Steam eggs

Here's a very easy and quick recipe, takes no more than 15 minutes.

Ingredients:
Eggs (2)
Imitation crab meat (2 sticks)
Green onions
Salt
Soy sauce
chicken stock (1/2 cup)
Aluminium foil

Step 0:
Boil some water

Step 1:
Cut up the imitation crab meat.

Step 2:
Crack the eggs into the crab meat.

Step 3:
Add some salt, chicken stock, and half tea spoon of soy sauce. Mix well.

Step 4:
Slices the green onions in thin round pieces and sprinkle on top of the plate.

Step 5:
Cover the plate with aluminium foil and put into the boiling water for steaming. The foil is used to prevent the surface of the eggs from becoming bubbly. With the foil on, you'll have a very smooth surface so it looks more appetizing.

Step 6:
It should be ready in 5-8 minutes. Just check it from time to time to make sure it is no longer watery. Serve and enjoy!

Chayote stir fried

This is probably a strange recipe to you all, my mom made this once or twice but I remember how good it was. I took a jab at preparing this dish and it turned out better than expected. You should probably give this a shot, you'll probably enjoy it as well.

Here's the Chayote, in cantonese it is 佛手瓜 fut sao gwa (lit. Buddha hand melon), 合掌瓜 hup jeung gwa (lit. closed palms squash), thanks Dailo and Jack for the reference.

Ingredients:
Chayote (2)
Garlic (2 cloves)
pork/chicken/dried shrimp
Oil
Salt
Chicken stock(1/2 cup)/powder(half tea spoon).
Corn starch

Step 1:
Best way to prepare it is slice it in half then remove the soft seed in the center. Peel the skin and cut it into thin slices. You might want to wear a plastic glove when cutting these, the skin have a slimy substances, it would take awhile to wash off. I have two chayotes in this plate.


Step 2:
Dice garlic and slices of pork/chicken/dried shrimp. I used pork.


Step 3:
Heat up some oil and add in the garlic. Once the garlic is brown a little add the pork/chicken/dried shrimp. Cook these a little to get the flavor's out.


Step 4:
Add the chayote and sprinkle some salt in. The chayote is naturally sweet so you don't need too much salt. Stir fried a little then add some chicken stock/powder. This should give it a little more flavor.

Step 5:
If you used chicken stock then you can skip this step. Add 1/2 cup of cold water.

Step 6:
Cover and cook for probably 3-5 minutes. Mix in between this step.

Step 7:
Once most of the pieces are transparent then you can add the water mixed corn starch. You'll know they are cooked when you don't see that white color in them.

Step 8:
Serve and enjoy!

The Chayote has a similar texture as the Kohlrabi. It is naturally sweet so it should be refreshing.

Steam spare ribs with blackbean garlic sauce

This one is probably one of my favorite recipes from my mom. I ate it since I was a kid and still haven't grown tire yet.

Ingredients:
Spare ribs, cut into cubes


Dried black beans (i used around 20-30 beans)
Garlic (i had to use 4 cloves)
Corn starch
Grounded white pepper
Salt
Soy Sauce
Oyster Sauce


Step 0 (yes, zero):
Boil some water

Step 1:
Finely dice the dried black beans and garlic.

Step 2:
Add the diced black bean and garlic onto the ribs. Also add in some salt, corn starch, grounded white pepper, soy sauce and oyster sauce. Just need a bit of everything, depending on how salty you want the dish to be then you'll have to adjust the portions. The corn starch is to make the liquid more condense so it isn't too watery. 1.5-2 tea spoons should be good.

Step 3:
Mix everything, I usually use my hands for this part. It should look something like this after you are done.

Step 4:
Steam this plate over the boiling water for around 15-18 minutes. You'll need to use a fork to flip the ribs around every 5 minutes. Avoid over cooking it.

Step 5:
serve and enjoy!


Try this plate out sometimes, you wouldn't be disappointed.

Sliced beef with onions

Here's a pretty simple dish to prepare. Also, not too much ingredients are involved.

Ingredients:
pack of sliced beef

Chopped Onion (i'm using sweet red onion here)

Salt
Black pepper
Honey (optional)
Sesame oil
Oyster sauce

Step 1:
Marinate the beef with some salt, black pepper, little bit of honey (the onions will be very sweet already), and little bit of sesame oil.

Step 2:
Heat up a pan/wok with oil and put in the onion. What you want to do is pan fry the onions until they turn brownish. Shouldn't take more than 5 minutes.


Step 3:
Once the onion is ready, add the marinated beef and stir fried it for 2-3 minutes. Pay attention to the color of the beef, since these are thin slices it'll cook rather quickly. Once the beef is ready add in some oyster sauce and mix.


Step 4:
Do a taste test to make sure the flavor is okay. For me, this dish should be a bit sweet (onions) rather than salty so I didn't put too much oyster sauce or salt in there. Flavor wise, that's your preference. Plate, serve and enjoy!

Goes extremely well with a bowl of rice. Shouldn't take more than 10minutes to cook if you have everything ready.

String beans with beef

"Do you smelllllolo what Keyo is...cooking?!". Lol Z always teased me with that back in college, good times. This will probably be the start of many other recipes i'll be posting. They are my weekend cookouts/experiments.

Ingredients:
String beans

Beef (can replace with chicken, shrimp, pork, etc etc)
Garlic (finely diced, for my portions i used 2 cloves)

Salt
Black pepper
Corn starch (one teaspoon mix with cold water)
Oyster sauce

NOTE: portions are up to you, you can use more meat if you want. i just used whatever was available to me.

Step 1:
Marinate the beef with some salt and black pepper.

Step 2:
Bring some water to a boil and add in the string beans. Leave the beans in there for 2-3mins. This will cook the beans and it'll be easier to stir fry it later.

Step 3:
Remove the string beans from the boiling water and place them into a bowl of cold water. This will keep the beans in a nice green color instead of them turning yellowish.

Step 4:
Remove the beans from the cold water and set aside.

Step 5:
Heat up a pan with some oil...make sure pan is dried! -_-; once the oil is heated, add in the garlic and fried them until they turn gold/brownish


Step 6:
Add in the meat and pan fried them on both sides. Depending on how big you cut them, it shouldn't take too long for them to cook.

Step 7:
Once the meat is cooked for a bit, you can add in the string beans and mix for 1 minute.

Step 8:
Add in some oyster sauce and continue to mix. Do a taste test to make sure everything is okay. Add additional oyster sauce or salt to fit your tasting needs. For me, this dish shouldn't be too salty, it should be a bit sweet as a matter of fact.

Step 9:
Stir the corn starch water and add it into the center of the pan. Wait until it comes to a boil and mix everything together. The corn starch will create this glistering glow on items in the plate. It just makes them look more appetizing.

Make sure you don't keep it in the pan for too long or else it'll over cook. After adding in the string beans, it shouldn't take more than 3 mins to add in the reminding ingredients.

Step 10:
Plate and serve, ENJOY!

Tao Restaurant Review

Tao
42 E 58TH St
New York, NY 10022-1910
Phone: (212) 888-2288
www.taorestaurant.com

This restaurant has been on my 'check out' list for almost a year. The main reason for my curiosity is mainly due to the fact that it is the top 1 most reserved restaurant in opentable.com. It has realm that spot for probably more than a year. I've read multiple reviews, it ranges from terrible to mediocre and even some at "OMG this place is the best, must try, bring ur friends, family, relatives, neighbors, and even your dog!"...goody. Most of the complaints revolved around the rushed service and occasional poor food. Some of the positive comments are about the trendy atmosphere and very rare praises on the food.

I've decided to make reservations for a 7:15pm friday date. Laura and I braved the rain, navigated to the weird location (yes, i'm direction blinded!) and finally arrived at the door step around 6:50. The entrance door was interesting, two wooden doors with iron ring knockers. The receptionist gave us a beeper/vibrator and told us we can wait in the bar/lounge area. The bar/lounge area was huge, they can probably fit another restaurant in there. It was fully packed with people, i suppose it is a cool happy hour place. I am not a big fan of bar/club environments but we sat down and waited for our table. We were seated rather quickly, definitely before our reserved time.

The restaurant scene:
A 16 foot tall Buddha looks over the entire restaurant, it has multiple levels but we didn't really get to see much of it. The layout and design was interesting, I'm fond of the Abacus wall frames..brings back memories.

The food:
Lots of varieties in the menu but I was a bit surprised that nothing really stood out. The options are more like a redefinition of some of the classic Asian plates instead of trying to reinvent it.

Here are the plates we ended up ordering:

We ordered three appetizers and two entries. Our appetizers came within few minutes of our order and they all arrived at the same time, that seems odd, no?? The plating and timing felt like these were all pre-made instead of made to order.

Satay of Chilean Sea Bass with Wok Roasted Asparagus $15
Two pieces of sea bass on top of 4 asparagus. This plate was actually pretty good, if it is a fish plate and Laura can eat it then it gets my thumbs up! But then again, sea bass is relatively easy to prepare and would be detrimental should any chief fail it. The sea bass was grilled and flavored with some sort of sweeten oyster sauce.


Peking Duck Spring Roll with Hoisin Sauce $12
Who doesn't like spring rolls? Well, after eating this I don't like spring rolls! At least not from Tao. It was astonishingly heavy (weight) which raised suspicion. The crispy wrap was normal, however the inside was one or two pieces of duck filled with Hoisin Sauce/paste. The absurd amount of Hoisin paste created an extremely salty spring roll, it contributed to the weight. The duck sauce was not even sweet enough to compensate or balance the flavor. They could've left a better impression if they reduced the portion to bite size spring rolls because the first bite was good until u get swarmed by the Hoisin paste. WHY would anyone use bean spouts as a plate complementary?? They just seem so out of place. Avoid this plate if you don't want to wake up in the middle of the night multiple times to use the bathroom because you'll be drinking 20 cups of water afterwards!

Satay of Chicken with Peanut Sauce $9
First impression when i saw this was "WTF?"...It was three small slices of chicken breast on skewers. The meat was as dry as paper and the peanut sauce was missing the peanut flavor! Like did they forgot to mash up the peanuts that are scattered on the plate or ran out of peanut butter??? Also they have these cucumbers as plate decoratives that looked like last week's left over. Worst plate ever.

Pad Thai Noodles with Chicken $18
So that's where all the peanuts went! We ordered this plate without bean spouts, guess what? they left it on top RAW and with plenty mixed in with the noodles! The waiter apologized and quickly brought out another without them. This plate was normal in comparison to what you can find outside. For that price it better be.

Hong Kong XO Shrimp with Long Beans and Jasmine Rice $28
This plate was a shocker because it contains huge jumbo shrimps and there are more than 4 of them! The XO sauce was a bit weak but it wasn't bad. The long beans were fried then stir fried over the sauce, similar style you would find in fast food restaurants. Rice is rice. This was probably the second best dish from the place. However it doesn't stand out in comparison to what you can get in ghetto chinese restaurants, flavor and price wise.

We finished off with a Giant Fortune Cookie $10
This has very sweet white and dark chocolate mousse fillings. The fortunes were lame and it didn't contain lotto numbers. After such a meat it would've closed it off well if the giant fortune cookie given us a giant fortune! lol

Ratings:
Food - 2/5
We only bite into a small section of their menu but if what we have is any indication then the food quality is not as good as it could be. The aftermath of the hoisin paste spring roll lasted til the next morning.

Service/Atmosphere - 3.5/5
The place is trendy and full of people, might be a bit too noisy at times. Service was adequate so no complaints there.

Overall: 5.5/10
This seems to be a trend for most 'trendy' restaurants where they sacrifice or ignore food quality after they have established a name for themselves. This place is a nice place to check out with a date but don't go there to expect good food. This reaffirms that tons of people reserving a place doesn't mean it is good. A good restaurant in my option is where they strike a balance between good food and nice atmosphere. After all we are going there to eat and that should be the priority if they want us to walk away with fond memories or reasons for us to return and try other options in a sizable menu. For Tao, I don't think I want to go back for a second time, unless someone treats! lol

Bill
Two Soda $7
Satay of Chilean Sea Bass with Wok Roasted Asparagus $15
Peking Duck Spring Roll with Hoisin Sauce $12
Satay of Chicken with Peanut Sauce $9
Pad Thai Noodles with Chicken $18
Hong Kong XO Shrimp with Long Beans and Jasmine Rice $28
Giant Fortune Cookie $10
----
Total: $99 (before tax and tip)

Hainanese Chicken

Hainanese steamed chicken has been one of my favorite dish in Malaysian restaurants. After last weekend's experience, i've seen a new twist to the presentation. Before i go any further, here's a nice plate presentation for this dish. Some would say this is over the top but this was in Hong Kong.

This was a regular order with the drumstick. I don't remember the exact price but it was around $5-$7 (or less). It was definitely served elegantly considering the restaurant was not super fancy...in fact it was a regular "hk tea restaurant".

I've ordered this plate in multiple Malaysian restaurants around NYC and they have never disappointed me, not once, until last sunday. Let me help them advertise a little, this was the restaurant we visited:

Nyonya
http://brooklyn.citysearch.com/review/35719198
5323 8th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11220

I've walked passed this place more times than i can remember and i've always wanted to go in but just never did (should've probably stayed that way for the better). So we placed our orders and to my surprise, this is what they brought out...

Count it, it was 4 pieces of chicken (regular cuts) but 3 pieces were sliced in half to create an illusion that were are 7 pieces. This cut was the lower thigh area so it was mostly bones, usually i don't mind getting this because i'm not a picky eater...however, the 4 pieces mixed in with salty soy sauce was just a bad combination. As for the 'oil rice' it was very soggy, felt like the rice was cooked with too much water. This order cost $4.50. I was hungry (3pm lunch) so i finished most of it anyway! =P This woody place will return to being a passer by restaurant and i'll please my Hainanese chicken cravings else where.

Japan street food frenzy

Japan's street food vendors are so full of variety. As seen here in Ueno park, this place is packed full of them. A short walk will fill ur stomach without a big dent in your wallet.


Takoyaki, this is one of my favorite. If you are in the NYC area, drop by Otafuku in East Village for some yummy Takoyaki!


Chocolate Bananas, these were interesting but we weren't brave enough to try lol (would u dare?)



Okonomiyaki, this was an interest piece, it was pricey but tasty.



This was an crab meat version of the Okonomiyaki, tasted horrible and the street vendor was scary!!! I got scammed!



Sembei, these are the regular crackers without the added sugar but wrapped with seaweed. It was freshly made but without the sweet boost, it just didn't taste right.



Strawberry pastry, this was a very delicate snack.

Continental Airplane food

Continental Airplane food is one of the worst airline food I had. Above is their chicken teriyaki, everything taste like a fancy microwave meal. The only edible thing was the roll and the Brussels cookie. Well, the salad+lemon was okay i suppose since it doesn't require any cooking/microwaving.


Here's the snack, Beef & Swiss Sub. This would've been pretty good if the bread wasn't so soggy. The Haagen Dazs was super frozen, almost broke my spoon trying to dig in lol.


Here's the dinner meal, Shrimp pasta with the left over salad from lunch. The pasta had no flavor. sigh sigh...