Category Archives: Cooking with Victoria

Tofu Yum

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September 21st:

My mom gave me her secret recipe for preparing fried tofu because I impulsively bought fried tofu on my shopping spree in Chinatown. (Just buying what I’m already familiar with.) However, my mom is not so great with giving out recipe instructions. All the measurements and amounts for sauce, salt, sugar, water, etc. were too vague! Thanks, mom. So, it came as a total surprise when I ate my tofu and it was more than edible. It was delicious! (Sorry, I’m lacking a modest streak here.)

Ignore the strand of hair in the bowl of rice. I know. It’s bothering me too.

Tofu & Rice

Mistaken Pizza

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One day, I was craving pizza, as usual. As I was grocery shopping, I picked up a pack of two frozen personal pizzas. But as I was roaming around the store, I found another pizza for even cheaper. So I took the cheaper one instead, of course. But when I got home and was unpacking my groceries, I realized that the cheaper pizza was, in fact, not pizza! It was a tarte fromage. I was completely devastated because not only had I failed so marginally at getting my pizza, the tarte fromage did not even look appetizing. I did my best, however, to make the best out of the situation. The tarte fromage did not taste as bad as I expected, especially not with the saucisson sec. But it took me about three servings to finish the whole pie. Two servings too many. Now I know better to read the box clearly.

September 20th:

Tarte fromage

Then, finally, on October 4th, I bought the personal pizza. It did not taste as good as I hoped. Ah well. You win some, you lose some.

Personal pizza

And recently, on October 20th, I tried some mini pizza (4 cheese) from the French grocery store and it was delicious! Now, I am a repeat buyer of this one specific brand and topping. Maybe the reason I love it so much is because of the easy-to-handle size, the garlic-y taste, and the lack of tomato sauce (which I know goes against the rules of traditional pizza, but hey, mini pizzas are not at all traditional either).

Mini Pizzas

I brought America to my Parisian apartment

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But not really. Because I didn’t go to an American specialty grocery store. This meal just looks very American, but it’s all French. Win-win for me! And it was oh so delicious~

September 12th:

"American" meal Up-close meal

Fries are pretty common in France too, believe it or not. That day, I was craving for fries pretty badly. So I bought a huge bag that lasted me for a week. Money well spent!

As for the chicken, I was very apprehensive about buying it the first time because it looked good, but it also looked possibly dry. In America, a lot of times, the meat is so dry that it is unbearable. However, I put this piece of breaded chicken into the frying pan with a dab of sunflower oil and done! The first bite was amazing~ Really tender, juicy, flavorful, gah! Just all around DELICIOUS. So delicious that I bought this chicken from the same brand, Le Gaulois, at least 4 more times afterwards. I ate one last night and I currently have another pack of 2 waiting in my little fridge compartment. This chicken never fails me~ (I don’t know if it is a good or a bad thing that I discovered this item because ever since I first ate it, I feel as if I never venture out to buy or cook new things. And I feel as if I have gotten lazier with my cooking. It is probably also terrible for my health, but I’ll just keep telling myself that I won’t be able to eat this anymore once I go back home. Meat here is just so much better.)

The sauce that I had here, called Sauce Samourai (weird, right?), I bought on a whim. But it was a very good buy. I love it and eat it with my fries and chicken all the time now. 😀 A happy stomach is a happy Victoria!

Noodles!

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On this segment of “Cooking” with Victoria, I show you how I don’t really cook!

On September 10th, I decided to try some new ramen that I bought at a magnificent store called, Tang Frères. (Interesting observation: In America, people would hear my last name, Tang, and make some sort of “witty” reference to the orange juice drink, Tang. But here in Paris, people make “witty” remarks about my “relation” to the store Tang Frères.)

This ramen is a special kind of ramen. It’s Pad Thai! ramen-ified. Verdict: does not really taste like Pad Thai and is lacking the vibrancy of the actual dish, but still tasteful as is. And very very spicy. So, I went out and bought myself a few more packs.

Ramen Pad Thai

Then, on September 11th, I had another ready-to-eat bowl of noodles, this time, French version! Tagliatelles à la bolognaise. It was okay, but I’m not THAT big of a fan of tomato-y sauce things (aside from lasagna). Hm, that makes me wonder why, if I already know that I don’t like tomato sauce that much, why do I keep buying so many tomato-based sauces and food? Something is not clicking in my brain when I shop.

Tagliatelles à la bolognaise

Trying to get rid of food in my fridge

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September 9th:

Rice again, except this time, I was just trying to get rid of food in my fridge, namely vegetables and eggs. (Eggs, I had way too many, but zucchini, I was scared that it would go bad soon. Veggies here don’t last long.) I fried zucchini and an egg. And I might have also put soy sauce in the dish. Then, I mashed the egg and mixed everything together. Simple, but delicious!

Frying an egg

Rice with zucchini and egg

Later that day, I still needed to get rid of more zucchini (I need to learn to control my food shopping habits) as well as some yummy smoked cheese from Holland that I still hadn’t opened after receiving it almost a month ago. On a whim, I decided to slice pieces of zucchini and equally-sized pieces of cheese and put them together. The end-product: the easiest snack I’d ever created, but also the healthiest and tastiest. Score.

Chopping veggies and cheese

Zucchini & cheese

Packaged and all ready to go for school snack tomorrow!

Holy cow!

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September 8. Remember when I said I have zero cooking skills? Well, look what I made! Grilled basse-côte de Charolais beef with stir-fried green beans on the side. I don’t even like vegetables! Back in NY, I never ate vegetables at home. My roommate Cali did not believe me when I first said that because for the first two weeks living together, I was eating a slew of vegetables everyday. I looked vegetable-crazy! In all honesty, I was trying to be healthier, but on a shopping spree with my relatives here in Paris, my “great-grandmother” kind of cornered me into buying tons of fruits and vegetables. Not wanting to waste food and trying to turn over to a new, healthier leaf, I stuffed myself.

Feast your eyes on this beauty!

Basse-côte de CharolaisTo this day, I still think back to this magnificent creation of mine. Never having cooked before, seeing the end product was so exciting. (Hence, why I even have a category of posts dedicated to my cooking. It’s all an adventure, living abroad.) Not to brag or anything, but I even got Cali to eat this! And she NEVER eats vegetables. (Well, at the time she didn’t. Now she does every now and then. Actually, probably more than me…)

Oh, by the way, if you haven’t checked out my friend/roommate Cali’s blog, here it is: http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/calip/

The evolution of my ramen

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Watch as my ramen gets fancier.

My dinner on September 6.

Chapagetti with veggiesSeptember 7. My lunch, prepared with then-new friend, Ariel. Stir-fried broccoli, carrots, and zucchini with Chapagetti. Why so many vegetables stuffed in one bowl? Because veggies here rot so quickly. I had too many. My broccoli head was yellowing. I panicked. Didn’t know what to do. So, I stuffed them all in one meal. Yay health!

Very fancy Chapagetti