My First Pair of Adidas

What: Hey Joe! Filipino Street Food
Where: Tempe Outrigger Regatta AZ Ohana, Tempe Town Lake
When: Apr 9, 8:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Description: Look for Garlic Fried Rice and Over Easy Eggs in the Morning


Obviously, these are not the kind of Adidas to lace up for your next race.


Believe me, it wasn't my first choice on Hey Joe's menu. We came out for the #5 "The Hey Joe" consisting of one Pork BBQ, one Chicken BBQ & two pork Lumpia ($8) and to watch the 6th Annual Tempe Outrigger Regatta AZ Ohana races.



Unfortunately, the combination of an unusually cold day & a row of tents full of hungry outrigger athletes meant that the truck was SOLD OUT of FOOD even before my family arrived at noon! Too bad we didn't follow them on twitter, because Brian apparently tweeted about how they ran out of food earlier. If you're a die hard Hey Joe! fan, you better follow their tweets!


Disappointed but still determined to eat something, anything from Hey Joe's truck - I insanely asked if they were out of Chicken Feet. To my dismay, they weren't! So, after a bit of some more good natured prodding - I coaxed Chef Brian into also selling us his last four bananas. The Adidas and banana-ques totaled $10.


The vegan banana-que came out first. The warmth of the banana-que really hit the spot as we stood out in the cold lakeside air. We gobbled down four! Nevertheless, we just wished the banana was much sweeter. Hey Joe's banana-Q's were lightly caramelized with sugar. Brian explained that's how a lot of his customers like it. I still requested that he try making it the way I like it - encrusted with a thick caramelized shiny sugar coating.

We were pleasantly surprised that the guys inside Hey Joe's truck rummaged up a nice complimentary sampling of their atchara, one lumpia aka egg roll and their VEGAN -Organic Mung Bean with Coconut Milk and Local Spinach aka Ginataang Mongo.


Coconut in this vegan version is a refreshingly different flavor than what I'm normally used to in my family's mungo dish. I'd order the full size portion of this, if we venture out to the Phoenix Downtown farmer market tomorrow where Hey Joe and other trucks from the street food coalition will be.

What: Phoenix Public Market
Where: 14 East Pierce Street Phoenix
When: Apr 20, 4:00 PM - 8:00 PM

But I'll be experimenting with coconut in my next batch of non-vegan Humble Mungo Guisado, with pork, shrimp and patis. Hey Joe's pork lumpia was tasty, with a hint of citrus. If given the opportunity, I'd have pounded half a dozen of those. But I'd need two scoops of rice and a side of Thai Sweet Chili sauce. Their atchara of pickled green papaya & ginger, although not spicy, was still satisfyingly crunchy, tangy & sweet. (It's a perfect pairing with any BBQ skewer.) It especially helped me through my first experience of Adidas. Which I found, of course, tastes just like chicken! It was actually not bad. But, I won't be ordering it again. Once passed the familiarly tasty crispy skin, I just couldn't bring myself to eat the chewy sinews between the tiny bones.

I can't believe I ate it, but at least I tried it. But, this along with the other two items listed under "For The Brave" on Hey Joe's menu (Balut and Chicken Ass) are definitely ones to pair with beer if you go out to the Bikini Lounge this Friday, April 22 9:30 pm - 2 am on 16th Ave & Grand Ave. Be sure to check their online calendar for their next location. I couldn't find a review for Hey Joe! on Urbanspoon yet, so I put in a request for it to be added to their databanks. But I give Hey Joe's a 4 out of 5 for their mungo & accomodating service.

---update--9:07pm
I just got an email from jen @ urbanspoon. she added Hey Joe! per my suggestion. awesome.


Still needing to fill our gullets, we headed over to the nearby Paradise Hawaiian BBQ across from the ASU stadium. We recieved lukewarm service with our affordable combo plates of delicious korean kalbi, rice, noodles, meat jun, chicken katsu, seaweed salad and mac salad. We were so hungry. We pounded the food before we could even take a picture. (Side note: They don't have a restroom, no diaper changing table and no children's high chairs. I believe there's a restroom outside of the building, somewhere...I guess that's part of the college town atmosphere.) Well, I will say this, eat there. You'll most likely enjoy whatever you order, regardless of the lackluster service & lacking comforts.

Gingerroot - 1st Impression

"Will go back for more." by CACTUSmango (1 review) February 17, 2009 - Likes it - I can say that I have stopped over for just a quick bite. I was running errands along Chandler Blvd. and my curiousity brought me to their hidden spot.

I loved loved loved their Kalamansi juice. It was spot on authentic, refreshing citrus drink that I enjoyed while living in the Philippines...It didn't taste watered down nor sugared up. This alone is cause for me to go out of my way to come back to Gingerroot.

I also ordered the Lumpia or Crispy Spring Roll appetizer to go and ate it while driving around doing my errands. They were piping hot, perfectly crispy on the outside, and the ground pork filling was tender with finely chopped chestnuts adding a nice delicate texture. Since, I was eating this in my car, I only occassionaly got to dip my Lumpia in their sauce, but, I must say...very nice, sweet 7 sour sauce. Also, the price of $7 for the Lumpia is well warranted, because they do not just give you three small rolls. There were roughly 8 pieces. I didn't get an exact count, because I ate them so quickly. Nor did I take any pictures, again, because I gobbled these up.

The gentleman serving me was friendly & informative. The food came out quickly. My hubby & I are planning on going there to try their dinner menu this Thursday. One thing I didn't tell my hubby, is that I saw they have a Magic Mic set up in one corner...If you know me, then you know how excited I was too see that.

And I'll be back to give an update with photos.

Our family started off this morning watching CNN's coverage as we stood around the counter and ate humble pandesal sandwhiches.

For this simple meal, mom made over-easy eggs, sliced & toasted pandesal (from San Diego), and placed cold slices of Honey Baked Ham (that my BIL Ray brought from Mesa).

This Thanksgiving morning, I'm happy to be with family, but am feeling somber and in prayer for those who're being terrorized in Mumbai since yesterday. Please keep the families there in your hearts in the coming days and pray for peace.

MarMars' Spam Musubi Recipe

For those that cringe at the thought of spam anything, then this post is not for you, so go away. :) But for those that know how addicting spam musubi can be, stay and drool with me. A few months back, my friends & I were in awe of these breaded spam musubi brought to Ryan & Blenda's baby shower. (I can't recall who made them, but I'll update that bit of info, when I find out.) So, Let's just say, the musubi tray was wiped out in the blink of an eye. I was lucky to literally lunge across the sink & grab the last piece. Oh yes, I had no shame. That spam musubi had my name on it. The spam slices were lightly breaded (probably with Panko) & fried; then wrapped neatly in blocks of white sticky rice and seaweed, then cut halfway on the diagonal; drizzled lightly with a teriyaki type sauce. The crunch texture was the perfect contrast to the soft rice and chewy seaweed. These hefty handfuls were so simple, so yummy, and so perfectly compact. And they left a warm fond memory on all our bellies.

Since then, our groups of friends have gobbled up two more variations of this spam musubi: recently Nelly & Ninette made a batch for Mia's birthday party, non-fried, but the spam was marinated in a soy based mixture...oooh yeah. And when it was my turn to cook for When's d Night Dinner. That time, Ron rigged up his own sushi mold by cutting off the bottom of Spam can, and using a slice of spam to compress the rice down. Worked out pretty good. But, wasn't so neat and even though we pinched down the edges of the can, it was still a bit dangerous sticking our hands into the can. Thankfully, all digits were left intact.
This Saturday, Ron had a hankering for Spamsilog: spam, rice with 2 over easy eggs for breakfast. So of course, I obliged and fed my man exactly that. But, I had other plans for my three slices of spam...I'm sure it's obvious what I had in mind.

And thanks to Ninette, my Spam Musubi turned out perfectly shaped with the brand new plexi-musibi maker. It's so pretty! It cost $11 and I think she picked it up at either Lee Lee's or Mekong Plaza. I love it!

My version is basically a combination of all varieties of Spam Musubi that we've enjoyed the last couple months: Marinated spam, breaded and fried spam, plus the extra touches of scrambled egg and pandesal bread crumbs! (Yes, pandesal bread crumbs, baby. I didn't finish the dozen Manila Bakery pandesal, so, rather than let it rot in the trash bin, I gave it a second life. It's final life ended in my backyard compost bin, courtesy of my buddy Myrna, whose passionate about many things, composting is not one of them, which turned out good for me.)

***Disclaimer, I don't tend to follow recipes, so I think it's funny that I'm posting a recipe here, since I didn't really follow any exact measurements. I just taste, things while I cook, adding more seasoning as I go. Hence, my recipe...it's really a guide...so these measurements are guestimations. Good luck!

MarMars' Spam Musubi
PREP TIME 4 MIN COOKING TIME 10 MIN SERVES 3-4

Spam Marinade
6T Soy Sauce
2T Mirin
2T Vinegar
2T Peanut Oil
2t Sesame Seeds

Whisk all these up.

Slice the spam to the desired thickness. I used the spam slicer (love this! thanks rod!) Marinade the spam for about 5 minutes. Pan fry the spam 'til nice & crispy. Dry on paper towels.

Breaded Spam
1 can of Spam
2-3 Hard Pandesal (crumbled up) - I bought mine from Manila Bakery, but didn't eat them fast enough. So, instead of trashing them, I figured I'd make it into bread crumbs...and whatever I didn't use went into my compost bin.
2 cups Panko breading (just depends, you may need to add more as you go)
2 egg whites (whisked)
2 cups flour

Mix the Pandesal crumbs with the Panko breading. Lightly cover each fried spam with flour. Quickly dredge in the whisked egg whites, then quickly coat in the Pandesal/Panko mixture. And fry until browned. Set aside on paper towel.

Scrambled Eggs
2 whole eggs
3 T Mirin

Whisk the eggs & mirin thoroughly. Pan fry on low heat. The finished scrambled egg should be very thin. Set aside.

Sticky Rice
1c White Rice (recommend Calrose)I had Jasmine on hand.
2T Sweet Saki (optional)
1T Sugar (optional)
1T Furikake (optional)

Mix the above ingredients together. Set aside.

And, of course you'll need a bag of Nori. I just eyeballed to make sure the Nori equaled the length of the musubi and made the Nori as long as I'd need to wrap around the musubi. So, it will vary, depending on how much rice you like, if you do a single layer or double layer of rice.

Time to Assemble the Musubi

You will need the musubi mold

Or if you want to go MacGyver style, carefully remove the bottom of the Spam can. Use a nose head plyer and pinch down any sharp edges. On our first attempt, we did this...but still got nicked. So, thank you Ninette for the $11 upgrade!

Here's a series of photos showing how I assembled the musubi:

To seal the nori, just dap lightly a wet fingertip along one edge of the nori, then fold. And gobble it up, like me, I ate as I finished wrapping.











Now, if you'd like to try out another Spam Musubi recipe, by all means go for it, there's a multitude of ways to personalize your own Spam Musubi experience. Here's just a few that you might like to try by: Cooking Cute, Rashad Maiden, What's Cooking America, Kathy YL Chan, and a YouTube vid by Single Guy Chef showing the macguiver style use of a can of spam as the mold. This last method is not recommended for the accident prone chef.

Quick Bite Recipe: Turkey Brie Roll

I have been working day & night on a Hybrid Scrapbook tutorial and promoting my latest digital scrapbook kit, Posh Picnic available exclusively at CocoaDaisy.com. Oh, by the way, included in the kit, is a super cute printable sheet of Drink Parasols. They're fun & functional. Instead of the black sharpie method, doll up your next mixer with custom drink umbrellas. Each one is different. Print them on a various types of papers for different looks & textures. And spear fresh fruits & berries on the skewers.

Anyhow...that's just a sneak peak into what I live breath sleep and think about all day. It's no wonder I have no interest lately in cooking. Well, today, was one of those days, where I just could not pry myself from the laptop for too long, not even to eat. But, my stomach growls finally forced me off the net & into the kitchen. I opened the fridge and all I had was rice from last night, sliced smoked turkey, and a big wedge of brie.



Could be a disappointing fare for the unimaginative. But, creativity being my thing...i quickly thought of the fastest way to deliver those into my tummy. It's not really a new idea...no, I can not take credit for The Roll. But, well, this combination, I dare say, I have yet to see on a menu. These puppies are done up psuedo sushi style, becuase there's cold rice, toasted sesame seeds, and Furikake involved.



1. Center a little log of cold Jasmine rice down the center of a deli slice of smoked turkey. I especially love the Hormel Natural Choice Smoked Deli Turkey because it tastes good and it has no artificicial preservatives and no hormones. But, if none of that matters to you, use whatever kind of deli meat you love.


2. Add a half slice of brie soft cheese atop the rice. I bought this brie from Costco the other day, and really loved it. It's creamy and has a nice mild tart afterbite.














3. Roll it up. That's it. the toothpicks are just to hold it in place long enough to take the picture. These things went fast. I ate about 5 rolls. As a final touch, I sprinked toasted sesame seeds for the nutty flavor. And Furikake for a nice saltyness.