Appetizer: Heavenly Stuffed Wings – de-boned chicken wings stuffed with ground chicken, silver noodle, cilantro, water chestnut and black mushroom. They came with this great sweet dipping sauce. This was kind of scary at first (fried! processed! breaded!) but the deliciousness made up for it.

For dinner we shared 4 dishes. The Blue Mango Fried Rice – a big house special: chicken fried rice topped with sweet garlic pork.

The Green Curry – eggplant, bamboo, and bell pepper are soaked in coconut milk, with a hint of basil (cannot be mild).

Mushroom Mountain, as usual – soft tofu, baby corn, bamboo, straw mushroom, and bean sprout stir-fried with a bit of green curry paste. Sesame seed are sprinkled on for a beautiful finish.

And Basil Chili Chicken, also as usual – with bell pepper and onion.

After dinner we went out for dessert (frozen yogurt) at Golden Spoon – pumpkin pie and chocolate flavors. The toppings were raspberries, mango (not ripe, unfortunately), and crushed brownie bits.

Blue Mango never disappoints. And neither does Golden Spoon. If you ever get a chance, go there! (I’m talking about the Blue Mango on Stevens Creek – I hear the other one is not so good.)

Now that I’m in NJ I don’t have Blue Mango. But I do have Edo Sushi! Bobby, Julia, and I all went out for dinner tonight. I love this place. Edo Sushi is a Japanese and Chinese restaurant on Route 31 in the same shopping center as Pennington Market. It’s about a 10 minute walk from my parents’ house.

First is the tea… (unlimited and free – my two favorite qualities). Notice my cool NY key chain – it’s kind of vintage because it has the twin towers on it. I think I got it back in middle school.

I got chicken and broccoli with the sauce on the side (brown sauce).

The other pictures didn’t come out, but Julia got veggies and tofu with the sauce on the side (also brown sauce). Bobby got the Dragon vs. Phoenix – chicken, shrimp, and veggies stir-fried with yet another brown sauce. He also got a big pot of rice.

We finished everything. The check came with pineapple cubes and fortune cookies. Yum! I love Edo’s.

This dinner was nice after my indulgent afternoon… My parents gave me a massage + facial combo for my birthday and I finally used it. I went to Sydney Albert Salon Spa in Princeton. I’d highly recommend this place – I’ve been going there for years and I’ve always loved everything. Their haircuts are amazing, the facials are fantastic, and the massage was wonderful. Bobby also got a massage and he loved it.

While we were getting pampered, our Relocube arrived. Now we have to unpack it. I’m going into the city tomorrow, but when I get home I think we’re going to try to start sorting through all of our stuff. It’ll be a big project.

What’s your favorite restaurant?

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• December 20, 2007 -- Fresh Persimmons and Apples with Dip
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• October 9, 2008 -- 09 October 2008
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• July 26, 2009
• July 7, 2009 (engagement celebration)
• June 15, 2009 (with my mom)
• March 21, 2009
• March 9, 2009
• December 3, 2008 (anniversary)
• November 7, 2008 (with my dad)
• October 16, 2008 (with Brittany!)
• September 27, 2008 (one of my earliest daily eats posts)

We ordered 4 things to share. We got the mushroom mountain (no picture, but there are pics in just about every other post about Blue Mango!) – ”soft tofu, baby corn, bamboo, straw mushroom and bean sprout stir-fried with a bit of green curry paste, sesame seed are sprinkled on for a beautiful finish”. We also got Basil Chili Chicken (spiciness 7/10). Wonderful, as usual.

And a new dish – green curry (spiciness 5/10). This had prawns, eggplant, bamboo, red peppers, and maybe some other things. So creamy and satisfying. This is my new favorite. Bobby can’t decide between this and the mushroom mountain.

We also got crab fried rice, which we usually get. This was both of our cousins’ favorite.

After dinner we headed next door to Golden Spoon. Golden Spoon is one of the many California frozen yogurt shops, but it ranks among the best. The yogurt is creamy, ice-free, and basically a party in your mouth.

Bobby and I got the Pumpkin Pie (!) flavor and the classic vanilla. No toppings. I also tried Peanut Butter Cup, Cake Batter, and Raspberry. All delicious. The yogurt has about 25 calories in an ounce, and this size is supposed to be about 10 ounces. It was the perfect amount for two to share.

Today I think we are headed to the Japantown Farmers’ Market (maybe with friends) and I want to get a facial.

What was the last thing you did to pamper yourself?

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• December 14, 2009 -- Review: The Long Room & Christmas In New York
• September 13, 2008 -- Breakfast for 9/13/2008
• January 29, 2012 -- Running (half) Circles
• July 19, 2010 -- Final Wedding Plans & Fresh Italian Food
• October 15, 2009 -- Crazy Love

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As usual, feel free to switch up the veggies. I think the cauliflower is pretty essential for all curries, but do what you like. This recipe is particularly simple because you can get curry paste at any local Asian market. This was my first time using it. Depending on what protein you use, this can be vegetarian or vegan.

I’m submitting this to the Blogger Secret Ingredient contest, hosted this week by Coco! She picked cauliflower.

Indian Curry

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup curry paste
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup cubed white potato
• 2 cups chopped cauliflower
• 1 carrot, sliced
• 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
• 8 ounces protein (tofu, chicken, etc… we used frozen chicken thighs from Trader Joe’s)
• 1/3 cup milk/coconut milk/kefir/yogurt (optional)
• parmesan, yogurt, sour cream, or other cheese for topping (optional)
• base – rice, squash, or other carby-carb.

Directions

1. Boil the water in a soup pan. Add the curry paste and mix well. Add the potato and protein. Cook for about 5 minutes
2. Add the rest of the veggies and cook for another 3-4 minutes until they’re tender. If they aren’t covered by the broth, don’t worry – they shrink down. You can also add the milk at this point. I added a little bit of kefir and it came out well.
3. Ladle the veggies, meat, and a whole lot of broth over rice or squash. Top with parmesan.

This meal was very satisfying on a chilly fall night. I had both halves of my delicata filled with curry. Bobby has been obsessed with the rice I’ve been making lately… want to know the secret? I add some salt and pepper while cooking, and then when it’s done I drop in a tablespoon of butter and mix it up while it melts.

If you missed my post yesterday, you should check it out now. I got a lot of really great responses. I talked about whether or not a raw food diet is actually “natural” or not, based on a primatologist’s research. The question was, Does cooking make us human?

I also wrote this post: Does language make us human?

I have a question for you, readers – what do you want to see more of? Daily meals? Cooking tips? Recipes? Crazy cool foods like kabocha? Scientific research like the cooking/human post? Beauty information? Product reviews? Book reviews? More workouts? Giveaways? Leave me a comment to let me know

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• April 4, 2008 -- Healthy Caesar Salad
• January 30, 2012 -- I’m Still a Salad Loving Yogi
• March 11, 2009 -- Giveaway Winner (earrings)!
• September 19, 2009 -- Be Beautiful!
• January 26, 2010 -- Ch-ch-ch-changes

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It was a humongous bowl, so I went pretty easy on the toppings. I had raisins, almonds, and in-house granola. I also added a little bit of skim milk. I actually managed to finish all but 1 bite of this gigantic bowl of oats. I brought the bloggies some homemade tea bags…

For lunch we went to the Ferry Building to get our favorite – Delica rf-1. It’s a Japanese delicatessen with the most amazing salads. I got the 3-salad combo; Bobby got the 2-salad + a main item combo. Bobby got Wasabi Garlic Potato Salad (Garlic potato salad with wasabi mayonnaise, edamame, snap peas, and romaine hearts), Spicy Burdock Root Salad (A spicy mix of braised burdock and konnyaku (mountain potato) tossed with thin slices of white onion, celery, julienne carrots, and wild mizuna), and for the main item he got Tofu & Chicken Patty with Hijiki (Free-range chicken and organic tofu patty with hijiki seaweed and carrot; served in a sweet soy sauce).

I got the Spicy Burdock Root Salad, and a double serving of Hijiki and Soybean Salad (Hijiki (seaweed rich in calcium, iron, and fiber) mixed with dried soybeans, edamame, konnyaku (mountain potato), daikon, wild mizuna, fried tofu, and kuko (wolfberry)).

I think we go to Delica almost every time we head up to San Francisco. It is probably the best food I have ever eaten. I’m not kidding. It’s that good. We’re heading up to SF tomorrow so I’m sure we’ll be back.

What is your favorite restaurant, and where is it? What do you get?

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• January 19, 2009 -- Guest Post!
• January 8, 2008 -- Leek Soup Recipe
• April 26, 2009 -- Menu Plan Monday (mostly vegetarian/macrobiotic)
• May 1, 2008 -- Mom’s black bean salad
• June 15, 2011 -- Body Rockin’ & Chocolate Challenge

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This salad was…

• base: iceberg and green leaf lettuce
• toppings: raw blue cheese, seaweed, raw corn, heirloom tomatoes, red cabbage, beets, red bell pepper
• dressing: liquid gold elixir AND some carrot juice (why not?)

I got some great responses to the favorite food question. The trick was to see if people would list specific ingredients (tomatoes, etc…) or specific dishes (hamburger, etc…). I think most people realized the trick though. I also used Aardvark to get some more answers. Here are some responses from Aardvark users..

• “Broccoli, butter, cheese, tempura, popcorn”
• “olives, artichokes, soy sauce, seafood, walnuts/pecans/other nuts”
• “1. Potatoes 2. Avacados. 3. Garlic 4. bread 5. chicken”
• “chocolate, bread, ceviche, cheese, ham”
• “Cheesecake,meatloaf,italian ice,carrots, cucumbers”
• “Carrots, celery, onions, beef, poultry”
• “Interesting. Never thought about it. Avocado, Honey, ALL Thai food, Tofu, a really good steak”

I thought these answers were very interesting because they don’t come from healthy bloggers… but almost all of them had vegetables in the top 5. Most of them listed just ingredients, not dishes. I found it funny that the person who listed tofu as a favorite food also liked “really good steak”.

Some of your favorites were: almond butter, apples, avocado, bananas, berries, blueberries, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, carrots, champagne, cheese, cherries, coconut things, coffee, corn, crab, crusty bread, dark chocolate, dates, fish, fresh greens, fruit, Greek yogurt, grilled zucchini, hummus, kabocha, macademia nuts, mango, mashed potatoes, mushrooms, nectarines, oatmeal with bananas & cinnamon, pancakes, peaches, peanut butter, raw cashews, rice, salmon, salsa, shrimp, spinach, strawberries, sunbutter, sushi, and sweet potatoes.

I’m having trouble deciding mine. At this very moment (in no particular order):

• bananas
• my green juice (not a single ingredient – a dish)
• kabocha squash
• raw blue cheese
• raw corn

But this changes all the time. The only thing on there that isn’t a specific ingredient is the juice, but it’s a very specific recipe (must have ginger, lemon/lime, mint, granny smith apple, + GREEN things).

Another interesting question to ask is this – what are your favorite exercises? No trick here; my favorites (right now) are rebounding and yoga. A few weeks ago I would have said dance videos. A few weeks before that I would have said running and walking. It changes all the time. I’m off to do some yoga, and then I think I’ll rebound for a few minutes. Yesterday the only exercise I did was 30 minutes of rebounding, but it felt great. I watched the NOVA documentary “Cracking the Maya Code” while I bounced.

(I wrote a bit more about Shakespeare this morning, if you want to read it!)

Like this post? Check out...

• March 7, 2011 -- Documentary: Inside Job & Yoga Recs
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• February 13, 2011 -- Big Fat Video Links – Weekend Link Love
• October 20, 2010 -- My Lunch in 20 Years
• October 7, 2010 -- Family, Salads, Documentary, Flowers, Dessert, and Zumba (!)

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I added celery, which I sliced with my mandolin. It was a really good addition. I topped it with salsa and I actually added some stevia when I was massaging it.

I have a brand new dressing recipe that I’ll post either tomorrow or Monday. I made a fantastic wonderful dinner tonight (raw salad, raw dressing, teryaki tofu, kimchi, basmati rice for Bobby).

I find that when I shop at Whole Foods I start to limit the amount of produce that I buy. It’s so expensive that I try not to get a lot. Today I went to Han Kook (Korean grocery) instead.

What do you think? Do you scrimp to buy organic? Does it really matter? Would you rather have an abundance of fresh non-organic produce and variety OR pick a few choice items that are organic?

As for books… I finished The Time Traveler’s Wife on Thursday. Ah. So amazing. If you haven’t read it, you really must. I want to see the movie soon.

I read When the Emperor Was Divine yesterday (Friday). This book is about a Japanese American family who is interned during World War II. It was a quick read, but so raw and touching. I’d highly recommend it – especially if you don’t know much about this part of our history.

I’m currently reading 2 books now – King Hereafter by Dorothy Dunnett and The Uncertain Art: Thoughts on a Life in Medicine by Sherwin B. Nuland (he also wrote The Art of Aging and How We Die). These are going slower than the others. King Hereafter is long, and so far slightly tedious. I think it has potential so I’ll keep reading – I’ve been trying to get into it for about a week. I just cracked The Uncertain Art today, and so far the writing is pretentious and verbose. I doubt I’ll finish it.

Here are some words…

• pretentious – comes from French through Latin from a word meaning “to pretend”… which originally came from roots meaning “before” (pre) + “to stretch” (tendere).
• verbose – comes from the Latin “full of words, wordy”… the Latin word for, um, word = verbum.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend

Like this post? Check out...

• August 27, 2010 -- How To Eat Like A Child (aka Intuitively)
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• November 19, 2009 -- Mexican Yums & Wegmans Love
• July 16, 2008 -- Watermelon Blue Cheese Salad and WHB – amazing.

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Egg fried rice (Bobby’s):

Bamboo stirfry (split – with pork, cashew, baby corn, straw mushroom, onions, and tomatoes):

Mushroom mountain plus chicken (split – chicken, soft tofu, baby corn, bamboo, straw mushroom, bean sprouts, green curry paste, sesame seeds):

And for dessert we went to Quickly for frozen yogurt.  We got a 13-ounce (large) with unlimited toppings (until you fill the cup) for $3.50.  Quickly rocks.

This was plain tart frozen yogurt, carob chips, blueberries, and aloe.  I ended up eating most of it.   I loved the aloe.  The carob chips were okay.

Couldn’t sleep at all last night… so maybe going back to bed.  Hope you had a great weekend

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• June 5, 2008 -- Banana Bean Pudding (VEGAN)
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• June 18, 2011 -- sapphire blue memories*

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After seeing Food, Inc. (review to come) I did not want to order a meat dish. I don’t know where they get their meat and I don’t want to take chances. Even Bobby was affected by this movie and made his choices accordingly.  I decided to get the regular size “Tofu & Broccoli” ($5.50 total).  I finished everything but a little bit of the rice (which is hiding underneath). Those are orange slices in the upper left.

Bobby opted for the large “Shrimp & Fishcake” (seafood instead of meat!) which was $7.50.  It’s a dollar more for the large, but we couldn’t tell the difference between our sizes. That’s red sauce + oil in the upper left. He finished it all, of course, except for the cherry tomato (he gave it to me).

With each dish comes fresh kimchee, red sauce + oil (premixed), and dessert.  If you do takeout the dessert is fresh orange slices; if you eat in it’s a little cup of frozen yogurt. I snagged both of our kimchees and also doubled up on red sauce and oil. There’s some yummy sauce that was drizzled on top of my tofu and Bobby’s shrimp – it was brown and sweet.  It was a really nice addition.

We’ll definitely be back to Sunnybowl as soon as we can.  It’s cheap, fresh, healthy, and my favorite kind of food.

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• October 26, 2008 -- Josh Groban is Amazing and All Day Concert
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• February 8, 2008 -- Lazy breakfasts…
• April 13, 2008 -- Spicy Indian Beans (Beans Foogath)

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Banana dessert

• banana, yogurt, whipped cream, cinnamon

Kale and Seaweed Salad

• kale, seaweed, vinegar, soy sauce, honey, sesame seeds

Vegan Strawberry Lassi

• strawberries, almond milk, silken tofu, agave, salt

Strawberry Salad

Edamame Lemon Tofu Salad

Hope these give you inspiration on this lovely weekend – for more inspiring foods, remember to check out Healthy Yum – inspiration every 30 minutes!

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• June 25, 2009 -- Sleeping!
• February 22, 2008 -- NYC food
• November 19, 2009 -- Mexican Yums & Wegmans Love
• January 28, 2009 -- Green Monster Madness
• May 21, 2009 -- Challenge example…

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Last night we decided to go out to celebrate.  Of course we went to our favorite Thai restaurant, Blue Mango.  This is the only restaurant I ever go to anymore – I know that their food is awesome and they have tons of options.  We went all out and got three dishes to share.  First up, the Combo Fried Rice – with prawn, chicken, pork, tomato, onion and egg.  I had a little bit of this; Bobby had most of it.

Next was the Bamboo stir-fry (vegan unless you get it with chicken) – with cashew, baby corn, straw mushroom and onion.  We got it with chicken.  We pretty much split this exactly.

And lastly, the Mushroom Mountain stir-fry (vegan) – soft tofu, baby corn, bamboo, straw mushroom and bean sprout stir-fried with a bit of green curry paste. Sesame seed are sprinkled on for a beautiful finish.  I had most of this and Bobby had a little bit.  I wish they’d put more sesame seeds.

We just about cleaned all the plates (brought home a few pieces of chicken that I stuck in Bobby’s lunch today).

I decided to practice being wifey and make Bobby a bento lunch.  I did Soba Noodles with Umeboshi Dressing (macrobiotic), topped with sauteed onions, a hot dog, and leftover chicken. I sliced up a peach as well, and there’s an unpictured hotdog bun (with smart balance).  He also has an arsenal of snacks like milk chocolate, crackers, and sembe (Japanese cracker things).  The cutest part though is the 2 carrot hearts that I made and put on top of the noodles.  Very bento-ey

Here’s another thing I’ve been putting in Bobby’s lunches that he loves… Ants on a log!  You all had this when you were little, right?  Celery + peanut butter (PB&Co’s Mighty Maple here) + raisins = ants on a log.  We had a long and rather inappropriate discussion about names that would be better than “ants on a log”, but I’ll spare you the details (which mostly revolved around “poo”).

I’m off to do some yoga.  Though I can’t seem to stop staring at my ring finger when I’m in downward dog and doing chaturangas.  I might get a strange crick in my neck if I keep this up!  Speaking of yoga, I have done about 40 minutes a day for the last week… and that’s about it, for exercise.  I haven’t even been walking much.  But I feel great. Here’s my exercise log.

Today’s question: what’s your favorite childhood food? I think mine would have to be the breakfasts that my dad made on the weekends. Pancakes, waffles, and French toast.  Pancakes were every Saturday and Sundays alternated between waffles and French toast.

Like this post? Check out...

• September 20, 2008 -- Eats for 9/20/2008
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• June 28, 2011 -- parisian polka dot haiku*
• April 10, 2009 -- New trend & Couscous love (cat!)
• April 6, 2008 -- Rice dessert

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