Taiwanese sha-cha seafood noodles 台式沙茶海鮮炒麵

We went to H Mart (the Korean grocery store) on this past Sunday. I love H Mart. The quality of the produces there is top quality. It is pricy, especially beef, but the quality is really good. Plus, it's not close enough to go too often, so it's OK. After shopping, we stopped by the food court for dinner. As we finished dinner, my husband went to bring the car to the front, and I was left alone with the twins. They started to make a scene. They were tied up in the car seat for too long. I couldn't calm them down, but I didn't want to pick them up, either. This was the moment when even the pacifiers didn't work. So many people were staring at us. I quickly push them away from the crowd, but I was still wondering how people would judge me: a useless mom?

Noodles in minced pork sauce 炸醬麵

This was one of my favorite food when I was little. It is a traditional dish especially in Northern China. There are many different ways of making the sauce, all with slight variation. I guess there is no good translation for it, either. So this is the version from my father. Every summer the string beans are growing so well in my in-law's garden, that's when I think of making this for my family. The sauce is great with noodles or rice.

Meat sauce spaghetti 義大利肉醬麵

'Tis the tomato season!! Bright red tomatoes are growing so beautifully in my in-law's garden. Not only do they look bright, they smell good and taste so delicious!! The only problem is that they produce too many of them. I have to think of many ways to consume them. We still have homemade canned tomato sauce from 2007!  :-)  Here are a few easy ways to enjoy them.

Spicy meat sauce noodles 辣醬麵

We had some rain over the weekend, the weather suddenly cools down a lot. I love spicy food, even in the summer time. There is a small restaurant in the Chinatown here, and it is always so busy. You know they have good food there. One of my favorite is the spicy meat sauce with mixed vegetables over noodles. I try to reproduce it at home, so that I can also add some personal touch to it.

Shrimp scampi

I have become so lazy recently. I don't want to do anything, just want to take a nap. The breeze in the hot summer afternoon surely puts me right to sleep. Shrimp scampi is my favorite dish when I go to UNO. I am amazed about the consistency of the dish. No matter which UNO I go to, the taste is always the same. The smooth buttery sauce with al denta thin spaghetti, um ... um ... um ... delicious!! I tried to reproduce it at home, just for fun, and it tasted great!! The tomatoes from my in-laws' garden are just start to ripen. Nothing compares to a home-grown tomato.

Spinach lasagna 菠菜肉醬千層麵

Thank God it's Friday!! After the hot weather earlier this week, the weather has been really nice. So nice that we don't want to get up in the morning to go to work. That's why I so look forward to the weekend. We got some beautiful spinach from my in-laws, fresh from the garden, so I want to make something good with it. Making lasagna is a good idea! Again, I went to Carol's website for instructions.

Five color cold sesame noodles 五色麻醬涼麵

The temperature keeps in the 90s today. I heard that a heat wave is rolling in the United States; some places, like Houston, hold a record of more than 10 days in a roll above 100 F ! I work from home today, and Seymour (our cat) is such a sweet little company. He is rolling on the carpet in the sun room, making a stretch and yawning. One good thing about him is he responds to you when you talk to him, either he talks back (meows) or wiggling his tail. 

I saw this pretty cold noodle dish on Carol's website. It is so pretty and looks very professional (restaurant-grade). However, it's quite time consuming, especially you have to cut everything in thin slices. I pull the chicken breast by hand. Well, my husband likes it, so it's all worth it.

Cold buckwheat noodles 日式冷蕎麥麵

Tuesday was the first day of summer. In the US, many people celebrating it by having BBQ in the backyard. Well, we only have a charcoal grill, and to fire up a charcoal grill is a lot of work, so I decide to cook something else instead. This cold Japanese style buckwheat noodles fits the theme! Of course, we will pick some other day to have a BBQ party in our backyard. I have to admit that BBQ meat tastes very good!

To do this cold buckwheat noodles authentically, I did a lot of homework. Here is what I found:

Spinach noodle soup 菠菜蛋花肉絲麵

Spinach is ready to harvest in my in-law's garden. I am trying to come up with so many different ways to consume the spinach. Probably everyone in my generation would link spinach with the hero "Popeye the sailor man". (I don't know if kids now watch it anymore.) Popeye always became so strong after he ate a can of spinach and was able to rescue his sweetheart, Olive, from the rascal. Indeed, spinach has a lot of iron in it, which will help in the production of red blood cells, in turn increases oxygen carrying to tissues and muscles.

Pad thai 泰式炒麵

I love Thai food. Every time I move to a new city, I must look for a good Thai restaurant for sure, and I will become a frequent guest there. My love to Thai food started in a little Thai takeout place on the side of a street. It was owned by three brothers and sisters. The big brother was around 17 or 18 years old, serving as the chef. And the two sisters were so young and so cute, serving as cashiers. I will never forget the naive smiles on their faces, so simple and so cute. Surprisingly, their food tasted much better than the food in some fancy restaurants. Now I always use "Pad Thai" as my test to a new Thai restaurant: if they can't even do Pad Thai right, they probably can't do anything right. After a while, I try to reproduce it at home so that I can be more generous with the ingredients.

Stir-fried rice noodles 炒米粉

Memorial Day weekend officially starts. It's a holiday to honor all the American soldiers died in wars AND a long weekend AND the official starts of summer activities. People start to take vacations, so the workload around this year is light. For some reason, I am terribly home sick, but the airline tickets are sky high now, due to the high gas price, the graduation season, and the coming summer. That's OK. I can cook something to make me close to home.

Cold noodles in sesame sauce 涼麵

The temperature today suddenly increases to low 80s from 50s yesterday! I think we will have a little taste of summer this week. Memorial Day is this weekend, which is the official start of summer activities. I'd better get ready! 

Cold noodles is one of our favorite choices in the summer, when the appetite is suppressed by the heat. The sauce is made with sesame paste, nutty yet not greasy. It's cold but tastes great! The key is the sauce; the ingredients are very simple, just need a little patience to make it.

Beef tomato noodle soup 番茄牛肉麵

The weather today is still cold, cloudy and drizzling. Tomorrow will be in the 80s! Isn't that crazy? Well, given that fact that there are so many natural disasters recently, and we can still wake up everyday to our love ones, we should really be thankful. Well, what is good for a wet rainy day like this? A warm noodle soup is great! 

Beef noodle soup is such a popular food in Taiwan. So much so that it has become the icon of Taiwanese food. There are "beef noodle soup" contests every year in Taipei competing for the title of the best noodle soup restaurant.

Seafood pesto 海鮮青醬義大利麵

I bought a pot of basil from the supermarket last year. As they were growing bigger, I moved them to my garden. I moved them indoor before the winter came, and now I replanted them outside, because ... spring is here!! Basil smells so good, and the best way to appreciate it is to make Pesto sauce.