If you cook enough steel cut oats for the week, breakfast is so QUICK! Don’t get Quick Oats, it has no texture & taste like baby food! If you’re going to provide fuel for your body, give it GOOD FUEL. Common analogy is you can’t run a car without fuel!
Here are a few easy-to-make Breakfast ideas to start your day full of energy & get your creative juices flowing…
Steel cut oats, 1 scoop of Jarrow whey protein powder (23g) mixed in with Almond Breeze unsweetened milk, dollop of Cabot Greek lowfat yoghurt and topped with fresh fruit of your choice. My fav combo is strawberries & bananas. Then a hit of granola & walnuts. For a treat today, I had incredibly good pecans with sweet cranberries, black pepper & orange zest! Find treats to add but NOT Sugar laden cause you’ll spike & then crash!
I’m posting from my iPhone & only allows one photo! So, plse check back for more Breakfast ideas.
Sakaya Kitchen, Midtown Miami
Richard Hale’s Dim Ssam A Go Go Food Truck debuts at Food Truck Fest
Celebrating Sakaya Kitchen’s second anniversary! Hail to Hale! I so remember when he burst into the Miami midtown scene two years ago today (it’ll be 18th by the time I finish this.) I met his parents on his first day and his dad told me he started experimenting with food at 9 years old. Well, he’s done a nice job of experimenting cause I’ve liked everything I’ve tried!
I love this concept – GOOD Asian fast food, we need to have MORE IN MIAMI!!! It has a modern look with a wall chalk board filled with daily specials, many are Korean street food items. Richard uses many locally sourced ingredients and has the flavors DOWN! His slant is towards Korean flavors even though his mom is Filipino. There’s never a dish where the pickle is too sour or spicy, the balance is perfect. I never mind paying when the food is good, some of the dishes are on the expensive side but so worth it especially when you consider it’s all made from scratch.
From what he’s told me, many of his cooks didn’t even go to culinary school, he trained them. They must have good taste buds or Richard must have good quality testing. I think I must have tried nearly everything on the menu at Sakaya except for daily specials and taken way too many photos to be able to include in one post. People have asked me if I know his famous honey ginger brussel sprouts recipe, why bother, just go eat it there! Pork belly baos, soft shell crab or Calamari baos, everything in a bao is good even though we’re not fans of carbs.
Left: Richard’s wife, mother-in-law & first baby girl, adorable. Middle: menu board kept getting crossed off cause food ran out.
Right: Lines were ridiculous at first Food Truck Fest at Adrienne Arsht Center, downtown Miami.
Here’s my first attempt at shooting video outdoors but great audio of Richard at the Fest.
Random photo gallery from the last 2 years which includes the debut of Dim Ssam a Go Go, at the first Food Truck Fest(above.) He’s now got 2 food trucks and just opened a Sakaya Kitchen, downtown Miami which I must try out. Waiting for South Beach location.
Left: Pork belly buns. Right: my husband and my all-time favorite is the Angus Bulgogi Burger.
Tater tots are delish but too much carbs for us.
Left: Honey Orange Ribs, slurp. Right: Koren Beef on bed of salad and pickled sprouts.
Left: Chef Richard Hales, Chef Michael Schwartz of Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink paid a visit to congratulate Richard on his first anniversary! Right: Shirt promoting Dim Ssam a Go Go.
I practically ran to Sakaya Kitchen when I got back from my Hong Kong trip in July, so homesick for Asian food! Richard sent over my favorite Korean Banchan! We also had another of our favorites, Dae Ji Pork Tenderloin with buttered broccoli and coconut rice which is so addictive, the balance of sweet, savory and spicy, here’s the post.
For other reviews that give much better background about Richard (I’m just all about the food), check these:
New Times: Serious Asian food with no frills
Food for Thought: Sakaya Kitchen Midtown Miami
Sakaya Kitchen: Eater Miami
Burger Beast
Me. Egg with tater tots. Waffles & wings. Sakaya Friends came out to celebrate 1st anniversary.
Top 12 Wok Tips
As a wok enthusiast, cooking teacher and creator of a Wok Star Kit, I hear a lot of common mistakes people make when attempting wok cooking.
There’s a lot of very confusing information out there, so, here are my…
TOP 12 WOK TIPS
1. Cooking in a wok requires the right technique, the right heat, the right seasonings = Wok Star!
2. Declutter your kitchen: use your wok for stir frying, steaming, stewing, deep frying, smoking, searing and soups (see photos below.)
3. Leave your wok and portable gas stove setup out at all times so it’s convenient. If you don’t see it, you don’t use it…
4. Getting the wrong wok & not seasoning it right can set you up for failure.
5. A traditional lightweight, thin walled, round bottom cast iron wok is BEST. Woks with exterior enamel or coating take longer to heat and transfer heat to your food! Who wants to lift a 15 lb. wok every night? I give a comparison with carbon steel woks here.
6. One handle woks tip over when you have food in it plus the handle gets in the way.
7. Round bottom woks need direct flames i.e. gas for maximum contact & to control your heat.
8. Flat bottom woks do not give you a natural stir fry motion, uses more oil because of more surface area & were made for electric stoves. See no.11.
9. Non-stick woks cannot be used above medium heat according to manufacturer’s warning but high heat is ESSENTIAL to sear meat and for crunchy veggies.
10. Gas stove owners: use the smallest burner so heat is focused for your wok.
11. Electric stove owners: a portable butane gas stove solves the problem of cooking with your wok! You’ll have the BEST of both heat sources. Use your electric for flat pans/pots and gas stove for your wok.
12. A Wok Star is someone who develops their own cooking style and thinks outside the box.
Ask me a question!