Taiwan: Pho Hoa

So on Facebook, I asked my friends if I should eat pho or ramen? I guess thanks to Jess, I choose pho, since I've had ramen too many times already.

I set off on another glorious food adventure in the middle of Taipei. I remember wandering about a few years ago and encountered Pho Hoa on my way to Japanese style all you can eat bbq. This time, instead of taking the MRT, I got lost on the Taipei bus system. Bus Number 262... (I appreciate the bus system cause it's cheap and efficient, unlike LA, which is experiencing carmegedon or not really)

After the bus passed the familiar underground mall at Zhongxiao Fuxing and Dunhua. I decided it was time for me to get off the bus and wander about.

Pho Hoa

No. 43號, Lane 190, Section 1, DūnHuà South Road, Daan District.
:台北市大安區敦化南路一段190巷43號1樓
You can get here by going out Exit 8 of Zhongxiao Dunhua Station, cross the street to the left and go through the ally or you can go through Exit 5 of Zhongxiao Fuxing Station.
You can also google map it ...
11:00-23:00 (damn they open late)
Tel: 2751-5578
http://noodle.zeelive.com.tw

After sweating and walking around in circles around the same block ... I finally reached my destination. I took a glance at the menu.


Oooo O M G. They have a chef's special called 火車飛機 (Train Airplane). This basically has everything all in one bowl (chicken, tripe, steak, tendon etc. that you typically find in pho). Just because it had such an awesome name in Chinese ... I ordered it : ).

Along with the Pho, I ordered spring rolls and Vietnamese iced coffee. The total came to be 270 NT. WTF ... All that for 270 NT. That's like 9 usd. That's how much I have to pay with tax and tip for just a tiny ass bowl of pho back in LA. Ah... I love Taiwan.

The first item that came was the spring rolls.

I gotta say. These spring rolls tasted like ordinary spring rolls. They were not superb and just alright. It felt kind of empty and loose. I think they put too little stuff in the rolls that made it feel thin. The sauce that went with it was just fish sauce and peanuts and squeezed lime. Just meh...

I was hoping the star of the show would be much better than the rolls.



When I saw the soup ... I was a bit puzzled. It was not clear and brown like typical pho soups. When I tasted it ... O M G...... This soup is delicious. It sort of tasted like ramen broth but with all the pho spices. The soup was creamy from the bone marrow from probably a million cow bones they used to stew the soup. I think this is perhaps one of the unusual but best pho I've ever had. I ended up drinking all the soup. It is also the first time I don't feel thirsty after drinking the soup (other soups I've had had me drinking a gallon of water).

The amount of noodles and meat also well balanced the soup. Some pho places put way too little meat or too much noodles >< . This place was just perfect.

To finish off ... I got the iced coffee and watched as it slowly went drip drip drip ... drip ... drip...


And finally stirred and poured into the ice for a nice refreshing finish to a meal.

It just started raining. Talk about good timing for getting back in time before it started pouring a lot. On a side note...

I rescued a dog from getting hit by a taxi ... then the dog bit me as thanks haha.

Now for something amusing ... Instead of using a lawnmower or grooming machine, they use a motor scooter to groom a baseball field.

Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup (牛肉麵 niu rou mian)

The other day, I was having a huge craving for Taiwanese beef noodle soup after I ordered a ticket for Taiwan, where I will be in August. With that being said, will anyone be in Taiwan August through September that wants to go eat yummies with me?

For my beef noodle soup, it takes quite a lot of time to make because I love lots of beef flavor from beef marrow bones and beef itself. The main component of this dish is beef shank, which gives the soup a meaty flavor and also it has a lot of meat. It's cheap and is only $2.49 per pound. You can ask the butcher at Whole Foods or at 99 Ranch for this cut of meat.

The bones were obtained at Whole Foods and can be found in the frozen meat section. I only trust Whole Foods for marrow bones and maybe Ralphs too because I had a horrible experience with the bones from 99 Ranch.

Taiwanese Beef Noodles Soup (牛肉麵 niu rou mian)

Ingredients
2 lbs Beef shank
1 lb Stew beef
2 lbs Beef marrow bones
2 tbs Chili bean paste (find in Asian markets)
3 cloves Garlic
2 large Onion (I used Maui Hawaiian onions from Trader Joes)
2 Roma Tomatoes
2 Organic carrots
1 inch Ginger
1/2 cup Soy sauce
1/4 cup Rice wine
1/4 cup Brown sugar
3 Star anise
1 tbs Rock sugar
Water
Green onions
Baby bok choy

Prep work for the stock
1. Slice 1 onion in half
2. Slice 1/2 inch ginger and smash it with the blade of the knife
3. Heat oven for 400F.
4. Pat Bones dry and roast in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until bones are brown.
5. Put bones, onion, ginger, and stew beef in a 6 Quart stock pot and fill up the pot almost to the top with water.
6. Bring to a boil and reduce heat.
7. Simmer the water for 5 hours covered.
8. Strain the stock and pick out the stew beef.
9. Chill until fat solidifies and remove the fat (I used the fat to brown the beef shank)

Prep work for the beef noodle soup
1. Peel and slice the carrots into three parts
2. Cut the tomatoes into quarters
3. Take the other 1/2 inch of the ginger and smash with the blade of the knife
4. Smash garlic and peel the skin off
5. Boil water in a large pot.
6. Throw in beef shank until it looks like the surface of the beef has been cooked (2-3 minutes)

Cooking
1. Heat up a large pot so that it can support the whole beef shank.
2. Put in beef lard from the stock or 2 tbs of oil in the pot.
3. Brown the sides of the beef shank 2-3 minutes)
4. Add in brown sugar and chili bean paste to coat the beef shank and cook for another 1-2 minutes.
5. Add ginger, star anise, and garlic and stir around the beef shank and cook for another 1-2 minutes.
6. Add the rice wine and cover for 3-5 minutes.
7. Add the hot stock, including the stew beef, soy sauce, rock sugar, carrots, 1 onion, and tomatoes.
8. Simmer covered for 4-5 hours on low heat.
9. Taste the soup. It should be relatively spicy and sweet with a hint of soy flavor. If it is too salty, add a little more water. Not enough flavor, add a little bit of salt.
10. Take out the large beef shank
11. Wait until it cools then slice it into thin pieces. (These pieces can also be used for cold appetizer with greens onions, soy sauce, and sesame oil)
12. Cook some Asian wheat noodles or udon noodles according to instructions.
13. Cook baby bok choy in water.
14. Finely chop the green onion
15. Put noodles in a bowl and spoon soup into it.
16. Add slices of beef and the green onions.

I haven't had good beef noodle soup in awhile. I guess this will be my Taiwanese treat in America before I venture into Taiwan.

Also, one of the blogs I follow, Tasty Eats at Home, is giving away coconut oil. I hope I win it. Time to do lots of experimentation with this oil xD.
http://tastyeatsathome.wordpress.com/2010/07/11/tropical-traditions-coconut-oil-giveaway/

Pesto with Kale and Beans

As mentioned before, I got a large box of random vegetables from the local Community Sustainable Agriculture (CSA) something something .... What I do with all these leafy items is going to be a mystery and quite a challenge.

To start off with my CSA Box of Random Vegetables, I decided to first use kale because I am pretty familiar with that vegetable.

I don't know why, but I have held off on making pesto for the longest time. I was never a big fan of pesto because of the amount of oil that pools over on the bottom of the plate after eating a big plate of noodles. Due to its simplicity, my love for Italian food, and request from people who are hungry.

Pesto with Kale and Beans



Ingredients
3 cups Basil
2 cloves Garlic
1/2 cup Extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup Pine nuts
1/4 cup Romano cheese (Finely grated, powdery one)
1/4 cup White kidney beans
4 leaves of Kale
1/2 lb Noodles

Prep
1. Put basil and garlic in the food processor
2. Blend nicely until basil leaves are finely chopped
3. Add in pine nuts and finely chop in the processor
4. Mix oil and cheese together
5. Slowly drizzle the oil and cheese mix while processor is running (most food processors have a liquid drip attachment at the top)
6. Coarsely chop kale

Cooking
1. Throw in noodles in the boiling water
2. Remove noodles from water and throw kale into the water (cook kale for 4 minutes)
3. Heat up pan with a little oil and toss noodles in with pesto mix and kidney beans (cook for 5 minutes, constantly stirring)
5. Strain kale and mix with noodle and pesto mix.

Well enjoy! The pesto sauce can be made ahead of time and stored for about a week in the refrigerator.

Eggplant and Cucumber Noodles

Leftovers ... what do I do with half an eggplant, 1 cucumber, and onions? I can't just throw these almost expired vegetables in the trash because that would just be wasteful. Well, being an efficient engineer, I conjured up a noodle dish that tasted quite interesting. I'm thankful that noodles are so versatile and goes well with anything. Basically, if you have the right herbs and spices, a wine, you can literally make several variations of noodles.

Eggplant and Cucumber Noodles


Ingredients
1/2 eggplant
1 Cucumber
1/2 Onion
1/4 cup White wine
4 oz Spaghetti noodles
2 cloves garlic
1 tbs Butter
2 tsp Paprika
2 tsp Dried oregano
1 tsp Chili powder
Salt and pepper
Dash of white truffle oil (optional)
Romano cheese

Preparation of being wasteful
1. Boil water
2. Finely dice the onion
3. Coarsely chop the eggplant and cucumber
4. Salt the eggplant and let it sit for 30-45 minutes
5. Rinse the eggplant
6. Chop the garlic

Cooking portion
1. Throw in noodles into the water
2. Heat up a pan with with
3. Add onion and garlic on medium heat
4. Wait for caramelization of onions (1-2 minutes)
5. Add eggplant and cucubmer and cook for 5-6 minutes
6. Add in paprika, chili powder, and oregano and stir around
7. Add in the white wine and allow the alcohol to evaporate (1-2 minutes)
8. Throw in the butter and mix well
9. Top with Romano cheese
10. Transfer noodles into a bowl and put in vegetable mix
11. Add a dash of truffle oil

Now that was simple! You can do some variations of this with your leftovers. It'll be good! Another thing, truffle oil really enhances the flavor of things, but don't add too much of it.

Fennel and Tomato Tofu Noodles

Hello everyone...
Guess what?
I'll let you keep guessing ...
No, I did not get an internship.
And no, I did not reach culinary awesomeness.
Well, completely unrelated to cooking or my eduction ... and more of my dorkiness, I have pre-ordered Starcraft II! The pre-ordered game also comes with a beta key. Ah ... the good ole days of playing Starcraft are coming back ^_^. (Though my ass is getting kicked very hard by extremely skilled players online)

Aside from that, it is Friday, and it is a day of rest. Tomorrow is the Los Angeles Festival of Books on campus, and as usual, I try to attend all the cooking demonstrations and ask annoying questions to the famous cookbook authors: "How would you cook a dog?". Just kidding xD. I am not that rude. Hopefully I can get to network with these famous people ^_^.

Onto today's topic, fennel, tomatoes, and tofu. What an odd combination. To tell you the truth, I have never used tofu and fennel in my life before. I was surprised it turned out well enough to post on my blog. Hajime! (Wait, I am not cooking Japanese food.) Let's Start!

Fennel and Tomato Tofu Noodles

Ingredients
1/2 lb Spaghetti noodles or any pasta of your choice
1 block Firm tofu (about enough to fill 1/2 cup)
2 Fennel bulbs
3 Roma tomatoes
1 tsp Fennel seeds
1 tsp Oregano
1/ 2 lime and its zest
1/2 cup White wine
1 tbs butter
Salt and pepper
Parmesan cheese

Directionals of 1337 Micromanagement (Starcraft terms if you don't get what I am saying)
1. Julienne fennel
2. Dice tomatoes
3. Cube tofu into 1 cm cubes
4. Roughly chop fennel seeds
5. Boil water with salt for the pasta

Cooking up a zergling rush
1. Heat up olive oil and throw in fennel and tomatoes until browning occurs (3-5 minutes)
2. Throw in tofu, lime juice, and white wine and cook until white wine is 2/3 gone (3-5 minutes)
3. Throw in salt, pepper, fennel seeds, zest, oregano, and butter and stir for about 2-3 minutes
4. Turn off heat and strain pasta to place into the pan of fennel and other various items.
5. Mix around and drizzle extra virgin olive oil on top with parmesan cheese.

Well time to sleep ... Starcraft will ruin my life, so I must control myself -_-

Basic Italian Meat Sauce

Well ... the time has come for the last night of spring break. Tomorrow, I revert back to college life by attending class, doing homework, and studying about civil engineering topics. Hopefully, this quarter I will learn something new and not get bored out of my mind in any of my classes.

To celebrate the last dinner of spring break, I've decided to go to basics and simplicity. I realized that the more complex I get, the harder it becomes for my readers to follow through and try what I make like how my professors go through all this theory for something unpractical at all, which causes me to fall into a long 2 hour slumber called lecture.

There are two parts to this recipe. The sauce without the meat and then cooking the meat.

Basic Italian Meat Sauce



Ingredients for sauce (vegetarian portion)
1 lb Roma tomatoes
2 cups Mire poix
5 cloves Garlic
1/4 cup Butter
1 tbs Dry oregano
1 tbs Dry marjoram leaves
1 tbs Dry basil
1 tsp Thyme powder
t tsp Sugar
Ample amounts of salt and fresh ground black pepper

Prep
1. Dice tomatoes
2. Peel garlic

Cooking the sauce
1. Melt butter in pan
2. Add in mire poix and garlic and saute until onion is translucent and carrots are soft. Careful not to burn anything!
3. Add in tomatoes and its juices, and then add in herbs, salt, and pepper
4. Stir around until tomatoes are soft
5. Cover and turn heat on medium low and simmer for 15 minutes
6. Put everything in a blender and blend until smooth
7. More sauce to a sauce pot to keep warm on the stove top
8. Taste for salt or pepper

Now the meat section

Ingredients of meaty goodness
1 lb Ground beef (leanest you can get)
2 tbs Butter (less if you have fatty ground beef)
1 tbs Fennel seeds (chopped)
1 tbs Garlic powder
1 tbs Dry marjoram leaves
Salt and Pepper

Directions of manliness meat
1. Melt butter in pan
2. Add ground beef and cook until half of it is cooked
3. Add in seasoning of various ingredients
4. Taste for enough salt and pepper when no more red is showing
Note: Do not burn it like my apartment mate. Keep the heat steady on medium and wait for the oil to get just about right for hotness. If the oil is way too hot, the meat will burn quickly!

Combination of ultra combo fight moves
1. Combine meat with sauce
2. Add meat to cooked noodles

Enjoy this simple dish. Well goodnight everyone ... school begins tomorrow yay!... -_-

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

I got to say... spring break passed pretty quickly. In two days, I will be back to crunching numbers away and learning about how earthquakes will destroy everything in the world as in the horrible movie 2012. Well, as a civil engineer, I'm supposed to prevent that from happening.

Putting those thoughts aside, I encountered spaghetti alla carbonara in one of the Italian cookbooks I've been reading over break (hence the load of Italian food posts). This dish is extremely simple and hard to mess up. All you need is cheese, eggs, bacon, and hot spaghetti.

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

Ingredients

5 slabs Bacon

2 Eggs

1 Egg yolk

1/2 lb Spaghetti

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup Romano cheese

1 tbs Combination ground Green pepper, white pepper, black pepper (you can exclude green if you can't find it or you can also use medley of peppercorns from your local supermarket)

Salt

Preparation for simplicity

1. Beat the egg, egg yolk

2. Mix in cheeses, peppers, and salt

3. Boil water with salt in it

4. Warm up a bowl by putting it in the oven (use thermometer and check if 80-100F range)

*Note before cooking: Make sure when you mix the pasta the egg does not curdle or be too liquidy. Temperature control is key.

Cooking*

1. Throw in noodles to cook for 10-15 minutes

2. In a pan heat up a little oil and cook bacon until crispy

3. Chop bacon into bits

4. Remove noodles and add to bacon fat/oil and toss around quickly.

5. Remove bowl from oven and throw in bacon and noodles

6. Slowly drip the egg mixture while stirring quickly until noodles are evenly coated.

Well, I guess I am almost at the end of my Italian cooking journey for spring break. I only have one last thing to make ... lasagna.

Chicken and Bacon Ravioli

After going through a long day of work, I was going to make lasagna for my friend, Cynthia, but I found out that I did not have a baking dish : (. As a result, I rolled out my pasta dough to make ravioli. Spring break is coming to a close -_-. I guess it shall be back to my studies of a civil engineer. While I was making my pasta dough, I was already thinking about the structural integrity of my flour well, and how well it can support the pressures exerted by the eggs and my mixing motion.

Chicken and Bacon Ravioli

Ingredients

Filling

1 Chicken breast

5 slabs Bacon

1/2 cup Ricotta cheese

1 tbs Maple agave syrup

Salt and pepper

Ravioli

1 lb Fresh pasta

Filling from above

Egg wash

Directionals of filling
1. Finely chop or ground the chicken
2. Add oil in a pan and cook the bacon
3. Remove and pat the bacon dry and finely chop
4. Add chicken in the same pan with minimal salt and pepper
5. Remove chicken and mix all the filling ingredients together.

Directionals for wrapping
1. Roll dough into a very thin sheet
2. Square off the sheet
3. On one half of the sheet, spoon 1 tbs of filling evenly spaced across the length of the sheet
4. Brush non-filling area with egg wash
5. Fold the pasta over in half and press down on the edge
6. Use a knife or pasta roller to cut the ravioli squares
7. In a pot of boiling water, cook for 7-10 minutes.

The ravioli is done! Now add your favorite sauce. I used a red wine balsamic sauce. This sauce complemented nicely with a nice sweet and tangy taste. Well time to enjoy the rest of my spring break watching more anime ^_^.

Fettuccine Chicken Alfredo

Watching the LA Marathon at the finish line was awesome! Man, those elite runners are fast! I was also amazed at how many people ran the marathon. I think that I'll start training for next year's marathon because I gotta say, it is quite an accomplishment.

In addition to handing out fliers today, I got several boxes of cheese and some free Naked Coconut Juice because they were giving them away at the marathon along with several other items. For the next few days, I'll think about what I am going to do with 5 lbs of cheddar cheese.

As for today's menu, I made fresh fettuccine noodles and Alfredo sauce with bacon and chicken. Quite a delicious and filling meal, but the bacon does add a bit of saltiness to the dish.

Fettuccine Chicken Alfredo



Ingredients
1/2 lb Fettuccine pasta
5 slabs Bacon
1 Chicken breast
3 Cloves garlic (crushed and sliced)
1 cup Milk
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup Romano cheese
2 tbs Butter
1/2 cup White wine
Salt and pepper (salt use only a little)
Corn starch (for coating)

Preparations
1. Make the fresh pasta

2. Cube chicken
3. Coat chicken in corn starch, salt, and pepper
4. Mix the cheese together with a some pepper

Cooking the meats
1. In a pan with some olive oil, cook the bacon until crispy (Note: I pan cooked it for 5 minutes and stuck it into a small oven for another 5 minuets)
2. With the same oil throw in the chicken and toss until most of the sides are white (3 minutes)
3. Put in enough white wine to cover 1/2 of the chicken and cover
4. Cook covered for 5 minutes
5. Remove chicken into a bowl

Cooking noodles (5-7 minutes)
1. While the chicken is cooking begin boiling, salted water in another pot
2. Throw in the pasta when you are ready to make the sauce

Cooking sauce (5 minutes)
1. In the pan that cooked the chicken, use the residue in the pan (white wine mostly)
2. Turn heat on low and stir in the butter until all incorporated
3. Stir and add the milk and garlic
4. Wait for a simmer (not full on boiling!)
5. Add in cheese 1 tsp at a time and stir with a whisk rapidly
6. Add in enough cheese to thick sauce consistency and bring to a boiling simmer
7. Strain sauce in a mesh strainer and transfer to a bowl

Combining everything together!



1. Dice the bacon
2. Combine sauce, bacon, chicken, and salt (if necessary) in a bowl
3. Toss in the noodles and serve

Enjoy! On a side note ... I feel that spring break is going to be really short : (.

Fresh Homemade Pasta

What a long fun-filled day! Circle K of UCLA went to Santa Monica to flier for the LA Marathon. The LA marathon is going to start in a few hours, and I will be at the finish line volunteering by handing out more fliers about the marathon.

On a side note ... I went to Chinatown today because my friend, Luke, wanted to get some Chinatown food ><. He was nice to get me, Nguyet, and Nhat some skewers. Though that was nice, the meat was not fresh and tasted rancid. I guess that is Chinatown food for ya ... cheap at the expense of quality. Now onto the main topic: pasta... All of winter quarter, I have been dying to make fresh pasta. Noodles that are fresh have a nice springy texture when you eat them, and their dried, boxed counterpart is always bland and falls apart easily.

Homemade Pasta (adapted from Essential of Italian: Michele Scicolone)


Ingredients
2 1/2 cups Flour (380 g)
4 Large eggs
1 Tbs Olive oil

Directions (Several notes to follow)
1. Measure the flour carefully
2. Mix all the wet ingredients in a bowl
3. Make a well in the flour and pour in the mix

4. Now is the hard part ... Incorporating the wet and dry together. In order to do this consistently, you must slowly use chopsticks, a fork, or a spoon to slowly stir slowly along the edges of the well and slowly make the flour come into the egg mixture.
5. Once you start getting gooey consistency, start moving more flour in until you form dough that is similar to bread dough. At this point, start kneading the dough and add more flour and folding it in half and pressing your palm forward and rotate. Do this until the dough feels firm and can stretch without breaking.
6. Cover with plastic wrap and let the dough sit for an hour.
7. Take the dough out and flatten with a rolling pin and split into two parts
8. Run the dough through the pasta machine to flatten it out some more.
9. Run it through the pasta cutting mechanism
10. Cook the pasta in salted boiling water until done.
11. Enjoy with your favorite sauce!

Simple olive oil pasta!

Farfalle with Peanut Almond Sauce and Mahi Mahi (Brain Food!)

With my last final being on Thursday, I proceeded to make some brain food. As mentioned in the previous post, I heard that fish can stimulate parts of the brain for creativity and concentration. In addition, nuts, such as peanuts and almonds. Here is a guide to good studying food.

In my pantry, I found that I had some pasta. I decided to do a little experimenting.

Farfalle with Peanut Almond Sauce and Mahi Mahi (Brain Food!)

Sorry readers, no picture today!

Ingredients
1 cup Farfalle pasta or any type of pasta
1 Mahi mahi fillet
1/4 cup Peanuts
1/4 cup Almonds
1/4 cup White wine
1/4 Onion
1 Garlic clove
2 tbsp Maple syrup
1 tsp Fennel seeds
Salt and Pepper
Corn starch for coating fish

Prep work
1. Slice the onion
2. Chop the garlic
3. Chop peanuts and almonds
4. Chop fennel seeds
5. Cut mahi mahi into squares
6. Toss the mahi mahi into the corn starch to coat
7. Salt and pepper the fish
8. Boil water and toss pasta in the pot

Cooking (About 5-7 minutes)
1. Heat pan with olive oil
2. Throw in onions, fennel seeds, and garlic until translucent
3. Toss in mahi mahi and cook for 1 minute
4. Throw in white wine, syrup, nuts, and stir
5. Cover for 3-5 minutes or until the fish is flaky
6. Pasta should be ready (make sure by tasting)
7. Strain pasta into a boil and toss 1 tbsp of olive oil in it
8. Pour sauce in and mix

Good luck on finals for those who are students reading this post!

Somen Noodles with Miso Tilapia

Because I am too poor to afford black cod... once again, I have tilapia, which I have to say is my new favorite fish as you can see from my previous posts. It's cheap and delicious ><.. I probably should be concerned with the amount of mercury, lead, and various toxins from this "previously frozen in China" fish. I guess I'd have to go to Whole Foods for the good stuff, but heck I am a college student and do not have that kind of money for organics. I guess this will be as bad as eating instant noodles or even worse ... because at least in instant noodles, I know what chemicals I am consuming, while for this lump of fish, I have no clue what toxins have been in its system. Enough talk about organics and what is healthy. This dish was probably one of the fastest or least time consuming dishes I have ever made. Hope you enjoy it during the finals stress.

Somen Noodles with Miso Tilapia



Ingredients
1 Tilapia fillet
2 tbs White miso paste
1 tbs Sugar
1 tsp Sesame oil
1 tsp Soy sauce
1 Green onion
1 Batch somen noodles

Prep Directions
1. Mix all those ingredients together
2. Pat the rinse and pat the tilapia dry
3. Evenly pat the miso mixture on the fish
4. Marinate for about 3 hour (I would marinate it for a day)

Cooking
1. Preheat the oven for 375F.
2. Place fish in the oven for 15-20 minutes.
3. Boil water and throw in noodles.
4. When noodles are done, pour a tsp of sesame oil, soy sauce, and black vinegar and mix with the noodles.
5. Put some bonito flakes or favorite seaweed topping over the noodles and serve with the fish.

Pasta with Sausage and Mustard Sauce

Man it is Friday already! That means finals are coming up and then spring break! I plan to have my spring break filled with Italian food after I get my pasta maker. Today was rather uneventful day with my meetings and lab work.

My friend Jeannie decided to make some pasta with spicy sausage and mustard cream sauce. Here is my modified version of the recipe.

Pasta with Sausage and Mustard Sauce



Ingredients
1 cup Pasta shells (depending on how much you want)
4 Italian sausages (spicy ones)
4 cloves Garlic
1 Shallot
1/4 cup Red wine
1/4 cup Heavy cream
1 tbs Whole grain dijon mustard
1 tsp Chili pepper
Chopped parsley (garnish)

Prep work
1. Smash garlic and dice
2. Dice the shallots
3. Chop the sausages into slices
4. Boil water

Cooking section
1. Heat up pan and add sausages to cook for about 2 minutes (brown them)
2. Throw in pasta into boiling water while the sausage is cooking
3. Add in garlic and shallots until translucent and cook until sausage about done
4. Remove sausages and place on top of paper towel to soak up the grease and keep warm.
5. With the same pan, deglaze with red wine and reduce about 2/3 of the liquid
6. Stir in the heavy cream, chili, and mustard
7. Reduce until sauce-like and check if your pasta is done, taste sauce if salt is needed (probably very minimal because the sausages are salty)
8. Plate pasta then sausages and use a strainer to strain the sauce into the dish
9. Sprinkle parsley on top

Enjoy eating this spicy pasta dish. Now time to clean up and work on my lab report ... fun stuff ... along with editing my group report and essays, which people need to learn how to cite their sources properly -_-.

Avacado smoothies and Chinese Zha Jian Mian 炸酱面 "Fried Sauce Noodles"

Ok... What another long ass day! 8am to 8pm! Bit disastrous in lab today when my group messed up on calibration curves, and even though I only had 2 hours of work today, it felt like forever.

Though I did hear a funny story from my friend, who's apartmentmates can not cook at all.
Apparently they tried to open an egg with a knife xD Yea that sounds like they really can't cook at all.

Anyways....

I went to Ralphs to buy condensed milk, broccoli (gotta have those greens!), and some morning doughnuts (so fattening -_-..)

Man I am tired and having a late dinner, but oh wellz! For starters, my friend Bryce, gave me some fresh avocados picked off his tree, and they have ripened over the past week. I decided to make avocado smoothies.

Avocado Smoothie



Ingredients:
1 cup of ice
2 avocados
1/3 cup of condensed milk
1/2-3/4 cup of milk

Directions:
1. Blend everything and serve (easy for newblets)
2. Enjoy the fats haha

Now onto the main dish: Zha Jian Mian



I made Chinese zha jian mian, which the Koreans made for their own as jajanmyeon. Though similar, the Chinese version mainly uses pork. My friend Steven mentioned that zha jian mian varies from different regions in Asia and depends on the black bean sauce too. There can also be a lot of stuff like beef, vegetables in it too.

Ingredients of goodness

1 lb of hand pulled noodles or dried Chinese noodles (I get Wu-Mu Dried Noodles brand)
1 whole pork tenderloin (I bought one that's 1 lb)
1 package of baked tofu*
1 whole zucchini
1 whole, humongously large, white onion
5 cloves of garlic
8 oz jar of sweet bean sauce or tian mian jian (甜面酱)
8 oz jar of broad bean sauce or dou ban jiang(豆瓣酱)
1 tablespoon of rice wine
2 tablespoon of soy sauce
some corn starch... (an ingredient I always have in my kitchen)
*Note 1: Should be able to find this in Asian stores and should come in square blocks of 4)
Note 2: Not to be bias or anything, but I buy my bean sauces that are made in Taiwan or USA

Prep work

Vegetables first!
1. Cube onion into .5 cm squares
2. Cube zucchini
3. Cube fried tofu into .5 cm pieces
4. Mash the garlic with the flat of the knife.

Meat section rawr sanitation...
1. Mince the pork tenderloin into tiny cubes
2. Use about 3 tablespoons of cornstarch and mix the pork around by massaging the corn starch into the pork
3. Add in the soy sauce and rice wine and massage some more.

Cooking Time!

1. In a pan (wok preferred) add a sh*t ton of oil like 1/4 cup.
2. Once the oil is really hot ... add the pork
3. Stir around for 5 to 7 minutes on medium-high heat (until it is almost done cooking)
4. Take out the pork and place into a bowl or plate
5. Add in the onions and zucchini
6. Stir around until translucent
7. Empty both sauces into the pan and add the meat back into the pan
8. Cook until simmering and add garlic and baked tofu
9. Cook for additional 2 minutes until the tofu gets soft and cooked.
10. Serve with noodles

Noodles:

Well I will teach you how to make hand pulled noodles in another blog, but noodles are simple

1. Boil water
2. Add noodles
3. Test to see if it is done by tasting it.
4. Remove noodles and plop sauce onto it

Another note....
So for the Chinese version, it is better to have julienne cucumbers

Well enjoy!