"Top Chef" Dinner

I know I am not a "Top Chef," but two days ago I invited some friends and I had an all Top Chef meal.

Below is my meal, along with a link to the recipe. You can compare the pictures. None of them really look like the original.
Roast Chicken Cordon Bleu

Taste: It tasted pretty good, and Alvin said it was his favorite.
Substitutions: I didn't use capicola; instead I used dried duck. That tasted pretty good. I used cheddar instead of gruyere. I didn't have parsnips, so I used carrot. I have no blender, so I chopped it by hand.
Comments: I didn't make the mushrooms part of the recipe. The chive oil was pretty tasty. I didn't stuff the chicken uniformly and so some sections had a lot of stuffing, some parts didn't have any stuffing.


Crispy Potato Gnocchi

Taste: This one was my favorite. It is great for the winter. Most of the guests thought the gnocchi was pasta.
Substitutions: I used parmessan instead of pecorino. For this meal, I only used the spaghetti sauce. I only made the potato gnocchi and not the ricotta gnocchi.
Comments: I made the cheese, butter, and spring vegetable sauce the next night for dinner. It tasted like a really rich mac and cheese. Instead of truffles I used shitaki. Overall, I like the spaghetti sauce better.


Pecan and Oat Crusted Tofu

Taste: It was unique and satisfying, but didn't exactly fit into the flow of the meal. The onions were a little raw still at the end. Next time, I would leave the onions out.
Substitutions: I could not find a single lentil here, so I just left it out. Right now in this season, I can't find any bell peppers or snow peas in this city, so I also left that out. Instead of pecans, I used walnuts.
Comments: I have made this dish before, and last time I made it according to recipe. This time, I marinated the tofu for a day, and it was a lot tastier.

Yam, Potato Sauce, Mushroom and Cauliflower

Taste: I really like the layers of flavors in the dish. The potato sauce tasted more like mashed potatoes than a sauce. The thicker slices of sweet potato could have been cooked a little longer.
Substitutions: Instead of bacon, I used chicken fat. I left out the asparagus since I can't find any in this city right now.
Comments: Sweet potatoes here are either white or yellow in color. I used the white one. Therefore, this dish does not have a lot of contrast in color.

Banana Scallops
Sorry, I forgot to take a picture. I made the banana scallops, and a friend brought some cookies, and another friend brought some vanilla ice cream to match the dessert.
Taste: It was a fail. Two nights before the dinner, I tried caramelizing the bananas, and it worked. During this meal though, it didn't work, and so it just tasted like a sweeter banana.
Substitutions: When I attempted the trial run before the meal, I made the banana guacamole. I thought it was very good, but it no longer tasted like a dessert. So I took the guacamole out of my dessert.
Comments: Next time, I will leave out the trouble of caramelizing the bananas and just serve ice cream, cookies, and cut bananas.

Quiz for Top Chef fans:
Name the Top Chef that cooked the meal on the show, and name whether it was a quick fire challenge or an elimination challenge.

2¥ Addiction

When we first arrived, I would frequently pass by a food cart where the men there make 牛肉饼 (niǔ ròu bǐng) which is a little meat-filled fried pancake bun. It's flat, crispy, a little oily, about the size of a DVD, and it costs 2¥, or... about 30 cents.

For the first 2 months that I was here, I never ate at this cart. Though I'd heard about it, and passed by it, I just didn't have the urge to try. But then, about a month ago, because I was hungry and needed something quick while I was nearby the area, I decided to have a 牛肉饼.

Oh man. Especially if it is hot off the frying skillet... these things are awesome. I get cravings to eat them... all the time now. But I know that I can't eat them too often - I'm pretty sure that most fried and oily foods are not too good for you. Tonight, even after a delicious dinner... I was tempted to bike out at about 9pm just to go buy 1 for me and 1 for Bethany. But I had self-control and decided against it.

Sometimes the cart doesn't have any 牛肉饼 at the moment, because they just sold out their batch. But I don't mind... because it's so fun to watch them make it. You see them make a batch of another 2 dozen - precision and speed in flattening out the dough and spreading on the ingredients and rolling up the bun so that it will make for thin crispy layers.

Next time I buy one, I will try to take a picture of it and post on the flickr. You will be jealous.

Meals: Fending for Myself

My wife is a wonderful chef. Even as I type this, she is putting the finishing touches on 2 pizzas made entirely from scratch. Sure, she may be a food snob... but I think she's earned it.

But... some of you may be wondering what I do when, for some reason, she is gone for the day and not cooking up a wonderful meal for me. How do I survive? Tuesday was such a day.

Since she was gone all day long with a few friends visiting a nearby city, I had to fend for myself. For 3 meals.

Breakfast was easy. I had my coffee. I was done.

We had leftovers in the fridge, enough for 2 meals for me. When my wife is away, and I need to fend for myself, I need to eat the leftovers. Husband who deliberately goes out to eat when there are leftovers in the fridge... makes for an unhappy wife, and rightly so. So, I decided I would eat leftovers for lunch.

But, as a general rule of preference, I think it's reasonable for me not to eat 2 meals of leftovers back-to-back. So... for dinner, I ventured off to what is fast becoming my eat-alone ritual: beef noodle soup, pickled vegetables, and an apple fanta.

Just a few minutes bike ride away is a a great pulled noodle restaurant. Fresh noodles, great flavor (definitely doesn't beat DorTien's beef noodle soup, but it's the best I can do out here), and cheap. Not a lot of beef. But enough noodles and soup to make for a filling meal. Some pickled vegetables to cool down the hot and spicy. And an chilled glass bottle of apple fanta.

Grand total for this meal: 6¥, or approximately 87 cents. Now that is a dollar-value-meal.

I Am A Food Snob

This weekend, I received an e-mail from this ex-pat businessman who sells and delivers western food in this city. He sent us a list of the new items that he will be selling. I read over the list of items, and initially, I had a mixed reaction. Some things I was super excited about, such as chick peas, pasta, pretzels, cheerios, tortilla chips, and ziplock bags. Some of the other stuff, such as the Betty Crocker cake mix, can of stewed tomatoes, salsa, Celestial Seasonings tea, made me feel weird. I know I am super happy to have the opportunity to order these items, and am not trying to be ungrateful, but I still felt weird.

So I decided to analyze my negative reaction to this list; this exercise actually showed me a lot about myself.

One thing I enjoy doing while living here is making food from scratch. I like the challenge, as well as the sense of accomplishment when it is finished. Yet, so much can go wrong in the process of making food from scratch. But that is almost the challenge. But, with Betty Crocker cake mix, not too much can go wrong unless you don’t follow the directions. I almost feel like, now, if I make a cake from scratch and it is a disaster, people will think, why didn’t you just use Betty Crocker? Betty Crocker is now a temptation that I didn’t have to deal with the last two months.

Also, before, when I make salsa here, it is almost a novelty and the consumers gave me grace because that is the best salsa we can get, because it is the only salsa we can get. Now that we can get Tostitos Salsa, my salsa will now be shoved aside for the real stuff.

Another reason for the reaction is that some things I find on the list are a little funny. For example, Celestial Seasonings Tea. I believe the country we live in has tea. Actually, it has a lot of tea. Yes, it doesn’t have cinnamon tea or Earl Grey tea, but it has tea. I guess, though, my family didn’t grow up on Celestial Seasonings Tea, but other families did, and thus it brings people comfort to have Black Cherry Berry tea. Therefore, I should stop being such a snob, and be happy that some people can get comforts here that make them feel like they are at home.

Lastly, sometimes I like that there are some things you can’t get here. When I got this list, I thought, wow, I can not get everything here. I think I almost prided myself on being able to live without many of the comforts of home. Yet, as I look at the way I am salivating at some of the other items on the list, I realize that I am a total hypocrite. I love that I am able to order cheese, eat pretzels, have tortilla chips, and I could store all of these now in Ziploc bags. In the same way I am looking down at people wanting to buy tea, other people reading the list may think I am weird because I want to order tortilla chips.

Wow, just looking at why I reacted the way I did, taught me a lot about myself. First, I am a total food snob. Second, I like the attention/pride from being able to make food from scratch even if it is not as tasty as the box/canned/jarred stuff. Third, I am a hypocrite. Fourth, I get pride from thinking I am able to live off what I think are the minimal items in life.

I could go on, but I really would like to eat cheese on tortilla chips. Oh, where is my order form?

Chicken, I Hate Your Guts

And you stink too!

The other day, Alvin and I were talking about making rotisserie chicken in our toaster oven. This oven can fit a 9x13 pan, and also has a rotisserie stick to roast chicken.

I have made whole chickens in the states, so I thought, "how hard could it be?"

So I went to my friendly outdoor butcher who has a fridge and keeps whole chicken in it. But he said, "no fresh chickens today, sorry."

So I walked by this other butcher, and saw that he was selling whole chicken. But as I was asking him how much a chicken was, I started to gag on the smell. I have noticed that sometimes when I buy chicken here, it can have a rotten smell. Maybe it is because some butchers don't have a fridge and it is an outdoor market in the middle of the summer. But for some reason, I really wanted to eat rotisserie chicken, and so I bought it.

When I got home, I realized, preparing this chicken is going to be very difficult. First, the head and feet are still attached. It is really hard emotionally butchering a chicken when its head is still attached. I feel like I only like to eat meat when I haven't seen its face. So, I took my butcher knife, and quickly cut off the head. As first, I unconsciously covered my eyes so I wouldn't have to see the chicken's head, but then I realized that I wanted to keep my fingers intact, so looking while I cut would be good for all.

Next came the harder task, de-gutting the chicken. In the past, de-gutting is no problem because it includes sticking my hand into the cavity and taking out the already packaged innards, and then throwing it away. Here, it is the real thing. First, I looked into the chicken, and stuck my hand in. It was squishy and the smell of the chicken made me gag and I think I may have threw up in my mouth. But I couldn't do much about that because my hands were in a chicken. So finally, after putting the chicken in a bowl, I told myself I had to do it. No one else was going to come in and rescue me. So in one hand I held a paring knife to detach the organs from the cavity, and with the other hand I grabbed and discarded the organs. Eeew, I kept telling the chicken, "I hate your guts!"

When it was time to put the chicken in the oven, I realized that the chicken was too heavy. As a result, the rotisserie stick wasn't able to turn. Yikes, after a huge ordeal, I put it on a roast pan and just roasted it.

The chicken turned out pretty good and nobody got sick from it. I only served it to Alvin because I didn't want to send anyone to the hospital. I also made mashed potatoes and bok choy. That was easy compared to the chicken.

I think I will do whole chicken again, but next time I will buy a smaller chicken, buy it from butcher with a fridge, and kindly ask the butcher to get rid of the insides for me. Also, I might want to invest in some nose plugs.

The Whole is Less than the Sum of its Parts

Yesterday at the market, we came across a few ingredients which all go into a dessert that we have had at a restaurant in Monterey Park, a dessert which we absolutely love.

So, as sort of an experiment, I tried to make the dessert tonight, by reverse engineering my memory of the Monterey Park dessert and combining those insights with pieces from various recipes found online.

The result... is not worth writing a blog entry about. Let's just say that the dessert went the way of Saturday's kim-chee.

So instead of telling you about the final result dessert, I thought we would have a fun little "guess the ingredient" game. Came you name these three ingredients which were all part of my not-so-wonderful-dessert?

1.


2.


3.

Potpourri

Back in the day, Potpourri was used as a Jeopardy category whenever they wanted to find a place for a bunch of questions which had no running theme. Today, Potpourri will be the title of this blog post on multiple random things.

First, regarding some cool things I've recently discovered...

A Chinese tv station, called 东方电影 (dōng fāng diàn yǐng = Eastern Movie) streams online - it often plays American movies with Chinese translations. Movies like... A Few Good Men, The Wedding Singer, and others. But also, on weekday afternoons, it plays 2 episodes of Smallville. This has been great for language practice - simple dialogues, easy to follow, and somewhat entertaining.

The Twitter Website has been inaccessible here all this week. But, thanks to The Captain, I have just learned that Twitter Gadget is accessible. This will be useful until the Twitter website comes back online.

Next, regarding candy...

Saw this in the store the other day:


If the green packaging doesn't give it away, then perhaps you remember our little Chinese lesson from a previous post that the very first character in the top left of the packaging: 酸 (suān) means sour. That's right... sour skittles. Wonderful. (By the way, I have grown to really like the sour milk that I bought last week. It's already all gone. Will probably buy more.)

Lastly, regarding fruit...

We've been pleased that there is a large variety of different fruits available. Fruit is somewhat expensive here, at least relative to other food; but, nonetheless, we have many options. I was very pleased to find mangoes here. Mangoes are possibly my favorite fruit. Just by looking at this picture, can't you tell right away that this mango is sweet and juicy? Well, it was.



Also, regarding fruit... I went out today to buy a lime. For salsa. It was part of our Mexican food dinner tonight (which was delicious... but Bethany will blog about it tomorrow... with pictures - something to look forward to for sure!). I bought the greenest lime I could find:



And then I cut it open. This... was not a lime.



I felt deceived. Is this a lime? Is this an orange? What. Is. This. Thing?

Friday Night Dinner: Chinese Takeout

Bethany was out with the girls for Friday night, so I decided to have a quiet evening to myself. Oh, but what to do for dinner? I decided to go with Chinese takeout. Which means I walk down the stairs, out the front gate of our complex, and then stop in at one of the restaurants that is attached to our complex exterior. So convenient.

So I brought home 羊肉饺子 (lamb dumplings) and 凉皮 ("liang pi" is a spicy noodle dish served at room temperature - refreshing on a hot summer day!).

No wife at home to cook for me, but for the equivalent of $1.50 USD, I think I did alright. :)

Comfort Foods

During the last two weeks, I have had my up and down moments during the transition, and I realized that when I am having my down moments, I have turned to one food item. Gummy bears.

Alvin and I weren't even planning on packing gummy bears, but thanks to Mama Lee, she surprised us with a couple bags of junk candy hidden in our suitcases. The last few years in the states, I have avoided eating candy because I was afraid I would get cavities. So I slowly weaned myself off all candy. But the last few weeks, when I feel I need a pick-me-upper, I grab the bag of gummy bears in the fridge, and start chomping. They are a easy treat because I don't need any language skills to get them and eat them, and they remind me of home.

For some reason, I really like the green gummy bears. They are my favorite. The other day, I was in a stressful moment, so I grabbed a handful of bears and put them on a napkin. I saw that there were three green gummy bears. So I was going to eat one to start, one when I was half way through, and one to top it off. But Alvin came over and grabbed a green one. Noooo!!! I freaked out. He had no idea why I was making such a big deal about the green one. So he grabbed the bag, and started giving me all the green ones. Noooo!!! Then the next time I have a stressful moment, there will be no green gummy bears to cheer me up. Eventually I explained to Alvin and he understood, but still thought I was being a little obsessive.

I guess I should find another way to destress instead of eating candy; also, I am on my last bag of gummy bears.

What candy helps you de-stress? Do you think green gummy bears taste different from the other colors?

More Things Food

I am positive that there will be many, many more entries in the future that pertain to all things food. There's just so much to share about regarding food... restaurants, street food, how inexpensive it is, what you can buy in stores, produce in markets, what results in digestive unpredictability, etc.

But for today, I just wanted to write another entry on food, even though Bethany's post yesterday was also on food.

First, Bethany cooked dinner at home again tonight. Maybe it's the fresh ingredients from the market down the street... maybe it's the super hot gas burner stove... or maybe my wife just rocks. Probably all three. But the home-cooked food has been so good. Here is a dish from tonight's dinner - it's kind of like kung pao ji ding, but without the peanuts and slightly less spicy. Nonetheless, it was delicious. Here's a picture to make your mouth water...



Now (and I'm sure there will be more posts on this topic), some quick snapshots of cool snacks that you can get out here in the grocery. I am a big fan of how they have cooler flavors for snacks and drinks out here. For example...

Sure, mint oreos are pretty good, and I haven't been able to find that out here. But, strawberry... that's pretty good too!



And ok, I haven't been able to find jalapeño kettle chips. But, on the average, the flavors out here are way more creative than "salt & vinegar" or "sour cream 'n onion." Here are some fun flavors for Lay's and for Pringles...





Looking forward to finding some other cool snacks that we enjoy out here... sodas, candy, chips, cookies, and other junk food. Will post pictures of any other cool ones that we find...

Home Cooked Meal

I really enjoy cooking at home. It is my way of relaxing and making sure that I get the nutritional value that I need. But this last week I haven't been able to cook a full meal because I didn't have everything that I needed to cook. Although I have cooked a dish here and there to accompany the take-outs, it was not until today that I was able to make a full home cooked meal.

The stove is a little different, but it can make the food taste more like a Chinese restaurant. First, it is a gas stove that ranges from "very hot to flaming." There is no such thing as a slow simmer. Second, the flames from the gas stove envelope the wok (the side of the wok has heat directly around it), and therefore the whole wok gets very hot, so I can flash fry the food.

Also, another difference is that in the states I would usually have to go to a specialty grocery store to find Asian groceries, here it only has Asian produce. I have to go to a specialty store to find produce for other types of cuisine. Also, currently I am shopping not at a grocery store, but in the open-air market. Quite an interesting concept, hopefully we can get pictures up soon.

Can you guess what dishes these are? The vegetable in the last one is probably not as typical in a US grocery market, but I will give you a smiley face if you are close.

Simply Complicated

After a first half of the day filled with ups and downs, I came home hungry. So, I just whipped together something, and it hit the spot perfectly. Quick little bundle of thin noodles boiled. Topped with a sliced pork chop, some chopped green onions, and some chili oil. It was delicious.

I'm sure there are some days when The French Laundry, with its morel mushrooms and tomato diamonds, are the way to go. But today, simplicity ruled the day.

A simple meal like this got me thinking about how often our lives are not simple. The pleasures that we enjoy are so often no longer the simple ones. Or - in pursuing convenience or security, or even more noble pursuits like love or compassion - we layer our lives with more and more complexity.

Granted, my life would be simpler if I lived alone, interacted with no one, and kept to myself. So it was clearly a conscious decision of mine to do things like marry a wonderful girl or build into friendships that I valued. These things were well worth it to me, even though they complicated my life.

Some people own dogs, even though doing so clearly complicates their lives. They do it because the pleasure of their canine companion far outweighs the complexity cost they experience. That's fine (but I don't think I could ever own a dog).

But I do want to do some good thinking about what things I have let seep into my life which make my life needlessly more complicated. That is, find those things where the cost of complexity outweigh the benefits. For example, owning two cars meant worrying doubly much about the cost of gas and insurance or keeping up with maintenance and registration, etc. Our lives are simpler now with just one car. And, riding the DART is pretty darn good.

So then, what are those things in life that I own or pursue which... have more control over me than I do over it? What are those things in my life that I thought would simplify my life but actually complicate it instead? I should make a list...

Returning to Food

Before I dive into today's post, I wanted to write a quick note on something that I heard on the radio today. On Studio 360 (NPR) this afternoon, there was an entire show talking about the elderly, and about how much we can learn from them. They were asking questions of some of these men and women who are well into their eighties, and they asked what kind of advice they would like to give to younger people. One elderly woman advised young people not to take everything in their life so seriously.

She said the words, "Not everything is a crisis. When you're young, you think everything is a crisis. But it's not true. As you get older, you learn that not everything is a crisis." YES. I love it. I feel like she validated the thoughts I was having just a week ago when blogging about the End of the World.

Ok... for today: As most of you know, I have had a week of intense dental activity. I have already learned my lessons about taking care of my teeth. I've been doing very well this week! And I plan to keep it up. But yes, this week has included 4 wisdom teeth extractions, a crown, and... a few fillings. (Don't shake your head at me. Each of us has our individual areas of weakness and brokenness. Yours might not be dental, but you've got areas too.)

So, for the most part this week, I have been taking it pretty easy in regards to food. Lots of jouk. Lots of soup. A couple poached eggs. And then yesterday, seared jumbo scallops on asparagus puree. And then tonight (thanks, CWang), braised short ribs, swiss chard, mashed potatoes, and frozen bread.

But today, I really wanted to return to food. Like, go and indulge in a few simple pleasures that I missed this week. Not that I eat these things every week, because I don't. I guess these were just cravings I had since I feel like I just got my mouth back after a week of quarantine.

So for lunch today... I ate a Filet-o-Fish sandwich from McDonalds. Delicious.

And tonight, on the way home from dinner, I stopped to get fro-yo with mochi topping. Delicious.

I wonder, after we move, what kinds of foods, I will be craving to eat whenever we return to the States for a visit. Right now, I'm thinking it would be an In-N-Out cheeseburger with grilled onions and fries well done. But what if it's something totally random and unexpected... like the Meat Lover's Scramble from Denny's? Or pita chips with Harry n' David onion and relish dip? Or raw broccoli with ranch dressing?

Makes me think I should cherish everything more now, since I don't know what I'll be missing until I'm missing it. This means food, sure, but probably also conveniences, simple pleasures, and then, of course... people.

Snobby Food

This past year, my friend received the French Laundry recipe book for a gift. She lent the book to me so I can read all about food that I will never be able to eat.

When I first borrowed the book, I thought that there was a slight possibility that I could try a couple of the recipes. 20 minutes into looking through the book, I was discouraged that there was no way I could make any of the recipes. First, I don't know how to shuck an oyster. Second, I don't have the tools. Third, I don't have the money to buy the food. I put the book down dejected and hungry.

A couple days later, when I was feeling more confident and determined, I went through the book looking for the easiest and cheapest recipe.

The recipe I chose was pan-roasted scallops with morel mushrooms, and asparagus puree. The problem, I found out later, that morels are hard to find and are super expensive. They are also poisonous when raw (just in case you are put in that situation). I found on a website that morels can be priced at $59.99. Alvin kept teasing me that it was a Disneyland ticket. I thought, if I have to choose between DL and mushrooms, I am choosing DL (I Heart DL.)

So the substitute I chose was Hen of the Woods mushroom. Sounds like Chicken of the Sea. Anyway, prep time was about an hour, cook time was 30 minutes. The most snobby request the recipe asked for was to cut the tomatoes into small dice, but shaped like diamonds. My friend CWang, owner of snobby book, came over to help and then of course eat.

And here are pictures of the result:





Here is my critique of the recipe: I didn't like the asparagus on top because the texture clashed with everything else, but the puree, mushrooms and scallops went well together.

Also, it doesn't fill. My friend made mashed potatoes, not from French Laundry, to fill up everyone's stomach.

Overall, it was very yummy. Kudos to the snobby recipe. I guess being a snob works sometimes.

I will let the Alee and CWang comment with their critique.

I feel accomplished now for making my first and probably last French Laundry recipe.

Women's Small Group

Every week (that I am in town), I go to a women's small group. We usually meet at a cafe in Korea town, but since we are on a break in between our studies, I invited the girls over for dinner. It sounds like the stand out was the chilled corn soup. For fans of Top Chef, this was made by Jamie and I found her recipe on Bravo TV's website.

And here's a picture of some of the girls from the group. (BLB, NT, andCW are also in the group).
They are a fun group and I look forward to learning with them.

吃饱了

The title phrase (chi bao le) and the above picture pretty much sums up what we've been doing in Vancouver over the last three days. Taking pictures, playing with kids, and eating. Lots and lots of eating.

When I was growing up, I hated eating. It was a chore - a necessary evil in order to sustain life. One of my childhood memories of Vancouver is of visiting here in Expo '86, and being around cousins and uncles and aunts. But, because I hated eating, I always ate so slow and never wanted to finish my food. I remember one of my aunts (I won't say which one) tying me to the chair with a belt so that I couldn't leave until I finished my dinner... and all the while, everyone else was in the other room having a good time.

Smorgasbord

On Tuesday morning, our team went to S*hady M*aple Smorgasbord. Basically it is a lot of food. It had breakfast foods (which means 6 different kinds of potato products and many different kinds of egg products). It had at least 5 different kinds of meat, which I hear in PA is a sign that a meal is good. They also had a man making corn fritters (shown above) and a cheese bar. They also had ic*ees. We stayed for 2 hours and in the 2 hours we had a team meeting, and then went back to eating.

Yummy! Also, last night we went over to a couple's house and they served us nacho salad. They made cheese with meat in a crockpot, but didn't call it queso. I think only Texans call it queso, everywhere else they call it cheese with meat.

Food Pics 01/08/09

Yummy dinner on Thursday night.

Pasta with tomato, basil, and mozzarella. One of B's best, and one of my favorites.


Chilled Jumbo Shrimp with Homemade Cocktail Sauce

Christmas Food Pics

In the last few months, I've been trying to take pictures of food more. So that we can remember all of the good things we eat, and because I think good pictures of good food make the good food look even better.

So, here are a few samples of the yummy food we ate while spending Christmas in Los Angeles...

Pear & Jicama Salad


Ceviche (with Tilapia)


Lao Lao (bamboo leaf wrapped pork with salted fish)


Ginger-Scallion Dungeness Crab


Steamed Shrimp (Chinese-style... with head and eyes and everything...)


Mexican Dessert (what's this called? It's kinda like a churro...)


Red-Bean Mochi