You Are the Sriracha to My Pho

Isn't it awesome?

I was admiring the Hong Kong food-inspired Valentine's Day illustrations from Mochachocolata-Rita when it occurred to me to make a Vietnamese one. Well, except my drawing skills are limited to stick figures, and pretty sad stick figures at that.

So I asked Rita if she could draw an illustration for me that said, "You Are the Sriracha to My Pho." She came back in less than an hour with the above. I looove it!

On Tactile Pleasures, a Plethora of Plaid, and Souvenir Socks

One year ago, my darling little niece was born. Any time I see this cutie is a good day. Happy Birthday baby!

February was mostly a miss for me. The Year of the Cat started the month off on a bad note and ended badly with the loss of my parents' beloved chihuahua, Penny. In between was a lot of hibernation as I retreated to bed with my flannel to escape winter and busy myself quilting again. Let's hope spring's warm weather gives me a more cheerful outlook.

Minutiae

One of the first pictures I took when I got my new/used camera almost two years ago were these photos of vanilla ice cream with chocolate revels. I was playing around with my camera, trying to figure out how to work it, and searching for subject matter to photograph. I knew I would somehow work that analogous anecdote in somewhere on the blog and the when of the photograph doesn't matter so much to you as it does to me.


Except that the when of things has started to matter a lot more to me the longer I've been blogging. I guess because at the beginning, this blog was a more solitary endeavor and has now grown to encompass family and friends and so many more people than I expected. I ate this on this day with this person. I visited this restaurant on this day with this other person. I cooked this for the first time on this day and fed this person or just myself. A lot of vanilla. Occasional chocolate revels. And sometimes the dreaded icy chunks.

While my days have a whole lot more vanilla than anything else, I started toying with the idea of participating in Project 365, a photo a day for a year. Sure I take a lot of photos, but revisits to restaurants don't often make it on the blog. Non-food or just the minutiae of my life in general doesn't either. But isn't that life? A compilation of our minutiae? Small moments, occasional large moments, that add up and drift by year after year. I tried playing with this idea a bit when I did my month of mostly photos three years ago (Gah! How time passes by when you blog!), but that was more to give me a break from writing. I was intrigued following along Lan of Angry Asian Creations' Project 365. Perhaps because she's a blogging, and now real-life, friend. I enjoyed the glimpses into her day-to-day life, what doesn't make it onto her blog or Facebook updates. She fizzled out near the end. But then, via Lan, I found Jacqui of Happy Jack Eats' blog and her Project 365 too and enjoyed reading about her year.

I have no momentous year ahead of me. Well, not that I know of anyway. But it's my zodiac year, and well, if I'm gonna do Project 365, why not this year? The last time it was my year was pretty good. I really enjoyed my job, had my funnest vacation ever in Ibiza, Spain with Norwegian girl cousin, made lots of trips home and to New York and to Vegas, and right before the Year of the Cat ended, landed my dream job at the time, before I switched careers. So all in all, though this Cat year didn't start off well, I'm hoping overall it'll be as fondly remembered as the last time. OK, technically the Cat year doesn't start until February, but I'm used to the Julian calendar so I know it's a document of this year and technically gives me another month if I so want to include it.

Or perhaps I'll find out that my life really is more vanilla than anything else. I admit I'm pretty boring. If January is any indication, the highlights of my days are mostly food-related, or the people I see, or sometimes just what comes in the mail. Lots and lots of minutiae. It's as much an experiment for me as it is a chance for you to follow along, if you so care to anyway.

Happy Bakery - San Gabriel

Three years ago, Happy Bakery - Alhambra burned down. :( After several years of seeing nothing going up in the old location, I figured the owners decided to retire. So, tipped off by the Two Hungry Pandas, I was sooo excited to see them reopen last November.


I had been going to Happy Bakery for more than a decade, getting small orders of dim sum to-go or an occasional Chinese barbecued pork bun. A small box of various pastries always made great presents for a co-worker's birthday or to thank a friend for driving me to the airport.

The old location, with its handmade "Se Habla Espanol" sign because the Chinese owners once lived in Venezuela, was worn and tired. The owners often looked it too, but that was part of its charm. No frills, but I knew that the Happy Bakery was a real mom-and-pop kind of place.

Once, I stumbled upon the owners' son's blog post linking to my post about the fire. He said people kept asking his parents whether they were going to reopen. He said he was "bakerysick" in the way that some people get "homesick."

So happily filled with nostalgia, I mentioned all that to the owners when I first stopped in last December. She seemed happy to hear that people were talking about their reopening, excited to have them back. I asked her why they took so long?

She said they wanted to find the right location and they took a vacation. After so many years of working ungodly hours, the bakery opens at 6:30 a.m., I smiled at the thought of them needing and taking a vacation.

Welcome back, I said, and proceeded to order up a storm.

They still offer a variety of dim sum to-go.

From How to Cook Jasmine Rice to Happily Ever After

Two years ago, I had written what I thought was a rather ho hum post on "How to Cook Jasmine Rice." Who knew that it would be so useful? With more than two dozen comments, I guess rice resonated with many of you too.

Shortly afterward, I received an email from Robin, who lives, as she calls it, in the heart of Cajun country -- south Louisiana. She was dating a Vietnamese man at the time and had been searching for recipes to cook for him.

"I was in desperate need of a lesson on how to cook jasmine rice, since my three attempts were a disaster! ... Now, I know what I was doing wrong. Thank you, thank you, thank you. It came out perfect that evening."

She told me the blog was useful to help her cook some of the foods her Vietnamese boyfriend liked, and seeing the various steps, and knowing what the dish was supposed to look like, helped her cook Vietnamese food more confidently.

I replied that if any of my recipes helped her to woo her man and got her a marriage proposal, I wanted to know about it. :P

Spicy Macaroni and Cheese with Chicken

Somehow I got talked into helping lil' sis and oldest nephew move. Or rather, they needed my car since it's much more spacious than theirs. They didn't really need my help because I'm wimpy and of little use.

After work, as I gathered up the stuff she wanted me to bring down -- shoe blackening pen, my tool kit, her toaster oven, my oldest uncle called inviting me over for his mother-in-law's death anniversary luncheon. I totally should've brought my camera because my aunt had a really nice vegan spread of egg rolls, noodles, dumplings, and curry. Anyway, I stuffed myself on Vietnamese dumplings and played with my cousin's cousin's kids for a bit.

The kids asked me if we could bake cookies again since they had such fun making cookies with me during the holidays. I said I hadn't left the butter out to soften at room temperature (a must for the best texture), but they could help me make mac and cheese to bring down to lil' sis if they'd like. Yay! So my cousin's cousin's daughter and my cousin's other cousin's son came over to help me cook.

Their enthusiasm was sweet. They were so excited just to be in the kitchen. I set them to work shredding leftover rotisserie chicken and grating cheese, while I started the water boiling and sliced an onion.

This spicy mac and cheese with chicken is my interpretation of Le Bistro Montage - Portland's "Spold" Mac and Cheese, with Cajun spices and chicken, and combined with my usual Macaroni and Cheese recipe. Yes, I told you in that recipe that you could add chicken and spices, but I know how lazy you are! Or how lazy lil' sis is. She likes very specific directions when she makes my recipes and says I confuse her if I assume or skip steps.

My Friend E(L)'s Bridal Shower

I, like, totally, had to go to the "valley" for my friend E(L)'s awesome bridal shower. It was, like, the raddest ever! :P

Gah! She lives in the middle of nowhere. Well, nowhere when it comes to food anyway, I thought as I drove past Encino and Van Nuys and all these other cities that I only knew about through movies or as addresses for television stations before I moved to SoCal. And even after I moved to SoCal, I still have yet to go to the San Fernando Valley for any restaurants.

I've mentioned my friend E(L) before once or twice on the blog. Most of the time, OK, almost every time, we get together, she comes to me so she can get her fix of Chinese and Vietnamese food. If you want to be mentioned on the blog, we have to either try a new restaurant or it has to be a special, bloggable occasion. Ordinary dining excursions to places I've already blogged about won't get you mentioned. Ha!

Anyway, E(L) and her fiance recently bought a new house, and what a house! Take lots of pictures she said after I walked through the door.

As if she had to ask!

Giordano's Stuffed Spinach Pizza - Chicago - Illinois from Gourmet Pigs

In the pizza wars, only one pizza reigns supreme for me.

Because there's only one pizza for which I get cravings. For the buttery, flaky crust. For the deep dish stuffed spinach goodness. For the liberal amounts of tangy tomato sauce on top.

Sure there are other deep dish pizzas and other stuffed pizzas, but only Giordano's stuffed spinach pizza comes with heaping amounts of nostalgia for my undergrad days. For snowy winters and having to decide whether to brave the cold for Sunday dinner or stay in the dorm and make do with a bag of popcorn.

The stuffed or deep dish pizzas I've tried in California, NorCal and SoCal, just aren't the same. So I was way excited when Gourmet Pigs came back from Chicago with a frozen stuffed spinach pizza for me. Yippee!!!

You can order the pizzas half-baked and frozen at the restaurants and they'll have it ready for you to take on the plane. One of my college friends did this once. On the way to take me to the airport, she said she had to make a pitstop, and came out with two frozen pizzas for me to take home. Way cool.

Downtown Portland - Oregon

I realized that I've now lived outside of Oregon for longer than I've actually lived in the state. That somehow makes me feel a little sad. But I'll always be an Oregonian at heart!



I'm heading home for a nice respite with the folks. Posting will be light to nonexistent. Ha! As if I haven't let weeks lapse before.

Third trip home in the past year and I have yet to post about my beloved hometown! Will have to rectify that soon. I leave you with these images taken by lil' sis on our trip home last September.

Tastebook Steals Bloggers' Recipes and Pictures

Does the photo look familiar? The writing should look familiar too.



That's because it's my Bo Luc Lac (Vietnamese Shaking Beef) photo and recipe. Reprinted without my permission.

Last week, Sis of The Cast Iron Kitchen made my recipe and in her search came across the stolen version. She quickly alerted me, unsure whether that was the right thing to do. Of course, it was! Thank you again so much for telling me.

So I followed user Robert's page and found a dozen of my recipes and/or photos that were stolen and reposted on Tastebook's site without any credit given. GRRR!!!

I promptly made copies of all the pages and emailed Tastebook support, feedback, and PR to remove the copyrighted material. All I got back was a generic auto-reply, and then once an email from support saying they're asking the user to delete the content. Not that they deleted the content immediately when it was obvious to anyone, comparing my blog post and what was submitted, that the content was stolen.

A week later, I checked and the previous links were gone. But, I found 10 more of my recipes and/or photos stolen by Serenity and Mimi. GRRR!!! I also found stolen content from several other blogs.

Why does this matter?

First and foremost, I spend a lot of time cooking, photographing, editing, and writing content for my blog. That another website allows users to steal my content is completely reprehensible. Since Tastebook is a user-submitted site, then it needs to police its content. Period.

Each of my recipes have had hundreds of pageviews on their website. In simplest terms, that means people are not looking at my website but theirs in order to get the recipe. In many cases, without attribution, people even think my recipes and photos are Tastebook's. In other cases, since the whole point of their website is for people to pay to collate the recipes into a book, then Tastebook is literally making money off my work.

This needs to stop now. It's not just Tastebook, other aggregate sites do the same thing and I'm sick and tired of it. They're all violating bloggers' copyrights and they all need to police their content.

You wanna know why I've lost energy to blog? This is why. Keep scrolling down. There's a damn lot of my recipes that were stolen.

On Being Sick, Being Thankful, and Bo Kho (Vietnamese Beef Stew)

"You finally started blogging again," said the middle '87 during an early dinner of dumplings last week at Dean Sin World - Monterey Park. Just a few months ago, she had nagged me about updating the blog. "You have fans, you know," she said after checking and yet again seeing no new post.

"If you don't update, your fans will go away," said her oldest brother, who told me he stopped checking every day too.

OK. OK. Yes, in fits and starts, I've started blogging regularly again. Did you miss me? Did you notice?




And no, I really can't eat chao (Vietnamese rice porridge) with chopsticks. I updated the photos in my old post and forgot to use a spoon for the picture. No wonder I needed a break since I was that scatterbrained. :P What can I say? I see rice bowl, I automatically think chopsticks.

This post has been long, long overdue. After more than three years of blogging, I just needed a breather. I was sickly off and on all winter. I was frustrated and angry with my content being stolen again and again and again. I was out of town for most of June. My internet kept going out last month. But really, it started last November after my house was broken into and my laptop got stolen. They took my laptop case, which had my important papers including my citizenship certificate, which costs $380 to replace by the way! Grr!

There's a vast difference between choosing not to blog and having that choice taken away from me. Every once in a while, I see that someone searched for "what to do when my house gets broken into" to land on my blog and I always feel a little sad all over again. It took months and months before I stopped being so paranoid in my own house.

And it's taken that much longer to pick up the blogging momentum again. The funny thing is that it is actually easier for me to blog every day than to do so sporadically. The comments pile up. The emails remain unanswered. The queue gets longer and longer. For that, I must apologize. I either have to stay on top of the blog, or I get buried under. And well, for the past year, I've allowed myself the latter.

San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge

A few days after I got back from Portland, I received an email from Hillary of Neighbor Agency, who handles PR for Jamba Juice offering me a sneak peak at big news that they were announcing back in June. It would require traveling to San Francisco, but they would cover my travel expenses if I accepted such things.

A tour of Jamba Juice's lab, support center, and taste some new items? And my flight paid for? Umm, yes, please. :)

Mom's Razor Clam Sushi, Lovingly Packed To-Go

Aren't they beautiful?

My brother was in Portland recently. That weekend, he went with our parents to the coast where they dug up razor clams. My mom froze some for me. I'm waiting until lil' sis comes home again before cooking them.

With the rest, she made razor clam sushi and packed it up for my brother to eat on the flight down. I had made braised short ribs with mashed potatoes for dinner, so my brother decided to save the sushi for lunch the next day.

I opened the box to take some for myself and saw how lovingly my mom had packed everything.

I-5 From LA to Portland

Happy Birthday Oregon! My home state turned 150 years old this year!

Last September, lil' sis and I loaded up her car with pomegranates, dragon fruits, loofahs, freshly picked chili peppers, a couple of jars of Tuong Ot Xa (Vietnamese Lemongrass Chili Sauce), and a few chickens. My youngest aunt sent up a whole jackfruit. It was wonderfully sweet. Youngest aunt really knows how to select the right jackfruit says my momma.

Almost all of my extended family eventually moved down to Southern California and only my dad and second-youngest aunt stayed in Oregon. So when my brother and I were little (waaay before lil' sis was born), my dad used to send us down almost every summer. Sometimes it was by plane, but most of the time we drove. It's funny how years later when I see these mountains, I'm always reminded of those trips.

On Glamour's "Engagement Chicken" and Who I Cook For

Common sense would dictate that I get up early on Thanksgiving to begin cooking for 18 people. But where's the fun in that? The day before, I bought an organic chicken from the San Gabriel Superstore for $6.99. The only reason I bought an organic chicken was because I intended to make com ga Hai Nam (Hainanese chicken rice) since lil' sis was home. But whole chickens have been just as expensive lately, so I decided to make my salt, pepper, lemon basic baked chicken and update the pictures in my original post instead. Lil' sis and I enjoyed a leisurely lunch of baked chicken before running around like chickens with our heads cut off from cooking all day.

Look at that fabulously crispy skin.




And moist breast meat. Normally I don't like white meat, but this recipe turns out juicy breast meat every time. Too bad the organic chicken was rather flat-chested or there'd be a lot more breast meat to enjoy.

Abraham Partamian Armenian Bakery - Los Angeles (Mid-City)

Several weeks ago, I received an invitation to a pre-grand opening tasting of Fulfilled, a Japanese imagawa-yaki pastry shop in Beverly Hills. Go outside of the San Gabriel Valley? Ack! Because I had to drive so far, I wanted to make it worth my while. So I decided to detour to Abraham Partamian Armenian Bakery in the Mid-City neighborhood of Los Angeles.



I was searching for an Armenian bakery in a neighborhood that's now half Latino because it supposedly offers the best lahmajoun in town. Lahmajoun/lahmajune/lahmacun, however you spell it, according to Wikipedia is an Anatolian dish of very thin dough topped with minced lamb, tomatoes, and spices. It's sometimes referred to as Armenian or Turkish pizza.

Earlier in the spring, I was inspired by this Los Angeles Times article about how Leon Partamian, Abraham's son who never married or had children, left the bakery to his two Mexican workers. Francisco Rosales and Jose Gonzales had been with him for more than 35 years. That two Mexican Americans make the best, and bake upwards of 500, Armenian "pizzas" a day definitely goes on my list of things that are "Sooo SoCal." Not that I'm suprised since I've often seen Mexicans working in the kitchens of Little Saigon restaurants.

Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24: Traditional Thanksgiving Dinner with an Asian Fusion Twist

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite American holiday. I think it's less commercial than some of the other holidays. Except for the mad rush for turkeys, what you're really left with is a holiday that pays homage to being thankful and to gathering with family. And of course, the food. Can't forget about the food.


This is the fourth time I've hosted Thanksgiving dinner. As we've gotten older, there's less and less occasion for the cousins to gather. This year, I fed 18 people. So despite the full day of cooking that usually entails, I actually enjoy hosting. I usually make one or two turkeys, mashed potatoes and gravy, and stuffing. Other dishes might vary from typical American sides to ethnic ones. Someone usually brings a pie or two to finish off the meal.

Really, all my cousins want are the core dishes -- the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, and pumpkin pie. After all, Thanksgiving really is the only time of year we eat all of the above. But this year, I decided to mess around a bit with tradition.

My House Was Broken Into And My Laptop Was Stolen

Dear readers,

My house was broken into and my laptop was stolen tonight. :(

Banh Nam (Vietnamese Steamed Flat Rice Dumplings with Pork and Shrimp)

I learned to cook by wiping banana leaves in the kitchen of my ba noi (Vietnamese paternal grandmother). Actually, I think every grandchild (all 20 of us), had at one time or another been given that task. Her specialty was banh nam (Vietnamese steamed flat rice dumplings with pork and shrimp). Sometimes I would help her put the meat on the dough and wrap the banana leaves to make these flat rice dumplings. While I helped, I never did learn her recipe.


Ba noi passed away nearly six years ago. I still can't eat banh nam without crying so I often avoid it at family gatherings. Also, my aunts don't make it quite the same. The dough isn't as tender. The dumpling sometimes a bit too thick. It just wasn't the way grandma made it.

How to Cook Jasmine Rice

Planting rice. Photo taken from the train on the way to Sa Pa, Vietnam, summer 2005.

I missed my mom's home cooking so much when I first left for college. Though my mom often cooks my favorite dishes when I go home, what I missed the most after that first semester was eating a bowl of plain white rice. Sure the school cafeteria served their version of Asian food, which also included rice, but it just wasn't the same.

Normally, I buy a 10-lb sack of Three Ladies brand rice for about $5. That lasts me a good six months. Now, I only see the 20-lb sack and it's about $20. Crazy! So when the price of all imported rice doubled earlier this year, I decided to experiment with other brands. I bought a 20-lb sack of California brown rice for $10.99, figuring I might as well try eating healthier. But it just didn't give me the same satisfaction in texture, chew, or taste. I mean, I like brown rice occasionally, but on a daily basis with Vietnamese food, I gotta have Vietnamese jasmine white rice. Then I tried various other smaller bags of American long grain rice but it tasted dry and crumbly. In the end, I couldn't take it anymore and bought the 20-lb bag of Three Ladies jasmine rice for $20 after all.

Rice fields in my dad's village in south-central Vietnam.

So then I started thinking about words in Vietnamese to describe rice. There's lúa to describe green rice stalks in the fields like what you see in the above pictures. Cơ'm is young rice. Gạo is uncooked rice. Cơm is cooked rice, and also the same word we use to encompass any meal.

"Con, ăn cơm chưa?" ("Child, have you eaten rice yet?") My aunties and uncles often ask me in lieu of "How are you?"

There's also:
Cơm tắm - broken rice
Cơm rượu - rice wine
Rượu nếp - glutinous/sticky rice wine
Nếp - uncooked glutinous/sticky rice
Xôi - cooked glutinous/sticky rice

I typed rice into VDict.com and got some more:
lúa chưa xay - unhusked rice
lúa xay rồi - husked rice
bột gạo - ground rice
lúa chiêm - summer rice, or dry season rice
lúa mùa - winter rice, or rainy season rice

Then there's other kinds of rice like red rice and black rice. And rice dishes such as desserts, porridge, chicken rice, tomato paste rice, and fried rice.

Needless to say, rice is a central part of Vietnamese, and many Asian, cuisines. Remember that scene in Fifth Chinese Daughter when Jade Snow Wong's family buys the year's worth of rice? They took samples from various vendors, analyzed the grains, and then placed their order for the entire year. My family doesn't get quite that fanatic. My mom does buy her year's supply during Tet (Vietnamese lunar new year), when the new crop comes in. She'll call and remind me to stock up too. So while I don't have any special tricks to choosing rice, I do have some tips.