finally, friday

Look at all that marbled fat! Seeing this beautiful case of meat makes me wanna go back to eating it on the regular. Sorta.

Breakfast this week: Egg frittata with bell peppers, zucchini, olives and of course, cheese.

Super excited to see this heirloom spinach at Trader Joe's. Go TJ's! It's also very delicious and is a little bit thicker than the spinach you're used to.

Oh, and by the way if you're at Trader Joe's don't forget to pick up the bake at home Kouign Amann. Soooo amazing considering it's frozen and ready-to-bake.

Shrimp Sinigang for the rainy weather and perfect for using up whatever leftover veggies are in the fridge.

Happy Friday everyone. Is it just me or are you loving the rain too? It's been really nice to get some rain since California is in a drought and I really can't wait for it to rain tomorrow (as forecasted) again. We need all the rain we can get! On another note, I haven't been feeling to well lately, so it'll be a good time to rest up and get better for the big Thanksgiving week ahead.

What Chef's eat after work.

Not sure how you're going to prepare your sweet potatoes this year? This recipe sounds amazing.

Men: Not much of a dancing machine? Here are some tips to what will make women swoon at your dance moves, lol.

I am so obsessed with the Fiber Florist. It's one girl that makes amazing floral arrangements all out of felt and you would never be able to tell.

Loving this small, but intimate tablescape for the Holidays. 

the most wonderful tropical green smoothie

Besides eating a ton of greens throughout the day or during your meals, there's no better way to get your veggies in than juicing or making smoothies. A couple years ago I started juicing everyday. Everyday. For three months straight. While it was very good for me and my skin glowed everyday it just wasn't feasible for every day. There's a lot to juicing. There's the prep from buying ingredients, to washing and chopping, juicing, then the clean up. Not to mention it gets super expensive, especially if you choose to use organic ingredients. I've never really been into making green smoothies-- I'm not sure if it was because I didn't like the thickness of them, or maybe I was just so burnt out from the three months of juicing, or maybe I never found one I really, really enjoyed, but after recently making the above smoothie I was kind of hooked. I've been having a smoothie almost every day since and the process has been so easy I could definitely see myself doing this long-term.

It's packed with greens (and the fiber I lost when I only drank the juice), some protein (from the chia seeds and kale), and it tastes like you should be on a white sandy beach, bikini and sunblock on. I've made variations since, but this combo still wins. I've even been drinking it on the go in my insulated Klean Kanteen to keep it ice cold or enjoying it at home with my new stainless steel eco-friendly straws (yay for never using those plastic ones again!).

Tropical Green Smoothie
(Serving size is 2 large smoothies or 3 smaller ones)

- 1 1/2 cups of very packed spinach
- 1/4 or 1/2 cup of very packed baby kale (I like baby kale it seems to have less of a bitterness to it)
- 1 ripe banana (feel free to freeze the banana if you want)
- 3/4 cup of pineapple (I like the frozen pieces from Trader Joe's)
- 1/2 a ripe pear (or any other fruit you want to add really... mango is also very good)
- 1/2 cup of OJ (I like the not from concentrate)
- 1/2 cup of water
- 1-2 tablespoons of chia seeds depending on how much you want
- 2 ice cubes

Add the spinach and baby kale into the blender first and pack it down as much as you can. Pour in the OJ and water (it will seep down in between the greens and help everything to blend). Top with the banana, pineapple, chia seeds and other fruit if you have it. Blend until smooth. Add ice cubes and blend until smooth. Enjoy immediately.

Sometimes I add more greens depending on how I'm feeling, but for starters this is a great amount. I realize this is packed with a good amount of sugar (but hey at least it's natural sugar right?) so might try switching out some of the fruit and using ginger as a flavor replacement. I'll be sure to give you an update once I do. Let me know how you get along with this recipe and leave a comment of your yummy smoothie concoctions if you have any!

heirloom tomato jam

I don't like wasting food, but honestly, sometimes it's sadly the case with produce, especially organic produce that just doesn't keep as long. I was determined this time to not waste this lovely batch of heirloom tomatoes that I knew I wasn't going to be able to consume before they went bad. So, I decided that I was going to whip up some tomato jam that could be stored in the fridge for a lot longer than they would keep fresh. The first time I tried anything like it was at the ever popular Brenda's French soul food a few years ago on their egg and bacon tartine. Since it's been a few years that I've gone to Brenda's I completely forgot about it... until about a week ago at the Big Sur Bakery where they served it on their grilled cheese sandwich. The perfect complement to the salty gruyere cheese. It is seriously the perfect way to preserve those beautiful tomatoes. So far, I've had it on toast with avocado, in a grilled cheese sandwich, and atop a zucchini omelet. Such a wonderful little condiment to enjoy and feel guilt free about (both on the waist and not in waste)!

Tomato Jam

1 cup of organic heirloom tomatoes
2 tsp. of sugar

Throw tomatoes into a saucepan on med heat. Once the tomatoes are heated through start breaking them up and mashing slightly (or just take a knife and cut slits in them). Turn heat down to low-med heat so the tomatoes are simmering in their juice. Add sugar (depending on how sweet the tomatoes are you might want to adjust your sugar, so add 1 tsp. first, taste, then add more if needed. The jam should be slightly sweet but still a little tangy). Stir occasionally in the beginning, but once the mixture gets thicker you'll need to stir more often so the bottom doesn't burn. Continue cooking until the mixture has reduced and becomes a jam like consistency. Put in a jar or container and enjoy for the week!

sourcing dinner

There's something about getting your own food, and working hard for it that makes a meal that much more satisfying. It's about the hunt, getting the right amount of food you need (in this case, I fed lots of people), sustainability, and feeling more connected to what you're eating. I went crabbing this particular weekend with some friends and got a load of red and rock crab (dungeness crab season runs from November-June so we can't take those at the moment) and took it home to make a nice bowl of crab and corn chowder. It was delicious, full of crab meat, and very satisfying.

I first steamed the crab, then cleaned them really, really good (it makes it a ton easier to clean once they're dead, no risk of getting pinched!). These guys had a lot of gunk all over them so they needed a really good deep cleaning. Once they were scrubbed and cleaned the tedious part happened which wouldn't have happened without the help of my dear friends / diners. We all took part in de-shelling 11 wonderful crabs to get the meat out of the shell so we could make a crab stock for the soup. It was a fun activity, and I even got a few cuts from these razor sharp shells (dungeness crab have a less thick shell, so I can't wait to do this when they're in season) which did really sting for a while, but hey, a girl has got to eat!

In the end, everything turned out delicious and I really loved the entire process. I'm all for sourcing your own food, and even though I don't do it very often, I'd love to do it more and am definitely going to start trying! There's a woman I absolutely look up to for this and if you've read my blog before I'm sure you've heard me mention her before. If you haven't, take a look at this woman, she is definitely on a whole other level.

Crab Corn Chowder recipe (5 hefty servings):

Ingredients:
11 whole crab (around 1-1.5 lbs. each) de-shelled with meat reserved on the side and shells saved for stock
3 ears of corn (white or yellow)
1 bunch of celery
1 onion
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 tablespoon of peppercorn
4-6 oz. tomato paste
3 yukon gold potatoes
2 bell peppers (red, yellow or orange)
Fresh chopped parsley
8 oz. heavy cream
2 dried Bay leaves

The stock:
Place shells in a large pot (mainly the bodies, cleaned, and some legs if you want) and add enough water just to cover the shells. Add garlic whole with skin on, peppercorns, 2-3 stalks of celery, half the onion with skin on, and tomato paste. Simmer for 45 minutes until dark and crabby in flavor. Strain stock. Add salt as desired.

*You can add any other vegetables to the cooking process that you like, I just used what I had available.

The soup:

Cook corn and cut off the cob, then reserve it to add later. Add remainder of onion (diced) and bell peppers (diced) to large stock pot and brown with olive oil until nice and tender. Add chopped potatoes and brown for a minute or two. Add crab stock and bay leaves, heat until simmering. Simmer for 15 minutes. Add heavy cream, corn, crab meat, and parsley. Stir until combined and turn off heat. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot and enjoy!

grab me a cold one

I have been obsessed with cold-brew coffee lately, especially with learning how easy it is to make... it's almost effortless. I was over at my sister's house one day and she offered me some cold brew coffee and I immediately saw she was taking her own container of coffee out of the refrigerator. I asked "You made it???". She replied yes and that it was easy to make. You measure out coffee grinds, add room temp water, leave it overnight (some say 24 hours) and wa-lah! You've got yourself some cold brewed coffee only needing to be strained from the grinds, poured over ice, and dressed up with the normal additives you like in your cup of joe and then consumed. I actually like to keep mine in the fridge overnight (not sure if it does anything to the 'steeping' process, it seems to work still) so it's cold in the morning and won't melt as much of the ice you pour it over. Oh man it's good. Something about brewing it this way makes it lower in acidity too which makes it super, super smooth. For whatever reason I thought cold-brew coffee was this long, difficult process, but it's actually super easy. The only thing it takes is time, but a majority of the time it takes to make I'm fast asleep dreaming of that cold cup of joe when I wake.

wild hawaiian opah with capers

I've only ever seen Opah, aka Moonfish, when I've been in Hawaii. I'm not sure if it's only native to the Hawaiian waters, but I do know that it does live there and is a fish Hawaiians will often eat. When I saw wild Hawaiian Opah being sold at my local grocery I freaked out and absolutely had to get it. I actually had no idea how I was going to prepare it, but in the end I threw together a few things in the kitchen and resulted in a really delicious dinner for two. The fish has a meaty texture while still being a little on the flaky side (like seabass or cod) and when cooked just right, like any kind of fish, is moist and delicious. I enjoyed it and would definitely get it on the (rare) occasion it's at my grocery store again. I'll provide a rough idea of what ingredients I used, and if you're really interested in a detailed recipe I can scrape my memory and put one together for you, just let me know in the comments section!

Wild Hawaiian Opah with capers

The Sauce, sauteed
Handful of capers
Vegetable broth
Grape tomatoes
One large clove of garlic
Juice of half a lemon
Chopped cilantro
Pat of butter
A little honey
Salt and Pepper to taste

The Fish
Opah (seasoned with salt and pepper). Pan seared then finished off in the oven.

The Vegetables

Two large handfuls of haricot vert, boiled long enough to take off the rawness but still maintain it's crisp. Place on plate and the sauce from the fish will be enough to flavor it.

running all over thailand

I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to go to Thailand especially since it's been a destination on my list of places to visit for a while now. On our trip we went to Chiang Mai, Koh Mak, and Bangkok. Overall, I had a good time, and have many awesome moments and memories from the trip, but I have to be honest that I left feeling a little disappointed. I struggled a lot with Thailand mainly for one reason, and that being I didn't feel like, as a visitor, I was able to quite grasp the real culture of Thailand very easily. And I know you're going to think I'm crazy for saying that from all the wonderful photos I got, but let me explain further.

I think there are two types of travelers. Those that go to a place and want to experience it's culture in probably the truest way you can. Doing the things locals would do. Whether it's eating like a local, visiting more low-key destinations, taking their local transport, etc. Then, there are those that just visit the popular tourist attractions and don't necessarily get the chance to see deeper into the every day lives of the people living there (maybe due to time restraint, preference, or just not knowing). I'm not saying one is better than the other, but for me, I prefer to really try and experience what it would be like living in that place, having experiences that the locals would (of course I still do some of the touristy things, c'mon you can't come to SF and not see the Golden Gate Bridge or visit Alcatraz!). I know I might not be making sense to some of you, so here is a post that I coincidentally recently read on the same subject that might explain it a bit better.

I'm not exactly sure why I left feeling like I couldn't dig deeper than the surface level when I was in Thailand. It could have been that I needed to spend more time there (we were there eight days), my expectations could have been set really high to begin with, the scammers were everywhere which could have been distracting, or maybe it was the language barrier (although I've been to other non-english speaking countries before and I didn't have this experience), I'm not really sure. It felt as if a lot of things that were culturally significant to the Thai people were now exploited and used to make money off of tourists. Maybe it's me just being naive to the fact that every country in the world does this, but to this extent? Traveling to Japan and Korea more recently, I didn't feel this at all. I felt the culture everywhere and really felt I could be a part of it and not feel like I was being shown things just for the sake of making money. Don't get me wrong either, I know it's a developing country and people will do what they can to make money and live, but I also think there's a way to go about doing that and at the same time preserving and sharing your culture for others to enjoy.

I would still recommend visiting Thailand if you haven't before, but if your travel style is like mine, do more research and try to venture out into some areas that are on the outskirts or areas with few tourists-- even if it will take you more time to do so, it will likely be worth it. We had the wonderful opportunity to go about 30 minutes outside of Bangkok for a day and a half with some local folks we knew (where there were no tourists) and had an awesome time!

Has anyone had a similar experience in Thailand or another country? Or maybe you've had the total opposite experience? I'd love to hear other thoughts on this so please share!

Dried fish on the street in Bangkok's Chinatown

Raw marinated shrimp... anyone know if you eat this raw?

Curries at a night market in Rangsit (30 minutes outside bkk)

Hand-carved soap flowers in Chiang Mai

Banana rotee with nutella

Silver-smithing

Making umbrellas

Hand-painting umbrellas and fans - so talented!

I'm now including sticky rice on top of all my homemade sundaes. This one is mango ice cream with pandan sticky rice. YUM

Crab that's been fermenting for over a month. Usually eaten in Som Tam (papaya salad)

Market in Chiang Mai

Miang kham - a serious flavor explosion in your mouth. SO good.

Best, cheapest meal we had in Chiang Mai. #1 for their khao soi

A street vendor that pulled up while we waited for the Ferry to Koh Mak. Serving up freshly made papaya salad.

Uncrowded beaches on Koh Mak, supposedly one of the last "untouched" islands

A bar at the end of the pier on Koh Mak

Exploring the little island via scooter

More exploring

Filling up on gas

The best view on the whole island

Sunset on Koh Mak

seoul adventures

I'm back! After a two-week long vacation I'm finally back and blogging again. In those two weeks I traveled to Seoul, South Korea and Thailand and had an absolute blast! Thailand is definitely a unique and fun place, but I have to say, Seoul totally stole the show. I had no idea how much I would like Seoul, no actually, love Seoul. I really loved it. From the historic culture, to the different districts/neighborhoods/dongs, to the amazing food, it was all great. Each neighborhood had a unique feel, totally different from the next. Some were modern and trendy, others historic and traditional, and some just plain lively full of shopping or nightlife. I have to add, Korea probably has the most coffee shops I've ever seen, too many to try in one visit, or two, or three. Heck, you could spend a few years checking out the coffee scene it's that saturated. The thing about it though is that each cafe has a different vibe, which in my opinion makes it that much harder to choose where to have your cup of joe-- either that or be wired the whole entire day/night.

The closest city I've been to that I can compare Seoul with would be Japan (and even then they are vastly different cities), which I absolutely loved as well. Seoul is a place I would definitely return to, and highly recommend anyone visiting, but for now hopefully you can enjoy it through some of my photos (and I can reminisce). Stay tuned for my take on Thailand!

Guards before entering the Grand Palace

Gyeongbokgung Palace in the background

Seafood soybean paste soup

Bukchon Hanok village

Roaming the streets of the hanok village

Super good banchan at every restaurant and so much variety

Many trucks selling stuff from food to clothes, to everyday necessities/goods

Hoddeok, a common street food treat

Flowers on the street in Insadong

More street food snacks

Warm, crispy, chewy grilled squid and octopus

Myeongdong shopping at night

Good eats everywhere, this one is an inventive fish katsu roll

Oreo bingsoo-- the smoothest, softest ice shavings I've ever had (even compared to Hawaii!) 

Plastic surgery advertisements in the subway station, on the metro. This one in Sinsa Station, Gangnam.

Hanging out in Hongdae

Anchovy based soup noodle for breakfast, why not?

Heading to the fish market

Constant hustle and bustle at the fish market

All sorts of seafood

Cheonggyecheon at night

More hoddeok, my favorite

Cool coffee shop

Awesome decor

Coffee is pricey in Korea (compared to the US at least), average price is $5 for an Americano-- an Americano!