Wok Star Eleanor Hoh

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Thai Food Festival in Miami

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If you live in Miami, you have to experience The Thai Food Festival at least once in your lifetime! The sounds, smells and hubbub is quite the experience. Wat Buddharangsi Thai Temple was celebrating their 36th anniversary and every Thai person in Miami seemed to be there either selling food or eating it. Just a note if you intend to go to a future one…

BE THERE EARLY CAUSE THE FOOD GOES!
Nearly everything was $5, so bring CASH!

Do check out my foodie buddy, Brenda’s blog and video as well. We missed seeing each other at the Thai Food Festival, so it’ll be interesting to see what caught her eye. I may put together short video snippets from the Festival.

This station was a good way to try some Thai food. Smaller portions, all at $5 and comes with rice.
Look how nicely dressed this lady is. My friend, Mary recognized her. She came all the way from West Palm Beach. She was making Thai Noodle Soup.
Recognize Chef Baz, owner of Lung Yai Thai Tapas? He had to put his name down for those Thai pancakes.
This was the only stand with BBQ protein as far as I could see and had the LONGEST LINE!
Looks like hard work splitting the bamboo stick open to fill with Red Bean and Sticky Rice. Notice pile of Galangal, Thai ginger.
The most popular were Thai desserts mostly with coconut milk and a little too sweet for me.
Mango and Sticky Rice seemed to be everywhere.
My fav Thai dessert is this one, reminds me of Kuih, a Malaysian layered dessert, slightly chewy and of course with coconut milk.
My favorite dish at this festival is Ho Mok, steamed fish and scallops with coconut milk and curry. The flavor was good but no seafood detected, ha, ha!
The obligatory Papaya Salad.
The NEXT LONGEST LINE EVER was Bubble Tea, KACHING!
Khanom Krot is a rice and coconut milk pancake. Someone ordered the whole lot so she sold out. I don’t think that should be allowed because we didn’t get a chance to try this, boo!
Notice the beautifully carved papayas behind the Money Tree.
There were a few shade trees with tables and chairs.
And a HUGE tent where there was live music. Crowded and only 11am.
After a peek into the Thai Temple, we headed to sit in the side area for our lunch.
So happy this Thai Temple got built. They have provided so many wonderful community festivals for us to enjoy!
Love the monks’ orange outfits! The Thai community brings them cooked food.
The Thai community brings cooked food for the general public to share, so sweet. By the time we were invited to try, the best were gone, so GO EARLY.
Khanya and I, so good to reconnect. She was instrumental in helping bring in money to get the Temple built. Thanks to Mary for getting this shot, so fun hanging with her.
 
 
 

Mapo Tofu, Wok Star Style

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Mapo Tofu, literally translated means “pock marked grandma’s tofu”, don’t ask me why! I guess there’s a slight resemblance to pock marks? The beauty of this dish is you can adapt it to however you like it, spicy or not at all, with tri-colored bell peppers or with ground pork or just plain.  And that is what being a Wok Star is all about.

What a great one dish dinner, so easy and fast for weeknights! Tofu is a great protein substitute for vegetarians and vegans. If you’re lucky to have any leftovers, take it for lunch and just reheat with some quinoa and have with a side salad!
I’m working on a video and will post up soon!

 

A friend made a really good point about “recipes” I never even thought about…you end up with all the condiments you don’t know what to do with afterwards. So, with that in mind, I’ve applied my easy, NO-recipe, NO-measuring technique to this Mapo Tofu dish and used seasonings that already come in your Wok Star Kit.

Typically these are seasonings for the Mapo Tofu sauce if you want to try…

  • Black fermented soy beans
  • broad bean paste
  • Chili oil
  • numbing szechwan peppercorns

After experimenting with Mapo Tofu 3 times, it’s best to use firm tofu and not the silken. Nasoya was the only brand I found in my local markets. I actually prefer the ones at the Asian market but they are not NON-GMO or organic.

You always have OPTIONS…
– add more sauce if you love to eat with rice, noodles, on its own or with other dishes
– add more spice with chili oil, chili peppers, chili flakes or chili sauce
– add meat, typically ground pork but other options are ground beef, turkey, chicken or lamb 

Make it totally vegetarian/vegan and ‘stretch’ the dish
Add tri-colored bell peppers for a pop of color.
Hate chopping?  Single and don’t want to buy 3 bell peppers?

Get a box of ready chopped tri colored bell peppers available at your local market. I saw at both Publix and Winn Dixie in Miami area.

 
 

SAUCE:
TSPC which as you know are…
Tamari (San-j brand), Sherry, Pepper (white), Cornstarch
2 tsp. Koon chun brown bean sauce
Shake of chili flakes (any brand)
Dash of sesame oil (instead of chili oil)



 

INGREDIENTS:
1 box firm tofu, choose NON GMO/Organic
2 scallions chopped for garnish
handful cilantro, chopped for garnish
2 cloves garlic chopped
thumb size ginger, chopped


I recently made this as a vegetarian dish with tri-colored bell peppers garnished with alfafa sprouts at Fullei Fresh’s Grand Opening and not one morsel was left. John, an attendee mentioned it was his first time ever eating tofu and he was surprised how delicious it was! 




 


Photos were taken by Wok Star Mary at the Grand Opening, thanks so much for taking these great shots!

METHOD:
1. Make sauce in a bowl
2. Cut tofu into cubes
3. Fry garlic and ginger in oil, add sauce, add tofu, add more chili flakes for color
4. Sprinkle scallions and cilantro, done!

 

Fullei Fresh Marketplace, a community space for healthy living

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Who’d have thought right here in Miami, we have an organic hydroponic sprouting farm?! It was started by Manny Wong, a Chinese family from Cuba.  Fullei Fresh grows a variety of organic sprouts as well as bean sprouts AND it’s hydroponic which means NO pesticides or bacteria! AND organic, WOW, so happy. . .I was always hesitant to purchase sprouting greens because I was wary of how and where they were grown.  I was thrilled to visit their “farm” and get the tour.
So excited to be invited to give a slide presentation and cooking demonstration at their Grand Opening of their community space for healthy living.  There’ll be loads of health related talks, demos and activities from experts in their fields, all are welcome!

Fullei Fresh Marketplace Grand Opening
Saturday, April 14, 10-4pm
12:45pm is my cooking demo!
Click here
Free with registration…

I hope you’ll come and support this community project. Bring the whole family and make it a day, there’ll be food trucks I believe. You’ll get a chance to learn more about them and possibly get a tour. 

I’ll be making a very popular dish…Mapo Tofu, spicy and addictive and stir fry Bean Sprouts (something I get asked constantly!) 

Mapo Tofu with red bell peppers for some color. Blog and video coming soon.
You’ll learn how to stir fry bean sprouts so they’re crispy, crunchy at my cooking demonstration at 1pm, see you there!
 

 

Olivia, Manny’s daughter gave me a tour…

Manny has won many awards as well as been certified for teaching others how to sprout!
Talk about hydroponic sprouts, wow, is anyone into sprouts? They are tenfold more potent than vegetables, can’t wait to try broccoli sprouts. I am going to eat as much of these sprouts as I can! Excited to try other sprouts like beet, sunflower, daikon and clover sprouts, I didn’t realize there are so many varieties! Yay, 2018 is a year for trying new things!

Fullei Fresh sprouts are available at numerous Whole Foods, Fresh Market and I saw them at Laurenzo’s Market in North Miami.
Here are just some ways I’ve been using those amazing sprouts…
Alfafa sprouts immediately upgrades my hubby’s delish wok omelet into a gourmet dish, yum!
Dynamite, perfect for cold night here. Topping broccoli sprouts on my beef soup was awesome, gave a nice accent and zing. Soup was made in slow cooker with very meaty beef necks, onions, and garbanzos. When reheating, I like to add noodles and some fresh vegetables like Bean Sprouts, Bok Choy and tomatoes for some color.
Don’t you love these red beet sprouts on avocado? Adds a pop of color to any dish, they are slightly bitter but I don’t mind. Tip is to add vinaigrette which will temper the bitterness.
Garnish your lunch with alfafa sprouts!

Thanks Fullei Fresh for introducing me to these baby sprouts.

Do share ways you use baby sprouts in comment below! And remember to register, see you this Saturday, April 14!
Disclosure:  I was given sprouts by Fullei Fresh to experiment with.  I just really like supporting local businesses who focus on good, healthy products.