Food!

1. A “Young Coconut” filled with juice
2. 2 kiwis.

Am I starving myself to death? Considering that I skipped breakfast, but for lunch, I fried up some rice with half a can of spam.

I suppose growing up in LA, where there are tons of Taiwanese, we tend to take Taiwanese snacks for granted. But looking at how it’s hitting Hong Kong, I can see how lucky I am to be living in the hodgepodge we call “The Globalizing World”.

http://food.hk.msn.com/easyfood/%E5%8F%B0%E7%81%A3%E5%B0%8F%E9%A3%9F%E9%A2%A8%E6%BD%AE%20%20o%E9%9D%9A%E5%A6%B9%E6%84%9B%E5%96%AB%E8%85%B8_article_2_2056_1.asp

Mm…. Good food from anywhere in the world at my fingertips! (And sometimes even just a mouseclick away).

So I’ve been obsessing over how to make portuguese-style tarts ever since my cousin took me to this one place in Macau, and then all of a sudden, I found this site… “Are You Gonna’ Eat That? – MACAU: Portuguese Tarts”. Which features the exact cafe my cousin bought these at! AWESOME! Not only that, I think I went to the cafe exactly a year before the author wrote this article.

The author has a very good grasp on ho the Portuguese tarts are made in comparison to how they’re made in Hong Kong (adding coconut milk, in the Macau version… THAT’s the secret ingredient, eh?), but also they have an address!!!

Margaret’s Cafe e Nata
Edificio Kam Loi, Rua Almirante Costa Cabral, Macau
853-2871-0032.

Wow, you’re awesome! I’m gonna’ have to subscribe.

Now, the only thing I have to do is go to Portugal, and see how it’s made in the originating country.

So I’ve talked about receiving bad service at a restaurant before. Now I know that wasn’t the first time, and it definately wasn’t the last. Today, I went to a sandwich shop that I haven’t been to in a while. When I got to the cashier, the guy was unusually friendly with me, which is cool. Apparently, he thought I was someone else. Now, I’ve been to this sandwich shop before, but not frequent enough for the guy to remember me. When I told him what I was doing at that point, I think he finally realized I wasn’t the guy who he thought I was. You immediately noticed the change in attitude, when he immediately through the fork and knife into the bag, and handed it off to me, without a goodbye or anything.

Funny enough though, when I started talkin, the two other guys behind him started talking even more quietly. So maybe my breath was that bad? Who knows. I got my sandwich, and it tasted good. That’s all that mattered.

Maybe that’s why I get bad service at restaurants. “OH HEY! IT’S YOU! HAVEN’T SEEN YOU IN A…. no wait, that’s not him. FUCK HIM! Who does he think he is, pretending to be that other guy?! The nerve!”

I don’t know. I just don’t get it.

So I tried to experiments with coconuts again…

1. I chopped open a coconut (leaving the lid on),
2. and poured out the juice for the rice
3. and ready-made curry blocks, to make some curry.
4. Then I put in some powdered basil and ginger into the coconut, followed by the thick-sliced beef pieces, and the whole concoction into the oven, at 400 degrees (Fahrenheit), for about 45 minutes.
5. I washed the rice, and then chopped open another coconut and put it in the rice to sweeten it up a bit.
6. Then, I actually busted out the curry and mixed it around the coconut milk over the stove.

Of course the curry and rice were done pretty quick, and I had to wait for the meat-filled coconut to be ready. I took it out, and it wasn’t all that special to be honest. Maybe I didn’t put in other spices or sauces to make it taste good? Luckily, for better or worse, my curry came out WAY too thick. So, I

7. Put the curry back onto the wok over a hot range
8. Add Coco-nut juice that has absorbed beef fat and juice, basil and ginger, and stirred the whole thing up.

Ah… I finally had curry that wasn’t watery, yet it wasn’t so thick that it was sticking onto the plate. Overall, not bad.

Conclusion:

• When using curry mix, best to use coconut juice, and add basil and ginger to get that nice extra spicy kick. WORKS WELL!
• Cooking meat inside a coconut with coconut juice wasn’t all that special. Inconclusive. NEEDS WORKING.

I usually have good service here. However today, wasn’t all too great.

So me and my buddy, along with his little brother, arrive at Blackbear Diner. Not too many people for a Sunday morning, so we got seats really quickly, which was great.

However, they put us in a corner, and the guy and girl that got there after we did were asked what they wanted to drink first before us. And, they got to order their food before we did. I stared at the waiter, and the guy saw me as well. He glanced at me, and of course, the douche ordered, without even pointing our table out, or even telling the waiter that we were there. Now, I shouldn’t have to be an asshole to demand for service.

So, when that fucker finally got to us, even then,they didn’t bring out my toast. At least the other waitress caught on, and asked what type of toast I was supposed to have (for the second time).

OK, maybe SOME foods come out sooner than others, because of how much preparation time is needed, but to take someone else’s order before the person that came here first? Fuck that shit.

If I had my own place, I’d have everyone order at a central counter, and givem’ a ticket number. Preferably, one with FRID tagging or some shit, so we could track down where they sit at. AND, so that we don’t have to yell and scream for our orders, I’d add a button on each table like they do in most places in Korea. So what if a kid plays with the damn button? Then that kid and his table won’t get any good service after crying for wolf. Simple.

I just wanted to say that this stuff is awesome! Here’s the wiki page on it…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikhye

In fact, it’s so cool, I found a Taiwanese person who’s discovered the wonders of this stuff:

http://www.backpackers.com.tw/blog/post/279/3974

It felt really good to come back to Monterey. It’s wierd. Whenever I was in Disrupt, it was always good to finally be done with the trip, and then come back, to my place in Hawaii to relax. But I didn’t like being stuck in Hawaii, nor did I like the job in Hawaii. But it was at least good to be off that trip.

Just last week, I left for L.A., because I had no excuse not to avoid my parents. While I was back, things seemed to be much better between them; it seemed pretty good for the most part. But it sucked that I was stuck at home with nothing to do except watch TV (at least it was Chinese TV) and read the copy of “The Economist” that I bought at San Jose airport before I got back. And whenever my buddies got off work, they were dead tired anyways and didn’t want to do anything. I’ve developed the quirky habit of going out to random places trying to eat good food. Problem is, the food isn’t as good as it used to be when I was a kid growing up. Jackson says it’s because most of the good chefs went off to Las Vegas to make slightly more pay in an environment where they have less expenses. Plus, most of the managers of Chinese restaurants in L.A. tend to work their chefs like dogs. My dad would probably go off with those chefs to Las Vegas, but he knows that his entire paycheck would go to the casinos anyways.

Once again, back to my buddies, they’re not the type to want to spend money and go out. I’m barely lucky enough to get them to go out for some tapioca or Thai Boba tea. Heck, going for some phở is the most expensive and exotic stuff they usually go out for. They’re very pragmatic about staying home and eating food their mothers have cooked for them. While coming back out here to Monterey where my Navy buddies are, it’s always a challenge to try something new at some random restaurant without a care of what the cost is as if every place is a foreign port call (at least we don’t care about the cost until the bill comes, unlike most foreign port calls).

Back in LA, my buddies and I used to talk about world affairs and politics all the time. But recently, we’ve only seriously talked about it once. Maybe it’s because we know our political views so well at this point, that we don’t have to ask each other anymore and we can just read each other’s minds? I don’t know. Getting back here, we immediately went off bashing Republicans and whatnot.

In the end, I know that I’m gonna’ leave here, and so are my Navy buddies. I’d really like to buy a house down in LA some day, if anything for my parents at least. I’d love to go back and bring back the LA I knew (minus the living in the ghetto part, of course).

“Home”.

Yesterday night, when I was sending Kammy off to the airport, I let her try a sip of Coco RICO! I think it’s some of the best stuff on earth, but she was like, “Eck! I thought you said this was soda?” It is, it’s just not as heavily carbonated. “But wait… I thought you said it had coconut?” “It’s coconut AND soda… Coconut-flavored soda!” She still didn’t like it, but that just means, MORE FOR ME!

Today, I was getting a bit hungry, which happens quite often. But this time, I remembered what Paul had told me about 海南飯米(Rice from Hainan, that is naturally oily). He said that they usually put in some 黃豆油 (soybean oil) when they cook it, and that in Thailand, they actually put coconut on that specific type of rice (although I don’t know what they call it there). So, what’d I do? Took the Coco RICO and put it in my Thai jasmine rice of course! And you know what? HOLY CRAP IT TASTES SO GOOD! Every bite felt like it was gonna’ give me diabetes! Plus, it takes much shorter time to actually finish cooking than it would using the same amount of water!

For every starving college student who doesn’t have time to make their own food, this is something to consider…

coconut-flavored soda. Mm….

Man, I suck at cooking. Tried to make some 麻婆豆腐(Ma-Po Tofu)， but it came out more like 豬肉(Pork)＋豆腐(Tofu).

Next time, I’ll watch these person cook it:

They look like they’re having more fun than I was.