Cali's

I'll say this: I'm surprised the reviews on Google for Cali's aren't better. It's one of my favorite places. They've got great lo mein, delicious big bowl soups, and the "pan-Asian" fare like cashew chicken or whatever.

I had a streak of ordering the almond chicken (ugh, perfectly roasted almond slicesss), but I almost always go with the tofu lo mein. Might not be the best tofu, but it's fast, full of veggies, and they'll make it real-spicy for you instead of just Minnesota-spicy.

And, yeah, the greenhouse dining area is tacky and weird -- well so am I! It's in my neighborhood, and everybody that works there is really nice and remembers me. Last time I went, they didn't even give me a menu; she knew I wasn't gonna look at it anyway. Plus they switched to really nice chopsticks... but then again they got rid of the Chinese zodiac placemats. Still my favorite!

Why are woks so expensive?! Want: Scanpan CTX Nonstick Wok with Rack and Sticks, 12.75 inch - 12.75"

Mostly I just wanted to post that picture of me because I think it's funny. A little bit cross-eyed, mouth open like ALWAYS -- but I look badass eating with chopsticks.

Yakisoba -- More like YUMISOBA

Today I went to the Midwest's largest Asian grocery store, United Noodles. I should have taken photos there because it was vast and beautiful, but I'm pretty sure I was already embarrassing my friend Joey by acting like such a tourist. 


Joey talked me into buying some yakisoba noodles. The ease-speed/delicious ratio for these noodles with this sauce is off the charts. While the bacon was cooking, I chopped up some cabbage and green onions. The yakisoba noodles are already cooked, so it really was as easy as opening the package and frying them  in the bacon fat, adding some yakisoba sauce and tossing in the cabbage, green onions, and bean sprouts. 

Decorate with sriracha and ho-lee crap delicious:

ps - Look how pretty the pictures are! Love my tiny new Canon PowerShot ELPH 320 HS. 

Cooking in Europe on a bike (sort of)

I will have a very unique cooking challenge on my plate (GET IT?) in just a month: I'll be traveling for three weeks from Milan to Gothenberg, cooking for five adults and a baby with naught more than a camping stove. My sister Haley and her husband Rob are going to be biking that route with their friends Jonas and Louis. I will be in the car with their baby!

In preparation, I've started learning vegetable names in German. (I'm a wordnerd; have you seen my other blog?) Here are the cutest:

• der Kohl (cabbage, like "coleslaw"
• der Blumenkohl (cauliflower, lit. flower cabbage)
• der Rosenkohl (brussel sprouts, lit. rose cabbages)
• der Broccoli (I'll give you one guess.) 

And I purchased a new camera! This little point-and-shoot guy will be in my pocket capturing the grocery stores, farmers' markets, and restaurants on the adventure -- as well as a lot of shots of one cute kid, my nephew August.

You can expect some videos to be posted from the trip, as well as maybe some fancy videos to be posted after (have you seen this? Rob made it).

Is it weird that I'm really excited to have a decent camera again because I want to take pictures of food? This blog will get a whole lot prettier in just a week or so when it arrives. I've been making do with the craptacular camera on my dinky QWERTYslide middleschooler's phone. Now that the trip to Europe is actually happening, I'm regretting having only gotten 16GB of memory because it was on sale... I really should have sprung for this one: Transcend 32GB Class 4 microSDHC Flash Memory Card - TS32GUSDHC4.)

In the meantime, here is a crappy photo of some delicious chicken cabbage tacos I made last week. Chicken and onion, carrots, cucumber, and cilantro wrapped up in cabbage leaves with a red curry peanut butter sauce.