An Asian Family Cook Out

A couple of weekends ago, I was visiting my family in Sacramento and my sisters and cousin decided to do a big cook out. Well, they decided, I just happened to be there also so I decided to take photos. Yes, I did help too. Jenny made egg rolls, Nancy made spring rolls, and Molly made hot dog fried rice. Yes, I know, strange, but it's actually not bad, it's super good. Just to make sure there was enough food for all of us, we decided to throw some drumsticks onto the grill. Take a look!

First, Egg Rolls:
I wasn't able to get all shots of the ingredients in because my sissies kept insisting that I put down the camera and help. So here is most of it:

Green Onions

Carrots

Mushroom Fungi (Don't worry, it's safe! And Delicious!)

Ground Pork

Brown it, then drain

Next, throw all your ingredients into a bowl and mix! It's easiest and best to use your hands, CLEAN HANDS. Other ingredients I didn't have time to take pictures are include: shredded cabbage, glass or vermicelli noodles, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, and oyster sauce. Last ingredient to toss in before mixing are the eggs. Its hard to say exactly how many, I stay start with one or two and add in as necessary. It should be wet enough so that all the ingredients combine but not so wet that it's watery. In our case, since we were making a bunch, we started with three at first and then worked our way up to eight, I think.

Mix, Mix, Mix!

Next, grab the wrappers and start peeling them. We find it easier to peel them first, setting them on a plate and then start rolling. Usually, I am the peeler. I am excellent at it too! The reason why I'm the best peeler? Because mine will always come out with no holes. Sounds easier than it is, but keep in mind that these wrappers are super thin and there is not any flour separating them. You have to peel them back very carefully to avoid any rips or holes in it. It's harder to roll if there's a large hole in your wrapper. ;)

Every family has their own way of rolling their egg rolls. Our mom has always taught us to do it diagonally. Either way, they still come out very delicious. We just use a regular plate, spoon some onto the sheet a little halfway down, fold the bottom corner up, pull it in tight to form the "roll", bring in the side corners, and roll up while pushing the ingredients in sushi-style to make it tight.

Should look like this:

After you get it to look like the above picture, use an egg wash to lightly brush that last corner/triangle area and seal it in. To make sure it really sticks, I like to lay it with the seam side down to make sure the "glue" sticks.After you roll all yours, heat up some vegetable oil and fry it until it is golden brown. The meat is already cooked, so while the outside is turning brown, the other ingredients inside are slowly cooking so to become nice and soft and yummilicious!

Next, Spring Rolls a la Nancy:

Do the "Tuh-nin" Hahaha

The Pork "Meatloaf"/Ham, etc Don't know the actual name

Rice Noodles

Thai Basil

Lettuce Cups

Slice It Up

Cilantro

Bean Sprouts

Next, you'll need to take the rice paper, which will be hard and brittle, and dip it in warm water to soften it up. Be very careful and make sure that when you pull it out, you make sure it is smooth and there are no folds because it will be stuck like that. Use a flat surface (we used the lid of one of the big tuppewares) so there aren't any folds, rips, or tears, and then lay your ingredients in horizontally. The folding method is the same as the egg roll method.

For spring rolls, you don't need to use an egg wash. The rice paper will still be a little moist and sticky, so as the skin touches each other, it will stick.

Next, I didn't get any shots of the preparation for the other dishes, mainly because I was making the fried rice also, but here is the finished Hot Dog Fried Rice:

And finally, my sister's Corona (yes, the alcohol beverage) marinated drumsticks:

It was such a yummy lunch, we didn't have any leftovers. :( But it's all good. We do these quite often despite the fact that we all live a couple hours away from each other. Was a fun day!

THE BEST CHINESE FOOD EVER!!!

I used to live in a very small, teeny town called Visalia in the great state of California. I took advantage of Visalia as a kid and always couldn't wait to move out and make something of myself. Funny enough, now that I am out of Visalia, all I want to do is go back. My family still lives there and when I go back and visit, I am just in love with the whole city. It really is a great place to raise a family and build a life there. Not only that, it is the only place that has the BEST CHINESE FOOD. Now, I've never been to China or Taiwan or Asia (other than when I was born in Thailand but I don't remember that time) but I have been to both China Towns in Los Angeles and San Francisco and none of those dishes compare to the dishes in Visalia. Any Visalian knows which place I'm talking about...oh yeah...RN Super Market...

Here are my favorites:

Beef and Broccoli

Chicken Chow Mein

Orange Chicken

Sweet n' Sour Pork

And for my most favorit-est all. Even if nothing else, I ALWAYS HAVE TO ORDER THESE. The best pot stickers ever!

Best Pot Stickers!

Twi-Hards....

One of my to-do while in Washington was to go to Forks. In the Twilight series, both books and movies, they make it seem like Forks is so close to Seattle and Port Angeles, however, it's perty far! Seattle is about 3 hours away from Forks and Port Angeles is about another hour as well. Anyway, Kim and her sister Kathy were nice enough to drive while I dozed off in the back. With my motion sickness, its probably best that I fall asleep right away. Anyway, after three hours, we finally reached our destination: Forks, WA. Before you look at the pictures and think that I just made random stops, know first that these are INSPIRED places from the BOOKS, not the movies. The movies were filmed in Vancouver and hardly in Forks. The guide map that is given out at the visitor's center has stops that Stephenie Meyer was inspired by and included in her books. First stop: the sign and trucks and the Visitor's Center/City Hall.

Welcome Sign

The "inspired" truck from the books

This is the actual truck from the movies

Next, we followed the guide map around Forks and the first stop was the home of the Swans. It was actually very awkward because when we pulled up, we actually were expecting the one from the movies. Also, the owner or resident of the home was working in his garage. I tried to take a picture that did not show him. I'm sure he's used to people driving by his home, but still...kinda weird.

Home of the Swans

We almost missed this one because it's so random and in the middle of well...nothing.  But thought we'd at least park in his spot and take the picture. LOL

Dr. Cullen's Parking Spot

Once again, not the actual location where the movies were filmed, but this was the inspiration. The school is actually quite small, well, I guess no need for a big school for a small town. But anyway, it was only a couple of buildings and they were all single level like this one.

Forks High School

Next, we decided to head downtown and take a look to see what Forks had to offer. Saw this in one of the gift shops. I dont' know if it's just a replica or if it's the bike from the movie, but thought this was pretty cool.

Bella and Jacob's Bike

The street(s?) of Forks had some of these plant bin thingys. I loved these. Notice how Bella and Edward's names are carved in? I thought it was cool at least. :D

Just along the sidewalk in Forks

 This is actually the sign for the store we went into. The name of it is actually this, which I thought was cute.

Biggest Twilight Store in Forks

After walking around and getting a couple of gifts for friends, we decided to head to La Push. La Push baby, La Push...this was the inspiration for Jacob's house. Looks pretty similar right? It's just on the side of the road and we actually passed it on the way to La Push. This picture was taken on our way to Port Angeles actually. Kathy had to pull over so I could get out of the car and snap a picture quick enough without capturing a car speeding on by. I swear, I was expecting to see Jacob in werewolf form peek out from those trees at any moment.

Billy and Jacob's House

Actually, there is a sign that says "Treaty Line" and signs for no vampires beyond it which was cute, but I didn't get my camera out in time :( Anyhoo, we finally made it to La Push. Not the beach because it was actually quite packed, but this was sooo gorgeous! The weather was UH-MAZE-ZING!!!!

La Push

So we didn't get to stay very long in La Push, we had reservations to go eat at the restaurant in Port Angeles. You know, the one where Edward tells Bella he's a vampire? (In the book, not the movie, READ THE BOOKS! We had to rush because if we didn't make our reservations, we would have to find another place and we all really wanted to go there. :D Anyway, it was quite a drive and according to Kim and Kathy, there were cars that were really slow, I mean, going 35 MPH on a back country road, which in California, the speed limit is 55 MPH, but Washington may have different laws. Anyway, the road was super curvy, which if you remember, I'm not that great at, so I fell asleep. However, I kept waking up, you know when you're sleeping and your eyes keep opening for just a millisecond? Well, I kept doing that and I kept seeing this view, however, I kept thinking, by the time, I grab my camera, the view will be gone. Well, I was wrong because after the umpteenth time I slightly opened my eyes, I decided, I'm just going to take the picture. GORGEOUS!!!! I really wanted to get a picture of the road driving to Port Angeles from Forks, but there were lots of cars in front of us so it wasn't really going to be a pretty one. :( But this was gorgeous.

En Route to Port Angeles from Forks

Finally, we reach the restaurant, Bella Italia. Yes, looks nothing like the movies, but it's okay. It was very, very delicious.

Yummm....food!!!

Mine: Chicken Scallopini with Linguini

Kim's: Chicken Parmesan with Fettucini

Kathy got the chicken carbonara, and I did take a picture, but it was blurry so I didn't add it on here, but it looked super duper good!!! Now...check out the desserts that we all shared:

Nectarine Cheesecake - My Favorite

Lemon Cake Pudding - Kathy's Favorite

Blackberry Cobbler with Vanilla Ice Cream - Kim's Favorite

After dessert, we took off back to Kathy's place. We were all so tired from the trip. Overall, it was a great experience. Not what I expected but I definitely don't regret it. It was so fun to just hang out with the girls and we had an excellent talk on the way back. No, I didn't fall asleep, but I think its because I slept throughout the day already and surprisingly, the roads weren't too curvy so my motion sickness didn't do anything. It might've also helped that I took a dramamine ;) My trip was super fun, but cut short :( Next time, definitely going to see more of Seattle other than the Space Needle and our next trip to see Twilight will be to Vancouver. I'm ready!!! :)

Washington Trip

I'm going to try to update this as much as possible. At the beginning of September, I got to go to Washington and visit one of my bestest friends, Kim aka Kimmers aka Kimmy. First off, she's so great and FABULOUS and I miss her so much everyday. :D Anyway, here's a little glimpse of my trip:

I got in super duper late into Seattle. I was STARVING because I left straight from work to the San Francisco airport and then into Seattle. So Kim took me to a place that California does not have: Shari's. OMG! So yummy! Started off with potstickers, Imma sucka for potstickas...LOL

Then my entree:

Chicken and Dumplings. Yes, this was a very hearty meal to digest at 1AM but who cares? I was HUNGRY! It was very yummy, I'm surprised I actually was able to take a picture before I dove in. Mmmm...I want some more..

The next day, we hung out at her sister's place and did a couple of errands and watched Twilight in preparation for our trip to Forks (will post soon). In case you did not know, I am a TWI-HARD and I am PROUD to admit. I couldn't go to Washington without taking a trip to Forks!

The day before I left, we set out to explore Seattle. Our first stop was the Space Needle...I was soo excited! Here's our food (yes I know this is mostly food...can't help it):

Bread basket before the courses

Fruit and Granola Yogurt

Belgian Waffle with Chicken Sausage Skewers

And finally, the meal that was sooo good but completely ruined the rest of my trip:

Prime Rib with Herbed Potatoes and Green Beans

This is pretty much where my trip ends....the prime rib was so delicious but unfortunately, it made me sick. Did you all know that when you dine at the restaurant which is up at the very top of the Space Needle, not only are you up super high in the sky but that one of its' feature (as part of your dining experience) is that the floor is rotating? You're literally moving, albeit, not super fast, I think it does a full 360 turn in 45 minutes. Well, if you ever meet my hubby, his first story of me is about how sensitive my motion sickness is that I got sick while boogie boarding, yes I know, it's just a boogie board, BUT SOME PEOPLE ARE JUST SENSITVE! LOL. Anyway, add together a spinning restaurant, sensitive to motion sickness, and an almost rare steak. I felt so bad because we were supposed to go to Pike Place and so many other places but because I could barely lift my head high enough to puke into Kim's friends toilet, we had to cancel. So embarrassing, I just met this guy and I'm already puking into his toilet and lying down on his bathroom floor. Thank goodness he's super nice. Anyway, that was the end of my time in Washington. I will be back in Seattle and next time, no more rare steak and since I've been to the Space Needle already, I'm skipping that place. :) Until next time, enjoy the pictures!

View from Kim's Friend's Apartment. So gorgeous!