On my last birthday, I wrote on angst of all birthdays after turning the big three-O. The birthdays after graduating with my doctorate have somewhat been the same – a few tick marks on my list and ever growing number of things I failed to do.

With respect to eating, I ate more than my share of delicious meals. However, I consider my eating only a partially successful, because I was able to balance those extra delicious calories with swimming for only a few months.

Last year, I got to discover a quite a few new favorites yumminess. Trips back to my childhood home let me rediscover some forgotten old foods, and introduced me to the some new items that I never got to eat as a kid.

The trips also let me realize that often people around the world are exchanging their rich gastronomical cultural heritage with really bad burgers. Last year, in the United States, we saw renaissance of better burgers, yummier frozen yogurts, (sluggish) growth of fresher ingredients, and increasing appreciation of diverse world cuisines. While rest of the world is experiencing more stale paper-wrapped burgers, severely foamy lattés, extra doughy American pizza, and everything we are trying to change about the American food culture.

Every year on my birthday, I make mental list of the things I want to achieve next year. Although I achieve some, it makes me disappointed for others I don’t. This year, I will try to prioritize what I want to do and eat. At this point of my life, I am starting to realize I cannot go on eating everything I want. There are so many foods I want to eat, many books I want to read, and many places I want to visit. But I can choose only a few of them. For rest, I can salivate over a glossy cookbook photo, listen to an abridged edition, and experience ambiance through a travel show.

After learning how to boil eggs, most of us learn how to make a grilled cheese sandwich. As a kid we loved this simple sandwich made by two pieces of supermarket white bread and a slice or two slices (if mom/dad permits) of an American cheese.

When we grow up many of us have ventured into making a gourmet adult versions of this simple sandwich. We do it by adding many toppings. We choose primarily meat toppings, often cured pork centric, such as pepperoni, ham, bacon, prosciutto, etc.

In this post, I am not going to discuss any topping or techniques on how to make a good grilled cheese sandwich – that belong to separate posts. Here are just a few suggestions on how to make a simple grilled cheese sandwich for adults – without any toppings.

The selection of cheese is the most important. Each cheese I chose enhanced one aspect of this adult grilled cheese sandwich.

Blue cheese: Blue cheese adds flavor. It gives sandwich its tangy and distinct moldy smell. For doubters, melted blue cheese has less of the distinct flavor as some of it evaporates as it heats up. Since blue cheeses are high on salt, it also works as adding salt to the sandwich.

Munster: Melted munster adds stringy melted texture that we all love and expect to the grilled cheese sandwich.

Brie: Soft-ripened brie cheese adds creaminess the sandwich.

All these cheeses are just a mere examples and what I had in my refrigerator. The most important part is to elevate a simple grilled cheese sandwich by selecting combination of cheese that provides the flavor, texture and creaminess.

PS. Don’t just use the store-bought sliced bread. Use some sort of rustic yeast bread for more flavor and crunch.

Assemble grilled cheese sandwich by stacking about equal portions of three cheeses between two slices of bread. Cook with some butter on a low heat.

Song Que is a Vietnamese deli and mini-mart in the Eden Center, a Vietnamese American strip mall in Falls Church Virginia, a few miles outside of Washington DC.

I was introduced to Song Que Deli during my first visit to the Eden Center, couple of years ago. Although, technically accessible by the metro (15 minutes walk), I don’t know anyone who has made the trip to the Eden Center by the metro. Thus, Eden Center remains top of my list whenever out-of-town visitor drops by with a car with an appetite for  adventurous food.

Avocado Smoothie

Song Que sells more than two-dozen smoothies and drinks. My favorite is the avocado smoothie that blends creaminess of avocados with the sweetness of condensed milk. You can get it garnished with tapioca seeds or bubbles like any other smoothies.

Bánh mì

Technically Banh mi means just bread, but among Vietnamese diaspora aboard, it means meat-filled banh mi sandwiches.  There are about half a dozen delicious options costing just $3/$4. This time , we chose two bánh mì; Banh Mi Bi (shredded steam pork & pork skin) and Banh Mi Gio Bo (house braised ham).Both bánh mì were decent, but for my carnivorous appetite, I would have preferred to have option of adding extra meat.

Bánh Bột Lọc (Vietnamese Clear Dumpling)

Bánh Bột Lọc are clear Vietnamese dumplings made from tapioca flour. Our banh bot loc had whole shrimp, scallion, and fish.  Son Que’s rendition of clear dumplings had whole shrimp with intact shells. Sorry but I prefer to eat my shrimp without shells.

Factoid: Why Vietnamese dumplings and rolls are see-through!The clear dumpling dough is a central Vietnamese specialty made from flour mixes that consist of tapioca starch and some cornstarch. Tapioca flour when cooked becomes translucent (or clear), giving it its defining characteristic. Tapioca is the same stuff that makes bubbles in bubble tea.

Xoi Ga (Vietnamese Sticky Rice)

Xoi Ga is one of the pre wrapped entrée we chose. Xoi Ga is sticky rice with chicken garnished with peanut, soy sauce, and scallions. There are other fried rice options. They taste good cold as well as warm (after microwaving).

Snacks

Among Vietnamese snacks, many of which are commercial prepackaged stuff, my first choice for Vietnamese snack is the dried squid jerky. Dried squids do not sound that appetizing but it tastes similar to any jerky with a slight fish flavor. This  jerky treat is good enough for even liberal vegetarians (pescetarian) out there.

Sweetness

I am not an expert on Vietnamese food so can’t vouch if Song Que offers good or authentic Vietnamese deli. As a universal food-lover what I can say is that a delicious venture to Song Que will surely fill up your eyes, taste buds and stomach without emptying your wallet.

Mignon is a brand of chocolate filled in a real egg shell. Mignon is traditional Finnish Easter confectionery made by Fazer, one of largest food corporation in Finland. I was lucky to get my hands on a few Mignon this year that was brought to my Finnish colleague by her parents during the Easter (Thank you Anu!).

The unique aspect of this chocolate treat is that it has almond-hazelnut chocolate nougat inside of a real eggshell. Mignon eggs are handmade at the Fazer factory in Vantaa, just a few kilometers north of Finnish capital Helsinki. During Easer, it can be bought for less than 2 euros.

Mignon is a quintessential part of the Finnish Easter celebrations selling over two million Mignon chocolate eggs every year in a country of just a five million people.

The chocolate is creamy nougat, which is a traditional confectionery made with sugar and roasted nuts.

 Mignon is made by pouring nougat chocolate into real eggshell by hand and sealed with mixture consisting of primarily sugar with a small amount of rice protein.
In 1896, Karl Fazer, the founder of Fazer chocolate, brought Mignon egg from Germanyto Finland. Since then, it has become part of Finnish Easter tradition. In olden days, this Easter delicacy was even delivered to the Tsar of Russia.Fazer recommends keeping Mignon chocolates at the room temperature, but chill in the fridge moment before breaking the shell. Egg shell are much more easer to remove when slightly chilled.The total calorie content of Mignon is just 296 k cal and it is a lactose free product. The ingredients consist of sugar, cocoa butter, almonds (15%), hazelnuts (15%), cocoa mass, emulsifier (lecithin incl soya), and flavoring (vanillin). Since it is packaged in real egg shell, it may contain traces of eggs.

Mad Men depicts the evolving social mores in the 1960s America and also hs familiarized the whole new generation with some of the classic cocktail drinks. Here are some of the cocktail recipes featured in the Mad Men. Feel free to go mad with some of the mad drinks from the Mad Men!

Downton Abbey is a TV drama of British aristocracy set approximately 100 years before today. Downton’s characters, full of proper etiquettes, often teach viewers some simple etiquette practices we all have forgotten. Here are some of the simple etiquette routines suggested for the future episodes.

The images are obtained from the season 1 of Downton Abbey show and used according to fair use provision of the Copyright.

Most of Nepal love their very own Choila, which is grilled (buffalo) meat dressed in spicy oil seasoning.  Choila (also spelled Chwelaa) is a classic Newari dish from Nepal usually paired with crispy dry flattened (or beaten) de-husked rice, known as Chiura in Nepal and Poha in other parts of Indian subcontinent. The spicy oil seasoning of the grilled meat is partially soaked up by crispy flattened rice. The resulting bite is crispy flattened rice texture with the texture of grilled meat. Bobby Flay captures this texture in crunchified burger by adding crispy potato chips on grilled burger meat.

Nepal also love Wai Wai, a Thai brand of instant ramen noodle — now the most popular packaged food in Nepal. Wai Wai is sort of Nepal’s naturalized national dish that changed eating habits of people – shifting source of food ‘out of earth’ to ‘out of plastic wrapper’. People eat Wai Wai as a ramen soup or just by itself as a snack.

How about combining Nepal’s indigenous dish with its naturalized dish?

Here’s my quick snack of Choila served with slightly crushed Wai Wai. Here, Wai Wai substituted the crunchy flattened rice, Chiura.

PS. I have to admit that this dish was created out of necessities of me not having any access to flattened rice the evening I was making grilled choila.

I am in a serious relationship with momo. I often talk about this savory steamed dumpling to anyone who shows interest. My momo enthusiasm has rubbed off on many omnivore friends – most of them at least try this curried meat wrapped inside flour dough.

For many vegetarians, pescatarian, or folks with dietary restrictions, my momo enthusiasm is somewhat anticlimactic. One of my friends eats only halal meat, which means either getting halal certified meat or serving fish momo or vegetarian momo.

For the friend, I decided to make tuna momo.

Why tuna for momo?

Tuna is a rare fish because it’s warm-blooded like many mammals and have a higher concentration of myoglobin, which is used for higher oxygen intake. Myoglobin, a ubiquitous protein, gives meat its characteristic red color – the higher the amount, the deeper the red color. The amount of myoglobin depends on species of animal, their body parts as well as their age. For example, beef has more red color, i.e, has more myoglobin, than other mammals such as pork or veal (young beef). In tuna, myoglobin concentration is comparable to chicken (light muscles) to beef (dark muscles). I am using tuna steaks because I believe it will be closest fish with the meaty qualities.

Ingredients:

For tuna filling;
tuna steak without skin (¾ lb)
red onion (1 medium, finely chopped)
garlic (4 cloves, crushed)
ginger (1/2 square inch, crushed)
garam masala (1 teaspoon)
oil (1 tablespoon)
water (¼ cup)
salt (1 teaspoon)

Dumpling wrappers pack of 1 (40 pieces)

For momo achaar;
roasted salsa (1 cup)
tahini (2 tablespoon)
water (½ cup)
salt (¼ teaspoon)
cumin powder (1 teaspoon)
cilantro (6 frozen cubes)

Yields 40

Here’s how I made the tuna momo.

First thing, make sure you get red tuna steaks — not canned tuna. Canned tuna is white tuna meat processed with salt, oil, and water.

Cut tuna steaks into pieces.

Grind the tuna steaks in a food processor. Since tuna meat is a tender, it needs only a few pulses. If you don’t have a food processor, you can chop/mash it with hand as well.

Chop onion, garlic, and ginger. I chopped them in the same food processor container. No need to clean since everything is going to get mixed.

Add onion/garlic/ginger puree to ground tuna.

Season it with garam masala, oil, salt, and water.

Mix to get the dumpling filling. The tuna momo filling looks like chicken or turkey momo fillings.

How to properly use the commercial dumpling wrapper?
For dumpling wrappers, I used a commercial wrapper. The wrapper package can be stored long term inside a freezer. Thaw and store them in refrigerator prior to use. Make sure to leave the thawed wrappers in the room temperature for at least a couple of hours before using them. Keeping the wrapper in the room temperature will make dough soft – making it easier to wrap and seal momos. I have seen even veteran momo makers failing to do this step- patience is indeed a virtue and microwaving wouldn’t cut it here . Thus, remember to bring the wrapper (dough) to room temperature before using.

Put a teaspoon of tuna filling in the middle of the wrapper. Brush (or coat) the borders of the wrapper with water. Seal the tuna inside the dough by pinching the dough. I am not going to get into the art of dumpling making here. The goal is to make a sealed filling wrapped in the flour dough.

Easiest Momo Sauce Ever!

For momo sauce, I whipped up a very easy (read lazy) version of classic momo achaar (sauce) made with roasted tomatoes and sesame from ingredients found in the any US grocery store.

For this you need a (double) roasted tomato salsa and tahini (sesame paste).

Optionally, you can put cilantro as well. Keeping the easy-theme, I used frozen cilantro cubes.

Mix tahini and cilantro to salsa. Spice up with ground cumin seeds.  To get constancy right, add water and supplement salt to taste.

I wouldn’t say this is the best momo sauce ever, but considering the effort needed, it is the tastiest bang for your time.

The flavor of the tuna momo was slight fishy – not too fishy since tuna is a mild tasting fish. The texture was just right for the dumpling. I am happy to report that this tuna momo satisfied my pescatarian friend’s craving for momo.

I was surprised that I had even some leftover for the next day. Like any momos, fried next day momos are so preciously delicious.

Related Dumpling Posts

• Tuna Momo with the easiest momo sauce
• Counting Calories in Momo
• Momo Recipe – In Memory of Kathmandu’s Momocha
• My attempt at making vegetarian momo
• Classic Momo Sauce – Roasted tomatoes and cilantro
• My Momo

Happy Pi Day!

The 14^{th of} March or 3/14 is the π Pi (=3.14…..) Day. Even the United States House of Representatives designated March 14^th as the Pi Day in 2009. This day is the geek foodie heaven day — often celebrated with all sorts of pies such as apple pie, pizza pie, shepherd’s pie .

Interestingly, 3/14 is also supposed to be National Potato Chip Day. Instead of choosing pi over chips,  how about celebrating the Pi Day while snacking on some potato chips? Even the birthday boy, Einstein agrees!

This food comic is made possible due to photographic work of Sam Beebe and Seán A. O’Hara (the hand with the chip is made from two hands).

Politicians are known for saying one thing and doing another thing. In our first attempt of food comics, here are some of the food GOP presidential candidate claims they love to eat with my guess of what they rather eat. On a sliding scale of silliness, except a hardcore foodie, no one really cares about what you eat — unless the is vegan.