【韩式海鲜豆腐汤】Korean Seafood Tofu Soup (Soon Doo Boo Jjigae)

很喜欢天凉的时候来一碗这个韩式海鲜豆腐汤，很开胃清爽，准备功夫也非常简单，周末NJ突然反常地变成七十几度，冰箱里正好都有做汤的材料，就来一碗海鲜豆腐汤吧！

This Korean spicy soup is my second favorite soup after tom yam seafood soup, it is great for cold weather or when I don't have much apatite for anything.

I almost always made this whenever I have ingredients in the fridge!!

Thai Basil Fish 【泰式塔香鱼块】

I always planted some Thai basil every summer, it is an essential ingredient in Thai dishes, which I love dearly...it could also be used for some Taiwanese dishes like Salt fried Chicken (盐酥鸡) and 3 cups chicken (三杯鸡）.

My Thai basil has grow well as usual for this year, and we have got some fresh salmon at home, so I made this delicious fish dish for lunch!

夏天我总要种几棵九层塔，除了可以做好吃的三杯鸡和盐酥鸡之外，也是泰式菜肴不可或缺的一种材料。

今年种的九层塔一如往年那样茂盛，刚好买了不错的三文鱼，就做了这个好吃的泰式塔香鱼块啦！

Thai Green Papaya Salad （Som Tam）【泰式青木瓜沙拉】

I love having Thai foods in summer, the sweet/sour/savory mix of taste just helps to open up an appetite  in hot summer months.

Mum and I saw this unripe papaya at the Asian supermarket the other day. Since it was more than a 100 F out there these days. We decided to make this papaya salad for our lunch!

Som Tam is traditionally made pounding in a mortar, I do not have a big mortar, so I just mix the ingredients together to form a salad. It still tastes great!

Note: The original post was created in the year 2012 and updated 1/2/2019 with new recipe (I bought the Laos mortal and pestle!) and pictures.

泰式菜酸辣开胃的特点很适合夏天的时候做了吃，前几天和妈妈出去买菜的时候看见了青木瓜就兴起做这道木瓜沙拉的想法。

传统的木瓜沙拉是要在石捣臼里把材料用木棒捣在一起的，我家里没有那么大的石捣臼，就直接凉拌了，味道也很不错喔！

（注：我后来有了泰国辽国的捣臼，所以食谱更新时用了捣臼做的。）

原食谱于2012年7月10日编写，2019年1月2日更新。

【印式杏仁牛奶】Almond Milk （Badam Milk)

这款杏仁牛奶冷饮热饮都很好喝，香浓甜美，是素食者的好选择。小朋友也很喜欢噢！

I like Badam milk,  and used to have it when I was in India.

It was more than 100 F here in NJ for the past few days, I decided to make the cold badam milk to cool it off !

Green Chickpea （Hara Channa)

Green Chickpea is the raw chickpea (Channa/Chole) in pods, it is easier to prepare compared to the dried version and very nutritious!

Being in NJ means we got choices of very nice and fresh Indian food ingredients, which of course includes this beautiful and delicious raw/green chickpeas!

Aiyu Jelly 【爱玉冰】

I went to Taiwan with my parents en route USA, it was fun and we had lots of great food there...

One of the street food that I really enjoyed was this Aiyu jelly. I liked it so much that I decided to buy some Aiyu seeds to make this home. 

Apparently it is very easy to make, and it requires no cooking at all!

这次回乡的时候和父母去了一趟台湾玩，好久没和父母一起旅行，虽然因为孕吐胃口还是不好，没能尝试很多台湾美食， 但是旅程还是很尽兴的。

爱玉冰是少数我在台湾的时候能吃，也爱吃的小点，因为好奇也因为很喜欢，就买了些爱玉子回来自己做。原来做爱玉冰真的完全不用起炊，是个简单健康又好吃的冰点喔！

【自制红曲米酒和红糟】Home-Made Chinese Red Yeast Rice Wine and Vinesse （Foo Chow Ang Jiu & Ang Chow)

我阿嬷在生的时候每每家里有媳妇孙子要生孩子的时候，她都会亲手酿制米酒给子孙做月子，老人家每次都会多酿好几瓶给我妈，就因为知道我爱吃姜酒鸡。我阿姨那天才调侃我说，我妈坐月子的时候，一吃饭我就爱挨着妈妈讨鸡肉块吃。

现在阿嬷不在了，再也没有人给我酿米酒啦！我阿嬷不识字，食谱都是用记的，每次材料都让我妈帮忙买，所以我就打电话问妈妈材料，再根据网上的资料，生平第一次酿了红米酒。

妈妈在电话里很遗憾地说，你阿嬷在生的时候你不生孩子，不然，她都可以酿给你做月子呢！说完我们两个就沉默了。

三年半前我怀着俊宝大约六个月的时候，我就开始自己酿制红麴米酒，给自己的月子做准备。当时分几次酿制了十瓶的酒和好多的红糟。红糟我送了不少给朋友们，酒月子里只吃了几瓶，剩下的越来越醇厚，酒味越来越浓，做菜比买来的料酒香很多，非常棒！

Grandma used to make this homemade rice wine for anyone who is due for baby in the family, it is an essential for the lady's confinement we used it in every dish we cooked for the mother within 30 days after the baby is born, this period is called confinement period.

Grandma also made sure to make a few more bottles of this wine for my house, my brothers and I are big fan of Rice wine chicken.

My aunt was teasing me the other day that she remembers me asking for mum's confinement foods when mom gave birth to my youngest brother....

Now that grandma is no more. I just feel that this increasingly disappearing tradition should be remembered and recorded.

Nagaimo/Chinese Yam with Mulberry Jam Dessert

I made some mulberry jam a few days ago, and mum thought of the dessert she had in Shanghai before.

It was made with Dioscorea opposita (nagaimo, Chinese yam, Korean yam) and some fruit jam, she liked it very much as it was very nice and crunchy.

Coincidently the same day when we shop for our grocery at the local supermarket, we saw that the workers were busy displaying the fresh nagaimo/Chinese yam! We immediately bought two to try out this recipe!