Back in the day...

...I used to be super smart when it came to math and geography! What happened? *scratches head*

Okay this summer I will learn US and world geography.

Banh Beo!

Banh beo has got to be one of the cutest Vietnamese foods out there, if there's such a thing. :) And as Christina and I found out, it also happens to be one of the most tedious foods to make!

Ingredients needed: shrimp (we used fresh and dried), batter, onion (which we ended up ditching in favor of shallots only), and shallots. That's it! Oh, cold AND hot water for the batter, and lots of oil for frying and prepping.

Before you even start on the batter mix, fill the steamer halfway with water, and let boil on the stove. That way it will be ready to go when you are done prepping the batter.
Instead of making the flour mix from scratch we used a banh beo package. Scratch seems easy too, just follow this recipe. Christina and I combined two recipes: one from the back of the banh beo bag, and also that website for everything.
Start the batter by adding in 2.5 cups cold water. Keep stirring while slowly adding 2.5 cups of hot water. Keep stirring. And stirring.
Prep your little plates by wiping them with a paper towel slightly soaked in oil. Put in steamer, let plates get hot. By now your steamer should be hot and ready!

Pour into little dishes!

After 5-10 min, take them out to cool. My first two batches took 10 minutes or so, and the last two took less than 5. Weird. The first two batches were also really soft and fluffy, while the last batch was hard.
After they are cooled, use a fork to pry them off the plates. One bag of batter yielded around 23 little rice cakes.

The fillings:

Christina had to pound the dried shrimp which was previously boiled to soften. Then she had to fry them again.

I basically did a fresh version of the dried shrimp. I just boiled a pinch of salt and some shelled and de-veined shrimp in a pan until the water evaporated. Then I let it cool down, and after that I ran it through the food processor. Next I fried up some shallots and added the shrimp, sugar, pepper, and fish sauce. I basically followed that recipe on the website!

Shallots swimming in oil. Christina got this down pat! The oil can't be too hot or it'll burn the shallots, but it has to be hot enough to fry the shallots.

Then you start assembling!

Put a layer of shallot oil and some fried shallots, then your shrimp toppings, and then finally douse the whole thing with fish sauce. Mmm!

The hardworking and hungry cooks. I got a free facial courtesy of the steamer, and Christina got buffer b/c she had to pound all that dried shrimp.

Chap Chae!

This is chap chae, a type of Korean noodle dish. It consists of glass noodles and various veggies and mushrooms and perhaps shrimps and meats. IT'S SO YUMMY! Hyobin and I decided to try to make it.

Ingredients needed: glass noodles, salt, sugar, mushrooms, sesame oil, carrots, spinach, and not pictured: onions and soy sauce

Soak the noodles.

After boiling in hot water, rinse with cold water and then let drain.

Chop up all your veggies. Eww look at that onion.

Saute veggies.

Make the sauce- sugar, soy sauce and sesame oil.

Pour!

Mix mix!

Then eat. It's so simple.

Next time I put in napa/chinese cabbage. You can put in meat or seafood but I like it without. We made like 10 servings! It's so hard to cook proportionally for 1 or 2 ppl.

Norcal Folks

I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by friends and family on my trip!


My fellow travelers. It was one crazy car ride. My little cousin gave me a lesson in Pokemon powers, and his mom and I had a heated debate on immigration reform. It was pretty intense...she even apologized to me later that night for yelling at me, hehe.

My cousin Simon graduated from HS! Despite being super busy with graduation stuff he still managed to take us on a tour of the grounds and teach me how to solve a Rubik's cube. (More on that later.) I'm so friggin' proud of him!

Nick was such an awesome host! He wouldn't let me pay for dinner, insisted that I take his bed while he slept on the floor (I would have gladly slept ANYWHERE as long as there was a roof over my head!), supplied me meds for my cat allergies, and even made me hot dark chocolate in the morning! Yay for Nick!

Amy came from SF State to be my tour guide for the entire day! We explored Golden Gate Park, shop-hopped around Union Square, chatted at the Ferry Building, then walked along the Embarcadero all the way to Fisherman's Wharf. I really appreciated her taking the time to hang out with me, especially when nowadays people are so busy to even give you an hour of their day! I've been guilty of that as well due to my random work schedule. :(

Trinh and her mom took time out of their itinerary (her mom was visiting her) to eat dinner with me and Amy. Her mom seemed surprised that I spoke Vietnamese, hehe.

Josephine drove from Salinas to SF to pick me up! It's 100+ miles each way. Then guess what...the next day she drove me back to LA! She is one crazy friend, I can't believe she'd drive nearly 600 miles in one day.

Norcal Foodage

No SF trip is complete without the sourdough clam chowder bowl from Fisherman's Wharf!


Veggie dumplings- tasty!

Veggie noodles- tasty and satisfying!

Xiao long bao- pretty good but nothing compares to J&J restaurant in Prospect Plaza
Shanghai Dumpling King
3319 Balboa St.
San Francisco, CA 94121

The lights were cute...I want them for the apartment!



The drinks were delicious!
Yummie House
6903 Geary Blvd
San Francisco, CA 94121


Such a cute place! I want to go back and just relax here with a book, newspaper, and friends.

Simple Pleasures Cafe
3434 Balboa St.
San Francisco, CA 94121

When you walk into this restaurant it's PURPLE. Really purple, but I liked the decor!

Pad Thai- very fresh and "kicky"

Chicken peanut curry- chicken was not as tender but the peanut curry was rich and delicious
King of Thai Noodle House
420 Geary St.
San Francisco, CA 94102


Amy and I both love the garlicky shrimp! Mmm!

The potatoes were yummy!

Too much fried stuff. I can only eat this like twice a year!

Bubba Gumps off Peir 39


My favorite breakfast food is eggs benedict. They put too much hollandaise sauce so my english muffins was soggy. :(

Turkey dill crepe. They definitely don't go cheap on their crepes.

I like sitting at the counter. It's fun!

First Awakenings
171 Main St.
Salinas, CA 93901

Seriously, the best part of any trip is the food!

The Stacks Get Higher

Can I finish a dozen of these works by June 17? (Yes I still frequent my local library, and that's when most of the books are due.) If you haven't noticed I'm on a Marian Keyes kick right now. Every so often I discover an author whose works I enjoy so much that I make it my mission to read everything published by him/her. In elementary school it was Beverly Cleary, Judy Delton, Patricia Reilly-Giff, Lois Lowry, Carolyn Keene, Roald Dahl etc, in middle school it was Judy Blume, Paula Danziger etc, in high school it was Olivia Goldsmith, Agatha Christie, Jane Austen, etc, and in college I took a hiatus, haha.

Now it's Marian Keyes. Oh hell, I also read everything and anything nowadays. But I haven't quite forgotten the writers of works that I loved to read growing up- Yoshiko Uchida, Roald Dahl, and of course, Nancy Drew (although they are of course ghostwriters now). I want to be retired and still read Nancy Drew books, hehe.