mamafufu

If you are not hungry, perhaps these two pictures will make you think about food.  I was hungry that afternoon and also had oysters and dessert.  Yes I ate it all and they were so good.  Good that I can now bring my E-P1 with me to take more snapshots.

Finally decided to make Sushi at home this afternoon.  Something I always wanted to learn and to do myself.  From time to time I wonder why Sushi is so expensive in many places and it sure “looks” easy.  It is actually not a bad experience considering it is my first time.  The taste is pretty good.  Presentation needs to be worked on.  Also a bit too big for a single bite with too much rice.  So what is needed to make good Sushi?  Here is what I learned so far:

- The rice:  absolutely important.  The type and brand of rice, how much water, the type and mix of rice vinegar for mixing,  and how long to cool off and how to prepare.
- The ingredients and tools: buy the best quality available.  Yes this could add up if you are picky about your Sushi.
- The HOWs: this is the hardest part since the real tricks of the trade won’t be available from the Internet, books or how-to videos. Experience will take time and practice.
- Presentation is as important as the taste. Sushi cannot be good unless it both looks and tastes good.

Now I understand why Sushi can be expensive in many places.

i enjoy cooking.  i dream about being a chef in a top, preferably my own, restaurant one day.  in this wonderful saturday evening, i had an opportunity to cook for myself.  i decided to keep it simple with grilled steak, sauteed baby mushrooms, a good bottle of wine, and some strawberries with ice cream.

the steak was angus dry aged rib eye.  rib eye is one of my favorite cut of beef.  it was grilled to medium and it went quite well with the baby mushrooms.  the wine was a tougher choice.  i was debating between a 2004 joseph phelps or a 1999 turnbull cabernet sauvignon.  i knew either one couldn’t go wrong.  i went with the turnbull and it was good.  not great but good.  for desert i had fresh strawberries with Häagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream.  it was a wonderful way to complete a meal.

since it was so nice outside i decided to enjoy my dinner in the patio.  brought out my macbook and listening to music as i wrote this blog.  so, what did you have for dinner tonight?  when can i cook for you?

hungry for a good bowl of wonton noodle in middle of the night?  if you happen to be in where i live, you are out of luck even during anytime of the day.   there is just no good bowl of wonton noodle in the area.  the one pictured above was from the belligio hotel in las vegas.  the wonton was pretty good but the noodle was below par   it costed $13.95 USD or a bit over $100 HKD excluding tax.

over the years i have found the following frozen or instant choices that fill the craving gap pretty well.  they are as good as they gets between trips to hong kong, beijing, or china towns in london, vancouver, toronto, new york, los angeles, san francisco, melbourne and many other places.  here is my short list:

CP shrimp wonton soup – available from costco in 8-pack
壽桃牌生面皇 – available from local chinese grocery stores.  this goes very nicely with the shrimp wonton when served “dry” with oyster sauce
ling lings potstickers – available from costco in value pack
weichuan mini buns 味全南翔小籠包 – available from local chinese grocery stores

do you have other recommendations?