Clam Mushroom Risotto and Clam Chowder

Wow, it's been a long time since I've last took time to do some cooking. I have to admit, I've been quite spoiled by my hubby as he's done most the cooking as of late.  Today, he was out with his guy friends for most of the day (golfing) so I decided to make an effort in making something good for dinner.

Clam Mushroom Risotto

1 cup of large frozen clams (or a can of clams, drained)
2 cans of chicken broth
half cup dry white wine
half onion, ciced
1 cup arborio rice
3 tbsp macadamia garlic oil (or olive oil)
1 cup of chopped mushroom
1-2 triangle of laughing cow
1-2 tsp thyme (dried or fresh)
salt
pepper

Heat the chicken broth in a medium saucepan and keep warm over low heat.

In a large saute pan over medium heat, add 1 tbsp of oil.  Add onion - stir and cook until it's translucent.  Add fresh mushroom and thyme.  Saute for 3-5 minutes until lightly brown. Season with salt and pepper.  Transfer to a bowl.

In the same large saute pan, add 2 tbsp of oil.  Add the rice and stir quickly until it is well-coated.  Stir in the wine and cook until it is nearly evaporated.  With a ladle, add 1 scoop of broth into the saute pan.  Continue to cook and stir, allowing the rice to absorb the broth.  Once majority of the broth has been absorbed, add more broth, 1 ladle at a time.  Repeat until the broth has been used up.  Once the rice looks creamy and is still slightly firm (not mushy), add the onion and mushroom mixture as well as the clam.  Stir in the laughing cow.  Once everything has been mixed in, the risotto can be served.

 


Clam Chowder
1 cup of large frozen clam (or 1 can of cans, drained)
1 can of clam nectar/juice
2 cups of milk
2 tsp oil
2 tbsp of bacon fat (or butter)
1-2 tbsp of flour
half onion, diced
3 stalks of celery, diced
1 carrot, diced
2 slices of bacon, diced
1 potato, chopped and cooked
1-2 tsp basil (dried or fresh)
salt
pepper

In a pot, heat oil over medium heat.  Add onion and saute until translucent.  Add carrot and celery.  Saute for about 3-5 minutes. Then add bacon.  Saute for another 2-3 minutes.  Remove from heat and transfer to a bowl.

In the same pot over medium heat, add bacon fat or butter. Add flour to create a roue.  The mixture should be a thick liquid but not pasty.  Let the fat cook the flour until slightly brown.  Add clam juice while still stirring.  As the clam juice thickens, add milk - continue to stir.  Add basil and potato and let soup simmer for about 10 minutes on low-med heat, stir occasionally. Lastly, add the onion mixture and salt and pepper to taste.

Dinner - a success! Everything turned out well and now I'm satisfied :)

Lazy egg tarts

Potluck with friends - what to bring? Egg tarts!  The lazy way is to not make the shells from scratch and only make the filling.

Ingredients:
store bought tart shells
3 eggs
3 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
1-2 tsp of vanilla extract
1 can of evaporated milk (354 ml)
150ml milk
1 tsp cornstarch

Preheat oven to 400F. Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla extract.  Add most of the milk - leave a bit to use for dissolving the cornstarch. Mix the cornstarch into remaining milk. Pour cornstarch mixture into egg mixture and beat.  Divide the egg mixture into the tart shells and bake for about 15-20 min or until tart shells are brown.

Makes about 2 dozen egg tarts

Banana-Avocado Bread

What do you do when you have an abundance of ripe avocado and banana? Combine them together to make banana avocado bread.

Well, I'm not too sure how this will turn out but basically use the avocado as kind of a butter substitute and use a basic banana bread recipe.  In theory it sounds good and a bit healthier too...but we shall see.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp butter (unsalted)
1 ripe avocado
1/4 cup applesauce
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
2-3 ripe bananas (mashed)
3 tbsp milk
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 350F. Cream butter, sugar, applesauce and avocado. Add vanilla extract, milk and eggs. Beat until well mixed.  With a spatula, mix in the mashed bananas.  In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda and salt. Gently fold in the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and until fully combined.

Pour the mixture into a bread loaf pan or into muffin tins.  Bake for about 1 hour or until the top springs back when you press it.

 

*Verdict - they turned out quite nicely.  Can't taste the avocado but still moist and yummy.

Eggnog Chai Cookies

Christmas is by far my favourite time of the year. It's also the time for baking and hosting turkey dinners :) One new recipe I tried this year is the Eggnog Cookies.  Basically use a regular cookie batter and substitute milk/water with eggnog.

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 bags chai tea leaves (optional)
1.5 cup butter (softened at room temperature)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
2/3 cups eggnog

for the Glaze - 
3 Tbsp eggnog
1.5 cups icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone mat.  Mix together flour, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg. Cut open both bags of chai tea and add the tea leaves to the dry ingredients.  In a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time as you continue to mix. Add vanilla extract.  Add flour and eggnog alternately to the butter mixture - mix until fully incorporated. Use a scoop or tablespoon to scoop the the cookie dough onto the baking sheet. Chill in the fridge for about 10-15 min.  Then bake in the oven for about 15 min or until the edges start to brown.  Let the cookies cool on a cooling rack. Decorate the top with glaze once the cookies have cooled down and serve.

To make the glaze - whisk together eggnog and icing sugar.  You can either spread the glaze on the cookie or use a fork and drip the glaze over the cookies to form patterns.

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Meatball Variation

So, since I haven't made a post in a long time, I figure I should write something.  Hubby had friends over for dinner and I had a craving for meatballs.  In the past, I made a post about my Spaghetti and Meatballs.  I definitely stayed true to most of the ingredients there with a few minor tweaks.

Ingredients:
approx 1lb lean ground beef
3 eggs
1-2 Tbsp Italian Seasoning (mix of rosemary, garlic, basil, oregano, marjoram)
1-2 tsp seasoning salt
crushed crackers (about 10-15 crackers)
chopped cilantro (for colour and taste)
1/2 cup shredded cheese

Preheat oven to 375F. Mix all the ingredients, roll them into balls (any size depending on your preference) and bake in the oven for about 15-20 min.  By baking in the oven at high temperature, it guarantees the meatballs are cooked so there is no need to cook them some more in the pasta sauce.

Next experiment with meatballs - add some wine? onions? peppers? mushrooms? ah, the wonders of choices and experimentation :)

Wonton Soup

Comfort food for me is anything with soup.  I love soup :)  A couple weeks ago I felt like having wonton so I finally found the energy to make them after being sick for 2 weeks.

Ingredients:
1 lb ground pork
1-2 sprigs of green onion - minced
4 suey choy leaves - diced
3 shitake mushroom - diced
1 tbsp ginger powder
2-3 tbsp rice wine or cooking wine
2 tbsp soy sauce
1-2 tsp white pepper
1 pack of wonton wrappers

Soup:
1 can of chicken stock
2 cans of water
chopped suey choy
salt for taste

In a mixing bowl, combine all the filling ingredients together (except for the wonton wrapper). Take 1 wonton wrapper and place it on  your palm. Using your other hand, scoop a heaping teaspoon of filling into the centre of the wrapper. Moisten the edges of the wrapper.  Fold up the corner of one end to meet the other corner to form a triangle.  Then push the side corners to meet the top corners. Press to seal. Repeat with remaining wontons until filling has been used up.

Boil water in a pot and cook wontons for about 10 min or when the wontons float.  In a separate pot, make the soup - add all the soup ingredients. Simmer for about 15 min.

Serve wonton in soup!

Moules et Frites

I know, it's been more than a month since my last post - what can I say...hubby's been spoiling me by cooking all the meals.

Today, I had to make dinner since hubby had to ref for a couple of hockey games.  He wanted mussels and bought this huge container from Costco (about 5 lbs worth) for just $12!  What a feast :)

Mussels:
Ingredients
1/2 large onion - diced
4-5 cloves of garlic -diced or crushed
3 strips of bacon - cut into pieces
dried thyme
dried parsley
1 dried whole chili
1 can of chicken broth
1/2 cup of chopped carrots
2-3 tsp of fish sauce
2-3 tsp of lemon juice (or lime juice)
1 can coconut milk
white wine (optional)
mussels

Turn on the stove to med-high. In a large stock pot, place bacon and let it fry for a bit. Add garlic and fry for 30 sec or so. Then add onion. Let them simmer for about a minute.  Add thyme, parsley and chili.  Add chicken broth and carrots.  Turn heat down to low-med and simmer for about 10-15 min.  Add fish sauce, lemon juice and coconut milk and turn heat back up to med-high.  Just before adding in the mussels, put white wine (amount at your discretion). Once mussels are in, cover the pot for about 5 min.  When you lift the pot lid and most of the mussel shells have opened, the mussels are done.  Scoop up mussels and broth and serve!

For the fries, we just used store bought frozen ones and baked them.

Lots of leftovers but oh so yummy :)

Bowl of mussels

Moules et Frites (fries in the background)

When all the mussels are gone

Green Tea Mousse Cheesecake

I love matcha/green tea food.  This is my go to cheesecake as I find it's light and yummy.

Ingredients:
1 1/3 cup graham cracker crumbs
3 tbsp melted butter
1 tbsp hazelnut syrup (or any other flavor)

2 cup whipping cream

2 tbsp gelatin
1/2 cup cold water
2-3 tbsp matcha powder
1/2 cup warm water

2 - 8 oz cream cheese (room temp)
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup sugar

Mix melted butter and syrup with graham cracker crumbs. Spread crumbs in springform pan. Optional - bake in 350F for 10 min.

Beat whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Tip - fridge mixing bowl for about 15 min to keep mixing bowl cool. Once peaks form, place mixing bowl back into fridge until cream is needed.

Dissolve matcha powder in warm water. Dissolve gelatin in cold water.

In another mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, honey and sugar. Microwave gelatin for about 30-40 seconds, until fully dissolved. Mix in gelatin and matcha into cream cheese mixture. Fold in whipping cream.  Pour mixture into springform pan and place in fridge to refrigerate over night.

Picture to come....

Matcha Rice Krispies Squares

It's March 17th - St Patrick's Day.  In celebration of that day, hubby wanted something green to eat so thanks to MT for giving me this idea (since she made it a couple times before for Christmas baking and dessert).

INGREDIENTS:

about 3 tbsp butter

1 bag of marshmallow

about 4 - 5 cups of rice krispies

matcha powder (couple tsp...more if you want the strong matcha taste)

In a pot, melt butter in low heat.  Add matcha powder - once mixed in thoroughly, add marshmallow.  Stir and let it melt.  Once melted, add rice krispies - when fully integrated with marshmallow, scoop out of pot and place into pan/glass pan. Flatten out the rice krispies and let it cool.  Cut into squares when cooled.

Apple Cranberry Phyllo Turnover

I forgot I had a pack of phyllo pastry in my freezer until hubby mentioned it a few days ago.  It was quite peeved with me that I often buy things on sale and then forget to use them.  Not wanting to make him too mad, I promised him that I would use it this weekend - hence phyllo turnover.

I took my recipe idea from here

INGREDIENTS:
4-5 apples, peeled and diced (I used granny smith and mcintosh)
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1 tbsp butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 - 1 tsp nutmeg
1-2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cornstarch
phyllo dough
melted butter

Preheat the oven to 350F.

In a pot, heat apples and cranberries over medium heat.  Add butter, sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon.  Stir and let apple soften for about 10 min.  Add cornstarch and stir - turn off stove and set pot aside.

Take a sheet of phyllo - brush melted butter on half of it and fold phyllo in half.  Repeat that again brushing butter and fold in half.  Fold phyllo once more in half and use a knife to cut in half on the folded line.  Brush phyllo with butter and add apple filling. Take top left corner and fold down to middle and take top right corner and fold down to the middle, forming a triangle.

Repeat the above steps until all the topping has been used up.  Please note that each time you use a phyllo sheet, place a wet cloth over the non-used ones to prevent them from drying out.

Place turnovers on baking sheet and bake for about 20-25 min or until brown and flaky.

THOUGHTS:
I love it! It was nice and tart with a twinge of sweetness.  If you prefer to have it sweeter, then add more sugar.  The phyllo dough makes the turnover a lot lighter than your usual pastry puff.

 

Eggplant Soup

What to do with eggplant and 2% milk?  I never drink milk except for skim milk, however, this week we had a 4L of 2% milk. Not wanting to actually drink the milk on its own and it was going to expire soon, I decided to make a soup with whatever veggies I had at home.

Ingredients:
1 eggplant
5 cloves of garlic
olive oil
1/2 - 1 cup of tomato puree
1 cup chicken broth
dried thyme
cayenne pepper
2 cup milk

Slice the eggplant, lay the slices on a pan and spread olive oil over it. On the same pan, add garlic and bake them in an oven for about 30 min at 375F.

In a pot, add chicken broth, roasted garlic and eggplant.  Let it simmer for about 10 min.  Add thyme, cayenne and tomato puree. Simmer for another 10 min. Use a hand blender and puree the soup.  Lastly, add milk (can add more if you prefer a thinner soup).

THOUGHTS:
Turned out pretty good! Definitely didn't know what to expect but I quite like it.  Only thing would be the seeds from tomato and eggplant that can get a bit annoying.

Chocolate Chip Coconut Banana Bread

We scored a huge bag of bananas for $1.49 from T&T - mind you it was pretty ripe but not rotten yet. Hence perfect for making a batch of banana bread. That bag of banana had enough to make two batches plus almost a week's worth of breakfast :) I ended up cutting up and freezing some banana for my next batch of banana bread.

I saw this recipe and adapted it a bit - turned out quite yummy :)

Ingredients:

• 3/4 Cup sugar
• 1/4 Cup Apple Sauce
• 1/4 Cup butter
• 2 eggs - oops, I forgot the eggs but it still turned out ok
• 1 1/2 Cup mashed ripe bananas - about 3-4 bananas
• 1/2 Cup buttermilk (or 1 tsp vinegar with milk)
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 1/2 Cup flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1 Cup mini chocolate chips
• 3/4 Cup shredded coconut

- Heat oven to 350, grease bottom only of  loaf pan.
- Mix sugar with margarine/butter. Stir in eggs (which I forgot). Add bananas, buttermilk and vanilla.
- Stir in flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda until just moistened – do not over stir!
- Fold in coconut flakes and chocolate chips.
- Bake 45 minutes, until top and edges are browned and the center looks cooked. Cool 5 minutes in pan and then on wire rack. (can also be baked in muffin pans - timing for that is about 20-30 min)

Bacon flavored Chocolate Cupcake

Yes, so I decided to try out this fad of chocolate and bacon combo in my cupcakes.  Being a bit wary of how it would turn out, I cut down the recipe in half and modified it slightly (recipe based on Dark Chocolate Bacon Cupcakes).  Hey, just because people rave about this, doesn't mean it'll actually be good...although how could anyone not love bacon? hehe

Ingredients: - makes 24 mini cupcakes
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened chocolate chips (more if you want the chocolate to stand out)
3/4-1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 egg
1/2 cup brewed strong coffee
1/2 cup buttermilk (or 1/2 cup milk with 1 1/2 tsp vinegar)
1/4 cup bacon fat**
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

**if you use chopped up bacon instead, substitute bacon fat with butter or vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 375F.
In a sauce pan, combine hot coffee and chocolate and place over low heat on the stove.  Whisk until smooth.
In a large bowl, mix bacon fat and sugar until smooth - add the egg and mix thoroughly.  Add buttermilk and vanilla extract.
In another bowl, combine the rest of the dry ingredients.  Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients slowly as you mix. Once blended, spoon the batter into prepared mini muffin pan.
Bake for about 20 min or until toothpick comes out clean.  Turn off oven and let pan sit in oven for about 5 min then remove and let the pan set over a wire rack to cool.
Frost with chocolate icing or any other icing of your choice.

RESULT:
light and fluffy cupcakes and was actually better than expected.  Has this salty/sweet combo - can't really taste the bacon unless you know it's there.  All in all, good experiment and comments were good :)

Recap of Florida

Finally found the time to recap a bit about our Florida trip.  First thing - I can totally see why snowbirds go there during the winter.  I fell in love with the weather - the perfect temperature for me...not too hot and not too cold (in the low to mid 20s).

The main purpose of this trip - a mini Canucks road trip and I guess something minor like hubby's 30th birthday. Usually the main attraction for a Florida trip is to enjoy the theme parks there. Not us - didn't have the time (5 days) and I'm not much of a rides person anyways.  We did Disneyland not even 2 years ago so it was something I didn't mind skipping.

We ended spending one day doing massive outlet shopping around the Orlando area.  I LOVE shopping but after walking through 2 outlet malls, I was pretty shopped out *gasp*. The great thing about going to Florida during the winter time when essentially it's quite warm there...winter clothes are dirt cheap! We both were able to score nice wool jackets for less than $30 (mine was less than $15). That definitely made the deal queen happy.

The following day we went to Kennedy Space Centre. I thought it was pretty cool there! Lots to see and learn.  Funny thing - so hubby was wearing Canucks Jersey and this employee walks up to us.  He asked if we were really from Vancouver, when we said yes, he told us he used to live in Montreal.  Said his last name is LaFleur and that one of his cousin plays in the NHL.  We kind of looked at him trying to figure out who his cousin would be...and he asked if we heard of Lafleur (which we have of course) but we couldn't think of a current hockey player with that last name.  Then he told us that Bobby Ryan is his younger cousin.  He asked hubby if he could skate and hubby replied yes but definitely not as well as Ryan.  And the employee told hubby not to worry since Ryan used to be fat and was not good.......I can't remember much about the rest of the conversation but it was definitely interesting. 

The remainder of our trip was going to Sunrise to watch the Panthers and to Tampa to watch the Lightnings.  A few highlights - playing mini golf at a wicked course, driving along the coast to Sunrise from Cape Canarval, seeing the Everglades, checking out Palm Beach (total balling area), eating at small restaurants with good reviews from urbanspoon and of course the Canucks games.

 

The Canucks games were fun. Observations - Panthers arena atmosphere is kind of boring...made the game uninteresting (didn't help that the Canucks were playing poorly). The upside: about 1/4 of the fans were Canucks fans but still a ton of empty seats.  Lightnings arena was another story. Very electric and filled with excitement. The fans there are quite die-hard there.  The area where we sat had the whole row of Canucks fans with an exception of one older couple who sat next to us.  The man was fun to chat with as he pointed out some new additions to the hockey rink (e.g. the organ).  We saw Stamkos get smoked by Edler in front of us and missed Kesler's goal as we watched Stamkos struggle to get up. LOL.  I think this will be the closest I'll ever be to watching the Canucks play live. And to think that the tickets for both games plus flight would probably cost about the same price as 1 ticket watching the Canucks play at home.

 

All in all, it was a great trip and would love to go back again.

Gingerbread Cookies

What's Christmas without gingerbread cookies?  I bought cookies cutters a couple months ago but haven't had the chance to use them...now I can! Unfortunately I didn't buy or make icing so these cookies are just plain ones.

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour (and extra for rolling)
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), room temperature
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup molasses
1 large egg

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, spices, baking soda, salt and baking powder and sent aside.  In large bowl, beat butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in molasses and egg.  With the mixer on low, mix in the flour mixture just until dough forms.  Cover and chill for at least an hour.

Preheat oven to 350F. Divide the dough in half so it's easier to work with.  Place one half back in the fridge while working with the other half. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness and use cookie cutters to cut out the shapes.  Place the cut out cookies on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Bake in the preheated oven for about 10 min or until firm and edges slightly darkened.  Cool on baking sheet for a few minutes and then transfer to wire racks.

**THOUGHTS** make sure you don't roll out the dough too thin - my first batch was too thin and it kind of burnt. So if your dough is thin, bake for a shorter time period

Peppermint Bark

This is probably the easiest Christmas recipe out there with the fewest ingredients needed :)

Ingredients:
bag of dark chocolate chunks
bag of white chocolate chunks
approx 1/2-3/4 cup crushed candy cane
peppermint hot chocolate powder (optional)

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Melt dark chocolate in a bowl and mix in the peppermint hot chocolate powder.  Pour the melted chocolate over the parchment paper on the cookie sheet and cool in fridge for about 10 min.  Melt white chocolate in another bowl and pour over cooled dark chocolate on cookie sheet.  Sprinkle crushed candy cane over the white chocolate and place the cookie sheet in the fridge to cool and harden.  Once hardened, remove cookie sheet from fridge and break the chocolate into irregular pieces.  Store pieces in a container in the fridge.

 

Coconut-Berry Macaroon

It's Christmas time!  Love the this time of the year...my favourite holiday :)  And what's Christmas without the usual baking?  This year I've decided to try out this recipe that's easy and doesn't require a lot of ingredients.

Ingredients:
4 egg whites
1 cup chopped dried berries or cranberries
1/2-3/4 tsp salt
zest of 2 oranges
3 tsp of vanilla extract
1/4 cup sugar
5 cups of sweetened shredded coconut flakes

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Lightly beat the egg white and mix in the sugar and vanilla extract.  Then add the berries and orange zest.  Lastly, add the coconut flakes and coat it thoroughly with the egg white mixture.

Moisten your fingers a bit and create mounds about the size of a tablespoon.  Place the mounds on the baking sheet about 1 inch apart; bake until the edges are golden brown and the entire macaroon is nicely toasted and dry (approx 16-20 min).  Transfer to a rack and cool.  Makes about 3.5 dozen.

**Thoughts**
I like it because this is NOT sweet - a mix of saltiness and sweetness.  My kind of dessert :)  If you don't like the zest taste, I would cut back the zest to 1 orange.

HK update

Nothing much has happened since my last update. What I've noticed since the last time I've been to HK (since 2008), food is still relatively cheap but everything else have gone quite a bit up. No more crazy shopping this time as I can get cheaper things at the Seattle Premium Outlet! Oh wells, save me some money. Few more days til Phuket!!

Hong Kong according to Hubby

1. So much more civilized compared to Beijing
2. Just as dirty as he remembered from 20 years ago
3. Very easy to get around
4. Walking downstairs from our place to get congee and Chinese donut wrapped w rice roll is the best! So cheap and fresh
5. Light pollution is worst than NYC


For me, everything still seems the same. I love the food here but good thing we're walking lots so at least I won't be gaining too much weight :p I will post up some pics when I get the chance.

Beijing Craziness

There are a few things I have learned in Beijing -

1. cars don't care about other cars, cars don't care about pedestrians, and pedestrians don't care about cars--it's the circle of life
2. road lanes are just suggestions - cars and scooters don't really care about the lane lines. They like to go wherever they feel like whether it's in between lanes (between 2 cars) or on the shoulder lane
3. the government paints road lanes for their own entertainment; 4 lanes moving straight through prior to an intersection magically turns into 3 lanes after the same intersection
4. the car/scooter/pedestrian that chickens out first loses their spot
5. you can try to anticipate and guess what the other drivers are trying to do, but it is mostly just a futile mental exercise as they go wherever they want and whenever they want.  See points 2-4 above.
6. it's organized chaos - meaning it's chaotic and a haven for road rage, yet we don't see much of that here (road rage).  Actually, not so organized (see point 5 above), so it's really just chaos.
7. hygiene isn't quite the priority here...imagine taking a taxi and the taxi driver horking up a nice phlegm wad and spitting right out the window while driving at highway speed...and doing that multiple times.  NASTY
8. anything can be food - including bugs, squirming scorpions on a stick, and sheep penis
9. 85rmb can be bargained down to 15rmb in the market
10. food is extremely cheap! but a cup of cappucino/latte can cost the same amount or even more than a set lunch combo.

Lastly - I have learned that I am quite dependent on my internet access to certain websites like FB, this blog, and picture uploading sites such as Picassa - all of which were blocked in China.

Unfortunately I have not been able to post up any pics as our internet access has been quite spotty - even in HK.  May have to wait until we have returned from our trip....but stay tuned!