Food: bamboo tutorial

Fresh bamboo is my latest obsession. I can’t get enough of them. I add it to everything. It’s hard to describe the taste. But I think the closest thing would be palm hearts. So I thought I’d share this with you. If you see it at the asian market, give it a try~ 🙂

This is how it looks.  In my local asian market, $2.99/lb

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First peel it off everything that is brown.

Then boil the entire piece in hot water for 5 min.

This is what you get. It’s pretty small compared to the size of the original bamboo.

cut in your desire form and add to the meal.

If you can’t find fresh ones, there’s canned too. It’s much cheaper but less tasty and less crunchy.

I used it as topping for pizza

other toppings in this pizza: oyster mushroom, zucchini and mozzarella.

To stir-fries. This one has also bok choy, mushrooms, green peas and salmon.

this one has green cabbage, green peppers, black fungus, bamboo and dry shrimp.

all these stir-fries were made with this magic sauce: olive preserved olive leafs

in less than two weeks, I’m seeing the bottom of this jar 😉

I made a batch of brown rice/aduki/barley. It tastes like dessert!

served with stir-fry and a poached egg

I’m succeeding on microwave poached egg!

and rice cake with bok choy in a very spicy sauce! 😯 What happens to my taste buds lately? I crave spicy food!

I did a lot of online shopping today! My purse “hurts”. I’ll post them soon 😉

Have a nice weekend everyone. Mine will to be fantastic!!!!!!

Q: What was the last thing you purchased online?

Wedding planning!

I’ve been holding this post for a while because actually I had nothing except the date just a week ago, and now almost all the major things are confirmed!!! 😀

DATE of our wedding: 7/31/2011

Who did we pick the date? Because we met exactly 10 years ago!!! 😆

The place: Hotel Shangri-La, Shanghai

that’s how it looks like from outside, with the view of the Bund and the Huangpu River

I guess here’s where we’ll have the ceremony: in the balcony with the view of the river

I haven’t seen the place yet, that’s what I got from the website: either of these two salons

both look pretty good to me 😉

Okay. Now rewind a little bit. About a month ago, I told my mom to start looking for the place. The problem was that  every time she saw a new one, she likes it. It was frustrating that she changes her mind all the time, but I guess it was because she wants the best for me 😉 So, after few false alarms, she finally decided on this one. (do you guys know Yao Ming, the basketball player? He had his wedding in this hotel too) You might think how irresponsible I am to pick where is going to be my wedding without actually going to see the place myself. You’re right, but to be honest, I’m not the wedding-kind-of-girl. I know it’s important for any girl, but I actually don’t have any memory from childhood fantasizing about my wedding. Why do I have one then? I could probably save tons of $$ by skipping it. But I am having one because I want to make my parents happy. All traditional chinese parents have the biggest wedding for their daughter. And that’s why I delegated the task to my mom. If she likes it, then I’ll like it because it makes her happy.

I’m so lucky to have a girl friend who offer to be my wedding planner. I can do research on economics, but research about which camera man to hire? Not my thing. She’s super efficient too. In just few days she got all the important things that need to be confirmed before it’s too late.

The master of ceremony: checked

The camera/video man: checked

The makeup artist: checked

Salon decorator: pending

Invitations/souvenirs: pending

Dress: pending

Am I missing something?

With my mom and my friend taking charge of the wedding planning. I will be just another guest of my wedding! 😆

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Quick recap of food: Breakfast as pictured

Mine

lunch as pictured

Mine: leftover lentils + meat balls + bread end (love how thick it is)

Dinner was stir-fry rice

Q: If you’re married, what was the most memorable moment of your wedding? If you’re not married, what do you expect the most about your wedding?

J&J #18 & Highlights

#1: check out Namaste Food giveaway post!

#2: How was your Easter weekend? I bet you had great time! Weather was amazing, just like summer! 🙂 I don’t have family to celebrate it, but I did spent time relaxing, meeting new and old friends! 😀 Once again, I feel easier to be approached or to approach boys than girls! I don’t know… it’s just simpler, period. But there’s downside on this too, specially when we become good friends. 😦 I went out with two guys friends yesterday. We’ve been friends for 4 years and they consider me part of their clan, so no forbidden topic when I’m present. What I had to hear all afternoon? their adventures with girls!!! YES! All we they talked about was GIRLS, their adventures with all the dirty details!!! Well… it’s fun to hear that sometimes, but not for 3 hours!!! 😯

#3: It’s official, I’m a gluten free bread convert! I love love love this bread!!!

it looks like biscotti and tastes between bread and cake! It leaves me speechless! 😉

#4: J&J #18 @Eat Clean Cookbook: tomato salsa

Coco’s version

Ingredients: 1 large tomato, 1/2 onion, 1/2 lime juice, 1 stalk of celery, 1/4 bell pepper, S+P, italian seasoning, 1 tbsp olive oil

chop and mix! 😉

smash 1/2 avocado

leftover bean and rice

homemade taco is served

#5: What are you looking for this week? I’m going to Boston for a conference! Super excited! 😀