Green Bean Stir Fry Simple Chinese Recipe

I love this super easy and delicious stir fry recipe because it uses super accessible ingredients and is fun to make!

Excuse the blurriness, it's the steam.

Ingredients

1 cup Green Beans

1/2 cup Shredded Carrots

1/4 cup Shredded and Marinated Pork (see below)

1 Tablespoon Oil (or even less)

1/4 Tablespoon Salt

3/4 Tablespoon Soy Sauce

1/2 Tablespoon Sugar
3 Tablespoon Water

Optional: 1 tablespoon pickled mustard (Zha cai)

Preparation

• Green Beans: Select small, straight, and fresh green beans from the supermarket. This is very important for optimal taste. Wash, cut off the two ends, and use your fingers to break the green beans into two or three small pieces each. (Do NOT chop, breaking retains taste)
• Shredded and Marinated Pork: Buy a piece of pork and chop into small, thin, long pieces. Add a bit of rice wine, salt, and soy sauce. Oil the wok and stir fry until the meat changes color from pink to light brown. Take out of wok and store in the refrigerator. 

Cooking

1. Turn cooktop to High. Heat the wok. Once the wok is heated, add the oil, and wait for the oil to heat up as well. 
2. First add the shredded carrots and start stirring until the carrots soak up most of the oil.
3. Then add the prepared pork into the wok. Keep stirring in the process. Finally, put in the green beans. Add water. Put the cap on the wok. Wait for a minute or two. Add the salt, soy sauce, and sugar and keep stirring until desired crispiness. When the green beans become more vibrant in color, they are ready. 
4. Optional: When the green beans are ready, add a little bit of pickled mustard into the wok and stir fry super quickly.
5. Pour contents onto a plate and serve!

Notes: My grandma likes to make a little hole in the middle of the dish for presentation purposes.

A Self Portrait: Six Months

I dislike drawing self portraits (or collections surrounding self portraits, unless you have an extremely distinctive look) because it either ends up similar to other portraits, or a super cliche way to express how you feel. However, with my baby pictures, I feel a slight detachment to them. I know as common knowledge that it is me, but I don't feel anything when I see the pictures. I have no idea what I was thinking or feeling at that time. I didn't even know the picture was being taken. I think that detachment leaves room for exploration and a good opportunity to draw non-adult proportioned faces.

Sometimes I wish I still had that mohawk! 

Foodspiration: Siggi's Icelandic Skyr

I was in Whole Foods dairy section, and I literally couldn't find any yogurt that had less than 20g of sugar in a serving. In my frustration, I finally stumbled upon Siggi's Icelandic Skyr, and decided to give it a try.

The first reaction I had upon trying this was WOW THIS IS SO THICK, and it's hard to eat in large quantities. You have to savor the flavors in your mouth. I tried the ginger orange (or orange ginger?) and loved the feel of real ingredients inside, but thought that the ginger was a little bit too overpowering (especially because I was consuming it on a hot summer's day).

I think I'm definitely going to keep going with Siggi's because of its low sugar content and all the health benefits (see here) of the different cultures in the yogurt. I was also super inspired by their beautiful story, starting out small in a farmers market and now taking over the world! Well, if not the world, my stomach at least. I really want to have a stand in farmer's market and influence healthy food culture someday, so this makes me hopeful. (:

The price is a little high, but it has the content to make up for it. I'm just wondering if plain yogurt with my own fruit toppings could match up with this lack of sugar?

Art Inspiration: Anthropologie Window Display

I have basically stopped shopping, but I had to go to Santana Row yesterday because the rest of my family enjoys walking around the area.

What caught my eye was the window display art at Anthropologie! They're so beautiful. 

My mom hiding in the corner! The reflective glass creates a cool effect, but makes the art harder to see.

I love the use of the drip technique that allows the 3D string to flow and continue the unity within the piece. Mix of textures (contrast with thin paint and thick cloth attachment) and bright colors (orange/blue/green) make this piece pop!

"Red Face": A Short Story

“Red Face”

            The flavor of fluoride mint toothpaste in my mouth as I brushed my teeth this morning conjured up childhood memories of none other than my fourth and fifth grade orchestra teacher, Mr. Picardo.

            He looked like the kind of person who might’ve worked as a Santa Clause in a two-bit mall on his days off. His greying hair lay thick on his head down to his impressive beard. It was clear that he rarely shaved and, his rounded belly bulged past the buckle of his black leather belt. After we squeaked D and F scales out of our violins, “Smashing,” he would reply sonorously, with a hint of sarcasm mediated by an eye-wrinkling smile. It seemed like he was always in tune with the music, his arms and head bobbling with the beat as he conducted.

            I don’t remember the color of his eyes, grey perhaps or green, I never really paid attention. Most of what I did notice was that his cheeks blazed with color, like he was constantly blushing, but never embarrassed. “Why is your face so red?” my classmates and I would ask, brimming with playful curiosity.

            He stopped for a moment and feigned innocence, “What? My face isn’t red…”

            “Yes, it is!” we continued.

            “Well, that’s normal, isn’t it? Why aren’t your faces red?” His gaze shifted and indicated that we should go back to playing Hot Cross Buns. He scratched his salmon skin under his blue Hawaiian shirt with his pudgy, weathered fingers and readjusted his legs. He was that kind of guy; the crazy Hawaiian shirt and acid wash jeans kind of guy.

            “Haha, nobody else’s face is like yours!” We giggled and, like the elementary schoolers we were, started running around him teasing, “Red Face! Red Face!”

            He chuckled a few times, shrugging it off and unsteadily asked us to come closer, “Alright, alright everyone. Janna, practice your bow form, and the rest of you need start practicing Hot Cross Buns for the Fall Concert.” But as soon as he opened his mouth, the room filled with an uncomfortable odor like fermented saliva. I held my breath and tried not to breathe when I was near him. Suddenly, somebody broke the silent thought in everyone’s minds.

            “Mr. Picardo, your breath STINKS!” she exclaimed, smirking because even though the stale smell was indeed terrible, we still looked upon him with unwavering admiration. He was our funnily sardonic, always enthusiastic orchestra teacher after all. All the kids loved Mr. Picardo for his openness, his droll disposition, but the other teachers seemed to keep a steady distance away from him. Perhaps it was the smell, we thought.

            It isn’t until now that I realize his habits and appearance embodied one of an obvious alcoholic. Yet, why does my growing maturity bring upon such instant judgment? Why does the label “an alcoholic” seem to say something about his entire being, not simply a part of his life that he might’ve struggled with?

At the time, I only understood that it was Mr. Picardo who taught me what each string on the violin was and what rosin was for, gave me an enthusiasm for music and helped me string together tunes from a collection of broken notes. Now, what runs through my mind isn’t how well he taught scales or conducted our concerts, but rather why he drank the way he did, how he became an elementary school music teacher (maybe he couldn’t make it in the music world), and how many bottles of wine he would consume when he wasn’t teaching us – none of which has anything to do with how he treated me.
I am nineteen, technically a legal adult, but I think I saw people more clearly when I was nine.

I hope you enjoyed this true story from my elementary days. 

J.Crew Diversifies Summer 2014 Catalog!

When I was browsing through the J.Crew Catalog, I was really surprised to see an Asian male model for the Men's section. It's nice to see J.Crew being more progressive about hiring different races and ethnicities, effectively rejecting the unsexy Asian male stereotype.

look at that little eyebrow raise ;)

I was trying to look up who he was, but couldn't find it. So, who is this man? I guess there is a pretty great incentive for stores such as J.Crew to diversify their catalog. With still mostly white models, the brand extends their consumer base while retaining their original customers. With an awareness of this, I looked at LLBean's catalog and literally everyone was white. I saw one African American in the entire catalog and that was it. As an American brand, I would really think that they would try to at least embrace diversity somewhat.

Fashion often runs the fine line between celebrating different ethnicities and cultural appropriation/reinforcing stereotypes, but I think J.Crew does a good job in this instance. I would like to see more Indian or indigenous models in the near future, as they often get even less coverage in fashion and are more stigmatized in society. 

Super Lean and Green Smoothie

Health Overload

Green everything!

Ingredients

1 Pear (Bartlett)

1/2 Cucumber

1/2 Avocado

1 cup Kale

3 leaves of Mint

1/2 cup Water

1/2 cup Apple Juice (not exactly green)

and blend her up!

For more sweetness, add more pear and apple juice. I would add probably 2 pears next time, just to neutralize the stronger flavor of the cucumber.