Gastron Om Nom: Mi Quang

I have not cooked anything new and interesting in a very long while. So luckily, our good neighbors are wonderful cooks and often invite us over and we always say yes. And when i say neighbor, it's still an approx five minute drive. And i really only mean that endo is a good cook and not her bf la lengua. The first time big poppa and i went over to eat, she made mi quang. So good! I normally don't drink all the broth in soups but I drained this bowl dry. She also had some papaya salad and la lengua picked up a grocery store tirimisu. I think that was my least favorite. Haha. And there was some che too. It was great. It almost felt we were celebrating something but we weren't. Maybe our friendship? Haha.

Gastron Om Nom: Owl Cake Pops

For x-mas, I received a cake pops book and I finally made some. A co-worker was having a baby shower and I decided I wanted to make some owl cake pops for the event. My issue with making these cute cake pops is all the little odds and ends you have to buy in order to create the eyes, nose, arms and feet. It just all starts adding up. I started around ten at night and didn't finish til about four in the morning. OMG I was freaking exhausted. But you know. I started it, so I had to finish. Plus, they ended up looking so darn cute! Very imperfect but cute. No two owls looked even remotely the same. Haha. I used boxed red velvet cake mix and semi-sweet chocolate coating. Everyone seemed to enjoy them and said they were good even though I thot they were maybe too sweet? After reading the cake pops book a little more thoroughly, I realized that all this time, I was supposed to thin out the chocolate coating so that it would be easier to coat the cake balls. Well, now I know!

Some of the supplies used for the owl cake pops.

The cake has to be formed into these trianglarish shapes and then chocolate chips are applied with melted chocolate to act as the 'ears'.

The cake is coated with melted semi-sweet chocolate.

Evolution of the owl cake pop.

Gastron Om Nom: Chicken Marsala

Big poppa tends to judge how good Italian restaurants are by their chicken marsala. It's one of those dishes that he'll usually order if he sees it on the menu. Knowing how much he likes it I decided to attempt to make it. Actually, I attempted it once about a year ago. It didn't taste anything like chicken marsala. It wasn't bad but it also wasn't all that great. I recently tried it again and I think I made all the same mistakes I made the first time around. Plus, I used dry marsala wine that was a year old. Does that stuff expire?

Gastron Om Nom: Cakepops

I'm a wee bit late on the whole cakepops train but I finally had an opportunity to attempt to make them. Jacques and Gilles were having part two of their babyshower and I thot it would be a great idea to bring some for everyone to enjoy. Well, at least they would look nice even if people didn't eat them. When I get an idea flowing in my head, I'll walk over hot coals to make sure it happens. I can honestly say that at times, I really make things hard on myself. Instead of making a few cakepops, I went over the top and made almost a hundred of them. I wanted 25 red velvet covered with chocolate, 25 red velvet covered in white chocolate, 25 yellow cake covered in pink candy melt and 25 yellow cake covered in yellow candy melt. Oy! What was I THINKING! Poor mochi came over to help and she ended up staying til really late at night. We were so exhausted. I made so many mistakes. I added too much frosting to the cake so it was a mushy mess. And next time, I think I'll just stick to sprinkles instead of trying to decorate the balls with ink gel or fondant writers. So messy! They wouldn't dry and harden so it got everywhere. I over-heated the white chocolate and it became super thick that it made it hard to coat the balls of cake. I underestimated the amount of styrofoam holders I would need and big poppa being the best bf evar ran out to wally-mart to get some more. I think he wanted to do something nice for me so he could bail and go watch some fight. It's okay. Most guys wouldn't even have helped at all but big poppa helped a LOT with making balls and coating and decorating. I think a lot of them turned out really cute. They weren't as professional looking at some of the ones I've seen online but I think we did good being that it was our first time. I swear, I'm gonna be a forever hopeless baker. I just don't quite have the finesse. Thanks to mochi, monkhi girl and big poppa for helping me out. Y'all are the best! One more thing to keep in mind, don't transport these things during the sweltering summer heat cos we had a lot that didn't survive the car ride.

Gastron Om Nom: Bun Thit Nuong

I love to eat anything that requires the addition of nuoc mam. Or in big poppa's dialect, luoc lam. So bun thit nuong is something I like to make. It's relatively easy since the only thing I'm actually cooking up is the thit nuong. As with most of my meats, each time I make thit nuong, it's almost always very different from the last time I made it. I think my nuoc mam always tastes different too. But man, you should see the obscene amount of garlic that I put in there. I love nuoc mam so much that I usually will have a huge jar of it in my fridge cos I always add it to my rice. The fotos of the thit nuong looks a bit charred, or burnt I guess if you want to get technical. What can I say. I mos def have a culinary magic touch. Haha. Viva la nuoc mam!

Gastron Om Nom: Chicken Wings

Whenever the subject of NYC comes us, either big poppa or I will almost always bring up those fracking' good arse and addicting chicken wings from Mad For Chicken. OMG. SO GOOOOODDDDD! SO LIIIIIGGHHHT! SO CRRIIIISSSPPPY! Since that trip, I kept telling myself to try to re-create those wings. I tried, and I failed. I am the WORST at frying things. I must be the only person on earth who can deep fry something in oil and have it come out soft and uncrunchy. So my wings were nothing close to being light and crispy. And then my sauce came out too sweet and a lot more viscous. It's supposed to have this nice soy garlic glaze. Nothing went right. Argh. This might be the last time I ever fry anything. So much work and it's so messy!

Gastron Om Nom: Fried Rice

My fried rice is ... super unhealthy. When you bring Chinese sausage into the mix, it's all downhill from there. Fried rice is one of those dishes you're almost forced to make when you've got a lot of rice leftover. Just start throwing whatever you want into it and voila!

Gastron Om Nom: Thit Kho

I've attempted thit kho on many occassions but something was always wrong. Usually it was cos I didn't want to use pork. I would try to make it with chicken breast instead. Bad idea. Super dry every time. That's what I get for trying to watch the telly and cook at the same time. But I finally did it with pork. Didn't use the belly. I think I used either pork shoulder or butt. I bought extra meat and used the rest to make thit nuong later on in the week. The thit kho turned out okay. It wasn't as caramelizy as I wanted it to be.

Gastron Om Nom: Mango Pork Chops

I make all kinda pork chops at home. There's one where I brine it and then sear it and then finish it off in the oven. Then there's like a couple others where I marinate it and then sear it and finish it off in the oven. Sometimes I'll just keep in the frying pan and finish cooking it that way. It really depends on how thick the pork chop is. But man, it's a lot of work searing it and then popping it into the oven. When I say it's a lot of work, I really mean it's a lot more dishes that I end up having to do cos I don't have an oven safe pan and also my dishwasher does not work and even if it did, I prefer to hand wash cos I like to waste water and I don't trust that a dishwasher can get my dishes super clean. I love pork chops. These are called mango pork chops cos it's slightly sweet and tangy in flavor. And cos I diced up some mangos and put them on top. I love mangos.

Gastron Om Nom

I have sorta perfected my very own version of both the rau muong xao toi (Vietnamese hollow stem spinach with minced garlic) and the dot dau hoa lan xoi toi (snow pea leaves with minced garlic). I also add some diced onions along with it cos big poppa and I worship garlic and onion as a power duo. It's a lot of work for such a simple looking dish with the blanching and then stir frying. Anyways, if big poppa go grocery shopping at the asian stores on the weekends, it's a sure bet that I'll be making either one of these for dinner during the week. The one in the foto is the rau muong. Disregard the meat next to it. It was just some ground pork with Chinese sausage. It's my Sandra Lee semi-homemade style of cooking. Haha. I come home so tired that I just want to really concentrate on making one time consuming item and the rest needs to be snap snap snap. Anyways. I'm the most airhead klutz in the kitchen. I just really don't belong in there but I like trying to think that I'm on Top Chef. I ended up using the rest of the meat to make fried rice two days later.

Gastron Om Nom: Greekish Chicken

I cubed some chicken and marinated it in some basic Mediterraneany stuff like salt, pepper, lemon juice, olive oil and thyme. It was my first time using thyme! Thanks LP for lending me some. I actually had no idea that thyme was as strong or potent as it is. I had initially planned on eating it with some pita bread and garlic sauce but opted to make pasta to eat with it instead. Big poppa loves pasta.

Gastron Om Nom: Seared Scallops

To feed big poppa's seared scallops craving, I decided to pick up some jumbo sea scallops to cook at home for big poppa. I bought five. They were two dollars a piece. Yikes! I think I did an okay job on the searing. I managed to get that nice brown color on them without over cooking them. For myself, I seasoned and grilled me some chicken breasts. I also bought some green beans and mushrooms and sauteed them in lots of onions and lots of garlic. We are an onion and garlic obsessed couple.

Gastron Om Nom: Pho Ga

A couple of weeks ago, I made pho ga! It wasn't great but good enough for my first try. Big poppa liked it but that's not really saying much about my cooking. He really likes soup and so I slaved away in the kitchen cos it is my duty to do as he wishes once every couple of months. Hah! It took me about two, maybe three hours to completion. I did the whole parboiling with the bones and even used star anise. That was a first time ingredient for me. I however did not buy a whole chicken cos there's no way I want to de-bone a whole chicken. There were a lot of things that I could improve on for next time. Soak or quick boil the red onions. Skim frequently. Remove as much fat from chicken as possible. Either use less chicken or buy a bigger pot. Contain all the spices in a cheesecloth. Ugh. Man. So much work.