Grand Central Market Excursion

I was called to downtown LA today to serve my jury duty. I was hoping they wouldn't even call me in this week but they did, though I didn't end up actually serving on any jury. That's a relief.

Well we had one and a half hour lunch break. I wasn't sure where I was going to eat until a friend of mine who I was chatting on AIM via my iPhone suggested that I go to the Grand Central Market for lunch. It sounded very intriguing as I really have a thing for these kinds of places where you can buy produce and eat a bunch of different foods from various mom and pop food stands.

(Grand Central Market)

Being in downtown LA, the place was dominated by Mexican food stands. Unlike your normal food courts at your suburban malls, Grand Central Market is closer to the markets you would find in Latin America and Asia. There were fresh produce, raw meat and seafood stands and a good choice of Mexican and Asian foods. I really like this atmosphere, so real; so unabashed.

I didn't have enough cash on me so I was looking for stands that would take my credit card. I just don't carry a whole lot of cash on me. It's a force of habit. At first I was a bit scared that none of the places inside would take credit cards being that they are mostly small private operations. But fortunately there were enough choice inside who did. I wasn't going to starve.

I surveyed the market to see what were being served and which are the most popular places. I wasn't surprised to discover that the Mexican stands were the most popular. There were a few Chinese, Japanese and a Middle Eastern stands inside. The Asian eateries looked like the same things that I could get at the food courts at a mall and the Middle Eastern Kabobs just didn't look appetizing. So I opted to try the Mexican stands.

(Roast To Go)

Having been sitting inside a courthouse since 730am, I really wasn't all that hungry. I had a bunch of snacks that kept me going all morning so I really didn't want too much to eat. As I stood in front of a rather busy Mexican stand Roast To Go, I noticed the size of the $2.50 tacos from the women who were standing next to me. There was a very generous portion of meat, so I ordered only one thinking it should fill me up.

(Carne Asada Taco)

I had everything put on my carne asada taco: the chive, parsley, onions, lettuce, lemon and a milder hot sause. The beef was very well done. It was cooked to a nice medium well and semi-juicy. The milder hot sause was still rather spicy for my taste since I have a rather low tolerance of spice. That was the least spicy sause they had, but I realized that it was very important the sause was to the taco. Because on my next taco which I opted out of the sause at a different stand, it was a bit more dry.

(Ana Maria)

I was pretty full after the first taco and really could have just walked away. But I thought to myself that I probably won't be coming back here anytime soon. I like the place but how often am I really going to stop by here. I was contemplating to just buy a fresh apple and eat that, but then the tacos were just too tempting to pass up. So I decided to try a taco from another stand: Ana Maria. It was so cheap that there was no real reason why I shouldn't give it a shot.

(Chicken Taco)

This time I ordered a Chicken taco. They ended up giving me two sets of tortilla and a huge portion of meat. They were even more generous than the first one with the meat, but I felt I didn't get quite enough parsley and onion to balance the meat properly. I also opted out of the sause cause I really didn't want any more hot sause. That was not a smart idea. These tacos really need the sauce to give it a little wetness it desperately needed. The meat by themselves being such a big portion is a bit dry on the mouth, and chicken is generally more dry than the beef. But it was still a good taco in the end and I still enjoyed this little treat in the middle of a very boring and wet day.

If I had an office job, this is the kind of lunch I would want to give my day as a little change of pace. It's just a refreshing way to enjoy a little food that's not served inside some fancy expensive restaurant. Sometimes the greatest pleasures in life is just to get a nice bit of food off the side of the street and enjoy it in an atmosphere that's uninhibited, natural and genuine. Feel free to stop by Grand Central Market the next time you happen to be in downtown LA and craving a little bit of food. It may not really be all that grand, and probably not all too centrally located, but the market sure serves up a nice little slice of a different cultural life that you probably won't find all too common around Los Angeles.

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Holiday Colored Dessert

It's the holiday season and there are certainly no lack of holiday parties and events to go to. With so many meals to pay for and all those presents to buy, it can get pricey. At last weekend's holiday party at a friend's house, I decided to make an easy-to-make, low budget but still very tasty dessert treat. Best of all, it's red; perfect to get into the holiday spirit with.

(Red Beans)

(Red Beans in Boiling Water)

It's a pretty cheap dessert that can feed a lot of people. A bag of red beans cost $1.69 a the local supermarket, and I only used half the bag. A bag of green beans cost also $1.69, and I also only used half a bag. A can of coconut milk cost $0.59. A bag of small tapioca pearls cost $0.69 and I only used less then 1/5 of the bag. The rest was used to make a tapioca dessert soup for another party. I already had cane sugar and water at my home so the total cost was around $5.00 while the actual cost of making this dessert was approximately $3.00. For $5.00 I have enough to make almost two pots of this red and green bean dessert soup and one pot of tapioca dessert soup.

There are a lot of variations in making the red and green bean soup. In place of the coconut milk, you can use dried tangerine or orange skin. There are also all sorts of other little items that could be added to the soup, half of which I have no clue what the English names are. I have to go back to the supermarket and look them up. You could also make a pure red bean or a pure green bean version. The thickness of the soup could also be altered based on your own preference. Some people like it more watery while others like it thicker. Some prefer the beans to be boiled to a paste while others like the beans to be more intact. The red beans takes longer to turn completely into a paste while the green bean is much easier to do so. I mix the two together so that I would get a graininess to the soup while still be able to eat some of the beans sort of intact. The tapioca is optional and adds a little starch to the soup and thickens it that way. In the end, experiment with it until you get the consistency that you prefer.

(Green Beans)

Ingredients:

Red beans - half a bag

Green beans - half a bag

Cane Sugar - between half a cup to a cup depending on how sweet you prefer

Small Tapioca pearls - a couple table spoons

3/4 can of Coconut milk

Water - depends on how thick you like it. 1/5 of my pot were the beans. 2/3 of the pot was the water.

Instructions:

1. Boil the water.

2. Add the red beans and tapioca pearls to the boiling water.

3. 20 minutes later, add the green beans.

4. Cook for an hour or so on medium till the beans are all soft.

5. Let it simmer for another 30 minutes or until the consistency you like.

6. Add sugar. Taste it till you get it to the level you prefer. If you plan on serving it cold, you should add a little more sugar than you would serving it hot.

7. Add the coconut milk, stir till it's well mixed and turn off the heat.

Serve it hot as is or chill overnight and serve the following day.

(Red and Green Beans Sweet Soup)

Here's how I actually cooked it, keep in mind that I don't measure anything:

I boiled the water. I had a pretty large pot where I knew the beans would take up a little less than 1/5 of the pot. I added the water to a little more then 2/3 of the pot. Once the water was boiling, I added the red beans. I stirred the pot a little over the next 10 to 15 minutes. The red beans looked like it was a little softened so I added in the green beans. I figured I wanted it all mushy in the end anyways so who cares if I added it a little early.

Ten minutes after that I found out that I could add a little bit of tapioca pearls into the pot and so I did, just a little bit out of the bag that I bought for a different dessert I was going to make the next day. I just added a little bit off the top of my bag. I let the pot cook for about one hour in low heat. Then my Dad decided to add the sugar in for me without telling me because I was in the middle of teaching a piano lesson; I knew I had an hour. He told me he added about half a bag of sugar, which was about a 1/2 cup. I told him to let me do it myself or I'll never learn.

The thickness looked right so I finally opened the can of coconut milk and poured in 3/4 of it into the pot. The way I open cans to pour liquid out is by using a giant butcher knife to poke a hole in the middle and a hole on the side of the top of the can; one to let the air in and the other to let the liquid out. I stirred the pot until everything mixes and then I turned off the stove and let it sit there for a little bit before heading off to my friend's place.

I know I should do more taste testing when I cook. That's the one thing I don't do enough of. It did turn out really well and my friends enjoyed it. I did have a lot left over because I didn't know there were only seven of us going to the party. I put the leftover in the fridge and ate it over the next few days. It was so much better by day three chilled.

Well this holiday season instead of eggnog, which I still have never tasted, feel free to try out a red and green bean soup to delight your guests.

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Quick get-together: It's not rocket science

It doesn't take much to put a little gathering together. I'm still growing as a cook and I still have a lot to learn. But I am good enough to get my friends to actually eat what I make. I'm one of those cooks who cook from instinct. I seriously do not even know where the measuring cups are at my house. When my friends asks me for my recipes, I can list the ingredients, but I can't tell you how much of what I've put in. I just "feel" it.

Last weekend a few of my friends got together for a potluck. I made a red and green bean dessert soup. It turned out rather well. It was even better the next day after it was chilled in the fridge overnight. I'll blog about this specifically with the recipe later. During the potluck, we decided to get together again this weekend. But it turned out that I couldn't make it this weekend after all so I pushed it up by one day, to today. I was totally unprepared and hadn't any clue what I was going to make.

My original plan was me spending most of the afternoon figuring out what I'm going to make, but that was cut short when I got a last minute audition notice late last night for today. I was off in Studio City in the afternoon and didn't get back until 5pm. I had two hours to get food on the table so I resorted to what  I knew how to make, hamburgers.

(Bruschetta)

But I didn't want to make hamburgers for the actual meal. It didn't feel right for the holidays. I just wanted to make the patties but present them in a different way. So I got a roll of sourdough bread to make mini-burgers. I also had to keep in mind that one of my friend is a vegetarian so I had to make a version without the meat. I had tomatoes and an onion in my fridge. I defrost the two sticks of ground beef by placing them in a bucket of warm water. This is a much better way to quickly defrost something instead of using the microwave.

After prepping everything, my vegetarian friend arrived and saw what I was doing and asked if I was making Bruschetta. I had no idea what that was, but apparently it's exactly what I'm making. Mix some diced tomatoes with diced onions, add some Italian spices, black pepper and olive oil. Serve them over a slice of bread and voila; bruschetta. I did toast the butter spread bread first in the oven. As it turned a little golden, I topped each slice with some of the tomatoes and onions. I didn't want those toasted too long turning the vegetables into mush, but just enough so that it doesn't feel raw. Put a bottle of wine next to it and it turned out to be a classy appetizer. The best part; it only took fifteen minutes to make.

(Baked Mini Half Burgers)

Then I made my baked mini half burgers. The ground beef was premixed with paprika, italian spices, creole mix, steak mix, olive oil, black pepper, eggs, onions and a little bit of rum. I sometimes add or subtract some of the spices depending on what my mood is. Yes, I am a moody cook. I would also substitute the rum with bourbon or whiskey or beer depending on what I happen to have or what I feel like. I do think adding a little bit of alcohol to the patties enhances the beef, giving it a slightly nicer aroma on the palette. Once it's mixed in for a little while, I take out little chunks and put them on each slice of the bread. I used sour dough, which I much prefer over baguettes. After baking it till the meat looked cooked, I topped it with a little bit of the tomatoes and onions and baked it just a little longer. Another very simple to make finger food.

(Oven-Baked Meatballs)

I had a lot more meat then I had bread. So I decided to just bake the rest of the meat in a meatball format. I'm a firm believer of just making do and making it work. I said this long before Tim Gunn started saying this on Project Runway. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Unwittingly I turned what would have been one dish into three different appetizer. All I really needed to do is add a little slice of pineapple under each meatball and it would really have been a totally different dish: well, next time. I baked the meatballs with the onions and tomatoes, so the flavors mixed in more with the meatballs rather than just topped with the burgers. It felt and tasted slightly different. My friends had to double check with me if the meatballs were the same as the mini burgers. So it wasn't too obvious. I didn't intend to make three dishes really, it just turned out this way.

(Harvest Veggie Udon Soup)

The main dish for the night was a veggie soup. I did this a month ago at another small gathering with my friends. I threw in some tomatoes as the base with some wild corn. My friend Mai brought some veggies over. I had no idea what she was going to bring beforehand, but I trusted it would be great. She brought bok choy, mushrooms and tofu. We just threw it all into the pot with a little bit of salt and let it do its thing. It did its thing. We added a little udon to it at the end to get a little bit of carbs into the meal. It was a healthy and light soup, and all those veggies made it very flavorful. Having friends bring over their favorite vegetables and just throwing it all into a pot feels good. It's like a communal effort and it can't really go wrong. It's also something that you can over eat just a little without feeling like you just cost yourself an entire week of working out at the gym.

(Bellagio Hot Sipping Chocolate)

We had a bottle of Artis Italian sparkling wine and a bottle of german Riesling with the meal. The meal was light so having lighter white wines were perfect for this easy and simple evening. For me, it's that simple. A few friends, some simple but delicious foods and a glass of wine makes a perfect evening. But being the holiday season, I finished the night by serving all my friends a serious cup of hot chocolate. These are not your generic Carnation/Swiss/Nestle hot cocoa. I used Bellagio Sipping Chocolate instead. I did add a little creamer since I didn't have milk and a little whip cream so it's not too rich. Not everyone can handle real sipping chocolate. Personally if it was just me, I would add a few extra teaspoons of sipping chocolate with some whole milk. But not everyone can handle the bitterness so I kept it more mainstream for everyone.

(Bellagio Sipping Chocolate)

For me, it's really easy to just throw something together. It doesn't need to always be super fancy. It just needs to be real and honest. What you have in your fridge or can easily get at the grocery store can really go a long way. Keep everything light and just let the food speak for themselves. It will do its magic and a great evening is born. A quick get-together is really just an hour or two away.

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The Textures of Dim Sum

Can you hear the sleigh bells ring? All I can hear are the dishes clanging at Dim Sum.

It's December and the holiday spirit fills the air. Here at Dim Sum on a Wednesday afternoon, a huge crowd swarms the place making us forget that we are still in a recession. With a crowd this excited, you would almost think they are giving the food away. At $2.09 a plate, it may as well be.

(Steamed Pork Ribs in Black Bean Sauce)

Top Island Seafood Restaurant serves most of the traditionally popular Dim Sum items. Truth be told, this is not my favorite Dim Sum restaurant. A lot of it really has to do with one dish, the vermicelli shrimp wraps. Vermicelli wraps are very difficult to get right. Ideally the texture should be smooth and silky. It should go down nice and smooth almost like vodka. But I can see how some people, as a friend I have once brought to Dim Sum, would think this texture disgusting. In some ways it may even feel like eating a slurp of slimy gunk. This reminds me of the episode of Futurama when Fry couldn't stop drinking Slurm, even though he found out it came out of the back end of a giant queen slug. Alright, I'm not doing my vermicelli wraps justice, but I do love this dish; just not at Top Island. New Capital Seafood Restaurant does it much better a few blocks away.

(Vermicelli Shrimp Wraps)

Dim Sum is full of textures, and another one that a lot of even my Chinese friends can't handle is the infamous Phoenix Claws, which is just a fancy name for chicken feet. It's all in the branding right? Give it a nice name and you may actually give it a try. Top Island serves Phoenix Claws three different ways. There's the steamed version that's marinated in a black bean sauce. This is the softest version of Phoenix Claws where the skin and cartilage comes right off the bones. Then there's the White Cloud version dipped in a vinegar sauce. This is the chewiest version and there's no way around not feeling like you are chewing on claws. If you've ever chewed on your own fingers out of nervousness, it taste even more rubbery than that. Then there's a version where it's served in a soup. It's in-between the two in terms of chewiness. The soup has a lot of condiments flavoring it. The chicken feet themselves really doesn't have a whole lot of flavor. It's just skin, cartilage and bones. So in the end, it's a matter of texture as you are just chewing on bones. It's definitely an acquired taste; well fine, an acquired texture. Scared? Chew at your own peril.

(Steamed Phoenix Claws)

Before I completely scare you off from Dim Sum, most of the items that are pushed around by middle aged female servers in metal carts are pretty normal stuff. I'm not being sexist or being ageist here. I have never seen a young female cart pusher nor have I seen any male cart pusher at any Dim Sum restaurants I've ever been to around the world. Occasionally I see men walking around the room with dishes of food on a serving platter, just never behind a cart. I have no idea why this is so, but it just is and no one has ever complained: I'm not complaining.

Today we also had Lor Mai Gai - Lotus leaf wrapped sweet rice and chicken. The Chinese name has the word chicken in it, but it doesn't actually always have chicken inside. I suppose we are used to buying things that doesn't really have anything to do with its name. Blackberry doesn't actually have black berries inside: Apple computer has nothing to do with apples. Even an iPhone is hardly a phone, and I can't live without mine. Top Island's version doesn't have chicken, instead it has minced pork, mushroom and salted egg yolk inside. I prefer them without chicken anyways, they tend to be too dry. I think Top Island does a good job with this and I wouldn't mind having one occasionally. Just don't eat them everyday, they are extremely fattening and pretty bad for diabetics. I don't let my mother have any of the sweet rice.

(Lotus Leaf Wrapped Sweet Rice and Chicken)

Another favorite of mine at Dim Sum are the stuffed tofus. But as with all things Dim Sum, every restaurant does it differently. Top Island stuffs, well more like tops, their tofu with a giant fish ball. I almost rather eat just the tofu as the fish balls were just too big. Bigger may look better. It looks like we are getting a better deal cause we are getting more, but it's no longer stuffed tofu. I basically have to eat the tofu and the fish ball separately. So no, bigger isn't always better.

(Steamed Stuffed Tofu)

I don't eat a lot of fried foods, and I generally avoid donuts. I don't even remember the last time I actually went to a donut shop to buy a donut, though I had one a couple days ago because my parents visited a friend who worked at a donut shop. The irony is that my family co-owns a donut shop in Thailand. But I do like the Chinese salted donut, which are basically deep fried dough stuffed with pork. It's really hard to go wrong with this dish. You just can't go wrong with deep fried anything. The only real thing one can do wrong with this dish is either over stuff or under stuff them. Top Island is pretty consistent with a fair amount of tasty stuffing. The dough is also a very good consistency; a little crunchy on the outside and a little mushy on the inside.

(Salted Water Corner - a.k.a. Chinese Deep Fried Salty Donuts)

Generally speaking, I don't order anything off the menu at Dim Sum. But I went with my family today, and my mother couldn't pass up on their deal on squabs. The king squabs were $3.99 each and the smaller squabs were $6.99 each. If you go to the supermarket to buy the small squabs raw, they would cost $10 each. We have absolutely no idea how they can serve them at such a low price. It's so cheap it's almost scary. I mean are these squabs legit? Did they go out to some town square and took down a ton of pigeons and passed it off as squabs. Alright I'm letting my imagination run wild, but I do wonder.

Cheap as it may be, the quality of the squabs were actually good. the problem though was the marinate. It needed to be marinated longer. The flavor just never penetrated enough through the skin and into the meat, so the meat was a bit bland, though it was tender. I understand the fact that every other table in the restaurant is ordering squabs, so they simply don't have the luxury to marinate them for a prolonged period of time. It's the classic increase in demand yielding a decrease in quality. Well it does give my mother her squab fix, but as for me I much prefer my Dad's recipe. If only raw squabs cost less.

(Deep Fried Squabs)

Dim Sum is loud. The food is loud and the atmosphere is even louder. The best and most popular Dim Sum places is like a symphony of sounds and tastes with people crossing non-stop in front of your eyes. The dishes banging together as waiters clean the tables: the people talking over the noise in the room: the sound being trapped in a non-dampened room; the waiters and waitresses zig-zagging across the room unendingly to keep up with the demands of the customers. All these adds together to bring the whole place to life, which really is a great way to feel alive in a time when the rest of the world can seem like all gloom and doom.

So this holiday season instead of hearing sleigh bells, maybe it's time to hear some dishes clang.

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