We were planning on posting about an 11 layer lasagna that's relatively easy to make, but the Daring Bakers' challenge this month was lasagne. As you've probably seen, the food blogosphere has been inundated with DB pasta. Instead, we present to you a mango and coconut flognarde that Hungry Bear saw on flagrantedelicia. We always enjoy looking at the beautiful photography and desserts on Leonor's site.

We were supposed to make this flognarde for Sunday nite dinner last week, but ran out of energy to make dessert (we had a pre-dinner yoga session with a one of the SNDsters). A friend brought over ice cream cookie sandwiches from Trader Joe's instead. They were super delicious and a dangerous new TJ find.

Since then, we've had some ripe mangos sitting in the fridge, so Hungry Bear finally made the flognarde today. It turned out really well and we enjoyed this fruity, custardy dessert. It's easy to make and a nice light dessert to accompany a heavy, rich meal. We will definitely make it again and try different types of fruit.

Head on over to flagrantedelicia for the mango and coconut flognarde recipe.

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A few months ago, Hungry Bear favorited this cinnamon-apple cake on foodgawker and she finally made it for our Lunar New Year celebration this year. It's not Chinese or Vietnamese in any way, but Hungry Bear didn't want to make anything too elaborate and we had two apples to use up. So that's how a cinnamon-apple cake got served at a New Year's party with Chinese hot pot.

I was working that day when Hungry Bear was baking the cake and I wasn't paying much attention. She told me that it was a Cooking Light recipe, but she was making it full-fat because she hates margarine and fat-free cream cheese. I honestly wasn't very excited about the cake. I don't get too excited unless there's chocolate involved.

I don't think anyone at dinner knew how damn good this cake was going to be. Then everyone wanted seconds. It's a light, moist cake with the perfect amount of sweetness from the cinnamon-sugar topping. Hungry Bear thinks it tastes like coffee cake and she'd happily eat it for breakfast.

Our friend, Deb, made it for a family gathering the next day. And I asked Hungry Bear to bake it again a few days later so we could document it for SND. It's probably my favorite non-chocolate dessert at the moment!

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Last year, we attended a Chef Panel Discussion event presented by the Asian Culinary Forum (Andrea Nguyen is one of co-founders). The panelists included Charles Phan (Slanted Door), Eric Gower (The Breakaway Cook) and a several other respected Bay Area chefs.

Hungry Bear and I were really impressed with Eric. He was by far the most entertaining and passionate person on the panel. Through his commentary, Eric sold us on his "breakaway" cooking style. The simplicity of his cooking really resonated with us. The ultimate clincher was the way he enthusiastically described his poached eggs with matcha salt.

We bought a copy of his book that evening and got it signed by Eric. He wrote in the book...

"May you have many years of maccha happiness!"

Well, we started out the year by finally making Eric's signature dish. It doesn't get any easier than this... a poached egg with matcha salt sprinkled on top. As far as how it tasted, I think the picture speaks for itself! We look forward to trying out more breakaway cook recipes.

To my Vietnamese peeps, Chuc Mung Nam Moi! Hungry Bear says, "Gong Xi Fa Cai!" And to everyone else, Happy Lunar New Year!

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Hungry Bear is always searching for good Chinese food cookbooks and her latest find is The Seventh Daughter by Cecilia Chiang. One of the dishes that caught her eye were these star anise peanuts. They are a good alternative to salted peanuts or honey roasted peanuts.

Hungry Bear made this simple snack a few weeks ago and they were a big hit. They are salty and a little crunchy. I love the aroma of the star anise and when they are cooking, the smell reminds me of a bowl of pho. I found it difficult to stop eating them and I'm sure you will too.

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Hungry Bear and I recently discovered chocolate oatmeal courtesy of Jeff, one of my closest friends and Penn State buddy. He came out to visit us a few weeks ago to rest, relax, cook, eat and ride (road biking). Jeff actually prepared a few meals for us while he was here. You've gotta love a house guest who will cook for you!

One morning after running the Lyon Street Steps, Hungry Bear made some steel cut oats and Jeff turned it into chocolate oatmeal by adding a little Scharffen Berger sweetened cocoa powder. It was delicious! And I can't believe that we didn't think about this combination ourselves. We typically have our oatmeal with some sliced bananas and brown sugar, which is good, but not as brilliant as chocolate oatmeal!

So the next time you want a healthy breakfast, reach for the steel cut oats and a little cocoa powder. Thanks Jeff!

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During our last trip to the Serramonte Farmers' Market, Hungry Bear and I picked up the freshest produce we could find for a light and simple sauté. The corn looked fantastic and the cherry tomatoes were super sweet. Hungry Bear told me that she had never cooked with okra, which surprised me, so that was a must get. The end result of our market bounty was this veggie sauté.

Which brings me to my childhood okra story... one summer while I was in elementary school my dad decided to do some gardening. At that point, my family had been in the States for only 5-6 years and we were still living in an apartment complex in Allentown, PA. So, my dad rented a tiny plot at a community garden. The only things I clearly remember him planting were okra and tomatoes, but I'm sure there were Vietnamese vegetables that we couldn't get at the local Acme supermarket.

These days, I would love to have a garden with fresh vegetables, but back then my brother and I hated going to the garden with Dad to pull weeds and water the plants. At that age, given the choice between gardening or riding our BMX bikes, there was only one good option. But we had to help Dad out and he grew a ton of okra and tomatoes. At first the okra was great, but by the end of summer, I was sick and tired of it. I didn't want to eat okra ever again.

To add insult to injury, some kids in the apt complex made fun of my parents for growing their own vegetables, saying we had to because we couldn't afford to buy vegetables at the store... whatever. It annoyed me because I was trying to fit in with the American kids in the neighborhood. I was thankful the next summer when Dad decided to not garden again because it was too much work at the time. It meant no more okra and no teasing from the kids in the complex.

Flash forward 25+ years, I love okra and the idea of a garden with fresh vegetables sounds fantastic! To the kids who made fun of my family, all I have to say to you is... how do ya like my okra now?!?!

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Chinese white cut chicken (bái qie ji) is a classic New Year's dish and an everyday comfort item for most Chinese home cooks. It's just a poached chicken served with a scallion-ginger sauce. While it may seem plain and simple, it takes some practice to master the cooking method and produce a juicy and flavorful chicken.

Hungry Bear turned to a recipe from The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen for directions. The end result was a white cut chicken that was moist and delicious. I loved dipping the chicken into the scallion-ginger sauce and spooning the sauce over steamed rice. Who knew a poached chicken could be so good!?!

Update August 13, 2008: The first picture in this post won the DMBLGIT July 2008 aesthetics category! We are very psyched and honored to receive the recognition.

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I want to congratulate my friends, Micky and Lawrence, on the birth of their second child, a beautiful baby boy, named Kian. Micky is a great cook and we always look forward to her meals. One of her unique creations is this egg, mint and cucumber canapé. She often makes it for her infamous Christmas party spreads.

The canapés are tasty and super simple to make. They only require cutting up an omelette and slicing a cucumber. Top them with a piece of mint and a splash of hot sauce and voilà. They are light and easy to eat during a party.

I'm keeping it short today, because we just launched Food Gawker. TasteSpotting suddenly shut down this past Friday. There is speculation that it will return, but until then we created a TasteSpotting clone to satisfy people's need to gawk at beautiful food each day. So check out Food Gawker to see great pictures and discover new food bloggers!

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One day last week, our fridge was practically empty. The only things we had were eggs and leftover rice. Hungry Bear wanted to use the rice and whipped together a vegetarian fried rice using canned wheat gluten and snow cabbage & bamboo shoots.

We had no intention of posting about this fried rice because it was just dumping two cans of stuff onto rice. But it was so good, I asked Hungry Bear to make it again the next day so we could document it for SND and enjoy it again. You could say this is the fried rice equivalent of dump cake.

The key to this fried rice was the Companion brand canned goods. Companion is a Taiwanese company that provides Chinese-styled vegetarian products with no preservatives or artificial coloring. I love the braised wheat gluten and could eat it every day, if it weren't so high in fat.

Anyway, the fried rice was super easy to make. The canned goods had enough flavor that no soy sauce was required. And there was only a little salt to season the eggs. There's not much else to say about this vegetarian fried rice, except it's deliciously simple!

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Last week, my brother, Trung, left me a message saying that he didn't see asparagus crab soup (sup mang tay cua) on the site. In Vietnamese, asparagus is mang tay and literally translates to "bamboo French". Anyway, I think it's one of his favorite soups.

So, I asked my mom for her recipe and she gave me the steps to making the soup. It's amazing the amount of recipes she keeps in her head. I have a hard enough time remembering just one of them. That's one of the reasons why we started documenting everything on SND.

The soup is easy to make and is essentially an egg drop soup with asparagus and crab. Like making pho, a charred onion is used to add more flavor to the stock. Hungry Bear and I don't like our asparagus mushy and brown, so I only cooked it for a few minutes. The soup turned out great and tasted like my mom's, which made me and my tummy very happy!

There you have it, Trung. Ask and you shall receive. Now, does anyone else have a Viet recipe request for my mom?

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