Diary of a Foodaholic

I went to my friend’s house few weeks ago and helped her baby sit her 3 year old while she went to school……mumu loves to pose and plays pretending…hehe…very cute, isn’t she? she might become an entertainer when she’s grown up…

Amusing thing happened right after my friend left for school, mumu told me she wanted to poo…I thought, oh that’s a piece of cake…since I often play with her and I know that she can clean up by herself after she pee….

She asked me to wait by her side when she poo, she sang songs for me, she even “created” some songs about me and Rico, very adorable…. =)

Then mumu asked me, " Caroline, do you want to look at my poo?" uh oh.. I asked her……"Why do you want me to look at it?" She said, "my mom always check on my poo…" okay….

I will not go into the detail, but after she’s done, she asked me to clean up after her….I have never in my life clean up a baby’s poo, let alone a 3-years old’s poo…so, mumu is my first…haha….and she’s a very nice girl, after I was done cleaning her up, she said thank you to me….

Then we played for a while, mumu showed me some dance movement that she has been learning from her dance class…then, after Rico came from his work, my friend and her husband got home too, we started to prepare dinner together…they have been inviting us for hot pot dinner for quite some time but we never had time to match our schedule…finally, that day we can meet and had a great time having hot pot while enjoying each other’s company…and it’s a perfect day to have a hot pot too, because it’s very cool and cloudy, while just few days previously were hot and humid…

So, here is how my friend made her "infamous" hotpot…

First, she sautéed garlic, green onion and ginger, and add the chicken with bones to make the seasoning base for our hot pot…

Then, she sliced some bamboo shoots, clean up the octopus and slicing  some mushrooms and tofu…

We had two types of hot pot, red and white base, the red one is hot and the white one is not hot…I love the spicy ones best….

On our individual bowl, we put chopped garlic, mixed of soybean paste, sesame oil, vinegar and cilantro for our dipping sauce….

As shown on the pics below, we had 2 different kinds of mushrooms, 3 types of tofu, octopus, tripes (babat), and also LAMB….yes, I never liked lamb before, but this one is great, didn’t smell at all…yumm…

Overall, I would rate our dinner 9 out of 10 scale…it was great….we also had beer along with the hot pot, it was a perfect combination… =P

This is a picture of my breakfast at Panera Bakery two days ago..it’s an Orange Scone…the texture is rather dry…which is a dissapointment considering that their souffles is very yummy and moist…they have different kinds of souffles and I love all of them…cheese, bacon, and spinach….yummm….Rico loves their pastry, the apple and the strawberry ones…

I often went there to study because it offers free wifi…so I usually bring my laptop and study while waiting for Rico works…the place is right accross Rico’s office… also I love to go there because it offers variety of breads (from foccacia to bagel..with different filings, cheese, nuts, anything you can think of..), their salad and soup are great too….

This recipe is from my friend, who is originally from China, and the food is kind of her traditional food…

I actually ate this type of imitation meat before, my mom used to make it for us back in Indonesia, but her way of cooking and the taste of the dish is totally opposite from my friend’s…my mom is deep fried and salty, while my friend is stir fried and sweet…

Both are delicious but I will talk about the sweet one because I made this one today…hehe =) When my friend first made this dish for me few months ago, I asked her the recipe right away because it’s so yummy…

alright, here we go…

First, you need to boil some peanuts because we will mix them with the dish at the end…

Next, boil some water and pour on dried shitake mushroom, but if you want to use the fresh mushroom it’s ok too..

Slice some imitation meat, you can buy these at chinese supermarket like Lion or Ranch 99, usually they are next by the Tofu section….

Then you wash, yeah…wash =P… the meat in cold water 3-4 times, and squeeze until no more excess of water in the meat….

Fry the meat until golden brown, but not dry…add some soy sauce and lots of sugar…and add on the shitake and the water from shitake…put on a lid and let it shimer for about 20 minutes or until the meat is tender…We are suppose to add some ear mushroom too on this dish but I forgot to buy it =P

When the water is reduced and the meat is tender..open the lid and let the dish cool off…

After it’s cool, sprinkle with sesame oil, and add the boiled peanut in…don’t mixed the peanut in when the meat is hot, otherwise, the peanut will change color to brownish…for garnish you can put some chopped cilantro, it will look nicer and the taste is refreshing….unfortunately, my bobo, the "picky eater" doesn’t like cilantro…hehehe…that’s why I didn’t put any….

Hope you enjoy it…. =)

Sorry for being MIA for a while…I just finished the first part of the CPA exam today….phew…I’ve been studying non-stop for the past 3 weeks, so I really hope that I pass…3 more parts to go…I plan to take all of them by August so that I can relax for 1 month before start working in October…I just cross my finger this time…it’s been really hard studying latety, I need to get my self motivated….hmmm…

Anyway, here’s one picture that I took when I did ‘cook’ few weeks ago…hehe..I’ve been eating junk food for a few weeks, didn’t have time to cook due to studying and getting sick because of pollen allergy… =(

It’s a marinated beef steak over steamed broccolli…it’s very easy, just marinate the beef with soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, sugar, sake/wine, pepper for one night in the fridge and the next day you just fry them with butter and add ketchup and/or sweet soy sauce…steamed broccolli and cut the beef thinly and pour it over the brocolli…it’s yummy and have complete combination of protein and fiber…I’m very sure that you will get a nice BM (bowel movement) the next morning…ha =P

Enjoy,….