Just Another Day...

I give you another easy recipe to work with for those weekend mornings with your loved one. :) Maybe even a bed and breakfast would sound lovely! It's a simple and tasty breakfast choice: Cinnamon French Toast with Powdered Sugar.

You only need a few easy ingredients from your local supermarket: eggs, cinnamon, maple syrup, white toast (try and find thick toast if you can), and powdered sugar.

We cracked the eggs into a separate bowl and added in a few dashes of cinnamon, then mixed them until it's slightly foamy. We then dipped the bread into the mixture and placed them on the fryer. Give it about 3 minutes on the stove before flipping it over (Make sure it's like this golden brown before flipping). Repeat process and place it on the plate after making however many you want. Lastly, shake powdered sugar onto the toast with another light addition of cinnamon. Drizzle the syrup and voila! :) Done! Nice and easy~ Hope you guys enjoy this one too. ^__^ Until next time!

Ciao!
Kitty~

Six Two Six

I live in an area which many people refer to as the San Gabriel Valley, also known as the "626" within our community. It's given itself a reputation for good and authentic Chinese food, boba milk tea, and large Asian neighborhoods. It's a bustling jumble of culture! I'm what anthropologists called: "parachute kids", but instead of being a child shipped from Asia living in the United States, it's vice versa for me. For a good part of my childhood I've resided in different areas of Asia, Guang Zhou, Shang Hai, Hong Kong, you name it. I was then brought back to the United States to attend grade school when I was older. So, I was lucky enough to be brought up with a palette for Asian and American food. But I find that living within these two cultures, I'm still more amazed at the versatile use of ingredients within my own culture. Here's just a few of the dishes that I enjoy the most when I go out to eat:

First, we have the famous, Minced Pork over Rice or sometimes referred as the Pork Stew over Rice. Whenever I went back to Taiwan I was notorious within the apartment building as the girl who inhales bowls of these! It's relatively cheap, usually $3-$4 within the SGV. It's just your basic marinated pork pieces drizzled deliciously over white rice with a side serving of tea marinated egg and slices of yellow pickled radishes.

Here we have Hainan Chicken with Rice. Tender chicken with lightly oily rice, oil that originates from the chicken itself when they prep it. I really like the one from ABC Cafe and one from Savoy Kitchen whom are quite famous for them. This dish usually ranges from $7-$9 depending on which restaurant you go to.

For more dessert-like dishes, my favorite would have to be the Brick Toast (cinnamon or the coconut butter flavors are my favorite). The one from Tom n Toms is the best from the ones I've tasted so far and it's super close to my house so there's no fuss on how far I have to drive to get one. Although TnT is usually located in DTLA Korea Town... The closet one near the Walnut/DB area is on Goldensprings. These usually range from the $5-$7 give or take.

Those are only just the tip of the iceberg from the massive list of my favorite dishes but drop by the SGV if you're ever in the area or if you're craving good Chinese food! :) Until next time!

Ciao!
Kitty~

Quick Bruncheon in the Sun!

So I just woke a few hours ago (yes, noon...) and I was pretty hungry, went to the kitchen but was feeling groggy from sleep to make anything for myself. Di, being the awesome person that he is suggested that he'd make some Birds in a Nest for me to try as I've never tried it before and I was lurking on the web late last night looking at different versions of birds in the nest. Do they look ever so delicious... So he strolls to the stove and starts pulling bread and eggs out of the fridge. It's a rather simple recipe and I think it's a great dish for kids in the morning! And I felt this deserved a blog post~

Add a bit of black pepper I think would give it a nice kick! Maybe even draw a cute ketchup heart for your significant other, wouldn't that be cute? ;)

Another one of my favorites for brunch is Eggs with Hotdog Pasta, it's also a pretty simple dish to make. I usually buy regular hotdogs cut them into little pieces with a few chops of green onion and two eggs. Which pasta you use if really up to you, I like the shape of pasta shells, so that was the one I choose to use.

I use chicken broth sometimes for a lighter brunch dish. Boil the pasta, about 7 minutes in when their al dente, throw in the hot dog, green onion then the eggs to make a pasta soup. :) But when I'm feeling more a spaghetti type of pasta I would fry the hot dogs, put in tomato sauce under a medium fire then let it simmer for a bit before mixing the boiled pasta in it.

Ramen has always been a quick fix when one is hungry but too lazy to actually make anything. To make it more homey for myself, I literally just take an extra 5 minutes out of my time crack an egg on the fryer, add a dash of green onion for flavor and voila! A better tasting ramen!

Lastly, when I have more time on my hands, Di and I make something more fancy. Something like green onion (I love green onion on almost everything ;D) buttered corn, homemade lemon iced tea, and strawberry nutella bread.

All can be bought at your nearest supermarket! Have fun with these ideas next time and have a safe Labor Day weekend! Until next time!

Ciao~
Kitty!

The Greatness of Paninis...

I had my fair share of paninis from Panera Bread, Corner Bakery, Urth Caffe, to Slymar's Fix. I gotta say that my favorite one by far is are the ones stuffed to the brim with delicious goodness. The ones that use sourdough bread I find the most delicious. Panera Bread had always been my favorite place to grab a good panini, but over the recent years I have found that they were starting to put less in them than they usually did and that they've stopped using sourdough bread. :( They now use plain white toast. On the other downside, if you get the sandwich alone, it's still $7.85+. It's worth more if you get the half sandwich with the salad, soup, or bread with fruits or chips for $6.99 (As they call it their U-Pick 2!)

Chicken Chipotle with Strawberry Poppyseed Salad and a side of chips. ($7.99 Premium U-Pick 2)

Corner Bakery does almost the same thing as Panera, but their paninis differentiate themselves with the different use of cheese and they add arugula into their chicken pomodoro panini. It's $7.95 for their combo that comes with a pick of soup and chips with a slice of pickle.

Chicken Pomodoro Panini with Mother's Chicken Noodle Soup and Chips

Urth Caffe's Roasted Turkey Panini had thicker biscuit like bread, the meat was a little too dry and it resulted in it being too hard to bite. It was served with baby spring mix with a really good tangy vinaigrette-like sauce. Being Urth and its organic ingredients it is a little more costly to eat here. The panini here was $12.95 although not a bad place to check out for coffee! 

Urth's Roasted Turkey Panini

Lastly, a friend introduced me to new hole-in-the-wall joint near Arleta of the greater Los Angeles called Sylmar's Fix. Raving reviews online (http://www.yelp.com/biz/sylmars-fix-sylmar#query:panini%20sandwiches) and the portions of VERY generous. By far my favorite place to get a panini fix. They were large and delicious, they stuffed it with juicy mushrooms and large slices of chicken. Totally worth the $6.95! It's located behind a shopping center on Foothill Blvd in the city of Sylmar. Pure deliciousness!

Chicken Mushroom Panini

Well, I'm still on my journey to find other great paninis out there and these are the few places that has been on my list that I want to share! Until next time!

Ciao!
Kitty~