Below is a quote from the National Honey Board site talking about the benefits of honey. I figure they must have some authority on the subject.

“Honey is composed primarily of carbohydrates (natural sugars) and water, as well as trace enzymes, minerals, vitamins, and amino acids. Providing 17 grams of carbohydrates and 64 calories per tablespoon, honey is an all-natural sweetener without any added ingredients. Honey also contains a variety of flavonoids and phenolic acids, which act as antioxidants, scavenging and eliminating free radicals. Generally, darker honeys have higher antioxidant content than lighter honeys.” - the National Honey Board

Regardless I think most people have some honey in their cabinet so give it a whirl and try this easy drink.

Recipe

Difficulty Level: 1 – Heat, stir, and have a beer.
Prep Time: 1 minutes
Cooking Time: 1 minutes
Total Time: 2 minutes
Real people serving size:1

Ingredients:
1.5 tablespoons honey (use darker better grade honey if possible)
1 glass 16oz hot water

Directions
1. Heat water and stir in honey.
2. Chill in refrigerator until cold.
3. Add a squeeze of lime or lemon. (optional)
4. Or better yet add 2oz of gin and you’ll have a bees knees!

Optional
I usually make a gallon of it and fill up a water bottle and leave it in the fridge as a soft drink, similar to sweet tea. And of course if you want it sweeter than add more honey and if you want to drink it instantly then use less water at the beginning and add ice cubes at the end to chill the drink.

Hope you enjoy the drink and leave your comments below.

Recipe

Difficulty Level: 1 – Heat, stir, and have a beer.
Prep Time: 7 minutes
Cooking Time: 13 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes
Real people serving size:4

Ingredients:
6 large eggs
4 small tomatoes diced (the riper the better) or 1 can diced tomatoes
(Basically you want the ratio of egg to tomato to be about the same)
1 table spoon tomato sauce
1/4 cup chicken broth
1 stalk green onions
2 table spoon water, milk or cream (optional – fluffier eggs)
1 tsp vegetable oil
salt to taste
white pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Add 2 tbs water or milk to eggs to make them fluffier and beat them in a bowl. Scramble the eggs in a pan with 1 tsp vegetable oil. After scrambling put them on a plate and set aside.
2. Add the diced tomatoes into the pan with the chicken broth and simmer for a minute.
3. Add tomato paste and mix into the diced tomatoes and let simmer for another minute.
4. Now add the scrambled eggs back into the pan and let everything simmer until tomatoes are soft.
5. Add a dash or two of white pepper and salt to taste.
6. Plate and top with chopped green onions.

That’s it! It’s very easy and great for a quick meal. I sometimes replace the tomatoes with a can of diced tomatoes. Not a preferred but it’s definitely easier and works if I don’t want to go to the grocery store. Also, if you used canned tomatoes then don’t add the tomato paste, you can just pour a little of the liquid in the can. Canned tomatoes already have a strong taste. I didn’t always use tomato paste but tomatoes in the store don’t taste that great. So if you grow your own tomatoes and make sure that they are ripe then they will taste much better and you may not need the tomato paste. Try your own take on it and see what happens.

Today we’ll focus on the kitchen since that is where I spend most of my time.  In fact, I have a touchless soap dispenser in my kitchen, read about my simplehuman soap dispenser sensor review.

Here are some of the clear benefits of having a touchless soap dispenser and faucet in the kitchen:

1. Messy Hands
There are often times when you’re in the kitchen and your hands get dirty. For example if you’re mixing dough, cutting meat, or removing shells from eggs. A touchless automatic sensor can be a big help. Now you will really be cleaning your hands rather than getting your faucet dirty.

2. Germs
I believe airports have sensor based faucets, soap dispensers, and paper towels mainly because it prevents the transmission of germs. An airport has thousands of travelers from around the world or country each day and the easiest way to transmit germs is through touch. And a kitchen faucet often has lots of germs on it so it’s only logical to have a sensor faucet to prevent transmission of germs in your house.

3. Easy to Use
This is a no brainer, stick your hand out and bam! you get soap. What a concept and super easy to use. I guess it might be more complicated during the initial set up but not by much.

4. Quicker Clean Up
The quick automatic sensors make your clean up much faster, even if it is only by a few seconds. But after using it for a while those seconds can add up.

5. Convenience
Do we really need automatic windows in our car? Probably not, so we definitely don’t need automatic soap dispensers and faucets but once you try it you may never go back. They are very convenient to use and you might miss it if it was gone.

6. Less Clean Up
What’s the point of washing your hands only to have to wash the faucet and soap dispenser after you use it. It seems counter intuitive and if you have paint or oil it may make the situation even worse. So skip the clean up clean up and just wash your hands.

7. Go Green and Save
I admit it, I am not great at turning off the water when I’m in the kitchen and my wife lets me know every time! So a touchless or automatic faucet is great for me, especially if my hands are full when washing dishes. It’ll probably save me 30% in water everytime.

8. Great for Kids
Kids love gadgets and anything that is new and cool make them want to use it more. So this may help them keep their hands clean!

So do you take a chance and do the benefits outweigh the negatives. One thing that I’m sure of is that over time the technology and design will improve and become more efficient and more reliable. It will only get better from here on out.

What do you think about touchless kitchen systems and are they a godsend or just more problems and things you have to fix at home? Leave you comments below.

How a touchless faucet should work:

Or sometimes it fails miserably:

And here’s one more cool picture for the road. I had a little bit of white hand soap left on the bottom and added a lot of clear hand soap and you can see the outcome. Pretty interesting, kinda like my old lava lamp. Next time you refill try a couple of different color soaps and see what you get. By the way it only lasted for a few days before mixing together.

Chinese Braising Spice Packet
The Chinese Braising Spice Packet combines all the spices that you need to make our famous Chinese Braised Pork Belly dish. The packet is an undyed natural reusable muslin drawstring bag that contains all the necessary dry ingredients for the perfect Chinese braise. All you have to do is place the spice packet into your braising liquid along with the other wet ingredients. Simmer for a couple of hours and then you’ll have a wonderfully delicious braised pork belly. You can also use the spice packet to braise many other meats such as chicken, lamb, and beef.

Special Offer: BOGO – Offer Back Up! Order Now Before We Run Out Again!

If you buy one spice packet we’ll give you another one for free. So you can share it with a friend or simply save it for use in the future.
Try it today.

Here you can see the belle peppers, thai chili, a ton of basil, and a glimpse of the tomato plant in the back.

Little Green Bell Peppers

Thai Chili Peppers – Very Hot!

Red Chili Pepper

Before I start with my Chinese pork belly recipe here’s some trivia:

Question: Which country consumes the most amount of pork in the world?

Answer: China, 54.2 million metric tons in 2006.  Total world consumption 98.9 million metric tons.

That’s more than 50% of all pigs in the world.  I guess that makes sense since a lot of Chinese dishes have pork.  Dim Sum, pork short ribs, BBQ pork, pork knuckles, roast whole pig, pepper and salt pork chop, minced pork, etc. You get the idea.

Personally, I love pork,  I think it’s one of the most flavorful meats out there.   It also has great texture, can be cooked in a variety of ways, and it’s inexpensive compared to beef.  In fact, North Carolina loves pork, pulled/chopped pork is a staple here.

So here is my Chinese braised pork belly recipe.  It’s fairly quick and easy, although the cooking time is a few hours long.  The tip is to set everything up early, pop it in a crock pot, set it and forget it. Generally if I’m lazy, I’ll make some rice, put some pork on it and eat away. But in this post I’ll show you a few other easy things you can make with it for a more comprehensive meal.   So here we go!

Recipe

Difficulty Level: 1 – Heat, stir, and have a beer.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 3 hours
Total Time: 3.5 hours
Real people serving size:4

Braised Pork Belly
Ingredients:
2-3 lbs pork belly
1 Medium chunk of Rock Candy (half the size of a golf ball) or 2 tablespoons of sugar
6 cloves of garlic (smashed)
3 slices of ginger
4 whole star anise
1 tsp of whole peppercorns
2 whole red chillies (totally optional, I like it a little spicy)
3 tbs shao xing cooking wine
1/2 cup of soy sauce (or 1/4-1/2 cup of dark soy sauce depending on salt level)
1/2 tsp white pepper
1 tbs salt as necessary
1 tbs vegetable oil
4 cups of water (just enough to almost cover the pork belly)
4 hard boiled eggs (or more if you love eggs)

Chinese Braising Spice Packet
As an alternative you can also use our Chinese Braising Spice Packet. It contains all the dry ingredients in a simple convenient spice pouch. Just place it in with the wet ingredients and you’re done. Try it today.

Special Offer: Buy One Get One Free

Directions:
First dry the pork belly and give it a good sear in the Dutch oven (or stainless steel pot), at least 15 min. Then add the ginger and garlic and brown a little in the oil. Then dump in all the other ingredients and set it on low and braise for 2-3 hours. Your cooking time will vary depending on your stove and what your “low setting” is, so check after 1.5-2 hours and you can test how tender the pork is. The longer you cook the more tender it will be. I love to be able cut it with a fork, so I braise it a tad longer, generally 2-2.5 hours. You’ll probably never have to go over 3 hours, otherwise your low setting is waaayyy tooo low.
If you prefer using the oven then pre-heat to 325°F and bake for 2-3 hours. You can also cook the pork belly in a slower cooker (crock pot) but it’ll probably take longer.
Last tip, the boiled eggs get a little tough during the process so you can put it in at the beginning for more flavor or during the last hour for a softer but less flavorful egg. (picture shows 2 hour egg) You can also take it one step further by taking a cup of the braising liquid and reducing it down until it’s thick. It makes a great sauce for the pork belly and rice.

Bok Choy
Ingredients:
1tbs oil
2 cloves of garlic (minced)
10 baby bok choy stalks

Directions:
It’s super easy.
1. Cut off the ends of the bok choy and wash. Some people might like it whole so you can leave it whole also.
2. Heat oil, make sure it’s hot!
3. Put in minced garlic and stir, maybe 30 seconds, make sure it doesn’t burn.
4. Toss in the bok choy, stir and toss. Should be a few minutes. It generally cooks fast and continues to cook once the fire is off. But you can cook it on your personal taste some people like it really soft, I prefer it slightly crunchy.

(optional) If you don’t want to stir fry it simply salt some boiling water and boil it for a minute or two. Once the green color brightens start thinking about taking it out. It should cook pretty fast in boiling water.

Plating
Once everything is cooked get a bed of rice, place the pork belly, egg, and some bok choy on top of it. Drizzle some sauce (great on rice) on top of the pork belly. Garnish with some preserved mustard and cilantro. Then pig out! That’s it.  Oh you can also put the braised pork belly in ramen!

You can apply this braising recipe to almost any cut of pork or type of meat. In fact, Chinese people usually use this braising liquid with a hodge podge of meats. I also use this recipe for intestine, ribs, pork knuckle, ham hock, etc. And some people even save it and continually use it and reuse to to increase the flavor of braising liquid.

Good Luck and post any questions or suggestions you have about this recipe.

Here’s my quick break down on tacos in general, they are essentially made of three very important parts:

1. Tortilla (corn, flour) – Corn is my personal preference for tacos but you have to make sure that they are fresh.  Tortillas don’t hold for too long before getting stale and your neighborhood grocery store probably doesn’t have a high turnover rate so they get hard and stale.   I recommend finding a Mexican store and buy them there. It’s probably cheaper and since the turnover is higher it’s fresher.
2. Filling (beef, fish,pork, vegetables, etc) – I like pork a lot for my traditional tacos and will make some pork tacos in the future but for these Asian fusion tacos, I’m going to use beef.  Korean BBQ mainly revolves around beef short ribs but you can use rib eye, boneless beef rib meat, flank steak, or skirt steak.
3. Sauce (salsa,etc) – Salsa is a very personal matter and there are millions of salsas in the world so pick your favorite or try one of mine.  I did purchase the Kimchi directly from the store to save time and I recommend you do the same. I also made some soy based and mayo based sauces to spread over the tacos in the recipes below.

So here goes.

Recipes

Difficulty Level: 5 – Some prep, some mixing, and a little cooking.
Prep Time: 45 minutes
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 1.25 hours
Real people serving size:4

Korean Kalbi Meat
Ingredients:
2.5 lbs boneless rib meat (or any type of steak that’s on sale)
1 bottle Korean BBQ Kalbi marinate (I know it’s from a bottle but from my experience it’s a lot easier and taste just as good from the bottle, but feel free to use your own recipe)

Directions:
Marinated the beef over night in a zip lock bag or container and flip it once through out the process.  After all the condiments and sauces are done then start cooking the beef.  I usually cook it on the grill at a medium heat, but you should be careful because the sugars from the marinate will caramelize quickly and can easily burn.  Aim for medium or medium rare depending on your preference.  The last few minutes I usually turn the fire to high to nice char on the meat.

Korean Sangchu Lettuce Salad
Ingredients:
1 head lettuce
2 green onion
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs sesame oil
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp sesame seeds
1 tsp Korean red pepper flakes

Directions:
1. Shred the lettuce into quarter inch width strips and shred the green onion to as thin as you can get it.
2. Mix the rest of the ingredients and mix with the lettuce and green onion.

Red Thai Pepper Cucumber Salsa
Ingredients:
1/2 English cucumber
2 Thai chili peppers
2 tbs rice vinegar
3 tbs sugar
1 tsp salt

Directions:
1. Shred the English cucumber
2. Remove Thai chili pepper seeds and julienne
3. Dissolve salt and sugar in rice vinegar
4. Mix them together and sit for 30 minutes

Sweet and Spicy Mayo Dressing
Ingredients:
3 tbs mayonnaise
1.5 tbs sugar or powered sugar
1 tsp sriracha
1 tsp paprika

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together and set aside. Adjust sweet and spicy as needed.

Red Onion Salsa
Ingredients:
1 red onion
1 small yellow onion
1/2 cup cilantro
1 tbs white vinegar or rice vinegar
1/2 lime
1 tsp salt

Directions:
1. Dice red and yellow onion and coarsely chop cilantro.
2. Mix in vinegar, juice of the lime, and salt and let sit for at least 30 minutes.

Roasted Jalapeno Salsa
Ingredients:
1/2 medium Yellow onion
1 small Bell pepper
1-2 Jalapenos
1/2 head garlic
5 medium tomatoes or 1 can diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon Salt
and Black Pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Grill and char the onion, pepper, jalapeno, tomatoes, and garlic until black. About 25 minutes.
2. Remove all or some of the seeds from the jalapeno (depending on how spicy you want it) and remove skin from garlic.
3. Add everything in a blender with the tomatoes add a pinch of pepper and salt to taste. Blend for 30 seconds or until smooth.
4. If you want a little more of a kick add in a clove of raw garlic and blend again. You can also add more tomatoes or some water to the consistency that you personally like it.
5. Let sit for a hour or two then re-taste and season as necessary. The flavors will melt together and taste more full.

Sweet Soy Dressing
Ingredients:
1 cup soy sauce
1 tsp vinegar
3 tbs white or brown sugar

Directions:
1. Mix together, dissolve, and reduce to a thick syrup. (or just go to the Asian market and pick up a bottle of sweet soy sauce and reduce if needed)

Plating
Well this one is simple warm up the tortillas in the microwave for a few seconds and lay everything out on the table. Then dig in. There’s no secret to putting together a taco but don’t get greedy as all the condiments may make the taco a little unmanageable. Try your own fillers and sauces and combinations.

My favorite combinations were:
1. Beef, Korean salad, Sweet soy sauce (nice sweet and savory flavor)
2. Beef, Sweet and spicy mayo, Cucumber salad, and Kimchi (tart spicy and creamy)
3. Beef, Red onion salsa, Roasted jalapeno salsa, and Kimchi (hot and fresh)

Good Luck and post any questions or suggestions you may have about this and other asian enticement recipes. Now go make your own Korean taco with exotic fillings today.

Dilemma, dilemma…

Well today’s version of hot dog fried rice is a little different from what I usually make but then again I generally don’t make the same fried rice twice. I looked in my fridge and I have half a pack of beef hot dogs, some baby bok choy, and 5 eggs. Perfect for some hot dog fried rice with bok choy.

Recipe

Difficulty Level: 1 – Heat, stir, and have a beer.
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 7 minutes
Total Time: 12 minutes
Real people serving size:2

Ingredients:
2 hot dogs (depending on what brand you get it will change the taste slightly,
beef vs turkey, nathan’s vs ball park, etc)
3 small heads of baby bok choy
3 eggs
1 -1.5 cups of rice (precooked)
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp vegetable oil
salt to taste
white pepper to taste

Directions:
Prep
They say that using day old rice makes fried rice taste better and for the most part I agree with that, but it also highly depends on the type of rice you have, how you cooked the original rice, how old it is, and how you like your fried rice. Some people like it a little drier where the kernels are separated but some people like it a little more soft and with some moisture. It just all depends on personal preference. For this fried rice I used freshly cooked jasmine rice so it’ll be a little softer but and if you cook it right then it won’t clump together.
Cut the hot dog to small pieces.
Cut the bok choy into small strips.
Mince the garlic.
Scramble the eggs.

First I have a nice size fry pan, make sure it’s large enough to fit everything and still gives you room to stir otherwise you’ll have fried rice everywhere! Heat the vegetable oil in the fry pan until hot. Then add the minced garlic and fry lightly for 10 seconds. Move the garlic to the sides of the pan and add in the scrambled egg. Don’t worry if some garlic mixes in, it’ll all be together in the end. After the eggs are scrambled then add the hot dog and bok choy.
Add a dash of salt and white pepper. Stir fry all those ingredients until the bok choy is starting to wilt. Once that happens add in the cooked rice.
Now this is probably the hardest part of the entire recipe. Mix the rice in with the other ingredients without spilling it all over the cook top. Some patience is needed in this step. Now add in the soy sauce and if you like hot sauce you can add some here as well. In fact, add any other flavoring you want at this point. Now simple stir, mix, flip, fry till your desired consistency. I usually like it not dryer than wetter but not too dry. Okay that was confusing. Try 4 minutes, taste and add salt, pepper, or more soy sauce if needed. Then cook longer if you’d like. The important part is that everything is mixed together well.

Options
Like I said earlier, there are a million and one ways to make fried rice. So you can add in anything and make it any flavor you want. Yes, it is probably dangerous for me to recommend that since there are just as many ways to screw up fried rice. It’s kinda like watching people go to mongolian bbq and watching what some people put into their bowl. Scary…but then again each to their own. So cook according to what you like.

Some options would be ground beef, frozen peas and carrots, bean sprouts, left over chicken, ketchup, sriracha, five spice, chinese bbq sauce, onions, grilled pork chop leftover, tomatoes, green beans etc. Also the longer you fry rice the dryer it gets so if you’re rice is too wet you may want to fry the rice first and then add in the ingredients later. It’s endless and in the future I’ll provide more variations of fried rice that I like.

Remember it’s easy, just use what you have in the fridge and experiment. (Ketchup fried rice is great I’ll post that one up in the future.)