Work in Progress: Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup

Growing up, I would look forward to my mom making Taiwanese Beef Noodle soup. There's nothing quite like soup and stew to warm the heart and body during the cold winter. Last year, I asked my mom for the recipe so that I could recreate this for myself and Taryn, who thanks to recent visits to Taiwanese restaurants, has also become a big fan of this dish. Unfortunately, she's not always won to remember all the ingredients and neglects to mention measurements, which led to a very tricky first attempt.

Last Thursday night, I enlisted the help of a recipe from epicurious, which vastly improved on the flavors I got out of my soup when we consumed it on Friday night. While I'm still tweaking the recipe, I was able to get a number of taste-testers, including my roommates, and should be able to share a recipe in the near-future. The bowl pictured above includes center-cut beef shank, beef for stewing (cut wasn't listed), carrots, green onions, bok choy, and homemade pickled mustard greens from my mom.

Since a lot of prep went in the night before, I had some extra time on my hands and decided to give scallion pancakes a shot. The texture came out breadier, instead of flakier, however this was a great medium to soak up the delicious broth.

My stomach growls with anticipation for the next trial-run.

Board Games: Catan - Cities & Knights

This past Fall, I really got into the hobby board games and luckily found a good group of people to share in this social-by-nature past time. While I love video games, there's something about sitting face-to-face with your teammates and opponents.

One great resources that has helped fuel this hobby is the site Board Game Geek. With BGG I have a website that not only has a ton of information and reviews of games out there, but also a site that provides a system to rate and rank games and tools to keep track of your personal collection, as well as games you're interested in playing or purchasing.

Anyhow, I thought it'd be fun to share pictures from some of these gaming sessions. First up, Catan: Cities & Knights, an expansion/variation on the popular Settlers of Catan. What's great about the basic Settlers of Catan is that it acts as a gateway game: a game to show non-gamers that there are now more rich and fulfilling gaming options than just Monopoly. While gateway games will vary in complexity, Catan is easy enough to learn if you have some friends to teach and walk-through a round or two with you.

The funny thing about my initial experience with the Settlers of Catan is that I didn't enjoy it that much but was willing to give the game a few chances despite my overall lack of fun. With all the colorful wooden pieces and interchangeable hexagonal pieces that give you a different board every game, it had all the pieces of a wonderful and variable game. I knew there had to be something behind all the great reviews.

However, I wasn't truly a convert until a played with the Cities & Knights expansion, which basically gives the player a lot more options on their turn, though it also throws in more things to keep in check. My first time playing C&K was also in Hawaii, while visiting one of Taryn's friends. Needless to say I purchased my own copy within a month after playing.

Here's a picture of the board after all five players had claimed their settlements and cities. The regular Settlers of Catan, as well as C&K, has a limitation of 3-4 players. However you can purchase a 5-6 player expansion (ranges from about $15-$20), but the tricky thing is if you need to buy separate 5-6 expansions for both versions of the game. No one said this would be a cheap hobby I suppose, but if you factor in variability and actual hours of play, the pricing of board games should usually be a better value than a video game.

Hopefully this has been an informative overview of the hobby and game itself. I am planning on featuring more games in later posts, as well as an entry on where I recommend finding these board games.

Turkey Day

Thanksgiving is easily my favorite holiday because of two things: Family & Food. Since most of my family that I grew up with still live in NY, its usually a good time for everyone to catch up with one another over some drinks and a gigantic, diverse pot luck-style meal. A combination of American, Taiwanese, Japanese, and Italian cooking (just to name a few), I'm delighted to share with you some snapshots of our dinner:

Here is an (incomplete) overview of the feast at we had.

The turkey was juicy as it ever was and carved up before the rest of the family arrived. My mom added some style by garnishing it with fresh rosemary that she grew herself, as well as some fresh parsley.

Here we have Sweet & Sour Spareribs from Taryn. How good was it? It was the only entree to be completely finished by the end of the evening.

This Sushi & Sashimi Platter is an annual tradition and is courtesy of my Aunt Sally.

I'm afraid I forgot the name of the cool-looking pasta my sister used, but here we have Sausage Marinara over pasta.

Brie with Fuji Apples and Red Grapes. I swear that wine glass was already there before I took the picture.

Homemade Mashed Potatoes, with skin of course! Even though we ran out of sour cream, a combination of heavy cream and milk still gave a wonderful texture to the dish.

Cornbread Pudding by my sister, which was simply delicious.

Sticky Rice garnished with fresh cilantro. A staple from Ah-Ma (Grandma).

Apple Apple Pie

Seeing this today made me smile. Check out the original blog post on The Kitchn. Mmm...pie.

Holiday Music

December is here and even though it feels like a warm Fall day in New England, the holiday decorations (and advertisements) are out and in full swing!

While I was at home in New York for Thanksgiving, I got in the discussion with T and my mom on when it's appropriate for someone to start listening to Christmas music. We agreed that after Turkey Day was as guy as deadline as any, however T loves this time of year and had broken the "approved" date by about a week.

Are there others out there who just can't wait to bust out the holiday tunes on their iPod, CD player, radio, or music listening device of choice? When do you think is the right time to start playing "Jingle Bell Rock"?

The Proposal

So this update has been a long time in the making and actually is the reason why I haven't really blogged since July since this news should really take prior On Friday, August 15th, 2008, I proposed to my best friend and special lady in beautiful Rockport. Her answer was, "Yes!"

Let us backtrack...

The Setup

The ring

This was going to be a difficult mission to keep it a surprise. Taryn was with me when I asked for her parents' permission when we were vacationing in Hawaii in July. Also add the fact that because there are so many options to figure out in an engagement ring, we had been looking together and found a beautiful diamond and setting on vacation as well.

Fast forward a bit to August: Our anniversary was back in April and there's no celebration/sneak that I could provide cover for the proposal. However the summer was winding down, so I told her to keep her Friday free so we could take a day trip somewhere before the school year started. Add in a last minute wisdom tooth removal (my remaining two) two days before the big day, as well as a slew of engagements the weeks prior, and you get a good picture of what might have been running around in my head.

The Proposal

The location: Rockport, MA

I settled on Rockport, MA for the destination of our day trip, the lovely little town being one of our favorite date spots. The weather forecast was predicting hail and rain, however we wound up having beautiful sunny and mild weather. Doofus that I am, I accidentally gave her some clues:

• She noticed I was wearing the same shirt I wore on our original date to Rockport. Instead of playing it off as just a coincidence, I excitedly said, "I know!!"
• I was taking short videos with my digi-cam. I haven't taken videos in a few years. Oops.
• After we were done with lunch and sufficiently walked around town for a few hours, she said she was sad that we'd have to go back to Boston soon, to which I replied, "Oh, but our day's not over yet! I mean...er..."

Yea, smooth I-am-not. Anyhow, we head to the car, and we drive around a bit, taking in the gorgeous view, and find parking by this lovely spot by the beach, with a rock wall at perfect sitting height to gaze longingly into the ocean. I suggested we could just hang out here since we were in no rush to get back, and maybe even get in a game of Carcassonne (a favorite of mine, to which Taryn introduce me to). Determining that the rock wall provided a poor surface to play, we decided against playing, but this gave me the perfect opportunity to sneak my guitar out from the car. I am still shocked that I was able to take out my guitar, in its hard-shelled case, and put it directly behind/underneath her, all without her knowledge (Take that as a testament to how nice the view was!). With guitar in place, my heart started beating rapidly...this was the moment! Though its a bit of a blur, I did manage to take out ring, say a little something, put it on the wrong hand, Taryn corrected me, I proposed, she said yes, and I finished by serenading her with the song "I Could Not Ask For More" by Edwin McCain.

The toast with friends and family

One bonus surprise that I managed to complete without a hitch is a surprise engagement dinner with our close friends at The Stockyard (For those of you who know Taryn, she loves her prime rib) and I am especially thankful for everyone who kept it a surprise and were able to celebrate with the both of us.