Wolverine CuiZine

When you tell people that you’re a college student, the first few images that come to mind are probably:

1. Beer

2. Instant Noodles

3. More Instant Noodles

4. Caffeine

For some reason, it seems to be a little difficult for people to believe that college students can cook real food. It might be even harder to believe that college students can cook well.

Well, I proudly prove these beliefs wrong with my discovery of Wolverine CuiZine.

Wolverine CuiZine is a newly opened food-related blog/webzine/magazine that opened at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (aka, my Uni). The blog is manned by students who, like you and I, love food. I discovered the blog one day when I was walking out of a computer lab and actually paused to write the contact information down on my arm in pen!

CuiZine covers a variety of topics and doesn’t focus on cooking only. The blog team also covers various food-related events on, or close to, campus, such as the Ann Arbor farmer market, as well as restaurant reviews and segments on eating healthy.

Despite it being a fledgling club/blog, CuiZine welcomes everyone as long as they like food. Even though I had only just contacted the editors of the blog, I was immediately and warmly invited to a potluck CuiZine was hosting on  campus.

For you parents with children in University or college, CuiZine just goes to show that Instant Noodles aren’t the only method of surviving. With reader-friendly posts, Wolverine CuiZine offers “College Food 101″ to all those who visit its pages.

A photo taken by Cathy Fan when Wolverine CuiZine bloggers visited the Farmer's Market

Pork Wraps

So I had a friend staying the night and I told her I’d make dinner for her and one of my roommates, Maggie. When I asked the visiting friend, Mikuni, what she’d like for dinner, she replied with “Asian food!” and, surprise surprise!, I made Asian (style) food.

I’ve tried these pork wraps before, and they aren’t particularly difficult except for when you’re actually combining everything together into the final piece. My previous attempt also included cooking everything all at once together, but I’ve learned my lesson…that isn’t that easy and it’s just darn difficult!

Luckily, I’ve learned from my mistakes, and here is now an easier-to-make and maybe even tastier version of the wraps from the past (hey it rhymes!…kind of)

Apple and Breaded Chicken Salad with Homemade Peanut Dressing

I think salads might just be one of the easiest college meals ever. All you have to do is wash and cut (or bake, depending on what you want), and it’s relatively healthy if your dressing is made with the proper ingredients. You can also adjust the flavor to fit what you need and want, so it’s nearly 100% customizable.

In other words, make what you want and eat what you want, without the guilt that normally comes from doing either or both.

My guilt-free meal came in the form of a large salad with fresh ingredients after a few hours of grocery shopping.

Tempura Tofu Nuggets

Midterms are terrribleeee! Some people say that college/university is the best time of your life, but exams really makes me have doubts about that -laugh-.

But I’m finally on Fall Break! That means I can cook!

So, this time, I thought I’d try tempura tofu. I’d been to a Japanese restaurant with some friends the other day, and I had some pretty good tempura yam, and I suddenly thought, “Wouldn’t tempura silken tofu be awesome? Crispy on the outside but soft (and maybe even custard-like) on the inside?” And besides, we can’t really deny it–almost anything deep-fried tastes good.

As a warning, this post is a bit long (some more text than usual), but it has a lot of tips with dealing with silken tofu when you’re trying to deep fry it.

Freezer Dinner Lo Mai Gai (糯米鸡)

This is my version of a  frozen computer (because I don’t have a TV) dinner.

Unlike most of the food I have here in the blog, this wasn’t made by me (except the steamed vegetables). This is made, with love, from my parents back in California before I came back here in the beginning of September for school.

Burmese Soba Noodle Salad

Well, it’s a new school year and I’ve been trying to adjust to the new stove and trying to readjust to the equipment (or lack of) here.

This morning I was struck with a sudden craving for my mom’s semi-famous Burmese Noodle Salad. It’s pretty popular with my cousins, especially on my mom’s side where her generation immigrated for Burma/Myanmar.

It really brings back memories of home (now that I’m stuck back in Michigan) but it’s quite a bit of work (that I sort of skipped out on here…).

Joy Sushi

My friend and I went out for sushi the other day and, well, it was pretty darn good!

I’ve never done a restaurant review before, but since I haven’t been cooking lately (after another shredded nail), I figured this was a better way to update my blog. : ]

Joy Sushi’s located at the edges of San Mateo’s downtown and is a bit “out there” in terms of restaurants. Less people walk this area compared to the other restaurants, which is a bit of a shame since Joy Sushi has a very unique menu that pays tribute to San Mateo’s features. Despite this though, it seems as if the restaurant has managed to get its name out there to customers since the ground floor was rather occupied and the top floor was about half occupied.

Joy Sushi, obviously, specializes in Japanese food. They have the standard temaki (handrolls), sushi, and bento, but, if you go to this restaurant, it probably should be for their specialty sushi rolls. As I mentioned before, a lot of San Mateo’s local specialties are featured. It was pretty amusing to see a “Caltrain roll” or a “2nd Ave roll” on the menu, and my friend and I had a lot of trouble trying to figure out which was the best to try from the sheer variety offered by the menu. In the end, we managed to settle on three type of sushi.

Stuffed Yam Boats

It doesn’t make much sense to me when people are told not play with food. I mean, if what we food bloggers are doing isn’t considered “playing with food”, then what exactly are we doing? I mean, I’m turning 20 this year, and I still make noises (when no one’s looking or listening) when I’m trying to swallow a spoonful of mystery glop.

The point is not that I’m extremely childish (although that may be the case), or that I’m actually a nutcase that can only be fed liquids (which is not so much, but also possibly, the case). The point is, playing with food actually makes the food more enjoyable, regardless of age. Kids love eating those mashed peas and beef when it comes zooming at them and “crash lands” in their teethless mouths. Adults would probably love a chocolate-sculpted airplane that could fly into their mouths and save them the effort of reaching into the chocolate jar.

Which, sort of, leads me to these sweet potato boats I made one day.

It’s amazing how few savory yam recipes exist out there. Thus, this is mostly my invention. It’s amazingly simple and is good enough when you need something simple and fairly healthy.

Yikes!

Yikes!

Sorry about the long hiatus everyone! It was unannounced (and sort of unexpected). The truth is I’ve been busy looking for summer jobs and such. But besides that, I was cooking until my mom practically asked me to stop. (lol!)

She didn’t actually ask me to stop, but she has shown that she doesn’t really like my foods. She’s  a person who overwhelmingly prefers Chinese food, which is my dad’s specialty, so I’ve been going to the basics (which I never actually did) and was working on sharpening my knife skills (excuse the pun) and other basic kitchen skills.

I was feeling good about myself until I nearly cut off a nail with a meat cleaver some time ago and have been a bit apprehensive about picking up a knife again. But I persevered, and will probably be doing a dump of photos and recipes soon since my mom’s left to visit relatives.

Thanks for the comments that were left during the hiatus! I’m working on making it up to you all!

But meanwhile, anyone else want to share their scary kitchen experiences? I remember once how a boiling kettle of water (somehow) caught on fire in our kitchen. As shocking and frightening as it was, it looked pretty cool…

Kabocha Curry

I was asked by a friend if anyone actually reads this. -laughs-

I suppose a normal person would respond, “Of course people read this! There are comments, aren’t there?”

But then seconds later, I confessed, “Well, even I don’t really read the words…I just like looking at the pictures…”

And it’s true…I’m a food pornist, through and through.

Today’s food porn involves leftover Kabocha, curry and the surprise ingredient…coffee. Yes, that’s right. I made curried frappucino.

Just kidding. It was just a bit of coffee in the curry.