Trader Joe's

Let's talk Trader Joe's, shall we?

picture via

I first came around Trader Joe's in California years ago, before they expanded to the Northeast. I was amazed by the enormous amount of products that they carried. I loved the fact that they are super health conscious too.

Now that there are a few Trader Joe's around me, it's pretty much the only place I get my groceries. Let me correct that, I don't tend to buy fresh produce or fruits at Trader Joe's, I usually buy them from my local farms. However, everything else in my pantry, and I have pictures to prove this statement, I purchased at my dear Trader Joe's. It's so wonderful.

You may think, "why is she posting this random post on Trader Joe's?" "She getting paid to write this?" "This is boring!", I am sorry! It's none of the above! I really don't have a legitimate reason to why I am writing this post, I just feel like sharing the world my love for Trader Joe's. That's all. It's beyond the delicious and affordable products that they carry, the friendly staff they have in every location, or the funny descriptions for every single item. I just love it. Stop judging me.

Please tell me that you love Trader Joe's too, in the comments below. Please...

Easy Chicken Souvlaki

Looking good, eh?

I recently made this dish for dinner not once, but twice because it was so darn delicious. Did I mention that I made it within 30 minutes? Yup, I did. It was so simple!

I got this recipe from an old Real Simple book called Real Simple Meals Made Easy.

Ingredients:
4 pieces flat bread or pitas (I used Trader Joe's Middle Eastern Whole Wheat Flatbread)
2 1/2 teaspoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 1/2 tablespoon fresh oregano (living the poor grad student life, I used 1 1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano instead)
1 1/2 tablespoon fresh thyme (again, 1 1/2 teaspoon of dried thyme)
1/3 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 medium tomatoes, cut into wedges
1/2 small red onion, sliced
3/4 cup crumbled Feta cheese
1/4 cup kalamata olives, pitted
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast
1/2 cup plain yogurt (or Greek yogurt)
1 small cucumber, roughly chopped
1 1/2 tablespoon of finely chopped fresh dill (I used 1 tablespoon of dried dill)

Making the Salad & Chicken Marinade-
Combine 1 1/2 teaspoon of red wine vinegar, lemon juice, oregano, thyme, and pepper. Slowly add in the oil. Pour half of this mixture into tomatoes, onion, Feta, and olives. Pour the other half as chicken marinade.
Heat up the grill or sauté pan on high heat. Cook the chicken, turning occasionally until cooked through.

Yogurt Sauce-
While the chicken is cooking, combine the yogurt, cucumber, dill, and the remaining vinegar in a bowl.

Wrap the bread in foil and place in 250 degree oven to warm.

Place the chicken on top of the bread. Pour the yogurt sauce over the chicken, then put the salad next to the chicken. ** There really isn't a rule of how you should place or eat this dish. Do as you wish.

Ta-Da!

Delicious. Next time, you can try the traditional way- lamb!

I'm Back!

Hello folks! I've been quite busy the past three weeks… however, I am back to introduce lots of wonderful foods here in Taiwan. 

Sweet potato fries with ling hing mui (salty dried plum powder)! There are only a few places that make it good. This place in Jin Mei market makes them the best in my opinion!

Kiki- one of our favorite restaurants. Crispy skin with soft (I mean, SOFT) tofu. I am not a tofu kind of person but I LOVED this dish!

Also at Kiki. Garlic pork slices. Also delisher.

Here we have my childhood love- egg covered rice. I got this at a food court of a mall. Fried pork cutlet was juicy and the curry sauce was so delicious with the egg and the rice. Drooling right now...

Ah, and here we have rotating sushi… jealous?

 Here is one of the hottest things here now at the night markets- stuffed potatoes! I think the way they make them is to first mashed their potatoes, roll them into potato sized balls, fry the balls, then split them open and add in your favorite ingredients, THEN they pour tons of melted cheese over everything. Here we have broccoli, corn, and ham. God it was sooo good but I was a little afraid of a heart attack in the midst of indulging.

Hey, what's a night market without stinky tofu???

Large sausage covered small sausage (direct translation). Sticky rice covering Chinese sausage with some sauerkraut and a slice of cucumber!

YUMS, got the sashimi from a fish market. SOOO fresh and so cheap. $10USD for all this fresh fish!

Intestine noodles- You might think it's gross but whatevs, it's good. Please dont mind the deoderant in the back of the pic… long story...

Taiwanese Tempora. Basically some turnip, different fish cakes, and tofu topped with a sweet sauce. Really traditional Taiwanese stuff...

Stinky tofu again!

This is A-ge. It's the first time I've ever had it. We got it from Danshui, where A-ge is famous for. It is fried tofu skin covered in dong fen (noodles made with mung beans), then they seal the pocket with fish cake batter. They also top it with the same kind of sweet sauce as Chinese tempora.

This is also a very traditional Taiwanese dish… fried rice noodles. Also got this in Danshui. It was very good!!

Alright that is all for today. I will be sharing some more stuff with y'all next time!

樂麵屋

If you read my blog a lot, you would notice that I LOVE ramen. Yums, eating ramen is so comforting when you find a place that make them good!

I found this place, 樂麵屋, in Taipei that makes very good ramen. What I love about this place is that you get to customize your own bowl. After you pick your soup base, you get to choose whether you like  thick/thin noodles, how you want your noodles cooked, how salty you'd like your soup to be, etc. I loved it! 

I picked the 豚骨拉麵. The soup was rich and flavorful and the pieces of meat were tender. I ordered thick noodles cooked not to thorough and that turned out so good as well.

Pattie ordered the Miso Ramen. This one was good too! The soup was slightly lighter than mine but still had a really good flavor. It wasn't too salty either.

I would definitely come back here again. I had a yummy eating experience and the waiting staff were wonderful as well!

Macau & Hong Kong

 I was in Macau for a few days last week. Macau is known for its outrageous gambling scenes. However, I am not much of a gambler, so I did what I did best- explore food!

Shark fin soup is considered a luxurious cuisine in Asia. They typically are only served for special occasions. However, my dad heard from friends that there are a couple places in Macau that offer great shark fin soup for a great price. We had to try it! 

The chicken based soup was quite good. It was rich and flavorful. Shark fin had a crunchier texture, the combination of the fin and the soup was quite delicious.

This is a Macau must! Portuguese egg tarts! Macau was a Portuguese colony for a long time therefore a lot of food that I saw were Portuguese inspired. The egg tarts are made of pastry crust and filled with egg custard. Of all the places that we've tried. This one located in the Venetian Resort was definitely my favorite-

 We waited 20 minutes for a fresh baked batch!

 Oh my gosh… the crust was warm and flakey and the egg custard was hot, creamy, soft and not too sweet! They were sinfully delicious.

We also tried the 燕窩 egg tart from another place. It is made with swallow's nest, another Chinese delicacy. This one tasted just okay to me since the swallow's nest does not have much of a taste.

We stopped at this traditional sweet shop for some jello and durian ice cream.

We got the original jello. It was light and refreshing!

Then there it is, durian ice cream. Durian is a very very stinky fruit, people hate it or love it. We happen to be ones who love it. The ice cream was full of flavor and actually tasted like frozen durians!

Last but not least, I found this in the streets of Hong Kong. It is called 山竹, mangosteen. Oh my god, I have been looking for these for the past 12 years. They used to be my favorite fruit when I was little but they stopped importing them to Taiwan! I literally almost cried when I saw them.

 When you open one, it looks like this. The fruit is juicy, sweet yet tart…

The trip was wonderful to my tummy. I was beyond a happy camper after all the cool and yummy things that I indulged in!