 |
Since I’ve started pro-actively editing my photos in Lightroom, I’ve felt a resurgence for a passion in photography that I felt was absent for quite some time. My photos just felt flat, stagnant, lacked excitement, & were often just so mundane. They became to reflect my own feelings of an ever deteriorating self-worth & happiness, but right around the time when I begun to rely on Lightroom to add more vibrance, saturation, & color curves into my photos, my awkward post-graduate-plateau-of-a-life, my personal life began to pick up. Even the tomato plant I thought would surely wilt in this Californian drought found a way to beat the odds against insects, dry weather, & heat to produce baby San Marzano tomatoes. So, what’s changed? I’m cooking more, eating healthier food, & I’m trying to find a favorable balance between work, reading, catching up with friends, cooking, photographing, volunteering, & the joys of post-processing. In short, I’m doing more with my time, waking up earlier, sleeping at appropriate hours, & eating more power foods. Sometimes when you feel as though you’re in a sinking ship, it helps to look around to remember that you’re not alone. Sometimes you can ask others to help you repair your ship, but most of the time, you have to remember that you’ve got to try to fix your ship yourself.
So, shall I start this post with a recipe first or events? Let’s go with food because I have new recipes!
Goi Cuon Ca – Fish summer Rolls
 |
I deleted my previous recipe & pictures of the summer rolls I posted a few years ago because the photos were just atrocious. Nancy stumbled upon a recipe for summer rolls that were inappropriately titled, which caused me to feel this need to refresh my recipe with more traditional ingredients. If you’re a food blogger, please reconsider titling your recipes that are loosely associated with ethnic groups. You will never see me post a recipe for “Thai Carbonara” when the only “Thai” ingredient is a chili pepper. It’s a bit silly seeing people pass off their recipes as traditional “Vietnamese” recipes when they’re clearly just “Vietnamese inspired”. For the love of food, stop it.
Getting back on track, this recipe is fairly quick & the hardest part is rolling a perfect summer roll. I’ve also made a vegan friendly version of this recipe. Fish is expensive, so I wanted to make this ocean friendly & college budget friendly as well. This recipe is a template for delicious creations that await your imagination. Experiment with different vegetables & fillings because summer rolls are as healthy & easy as you want them to be. Use kale, spinach, or garbage if you’re into that, whatever. Just don’t make a guacamole, bell pepper, & sautéed beef summer roll & call it “Vietnamese”. CLICK HERE FOR THE BAKED COD SUMMER ROLLS RECIPE, YEAH CAPS LOCK. Too much yelling? no problem, i can tone it down with no capitalization at all with my veggie summer rolls recipe.
The Hobbit
My father gave a presentation on antiviral breakthroughs for Hepatitis B & C at a dinner lecture at The Hobbit, which I was lucky enough to attend. The Hobbit, a house turned restaurant, is a fine dining establishment with a fixed menu armed with an award winning chef. Everything I had was scrumptious from the dozens of appetizers in the wine cellar to the mains in the first floor dining room. Heck, even their bathroom was fancy.
Green Prize Festival
Josh, Kristin, Tempest, & I went to a local festival celebrating localism, sustainable & environmentally friendly products, labeling GMOs, & the humane treatment of animals. It’s been nearly 4 years since I’ve become a Pescetarian & my first time attending such a fantastic event. It’s amazing to see this green movement garner so many people & I only hope it gets bigger. Our Earth has limited amounts of resources it can share with us, so we must be responsible about we take.
Yelp Elite Event: Sunset Padel
My Yelp! friend, Charlie C., invited Josh & me to a Yelp Elite Event at Sunset Padel. Even though I’m a Yelp Elite member, I often miss out on the events available because I’m trying to do so many other things, but I’m vowing to attend more YEE in the future because they’re always fun & free! There was a free pudding from The Pudding Truck, Italian food, Mike’s Hard Lemonade, & other various soft beverages.
Jitlada
Without trying to overwhelm this post with too many pictures, I’ll end it with our trip to Jitlada after the YEE. Our friend Ben later joined us for lunch. He was running a little late so he had me order him some Chicken Pad Thai, which I nibbled on while he was on his way. Don’t look at me like that, I told him I had a few bites. It smelled delicious okay? It was delicious. Ugh, I love Jitlada. You’d do the same, don’t even deny it.
Latest Additions
- Baked Cod Summer Rolls Recipe
- Veggie Summer Rolls Recipe
- The Hobbit
- Donate Life Run/Walk
- Green Prize Festival
- YEE: Sunset Padel
One Last Thing
My birthday is tomorrow, which means my giveaway is ending soon. If you didn’t get a chance to participate during the two months it was going on, NOW IS THE CHANCE. Do it right now, y’all! I’ll announce the winner publicly in due time. Best of luck to all of you!
Note: I edited my post to change “spring” to “summer” because there is a difference between spring/summer rolls. Summer rolls are fresh & spring rolls are fried. Restaurants use these terms interchangeably so I was one of the many that were also confused by this. I’ve since corrected my mistake!
HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY GIRL!
And the Yelp elite event looked like lots of fun. I’ve only been to 1 or 2 events from Yelp in the past. I’m actually so busy right now that I don’t often have time to go to LA, or to the OC to go to the events.
And the Pad Thai looks bomb! I was literally craving for some a couple of weeks ago. I went to Trader Joe’s and picked up a frozen pack. Needless to say, it wasn’t as good as I thought it would be.
Thanks, Denysia!! 🙂 The Pad Thai was so good. I’m really busy too, so I don’t have too much time to go to any of these new YEE. Too bad about the TJ pad thai though. I’ll remember not to get it from there. Everything else there (cheeeeeese) is sooooo good.
Totally agree! TJ has some bomb cheese! By the way was wondering what brand is the spring roll rice paper you used? I’m pretty clueless whenever I walk into an asian market. Which is weird, because I am asian. Haha.
No problem! I use all sorts, but when you go down the aisle of noodles, be sure to look for the rice paper section. There should be circular ones & those are the ones I get. I don’t have much brand loyalty for any of them. Make sure they say, “Banh Trang” on them. We use any brand from Three Ladies Brand or the one with a rose on it. They will have “spring rolls” written on them & can be fried to make some yummy egg rolls too. 🙂
I always feel like I’m living vicariously through you when I look at your pictures. I love that you’re such a foodie. One day, I really do want to try the whole pescatarian route. It’s just hard when I still live with my parents and being in college when everything I eat tends to be grab and go. Also, what does it take to be a Yelp Elite?
Happy early birthday by the way!
Thanks, AnneMarie! That’s pretty much what I aim to do when I take pictures. I want the photos to portray what I see & capture the moment or it at the very least, a pinch of the essence of the moment.
My parents are very much hardwired into their old ways because “normal” is eating meat, so it’s often difficult to feel like you’re actually the good guy when they’re so adamant about making you feel like you’re this weird person for trying to eat healthier & be slightly more environmentally & humanely responsible. Woo, long run on sentence there. My parents do get me vegetarian & pescetarian food to-go at least once a week though, but my mom certainly hasn’t changed her recipes for me or anything like that. I don’t expect her to – it’d just be nice if she would for once, move out of her comfort zone & tried to make a dish that didn’t rely on some land creature to make a delicious meal. Not just for me to enjoy, but for the entire family so she’d understand that you don’t need to eat meat to have a lovely meal.
Anyway, what does it take to be Yelp Elite? It takes
1. well written reviews
2. a following of sorts (compliments, votes, etc)
3. a picture of yourself as your profile picture
4. a good amount of reviews
5. food pictures!
Something like that at least. You can be nominated to be Yelp Elite or you can even apply.
Bonjour Tiff, thanks for dropping by my blog earlier! Wishing you a fabulous birthday, hope you get lots and lots of yummy cakes!!! I understand how you feel about post-processing, it is truly a fun hobby and that reminds me, I have to get rid of that old photos/recipes. I wasn’t into cooking when I started the blog and relied on easy ingredients and products such as making a sandwich with vegan cheese & deli slices and hash browns. Lovely photos of the local festivals – love how they celebrated sustainable and environmentally friendly products & “the humane treatment of animals.”
No, thank you for participating in the giveaway, Rika!! 🙂 Thanks for the birthday wishes. 🙂 I’m eating a birthday cupcake right as I type.
I also feel like I should get rid of all of my old photos too haha. But that’s okay!! I think they’re nice to remind you of how far you’ve come. I love your photos & your recipes.
I do really hope that one day, a large portion of the animal products you purchase at a butcher’s or grocery store is organic, sustainably raised, & weren’t abused or cooped up in a small area. I know we can’t exactly eliminate meat consumption, so at the very least, we could move toward more sustainable options.
Yay, I’m glad your passion in photography is back and that things are going well in your personal life 😀 That’s great that you’re taking care of yourself with good foods and proper sleeping hours. It’s something I still need to work on!
Aahh, all of the food photos look so tasty. I love spring rolls, but I’ve never had them with fish. I’d like to try them though! I also like the pretty presentation on the dishes from The Hobbit.
Ooh, the festival looks fun. I really like events with a bunch of local stands. I would spend a lot of time looking through them 🙂 That’s awesome that you got to go to a Yelp Elite event and had free food too!
Also, happy (belated) birthday! I hope you had an awesome one 😀
Fish spring rolls are normally made at home, so they’re not seen at Vietnamese restaurants already wrapped for you. In fact, at every Vietnamese restaurant I’ve been to that offers baked catfish spring rolls, a whole baked catfish will arrive in front of you with a platter of vegetables, noodles, a bowl of warm water, & the rice paper! Otherwise, the more popular one in restaurants pre-made would be the pork one or the shrimp + pork one. 🙂
Yes, the presentation at The Hobbit was certainly beautiful!!
& thank you for the birthday wishes. 🙂 I had a good one indeed. 😀
Ooh ooh ooh food porn overload. I’m drooling here while eating grapes, no chips or other junk food snacks for me anymore. Hooray! I also dislike people calling some dish inspired by a cuisine of a country while they just use a few “inspired” ingredients. It could taste good though :p And Thai food is always good! Fiery, hot, sweet, sour, salty you name it. Yum!
Ahhh, Jessy, you’re a better woman than I. I just snacked like a mad woman today because of the leftover chips from my birthday dinner that….I just feel awful for snacking like that. Really, I think I need to get on down to the grocery store to pick up grapes & other fruits to make up for the past week. Good for you for curbing your snacking though. 🙂
Yes, no doubt these “inspired” ingredients meshed together have much potential to taste wonderful, but they are at the end of the day, inspired & not traditional. It’s all okay, fusion is okay! It’s just when someone tries to pretend their dish is traditional when it’s not is when it’s a bit silly.
Don’t worry about the snacking though! I had a bowl of crisps a few days ago. One bowl a week is fine right? :p Yeah, I love fusion food!!
Firstly, I hope you had a good birthday.
I love summer rolls, but I never thought about making my own. I generally eat them from restaurants or takeaways, or I cheat and buy ready-made frozen ones. Vegetable summer rolls are among my favourite foods though, so I’ll definitely give your recipe a try and see if I can manage to make them successfully.
Thanks, Kerry! I did have a nice birthday. 🙂
Spring rolls are a bit more tedious to make because they require a bit of frying (or you could try baking them, but I don’t know how to give proper instructions on that yet so stand by!). However, summer rolls (I corrected my blog’s terminology of the dish) are much easier to do. They’re really not much of a fuss as you’d think & are actually fun to do. If you stick with just fresh ingredients like vegetables, you won’t even have to worry about cooking anything. I hope you try them! 🙂