Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day, mom! Thank you very much for everything you did to our family. You are the most amazing, beautiful person in the world, I hope you have a happy and wonderful life. Love you!! 

Iron man 3

this is just sooo cute... 

Hubby is a hardcore Iron man fan. I think he watched all three Iron mans plus the Avengers more than 10 times already, plus the numerous times when he was listening to the movie at work. He literally remembers all the scripts, senses and EVERYTHING. Give him an Iron man quiz, I'm sure he will  get 100% correct easily. (I just can't believe it, I mean who can do it? I bet Tony Stark can't! :/ ) 

When Iron man was about to come out, the release date in Asia was one week earlier than in United States. Hub got upset and frustrated, he was saying how unfair it is to have a different release date and US should get to release first, blah blah blah... I think if we have the time and $, he will want to fly to Taiwan/HK just to watch Iron man 3 a week earlier. HAHA... 

Anyway, we went to watch the movie in old town monrovia on a Friday morning. (Can't believe I need to get up early for a movie. -.-) I like old town monrovia so much, everything is so peaceful and relax in here, there's a coffee house named "Friends". Altho it does not look exactly like the one in Friends, it still has some similar elements.

The theatre opened at 9:45am and we were there at 9:30am *bummer* We waited a bit, got the tickets, we thought there will be a large crowds lining up, but we were wrong. (not many people get the privilege to watch movie on a Friday morning, we are the lucky one. =D) The movie was okay, I would not say it was great. It was so different than what I anticipated. WHAT? Tony Stark has panic attack, just like million of people does. He is so human in this movie, the director took away the superhero factor and made him human again. I come in the theater wanting to see how the Superhero Tony Stark suprises me with all his high-tech shit, how he can use his money to build more advanced robots and stuff, instead I got a human Tony Stark with anxity attact and will constantly freak out just like I did. I guess this is why I do not like this movie.  (I might be wrong) and I think it's Pepper who saved Tony at the end of the movie, isn't  it? Tony Stark seems so weak and useless in this movie. :( 

The Tony Stark I knew is the biggest playboy in the world, he is charming he is cute, he is the superhero and un-defeatable. Somehow in this movie, I do not see that. And the bio-weapon thingy, human body can turn into super high heat and melt away things? This reminds me of the Torch from Fantastic four. Remember at the very beginning of F4. Torch constantly burnt off his shirt when he was on fire. In IM3, why Pepper or the bad guys never burn off any of their clothing? This is just not making any sense to me.

movie: ✭✭✩✩✩

[Homemade] Taiwanese Style minced pork with eggs

OMG, it's May already!!! OMGGG...
Time flies faster than I thought. It's already MAY.

So, as a newlywed, trying out new recipe become one of my hobby,
and as I was posting this picture last night on Facebook,

Taiwanese Style minced pork with eggs

A friend of mine left a message on my wall asking for recipe.
Right, I haven't post any recipe for a REALLY long time, and this is a really really great blog post idea. :D

Minced pork with eggs is the most common dish in Taiwan, almost every taiwanese restaurant or street market has their own minced pork sauce. However, no one knows what is in the grounded meat, rumor said they will use meat that does not look fresh or is even expired, put it in the grinder and there you go, you got yourself some good o ground meat. That is why in my family never bought ground meat of the supermarket rack. I rather took a piece of whole, fresh meat and ask the butcher (or supermarket staff) to grind it in front of my own eyes.

I got some freshly grounded pork from the market, about 2 pounds. I got a thin slice of pork belly, about .5-1 pounds. Normally I do not like to used pork belly on any of my dish, I am just very frighten of the PORK OIL and CALORIE. (This is why I am not a fan of bacon.) BUT, if this is what it takes to get a good bowl of minced pork sauce, let's do it.

Most of the ingredients here.

We also need some mushrooms, dried shrimp, shallot, garlic, and eggs. I used dried mushrooms and shrimps, as they have more aroma than the fresh one. Wash well, and soak the dried one in drinking water for about 2 hours (or until soft). Cut them into small pieces and set aside. (Note: you can save the soaking water for future use, it is full of favor and can add more taste to the dish.)

1. First, cut the pork belly into a small pieces and put those in boiling water for about a minute. Give the pork belly in icy cold bath.

2. Boil another pot of water, add eggs. Cook for about 8-10 minutes.

3. Heat up a big wok, use 2 tbsp of vegetable oil, throw in all your shredded shallots, fried until it's golden brown and crispy. (Or you can skip this step and buy Crispy Shallot from any Chinese supermarket.)

4. Take out the shallots, put aside.

5. Use 1 tbsp of oil, add garlic, stir fry until golden brown (it will be less than 1 minute), add grounded pork, stir gently until the pork turns slightly brown.

6. Take the pork belly out from the ice water, and add into the ground pork. Fried with high heat. Add about a tbsp dark soy sauce to color the meat.

7. You can add all other ingredients: mushrooms, dried shrimps, stir fry well.

8. Add a cup of water (or the dried mushroom/ shrimp soak water.), a cup of taiwanese rice wine, soy sauce paste, rock sugar, chinese star anise & crispy shallots. You can also add hard-boiled eggs at this time. Bring to boil and simmer for about an hour.

TADA! You got yourself a pot of delicious minced pork rice that can feed at least 4 people. I usually make more, and store it in freezer so whenever I am craving for minced pork, I can just microwave it and throw it on top of rice or noodle :)

My lunch, yummm...