.the gpb kids. » Food

What Does Your Name Mean?

Jules — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 07:04:33 +0000

I’ve been slacking on improving my chinese, but I’m determined to get back to that. Today, mike showed me that my macbook had a built in ability to type chinese. Woot. I’ll have to show it to my parents. In the mean time, I used my trusty resources to piece together what Mike’s name means. I used it to figure out the cantonese pronunciation as well, since he always pronounces it in mandarin. Cuz I’m biased like that. I’m pretty happy that I finally got around to figuring out how to pronounce his name though… hehe.. now I can use his chinese name when I’m mad. Right? Right?

The characters in parantheses signify verb, adjective and noun forms, respectively. Cantonese pronunciation is bracketed; mandarin pronunciation is not. So Mike is a vibrating honor filled person? Or maybe he restores honor and glory? Hmmm.. what a bright and shiny name.

Mortars and Pestles

Jules — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 22:15:22 +0000

I’ve had mortars and pestles (m&p) on the brain lately. Probably because I’ve been using them in lab lately. So Coors (yes, the beer company) also makes great ceramic products for laboratory use. The only types of m&p that I’ve used in both academic and industrial laboratory settings have been Coors ceramic mortars. I settled on a marble one for my kitchen years ago because it’s not readily available at your local kitchen store. At least not the one that I wanted. While m&p come in wood, stone, marble, and steel flavors as well, I feel that the ceramic non porous finish is best. It’s durable, non reactive, nonporous (aka stain resistant), and easily sterilizible. I’ve been making do with a marble one these past few years, but soon! I found the 275 ml size that I want being offered on Amazon. Sometimes I feel like they sell everything. Yay Amazon.

Oh, and what do I use it for? Mainly to crush pistachios to mix in with my vanilla ice cream. I guess I crush spices occasionally too. But mainly pistachios. It’s the best way to eat vanilla ice cream. Heavy on the pistachios please. Pre-m&p days, I would smash my pistachios on a cutting board with a hammer. Not so good for the neighbors, and with occasionally explosive results.

courtesy of Sigma Aldrich

Meatless Cooking

Mike — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 18:12:56 +0000

Well, at least it’s easier cooking without any meat. Mmmm pancakes.

On being ovo-lacto-pescatarian just because he’s bored

Jules — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 06:18:35 +0000

So mike has too much time on his hands, and wants to see if he can be a “vegetarian”. Who eats eggs. And dairy. And all seafood (do duck legs count as seafood? They do spend some time in the water, after all… just kidding. Really). Behehhe… And recently, he said that this challenge was just too easy. I mean, it’s soooo easy being a vegetarian. Who also eats eggs. And dairy. And seafood. So I think maybe he should try being an actual vegetarian, and see how hard that is ~_^ Yeah? Yeah?

Being a Pescetarian: Day 4

Mike — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 06:11:36 +0000

Okay, so Lindsay pointed out that I’m really a pescetarian because I eat seafood. I wonder if there are any pescetarians out there who believe killing land animals is worse than killing water animals. Hmmm… Okay, on to today’s meals.

Breakfast
“Everything” bagel with cream cheese. Toasted, of course.

Lunch
A “veggie deluxe” Mediterranean wrap of some kind. Had eggplant and spinach in it and it was spicy. My brother ordered the lamb and beef one but ended up with some kind of mysterious spongy meat that could not be identified.

Dinner
When Jules is away, Mike is lazy. So I had another bagel with cream cheese while I watched Kingdom of Heaven. I also ate ~5 more raisin oatmeal cookies with milk. So good.

Being a Vegetarian: Day 3

Mike — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:11:05 +0000

Posting a little late this time. Yesterday was the first time I had to pick meat out of my meal. We went to Westfield for lunch and I went straight to Coriandor, a Thai food place. I was looking for red pumpkin curry but was only greeted with red, yellow and green chicken curry. Big disappointment. Also, what is with food joints not stringing snap peas??

Had sushi for dinner with Jules, Zach and pops. Not much to say there. Fishes are yummy.

Being a Vegetarian: Day 2

Mike — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 05:24:48 +0000

Breakfast
Plain, toasted bagel with cream cheese.

Lunch
Cheap Chinese food. Veggie fried rice, veggie chow mein, veggie chow fun, mushroom tofu, battered/fried shrimp, and two pieces of shrimp dim sum. Sounds like a lot doesn’t it? It was really just a bit of each. The place was a buffet, by-the-pound.

Dinner
Some noodles and pesto with one mushroom, one green onion and one clove of garlic thrown in for good measure. Also ate some cantaloupe and oatmeal raisin cookies/milk.

I’m pretty sure my poor vegetarian diet negates any health benefits I would normally get from being a vegetarian. Also, I still eat seafood. Yeah… that’s right.

And Jules has already failed. Today she ate a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. I win!

Being a Vegetarian: Day 1

Mike — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 03:35:58 +0000

For no particular reason I decided to be a vegetarian for a couple weeks. I’m not doing it for any ethical or moral reasons. I’m not trying to save the world. I’m not trying to save money. I’m not trying to be healthier. I just wanted to try it out and see if it’s difficult, or if I’ll have cravings or anything. So here goes nothing.

Lunch
Had a vegetarian kebab from the Mediterranean place in the Galleria. It consisted of rice, green and red peppers, and a wedge of onion. It also had a small sauce-sized container of veggies in some kind of vinegar dressing stuff. That wasn’t bad, but the peppers were. And you can’t really eat onions by themselves. So essentially I just ate rice for lunch.

Dinner
Boiled some instant noodles with msg-laced flavoring. Added some Chinese greens, green onions, mushrooms and eggs. (Are eggs vegetarian friendly?) Jules sliced some pears and cheese, threw in a couple of skinny, seed covered crackers and finished with some delicious leftover salad from movie night.

Snacks
Had a hot chocolate and a egg, sausage, and cheese muffin thing from Starbucks in the morning. Okay yes I realize it has sausage in it. It wasn’t until right before lunch that I decided to go meatless. In the afternoon I had some ice cream which I’m sure negated all of the benefits of being vegetarian for most of the day.

On a side note, Jules likes her pears crispy, and I like them riper, softer. I must hide them before she eats them all at a pre-mike stage.

The Great Outdoors

Mike — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 05:11:21 +0000

Cho siblings at the entrance

Went with the Cho siblings today to Muir Woods and Stinson Beach. The redwoods were as grand as ever, except one which fell recently. It was a big one too. It fell over one of the trails near the entrance so I wonder what they’re going to do with it.

Jules in a redwood

We were pretty touristy and took lots of pictures of the hollowed out redwoods that you can stand in. After the redwoods we traveled north to the Hog Island Oyster Farm where we picked up 50 fresh oysters of various sizes. With seafood in tow we traveled back down to Stinson Beach and spent the rest of the afternoon scarfing down grilled oysters, corn, veggies, potatoes and cheesecake.

We made a mess

After the eats we bore witness to the most people I’ve ever seen on Stinson Beach. But… lame-o me didn’t take a picture of the masses. So this crazy Cho picture will have to suffice.

Crazy Chos

After all of that we drove back to Oakland, freshened up, and then went out to Mangia Bene out in Martinez for some delicious eats. Now I think it’s time for a nap.

Chez Panisse, Part II

Jules — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 22:38:03 +0000

As mike is a man of few words when it comes to posts, it’s up to me to fill in the gaps. I was lucky enough to score a reservation for Chez Panisse downstairs on the day of Mike’s bday. It was interesting to note that there were subtle differences in cooking techniques and listed ingredients in the online menu (posted days in advance) and the printed menu at the table when we arrived. These differences appeared to depend on how the chef wanted to showcase the local vegetables and fish that actually arrived that day. For example, a substitution of sockeye salmon in place of king salmon occurred because that was what their fisherperson happened to catch. Same with the vegetables. I like this fluid kind of dinner planning. It ensures that the ensuing meal will always be created from the freshest and tastiest items on hand, even if it isn’t what you were expecting. I guess that might be hard if you are a picky eater. But I am a lover of all vegetables~ even the bitter ones. As long as they are prepared properly. Ehehehe…

The courses that were served (my additions are in [brackets]):

Tuesday, July 1
Raw Sockeye salmon salad with spicy cucumbers, green beans [haricots verts] and [cherry] tomatoes
Steamed pork dumplings with scallions and new garlic broth
Grilled Sonoma Liberty duck breast with cherries, mustard greens, [yellow carrots], turnips and fried ginger +[delicious breaded? potatoes! WHAT did they do to those potatoes?! So good d(^_^)b]
Frog Hollow Farm apricot tart with cardamom ice cream

Mike and I really enjoyed the meal. Each course was executed beautifully. We both agreed that the highlight of the meal was the raw sockeye salad. The thinly sliced sheets of salmon were deliciously buttery and flavorful, and the crisp salad and sprigs of anise like coriander provided interesting texture and flavor contrasts. In addition, the dressing was amazing. Some combination of shallots, finely minced ginger, olive oil, and mysterious spices lent additional depth. The dressing actually reminds me of the ginger/green onion/oil dice that you dip chicken into in chinese cuisine, but taken up a few notches and polished to a sophisticated sheen.

We also had a glass of whatever the sommelier decided to make the glass of the day. It was some type of red wine that I can’t remember the name of, but even mike declared it “tasty”. And he doesn’t even like wine And the apricots on that tart were the most intensely apricot-ty apricots I have ever eaten. They were what all apricots should strive to be. And I don’t usually like to eat apricots. Ahem.

The service was excellent and attentive, without being obtrusive. And our glasses were refilled constantly. And they timed our courses properly. And they let us sit there for 3 hours. A short meal it was not, but I thought it was well worth it. Now time to save up my pocket change so I can go again.