What's for dinner? Corn Chowder 玉米濃湯

Summer is corn season. The local grocery store had some sweet white corn on sale this week so I decided to make a corn chowder.

First crisp some pieces of bacon. Save half for soup topping
and half to go into the soup. Save the bacon fat as well.

Sauté some chopped onions and garlic in the bacon fat.

Get a pot of chicken stock going, boiled.

Fresh corn washed and drained.

After saute the onion until clear, put in the corn and saute some more.

About 8 minutes later, slowly add in about a 1/2 cup of flour.
Coat well. It will be the thickening agent in the soup.

Add everything and half of the bacon pieces into the chicken stock and simmer for 2 hours.
Then half hour before ready to serve, put in some diced potato. Then season with salt, white pepper.
Finish it off with about 1/2 cup of heavy cream.

bon appetit~

Just as a side note, soup usually tastes better the next day. It will get slightly saltier as well. So I don't usually salt too much in case it gets too salty as it sits. Serve with some french bread or just eat it as is, it's a hearty and delicious meal.

Influenster - Spring Beauty VoxBox

I have heard about this site Influenster through social media a while ago. What you do is you sign up for an account, fill out surveys and complete some badges. Then they will select to see if you fit their profile to review some products for free.  I signed up about a year ago, and I've gotten selected twice so far.  I'm not sure how often they do these test packages, but you will get an email when you have been selected and you will need to login to their website to accept it. Then couple weeks afterwards, you will get your box delivered to your doorstep. Did I mention you are getting it all for free!?

What they want you to do, is get the word out there about the products you tested, through social media. If you have a blog, Twitter, Facebook, or Youtube account, you are more likely to get selected. You need to try and test out each product and review them through your channels, also on the Influenster site itself. Not a bad deal considering the products you are getting for free.

Badges page

What I got in my Spring Beauty VoxBox

Overall picture

Description card of each of the products

A full size Bath & Body Works - Fine Fragrance Mist

SoyJoy all-natural soy fruit bar

Dr. Scholl's For Her - Ball of Foot

Trial size Aveeno Daily Moisturizing Body Wash

Trial size Sheer Cover Duo Concealer

Chapstick - Lip Shield 365

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips

Reviews stay tuned....

What's for Dinner? - Katsudon

One of the Youtube cooking shows I subscribed to is Cookingwithdog, it's got a cute puppy narrating in this funny accent demonstrating how to cook Japanese cuisine. And I came across one of my favorite Japanese dishes, Katsudon - fried pork cops with egg and onion. I never realized how easy it was to make. Here is the Youtube video for reference: 

Recipe:
Ingredients for Katsudon
(serves 1)

- Tonkatsu (Pork Cutlet) -
120g (4¼ oz) 1cm thick Pork Loin Slice
A sprinkle of Salt and Pepper
All-Purpose Flour for dusting
¼ Egg
A sprinkle of Water
Nama-Panko - Soft Bread Crumbs

Frying Oil (Vegetable Oil) (340 °F/170 °C)

50ml Water (1.7 fl oz)
A pinch of Kombu or Bonito Stock Powder
1 tbsp Soy Sauce
1 tbsp Mirin
1 tsp Sugar

70g Onion (2½ oz)
1 Egg
Mitsuba Parsley ( or Cilantro)

200g Fresh Steamed Rice (7 oz)

Here is my attempt:

pork chops pounded thin

basic frying ingridents - flour (season with five spice powder, salt, white pepper), egg wash, and panko crumbs.

sliced onions

stock - water and bonito stock powder 

Add the soy, mirin, sugar and add the onions and cook for couple minutes

Meanwhile the fried pork chops are ready

Slice them into smaller pieces, place into the onion sauce and add 1 lightly beaten egg.
 Cover and simmer for  30 seconds.

Finished product served over rice - not bad! Very tasty as well. 

ROTM - Lotus of Siam

Lotus of Siam

Category: Thai  [Edit]

953 E Sahara Ave
Las Vegas, NV 89104
Neighborhoods: Eastside, Downtown

(702) 735-3033

http://www.saipinchutima.com

Hours:

Mon-Fri 11:30 am - 2:30 pm

Mon-Thu 5:30 pm - 9:30 pm

Fri-Sun 5:30 pm - 10 pm

This is the top rated Thai restaurant in Las Vegas, with 813 reviews at 4 Stars on Yelp. This has been on our list to try for a while. We went in for lunch on a Friday, they do not take reservations for lunch, I think it's because they have a lunch buffet going on, for $10 a person. The buffet looked ok, about 15-20 dishes but nothing really special, so we ordered off the regular menu.

It was hard to get a photo on the inside, so here a couple pictures I snapped quickly. From reading their reviews and the website, they are known for their wines and have won numerous awards for it. That's pretty rare for an ethnic restaurant, I gotta say. 

It was pretty busy at lunch time, we arrive around 1 p.m., I'd say about 80% of the restaurant was full. We were able to get seated right the way.

Buffet Station

Wine Selection

Their menu was intensive... more than  pages of selection, and also a section just for Northern Style Thai Food, which is the chef/owner is known for. We ordered the Prik Ong off this Northern Menu to try. Which is a Northern Chili Dip, with a combination of ground pork, tomato, dried spices. Comes with side of steam vegetables and fried pork skin to dip with. The paste has a lot of flavors, and not spicy at all, it goes well with rice.

Here is what we ordered:

Green Curry $9.95

Prik Ong $9.95

Tom Yum Koong Soup Hot Pot $14.95

Beef Salad $11.95

Pork Satay $8.95

With drinks and tax the total comes to $68.37 Which is pretty reasonable price for Thai food. The food was delicious, and the staff was attentive and friendly. But I probably wouldn't drive 40 minutes all the way across town to come here, unless I am in the area. And just a note, the restaurant is located in a ghetto area of Vegas, so I wouldn't recommend coming here at night...