Trader Joe's

Tea Time Thursdays: Jumpy Monkey

September 17, 2015 // Posted in Breakfast, Gallery, Photo Journal, Recipes, Tea Time Thursdays

September 17, 2015 | Posted in [post_category]

TiffanyBee.com | Tea Time Thursdays: Jumpy Monkey

YOU GUYS, it’s pumpkin season again aka my favorite season. Summer? Pft, too hot & also bugs. Spring? The melting snow becomes black mush & it’s gross. The blooming cherry blossoms hang out for like 2 weeks & then they die. Also, bugs are back with vengeance. My point is that it’s pumpkin season – the most important season because pumpkins????. Look, there are a lot of pressing issues in the world, so I’m going to make it clear that I’m being facetious, but I must emphasize with hyperbole how much I love pumpkin season.

This Tea Time Thursdays will not be with a pumpkin tea because it’s embarrassing that the time before my last TTT was on pumpkin tea, so…here’s my attempt to mix it up. But just so you know, DAVIDsTEA has 4 new pumpkin teas. Yep. Get PUMPED y’all! Okay let’s actually talk about what’s in my picture right now.

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On That Latin Kick

May 13, 2015 // Posted in Entrées, Food I Ate, Food I Made, Gallery, Photo Journal, Recipes, Travel

May 13, 2015 | Posted in [post_category]

TiffanyBee.com | Blackened Cocoa Fish Tacos

Today, I’d like to share with you my delicious new recipe of Blackened Cocoa Fish Tacos, which has a fantastic mix of coffee & cocoa powder. Coffee infused with cocoa is also a great alternative to coffee + cocoa powder. After my nearly month old post on South American inspired recipes, I’ve found myself on a bit of Latin kick. While I haven’t explored much of Boston’s offerings–honestly I’ve been told that there’s not much to explore anyway, I mean we don’t even have Valentina or Tajin, you guys; the struggle is real–I love making my own Latin dishes whether it’s tacos, nachos, enchiladas, or mole. Seeeee, I don’t only eat sushi & various Asian food, gosh.

Lacey, one of my best friends who’s currently studying abroad in Sydney, took note of my absence on TB the other day. She knows I loathe Facebook, so I don’t update it, which means she doesn’t get updated on what I’m doing with my life unless it’s on my Instagram or I text her. Well Lacey & other curious/noisy people, I’m updating, so I hope you can handle it. You ready?? I’m ready.

Last month, my former roommate Gaby visited me in Boston. She had never been before & wanted to eat ALL THE THINGS. Not only did Gaby & I share a bedroom back at our days at UCLA, we also share very similar backgrounds. Both our fathers are physicians, our parents are immigrants, our cultures value family & good food, & obviously, we both grew up in Southern California. Aside from all that, Gaby is a delight to dine & travel around the city with. She’s up for anything & eats it all, raw, cooked, fermented, whatever! She has a much stronger aversion to fennel than I do, which makes pho–a very popular Vietnamese noodle soup–on her list of, “I wish I could like it, but it has fennel [seeds].” So while she was here, we avoided Vietnamese food because no one (besides Vietnam) does Vietnamese food like SoCal anyway & went for New England’s finest: clam chowder, lobster rolls, & oysters. Gaby didn’t get to try my tacos, she did get a bowl of my Bun Rieu, a delicious Vietnamese tomato & crab noodle soup that happens to both be our favorites. It’s my specialty Vietnamese soup & her favorite thing I make. I hear she’s paying me in a surprise package of Valentina & Tajin, so I’m really excited. La vida es mejor picante!! Una vida sin picante es una vida muy triste. Muchas gracias, Gaby. 🙂

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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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Tea Time Thursdays: Coconut Tea & Macarons

July 17, 2014 // Posted in Drinks I Made, Food I Made, Photo Journal, Tea Time Thursdays

July 17, 2014 | Posted in [post_category]

Remember that macaron craze back in 2011? Yeah, so I was late to that party by 3 years; I just tried to make them this month. My second attempt at making them went really well, but they were stuck to the wax paper, so I had to start all over. Almond meal is pretty expensive, so if you’re a Slowpoke like me in experimenting with macarons, you’ll want to get the cheapest almond meal you can find (Trader Joe’s) so it won’t hurt your wallet so much if you mess up. The art of making macarons is a science more than it is an art & when I get my hands on more almond meal, I’ll be posting up some recipes for macarons.

For the most part of last week, I came down with a terrible cold thanks to hanging out in a cold wet swimsuit for 5 hours at a day club in Vegas. I felt as though death was approaching as I figuratively coughed out my lungs, so the simplest throat soothing remedy was a nice warm cup of tea. When you’ve a cold, it’s best to go with a pleasant green tea with ginger to help make you feel a little better. Fortunately, I just purchased a tin of loose leaf coconut tea with ginger & lemongrass from Trader Joe’s the week before. Coconut is all the rage these days & it deserves to be! It’s got amazing healthy & nutritious properties such as having the same amount of electrolytes you’d find in a sports drink & it’s rich in fiber, vitamins (C, B1, B, E, B3, B5, B6), & minerals (iron, magnesium, calcium, phosphorous, selenium). Using coconut water instead of plain water in your smoothies will help jump start your day to a healthier one, so imagine how wonderful it is as a tea paired with ginger & lemongrass.

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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.