Food & recipes » Hip to be Mom

Fish without the chips

Jul 072011

We were planning to have fish and chips for lunch. Dived into my fridge and dug around for a bit. Turned out I had the fish but not the chips, lime but not lemon, salad but not coleslaw.

But never mind, being the queen of improvisation, I made roasted potato wedges instead, and threw some romaine, lettuce, cucumber, oranges and raisins to make a quick salad.

And in the background, you can see my fresh iced young coconut waiting to be slurped up. Yums, healthy and so so good for a hot, humid day. I could eat this every day!

Vietnamese food – a pleasant pungence

Posted by Clairity 3 Responses »

Jul 022011

Once in a while, the girls and I like to hang out at Vietnam Kitchen. It has a nice ambiance with straw hats and porcelain tile-like plaques lining one side of the wall that gives it a rustic feel.

We usually get our fix of Lemongrass Chicken here which comes with soup, spring rolls, some kimchi-like pickle-like vegetable, a slice of lemongrass pork, fried egg and a sweet tangy sauce over rice.

Occasionally I would order the Beef Ball Noodles for nostalgic reasons. It was the first thing I ever tried at a Vietnamese restaurant in Cali during my college days.

Have you ever tried Vietnamese food? If you like herbs and an exotic pungent flavor in your food, you should definitely try it. It’s really good .

Poisoned

Posted by Clairity 6 Responses »

Jun 282011

Okay, so here’s what I had for lunch. Sweet potatoes, boiled, not fried.

I’ve been poisoned!

Well, not really. I have food poisoning after last weekend’s wedding reception at a classy Italian restaurant in an upscale neighborhood. My tummy is very susceptible to ~~unhygienic~~ evil food. See why I’m such a food snob?

It’s been 2 days and my tummy still churns like a drum occasionally. Thankfully no throwing up or diarrhea, just the annoying discomfort. I’m trying to stay away from oily food, or any kind of food for that matter simply because I can’t stomach anything much.

Last night, I sleepily gulped down a glass of milk before bed, only to wake up with an even bigger tummy ache this morning. Brilliant, I’m supposed to avoid dairy products! What was I thinking?!

Granted I’ll live. I’m sure .

An afternoon of Chinese tea tasting

Posted by Clairity 6 Responses »

Jun 252011

Admittedly I’m a tea freak. I drink tea every day. Most days, it’s Chinese tea. Until now, my rather extensive Chinese tea collection has been gifts from my neighbor who was in the tea business, and from friends returning from vacations in China and such. Lucky me, I’ve hardly had to go out and purchase my own tea leaves.

Every day, I would brew a different tea. It’s interesting to kinda keep my tastebuds guessing. Recently, I was handed a flyer promoting a Tea Art Cultural Exposition here in the city this weekend. Since I don’t read the local paper, I wouldn’t have known otherwise. So yes, I was excited and couldn’t wait to go tea-tasting.

We tasted almost all of the teas at this booth. I love these glass teapots sitting on glass warmers – too cute. The young woman kept pouring and serving us these little cups of tea on a tray. Chinese teas are all fragrant in their own way. We ended up buying 2 canisters of ripe puer tea (the girls’ favorite) and 1 canister of jasmine tea leaves.

One day, I’m going to buy a glass teapot set with the little tea cups. There’s an art to sipping tea (just like for fine wine). But I’ll have to wait till I find the time and patience to sit down and sip Chinese tea from little cups instead of gulping it down like I do now and then rushing straight out to pick up my kids .

Do you like Chinese tea? If not, what other types of tea do you drink?

Whatever Wednesday – Favorite beverage

Posted by Clairity 6 Responses »

Jun 222011

I was going to post a Wordless Wednesday today but seeing as I’m not much good with keeping ~~my mouth shut~~ my talkative fingers from walking all over my keyboard, I decided to pick the happy medium.

So Whatever Wednesday it is – a picture, a few words (’nuff said!) and a guessing game, just for the heck of it. Here goes:

This is one of my favorite drinks. It’s slightly sweet, very nutritious and great for your complexion. I like it better chilled.

Your guess – what drink is this? I will post up the correct answer later. Oh, and while you’re at it, name me one of your favorite beverages .

Give me wings

Posted by Clairity 12 Responses »

Jun 202011

No one in the Hip household ever says no to my Cajun roast chicken wings, potatoes and carrots. I even get “advanced bookings” for the leftovers.

It was my grandmother who introduced me to chicken wings because she herself loved them so much. She used to marinate hers with dark soy sauce and fry them, and although I found them a little pesky to eat at first, I soon learnt the art of chomping through the entire 3 sections of the wing just from watching her.

It’s a shame my girls have never met my grandmother who passed on at age 85 but they seem to have inherited her love for chicken wings. Steev doesn’t do chicken wings and his biggest complaint is why don’t they just “invent” a chicken without bones?

Personally I find the wing to be the most intriguing part of the chicken, a challenge to eat at first but the tastiest part once you get the hang of it. I typically break it into 3 sections and start working my way from the drumette to the mid section and finally to the tip.

The tip is the fun part. If it’s crispy, I’ll just pop the entire thing into my mouth and crunch till there’s nothing left but the pulp. The wing is so flavorful it’d be a shame to waste any part of it. Do you do chicken wings? If not, which is your favorite part of the chicken?