Home baked Vietnamese cracker

I just found that Farmer Direct - a supermarket near UCI sells a  lot of Vietnamese crackers and rice papers. I got one today for myself: sesame cracker with baby shrimp (Banh trang me tom). Though the instruction is using microwave, but as I know, people in Vietname use charcoal to bake, so I decided to use my beloved Breville oven. Just set toast function for 4 slices, level 4, then here is the result:

Meet Fresh - Taiwanese-based dessert chain

Last week, we came to Diamond plaza to try Meet Fresh - a Taiwanese-based dessert chain - the first store in the US.

TIP: don't come here in weekends or dinner time/ evening, you have to wait about 30 minutes on line to order, and about 15 minutes to get your food.

I think the quality of the desert is better then it was in Taiwan (as I know, they are closing a lot of stores in Taiwan), especially the taro ball.

Here is their signature dish

UCI Palo Verde garden

Jaipur vegetables from trader joe's

We didn't have time to go out for Indian food ( the closest Indian restaurant that we love is 30 mins driving), so here was our solution: a pack of instant curry from trader joe's.

Actually, the total cooking time was 15 mins, because I cooked some grounded chicken before add the curry. To make it have more flavor, I also added: 1 spoon of coconut powder, 1 tea spoon of cumin powder, 1 tea spoon of curry powder, 1 tea spoon of paprika powder when I stirred the meat at medium heat (of of these I bought from Trader Joe's). After five minutes, I added 1/2 cup of water and mushroom, closed lid for another 5 minutes. Finally, I added the curry, stir well and cook for another 5 minutes or until the mixture got boiled again. 

If you have fresh cilantro, add some is great!

Happy Pho - shiitake mushroom

I love Pho, a traditional breakfast in Vietnam, but I don't like to eat pho outside (it doesn't not taste good, usually). I also don't want to buy instant pho from asian market, because they use so much MSG and other chemical for soup base. So, It's really happy that we found this product at Wholefood market (around $3 for w servings per box). Unlike other instant noodle, this soup base powder does not include much salt, so I add a tea spoon of fish sauce. The most important thing: no MSG.

To make a bowl of pho has more flavor, some slices of onion and chopped green onion (it will be better if you add cilantro) are added.

As it advertised, the noodle is made from brown rice, so even I use a mixture of water and chicken broth to cook, the final product's color looks so so brown !!!!

In amazon website, they sell 6 box/pack, but it's still very expensive. I will buy more once I see it in wholefood market, much much cheaper.

A very good Vietnamese Restaurant in Campbell

We went to Lequy restaurant because we search Vietnamese food in Yelp, and this one has the highest  stars. This is the first time we see a Vietnamese restaurant declares that they don't use MSG and use  free range chicken. So, let's try!

We arrived when there is only several customers in the restaurant because it was quite early for dinner time. It was so clean and beautiful. Here are some dishes we ordered:

Fried spring rolls with crab meat and shrimp: This one was expensive, around $8 for 3 big pieces. But when we ate, omg, this is the best spring roll we can find in California.

I ordered pho (beef) with the choice of well-done meat. The pho's soup is almost the same to what you can have in Vietnam. The owner told me that he cooked beef stock for 3 days. That sound amazing!

BBQ pork with shrimp: this dish was about $13 and it came with a bowl of soup: a must-try. 

Fresh spring rolls with avocado. We ordered this dish because we observed all the herb and vegetable in other dishes were so clean, that's why we dare to try vege rolls like this. Though it's expensive ($6) compare with other store, but I think it's worth the price.

J. zhou oriental cuisine - Dim sum

They just opened this restaurant at The District In Tustin, and it should be a must-try Chinese restaurant in Orange county. I'd rather come here instead of driving half hour to Roland Height for dim sum. The restaurant is clean, staffs are super friendly and helpful, and the food: FRESH (especially seafood) and TASTY!

Though the price is quite high (almost the most expensive dim sum in the area) but the quantity and quality of the materials they use is worth for that. I highly recommend you this restaurant, in case you want to invite someones for Chinese food. They have private room for group. 

They open from 9.30 am, a good time for Hongkong style breakfast!!!

Steamed rice paper with pork

 egg custard bun (you should try this one )

milk pudding and ginger sauce

Deep fried pork dumpling

lobster congee

Fried radish cake

And when you are waiting for the check, they give you newspaper 

This coupon can be used multiple times