phooooooooooooo

I went to a pho place called Pho 32 in Koreantown today. People at work talked about the place and I had to check it out. Plus, Akiko seemed interested in going there too. We have been planning on going there but last time, I totally forgot that we were gonna go there so I went back home straight from work and missed the opportunity... Anyhow, today was my first day at the new place. I didn't really know the area around my office but I just wanted to do something before I go home. Getting out of work a lit later than the last place, I was sooo ready to eat dinner. In this kind of cold weather, noodle soup seemed like the best choice. Luckily I got a hold of Akiko after work and we planned to meet up in front of the restaurant. When I was about to walk into the restaurant, Akiko came out of the door. I guess she had been waiting in line for us and unexpectedly they called her twice in a row before I got there. She thought of calling me again but that was when I just got there. Since I saw her right away, I didn't pay attention to how the store looked from the outside. It was crowded and I knew the reason when I sat down. The tables were so narrow that the chair would hit the table legs when moved towards the table. The set-up is very interesting. Each person has this hole on the table for individual hot pot or shabu shabu, which is covered by a lid if not needed. I considered doing my own mini hot pot like the girls at the next table but I was in the mood for pho. Pho's semi-transparent rice noodle was occupying my mind, lol. Mmm... The beef brisket pho was nothing special but the cold vermicelli noodles with chicken was kinda different. You pick your own sauce from the counter in addition to fish sauce (of course, you can get rid of the fish sauce if you like). Your choices are peanut sauce, hot pepper sauce, and sweet brown sauce... I didn't try them all but Akiko really liked the peanut one out of all they had. She offered me a piece of the grilled chicken. It was tender and tasty with its subtle charcoal flavor. There was a couple who ordred steak with rice. I felt my stomach reacting to it even if I was full from the pho. It seems like there is more to explore at this restaurant and I like it! There is more than pho at Pho 32...mmm..... Sorry for not having any pictures... but I promise to take a picture of something goooood at this restauarnt.

do you believe in ketchap magic?

Ketchap magic happened again in my kitchen. I don't know why but whenever I use ketchep, any ingredients seem to taste more delicious than I expect! I have had this fatty pork in the freezer. I just had no idea of how to cook it right... And I found this pork chop recipe, which was basically to cook pork, mushrooms, and onions with ketchap, wuster sauce, and chicken broth. I had all the ingredients so it was a piece of cake! The only problem is that the bones make it hard to separate the meat part. I'm gonna make it again with different parts of pork.

Lotus root

Lotus root is crispy even if it's cooked. Some people like the texture. Others hate it. I like it sometimes. Landlord has been saying she wants to eat lotus root. She is good at cooking Japanese dishes so she decided to share this dish with us. I'm sure you are curious how it is cooked. Lotus root was boiled and seasoned, whose cooking style is, so-to-speak, nimono in Japan. She spiced it up with some hot peppers--you can see red spots in the picture. It was so good that I wanna have it everyday;P. I'm thinking of making nimono with chicken, taro, snow peas and shitake mushrooms.

Cocoya's Croissant

Cocoya is in his new baking challenge given by Landlord aka my roommate. For two weekends in a row, he has been baking croissants. As people say about croissants, it seems to be pretty hard to create multiple layers and realize the perfect crunchiness in his home-made bread. His first attempt turned out good I say. The shape of each croissant was made evenly with Cocoya's skills. But the texture was a bit too chewy being croissants and unfortunately some parts were burnt. Cocoya worked on the crunchy texture at the second attempt and the layers seemed to be more visible. It was a great idea to brush maple syrup on top as an extra flavor. It added pleasant sweetness in the croissants. The inside is still a bit chewy but we enjoyed croissants more than last time. We requested chocolate croissants as a next challenge. My apartment never gets boring with three of us cooking different things.

Oystered beef!

It feels like I haven't posted in a while, actually I just haven't eaten anything worth talking about. I tried something new again today though! I ordered randomly from a menu today and ended up eating beef with oyster sauce.
I don't think I've ever had oyster sauce before so I thought it would be quite a new taste, but really it didn't taste very different to me than the other sauces that are used at most American Chinese restaraunts, it just seemed a little salty, like soy sauce. All in all the food was ok, but nothing amazing, probably because I went to a not very good place to get it (Not much is open late at night by my work. I'll try and eat something worthy of a longer story and better review soon!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMECO!!! (A bit late on the blog, but I already told you on the right day =)

Cantonese ginger sauce

I have had different kinds of Chinese dishes. Except for the volume, I never liked Chinese food around campus. After going to some good Chinese restaurants and tasting home-made Chinese food, I know why. It was the difference between real Chinese and American Chinese, lol. One of my favorite style is Cantonese! I still haven't researched enough to say much about it but I know several Cantonese dishes I love. One of them is the Cantonese ginger sauce. You don't really need an exact recipe. Just mix up some oil with chopped ginger and scallions, and sprincle some salt. It is one of the BEST dipping sauces for chicken. You can dip anything other than chicken if you like.

Suggestions of others

I am not very good at expanding my food horizons. I am somewhat of a picky eater, so it's hard for me to walk into a restaurant and pick something random on the menu to try something new. In the cases where I really want something new, I depend on recommendations of others. Saturday was that sort of day. I went to a Chinese restaurant near my work that is decent (it's hard to beat Yau's and Joy's.) But I didn't want the same old stuff I usually get. The menu at this place is actually very small, but there are many things I hadn't had yet. Nothing really stood out to me as something to try though, so I asked the person who worked there to pick something for me.

I have discovered that this is actually an interesting thing to do, because obviously people working there won't expect it. I was kind of worried about asking because I don't want to put people on the spot with that sort of thing, but I had had conversations with this particular worker before and felt a little more comfortable asking her. In the end, she suggested Chinese-style kung pao chicken. It was great, and distinctively different from the American-style. This actually opened a whole new idea to me, I had never thought of asking for Chinese-style versions of dishes at restaurants before. I think I will do it more often! Of course I need to find out which dishes actually have a Chinese-style first.