More Asian Snacks

On a recent trip to C-Mart in Chinatown, I found some Asian snack cakes that I don't usually see at the Hong Kong Supermarket in Brighton. The first two snacks pictured below are from C-Mart and the last one (actually 2 different cookies but the same brand) is from Hong Kong Supermarket. These snacks are also from 3 different countries (Taiwan, Thailand, and Japan).

Green Tea Cakes

These cakes from Taiwan are actually quite small in volume but they are dense. They're not heavy but they're dense enough that you don't need a huge portion. This type of cake comes in different flavors and I think there are other brands too. I chose this one just because I hadn't had a green tea flavored cake in a long time. For $2.29, you get 8 cakes. The size of the box is misleading because a lot of it is filled with the plastic tray. Nice presentation though. It's worth a try but probably not something you'd load up the shopping cart with on a regular basis.

Green Tea Cakes from Taiwan

EURO Custard Cake

For $2.18, you get 6 individually-wrapped cakes. Actually most Asian snack cakes come packaged that way, for some reason. These are from Thailand. I chose these because I got hooked on those Korean Orion cakes and knew that they were about to sell out of those at Hong Kong supermarket! So, I wondered if these might be a good substitute. Honestly, the custard tastes more like custard in these EURO cakes. The Orion custard cakes have a filling that tastes more like cream, which is also good but not really custard. I really liked these and would get them if I can't find the Orion cakes. However, these are a bit pricier per cake than the Orion cakes, but not by a lot. 

EURO Custard Cake from Thailand

Japanese Cookies

The last snack selections are Japanese cookies, in Chocolate Cream and Tiramisu flavors. These were $1.99 a package of 8 cookies each, I think. The package is also misleading because there is a plastic tray inside that prevents the cookies from breaking. These are very easy to gobble up quickly because each cookie is actually quite small and very tasty. As the pictures on the packages would suggest, they go well with coffee or tea. However, the fillings are not runny, as the pictures might suggest. They're still tasty though. As with most Japanese sweets, they're very well made but very small. So, it's not the biggest bang for the buck but a tasty snack nonetheless.

Soul Fire (Allston, MA) - Review of the Pitboss Sampler

Barbecue is one of those things that is best eaten at a restaurant or ordered take-out because it takes a long time to make it well at home. If you live in Boston, Red Bones in Somerville is probably one of the more well-known places to get tasty barbecue. However, if you live in Boston (and not in Cambridge or Somerville) and don't want to haul your butt over there, Soul Fire (in the Allston area) is a pretty good place too. I had a Living Social deal that was about to run out and finally got some take-out there. For a more thorough review of everything they serve, check out the pigtrip blog (it has pictures of most dishes).

Since I didn't know what to order, I got the Pit Boss Sampler, which includes a bit of a lot of different things for about $43 with tax. I thought it would be enough food for about 2 days. It's a lot of food and supposedly feeds only 2 or 3 people - umm, yeah, if the people are big football players! I think it feeds at least 4 or 5 people (who are not football players). There was plenty of food for at least 5 meals and I'm not a skinny person. There are 7 different meat dishes in the Pitboss Sampler: pulled pork, spare ribs, baby back ribs, brisket, a hot link (sausage on a stick), fried chicken, and spicy hot wings (with sauce on them). All of the meats were cooked very well and the brisket was especially good. That explains why the 2 guys who ordered after me both chose the brisket. There was enough seasoning to not need any sauce but dipping is part of the fun of eating barbecue, right?

7 different meat dishes in Pit boss sampler

hot link (top), pulled pork, spare ribs (left), and baby back ribs (bottom)

yummy brisket chunks (on top of a slice of bread) hiding under the rack of baby back ribs!

As if the big pile of meat were not enough, the Pitboss sampler comes with 6 different sides, cornbread, and all the sauce you need. The guy said I could "load up" on sauces but I took only a small container of each of the 3 sauces in the pumps because I expected that the meats would be well seasoned already. Ok, so the sides were: collard greens, beans, rice and beans, mac & cheese, potato & egg salad, coleslaw, and cornbread (with butter). I liked the potato & egg salad very much. The mac & cheese was good too. The collards, slaw, and beans were actually on the sweet side. However, I'm not sure if I might be a little more sensitive to sweet than other people because I've been cutting my sugar consumption. Personally, I like collards to be a little on the salty side. The cornbread was pretty good and the rice and beans were quite good with a bit of a spicy kick. All of the sides were in the 8 oz deli containers, which made me think that this would be way too much food for 2 or even 3 people (who are not football players). In rank order, I liked the mac & cheese, potato egg salad, rice & beans, and then the other 3 (because they were all just a bit too sweet for my taste).

Sides included in the Pit boss sampler (and all the sauce you need)
going clockwise: Collards (top), beans, rice & beans, corn bread, mac & cheese, potato egg salad, 3 sauces

potato egg salad

coleslaw

The Pitboss Sampler is a great thing to order if you're having a Superbowl party with a bunch of dudes who like to eat a lot. I would love to go back and order a brisket meal because that was done very well. The spare ribs were good too. For sides, I'd probably get the mac & cheese and/or the potato salad. If you have a LevelUp card (this link gets you a $5 credit, by the way), they take that too.

Cheap spicy meal - Slow cooked curry

For about $10, you can make enough curry for at least 8 meals. If you want to lower the cost even more, use beans instead of chicken. That will drive the cost down to about a buck a meal and it will look like you have more food (because a pound of dried beans will increase in volume a lot). However, you'll have to boil the dried beans (about $1.39/lb) and then add them to the curry. You can also add a smaller amount of chicken for flavor and add a lot of beans.

The other great thing about making curry is that it is very easy to do. Just get a 6-quart slow cooker, dump everything in, put the lid on, and go away for about 3 hours. You might have to stir it around once every hour but that's it. If you have one of those cookers with an adjustable temperature knob, you can adjust the time it takes for the curry to cook. If you're in a hurry, you can probably eat in about an hour (if you don't keep opening the lid). The temperature can also be set to about 180-200F if you plan on going to work/school and coming back in about 6 to 8 hours. Just make sure you have enough water in there and the lid is on if you're going away for more than a few hours (because if all of the water evaporates, the curry will burn).

NESCO cooker with adjustable temperature knob

Possible ingredients:
Chicken (or other protein) - $2.50
2 lb vegetables (frozen veggies are good) - $2.50
onion (diced) - $0.50
3-5 cloves garlic (chopped) - $0.10
2 large potatoes (cubed) - $1
2 plantains (cubed) - $0.40
4 blocks of Japanese curry roux (e.g. Golden Curry) - $2 (for half a large box)
1 can light coconut milk (e.g. Trader Joe's light coconut milk) - $1
water (depending on how much sauce you want - start with 2 cups and add if necessary)

* Prices are approximate

Big pot of curry all ready to eat!

Small portion - veggies, potato, plantain, mushroom

Small portion - veggies, potato, plantain, mushroom

If you have room in your fridge, the whole pot can be stored in there. However, it's probably better to store it in smaller containers so that you can take a box to school or work the next day.

The potatoes and plantains are enough carbs for some people but having rice on the side would be how most Asians would serve this. A healthier alternative would be to have a side of mashed beans if you did not use that as the protein in the curry.

Even more awesome Trader Joe Products (under $5)

Peanut butter goodies
This is my new favorite cookie! The bottom is a crunchy cookie with some creamy peanut butter on top. That's all dunked in milk chocolate and sprinkled with peanut bits. Sorry, girl scouts, but these are better and cheaper than your expensive badge-earning cookies. For only $2.99, you get 16 goodies. I didn't get these on my last shopping trip because I'm trying to lose a few pounds. If you get these, get 2 because you'll want one for yourself and the other one, well, you can decide whether you'd like to share it.

Watch out, girl scouts - these Goodies will give you all a run for your money!

Dark chocolate covered peanut butter wafer cookies
These cookies are about the size of a large chocolate caramel candy. The thing that makes them tasty is the combination of the crunchiness of the wafers, the creaminess of the peanut bitter and chocolate, and there is a slight saltiness from the peanut butter. As good as these cookies are, I think the dark chocolate gives the cookie a slight waxy texture. I'm not the only blogger who thinks that these snacks are not a hit - others have been a little more critical. Milk chocolate would make these a bit more melty and perhaps make them just as good as the Peanut butter goodies. Having said that, these wafer cookies are less messy than the goodies because you can pop a whole cookie into your mouth. The nuts on top of the goodies will fall all over the place if you're not careful. For $2.99, these are worth a try, especially if you prefer dark chocolate over milk chocolate.

Dark chocolate covered peanut butter wafer cookies

Dried unsweetened dark cherries
Even though I have a food dehydrator, there are some dried fruits that I would rather just buy from Trader Joe's. Cherries and strawberries are two fruits that take a long time to dry properly and are not always in season. Additionally, cherries require that you pit them one by one before putting them in the dehydrator. So, $4.29 is actually a great price for a bag of dried dark cherries. The strawberries are great too but they're only available during the summer months.

Dark cherries are a great snack either by themselves or dipped in chocolate. I also use them in brownies or other baked goods. Give these a try!

A tasty and healthy snack - imagine that!

Vegetable root chips
These are basically Terra chips but cheaper. For $2.99, you get a bag of taro, beet, sweet potato, and yucca chips. Another snack that I have to hide from myself or else I'll eat them in one sitting.

like Terra chips but only $2.99 a bag

Growing your own scallions

This is not a new idea. Several others have made youtube videos about growing (by StarofParis) or regrowing (by TeeRiddle) scallions from the stumps. If you click on the links in the previous sentence, they will take you to their videos. Both of them are pretty good and give you step-by-step instructions on how to do this. I know that scallions are not the most expensive thing in the supermarket but it's just nice to be able to have fresh scallions whenever you need them. I often have to create uses for all the scallions that come in a bunch. Home-grown scallions don't take up space in the fridge and won't rot. It's also cool to be able to cut a fresh scallion and chop it up to throw on your wonton noodle soup. Just make sure you water them on a regular basis and you won't have to buy scallions for about a year.

The basic steps are:
1. Buy a bunch of scallions that still have the roots attached.
2. After using the scallion, plant the stump with the roots attached in a pot of soil (if you drink coffee, save the grounds and mix it in with the soil).
3. Water it.
4. Let it grow. It should take a week or two to see the green parts emerge. Just water them at least every other day and be patient.

Here are a couple of pictures of the ones I recently planted:

Lone scallion growing in the pot on the right

Added some new scallion stumps

Only 5 days later

10 days later - they grow very fast!