Joy Luck Place in Cupertino

Food is a very very important element in my life.
Basically I eat when I'm happy.
I eat even more when I'm sad or depressed.
I can still swallow a whole meal including dessert even when I'm sick.

There's only one point in my life that I couldn't eat at all.
You figure.

Since I've been eating those dishes I made from the bonfire leftovers,
I'll just post something I had during Spring break.
--Joy Luck Place--
Yes, stop rubbing your eyes.
the name is right, Joy Luck Place, not Palace.
I'm kinda confused too. Those Chinese people.


Roasted Pork-烤乳豬

My favorite food from a Dim Sum place, got to have it!
You can see my tears coming out while eating this.
You can also see my tears coming out if I took the effort driving all the way to eat Dim Sum, waited for 30 mins at the restaurant, and finally found out they don't have it at all. (not all the Dim Sum places sell this yummy stuff)


Cindy's Rating: 8.8 (especially that crunchy skin...mmmmmm!)

Beef Stew-牛雜


I try not to eat beef as much as I can, but when it comes to 牛雜, pho, steak, or kobe beef...I can't help to open my mouth and put them in my stomach.
Cindy's Rating: 6.8


Steamed Shrimp Dumplings-蝦餃
To me, I feel "incomplete" without ordering steamed dumplings at a Dim Sum place.
Cindy's Rating: 5
Too bad I can't have it anytime I want. There are many 24hr Dim Sum places in Taiwan....Homesick....still....
Overall Rating: 6+1 (for the sake of that roasted pork)

Joy Luck Place-醉香居

10911 N Wolfe Rd.

Cupertino, CA 95014-0616

(408) 255-6988

Homesick

I guess this blog's not just about food, it's kinda like my diary too~

A place where I can just jot down whatever come across my mind.

So...what's happening now? Homesick. Serious homesick.

Can't really do anything about it...

Let me just post some food pics from Papa and Mama....to fill that blank spot in my heart..

Dumplings from the Lo Family-Uncooked Ones

I was just having fun trying to make mine looks like a sunflower.
Cindy's Rating: 9 (Food from Papa and Mama always has the highest ranking)

Stir-fried Egg Plant-

One of my favorite dishes from my mom,

Just by looking at the colors then you'll know the ones you get from Chinese restaurants suck so bad.

Cindy's Rating: 9

Lien Wu-Fruit that I cannot find here.

They know I love it, so they always have whole bunch of Lien Wu when I'm in Taiwan...

I miss my parents.....

Utilizing Leftovers

ISA (International Student Association) had a bonfire event on Friday at Corona Del Mar~

Apparently I bought too much food,

So after dragging those meat all the way back from the Pacific coast,

I decided to make them into something even better~

Here's the pic before I make those leftovers into something....something magical.

Bacon Wrapped Asparagus-

This one's easy, just wrapped the bacon around asparagus (cooked in the water first, remember to add some salt in it too), and then just pan-fried it till golden brown. Or dark brown if you prefer burned stuff, trust me, I did that on purpose. Add a pinch of black pepper if desired.
Cindy's Rating: 7

Stir-Fried Noodles with Korean Pork-

Another easy one, Just toss everything you want and there you go. (I guess I'm not doing a good job explaining the steps)
Cindy's Rating: 6

And once again, I made too much food out of those leftovers, which means I gonna eat the same thing for the following few days. Oh well, no complains!

Ashoka the great Cuisine of India

I was there for lunch the other day, good deal, only $6.95 per person for buffet lunch.

Garlic Naan-

You have to order this one separately, but who cares, it's good!

Cindy's rating: 7

Saag Paneer-Spinach curry with homemade cheese

I LOVE this thing, I even bought the instant packages from the supermarket, but nothing ever tastes right when it comes to instant food.

Cindy's rating: 7

Fried Potato Thing-I don't know the Indian name for this.

I'm ok with this dish.

Cindy's rating: 3

Kheer-Rice Pudding

Thick and creamy, as you can see that I can't even wait to grab another spoon to eat my dessert.

Cindy's rating: 6.8

The place is just like a typical Indian restaurant, not too fancy, but who cares!

You get so much out of it for just only $6.95!

Overall Rating: 6

Ashoka the Great Cuisin of India

18614 S. Pioneer Blvd.

Artesia, CA 90701

(562) 809-4229

Tabento in Costa Mesa

What I had for dinner the other day~~

Ate a lot, well, as usual~

And the waitress was like "wow, can't believe you guys finished it all!"
me: yeah I eat like a man!

AnkiMo-Monk fish Liver-

Cindy's rating: 4 ( I think Sushi Gen's AnkiMo's way better )
Spices in the little container-七味粉-

I just thought it's cute.
Sushi-Tamago, Hamachi, Aji, Saba, Maguro

Cindy's rating: 6.8 ( pretty fresh)
Close-up for Tamago-


Cindy's rating: 5 ( so so but cute)
Overall rating for Tabento: 6.7

Good for sushi, so so for other stuff.

Tabento

1525 Mesa Verde Dr E

Costa Mesa, CA 92626

(714) 545-0600

Turkey and Shrimp Meat Ball

I usually cook on Sundays~

Last Sunday~I made some cabbage rolls, but apparently I made too much fillings~

What should I do?....

So I've decided to tum them into some meat balls.

Filling:

Ground turkey

Shrimps

Ginger (grated)

Scallion (chopped)

Pinches of salt

Pinches of white pepper

Tiny bit of corn starch

Sauce:

Chinese bean paste (豆瓣醬)

Mayonnaise

1. Mix those ingredients together

2. Shape them into little balls, you can throw them back and forth in your palms to get rid of the air inside. But those are small meat balls so should be OK.

3. Put some EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil) in the pan, along with about 2 table spoons of Chinese bean paste, and about 1 table spoon of mayonnaise, tiny bit of water, mixed them well.

4. Just dump in the meat balls, wait until it's golden brown outside. Then it's ready to go!

Cindy's rating: 7

Food from Taiwan

Second day of using this blog~~

I figured I'd better put up some food pics soon~~

I was in Taiwan two weeks ago~~

here's what I had over there~~

-Stinky Tofu-

there are basically two kinds of stinky tofu, one you fried it, one you stew it. This one is spicy stewed stinky tofu.

Cindy's rating: 8

-Xiao Ron Ton Bao AKA Soup Dumpling-小籠湯包-

Very juicy inside, this place is around National Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, way better than the infamous Din Tai Fon.

Cindy's rating: 7

-Stewed Bean Noodles-豆簽羮-

Rarely see people selling it, one traditional street food from KeeLung, the taste's been changing over the years tho....

Cindy's rating: 6

First Entry-Introduction of Cindy. Lo.

As I was reading through all the food websites~

One thought suddently (or should I say finally) popped out my mind~

I love to look at anything related to food, why not just create one blog for myself?

One blog that I can write my own thoughts about food.

One blog that I can share the "food" in my life with you guys.

Therefore, here I am.

Few notes about myself:

Engrish is my second language~which means that you might find numerous errors (grammar, comma splice, spelling, you name those) here and there as time goes by

Also, my train of thoughts might drift away from food while writing the blog. What can I say, I think a lot, sometimes too much. Not only an eater, but also a wonderer.

First entry. totally unrelated to food.

self portrait. Just to let you have a better idea about me.