Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

I am quite boring when it comes to cookies. I like Nestle Toll House morsels and shortbread. I might doctor them up by adding spices or oats, but the basic cookie dough has always pleased me just fine.

Oh? Did you think I had a super-secret recipe for chocolate chip oatmeal cookies? Nope. I decrease the sugar and salt from the original recipe but that's about it. I ran out of brown sugar so these cookies are looking a little pale with just white sugar. They were still very good though!

Cajun Vietnamese Shrimp Boil and Musings on American Cuisine

Yesterday I indulged my American side and had hamburgers and hot dogs. This morning I had Vietnamese pho.

Lil' sis came back from breakfast at Pho 79 Restaurant - Alhambra with a to-go container for me.

"I brought you pho," she said before hopping into the shower.

I opened the container and dumped out the noodles only to find Pho Ga (Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup). To borrow one of her phrases, doesn't she know me at all? I don't like pho ga. :( I mean, I'll eat it, but I'd rather have Pho Bo (Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup).

Lil' sis came out of the shower and wondered why I was so quiet.

"How come you got me pho ga?" I asked mournfully, while staring at my bowl of half-eaten noodles and debating whether to finish it.

"I didn't," she said. "I got you pho dac biet." (Vietnamese special beef noodle soup.)

Oh. Lil' sis does know me after all.

It was Pho 79 who screwed up. Hmph! The pho ga had small strips of white breast meat and two quail eggs, but overall it was rather bland. Lil' sis ate some, and I tossed the rest.

In "Tasting Food, Tasting Freedom: Excursions into Eating, Power, and the Past," anthropologist Sidney Mintz argues that there is no such thing as an American cuisine. We either mention regional specialties such as Cajun or Creole dishes, or hamburgers, hot dogs, and pizzas. Mintz does credit the African influence on American cuisine in the creation of Southern dishes like gumbo. But a national cuisine, one in which everyone cooks, eats, and talks about doesn't, or has yet to, exist. He claims this is one of our country's strengths, a reflection of our democracy and ethnic diversity.

Happy Independence Day!

My cousins and I drove to five different supermarkets today on a hunt for oysters to grill. I guess everyone else had the same idea because each store had a pretty pitiful selection. We ended up buying them from the San Gabriel Superstore, but the oysters that were left were much smaller than the ones I recently got for lil' sis's 21st birthday bash.

I quickly made mi xao don chay (Vietnamese vegetarian crispy chow mein noodles) using the leftover black bean sauce from the steamed oysters with black bean and scallion sauce.



Cousin Q and his brother were already grilling steaks, oysters, and corn on the cob.