5 culinary facts about me you probably didn’t know

January 21, 2016 in Everyday | Tags: , , , , | Comments closed

  1.   When I was a kid, I was diagnosed with A LOT of food allergies. I could’ve become the kid in the bubble who couldn’t eat anything, but over the years, I’ve given my allergies a big “F…You”, &have overcome most of my ridiculous food allergies. For the foods I still am allergic to, I take an allergy pill & proceed to eat my heart out without feeling the effects of an itchy mouth.
  2. I am a creature of habit. Once I find a food/dish I really enjoy eating (eg. roast beef sandwiches, macaroni & cheese, etc.), I can eat that same dish everyday for a week or more without getting sick of it. That’s why I always buy the exact same coffee drink & pastry at my local coffee shop.
  3. BUT… That doesn’t mean I don’t like to explore new &/or other foods. I was an extremely picky eater as a child, but now I heartily eat all the different foods I would never even look at let alone try (eg. tomatoes &/or most vegetables, Persian food, etc.).
  4. I have eaten some pretty crazy, Fear Factor style Asian foods in my life, which even surprises ME to this day. My family always makes jokes about how I mostly like to eat plain foods like: white toast with butter or naked pasta sans sauce or seasoning, which is often times true. So, I shocked myself when I dared to try snake soup in China. (I didn’t like it because who eats steaming hot soup in the middle of Summer?) I have also tried whale meat sashimi in Japan, which was not as weird as I would’ve thought. It tasted like very, very rubbery beef. I don’t think I will ever eat whale in Japan again due to their extremely appalling & inhumane whaling practices. That was a one-time deal. In Japan, I have also eaten horse meat sashimi. I fell in love with it immediately. That’s the most craziest thing I’ve ever tasted, & I absolutely cannot believe that I love it, let alone like it.
  5. I am Asian, but I’m not a very big fan of noodles (of any kind). Noodles don’t really appeal to me, but RICE on the other hand, gets me all sorts of excited. I love to eat rice, especially white rice of course, but fried rice, clay pot rice, crispy pan fried rice, are all tasty as well. Don’t get me wrong. I do enjoy a bowl of soup noodles, Phở or ramen every now & again, but I will not go out of my way to eat it. I am #TeamRice all the way.

Today’s song of the day:

Is this a habit or routine? Maybe it’s just my coffee addiction.

January 13, 2016 in Everyday | Tags: , , , , | Comments closed

There is a common saying of, “Old habits die hard.” I think about this quote sometimes when I’m sitting at my local big box coffee shop. I go to the same coffee shop at least twice a week. Sometimes, I go there to escape the confines of my house, & to get away from my everyday chores & away from all the people in the house. I just want to be alone for a while. Other times, I go to the coffee shop in order to motivate myself to write more of my blog. I like the feeling of being unrecognized, & I really enjoy the hustle & bustle. If I haven’t told you before, I am a people watcher. Jian says I blatantly stare/gawk sometimes in public places, but I believe in wanting to be fully aware of  my surroundings (in case something bad might happen). I DO NOT stare uncomfortably at people. Merely observe.

Ok, let’s get back on the original topic. Every time I go to my local big box coffee shop, I sit at the same seat (or next to it if it’s already being occupied). I rotate my purchases between the same three coffee drinks & the same three food items. I have a certain way that I always prepare my coffee drinks at the condiments cart. I only take no more than two napkins (It annoys me when people grab a handful of napkins just for one cup of coffee or for one small pastry. It’s so wasteful!) Then, there is a specific way I like to set up my seating arrangement. I like to sit at the counter at the back end of the coffee shop. It feels quiet & a little secluded, even though it’s right next to the restroom. The counter is just the right height for my short frame, & the stools are great for my short legs. My feet can actually comfortably reach the foot bar on the stool. I place my food & drink on the right side of the counter, my tablet sits directly in the middle, & my smartphone is always placed on the counter’s left side.

My most commonly ordered drink at this coffee shop is a dark roasted coffee. I usually order a kids menu size & ask the barista to put it in a small (one-size up) cup. I like to have lots of room in my cup so I can load up my coffee with a lot of cream. (Sometimes Jian will say that I drown my coffee in cream. That is a slight exaggeration.) It’s also fifty cents cheaper to order my coffee this way than to just order a small cup with lots of room for cream. This is my little coffee shop trick to save some money here & there. Food-wise, I tend to order the easy stuff like croissants & danishes. I don’t really like to order the breakfast sandwiches; they’re too greasy & they  sell out often anyway. Sometimes, when I’m feeling extravagant, I will get a pre-packaged fruit & cheese box.

After all that is said & done I will find my spot, sit down, & immerse myself in my tablet for a couple of hours with the music flowing from my MP3 player. It really was a shame that my BOSE noise-cancelling headphones crapped out on me. Mechanically, the headphones work perfectly well. It’s the fabric & the padding of the headphones that are tearing, coming out, & giving me trouble. These headphones are the really, really expensive kind, & one would expect them to have a little more durability in the wear-and-tear department, but that just was not the case here. Well, at least I didn’t have to pay for these headphones myself. They were a free company gift.

I recently (approximately 2months ago) got myself a better pair of Audio Technica noise-cancelling earbuds. I have been using them for about two months already, & I am loving these earbuds more than the headphones.

Ok, I am trying to find a way to tie off this blog post, but can’t think of anything witty or clever, so I’m just going to stop writing. Cheers.

Today’s songof the day:

Sazerac Variations: the Cooper Union Cocktail (reposted from Cold-Glass.com)

January 11, 2016 in Everyday | Tags: , , , , , | Comments closed

Jian and I just tried this cocktail recipe at home, but with a few minor substitutions. We recently ran out of Redbreast Irish Whiskey & Laphroaig 10-year Scotch. In our house, we tend to go through many bottles of whisky, whiskey, & bourbon within a relatively short amount of time…but that doesn’t mean we don’t savor or enjoy our bottles. Of course we thoroughly enjoy every single drop of each delightful brown liquor. To put things plainly: We. Drink. A. Lot.

Anyway, we were missing 2 out of the 5 ingredients for this recipe. We substituted the Irish whiskey for Gentleman’s Jack whiskey & substituted Laphroaig Scotch with Lagavulin 16-year Scotch. Ever since I introduced Jian to St. Germain Elderflower liqueur, we always keep a bottle stocked in our kitchen, so there was no substitution there. However, instead of using Death & Co.’s brand of bitters, we used a mix of Fee Brothers Orange Bitters & Angostura Bitters. With a twist of the lemon rind…& voilà! We made our own version of the Cooper Union cocktail, & it was deee-lish! Cheers!

The Cooper Union: an Irish whiskey Sazerac with St. Germain and a smoky Laphroaig Scotch nose.

Source: Sazerac Variations: the Cooper Union Cocktail

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