Huntington Beach

A Commemoration of a Beloved Foodie

January 19, 2015 // Posted in Entrées, Noodles & Pasta, Photo Journal, Recipes, Soups

January 19, 2015 | Posted in [post_category]

Today I’m dedicating this post to a beloved foodie, whom I met during the first week of my freshman year in the high school cafeteria. This was where a large group of friends from various junior highs gathered on plastic & wooden tables, eating terrible public school lunches. I was the only one in the group that came from a private school who knew absolutely no one in my grade, yet I was welcomed to sit with them. While the group was very large, we had pockets of mini cliques. One of those cliques was a group of four: Kim, Viviane, Vy, & me. We had similar schedules, so we walked over to Vy’s house after school, waiting to get picked up by our parents. While we waited, we often made instant noodles & gushed over our attractive schoolmates, The OC, & celebrity gossip. We formed our own little girls clubhouse on Clubhouse Lane, bonding, laughing, & slurping complex carbohydrates. We called ourselves The Fatty 4 & dubbed our after school dates Noodle Parties.

As we got older, one by one, we obtained licenses to drive, which meant branching out beyond the realm of instant noodles. We ate sushi, shabu, Thai, Mexican, seafood, everything – we just ate everything. We almost always gathered at a restaurant to catch up & feed our bellies. We had a lot in common, but were also vastly different. We shared an ethnic heritage, an understanding of Vietnamese immigrant culture, but above all, we shared voracious appetites. We were foils of one another: Vy & I were more adept at planning while Kim & Viviane were much more spontaneous. Vy & I knew we wanted marriage & kids way down the road, while Kim & Viviane debated whether they could handle the commitment. Kim & Viviane were more likely to be the life of the party, while Vy & I approached others with caution. While we had many differences, ups & downs, we always reveled over great food & company. We had an appetite for adventure & ate & tried new food all the time. While I couldn’t tell you what Kim’s ultimate favorite food was, I can tell you that she certainly loved noodles, seafood, meat, & her vegetables…so pretty much everything.

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Spice Up Your Life!

January 11, 2015 // Posted in Food I Made, Gallery, Photo Journal, Recipes, Soups

January 11, 2015 | Posted in [post_category]

Happy New Year, everyone! I recently flew back to Boston after spending my Winter Break with my family in California & I can’t tell you how happy I am to be back here. Not that I don’t love my family, I absolutely do, but coming back & seeing it snow is breathtaking. Walking about to the grocery store, cheeks rosy & face numb, with the snow drifting analogously to confetti was magical. It’s so beautiful here, but let’s not forget that it’s also a good deal colder here than it is in California. Channeling my inner Elsa, the cold never bothered me anyway, but that’s also because I’m equipped with recipes for comforting warm soups! Curious what’s in my arsenal? Spice up your life with my new spicy soup recipe that’ll keep you warm during this frosty season. If you’re on the West Coast or Florida–well, I suppose 18 ºC (64 ºF) is “cold” to you–this soup will suit you just fine. I present to you my Spicy Sweet Potato Soup, a cold buster whether it’s the weather or if you’re feeling under the weather.

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Pumpkin Season, I’m Ready For You

September 22, 2014 // Posted in Food I Made, Gallery, Noodles & Pasta, Photo Journal, Recipes, Soups

September 22, 2014 | Posted in [post_category]

For those of us on the Northern Hemisphere, many of us have anxiously awaited this spectacular 3 month span of this wonderful orange globular fruit to grace the aisles of our grocery store. This season is aptly named Pumpkin Season. It’s here. It’s at Starbucks. Pumpkins in all shapes & sizes are being stacked at our local farmers’ markets & I want to buy a little family of mini pumpkins to adorn my fireplace, but I really can’t justify the cost of doing so. For those of you who don’t really care all that much for pumpkin pie because there’s something wrong with you (if you’re allergic, I’m so sorry), I’ve added a new recipe for a savory Japanese inspired dish called Pumpkin Nabe with Soba. I can’t tell you how thankful I am to have gotten admitted into Northeastern this time of year, obviously for the academic part, but the location of the school is majestic. While California is sweating in a sweltering heat, I’m gearing up for Autumn & snow to follow soon after. Can y’all say, “cover photos for days” or what?! Hah, just kidding, totally hate Facebook. I’ll realistically have new desktop wallpapers for days.

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How to Trick Your Tastebuds Into Thinking You’re on a Tropical Holiday

August 25, 2014 // Posted in Desserts, Drinks, Drinks I Made, Food I Made, Photo Journal, Recipes

August 25, 2014 | Posted in [post_category]

My mother has a stellar memory bank for numbers & fun stories, so she’d often tell us her hilarious childhood stories as she drove us to school. However, not all the stories she told were her own; many of them were ours. One childhood story my mom frequently told was how I used to sing lullabies to my baby brother, but with silly lyrics that were reflective of my language acquisition at that age such as phrases on mowing the grass. A story my mom still loves to tell is how Toddler Tiffany used to absolutely love squatting down in the snow, grabbing a handful of it, & just eating it like it were a doughnut. I may have been born in the spring, but I swear my ethos/spirit animal is a beluga whale. Sad news for Adult Tiffany: there’s no snow in Southern California for me to eat. Adult Tiffany prefers winter over summer. Adult Tiffany thinks speaking in third person is really lame, but for some reason, is still doing it.

So, what about all of those summer recipes you keep posting then, you ask? Listen, you can’t fault me for capitalizing on the season, its fresh fruits, & great recipe inspirations that come with it. Just because I’m bad with heat, doesn’t mean I don’t love the recipes of the season! Now that I’m back from my holiday, I’m posting two new recipes. Since California is experiencing the worst drought in the history of recorded droughts, it’s not exactly wise for us to be participating in the Ice Bucket Challenge to raise awareness for ALS, however you can still do something to help spread the word & donate to the cause. You can dump pool water on yourself while you’re in a pool or ice water while you’re standing over an area of your garden that needs watering. What else can you do? Well, shoot, just make some ice pops or an iced tea, social media that thing, & head on over to ALSA.org to donate! No offense to the guy who came up with the challenge, but I’d rather do something useful with ice than to let it go to waste. Tired of ice pops & iced tea recipes, you say? How about sangria with boba instead?

With my love for boba & Two Buck Chuck, why not combine the two with some fresh fruit & juice for a delicious original concoction for your next Sunday Brunch? So, how do you trick your tastebuds into thinking you’re on a tropical holiday you ask? Well, follow the simple steps below. (Remember to hover over the images for captions.)

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Foodie Fridays: Asian Eats, Sort Of

June 27, 2014 // Posted in DIY / Projects, Filler, Food I Ate, Foodie Fridays, Gallery, Photo Journal

June 27, 2014 | Posted in [post_category]

In the 4 years I’ve been a Pescetarian, I’ve gotten a lot of inquisitive looks & on the more extreme end, antagonized for choosing not to eat land creatures as if I’ve somehow insulted these individuals’ very being because I don’t eat cows. Since the social norm is to consume meat, those of us that have special diets often get harassed for not eating like the rest of society. Not only is it annoying to deal with, it’s incredibly disrespectful to those of us that choose not to eat the popular way society does. If you’re going to try to mock our way of living, you might as well do it intelligently instead of immaturely, e.g., “but meat is so tasty; lol you’re missing out lol more meat for me lol. lol. lol. lolol.” Choosing to cut meat out of my diet is not due to the tastiness of said land creatures, so don’t assume my tastebuds are dysfunctional. I can appreciate a fine plate of beef tartare as much as any bovine connoisseur, but why I choose not to is environmental, ethical, & political. This doesn’t mean that I think consuming seafood is exemplary because it isn’t – I see it as choosing the lesser of two evils, so to speak.

Without even asking me what it is I eat or how often I eat what I eat, people just plunge into the, “well, aren’t you just going to get mercury poisoning?” question as if their consumption of fast food isn’t going to kill them first. Although this post is going to have tons of pictures of fish, it doesn’t mean that I consume seafood everyday. I believe in eating a mostly vegetarian diet & do my best to consume seafood that has low mercury content such as catfish, clams, crab, tilapia, octopus, oysters, & scallops. If you’re considering becoming a Pescetarian or if you’re obsessed with seafood, please make sure you check the mercury levels of your favorite seafood before you think you can consume it all without consequences. As much as I love Chilean Seabass, it’s a fish that’s endangered, so try not to order it. If you want to consume it in the future, you have to make sure it doesn’t die out now. It’s good to mix up what you normally eat with something new. Try having a meat-free day & challenge your culinary skills. You may just delightfully surprise yourself! Okay, now for a huge food dump.