cheesecake factory

cosy lil restaurant i went to in boston. as the name suggests, they specialise in cheesecakes. kinda like secret recipe back in malaysia, just with much better selection of food. i mean, like, it's a real restaurant and all. lots of different food items in the menu. great seafood selection. good service. nice atmosphere. decent pricing. awesome...

*me and the jojo at cheesecake factory during winter...

i've been there twice, once in december (with jojo, tiffany and yiran) and again a few weeks ago. and both times i ordered fried calamari. yup, like i said, crazy asian's love for seafood. muahaha... so, yeah, the calamari was yum. totally satisfied my cravings for fried calamari which i've been deprived of in oswego. i had fried calamari twice in my recent boston trip. the other time was at pizza uno, like 2 days before my cheesecake factory trip. the pizza uno's fried calamari was not bad. interesting that they had some fried yellow peppers with it and it was served with marinara sauce, but i wasn't quite satisfied coz it was pricier and half the serving size of what cheescake factory gave me. hence, me gobbling down fried calamari again so soon after i've had it.

anyways, i wish i'll have another chance to go there. like i said, i was very impressed by their selection of seafood. and from the looks of the food served to other tables, they are pretty nicely done. cant wait to try out their salmon...

Shrimp Salad

i went down to one of the cafes in the new campus center for lunch on friday with patrick and amazingly, they had boiled shrimps at their salad bar!!! must be my lucky day coz i hardly ever eat at the campus center during summer unless patrick comes and drags me over, but they've never served shrimps at the salad bar everytime i've been there. anyway, i proceeded to make myself a shrimp salad, got myself some new england clam chowder (to which i added more shrimps) and a bottle of orange juice. lunch came up to $7.50 or so. it... was... yummy!!!

...but that wasn't enough. once i was done with lunch, i went back to the salad bar and bought more shrimps! lol, to the amusement of patrick, who sorta understands the crazy asians' love for all things seafood (ok, not ALL seafood, but most seafood. i mean, sea cucumber? yuck...) since he has a chinese girlfriend.

coincidentally i did just buy some mixed greens, my favourite romaine lettuce, and cherry tomatoes. hehe, which means... more shrimp salads to come!!! yay...

so, yeah, i just finished eating my shrimp salad supper. burp. excuse me. here's the recipe... nothing special, but a totally fantabulous salad.

chop up some fresh romaine lettuce, pile it on top of some mixed greens. dump in some cherry/grape tomatoes. add some croutons, then flood it with lotsa small chilled boiled shrimps. sprinkle some black pepper. now top up with some thousand island dressing.

i mixed the thousand island dressing with equal parts mayonnaise and some lemon juice to tone down the sweetness and tangy taste of the thousand island dressing.

voila.

photoshopping

well, got bored, and decided to do a little photoshopping...


i'm gonna go print it out and use it as a bookmark. want one?

blueberry pie (croissant crust)

well, here's a lazy assed way to make pie. if u ever need to get to a potluck but all the ez stuff to make (like potato salad) is already being prepared by someone else, run down the store, and get these ingredients:

• 1 can Pillsbury crescent dinner rolls
• 1/2 can blueberry pie filling
• 9-inch pie plate
• apricot jam

in half an hour's time, u'll have a beautiful blueberry pie which u can tell people that u (sorta) made it urself.... haha, cheater bug... but who cares? in today's society, no one's really gonna be up ur arse if u didn't make every aspect of that dish from scratch.

so, here's how u do it:

1. unroll the dinner rolls.
2. arrange the 8 triangular rolls on the pie plate into an 8-edged star, with about 3 inches of the narrow end of the tip extending from the rim of the pie plate.
3. trim and patch the dinner rolls so that the base of the pie plate is evenly covered.
4. spoon blueberry pie filling onto the base.
5. bring the tips of the dinner rolls over the filling towards the center of the pie.
6. bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes at 350F.
7. heat some apricot jam with some water and brush it over the pie crust.
8. let sit for 20-30 minutes before serving.

* pie in picture was left in the oven a lil too long and i also ran out of jam so no glaze. still tastes good though.

tada... now wait for the pat on your back..

turkey bacon burger patties

this recipe combines two of america's favorite meat: turkey & bacon... a great fourth of july burger! place it on a grill while watching the spectacular fireworks... shiok!



Ingredients:

• 0.65lb grounded turkey
  
• 8oz bacon
  
• 1 medium sized large onion
  
• 1/2 bulb garlic
  
• handful of cilantro, roughly chopped
  
• 8 tbsp honey bbq sauce
  
• 2 tbsp brandy
  
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
  
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
  
• 1 tbsp chili oil
  
• 1 tbsp vege oil
  
• 3 tbsp bread crumbs
  
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
  
• salt & pepper to taste
  
• handy food processor

Directions:

1. peel and cut the ends off the onion and garlic. cut the onion into decent sizes and dump them into the food processor with the garlic and pulverize it. transfer the garlic onion mix to a pan and add the oils (all 3 kinds). turn on the heat to medium high and stir fry it, slowly reducing the heat bit by bit. just cook until fragrant but not browned. remove from heat and let cool.


2. now cut the bacon into more manageble sizes and dump them into the food processor with the cilantro. let the machine to its work.


3. mix together all the ingredients listed (except the food processor of course).
   heat a little glug of oil in a pan and then add a small dollop of the patty mixture to the pan. fry on medium low heat until cooked through. let it cool and give the patty a try. check to make sure that its taste is to your liking and also that the burger patty binds properly.
   once well adjusted, shape the meat mixture into burger sized patties (this recipe makes abt 8 servings of half inch patties) and package them in foil. freeze until ready to cook.