Food Copycat: Lettuce wraps a la PF Chang

I tell my boyfriend (H) that one of the perks of taking me out to try new foods is that I might fancy to replicate a dish at home.  He's not one to need a lot of coaxing to eat out; in fact, I'm usually the one he has to convince to eat out.  It was a different story with PF Chang, however.  I had never eaten there, had only heard good things about it, albeit all coming from my American friends.  H had eaten there and vehemently trashed it for lack of authenticity and general overpriced muddying of the Chinese cuisine.  It was an exhausting struggle to get him to eat there with me.  I finally succeeded (after many, many failed attempts) at convincing him to go there on a hot summer day when half the city was out of power due to a hurricane.

I ordered the house entree: Chang's spicy chicken.  I figured if the dish is named after the restaurant, they must put special attention and lovin' into it.  I figured it would prove H wrong.  But of course he was right; the chicken was dry and the sauce was nothing more than the spicy chili sauce I could've gotten at the Asian grocery store.  I forget what H ordered, but he was also nonplussed at his meal.

The saving grace of the story, then, is the starter: the infamous PF Chang chicken lettuce wraps.  I knew I had to try it after hearing so many people talk it up.  And to my surprise it was actually delicious - the chicken was smoky and the sauce had the right zest in it; paired with crisp iceberg and it's genius.  Even H had to admit it was good.

It was good, and it was reproducible.  And tons of people on the internet have already claimed so.  With the help of Google and a few blogs, I got together the recipe to make my own lettuce wraps - granted it's not the exact replica of the dish from the restaurant, but it is delicious in it's own addicting ways.

Ingredients:
-Minced chicken or pork
-Garlic (the more the better in my opinion)
-Canned bamboo shoots, chopped
-Onion, chopped
-Red pepper, chopped (really any other veggies would work)
-Cilantro, chopped
-Iceberg lettuce (durh!)
-Rice wine (1/2 cup)
-Sweet soy sauce (2 TBS)
-Hoisin sauce (2 TBS)
-Chili sauce (1/2 cup)
-Vinegar (1 TBS)
-Fish sauce (2 tsp)

What to do:
1. Brown minced meat. Drain & put aside.
2. Sautee onion and garlic until translucent and fragrant.  Add in bamboo shoots and red pepper/other veggies.  Add in meat.  Cook on high heat for a few minutes to get it "smoky"
3. While the veggies cook, combine ingredients to make the sauce.  Add to hot pan.  Season to taste.
4. Sprinkle in cilantro.
5. Serve with crisp iceberg lettuce and a smirk to old PF Chang.

Savory filling in a crisp lettuce cup - Yum!

Tastes good AND good for you! (well, not bad for you)

 Note: Left overs taste even better, if that's even possible.  I guess the flavors get even more enhanced after marinating overnight... I brought this to lunch once with the filling in a small container and the lettuce in another container.  As I sat there savoring every bite, I could feel stares from other people nearby - perhaps I was sloppy with my lunch (it is hard to be a dainty lady when consuming these wraps) but I'm more inclined to believe they were stares of mad envy at my glorious lunch.

Race to the finish

How is it that the older I get, the faster I feel time slip by?  It seems like yesterday that I was living in my old apartment trying out the cioppino recipe for the first time.  I made plans to make it again, along with many more promises to myself to write and update, and take pictures and post....  This may be my one of my biggest lies to myself, that I will do this and that later... only later is 2 weeks into the last month of the year.

I'm determined to make a valiant mad sprint towards the finish line for 2012 - posting everything I had put off to the back burner for the last few months.

The first topic to address is my "makeup-diet" that I started back in January.  The premise was to finish up a dedicated plethora of products before bringing home new products.  In total, I had 19 specific items that I wanted to kill.  By May (I remember because I kept wanting to write, but always put it off) I was unsuccessful at killing all 19 of those items.  However, I compensated immensely by killing off a full bag of other products.

The Carnage!

 In the very beginning of my "diet" I kept a gallon-sized ziploc bag to collect my empties.  I don't know who can relate, but I got a bizarre satisfaction every time I added an empty product to my bag.  The thrill of killing a product gave me such a rush that I became obsessed with finishing stuff so I can add it to the bag.  I'll even admit that there were some things I didn't kill before adding to the bag, but it was no less satisfying to add them to the bag.

1. Facial cleansing 

• Clinique eye makeup remover: Left greasy feeling around the eyes, but otherwise pretty good; Time to Kill (TTK): 3-4 months
• Sonia Kashuk Remove for eye makeup: Decent product; TTK: 3-4 months
• ELF makeup remover wipes: very saturated and soft; decent at $1.50; 30 sheets but TTK was about 2 months because I didn't use them everyday
• (3) Neutrogena makeup remover wipes: not worth all the hype that those girls on YouTube make it out to be - expensive for what they are when the ELF ones are just the same. 
• Olay Gentle foaming facial cleanser: very creamy and gentle; I like very much; TTK: 4-5 months
• Biore warming cleanser: very menthol-y, very drying; TTK: F***ing FOREVER!!!!!  

2. Lotions & conditioners

•  Lancome lotion: smells like tea, probably wouldn't buy it if it wasn't free; TTK: 1 month
• Alpha hydroxy acid: That's right: ACID. I bought it under the notion that it was going to chemically exfoliate my face and give me baby soft skin.  FALSE.  It has the same consistency and smell of Elmer's glue.  I used about a 6th of the bottle on my face before repurposing it as a lotion for my legs.  Yep, I basically slathered glue on my legs for 2 months just for the satisfaction of putting this thing into my empties bag.
• Kiss My Face Hand creme: Smells like Pledge the wood cleaner according to my boyfriend, but I liked it very much.  TTK: 2-3 months
• Clinique Dramatically Different Lotion: Nothing "dramatically different" about it, but I do like it because it's light and moisturizing.  TTK: 3-4 months
• Aussie 3-minute miracle: A YouTube-inspired purchase - smells like coconut, works pretty well, but after not having it for a few months now, I don't really miss it.  TTK: ~3-4months
• Tresemme conditioner: This is my favorite hair conditioner - because it works just about the same as any other conditioner I've tried but it is the cheapest!  TTK: ~1.5 YEARS!

3. Sample packets

•  Uninteresting assortment of samples I consciously tried to use up.  These buggers did not elicit the same high as the other items when I finished them - I suppose because it didn't take that much effort.

4. Mascaras & eyeliners

• Rimmel Sexy Curves mascara: Glad I purchased this when it was 75% off at CVS because it didn't do anything I like a mascara to do.
• Maybelline Full & Soft mascara: Rarely does a product do what its name suggests, and this really does what it says it does: makes my lashes full but still soft.  Nothing ruins it for me than spidery, crunchy lashes.  
• Physician's Formula Organic Wear mascara: AWFUL bloody thing.  For something that's supposedly "organic" it smelled like chemicals and made my eyes tear up.  This was tossed faster than moldy yogurt.
• Assortment of eyeliners: Let me honest with me - I used these up not on my eyes, but on a painting I was doing.  There I said it!  To be fair, I never specified how the product should be used up, only that it should be used up. 

5. Face makeups

•  Strivectin face serum: Yet another product I bought based on the fantastical claims on the label - "Restore skin texture," "Look younger," "Brightened complexion".... yadayadayada...  Bottom line, nothing happened.  TTK: 5-6 months
• Revlon Colorstay foundation: Another confession - I hate foundation, so this was tossed, not killed.
• Face powders: unremarkable; TTK: months and months and months and months, until it shattered and I tossed it
• Black Radiance face primer: did not keep oil at bay; TTK: 3-4 months
• Some eye cream: TTK: 2 weeks because I used it on my legs.

6. Balms, floss, primer, BB cream

• Oral-B floss: Yes I was excited to use up my floss! TTK: 3 months
• EOS lip balm: Overrated novelty item that I wish I hadn't bought so much of.  TTK: 3-4 months
• Nivea Milk & honey balm: Decent; TTK: 2 months
• Nivea Kiss of moisture: Loved! TTK: 2 months
• Dr. Jart BB Cream Sample: makes me look like a white, greasy ghost.  TTK: 1 month
• Elf eyelid primer: Excellent for $1.  TTK: 3 months

7. Perfume minis

• Assortment of minis that are all unremarkable for me except the Daisy by Marc Jacobs - this is the only one that does not make me smell like I jumped into a vat of baby powder! 

8. That which cannot be killed Resilient little bastards

• As hard as I tried, these 4 items refused to surrender.  The powder and the blush got used everyday almost, and yet they taunt me with their bottomless depths.  I don't remember quite when, but I've disposed of 3 out of 4 of these items (except for the eyeliner) when I couldn't take their smirks anymore.

In all, I was very satisfied with my makeup diet.  The stupidly satisfying rush I get when I finish something is very motivating.I've since added a few more items to my collection, but I've also condensed a lot as will be seen in later posts.

Chi-Chi-Chi-Cioppino!

 Procrastination is one of my specialties, especially now that I am a graduate student, with tests to study for and stacks of papers to keep up with.  So while "studying" for my Pathways & Signaling midterm, I "inadvertently" stumbled on Alizarine's blog for Cioppino. (pronouned: Chi-o-pino)

Cioppino is a soup/stew/stoup sort of dish characterized by 3 prominent ingredient categories: tomatoes, wine, and seafood. I've never even heard of cioppino let alone tasted it, but I was much intrigued - just the ingredients in it alone was enough to make me salivate.  So I set out to make my own cioppino, though my soup was a virgin as I did not use wine.  I probably can't legitimately call it cioppino without wine, but this blog isn't exactly concerned with legitimacy, so cioppino it is.

Ingredients:
-half an onion, finely diced
-1 red bell pepper, finely diced
-5 stalks of celery, finely diced
-5 cloves of garlic, minced
-pinch of red pepper flakes
-1 can tomato paste
-1 can diced tomatoes, no salt added, undrained
-1 bottle of clam juice (yes, there is such thing as "clam juice" though I've no idea how to juice a clam)
-1 can of baby clams, drained
-chicken stock, use however much you want to get the consistency & taste you want
-any seafood of choice (shrimp, scallops, fish, clams, etc.); I used mussels a la Costco
-2 bay leaves
-bunch of parsley, finely chopped
-salt, pepper, olive oil, sugar

So plump and happy these mussels look!

What to do:

1.  In a stock pot, heat oil & add in onions & garlic.  Cook until fragrant, then add in red pepper & celery; cook until tender.  Sprinkle in pepper flakes.  Add in tomato paste and cook until all ingredients are mushed together, but make it doesn't burn.
2.  Pour in chicken stock, clam juice, diced tomatoes, and drained clams.  Adjust the soup level to the consistency of choice with the chicken stock, watery or thick or somewhere in between.  Season with salt, pepper & sugar to taste.
3.  While the soup simmers on low-med heat, clean the mussels.  Make sure to de-beard them & brush the shells.  Throw away any that are cracked or don't close upon tapping. 
4.   Turn up the heat on the soup and drop in the mussels.  Cover & cook for ~5 minutes.  Stir to make sure everything is coated well and all the mussels are open.
5.  Serve hot with crusty bread.  Sit back and gloat in your cooking abilities. 

Served with crusty hunks of bread to mop up all that delicious soupy goodness.

Nutella & strawberry crepes

During my adventures abroad in 2008, I had a 4-day visit in Paris.  And of all the impressive sights in Paris, including Le Tour Eiffel, the one that I remember most clearly (even now) is of... le crepe.  To be more specific, I remember waiting in line in front of a small street vendor intoxicated by the smell of the crepe.  The vendor had a hot plates that he used to cook the crepes.  These plates were about the size of a large pizza, black and circular with no rims, and at least an inch thick.  As each order came in, he would pour a ladle-full of batter onto the plate.  He then used a thin stick to evenly spread the batter on the plate.  After a few minutes, he used another stick to get underneath the crepe and effortlessly lift it up and flip it over.  Then came a generous helping of Nutella, followed by whatever else toppings that the customer ordered.  The crepe was then folded in half, and half again, wrapped in parchment, and the customer would walk away crepe in hand, munching happily about town.  The whole routine probably lasted less than 2 minutes, from order in to order out.  But standing there that day, I was mesmerized at the effortlessness of it all. 

And then there was the moment when he handed me my Nutella crepe, mine.  "Bon appetit, mademoiselle" he said because I must have looked at the treat with some kind of incredible awe, kind of like a kid who's just seen the biggest cake in his life. 

I managed to indulge in a few more of these awesome treats during my short visit, but since I only had fond memories to satiate my cravings.  Somehow I thought that Nutella crepes were a French thing, that I could only get in France and no where else.  That was until I had a rare stroke of genius and decided to Google crepe recipes.  Imagine my surprise when none of the recipes called for anything French, like French air, or French water, or French eggs.  Imagine my astonishment at the realization that I could make this at home and actually satiate my cravings with this edible deliciousness.

The batter recipe was adapted The Yellow Table.  Original requirements (in parentheses) say for 20 crepes, which I thought was a lot for two people, so I halved everything thinking I would get 10 medium crepes.  I ended with only 6 crepes, which left us quite happy but wanting more.  Note to self: don't scale down next time.  Also, I had no milk or vanilla extract so I substituted with coconut milk.

1 egg (2 eggs)
1 tablespoon coconut milk (1 cup milk, 2 teaspoons vanilla)
1.5 cups water (1/4 cup water)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoons sugar (2 TBS sugar)
1 tablespoons melted butter (2 TBS butter)

I mixed everything together and stuck the batter in the fridge while I cut the strawberries.  The batter should be more on the runny side, but not completely watery. Then I heated a medium non-stick pan.  I took the pan off the heat while I ladled in the batter and swirled it around to evenly coat the pan.  Put it back on the heat for a minute or two.  Once the edges looked brown and crispy, I flipped it over and let it cook for another half a minute.  The crepe slides off the pan effortlessly.  I then spread a thin layer of Nutella on the crepe and topped it with strawberries, and rolled it up. 

Had I known it was so simple to make, I would've had many more Nutella crepes since my Paris trip.  It was so simple that I didn't waste even waste an obligatory burnt or otherwise messed up first crepe.  And rest assured, it tastes just as delicious (if not, more glorious) as the ones in Paris... crispy at the edges; warm, gooey, sweet, slightly tart near the middle.  So delicious I can't stop thinking about this all day long.  So delicious that I will make it again tomorrow.  So delicious that the boyfriend requests double servings tomorrow.  Oh so delicious.

Crepes folded up like napkins

A new kind of diet

Everyone should know the song and dance routine quite well by now.  Thanksgiving and Christmas comes around and 'tis the season to be merry.  'Tis also the season to indulge.  And boy, do we indulge.  An extra slice of ham here, some more eggnog there.  After all, 'tis the season to be merry.  Then New Year's Eve comes and the ball drops, and suddenly Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers are trending again. 'Tis now the season to renew, refresh, and refit into that dress that used to fit before Thanksgiving and Christmas happened. 

For 2012, I thought I'd go on a diet too - a makeup diet.  While people were stuffing themselves with turkey and gravy, I was filling up on makeup.  I'm attracted to a beautiful blush like a fat man to ham.  While people drool over gorgeously decorated cakes and cookies, I salivate when I see a product packaged in pink and sparkles.  Little kids believe in Santa Clause, and I may as well too because I'm still gullible to those cosmetic advertisements that promise the radiance and beauty of an angel.

I must curb my gluttony for makeup like Jennifer Hudson curbed her carbs.  To begin with, I have a collection of items that first needs to be used up completely before any further additions can be even considered - my Project X Pan.  Essentially, it refers to the pan that peaks through the more a product gets used up.
 

It sounds reasonable enough... for a typical person.  However, for me, though as much as I love makeup and beauty products I can't seem to ever finish one thing... EVAR!  That is why I get so stupidly excited when I see the shiny pan of a powder compact when the girl next door would lament at the same sight.  I can easily foresee this project taking me a good three months to finish, if not more.  The close ups:

1. Some face washes & a lotion that just won't quit; a face mask that is still new.
2. Oh the agony of finishing a lip balm!!!  I don't know what's more of a challenge: finishing the darn thing, or not losing it.  And then there's the blush that gets used most frequently, yet the dent is miniscule compared to the product left over.
3.  A lotion that will not quit, along with some samples that just keeps giving and giving, despite their size.

4.  Face powders, 10g and 8g each but only takes me .000000000000005g per use... Oh the agony of waiting for the pan to shine through.  An eyelid primer that I can't seem to see through ever.  An eyeliner that keeps replenishing itself with each sharpening.  It's like magic, Santa!

5.  Mascaras: can't ever see through the tube to know if it's running out; will have to depend on the dryness of the bloody thing to know if it's time to RIP.  Four tubes to go, only 1 set of sparse eyelashes to comb them though.

So here it goes, my will power to stick to this plan vs. my desire to try out everything in Sephora.  Game on!

Half a year deep

Back in summer of 2010, before I embarked on moving and entering graduate school, I scoured the internet for Ph.D. blogs.  I wanted to excite myself with personal stories of grad students living the graduate life.  I imagined that there would be loads of stories about epiphanies made in labs, philosophical discussions with professors that alters a person's life direction, or at the very least, there had to be horror stories about how difficult and grueling graduate life must be.  Yet, I found scarce blogs about people's Ph.D. journeys.  Perhaps these are obscure blogs and Google isn't very good at hitting them; or perhaps my I need graduate school to teach me better Googling skills.  However, what I've come to realize after being in graduate school (for a mere semester) is this: the paucity of Ph.D. blogs is due to the fact that Ph.D. students don't have time to write blogs.

Here's how it went down:

September: shallow end of the pool.  I had to show up every other day for presentations by professors on what it is they do in their lab and decide whose lab I would be interested in for a rotation.  Then I had a "class" where we discussed the history of genetics through old seminary papers.  The real class started somewhere at the end of September.

October:  Wadding knee-deep in the pool.  Two classes occupied my mornings: Molecular Biology & Genetics, and Fundamentals of Genetics.  Lab work occupied my days.  Class problem sets (i.e. homework) occupied my nights and weekends.

November:  Up-to-my-nose-one-more-inch-and-I-will-drown level of the pool.  Now as I sit here eating my Nissin Cup Noodles (favorite food for when I can't sleep), I realize the almost drowning bit may be a slight exaggeration.  However, it truly felt that serious two months ago, and for good reason.  I spent a week of my time studying for the MBG test, which turned out to be a total curveball for which nobody could have prepared.  I spent another week riding the waves of depression from disappointment and the overwhelming fear that I had failed and would have to repeat this hell next year.  In this midst, problem sets were making me loose my sanity, and the graduate student I was working with in the lab was being a royal PITA.  I swore, one more inch of water and I go under.  The only saving grace was Thanksgiving (and that I managed to pass the MBG class with a B).

December:  Chest-deep; I-can-breathe-comfortably-but-the-pressure-is-ever-present level of the pool.  The debacle of the MBG surprisingly was a pressure reliever.  Perhaps it was because I realized that if I could do so poorly on a test and still leave with a B, then all hope is not lost; I can still redeem myself.  Although, had I not passed I might be making a different set of opinions.   Fundamentals of Genetics was drawing to a close, the outcome of the test which I took is still TBA.  Bioinformatics class puts me to sleep.  Lab meeting was painful.  And then Christmas came, wrapped in pretty papers and tied with a shiny bow.

I suppose if I really wanted to write, I would make the time to write.  It isn't a lack of ideas of which to flesh out into words; rather, it is my mind being so constipated with lectures and problem sets and lab presentation and data charts and journal articles that when I had any opportunity to unblock, I would indulge in mindless entertainment like YouTube makeup videos and dirty reality TV (Snooki and Deena charging into a bush was utterly entertaining).

I had expected myself to write more frequently about my journey in as a graduate student.  I had the image of being in a lab, waiting for a reaction to complete, and updating my blog about what type of reaction I was running and how cool/miserable I felt at that moment.  Yet the image that I've created so far is of a constipated grad student ears leaking of genetics tidbits sitting in front of a rerun of Jersey Shore eating instant Cup Noodles.  And strangely, I'm okay with that.

I hope the Situation runs into another wall soon, and I do mean a real, actual, literal wall.

Gift from afar

A few weeks ago, I arrived home from work and checked my mailbox (the one where you have to physically open) and to my surprise, tucked in there was a pink package sent to me from Korea.  Finding this was like the sliver of sunshine that comes through the clouds after a storm... I had had a tough week preparing for the miserable final.

I was so giddy with excitement that my friend from halfway around the world kept me in mind enough to send me a package.  So you'd think I'd ripped open the thing as soon as I got inside my home.  No such thing.  I left it sitting on the table for a solid week, willing myself to wait until after the test to open it, so I could really savor the enjoyment of the present.

That was the plan anyway... however, as it turned out, after the test I felt so miserable and self-loathing that I felt I deserved no present from afar.  A person who just failed a final exam doesn't deserve to open any presents.  It took another day of the gift staring me down and also thinking that my friend's thoughts would be for naught if I kept it unopened before me to actually open it.

 The contents:  A lovely note intricately folded, cellphone charms, & BB cream samples (because I'm vain).

The cellphone charms were supposed to signify my SO and me.  Because the package was jiggled around a lot in transit, and also because I wanted to guess what was in it, the charms were slightly askew.  When my SO finally opened it, I took the girl charm and inspected it.  It had a magnet on one side of the charm. The conversation that ensued went something like this:

Me: "What's the magnet for?"
Him: "Refrigerator?"
Me: sticking it on the fridge for show.... "No.... It doesn't look right.  I wonder what it's for..."
Him: "Koreans.... I don't know how it works, dear."

We left it at that, and it wasn't until a full 10 minutes later when I got to cleaning up the packaging that I actually held the two charms together.  Of course the magnets on each charm stuck to each other that I had my brilliant epiphany...

Me: "Ohhhhhhhh... DURH  they're supposed to stick to each other, just like you're supposed to stick to me!"
Him: ROFL

Then....

Me: "But why are they scratching their heads?"
Him: "..."

Another 10 minutes....

Me: "Ohhhhhhhhhhh.... they make the heart shape with their hands!  DURRHH!!!!!"
Him: ROFL

The girl's dress has rhinestones on it - so adorable!

My SO and I, we are special people, special indeed.  Thanks to my friend for the love and the laughs.