The Spectacular Halloween Cake

For those talented home bakers out there who love to bake,  Halloween is really a great time to show off your cake making grandeur. With festive cake toppers and cupcake decoration rings for only $4.99, passionate home bakers can easily whip up a really impressive Halloween cake.  If you have used these cake toppers to decorate your cake, we encourage you to share your cake's photo with us in here.  If your Halloween cake is selected to be featured here, we would send you a gourmet food gift card.  For instructions on sending us your cake's photo, please click here to contact  our editors.

Serve Delicious Brain Jello This Halloween

Halloween won't be fun without a ghoulish meal. This brain gelatin mold will turn the ordinary Jello into a crowd pleasing Halloween treat. $5.98 per mold.

Cantonese Style Kung Pao Shrimp

Review submitted by: Jane Ong

I love Chinese food but if I have to pick my favorite among all Chinese regional cuisines, I have to pick the Cantonese cuisine.  Kung Pao Shrimp is basically on every Chinese restaurant's menu in America.  Yet Kung Pao Shrimp just tastes very different in every Chinese restaurant I visit.  I prefer the less saucy and less spicy kind of Kung Pao Shrimp that is rendered by the Cantonese chefs.  Kung Pao Shrimp is a variation of  the Kung Pao Chicken in China's  Szechuan cuisine.   The best Kung Pao Shrimp I ever had was in one of the side street diners in Hong Kong years ago when my parents first took me there for a summer trip.  It was the first time I ever had Kung Pao anything, and I will never forget the thrill of it. I was sitting at a table on a packed street with no air-conditioning but I had a blast and I consider that dinner to be one of the best I ever had.  I could see the chefs cooking on their roaring fire on one side of the street and then waiters fishing out live lobsters and fishes from the fish tanks on the other side of the street.  As a little kid, I was so mesmerized by the bustle and hustle of the cooking action.  I was totally hypnotized by all kinds of delicious smell floating in the air.  Back then I could care less about the name of the dish.  All I knew was I felt that  I had the best food in my life at the time (for my very short existence of only 8 years in this world).

Since then, I have been trying to find the same great Kung Pao Shrimp in America.  While I haven't yet found the Kung Pao Shrimp that tasted as good as the one I had during the summer trip in Hong Kong, I am lucky enough to find Kung Pao Shrimp that is decent. Even though Kung Pao shrimp is supposed to be a Szechuan dish, but I always feel that Cantonese Chinese restaurants produce better Kung Pao Shrimp than  the Szechuan restaurants.  To my own palette,  Cantonese chefs' rendition of Kung Pao Shrimp has just the right seasoning that is neither too hot nor too sweet.  The shrimp is also not drowned in sweet brown sauce like the ones produced by many American Szechuan restaurants.  I don't like Chinese stir fries that are too saucy.  I have to admit though I had never been to any Szechuan restaurant outside the USA.  May be I will be equally in love with the Kung Pao Shrimp produced by the more authentic Szechuan restaurants.

Until then, I feel fortunate to be living just a short drive away from  a Cantonese restaurant that serves decent Kung Pao Shrimp at $7.95 during lunch hours.

Restaurant: PV Palace
Address: 2166 Pacific Coast Hwy, Lomita, CA 90717
Phone:(310) 326-3228 Hours: Friday 10:00 am – 9:30 pm

I'm Inspired To Go On Picnics

Product review submitted by: Jane Ong

My work is scheduling me to return to Toms River New Jersey to work on some projects there again. My problem with Toms River New Jersey is that it is a town that is totally lack of decent restaurants, or the kind of supermarkets I like. (eg. Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe's).  But this time, I am going to return prepared.  The area around Toms River New Jersey is very pretty, even though it's very hot and humid most of the time in the summer.  But this time, I am expecting the temperature to be cooling off since it's going to be September.. or am I wrong?  I'm planning on bringing my picnic backpack for my business trip to Toms River this time.  I figure out that instead of having a miserable time dining out at restaurants that serve bland and often horrible food during the weekends, I can assemble much better meals and go on picnics on many scenic sites near Toms River.  

I bought this thermal insulated picnic backpack ($54.97) a while back because I wanted to picnic at a Hollywood Bowl summer concert.  But then my friend and I ended up being too lazy to pack our food, and  we went to a nearby restaurant instead.  I really like this picnic backpack because it includes 2 plates, 2 cups, 2 forks, 2 spoons, 2 knifes, 2 napkins, 2 salt and pepper shakers, 1 cheese cutting board, 1 bread and cheese knife, a multi-function wine opener, and a 45"x 53" picnic blanket.  I also love that the backpack has a collapsable wine holder.

I'm looking forward to finally putting this picnic backpack into good use when I go back to Toms River and enjoy the beautiful landscape there.

Caramel Waffle Cookies And Vietnamese Coffee

Review submitted by: Jane Ong

One of the reasons that I love Whole Foods  Market is because the quality of their baked goods.  I have been so sick and tired of the lousy tasting baked goods in most American grocery stores that are baked with "vegetable shortening" or "hydrogenated palm oil".  I am very happy that Whole Foods Market carry baked goods that taste naturally good and that are baked with high quality ingredients that include butter and cream. In my opinion, any American town that has no Whole Foods Market is not worth living in.  I have realized that any town that has no Whole Food Market, also has no Trader Joe's (another of my favorite store), which somehow only has very lousy restaurants. If I am wrong, please correct and educate me.  This is just based on my travel experience in American towns that don't have a Whole Foods Market.

Besides wholesome and delicious baked goods, Whole Foods Market  also carries a wide variety of decent tasting ethnic foods that show me the taste of the world.  I am delighted to find Vietnamese Iced coffee there and it tastes pretty good.  Shopping at Whole Foods Market is never just a chore to me, it's always an amusing and educational experience.  I can't say I am a very worldly person, but shopping at grocery stores like Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe's does make me become more appreciative of other cultures.  After all, the world isn't just all about greasy hot dogs and ghastly cakes that are baked and pasted with "hydrogenated vegetable shortening".  

Grocery Store: Whole Foods Market 

Address: 2655 Pacific Coast Hwy Torrance, CA90505

Tel:Phone:(310) 257-8700