Tis the season for some crabs! At $2.99 per lb, you can bet I’ll be eating crabs until my heart and tummy are content.  One of my favorite Vietnamese dishes is Cua Rang Me. It’s crabs stir-fried with a sweet tamarind sauce. It’s a sweet, sour and savory dish that is sure to delight anyone who loves crabs as much as I do.

Here’s What You Need:

• 3 whole fresh crabs

• 2 tablespoons oil

• 3 finely chopped shallots

• 2 tablespoons tamarind paste

• 4 minced garlic cloves

• 2 teaspoons garlic powder

• 2 lime leaves, sliced into thin strips

• 2 teaspoons sambal sauce (chili paste)

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce

• 2 tablespoons sugar

• 2 teaspoons fresh ginger

• 2 teaspoons black pepper

When dealing with any kind of seafood, always get the ones that are still alive and kicking.  If not, try to get them at the freshest point possible.  Fresh seafood does not have the fishy smell. Plus, the meat is more tender and delicious.

1. Prepare the Crabs

Kill.

Spare the poor crabs by killing them quickly. A dead crab is also much easier to handle. To effectively kill a crab, just pierce it with a sharp knife in the middle of its underside.

Scrub.

Take a brush, preferably one with a handle, and start scrubbing the crabs down.  Don’t forget the hairs on its claws.  They are particularly dirty.

Hack.

Flip the crab over to reveal the triangular flap on its underside. Discard flap.

Remove the top hard shell from the rest of its body. If you have a hard time pulling off the shell, gather up the claws on one side of the body and use them as leverage to pull the shell apart.

When pulling apart the shell, make sure not to lose any of the crab tomalley (yellowish green liquid-y substance) that is found inside cavity of the shell. Even though it looks repulsive, that’s where most of the flavor is at.

Using a spoon, scrap off the rest of the tomalley from the shell and into a bowl.  Set aside. Toss the shell.

On the other half of the crab that contains the legs, discard the spongy membranes at the center.

With a meat cleaver, hack off the pointy ends of the claws. You wouldn’t want anyone pricking the insides of their mouths.

Tear off the two main claws. Use a mallet to pre-break the two big claws for easier eating.

Now hack up the rest of the crab into more manageable sizes.  I usually leave two legs and parts of the body attached.  Much like a crab drumstick.

Put all the pieces in a bowl and marinate with garlic powder and one teaspoon of pepper.  I omit the salt in this step since crabs are already a bit salty from the sea water.

2. Season the crab tomalley with sugar, soy sauce and tamarind paste

3. Putting it all together.

Heat the oil in a wok. Add shallots, ginger, garlic until fragrant and golden brown.

Add lemon leaves and the sambal chili sauce. Mix for 5 seconds. Add in  the crab pieces.  Toss the crab pieces so that each is coated with the aromatic mixture.

Add the tomalley to the wok and toss the crabs to ensure that tomalley coats them thoroughly.

Cover wok with a lid and cook for 15-20 minutes. Lastly, sprinkle with remaining pepper and lemon leaves.

Serve with white rice. Enjoy!

To end this post, here’s a picture of a huge rat.

Whenever I’m really hungry and in need of something quick, I can always count on Chinese take-outs. I always get some kind of stir-fry with a side of rice. For the most part, it’s healthy as the stir fry comprises of mostly vegetables and a type of protein (pork, beef, shrimp, etc).  However, almost every time, I don’t feel too good afterwards. The culprit?  The excess oil typically found in those wok-style-cooking Chinese take-outs.  The excess oil feels like a rock at the bottom of the stomach.  After a great Chinese take-out meal, I usually find myself wishing I never ate it. To avoid the unpleasant ending, I make my own less oily version at home whenever possible.  Best of all, it’s easy on the wallet. For almost the same price that I pay for Chinese take-outs, I usually can feed my whole family when making the same meal at home.

I found a tasty Kung Pao sauce recipe at SimplyMing.com. It’s quick. It’s easy, and it’s from a Chinese guy who worked in an authentic Chinese restaurant.

As for the oil, I don’t usually follow the recipes. I just put just enough so that my ingredient don’t burn and stick the wok.

Now to the put the chicken in Kung Pao Chicken, follow this recipe for Kung Pao Chicken.

And there you have it. A recipe that puts the PAO in Kung Pao Chicken from SimplyMing.com. Enjoy!

I hate shopping for clothes.  I seriously do. I hate walking around. I hate browsing. I hate trying on clothes. And mostly, I hate dealing with crowds.  My hate for shopping most likely stemmed from the fact that nothing ever fits me. I would spend countless hours browsing through racks and racks of clothes just to find that the pant legs are too long, neckline is too low, and shoulders are too wide. I feel like I’m buried in the clothes that I try on; And for goodness sake, they are already small or extra small. So you can just imagine my side of the closet. There are tumbleweeds rolling through it.  There are some quite a few items dating back to my teenage years! My husband’s side of the closet, on the other hand, is packed and just raining with clothes of all styles and colors for all seasons. Once a blue moon, I would call up my sister to go clothes shopping, and she usually doesn’t believe what she’s hearing. But most of the time, clothes shopping is my equivalent of torture. Dangling pretty clothes in front of me that don’t fit, or walking miles from stores to stores and not find anything. Yes, that’s torture.

I am on a mission to make the perfect cupcake. Recently inspired by
Cupkate’s cupcakes (www.cupkatesbakery.com), I, too, want to make a perfectly soft and moist cupcake with the most decadent frosting to ever hit the inside of your mouth. So I assembled my team: my 10-year old nephew, Brandon, my 5-year-old niece, Natalie, and my 2-year-old son, Edison, who unsurprisingly wasn’t very much help.

We found a yellow cupcake and simple chocolate frosting recipe. And the result? Well, it was edible. Not the gourmet cupcake that I was striving for. The texture of the cupcake was too muffin-like. The outside of the cupcake was overcooked and therefore hardened, and the frosting was as thick as spackle. They tasted and looked like a bunch of kids made them! I’m sure our techniques were off to get the results that we did. Maybe we overbeat the batter…or possibly underbeat the batter. Who knows but we will definitely give it another go this weekend. Cupkates, you are free to live another day.

I usually have a lot of aromatic vegetables lying around the house: celery, carrots, lemons, shallots, garlic and onions. When the week rolls by, and I have yet to use them up, I usually find a good poultry roast recipe where I can jam most of it into the bird’s cavity. So I headed out to the store and found a great 2-for-1 deal on cornish hens at Lucky’s. Each pack came with two hens so a total of four hens for a great bargain price of $8.45. And here was what I came up with:

Recipe:

1. After cleaning the bird, sprinkle the inside and outside of the bird with salt and lemon pepper.

2. Spread the garlic butter all over the hen, including the inside of the bird and under the skin.

Garlic Butter Spread:
Garlic (minced or through a garlic press)
Butter

3. Chop up the following ingredients and stuff them inside the bird:
Celery
Lemon
Carrots
Shallots
Onions

4. Use twine to tie up the legs together so that the stuffing doesn’t
fall out.

5. Preheat your oven to 390 degrees and roast your hen for about 1.5 to 2 hrs. For the first hour, place a piece of foil over the hen so that the skin doesn’t burn.  Remove the foil when you think your bird is almost done. And don’t forget to rotate them to get that even brown crust.

I have been coughing for like…forever. My days are violently interrupted by loud, uncontrollable coughing that leaves my stomach in pain and my throat sore. Coworkers, families, animals, and micro-organisms scramble for cover as I cough my insides out.  Instead of going to the doctor, I decided to patiently wait it out. Weeks passed. Months passed. The damn cough still lingers.  Finally, in a desperate attempt to rid of this annoying cough and to find out if it’s possible to die by prolonged coughing, I finally dragged myself to the doctor’s office after so many months. As soon as my doctor’s appointment was over, and as soon as I paid the $40 office visit, and as soon as I bought my $15 prescription and before even using it, my cough went away. What the hell.

However, my trip to the doctor’s office wasn’t all in vain. I found out that I’m only 4’ll” as opposed to the 5’ that I have been trying to convince myself. Being 4’ll, I might have a chance to apply for disability! Blue handicap plaque, here I come (maybe)!

We decided to finally teach Edison to sleep in his own bed. He’s been sleeping in bed with us and normally, we don’t mind, but our King size bed doesn’t seem to fit us anymore.

The little butterball, who’s now 2, sleeps in between us, and he takes up more than his allotted 1/3 space and those flailing arms and legs tend to always find themselves in the middle of my face. One of these days, I’m sure I will have to explain to my manager why I can’t come into work because of a black eye.

Last night I took him off our bed and showed him where his new bed is located.  He willingly climbed into his own bed and even covered himself up with the blanket!  I climbed into bed with him so that he feels more comfortable and everything seems to be going very well. We turned off the lights and slept.

This morning I woke up to find that the little rascal made his back onto our bed, snuggled up with Dad, and it was me who was sleeping in his bed.

Hopefully we will have better luck tomorrow.

The fondest memory I had as a child was when my mom took me and my siblings to the nearby creek to catch crawfish with our homemade fishing poles, or flown our homemade kites in the front yard, using them as a mean to “send messages to God.” Cost of such adventures, nearly zero, but the fun times and fond memories it created, priceless.

It’s easy sometimes to get lost in the hustle and bustle of everyday life that we forget that in the eyes of a child, it is the simple things that matter.

This is why I recently taught my son how to dangle on the outside of a shopping cart as I zoomed through a grocery store making speeding car noises. Although disapproving looks were casted from all directions from concerned parents, I couldn’t care less.  My little man was having fun and I was getting my errands done. And if, BIG if, he happens to hurt himself, it will be a free lesson to hold on tighter.

Let kids be kids.

I love Vietnamese sandwiches. You have your choice of grilled pork, chicken, meatball, ham etc on a warm baguette that’s perfectly toasted on the outside and soft and airy on the inside. Topped with a thick slice of cucumber, some pickled daikon and carrots, a few sprigs of cilantros and a few slices of fresh jalapeños, and you got yourself a piece of heaven on Earth.

I dream of the day when I have a servant  who would whip me up a different Vietnamese sandwich everyday, served on a silver platter of course, with a side of freshly squeezed sugar cane juice (Nuoc Mia) topped with a tiny pink umbrella. Until then, below is a recipe for one of many Vietnamese sandwiches, grilled pork Vietnamese sandwich, or else known as Banh Mi Thit Nuong.

To make an authentic Banh Mi, you will need the unique French baguette found in Asian stores.  Once toasted, the baguette has a thin layer of crispy crust on the outside and a hollow and soft inside for maximum stuffing. You can purchase these baguettes in any of the Asian hole-in-the-wall stores in Chinatown. They are usually found at the front, and they usually come 5 in a pack. Of course, if you cannot find an Asian store that has these baguettes, get any French baguette from your local store. Just make sure they are the soft kind.  Otherwise, you will overdo your jaw muscles when eating. Trust me. I was in pain for days.  

Pork Marinade Recipe:

• 1 1/2  lb pork shoulder or butt (sliced 1/4 inch)
  Keep in mind that fat is not only flavor, but it also helps to prevent drying out the meat when grilling. So pick a piece of meat that has a moderate amount of fat.
• 1 table spoon lemon grass (minced)
• 1 table spoon garlic powder
• 1 table spoon sugar
• 1/2 table spoon honey
• 1 tea spoon pepper
• 1 tea spoon sesame oil
• 3 table spoons oyster sauce
• 2 table spoons cooking wine

Whisk together and marinade your pork for at least two hours, the longer the better.

Spreads Recipe:

Butter

• Three egg yolks
• Olive oil
  (You can skip this part by just using mayo)
  Beat the egg yolks (use a beater) and slowly drizzle in the olive oil.
  Continue vigorously beating until the mixture gets thick.  This is the the “butter” for the baguette.  If you fear of eating raw egg yolk or if you are like me and your tiny hands can’t do the vigorous beating that is required to get the thickness going or your husband has yet to buy you one of the powerful multi-purpose beater, then just use regular mayo.

Pork/chicken liver pate

You can find these already made in stores

Pickled Diakon & Carrots Recipe:

• 1 large carrot (cut into “match stick” size)
• 1 large daikon (cut into “match stick” size)
• 3 cups warm water
• 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons salt
• Jar with lid

Mix the warm water, vinegar, sugar and salt until dissolved.  Put the daikon and carrot into the jar.  Pour the mixture over them and seal the jar with a lid.  Let it brine for at least a few hours (the longer, the better).

Toppings:

• 1 small batch of cilantro
• 2 fresh jalapeños (de-seed and cut at a diagonal)
• 1 cucumber (cut lengthwise)
• Fried egg (I love to top everything with a fried egg)

Putting It All Together

• Grill meat or put it on the broiler
• Toast your baguette; make a slit
• Spread the butter/mayo and pate
• Stuff your baguette with the desired amount of meat and toppings
• Top if off with a fried egg for more umph.

Simple as pie.  Enjoy!

For the past eight months, I’ve been trying to do a loan modification for my parent’s house through Bank of America under the “Making Home Affordable” program. Although my parents qualify, I have had absolutely no success in making any progress towards a loan modification. I have come to the conclusion that the BAC Home Retention Division is, for a lack of better words, retarded.

Reasons BAC Is Retarded:

1. Ridiculous Hold Time

Apparently, no one works in the Home Retention Division of BAC. Make  yourself a cup of coffee, paint your nails, do the laundry because you will spend an eternity just trying to get out of their looped automated system the first time you call. You will press buttons after buttons, trying to get to the right division and once you do, good luck in figuring out the correct button to speak to a rep.

2. Constant Transfers

Once you do get through to a live person and feel a sense of accomplishment, BAC slaps you in the face by providing you with reps who are completely clueless and useless. They will put you on hold and transfer your call to India, outer space, another planet, or possibly another galaxy far far away.

3. Inaccurate Information

For the lucky few who actually get to speak to a competent rep, you will be provided with their contact information to send in your financial documents.  Sorry to inform you but that fax number and mailing address go straight into what can possibly be the only explanation…the Black Hole.

I come to this realization after their supposed 4-to-6-six week wait period. I called BAC to ask why I haven’t gotten a response after waiting for months. Their explanation: I didn’t fax in the financial documents. Oh really? Well, silly me, I must have sent it to the wrong fax number or maybe it was one of the very, very few pieces of mail that got lost in the mail. Re-faxed it and …again…was told that no financial documents were received. Don’t fret just yet because BAC will kindly offer you a different mailing address and different fax number. Don’t even bother questioning why the new fax number and mailing address are different than what you were provided originally. Save that energy to try to go through their list of fax numbers and mailing addresses to see which ones actually go to them and which ones go to the Black Hole.

4. Reps Suffer from Amnesia

By some miracle of God, you made your way to the last round and got your approval status. The last step is to wait for a package in the mail and sign the paperwork. Piece of cake, right? You made it through the tough rounds and rest should be no big deal, right? Dead wrong! The package will never come. You get on the phone; tell them about your ordeal and how you have waited for months and still have not received your package that they said they FedExed. Their response? They have no idea what you are talking about. They have no idea why you are calling them. They have no tracking log of your millions of phone calls to them. They will try to calm you down and gently coax you in starting the whole process all over again.

Yeah, this is the point where I decided if I had a 747, I would fly my plane into the BAC Headquarters…