Homecooked Roasted Pig Feet (2009.05.11)

The Taiwanese have a tradition of eating roasted pig feet with noodles on their birthday. We didn't have it with noodles, but with white rice. I don't like pig feet very much because it can be rather sticky and it's all fat so it's not really that good for you. When you mix the sauce with noodles, it because really tasty though.

This picture is missing some green or red. LOL.

Lunch Box from JiaLeFu (2009.05.10)

After the movie there were lunch boxes from JaiLeFu in Annandale, VA. The owners are Hakka and cooked some Hakka dishes for us. Going clockwise. Roasted pork with pickled veggie (梅菜扣肉). The pork must be the part with a layer of fat, it tastes better than the pork itself. Unfortunately they did not roast this long enough for the flavor to go into the meat and was lacking some garlic to give it a kick. Sauteed bamboo shoots (did I mention this is bamboo season?) Pandas like raw bamboo, humans don't. Need I say more? Seasoned chicken that was a bit tasty, just a bit. I think it was supposed to be drunk chicken, but it wasn't drunk, just had a bit of salt...

Dinner Box from Bob's 66 (2009.05.09)

I think I complain too much about food that isn't homecooked. Well, here's another series. The dinner box was given to us so we didn't have to go out and figure out what to do for dinner before the concert. Everyone got the same thing, a mix of too many strange things, all bland but the bitter squash, which was bitter, so natural.

Going clockwise. Some kind of fish that was sauteed with bamboo and snow peas. Very bland and too fishy. Yellow pickle. Not my favorite food. Ground pork with lots of five spice over rice. Too much five spicy. Pickled green mustard. Tasted ok. Bitter squash with anchovies. It wasn't cooked long enough so it was a bit on the raw side, but the bitter squash was very bitter, excellent. Roasted Egg. Bland...I actually looked forward to eating the roasted egg we still have at home!! Finally bamboo tips with pork. Bland, once again. The bamboo itself was very soft and tasty. It is bamboo season!

I don't eat salty foods, so if I think it's bland, then it really has no flavor!!!

Homecooked Butter Fish and Lettuce (2009.05.08)

Who says you can't cook lettuce? One platter of sauteed lettuce, coming right up! Just add garlic, oil and salt to season. =)


Crispy butterfish where you can eat the whole thing but the spinal bones. It's rather tasty and only needs salt and pepper for seasoning. No batter is needed, just some oil and ginger! Piece of cake, right?

Homecooked Roasted Egg (2009.05.07)

Roasted egg isn't the most exciting picture in the world. However, this isn't your normal roasted egg. This is a star-imprinted roasted egg half-hidden in a bed of white rice. LOL. This was part of my lunch and the plastic lid has a star imprint. It created a star on the egg, making it picture-worthy. =P

Homecooked Dinner (2009.05.07)

Crunchy anchovies with sesame sweet, lightly sweetened. Goes very nicely with rice. I usually don't eat stir-fried anchovies, however this time it was very crunchy, not hard like usual. it was very tasty, for once.


The matching soup for the anchovies was this "Korean-style" Spicy Seafood Soup. A seafood mix of squi, clams, shrimp and oysters. The veggies include tofu, onions, lettuce and seaweed. It's a seafood potluck. We use the spicy red paste seen in Korean stores. We bought a tub of it once when it was on sale and use it to make soups like this. The paste doesn't require other flavoring to be added to the soup because it contains everything you need for the soup base. The veggies and seafood adds to the taste of the soup.

Victoria's Gastro Pub (2009.05.06)

This place was highly recommended by my co-workers as we were driving to a Thai place for lunch. Well, they made it sound SOOOO good, that I asked "Are you guys sure you want Thai food?" And they said, let's turn around and you can try this place out. Ok, well there goes Thai food. Next time.

Located at 8201 Snowden River Parkway, Columbia, MD 21045, Victoria's Gastro Pub doesn't have the most appetizing name. That aside, the dish below is the American Dip with a small poutine. The American Dip is Slow Roasted Van de Rose Farms Hereford Rib Eye with Horseradish Sauce and Anchor Porter Beef Jus. The thing of black juice is the "Beef Jus." Go Figure. The horseradish was rather bland so I relied on the Beef Juice for flavor. This was the marinated juice from roasting the Rib Eye. It wasn't too bad. The original sandwich came with Vermont Cheese, but I got mine without it.

On the side, instead of the normal selection of sides, my co-workers recommended getting a side of Poutine. A Poutine consists of Duck Fat Fries, Duck Confit, Gruyere Cheese and Duck Gravy. It's very duck-oriented. The history of the Poutine is rather interesting.

Duck Fat Fries are fries that were fried in duck fat.
Duck Confit are pieces of duck.
Gruyere Cheese is some kind of cheese.
Duck Gravy is duck made from gravy...er...gravy made from duck...

It was ok, I'm not sure what the rave was about... LOL



Sidenote: I had this lunch with 5 co-workers who were all guys. I think had it been any other female, she probably wouldn't haven't gotten what I ordered. LOL.

Total Cost: 16 + 2.50 + tax + tip = $23

Homecooked Squid and Celery (2009.04.29)

What do you do when you buy a stalk of celery? You can eat them as a healthy snack. Put them in a tuna salad. Add some in chicken noodle soup. But there's always tons left over! This is how one way of getting rid of celery. It's a very simple dish that doesn't require a lot of prep since celery and carrots are very easy to prepare and only take a few minutes. Throw some garlic in the mix, salt, pepper and oil and you get a very healthy dish!

Homecooked 肉羹 - Thick Soup with Pork (2009.04.28)

This is a Taiwanese dish that my mom cooks fairly often. It's a soup that is thicken using tapioca instead of the standard corn starch in most soups. The pork is breaded with ground shrimp. The veggies include napa cabbage, tree mushroom, carrots, bamboo and an assortment of other things my mom didn't have. The soup's base is flavored with black vinegar. It's not as strong as white vinegar in taste, but has a different fragrant flavor white vinegar doesn't have. The soup goes very well with any type of noodles or rice.

The mandarin pronunciation sounds strange, but in Taiwanese it it pronounced "Bah Gee."