eG Foodblog: hzrt8w - A week of Chinese New Year celebration

[hzrt8w]

Some of those dim sum at Happy Garden actually look halfway decent, but what I'm focused on are those pretty little steamer baskets for the har gow and siu mai. Any idea where I can buy those?

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Thank you for the kind words sheetz! I know what it feels like to live in the boonies. San Diego used to be like that, Chinese-food wise, when I went there for college (Go Aztec!) in early 80's. We used to hop in a car and drove for 2 hours to get to LA Chinatown to have a decent meal. It made it easier that we went in a pack of 5 so all we did was chit-chat. Time went by much faster. Things are quite different now, both in San Diego and the Los Angeles Basin.

The steamer baskets are sold in most of the Asian markets I have been to in Sacramento. I found them in The Wok Shop too. Since they do mail orders, perhaps order from them? Pretty generic stuff. If the price is not good for you, perhaps wait until you head back to SGV for a visit?

[SheenaGreena]

I think that on chinese new year the chinese eat a red bean based soup? Koreans do the same, except we eat our red bean soup with small mochi balls in it, its very good and good for you.  I dont celebrate chinese new year, but I will definitely make this in the new future because its so delicious

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Sheena, you might be thinking of oshiruko, the red bean soup the Japanese eat at New Year's. It's made from sweetened azuki beans, and usually served warm with mochi balls floating in it (much like Americans top hot cocoa with marshmallows).

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so the japanese do it too? it sounds exactly the same as the korean version, red beans with tiny mochi balls. I wonder who made it first? in korean its called pat jook

[infernooo]

Ah Yeung, I hope you don't mind my asking in your blog, but when I was on holidays in the Philippines, there was a fantastic Cantonese restaurant we visited.

I had something that looked identical to the picture you took of "Sauteed scallops with mixed vegetables: baby corns, snow peapods, celery, carrots, green onions, straw mushrooms":

Is there any chance you could give me some guidelines on how that would be prepared? I noticed that it had a very light but tasty sauce which did not overpower the rest of the ingredients and was perfect over rice. It was very light coloured and quite thick (obviously thickened). Also, how do that get that lovely sheen? Is that a special type of starch (perhaps potato or arrowroot? cornstarch doesnt seem to get that sheen) or just added oil at the end or... ? Vegetables blanched or fully cooked before wok stirfrying?

Sorry about all the questions, but it really stuck in my memory as a lovely dish and I would love to make it at home!

p.s. keep up the blogging, it is terrific!

[lucylou95816]

Ah Leung, Did you happen to catch the big article in the Sacramento Bee's Taste Section today on New Canton? I guess they aren't closed after all.

[hzrt8w]

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

Edited February 22, 2007 by hzrt8w (log)

[hzrt8w]

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.

[hzrt8w]

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.

[snowangel]

Oh, my. You've touched on two of my favorite things. Dim Sum and GA (general aviation).

As to the former, we have a new place in the Twin Cities that has all that you have shown, plus more. It's such a civilized way to experience many tastes. When you went, do they charge a flat rate per plate, or do different plates come with different prices? I just remember the first dim sum I had in Singapore more years ago than I care to remember, and you were to put the plates under the table, and they counted them, and it was the same price per plate.

But, GA. Are you planing to fly at all for food-related itmes? A close friend of ours has a Lake Amphib, which allows us to get into little lakes for fish. Although neither Paul nor I have pursued a pilots license, planes are deeply rooted in us. Paul's dad for many years had a series of planes, and most notably a Cessna 180 with floats and skis. Open water and ice fishing abounded when he had that one (most of his planes had floats and skis, but this one held four people).

[Abra]

I love those tiny octopus too, and have been known to eat them with my fingers, ahem, straight out of the fridge. I can see a classified picture of that now.....just my finger and thumb and a little red octopod, with all the rest blanked out.

[Smithy]

My American Dream

Like most Americans who were born in this country, many American immigrants have their American Dreams too.  I have a few of my own.  Here is the top one:

The Dream of Flying.

Yes indeed it occurred in a few of my dreams (not the metaphor "dream").  Each time it seemed that I just flapped my two arms and I was flying through the air, effordlessly, smoothly soaring from one place to another.  I am hoping that one day I would become a licensed pilot, flying one of these:

Cessna high-wing planes.  These are trainers and the easiest to fly.  I live only 1/4 of a mile down the end of KSAC - the airport sign for Sacramento Executive Airport.  When I am out in the front yard rigging leaves in late afternoon, I often hear the roaring engine from one of these planes flying overhead:

...I haven't chosen the flight school yet.  There are three of them at KSAC.  But I have taken the very first step to take the ground school at Sacramento City College at least to see what it is like.

Living in Hong Kong, such opportunity (getting a private pilot license) virtually doesn't exist.  There used to be three airports, total.  The main airport was Kai Tak and the other two: one was located in Shatin and one in Shek Kong.  The airport in Shatin was long gone because of urban development (and many residents are now living on top of what used to be the airport - which was where I rode a bicycle for the first time in the 60's).  Shek Kong airport used to be a British military airport and was not opened to the public.  And can you imagine flying a Cessna as a student pilot between two jumbo 747's trying to land?  No the hell way!  So... scratch that.

I value this opportunity of living in this country where you can do just about anything you want to set your mind to.  You can snowboard from the top of a mountain, jump off a cliff, dive in the ocean, or take a balloon ride and get drunk.  My calling is flying a small plane.  Has been for years.

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I have some wonderful photos titled "flying into old Hong Kong airport". It makes one realize just why they moved the landing strip for jumbo jets someplace else! What a crosswind! and if you landed too long, there was a lot of water out there.

Good for you for pursuing your dream of flying! You're right about Cessnas: they're easy to fly and great planes for starters. In many ways they're great planes for continuing on - tried and true technology, and all that sort of thing - although there are now other airplanes that take advantage of newer technologies, that are even more wonderful.

I look forward to reading about your fly-in breakfasts and lunches. There are some fine restaurants up and down the Valley there, at various airports, and once you cross the Coast Range you have even more options.

It's too far off-topic to go into here, but I have strong opinions about proper flight instruction, based on my 20-odd years of doing just that. If you want, feel free to PM me with questions - either about your ground school or about potential instructors, when you get that far. Be aware that the ground school itself may seem daunting without a few flight lessons. Some of it may seem like taking cooking lessons when you've never eaten food before.

Many eGullet foodblogs included some pictures of the local sceneries.  Here are a few of Sacramento’s.

It’s February.  Sunny.  Day time temperature: 65F (18C).  (How about that Dai Ga Jeah?)  This winter has been extremely dry so far, compared to last year where we had lots and lots of rain.  In March 2006, there wasn’t one day without rain.  In January 2007, there was not a single day with rain.  Strange pattern.  Global warming?

This is the Sacramento River taken at the Sutterville exit off the I-5 freeway.  Downtown Sacramento is about 3-4 miles north of here.

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I grew up in the San Joaquin Valley - next depression south - but boy, that looks like home. Thanks for posting the photo. I notice that, despite the lack of rain, there are trees that look to be nearly drowning at the river banks.

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.

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That's just one more example of the time-honored American expression:

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

As a central Californian, I remember well the celebrations we had for Chinese New Year when I was in school. I haven't yet seen it written this way in your blog, so I'll add my version of the greeting:

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Thanks for blogging during this auspicious time.

[helenjp]

Gosh, you've been busy while my back was turned!

Daikon rice cake - perfect seasonal snack for teenagers. Thanks for a nice weekend project!

Thanks for all the photos, very inspiring.

Enjoy your flying, and don't forget to learn as much as you can about weather...learning to love your instruments is no bad thing for VFR guys either (15 years of translating aircraft accident reports has warped my priorities! )

[Kent Wang]

First round:  mini octopus.  I love these creatures.  I can eat mini octopus, or I should say octopi, all by themselves in a meal.

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I love baby octopus as well. How did they season and prepare them? How did they achieve such a red color, sriracha?

BTW, 'octopuses' is the most accepted plural form of 'octopus'. See usage.

[Syrah]

Ah Leung! Thank you for your wonderful blog. I have enjoyed it immensely, as well as all of your pictorials.

A lady at work brought in a huge platter with biscuits (cookies) and other savoury cracker things. Just yummy. I loved these round ones that tasted very shortbready to me, but nutty at the same time.

[hzrt8w]

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.

Edited February 22, 2007 by hzrt8w (log)

[hzrt8w]

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.

[hzrt8w]

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.

Edited February 22, 2007 by hzrt8w (log)

[hzrt8w]

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

Edited February 22, 2007 by hzrt8w (log)

[hzrt8w]

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

Edited February 24, 2007 by hzrt8w (log)

[Domestic Goddess]

Ah Leung, if I am ever in your part of the world, I would take you up on your offer to go cross-country with your camper and wok. I love the preserved plum candies that you featured. My mom's best friend was Chinese and she would give us packages every couple of months. My mom would hord them while I would sneak behind her back to grab a couple every now and then. Too bad Mom's best fried got involved with a HK mafia ganster lord (she became his mistress) and couldn't come back to the Philippines. She left a hubby and child back in my country.

[maher]

The dried shrimp interest me (among many of your other meals)....Are these ever eaten as a snack? the notion of snacking on these appeals to me...well the sound of it does at least.

I haven't ever tried them in any sort of fashion...so I am GUESSING that snacking of them would sound lovely...does it?

3.)Where would I buy these here in chicago....I know you might not know this one.

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LindsayAnn

Its been some time since ive lived in Chicago, but i dont think you'll have any trouble finding the dried shrimp in Chinatown. A trip down there was always one of my foodie favorite destinations in the city.

[Dejah]

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.

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Other than the beautiful horse statue, and the exterior of the building, the new Safeway down the street from me is exactly the same - right down to the layout of the produce, where the customer service counter is, meat section! We don't have the wine section because of different liquor laws. I love my Safeway, but you really have to know your prices. Starbucks in the store had a clearance on acouple of their coffees - Columbia Medium - $4.49/8 oz.-regular $8.98/8oz.

The sushi they sell is sent over several times a day from a Chinese restaurant but made by their Japanese chef/s-i-l. I quite often pick some up along with their BBQ chicken for quick lunch enroute home.

Our driveway can accommodate that "Greyhound" - so I'm expecting you to come "wok 'n' roll" with us!

[Smithy]

Safeway stores have been around for decades, but as far as I know they stop right around the Rocky Mountains in the United States. (There may be Safeways in Denver, but I can't swear to it.) Strangely enough, they do go farther east in Canada; I can go northeast from here and find them in Ontario.

The Safeways have gotten to be much more luxurious than when I was growing up, but I think that's true of grocery stores in general. I still boggle occasionally at how much more choice we have, year round, than we did when I was growing up.

I was suprised when I moved to Minnesota and discovered you couldn't buy wine in the grocery store. How I miss that! In this state, you have to go to a liquor store, and you can't buy alcohol on Sunday or past certain hours. Wine here costs a lot more, too, supposedly because of the taxes but probably also due to the ease of restricting the market.

[CaliPoutine]

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.

Did you wife eat this? I love all your chicken dishes because they use white meat ( Don't hate me egulleters). I remember you saying your wife only likes the breast as well.

[Abra]

My husband is a Coca-Cola fanatic who loves Chinese food, so I'll definitely be making that chicken for him. And if you get that RV, please come share some wok hey with us Seattle folks!

It's funny about the Safeway. It looks more or less exactly like our Safeway as well. Only, we think of the Safeway as a crummy store, and only go there for stuff like cat food and Coke. In your pictures it looks fabulous and bountiful and fresh, but in my life, I hate the sameness of their stores and the plasticness of lots of their food and always prefer a smaller, less formulaic place to shop. Maybe if we had a stainless steel horse I'd like it better.

[Toliver]

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.

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For those who are interested, here's a link to the Safeway web site. At the bottom center is a row of logos of the grocery store chains they own. Safeways used to extend all the way down to southern California, but now they're mostly up north. We have Von's down here and it's funny to see them sell Safeway grocery items.

Ah Leung, thanks for posting the Coca Cola Chicken recipe. Your chinese food tutorials are a must-read!