Vietnamese Avocado Shake (Sinh To Bo)

This shake sounds very strange to those who have never had it. Most people who see this on a Vietnamese menu will usually order the strawberry version. I can’t even remember the first time I tried this. I believe it was at Phuoc Loc Tho (or Asian Garden Mall) in Westminster, California. I get...

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Black Bean Soup

The weather in Denver has been a bit strange lately. It snowed last Wednesday and the temps are still pretty chilly. I had a ham bone tucked away in the back of my freezer so I decided to make a bean soup. I checked pantry to see what types of dried beans I had on hand. I went with black beans but...

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Thai-Style Roast Chicken (Gai Yang)

I eat a lot of chicken. I went through a long semi-vegetarian phase and just started eating red meat not too long ago. I still have an aversion to red meat that tastes like meat. Because I eat a lot of chicken, I am always looking for new ways to prepare it. I usually like my chicken marinated with...

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Cucumber Kimchi (Oi Sobagi)

I've been tinkering with a couple different pickling and fermenting recipes lately. One of my coworkers loves pickles so he has been testing out a few batches of my refrigerator pickles and pickling brines. He said the last batch was perfect. (I'm hoping to have a recipe perfected by summer. My...

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Saffron Israeli Couscous Salad

Edit 9/3/18 -- I'm rereading my recipe to make for a potluck and I believe I omitted the sun-dried tomatoes from the recipe I posted.  I actually found my recipe posted on another blog. The person made the recipe as written without the sun-dried tomatoes.  It's now 2018 and Udi's has...

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Stir-Fried Rice Cakes (Chao Nian Gao)

The first time I had rice cake ovals (Nian Gao) was at Luong Hai Ky Restaurant on Convoy in San Diego. It is simply called pan-fried rice cake on the menu. My brother and his fiancée ordered it as our appetizer. I didn’t know what to expect but I ended up really liking the chewy texture of the cakes....

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Puerto Rican Style Pink Beans and Rice (Habichuelas con Arroz Blanco)

We often place lunch orders at a small catering company called House of Plantain. The owner of the company makes this delicious side dish she calls Arroz Blanco + Habichuelas. This version of rice and beans is different from any version I have ever had. The beans are slightly sweet and creamy...

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