Jun
7

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Chicken Gizzard Appertizer Recipe

Category: Recipes Tags: , , Leave a Comment

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This is a double boiled recipe.20160607_113858[1] 20160607_085105[1] 20160607_085428[1] 20160607_085816[1] 20160607_110513[1] 20160607_113350[1]

  1. Check and clean the gizards if necessary
  2. Boil the gizards with 1 cup of red wine, (cabernet sauvignon was used in this article) and water, enough to submerge the gizzards. A dutcht oven is recommended. for 1 hour with medium heat
  3. Pour the gizards into a strainer, rinse the gizzards.
  4. Pour 1 cup of chicken broth, and 2 cups of water into the empty pot or dutch oven. Add a cup of slides onion, 1 crushed garlic, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of siracha, 1 teaspoon of peper and 1 table spoon of brown sugar. Bring it to a boil
  5. add the gizzards back to the pot/dutch oven. Boil the gizzards with low heat for 2 hours, until the liquid is evaporated.

Jun
30

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Binh Dan Restaurant

Category: Food in Little Saigon 1 Comment

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This is one of my favorite restaurants in Little Saigon. This quan nhau is specialized in goat meat (thit de), but other dishes are good as well. Some of my favorite dishes are goat curry, grilled goat chops, long heo luoc, tiet canh de and lau de.

If you like Vietnamese food that go with beers, you should check this restaurant out.

tiet canh de 20150618_130853 long heo dat biet menu

Jun
29

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Flying Car – fully testing reality

Category: FYI, video clips Leave a Comment

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The AeroMobil 3.0 can fly up to 124 mph for 430 miles  with a full tank. On land, its fuel consumption is 29mpg.  It will be on sale in 2017 and the price will be several hundred thousand dollars.

Jun
20

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Top 5 drought tolerant shrubs for OC homeowners

Category: FYI, Home and Garden 1 Comment

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If you decide not to water your lawn this summer and plants drought tolerant trees in October, you should consider the following 5 native California shrubs.

1- Lemonadeberry (scientific name: Rhus integrifolia) lemonade-berry

  • bloom period: February to May
  • preference: sun/dry
  • edible: berry is edible and can be used for  lemonade
  • height: 3′
  • other information: evergreen shrub
  • More photos on google.com

2- California Honeysuckle (Lonicera hispidula) california-honeysuckle

  • bloom period: May to August
  • preference: sun/moist to shade/dry
  • height: 1′
  • edible: fruit is edible
  • humming bird: attract humming bird
  • other information: climbing deciduous shrub
  • More photos on google

3- Bladder Pod (Isomeris arborea) bladder-pod-shrub

  • bloom period: most of the year
  • preference: sun/dry
  • height: 4′ to 7′
  • edible: fruit is edible
  • other information: evergreen shrub; flame retardant; found only in California
  • More photos of Bladder Pod on google images

4- Purple Sage (Salvia leucophylla) purple-sage

  • bloom period: April to July
  • preference: sun/dry
  • height: 4′ to 8′
  • edible: fruit has fragance and is edible
  • other information: foliage has fragance and edible; can only be found in California
  • More photos on Google

5- Sugar Bush (Rhus ovata) sugar bush shrub

  • bloom period: April to May
  • preference: sun/dry
  • height: grow to 10′
  • edible: fruit is edible
  • other information: evergreen shrub; mainly in California with some in Arizona and Baja California
  • More photos on Google.com

Nurseries

In Orange county, we googled and found two nurseries that carry California native plants:

If you know any other nursery in SoCal, please let us know we will update the list.

Links

  • Native Plants of the Palos Verdes Peninsula that are Suitable for Gardens – http://sccnps.org/plants-of-local-interest
  • California-Friendly Guide to Native and Drought Tolerant Garden – http://www.lvmwd.com/home/showdocument?id=711
  • Wikipedia list of California Native Plants – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_California_native_plants

Jun
19

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Văn Phòng Luật Sư Đỗ Hiếu Liêm

Category: FYI, Tax-and-Legal, Uncategorized 2 Comments

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IMG_20150619_143523 IMG_20150619_143552 IMG_20150619_143603

Jun
13

By

This video makes you laugh and smile

Category: video clips 1 Comment

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Watching 2 little girls practicing Judo; they are so cute! From youtube.com

Jun
11

By

DIY – How to trap mosquitoes and flies

Category: FYI Leave a Comment

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You do not need to buy chemical products. With a plastic bottle, and common ingredients, you can create a trap.

Jun
7

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Top 10 Pho Restaurant in OC

Category: Food in Little Saigon, Pho Leave a Comment

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Pho at Pho Quang Trung

Pho at Pho Quang Trung

Each of us may have our own top 10 list of Pho restaurants in Little Saigon. OC Weekly created a top 10 list of pho restaurants four years ago, 11/26/11. Look at the following list and let us know which restaurants you want to replace, because you may agree with some of the restaurant

  1. Pho Thank Lich
  2. Pho Quang Trung
  3. Pho Da Kao
  4. Pho Nguyen Hue
  5. Pho 86
  6. Pho 79
  7. Pho Vinh Ky II
  8. Pho Cali
  9. Pho Kim Loan
  10. Pho Hien Vuong

Personally, I would replace the Pho Vink Ky II with Pho Thang Long. Also I would rank Pho Thanh Lick lower than Pho 79, Pho Nguyen Hue, and Pho 86.

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Apr
11

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Would California convert sea water to drinking water?

Category: FYI Leave a Comment

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I tried to google about this topic this morning and my finding is as follows:sea water greenhouse

  • It may not be at a large scale but it is happening
  • desalination projects are only one of many efforts that California takes on to free itselft from drought-depedent water sources

While tradition desalination process consumes significant energy and thus is expensive. Newer desalination methods needs much less  enerny. An article on 360.yale.edu by Cheryl Katz shows Trevi Systems use a method called “energy skimping desalination”. This method use 1/4 of the energy and can be driven by solar energy. Trevis Systems is part of a Bay Area start up. A pilot plant of Trevis System is being built in United Arab Emirates “to desalinate seawater”, using solar energy.

Trevi Systems can also be used to desalinate sewage water:
“can economically cleanse brackish groundwater, industrial effluent, and other forms of liquid waste”

A desalination project is being tested t in California’s agricultural Central Valley. It uses parabolic solar mirrors and captures water evaporates.

The largest desalination plant in the US will be in operation in early 2016. It will produce up to 50 millions gallon of drinkable water a day, using Isrealis technology. Santa Barbara restart its desalination plant, which passed a pilot test in the 90’s

There are other smaller projects that are in planning stages. Desalination research projects are also thriving at MIT, UC Berkeley, University of Texas and Standford. These research may result in new implementations in California in the near future.

Links

  • http://e360.yale.edu/feature/new_desalination_technologies_spur_growth_in_recycling_water/2770/
  • http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-02-13/israel-desalination-shows-california-not-to-fear-drought
  • http://www.cm.utexas.edu/news/new-method-of-seawater-desalination-developed
  • http://microfluidics.stanford.edu/News_media%20pdfs/p57-59_Juan_Santiago.pdf
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desalination

 

Jan
17

By

10 Vietnamese dishes you must try before you die.

Category: Food in Little Saigon, FYI 2 Comments

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I choose to write this article in English because I imagine that many individuals around the world may have this question in mind. This is my personal list and you can use the comment field to express your list. Over time, we can combine into a popular list of 10, if we have enough responses.

Gỏi Cuốn – Spring roll

This dish can be made at home. If you can buy fresh pork belly and fresh shrimp, it will be delicious.

Here is a photo and recipe from HungryHuy.com

goi cuon/spring roll photo

Bánh xèo

This dish was prepared at my grandmother home on special occasions. Van restaurant in Little Saigon is where we go to for Banh Xeo

Here is a picture and recipe on iamnotthenanny.com by Thien Kim Lam

Chả giò

Here are some recipes. For old school you must use rice paper, not springroll wrapper.

cha gio

Bò bảy món

Thien An or Anh Hong are the 2 restaurants in Little Saigon that we take our visitors to.

this photo is on http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4027/4223507846_ec354274e1.jpg

Chả cá Thăng Long

This photo is on http://mmm-yoso.typepad.com/mmmyoso/images/2007/08/23/ha_noi_015.jpg

Cha ca thang long

Canh chua cá và cá kho tộ

Image on flicker

canh chua ca kho to

Tôm kho tàu

This photo is on http://thucooking.info/giant-tiger-prawns-vietnamese-tom-kho-tau/ and I think this chef made it pretty good. If the shrimp is fresh, it will be so good.

tom kho tau

Bì

You can try this as in

  • cơm tấm bì
  • bánh bèo bì
  • bánh mì bì

Com tam at Com Tam Dat Thanh RestaurantMy favorite place is Com Tam Dat Thanh

Bún bò Huế

Some homemade bun bo hue are quite better than in the dish in a restaurant. There are a few restaurants in Little Saigon that you can try: Vy Da, Saigon Deli or Bun Bo Hue So 1

saigon-deli-pho-cong-ly

Lẩu dê hầm thuốc bắc

You can try this one at Phuong Hoang Restaurant in Little Saigon California, my favorite place for this dish. If you attemp this at home you have to buy goat mutton and make sure you include skin and bone, to be authentic

lau de ham thuoc bac

What is your list

I will add more info to this article soon. Please use the comment section and let me know your list.

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