So, I used to hate exercise. The past couple of years I’ve been more and more enthusiastic about exercise, and I think it’s neat how my diet has changed along with my exercise habits.

The more I exercise, the more I tend to crave foods that are… well, pretty good for the body. More meats and veggies, less fruit and processed crap. Overall, I think probably eat a fairly paleo diet lately (maybe 70%). Don’t get me wrong, I still freaking love cookies and pizza, but my bread lust has gone down significantly.

At any rate, consider this a heads up to expect some fitness-related posts and healthier menus here on Albany Eats! After almost 10 years, it’s time to start shaking things up a bit.

XO,
Albany Jane

California. You are happiness and sunshine.

Albany John and I took an early morning flight from Albany to San Francisco to visit some of his side of the family. Specifically, Aunt & Uncle Cali & our cousin. As soon as we got off of the plane, Auntie & Cousin took us to Chinatown SF.

Me and my cuz looking ah-maze on the streets of SF C-town. We ended up going to Great Eastern Restaurant for some dim sum goodies. They were ordered from a sheet. They were pretty busy, but we were sat quickly.

Har cheung fun. The noodles were a little on the thick side, and it was a bit tepid. I’m guessing they made it earlier and reheated this for us when we ordered it.

More goodies – turnip cake (tasted a little funky/tart), seafood dumplings, steamed lotus rice, har gow, and bean curd wrapped seafood (fried – so good).

Bitter melon stuffed with fish paste and veggies. Bitter melon was steamed to a very soft/mushy state. Not bad, I’d probably try making this at home, just a little less cooked.

Wontons  and those rockin beancured wrapped seafood packages.

Daniel B. recommended I try Golden Gate Bakery for their dan tats, but they were closed (on vacation) when Albany John and I were there, so we went to Wa Li Bakery instead. Their dan tats were okay. The crust was more pie like than dan-tat-crust-flaky (you know what I mean).

Girly cousin raved about Quickly. So I got a fresh watermelon drink, and Albany John got a neon “honeydew” drink. And hey, there is one of these in Flushing now. Cheap & tasty. My watermelon was ~$3.25 I think.

Bam. Chinatown. Seen. Supposedly San Francisco Chinatown goes 5 stories underground. Oh, we also saw the fortune cookie making factory place. It was just off of an alley and just a few ladies making fortune cookies. I don’t really like fortune cookies, so it was one of those ‘oh, people like these things’ moments for me.

And then we rode on a cable car and it was AWESOME! They didn’t even charge us. I have no idea why, maybe it was my childlike exhuberance “OH MY GOSH, THIS IS AWESOME!!!!! AAAHHH!!!”. But that was a great way to see the sights. I hung off of the side! Waahh, so dangerous, so thrilling!

Here was a nice park.

We drove down this hill. The one that is popular because of its curving and such. Although we were stuck behind some slow drivers, so it was a slow crawl down the hill. Auntie said it was more fun doing it faster. I am glad we were behind slow drivers. It turns out I am great at going up steep hills, but going down them I tend to go “Heeeeeeehhhh. HeeeeEEEEEHHHH. HHHHHHHEEEEEEHHHHHHH.” all nervous-like. I am not good down hill.

Finally got to check out 99 Ranch. It was only okay. The location we went to seemed really worn down, and prices were only okay. Go Albany, we have a comparable or better market for Asian foods!

Obligatory Golden Gate Bridge photo.

We got dinner from Mollie Stone’s – fresh dungeness crab! Holy crap, Mollie Stone’s is where I would shop all of the time if I lived in the Bay.

Hello, air chilled turkey for $3.99/lb!! WHAT?!

Fresh bread & crab from Mollie Stone’s! We had it with cocktail sauce, and mayo + dried mustard. My uncle likes it, and so I tried it. OH MY GOSH, I even like mayo in California! Mayo + mustard + crab = taste heaven. Actually, the crab was taste heaven all on its own. So sweet and meaty. Nothing like the blue crabs we get up here.

Our cousin in DC had sent some goodies from a trip to Japan. A SAMPLER PACKAGE OF JAPANESE KIT KATS. GET OUT. YES. These were all so good. Wasabi kit kats (just a wee kick, not really spicy) are a close second to green tea kit kats.

The next day the girlies hit up the mural district for a warehouse sale. I didn’t eat here, but I really liked the sign.

Blue Bottle Coffee! I stopped here because I really liked this when I had it at the Confectionery in Troy.   The barista was such a peach. He asked “Have you had a perfectly fantastic day today?” And in NY I would have been like “Pfff, okay dude, yeah, sure, just gimmie my coffee,”, but in California it just felt so genuine, and I couldn’t help but answer “… Yes. Yes, I really am!”

And then I had to be a smartass & text the Profussor:
Albany Jane: “Were you grumpy when you lived in California? Everyone is so happy here.”
Daniel B.: “No, I was happy.”

I GET IT. I TOTALLY GET IT. I SO GET IT NOW. People are nice. They care about quality. Prices are reasonable for what you get.

So we shopped for eleventy billion hours while Albany John went to Golden Gate Park, and eventually we grabbed lunch at Big Mouth Burgers. They had a cool sign, and we were really hungry.

Menu board.

Albany John got a falafel burger with beans. Zesty!

I got a cheeseburger with coleslaw. Holy crap, they mayo’ed that sucker up. BOTH sides of the buns were slathered in mayo. :X

Onion rings! Greasy spoon eats, yeah.

Capitol building.

Outta the closet – next time I’m going in.

Cheesy nibbles before dinner. Manchego on the left & humboldt fog on the right. I love Humboldt fog now. Tart, creamy, and just a wee bit crumbly. Great with Mary’s Gone Crackers.

I thought this picture of Albany John and his aunt cooking in the kitchen together was really sweet.

The next morning we went to the farmer’s market.

We didn’t buy fish from here, but here is an idea of prices and sourcing.

This bakery was AWESOME.

Gluten free bread section.

Pastries.

These were some expensive empanadas! $4 each, and they could fit in your palm!

They had live music, but unlike the music at Albany area farmers markets, this was of reasonable volume and you could carry on a normal conversation within a few feet of it, while still enjoying the music.

These strawberries were fantastic. And they started discounting them near the end of the market.

Draeger’s was the upscale food market. The service in the retail section upstairs was kind of ambivalent and crappy, but the staff who worked in the actual grocery store were really knowledgeable and great.

Wall of vinegars.

The locked case. Dill pollen – I wonder what that tastes like?

For dinner we had lamb. Grilled. Oh. So good.

Dinner precursor.

The next day I got to try a Peet’s.

It was okay, but kind of paled in comparison to Blue Bottle. But better than Starbucks.

Bevmo! This was neat to see IRLsies. They had a bunch of stuff we already have, but…

1800 Coconut Tequila?! What?! How have I not had that? Sadly, there was no room in my carry on for such souvenirs, so I had to pass up on it.

And then it was time for my favorite – walkies! Look at those gorgeous succulents!

More awesome neighborhood foliage!

We stopped by the tennis club Aunt, Uncle, & Cousin are members of. Albany John was tempted to take dip in the pool. (Too cold by California standards)

The Fairmont houses one of the few places on Albany John’s “Must Visit” list: The Tonga Room.

Albany John is a huge lover of all things tiki. If there was one place he had to visit while in San Francisco, it was the Tonga Room. The tiki bar that had indoor rainstorms every 30 minutes.

The rainstorms were pretty awesome to see.

While Albany John and I were up gazing at the rainstorms, Aunt & Uncle ordered up some fried spring rolls & fried calamari. The spring rolls were surprisingly good.

Drinks! Albany John got a Scorpion ($12) and I got a drink in a PINEAPPLE ($16). The Tonga Room is a bit on the pricey side, but for a (likely) once-in-a-lifetime trip for us, it was such a fun and memorable time. Also, those drinks were strong! I had to have Albany John help me finish my cocktail!

Kahlua pork spring rolls & coconut shrimp as 2nd round appetizers. Our aunt & uncle were so sweet – they are such wonderful hosts, they wouldn’t let us pay for anything while we were there. I can’t wait to return the favor when they visit NY.

It got a bit rainy later that night, but that didn’t stop our rockin uncle from planking salmon in the rain.

PLANKED SALON! I have heard tale of his smoked salmon, and it was so good. Marinated in a bit of olive oil, maple syrup, mustard seeds, and other such goodness…. Oh. Oh, Albany John needs to plan some seafood this summer. The plank really added a lot of smoky flavor to the salmon. And the skin was still nice & crisp.

Wines with dinner.

Salmon Look at how it glistens with delicious fat! I need all salmon to be like this now. All. So good. And so delectably rare on the inside.

And then my camera lens decided not to work any more, so I had to take photos on my phone.

I hope Albany John and I get to visit San Francisco again. Our family was so welcoming and great at touring us around. I don’t know if we could ever spend enough time with them. My uncle even took me with him to one of his boxing classes, which was way fun, but then I got used to California time and stopped waking up at 5 AM.

Albany John went back to Albany after our few days in San Francisco, and I went down to San Diego for a bit of solo time.

Hey, guess who willingly went camping the first weekend in March? This gal. It was even my idea. Craziness, I know. And a whole bunch of other adventuresome sorts came along. Phairhead & SexyBeast, Zero & his owners , and many more! We went to Dippikill up in Warrensburg, NY. Albany John has been with his friends several times. It was my first, and just a good one!

We stayed in Birches & also reserved the gatehouse for overflow campers.

Here’s a shot of gatehouse. It’s just a short walk from the parking lot. You can only rent gatehouse as an overflow, not on its own. Oh, in the winter you get sleds to schlep your stuff from your car to your cabin if you have a far walk.

Here’s what the inside of gatehouse looks like. Spiffy log cabin that keeps it super warm. Some folks who stayed in there one night added a few too many logs to the efficient fireplace and ended up sleeping in a sauna.

Dippikill provides some cookware, and a big ol’ percolator, but Albany John brought his cast iron. Oh mah gosh, guys. We ladies enjoyed such a fest of fatty proportions made by our woodsy menfolk. Actually, I don’t think I cooked any time I was there… Zero’s pops had the fantastic idea of cooking the chorizo he brought in the residual bacon fat after Albany John made some of my bacon for breakfast. Take that, perfect cholesterol levels!!

We also took a day trip to Oscar’s Smokehouse, which is also in Warrensburg, NY. I got some powerfully smoked hickory cheese curds. The smoke level was almost painful, yet also irresistible. Jerky was dry, unseasoned, and pretty inedible. Pickles were awesomely crunchy.

Dippikill provides wood for free/included with your reservation. All you have to do is chop more to replace what was by your cabin!

 

The lake was frozen over, so we took a hike over one day. Joyus puppers! And gigantic snowman.

Happy Husbear.

Post-camping aftermath. And lovable Zero in the background. Not too shabby for 12 people. While it might seem like social hour (and it can be: two of our merry men decided to stay up all night pouring Jim Beam by the mug, so don’t expect it to be quiet as a mouse), but I still found it easy to slip away for a few minutes or hours at a time to read in bed, or hang out where it was less noisy.

So, I would like to do this again, perhaps in June or late May some time, and get one of the big 25 person cabins. Would you like to come with, or come again? Let me know in the comments below! If we have all 25 people sign up, it works out to just under $35 per person for Friday-Sunday.

I made some mini croissants with some guidance from txfarmer on The Fresh Loaf. Overall, they came out pretty well. I was very happy with the layers, color, and flakiness, but I thought they were a bit tough for croissants and would have preferred them a bit softer/more tender. This was all due to my heavy handedness on this initial croissant endeavor.  Overnight – mix up a dough and let it sit.  Next day – croissant dough! Knead, roll into a ball, stick in fridge for a few hours.  Dough blob after being in the fridge for a few hours.  Rolled out into some kind of a rectangle.  Butter beaten into a square. I think I could have used about half as much – a lot leaked out during baking.  Butter square placed on dough.  My crappy folding/wrapping skills may also have been an issue with lack of tenderness. 
I rolled out & folded the dough a few times.
Chilled & on the second fold.  Sliced up – look at those layers! I could have made these larger, but man, after seeing how much butter I put in there, i just decided to make a few mini croissants and freeze some of the dough. These guys are RICH! Egg wash Egg wash before proofing.  After proofing for a bit with the egg wash.  Poofy croissants. Croissants in their pool of leaked butter. Not perfect by any means, but still pretty darned tasty because buttery carbs are inherently tasty. I will try these again!

 

Albany John and I went down to Queens to celebrate Chinese New Year with our family. I’m not sure what the Snake year means/holds for non-snake people, but this year has sparked some emotions in me and helped me realize some of my own shortcomings/weaknesses.

One such weakness is, as always, sushi. Haha. The night before Albany John trekked in on the MegaBus and got in a whole lot of cardio (i.e.: a bunch of the lines we normally use close after midnight!). We stayed with my sister & brother Maka & CVS, so the next day during the snow storm we ordered some sushi for lunch.

I ended up going out for groceries later on because I needed a walk, and I like a nice walk in the fresh snow. We spent a glorious day otherwise not leaving their apartment.
The day after that we went to Lillian Pizzeria in Forest Hills, Queens, NY. Maka called this the “good” pizzeria within walking distance of their place, and ho boy was it ever. They don’t deliver, so in the winter they only walk there.

A sharing slice for the table. Nice thin crust. A definite take-out contender if they were in the Tournament of Pizza.  I went for an eggplant roll and a broccoli pinwheel. The eggplant melted into the roll, and the crust was super-thin. I never know how places get their dough so thin, crispy, and tender. Mine poof up so much when I try to make anything similar.The broccoli pinwheel was basically a wheel of cheese held together with a bit of dough & some broccoli. What a tasty bite at $1!
Albany John got a meatball parm sub. Oh man, was that ever good. They slice their meatballs into circular slices. Nicely meaty & tender meat ball.  Later we went to Flushing for dinner with the rest of my family for Chinese New Year. But first I wanted to stop at one of the dumpling joints on Serious Eats’ Essential Dumpling guide. I was pretty let down by White Bear, which everyone seems to love, but when I read that My Sweet Home Dumpling made their dumplings to order… TO ORDER (as in, they roll out the dough, put in fillings, and cook it when you order. Not before)… how could I not? Here’s what it looks like from the street if you’re walking north from the subway. It’s on the same block, so not a very far walk.

Walk to the end of the bakery & put in an order for dumplings! Yes, dumplings! They were pretty quick, too! We got 2 orders. Green Onion & pork dumplings.
Cabbage & pork dumplings. The cabbage melded with the pork.  HOT SAUCE & SOY SAUCE !!!! I totally recommend My Sweet Home Dumpling. Way affordable, quick, and delicious! The skins were perfectly chewy, and the meat had just the right meaty texture and savory flavor.

You can also order drinks or whatever non-dumpling goods you want from the bakery that’s in the front of this space. Their English was so-so. I got a coffee milk tea, but then they tried giving me coffee. When I tried explaining in English that I wanted coffee milk tea they started going for just tea, so then I just blurted “Ka Fei Cha”, which are the magic words for coffee milk tea (Mandarin), and I was glad I retained at least a little bit of my crappy Mandarin knowledge.
So part of why we got a dumpling snack before dinner was because my family was meeting at the same place as last year, Jin Cheng Restaurant, which isn’t quite the best place to go for Chinese food in Flushing. I mean, it’s legit, but part of the problem is that they are very easily overwhelmed by a crowd. We got here at 5 PM before they were busy (with reservations) and they didn’t have their seating chart correct, so we had to move tables. When no one else was there yet.

But one of the good things about it is that it is really close to where my YehYeh lives, and he’s been kind of sicker lately so this was within walking distance. It was hard/sad to see him sick and a bit out of it. I mean, he was mentally there and knew all of us and all that, but he just looked really tired and sickly. It’s hard to see someone you love like that.

Any way, on to the food. Shrimp stuffed tofu with abalone and sugar snap peas. Good fry job, not greasy.
Abalone, I love you.  Shrimp! So here’s where they started slipping. The “Kids” were all sitting at one table (I think the youngest was 20, and the oldest in late 30s if that gives you any idea, hehe), and they brought out shrimp. My older girlie cousin took one, and then about 15 seconds later they came back & took the whole dish away!!! Who does that?! They said they didn’t mean for our order to come out so quickly & it was for another table. That got there after we did. Who takes away a plate of shrimp AFTER SOMEONE HAS EATEN ONE OF THEM?! WTF?? Do not take our shrimp. They took it, hid in the kitchen for a few minutes, then brought it out to the table right next to us. For real? Just make them a new platter!

They took forever to bring out a dish half of that size, and it turns out they screwed that up because our parents told us that we were supposed to get the larger double order size that had originally come out! Ugh!
Snails. These were a lot of work and not much flavor. Eh. One of my boy cousins and I ate a lot of these just so they wouldn’t go to waste. Our meager platter of shrimp. Sigh. We yelled when they took the first platter.  Snow pea shoots with shredded dried scallop, shiitake, & dried shrimp. This was a refreshing dish.  Half a crispy chicken. Eh, it was okay, but a tad greasy & light on flavor.  Fail fish. This was a whole steamed fish, and we were all really looking forward to it. Why was it was it a fail fish?  Because of the big gaping hole on the top! They dropped it off without mentioning it, and when we mentioned it, they kept just telling us to eat it. Maybe explain it apologetically when dropped off instead of making us wonder why it looks like there was a bite missing from the fish. I guess it fell/broke when they were moving it from steamer to platter, which is why it looks like there’s a hole in it.

Sadly, the presentation wasn’t the only thing lacking. The flavor was also very muddy and the texture was really water-logged and mushy. Old fish.

Lobster was good, thankfully! I ate a bunch of lobster. Yum. We had a few bottles of wine (BYOB). The adults table had more to drink than the kids, though! They took one of the bottles from our table, haha! And then one of my uncles busted out a bottle of Hennessy and we were all drinking wine glasses full of Henny. Like a bawss.  One of my aunties also made a rice flour red bean cake. Yummy! Like a mochi cake- nice & chewy, but not too sweet.  And Jin Cheng waited until we were about ready to leave before finally bringing out the fried rice. Which looks much better with a pair of pink bunny ears. We thought they had forgotten it, or adults didn’t order it. I tried a bite of Albany John’s bowl & passed.

I was very thankful to have been able to spend all of the time waiting for food catching up with my cousins, though! I don’t see them nearly enough, usually only at Chinese New Year.
The next day we went to Grand Restaurant in the New World Mall for some awesome dim sum. And chow fun. Woah, was it ever packed because of Chinese New Year!
Thanks for the tea, husbear. I tap my three fingers for you!Veggies
Taro puff. The good thing about the busyness is that there’s a lot of turnover so food doesn’t sit for long on the carts.

My YehYeh had a bit to eat, but not as much as he used to, and he still seemed a bit tired. I felt like I didn’t get enough time with him, and I didn’t want to burden him if his energy wasn’t up to it. I wish I could speak more than a few words of Cantonese. I don’t know. I am awkward with what little Chinese I know and fairly insecure about my (poor) language capabilities. Even then, what would I say to him?

After that, we parted ways and Albany John headed back to Albany while I puttered around the city a bit more. $1 peking duck baos before he left. Meh, skin was rubbery, but not a bad $1 snack. Street snacking in Flushing.

Oh, we also went to Chatime, which was running some buy-one-get-one special. We realized after we ordered we could have gotten low/no sugar. Ah well, Chinese New Year, right? Coffee milk tea with boba & coffee jelly for me, and sesame tea for Albany John.

I went to Astoria to hang with Sistah after that.
On my final day Sistah & I puttered around Manhattan for a bit, and went to Food 52 in Korea Town. That place was pretty awesome – a whole bunch of restaurant stalls in one building! I got a half roasted chicken. Not bad, but pretty American.  Sistah got a baoFilled with noodles, meat, and veggies. She loved this. She also didn’t love me trying to pay for everything, so I guess I need to back off on trying to be in control. (But in my defense it was Chinese New Year & she is my little sister, so of course I want to pay for everything!)
She got the Korean version of General Tso’s, only a little spicier. It was “Garlic Chicken” with miso soup, rice, pickled daikon, and kim chee. Pretty good stuff, actually.

And then I thought I was late for my megabus so I wound up running about 6 blocks to the Megabus stop with green tea tiramisu in hand. I would have had better timing on that run if I wasn’t stuffed to the gills with tasty K-Foods, weighted down with a backpack, or wearing knee-high Doc Martens (my footwear of choice for mucky & wet weather so my tootsies don’t get wet).

Overall, this was a great trip because I was down in Queens for so long, so I got to see pretty much all of my family down there.

This year of the Snake makes me think of how hard YehYeh has worked (for his whole life basically) and if he didn’t sacrifice so much, would I be here? He left mainland China for Hong Kong to look for work when he was 13. 13 years old. That is so young. YehYeh was adopted, you know. Kind of rare to hear about Chinese kids being adopted by Chinese families. During the harder times he even sent cooking oil to his family in mainland China because it was so rationed.  He eventually had a family, survived Communism, and came to the US with his young family. He got help from his mother to get enough money to bring everyone over and never saw her again after he came to the US. He worked a lot, and even became a trusted assistant to a famous sports team owner who had a place in NY (he’d watch the owner’s place when he was out of town & be his assistant when this owner was in NY). My parents even were in the owner’s box/suite at a stadium when there was a local game! He lost his wife, my grandmother, at what I would consider a rather young age. I was somewhere between 4-5 years old, and I think grandma was around 50 years old when she passed. He is now about 80 years old, and we had a big bash for him last year to celebrate. 4 kids, many more grandkids, and one great-grandson.
Thinking about everything my YehYeh has done and seeing him recently has made me think about things of my own: am I working hard enough? Am I doing all that I can? I don’t want to be a waste, and I want to be helpful. I don’t want my family to have to worry over me or my future. I think sometimes I get into my own head too much and get overwhelmed by things that really don’t matter in the grand scheme of things, but really there is no need to because I really don’t have it hard. I have a really good life, and one much easier than YehYeh had at my age. I want to be a generally good person and be able to appreciate everything in my life. I want to try to be good to all of my family members. My relationships with various members of my family can be awkward and strained at times, but I want to always be there for them. I want to be there for anyone that needs me.

Oh, Snake year. You might be the year of introspection and thought.

City Dining Cards loves them some AlbanyEats! readers and wants to send one of you a pack of cards as a little You-Are-Awesome V-day present. Aww, food prezzies, so sweet.

If you missed the first giveaway City Dining Cards had in November, or weren’t the one and only Mmasz who won, now’s a time to pick up a pair for free.

What are City Dining Cards? If you haven’t heard yet, check out my first post on them, but the short of it is that that they’re a deck of discount dining cards that you can use in the Albany/Capitol Region area at a bunch of restaurants ($10 off $30 or more food purchases).

Add a comment to enter, contest closes Thursday, February 14th (aka, Valentine’s day).

My second attempt at home brewing beer was a success. I was brewing this at a friend’s house, but long story short, their house basically imploded when I was going to bottle, so I had to get a bottling tree and bottle at home. The house is on its way to being okay again, in case you were wondering (although I am a bit terrified of buying a home, now).

I went to Hammersmith Home Brew in Latham for a bottling tree. I was glad to have a physical store to go to last-minute, but wow was there a price difference. $32.95 for a 45 bottle drying tree, versus $18.99 on Midwest Supplies (less shipping), or $26.48 from Amazon (with shipping) for the exact same models. But I’m supporting a local small business, so that’s good for our economy, right?

 So since I had to bottle at home, I put a whole bunch of sanitizing solution in one of my largest buckets and started sanitizing away. The whole process went pretty quickly & smoothly. I really tried to siphon the beer from the primary fermenter into the bottling tub, but oh my gosh I am so clumsy. I ended up giving myself a beer shower twice while I was holding the tubes somehow, and then I just gave up and poured the rest of it directly from one bucket into the other.

Oh yeah, this is the kit I used from Midewest Supplies for the Noble Trappist Ale.

 

I think it has a lot of fruit and coriander notes in it. I think it came out a tad heavier than I like in a beer, so I’m not sure if I’d make it again for my own drinking enjoyment, but Albany John has been enjoying the heck out of it. Belgian ales are some of his favorite types of beer, and he thinks this is pretty well in the ball park for a Belgian. I do like the small bubbles, though.

The flavors in this beer make it a great cooking beer. More on that in a bit!

Albany John & I didn’t get to celebrate Christmas with his parents, so we did it later in January. Of course, my stomach couldn’t make it all the way to Amherst, so we had to take a pit stop in Northampton to reup our cheap food supplies from Deals & Steals (organic Kasha puff cereal for $1.50! Holler!), and try Grub Sandwich Shop. They support a ton of local businesses, and change their menu seasonally. But also, they have fish sauce and sriracha in addition to their two types of hot sauce on each table. I am down with any restaurant that puts out fish sauce & sriracha.
Cute chalkboard menu listing all of their eats.  We went with hot dogs as a snack. Snack? Yeah, snack. Fatty life, what’s up? Seoul dog on the left, Hazmat on the right.

The seoul dog was my favorite – kimchi dog with their own kimchi, spicy mayo, and bacon. This was a great example of how to use mayo well. I really liked how all of the flavors worked (especially with the snappy natural case on the hot dog), and even found myself adding a few extra drops of sriracha to up the heat content.

The hazmat was also great, and made Albany John and I realize we should totally use roasted chili peppers more in our cooking. Warm, but not very spicy, it went well with the aioli and cheddar. I preferred eating the dog and its toppings without the bun, but Albany John liked just the fillings with the bun even better. (Imagine an epic stuffed bread/grilled cheese kind of thing)

MERRY CHRISTMAS MAMA & PAPA AMHERST! We ate the heck out of an Empire turkey breast for dinner. Oh man, that was so freaking good and perfectly salty.

Then we opened up a care package from one of our cousins. He’s been traveling throughout Southeast Asia lately (with the occasional side-trip to Japan), and snagged some goodies for us.  MORE GREEN TEA KIT KATS!! THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING MY ADDICTION! One even has the sakura/cherry blossoms on it.  These Pepper Sweets which were not peppery, but very savory-sweet tasting. They had birds as their mascots.  Mangosteen wafer cookies (top left), blueberry Oreos (top right), and the dried jackfruit & coconut below. The jackfruit smelled incredibly pungent, but tasted just overly sweet & needed some tartness. The dried (and sweetened) coconut was awesome. These were meaty chunks, kind of like coconut jerky. A little chew.  Emping crackers. At first they were interesting, and then they became something we could not put down. They were super crunchy, a bit thick, and had a spicy kick after you swallowed a chip. 

Collon candies. I think he got these on an airplane & didn’t eat them, so he sent them to us. Or he bought a lot of single-sized snacks for us. But omg, so good! They were green tea candies! The outside were wafer-y cookie rolls & the inside was like a really light whipped filling. Yay, matcha!

Here’s a shot of the blueberry oreo. It was just a little bit purple on the inside. Tasted like a mint berry kind of filling.