Banana Bread Recipe

Ingredients
1 stick of butter, melted (1/2 cup)
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sour cream or plain Greek yogurt
3 ripe bananas, mashed
Optional: chocolate chips, walnuts 



Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F.  Grease or spray a 9-inch loaf pan.

Whisk together the melted butter and sugars.  Add eggs one at a time, and then add vanilla.  Whisk until smooth.  Add flour, baking soda, and salt and mix until combined.  Fold in mashed bananas and sour cream/yogurt.  (Add any optional mix-ins, like chocolate chips and walnuts.)  Pour batter into pan and bake 60 minutes or until crust is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Chocolate Mint Chip Cookies

I love the chocolate-mint combination, and one of my favorite chocolate mint candies is Andes.  So I decided to make chocolate chocolate chip cookies and stuff them with Andes.  But below I've included a chocolate mint chip recipe, and you can obviously substitute and work in any variations to your liking.  Enjoy!



Ingredients
1 cup butter (2 sticks), cold and cut into small cubes
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups mint flavored chips

Instructions
Preheat oven to 360°F.  Cream butter and sugar for ~4 minutes until smooth.  Add eggs one at a time, mixing well.  Add vanilla.  Stir in flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt.  Stir in chocolate chips and mint chips.  Drop large spoonfuls onto cookie shoot lined with parchment paper.  Bake for 10-14 minutes.

*I skipped the mint chips and instead stuffed one piece of Andes chocolate inside each cookie.

Green Tea Shortbread Cookies Recipe

It's almost Christmas, and I'm in holiday baking mode.  However, I personally don't like sugar cookies and frosting, so I decided to make green tea cookies for my "green," festive cookie contribution.  As a chocolate lover, I also spread Nutella on the bottom of each cookie and made them into matcha-Nutella cookie sandwiches.  Get creative!



Ingredients
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons unsweetened green tea powder (matcha)
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon almond extract or vanilla extract

Instructions
Cream together butter and sugar until smooth, then add almond extract.  In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt, and matcha and add to the butter mixture.  Lightly roll out the dough and shape into 2 discs.  Chill the dough for an hour or two in the refrigerator, or until completely firm.

When ready, roll out the dough to desired thickness (~1/8 inch) on a floured board.  Cut with cookie cutters into desired shape.  Arrange on parchment paper-lined baking sheets.

Bake in a preheated 325°F oven for about 15 minutes for smaller cookies, or until lightly golden at the edges.

Noodles 101

I've been eating and posting a lot of Instagram pictures of (Asian) noodles lately, and it's certainly given me an even greater appreciation for the vast variety in existence.  Any avid noodle lover will have tried an extensive menu of noodle dishes, and if anyone else is like me, we tend to think and talk more about the dishes we like (e.g., cold sesame noodles, dan dan noodles, beef noodle soup, pho, ramen, etc.) than about the type of noodle that was used.


Given that there are so many variations of the noodle itself, I thought it would be helpful to do a brief "Noodles 101."  Not only are their different ingredients (e.g., wheat vs. rice noodles), noodles obviously also come in all shapes and sizes and can be produced a number of different ways (pulled, cut, peeled, extruded, etc.).  Each combination results in a unique flavor and textural profile that lends itself to be better enjoyed in certain types of dishes versus others.  Of course, much is also left to personal preference; I remember frequenting a Lan Zhou noodle shop in Los Angeles as a kid, and besides selecting the dish/sauce, you could also select the thickness of the noodle, which could be anything from angel hair thin to the width of a belt (that size noodle was literally named "belt" at this restaurant). 


As for me, I am a fan of fat wheat noodles because I love the chewiness.  In NYC, places that have good hand-pulled, wide noodles include Xi'an Famous Foods, Very Fresh Noodles inside Chelsea Market, and Lam Zhou Noodles.  No surprise, I also like udon more than ramen, and if a ramen joint ever offers the option to choose your noodle, I will always go with the wavy, chewy noodles over the straight, thin ones.


Anyway, below is a quick summary of some of the most common types of noodles.  The list is by no means comprehensive, but I hope it gives a good overview of the noodle landscape.  In general, northern Chinese cuisines tend to be starchier (think buns and thicker wheat noodles) while southern China has more delicate foods (e.g., soup dumplings/other thin skinned dumplings).  Southern China is also more rice heavy (think of all the rice paddies), so you'll find more rice noodles there (e.g., Yunnan mixian).

Hamilton

Ah, Hamilton, the show everyone's been raving about, and one that I managed to see without risk of missing out on if I didn't go pronto.  (Although that's really because of a lucky accident; a friend of a friend had tickets and could no longer make it, so my husband snatched them for us.  Lucky me!)

A few takeaways:

1. Yes, it was as amazing as advertised and totally lived up to the hype.
2. However, I'll admit it was not love at first sight, and it took me halfway through the first act before I fell into the groove.
3. A big part of the appeal is how unique Hamilton is from every other show I've seen.  It may be an old story, but it's put together in a very modern way...part of which is hip hop. That's also why it took me a while to get into it; I'm not a big hip hop person, and so many lyrics were rapped/sung very quickly, which requires great concentration and hearing to be able to catch what they're saying/singing.  I definitely missed a lot of the lyrics.
• Advice -- listen to the soundtrack before going.
4. I would love to go back and see it again.  There were so many witty moments that I'm sure would be better appreciated the second or third or nth time around (and not just because I missed some lyrics either).
5. Because so much of it is rapped and not traditionally melodic, I don't have as many songs stuck in my head like I normally do.  The exception is the funny King George songs.  Not a bad thing; just an observation.  And btw, I quite liked the sarcastic, ironic, British humor in those King George parts.
6. And finally, what a great refresher on history in a fun way!

Miss Saigon

I seem to have developed a bad habit of procrastinating until the last minute to see Broadway shows, barely squeezing them in before they close.  That was the case for Les Mis, American in Paris, and now again for Miss Saigon.  Well, better late than never.

Unlike many of the other musicals I've seen, I was not too familiar with either the music or the story of Miss Saigon initially -- I never played any of the music in high school orchestra, and the story is not widely referenced or known in pop culture.  However, a good friend of mine walked down the aisle to an instrumental version of "Sun and Moon" a few years ago, and I immediately fell in love.  I became even more obsessed when I learned that Queen Lea Salonga was the original Kim.

Here, just listen:

You're welcome.

Anyway, long story short, I was super ecstatic when about a year ago, I saw signs in Times Square announcing the return of Miss Saigon to Broadway.  I foolishly thought I'd have a lot of time to go see it; fast forward a year later...I found out the show's ending in January 2018 and then scrambled to get tickets.

Miss Saigon is one of those shows where there aren't that many songs (rather, many songs are based on just a few of the same melodies/themes), but they're all beautiful and lyrical and touching and emotionally charged, whether it's a sweet love song or an angry fight.  I enjoyed the show just for the experience of listening to the music and didn't even care that the current cast may not all be the strongest singers (then again, who can compare to Lea?).  Some of my friends felt that there wasn't much plot or character development in the first act (there isn't; you just jump in and assume the love story is a given), but the second act makes up for some of the plot holes, and I think you still go on an emotional journey with the characters if you just accept the plot line.

Overall, I'm so glad I managed to see it.  For those in NYC, you have about another month before the show ends here, and then it's going on a national tour for those of you in the rest of the U.S.