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Today’s lunch. A little more substantial than the liquid breakfast… I came to Saigon Restaurant near Fruitridge and Stockton Blvd. Can you guess what kind of food they serve? A medium Pho Tai. Pho a kind of the Vietnamese noodle. Tai refers to raw beef slices. Much like the Chinese, Vietnamese have different names for different kind of rice noodle. Pho, bun, bahn hoi, etc.. Pho is always in a broth. There is a cook-off thread on eGullet on how to make pho at home: Asian Noodle Soups--Cook-Off XVIII, eGullet Recipe Cook-Off Series Vietnamese usually brought out some fresh herb for eating with the soup noodles. I usually pour all the mung bean sprouts onto the bowl and use a pair of chopsticks and the soup spoon to flip the ball of rice noodles – force the bean sprouts to sink to the bottom and use the rice noodles to hold them down. Since the broth is still very hot, it cooks the bean sprouts within a few minutes while I am eating. An order of Vietnamese fried egg rolls (Chả giò). It is customarily served with lettuce leaves and a dip which is called Noc Ngam I believe. The dip is usually a mixture of fish sauce, sugar, rice wine vinegar, and water. Some gives you shredded carrots in it, and bits of red chili. The filling of Vietnamese egg rolls is different from Chinese’s. They use minced pork, mung bean threads, shredded carrots and chopped wood ear fungi. I usually wrap an egg roll with a lettuce leaf along with some fresh herb, roll it up, dip in the Noc Ngam and eat. With the meal, also a cup of Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk and ice. They pack the ground coffee into the filter, close the lid and screw it on the top to tighten. Then they pour boiling water onto the top. Water will flow through the ground coffee and drip down to the cup underneath, which is first lined with the condense milk. I bought one of these filters. When I first attempted to use the filter, I didn’t realize I need to screw on the top piece. When I poured hot water on top, the ground coffee just floated and spilled over. What a mess! When it is all set, take off the filter, spoon-mix the condensed milk, then pour into the glass of ice. It’s so perfect!

Thank you for filling in with the history of Safeway, Sandy. Very interesting. These grocery supermarkets seem so different from region to region. Back when I was living in Southern Cal, we like Bristol Farm. Their markets in the Orange County area are very nice.

Your "Gonh-she" is the Mandarin dialect, "Gong xi". It is the same as Cantonese's "Gung Hay". Gong/Gung means "wishing (implied "you")". Xi/Hay means Happinese. Gong Xi means wishing you happiness. It can be used by themselves. The second Gong Xi is just a repetition, which is often done in the Chinese language. The "Fat Choy" part (or Mandarin's "Fa Cai") means getting rich. Gong Xi can be used in any occassion. It is just "congratulations". Can be birthday, wedding (or devorce ), etc.. Gong Xi Fa Cai is more narrowly used during Chinese New Year.

Thanks Suzy. I know now about shelf facings. It requires a lot of space to support it. But space is what we have in America. And remember when Internet was in its hay days, the online grocers popped up all over the place? TV commericals showe the "Peach truck". From Grocer.com or something like that I think. Remember those. I was just shaking my head. People who got the Internet e-commerce fever and were not thinking clearly. No one will point-and-click and buy 10 apples by only looking at the pictures (what delicious apples should have looked) and wait for the delivery truck to come by and drop it off. Beside, they wouldn't be able to make money to operate this delivery mechanism (trucks, delivery workers, gas, etc.), plus all the logistics to support it, while fighting competition to offer low prices.

There are a few factors that contribute to this phenomenon that you observed, leviathan. Yes the profit marin of selling drinks - soda and alcohol - is much higher. From that I understand the full liquor license is hard to get. The "beer and wine" license is easier but still involves some work or capital. I have been to a few Chinese restaurants that offer beer and wine. And only a very few with a full bar. The mom-and-pop Chinese restaurants probably don't care to push wine and beer as perhaps most of their cliente would not order them any way. Most restaurants maintain their profit by low cost ingredient sourcing, and low cost labor. I will post some of my thoughts on your thread about Chinese restaurant in the other forum when I am done with my foodblog.

Thanks Amanda. I agree. I can taste the difference of Pepsi from Coke blindfolded everytime.

It was from Portugal to Macau to Hong Kong. Hong Kong Chinese perfected it, of course!

I would love to see a RV camping jamboree! I want to have a modest model too. Just a 40-footer would be enough.

Thanks for the interesting bit, Henry. I would think that Coca-cola would use the same formula all around the world? Or may be it is just the "sugar" part that is different from country to country. McDonald's do adjust their menus in different countries, as I have seen in Singapore, Paris and London. I wonder if Coke adjusts its formula for the local tastes or culture in different countries.

That must be an awesome sight! I don't know if RV camping and Chinese food would mix well. Do you think it will? Or maybe it will. We can get the fresh meat and produce in town enroute. I just need to carry all my dried goods and sauces.

Yes that is correct. Until December 20, 1999. It is now a Special Administrative Region of the PRC. Much like Hong Kong. It is like saying "I don't know what to do with you yet because you are not communistic. I will deal with you later." One country, two systems. Any Portuguese influences in the food? You bet ya! There were a few thread discussions in the China forum on that. That's where we got our Dan Tart! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_tart

I have such a backlog of questions to answer. I have been taken a FIFO approach. FIFO is a geek-speak. It means "First In First Out", computer programming term. Pronounced as Feefol. That didn't work well. But the time I get to answer a question, the content was already forgotten. Maybe I will try a different approach. LIFO. "Last In First Out". Pronounced as Leefol. Answer a question while memory is still fresh. And go backwards. Actually we do. Chinese do consume alcohol on a regular basis. Just that a lot of us don't drink wine. Beer is by far the most popular. Local ones ("Sun Lik" I think, used to be San Miguel). And lots of imported ones from China (Tsing Tao), Japan, Europe (e.g. Heineken, Lowenbrau). US beer like Budwiser was not common until recently. Many Chinese also like drinking rice wines. And brandy.

Good Morning Everybody! Today’s liquid breakfast: Pennywort drink, recently rediscovered from a conversation on eGullet in the China forum. I had been drinking this when I was a kid but it was not available in the USA (or so I thought). It is a grassy taste drink made from a herbal-like plant. In Cantonese it is called “Bung Dai Wun”, which literally means a big bowl with a crack. That’s what the leaves of a pennyworth plant look like – a coin with a crack. Some street vendors sold this drink in Hong Kong on a cart. I believe they simply boiled the plant and sweetened it with some sugar. On a hot summer day, drinking a bowl (yes it was served in a bowl, as so many drinks are served on bowl in China, including beers) of ice-cold pennyworth can crunch the thirst quickly. Oh… about my cup. It was from the promotion of “The Truman Show”. I love that movie. The idea of a life that everything is staged since birth. The childhood, friends, wife, the whole town, everything around Truman was all staged. And speaking of movies, there are many movies I like. But the one that really stands out, and one that I immediately watched a second time just to understand the story – Mulholland Drive by David Lynch. (More so than Blue Velvet.) It is a movie of a dream within a dream. The story line may look weird. But every shot of that movie is giving you a clue of what is going on. The story is not served up to you. You need to connect all the dots to get the whole story.

Just came home from the pilot ground school class. Tonight’s topic was how to use the “inflight computer” E6B and how to use a plotter to examine heading and distance on an aviation map, how to calculate speed, how to incorporate cross-wind in the calculations, etc.. Very interesting. Earlier today I went to Tug Boat Fish & Chips for lunch: It is within 3 minutes walking distance from my house. Owned by a Japanese family, as it is typical of a few of these fish & chip places in both Northern and Southern California that I have been to. I don’t know what the connection is. If anybody knows, please enlighten us. Would it be that these fish and chips are very similar to tempura making? I ordered a seafood plater combination. It contains 1 piece of cod, 3 shrimp, 3 small oysters and 2 scallops. All battered and deep-fried. Came with some French fries also. The owner brought out a trio of sauces: catsup, cocktail sauce and tartar sauce. The malt vinegar is already at the table. I really like the way they made the batter. Crispy, not too thick. Just right. I think it is much harder to make good deep-fried seafood that it looks. After my class, I dropped by another Hong Kong style restaurant that opens late: Macau Café. This restaurant is owned by the same financial group that also owns New Hong Kong Wok Restaurant. They serve a mix of Hong Kong and Macau style entrees. Hong Kong and Macau are only 40 miles apart. Cantonese Chinese are the predominant residents. Macau Chinese speak Cantonese dialect just like we do in Hong Kong. The living habits, food, language… everything is indistinguishable. They do, however, have a few dishes that are done different. Tonight I came here and ordered: Hong Kong / Macau style Curry Beef, served in a stainless steel hot pot. It came with a plate of rice. The other choice is plain spaghetti. Typical of what’s served in the Hong Kong / Macau style café. Beef slices, onion, potato, green bell pepper and curry sauce. Done very well.

Good Day everybody! Phewwww.... I hate these day-long meetings! A good day went by, just like that. Breakfast was more of the same: Just hot soy milk heated up at home. Lunch pictures will be provided. Gosh... my ground school class starts in a couple of hours. Will be late posting again... Thanks for all your responses! So many questions... I will get to answer them. Promised. That's my style. But time is tight. If I don't get to answer all of them before this blog is up, I will PM you with the answer. Disappearing again in 10 seconds...

Thanks liuzhou, that's is very interesting!

I have not tasted any Thai food until arriving America. It would be hard for me to know what's "good" Thai versus "not so good" Thai. The American general public probably has the same question about what's "good" and "not so good" on Chinese food. Without having living in that country, and a few-day visiting may not be enough, it's hard to know what's "good".

My American Dream – Part 2. Besides flying a private plane, I long for owning one of these: Yeah… greyhound bus size luxury RV campers. Spend two to three months every year on the road criss-crossing America. Camp (defined in a luxury way) and sight-see. I wish to meet some of you all around this country some day. Come visit us in the camp. I will bring my wok and 100,000 BTU burner and do a Chinese food cook-off. Talk about wok hey and all. LOL! And you can teach me all about wine and cheese. It is something that’s really hard to do in other continents. In China, there is not enough road to drive on. In Europe, the streets are not wide enough to take these. Where else? Africa? South America? Australia, yes. But not too many places. This is one of those things that you can only do in America. Gosh… I love this country! Edit: grammar

On Sunday I ran an errand and went to pick up something for my wife at a local Safeway. I don’t know how big Safeway is on a nation-wide scale or whether you folks in the East Coast have heard of it. I decided to take a few shots of the market. It would probably be interesting to our international viewers. The one I dropped by is on 19th Street and R Street in mid-town Sacramento. It is a brand new store. We saw the whole complex being built from the start. This location is particularly nice. They used a mock water tower as decoration. In front of the main entrance, there is a stainless steel horse sculpture. Very nicely done. We love shopping at Safeway – especially when something is on sale. Starbucks in every grocery market near you! This is a brilliant marketing move. They only started this strategy a few years ago. I remember the mom-and-pop coffee shops charge (or used to charge) only 50 cents for a cup of coffee, and that’s with free refills. When Starbucks first came out, they charged over $1.00 for the coffee. Per cup. Everybody’s reaction was… “what?” Now $4.00 a cup of latte is just a matter of course. Still, the US coffee seems weaker than those on the streets of Paris and London. Just my feel. The ready-to-eat dinner counter. Some rotisserie chickens. Freshly made sushi. The Japanese sushi master was still there making more sushi when I was at the shop. You can make special requests if you can catch them in the store. This is a counter that I don’t know much about: Cheese. I rarely buy cheese. And this is the corner that I am hopelessly lost. Californian wine. There are hundreds of wine selections in this store. How can you tell a good wine from a not so good wine? I only know the basics. I know the difference between a Chardonnay and a Fume Blanc. But which winery is the best? Which year? The color, the smell, the taste… I have no clue. I now know how it feels like to be a non-Asian at the aisle of cooking sauces inside a Chinese grocery store. A total lost on what to pick, and how to pair wine with the food. It is not that I can’t read the label. But the incomprehension is just the same. Actually with the limited knowledge on wine that I have, I owe it to working in a Chinese restaurant called Ming’s Garden in San Diego when I was in college. The owner had a very interesting history. He was born in Hong Kong, raised in Paris and later on immigrated to the USA. His father was a top Chinese chef specialized in Sichuan/Peking style. He helped his father managed their family restaurant in Paris. He took his wine knowledge with him to open up Ming’s Garden. His wine list is quite impressive – over 100 selections of wine, both domestic and imported. I had never seen a Chinese restaurant owner who knows about wine as much as he did. We used to have these training “seminars” and wine-tasting after our shift. Yeah, at around midnight. Learned about how to pair wine with different Chinese dishes. Man, talk about hard! Going to school all day, working all night in mad rush, after being stuffed with a staff meal at the restaurant, near midnight, and now we needed to drink a few glasses of wine? And remembering what the sales guy told us about those wines??? Anyway… I held up a bottle of Robert Mondavi Chardonnay. 2004. This has been my favorite wine. I have been to their winery at Napa Valley. One of the best wineries. I love their tasting room and facility. I feel as if there is a special connection. Fresh breads and bakery items counter. That’s what I came here for: my boss told me to pick up a couple bottles of non-fat milk. She uses it to make yogurt at home. Time permitting, may be I’ll post her yogurt making process. Very simple. The meat department. All kinds of cuts and different sizes. This is a typical aisle in an American grocery store. For those of us who live in the USA this is a daily scene. But this is one of those things that gave me my first cultural shock when I first came to this country. The aisle is so wide. And people put so many quantities of the same good on the shelves! Why do they need to place 15 cans of Del Monte creamy corns on the same shelf space, with 6 more rows of 15 cans behind them? - Just because we can! Only in America! A refrigerator full of frozen fish sticks. The fresh produce department. Hugh. Many fresh vegetables. Same kind of yams as I saw in the farmers market. Only here the price is doubled. They are all individually labeled. I hate these things. It’s one of my pet peeves. They stick these labels on the good only to benefit the owner. Cost cutting… they device some self-check counters for you to check out so they can have less cashiers. They don’t suppose you will know the 4-digit produce codes, so they need to label each and every one of the yam, apple, banana, etc. that they sell. These sticky labels are so hard to peel off. I often have to skin away the portion that the label is on. Pain in the rear! More fruits and melons. And… of course, a grocery market would not be a grocery market without the tabloids at the check out counters to grab your attention: Britney Spear shaved her hair, Nicole Richie got arrested, Anna Nicole Smith died at 39… bombarding you with all the “what you don’t need to know” news. Edit: spelling

Today’s afternoon snacks: Before I left for work this morning, I grabbed a couple of these: The bag on the right is preserved plums ("Chan Pei Mui"). The bag on the left is preserved… apricot ("Ga Ying Gee")? Not sure if I translated it correctly. They taste different. I like them both. Three layers of wrapping papers (two sheets are paper, the last sheet is plastic). Here is the preserved plum in the center. I have been eating these since I was a kid. Still like them.

On the second day of Chinese New Year when we visited my in-laws, MIL gave us some “lei see” (red envelopes). It is a Chinese custom that when families and relatives meet, we give good wishes to each other. The married elders will give red envelopes to the younger generations (until they are married). Parents typically give red envelopes to their children and their spouse regardless of age. As always, my MIL went to the bank before Chinese New Year and got some brand new bank notes to stuff the red envelopes. This is a common practice – use only bank notes or coins in mint condition.

Tonight's dinner: Since I love Coca-cola so much… I decided to use Coca-cola to make a Chinese dish for dinner and show you the process. Yes you heard me. Using Coca-cola. It is called “Coca-cola Chicken”. This is not my original idea. The recipe has been around in some families in Hong Kong for a long time. It is basically a modified version of Soy-sauce Chicken. Instead of using rock sugar, we add Coca-cola into the soy sauce to cook the chicken. The result is a sweet and savory sauce that tastes very good. I am an eGullet “Specialist” in the China forum. My contribution is to regularly post a pictorial recipe on cooking a Chinese dish. I took this opportunity to kill two birds in one stone: taking pictures for this blog and incorporating them into the next pictorial recipe. I only needed to use 1 liter of Coca-cola but the 2-liter ones are the only size they carry in the market that I visited. First: reduce the Coca-cola soda. Pour 1 liter of Coca-cola into a small pot. You need to reduce it by at least 50% or more so the syrup will be concentrated. Boil the soda using medium-high stove setting for about 15 to 20 minutes. Other ingredients: about 2 lb of chicken. Dark meat is the best. If you cook chicken breasts, use the ones with bones and skin. I used drumsticks. Thighs are also good too. 1 small onion. 2-3 inch of ginger. 4 cloves of garlic. A handful of star anises. Finely chop the garlic, wedge the onion and slice the ginger. Use a medium-size pot or Dutch oven or large clay pot, heat up 3 tblsp of cooking oil. Sautee the onion wedges and garlic. Add 1 tsp of salt. Add all the chicken meat in the pot to brown the skin. Splash in 3-4 tsp of ShaoHsing cooking wine. The browning takes about 3-4 minutes. Add the ginger slices, stir once or twice. Add the reduced Coca-cola syrup. Add ½ cup of dark soy sauce. Make sure the braising liquid covers all the chicken pieces in the pot. If not enough, add some more Coca-cola. The liquid level should just cover all the chicken pieces. Add in all the star anise. Bring the liquid to a boil, then reduce the heat to a medium-slow. Braise with the lid on but crack-opened so that the liquid can be further reduced. Braise for about 30 minutes. Here’s how it looked after 30 minutes. All done. Be sure to scoop the braising sauce to serve with the chicken. The sauce is very good to eat with steamed rice or noodles. My second dish: I bought some nice “gai lan” (Chinese broccoli). Sautee some garlic with a bit of cooking oil. Add the Chinese broccoli. Cook with the lid on for just a few minutes. Tonight’s vegetable dish.

Erik: To return in kind, here is my obligatory picture of my work place: Oh… Errr…. It’s classified. If I show you, I will have to kill… myself. The only non-classified part is the keyboard and the mouse.

Getting thirsty at work. Looking for some drinks… What? No COKE??? What can the world be without COKE??? Siiiiiiiippppp…. Aaaaaaaaaaa! Coca-cola! Nothing like it. The world is just not the same without Coca-cola. I have taken my own tests of the Pepsi Challenge. I could pick out the Pepsi taste every time! Maybe it is the chemical from the ginger in the Coca-cola formula that attracts me so much. It seems to have the minute trace of the ginger taste. Tens of billions of dollars worth of Coca-cola products sold every year now. Hard to believe the original formula was bought for one US dollar? Something like that? Can't remember. I have been to the World of Coca Cola in Atlanta. Fascinating museum! http://www.woccatlanta.com/ The company sure made a big boo-boo with the introduction of the “New Coke formula” in 1985. This goes to show: when you have something that works, don’t mess with changing it! The company had to save face. Instead rescinding their efforts, they said “we will still have the new Coke, but the original Coke would be called Coke Classic”. Classic, my boo-boo! The “New Coke” just died a quiet death.

Today’s lunch: Went to Sakura Japanese Buffet Restaurant on Bitwell Street, Folsom. It is actually run by a Hong Kong Chinese family. I could hear them yacking in Cantonese in the kitchen and in the dining room. They do a pretty good job though. Granted in these buffet restaurants, the food quality is not the top – given that you can have all you can eat. But they did a pretty good job in any case. They have a solarium kind of design. The dining room is very bright. I like it bright like this, though in the summer it is a bit hot under the sun even though the glass blocks off 70% of the heat already. First round: mini octopus. I love these creatures. I can eat mini octopus, or I should say octopi, all by themselves in a meal. Some tuna sushi and salmon sushi. Some pickled young ginger. I love these! Wasabi and soy sauce as condiment, of course! Second round: More tuna sushi. 2 shrimp sushi (ebi). 1 albacore sushi – I didn’t like this too much. Some grilled eel (unagi) sushi. And some miscellaneous sushi rolls with some chopped tuna inside, coated with shrimp roes. And they did some sushi coated and deep-fried. Tasted very good. Just not good for your artery. Some seaweeds (the patch of green) mixed with sesame and sesame oil. Did I mention I like pickled ginger? I was feeling full already. But I could not give up… there were more to be had! The other half of the buffet counter is dedicated to Chinese food. I couldn’t pass those up. Mostly were stir-fried stuff. String beans, broccoli and beef, straw and button mushrooms, deep-fried squids, salt and pepper shrimp, orange chicken, some chow mein, one pot sticker and one fried egg roll. Just sampling. Dessert: Rainbow sherbet. I sure ate like a pig didn’t I? This can be one of those one-meal days for me. But Asians seem to be able to consume more food per body mass than other races. Have you seen Takeru Kobayashi of Japan who won the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Competition 2006? He swallowed 53 hotdogs (with the buns) in something like 12 minutes? And he is skinny! Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest Some interesting discussions on how to beat the house in the Chinese buffet game on eGullet, if you ever so wanted to get your money worth eating Chinese/Japanese buffet: Gaming the Chinese buffet, Asian (and Indian) buffet strategies