Char Siu Chow Fun

Just in case you were wondering about the chow fun I mentioned in my previous post--here are some pictures.

1) Char siu (Chinese barbequed pork), onions, celery, and scallions, chopped up and ready to go. (I wish I had had some bean sprouts on hand . . . I would've used those, too.)

2) Into the hot wok they go, accompanied by some oyster sauce, soy sauce, a whole garlic clove, and a couple of slices of ginger. I removed the garlic and ginger after this step--I just wanted them to lend their flavor and aroma.

3) Then I added the rice noodles, and some salt and pepper.

4) All done! The whole dish, including prep time, only took 20 minutes. It was delicious (am I allowed to say that about my own cooking?).

Tip #2: Freeze Your Scallions

I'm making chow fun (wide Chinese rice noodles) for dinner tonight. My hands are actually a bit sticky with char siu glaze and onion juice as I type this entry--but I wanted to post the following tip before I forgot: FREEZE YOUR CHOPPED SCALLIONS!

I cook a lot of Asian dishes so I use scallions (or green onions) in my cooking all the time. But they tend to wilt and lose their crisp texture after just 24 hours in the fridge. I've tried wrapping them in damp paper towel, putting them in ziploc baggies, making sure they're in the crisper drawer--but none of those solutions seem to work for me. I always end up with floppy scallions, which are not only ugly and unappetizing, but also really difficult to chop.

So now I do what my mom and my grandmother do: I chop them all up while they're still fresh, put them into a freezer safe bag or container, and freeze them. Then when it's time to use them again, I only remove the quantity I need. Genius, aint it?

All Blues: Food, Family and Hawaii

I had the privilege of spending the holidays in Hawaii again this year. And as usual, I ate my way across the island of O'ahu with great enthusiasm. There is something about food and flavors and the experience of eating that lies at the very heart of Hawaii's culture.

For me, the sugary outside and doughy inside of a hot Leonard's malasada is a Sunday visit with my grandmother. The savory, greasy, crispy skin of huli-huli chicken is a warm Saturday at a North Shore beach with my dad. My mother's home-made osechi is a busy New Year's Eve in our small kitchen and the whole family gathered around the table at lunch on New Year's Day. Food, family and the salty scent of sea breeze are inseparable in my memories of Hawaii.

Do you know that Miles Davis song, "All Blues?" It goes--"the sea/the sky/and you and I . . . " Well when I think of Hawaii, I sing to myself: "the sea/the sky/chocolate haupia pie . . ."

Mesa Grill

Last night I returned from a weekend trip to Las Vegas. I'm exhausted. I have huge puffy circles under my eyes. My ears still ring with the jingling of slot machines. My hair smells like cigarette smoke and no matter how much I scrub, I can't seem to get the ink from the nightclub stamp off of my wrist.

The unsustainable lifestyle I lived while in Vegas was great. But the real highlight of my trip was dining at MESA Grill, Iron Chef Bobby Flay's first restaurant. Those of you who know me know that Bobby is my celebrity chef crush. I watch Throwdown on the Food Network religiously. So when we made the reservations at MESA, I was a bit worried that the experience wouldn't live up to my expectations. It exceeded them.

The restaurant, located in Caesar's Palace, was warm and colorful, with a completely unpretentious atmosphere. Our server, Joel, was friendly, attentive and eager to give us recommendations when we asked. And not only was the food beautifully presented, but it was also exquisitely prepared. The dishes were savory, sweet, spicy, crunchy, tender, fresh, flavorful and balanced. And the portions? Almost too big to finish . . . but we finished them anyway.

Here's what I ordered.
Appetizer: Smoked Chicken + Black Bean Quesadilla with avocado and toasted garlic creme fraiche. The menu doesn't tell you about the sweet and tangy sauce drizzled on top--did I taste balsamic vinegar, sweet chile and roasted red peppers?
Entree: New Mexican Spice Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with Bourbon-Ancho Chile Sauce, Sweet Potato Tamale and Crushed Pecan Butter. The pork was tender and moist without a trace of that farmy after-taste that pork sometimes has. And the spicy rub on the pork was balanced by the mild sweetness of the tamale. So delicious!
Dessert: Warm Cornbread Pudding with pear-apple compote, pear butter sauce and ginger-molasses ice cream. Need I say more?

So for anyone who's headed to Las Vegas, New York or the Bahamas (Mesa Grill's three locations), you owe it to yourself to taste Bobby's dynamic Southwestern cuisine. It may be a bit of a splurge (entrees range from 24-48 dollars) but the experience is worth every bite.

How to Make a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich

While earning my MBA at Mills College in Oakland, I took a course called Business Communication, taught by Professors Barbara Blissert and Ileen Erickson.

One evening, the other students and I entered the classroom to find a loaf of bread, some paper plates, a jar of peanut butter and a jar of grape jelly sitting on the front table. The starving student in me thought, "Yum. I wouldn't mind having a free dinner tonight." I sat down, eyeing the food on the table in anticipation. But our professors had something entirely different planned.

Our assignment that evening was called "How to Make a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich." Each of us had fifteen minutes to write the directions for making a basic PB&J. After our time was up, we handed our papers to a teacher's assistant. She selected a sheet at random and began following the directions written on it word for word, as if she had never made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before.

The resulting sandwich was a mess: several slices of bread in a haphazard pile, covered with sticky grape jelly on the outside and a large scoop of un-spread peanut butter on the inside. The student had written "some bread" instead of "one slice," and she hadn't specified which sides of the bread to stick together. The demonstration, in all of its absurdity, was meant to teach us concise and explicit communication.

So for all of you PB&J-lovers out there, here is my concise and explicit recipe for the PB&J's cousin, Jasmine's Peanut Butter, Fried Banana and Honey Sandwich (trust me, it's good).

Ingredients:

• 2 slices of whole-wheat bread
  
• 2-1/2 to 3 tbsp chunky peanut butter
• 1 banana
  
• 1 tbsp honey
• a drizzle of canola oil to coat the pan
  
• a sprinkle of cayenne pepper
  

Directions:

1. Place the two slices of bread side by side on a large plate.
   
2. Spread the peanut butter onto the face of one of the slices of bread with a butter knife.
   
3. Drizzle the honey evenly onto the face of the remaining plain slice of bread.
4. Preheat the canola oil in a small frying pan on a stovetop to medium-high heat.
   
5. Peel the banana, discard the peel, then slice its flesh into even quarters, slicing once lengthwise and once across.
   
6. Place the pieces of banana into the preheated oil, long flat side down.
7. Let the banana fry for about two minutes. Using a pair of tongs, flip each piece of banana onto its long uncooked side and let it fry for another two to three minutes, until it caramelizes.
   
8. Sprinkle the cooked banana with a teensy bit of cayenne pepper for an unexpected kick.
   
9. Remove the banana pieces from the frying pan and distribute them evenly onto the peanut-buttered face of bread.
   
10. Complete the sandwich by placing the honey-covered piece of bread (honey side down) on top of the banana. Now it's ready to eat!