Credit card fraud victim!

Gah! I'm a victim of credit card fraud. I spent this morning speaking to various financial services customer service reps. ARG!!!!

The problem is, even though the customer service reps had something of an electronic trail to, say, link someone's email address to the account that used my credit card, they said they couldn't say anything about it to me. Why? Because I had said those accounts fraudulently using my name weren't mine, so they couldn't give out the info on the b@st@rds using my credit card. I sincerely hope the fraud investigators of those companies are informed.

Now I have to get a copy of my credit report and see if anyone's done worse things to my credit rating. #$%!

Birds do it, bees do it ...

So as R and I walked back from the UCen, I noticed what I thought was 1 insect lying on her shoulder.


Bugs mating, pic 1

Later we realized it was 2 insects mating, right on her shoulder.


Bugs mating, closer up

Making 韮菜盒子 and 餃子

L's mother hails from Northeastern China. She's pretty knowledgeable about making the common food from that area, in particular dishes that use dough. I asked her to teach me her version of some simple dishes that I like to order when I go out to eat.

Today, she taught me 2 dishes: 韮菜盒子 [pan-fried chive pie], and 餃子 (dumplings).


Chinese homecooking: 韮菜盒子 main ingredients

Both of these dishes are pretty simple dishes, and normally just use up leftovers. Their fillings can be very similar (or not), but today we decided to just use what was around the kitchen.

The main ingredients of 韮菜盒子 are 韮菜 (Chinese chive, aka garlic chive) and flour.


Chinese homecooking: diced 韮菜

First, you dice/mince the 韮菜. The taste of 韮菜 can be pretty overpowering, exactly what is needed for this peasant-y dish.


Chinese homecooking: diced scallions and garlic

Next, dice scallions (green onions) and garlic. These two ingredients are so ubiquitous in and crucial to Chinese cooking that I can't imagine life without them.


Chinese homecooking: 粉絲 mungbean noodle/vermicelli

Often added to 韮菜盒子 are 粉絲 (mungbean vermicelli) and dried shrimp. As I posted before, sometimes eggs are added. But today, we are only adding the 粉絲 and dried shrimp.


Chinese homecooking: rehydrating 粉絲 and dried shrimp

Soak both the 粉絲 and dried shrimp in warm water.


Chinese homecooking: add flour to mixing bowl

Now it's time to make the dough. I don't have any precise instructions here. Basically, add water little by little to the dough till it comes together into a nice ball. This isn't baking or really all that precise.


Chinese homecooking: add water, do some sloppy kneading

Later, let the dough stand covered by a moistened cloth for several hours.


Chinese homecooking: let dough stand covered by moistened cloth

As the dough rests, start making the 韮菜盒子 filling. First, add the diced chive to the mixing bowl.


Chinese homecooking: add diced chives to bowl first

Next, mix in the rehydrated shrimp and mungbean noodle.


Chinese homecooking: add rehydrated shrimp and 粉絲

Add soy sauce or salt, and pepper to taste. The rehydrated shrimp will add its own salty flavor, so take that into consideration.


Chinese homecooking: add soy sauce or salt and pepper to taste

Once all the above ingredients have been combined, drizzle in some sesame oil. We generally leave this to the end since it is so aromatic and pungent that it will completely obliterate the scent of the other ingredients and prevent you from deciding whether you need more of an earlier ingredient.


Chinese homecooking: Mix, then add sesame oil

Mix well once more, then let the combined ingredients rest for a while.


Chinese homecooking: Mix again, then let mixture stand for a while

Once the dough has rested for a few hours, take it out of the mixing bowl and divide it. Each section will be rolled out and cut into two half-moon shapes, one forming the base and one forming the top of the 韮菜盒子.


Chinese homecooking: divide dough

Once the dough has been rolled out to your desired thickness (not too thick, as the 韮菜盒子 should cook quickly on the stove), add filling to the base.


Chinese homecooking: add filling to one rolled out dough piece

Drape the top layer over the filling, and crimp the edges of the bottom and top layer together to form a nice seal.


Chinese homecooking: add another layer on top of filling and crimp edges

Heat up a wok with oil and plunk the 韮菜盒子 in, maybe 1-3 at a time, and fry on both sides.


Chinese homecooking: fry up 韮菜盒子 in wok

They can be fried till very crisp, or just until the filling cooks and the exterior turns brown.


Chinese homecooking: finished 韮菜盒子

Once you cut upon the 韮菜盒子, add some good vinegar inside and chow down once they have cooled down a bit.


Chinese homecooking: 韮菜盒子, cross-sections

We had a little of the 韮菜盒子 filling left over, as well as some pork that had been freezing for several weeks in the refrigerator, so we added the defrosted pork to mixing bowl with the leftovers. We also had purchased fish paste at the market, and dumped it in as well. What we had forgotten to buy was some fresh or frozen shrimp to cut up coarsely and add to the mix. That would have made our dumplings better, but ah well.


Chinese homecooking: additional ingredients to make 餃子 [dumplings]

Fresh ordinary mushrooms aren't typically a part of the dumpling filling we make, but I like mushrooms so I decided we should add them in. We cut up additional chive in addition to the mushrooms, and added them to the pork mix.

I'd like to take a detour to point out the sacred triumvirate of cooking ingredients in Chinese cooking, which would be: garlic, ginger, and green onions. L's mother was telling me how these ingredients absolutely need to be added to most of the mass-market meats (read pork) bought here in the U.S. since they're fairly tasteless.


Chinese homecooking: the sacred triumvirate of green onions, garlic, and ginger

Minced garlic, green onions, and ginger were added to the pork mix, in addition to salt and pepper. Sometimes people add in an egg as a binder for the combined ingredients, but we only added some more sesame oil.


Chinese homecooking: 餃子餡兒 dumpling filling

You can make your own dumpling wrappers, but we used storebought ones. In this case, we used up 3 packages of 鍋貼 wrappers, since they are generally thicker and larger than normal 餃子 wrappers.

The only instruction I can give for wrapping the dumplings is to make sure you get a very good seal on the dumplings that will be boiled, otherwise they'll explode in the pot. We decided to make both fried and boiled dumplings, which would translate to 鍋貼 [potstickers] and ?? 餃 [boiled dumplings].


Chinese homecooking: 包餃子 [stuff dumplings]

To cook 鍋貼, first coat the bottom of a large skillet with oil, and arrange the 餃子 so they are just barely not touching each other. The heat should be on high heat.


Chinese homecooking: 鍋貼 [pan-fried dumplings, potstickers]

Later, once the 鍋貼 have fried for about 5-10 minutes covered, add water to submerge the 鍋貼 about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way, then cover the skillet again. When the water has mostly evaporated, fill the skillet with more water and cover again to cook.

At this point, you can check to see if the 鍋貼 are done, or if you need to add water a third time and go through the same cooking process. When we made it this time, we only had to add water once. When cooked, the 鍋貼 should have a crisp brown bottom and the smell of the cooked filling should be strong.


Chinese homecooking: 鍋貼, in bowl

You can also take the 餃子 and boil them in a pot of water to make ....


Chinese homecooking: 水餃, pot of boiling dumplings

To eat, dip the various dumplings into vinegar, soy sauce, hot sauce, sesame oil, and whatever additional spices you'd like. Some people add a raw egg and scallions.

Brunch at 美林豆漿餐飲店 [Mei Lim] restaurant in 小吃街 [little eats street] in Alhambra

Yes, I know, yet another restaurant post. Hey, I mostly eat out only when I go home to visit L and company. I was hunkering for some Northern Chinese breakfast, so P obliged and took me and L's mother out to brunch at 美林豆漿餐飲店 [Mei Lim Restaurant].

美林 is located on 1257 E. Valley Blvd. Alhambra, CA 91801. Down the street is P's favorite Northern Chinese breafast place 永和豆漿餐飲 at 1045 E. Valley Blvd, but it's always a pain trying to park there. P settled on 美林 as an acceptable substitute.


美林: storefront

The store does a good "to-go" business in the form of 燒肉粽 and other assorted 粽子and frozen dumplings and buns. 粽子 are lotus-wrapped, steamed glutinous rice "dumplings", for lack of a better term. They can be savory, filled with pork and assorted items like peanuts, egg yolk, and shrimp, etc.; or they can be sweet, filled with red bean or date paste. There is a history behind them, but I won't go into it in this post.

Anyway, 美林 makes especially good meat 粽子, one called 燒肉粽, a Shanghai version which is mostly Chinese sausage and pork chunks and peanuts. You can seem them through the front window. It's true they aren't refrigerated here, but trust me, they go fast so whenever we buy some to take home, we can be reasonably certain they were only recently set out on the table.


美林: popular specialties, to-go items

Northern Chinese breakfasts seem a little less refined and less splashy than Southern Chinese ones, but they are nonetheless extremely satisfying . Monterey Park/Alhambra/San Gabriel are great places to get good Northern Chinese breakfasts.


美林: menu

Often one starts with a bowl of soybean milk. When I was younger, I only went for the "sweet" version, that is, freshly made hot soybean milk, with sugar added to taste. Lately, I've been preferring the "salty" version, or, more correctly, the "savory" version. Normally the soybean milk is coagulated, with vinegar, diced preserved veggies, dried shredded pork stuff, dried shrimp, and topped with a fried dough "kruller" and a drizzle of sesame oil.

Mei Lim's version is okay, not great, but they didn't include dried shrimp or much of the dried shredded pork product (I don't really know how to describe the last). Ding's or Yonghe's version is superior.


美林: savory soybean milk soup

P decided to go after one of the items handwritten on a piece of paper at the counter. It basically looks like a flour tortilla or other flat bread wrapped around beef and scallions and cilantro. Ever since the Chinese have had flour they have been rolling out bing, which Americans might consider flour tortillas.


美林: specialty -- something like a beef and green onion wrap

Up next was a fried item redolent with Chinese chive. I've had all sorts of versions of this fried chive and mung bean noodle pie. Sometimes chefs add a little bit of scrambled egg into the filling. When I was in Taiwan, I had an awesome version that used yeast, although mostly the dough is fried and doesn't include yeast.

It's pretty pungent -- eat it if you like chive. Normally one eats it with vinegar drizzled into it. Mei Lim's version wasn't too greasy or too salty, which was good, and they did remember to add some dried shrimp.


美林: fried Chinese chive and noodle pie

Last up, a side order of stinky tofu was put on our table. Some preserved veggies dotted the side of the plate, and P asked for some black vinegar as dipping sauce. I like the pink/magenta kind myself.


美林: their version of fried stinky tofu

Anyway, their stinky tofu was acceptable, but not the most memorable part of the meal. 美林豆漿餐飲店 may not be P's or my favorite Northern Chinese breakfast spot, but their food is satisfying, they have accessible parking, and make outstanding 粽子. We've yet to buy any of the refrigerated buns or frozen dumplings, but we plan on doing it in the future.

Lunch at 政記牛肉麵大王 [Beef Noodle King] restaurant, in 小吃街 [little eats street] on E. Valley Blvd in Alhambra

E was leaving for a weekend at Pismo Beach with his lame-o friends, so L's hubby, P, decided to take us out for lunch. E was particularly hungry, since he hadn't eaten breakfast, and wasn't going to be able to eat till late in the evening. So we decided to drive to 政記牛肉麵大王, located at 1265 E. Valley Blvd Alhambra, CA 91801.

P happens to know the history of this restaurant. I remember it in its 1990's incarnation across the street. The owner and workers were from Taiwan, and did a solid business serving up heaping bowls of beef chunks, noodle, and spicy red-brown broth. Later, the restaurant owner set up shop in China; I even saw some of the franchises while I was in a somewhat remote part of Inner Mongolia, China.

It went by the name of (translation) California-style beef noodle king. I thought it was silly, since the signature dish is originally from China, and the restaurant's particular rendition was from Sichuan province. So the owner procured chefs from Sichuan to work at his Chinese restaurants. Later, either due to cutthroat copycats or some other unknown reason, he came back to the California. He plomped down nearly right across the street from where he started.

Really, you can't beat [not-too-inland] California weather.


政記牛肉麵大王: menu under glass at each table

The traffic on E. Valley Blvd in Alhambra is pretty damn bad around the prime lunch and dinner hours, since there are so many damn East Asian restaurants packed onto the street, as well as smart-a$$e$ trying to avoid the freeway by taking local streets.

The area where 政記牛肉麵大王 is has a Wendy's that's been there forever, as well as a Vietnamese cafe and sandwich place, an Asian supermarket, various Chinese restaurants and other Asian stores. In the past few years, the property owners decided to name the place: 小吃街, which is literally "little eat street", but can be translated a multitude of different ways. I think many of the East Asian languages make use of the term "little eat"


政記牛肉麵大王: starter dish -- pickled veggies

We started off with that old standby, a dish of pickled vegetables. It was sweet and sour, and the veggies cool and crisp.


政記牛肉麵大王: their version of 臭豆腐 [stinky fried tofu]

I always like to judge a restaurant by certain dishes, and 臭豆腐 is an important one. It certainly is stinky, but that's because the tofu is specially fermented to develop its unique taste (and smell), then cut into a neat shape and fried. I've seen it cut into wedges and cubes. Often, it is accompanied by some kind of preserved vegetable and a dipping sauce which can be really good black vinegar or even a fermented plum sauce.


政記牛肉麵大王: my boring but satisfying order -- 雞絲涼麵 [cold chicken noodles with sesame paste]

I ordered the cold noodles with shredded chicken, carrots, cucumber, and bean sprouts, all topped by a thick sesame and vinegar sauce. It's a very plain dish with a strong hint of garlic, but it's also very satisfying on a hot sunny day. If you wanted to make a version at home and didn't want to shell out the big bucks for sesame paste, you could use peanut butter instead.


政記牛肉麵大王: house specialty -- 牛肉麵,特大 [beef noodle, two different sizes]

E and P ordered beef noodle, the house specialty, though E ordered the 特大 (especially large) size.

Dinner at Battambang Thai Restaurant [馬德望海鮮酒家]

Battambang Thai Restaurant in San Gabriel is one of the few Thai restaurants my family likes that's near our house. It would probably confound most Americans since it doesn't present the typical Thai cuisine they likely expect.


Battambang Thai Restaurant, 1806 S. San Gabriel Blvd., San Gabriel 91776

Its current location has seen many different asian restaurants, including buffets. Battambang, however, has so far stood the test of time.


Battambang Thai Restaurant: business hours

Battambang's menu is extensive, though it doesn't serve the more average, normal curries. It does serve a few old standbys, like pad thai. The good news is that its menu has pictures for each dish, as well as several specials for larger groups.


Battambang Thai Restaurant: Picture menu

They have a non-alcoholic drinks section, and instead of water, they always serve thai iced tea, which uses red tea. It's unsweetened, so most non-Asian people may not be used to it, but I find it refreshing.


Battambang Thai Restaurant: Assorted novelty drinks

They set their house-made hot sauce on each table. While this restaurant is undeniably Thai, it seems to have a lot of Chinese influence. In fact, many of the people who frequent the place seem to be Thai or Thai-Chinese.


Battambang Thai Restaurant: Homemade hot sauce

Whenever we come here, we always order their seafood soup and bbq'd skewered meat. The soup has tomatoes and pineapples, with fish figuring prominently. The clams were an afterthought, and more on the Chinese side of the menu, but with a hint of lemongrass. All these dishes had a sweet-sour tinge.


Battambang Thai Restaurant: Clockwise, top left: Seafood soup, skewered meat, clams

These next few dishes are certainly more recognizable as Chinese dishes. They were fine, but not remarkable. I'm not sure why the family decided to order them instead of more exotic Thai dishes.

It's important, when getting fried noodles in a Chinese-style preparation, to ask if they do 兩面黃, or "both sides golden". Sometimes fried noodles means the limper version, which is one style, but 兩面黃 means the fried noodles come out fried to a golden crisp, and fried on both sides.


Battambang Thai Restaurant: from top - Homestyle fried tofu, fried seafood noodle, beansprouts

Now to the main reason, aside from the sweet and sour seafood soup, that we frequent Battambang Thai Restaurant: awesome fried chicken. Someone decided to get the fried crab, was messy in its garlick sauce, but I didn't care for that too much.

The fried chicken is wonderful -- no grease, and it comes with some sweet and sour pickled vegetables and a thick dipping sauce.


Battambang Thai Restaurant: from top - fried chicken, fried crab

At the end of the meal, Battambang offers a complementary hot dessert soup of taro root, tapioca, and corn.


Battambang Thai Restaurant: complementary dessert -- hot tapioca, taro, and corn soup

We didn't order dishes that could really showcase Battambang's strong points, except for its seafood soup and fried chicken. I strongly recommend those dishes, and hopefully the next time we go here we'll order dishes from the non-Chinese side of the menu, which are acceptable but don't offer more compelling reasons to frequent the place.

Home Improvement: Gas meter barrier

Home Improvement: soaking bricks


Home Improvement: 94 lb bag of mortar, from HD


Home Improvement: Haphazardly laying down mortar


Home Improvement: First layer of bricks


Home Improvement: Onto second layer


Home Improvement: First phase of barrier completed


Home Improvement: View of barrier from farther away


Home Improvement: Intended result