Wanna eat it cuz...

People want to try new food because they heard a good reputation about it or saw yummy ads or found names of their favorite ingredients in the menu. Since I am normally indecisive, I follow what people say is good or order stuff with ingredients that catch my attention.


On a Saturday afternoon, I was already in a good mood for winning the special discounted tickets for a famous broadway show, Wicked. Since the theatre was close to Times Square, JD and I decided to go to Olive Garden before the show. Her friend once told her that tiramisu at this particular Olive Garden is, even if it's a chain restaurant, beyond your expectation. It was pretty good I say. The top part was creamy but not that thick. The sponge absorbed expresso at the bottom and yet it was still fluffy. I haven't yet compared this with tiramisu at other Olive Garden's but I liked it;). I might like it even more if the cream part tasted more like mascarpone.

The show was specutacular! The characters were funny and the plot entertained us the whole time! I loved how the wicked witch ended up creating familiar characters from the Wizzard of Oz. Satisfied with the show, we explored the city a bit and chilled out at Starbucks. I always like to try new stuff. JD ordered London Fog, which was basically a tea latte based on citrusy and lavendery black tea. As a big tea fan, I am glad Starbucks started to work on their tea menu. Probably due to the lavender flavor, London Fog realized a complicated taste.

I ordered Vanilla Rooibose tea latte. I hadn't had Rooibose for a while. According to Starbucks, Rooibose is a caffine free red tea. The vanilla syrup and cinammon gave it a kick. If you don't like flavorful tea, don't order this one. I loved it. The unique taste never got my taste bud bored.

Normally I would stop there but since we were there for so long, I tried another new menu, Berry Chai Infusion. Berry is my weakness. Whatever product it is, if it contains a word berry, I have to try it. To be honest, I didn't like it too much at first. I felt like the berry flavor was disturbing the harmony of regular chai spices... but the funny thing is as I had more, it grew on me. This tingling taste became somehow addicting.

Starbucks makes each drink sound so complicated and interesting with the menu descriptions. It's kinda pricy so I don't go there that often but it's nice to try different types of drinks every once in a while. It doesn't change the taste of drinks but I kinda liked the green marble pattern cup sleeves.

how would you cook drum sticks?

Mameco will introduce two ways to cook drum sticks!
Just so you know, I am not saying these are the only or best ways. I just made two delicious drum stick dishes and wanted to share them with you!

1. Another Indian Curry experiment. This time, I cooked garlic, onions and added spices. When the sauce was almost done, I added chicken and vegetables. It is very important to stew chicken long enough so that it will absorb all the good flavors in the sauce. I poured in a cup of water. When boiled, I added the paneer masala. I think it was very successful. The soup was not too spicy and the chicken was tender. I made onsen tamago on the side. The yolk was a bit too raw but oh well. Onsen tamago is one of the easiest egg dishes to cook. Put an egg in a heat-proof bowl and pour hot water in it. Wait about 15 minutes and it's done. I found an article about onsen tamago on the New York Times. It said onsen tamago can be used in varieties of dishes and I agree! Well, I think the curry would have tasted fine without the egg but it added a nice soft texture and made the curry milder.

2. Cook with Soy Sauce and Balsamico Vinegar
It was simply done. Put all the ingredients (chicken, soy sauce, balsamico vinegar, water, sugar, hot pepper, and garlic) into a pot and cook it until the chichen is cooked. I added carrots cuz I had to waste 5 lbs of organic carrots I impulsely bought without thinking if it was too much for me. I make silly decisions at grocery stores every now and then. The marketing people really kill me. Going back to the chicken dish, yes, it was delicious and filling. The microwaved cabbages tasted great with the left-over sause. This dish reminded me of the soy sauce chicken Kris made. Wait.. I think it was called Mom's chicken or something. Anyhow, I miss having food nights with Kris and other food buddies...

Euro-Asian Food in San Francisco

My dad took me to this Vietnamese restaurant in San Francisco. He said the crabs cooked in their special sauce is something different. I was ready to make a mess eating that dish:P. Thin spring rolls as an appetizer. The sweet and sour dipping sauce was one of a kind. I think they mixed oyster sauce, lemon juice and something else, lol. We ordered two kinds of entrees: the crabs and stir-fried seafood & vegetables. I def loved the crabs. The sauce seemed like a thick version of the dipping sauce. I think they probably steamed the crabs and cooked them in the sauce until it got thick. The sauce added a kick to the original crab meat taste. It looked oily but somehow I ate more than half of the plate. It is really nice to find out a new way to enjoy crabs without destroying its own flavor. I'm so gonna find out the recipe for this sauce. The stir-fried dish was delicious too. The tender calamari and Chinese cabbage were nicely cooked with salt and potato starch sauce. MMm....

My dad was full but he got lemon sherbet. It was made inside the real hollowed lemon. It reminded me of sherbet I used to get at the Japanese BBQ places in my hometown. For some reason, they had varieties of sherbet in the real hollowed fruits. I got strawberry mango cheesecake. I was slightly disappointed by the regular cheesecake with the mango sauce but I still enjoyed it. All their food had good presentations. I am surely going back there if I ever go back to San Francisco in the future;).