Laksa

I have been inspired to make various foods I love to eat out.  One of them is Laksa, a popular Singaporean noodle dish.  I was introduced to Laksa by my love when we went to his favorite place to get Laksa, Litz Restaurant in Monterey Park.  Since I will be making the big move in a few months, I decided to look up various recipes on Laksa and try to make it at home.  That way when the craving kicks in, I can whip up a batch! I googled Laksa, and discovered it is a very long process to make the stock from scratch.  So I did the Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade thing and went to a local Asian Supermarket to buy Laksa sauce packets.   From there, it was not difficult to make! Added water to a pot, boil the water, add the Laksa sauce packet, coconut milk and various proteins such as chicken and shrimp then simmer.  After about 20 minutes, I poured the creamy broth over a bed of vermicelli noodles and topped with fresh mint (courtesy of mama's garden)  What I ended up with was a curry like broth that was a bit spicy and very flavorful.  I will definitely be making this again, especially since it was a lot easier than I thought!

The final product: Homemade Laksa :)

Earthen Restaurant

In my quest to consume as much Asian food as possible before making the big move, my friends and I got together at Earthen Restaurant in Hacienda Heights.  It was a cute little restaurant that cranked out some seriously good food and this place definitely satisfied my Asian food craving for the day.  Also, it was very nice to get together with my fraternal family from college and reminisce of the times of when we were young and wild.  Enjoy the photos!!! Shout out to my dear friend, photog mentor and lil bro, Warren Li for being the photographer while I enjoyed my food! :) Check out his blog! He has amazing photos!

House Chicken: crispy soy sauce goodness... hiding is a bed of sliced cucumbers which made the dish amazing!

Keeping my eyes on the prize

Beef Noodle Soup: a little spicy and filled with flavor.. super yummy!

Green Onion Pancake: one of my favorite discoveries! I started dating my Taiwanese Love almost 4.5 years ago, and one day while having dinner with his family, they ordered this and I fell in love. Earthen's was crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside.  Just the way I like it! Amazing! 

Everyone enjoyin' the yummy goodness

Mushroom and BokChoy: of course we needed to order a veggie dish.. it wouldn't be a complete chinese meal if there wasn't a plate of vegetables on our table.  These shiitake mushrooms soaked in a gooey sauce was wonderful!