Pumpkin Pasties with Ground Beef, Onions, and Sage

In honor of National Pi Day and the imminent opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Hollywood, I couldn't pass up the chance to make proper Harry Potter-inspired Pumpkin Pasties with Ground Beef, Onions, and Sage. I made Pumpkin Fillo Pasties last fall for my Harry Potter-inspired Birthday Party using fresh diced pumpkin, but since pumpkin is no longer in season, had to resort to canned pumpkin for this recipe. The mashed filling ended up making the pie soggy after a while, so it's best to eat these right away if you want to be able to hold them in your hands. They still tasted good when I reheated them in the toaster oven hours later, but needed to be plated.

I made the pumpkin pasties about 6 inches long, a good meal-sized pasty, about the size of the Cornish pasties I used to eat when I lived in London. The mashed pumpkin filling made this version sweeter than when I used fresh diced pumpkin, but make no mistake, these pasties are meant to be savory. Pack them for a picnic or for a ride on the Hogwarts Express.

Chinese Crackled Tea Eggs

The two previous Easters, I made Vegetable-Dyed Crackled Eggs and while they were fun for the kids to peel and to look at, they rarely wanted to eat the hard-boiled eggs afterward. However, Chinese Tea Eggs, seasoned with soy sauce and spices, are way tastier.

I had a packet of tea egg spices in the pantry that I opened with the intention of using them, but the package had a very strong Chinese herbal medicine smell, which I didn't want to flavor the eggs. So I put the package back in the pantry and decided I would just use some of my favorite spices instead.

This recipe is easily adjusted with whatever spices you prefer, the only constants are soy sauce for savoriness and tea for aroma. I used a mix of loose leaf black tea and bagged black tea with orange peel. If you don't have the latter, just toss in a dried orange peel. I added some Saigon cinnamon bark, star anise pods, and a black cardamom pod. The last may be harder to find, so I've listed it as optional.

I prefer to soft-boil the eggs since they'll be simmered for a bit in the spiced tea mixture, so that the eggs won't be rubbery. Crack the shells without peeling them, simmer, and let them soak in the flavorings overnight.

The result is a marbled hard-boiled egg redolent with the aromas of tea and spices. A great snack at any time, but for Easter, I let the kids peel the shells so they can unwrap each egg's unique crackled effect for themselves.

Banh Pa Te So Nhan Banh Mi (Vietnamese Pate Chaud (French Hot Pastry Pie) with Sandwich Fillings)

Shortly after trying the special at Au Coeur De Paris Patisserie & Boulangerie - Westminster ( Little Saigon), basically a Banh Pa Te So (Vietnamese Pate Chaud (French Hot Pastry Pie)) with Vietnamese sandwich fillings, I knew I would recreate this at home. Such a brilliant idea!

I made my usual Vietnamese puff pastry pies, then stuffed them like Au Coeur De Paris does with homemade Xa Xiu (Vietnamese Chinese Barbecued Pork), Cha Lua (Vietnamese Steamed Pork Loaf), and Do Chua (Vietnamese Pickled Stuff). Tucked in a few sprigs of cilantro and little hand-sized snacks were perfect.

I was trying to come up with a name to call these, but couldn't come up with anything shorter than what they are Banh Pa Te So Nhan Banh Mi (Vietnamese Pate Chaud (French Hot Pastry Pie) with Sandwich Fillings). Ha! If you're in the Little Saigon area, I highly recommend checking out Au Coeur De Paris' specials, but otherwise, they're easy enough to make at home, they just have a lot of components.

Hot flaky puff pastry stuffed with three kinds of meat and pickles? Perfection.

Sam Woo Crisp Fish Skin Laver Flavour

While at Sam Woo BBQ - Alhambra recently to pick up a to-go order, I saw a young couple in front of me buy a bag of Sam Woo Crisp Fish Skin. Huh! I've never seen this before.

Is it good? I asked the cashier.

She said it was, and at $2 a bag, not too bad of a price to experiment. They had regular and laver flavor. I opted for the seaweed, thinking just plain fried fish skin didn't sound very flavorful. I thought maybe it'd be like the salmon skin in salmon skin rolls at Japanese restaurants?

Banh Pa Te So (Vietnamese Pate Chaud (French Hot Pastry Pie))

I'm not sure why I haven't posted a recipe for Banh Pa Te So (Vietnamese Pate Chaud (French Hot Pastry Pie)) before. Perhaps I was overthinking it and wanted to wait until I tried my hand at making puff pastry. Or maybe I veered the other direction and thought it was so basic that it didn't need a recipe. I admit, I don't often make a filling specifically for banh pa te so. Rather, if I'm making Cha Gio (Vietnamese Egg Rolls), I use the leftover filling to stuff them or any other leftover filling or meat.

My mom buys frozen puff pastry in bulk and cuts them into squares and brings them down to me. So I almost always have some on hand. They make a great light breakfast or quick snack. But, since one of my readers requested, and in case you wanted to specifically make banh pa te so, here's my recipe.

By the way, I always knew that banh pa te so is the Vietnamese phonetic equivalent of pate chaud (French hot pastry pie), but according to Wikipedia, apparently it's an outdated 19th century term. Blame it on colonialism. Learn something new every day!

With my love for pot pies, well, really, any savory filling in pastry, it's a wonder I haven't posted about this before.

Fried Onion Strings

After eating Fried Onion Strings at Gus's BBQ - South Pasadena, I was reminded that I never blogged my recipe. Just one of those basic recipes that slipped through the cracks because it wasn't anything particularly special. Then again, the last time I made this, my cousin's cousin's kids were over and they gobbled up all of the fried onion strings.

They make a great snack, dipped in either ketchup or ranch dressing, or as a garnish atop steak. Eat them fast though because they don't keep well and get soggy quickly.

Ready for some vintage photos from March 2008? Of course I had to make these again for a newer and better photo, but the rest of this set, let's just say I'm glad my photography has improved. They still tasted just as good before though!

If you've made my Southern Fried Chicken, then you can make this.

Vegetable-Dyed Crackled Eggs

When my brother and I were little, our mom helped us make those shrink-wrapped images to wrap around eggs for Easter. She also hid chocolate eggs for us to find. I wonder where my mom got the idea? From the nuns who sponsored us? Or the parishioners who taught my mom and aunts how to make Christmas stockings? It's funny to think about it now, these little rituals introducing us to American pop culture.

It's been years since I made eggs for Easter, but ever since I saw the colorful crackled eggs on Barefoot Kitchen Witch, I knew I wanted to dye them with vegetables for a more natural effect. Beets were an easy given. Remembering the vivid purple of my Mashed Okinawan Sweet Potatoes, I hoped for a similar result, but it was a rather disappointing light blue-green. I decided to use turmeric to add a third color into the mix, and that ended up being my favorite.

My brother said they looked like dinosaur eggs. And I elicited "Ooohs" out of both Pablo and the niece when I peeled the eggs in front of them. Just a fun project to try without any artificial colorings.

Japanese Meiji Ginger and Milk Chocolate

Speaking of Japanese chocolates, lil' sis brought gave me this Meiji Ginger and Milk Chocolate after she got back from Japan. I loved the individually-wrapped sticks. Love great packaging.

The flavor was very mild and smooth.

She also got me these cute panda pins to decorate bento boxes and food-safe pens since she remembered the ones I used for the Hello Kitty Cake Pops didn't work so well.

Japanese Wasabi Kit Kat

While waiting for our orders at Ton-Chan Ramen - San Gabriel, Gourmet Pigs brought out a wasabi-flavored Kit Kat she picked up at the airport in Japan.

It's been a while since I've done a fun food post, so thought I'd share.

Taiwanese Popcorn Chicken

I've said it before many times that I have so many sets of photos that I could not cook or dine out for an entire year and still have something to blog every day. My photos were alphabetized since I tend to blog thematically, but too many posts got buried that way. Recipes languished and restaurants closed before I ever got around to blogging them. So I recently sorted my photos again, this time by date. And lo and behold, this Taiwanese Popcorn Chicken recipe from February 2008 popped up.

I had made this around the same time that I made and blogged my Taiwanese Popcorn Tofu and Japanese Chicken Karaage recipes, but wasn't quite satisfied with the recipe for some reason. But these photos, even taken with the old point and shoot camera, don't look half bad. The texture was fine, I just couldn't figure out exactly the right spices to make it taste like what I get at the tea houses. But here you go anyway, my almost forgotten Taiwanese Popcorn Chicken recipe.

How to Eat Hot Vit Lon (Vietnamese Fetal Duck Eggs)

I had intended to post about how to eat Hot Vit Lon (Vietnamese Fetal Duck Eggs), or balut to Filipinos, a while back but the photos were pretty bad. I usually only eat hot vit lon when my parents are in town because my youngest aunt buys it for them. The lighting at her house isn't the best. After visiting Hot Vit Lon Long An - Westminster (Little Saigon) last fall, even though I only bought sugarcane juice, obviously it would've been a good chance to do a how-to post, but again, bad photos.

My parents were back in town again recently to visit their first grandbaby. One night, because I hadn't come over for dinner, youngest aunt knocked on my door with a bag of Vietnamese dumplings and hot vit lon. Aha! Slightly better lighting at my house. Plus, I can set them up oh so prettily with my egg cups. Yes, I bought egg cups specifically for hot vit lon. Because I'm just that weird. Well, I guess you could use them for soft-boiled eggs, but these egg cups are reserved for hot vit lon in my house. :P

I've kinda circled around to the idea of Vietnamese fertilized duck eggs. I've always eaten them growing up. I used to enjoy eating the individual body parts of the duck. Gross! I know! Eating the little webbed feet and body and then head. Then I avoided it for a while because seeing the little fetal duck made me squeamish. And then, there was the time in college when my friend hadn't boiled them long enough so they were still raw and when he reheated it in the microwave they all exploded. Except for mine. Which unfortunately decided to explode IN MY FACE when I tapped the shell. Not that that scarred me or anything. Now, while I don't buy them myself, I will eat them if they happen to be available.

ID Cha House - San Gabriel

Shortly after 85 Degrees C Tea House - San Gabriel changed its name to ID Cha House, I went with Gourmet Pigs to see if it was still the same.


Same horoscope drinks and hot tea. I can't even remember which tea we got, but they're $4.95 for a pot and can be refilled with hot water upon request.

Cu Sen Chien (Vietnamese Fried Lotus Root Chips)

Lotus roots are so pretty that they just beg to be used as a garnish. So, remembering my long ago fancy traditional Chinese medicine luncheon sponsored by Wing Hop Fung, I simply peeled, sliced, and fried the lotus roots.

Eat them plain or garnish like at my luncheon in the photo below.

Potato Champion (Food Cart) - Portland - Oregon

After ordering our pies at Whiffies Fried Pies (Food Cart) - Portland - Oregon I couldn't help but notice the crowd in front of Potato Champion. I had to go see why it was so popular.

Hot Mit Luoc (Vietnamese Boiled Jackfruit Seeds)

This one's a quick and easy recipe. As I said previously, my mom said jackfruit seeds could be boiled or roasted. They look like chestnuts, don't they? Sort of tastes like it too.

Read my primer on how to eat jackfruit if you don't know.

Banh Phong Tom (Vietnamese Shrimp Chips)

Not a recipe post but an FYI for people who aren't familiar with shrimp chips. Hmm. Who doesn't know what these are?

OK, you caught me. It's a lazy post.

Anyway, the shrimp chips above came from frying these poker-like chips below.

Fulfilled - Beverly Hills (Closed)

As I said, several weeks ago, I received an invitation to a pre-grand opening free tasting of Fulfilled, a Japanese imagawa-yaki pastry shop in Beverly Hills. Since I didn't want to go alone, I asked the owner if I could bring a guest and invited Cathy of Gastronomy along. So after grabbing some lahmajoun from Abraham Partamian Armenian Bakery, I picked her up from work.

Notice it's just a few doors down from Pinkberry? Think Japanese stuffed pancakes will take off like tart frozen yogurt? It's at least situated in the right zip code. 90210!



In the front window, you can see them making the "imas" as Fulfilled likes to call them.

The Cravery - Tustin (Closed) and Live On the Go Redux

When Irving Berlin wrote:

"Sisters, sisters
There were never such devoted sisters,...
...Know that not a thing could come between us...
...Lord help the mister who comes between me and my sister..."

He surely wasn't thinking pot pies and an online ordering service could come between two sisters...

Banana and Coconut Frozen Yogurt Popsicles

The entries have started trickling in for the COCONUT round of Weekend Wokking, hosted this month by Ivy of Precious Pea. Did you see my entry of Banh Dua Nuong (Vietnamese Coconut Tartlets)? If you've got a recipe featuring any type of coconut, please come play!

Rita of Pink Bites' entry of a tropical parfait featuring mangoes, toasted coconut flakes, and frozen yogurt reminded me of these banana and coconut frozen yogurt popsicles I had made earlier this summer.



This recipe started out as an attempt to recreate Thai caramelized bananas with toasted coconut flakes that I made years ago. But my bananas were too ripe and fell apart. So I added in some plain yogurt and was going to make my Homemade Frozen Yogurt with it instead. But then I forgot about it in the freezer so it solidified. Added all the events together and a light bulb went off. I let the mixture melt, filled my popsicle tray, and made these banana and coconut frozen yogurt popsicles.

Mid-Autumn Mooncakes

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival everyone!

I showed you the fruit and nut version of mooncakes last year. This year my oldest uncle's family gave me the lotus and taro paste versions with egg yolk inside. The white "snowskin" mooncake was made by my oldest uncle's wife. The little taro bun was bakery-bought. It's actually quite pretty but I'm saving close-ups for a separate post.