Lincoln Park farmer market @ Chicago, USA

Great selection, local food and good prices to boot. You can literally get everything you need for the week right here. Dairy, meat, bread, cheese, veggies and fresh flower for the table. There are chocolate and crepes as well. The prices for the food here is not cheap but rather go here for the fun of it.


Raw honey.

Stall selling crepe.

So much corn in this crepe. Very healthy vegetarian crepe. The price is USD8.00 which is quite expensive.

Pasta sauce.

Stall selling tomatoes at farmer market.

Local produced vegetables.

GPS/Coordinate: 41.918204, -87.646103
Address: Armitage Ave & Orchard St, Chicago, IL 60614
Public transport: Armitage metro station via brown line.

Pre-Christmas Home Made Lunch with Restaurant Style

This year one of my colleague invite us for a lunch at his house during lunch office hours. One word I would say about this. Its a wow. He himself dress like waiter and serve us well. The food is good and the amount is abundant. Great western food with a personal touch and home cooking style. Fantastic meal with nice food presentation & I think he and his wife got the skill to open a small cafe to serve the public!



The house table deco.

Christmas tree.

Got menu!

My sitting.

Smoked salmon and greens.

Salad.

Sausages.

Martini champange.

Rolled pork belly & BBQ pork rib platter.

Shepherd's pie.

Roasted duck.

Nice dining table flower.

Tiramisu cake.

Coffee.

Chocolate from US.

Home made butter cake as take away gift.

How often you eat at home?

I am a few of the lucky ones who can enjoy mom home cooked meal on weekdays. For me, no matter how good hawker food or outside food, mom cooking is still the best. Although it is just a normal stir-fry vegetables, steamed chicken or soup, I still can't get such dishes from outside. Besides being nutritious and full of wholesomeness, it helps me to save too. A whole chicken from the market only cost RM8 and it can be eaten for two days. While whole chicken from chicken rice shop already cost you RM16-20 per chicken.
Then looking at people who no longer stay with their family or had moms who have gone to the other side of the world, I realized that many people would still love for their moms cooking. For those who like to complain about their mom's cooking, be grateful and try to cook yourself. Now I share with you all the cooking for the past 2 months.


Fried rice.

Bean sprouts.

Steamed ladies finger. Nutritious and simple.

Steamed fish with garlic & mushroom. My mom will try to have meat & vegetables on one dishes.

Steamed chicken. Fresh and appetizing.

Stir fry green vegetables.

Lotus root soup boiled with red dates & pork rib.

White pomfret with green capsicum & salted black beans.

Sea weed soup with eggs.

Squid curry. This is what I suggested. Just dump everything into curry.

Stir fry green capsicum with pork.

Red bean soup with noodles. I not quite sure what does this bean called.

Large green pea, mushroom, eggs and chicken soup with noodles. Another example of mixing meat & vegetables to make it nutritious enough.

Another version of steamed fish promfet.

Canned baked beans.

Herbal soup.

Braised pork with roasted garlic.

Steamed promfet with spring onions.

Stir fry french bean with anchovies & chili.

Black bean soup.

Occasional brown rice for a good fiber meal.

Stir fry cabbage.

Stir fry cauliflower with anchovies, mushroom & onions.

Salted black bean fish.

Noodles with dried oyster, green vegetables and chicken.

This is the first time I tried this raw dates. It is sour and disgusting when you first bite it but as you chew, it is taste quite sweet.

Home cooking

Home cooking is delicious, healthy & cheap. Let me share some of my home cooking for the previous month until now. Some I prepared & some by my mom.

Stir fry petai with scallop.
Kau kee soup with eggs.
Fish porridge with tomatoes & spring onion.

Steam siakap with ginger & fried garlic + small onion.
Tou foo soup with pork & spring onion.
Lotus root soup with chicken feet. Nice!
Black pompret with tauchu & ginger. I love another version with black bean too.

Failed fried ngaku (arrow head chips) during chinese new year. Try again next year!