Theo Chocolate

 

Seattle's specialty chocolate. If there is such a thing as Heaven, then it is definitely in this bar. Scarfing it down at work right now and it is really making my day extra amazing!

Making California Rolls

California rolls are surprisingly easy (and cheap!) to make. My friend Judy introduced me to homemade California rolls back in college, when she delighted a group of us with a crash course dinner in sushi-making. From then on, I was hooked. I've never been a big fan of California rolls, the bland Americanized child of real Japanese sushi, BUT I'm a huge fan of homemade rolls. It's easy, fresh, and most of all, super fun to make with a group of friends. On those rare nights when all my roommates were free from schoolwork, we'd celebrate by getting together for a California roll dinner. It was always fun and definitely among my favorite memories of college life.

Because I'm all about knowledge sharing, here's a step-by-step tutorial to making California rolls so you too can host a fun, sushi-making get together:

Ingredients: Seaweed wrap, imitation crab meat, rice, mayonnaise, rice vinegar, avocado, carrots, cucumber
Preparation:
1) Cook rice and when it's done, pour a few spoonfuls of rice vinegar in to flavor. This is essential.
2) Dice the crab meat into little bits. Then, add just enough mayonnaise to give the bowlful of crab bits a creamy (but not too creamy!) texture.

3) Mash an avocado into a spread.
4) Thinly cut carrots and cucumbers.

Step One: Spread about half a spoonful of rice onto the seaweed wrap. Mash the rice down as needed.

Step Two: Spread avocado over the rice.

Step Three: Spread the crab meat.

If you want to be fancy, you can add spam instead.

Step Four: Place cucumber and carrots to your liking.

Step Five: Roll! If you're greedy like me, it won't close all the way when you roll it.

And there you go! Homemade California Rolls. They'll be a lot bigger than what you would find at restaurants and you can customize it to your liking. Now take what you learned and host a get together of your own!

Falafel Drive-In

The first time I went to the Falafel Drive-In, I was starving and tired after a trip from the mall. I just wanted food in my stomach, anything--it didn't matter what it was. I was also accompanied by my little sister who (at the time) was a strict vegan, so a quick dash to McDonalds was not okay. Starving and cranky, I saw the neon Falafel sign and just turned in. Without much background knowledge on the place, my little sister and I ordered our meal--she, the falafel pita and I, the chicken gyro. We ate in the car and while I was unimpressed with my chicken gyro (flavorless, too soggy), my little sister was raving about the falafel pita. Whatever, I thought. Mine sucked, so this place sucked.

That was about three years ago--before the popularity of Yelp, before my unemployed days spent watching hours on end of Anthony Bourdain. Of course there is a tie-in with Anthony Bourdain, my favorite travel guide. Much of my wanderlust is evoked while watching his show. It was his Vietnam episode, "There's No Place Like Home," that prompted me to spend three months in Vietnam last summer. These days, I turn to Anthony Bourdain out of an internal necessity to satiate my wanderlust while broke with no big plans to travel abroad anytime soon. Watching his show, I am able to mentally travel to Korea and work alongside old Korean women making kimchi, walk through the confusing labyrinth of Venice streets, and a few weeks ago, eat at one of the best falafel shops in Beirut. It was this specific episode in Beirut that triggered my cravings for falafel, a food that I've never eaten before. Right when the episode ended, I went onto Yelp--the reliable go-to for foodies nowadays--and looked up falafel/Middle Eastern restaurants in the South Bay.

Lo and behold, the Falafel Drive-In was one of the top-rated hits, garnering thousands of positive Yelp reviews. That is serious right there. I scanned through some of the posts and realized the critical error I made during my first visit. I ordered something other than the falafel because apparently, the falafel pita is the only food worth going for. Second critical mistake, I didn't order the banana milkshake. A banana milkshake?? Really? I understand a strawberry-banana milkshake, but banana milkshake? It's not something you usually hear people going crazy about, but according to Yelpers, ordering a combo of a banana milkshake with your falafel pita was absolutely the way to go.

So on a beautiful weekend, emboldened by my trust in Yelp to give it a second try, I drove out to the Falafel Drive-In. When I arrived (around 1ish), there was already a line wrapping the entry of the outside eating/ordering area. Good sign. When ordering, I saw that there was a combo--large falafel with banana smoothie for $7.50, but I instead opted for the small falafel with the smoothie for $7.00. "I don't have the stomach to eat a large falafel," I thought. Uhh...wrong. When my order was ready (which was quick), I was taken aback by how small the small falafel really was. Though packed pretty well, the thing was still the size of a small sandwich.

My surprise by the small size quickly disappeared when I started eating it. Because really, I stopped thinking about anything else other than how freaking amazing this tasted. It was delicious. Worthy-of awards-and-a-visit-by-the-Food-Network kind of delicious. Oh wait, they already won lots of awards and was featured on the Food Network. They're just that amazing.

A few local awards

The star, of course, was the falafel itself. Fried to delicious crispiness on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Words cannot capture how delicious this was. I experienced one of those obnoxious food moments when you moan and nod your head in satisfaction after every bite because it was just so good. Simply put, there's good food and then there's this.

Served along with the falafel are two sauces: tahini (white) and a spicy sauce, which tasted like mix of ketchup and chili. Both perfectly complemented the falafel.

And the banana smoothie? I imagined the milkshake to be chunky and dense, but the lightness in consistency and subtle banana taste really surprised me. I would never have thought to pair a light banana milkshake with a densely packed, spicy falafel. But like many wonderful surprises in life, they work despite their differences.

Made with fresh bananas

After finishing the falafel, I really just had to sit there to absorb the amazingness of what I had just eaten. I love it when I eat something new and my expectations are surpassed. It's like a whole new food world has been opened for me. Yelpers, I am forever in your debt for turning me back on to the Falafel Drive-In. I will be returning for sure, and next time, I'll be ordering a large.

Falafel Drive-In
2301 Stevens Creek Boulevard
San Jose, CA 95128-1651

Banana Leaf, Round One

I had the fortunate opportunity to visit both Malaysia and Singapore this summer. I, however, had the unfortunate opportunity of going to these countries with a Vietnamese tour (mom's idea). It was awful in nearly every way possible. I hated my fellow tourists. I wanted to choke them, I hated them so much. SIGH...just thinking about them gets my blood boiling. How some people can be so incredibly ignorant and disrespectful to different cultures...it amazes me. It really does. They didn't want to learn anything about Singapore and Malaysia. Our Vietnamese tour guide made sweeping generalizations about the countries, added their offensive remarks about the natives, and just didn't contribute anything interesting that I couldn't have learned myself through a basic read-through of Wikipedia.

The greatest offense, though, was that all the food booked through the tour was crappy Chinese-Vietnamese food. We literally ate the same dishes, three times a day for our whole seven-day tour. Boiled chicken with salt (like, literally a small bowl of salt on the side), tofu with tomatoes, bland fish, vegetable broth, and white rice. We ate that every single day. Not once did they offer any local cuisine to us. I wanted to go out on my own to get food, but it wasn't even as if the tour allowed free time for us to go out on our own to eat. The only free time we had was late night and by that time, I was so tired from being around idiotic people all day that I just wanted to go to bed. SO, in conclusion, aside from eating a copious amount of delicious Malaysian durian at a roadside stand, my food experiences in these countries sucked.

I had heard about Banana Leaf in Milpitas for some years now, and they were always good reviews. I didn't feel a great urge to try it out myself until I came back from my trip, when I vowed I would finally enjoy the Singaporean/Malaysian meal I was so sadly denied during my times there. A few weekends ago, I finally had my chance when I went with my family as sort of a pre-Lunar New Years celebration. My overall experience? Pretty great, I must say. A few stand-out dishes below.

Their Thai tea was the best Thai tea I've ever had. It was the perfect combination of bitter tea and sweet milk.

I've never had Roti Prata before. I thought it was going to be like Indian naan bread, but this bread was flaky and light. It was accompanied by a curry dip, which was just so good with the roti. This was my favorite of the night.  You can also see the cooks hand-flipping the bread when you first come inside the restaurant. That topped the eating experience for me, to see how much skill it takes to make this seemingly simple bread. I would go to Banana Leaf just for this bread. I don't even need the other dishes. Just this and the curry dip. (Really triggering my cravings right now!)

Chicken/Beef Satay--the meat was sweet and juicy. Again, it was perfectly completed with a curryish sauce.

Tom Yaml Soup- hot and sour soup with hearty vegetables and shrimp. It was really cold that evening and after a long wait near the freezing breeze from the door to be seated, this was what I really needed to warm up and ready my palette for the dishes ahead.

One dish I really hated was the mango salad. It had a sweet and sour sauce on it that was just...blegh. I hate sweet and sour sauce and eating a whole salad drenched in it? Uhh...no.

 

I also found the wait staff at Banana Leaf to be very nice! They brought over crayons for my little cousin, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

One of the staff also took a liking to the little guy, and lifted him up with his high chair to play with him. It was very sweet, considering that they gave individualized attention to us even though it was a packed house that night.

I'm so glad I finally found a great place for Malaysian/Singaporean food. Sucks that I had to go back to the US to finally get that meal, but I'll take what I can get. I can't wait for Round 2, when I finally go with my travel partner, Tran. We'll stuff our faces with Roti Prata to erase our bad memories. It'll take a few trips to actually quash our memories, I'm sure, but that's fine by me!

Pattaya Thai Cuisine

I am always on the lookout for good Thai restaurants. They are hard to come by in San Jose, which is more of a chain restaurant type of city. Luckily, I work around the Mountain View/Sunnyvale/Palo Alto area, where there is a wide variety of ethnic restaurants. Not the typical Vietnamese/Mexican places you would find in San Jose, but there are actually quite a lot of Indian, Korean, and some Middle Eastern places to eat--all of which I plan to sample in the coming year I am there.

Today, I had the fortunate opportunity of eating at Pattaya Thai Cuisine with my coworker. At first glance, it's not quite the place that would attract you inside. It is located (attached?) to a bowling alley and when we arrived around lunch time, the parking lot was empty. This was not a good sign, considering all the office buildings in the surrounding area. When we stepped inside, the first thing you notice isn't the bright red/gold decor but rather, the musky stench old sneakers. My coworker commented, "Well, it smells like a bowling alley." Aside from us, there was only one other table seated with customers. Normally, these first impression assessments correlate with food quality, but I was really surprised by the delicious food they served.

Before our food came out, we were served a small bowl of soup. I don't know exactly what type of Thai soup this was, but it was SO INCREDIBLY GOOD. It had a bit of a curry taste to it, but also gave the mild impression of a sweet/sour soup. I can't define what it was because it was such an unusual combination of flavors, but my gosh. It was one of the best new foods I've eaten in a long time.

My main dish was pineapple fried rice. The serving size was huge, definitely a family size dish. I've only had good pineapple fried rice at Thai House in Berkeley and this rivals it. This version was a bit different. It was sweeter and I would have preferred if it was a bit spicy, but that's just me. I eat Sriracha sauce with just about anything, so my tastebuds are somewhat flawed in that respect. I finished eating the leftovers just right now, scarfing the whole thing down. Still good.

The best part? Pattaya is only a two minute drive from my office. Though a bit pricier than I'm used to paying for Thai food, this place will definitely become a go-to spot whenever those Thai food cravings come about.

Pattaya Thai Cuisine
4329 El Camino Real 
Palo Alto, CA 94306

In search for kimchi

There was a time when I ate kimchi at nearly every single meal. Simply eaten with just rice or wrapped in seaweed, kimchi was my sustenance when time was too valuable to waste on preparing an actual meal. Well, that time (aka college), is over but my love for kimchi is not. Even with fully prepared food available to me at every meal time (thanks Mom!), I still get cravings for that spicy, pickled goodness. 

Problem is, good kimchi is hard to come by in the Southbay. There isn't as large a Korean population in San Jose, so (good) Korean markets and restaurants are lacking. Back in the Eastbay, I used to take the bus to Oakland--a 20+ min ride on the rapid, 40 min on the regular line--to Koreana Plaza on Telegraph, where I would stock up on all sorts of Korean side dishes and of course, kimchi. I was spoiled then.

My quest to find good kimchi took me to Seoul Market, the only Korean market in San Jose (there are others in nearby Sunnyvale/Cupertino, but I didn't want to make the drive out there). I read the reviews on Yelp and they weren't so bad and I thought, "I've never had bad kimchi before, so what's the risk?" Well, how wrong I was.

Seoul Market is located on West San Carlos, in the part of San Jose I call 'old San Jose' because of all the old neon signs in that area that suggested it was once a bustling business area 30 years ago. Bustling wouldn't be the word I would use to describe it today. There's a lot of strip malls, vintage shops, used car dealerships that are usually empty when I pass by.

Finding the small market along all these strip malls was easy enough, what with the large sign jutting out. It's also located right next to an animal hospital. Funny, because in Vietnam a lot of meat shops were also located right next to veterinary services.

 

From the outside window lined with videos, the market looks more video store than grocery market. This is because the market doubly functions as a video shop in front and grocery store in back. Upon entering, you are greeted with posters advertising the latest Korean dramas.

 

The grocery store itself is nothing notable. It's like any other Asian market, a little grimier than I expected though. Not as grimy as a Vietnamese market, but much more than Koreana Plaza, which was always tip-top clean. The selection of side dishes was small, but they did look delicious. They didn't have the squid salad I was looking for, but I did pick up a box of seaweed salad in sesame oil.

The kimchi selection was also limited. I noticed right away that there weren't labels on the jars, suggesting that the kimchi was made fresh, on location. I was excited. I purchased a small jar for 8.99 (which was a bit expensive for its size).

 

When I got home, I immediately went about prepping my meal to taste my purchases. Like a sacred ritual, I laid everything out--the rice, shredded meat pieces, seaweed wrap, and my appetizers in front of me and went about the eating ritual (which my roommates and I affectionately termed 'poor college food').

 

Step 1: take a seaweed wrap and place rice on top. Step 2: Load up on as much appetizers to your liking. 

Step 3: Fold/wrap. And, voila! Easy peasy...

Okay, so the verdict on the kimchi. How can I put this...It was the WORST KIMCHI EVER. EVER. And this judgment is coming from a nonexpert who really could eat about any kind of kimchi, even the Safeway kind that is made to trick non-Koreans that they are eating something 'exotic.' This was hands-down the worst kimchi I've had the unfortunate opportunity of putting into my mouth. I can't say that it lacked flavor, because mind you, there was some undefinable flavor going on there. It really tasted like whoever made it cut the cabbage just that day and placed it into a wierd concoction of pickled juice, skipping the entire fermentation process that is crucial to the flavoring of kimchi.

It was so bad that when my dad tasted it, he asked for my permission to add some salt. I said yes because whatever he was planning to do to it couldn't have made it taste worse than it already did. My dad added I don't know how many tablespoonfuls of salt. It made me feel sick just watching him add so much salt. And, it helped! It tasted a LOT better. Passably edible. Now instead of retching from the nastiness of it, I will just eat it with the fear of hypertension in the back of my mind. Great.

The seaweed appetizer was the only saving grace.Very tasty. The only complaint I have is that there was a bit too much sesame oil, which left an oily filminess in my mouth. However, delicious seaweed appetizer is not enough to erase my food memory of the awful kimchi nor persuade me to make another trip out to Seoul Market. As I mentioned above, I was spoiled then. Sigh.

Oh! And here is a picture of me and Judy, way back when we went to Paris four years ago, enjoying what I believe is my first meal with kimchi. (Eating kimchi in Paris, the gastronomical capital of the world??! I know right? Again, emphasis on poor college food.) I have her to thank for introducing me to kimchi and all other types of Korean food. Thanks Judy! You made me a lifelong fan of Korean food!

Last meal

It's my last day in Vietnam and my family made sure I ate...A LOT. This whole day has revolved around eating, and gossiping, family drama, the requisite picture taking...and eating, eating, eating....

So, my last meal in Vietnam:

Breakfast
My morning began early around 4am to the sounds of my aunt and mom gossiping about yesterday's hottest family drama. This is usually how my mornings begin here--annoyingly having to wake up because my mom's side love to hear themselves talking. But, I love them (most of them) and my Uncle Tai took me out to eat breakfast on my last day.

Hu Tieu. I don't know if it is the nostalgia that I'm already feeling for eating in the streets, for going out with my Uncle Tai, for the cacophony of noise that accompanies a warm bowl of noodles, but this is the best bowl of hu tieu I've ever had.
Of course, downed with a cup of Vietnamese milk coffee.
Lunch
For lunch, my cousin Tri treated me out to...burgers! I've been having a serious craving for In and Out and after hearing me talk about my cravings, he suggested to take me to Lotteria, a popular burger joint in Saigon.

It looks like a regular burger...
...but it's a kimchee burger (Lotteria is like the Korean McDonalds. Doesn't this mess look delicious?
Dinner
A family style meal of Vietnamese crepes.
The crepes weren't good. Actually, they were pretty bad, but it is my last night with my family so it didn't matter. I was also suffering from some sort of stomach bug (that I think I caught from the burgers) so my "last meals" were spent running to the bathroom. And so it ends...Goodbye, Vietnamese food, goodbye tapeworm (hopefully!), goodbye huge family style meals prodding each other about the latest hot gossip.

Vietnamese coffee

Hi, my name is Vina and I'm a coffee addict. Specifically, I'm addicted to Vietnamese coffee--the rich, deep taste mixed with sugary, condensed milk over ice. Cafe sua da, as we call it here, is a must have every morning. Without a cup of this caffeinated goodness, I can't even pull myself out of my wooden table of a bed and have any strength to navigate the streets of Vietnam in search for an adventure. When I'm patient, I am willing to wait for the drip-drip of coffee out of the metal drip filter that is iconic to Vietnam's coffee culture.
When I'm not patient (which is most of the time) I either remind my uncle to grab me a cup of coffee after his daily morning trips to the coffee shop or even better, have him call the nearby coffee shop by cell phone and have them deliver it directly to our house. Without having to do anything myself other than wait about few minutes, I have a delicious cup of cafe sua da brought to the door of my uncle's house.
The accessibility to Vietnamese coffee everywhere I go has made me an addict. Vietnam's coffee culture is a residue of French rule, but it is distinctly Vietnamese. In Saigon, people like to drink their coffee with lots of ice. Poured only halfway in the cup, people just let time pass by, chit-chat with friends, catch up on yesterday's gossip and let the ice melt to dilute the strong coffee.

Coffee shops are everywhere and they don't carry the same negative connotations as they do back home. Most coffee shops here are family friendly, not the same blacked-out windows and scantily dressed servers we are hesitant (at least I am) to enter into back home.

Drinking cafe sua da is one of the things I'll miss most when I leave here. The coffee beans back home don't compare to the ones over here. Here, coffee is a lot darker and bitter. The condensed milk balances this bitterness, creating the perfect mix. And now I'm off, to have my afternoon cup of coffee.

The making of banh cuon

I went to eat banh cuon (rolled rice cake) with my cousin Vy in Saigon. These rolled rice cakes are filled with shrimp, beef, and dipped in fish sauce. So good! Even better is that I got to see the making of these rice cakes. Making these goodies takes a lot of skill. The rice flour has to be poured out and spread evenly. When it is finished, it has to be picked up in such a way as to not rip these very thin rice papers. This person does it so well, she could multitask.

I'll be making my last trip around Vietnam (to Dalat) for the next few days so I won't be updating. After that, I'll be home soon!

On my love for durian

Southeast Asia has been heaven for indulging my love of durian. This smelly 'king of all fruits' are plentiful in this part of the world. Back home, only on rare occasions do I get to eat durian because it is so expensive--nearly 20 bucks for a frostbitten, not-so-delicious durian. But here, there are durian stands everywhere. You don't even have to really go far to find one. Just follow that distinct stench. Sometimes, when I'm on the motorbike, a waft of the durian scent rushes toward my face and my mouth immediately starts watering. And then lo and behold, we pass by a durian stand a few meters ahead.

I don't understand people who don't like to eat durian. How can they not love the creamy, custardy taste of this distinct fruit? And the aroma? Divine! The more it smells, the better. I've heard people describe the smell as comparable to rotten eggs or vomit, but I have never smelled any of these scents from a durian fruit. Quite the opposite. The aroma is indescribable, yes, but that is why I love it so much.

The outer, spiky shell only adds to the exotic nature of this fruit. A drop of this fruit on a person's head can kill them. Delicious and dangerous--an awesome mix!
Durians here are expensive for locals standards, but cheap in our stands. A good durian can run about 100,000 Vietnamese dong--$5. And good is an understatement. Unlike the durians back home, it isn't watery due to being kept in a freezer for several months. Each fruit holds up firmly on their own, while remaining creamy on the inside.

When I went to Malaysia (a country famous for its durians), we stopped by a durian stand and gosh did I overindulge. I ate half a durian all to myself--8 ginormous pieces. It was sooooooo good, but I did feel a bit ill by the end.
Unfortunately, my love for durian is not shared by most people. The Vietnamese term for durian also reflects this sad truth. "Sau rieng," the Vietnamese word for durian translates as lonely sorrow. It is banned in all public places. This sign was posted in a subway station in Singapore.
Tran, a fellow durian lover is confused and saddened.

Well, what I say is the less the haters eat, the more durian there are for me. So, it's only your loss durian haters.

Here is video of my uncle cracking open a durian fruit. I love the sounds of excited wonder from all of us watching.

Pho 91

This post is a shout out to my aunt, Ut Hang, who told me to eat at Pho 91 when I'm in My Tho. And of course me, being one to always listen to my elders, I did. From her food memories (of which she has many!), Pho 91 was the spot in My Tho to slurp down a good bowl of pho.
Were her food memories correct or only exaggerated to match her intense nostalgia for the motherland?
Ever since I ate at Pho Le (of which I wrote a rave review for in a previous post), no other bowl of pho compares. But, it was still good. The broth was sweet. The only setback was the meat, which was a bit too tough for my taste. Overall, a pretty delicious bowl of pho. Back in the States, this place would be ranked a 9 out of 10. But here, with so many options and a good pho joint a stone's throw away, it is considered average. But, I am not really from here and come with an American longing for delicious pho restaurants, so I will give it an 8.

You were right then Ut! Thank you for the recommendation!

Previous Post: The Holy Grail of Pho

(I haven't been updating these past few days because I've been feeling under the weather. But I'm better and will try and update regularly from now on.)

The Holy Grail of pho

I found it...a bowl of pho that not only rivals my mom's, but tops any other bowl of pho I have ever had. This is the Holy Grail of pho-a bowl so good that despite sitting in a packed restaurant, I didn't hear anything else other than the furious slurping and clattering of utensils against bowls.

Pho Le, located in Saigon's Chinatown, is famous among locals. It is considered one of the best pho restaurants in all of Saigon (which to me, makes it one of the best pho joints around). The pho here is so good it is attracting the attention of foreigners--I spotted a few Westerners eating here, which is sort of surprising considering that it is nowhere near any tourist site but in the middle of a bustling business district.

True southern Vietnamese pho is eaten with a lot of vegetables. Most restaurants in the States are very cheap with their veggie servings, but not here. You are greeted with a huge bucket of bean sprouts and ngo gai (don't know the English word for it).

...and a plateful of lemons and chopped chili peppers

How to describe this bowl of goodness? Let's start with the broth...
I don't know about other people, but what makes pho pho is the broth. True pho is a rigorous undertaking. Beef is cooked overnight until the meat falls off the bones and becomes tender. The broth, sweetened from the beef bones and meat, is saved to make pho. Most pho broth at other places are flavored by prepackaged pho flavorings. You taste that artificial flavoring immediately because it lacks a certain depth to the flavor. Not at Pho Le.

The broth here was sweet and I could taste that bit of fattiness from the meat. I also squeezed in lime to add a bit of sourness and chili peppers for spiciness. This combo of sweet, sour, and spicy was perfect, and attacked my taste buds with every slurp.
The meat was really, really tender not like that tough meat I've been eating at most other places here. It had a bit of fat and muscle still on it. I knew eating all that fatty tissue wasn't good for me, but dang, it was so good.

Look at that...so beautiful.
The bowls here are HUGE, but I finished the whole thing because it was just that good. I really can't describe how good it is, but it's the type of good that you just want to keep returning back to eat. I've never, ever had pho this good, which is saying a lot because before eating here, I swore that no one could ever make pho as good as my mom. But this place...it's just that good. Everyone in my family that has been here all agrees that it is the best place.
The final stamp of approval that seals it all...my mom's. My mom criticizes every bowl of pho she doesn't make herself, often with good reason. But even she agrees that the pho is good here. Also, my aunt, (pictured on the right) agreed and her tastebuds are shot due to sickness.

I didn't think I would find a bowl to rival my mom's, but I did. And I am oh, so much happier for it.

Pho Le
413-415 Nguyen Trai
Phuong 7, Quan 5, Saigon