Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, but please HOLD the raisins!

I love oatmeal cookies.
I love chocolate.
I can't STAND raisins.

Therefore, I must make my own oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips.  What's more to be said about these delicious morsels that also happen to be packed with good fibers?  You will not only be able to enjoy these amazing, soft, chocolatey, raisin-free cookies, but you will also find yourself to be much more "regular," if you know what I mean. Please share if you love Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies! =)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of butter (1 standard stick)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 pinch salt (optional; I accidentally used salted butter instead of unsalted butter so I left this out)
1.5 cup quick oats
1+ cup chocolate chips (semi-sweet preferred)

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 375F

1) Cream your butter with your brown and white sugar until you get a nice crumbly mixture.
2) Stir in your egg to get a creamier product, then add in your vanilla extract.
3) Sift together your flour, baking soda, and salt.  Then add your dry ingredients to the wet mixture.
4) Stir in your oats and mix well (but don't overmix! Make sure you just get the ingredients evenly distributed but avoid over-mixing as this could flatten your cookies)
5) Stir in your chocolate chips (I use closer to 1.5 cups of chips because I love chocolate!)
6) Make one tablespoon ball of dough and keep them an inch apart on the cooking sheet

Bake for 12-13 minutes or until golden brown.
Allow to cool before serving.

Delicious BBQ Pork and Beef Chow Fun!

I take a ton of photos and usually they remind me of great places I have had food so I dug up some old photos and thought I'd share this place for my curious readers. Here's a place that is known for their tender and flavorful BBQ pork and their Beef Chow Fun among many things. Nothing beats a simple BBQ pork with rice and a side of Beef Chow Fun. Pleasures in life....

Name: Fuk Kee Congee (富記粥品)
OpenRice: Click Here!
Google Maps: Click Here!

Front Entrance

Sign

Fatty BBQ Pork

Congee

Delicious Beef Chow Fun

Making Sushi and Rolls at Home!

Making sushi and rolls at home is an excellent group activity and makes consuming this usual expensive cuisine a little more affordable. The key things you need are fresh sashimi grade fish, Imitation Crab meat, Seaweed sheets, Avocado, Sesame seeds, Cucumber, Japanese rice, Carrots, Japanese mayo, Siracha, Rice Vinegar, Wasabi, Sushi roll mat, and plastic wrap.

How do your sushi and rolls look like? Give it a try!

Fresh New Zealand Salmon

Hamachi (Yellowtail) from Japan

Fatty Toro portion of Hamachi

Marinating the Hamachi removes the fishy smell and enhances the taste

Big Eye Tuna from Hawaii

Rainbow Roll

Sashimi Platter

Sushi

Asian-style Steamed Mexican Rock Fish

Eating fish is one of the healthier ways of getting your proteins for the day and simply steaming it is usually of the best ways to eat it especially when they are fresh. I got a fresh local Mexican Rock fish from my nearby grocery store and steamed it for about 9 minutes. The best indicators of when the fish is cooked is by looking at its eyes; once you see a white ball and it is kind of popped out then it's ready! Also you can also tell by looking closely at the fish skin and seeing it rip a little.

Ingredients:

Mexican Rock fish (~ 1lb)
Cooking Oil
Soy Sauce
Ginger
Green Onions

Instructions:

1) Assumption is your fish monger already cleaned and gutted the fish for you; throw your slices of ginger and green on the inside and outside of the fish

2) Steam for about 9 minutes (or until eye ball goes clear and fish skin is starting to rip)

 

3) Heat in a small pan some oil to splash over the steamed fish once it's done. This gives the fish a smoother texture

4) Splash soy sauce over it and serve!

Beef Lengua from Scratch!

This is the first time making beef lengua from scratch and boy was it rewarding. I took out my awesome pressure cooker again to cut the time. The ingredients are relatively straight forward and you can either make tacos with it or just eat it with rice! Here's what I did!

Share if you like this post! =) Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Ingredients:

2.5 lb of Beef Lengua (Tongue)
Cooking Oil (used Avocado oil)
Seasoning
Salt
Pepper
Cilantro
Lemon
3-4 Garlic Cloves
Worcestershire sauce
Water

Instructions:

1) Wash and rinse beef tongue with cold running water and pat it really dry
2) Generously salt, pepper, splash Worcestershire sauce on the beef tongue all around

3) Dice loosely some cilantro to insert in the pressure cooker
4) Cut half a lemon to insert in the pressure cooker
5) Splash some cooking oil and mince the garlic cloves to flavor the beef tongue before searing
5) Heat your pressure cooker to medium-high and sear the beef tongue on all sides

6) Pour enough water such that it fills up to half of the beef tongue vertically

7) Pressurize and set timer to 60 minutes

8) Once time has elapsed, depressurize and remove the thick outer skin and discard

 

9) Now dice them into cubes and the smaller the better as it may get too chewy if not diced small enough.
10) Serve!

Crispy Roast Pork Belly (Hong Kong Style)

Where I live, it's pretty difficult to get good Chinese food.  So imagine how awful it feels when I have a sudden craving for HK style BBQ and am unable to satisfy my desires without having to drive >100 miles!!!  The only solution was obvious: make it myself.

Now I used to be very daunted by the very prospect of having to make BBQ items, especially things that classically require a rotisserie oven or high heat commercial grade broiler.  After doing some research on the web, I found that people all around have figured out ways to make crispy pork belly at home in a conventional oven.  The recipe I am about to share is an amalgam of various techniques I read from fellow home cooks.

Ingredients:
- a slab of pork belly (~2 lbs); WITH skin on, of course
- 2 tsp five spice
- 2 Tbs Shiao Xing rice wine
- 1 tsp fine salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 2 tsp powdered white pepper
- 1 Tbs white vinegar
- 1 cup coarse salt
- a sharp, thick needle

Instructions:

1) Thoroughly clean and dry your slab of pork belly
2) Rub five spice, fine salt, sugar, and white pepper on the meat side of the pork belly.
3) Then rub in the rice wine.
4) Allow the pork belly to marinate in these spices overnight, skin side up
5) The following day, pat dry the skin side again.  Start poking holes ALL OVER the skin (only to the thickness of the skin, without going into the flesh)
6) Brush the white vinegar over the top of the perforated skin.  This helps to dry out the pork skin as you cook it, allowing it to become crispy.
7) Using foil, create a foil tray for the pork belly, making sure that the side "walls" of this foil tray are flushed up against the sides of the pork belly.
8) Apply coarse salt over the top of the pork belly. This salt is not intended for seasoning your food, but rather to create a salt crust over the skin.  The purpose of the salt is to soak up moisture from the pork skin as you cook it.
9) Bake in the oven at 395F for 50 minutes.
10) Remove from the oven, and remove the salt crust.

11) Place the pork back in the oven, skin side up, and BROIL on high for 10-15 minutes, or until the skin is golden brown and CRISPY.

12) Serve with Hoisin (Seafood) Sauce!!

Shilin Food Night Market in Taipei!

Taiwan is known for their night markets and Shilin is considered the largest and most popular one in the city. They usually open from 4pm and open very late sometimes as late as 2am. What makes this special is that you get the opportunity to sample a bunch of various tasty morsels for a snack or even for your dinner at pretty cheap prices. They'll also have desserts and fruits covered for you as well! There were some peculiar items that they offered as well but I'll just let the picture show you what they are. ;)

Have you been to a night market? Which one is your favorite? Please share if you like this post! =)

Name: Shilin Market (士林夜市)
Google Maps: Click Here!

Fresh Fruits!

Live Shrimp

Assortment of Snacks

Nice "rocket" ships

Oyster Omelet with Tomato sauce  "Oh Ah Tsien"

Snails

Soft Shell Crabs

Goose

Fresh n Hot Malasadas

On the drive from Kona to Hilo at the Big Island lies a hidden pit stop to those craving Malasadas! For those who don't know what it is, it's a Portuguese pastry made of yeast dough that are deep-fried in oil and sprinkled with sugar. Basically a donut! If you love donuts, you'll love Malasadas! They are traditionally not served with fillings but they offer lots of fillings here that work quite well.

For only $1.06 a Malasada, it's not bad in pricing. It'll be 50 cents extra if you want a filling.

Store Front

Here were the available fillings when I was there:

Bavarian, Chocolate, Pineapple, Apricot, Raspberry, Cherry, Lemon, Strawberry, Guava, Mango and Apple.

Have you drove past this without making a stop? Shame on you! Totally missing out! Please share if you like this post! =)

Name: Tex Drive in
Yelp: Click Here!
Google Maps: Click Here!
Address: 45-690 Pakalana St, Honokaa, HI 96727

Malasada with Bavarian filling

So light and fluffy!

MMmmmm fresh!