good eats: Hill Country Chicken - Flatiron neighborhood, NYC

Hill Country Chicken: 1123 Broadway (close to 25th Street), Manhattan
Cuisine type: Texas style fried chicken

Peter's cousin, Jordan, has came to visit us and New York City during this holiday week. He came into the city with me yesterday - he did the touristy things and I went to work. After work, we met up and I showed him a bit of midtown before we headed back home.

As we were in Flatiron neighborhood, I have wanted to grab dinner at Hill Country BBQ Market. When we got there, it was packed with people so there was no way we could eat there and still manage to catch 8:29pm train home. So we went to its sister restaurant - Hill Country Chicken instead. It is famous for its fried chicken. The chicken are sold as individual pieces - breast, thigh, drum, and wing. We ordered a couple pieces of thighs, two biscuits, and two sides.

The skin was crispy and flavorful. We also drizzled honey on the buttermilk biscuits. It was a good meal. We had our dinner paid for by taking the offpeak train home. But I will need to work out to burn off all that fat from the chicken!

favorite things - Coffee Break French

I took a few years of French back in high school. Unfortunately the only words I could remember are "bonjour", "merci", and "cafe au lait". After we have visited the charming Quebec City during the summer, I have determined to pick up the language again.

In the podcast section of iTune, I have discovered Coffee Break French offered by Radio Lingua Network. The program is free and each lesson is about 20-minute long which I can listen to when I take a walk. Coffee Break French has over 400+ lessons available on podcast.

In 2014, I am planning to clock in 10,000 steps a day. And perhaps after a year of walking and listening to Coffee Break French, I will be able to carry a simple conversation.

Joy of Coffee Break French!

2014 goals

2014 goals

• 10,000 steps a day
• buy just what we need
• buy just what we can eat - avoid throwing away food
• grow more vegetables and herbs
• save for Kyoto trip
• ride more bicycles

joy of fermenting string beans

my home made sour beans - day 2 of fermenting process

This summer I took a fermentation class offered by Common Ground Farm. From this class, I have learned how to preserve vegetables naturally and brew kombucha. The pickled string beans were sour but they were very good in Spicy Ground Pork with Sour String Beans (哨子江豆）which was one of our favorite Sichuan dish. You can find the recipe to cook this dish from Tiny Urban Kitchen.

To ferment string beans:

• two tablespoons of sea salt
• some Sichuan peppercorn (1 teaspoon or more)
• one or two hot chili
• a handful of string beans

1. Gently rinse the string beans. If the string beans are from your own garden, you can skip this washing step to preserve the good bacteria that reside on the beans.

2. Add the salt to a jar and add some water. Shake salt and water to dissolve salt.

3. Add Sichuan peppercorn, chili, and string beans to the jar.

4. Fill water to the top of jar and try to immerse the beans in water to minimize string beans exposure to air.

5. If you have airlock, cap the jar with it. If you don't have it, simply cover the jar with a layer of paper towel and tighten it with a rubber band.

6. Let the jar sit in room temperature for about two weeks.

7. After two weeks, open up the jar and taste for the beans. If they are sour, they are ready. If there is a layer of white furry stuff on top, simply just remove the layer from the jar and the rest of beans are edible. (This is the scary part but I was taught in the class that it was perfectly fine to eat the beans. I have eaten a few times homemade pickled beans and so far we are still doing well.) If the beans are not yet sour, let them ferment for a bit longer.

8. After the fermentation is completed, you can cap the jar and store the jar in cooler space (basement or garage) until you are ready to cook it.

2013 Blessings

Year 2013 started out very rough for me.

I had an illness that was making me extremely miserable night and day. The doctors did not know how to treat but could only give me steroids to keep the condition somewhat manageable. Work was filled with unpleasant politics that it took a lot of courage to just walk through that revolving door on Madison Ave.

But God has been faithful and He has helped me to get through each difficulty after another. He has provided me with brothers and sisters from our fellowship to pray for my recovery. He has provided me with wonderful neighbors that would cook for me and be there for us. He has taught me to trust in Him. He was always there with me throughout the year and provided countless blessings.

Year 2013 started out very rough but it is ending with a heart filled with appreciation for all the blessings that have been given in 2013.

Blessings of 2013:

• Recovery from idiopathic chronic urticaria and a caring allergist, Dr. Robert Lin, to treat my illness
• I was able to work from home twice a week
• Wonderful meals with our neighbors
• Friday nights fellowship
• Teaching Sunday School to wonderful children that sometimes talk non-stop but with hearts that are eager to learn and to love
• Two-week trip to Taiwan for medical treatment and to spend time with my parents and cousins
• A small patch of vegetable garden that did not produce much but will be promising for 2014
• Reconnecting with Margaret and John 
• Fresh vegetables from Obercreek CSA
• Bike rides in Burlington, Montreal and Quebec City in July
• Spending October with my parents in New York
• Visiting Italy with my parents
• Learning how to ferment food in Common Ground Farm
• Christmas eve with Peter's parents, cousin and LuLu in New York. 

the art of gifting

A few weeks ago, there was an article on NY Times about Chinese living in Beijing and Shanghai have started to move away from polluted cities in pursuit of clean air and blue sky. This article prompted me to think about how we in the U.S. have benefited from cheap "Made in China" goods. The Chinese have been producing all kinds of goods to satisfy Western appetite and have as a result increased its own wealth. However, this wealth came as a steep and irreversible price of polluting its land, air, and water.

After reading that article, I have made a resolution to consume less to minimize our impact to the environment. Basically, we will buy just what we need (not what we want). This may be quite difficult to carry out especially with these e-mail blasts of promotions and beautiful window displays but we will just need to constantly remind ourselves whether we really need something.

Christmas is a season to celebrate the birth of Jesus. But people often forget about the real reason of celebration and focus more on buying gifts. For some people, they buy things that they cannot afford which create additional stress. On the receiving end, people may not always be pleased with what they have received. Over the years, we have been given a lot of stuff and to this day we still don't know what to do with them. There are clothes that are perfectly functional but just not my style. There are vitamins that we don't really eat. They now take up space at home and I get annoyed every time when I see them. To donate them or throwing them out, it inflicted a deep guilt as I know that others spend money in acquiring these items. So the best solution to this dilemma is to advising family members not to give them in the future. Instead of giving gifts, the best thing that we can give is our heart and our time.

So instead of buying your loved ones gifts, how about spending quality time with them? Cook something wonderful for them? Take a walk with them? These invisible gifts will last for many years in their memories!