Ginza: Favorite Sushi Spot

Ginza is an all you can eat japanese buffet but made fresh when ordered. It is not that far from my house, but I only go to Ginza once in a blue moon since it is a buffet. I don't want to get obese!! lol.. It is really good. I love the food that they serve. It was really delicious when I went. The price differs when eating during lunch and dinner. Lunch is cheaper but the list is cut down a little bit. Lunch is about $25 per person. It also doesn't have sashimi during lunch. Which is my favorite.. TT Dinner has everything, it is about $30 per person. It is not that bad for a buffet with all the seafood, you can eat. Let me know, how your experience was at Ginza..? I would love to hear about it! 

DIY: Easy Flaky Scallion Pancakes

Hello All! I know I have been m.i.a but if you follow my main blog you will understand why...Anyways back to the Flaky Scallion Pancakes.

This is a delicious snack to make and it is really easy to make. 

The ingredients that you will need:

3 cups of flour
1 cup of boiling water
1/4 cup of cold water
2 bunches of green onions
Bowl of salt
Shortening 
Sesame oil used for frying 

1. Start boiling the water. 
2. Clean and cut onions finely.
3. In a large bowl, add 3 cups of flour and 1 cup of boiling water stir until the consistency looks like bread crumbs, then add 1/4 cups of water to cool down the temperature. 
4. On a clean surface, slightly dusk the counter with flour to prevent the dough from sticking on the table. Knead the dough until it is not sticky. Make sure the dough is smooth and bouncy (5-10 minutes)
5. Cut a long horizontally piece of dough and roll out the dough like a log. Cut in several pieces, it depends on how big or small you would like the pancakes to be. 
6. Press firmly on the cut piece of dough, it should form a flat circle and start rolling out the dough until it forms a larger circle. After rolling out the dough to the desire size, brush the circle dough with oil, shortening or butter.
7. Sprinkle some salt and green onions on the circle dough, and roll the circle dough into a skinny log. 
8. Take the edge of the skinny log and form a circle and press firmly and roll the dough out into a circle.

After making all the Flaky Scallion Pancakes you would like, you can now fry them.
(You can make over 50 pieces and freeze them like what I did! But be sure to place wax paper to cover each pancake between each one. It will stick if you don't completely cover the pancakes with wax paper. I tried being eco-friendly and hope that I would save some wax paper...boy was I wrong...It all stuck together.)
9. Heat a frying pan with 1 TBSP of Sesame oil and slightly fry the pancakes until golden brown. 

10. Enjoy! Good Luck!

Homemade Asian Spongecake

Hey Everyone, I'm back with another delicious recipe diy Asian sponge cake. Theses are typically found at your local Asian grocery store. If you don't know what Asian sponge cake is then, you have been missing out. Asian sponge cake is a fluffy cake, moist and when bitten, the cake looks like it has a lot of mini holes, hence its name, sponge cake. So let's get started with this delicious recipe.

Ingredients:
Makes 12 sponge cake

For the yolk batter: 
7 egg yolks (Room temperature)
1 cup flour (cake flour)
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup of water
1/2 tsp baking powder

For the fluffy white batter:
7 egg whites (Room temperature)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Kitchen appliance needed:

Electronic hand mixer/Kitchen Aid mixer
Spatula
Cupcake tin (12)

1. Preheat oven to 350* degrees 
2. Separate the egg whites and yolk in a mixing bowl
3. For the fluffly egg white mixture, add 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/4 tsp cream of tartar, mix with Kitchen Aid mixer until it forms peaks 
(very fluffy and when removing the mixer it should stand like a mountain peak)
4. For the yolk mixture, add the liquids together into the egg yolks, 1/2 cup of water and, 1/2 cup of oil. Add 1 cup of flour and 1/2 tsp of baking powder make sure to sieve these together when placing it in to the yolk mixture. To ensure there is no lumps. 
5. Take some wax paper and tear them into rectangle from the box, and then cut it diagonally, making triangles. Need 24 pieces.
6. Spray the pan with non stick, place 2 wax paper in each cupcake slots. There should be one point facing up.
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes, to make sure it is cooked, stick a toothpick in one of the sponge cake, if it comes out clean it is done. It should look slightly golden brown.
8. Let it cool down for 10 minutes. 
9. Enjoy! 

Yummy!!!! I went to the Tous Les Jours in the Hmart at Edison, NJ. I have to tell you it is amazingly good. I bought two cakes from them already for birthdays and I have to say neither one of them disappointed my friends at all. The cakes were delicious and everyone was asking me where I have bought the cake from. The cake is perfectly sweet, it not overly sweet like the American cakes. The cake is fluffy and moist with every bite. I have to say the cake is on the pricey side tho. The cake ranges from $30-40 dollars. I stopped by this time and did not get a cake. I bought fresh bread that just came out the oven. It was nice, warm, fluffy, and moist. It was full of deliciousness. We came here really early right when it just opened. 

Have anyone tried Tous Les Jours?

Travel Food: San Jose, Costa Rica

Food in Costa Rica was delicious. Lots of beans and rice... 

I'm sorry for the late posting but I am doing my best to be punctual and posting more often. 

I had the chance to go to Costa Rica for a Conference. The food in Costa Rica was okay. I was not a big fan but it was very filling. The majority of the Costa Rica cuisines are rice and beans. It was a great adventure out of the States. This was the first time leaving the United States to go to South America. I am not a fan of the plan ride though. I do not like turbulence at all, it scares me. I stayed up the entire flight ride and was jet lag when I landed but I was super excited to be in South America. The food was not that expensive and super healthy. I went zip lining, rainforest trail, and explored a lot. Overall my experiences at Costa Rica was really fun and I would like to go back one day to explore more.

How to make Red Bean Mochi

Mochi is a popular Japanese Dessert.. 

This is a recipe I took and added the red bean water to make it red bean mochi, other flavors can be used such as artificial flavoring: strawberry, coconut, blueberry...etc....The fillings can be jelly, jam, a piece of candy of your choice, etc....THINK OUTSIDE OF THE BOX!!! :) You will be amaze of what you come up with! 
I forgot to take pictures but you can look through the video which I have linked below.

Here is the recipe:

Prep making the filling for Red bean mochi:
(Can soak overnight to make them cook faster)
1.Use half a bag of azuki red bean and place it in a sauce pan and wash it, by running water and swirling it around with your hands.
2. Let the water simmer and boil until the beans are tender. MAKE SURE TO SURE AND CONSTANTLY ADDING WATER when the water is down that low. 
3. After the beans are tender, pour the beans through a metal strainer and put a metal bowl underneath.
4. Depending on your taste of how sweet you would like it to be you can add more to your desire taste. I added 1 cup o sugar to the beans and mashed them through the sieve of the strainer, this will catch the starch juice we will be using for the mochi skin. This should make at least 1/2 cups of red bean water if not just add some hot water. Do not dilute it to much.
5. After mashing the beans, taste it and see if you need to add more sugar or not but keep in made that the skin will also be alittle sweet.

Mochi Skin:

• 1 cup of glutinous rice flour
• 1/4 c of sugar
• 6 tsp finely mashed/ minced red beans
• 2 tsp vanilla extract 
• 1/2 c red bean water (after straining the liquid from the mashed filling made)

1. Stir together until smooth and than place a plastic wrap over the bowl and microwave for 2 minutes after beens two minutes in the microwave, stir it!
2.Careful because it is hot!! Put in the microwave for 1 more minute.. 
3. On a clear surface sprinkle rice flour and scoop out the mochi on the surface careful cause it is hot. 
4. Roll the mochi out in to a cylinder, cut them in to 1/2 in pieces, 5. Roll the mochi out to be a flat circle and add your filling of your choice, taking the corners of the mochi put them together. 
6. In this process you have to be quick before the mochi dries out but if this happens, they can be cut in mini pieces used for ice cream toppings. 

Happy Cooking! Wish you the best good luck!!!
Enjoy ^^ 

NYC soup dumplings

Yummy!!!! I know I have been not doing many videos lately. I am trying my best too... I have been really busy..

Also my channel is going to be dedicated to strictly food only related things. I will be making another channel for beauty, nails, diy, all the beauty on a new channel chuieeglam.

Anyways let's get back to making soup dumplings.
I have made soup dumplings over break and would like to share with you guys how I made it. I have posted a video on how to wrap the soup dumpling but not the entire how to make it. If I get enough views than I will upload the step by step video on how I made it. It turned out really good. Good luck! Let me know how you did, photos are welcome! ;)

Xiao Long Bao

The Soup

2 quarts of water
2 pounds chicken bones (wings/back/neck)
1/2 pound of pork skin or pork belly
1 inch piece of ginger, sliced into 4-5 ginger slices
2 green onions, cut into 3″ pieces
2 large garlic cloves, smashed
2 teaspoons of Chinese rice wine 

Wash pork thoroughly. Take the pork skin and scrape on the skin to remove yucky stuff, (firmly scrape). When all ingredients come to a boil, immediately turn to low heat and simmer for 2 hours. Skim surface constantly to keep soup clean and transparent. When the soup is done. Strain and remove the items in the soup. Bones and meat are still edible but you can chuck it, if you like. If you happen to have dogs the bones are a nice treat for them. My dogs loved it!

Broth Gelatin
1 tablespoon powdered Agar Agar

Place 4 cups of the broth back in the pot, add agar agar  whisk for 2 minutes until all powder is dissolved. Pour broth into an baking dish. Leave outside and let it set. It does not have to be refrigerated.

The broth gelatin is done when it is harden, using a butter knife and run the knife along the baking dish to make cubes, almost the size of the chicken broth cubes. Gelatin is finish, set aside.

The Filling
1 lb ground pork
1/4 lb shrimp, shelled, deveined & minced
3 stalks green onion, minced
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon Chinese rice wine
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil

Mix all ingredients. Remember to add broth gelatin when assembling it together. Put in fridge when until dough is done.  

Water Dough

1cups of all-purpose flour
3/4 cups boiling hot water
1/4 cup cold water
1 tablespoon canola oil

Put the flour in a large bowl. Pour about a third of the hot water in the flour. Use a fork to stir vigorously.

Dust counter with the flour. Place dough on floured surface, use your hands (make sure is lightly dusted with flour) to knead the dough for 8 -10 minutes, until it becomes soft. Cover with plastic wrap and let it sit for 20 minutes.

Cut dough in to four pieces in 1-1/4″ diameter. Keep a pile of flour on the side to dust counter often. Roll in to 2 logs and cut them in a size a a golf balls. Press one dough ball down and then roll the outer edge of the flour, making sure that the center of the dough is a bit thicker then the edge.

If dough is drying place a warm moist napkin on top of dough.

Dipping Sauce 

2 tablespoons of hot chili & garlic sauce
1/2 cup  vinegar
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon of shaved ginger

Combine and refrigerate it for later usage.

Steaming Dumplings

1 head of Napa cabbage, pull the nappa leaves apart

In the steamer put 1 layer of Napa cabbage leaves. Place dumplings on the nappa leaves, leaving space between each dumpling. Steam for 10- 12 minutes.