We woke up early this morning wanting to cross the border to Bellingham for some shopping and food. Nanzaro wanted more stylish summer clothings. He is a big boy now and Old Navy is not going to cut it anymore, not to mention WalMart. I have absolutely no idea what he wanted but something tells me his taste is getting more expensive. For me, I NEED the humongous baby spare ribs from Costco and also, the minivan needs a change of tires too. The tires are almost bald. While there too, we wanted to also try the KFC Double Down Chicken Sandwich.
So we woke up early with a big day planned ahead of us. First thing we did was to check the border wait time. 15 minutes. Not too bad. We thought that not many people will be going over the border since the currency exchange sucks lately and people would have done all the travelling over the July 1st/July 4th long weekend. Alright, Suanne and I decided to sit down and watch Le Tour de France on OLN. It is the first of the mountain stages and we were hoping for the remote chance that Lance Armstrong will start mounting a fight here (he did not quite do it but he’s up there). After the race and as we are about to go out, we checked the border line up again.
It is now a 1.5 hours wait!
So, here I am writing this Weekend Musing. Oh well, I might as well stay home and watch the Germany-Uruguay World Cup game on the television.
Oh, talking about television, we switched our TV-slash-internet-slash-phone provider to Telus. The new package came with a PVR and Arkensen had been recording almost everything on it … and he had been deleting MY recording to make way for his. See? I am being muscled out of the technology stuff at home. I heard that you can easily upgrade the harddisk on the PVR at home yourself. Anyone ever done that before?
Recipe Needed
A few days ago, Suanne and I went to S&W Pepper House (again!) and since then I could not get this out of my head. We had this wonderful Fried Peanuts with Cilantro and Chili. We love it a lot. It looked simple to make and we were thinking that we could easily make it at home.
While the fried peanuts and cilantro is a no brainer, we couldn’t find the recipe for the chili sauce. Does any know how to make the sauce? Does it come in a bottle that you could buy from the stores?
Thinking of it makes me salivate.
Help!
Shopping in Osaka
Janice was reading our post about the Instant Ramen which is closest to Kintaro’s Ramen. She was telling us of a ramen she think is even closer to what Kintaro’s Ramen taste like. Well, she even went out of her way to buy it and took a picture of it!
So yesterday we went to the Osaka Supermarket in the Yaohan Center on No 3 Road to look for it. It was a long time since I went grocery shopping with Suanne and boy am I surprise to see the new stuff they have in the supermarket. Instead of going in buying just the frozen ramen, we ended up buying a number of stuff.
The above is the ramen that Janice was raving about. It is about $2.50 each. Remember, this is frozen ramen and so you won’t find this in the normal instant noodles aisle. Instead it is in the freezer section. We wouldn’t have found it if not for the picture that Janice sent. [Thanks a lot, Janice!]
The whole packaging is in Japanese but there is a sticker at the back that tells you what the flavour is. Guess what we are having for lunch while watching the football game today.
Oh wow, we also found out that there are a lot more types of frozen ramen. The above is a bigger pack and is meant for … three people.
Or at least, we think it is for three people because of the number “3” printed at the bottom right of the packaging.
We bought the chili sauce above. We were wondering if this is what is used to make the Fried Peanut with Cilantro and Chili sauce above. It looked the most like it from among all the other bottles. We’ll try it and let you know. Too bad we can’t read Chinese or it will perhaps clue us in as to what it is really for.
Suanne also picked up the noodles above. The reason she got this was because she said that it has tong kwai herbs that I like a lot. She thinks it could be close to the Drunken Chicken Hot Pot that we had in Jubilant, especially with some wolfberries added and a dash of cooking wine.
Here is another frozen ramen we picked up too.
Wow, they even now have Xiao Long Bao sold in the supermarket. He he he … let’s see how this turns out. It’ll be nice to have XLBs at home for a change.
I had always wondered how these type of herbal soup will turn out but we had never bought it for obvious reason. When I was young, my mum makes a lot of these kind of soup but us being Chinese illiterate we don’t know where to start.
At least, there are English instructions. We’ll try it and let you know too.
OK, I rambled enough for today. There are a few more things I wanted to let you know but I’ll leave it for some other time. Got to head out to buy some Roast Pork (from Parker Place, no less!) before the football match starts. I needed the Roast Pork to go with the frozen ramen.
Have a great weekend. And eat well.
Totally off the topic of food…but how are you finding the Telus service? I am considering switching my phone/internet/TV service as well from Shaw to Telus because they are offering such a good savings monthly for the first year and the free PVR as well.
We’ve been on Telus TV/DSL/phone for close to 3 years now. Quite happy with them, no complaints really. First-gen set top box was glitchy and clunky to use. Current STB is waaaay better. We’ve not gone to their PVR (yet), as we really don’t watch enough TV to warrant its use (esp. if monthly fee is required). But if free, I would consider it.
Should also note, Telus’s basic channel packages, additional bundles and individual channel additions were mostly what drew me to them in the first place.
And as far as customer service, we’ve had nothing but top-notch service right from Day 1.
Hi George: We used to have Shaw and just switched over just a few days ago. We opted for the “Large Combo”. One glaring missing channel on Telus is OLN (which is a must because of le Tour de France!). Fairchild on Telus is $15 while Shaw was $7 only. The free PVR and netbook (with a 3 yr contract) is a bonus but personally, I don’t think that is a big plus (i.e. $300+ over 3 yrs worked out to only $10 per month). My pet peeve is the hard to read on screen TV guide. Also the sound is inconsistent … I had to constantly fiddle with the volume control every time I changed channels. Ben
As a suggestion to the peanuts and cilantro dish, i would say that there may be vinegar in it. I have tried a similar dish to this before and the chef did say vinegar was used. But then again, this might be different from what i have tried before.
On an different note, i have tried the nissin frozen ramen before and it is delicious! in fact, i had one today.
Hey Ben & Susanne – I loved those peanuts too! I posted shortly after my visit, and listed some of the ingredients I thought were used:
dark soy (or soy + sugar)
sesame oil
lime juice
http://parkerpages.wordpress.com/2010/06/30/s-w-pepper-house/
Good luck making these – I want some just thinking about them now! 🙂
Here you go Ben:
怪卤花生 Vinegar Peanuts http://beijinghaochi.com/vinegar_peanut_recipe/
I would reduce the sugar to match the flavour profile of the S&W version.
Oh…and add a bit of dried chilies or chili paste.
Hi Fmed and egirlwonder:
That is perfect! He he he … I just went to let Suanne know that there is the recipe that you just posted and she snapped at me. LOL! She hates it when I ask her to make restaurant food and wants ME to look for the recipe if I wanted it. Now, I got it. YES! You are right … the chili must be added for the extra kick. I like with with the sugar crystallized a bit for the sweet crunch. Thanks for the recipe.
Ben
Hi Ben Speaking of the big game,I am having Gazpacho,which is perfect for a warm day and Tomato Bread washed down with Heineken and Sangria in honor of the 2 teams.Regarding the border run,It is very important to be there before 9am,There is the trick of using the Pacific Crossing,Go into the Duty Free and buy a 2$ Chocolate and exit at the duty free parking lot,It always cuts 20 minutes off for me
Wanted to do a plug that today is 7-11,So its the annual time of the year,All 7-11 s give away free slurpees over 5 million last year,perfect for a warm day
hey i was at T & T supermarket today and i noticed that the frozen ramen was on sale…. 2 for $2.99! It’s only $1.5 each. And btw have u tried the tonkotsu and miso flavour ones? those are really good!!!!
Perfect timing. Monica. We had just ran out of our stash of frozen ramen. Time to stock up again. Yes, we have tried both the tonkotsu and the miso flavour ones but there are several brands isn’t it? We had tried three different brand and they are all good.