sassybat

a very small chain called croutons just opened here in san diego (by UCSD). they offer paninis, stuffed pitas, salads, and soups. my favorite is to get their half panini and half salad (or half soup) combo for $7, and the half panini and half salad portions could easily be considered full portions in another place. their mixed berry salad has fresh strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries, and it's really yummy. so is their pear and gorgonzola salad.

amazon.com has a bunch of microplanes under $15. i have this one and i love it.

awww....i'm sorry your husband had such a bad experience. the same thing happened to me when i was in hong kong. after spending the day running in and out of restaurants, malls, trains, etc., i got sick and vomited at the train station. i blame the combination of extreme heat/humidity (it was summer) with extremely cold air conditioning, and the strawberry juice with milk that i had had earlier that day.

saturday night i celebrated with my friends and held a hot pot/potsticker party. sorry, no pictures. i was too busy cooking! yesterday i trekked up to monterey park to visit my grandparents. for lunch we went to the sam woo at the corner of del mar and valley, and for dinner my grandma cooked. for dinner we had crab legs, lamb chops, dong gu, etc. it was goooooood. .......and my grandma reminded me that next year i have to start giving out lai see......

Dejah. Ah. Yes, we do that. I've been getting hungbaos each from by sisters and their spouses ever since they got married, so I thought you meant that my husband and I each to give two hungbaos, making a total of four for each kid. I’m glad we cleared that up. I would have felt guilty otherwise. ← same here. i have always received two lai see from each aunt/uncle set, and so i always assumed my husband and i would give out two to each person, one from me, and one from him. i have never heard of giving double lai see on the first year after marriage, so i was afraid we'd have to give four to everyone!

thanks! it's not going to be an all out chinese wedding, because my fiance is white and although he's very receptive to other cultures, we don't want to frighten his relatives from minnesota. we're including some chinese food at the reception, but we also have some american dishes too.

thanks, everyone! i think i'll find some fruit to bring. my family goes by that rule, too. i'm getting married this summer, so this is the last year i'll be receiving angbaos. i'll have to start giving them out next year!

what should i bring to my grandma's house on CNY? i feel sheepish about arriving for CNY without bringing anything but my appetite. i can't bring tangerines because my uncle (who lives half a block away from her) has a tangerine tree, and it's ridiculous to bring her tangerines when his tree produces more than they can eat. note: grandma lives 2 hours away and is very territorial bout her kitchen, so i can't cook anything while there.

i only eat in the car when we go on road trips (i.e. the 5-hour trip to vegas), and it's moreso for the munching aspect than because we're hungry.

also, if you're looking for a fish market, you have to go to point loma seafoods. it's quite a ways from escondido, but it's definitely worth it if you're wandering close to downtown.

definitely the roasted cauliflower, and now with hzrt8w's chinese pictorials, particularly this crab in ginger and onion dish that looks so much like my mom's that i'm drooling. i haven't had a chance to try it yet, but once i have more free time, there won't be a single crab in the city of san diego that will be safe from me!

i haven't tried to create anything late night after drinking, but i'll say that my favorite late night eats after a drinking binge is pizza! =)

i have numerous burn scars and cuts on my hands from cooking. SO calls me a hazard to myself. my nails are my best defense. they've saved me from slicing my fingers off so many times....

how would spaghetti and meatballs STAY on a stick??

this week in san diego, ca: -- canteloupes -- avocado -- onions -- red chard -- bok choy -- eight ball squash -- tomatoes -- carrots this was my first experience with a csa. i'm excited to start experimenting with veggies i've never tried before (red chard and eight ball squash)

well, sometimes my mom makes congee with them....but to be honest, i've never liked them.

my mom always used to bring back the white marinated chicken feet and the soy sauce cooked duck feet. i always loved the duck feet, but passed on the chicken feet, until i hate them the reddish-brown dim sum way. now i always have to get chicken feet when getting dim sum.

the most delicious thing i've eaten today is also the ONLY thing i've eaten today: a perfectly ripe, extremely juicy, white peach.

i do the same thing too. i didn't even realize how cleanly i was eating the corn, or how entertaining it was for people to watch until one day my sisters and BIL stopped eating their corn in order to watch me.

wow...i'm glad i'm not alone on the coffee thing. i can't stand the taste or the smell of coffee. i can't even eat tiramisu because i can taste the espresso or kahlua used. and it's particularly hard on me when i'm flying in an airplane because i have a tendancy to get airsick, and the smell of stale coffee really really doesn't help. i also hate mint. all forms. even leaves and tea. i get strange looks from people when i keep turning down after dinner mints and gum, because i hate the taste. and it's hard for me to watch my friend drink mojitos. cilantro. i always know instantly whenever there is cilantro in a dish. my tongue cringes in horror. don't like olives, but love olive oil. oh, yeah. cheesecake. that's what brought me into this note in the first place. i can't stand cheesecake, either. go figure, i'm engaged to a guy who MUST have at least one cup of coffee per day, and loves cheesecake in almost all forms. *sigh*

it's interesting that this topic came up, because it's something that has been bugging me lately. i'm not a stickler for insisting on being reciprocated for inviting people over for dinner, but i have my limits. a really good friend of mine is frequently invited over for dinner because a) when he calls to invite us out, i'm usually making dinner anyway, and b) it's just cheaper than dining out. i don't ever expect him to invite us over for dinner because he lives with his parents and i'm a little skeptical about his cooking ability since he never cooks. but if i invite him over for dinner, i would like some appreciation for the time and effort i put into my meals other than "thanks for dinner." i'm not saying he needs to praise my food to the skies. but he doesn't offer to do the dishes, and rarely brings anything, though sometimes he will bring beer, wine, or liquor. normally when guests come over and offer to do the dishes, i turn them down, because i feel that is what's polite, and that's the way i was raised. my friends ignore me anyway, and at least take the dishes into the kitchen, which i truly do appreciate. but there have been times when my friends have cleared the table and brought the dishes to the kitchen, but this guy just continued staying seated. and i had been getting annoyed with his lack of social graces (this is one of his milder cases of social stupidity), but the last time he was over for dinner, he offered to help with the dishes and my fiance and i were so surprised we just said "okay!" i think he was a little surprised we had accepted but i figure he had racked up enough reciprocity points. afterwards, my fiance asked if i had spoken to him about how it had been bugging me, but i told him no. maybe his girlfriend (another good friend of mine with much better manners) clued herself (and by extension him) in.

when i was a hostess at ruth's, i saw them make the steaks all the time. they just sprinkle it with s&p, toss it under the the ridiculously hot broiler, put it on a super-hot plate, top it with butter (which i think was just melted butter that solidified slightly at room temperature. it was opaque like a stick of butter, but liquid enough for them to ladle it on the steak), and dashed some parsley on it. that's really it.

this thread is great! just yesterday i was at the local supermarket, and i was scoping out what people had. i live close to a university, so i suppose that explains the three girls in line behind me with their two frozen pizzas, soda, cake mix, and collection of ramen. *sigh*

when we're sick, both my mom and my grandma make a kind of macaroni soup, with homemade beef or pork broth, macaroni, and slices of beef or pork. it's what i miss most now that i don't live at home anymore, because it's hard for me to recreate, especially when i'm sick and don't want to cook.

looking on crate and barrel's website right now... they have 5.5 oz ramekins for $2.50: http://www.crateandbarrel.com/itemgroups/2...Location=Search or they also have "creme brulee dishes" for 3.50 each: http://www.crateandbarrel.com/itemgroups/1...Location=Search