Come check out my new omurice recipe on Nibbledish! I find that MANWICH sauce tastes like the omurice sauce made with ketchup and sugar, so I just used manwich! :D

I spent last weekend with my friend Hannah that works at the Four Seasons Ritz-Carlton in downtown Chicago. She was allowed to stay for a weekend with one friend for free! We got to order dinner and breakfast for free as well! It was sooooooo awesome! I felt like a princess. :D The food was absolutely amazing and the service was superb. The hotel itself was gorgeous. So the first night, I cabbed it straight to the hotel after work. Then, Hannah gave me a tour of the hotel and we had dinner at The Cafe. Dinner consisted of.....

our starter bread, deeeelicious!

my tomato basil soup, very fresh

Hannah's lobster bisque, amazing! the aroma swirled around and lingered in my mouth. :)

my salmon, melted in my mouth

Hannah's steak cooked medium, a-ma-zing as well

my caramelized fig dessert w/ice cream, omg sooooo good!

Hannah's coconut island floating on blueberry sauce, heaven

Breakfast was awesome as well. We ordered room service. The server wheeled in a cute little table for us. We ordered two sets of the Japanese style breakfast. Breakfast is served......

So our bill for the stay and food amounted to almost $1000. Dang! It was all less than 12 hours too.... hahaha. It must be so nice to be able to afford this kind of life style all the time. Also, when I was in the elevator going up to the Water Tower from the hotel, I was standing a few inches away from three basketball players. The one I recognized was Yi Jian Lian from the NJ Nets! I felt like I was two inches tall! lmao. Was too scared to ask for autograph though....

Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup of chopped napa (Chinese cabbage)
- a clove of garlic (minced)
- 1/2 medium shredded onion
- 1/2 of a block of Japanese curry (1 box of curry comes with 8 blocks, you will only need HALF of a block which is a VERY small amount!)
- 1/2 block of firm tofu (cubed into bite size pieces)
- 1 bundle of buckwheat noodle
canola oil spray (any oil will do, only used for nonstick purpose)
- 1 stalk of green onion chopped into big pieces (about an inch each)
- salt to taste

Directions:
1. Fill a pot of water with cold water and the bundle of buckwheat noodles. Bring it to a boil until noodles are soft. Rinse with cold water.
2. While waiting for the noodles to boil, in a nonstick pan over high heat, stir fry the garlic, onion shreds, and napa until napa, onion is translucent.
3. Add the tofu into the pan and stir carefully (tip: to stir tofu without breaking it into pieces, push it with your spatula towards the middle).
4. Remember to keep an eye on the noodles!
5. Add a little bit of salt and 1/4 cup of water to the pan. Break in the curry block and stir. Put a lid on the pan for a while and let is simmer in low heat.
Open the lid and stir until the curry blocks are fully melted into the mixture (make sure there's no chunks!)
6. Plop the noodles into the mixture for a few seconds and put in a bowl.
7. Scoop some of the veggie tofu mixture on top of your noodles (You'll probably have extra veggies and tofu left over).
8. Garnish with thinly sliced green onion.
9. Slurp Slurp! :)

I am convinced that sesame oil makes everything taste AWESOME! This is a quick quick yummy healthy recipe. I make this when I am craving fish. Enjoy with some veggies on the side.

Ingredients
- 1 fillet salmon
- cooking spray
- sesame oil
- salt & pepper
- dried oregano
- garlic powder

Directions
1. Preheat oven at 375 deg F.
2. Spray a cooking pan with nonstick cooking spray and put fish on pan.
3. Spray a little bit of cooking spray on salmon. Season with a light drizzle of sesame oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and oregano.
4. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until it's flaky when pierced with a fork.

Enjoy with some roasted or steamed veggies on the side. :)

Wow, it's been a while since I have updated. I've been so busy and sick for the past week. :( BUT, it doesn't mean that I haven't been cooking. Today, I wanted to make something for my cold and what's better for a cold than some hot soup to warm me up? This creamy egg-drop corn soup is a regular in Chinese households. I grew up drinking this stuff. We actually refer to it as just "Corn Soup" in Chinese, but it's not that simple....or is it?! What makes this corn soup special is that it uses cream corn and egg. The egg makes it almost like an egg drop soup and the cream corn makes the consistency savory. mmmmm. Takes less than 5 mins to make guys. WINNER!

Ingredients
- 1 egg
- 1 can chicken broth
- 1 can cream style corn (important that it's the creamy kind!)
- 1/2 cup mixed frozen veggies (I used the kind with carrots, green beans, peas, and corn)
- salt to taste

Directions
1. Bring chicken broth and cream corn to a boil in a pot. Stir to combine.
2. While waiting for the broth and corn to boil, whisk the egg with a pinch of salt and set a side.
3. Put the frozen veggies into the broth mixture anytime.
4. Right after the broth comes to a boil, take it off from the heat.
5. Pour in the whisked egg in a slow circular motion  (think of a swirl) and pop a lid on it. (Do not stir! You don't want small, crumbly pieces of egg)
6. Wait about 60 secs and stir lightly with a ladle.
7. Viola! Enjoy. (^V^)

Now that my busiest day (Wed) is over, I can squeeze a little bit of time to blog (which I haven't done in a while). The Chicago trip was fun and my favorite part was getting to use my sister's gym. haha. We also ate some great food, of course. I also went to the MCA and Chicago Art Institute with Ravesloot and his friend "Dirty". The museums were pretty, but a little bit boring to be honest. I think the DIA is much more fun and I still have to check out the renovated version! After I got back from Chicago, I met up with Kaori and Bomm-san and his friend Porath at the Black Lotus at the corner of 14 mile rd and main street (right by Noble Fish). It was very nice! It's definitely a place I can see myself frequenting. I ordered a vanilla cappucino and it was delicious. :)

Also, recently I finally got the earrings I've always wanted from Target by the designer Dominique Cohen. It was on clearance, so no matter how broke I am, I had to get them!

Oh, the best thing that happened today was me breaking my own record! By all means, I am not the competitive type at all, but when it comes to running on the good ol' treadmill, I like to challenge and motivate myself by trying to outrun the person next to me. Well today, I had a fierce competitor. She would not stop running! hahhaa. So I amped it and ended up running more than 7 miles under 60 minutes. I have NEVER ran for that long and that distance before! ***Pats myself on back*** Mind you that this was after like 3-4 hours of sleep and classes from 9:00am till 3:30pm. I'm a trooper.

I'm in Chi-Town! I got here on time. The bus driver sped a little I think. keke. My sis and I rode megabus to the Union Station and Micheal picked us up! Yay! Then we went to a restaurant in Chinatown called Chi Cafe. It was really yummy! I had a hot lemon tea, which was alright, but the food was overall delicious. Usually when we eat Chinese food in Michigan, it's way too salty/oily/sweet/msg/etc...but it was just right here. We ordered an orange peel fried chicken with broccoli (I only had a small piece of the chicken, but it was really good), Chinese spinach with garlic, and abalone congee, fried dough sticks. Yum Yum Yum.

After that, we went to a grocery store to pick some stuff up. Then, my sis and I headed to her gym, FCC. It was awesome, but we waited for a longass time for them to get me started with a guest pass. Grrr. We had an awesome workout though. After the workout, we went to the sauna for a bit and then met Micheal to go to Whole Foods Market. Whole Foods = Heaven to me. It's so awesome there. I usually have to resort to what I can find that's organic or somewhat healthy, but here, I don't really have to worry. I think I can get 80% of the things in the store without having to worry about its healthiness. Luvs it! I definitely will check out the one in Michigan. Yahooo~ Tmr, shopping!

**note: pics below are taken when half of the food was already eaten!

I'm done with the contest! Sorry if I sounded like I won something, but I didn't. hahaha. I did well though. Everyone was extremely good this year. I was blown away by everyone. I sort of feel bad for the judges actually. They probably pulled a wad of hair off from judging. haha.

My sis came from Chicago to see me perform my speech, too. :) After the speech contest, we went to BiBimbap in Novi to eat lunch/dinner. I ordered the assorted vegetables grilled Korean style. It came with a bunch of different kim chi. SO delicious! mmmmm....
Then, after that, we went to 12 oaks mall for a little bit. I got a pair of BCBG flip flops for under $10.00! Woo hoo! :D

Tomorrow, I am heading to Chicago with my sister early in the morning and I didn't even start packing yet, but I don't care. kekeke. :P

I'm on Spring Break! Yahooooooo!~
Today, I took my LLT midterm (which I did horrible in), went to the gym for a good workout, gave my Kanji speech, and practiced my speech speech with Sakakibara sensei. After that, I went to the apartment, packed and drove home. Then I had an awesome dinner with my mom at home. We had two leftover dishes that my dad made. SO good. It was taro and eggplants stuffed with fish and pork. My mom made garlic Chinese spinach and these shrimp patties that she labored last night for. I'm a lucky girl. She also brewed me a cup of her kumquat honey tea. mmmmm. I also had some organic SO Delicious chocolate ice cream! My fav! Only 130 calories per serving and it's dairy free. :) It tastes better than regular chocolate ice cream in my opinion.

On that note.....my stomach still feels horrible, but I can still eat. hahaha. Nothing will stop me, muwahhaha.

On a happier note, my sis will arrive tomorrow! She's coming to see me give my speech on Saturday! Yahoooo!~ Then, we will head to Chicago together on Sunday. Can't wait! (^v^)

Today was a great day! I woke up at 9:00 ish and had a great sleep. Although my dream was very weird and reflected all the things that have been going through my mind, I slept for like 7-8 hours. That is very ideal! :) I also baked Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls (5 pack) for me and my friends for our Ann Arbor trip. The rolls were smaller than I have expected. They were 150 calories each, but I only used like 1/3 of the icing, so its give or take a few. Not bad for a cinnamon roll though. Would I buy it again? Probably not.

So, today, as I said before, I went to Ann Arbor with Andrew, Jun Jun, and Angel. We went to Zingerman's for lunch and then we went to Urban Outfitters. After that, we played games and pool at Pinball Pete's and headed to Bubble Island to play Taboo. It was overall a fun day. Zingerman's was interesting. We order our food at the deli and then walk over next door to their bakehouse and wait for our food there. It was super busy and I loved the atmosphere. I had a sample of their dark chocolate (it's chocolate month) gelato and it was pretty amazing. I ordered their chicken broth with al dente egg noodles which came with a sour dough bread. It was filling and good. I didn't even finish the soup. That's a first. haha. Then, when we came back to East Lansing, I ate dinner and headed to the gym. It was a great workout. Always feel so good after a workout. :)

But....today I realized that I have SO little time left to memorize the rest of my speech and practice. I'm so nervous right now. eek! Gotta get to it!

inside the deli of Zingerman's