Some Like it Hot

Well Shari, at Meandering Missive did a post on what color blog are you. I had to agree with her that there are several answers I would have chosen, and took the test twice. I thought the little quiz was fun and interesting. I wanted to know what in general was the personality of the blog or blog style. Well I was in for a surprise.

I took the What’s the Color of Your Blog Personality? Quiz at About Web logs and…

My Blog Personality’s True Color Is… YELLOW It’s all about warmth and cheer. Life’s too short to be anything but happy. Sure, I feel "down" too, but I try not to dwell on such negativity. I prefer to spread goodness and joy through my blog.

I did not expect to get Yellow. I mean I thought I was a blue or green girl. Oh well, maybe the next time around I would get the color of my choice! I have to admit that I try not to put anything negative in my blog, but then again the blog is still new. But yellow is a cheerful color and I try to keep my posts on the cheerful vein. Just don’t make me wear yellow PLEASE!! YOU WOULDN’T LIKE THE RESULTS! I am shaking in my boots thinking about dressing in yellow. I better take the quiz again and see what the other answer I wanted to pick.

So, again I took the quiz again and… *Poof* *Fizzle* is my second choice blue or green?

What’s the Color of Your Blog Personality? Quiz at About Web logs and…

My Blog Personality’s True Color Is… RED It’s all about passion, heat, and intensity. I take pride in my strengths and I learn to deal with my weaknesses. I like to blog about things that really matter to me.

OH! RED? My second color is red. Hmm I guess I have a passion for food! So there you have it my blog personality. Do you agree or disagree? I think I am going to get me some ice cream! See ya, later people!

Reid, at Ono Kine Grindz sent me a lovely package of Hawaiian snacks, and another earlier gift. Now you are wondering why I have not posted this sooner, well life got in the way and I was busy chow’n down! Reid was quite generous with his gifts because even before this box of snacks he sent me a really cool Korean Cookbook.

The Korean cookbooks are one of types of cookbooks I collect. Mainly to satisfy my curiosity as to what types of recipes, and how each author makes them. I grew up with a lots of Korean food in the house so, my curiosity is related to what I have eaten, what I know how to cook, and things I have never cooked before. Also it was the only outlet I had for remembering part of my childhood growing up in Korea. Anyways Reid has been trying to figure out what to send me, and Jo on her blog Truly Thankful tricked me into doing a mini interview.

Well next two weeks went by and I did not think about it, until I received a package from Amazon, and there was a Korean cookbook. The book, titled Eating Korean by Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee. I laughed so hard when I received it, not because I wasn’t grateful because I was extremely touched, and there is a funny story attached to this book in particular.

Day before Valentines day DH bought me this book because it had just come out and he knew I would want the book. I was so happy to add it to my collection! Next day DH had forgotten he had given me a Valentines Day present and bought me a silk rose, and All Clad cooking utensil set. I was overwhelmed, and so very happy.

Later on that day, my Father came through the door, and gave me my Valentines Day present. Can you guess what it was; yes it was Eating Korean cookbook. I was so thankful, but felt bad too since I already had a copy, but I would still thinking it never hurts to have an extra copy, when my father whisked it out of my hand. “Well then you won’t mind me giving this to Jo now do you? Since I wanted to give her one too, but there wasn’t any more books left.” I blinked and slowly nodded my head, I mean she so wanted a Korean cookbook, and she is a really good friend. (She has really enjoyed the book a lot.)

So, now you know the story of the Eating Korean cookbook and why I had to laugh. Yes, I did keep this second one, and it is really nice since I keep one upstairs and one downstairs. I am bad when it comes to cookbooks. Terrible I say! I just felt so tickled pink when I saw the cookbook in the mail from Reid! Thank you Reid!

Now Reid sent me a gift box Hawaiian snacks. There were dark chocolate macadamia nuts, there were Caramacs, and there were macadamia cups. Hurricane brand popcorn, the dreaded anticipated and long gone guava cookies, furikake chex mix, and Maui sugar animal cookies, wun ton chips! There were several things in this box unfortunately I do not have pictures or the names for because I came home from a mixed day of fun and not so fun things, and to come home to a box of Hawaiian treats from Reid made me cry. Thanks Reid your timing could have not been better! DH and I dug into them, and I can’t find the wrappers anymore to take pictures. All I can say is that it was very ono, and Reid Ho’omaika’i, mahalo!

Well I have no pictures, no concession food the critique, and I can’t spoil the movie we watched. The movie the girls decided on was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The movie was a little strange, but quite good. I couldn’t decide if I liked this one better than the ones starring Gene Wilder. Moving a long we stumbled out of the movie theatre out into the after noon light ripe and ready for some chocolate.
This time J decided on the behalf of the girls, and she wanted to try Fleur De Cocoa.

I was excited but yet wondered if I was doomed to go to Fleur de Cocoa for life! Luckily on this trip we did not get lost, although I almost made J get off at the wrong exit. Man doesn’t anybody listen to me when I tell him or her I am terrible with directions. Anyway we finally made it to downtown Los Gatos for some chocolate.

Fleur De Cocoa wasn’t very crowded but since it was around 4 pm the amount of pastries had declined because we had arrived late in the day. We chose three pastries, the chocolate Ganache tart, the raspberry and lemon curd tart, and the Marion berry chocolate mousse. Yes three desserts for four people. Ahem…yeah in hindsight we should have ordered another one.

The Marion berry chocolate dessert was still quite delicious as it was when Jo, and I had gone the first time. The dessert was very light creamy, and tasted of Marion berry. I am still dreaming about it. It was the most favourite of all three desserts.

The chocolate ganache tart was decadent; it was heavy with the taste of dark chocolate, and silky as it went down. The shortbread crust was light and buttery contrasting well to the dark chocolate. The dessert, made you want to savour each bite but with four dessert starved females there was no way. I mean we didn’t inhale the dessert but neither did we put our fork down roll the dessert in our mouths and moan in pleasure. The chocolate ganache tart was so rich that luckily we had the raspberry lemon curd dessert to cut into its richness.

(Yeah, we jumped the gun before I could snap photos. Let me tell you, it is a hard thing to snap photos before digging into such wonderful desserts!)
The raspberry lemon curd tart was tangy, and delectable. The curd smothered a layer of raspberry jam, which was lovingly cradled by the butter shortbread like crust. I would have thought both the raspberry and Lemon would have made the dessert too tart but they contrasted well, and the tartness balanced out. The raspberry jam was a little sweeter than the curd but still tart, tasted like red ripe raspberries. It was a perfect remembrance of summer.
The B and K loved the shortbread crust of the desserts so much they fought for the last couple of pieces. I did not understand how some of the filling of the tart was eaten first to leave empty lonely crust sitting on the plate but the girls loved it. They tried so hard to share but I could see it in their eyes how much they would like to take all of it for themselves.
Fleur de Cocoa did not disappoint in their desserts. All of the were delectable in their own right, and I could see how the pastry chef has won awards for them. The only disappointment was the fact we did not order another dessert for four people. As J was saying, “I could eat another whole one by myself.”

This is the story of a car full of females and the day before school started. The suspects were K, the youngest, B, her older sister, J (not Jo), mother of K and B, and M(ending with ilgwimper). The day was beautiful, and temperate, and the girls had some things to do before beginning of school.

The first thing on our agenda was get some lunch. The girls, who normally have a problem with trying new foods, shocked J and M by picking Banana Leaf and bravely picking out dishes they never tried before. We mad sure it was exactly the place they really want to try, and we were told in uncertain terms we had to go to Banana Leaf.

We arrived there early but it was still very crowded. Luckily there was a table available, and we were promptly seated. Banana leaf is quite popular, but the seating arrangements are quite close. If you hate being close to your neighbors it might not be the restaurant for you. We were given a menu and I ordered an ice cendol, and the K and B ordered coconut juice and mango juice. J and I shared the ice cendol. Which was quite delicious.

(The ice cendol and the mango juice in the background)

It took us awhile to order the food, since there are so many foods to try.

But I had to order some rotis for all of to start out. They were so delicious. They were airy, crispy, soft, and slightly sweet all in one. B did not even try to dip hers in curry, but K loved the rotis so much she kept looking like a lost puppy since her sister still had some roti left. B being quite kind gave some of her roti to her sister. J and I ate and savoured ours to the last crumb. K wanted to order more rotis but we had more food to come.

(Too many decisions to make, and this was only page one out of 5-7 pages…I wanted to try everything!)

The next dish to come was a sour soup with onions and tomato, and it was just enough the wet your palate for the food to come. J and I loved the tanginess of the soup, and it disappeared after 3-4 spoonfuls. It was such a tease! B and K found the soup too sour and a little to spicy, but they did take several small sips to make sure they really did not like it.

The pineapple fried rice. Everyone at the table enjoyed it. It was presented in a pineapple shell, and K and B, gasped and OOOHH and AHHHed. J and I had one serving and before we knew it the B and K had taken defensive positions around it, and told us in uncertain terms it was theirs and we better look elsewhere for food. Luckily our next dish arrived.

The chicken mango was the next to arrive. The dish was served in mango halves. The sauce red was tangy, and sweet reminiscent of sweet and sour pork but a lot more tart, and tasted of tomato. The slivers of mango pieces and bell pepper offset the tartness a little and the chicken was moist and delicious. K and B thought the presentation was beautiful, but did not enjoy it as much as they thought. J and I enjoyed it a lot. While we had started on the mango chicken out next dish arrived.

(Sorry we started digging in before I could snap photos!)

Chow Kueh Teow smelled so divine when it was placed before us. It had lots of shrimps, eggs, beans sprouts, and heavenly chewy noodles. The dish had a nice kick, better than the first time I had it at Banana Leaf. Of course the shrimps were done to perfections and complemented the noodles. The crunch of the cooked beans sprouts the shrimps and noodles played so nicely together. K and B found the dish a little spicy for them, but of course they enjoyed it immensely. Chow Kueh Teow, pineapple fried rice, and the rotis everyone at the table agreed they were very good.

The waiter arrived with the dessert menu.

J and I looked at each other, and shrugged why not it couldn’t hurt. I mean we were so full we couldn’t possible order any dessert anyway. So all four of us perused the menu, and nodded, and decided we were too full to have dessert. Yeah right. Next thing I know we have fried bananas and mango ice cream heading our way.

The dessert could have been better. I mean the mango ice cream was so delicious, and had bits of real mango nice and tangy and refreshing. The chocolate and whip cream were decadent, and light. The problem was the fried bananas. They weren’t as good as I have had them. Everyone at the table decided they were not that great. Luckily we had an awesome waiter, and he noticed B and K did not like the fried bananas and came back with two scoops of mango ice cream with extra chocolate sauce and whip cream. The girls were in heaven.

We rolled out of there stuffed to the gills, and had to find out next destinations the movies.

To be Continued…

Food cravings are so strange. You cannot control them. Sometimes you have to wonder what sane person wants to eat that, food item or realize that it is a weird pairing of foods, which are good alone, but together are nauseating. I mean there are times when the food craving is mundane, but I am talking about weird food cravings. I mean things that you wouldn’t eat on a normal every day kind. The kind of craving that grabs you by the unmentionables and won’t let go until you indulge in something so terrible. You try to resist but you know the old star trek line from the Borg,“Resistance is futile…”
DH was hit on the head with a lead brick for Mrs. Kim’s burger. It was so bad he kept mentioning it for a couple days now. But I blew it off thinking that he must be joking. But he kept mumbling and stroking his hands together and mumbling, “My Precious. My precious.” I mean why would he want to eat a Mrs. Kim’s burger?
Let me give you some background here. Mrs. Kim’s Burger stall is located outside on the main gate of Osan Air Force base South Korea. Now Mrs. Kim’s is not the only stall there or the only stall that sells hamburgers. There are multiple stalls selling Korean snacks, and koreanized western food. But it was the last stall that we (DH and I) at ate before we left from Korea.

The stall operated by Mrs. Kim, who opens the stall in the morning, and afternoon, her husband, runs the stall in the evenings. Now this confuses some people, especially when you are rip roaring drunk, and some patrons stare and wobble as they try to comptemplate this enigma. The stall has a limited menu, but most of the people come for the hamburger.
There are a couple conditions to eat a Mrs. Kim’s burger. One, you must be drunk, and need sustenance before you go into your drug induced slumber. The second conditions is you really want to know if the hamburger you had while drunk was as good as you thought. The third condition is a food craving you can’t get off your back. The next conditions you will have to think about as you eat your burger.
The hamburger is a gut bomb. It is very heavy on the stomach and a heart attack waiting to happen. The burger is made of a nice juicy patty, a fried egg over hard or over medium, cabbage, cheese, onions, radish, lettuce globs of mayo, mustard, and ketchup. This is what my husband was craving for in a very bad way.
We had most of the ingredients, but we had forgotten things. For the hamburger patty we substituted a turkey patty. The raw cabbage we sautéed it with pepper, and with a gentle hand we lightly painted the buns with mayo, and then ketchup and mustard. We forgot the onions and cheese, and they were sorely missed. We fried the egg over hard, seasoned with black pepper. All I can say is they are still a gut bomb, but it did taste good.

A MRS. KIM’S BURGER

1 burger patty
1 cup of shredded cabbage
1 egg
1 onion
Ketchup
Mayo
Hamburger bun
Mustard
Black pepper and salt to taste

Sauté the cabbage, or leave it raw, and set aside. Slice onion thinly into rings, and set aside. Fry up the burger patty, and while the patty is cooking fry the egg and season with salt and pepper to taste. When patty is almost done add American cheese. Assemble burger on bun, and add onion, cabbage, and globs of mayo and ketchup and mustard. You might want to be drunk when eating this burger. Serves 1