How to make tasty beef

After many trial and error, disappointment, and research, I finally stumbled upon a recipe that makes a tasty beef. From none other than the Essential Asian Cookbook, under the Chinese food section.

• To make tasty beef, you have to buy good quality and fresh beef.

Good beef doesn't have to be expensive, an if you cook it well and eat it when it's fresh, it's well worth the money, right? I buy beef for stir-fried in Asian markets, e.g. Ranch 99, for around $4 - $5 per lb. The important thing is cook the meat when it's still fresh - within 5 days if you refrigerate it! The color of the beef should be reddish pink; it should not have any foul smell, and when you hold it, it should not be sticky or greasy.

• Also make sure to allocate at least 1 hour to marinate the meat.
  

• Ingredients for marinating 1 lb of beef:

1. 2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed
2. 1/2 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
3. 1/2 tablespoon hoisin sause (this will give sweet taste to the meat, if you don't like your food too sweet, put less, or counter it with more soy sause)
4. 1/2 tablespoon sesame oil
5. 1/2 tablespoon peanut oil
6. 1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
   

• Cutting beef

Trim the meat of any excess fat. Slice it across the grain (this is very important), into thin slices, let's said 2 inches long and 1/4 inch thick.

• Combine the marinate and the beef in a bowl, stir to coat. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.

• Cooking

1. First stir-fried half of an onion with 2 cloves of crushed garlic until the onion is soft and golden. Remove the onion and put it aside.
2. Clean the wok!
3. Put some peanut oil in a hot wok, cook the meat in batches over high heat until browned but not cooked through. Return all the meat to the wok and add onion.
4. Add soy sauce and sherry (or Chinese cooking wine). If the dish looks too watery, mix some cornstarch in water and slowly add the mixture into the wok in high heat until it is thickened.
5. (Optional) Add threaded green onion at last to add color and freshness to the dish.
   

Hong Kong Style Milk Tea

One of the irresistible pleasures to me is to go to the Hong Kong bistro to have a cup of Hong Kong style milk tea.

You mix strong black tea with milk and sugar to taste. At bistros, you can get it with sweetened condensed milk, and it is very smooth, sweet and yummy. The bistros use a special kind of black tea powder, which makes the tea very dark and strong. A cup of that during lunch would wake you up for the rest of the afternoon.

My mom makes her variation of HK style milk tea. She uses Lipton black tea, 1 tea bag per cup; some warmed up evaporated milk, and some sugar. It is very tasty too, and is perfect for afternoon tea with some biscuits.

I never really liked the milk tea I made, because it was either not strong enough or not rich enough.

Today after lunch, Jack was comfortably seating in his reading sofa reading his favorite Bourne book. When I cleared the tables, I asked him what I could get for him to drink. He said: "something hot, maybe I'll have what you have."

I just made myself a milk tea with sweetened condensed milk, and it was seating at the kitchen counter waiting for me. OK, I thought to myself, I would just make him a cup.

I put 1 Lipton tea bag in 1 cup of boiling water, I took care not to put too much water as I usually do for making regular hot tea, because it would dilute the black tea too much. I then added 1 tablespoon of sweetened condensed milk to the tea. I took the tea bag out, stirred the milk so it dissolved, and gave it to Jack. He loved it and asked for a second cup.

So that's the Jack-approved Hong Kong style milk tea for you.

Enjoy!

End of the year, new goal

I've been thinking a lot of Yoga the last few months, since I had this new Yoga teacher for the Thursday night Yoga. I like her classes.

Every time after the class, I feel so relieved and refreshed. I became more aware of me, and my presence. It brought me joy.

My instructor is also a Yoga teacher's instructor, so she told us about the certification program she was teaching, which ran from beginning of August through the end of the year . I took a flyer with me. She also hosts retreats to Mexico next year. Everything seem so beautiful and refreshing. I wanted to join too. I took a flyer with me and put them on my bulletin board.

I have been thinking about getting certified. But I held myself back, because I didn't want to jump into something that I didn't have time or energy to do, when my full time job was already keeping me busy.

My motivation of getting certified was not because I thought I was a better teacher than others, or that I wanted to change a career to do something easier. I wanted to get certified so that I could teach Chinese Yoga. See, my mom and other relatives in her age had been in pain a lot in their old ages. They weren't exercising regularly, so they couldn't keep a strong body to fight the pain. So I had been searching for some Yoga classes for Chinese, but I haven't had any luck. So I thought I had to be the person to do it.

My plan is this. I would have to start practicing Yoga on my own, build my own sequences with the help of books and online materials. Then I will read more about Yoga and the philosophy. I could then start introducing my mom to Yoga. So today, I built 2 sequences. One Easy Yoga for elders, another one was Yoga for back pain, for me.

I bought a pair of Yoga sticky gloves from Target, and I used it today to practice the Easy Yoga, they were awesome. I will do my back pain sequence tomorrow morning. I will try to make it a routine. So I don't have to commit to getting certified, which is $2500 and over a few months of part-time study; or going on a retreat, which is $1500 for 7 days.

See how long this hobby will last for me.

Christmas Shopping 2010

Christmas is always stressful for me, I guess this is nothing out of the ordinary for Americans.

Over the years, Jack has this open secret about shopping, which for some unfathomable reason, I never adapted myself to. He shopped online and I didn't. OK ... there were many reasons why I didn't like to shop online: I enjoyed the perks of shopping at malls, namely, seeing and touching what I would buy, socializing with friends, people watching; I had bad experiences shopping online; I believed shipping and handling were way too overpriced and weren't worth it.

Jack on the other hand, hated going to shopping malls, because standing and walking around hurt his back. Jack shopped online. Fedex and UPS were his friends. He was probably the first few who shop online many years back when the internet was still some kind of unknown to the general public. He even created an online shop for the pizzeria at the Student Union, so that it was more convenient for him to order food during his office hours, and maybe get himself some free pizza.

The last few years, my traditional ways of shopping didn't work out quite well. Since I became so super busy all year round, I didn't have time to squeeze in for finding thoughtful gifts for my love ones. So I ended up stressing myself even more every year toward the Christmas Season.

This year, I found myself in similar situation. Last Sunday, Jack and I were talking about Christmas gifts while we were driving home. He already done some shopping, and was pleased. I told him I haven't started yet, and I said, "maybe I could get you some plugs and cables for the home media player project you are putting together." I smiled when I thought it was such a brilliant idea.

I tried to wing it every year. After all, I didn't grow up with Christmas and gift giving, so it was hard to get me excited about spending a paycheck over a holiday.

Jack said, "if you got me plugs and cables for Christmas, I will divorce you."

OK, I could hear the joking tone in his voice, but it was severe enough for me to take it more seriously.

"Ha ha ha, that's good to know. So underwear and socks are out of the question, then?" I continued my joke, and tried to get myself out of the corner.

The pressure was on. I spent the next 4 hours scrambling to find the catalogs from National Geographic Store, Wind & Weather and Brookstone, etc, which would normally end up in the recycle pile, looking for fun toys for my new husband. I also bit the bullet to make the orders online. 4 hours and a few hundred $$$ later, most of my shopping was done. It wasn't that bad after all. The good thing, I used Jack's Amazon prime account to get free 2nd day shipping. For non Amazon orders, I managed to find free shipping deals and additional discounts.

This morning, the door bell rang at around 10, while both of us were working hard at the computer. We both stayed super quiet pretending we weren't home, thinking it was my church "friends" - I didn't read the Bible, the part explaining why God allowed wickedness (which Jack mistaken to be "Why God allowed wikileaks" and jumped to his feet), my church "friends" were going to discuss it "next time". After shower, we headed out to walk the dogs. I found a Fedex box at the door addressed to me. Ah, the Christmas present. While we were opening the box - I had to, cause it was labelled "open immediately" - a second Fedex delivery came to me.

As we open our Christmas presents - to save the efforts to wrap them - I started to feel the joy of online shopping!

How I've gone to the dark side.

On spending money

I still remember when $20 in my pocket covered for three-week expenses, and that was when I was in college. Back then, life was simple and comfortable. I had no "real" income, so I had no need for big expenses - A peace of mind.

When I started working after college, I would buy anything. Clothing, accessories, food and stuff, whatever fits my fancy at the spur of the moment. I was, for lack of a better phrase, a little spending machine. I seemed to be always one pair of new shoes away from happiness. Over a few years, home is cluttered with piles of things, unused makeups, dresses that still have tags on.

Now, I am more picky on things I use and food that I eat. I tend to spend my money on things I really like and enjoy, even though they may be expensive, instead of spending money on some random things just for kicks.

Growing up is a strange thing, because once a while when you look back you could see a clear path from then to now, and there is a reason why you become who you are.

Dishes we made well

Hummus - Jack
Thai green curry paste and homemade green curry - Jack and Ying
Thanksgiving meal - Jack

• Roast turkey, gravy
  
• Wild rice casserole
• Garlic mashed potato
• Noodle casserole
• Upside-down cake
• Sour cream cheese cake
  
• Homemade ice cream
  
• Homemade salsa
  

Stir-fried anything - Ying
Indian curry with lentils - Ying
Aloo Gobi - Ying
Japanese curry with store-bought Japanese curry paste - Jack and Ying
Kung Pao chicken - Ying
Sichuan big bowl beef - Ying
Sichuan cold noodle - Jack

Ying's list: The Best Stuff and Best Treat On Earth

Walkers Pure Butter Shortbread from Scotland.

• Very buttery but not too sweet. Only 3 grams of sugar.
  
• Delicious!

Facial given by Shana at Bamboo Hair and Body.

• I had a warm stone exfoliating facial with Shana last night. After the 1 hour session, I felt that an invisible layer of fatigue was taken off my face. All my facial muscles were so relaxed and my face was so soft.
• My face feels so soft 4-5 days after the facial. I have good reason to believe I will feel good even 1 week later.
• That, I realize, is a worthy facial.
  

Zumba class taught by Sunita.

• Zumba is an amazing aerobic exercise that is super fun and easy to learn. It provides an opportunity for a rigid Chinese girl - moi - to explore and experience the passion of Latin dance.
• Sunita was my Zumba instructor at the athletic club. She was a good dancer and awesome teacher. I love her class. I took her class for 1 year and I felt that my core was stronger, more flexible and toned.
• Unfortunately, she left the club. But now I'm also a certified Zumba instructor! That's how much I like it.

Dim Sum at Hong Kong Flower Lounge in Millbrae - it's up there.

• Yesterday Jack and I waited for 45 minutes to get a table at the corner of the restaurant, in front of the closet. But no complaints, we were still served well and got all the delicious dim sum we wanted.
• Our dim sum favorites?
  

Lightly steamed clam (my mom introduced us to this dish and we love it);
steamed bean curd wrap;
shrimp dumpling;
pork dumpling;
turnip cake;
stuffed mushroom with black bean sauce
... a lot more depending on our mood and appetite ...

• Good food will speak to you and tell you when to go back to have more. It's like magic.

Massage given by Kristen

• Kristen is also a yoga instructor and she is a great masseuse.
• Since she works at the athletic club, there is no fancy spa atmosphere, but she is a nice person.
  
• She played some natural sounds in the room, and during the whole session, I just let my body and mind go. My mind was drifting off. Now and then I thought I was on vacation in Hawaii.
  
• Kristen found a big knot on my left shoulder, and to my amazement, she rub it down good. She is probably the second masseuse who can do that.
• Go to seat in the hot tub and steam room right afterward, and it is truly the best treat on earth.
  

Viyiasa Yoga with Jean

• Jean is a singer and voice artist.
• She is also a very experienced Yogi.
• I love her singing before the practice start. Though I don't know what she is singing about. I think it's in Hindi.
• Jean integrates philosophy into the Yoga practices. She teach us to focus on ourselves, and plant happiness and joy to our body and soul.
• After a sequence, she let us stand on Mountain Pose with eyes closed, and feel the change in the body. It really works, because I can feel my body being less and less rigid as the class progresses.
• The Thursday night Yoga class is the best gift I give to myself in a week.

Bread and cheeses in France