Bacon goodness

Me and beaches just don't go quite well, so I declined the invitation to bask myself in sun for hours. Living for 19 years in constant sun exposure makes me feel want to limit myself to sun exposure.

I went shopping for working clothes, and then went for groceries shopping at Wegmans. I haven't seen any Wegmans in Illinois, so this trip was my first time there for non-work related activity. Even with Super Walmart, me and my foodie team normally spent about 2 hours in the groceries aisles after having a huge dinner.Wegmans is just waaaay bigger than Super Walmart. So yep, it was an exciting trip. I spent 3 hours walking back and forth figuring out what I'll be eating for the next two weeks. I'm not the type of person who would make a groceries list unless I really need those items (like toilet paper, for example) and then figure out the others once I'm at the store.

Made some bacon-wrapped quail egg. I had these at Yakitori Taisho in NYC once, and I love it despite knowing how sinful it can be for my heart. I tried adding red bell pepper in between each roll. Turned out to be really good - there's a little of sweetness and spiciness when you eat the bacon wrapped quail eggs.

The instructions at the back of the bacon packaging says to cook it in oven at 400F, but I figure that I don't really want the bacon to be too dry or crispy, so I lowered it to 350F for 10 minutes.

Before

Before I cook them I melted the extra fats that I trimmed from the bacon and use the melted fats to baste the skewer. I trimmed the parts where I can only see fats because I don't really want that much fats and I presume that those fats that don't cling onto a piece of meat will cause the wrappings to be distorted as the fats turn into oil when it's heated.

So I added mentsuyu (the kind of sauce you use when eating somen) and black pepper into the melted bacon fats. The reason why I used mentsuyu instead of soy sauce is because bacon is already very salty. Mentsuyu has this kind of refreshing flavor that is not overpowering, so I figure I'd try using it.

After

Tasted really good. Mmmm~ cholesterol~

Oh by the way I posted this on my Facebook and my friend kindheartedly tried to calculate the approximate amount of cholesterol in those skewers:


‎9 bacon = 9 * 15 mg ; = 120 mg
9 quail = 9 * 76 mg = 684 mg
TOTAL = 804 mg


... and I believe the recommended daily limit is around 300 mg.

So... yes, eat them in moderation ^^;

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Oolongism

About two weeks ago I purchased this at an American tea specialty shop. 1/4 lb of the tea leaves cost me like $36, and the flavor isn't even that great.

About a week ago, I visited a Chinese shop that sells tea and got a Ti Kuan Yin for $16 per 1/4 lb.

And it tasted better.

Morale of the story? Don't get tea leaves from fancy-looking store. 

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Rijsttafel

I can't remember how to spell rijsttafel correctly. I always have to go Google it up. Being colonized for 300 years, it's not a big surprise that a lot of Indonesian vocabularies are influenced by the Dutch. But hey, actually rijsttafel originates from Indonesian culture!

Rijsttafel, or ristafel, as we Indonesians prefer to spell it, is basically dumping different kinds of dishes on a rice plate. I think it's kinda cool because you get a little bit of everything, unlike the supersize American dish where the salad is big enough to make you full that you can't eat anything else, unless you have a really elastic stomach that can fit a lot of food in there.

Turmeric fried chicken

Sauteed chayotte 

Nasi uduk

Everything dumped together and you get everything!

I love it when they wrap the rijsttafel with banana leaves. The rice will become really fragrant after it's been wrapped for at least a couple of hours.

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draft.blogger.com

Some time ago I read this news on Flipbook that Blogger is launching a new interface and rumor says that Blogger will be renamed into Google Blog. I don't have anything against the name change. It's just that I've been so familiar with the term "Blogger" and now they're changing it. I guess that's how people feel when Sears Tower was changed to Willis Tower.

Work is fun so far. I'm learning new things every day, which is a really good thing.

Surprisingly, time passes so fast after I got back from work. I went back home, cook dinner, eat dinner, and then clean up the kitchen. And all of the sudden it's 9:30 PM. Whoa.

I tried making manju again. Still far from perfect, but I guess I'll just have to keep trying. 

The dough before filling in the mung bean paste into the dough

Home made mung bean paste. Mung bean boiled with some sugar, cooled down at room temperature and shaped into balls

When not used yet, keep the mung bean paste balls in a closed container. I used aluminum foil, just to make it easy for me. 

When the dough is ready, make the dough into round shape, flatten using fingers and then use it to wrap the mung bean paste balls.

My steamer is malfunctioning so I used a cooling rack and a fry pan to substitute a steamer. It works pretty well. Make sure to place cotton towel or kitchen towel dampen in cold water so the manju doesn't stick at the bottom.

Steamed for 10 minutes. I normally place them on a sheet of paper so they don't get dirty and they don't stick everywhere. Let cool at room temperature before decorating.

I used the back of a bamboo skewer and dip it into red food coloring. Poke the cooled down manju gently to draw.

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Work?

1 week passed. I'm loving work so far. The cool thing is there's no more homework at home - once you're done with work, you're pretty much done for the rest of the day.

The next question: what do I do after I go back from work?

Answer #1: 

Becoming a freelance designer at home.

Without being paid, because I'm working for my brother's online company that recently just started up.

I'm doing photo editings and logo designing so far. Nothing very serious. Just like making an ad below:

and like this:

Nothing close to editing wedding photos kind of skills.

Answer #2:
Meditating. Or bluntly speaking, making castle in the air and without realizing it, it's already time to sleep.

Answer #3: 
Creating. Anything weird. Like songs, animations... and food. Sounds like cool but after reaching the saturation point, I'd normally feel like throwing my computer out of the window. Or my frying pans. Or my wooden spoons.

Henceforth, I gave up my original plan of studying a language (I half-assedly know Japanese and Italian).

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Xiao Long Bao

I bought a Hong Kong dim sum recipe book when I was in Singapore. Seems like this old Hong Kong lady is reliable!

I modified the recipe a little because I don't have that many ingredients at home.

Ingredients A:

- 2C AP flour

- 1/3 tsp salt

- 3 eggs

Ingredients B:

- 1/3C AP flour

- 40mL boiled water

Fillings A

- 1lb minced pork meat

- 1/3 tsp salt

- 1 Tbsp sugar

- pinch of white pepper

Fillings B

- 1 tsp sesame oil

- 1 stick of green onion, chopped

- 1 Tbsp Chinese cooking rice wine (or Michiu)

Filling C (juice)

- 2L chicken stock

- 1 cube chicken stock

- 4 packs gelatin (1.8g each)

- 2Tbsp salt

Other: 

- lettuce / napa cabbage (to put below the xiao long bao so they don't stick to the steamer)

Preps:

1. Combine Filling C together and cook until gelatin powder dissolves.

2. Pour into a tray and set to cool to solidify.
3. Cut into small dices, and keep in freezer.

Steps:
1. Mix Fillings A and Aadd in Fillings B. Mix evenly.
2. Mix Ingredients A and B separately, then combine to form a smooth dough.
3. Divide the dough into 20 balls and flatten each ball using a roller.
* make sure the center of the flattened dough is thicker than the sides
4. Wrap Fillings (including frozen Filling C) using the flattened dough. For how to fold the dough, see this video:


There are other helpful videos around YouTube if you search for it. Of course, 18 pleats are difficult to do. I just did 8 pleats.

5. Place xiao long bao on lettuce or napa cabbage leaf and steam over high heat for 10 minutes.

If you fail the first time, that's okay, because I failed too ;)

Good luck!

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Happy Birthday America!

It was my birthday about a week ago, and today it's America's birthday!

I saw fireworks nearby from my apartment. It must have been from the nearby high school, as advertised at my apartment's elevator. I didn't get to watch the entire scene because it was blocked by part of my apartment's building. At first I was surprised to hear some KA-BOOOM!! and felt some kind of vibration. I thought, was it a bomb? But the blasting sound and the vibration kept coming in series, and then I saw some flashing light outside my window.

Then I saw the fireworks :)

Kinda sad that I was watching it alone, but hopefully this lonesome feeling doesn't stay after I started working.

Some great news: I found hometown treasures in US!! Fresh jengkol and pete (not a person's name Pete... it's read puh-tay). Their smell is indescribably horrendous but I grew up eating them (my parents love them so I started eating them), so I like them.

I was getting bored didn't know what to do. Luckily I found them so I can start cooking again!!

Home made sambal terasi with sweetened soy sauce

Grilled shrimps and pete

Kari jengkol

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