serene’s posterous

This is in Springdale, right by Zion National Park. The meal was
excellent. I had a turkey burger with tasty sweet potato fries. The
portions were huge but I ate everything!

Yelp reviews

Based on Vince's recommendation, we ended up going to this restaurant
twice today for comfort Chinese food. It was unexpectedly good for a
chain. I especially enjoyed my roast duck noodle soup.

Yelp reviews

Seems like this is the default choice for lunch on road trips. I had my usual grilled cheese with onions and shared the fries. Tasty!

I love mint chocolate m&ms, which only show up in stores during the end of the year holiday season.  (Hmm...maybe it is a good thing it is a seasonal candy)  I saw them at Target last week (and on sale too!), and could not resist picking up two 11oz bags.  The mint chocolate m&ms are a little larger than the plain chocolate ones, and significantly tastier if you like the mint flavor.  I probably should keep that opened bag far away from my desk before I eat too many of them at a go.

   

This week's NYT Recipes for Health is on sweet potatoes. I try to keep a few sweet potatoes or yams at home, but I mainly cook them with my rice porridge (稀饭).  Sweet potatoes add a great sweetness to the rice porridge.  This pot had both yellow and orange fleshed sweet potatoes.

First time I have been to Thai Cafe in months ever since the price increase to $6 from $5 (and $4.25 back when I was an undergrad).  The line is significantly shorter now probably because there are more food options available and $6 isn't a good deal for the food anymore.  I got the peanut sauce salad (peanut sauce on shrimp with rice vermicelli and lettuce), but it wasn't as good as I remembered.  The noodles were limp and the shrimp was not very fresh.  It hit the spot, but I don't think I will be heading back there anytime soon. 

Whenever we have a strong desire for comfort Chinese food, we would
head to Queen House in Mountain View and order our favorite dishes - dry cooked
long beans, 3-cup tofu, and salt and pepper fish. It is difficult to
cook Chinese dishes the same way at home because it is impossible to
heat the wok to sufficiently high temperatures on our stove. The main
problem is that the place is usually crowded and cramped, so it can't
easily accommodate groups of more than 4 persons. Tonight's dinner
was good! Well worth the cramped seating and wait. Although, as
always, I wish their white rice was of better quality.

Most times, we would head next door to Tea Era
(which is under the same ownership as Queen House) and share a large
cup of roasted barley milk tea with pearls. Unfortunately, we were
too full tonight from dinner to partake.

I noticed that one of the NYT's topics in the Dining and Wine section
is on tea.

"Because tea readily picks up foreign aromas and fades in contact with
light, teas should be sold and stored in containers that are airtight
and opaque. Shops that keep their teas in glass canisters are as bad
as those that display coffee in open burlap bags."

I keep a small variety of tea leaves (plus some tea bags for the "I'm
late!" days) at home. I think at this time I have Orange Blossom
Oolong, Jasmine Yin Hao, Pu-erh, Borjuli (an Assam Estate black tea)
and some lower quality Earl Grey in various airtight tins. On most
days I would drink one to two cups of tea. These are two of my tea
canisters that I bought for under $2 each from Daiso.

I thought I should perhaps consume a little more fish. Since I had
smoked salmon in the freezer from previous accidental bulk-buying, 
I thought perhaps I could have cream cheese with smoked
salmon. Unfortunately, there were interesting fungi growing in my
cream cheese, so I had to scratch that idea. I settled on an
oven-toasted, open-faced sandwich with defrosted smoked salmon (with a
splash of fresh lime juice because I didn't have lemons at home!),
topped with sliced tomatoes and chopped onions.

The NY Times is running a series
on quinoa this week under Recipes for Health. I first had quinoa
during a multi-day hike in Peru. I love how cute it looks
with the little curlicue, and it also has a delicious hearty, nutty
flavor. Now, I cook it whenever I need a quick meal.

A week ago, I had quinoa with steamed broccoli, peas and cherry,
tomatoes and a hard boiled egg.