I’m still in the process of gathering my food porn from the trip, so in the meantime… thought I’d share a recipe with you. It’s probably my favorite recipe ever – a recipe that always seems to satisfy that sweet tooth craving. So as a somewhat farewell to summer… here’s my recipe for Blueberry Cream Cheese Pie (a wonderful summer dessert, especially if you opt to use fresh berries… but also yummy all year round…)

Enjoy!

For the crust, you will need:

1 cup flour

1 block butter, softened

1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup macadamia nuts, chopped to your preferred “chunkiness”

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Place flour in a mixing bowl and cut in the butter, using a fork or better yet, your hands, add in sugar and nuts and mix until flour is crumbly.

Place flour mixture in an 8-inch pie pan , making sure to break up bigger crumbles. Do not press the mixture into the pie pan, as you want to bake it as a crumbled mixture.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to break up the crumbs even more. You want to bake it until it’s a “golden brown”. Be sure not to burn the crumbly crust.

Remove the crumbled crust from the oven , pat to the sides of the pan, using the back of a spoon or a spatula, whichever works for you, and cool.

In the meantime, for the filling you will need:

1 jar Avoset or 1 cup whipping cream

1 – 8 oz. block of cream cheese, softened to room temperature

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 can Comstock Blueberry Pie Filling/topping

Chill your mixing bowl and beaters for your electric mixer. Whip cream or Avoset until it forms stiff peaks.

In a separate bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Fold the cream cheese mixture into the whipped cream mixture. Spread evenly into prepared pie crust. Be careful as you spread the mixture into the crust. The filling is pretty thick and the crust is not set into the pan. What you want to try to do is drop the entire filling down the center of the pie crust and spread outward, so that none of the crumbly crust will end up in the filling.

Chill for 4 to 6 hours or overnight, if you have enough self control.

Top with your favorite fruit topping.

Canned pie filling works perfectly fine, or if you’re over-ambitious, you can make your own topping using fresh fruits. Some variations: sliced bananas drizzled with chocolate syrup, apple pie filling drizzled with caramel sauce, crumbled oreos, crumbled heath bars… The options are endless.

This recipe makes one 8-inch pie pan sized pie. I usually double the recipe and make it in a 9″x13″ cake pan.

Just got back from my 6 day vacay to NEW YORK CITY.

I didn’t get a chance to eat at a lot of places I would have loved to try…

But, I did eat…

At some pretty amazing places and some that was just eh…so-so…

Also had a few (ok, maybe more than a few) cocktails at some of the best bars/lounges that I’ve been to in a long while…

Also, I have been asked by a few good friends if they could be bloggers on this site. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get by with a little help from my friends…. It might actually motivate me to keep up with this website on a regular basis.

So look out for a few guest posts every now and then…

Stay tuned for updates in the next couple of days. I’m still trying to get back in the groove of writing and publishing posts, so please bear with me.

See you in a few…

The first encounter I had with Yogurtland was in California a few months ago. Some friends of ours took us to the location across from the CSU Long Beach campus. It was a weekend night, around 10-ish, and the place was packed. SUPER PACKED. It seemed like an Under-21 club scene.

The line wrapped along the sidewalk, with hoards of college kids and more than a handful of high schoolers, some in line and some just hanging around. Not an open parking space in sight, unless you were up to doing a crazy hike clear across the parking lot and had enough energy to stand in the long line.

I love frozen yogurt – any frozen novelty at that – but my tolerance and patience for boisterous crowds have since dwindled. I can only take so much of status-conscious-gossip-girls saying things like “Omigod, like, is that a real Louie or did you get that from downtown LA?” and amateur rice-rocket-pilots muttering to each other “Dude, check out that car kit on that Honda. Dude, it’s hella tight!” before I start rolling my eyes in disdain… But I digress…

Sure I wanted some yogurt, but I didn’t want it that bad… So we left and headed home… (Oh man… I must be getting old…) Needless to say, it was a busy weekend for us, so we begrudgingly decided that Yogurtland had to wait till the next road trip.

That is… until I found out that Yogurtland was opening up shop here in Las Vegas. From what my friends have been saying, Yogurtland was much better than Pinkberry. I needed to find out myself. I anxiously wanted to see how they measured up to Pinkberry (the froyo shop lucky enough to pop my froyo cherry).

Bottom line – I LOVE YOGURTLAND. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. More than Pinkberry. Which I like. A little.

During the first week that the Town Square location opened, I visited Yogurtland about 4 times. I purposely spaced out my visits and went and different times for fear of a possible restraining order or job offer. The week after that, I visited twice. And then I just had to restrain myself from going to Yogurtland for fear that the novelty would wear thin and I would stop loving it as much as I do.

Yogurtland reminds me of a Sanrio store, just without the ever cute Hello Kitty mascot. It’s cute. And pink. And bright green. It makes me happy just walking in the place.

Unlike Pinkberry, Yogurtland is a self-serve yogurt place. You pick out the cup size you want – there’s 2 sizes: big and HUGE. Along one wall are the yogurt machines. They have about 15 or so flavors available at a time – most of the flavors rotate, so visit often. LOL.

At the end of the wall is the topping bar, where you can choose as little or as much toppings as you want. They offer the same toppings as Pinkberry, but also offer about 10 other different ones that Pinkberry failed to add to their topping bar – like chocolate syrup, caramel syrup and condensed milk. The price of your personal creation is based, then, on weight. At 30-cents an ounce, you can get a lot of yogurt and toppings for under $5.00. A much better deal than Pinkberry.

The yogurt at Yogurtland is also a lot creamier and not as tart as Pinkberry’s. So much so that at times, you forget that you’re eating yogurt. The strawberry yogurt is my favorite of all the flavors that I’ve tried – so far. It’s creamy and tastes and looks as if real strawberries were put into the mix. My next favorite flavor is the mango yogurt, which I was a bit hesitant to try, but so glad that I did. It’s refreshing, perfect for summer. As far as toppings are concerned, the mochi balls, Cap’n Crunch cereal, Coco Pebbles cereal and condensed milk never fails to impress.

There’s usually a line (and a teeny bopper crowd hanging out in front) at this Yogurtland also. Especially on weekends. But the line moves pretty quick and trust me, it’s well worth the wait.

So if there’s a Yogurtland in your neck of the woods, I highly recommend you stopping by for some really good frozen yogurt. Maybe I’ll bump into you at the one in Town Square. I try to visit at least once every 2 to 3 weeks or so. It’s not so much a staple in my diet like when they first opened. Now, it’s more like a well-deserved treat and a better alternative to Cold Stone Creamery, which is THE DEVIL… disguised as cold, sweet, creamy goodness…

But I like playing with fire, every once in a while… hahaha!

*****

Yogurtland, Town Square

6587 Las Vegas Boulevard South

Las Vegas, Nevada

(702) 822-1000

… more Las Vegas locations coming soon

(visit website)

That’s how they say “hello… how are you?” in Chinese.

Sorry I haven’t posted anything new in a while… Call it writer’s block, life related stress, heat exhaustion, whatever… but I’m back…

Every four years, the one thing I look forward to is the Opening Ceremonies of the Summer Olympics. And this year’s Opening Ceremonies in Beijing is by far, my favorite, and definitely will be the most memorable. Talk about SENSORY OVERLOAD!

So, in honor of the 2008 Summer Olympics… let me introduce you to Chinatown – Honolulu’s Chinatown to be exact… and where you can find the BEST EVER PORKY GOODNESS – EVER!

Honolulu’s Chinatown is like any other Chinatown in any other state with a big enough Asian population – crowded, traffic congested, full of character and the best place to get Chinese Roast Pork and char siu… among other things….

Pass the old residential area of Kalihi-Palama and across the bridge that crosses over a canal that feeds into Honolulu Harbor, lies Honolulu’s Chinatown district. No gilded statues or ornate Chinese gates reminiscent of San Francisco’s Chinatown greet you here. The only indication that you are in Chinatown are that the street signs are written in Chinese characters, along with the vernacular street names like King Street, Beretania Street and Kekaulike Street. Subtle hints like the names of vendors like Chun’s Meat Market and Lee’s Bakery and Kitchen (where they have the BEST CUSTARD PIE in all of Honolulu, if you’re lucky to get one before they run out) further remind you of where you are.

But this is not the Chinatown that I remember. Shops that were once owned by Chinese immigrants are now owned and operated by a growing Vietnamese population. Chinese herbal shops and acupuncture practices are still around, though hidden among the many Vietnamese jewelry stores and pho noodle shops, on nearly every corner. But the produce markets and meet vendors remain as they were, albeit, now run by a different population.

Oahu market brings great memories for me. Growing up, I remember weekend trips to Chinatown with either my parents or grandparents to get a week’s worth of vegetables, meat or fish. It’s where you went to get the freshest ingredients possible – produce straight from the farmers, meat from the ranchers and fish straight off the boats docked alongside the harbor. It’s also where you got the best Chinese style roast pork and char siu (Chinese barbeque pork). My favorite place to pick up these wonderful delicacies is at Chun’s Meat Market.

Chinese style roast pork is made by roasting pork belly that has been seasoned with salt and Chinese 5 spice until the skin is super duper crispy, but the meat is still moist and juicy. Chun’s Meat Market has what I think is THE BEST Chinese style roast pork – crisp, juicy pork belly with a meat to fat ratio that was pretty much hit or miss. Sometimes more fat than meat (good), sometimes more meat than fat (better for you) and sometimes almost equal amounts of each (pure bliss).

Char siu, on the other hand is made by marinating a leaner cut of pork (usually the shoulder) in a mixture of honey, Chinese five spice, soy sauce, hoisin sauce (plum sauce), Chinese wine and red food coloring. The pork is then either grilled or broiled. (In the picture below, the char siu is the meat stuffs hanging on the left; roast duck hangs to the right of the picture.) Chun’s char siu is also the best I’ve ever tasted – seasoned perfectly, with just enough char on it to enhance the smokiness of the marinade and not overpower it.

The roast pork and char siu are sold by the pound. You basically point to which piece or pieces you want from the meat hooks that proudly displays the goods and the butcher will chop it all up for you in seconds with his crazy-fast-super-sharp-butcher-knife-skills, then wrap it all up in butcher paper for you to take home.

I’ve since mastered the skill of opening up the tightly wrapped package to sample the goods in the car on the way home, then re-wrapping whatever is left into an equally tight package. Not an easy task, trying to keep all of the pieces of porky goodness on the butcher paper on your lap while the car is moving… but with practice, totally doable… just make sure you’re not the one driving… in which case, the opened package of porky goodness will usually sit open on the passenger seat all the way home and you’re lucky if there’s a piece left for sharing…

*****

Chun’s Meat Market

(Located in the Queen River Market)

157 N King St
Honolulu, HI 96817
(808) 533-0577

I’ve been in a rut lately… cooking, eating, blogging, reading and otherwise…

But I visited my friend Connie’s blog today and instantly I felt a little better.

CONNIE IS AMAZING – her mind constantly works in “creative overdrive” – it’s inspiring! I wish I had even just 1% of her creativity and drive.

I believe that we all have it in us to be creative in different aspects of our lives – be it in the way we dress, the books we read, the music we listen to, how we decorate our homes, how we think, how we do everyday tasks, how we cook, etc…. But most of us (ok… I’m talking about me here…) keep it internal, never letting our outward expressions showcase our inner genius.

But Connie – she does it all… She’s a wife, a mom to 3 beautiful girls and also has quite a successful career… and on top of all this, she can put together quite a wonderful cupcake birthday party for her oldest daughter.

Check out her latest post where she shows off some of her creative cooking/party planning genius, then check out some of her older posts where she shows off her Craft-Goddess-Ness.

In the meantime… I will look at that wonderfully decorated cupcake pictured above and smile = )

Thanks Connie!

*****

Connie’s website:  http://superwomanscrapper.blogspot.com/

OK – this one’s for DJ YELLOWJACKET… who always seems to ask for my chili, even though he knows that I don’t really like chili – well, the truth is, I don’t really care for the beans… and who requested it in May… Sorry it took so long…

Happy Birthday, by the way…

It’s my throw-everything-in-a-pot-and-let-it-cook recipe. SUPER EASY – hardest part should be opening up the cans…

You’ll need:

3 lbs. of ground sirloin (coarse ground or chili ground, if available at your supermarket)

1 Tbsp. vegetable oil

salt

pepper

1 large onion, diced

1 large green bell pepper, diced

4 packets of Lawry’s Chili seasoning

1 (11 oz.) can of golden kernel corn, drained (optional

1 (14.5 oz.) can of Hunt’s Roasted Garlic diced tomatoes with liquid

2 (14.5 oz.) cans of Del Monte diced tomatoes with zesty mild green chiles with liquid

2 (8 oz.) cans tomato sauce + 1 can water

2 (16 oz.) cans of Bush’s Best Chili Beans (Pinto Beans in Mild Chili Sauce) with liquid

2 Tbsp. Best Foods mayonnaise (optional)

Directions:

Using medium high heat, brown the ground sirloin in a pot with the vegetable oil.

LIGHTLY SEASON the beef with a tiny bit of salt and pepper.

Let the meat cook and try not to stir it around so much so that you get nice, big, chunky pieces of beef. When the beef is cooked, drain most of the fat from the pot, leaving just enough so that the beef does not stick to the pot.

Lower the heat to medium and add the onions and bell peppers to the meat mixture at this time. (You would also add the corn at this time too.) Mix all together.

Add the chili seasoning and continue to mix to evenly distribute the seasoning. Let it cook for about 3 to 5 minutes, or until the onions get a bit translucent and limp.

Next, mix add the tomatoes, tomato sauce and water.

And finally, gently fold in the beans and try not to crush them.

Lower the heat to a simmer and cook for another 15 minutes or so, stirring occasionally.

Turn off heat, then stir in the mayonnaise for “creamier” chili.

This recipe will make a pretty big pot, so call your friends over to help you finish it off.

I usually have a condiment bar or “add on” buffet on the side – shredded cheese, sour cream, HOT SAUCE, sliced hot dogs, tortilla chips, corn bread, toasted sourdough rolls, rice, etc. -so that everyone can customize and personalize their chili to their individual tastes.

Such is the case with my recent dining experience at White Chocolate Grill. And I really wanted to like this place since it’s in my neighborhood. I’m hoping it was just a “bad” night.  Maybe I just expected too much.

Looking over the menu, nothing really jumped out at me.  The server came by to get our orders about 20 minutes after we were seated and I still was not ready to place my order.  I asked our server what he likes to order from their menu and he mentioned their ribeye, which I would have ordered instantly, but I was not in the mood for steak – I know, shocker, huh?!?  Then he mentioned the special – sea bass – and I was ready to order.  Sea Bass, is one of my favorite fish, ever since I first tried the Chilean Sea Bass at Tao.  So now, whenever I see it on a menu, I’ll order it, in hopes of duplicating the Tao experience (which, by the way, can only be imitated – Tao is still up there on my list of favorite restaurants…).

So, I had the sea bass – and Chilean it was not – more like from the Santa Barbara region.  It was hardwood grilled with a citrus flavored rub/seasoning mix and served with a side of steamed broccoli (my favorite!) and some kind of dill sauce, which I thought was too thick and heavy for the fish.  All it needed was a touch of lemon juice.  This was good, don’t get me wrong.  I enjoyed it. I did.  But it wasn’t spectacular. I wasn’t expecting fireworks, but for the premium price of $25.99, I expected sparklers, at least.  Or at least a bigger hunk of fish and not just a snack-sized fillet.

The other dish that we ordered was their  is their Pork Tenderloin entree that is prepared with an apricot bbq glaze.  They give you about 6 medallions of pork loin and top it with the glaze.  This was served with a side of mashed potatoes, which was really nice and creamy.  This was $18.00.   It was tasty.

White Chocolate Grill has done what no other restaurant that I’ve been to has done – a pretty bold move at that.  On their menu, the first items that are listed are their desserts, where at other restaurants, the desserts are listed either at the end of the menu or on a separate menu altogether.

So this subliminally told me “our desserts are so good, that we had to list them first on the menu”. I wasn’t sure at that time if that’s the message that they intended to send, but that’s the message I got.

So, instead of ordering appetizers or salads, we opted to save our appetites and make room for dessert.  At the end of our meal, we ordered 2 desserts…the first 2 desserts that they had listed on the menu.

White Chocolate Banana Cream Pie (with Graham Cracker Crust) $7.50

A mini banana cream pie of sorts. The base is a graham cracker and oatmeal crust that was light and crispy and pretty tasty.  The filling was a vanilla-ish pudding of sorts with banana slices, that was way too runny.  I also couldn’t tell if it should have been banana flavored or vanilla flavored because of the visible vanilla bean, as its flavor was difficult to decipher.  This was all topped with a dollop of whipped cream and white chocolate shavings (that had some funky aftertaste).  The caramel sauce, I want to say, was purely for aesthetic purposes as it did not add or take away from the taste (or lack of) of the dessert.  Also way too runny/diluted.

White chocolate Brownie (Callebaut Choclate and French Vanilla ice cream) $7.50

The White Chocolate Brownie was disaster.  It could have been saved had the brownie been a regular brownie brownie and not a blondie.  I get it… White Chocolate Grill… White Chocolate Brownie. But how about if they did say a regular brownie with white chocolate chunks in the brownie or maybe some sort of white chocolate topping.  This one was trying too hard to be good, and it wasn’t. The brownie was more like a chewy/doughy sugar cookie and the chocolate sauce was way too runny and all over the place.  The saving grace to this dessert was the vanilla ice cream and the whip cream, which, no matter how hard you try, you can’t mess up.  I know… OUCH! Bad blogger!  Sorry…

So I’m hoping they were just having a bad night, which was why we had to wait 20 minutes to place our order and get something to drink, then wait another 35 minutes or so to get our food (which we finished in 15 minutes), then wait another 20 minutes for dessert (which wasn’t all that), then wait another 15 minutes for our check.  We were seated at 6:15ish and didn’t get out till close to 9 pm.  And by this time, I so wanted to just get out of this place already.

I’ll give White Chocolate Grill another try, for sure… but not anytime soon.  The White Chocolate Grill aftertaste is still a turn -off.

Tread cautiously, if you want to give it a try.  You might have a different experience than what we had.  Maybe I should have tried the ribeye…  maybe….

*****

White Chocolate Grill

9510 South Eastern Avenue

Las Vegas, NV 89123

Phone: (702) 436-7100