Peachy Mango Delight

Crab Cakes

2008-09-10T20:32:00.026-05:00

I love seafood so crab cakes is one of my favorite dishes. I love the way they make it at the Great American Chain Restaurants and thought it was a difficult dish to make. However A's husband made this at a party earlier year and they were delicious, not that difficult either!

Ingredients:

Extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, finely minced
4 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 1/2 pounds jumbo lump crabmeat
1 1/2 cups fresh bread crumbs (I used ritz crackers instead)
2 tablespoons mayonnaise, plus more if needed
1 large egg white
1/2 lime, juiced
1/4 cup freshly chopped cilantro leaves, plus whole leaves, for garnish
salt
freshly cracked black pepper

You'll need to prepare the crabcakes first and put them in the fridge so they can firm up before you can fry them.

Heat olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook for 5 to 7 minutes, until the onion gets kind of caramelized. Dump that into a bowl and fold in the crabmeat, bread crumbs, mayonnaise, egg white, lime juice, and cilantro, mixing just until well blended. Season with salt and pepper. Shape the mixture into crab cakes, cover them up and then place them in the refrigerator to chill.

To serve, heat a olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the crab cakes and cook for about 4 minutes each side until nice and crisp.

Rice and Baby Clams (Com Hen)

2008-09-10T20:32:00.025-05:00

I believe rice and baby clams is a dish that originated from Central Vietnam (Hue), there are many variations of it that can be found. The dish created below is adapted from my friend's recipe.

Rice and Baby Clams

3 cans of baby clams (drained)
1 tablespoon of minced ginger
1 finely diced onion
2-3 tablespoons of fish sauce
2 finely diced cloves of garlic
1/4th cup of shredded carrots

Heat 1-2 tablespoons of oil on a pan and saute garlic, onions, and ginger. Once the mixture is slightly golden add carrots. Fry for another couple of minutes then add clams and fish sauce and season to taste.

I like to eat this dish in a hot pot so that the rice is crispy. I sprayed the pot with non stick cooking spray and heated it on the stove for a couple of minutes. I then added rice and a couple of teaspoons of oil around the rim to make the rice crispy and added the clam mixture on top. Once ready to serve, I added some crispy pork rinds. The sauce is a mixture of soy sauce and spicy sate sauce.

Cream Puffs

2008-09-10T20:32:00.024-05:00

Cream puffs are one of my favorite desserts, especially the ones with the custard filling. There's this lady that sells a box of 100 puffs for only $30 bucks! We used to ask friends and relatives coming down from Maryland to pick us up a box it seems to be such a hassle now. I found a recipe on the Joy of Baking (http://www.joyofbaking.com/CreamPuffs.html) and decided to give it a shot.

Her recipe is as follows:

Choux Pastry:

1/2 cup (70 grams) all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon granulated white sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) (57 grams) unsalted butter
1/2 cup (120 ml) water 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
Egg Wash Glaze: 1 large egg 1/8 teaspoon salt

Whipped Cream:

1 cup (240 ml) heavy whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon (14 grams) granulated white sugar

Garnish:

Powdered (Confectioners or icing) sugar

Instead of using the whipped cream above, I used her fruit tart pastry cream recipe (http://www.joyofbaking.com/FruitTart.html) and mixed it with some vanilla pudding! You can play around with the mixture to you get the right consistency.

Custard Recipe from Joy of Baking

Pastry Cream:

1 1/4 cups (300 ml) milk
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
3 large egg yolks
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated white sugar
1/8 cup (20 grams) all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons (20 grams) cornstarch (corn flour)
3/4 tablespoon (10 ml) liqueur (Grand Marnier, Brandy, Kirsch) (optional)

I used this Wilton Cookie Master Plus to make the Puffs:

On the subject of cream puffs, on a recent trip to NYC, I tried Beard Papas (http://www.muginohousa.com/) cream puffs for the first time. This place is a Japanese franchise that is known for the world's best cream puffs! No doubt they were good, they were pretty big in size too but they're only good if you consume them there. They make it fresh and fill the puff with the custard as you order. The puffs are thin and crisp and the custard filling is fluffy and not too sweet and you have a choice of the regular vanilla cream or green tea. For the puff, you have a choice of the regular puff or puffs with a captain crunch link mixture on it. I bought a box and ate them later and they weren't so good. I'm also not too fond of the green tea custard filling.

Beard Papa's:

2167 Broadway
New York, NY 10024
(212) 799-3770

Summer Recap

2008-09-10T20:32:00.002-05:00

The summer has come and gone so quick! The good news is I finally got a new camera so more food pics to come! Here's my new baby:

It was on sale at www.newegg.com for 175, with free shipping, a camera case, and 2 gig SD Card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16830120251

I've taken a few trips this summer so I'll be posting pictures from that and other pics i've found on my computer. Stay tuned!

Cracker Barrel

2008-06-27T08:20:00.003-05:00

My friend is always raving about how Cracker Barrel (http://www.crackerbarrel.com) has the BESTTTT breakfast and how she'd drive 20 miles for it. Finally, my friends and I went to a wedding in Richmond and were finally able to taste all that southern goodness! I learned that you should never to go at noon on a Sunday, the wait felt like forever. Good thing is that its also a store so you can shop around while you're waiting. The wait was worth it. I had the sour dough toast with over easy eggs in them and they were delish! Turns out that there are almost 600 Cracker Barrels in about 41 states. I have been totally missing out...

Back from a long hiatus

2008-06-26T07:20:00.009-05:00

WanderingChopsticks kindly reminded me that it's been almost half a year since I've posted. I didn't realize that it's been that long as I've been caught up with other things. After finishing up school in March, I thought I'd have time to cook and post more but boy was I wrong! Events keep popping up left and right! Since March, I've taken a cruise to the Bahamas, then wedding season started and is still going strong. I've gone to 3 weddings so far this year and still have about, 6 more to go to this year. On top of that, my camera broke :( so please let me know if there are any good deals out there for point and shoot cameras. I'll try to update more frequently, but here are some pictures to look at in the mean time.

C & K's Wedding - My friend got married at a beautiful restaurant called 2941 (picture below is from the restaurant website: http://www.2941.com/). The atmosphere was great and same as the view but unfortunately it was raining that day so we didn't get to go outside for pictures. Highlights of the meal were the hors d'oeuvres, which consisited of crab cakes and shrimp skewers. Least favorite was the steak because I got a very tough piece of steak. Others seemed to like their entree, so I think it coulda just been piece! Everything else was good, it was a joyous occassion and I was happy to be there so I can't complain :)

OOohhh here's another highlight of the meal! Yummiee cotton candy.

Restaurant Week DC!

2008-01-07T08:35:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the long hiatus! Two months certainly flies by fast. Towards the end of the year I was busy with finals and now I'm enjoying my winter break before I start my final semester of Grad School. Two classes are really going to kick my butt! But the reward is so much greater...being done by the end of March :) So what better way to end my winter break and start off 2008 then enjoying a nice Restaurant Week Meal or Meals hehe.

http://www.opentable.com/promo.aspx?m=9&ref=299&pid=68

I really enjoyed Colvin Run Taverns last year but they closed down, instead I'd recommend Kinkeads (same owner). Oya also has great food and wonderful decor.

Cooking Party

2007-10-11T06:53:00.002-05:00

On Sunday my friends and I finally gathered together for our first cooking party! It was great, we got a chance to catch up on old times, eat yummie food, and pick up a bunch of cooking tips to improve our culinary skills. *Sigh* and as usually there was ALOT of wedding talk (afterall 4 out of 9 of the girls there are getting married within a year). So anyway, I hosted the event this first time around and prepared a couple of appetizers: cheesy shrimp toast, Vietnamese style Fish Sauce Wings (yep you read it right!), and some shrimp rolls. I was so busy running around and the food was gone so fast that I didn't get to take any pictures. I'm going to delegate this task the next time around!

Here are a couple of shots of my nieces eating the Fish Sauce Wings from a family BBQ a couple of weeks ago.

Vietnamese Fish Sauce Wings

The wings dont take long to prep and should be marinated overnight to bring out the best flavor.
Here's what you'll need:

12 wings
1 tablespoons of Fish Sauce
1/2 teaspoon of Sugar

A package of wings and frog legs seasoning from the Asian Market (Spices for Chicken Wings Butter Fry)

Preparation:

Wash wings and season with the TOP portion of this package of seasoning, 1 tablespoon of fish sauce and 1/2 a teaspoon of sugar. Mix well and let it sit in the fridge overnight.
Prior to frying give the wings a good mix and then empty the contents of the 2nd portion of the seasoning on to the chicken and mix again.
I used large wings and fried them at 340 degrees in a deep fryer for about 15 minutes

So if you're wondering what's in the top portion of the seasoning...it says that it contains garlic powder, pepper, salt, pepper, MSG (i know i know...its not good for you) and butter cheese (not sure what this is...). Now that i've taken the time to actually read the contents, I don't think it'll be difficult to replicate and replace the MSG with regular sugar. The bottom portion of the seasoning is cornstarch.

So after everyone was fat and happy, it was time to put them to work :) We decided to make a new dish (Shrimp Rolls) together! I my aunt made this last month and it was delicious. I was convinced I'd be able to successfully recreate. I'd like to say we made a good attempt, it tasted very good but it just didn't look as pretty :) The next day, 2 of my friends tried the dish on the own and generously provided me with a picture to post (Thanks A!)

Crispy Shrimp Rolls
We did this on the fly so I didn't use precise measurements, but here is what you'll need:

1 1/2 pounds of shrimp (peeled, washed, and dried)
2 tablespoons of tapioca starch
4 tablespoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of pepper
1/2 teaspoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
1 onion (chopped in to about 1 inch pieces)
2 packages of special rice paper called "Banh Trang Re" (It looks like really thin vermicelli rice paper, I'll post a picture up soon!)

In the food processor, combine the shrimp, tapioca starch, olive oil, salt, pepper, sugar, garlic powder, and onion and process until you get a good paste. If you don't plan on dipping the final product in fish sauce you may want to add more salt and vice versa. (Tip: After processing, I spooned some mixture into a small bowl and put it in the microwave for 45 seconds to make sure the mixtured tasted how I wanted it to.)

Spoon 1 teaspoon of shrimp mixture onto the vermicelli rice paper, roll up, and fry. I fried on 320 degrees in the deep fryer for about 4-5 minutes.

Green Papaya

2007-10-05T06:55:00.000-05:00

School started up again and i've been inundated with homework and books to read so its hard to find time to experiement in the kitchen. Instead, i've taken that semi homemade route with a popular Vietnamese dish, Green Papaya Salad with Beef Jerky.

Ingredients:

1 papaya, shredded (some stores sell them shredded)
1 bag of beef jerky (Hong Ha brand is ok)
Basil (rau que)
Vietnamese Coriander (rau ram)
Soy Sauce
Water
Sugar
Red Vinegar
Red Chili Sauce (Sriracha)
Garlic

Preparation:

Mix shredded papaya with chopped basil and Vietnamese Coriander.
Cut beef jerky into small strips and put on top of the papaya mix in a nice plate.
For the sauce mix 1 portion of soy sauce, 1 portion of water, 1/2 portion of sugar, and 1/2 portion of red vinegar then add a couple slices of garlics and chili sauce to taste. If you like the sauce extra spice, cut a couple of red chilis and add to the sauce.

Cheesy Shrimp Toast

2007-10-04T07:01:00.000-05:00

For those of you who didn't catch Top Chef last night, Hung Huynh won and i knew he would! Technically he was the best chef on the show this season. I think Bravo has reruns on Thursday nights in case you wanna catch it again. (For a Vietnamese Immigrant's view on Hung's win, check out my friend Monkee's blog.)

If you're looking for something to eat while watching the rerun or any other show tonight, I've got a dish for you! Everyone always requests this dish at gatherings.

Here's what you'll need:

2 loaves of sliced french baguettes about a centimeter thick
1 pound peeled shrimp, cut into small pieces
2 cups of thinly shredded monterey jack and cheddar cheese (they come shredded together at the grocery store)
3 tablespoons of mayo
1 finely chopped scallion
1/2 teaspoon of salt Some pepper

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Peel and wash shrimp, then dry with a paper towel before chopping into small pieces
Mix Shrimp with, cheese, mayo, salt, and scallions
Spoon the shrimp mixture onto the bread Bake in the oven for about 10-12 minutes Prior to serving, you can sprinkle some ground pepper on the toast If you're making these for a party, they can be made a day ahead and stored in the fridge.

Senseo Coffee Pod System

2007-09-26T07:03:00.000-05:00

Yay!! I just received an email saying I qualify for a free Senseo Coffee Pod System! Well not totally free since I still have to pay $15 shipping and handling, but it's still a good deal!

Thank you for expressing interest in the Senseo® Coffee Pod System. Congratulations! You are eligible to receive a FREE Senseo® Coffee Pod System through the Share Senseo® promotion. This promotion provides an exclusive Share Senseo® kit, which includes: FREE Senseo® Coffee Pod System Bag of Senseo® coffee pods Senseo® Coffee Pod Canister for easy pod storage and long-lasting freshness 5 $20-off Senseo® coffee machine cards to share with friends and family Coupon for $1 off any frozen Sara Lee® dessert As a participant of the Share Senseo® promotion, you will receive over $70 worth of Senseo® products for FREE (plus S&H= $15) to enjoy with your friends and family!
(It also says it'll take 4-6 weeks to ship.)

If you'd like to claim yours just visit the following link and answer the survey questions according to how they'd want you too :D

https://www.sharesenseo.com/q6/1.jsp

Shanghai Bund in Unionville, Canada

2007-09-24T07:16:00.000-05:00

I was really excited about spending my birthday in Canada and wanted to try out some new dishes. After spending a great deal of time reading forums, I stumbled upon some wonderful reviews of a place called Shanghai Bund. This place was known for having really good Beggar's Chicken and Xiao Long Bao (soup dumplings). Growing up I've watch many wuxia movies based on Louis Cha's novels and was curious to see what the famous beggar's chicken tasted like. The version made in restaurants these days seem very elaborate and orders must be place a day in advance. I called Shanghai Bund to make reservations the day before my meal and when i got there they told me they ran out!!! i was really disappointed since i wanted to enjoy a nice birthday meal. The service there was also bad, maybe because I'm not chinese?? Instead of the chicken, I had some soup dumplings and spicy crabs. After our food came out, we had to wait almost 10 minutes before they brought out some rice (after reminding them twice). The soup dumplings and crab were pretty good, but I was disapointed about not being able to have the beggar's chicken. Then after we paid our bill and headed out, I saw the waiter bring out an order of beggar's chicken for another table!!! I'm not sure what the deal was, is it because I didn't speak Chinese?? Over all the service everywhere I went just totally SUCKED!

Spicy Szechuan Crabs (at least 62 red chilis in this baby!)

Toronto Chinatown - Pho 88

2007-09-24T07:06:00.000-05:00

Okay so you must be wondering what was so bad about Toronto restaurants??Well I ate at 2 asian restaurants while I was there. The first was Pho 88 on Spadina, the decor was nice and the place was packed so I expected good food (and good service with it). But the food was mediocre but the service was horrible We had a party of four and they messed up most of our orders. I ordered the rice with porkchops and shrimp and they brought me rice with porkchips and chicken. After telling them, they messed up my order, the waiter took the food back to the kitchen and ANOTHER person brings out my food for me. HELLO!! Do they not realize that the wrong dish is the wrong dish regardless of who brings it out? I was so hungry and frustrated so I ate it anyway, it was okay not really really good or anything. They also messed up two of our pho orders by putting meatballs in the wrong bowl. It also took them forever to bring out our nem nuong (pork rolls?) appetizer. The nem nuong was rather starchy and didn't taste very good. Instead of serving it before our main meal, they brought it out AFTER we were done with our meal. We asked for the check and the appetizer came out, 5 minutes later, the check. UGHH, i'm never coming back here again!

Chinese Lantern Festival

2007-09-20T07:12:00.001-05:00

(I know this post isn't food related but the lanterns were so pretty I had to share some pictures)

One thing I did enjoy in Canada was the Chinese Lantern Festival (http://www.chineselanternfestival.ca/). The nite I went it was nice cool and surprisingly not crowded at all! I guess since it rained in the morning, people didn't want to go? The lanterns this year focused on the Qin, Tang, and Song Dynasties. Some people online said this year wasn't as good as last year's event but I got discount tickets for only $18 per person so I can't complain. Aside from the lanterns, they had some performances, and food and craft kiosks. The strawberry bubble tea I had was good but I think the rest of the food was just mediocre.

These Chinese 2009 Olympics Mascots are so cute!

The Panda Family and Lil' Bunny were cute too :D

Toronto Chinatown - Fruits

2007-09-05T07:40:00.000-05:00

We all know that Vancouver B.C. has the best Chinese food outside of China so how does Toronto compare? Well, initially I thought it'd be pretty good, especially after spending hours on chowhound and finding rave restaurant reviews but boy was it a culinary disappointment! The two things that I found really good were: 1) all the yummieeee fruits (I heart mangosteens!) and 2) Banh Mi` Nguyen Huong (delicious banh mi pa te cha for 1.50!).

The "long kong" fruits belong to the same family has a fruit called the "langsat", they're exotic fruits from Thailand. The ones I got this time were pretty sweet!(http://www.simply-thai.com/Thai-Market_Fruit_Langsat.htm)

I could only eat so much fruit so I didn't buy these orangy pomogrante like fruits so I have no idea what they look like inside or taste like. If anyone has any idea, I'm curious to know.

Another fruit I didn't buy...these are Thai Dragonfruits...

I think I'm sticking to the usual reddish dragonfruit, it was a great choice as they were very sweet!

arghh...I didn't buy enough of these mangosteens, next time i'm gona get 2 dozen or more for me, myself, and I!

Banh Khot

2007-08-29T07:30:00.000-05:00

After stumbling on WanderingChopstick's review of Brodard and Simcook's post on Vung Tau I had an immense craving for some banh khot. Unfortunately, I don't know of any restaurants in Northern VA that offers this dish (please let me know if you know of any) so I decided to make it myself. I managed to find some special pans for making the banh khot at a local Vietnamese grocery store, they were only $10 bucks each! I bought some banh xeo mixes from the store to make the batter and added scallions and shrimp. The banh khot didn't come out as crunchy but it wasn't bad and satisfied my craving for now :D

Fruit Tarts

2007-08-28T06:59:00.000-05:00

As expected, I'd get lazy and lag in my posts so it's going to take a while to catch up. Please bear with me!

For Fourth of July, I attemped a Fruit Tart Recipe that my friend sent me, her recipe was similar to the one posted on Joys of Baking. I didn't have time to make the crust so i bought a premade one from the grocery store, it still turned out pretty good.

http://joyofbaking.com/FruitTart.html

41st Annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival

2007-07-03T11:15:00.000-05:00

If you're coming to the DC area for the July 4th festivities, be sure to check out the 41st Annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the National Mall. According to VietNamNetBridge, 39 artists and artisans have been chosen from Vietnam to travel to the U.S. for this occasion!

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/lifestyle/2007/06/706617/

Chinese fish crisis shows seafood safety challenges

2007-06-29T11:39:00.000-05:00

Just when I start to alter my diet to include less red meat and more fish I stumble upon this article...Check out the USAToday link to the original article for some interesting statistics!

By Julie Schmit, Calum MacLeod, Elizabeth Weise and Barbara Hansen, USA TODAY

CHANGLE, China — At the Meihua Aquatic Processing Factory here, hundreds of workers in white coats and masks chop up squid headed for the U.S. market.
The tiled walls and stainless-steel equipment are those of a modern factory. But Meihua also represents the tarnished food-safety reputation that China is trying to shed and the risks facing U.S. consumers who increasingly are eating fish from China, the world's top seafood producer.
U.S. ACTS: Imports of Chinese-raised fish limited
CHINA REACTS: Officials say blocking imports is unfair

In the past 13 months, at least two dozen shipments of catfish, eel and tilapia from Meihua were rejected for entry into the USA by the Food and Drug Administration, FDA records show. The products were rejected because of actual or suspected contamination that included an anti-fungal that battles fish diseases but isn't allowed by the FDA because it has been shown to increase cancer rates in lab animals.
Recently, there have been massive recalls linked to tainted ingredients in pet food, toothpaste and toy trains that came from China, but U.S. consumers are also likely to encounter Chinese seafood.
China has a mixed record on seafood safety.
It exported more than 1 billion pounds of seafood to the USA last year — more than any other nation, says researcher Urner Barry. About 18% of U.S. seafood imports come from China, the National Fisheries Institute says. China also had more seafood imports rejected by the FDA than any other country: 253, almost one-third of which were eel.
Thursday, the FDA placed broad restrictions on imports of Chinese shrimp, catfish, eel, basa (a type of catfish) and dace (similar to carp). The move came after 25% of the Chinese products the FDA sampled from October through May were found to contain residue of chemicals the FDA doesn't allow in fish. Most are known or suspected carcinogens.
China has long had more problems with such contaminants than other countries that send seafood to the USA, says William More, director of the U.S.-based Aquaculture Certification Council, which checks the quality of products for commercial seafood buyers. Last year, More visited 60 shrimp plants in 17 countries, including China.
The ACC inspects, audits and certifies shrimp plants around the world to help buyers — including retailing giant Wal-Mart and Darden Restaurants, owner of Red Lobster — decide from whom to buy, More says.
Such information is critical. Wegmans, an East Coast-based grocery chain, buys only one seafood product from China: frozen, farm-raised tilapia. The grocer has considered other seafood products from China, says spokeswoman Jeanne Colleluori. But after finding it difficult to trace Chinese seafood back to where it was grown, monitor how it was tested and audit processors, "Our decisions have been to go with other producers from other countries," she says.
Chinese officials and fish producers say the country has vastly curtailed the use of anti-fungals banned in U.S. exports in recent years, a contention shared by Rohana Subasinghe, an aquaculture official for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.
"The use is reducing in China and everywhere," he says.
According to preliminary European Union data the FAO analyzed, the EU rejected 117 seafood shipments from China in 2005, down from 225 three years earlier.
In May, the Chinese government banned the Meihua plant from exporting eel or catfish to the USA until it can prove to Chinese officials that its products are clear of disallowed chemicals.
"We are losing money, about $1 million a month," says Meihua boss Zhang Yinhai, 42, a former soldier who once ran a soft-drink firm for the People's Liberation Army.
He says the company's tests have not detected chemical residue and that the state-owned company's 23 fish farmers don't use them. But he says they may have used them previously and that such chemicals still may be in the mud of farm pools.
"Our company's most basic principle is not to harm the consumer," Zhang says. Meihua is still exporting other seafood to the USA, including squid and tilapia.
Use of anti-fungals targeted
With Chinese seafood, the FDA's main focus is on fish farms' use of chemicals or drugs the agency bans in fish for human consumption. That's because residue can pass from the fish to consumers.
The substances the FDA looks for most often include the anti-fungals malachite green and gentian violet, and the antibiotics chloramphenicol and nitrofurans, a family of microbial agents. They are good at wiping out a range of fish ailments and are used on humans for everything from eye to urinary tract infections. They also are known or suspected carcinogens.
The FDA began testing for the residues in 2001, triggered by concerns of chloramphenicol in shrimp. Although dozens of countries export seafood to the USA, the FDA devotes half of the aquaculture drug tests it does on imported seafood to products from China, says Don Kraemer, deputy director of the FDA's Office of Food Safety.
Kraemer says the antibiotics don't pose an "imminent hazard to health" because they're being detected in "very low" levels. On Thursday, the FDA put ranges for the antibiotics at 1 to 30 parts per billion in the tested seafood.
Another class of antibiotics, fluoroquinolones including ciprofloxacin, also are not allowed in fish for humans. The human risk isn't toxicity, but there are fears that broad use will spur bacterial resistance and make the drugs less effective at treating human infections.
Malachite green, the anti-fungal, is another matter. The chemical dye battles fish parasites and fungal infections. Lab tests have showed increased cancer rates in rats and mice fed malachite green and leucomalachite green, which is formed from malachite green, at doses ranging from 100 to 600 parts per million for two years.
Last year, the FDA restricted imports of eel from China after FDA tests found that 91% of those sampled contained leucomalachite green — some at levels up to 3,239 parts per billion. "That level was disturbingly high," says Kraemer.
China banned malachite green in 2002. Yet the violations indicate that it's still widely used in China's aquaculture industry, the FDA says.
Even before Thursday's move by the FDA, the agency had restricted all eel from China unless the importer proves that it's safe. Last year, Canada also started testing every eel shipment from China for malachite green. Japan and South Korea have restricted Chinese eel imports in recent years as well.
High-risk import
Seafood has long been considered a high-risk import because it's perishable, has a high potential for bacterial contamination and is susceptible to ocean pollutants. Of the imported shipments the FDA refused entry into the USA last year, 58% were cited for filth and salmonella.
But farmed fish, which now account for half the fish U.S. consumers eat, pose new challenges because antibiotics or anti-fungals may be needed to keep them well, especially in developing countries where water pollution is rampant.
Some Chinese farmers continue to use the antibiotics because they are cheap and effective, says Carlos Sanchez, import buyer for Beaver Street Fisheries of Jacksonville, Fla., a leading frozen seafood importer.
China's fish farmers are largely small, family-run operations that sell fish or shrimp to large production facilities, which export the products. The antibiotics work against many diseases, and farmers typically don't need to know exactly what's going wrong in ponds to correct problems, Sanchez says. Beaver Street hires third-party auditors to inspect foreign suppliers.
The Netherlands-based Rabobank International, in a 2005 study, chronicled the pressures facing Chinese fish farmers. The report noted China's "serious" water pollution issues caused primarily by industrial and urban sewage, inadequate quality-control systems, the continued "illegal use of chemicals" to combat fish disease and poor regulatory enforcement so that farmers "have little means or incentive to maintain high quality standards."
Educating Chinese farmers has been a concern for years among nations that receive fish from China. European Union inspectors in 2005 found a new generation of chloramphenicol being used on a fish farm even though the farm had told the inspectors that no antibiotics were present. The EU report says the Chinese official overseeing the farm had approved the powder but didn't know it was an antibiotic.
Chemical and feed salespeople in China take advantage of fish farmers, More says. "They sell these products by telling the farmers fish will grow better. The farmers are simple people, have little education and are easily manipulated."
More says the drug and chemical residues now being found in shipments likely have been in seafood imports for decades.
The enticement to use effective but unsafe antibiotics is obvious to Chinese eel farmers Xie Shandi, 42, and Chai Yuandi, 52. They say the malachite green restrictions have cost them greatly.
Smoking cigarettes and drinking tea under an umbrella in a recent torrential downpour, the farmers say four in 10 eels die before they get to market. When they used malachite green before 2003, they say, just one in 10 died.
The farmers raise the eel in concrete-bottom pools 20 meters long and 10 meters wide at the company in south China's Fujian province.
The eel business used to be easy, Xie says. "I would agree on a price with the buyer, and that was that."
The eels are so packed, they thrash over and under each other. "Fish get sick easily, even by a change in the weather, just like people. So we need to use aquatic medicines," Chai says. "They hardly ever got ill before."
One U.S. importer, Fortuna Sea Products of Rosemead, Calif., gets 80% of its Chinese seafood from Meihua. President John Chiang says he's worked with Meihua to better educate farmers.
Meihua also recently implemented more testing, including sample-testing every load of live fish that goes to the plant and sample-testing finished product, too, he says.
Fortuna also imported 782 cases of clam meat from Meihua that had to be recalled in 2005 for salmonella. Chiang says that product probably wasn't cooked well enough. The FDA, which has no enforcement power over Meihua other than to reject its products, did cite Fortuna. In a 2005 warning letter, the FDA noted "serious deviations" in Fortuna's seafood-safety controls, including lack of effective oversight of its foreign processor.
"I believe they (Meihua) cannot afford a mistake again, and neither can we," Chiang says.
More farmer training
Chinese officials have stopped plants other than Meihua from exporting fish until the government inspects their facilities, says Kevin Wang, secretary-general of the China Catfish Institute, which is linked to the Chinese government. "The main part of the Chinese catfish industry is good," he says.
The government is also doing more farmer training, says Joy Li, general manager Chengdu Fangcao Pharmaceutical in China. The government hired her to run training programs on aquatic medicines, and 300 have been done this year.
Companies have likewise made big investments. Meihua, which exported about $20 million in seafood to the USA last year, expects to spend $400,000 by the end of 2007 on testing equipment so it can better detect drug residue. The Yongyan Aquatic Food Group in Mingguang already has testing equipment in place, bought from U.S. firms Agilent Technologies and BioTek Instruments. "We can meet any U.S. standard," says Wei Shouzhu, vice general manager.
Yet the FDA and others say China still struggles with enforcement — given its thousands of seafood processors and millions of farms.
One of China's primary checks is government tests of seafood exports for chemical residue. If a shipment is clean, it gets a certificate attesting to that, says the FDA's Kraemer. But the FDA has found that some exporters falsify certification documents.
"The Chinese system does not yet have the right supervision and controls to export to the extent it is," says Philippa Kelly, a consultant working in Beijing on food safety issues with the Chinese government.
A primary problem, she says, is lack of resources and will among local government officials, who often are more concerned with revenue, jobs and local development issues than China's overall reputation as a safe source of food.
Kelly also says China needs to concentrate more on education and rely less on punishment and enforcement. "China has good laws and good regulation, but why can't it enforce them? That's a political issue, and that's what makes it so difficult," she says.
Reporting by Calum MacLeod in Beijing, Julie Schmit and Elizabeth Weise in San Francisco and Barbara Hansen in McLean, Va.

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2007-06-28-fish-cover-usat_N.htm

Morton's Deal

2007-06-29T08:59:00.000-05:00

www.mortons.com/

The Steak and Seafood for Two special at Morton's is back for $99 per couple. This time it's bigger than ever, being available at ALL Morton's locations from now through September 30, 2007. This offer includes: 2 Single Cut FiletsChoice of Two:
Colossal Shrimp Alexander
Jumbo Lump Crab Cake
Broiled Sea ScallopsChoice of Two:
Ceasar Salad
Morton's SaladOne Signature Potato to ShareOne Fresh Vegetable to ShareChoice of Two:
Morton's Legendary Hot Chocolate Cake
Key Lime Pie

Restaurant Week in Baltimore

2007-06-27T11:24:00.001-05:00

Baltimore Restaurant Week June 30 - August 5 Enjoy $20.07 Lunches and $30.07 Dinners at top local restaurants. Restaurant Week is a great way to experience a 3-course, gourmet meal at terrific savings.Tables fill up quickly, so reserve now!

http://www.opentable.com/promo.aspx?m=18&ref=2477&pid=200

Vancouver Day 2

2007-06-25T11:04:00.000-05:00

Sorry it's taken so long to update, I've been busy with school and of course...lazy! So on day two, we decided to venture outside of Downtown Vancouver and took the 98B Bus to Richmond. I heard that there are tons of chinese stores/restaurants/plazas here along with the best chinese food in the West. Without a doubt it was! We started our day at Fisherman's Terrace Reaurant in Aberdeen Mall, for midweek, the place was pretty crowded. Here's another link with info on Fisherman's Terrace http://chowtimes.com/2007/01/fishermans_terrace_restaurant.html (I need to learn how to take better pics!)

The food was excellent but I was disappointed that they didnt push the dim sum carts around. Instead we got a menu and piece of paper to put down our order. And for first timers, of course we over ordered! I thought 'dim sum' plates were supposed to be small but the portions here were huge, even the shrimp dumplings were really big.

The dumplings really were the size of that tea cup!

Ahh I can't remember what this dish was called but it was really good! It was basically banh cuon (rolled up rice cake?) rolled up and pan fried with a soy sauce like sauce and topped with thit cha bong (dried pork?)!

We also had fried calamari with fried garlic on top, too bad they don't serve this at the dim sum places in VA!

So after shopping around at Aberdeen and checking out Daiso (Japan's $2 Store) we headed to President's plaza, another Chinese mall. I wasn't anything good here except a big grocery store that looked like another Grand Mart so I was pretty disappointed. Then we headed to Yaohan, they have really big grocery store here with lots of prepared food, I don't think you need to know how to cook if you live in Richmond or Vancouver. I was too full to really eat anything but I couldn't pass up on the good food so I had to bring some back to the hotel and lemme tell u, it was YUMMIE! Especially those fried dumplings and chicken stuffed with sticky rice!

After we got back to the hotel...of course I had to figure out where I wanted to go for dinner :) After talking to some locals we decided to give Stone Grill a try. At Stone Grill, your meal is served on a very hot molten rock (I think it was about 400 degress) and you basically cook as you eat. We were told that this is a very healthy way of eating since no oils were used and the food is only marinated in some sea salt. The meat was tender and tasted great! I like this place more than Mortons but I dont think my pictures do the meal justice!

Here are some more pictures of Downtown Vancouver's Chinatown. The food there is really fresh and it reminded me of those markets I see in those Chinese movies.

Vancouver Day 1

2007-05-29T20:50:00.000-05:00

I've always wanted to go to Vancouver and finally got the chance to last month. I fell in love with the city and of course the food! Richmond definitely has the best chinese food.

Day 1

I arrived around noon and decided to take a stroll around Vancouver's Chinatown. It isnt as crowded as NY so that was nice. They also had a great selection of fruit and had tons of mangosteen!!!

The dragon fruit was probably about $2 canadian bucks each, much better than the $10 ones we get at the Korean store in VA.

The starfruits were really big and pretty but didn't taste all that good.

Here's what I brought back to the hotel w/me on day 1. The mangosteen was soooooooooo good, I think I might have to go to Toronto this summer to eat some more. :P

We weren't sure where to go for dinner so we just started to walk down Robson Street and ended up at Tsunami Sushi (http://www.vancouvereatsout.com/tsunami.html). The place was pretty crowded for a Wednesday night, had to wait about 10-15 min before we got a spot at the sushi go round area. The food was pretty good, I'd say my favorite was the gyoza.

Welcome!

2007-05-29T07:12:00.000-05:00

Welcome to my food blog! Over the past couple of years, I've been traveling more and have started to sample lots of good food. I've decided to start this blog to share some good restaurants along with some of my recipes. Stay tuned for pictures from my Vancouver trip.