干撈粉 is one of my favorite noodle. The noodle comes with sauce and a bowl of soup on the side. First, the noodle is eaten with the sauce alone; then, the soup can be added in whenever one prefer.

The best 干撈粉 I had was at Pho Nguyen Noodle in Milpitas, CA, they give variety of vegetable and both the sauce and soup on the noodle are delicious.

Pho Nguyen's 干撈粉

At the family gathering, I made my version of Pho Nguyen 干撈粉, it came out pretty good.

Chicken Broth

Ingredients to put on the noodle

干撈粉 and soup. What do you think?

This is how the noodle looks like after it’s mixed with the sauce.

My dad made this garlic vinegar sauce, it is perfect to go with the noodle.

My sister made “Banh Xoi Nuoc” for dessert, it was yummy!

先週末，お姉さん　カリフォルニアに帰った、一緒に釣りにいきました。

２０匹〜　釣りました。嬉しかった。

お魚は　弱火で　ゆっくり　焼きました。小さなお魚　骨までたべられました。

次の月曜日、9月12日はアジアの傳統節日 “ 中秋節 ”である。

その日はアジア人の家族皆集まって，月餅を食べます。それは『中秋人月兩團圓』といいます。

私の妹、Pam, 家族のために，毎年月餅をつくります。

今日は 月餅を作り日です。

私　勉強したい、そして、今朝早めに Pam の家にいきました。

Pam made 2 kinds of moon cakes today, the 5-mixed nuts and green bean with salty egg.

今日は 2種類。。。。。5 種類ナッツあんと緑豆と塩辛い卵あんの月餅をつくりました。

The 5 nuts consists of almonds, walnuts, sesame seeds, cashew nuts, and pine nuts.
In addition, this moon cake has sugar coated winter melon, Chinese sausage, 
Chinese ham, and pork fat.
Every ingredient has to be prepared separately, it was very, very time consuming. 

5 種類ナッツはアーモンド、クルミ、ゴマ、カシューナッツ　と松の実です。

さらに、この月餅は砂糖つけ冬メロン、中国のソーセージ、中国のハム　と　ポーク脂肪がある。
このタイプの月餅作ると時間をかかります。

5-mixed nuts filling

 
The green bean was steamed, smashed, and saute with sugar and oil. 
Pam preserved the salty eggs herself.  
Although salty eggs are easy to make, it takes 30 days to preserve. 
Pam only use the egg yolks and that had to be coated with sugar syrup and wine.

緑豆は蒸す，こわれ，そして、砂糖とオイルと一緒いためます。

Pamは塩辛い卵も自分でつくりました。

塩辛い卵　つくり方法は簡単で，ジャムに３０日かかります。

Pam は 卵黄だけ使います。 卵黄はシロップとワインをぬりました。

green bean and salty egg filling

The skin was made with flour, sugar syrup, and oil.

皮は　小麦粉、シロップ　および　オイルとなされた。

Pam's husband was a big help. He molded the moon cakes and baked them. 

月餅の形の作ると月餅の焼き　Pamの夫を担当でした。

Yummy! Tasting time!

味見の時間です!

Pam, ありがとう!

The moon cakes were so fresh and delicious. Along with a cup of hot tea in our hand, 
my parents, Pam's family, and I, we sat around the table and enjoyed Pam's hard work..................... 
A happy afternoon to be added to my memory page. 
Thanks, Pam, for being such a wonderful sister and for all the delicious meals you cooked for us!

It has been 1/2 year since I moved to California. It is time to get back to work.

I was torn between the decision of going to work for someone else or own my own deli shop.

So I decided to tried both and see what opportunity come up first.

I have been applied for jobs. At the meantime, I did research on how to open a restaurant, make business plans and menu, test recipes and look for deli shops in high foot traffic areas with reasonable price.

It was exciting and also time consuming.

And today, I have the result………………………………

Sorry to say that I won’t be opening a deli…… I have accepted a job offer today.

Either way, I am happy  that I will be working again. Earning money so I can go back and visit Japan someday soon.

Miyuki San's visit to Oakland Chinatown

The pain usually is at the feet, the ankle, and the big toe.

Chinese people call this illness the “rich man’s disease” because they believe gout happens when one eat too much shell food such as shrimps, crabs, oysters, etc…, which costs more than other types of meat.

When gout attacks it is so painful one can hardly walk.

Gout medicine helps but it takes time to heal.

My husband has gout. When gout attacks he usually takes the medicine and drink the papaya green tea and his pain will be gone the next day.

For my husband, this papaya tea is magic.

Papaya Tea Recipe:

1 green papaya

a cooking pot (that holds about 3-quart water)

water

green tea

Direction:

1. Peel the green papaya. Cut in 1-inch cubes.

2. Add the papaya in the cooking pot. Fill the pot with water, bring to a boil, lower the heat and let cook for 30 minutes.

3. Put  1 teaspoon green tea in a teapot and add the boiling papaya water.

Drink this tea throughout the day.

The preparation for geoduck is not difficult. However, its strange look intimidate a lot of people, including me.

I was not going to help out at first but because we were short handed, I have no choice but to help (Urr……).

It turned out to be a good thing. I overcome my fear and now I can prepare geoduck with no problem (Horay!).

To prepare geoducks, first, cut them out of the shell.

Removed all the meat around the shell. These are the tender parts.

Remove the stomachs and throw it away.

At this point,the geoducks should be dip in hot water for about a minute, remove the skin, and cut in half.  Since we prepared the geoducks in the backyard where hot water was not available, we had to cut the geoducks first and remove the skin later.

The skin of the geoducks were easily removed after the hot water bath.

The skinned geoducks are now ready to be sliced thinly and eat raw or cooked.

The abalone and geoduck dinner last night was so delicious, we all ate so much. During midnight, my husband start to have gout attack.

It was so painful but I have a secret recipe works wonder for gout.

I will announce that recipe on the next post. Stay toon!

Catching abalone and geoducks is a lot of hard work but my cousin think it’s all worth it.

Guess what he brought over for dinner last night???………Abalone and geoducks. Yeah! Yum!

The best part of it all was he taught us how to prepare them.

Preparing the abalone and geoducks for dinner last night was messy but it was not difficult.

First, he abalone was removed from its beautiful shell.

Next, the intestines and inner of the abalone was removed.

Then, it was washed with a brush and pound with a meat tenderizer so the meat will be tender.

At last, it was sliced and ready to eat.

Last night, we ate the abalone and the geoducks as sashimi and shabu shabu.

We were so hungry. We totally forgot to take pictures of the meal. Zanen deshita!

The intestines of the abalone has various nutrients.

We steamed it with white wine and ate with julienne ginger and green onion.

The texture of the abalone intestines taste like liver.

The intestines need to be eaten right after it is done cooking or it will taste very salty and fishy.

I will talk about the preparation of the geoducks on the next post. See you soon!

“The Boiling Crab”, a restaurant chain operates by Vietnamese, specialize in Louisiana Cajun crawfish and other seafood. The first restaurant opened in Garden Grove, Southern California few years ago, now the restaurant has grown to 10 locations all over California and Texas.

There is always about 2 hours wait for a table at The Boiling Crab if you show up after 6 o’clock, and they don’t take reservations. Most the customers are young college age Asians. The closest Boiling Crab restaurant in Northern California is in San Jose.

A similar restaurant called the “Rockin Crawfish” just opened in Oakland, Northern California. As for “The Boiling Crab”, there is always a wait at the Rockin Crawfish.

Rockin Crawfish on 211 Foothill Blvd. Oakland, CA

Inside the restaurant

Rockin Crawfish

You can choose the type of seafood and flavors you like. Orders are by the pound instead of dishes.

The food comes in plastic bags and plastic trays.

We ordered onion rings

Cajun crawfish, clam, and shrimp

The name of this dish is called "Dirty Rice". It doesnt sound good but taste ok.

There are no plates or silverware, only a bib and a big roll of paper towel.

watermelon carving

My heart is with you no matter where I am.

We went to a temple called Bok Kai.

It is an old temple in a small town called Marysville, about 2 hours away from where I live.

Bok Kai temple was build in 1854. The original temple was destroyed by fire and was rebuild in 1880. Bok Kai temple served many Chinese people who came to America to work in the gold mines back in the 1800s.

The entrance of the temple

It is said that the prayer in this temple are often answered. Many people came pray with wine, tea, roasted pigs, chicken, nikuman, and fruits.  These are people who came to pay gratitudes for answered prayers.

I prayed for the unfortunates in Japan will rest in peace. The surviver will soon be united with their family and have the strength to move on in life. The nuclear plants’ problems will soon be resolved so all efforts can go into rebuilding what was damaged and destroyed.

Wind Charms at the temple. When the wind blows, the wind charms turn and bring good lucks.

Good luck, Japan! Hang in there. Our thoughts are with you.