homemade.

Home sweet home. I've taken a slight hiatus from Manhattan since the semester ended. In my spare time (ah, busy days filled with 1000 piece puzzles and Heroes), I get around to cooking and baking some goodies. It's nice to have a full service kitchen with actual ingredients and equipment to work with.

Hot dog, Kathy style

Penne with Veggies & Curry Sauce

Frittata with Mushrooms, Onions, Green Beans, & Mozzarella

Curry Chicken with Potatoes & Carrots

Ground Pork with Chives & Red Bell Peppers

Veggies sauteed with Garlic and Peppers

Derrick & Paige's Bday BrowniesPeanut Butter CookiesChocolate Covered Strawberries

Banana Nut Muffins

Yummy yummy =)

THE 5 second rule.

The 5 second rule. We've all heard of this golden rule since childhood. But, in case you haven't, picture the following scenario: you are absolutely famished, so hungry that durian is starting to look yummy. You make your absolute favorite dish ever, (and i mean, ever) but alas, you're a clumsy idiot and it falls on the floor right as you're about to take a bite. What do you do?

Thankfully, your friends told you about the 5 second rule: food that has fallen on the floor is safe for ingestion if and only if it is picked up within 5 seconds of being dropped.

I'm sure that at some time in our lives, we've all lost sleep, sanity, and (possibly a healthy stomach) over the validity of the rule. In a recent article in the NYTimes, researchers at Clemson University put the age-old rule to the test. And its findings? Well, if you're a brave trooper, often if food is picked up within the allotted period, it is relatively safe for ingestion; Bacteria still attaches to the food, but it isn't enough to make you sick. So the question then arises, can we still follow the 5 second rule?

"Of course we can never know for sure how many harmful microbes there are on any surface. But we know enough now to formulate the five-second rule, version 2.0: If you drop a piece of food, pick it up quickly, take five seconds to recall that just a few bacteria can make you sick, then take a few more to think about where you dropped it and whether or not it’s worth eating."

late night fun.

Eric: great Kathy
Eric: just great
Eric: you’re a jerk
Eric: i’m tired and i can’t sleep cause i have my head full of thoughts
Eric: and then i read your blog
Eric: so now i’m
Eric: tired and i can’t sleep AND hungry
Eric: GREATTT

Silly Eric, Trix are for kids.

AHM potluck!

Yummy yummy.

This past weekend we had an AHM Rooftop Potluck pahtay at Tiff/Lily/Serena's apartment. Though I was cradling a slight hangover, it was oodles of fun and the food was deeeelicious! I love AHM because our e-board is always cool and supah ka-wa-iiii. We actually like each other and everyone is fun to hang out with, outside of club activities =P Hard to imagine, but yes, we do have lives outside of AHM.

After a delicious lunch of baked ziti, chicken, a bunch of junk food, and more, we played an intense game of Cranium! I've actually never played before. You guys gotta give me a little credit for the "quadruple bypass." Haha. We rock.

Couple some beautiful weather with some slightly hung over kids (well, at least two of us), it was a good time with great people.

benihana.

Though group projects have been quite a bugger this year, my FSA group took a trip to Benihana, the company we're researching, for some "due diligence."

I've never really been a fan of Benihana, and this trip did not change my opinion. To start with service, it was below par at this branch. There weren't enough staff on duty, with our waitress often leaving mid-sentence to attend to other customers, and the chef was uncharasmatic, under-wowing, and quite awkward. It is really loud in the restaurant, because of the many birthday celebrations and drunk corporate folk, and therefore hard to have a pleasant conversation.

And the food. Oye the food - so mediocre and overpriced. The premium for the "theatrics" wasn't even justified as our chef did his mandatory two tricks and moved on. The "Japanese" meat is just flavored with "Japanese" soy sauce and "Japanese" salt/pepper (our chef kept saying that for some reason). Throw in some grilled veggies here and there (also flavored with the Japanese soy sauce) and you've got a $40 dollar dent in your wallet.

pommes frites.

One of my top guilty pleasures of all time are fries. The delicious, crisp, greesy, and starchy goodness always tickles my tongue in the most delectable of ways. Add some sauces to the mix and you've got quite a fulfilling, artery-clogging snack.

One of the better and relatively inexpensive Belgium fry places I've been to is Pommes Frites. Now, I've only been there once, to save my health and heart, and it was quite a while ago. But, if things haven't changed in the past year, this is a perfect place to indulge in a late night food rampage or after a drunken adventure on Saint Marks. The fries are fried to perfection, with a balance of a solid crunch and a meaty potato wedge (I like my fries thick). And, the best part is, the wide variety of sauces they offer! Ketchup, mustard, onion, tabasco, malt vinegar, and jalapeno are free. The ones I tried were: Curry Ketchup, Sweet Mango Chutney Mayo, and I think the Especial and the Vietnamese Pineapple Mayo. I wasn't too fond of the curry ketchup because the texture was like tomato paste, but the others were really good.

Overall, a fun hole-in-the-wall place with great fries and sauces. Definitely worth a try!

dim sum.

More likely than not, if I'm going out for a relaxing Sunday brunch, you can find me in Chinatown (or Little Neck/Flushing if I'm back home) for some dim sum! Dim Sum (a.k.a. yum cha) is best enjoyed in large groups, as you can order more dishes and taste more variety (and not feel like a fatty, though I tend to order the same amount in small groups =P). In Hong Kong, there was an awesome tradition of 4AM dim sum, since there was nothing better to do around campus. Though I can't say I had amazing dim sum in Hong Kong, it was always accessable and delicious.

The greesy, oily goodness on the right is wu gok, made with a mashed taro and meat/mushroom filling and fried in a crispy batter. Obviously, with my love of carbs, I am drawn to all the bao's and gao's - carbbbbbssss ::droool:: Some of my other favorites include: shrimp dumplings (ha gao), pork dumplings (siu mai), shrimp rice noodle rolls (ha cheong), pork buns (cha siu bao), phoenix talons (fung zau), intestines (niu du), Chinese sponge cake (ma lai gao), glutinous rice in a lotus leaf (no mai gai), sweet milk buns (nai wong bao), and egg tarts (dan tat)! Ha, and that's just the start of what I order.

You have the freedom to try anything and everything you want (and practice your Cantonese skills...or lack thereof).

Mm goiii!!

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Oh yea. Before I forget.
So, who's cuisine reigns supreme??

Iron Chef John BF!

And luckily, Derrick took it well.