How long have we been in self-isolation?

Do I look like I am raiding Walmart?

I am tired with documenting my food during this covid-19 induced self-isolation period. In fact, I am tired of cooking and eating my own cooking. So I have had take out sushi, pizzas and Big Macs.

That big fat red bags of noodles! Lifesaver for those times I need comfort food.

But I still cook majority of my meals, and still need groceries to do that. On my 2nd shopping attempt at Walmart, my favorite Jasmine rice and Korean noodles are back in stock, Phew! I got enough to live for 3 months at least! 🙂

Fresh Asian noodles with Siew Mai and fresh vegetables.

Where we live, the nearest Home Depot and Walmart is in Poulsbo, a 30miles, 45 minutes drive. Naturally, we must have many things to buy before I am motivated enough to make that trip. Usually we do this shopping once every 2 weeks, but now I am just happy to drive out for the fresh air and beautiful sight of the Olympic mountains…. Besides, traffic is about 1/3 of what it used to be, making it so much more enjoyable.

Very spicy Nongshim noodles with frozen seafood and fresh vegs

On this trip, I stopped at Central Market again and got specialty Asian fresh pack noodles. With that I had a week of noodle soup, fried noodles, noodles almost every meal…. in addition to the Nongshim instant noodle I got from Walmart. Yes, I eat lots of carbs, its probably unhealthy. But I add lots of fresh vegetable to the pot, in hope that I redeem myself a little bit.

Tiny home sprouting jar.

Anyway, I decided to write less about food and more about the home improvement projects during this time when we are more home bound than ever.

Day 4 and ready for use

We can always buy lots of meat and seafood when they are on super sale, but vegs we can never buy enough and keep them well. For times like this, sprouting and growing our own food is one way to get fresh vegs without going to the store. Sprouting is easy and everyone in a tiny home can do it.

Catnip….

This is my sprouting jar. I like it that it is glass and has a acrylic lid with silicon ring, such that its completely see-thru. The idea is to keep the sprouts dry and moisture in. Too wet the sprouts rot, too dry it wilts. So it has to be balanced. It takes practice to grow fat yummy sprouts like these.

33G drums for new planter boxes.

Now is the time to start the new growing season. My 1st 3 planter boxes are full with exotic garlic, onions, kale and broccoli. I need more planter boxes for peas, beans, cucumbers, cilantro, lettuce, spinach ….. tomatoes…. corn! Yep, ambitious plan for this growing year. This may be the 1st year that I will actually be home throughout the season. Every year, since I started the garden in 2017, I have been away in NY or Sg. I had to rely on my apprentice Doug and tenant Toby to take care of the garden….. So far, the best produce is when I can personally care for my garden.

Kinda used the cutoff piece as a lid for greenhouse effect.

Anyway, on the subject of more planter boxes. I got these 33G white plastic containers from a car wash in exchange of funds for a charitable cause. Doug cut it up and power washed them. I make no claims whether it is safe for planting veg crops or not, but I am going to do so.

Peekaboo on the catnip

It is still early in spring, too cold in the night for most veg seeds to sprout outdoors. I start some seeds indoor around late March, but I am limited by the tininess of my tiny cabin. As soon as I can, I will move some starts outdoors. Like the catnip shown here. They are hardy to cold, but germinate well only in warmer surrounding.

Some days it too windy for the delicate starts and nights are still too chilly, so I place the cutoff section back on the container to create a kinda greenhouse for the catnip. The hole is just perfect for ventilation and for me to peek at them.

Well, I think that with the help of the 2 tenants and Doug and me …. all of us bound on this property during this time, my property will look fabulous and produce a great variety of nutritious veg.

Living in isolation is getting old….

Galley kitchen in our cabin

Now into the 2nd week of isolation due to covid-19…. although we kept ourselves busy, I am getting the itch to go out driving. Even just going to the grocery store is a welcomed diversion from staying home, but I limit myself to that activity to only once a week.

2nd weeks groceries

We must all do our part to stop the spread of virus and virtually encourage our friends and neighbors to do the same. There will always be some inconsiderate ones among us, but so long as we stay ourselves in isolation, we will be fine…. or so I hope.

Soupy rice, Vienna sausages and Japanese pickled radish.

Difficult as it is already for 2 weeks of isolation, the State of Washington just extended this to 6 weeks. Yay! For me, I am happy to not go back to Seattle traffic.. but this is not good news and not something to cheer about.

Day 6 of isolation dinner. It was breakfast with a stirfry beef and veggies. 

Knuckle down and keep on counting those blessings.

Oh I had a snack…. Brie on bread… sorry about the bite off.

In our tiny home (aka cabin), we live in it and cook in it. Its not one of those showroom units that look beautiful, is constantly cleaned and never used. We have lots of grease splatter on the wall and the counter. It is unsightly, but it smells like home. Yes, we only have a 1 burner camp stove, a small RV type fridge, lots of open pantry storage spaces and a freezer outside the cabin. Since, this is a 196 sqft cabin in a 45,000 sqft (1 acre) lot, there’s lots of room out there to put in a huge kitchen, and huge fridge, huge house for that matter… but we are not so into huge anything these days.

Day 7. Spam and egg sandwich breakfast.

Given our space constraints, I tend to cook a 1 pot meal. As we have a electric rice cooker, rice is not part of the 1 pot. Certainly not all our meals are 1 pot, like spaghetti is cooked 1st then set aside to cook the sauce.

Day 8 Breakfast. Fried rice with spam, celery and egg

We do get tired of cooking every meal, so we dont. Doug eats lots of nuts for mid day sustenance and I snack on cheese and bread or corn chips and salsa, or corn flakes and milk… Sure its nice to have less to wash in our 1 small sink kitchen. But hey, we are ocean crossing cruising people, we can handle this.

Day 8 Dinner, exactly same as Day 7…

Opps, I missed Day 7 dinner picture, but it was rice and beef and vegs. Nothing exciting. Each time I cook a pot of rice, there will be leftover for a fried rice next day.

Day 9 Breakfast. Fried rice again.

And it seems I am happy to eat the same food 2 days and nights in a row. Very little variation.

Day 9 Dinner, Enhanced instant noodle.

Since starting this recording of my meals… sometimes Doug does his own things, I am seeing some pattern to my food choices. Like how often do I reach for that can of Viennas or Spam or those packaged noodles. Do I eat that much junk …? Doug’s opinion is that I eat junk more than real food…. of course I disagree.. 😉

Day 10 Breakfast. Same old.

And I must say, instant noodle is really not instant for me. I start water boiling with garbanzo beans and my favorite Asian spices. Takes about an hour for the beans to soften just right for me. Meanwhile, I might add slices of cabbage, carrots or other greens. Depending on what ingredients I have, I usually add it to the pot at the right cooking time for those ingredients. Nothing gets overcooked in my noodles. I put so much care in cooking noodles that I might even argue that it is in fact nutritious… 😉

Day at the store….

And while most people argue about good or bad foods, I believe in everything in moderation.

Day 10 Dinner. A fabulous Sockeye salmon meal .

On the day at the store, I couldnt resist a maki for lunch…. not counted, so I say to Doug…

Day 11 Dinner. Night of I want fried food.

And for dinner, Sockeye salmon skin and filet and rice. I love the skin which I fried till crispy. Doug gets only the filet meat, but he loves a good Sockeye when I cook it. So he is not complaining that I had to go to the store.

And then another fried rice.

Sometimes, after a long day at work, I find myself hungry and wanna eat something fast, easy and greasy. Thats why I always keep a box of Van deKamps battered fish filet. Raiding the freezer and found more frying friendly foods… like Siew Mai and crabsticks… who woulda thot. Ok, I admit, that dinner was nothing but junk.

Day 12 Dinner.

Another fried rice to start the day. This one tho is special. Its my Ah Ma’s recipe ginger fried rice. Its vegetarian, but I added Spam for protein.

Finally something different for dinner. Steak, mash potato and homemade gravy. After a productive and very tiring weekend, thats what I felt like having. …

Another week in isolation passed. Another is coming up….

 

 

5 isolated days

1st grocery run.

In reality, its not isolation…. its only social distancing. So I went to the store and got groceries. Doug refused to go for fear of getting the covid-19 …. but if I got it, so will he eventually, right? But he wants to eat just as much as I do too. Anyway, he like the stuff I brought back….

Got this from Walmart

Alright, the story goes, I called the Asian market in Silverdale and Central Market in Poulsbo to ask if they had rice. Asian market is out, CM had 2lb bags of Hom Mali Jasmine (my favorite type) and limited to 2 per shopper, and they are probably very expensive…. never good value to buy such small quantity. Then I checked Safeway online, and it is listed that they had Mathama 5lb long grain in Port Townsend, and among other things, 15 grains bread (for Doug) and white bread (mine!) is back in stock. I was skeptical, nevertheless I rushed to store….

Day 2 Dinner. Elbows in minced beef and vegetable stock

Its only 3 miles to the store and hardly any traffic. Usually I have to wait 5 minutes to turn out on the highway, but today, nothing. I zipped into the store, zoomed to the rice aisle….. and no! There was no Mathama 5lb long grain! But surprise oh surprise, they had the Golden Star 5lb Jasmine rice! This brand was definitely one of the better rice I ever bought in the US. I could not believe that Safeway had this rice and there were 10 bags or so on the shelf! Until I read the price tag…. Mathama 5lb long grain $6.29 vs Golden Star $9.49. Price per pound, GS at Safeway is 2 times more expensive than Walmart, but I did not care, I grabbed the 2 bags that I was allowed to. Even if long grain was on the shelf, I would have gotten the jasmine rice! I am not one that cheap out on rice. And really, these 2 bags (10lbs) would last us 3 months, by then we hope that the virus situation is under control and supermarket stocks goes back to normal levels.

Day 3 Dinner.

Fortunately bread is back (was out 2 of my previous store trips), eggs are still available tho the shelves are not full as it used to be. Lots of meat and pork are on firesale! 1/2 price on most pork meat, but I want beef, so I got a good steak. Ice cream are on firesale too! 99c per large tub! Thats 1/4 of the usual price! Could not help but got 2 of those.

Day 4 breakfast

Now that we will be eating our own cooking 95% of the time, we have to ration out the rice so that it can last 3 months. Breakfast on day 2 was IndoMee Instant noodle. Got 10 packets of this from Walmart last week. It was 1 of those things that got left behind because it was 3 times more expensive than the US favorite Marushins. Again, I would not buy Marushins unless I was starved for days.

Day 2 dinner, macroni in home brewed mince beef and vegetable stock. Good and nutritious. Cooked a big pot and was next days breakfast as well. I do that a lot, eat leftovers next day. I will not keep a meal over 2 days, but Doug will …. any meal in the fridge that was not yesterday’s, it will be up to Doug to devour. We throw out little, but whenever we do, its Doug’s fault 😉

Day 5 breakfast.

I just had to splurge on the rice after 1 day of rice abstinence. For day 3 dinner, I made a stir fry using a almost expired package of sausage meat with fresh cabbage and french beans, both sliced in my signature style. To celebrate the purchase of new rice in this impossible times, I added a century egg on the side. 🙂 And then for day 4 breakfast, I made another stir fry using the last bits of liverwurst in a package with fresh cabbage and french beans. Yes I could eat rice and stir fry everyday, not something that Doug or my neighbors can understand.

Day 5 Dinner

For quite some time now, Doug and I, we skip lunches. We both agree that lunch time is best used on work, less dishes to wash and less calories to lose. For those meals that I did not post a picture, I may have eaten a leftover or it was simply 2 bread slices with marmalade on it. Nothing to write home about. But for day 4 dinner, I cooked the steak and forgot to take a picture, sigh. BTW, cats enjoyed their steak tartare.

On day 5, I decided on a Singaporean breakfast treat, fried rice vermicelli with refried beef steak fatty pieces and my usual vegetables. The sunny side up egg is fried in plenty of very hot oil so that the whites are crispy on the edges and the yolk is still runny. And finally, I write up this post after a fabulous meal of experimental cooking. I used a can of minced clams, the remnants of Rahgu marinara sauce, slices of pepperjack cheese which I buy in 2lbs block, over Barilla fat round spaghetti. As Doug says, my spaghetti is cooked to perfection… as always, but he preferred my Ah-Ma’s recipe sardines and tomato sauce better. Yes, I think so too, but we are out of Ayam brand tuna which I bring with me from Singapore. I have tried, but no American canned sardines come close to tasting that good. Anyway, I like the minced clams spaghetti sauce just fine. The cheese added a lot of good flavor.

The isolation saga continues…. and I am not in any way put out by it…

Self isolation in Port Townsend WA

Workshop loft re purposed for my home office

I am a veteran of Working From Home and Working On the Road. Armed with my 1st company issued laptop in 2001 and mobile phone, it was my job to travel regionally around Singapore to create IC design software application for my customers. At that time, there was no mobile broadband and wifi was in its early days. During the SARS outbreak of 2003, all travel was cancelled and I worked from home comfortably. I always rather work from home than to go to the office. Think of all that time I did not waste on travelling, $$$ saved on parking….

Vertical vinyl siding on the workshop

Having moved to the Port Townsend in 2014, we bought this forested land in beautiful Port Townsend. We’ve built a tiny cabin of 196 sqft before the 1st winter and improved it little by little. We’ve got water, electric and septic in by the 2nd year. Over the years, we’ve made it really comfortable, but it is still 196 sqft…. Fortunately we added a tiny workshop building in 2018…. also 196 sqft + 72 sqft loft. We house tools, weather sensitive building materials and 3 workshop cats in it.

During this mandatory WFH period, the “guest loft” in the workshop is now my office. I had to get a big screen from the office as my work was about controlling the graphics on 3 screens. The screens dont fit the tiny table in the tiny loft in the tiny workshop, but I am making it work.

Using a hand pull saw instead of my brand new mitre saw. Need the exercise, makes me feel zen about things. 

The best part of WFH, for me, is that I get to work on the siding instead of driving in Seattle traffic. Hooray for making great progress on my workshop and for not contributing to the carbon issue.

Breakfast on Day 1 of Stay Home order.

This covid19 crisis has made people gone mad. The shelves were empty. We shall live on what we have stocked in this little cabin in the woods. It is surprising that we have enough toilet paper and kitchen towel for 6 months at least, enough pasta, grains and canned food that we will eat well for 3 months. Our medium size freezer is not too well stocked in American standards, but frozen food is not in short supply here. On our weekly grocery trip, we were always able to get lots of meat, dairy, fresh veggies and fruits. The frozen section is filled to the top! Lots of frozen meat, seafoods and ice cream available. Beers and hard beverages shelves are full. Nobody will ever go hungry, and never dry out too. Only thing is, bread, eggs and paper products (not that we need any) were always out.

Day 1 Dinner

Finally the order is out, we must do our part, stay home and stop the spread. So here I am, documenting my every meal, activity and people that I meet during this period. When this crisis is over, we may look back and reflect on the changes or sacrifices that we made.

Day 1 Breakfast, fried rice with Safeway Hot Italian sausage meat package, french beans and egg. I find that we like to flavor our fried rice with cumin and turmeric powder, and the usual condiments.

Day 1 Dinner, stir fry “Home Roasted Pork”, sliced cabbage and celery over rice makes this a complete and nutritious meal.

Want more Singapore food!

Goodie from SG day.

In upstate NY, you just have to cook it yourself … or if you are lucky, there are just over 500 Singaporean here who might be a neighbor 🙂

But ok, so I am 1 of those who can cook, just need a little motivation sometimes. This Singapore proud packaged noodle that I got in a goodie bag from Singapore Family day is a inspiration …. I guess…

We all know that what you see on the packaging is not what you gonna get. There will not be prawns, sliced fish cakes, sprouts .. etc. But the way I make it, I will get more than what is on the packaging 🙂 … and it says ready in 7 mins… yeah right..

Isnt that better than what was on the packaging?

Start a pot boiling, add dried shrimp and slivers of dried abalone, sliced garlic and onions. Let it boil at low heat for 1 hr, while I prepare the other ingredients… like peeling shells off real prawns and slicing the best fishballs  (in place of fish cakes) that I can get at the local Asian market.

To make it more nutritional, I slice up carrots, mushrooms and French beans.

After an hour of boiling the stock… maybe 2 hrs … I was tending my virtual city so lost track of time… add carrots, shrimps and fishballs to the pot. Open the package, follow the instructions on the back. From this point, it will take only 7 mins to complete the cooking. Add mushrooms and French beans only 1 minute before turning off heat.

The verdict, the stock was fabulous. Really do taste like Laksa from back home in SG. The noodles are good, I like the texture, it goes well with the stock… but real SG Laksa will be thick bee hoon noodle, not wholegrain wheat LaMian. Overall, it was good and easy… and it was my choice to take all that time to make it better. Yeah, I will pay US$3 for that package noodle again when I have the next Laksa craving attack. 🙂

 

Is it time for my favorite food yet?

The cruising life takes me far away from home and my favorite foods. Surely I can find Chinese take outs, Japanese foods and Asian stores for ingredients in US and Canada. Right, but they dont taste the same and dont carry a large selection of condiments or instant noodles like they do in NTUC back home.

Nasi Lemak that I cook.

With my regular once 1 year trip back home, stocking my travel bags full of my special foods and condiments is the most important on my shopping list. Of course I am limited to what the customs would allow, but 40kg worth of luggage space filled with groceries goes a long way 🙂 … yep, I dont transfer clothing between my 2 home base, just food.

Ayam brand Chili and Curry tuna

One of my favorite breakfast is Nasi Lemak. The traditional ones are anchovies, chili paste and rice wrapped in banana leaves. Well, banana leaves are difficult to bring and keep fresh, but the fried anchovies and chili paste are packaged for international travel. Canned coconut milk are easily available at all grocery stores, so is jasmine rice… I personally prefer Walmart for Asian foods than Safeway, but for all fresh ingredients, Safeway is much better.

Another of my favorite is the canned Ayam Chili and Doug likes the Curry Tuna. Nothing like these over here… the Thai brands dont come close. These goes well with soupy rice and a stir fry veggie for a easy prep healthy meal.

And not to forget the Myojo Tom Yam noodles! Mee hoon Soto! Char Mee! …. So looking forward to getting the real thing in my tummy. … and I fly in 12hrs from now 🙂

Wantons or Fries?

Making fried wantons.

Just before moving to the US, I thot about the local foods that I would crave… there are many that I would miss, but 1 that I shouldn’t is the fried wantons… becos I can get the skins and make it almost just as well in the US. I have done it before, so I know that it is almost ok, but never as good becos the skins are different, even tho all the condiments for marinate is the same.

Little pockets of flavors.

Maybe I should just eat fries instead. .. so available everywhere. Both are finger foods, fried and greasy. … but making wantons and sharing the real thing with my new neighbors are just so much more satisfying. 1st of all, fake wantons are common and somewhat popular in the US. … and someone must educate the American taste buds that those are not real Asian flavors.

Frying wantons on my induction stove using a soup pan.

Oh, did I mention that I come from a long line of Asian cooks (not chefs, just cooks)… I started making my 1st wanton under the tutelage of Ah Ma when I was 7.. so I must know a thing or 2 about wantons right.

Nice golden color. Looks crispy.

So I did a batch in the weekend before leaving. sigh… is that the last of my really good homemade wantons…?

Revisiting Marina Bay Sands

That’s where we had lunch. I like the airy feel.

Last time I was at MBS was in 2010, a Christmas morning walk with Doug. Then, MBS and surrounding area was so new and we chose a time that most people are still in bed to do our walk. It was really pleasant walk and the architecture was really interesting to my eyes.

Love the mother of pearl mosaic table top.

Now, 4 of us gals from work are looking for a place to go hang out. We wanted buffet lunch where we can overfeed ourselves, and then it should be a interesting place that we could all enjoy walking it off. Well, maybe its the buy 3 get 1 free offer from a credit card, we decided on the buffet lunch at Rise in MBS hotel lobby 1.

Starters…

We were kinda celebrating the “completion” of a major project…. kinda, because on hindsight the project was not yet complete on our day out… but we all needed a break, to do something different other than hanging out at office.

The Jap plate.

And now! Lets talk about the food! I love the cheese and olives variety. I think I will come back to this buffet just on the spread of cheese, olives and salad bar. The lamb rack was my favorite meat on this plate, the others are so-so lah. 🙂

My favorite meat of the meal!

I made up a beautiful plate of Japanese… scallops, octopi, tuna, salmon… I think the selection of Japanese meats is quite disappointing actually, and the quality of the meats taste frozen… not as tasty as going to Ichiban or any chain restaurant. .. but then, my expectation on Japanese food is much higher than most cos I have been exposed to real Japanese cuisine in Japan, where I stayed for months on end.

The giant wash basin …

At least these whelks made up for the disappointing Jap foods. Surprisingly, these were really tasty and seemed fresh! … but I think it was frozen and shipped, but I know that the thawing and steaming made all the difference. Got to do them just right, to retain the natural light sweetness, chewiness and texture. I tried buying these frozen whelks back in the US on 2 occasions. The 1st time, it got to tough and lost its tastiness. 2nd time round I got it almost right… and these were absolutely delicious.

Pose everybody!

There you have it, we could learn the art of sculling here in the malls…

All right, then there were the usual deserts… which is good too, but not something that I can really appreciate… that’s just me… deserts are not really my thing..

Next, walking off the full tummy… by now its really starting to feel uncomfortable… and while I don’t like admitting it, I threw it all out within the hour. … thank goodness for this great wash basin 😛 … nah… just kidding… but I did expel all that calories, into the proper channel.

Parting shot. From the long escalator up to the skywalk.

There is a little Venice in the mall… guy in the back was sculling really well, I am impressed…but the boat is strangely painted in the Singapore river theme. … my opinion? I have a identity crisis… this is not like Venice, and sculling in the Singapore river was never our heritage… is this what you call fusion? I don’t think it mix well.

Us at MBS, plus another on the back end of the camera.

I call this the fake forest park, and the fake tree top restaurant.

Okay, so its time to go. Finding our way to the car, parked at Gardens by the Bay… cos its cheaper to park there and easier to find parking too. Anyway, it offers a view of the mall that I never saw. I like the roof, simple and looks amazing from this angle.

And a picture moment with the landmark. A really interesting angle. Wonder why I never thought of composing a picture like that myself.

Finally walking into the fake forest… hazy day, yes the PSI was quite high, unfortunately. .. otherwise we would have gone to the sky park … well, that’s a great reason to come back to MBS again.. 🙂

Visiting the Locks

Sneak view of the Ballard Locks… The locks are still operating, but the gardens is not.

Unfortunately we got to PNW just after the right season (summer to early fall) for visiting the Locks. .. and besides that, we were there on the day that the Locks’ park was closed due to federal workers furlough… Of course we didn’t know ahead of time… and so too many people who were there. Well, this is the only picture that I could get of the locks.

This colourful hut attracted us to find out what it is.

So what do we do after driving for 30 mins from Federal Way to Ballards and walking another 20 mins from the free parking area to the Locks? Well, time for lunch eh.. 🙂

At 1st, we were looking for fish and chips. .. We think there must be a great fish and chip wherever there is a fishing port, and this is it right… But we didn’t want to eat in just any restaurant and pay exorbitant prices for a simple street food. … Then we stumble upon this colourful building. We decided to check it out… and what a pleasant surprise.

Inside the Totem Mill house. The plastic chairs seem out of place.

I dunno what this is, but I will call it a Indian hut. Love the Totem pole, made the building stand out from its surroundings. … and in it is a boutique burger diner. Best fishwich we ever had! And I like my bacon and beef burger too! At least something, so our day at the Ballard Locks wasn’t all wasted.

My very good bacon burger…

Plus we stopped by at the Ballard Smoke shop looking for a friend of Erja’s, but she works the night shift on weekends. So we got a drink and was soon gone back for a afternoon nap. Short exploration day.

Settling into life in PNW…

We are expecting Calliste to arrive in about 3 weeks, so in the meantime, we’ll make ourselves comfy around our temporary dwelling.

As I mentioned in the last post, we are staying at ESA Federal Way. This turned out well. We enjoyed having a kitchenette, the view was great, enjoyed the very nice 42″ flat screen TV and cable TV…. and the best part is, walkable distance to my temporary office… 25 mins in nice cool weather 🙂 … but who am I kidding… I drive to work everyday… so that I can drive back to the room for lunch 🙂

Only occasionally do we eat out. .. For lunch, I very much prefer to be back in the room eating leftovers or even cooking up a “out of this world” instant noodles 🙂 … and then watch some TV while eating. To me, this is more nutritional, cheaper and enjoyable than a quick meal at some loud lunch corner… unless its with some colleagues and we are bouncing ideas or gossiping 🙂

The beginning of a clam chowder in our little kitchenette.

So where do I get ingredients and spices for my kind of cooking? Mostly Ranch 99! They have a amazing selection of fresh vegs, meat and seafood for very reasonable price. … and even frozen “Dodo” fishballs from Singapore! All ingredients for Chinese cooking is available and a great selection of instant noodle from every noodle eating Asian country! They don’t sell any of the cheap American junk noodle… if that’s what you were looking for… 😛

My Kway Tiao … cooked in our little kitchenette with ingredients from Ranch 99.

Being here at PNW, seafood is abundantly available … but we like to get ours at the supermarkets 🙂 … maybe next time we’ll get the fishing license. .. but really… do we want to mess with fish flopping on deck? Fighting crabs with raised claws? …

Quite unbelievable to me, fresh “hor fun” (rice flour noodle) is available at Ranch 99! Its well made, really like back in Asian… Check out my soy sauce fried hor fun. Its not as good as Char Kway Tiao back home, but its just me that I dun use enuf oil and heat in frying. … well, its the healthy version… passable to my own taste. With practice it should get better..