Cabbage salad for super hot day

It's super hot Monday, let's make a simple Japanese style salad dish. A man also can make it.

This is my new slicer: Kyocera with adjustable ceramic blade. You can find it at any Japanese supermarket or order online Here

 - A clean cabbage, I use organic one (safer when you eat it raw)
- Use 1.3 adjustment to slice until you think it's enough cabbage for your dish.
- Rinse under cold water (or tape water if you don't have ice water) may be 2 to 3 times
- Drain it with a salad spinners
- Add salad dressing: I use Japanese sesame dressing

Romantic dating at the little next door LA

This is an adorable place! Everything is so perfect for a date or just simply romantic lunch/dinner with your family. the atmosphere is so good, no loud music, so you can talk and enjoin your meal happily~~~~ and the waiters are very friendly and cute~~~

 The foods is delicious, you should try the bread with the sauce (mixed olive oil, herbs and balsamic ) before your entree.

The escargot

Shrimp Fettuccine: awesome fresh jumbo shrimp

Omelet with potato, mushroom and cheese

The best creme brulee

Coconut cheese cake, very sweet, you should order a cup of coffee if you choose this one

Super sweet pistachio macaroon

  Macchiato

How to cook fish with dill and tomato, Vietnamese style

Using dill to cook with fish is very popular cooking style in Vietnam. This is very simple dish, everyone can make it. All ingredients you can buy from any supermarket here, or a better choice: farmer market next to UCI every Saturday morning.

1. All you need
- A whole or fillet or steak of fish, almost all kind of fish is suitable for this dish. Today I have a fillet of mackerel imported from Norway.
- 2 green onion
- Some dill
- 2 tomatoes
- Seasoning: black pepper, 2 tea spoon of fish sauce (if you don't have, try sea salt, it will not tasty but still can be acceptable)

2. Cooking
- Heat 1 spoon of oil and cook the fish until its two sides brown (small piece of fish like mine take 5 mins per side) at medium heat

- While waiting for the fish, prepare the vege: chop the tomato, cut the onion and dill (may be 1/3 inch long)

- After 10 mins, add the white part of green onion and chopped tomato in to the pan, add black pepper, fish sauce, close lid for 5 mins,

- Add 1/2 cup of water, cook for another 5-10 minutes, then add dill and green onion, stir with the sauce inside the pan. Then DONE!

How to clean fresh clam

Clams from farmer market is the better than any clams from other market, it's fresh and also cheap, around $8 /pound.

Cleaning time is around 2 to 4 hours, so just prepare right after you arrive home from farmer market (if you want to cook them for lunch). Pour them gently into a small pot/bowl, add water and 1/3 tea spoon salt. Leave them there for hour.

Here you can see how dirty the water is after 2 hours:

Before cooking, use a clean brush to clean the outside of clam.

The easiest way to cook: clam soup with ginger:

- Broil 4 cups of water, add sliced ginger, black pepper and salt.

- When the water broiled, add 1/4 cups of rice wine (if you dont have rice wine, use white wine, if you don't have both, it's just OK).
- Add clams, wait until all clams open, then wait another 1 mins. DONE!

New Taiwanese bakery in Irvine

I prefer go to Kiki bakery at 14250 Culver,  Irvine, next to Mitsuwa to buy breads, instead of 85 degree. Breads here are so fresh, tasty, and not so sweet. The price is quite similar to the price in Taiwan. I think they type of bread everyday, because everytime I go there, they always have something I didn't see from the previous visit.

This is their cheese cake, light flavor of cheese, not like the traditional cheese cake in America.

Taiwanese style cheese cake

Red bean and green tea cake

With a cup of Japanese green tea is the best!

Urth Caffe at Santa Monica

Santa Monica is a very peaceful city, if you go there, you should try a cup of coffee at this restaurant. Parking is the big problem because you have to pay to park on street (sometime no available space), or use valet parking service from the restaurant.

Everything there is so cheap compared to other caffe shop. They also have sandwich, soup, or panini if you are too hungry. Otherwise, a cake with coffee still be the best!

This big cheese cake is $6.95

Italian style capuchino

Spanish style capuchino

Nice view from window

How to store fresh herbs from farmer market

It's summer time, and you can easily buy any kind of herbs from near by farmer market. The problem is if you have only 2 people at home, it's hard to consume a big bunch of herbs, like mint, cilantro, green onion... If you store it in a nylon bag directly after you buy it, it might not last freshly after 4 or 5 days, but you can't buy a smaller bunch every time. Here is the solution to let you store and use it for at least a week:

- Clean all herbs after you buy
- Use a salad spinners: I bought a very good Le creuset one at an outlet for just $10.

- When all the leaves dry, store it in clean bag or box, you can use for more than a week.