Viewing entries tagged
dinner

Flavor Garden - Alhambra CA

October 23, 2016

If you are familiar with dumpling and noodle houses, you should be prepared to come with a few people. An order of dumplings is normally 8-10 and fairly sizeable per dish. My brother recommended this place to us and thought we should go together. I don't mind because he knows what kind of food/dishes I like and will order accordingly to what's good.

Cash Only. 1269 E Valley Blvd Alhambra, CA 91801

Tender pork stomach in a spicy Sichuan numbing oil. This is something I love to order at a place like this. Extremely tender. Goes great with beer. I also love ordering pig ears as well, but it's always a treat with stomach is served. I know this may sound weird to some people, but this is the kind of food I grew up eating.

Seasame sauce noodles with some ground pork and preserved veggies.

So good and so much in an order.

These are stuffed with delicious ingredients, but what we love the most about dumplings is when they have leeks. Made myself a side of vinegar and spicy oil mixture to dip this in.

They serve awesome meat pies made with the stuffing of your choice. These are stuffed with pork and leeks. The sizes of these meat pies are large than they appear. There were 4 of us and we had to grab a few to go boxes.

Cash Only.

1269 E Valley Blvd Alhambra, CA 91801

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Holiday Cheer

October 6, 2015

2015 is almost over. Yes we are barely in October, but I'm already listening to Christmas songs on Pandora. The weather in Los Angeles hasn't been the greatest, and it really feels as if the fall spirit is gone. I need the holiday weather to happen now so all the fun stuff can fall into place. But of course, since I am already listening to Christmas songs, you can guess I'm already jumping ahead.

I made a pear tart the other day because there was finally rain... at least for 10 minutes or so. But I went on a cozy-comfort food-holiday cooking splurge.

Velveeta Mac n Cheese-Jalapeno-Bacon-Mapled

Recipe:

1 Box of Velveeta shell cheddar Mac n Cheese
1/2 a Jalapeno (depends on how spicy your Jalapeno is and how spicy you want it to be)
5 strips of bacon. Because bacon is always good.

Preheat the oven at 400 degrees layering your bacon on a sheet pan (I line it with parchment). At 10-12 minutes, take a peek to see how your bacon is doing because all ovens are different. Once your bacon start crisping up, I take maple syrup and drizzle it on 2 strips of bacon. As it sizzles, remove the 3 bacon without the syrup and let it soak on some paper towels. The other 2 in the oven with the syrup, make sure to keep an eye on because it can burn quick. I sprinkled just a little kosher salt because I used low sodium bacon. Flipped the bacon and added a little more syrup with just a hint more salt.

I chopped up the 3 strips of bacon and mixed it into the Mac n Cheese with the Jalapenos. (The Mac is made standard according to the box). I got some panko bread crumbs, tossed it with the bacon fat and let the heat toast the crumbs before putting them on top of the dish. Layer your mapled bacon and there you go! comfort Mac Bacon Cheese Jalapeno something!

** So yummy. I don't recommend you sticking this into the fridge to preheat it in the oven because the cheese does dry out.

Find the recipe HERE.

Basically, follow the recipe in the link, minus the honey and lemon.

I oiled a baking dish with 5 cloves of smashed garlic. A little salt was sprinkled as well. After patting dry and layering the chicken (about 2-3 pounds) I sprinkled the rub on top followed by some olive oil. Massage the rub and oil onto the skin.

The chicken was baked at 375 for 40-45 minutes and I will gradually increase the temperature to 400 at around 30-35 minutes (depends on your oven and chicken size). Don't be intimidated by the crust, it is just blackened and it is delicious.

A simple store bought coleslaw mix was served with this meal. I had hearts glowing all over my face.

Are you ready for the holidays? We wait the whole year for this! why not start early?

Let me know if you have any questions!

Happy COoking!

Daiisies

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Henry's Cuisine

October 6, 2015

Henry's Cuisine - 301 E Valley Blvd, Alhambra, CA 91801

If you are familiar with 626 restaurants, you can understand there is a lot going on in this area. With that being said, there are a lot of restaurants that stands out, and some that are just trying their best to survive. The more common restaurants like Tasty Garden has emerged over the past several years and has opened a few other locations. Phoenix Inn has been around for 50 YEARS (can you imagine that?) also evolved overtime and some even revamped the interior of their locations. Then, you have the typical Chinese cafes like Garden, Baccalis, JJ, JR, KT cafe, Ledo, and so much more. This is also followed by the many restaurants that serves dim sum in the morning, all the Vietnamese joints, HOT POTS, but we are definitely not going to to go into any of that today. (I'm mind blown just going through all other cuisines in my head)

I picked up my mom today to have dinner. We were trying to figure out how to set up her Bluetooth to connect to her car. I don't know if you remembered from a past post, my mom got a new car.

It took a while before I figured out that... I couldn't really figure it out. We decided to take a break from that and head to dinner. She already had her mind set on Henry's Cuisine because a few of her friends raved about the fried salted pig knuckle. I've heard about it, seen it, and always wanted to try it myself. I am a huge fan of roast pork. Being Chinese, it was really something we grew up eating in the household. We would order a few ribs, chopped it up, made some garlic sauteed veggie, a big pot of white Jasmine rice, and that was our meal. It was tough, but our parents made it easy for us to enjoy tasty meals with a low budget.

See? Literally. Meat. Veggie. Rice. With the addition of the porridge because my mom was not feeling well. First thing first.

Deep Fried Salted Pig Knuckle:

Seriously, it was decadent. My mom went straight for the skin, took one bite, and told me "MMMMMM, it's good" in Cantonese or "MMMMM. Ho sik". I tried it for myself and almost cried. The meat was lean, but tender. The brininess of the pork was perfect. This dish was pretty extraordinary. The saltiness of the pork really makes it distinct as well as the hue of the meat. My mom called dibs on the bone, but before she did I peeled a few bits of skin off for myself. She was one happy mom.

The vegetable was simple. Something we always order because we need to have some green with our meal. It's just the way every Chinese meal goes.

This is another typical staple in the Chinese cuisine. Whether you are sick, or having breakfast, this is always a go to comfort food. Preserved eggs are not for everyone. I didn't start enjoying the eggs till I was in my 20's. I would normally eat around it because I do like the flavors it brings to the congee.

All in all, thumbs up. This place was not packed whatsoever and that makes me really sad. There were these 2 mainland Chinese ladies that arrived at the same times as we did. They ordered food at the same time, but left in the middle of our meal. My mom overheard them saying the food sucks. I'm like it sucks? "MMMMM HO SIK AH!" that's what I said. The ahh puts emphasis on your statement.

How rude were these ladies? They actually went up to the waitress who was closing out their bill, and spoke in mandarin that the food was poor quality. The phrase in our language is actually a lot worse than the English "It sucks/not good/taste bad". It's a lot meaner to say it in our language. The restaurant was not full, so them saying it a few times stung me a bit. It made me slightly mad. The meal I just shared with my mom was delicious. The service we had was one of the best that we had in the area. The food was comforting and there is no reason to be hostile.

I want this place to do good. So I hope that you all can give it a try (especially the pork knuckle). I would totally save the bone, and make congee with that. Just imagine all the delicious roasty pork flavors you can extract from it?

Or you can chuck it at those 2 ladies I saw.

Chow!

Daiisies

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Pan Roasted Asparagus, Fried EGG, lemon everything, Oro del Tempo Piave Vecchio

August 31, 2015

This dish is SUPER easy to make. So cancel all your plans, and grab yourself a bunch of asparagus, lemons, eggs and Cheese! Because there is no excuse. It was hot as hell this week in LA and I still managed to cook, so put on that apron or that one cooking outfit you know you haven't washed in weeks.

Beautiful Citrus Asparagus Egg - But... you should see how my kitchen looks after...

This dish is so decadent, you will look like you were in culinary school for years. I am SO hooked on this dish right now, and it doesn't take much at all. Tell your friends you had this in Italy.

Recipe (for 3 people or one... lol)

1 pound of asparagus - try to get the thicker stems for more texture and flavor.
1 Lemon - juice and zest
3 eggs (Happy Eggs)
Cheese: A lot of people use Parmigiano Reggiano, but I am using Oro del Tempo Piave Vecchio, which can be found at Whole Foods. The flavors taste like a matured Gruyere. ABSOLUTELY SHAAABBAANNGG.
red chili flakes.

Ok. First thing FIRST. I started heating the pan on high while I shave off the ends of the Asparagus. Please do not skip this step, unless your asparagus still have a beautiful elasticity on it. Also, cut off the dry ends. No one wants to have a hard, dry chewy bottom, not even your dog. When your pan is hot enough, throw in your asparagus and coat them with the olive oil. Once they start charring, I tossed in some Kosher salt. On a separate nonstick pan, I started frying up an egg.

And next thing you know, it feels like so much sh*t is going on because you didn't prep anything. *runs for cheese*, *oh sh*t the grater*, *omg the asparagus!* *THE EGG!*. Please get your prep together, unless you can work extremely unorganized like I do. When the asparagus has a good char all around, remove it away from the heat and start plating.

Zest your lemon over the top of your asparagus and put some in the pan for the oils to release. I then squeezed half a lemon into the pan to pick up on any excess flavor. After about 15 seconds, pour your light dressing over the asparagus. Top the egg, dazzle with some red chili flakes (or black pepper if you prefer), and shave loads of cheese.

Please show off to your friends, and tell them I taught you. But if you destroy the recipe, tell them someone else taught you. Make sure your eggs are sunny side up. Crispy edges is a major plus. GOOD QUALITY EGGS ARE A MUST (I used Happy Eggs).

Enjoy. And let me know what you think. Lastly, don't cook your asparagus to death.

Cheers!

Daiisies

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Wine & Dine

Flavor Garden - Alhambra CA

Holiday Cheer

Henry's Cuisine

Pan Roasted Asparagus, Fried EGG, lemon everything, Oro del Tempo Piave Vecchio