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Was at the Centreville Starlight Cinema last week and had the best popcorn ever. Props to Colonial Kettle Corn for having a pleasantly sweet, salty, crunchy, fresh popcorn… sure beats all the ones I’ve made in the past.

Having Zero dollars in my pocket and smelling the aroma, mommy geezlouies tells me to run back to the van and go through the ashtray for change… there’s got to be enough money to buy a bag of popcorn… starting at $3 for the small, $5 for the medium and something for the large… didn’t have enough money to care about that price…. anyways went back to the van, found lots of change… didn’t have time to count…just went ahead to buy some corn…

PHew!! had $3 in nickels, dimes, quarters, and a few bills. so I buy the small bag. it was so good that by the time the movie started mommy geezlouies and I along with E1 gobbled up about 75% of the bag. I went through my change… two dollars and eighty cents… not enough to buy another bag. But with some encouraging from the smell of the popcorn, I head back to the vendor. Oh it’s you again, says the lady… remembering me from the first time paying with the large handful of coins. Um… I only gots two dollars and eighty cents… can I get a small bag of popcorn? I asked sheepishly… I’m a grown man and I’m bargaining for a small bag of popcorn cuz I was missing twenty cents, kinda pathetic, but like I said, it was one of the best kettle corn I’ve ever had.

Luckily she said sure. And we feasted :)

As daddy gets an ipod, mommy also gets a new toy. This is the Braun AromaDeluxe KF 550 Black. Most of the black editions were sold out. But fortunately with a few key searches we were able to find the black model. White ones abound, but they don’t “match” our other appliances.

Anyways, this model comes with a water filter, a reusable wire-mesh coffee filter, and an all around good coffee making abilities. Come by for a cup :)

MEMORIES
On our last trip to the motherland back in 2005, Stef (my then fiancee) and I led a group of Americans on a “cultural exchange” trip in Sichuan province. It was extremely exciting and hard work. We tended to most of the logistical stuff, like what to eat, where to go, who to meet, etc… But of course we had to worry about “safety” and “tastes” when it came to where to go eat. So we played it pretty safe for most of the trip by staying with big restaurants and well known places and ordered pretty safe stuff so that everyone wouldn’t be grossed out. We made sure things were clean and didn’t expose the group to any unnecessary risks.

SHAOKAO
Us on the other hand, after tucking everyone into bed, snuck out of the hotel and wandered the streets of Chengdu. We found a “hole in the wall” on the side of the street and had the most delicious shao kao.

XUEHUA (SNOW)
To top it off, we had ourselves two bottles of XueHua (literally snow flower or snow flake) Beer. And those were 620ml bottles. Anyways that was probably the most memorable meal we had in china during that trip. The two of us, sitting on the side of the street, chewing chunks of meat off a stick and drinking beer. The smells of Sichuan spices and the night time summer air was so good.

Even to this day, I still remember fondly of that night drinking xuehua beer. It was the best tasting beer I had ever tasted… perhaps it was the food I was eating it with or the company I had, but my memory has kept me thinking of that beer. I never had xuehua until I went to Sichuan. Beijing had an assortment of beers, but the people’s brand was Yanjing Beer. My first exposure to Xuehua was on the streets of Chengdu.

PRESENT UPDATE
I did a search on Google to see if there were any imports in the U.S. Everyone talks about Tsingtao, but a large majority of people have not even heard of Xuehua. But it happens to be very popular in Sichuan province and the people there claim it to be their provincial drink…

Apparently SABMiller did a joint venture with Xuehua a few years back and it is being marketed as “Snow” Beer. It has also become the world’s biggest selling beer in terms of volume with over 61 million hectoliters.

My fondest beer has overtaken Bud Light as the KING OF BEERS.

If you ever get a chance to visit China, ask for Xuehua… or if you know of any distributors in the U.S., please, PLEASE, let me know :)

Okay, so this is a not so complete Sangria recipe. Mommy made this Spanish drink for our girl’s 2nd birthday party. This of course was not for the kids since it contains alcohol.

According to the chef, it had a combination of the following ingredients.

Canned Peaches
Cubed Apples
Orange Pieces
Canned Pineapple
Slices of Lime
Strawberries
Red Wine (Merlot, Cabernet, etc.)
Sprite or Ginger Ale

Pretty much the prep work involved cutting the fruit and soaking it with the Red Wine. Cheap wine is the best. We used Trader Joe wine, both Merlot and Cabernet. As for the amounts, use to your liking. We had about three pitchers using three bottles of wine. You need to let the wine soak in the fruit overnight in the refrigerator for best taste.

When the party starts, add Sprite. We had about a one to one ratio of Sprite and wine. Some recipes have you adding sugar, but you don’t need to because of the sugar from the soda. For best results, make sure the sprite is chilled as well. That’s about it. Enjoy! Some of the guests just drank the juice and left the fruit behind, but I think the fruit pretty good and amazing. Most recipes I found online also added Triple Sec, rum, brandy, or some other spirit…

This is a party drink traditionally made in summer, but you can enjoy any time you like.

(photo from wokkingmum.blogspot.com)

Excerpt from The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen:

In Cantonese tradition, a new mother eats chicken wine soup for the first ten days after giving birth. Then for the rest of the month, the mother-in-law makes pig’s feet and ginger in black vinegar, which are said to help the mother produce more milk for the baby. The eggs in this dish are a symbol of birth and life, and the ginger helps to reinvirograte the mother’s body. To make this correctly you must peel the ginger which takes incredible patience.

All relatives and friends who come to visit the new baby are also treated to the pig’s feet, for pots and pots of this are prepared. I distinctly recall having it many times as a child and loving it. The black vinegar and sweetened black vinegar are found in Chinese supermarkets…

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So we went out to Cici’s pizza buffet the other day to celebrate. Eliana saw us dipping bread in spaghetti sauce. She started imitating us. Now she dips everything in sauce… Here are pictures from dinner today.

We’ve been on a row… this is one of many curry recipes that we’ve enjoyed – taken from fishinnards.com

Also, two other curry dishes we’ve been eating a lot of: Aloo Gobi – recipe taken from one of the extra videos from Bend it like Beckham… it’s a cauliflower and potato curry dish… and chickpeas and spinach curry… recipes coming soon.

Chicken Curry (fishinnards.com)

2 medium to large onions
½ cup of oil
½ tsp Black cumin seeds
2 Black cardamom pods
1″ stick of cinnamon
4 whole cloves
7 black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
4-6 chicken thighs
2″ piece of ginger (pealed)
7 cloves of garlic
1 tsp of turmeric
2 tsp (regular) cumin seeds
1 ½ Tbsp. coriander seeds
½ cup yoghurt (plain w/ no gelatin)
2 medium tomatoes
1 ½ tsp. hot pepper powder (more or less depending on you and your pepper)
2 tsp. salt (kosher)
¾ tsp. Garam masala

So here it goes: Take one onion and cut in half and then slice each halve into very fine half rings.

Heat the oil. Heat the oil in a wide nonstick pot or high sided pan that has a lid. So, heat the oil and add the sliced onion and sauté it over medium heat. When they reach a uniform light tan, turn off the heat. Put a sieve over a small bowl. Pour the onions into the sieve, allowing the oil to drain into the bowl. Pour the oil back into the pot.

Now, chop the other onion and the ginger and garlic. Put them in a blender with a little bit of water (1 Tbs. or so) and blend to a paste. Put the (regular) cumin and coriander seeds into a spice (coffee) grinder and grind to a powder. Wisk the yoghurt to remove and lumps and chop the tomatoes. Skin the chicken pieces and dry them.

Heat the onion flavored oil in the pot and when its really hot add the black cumin, cardamom, cinnamon, peppercorns, cloves, and bay leaves (this is the “whole garam masala”).

Put the chicken in the pan and brown it well on both sides so the pieces are golden brown. Take them out and put them in a bowl. Turn the heat to medium and add the blender paste. Stir the paste, add the turmeric, and stir, stir and keep cooking it for about 5 to 10 minutes. It may turn green and then brown, it looks cool and smells good.

Next add the ground cumin and coriander. Add the yoghurt a spoonful at a time quickly stirring and incorporating after each spoonful. All this stirring is called bhunno, that’s Hindi for sauté, but you add liquid to keep stuff from sticking, a little at a time so everything “caramelizes”.

Add the chopped tomatoes, salt and hot pepper and cook some more. Add the chicken and stir around a minute or two. Add 2 cups of water and bring to simmer. Lift the cover and add the fried onions and the (ground) garam masala. Cover and cook for about 5 minutes.

Serve with lots of rice (white, unsalted, properly cooked plain rice) or chapattis or Naan. Happy eating!

This is one of our favorite korean dishes… It’s a stir-fried rice cake in hot pepper paste. It’s an easy and delicious dish that you can find vendors selling on the streets of Korea.

Duk Boki

1/2 lb. Duk (Cylindrical rice cake)
1 tbsp Gochujang (hot pepper paste)
1/2 tbsp miso
1 garlic clove, chopped finely
1/2 tsp red pepper powder
1 stalk bok choy
1 scallion chopped
Sesame oil
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 tsp sugar
1/4 lb beef chuck
1 Carrot, sliced
Black pepper
1. Soak Duk in cold water for 10 minutes
2. Cut beef into 1/4 inch thick 1″ x 2″ slices.
3. Mix beef, black pepper, garlic and 1 tsp sesame oil in bowl
4. Brown beef in a frying pan
5. Add in carrots, scallions, bok choy and duk, mix and cover and steam for about 10 minutes or until vegetables are soft.
6. Mix the gochujang, hot pepper, miso, sugar and 2 tsps water in bowl until blended.
7. Add mixture to the pan and stir. Add broth as needed if sauce becomes too thick.
8. Ready to serve when the duk is soft!

Here’s our latest recipe: Persimmon bundt cake, taken from astray recipes.

Ingredients
4 Ripe large persimmons
1½ teaspoon Baking soda
1¾ cup Sugar
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 Extra-large eggs
2 teaspoon Vanilla extract
2 cup All purpose flour
1 teaspoon Ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon Salt
½ teaspoon Ground allspice
¼ teaspoon Ground cloves
¾ cup Chopped walnuts
¾ cup Dried currants
Powdered sugar (opt.)
White Chocolate Hard Sauce

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350 F. Butter and flour 10 inch diameter (12-C capacity) Bundt pan. Peel persimmons. Press pulp through coarse sieve into medium bowl. Measure 1 1/3 C persimmon puree into small bowl. Mix baking soda into puree in small bowl; set bowl aside. Using electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in large bowl until blended (mixture will be grainy). Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in vanilla. Sift flour, cinnamon, salt, allspice and cloves onto butter mixture; blend well using rubber spatula. Mix in persimmon mixture, walnuts and currants. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake cake until tester inserted near center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Cool cake in pan on rack 5 minutes. Turn out cake onto rack; cool completely. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Wrap and let stand at room temperature.) Sift powdered sugar over cake, if desired. Serve with hard sauce. Bon Appetit/October/94 Scanned & edited by Di Pahl & Submitted By LAWRENCE KELLIE On 01-08-95