Tea Soup

So, I've decided to try or do, one new thing a day. That'll be a running theme in my blog. We'll see how this works.

Anyway today's new thing is tea soup - or - Top Chef Ramen. Joking around with a coworker on how to get creative with my mish-mash meal of Watermelon, Chicken and Ramen, I decide to try something different. The inspiration came from "cooking" my Ramen noodles next to the teas at work. I remembered an old dish we used to have in Malaysia called Bakkutteh. Basically it's a soup made with tea as an ingredient. I decide to spice up my Ramen with some black tea.

After heating up the noodles in the hot water/microwave, I steep the tea for a few minutes, then drain most of the water and add the beef seasoning. I know most people like their Ramen as soup, but I like my Ramen dry with just noodles.

Anyway it turned out pretty tasty. The aroma was good and the taste had a little extra special flavor, not super tea like but still good. I looked up a few recipes and there are quite a few tea based soups. It sounds bizarre, but actually it makes a lot of sense to put tea into soups.

Anyway that's my new thing of today. Black Tea Ramen soup :)

F the Truck

Ok, so late last night we were hanging out, hungry, and realized that the famous Kogi Truck was going to be relatively nearby at 10:30pm. Oh joy! First time to try it and it was early enough, 10pm, that we could get a good place in line, if there was one. Being it summer and the stop by a college, we figured it wouldn't be too crowded. We waited at the intersection listed online and stalked the area for possible stops. My husband even tweeted on the Kogi Twitter account for a specific location for the stop. After awhile we still didn't see it, so we drove around. We found it at 10:45 with a ridiculous line. F that! We were hungry and waited since 10 for that stupid food truck. We decided to hit up Jack in the Box and had a really nice time SITTING at at able, eating late night food and chatting.

Ok, so I understand that gourmet truck food is a novel and cool idea. Have gourmet awesome food in your neighborhood. Plus the LA urban feel of having delicious eats outside and communal feeling of waiting in line with fans. Yes it's cool as a college student when you have the energy to be up at 11pm waiting in line 30 minutes for a Fing taco. But as anyone just hungry and wanting to hang out, standing in line for line up to an hour for a Fing taco, no matter how good it is, pretty much blows. I'm not buying into the Fing trucks, no, no longer. I waited in line for Pink's Hot Dogs and it was a guaranteed good time, sit-down and good food.

From the LA Street Food Fest with "gourmet" trucks being a clusterF, to trying to find Kogi truck multiple times, and never getting fed properly, it's a scam. I'd rather sit at some fast food place or a Denny's and be comfortable, indoors, eating over a table, place with a bathroom and water, and be chatting relaxed with my friends. Gourmet food trucks are no New York hot dog stand, you're just another food fad with an elite clubbish attitude that says "waiting in line makes it more exclusive and worth it". F you gourmet trucks.

I know I may eat my words if I actually eat a Kogi taco and this may be all bitter jealousy, but food places should serve you, not the other way around. Food should be comforting and communal, not elite, exclusive and inconvenient. So far I only feel this way about hyped-up Kogi truck such places. I still fully support the authentic local and long established roach coach taco trucks that have roamed LA since before I was born. If it survives and doesn't give its customers food poisoning, it means they've got really good food, a loyal customer base, no pretentiousness giving basic good eats for a good price. We have one that stops at our work every day, and although times may vary, he knows us, gives us a good meal for a good price and lets us keep a tab on his truck. No waiting in line and no hype. Here's to you Doug and Javi! Go support your local taco truck, explore and have a real adventure and stop chasing the coolest new thing.

Flat Beer

New meaning to "flat beer"

From a booth at the Gilroy Garlic Festival.

Coconuts

Sitting outside with coworkers during lunch can be very entertaining and eventful. One coworker brought a coconut to work, proceeded to cut a hole in it, stick a straw in it to suck out the juice. Then after slipping the final drops, threw it high into the air and dropped it to crack it open. Then proceeded to much away at the coconut inside. It was a really fun and nice lunch, with lots of lovely laughing and good jokes all around.

Makes you think of I've got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts and You put the Lime in the Coconut :) Where would we be without all these coconuts in our lives!

Bread

The Joy of Cooking :) I really do love to cook. It's like chemistry or wood-shop, putting things together, using heat, and hoping everything comes out alright.

I think the kitchen is quite possibly the most important room and heart of the home. We gather around it, chat, eat and live from the kitchen. I have very fond memories of hanging out with family around the kitchen island, chatting, cooking and being fascinated with how things are made. My mother never cooked, so this only happened at big family gatherings like Christmas or Thanksgiving, so we celebrated food along with time together.

I didn't actually start cooking myself until a friend of mine started showing me how to cook things from scratch. I'd watch in wonder how easy she made everything look and how awesome delicious her food was. She gave me The Joy of Cooking cookbook as a gift, and it's one of the best gifts I've ever had.

One of my favorite things to make is bread. It's not that hard, but it takes a long time to wait for the bread to rise before you bake it. I love the smell of baking bread and the work your hands do kneading it. Yes I knead with my hands and without a machine. It's actually rather therapeutic. Anyway it's been years since I've made bread from scratch, and I did so last weekend and it was a lot of fun.

There are a few kinks to work out in the recipe and the process, before I start making it for other people. My brain and hands are a bit rusty for cooking, and I'm still getting used to the gas burners and oven in our kitchen. But overall basically a success. I'd give my bread a passing C or B.

With my cooking, this is one of those things where the journey is much more important and interesting than the destination. I love to eat, of course, but making bread is just way more fun than just eating it. I hope one day I'll perfect some recipes, and possibly inspire someone to start cooking from scratch too.

Unicorns

Empress Pavilion - Dim Sum!

As a foodie, and fan of dives and food trucks, we planned on going to the LA Street Food Fest downtown LA Street Food Fest LA this past weekend. It looked really cool, a bunch of gourmet food trucks getting together and you can try various trucks all in one place. Unfortunately it was in a very small venue in downtown LA, and way too many people. We were there around 11:30, it started 11am, and the line was around the block and around a parking lot - approximately 2 hours. Also once inside, it looked like a crazy line zoo, and we weren't interested in lining up for 3-4 hours just to eat. Turns out it was a good idea, as later on we found out it was a bit of a disaster with too many people and not enough food trucks or space.

So we brought our hungry stomachs to somewhere even better, DIM SUM! As the day before Chinese New Year, we went and had delicious Dim Sum at Empress Pavilion, a local favorite Dim Sum place in Downtown LA. Dim Sum is cool because you sit down, women with carts of various food roll around and you point and say "I want to try that". We had an assortment of things including pot stickers, pork dumpling shiu mai, shrimp har gow, steamed and sauced Chinese broccoli, roast duck, pork shao mai, deep fried something, and other delicious delicacies. For dessert we had sesame rice dumpling balls. So yummy! The whole time you are also served a very nice hot tea.

One really really cool incident. As we were walking out, I swear that Michael Voltaggio - winner of Top Chef Las Vegas was there. We walked by him and I was like, he looks familiar. Then he sat down to eat and I could see the tattoos on his arm and it looked exactly like him. I was seriously debating to go over there and bug him and say "are you Michael from Top Chef? Can I get a photo with you?", but I chickened out plus I really didn't want to bother him or be an annoying fan, so I didn't. I just thought it was awesome that he was there and really wanted to take a photo with him, but didn't. Who wants to be bothered while about to eat. So 2nd celebrity sighting of all time. Pretty cool.

Anyway, afterwards we had Lollicup Thai iced tea boba and walked around Chinatown for a bit. Then we got some dim sum to go for my mom and sister (pictured here too). A pretty awesome afternoon.

We plan on going back quite a few times and trying different things. The white guys we were with enjoyed the food as well, especially the pot stickers and other items they didn't know what it was but thought it tasted really good. We'll have to plan more trips with more people so we can try more things :)

Life and food are good - eat up!