple.But in a good way. A well fried piece of juicy chicken in between two crispy waffle fries drizzled with spicy mayo.

Ha! For some reason I had chick fil a crossed my mind. Chick fil a nuggets in between two waffle fries...it'd be awesome if chick fil a serves spicy nuggets~


Ok back to WB-



For desert I ordered the nutella & banana. Besides it was nicely presented, in my opinion, big disappointment!
I felt the description was false. It's nutella & banana sandwich with sweet cream...what sweet cream?! It was pretty much something I could've made at home. The waffles are ok, didn't knock me off my socks. If I ever come back, will try a different filling.

My friend gave me a sample of her chicken with chilli honey instead of spicy mayo sauce waffle sandwich. Not a fan. I think it's their waffle. There's something about it.

Overall, a cool food truck..er bus?!

If you like to hear a different opinion on the bus, check out my fellow friend biff~ (she also bakes some good sweets, place your orders!!)
her blog:
http://biffssweetlife.blogspot.com

Time to go prep for mother's day feast!
Have a good weekend & happy mother's day to all the mommies~

Later gators,
bmg

Eat, Drink, Brunch

My lets play in the test kitchen at a friend's Casablanca ended up being a brunch party with wonderful company. 

                There was banh mis, cheese party, delicious refreshments, Rudy's, and dessert (spelled with 2's')

I hosted a banh mi bar~I was occupied with the prepping & cooking, didn't get to take many pics. Thanks VMA for the pics~

Kneading & Rinsing the veggies

 A few days before the brunch, I got a start on my veggies. Do Chua aka Pickled Carrots.

My mandolin was defected, so I had to chopped up some julienne carrots & grated the daikons.

After 45 min of chopping & grating, the next step was to massage them..JK..Sprinkle some salt and I started kneading for a few minutes to get all the moisture out until it was flimsy carrot.

bathing time!

Next step was to rinse off all the salt.

Now the veggies are ready to be bathe in a glass jar. They say you can make this a day or few hours ahead of time. My batch was pickled for about 4 days.

My first meat filling is from the pig. I tried to make Vietnamese sausage aka Cha Lua. click me for more info. For Christmas, I'm so asking Santa for a bad ass food processor. Cha Lua requires a lot of grinding to where the the pork becomes paste. I had lots of air bubbles, and it was mistaken for vegetarian sausage. Next time, I will ask the butcher to grind my pork twice, hopefully that helps!

 Ingredients were simple:

Ground Pork, Baking Soda, Fish Sauce, Water, and Tapioca Starch.

The prepping process took about 1.5 days

  

I was not pleased with the texture, so I fried it. It helped a little bit. Frying gave it a crispy texture on the outside. When you fry cha lua its called cha chien

My second filling is from the cow. A few days before the tasting I made my own Bo Ne. It was delicious & tons of flavor. But sure was greasy from all the butter I used -_-

 However, at the tasting I was so disappointed at myself. I went the frugal route and used sirloin instead of ribeye steak. OMG it was so BAD. I'm so embarrassed to discuss about it.  The eggs were also dry as well...hahah because I didn't use as much butter or grease like Paula Deen. I had the skillet work its magic on low heat.

 

winner winner chicken dinner

My third filling is from the hen. I made ga ro ti, roasted chicken. Save the best for last. 

Thanks Sous Chef~

Baguettes catered from Parisian Bakery & Thim Hing

Made my own Vietnamese mayo aka butter. Will defiantly work on that..still wondering why fresh garlic changes some things. I Didn't have the guts & time to make Pate, so I cheated and bought some ^_^

Preparing the chestnuts.

For dessert, I made Che Thai. Simple make ahead dessert. My favorite ingredient is the f aux pomegranate, its chestnuts covered in tapioca flour.

 Enough of banh mi, time for other goodies!!

Beautiful & Delicious Cheese Assortment

Birdy made Wrapped Baked Brie filled with some kind of jam and topped with brown sugar..So delicious~

Delicious beverages provided by the 211 ladies. So bubbly and refreshing~

 Chinese Egg Tarts & Mochi Balls courtesy of Mr. Lam.

Our Test Kitchen Item that failed...Brazilian Cheese Bread

That's it for now....can't wait to plan the next party~

later gators, bmg

chinese egg custard

What is Chinese Egg Tarts? For more info Click Me!

For the past week or so I've been brainstorming on projects in my kitchen.
 
So my first project....that I couldn't get off my mind Chinese Egg Custard! My mouth was drooling each time I think back the times I eat them at Dim Sum or Chinese bakeries. After researching and mixing recipes for a few days...I managed to find one that I can use.

 I've noticed that Dim Sum joints sells Pastry Puff Egg Tarts while Chinese Bakeries serves them in a foil cup like a pie custard.

Pastry Egg Tarts

Pie Crust like Tarts

The recipe I found for  the dough was quite simple. It's a lot of work to mix with your fingers, but I cheated and used my Kitchen Aid Mixer. I didn't have any tart shells so I used a muffin pan instead. As for the custard..OMG it was the hardest thing to figure out. All the recipes were in ML or Grams. I didn't have a problem using the conversion chart but the recipes that was given did not make any sense. For example, recipe calls for 80ML of evaporated Milk...that's about 2.75 oz...in the video it looked like almost a cup of liquid. Finally I found a recipe that made some sense. However, the custard was way too sweet! I had extra frozen puff pastry dough in the freezer and gave it a test!..haha it failed...big time!

Simple Recipe just calls for 2cups of flour, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 5 oz butter, & 1 egg.
As for the custard, I can't find the amount I wrote down on a post it note. There was evaporated milk, simple syrup, and egg yolks.

Strain the custard mix for no lumps~

I used too much simple syrup, causing it to be a very sweet custard.

Regular Egg Tarts

Mini Egg Tarts...can you spot the puff pastry tarts?

TADA~

 I went to bed and forgot to put away my egg tarts...luckily, I was able to share some with my friends :)
I think Egg Tarts are best to eat fresh everyday..i believe it gets soggy the next day.

happy cinco de mayo~ time for some ritas.
Later gators,
bmg

Bo Ne

What is Bo Ne?

Bo Ne is the Vietnamese version of steak & eggs...For more info on Bo Ne click me

Tan Ba Le a banh mi joint that bakes their own baguettes also known for their "Bo Ne"

Before starting this venture, I had their banh mi every once in a blue moon because its not too far from my folks. Lets just say it was not tasty! Well at that time my sister was into the bbq with fried egg...that was asking for a heart attack..I dont recall tasting anything except grease. I tried the simplest banh mi; cha lua. They were out of regular Cha Lua so the owner gave me Cha Chien. The baguettes were so hard and yet again no taste. That was the last time I ever ordered banh mi from them.

The reason I came back to TBL was for their DIY steak & eggs banh mi.

It was packed for a Saturday lunch, about 95% of the customers ordered Bo Ne. My friend & I shared a Bo Ne and Chicken Curry. The place looks clean, not a hole in the wall, not to mention the shopping center is barely 5 years old? Its a cute lil mom & pops joint...along with some of their little roach friends.. I saw one crawling on the edge of the table but flicked it off, later on in the middle of eating the owner brought out a bowl for our curry and i spotted a smushed dead one on the outside of the bowl.

So don't expect me coming back...

On to the Bo Ne DIY banh mi:

Service: The waiter was kinda slow, looks like he was training. (the staff did not use gloves when handling the baguettes)

Bread Quality: Baked fresh in store, warm light & crispy, but bland. Its missing the baguette smell & flavor.

Meat Filling: cup of diced beef & 2 sunny side up eggs on a sizzling platter topped with black pepper & green scallion along with a side of lime salt & pepper dip.

Veggie Filling: a plate of iceberg romaine lettuce with cucumber & tomato slices, topped with thin white onion and a small amount of some kind of dressing (apologies, i forgot how it taste like)

Spread: Butter & Pate in a togo sauce cup (no taste on the butter)

Presentation: Baguettes in a basket, protein on a sizzling cow skillet.

Salad

The fresh baked Baguettes~They have the features of the airy & crispy but missing the aura & flavor of a baguette

Butter & Pate

Bo Ne

DIY Banh mi

Chicken Curry

Chicken Curry

We were hoping to enjoy this dish. Dipping our baguettes into the broth...but FAILED..It was overwhelmed with coconut milk where you can't really taste the curry.

My experience with Bo Ne was mission failed. My level of excitement was like a kid that dropped their ice cream on the ground. All the hype of ppl talking & the photos I saw was just a tease. Sadly, I do not remember what Bo Ne taste like it. If you were to ask me I wouldn't even know whats the ingredients besides..black pepper. For sure I will not be coming back to try out the banh mi or give Bo Ne another try. due to their little roach friends. It seems like its a common problem after reading reviews on it. For more reviews on Tan Ba Le click me

And another one off my list, next time I will have a fling on the other side of town..Veterans Memorial?

Have a good week~

later gators,

bmg