fried rice

Fried rice recipe for Thechas and Yasmine:

1.5 tsp cooking oil
1.5 tsp sesame oil

2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large onion / 2 small onions, cubed/chopped
2-4 stalks green onions, chopped into fine rings

2 medium finely cubed potatoes
Optional addition/substitute: canned green peas, drained / chopped carrots
Optional addition: chopped white mushrooms

½ lb approx Chinese BBQ pork, cubed same size as potatoes and onions
(or substitute with seasoned, cooked meat of your choice)

4 cups / 3 bowls cooked white rice, must be cooled / from overnight in fridge

2-3 large eggs at room temperature
1.5 tbsp Oyster sauce (or more if you wish)
White pepper to taste


Directions:

Prepare all materials as described above (lol I'm lazy to write out the chopping steps)

Heat the skillet for about 1 min, and add the cooking oil in. Wait for the oil to heat up - you can tell if its done if it bubbles when you stick the tip of a chopstick in the oil.

Add the garlic in and stir-fry it for a little until it starts becoming fragrant.

Add the chopped onions and stir some more. Add in the finely cubed potatoes. Give the onions and potatoes a stir every now and then until they become a bit translucent / soften up a little.

If you parboil the potatoes beforehand it helps speed up the process. Also I find it helps to NOT cover the pan during this process because then the mix stays drier (don't want soggy fried rice do we?)

Once the potatoes and onions start to look about 90% cooked, add in the BBQ pork and stir everything to ensure it all gets heated through.

Make a small well in the centre and add the sesame oil in the centre. Let it heat up a little and toss the green onions on that. If its hot enough they'll sizzle and release lots of aroma :)

Give them a couple mins before mixing them in. At this point you can add the cooked rice into the pan.

Make sure to distribute the ingredients homogenously. Keep stirring as I find it helps make the rice drier and thus less soggy. Add the seasonings (pepper, oyster sauce) whenever you wish.

Once everything is heated through, and the rice is adequately mixed with the other ingredients, and the mix is dry enough:

Make a well in the centre and pour in the beaten eggs. You can let them sit for a minute if you prefer the egg bits to be larger :) OR just stir everything together if you don't mind.

Once the egg and everything else is cooked enough it is ready to be served :)




Other variations:

You can substitute any filling you want, though the more colourful the filling the better it looks :P




Red bell pepper chopped up, chicken instead of bbq pork. I also didn't add any egg deliberately and made a separate egg crepe to wrap around the fried rice. For some reason I always thought this was Japanese, but in Canada I see it only in Korean restaurants and never in Japanese ones. Adding the ketchup on top can be optional but I do love ketchup with egg anyway :)




I wrote the recipe from memory so if i missed anything let me know! And feel free to add your own filling suggestions :)

finally!

Some pictures from my trip -

These are all from Day 1 - because Day 2 was pure outlet shopping at Woodbury Outlets, and we only had 1/2 day on Day 3 which was spent walking down 5th Avenue. Unfortunately there won't be pictures of people except a couple of me lol, to protect my friends' and the bf's privacy.

Early morning flight from Toronto to Newark Intl Airport.

On arrival, we took a bus to the PATH station and from there the PATH train to World Trade Centre station:




The station was right next to Ground Zero. It was a bit sobering seeing how empty the place was. Its so apparent that something big is missing - with all the tall buildings around and a sudden open spot.

Security standing guard at the fence surrounding Ground Zero:




Another view of the fence surrounding GZ...





Walked to our hotel, which was a few blocks away. Pic of the lobby:





Put away our things and started heading to our first stop, Century 21 department store.

Its like a larger version of Winners (Canadians will know what I mean). Lots of mid to high range brands at discounted prices. None of the brands struck my fancy though....I didn't really find it that interesting since its the kind of place you have to take time to browse through.

Lunchtime came early since we didn't get to the hotel til 10, and didn't leave til almost 11.

I think the place we stopped at was called Cafe Toda. My friends really liked the place. It had a huge selection of food to choose from, and you could either grab and go or sit at the tables upstairs to eat. If there was a place like that where I work that'd be perfect. They had a sandwich counter, hot food bar, salad bar, and lots of other things. The food bars were charged by weight too, about $6.49/lb of food minus the container weight.


Aerial view - the whole ground floor is just the food selection alone and cashier. You pay for your food before heading upstairs to eat.















After lunch we walked some more up Broadway Street

Cop car labelled "Department of Homeland Security" in small letters outside McD's. Guess it was lunchtime for them too.

I think this was part of Chinatown

Massive painting (? I think) of GTA4







Stopped for a break in Little Italy:

I had a iced mochaccino and split a tiramisu with my friend:







I wasn't trying to be cute but somehow the pic came out funny.





Times Square







Kebab in a bun...a kebab-dog?




Spiderman in Toys 'r us

More Times Square at night:

Went to Carmine's for dinner. Forgot to take a picture of the actual restaurant exterior because I was so tired by then. It being a Friday night, the place was incredibly packed, we had to wait 45 mins:




Taken while waiting at the bar to be called for our table.








Food!

Going back to the hotel via creepy looking subway system:




Day 2 - no pictures lol. Well all we did was drive up to Woodbury Outlets and spent the whole day shopping there. We were so focused on shopping that none of us remembered to take any pics in the outlet area, haha.

Some pics from Day 3 - 5th Avenue area

The Waldorf-Astoria hotel. I wouldn't have thought anything of it, but I felt like taking a pic since it was the hotel featured in the movie Serendipity.

One more street pic:

a blog of bits and pieces

Thank you to all the bloggers for your concern on my last post. I've calmed down now and am feeling better :)

I just saw the movie Wall-E, which was quite entertaining :) Definitely recommend it if you are looking for a fun movie to catch. Don't recommend The Happening though, I just saw it last weekend and it sucked. For some reason all the horror movies I catch in the cinema are always disappointing. Maybe the atmosphere with the other people dampens the scariness somewhat and makes it seem less believable.

***

I forgot to include the Everyday Minerals Lip Scrub in my last haul post, it was actually missing from my order, so I emailed them and they said they accidentally overlooked it.

Comes in a large, flat tin:








The jojoba beads are bit harder than i'd expect. They take awhile to absorb enough heat to melt on your skin, but don't exfoliate as much as I'd like. Also the large open container makes it quite impractical to use in a hurry. I think they should package the product in some kind of sifter container as well, since its so easy to spill some product accidentally.

I could imagine too the product melting if you leave it in a warm spot....it being in a metal tin and all...so be careful if you carry this around.

***

Also I bought some Mario Badescu Silver Powder from Petitebelle last month, and she included some samples too :)






I haven't tried it yet (I'm so behind on testing out my new stuff!) but will review when I do.


***

A look from last month using MAC Lovely Lily pigment all over the lid, and a bit of MAC Naval Blue on the outer corners.

Also added MAC Electra eyeshadow on the inner corners to brighten up eye area, and finished off with MAC Blacktrack Fluidline and some mascara.




I used the Foliage setting on my Canon Ixus 870 IS / Powershot 860, so the colours came out very saturated. I find that the Foliage setting captures the eyeshadow colours perfectly, but tends to overexaggerate the rest of the face especially the redness of the lips.








I don't really remember what else was used....probably:

Buff'd Foundation in Sand
Everyday Minerals Sunlight concealer
Silk Naturals's perfecting powder
MAC Emote blush
Not sure what other blush I used...
Some sheer lipstick...not sure which.

***

Replying a couple questions:

To Fiona: Shipping was $6.46 for this order, which wasn't very large - it all fit into a bubble envelope. But on Paypal you can kinda get an estimate - on the very second last step, right before you confirm payment you can see the shipping cost. And nope I didn't get customs charges. I've made orders up to $40 from EM and didn't get charged customs. Not sure if they let it go since the value wasn't very much, or if because it was of US origin.

Incandescent: It does work fine for me, despite the short handle. I know somepeople might not like that though. The head of the brush IS smaller than the Coastal Scents' one, but it is also more dense so that might be why they work almost just as well.