Thursday, December 18, 2008

My Quest for Sweet Rice---Flour! (and a recipe)

I LOVE sweet rice!

It's sweet! It's sticky! It's just awesome!

Being asian, I get to eat so many yummy sweets, made from sweet rice or sweet rice flour, that my friends are just now getting into, like rice cakes or sticky rice cakes. The anime geeks will know them as mochi.

I love a Viet dessert/breakfast called xoi. Xoi is just steamed sweet rice in coconut milk. Usually it is made with red or black beans and toppped with crushed peanuts mixed with sugar and then topped again with sliced coconut. I really like it. They're also served with mung beans.



I haven't had xoi in a while. Living in Denver and at least 20 minutes away from the small Vietnamese district isn't exactly conducive to getting anything Viet.

Now that I finally got my rice flour. I can make yummy rice flour treats. I have never made anything with sweet rice so I'm going to experiment with different recipes and ways to make them. Soon, I'll share a recipe.

Now, for something completely unrelated. Here's a really good savory biscuit recipe. I like to eat it with curry. Yum.

2 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 pkg cream cheese (about 32oz or so)
1/4 tbsp butter
2/3 cups milk (tea)

green onion, basil, and/or garlic

1. Mix flour, baking powder, sugar, salt well.
2. Cut in (mix) the cream cheese and butter with the flour mixture
3. Add garlic and either basil or green onion and/or other herbs and spices that you want
4. Make a little well or indent in the middle and then pour in the milk ( I like to use tea because it gives off a nice little fragance and it's not too dairy).
5. Mix and knead
6. Pull out little clumps of dough and then bake for 12-15 minutes.
7. Enjoy =)

Monday, December 15, 2008

Confession of a Food-a-holic Fat Girl

Well, I'm not really fat...I'm not. I just really like food. I know that doesn't sound too convincing, but I really only like food, good food. I like food from all over the world France, Italy, Chinese, Mexican, India, etc. All of it. I don't just eat. I like to make food, too.

It wasn't until recently that I discovered that I really like to cook. I am Vietnamese, and I was raised in a very traditional Vietnamese manner. That meant that being a good housewife was part of my upbringing, and a good housewife had to, of course, know how to cook. Being forced to learn how to cook wasn't fun, but it did teach me the basic of cooking.

Now that I don't have to cook, I spend all my time researching and looking for new things to cook. When I'm not cooking or don't feel like cooking, I try to eat new food. I'm always on the look out for restaurants or cafes that no one knows about or in some hole in the wall.

One day a thought hit me, since I spend all my time looking for new and amusing places to eat, I might as well share it with the world. Maybe some unexpected stranger will happen by my little corner of the internet and find himself a cheap but delicious place to eat.

Then, my job here will be complete.

Happy Eating!