Where's the rice?

Yesterday we were in C-town and I did some shopping in preparation for Chinese New Year. I bought a bunch of items, including gifts for my parents and my other parents (aka my in-laws.) By the time we got home it was around 3pm. I decided to start prepping for dinner around 4pm since I knew it'd take me awhile. We had guests last night and I wanted to prep as much stuff as I could before they arrived.

My menu was very ambitious last night:
- salt and pepper fish fillet
- fish soup with 5-spice tofu
- a Macau dish of fried potatoes and minced pork
- sauteed large pee sprouts with button mushrooms
- roasted duck (from the supermarket)

I bought a whole dover sole that I decided would be best prepared two ways: salt and pepper fish fillet and soup. I set about filleting the fish and separating all the edible parts out to make soup. The task took much longer than I anticipated and it wasn't until nearly 5pm when I had the soup stock boiling away.

I also decided to mince my own pork. Yup, I had a chunk of pork that I hacked away at with a cleaver (not a food processor) so that it'd be homemade ground pork. I like homemade ground pork best since it has the best texture.

It took me much longer to do all the prep than I thought it would and my real cooking didn't even get started until 6:30pm. I aim to have dinner ready by 7pm but I was definitely going to miss that time. After I finally managed to get everything on the table (and everything had the right flavor profiles I was looking for) I realized I had forgotten to make rice! argh! I was so intent on creating all of these new dishes (none of which I'd ever made before) that I forgot to wash rice and make it. grr!

Luckily I know how to cook rice in a pot on the stove. I quickly started it and knew it'd be ready in 25 minutes. Our rice cooker takes 1 hour to make rice (it's one of those fancy schmancy fuzzy logic ones) so stove top method is the only way to go. By the time we finished our soup course the rice was nearly done so it wasn't that bad overall. Who else has forgotten to make rice? The thought didn't even cross my mind :(

If I didn't know how to make rice on the stove top then the entire dinner would have been delayed an additional hour. Ouch. I actually don't know anyone else (of my peers) who knows how to make rice on the stove top. Everyone has become so reliant on the rice cooker that they've forgotten the simple task of using a pot to cook rice in. What do they do? Just suck it up and wait an additional hour for the rice to cook before dinner can be served?

Another bummer of the evening was that during clean up I accidentally touched the blades of my food processor the wrong way and sliced my finger open. :( I've got a band-aid on it right now and it is very hard to do anything when you can't type the "i" key very well.

Charging for Substitutions

I was looking for a good place to have Sunday brunch in the city since we're going to be there this weekend. I came across this restaurant named Baker Street Bistro and it's got a lot of good reviews on Yelp (the de-facto local review site to use.) It sounded very good so I went to their website to look at the menu. Overall the brunch menu seemed fair and had a good variety to offer. I was all set to suggest we eat here for brunch until I saw the following line on their menu:

Each substitution will be charged $2.50

I have never seen a restaurant charge you for making a substition. Yes, it is reasonable if you want to substitute a house salad for a side of cheese fries for them to charge you slightly more since it could be viewed as the fries having a more substantial cost to the restaurant than the salad. However, to make a blanket statement to say it is an extra $2.50 to do any substitutions is a big turn off for me. What if I wanted to ask for no maple syrup and to have extra butter instead? Would that be subject to this ridiculous surcharge? I'm not going to find out since I've decided to never eat brunch at this establishment. It seems very petty to charge for a substitution and there are plenty of other wonderful restaurants that I can patronize instead.

Studies have shown that women are more likely to make a substitution to their restaurant order than men. I completely agree with this case study since I am a prime example. I generally don't like to add sour cream to my burrito, ask for salad dressing on the side, etc. It's just a way of life. And yes, I will sometimes substitute my salad for a baked potato and vice versa. To penalize me for my freedom of choice is unfair and they've lost a customer for life.

Wine and Costco

I have a love/hate relationship with Costco. I love going there and seeing what new products they have. I love buying meat from there since they have a superb meat department. I hate going there since I buy more than I can ever use of a product. I hate waiting in the long lines.

I try to not go to Costco that often since two people don't go through Costco-sized products that quickly. We bought several gallons of juice ... now how long does it take to go through that much? A very long time.

Another reason I "dislike" going to Costco is their wine selection. They have a very good liquor selection and that's a huge downfall for me. Inevitably I get seduced by their wine and buy it in bulk, as all good wine connoisseurs do. This time around I got seduced by the Rieslings, Sauternes, and chardonnays. A lighter pocket later, I left with many bottles of wine in my cart.





Now my challenge will be to drink all this lovely wine ... not a hard challenge at all ^_~

In case you haven't noticed, Ming is so enjoying his new camera lens.

Ming's New Toy In Action

In the previous post I mentioned that Ming got a new toy. The toy is a 50 mm lens for the dSLR. He's been having a lot of fun with it lately. Some shots he's taken are shown here:














Sorry that all of the shots seem to be of dogs but they're the most interesting subject matter we've got around the house.

Whirlpool Duets

I received a new washer and dryer for Christmas. No, this wasn't a hint for me to do laundry. We always knew that we needed to replace the current ones because they were older. I got a new washer and dryer as one of my Christmas gifts and it's one of the best gifts I received. It may sound a bit too practical for some people but I couldn't be more excited.

We got the new Whirlpool Duet high efficiency washer and dryer. It is also energy efficient, something which will really help with our electricity bill. I love using the new washer and dryer. There are a ton of cool features and I think that it really does treat my clothes more gently. Its a front loading washer and when the clothes are done washing they are dryer coming out of the washer and I think they benefit from not being spun so hard in the front loader (top loaders tend to mangle your clothes more. The laundry machines are really quiet and they make this little "ding" sound when they're done (kind of like when you put the timer on for the oven.)

I'm excited to do laundry now -- lord I sound so domestic! It's really fun to use these new appliances since there are so many more options to choose from (water temp, extra rinse cycle, pre soak, etc. I could probably sit in front of the washer and dryer for a few hours just watching the gentle agitation of the clothes ... yes, things easily amuse me. ^_^

Ming's New Toy (Preview)

I'll write more indepth about this later but I bought Ming a new toy for his birthday. It's an accessory to the dSLR and he's been having a lot of fun with it since he took it out of its packaging. I had no idea that this was such a popular item; it is already out of stock at Amazon (including resellers)! O.o

Dog Exercising on Treadmill

I wonder if the maltese is burning more energy on the treadmill than he is consuming in treats

Freedom, Sort Of

We've just wrapped up a week with the in-laws and they're now on an airplane back home. I love my mom and dad via Ming but a week with them is about as much as I can take at a time. It's hard to share a house with others when you're used to being able to do whatever you want, however you want. When others share your house you need to be a bit more courteous and clean (i.e. no eating at the coffee table for meals, always make the bed, wash your dishes immediately.) It was great having them around but I think it'll be awhile before we start to miss seeing them.

With the in-laws gone I've got another house guest: our friend's dog. She, sadly, isn't as courteous as my in-laws as a house guest. She is very stubborn and willful. Trying to get her to eat, behave, etc is going to make it a very long stay with us. After all the guests are gone I think Ming and I need to treat ourself to a get away.

Calf Fries

On the way to work this morning I heard them mention calf fries. Calf fries? That sounds a bit odd. I wonder how it is related to normal french fries. Once they described exactly what calf fries were, however, I was horrified and a bit sickened. Here's the Wikipedia article about it. According to the article and the radio it's something served in normal restaurants.

I guess if it's deep fried, anyone will eat it. I, however, have my limits and don't believe this delicacy will be passing through my mouth anytime soon ... or ever.

Rain Rain, go away

It is pouring rain outside right now and a bit scary. Winds are really high and the rain is coming down in bucketfuls. I'm at home by myself today and am constantly hearing things moving around outside from the strong rains. We have a tall cypress tree outside that is pretty sturdy but the wind is tossing it back and forth like crazy. I'm almost afraid that the tree will be knocked down. *yikes*

Today is definitely a day to stay in and cuddle up with someone warm :)

Happy New Year!

Happy new year everyone! My holidays were full of activity and whirlwind activity. I'm kind of glad that it is all over since now we can get back to normality and not need to make unexpected runs to the mall to buy last minute gifts.

I ushered in the new year at the Clift hotel and it was quite the experience. We had a fabulous time, met some great people, and continued to introduce Lotus vodka to a very receptive crowd.

Hope that everyone has recovered from their new year's eve debauchery and is now at the work desk, like yours trully, trying to make enough to pay for all those Christmas gifts!