Dragon Fruit

Exotic fruit:
This is a dragon fruit... it grows out of a cactus like plant. My parents planted it a few years back and here is the first and only fruit this year! It looks like nothing I can describe on the outside, and the inside looks like a white Kiwi... tasted juicy with mild sweetness!

Here, have an ancient dragon fruit!

Look at the intricacy of its design!

Baking with mom

So my mom bought me this really sweet machine, Vita-Mix, as my Christmas present this year... yeah, Christmas isn't here yet, but you know, I am gonna be working in the ICU, so she wanted to celebrate it early. Vita-Mix is the coolest machine for the kitchen, it does everything! I've made smoothies, almond butter, soups, and now --> baking!

You can make puree anything; in three to five minutes your soup gets steamy hot right out of the machine; it dices and chops; and it also makes bread dough, cake mixes, cookies... so, tonight we took it to the test!

So, there's our Zucchini Bread with chunky walnuts and pineaple, and Apple Bread with pecans and raisins, and 2 trays of Persimmon Cookies with walnuts and raisins. Seriously, baking has never been so easy.

Voila! I wish I can share them with you! We stand around and sampled them and they were truly delicious! Bon appetite!

Atlanta, Georgia

Hi all, I haven't posted a note on here for quite a while! After my last rotation in medical school, I took about a 5 week vacation. Graduated on 6/5, went to Vegas, then to Georgia. I have here a few pictures of my time in Georgia. I met up with a few people that I went to Costa Rica with and got to spend lot of quality time with a few people. I must admit, I really enjoyed Atlanta. I really enjoyed hanging out with Clint, Carla and Hannah out on the porch. I really enjoyed hiking the Tallulah Gorge with Clint and Deborah. I really enjoyed eating Chef Brantley's wonderful meal. I really enjoyed floating down the Broad River in our kayaks with Clint, Hannah, and Liz :) Ahhh, good times...

Hannah and my colorful creations

Lunch with Ryan at the Ted's Montana Grill... my first Buffalo Burger

Hiking the Tallulah Gorge loop with Deborah and Clint

Yum... good Southern BBQ

What else can I say? Nothing like them boiled p-nuts...

Clint's backyard... lots of wonderful relaxing hangouts on this porch overlooking a foresty backyard. Good times rolling...

Kayaking on the Broad River with Hannah, Liz, Clint... so nice, lots of wonderful memories and pictures in my head... too bad I didn't have a dry bag to carry my camera in to show you pictures of Hannah and Liz fliping over in the kayaks :) We had a great time did we, girls?!

Chef Brantley's Creation: "Bohemian Gourmet"

Talk and Bite
Baby leek with chicken salad
Mini burger
Sushi Tuna roll


The Main Deal
Ocean delight, Orange Ruffie
Pan sheared with olive oil, lightly season, and topped with a thin crisp crab cake.

West meets East Green Beans
Fresh green beans blanched in a southern season boil and finished off in a pan with roasted sesame seeds and olive oil.

From the Earth, mixed Baby Potatoes
Roasted baby potatoes, red & yellow bell peppers, garlic, green onions, and mush rooms covered with olive oil and seasons cooked to a roasted light brown.

The Sweat Things of Life
Key Lime Mango tart
Mini Chocolate cake covered in a dark chocolate Ganache
Bohemian Split Banana, mango, and pineapple cooked down in a brown sugar, butter sauce, topped with ice-cream and a mini fried sneaker.


Expresso

Can you believe what I got for lunch?

Just want to post these pictures for you, Alan. I am working at Oxnard at a clinic that is predominantly Spanish speaking. I have been going to this taco stand there that sells very good tacos and frutas frescas... here I got 2 tacos (carnitas y carne asada) and fresh mango with chile y limon! I can't wait to have some more!

Foods from Cambodia... yum!

So, finally, here are some food pictures! It has been about 6weeks since I got back from Cambodia, and I am still drooling dreaming about the food. Even the airplane food from EVA if you can imagine that. These pictures are taken 30,000 ft up in the air, in markets in Phnom Penh and Battambang, and in various restaurants in the cities on the dirty country roads... So, I won't keep the connaisseur waiting...

I love EVA air! They have the best service, the best food, and a wonderful Elite class seats! That was Seafood Noodles for breakfast and the American Continental breakfast.

Khmer breakfast: (Cambodian=Khmer) BBQ chicken with rice and a bowl of Khmer soup base. The next picture is stolen off the internet, it is a traditional Khmer breakfast noodle. This includes rice noodle stretched over lead pipes in the village, and some yummy beef balls or pieces of thin sliced pork. The most unique thing about Khmer cooking is the 'gray fish paste.' It is an essential ingredient in all the foods. It gives the distinct flavor of what's genuinly Khmer. It is what makes this bowl of noodle soup different from the Vietnamese Pho soup. This soup is my favorite in all of the Khmer cooking... Now, I do wake up every morning craving a bowl of soup.

Khmer food has some influence from Thai and Indian traditions... So, you can find some curry. So, here is chicken curry with rice... and some 'very poached' egg with chicken in heavy sauce.

Here is another very much traditional Khmer dish, the 'Fish Amok' which is in the little banana leaf bowl right next to the coconut. The Khmer ice coffee is also very good and very strong, about 20% sweetened condense milk and 80% pure caffein! The coconuts are always freshly opened, about 1 liter of fluid inside. The next dish is 'garlic chicken,' which also is a part of the Khmer tradition, lots of Chinese influence.

Another traditional Khmer dish: the 'Beef Lok Lak' on the left. Basically, some nicely marinated cooked beef in special sauce with an very poached egg over it and rice. It is very tasty! The dish next to it is just a beef noodle soup.

Here are some Thai influence: Seafood noodles with coconut sauce and pinapple fried rice with egg rolls on top.

Ok, the following are some snacks, weird foods, weird fruits, and some desserts!

Little sweet and sour plum balls, very common in Asia. Then, some roasted bugs! It is said that on the road from Battambang to Phnom Penh, one can find roasted Trantulas... yikes! I hate bugs!

Fruits: Rambutans (very good, like Lycee), and some 'rubber nose' fruit... also very good.

A Jackfruit tree... never seen one before... Jackfruit taste almost like sweet potatoe, but without the after-taste. It is not to be confused with the picture on the right! That is a very stincky fruit called Durian... YUCK! I can't even get near the fruit... but, supposedly if you can get pass the stentch, people say that it actually taste really sweet and very good. I don't believe any of it.

So, always have to finish off with the dessert... here are some baked goods, very much with French influence. On the left, ginger banana and some rolled pastry with sweet stuff on the inside. Oh, we also found some good gelato icecream too.... Got to have snack!

There are still so many other dishes I didn't get to take pictures of, I guess you just have to go there to have some with me one day :)