Getting Freebies with Swagbucks

I really like Swagbucks- let me count the ways. So far I have earned enough to get the following over the years:

• THREE $15 Itunes gift cards that I use for my nephew and godson
• TWO $50 Southwest Airlines giftcards
• a $10 Barnes & Noble giftcard
• Dings to cover/protect my notebook pc and Droid phone
• a heart rate monitor watch

What is Swagbucks? It's a website that rewards you with Swagbucksfor doing simple things like searching the internet, playing games, watching videos, answering surveys, etc. Swagbucks have a sort of cash value. For instance, you might earn $11 SB just for Googling "black garlic". And I say Googling on purpose. Once you put their toolbar on your browser and search via the toolbar or from their webpage, it is actually using the Google search engine. You will get the same search results, so why not get $SB for it? You get a $SB for answering the Daily Poll and you can get $SBs for watching  videos. It's all good.

You can also use your $SB to enter raffles for prizes like giftcards, game systems, Kindles, and more.

Do you like half off coupons? Why not get the same Google deal via the SB site and not only get the deal, but earn $SBs at the same time?! Or do you shop online via Overstock.com or Bestbuy.com? Online retailers like that are connected so that when you make a purchase, you earn $SB! I bought my Droid phone back when it was new and got it for only $50 on the SB cell phone store and earned $2000 SB! I would have paid $300 elsewhere.

And yes, you get $SB for referrals. So all the Swagbucks links I've provided do have my referral code in them. In fact, I could win a new laptop with enough people signing up. But here's a bonus - if you decide to join, use the code JUNETASTIC and you'll get an additional $70 SB instantly.

Here's a breakdown of all the ways that I know to earn $SB:

• Searching the internet via their toolbar or website
• Daily Poll
• Take surveys
• Daily Deals - such as Google, Froobi.com, etc
• Shop via their associated partners including such big sites as Overstock, BestBuy, and more
• Print coupons for groceries, etc and get $SB for each one printed
• Watch videos
• Play online Flash Games
• Sign up for special offers like newsletters or subscriptions

You can also grab $SB from special codes that show up in Twitter, Facebook, code hunts, etc. There's Twitter Trivia and other fun contests where you can win $SB.

So....Why not sign up for Swagbucks?  You're gonna search the internet and do some of those other online things anyway, so why not get paid for it?

Where are the Ethnic Food Trucks?

Chairman Truck and Hapa SF

Sacramento has a lot of cultural diversity. We have large Russian, Filipino, and Hmong populations as well as many, many others. So I have to ask - why haven't we gotten more ethnic food trucks in Sacramento yet?

SactoMoFo has had four events over the last year and yet they have to bring Hapa SF, Seoul on Wheels, Chairman Truck, An the Go, and Curry Up Now in from the Bay area. Now I support all gourmet food trucks, but I have to wonder why all we have so far are taco, burger, and sandwich trucks.

I even talked to William of Hapa SF last month about the chance of him being willing to partner with someone locally to start a Sacramento Hapa truck. I need some sisig on a regular basis! I'm dying for some lechon and pancit from a truck!

And wouldn't be it awesome if Mati's from 16th Street had an Indian curry truck?

In Portland I had Norwegian food from the Viking Soul Food trailer. I would die for something like that here!

Russian pieroshkis, Singapore noodles, and on and on and on. 

If you've been thinking of opening such a truck - get on it! There are hungry folk waiting for you out here!

Comment below - What food items do you want to find on a food truck?

Asian Sweet Treats

Mochi and treats from Osaka-ya

It's always fun to find hidden treasures. Last summer I went exploring some of these treasures with Suzanne Phan. We went hopping around checking out places to get Asian sweet treats. Here are some places you might be unaware of. Keep in mind that most of them operate as cash-only.

Osaka-ya's confection counter

Starting with the most well-known first, Osaka-Ya (2215 10th St.) is just a block from my house and yet it was years before I went in. In business for over 40 years, they state that they are one of only three remaining shops in Northern California that still make traditional Japanese mochii and manju confections from scratch.

What you will probably notice first as you approach is a cluster of people standing outside a small window. This is where Osaka-Ya serves their Japanese style shaved ice. I had learned in Honolulu the history of Hawaiian shaved ice began with the Japanese introducing their shaved ice to the islands. Osaka-ya doesn't have lots of toppings/additions. They have about a dozen flavors of syrup, offer a scoop of ice cream in the middle if you choose, and have azuki beans available for those who like them.

Green and Black Garlic Shrimp Scampi with Zucchini Linguini

Spring is the time for green garlic. Look quick, because it will be gone from the farmers markets in the next week or so. I've never used it before and so I decided to buy a bunch a try a few things.

I did try some straight green garlic butter sauce on cod earlier in the week, but it occurred to me that maybe I should combine garlics to create something new. I actually wanted to go crazy with a four garlic scampi: regular, roasted, green, and black garlics. I still might due that later in the week, but for now I restrained myself and stuck to green and black, figuring it sounded enticing.

Burger Month: Spicy Juicy Lucy Burger

If you were unaware, May is National Burger Month. (It's also National Salad Month as a cosmic kind of joke.) My friend, Rodney AKA @Burgerjunkies, is the leader of the Sacramento burger brigade and is working diligently to bring about Sacramento burger awareness twofold.

Firstly he has his SacBurgerMonth.com website where he is giving away a great prize: a Canon Digital SLR Camera. Approximate Retail Value (“ARV”): $750. It's easy to enter through a variety of methods, including tweeting with the hashtag #SacBurgerMonth and checking into places on Foursquare, etc. 

dessert burger

There is also a list of participating restaurants. Don't forget to try the burger named after him at The Eatery, the Junky Burger (review). While you are there, ask about the other off-menu item - the dessert burger! There is also the weekly specialty burger at De Vere's Pub. Yesterday we tried the Backwoods Burger (available thru 5/20) which had a chuck patty, fried pimento mac & cheese, crispy kale, red onion, smoked ham, Amer. bacon, and a tomato chutney.

Then in September he's holding a Sac Burger Battle between the some of the top restaurants/chefs in the city. Judged by a panel and by the public, he hopes to award Sacramento's top burger on September 18th, National Cheeseburger Day.

I figured I should post a burger recipe for burger month. Lately I've been eating bunless burgers to try and eliminate those extra carby calories (burgers are dangerous enough), thus no buns in the photos. I've actually found that when you are eating some of these monster restaurant burgers, bunless is both easier to deal with and allows you to focus on the components of their fancy combinations.

Kheer-style Tapioca

As I mentioned in the bread pudding post, I"m not a fan of rice pudding but I like tapioca. Go figure. 

Kheer is an Indian rice pudding that is flavored with cardamon and often has pistachios, raisins, and coconut in it. It's wonderful stuff. 

I decided to make a tapioca version instead. You can use the Minute Tapioca sold at the grocery, but I suggest having some fun with larger pearl tapioca found in the Asian markets. There are many different sizes, the largest usually found in the Asian boba drinks. I used a rather small pearl.

Kheer-style Tapioca

1 can of coconut milk

1 cup of water

1/4 cup Minute Tapioca or small pearl tapioca

4 Tablepoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon rose water (optional)

1/4 cup raisins

1/4 cup pistachios, chopped 

toasted coconut for garnish

Shake the can of coconut milk well and then open and pour the contents into a medium saucepan. Add water and tapioca and let sit for about 10 minutes. Stir in sugar. Turn heat to medium and stir occasionally to keep tapioca from clumping. Cook for about 10 minutes until the pudding has thickened and the tapioca is cooked. Remove from heat and add rose water, pistachios, and raisins. Serve hot or cold with a bit of toasted coconut for garnish.

Kim Chi French Onion Soup

What do you get when you mix kim chi with French onion soup? One kickass good soup!

I had just a little bit of my homemade kim chi left and suddenly had a thought to mix the two. What you get is an onion soup that has extra flavor and a bit of a kick. Try it. You might never make another kind at home again.

Note: I'm not sure how this will work with different types of kim chi.

Kim Chi French Onion Soup

make 1 large serving

1 medium yellow onion, sliced

1 teaspoon butter

1 teaspoon olive oil

1/3 cup kim chi and juices

2 cups beef broth

stale bread, about 1/4 cup 

1/3 cup shredded fontina cheese

In a medium skillet melt together the oil and butter. Add onion and turned to low heat. Allow the onions to cook with minimal stirring. Cook for 30 minutes until very golden and tender. You want the onions to turn a dark golden brown without crisping or burning. Add kim chi and continue to simmer for another 5 minutes. Pour in the beef broth and simmer for another 2-3 minutes until soup is hot.

Pour the soup into a large soup bowl. Place pieces of stale bread on top. Spread cheese over the top of bread. Place bowl under broiler and melt the cheese until it is melty, bubbly, and golden. Carefully remove bowl and serve.

Schwarma Memories

Suddenly there is a spike in the ordering of schwarmas based on The Avengers movie. How crazy is that? At the end of the film Ironman says, "Have you ever tried shawarma?...I don't know what it is, but I want to try it." Apparently he's not the only one. I guess many people are going to try it or else it's just reminding the rest of us, "Hey, it's been ages since I've had a schwarma. Thanks for reminding me!"

Today Bee reporter Blair Robertson writes about it in his article "Middle East dish hot new thing after it's served up in 'Avengers'". Yesterday he had Facebooked asking for input on good schwarmas around town. My response to him was - nowhere!

You see, I grew up with schwarmas because of living in Saudi Arabia. I was there from first through ninth grades and back for vacations until my dad retired in 1987, the same time I graduated college. (Side note: My parents actually missed my college graduation because they were busy driving out of the MidEast. Hmmm.  Priorities?) 

Schwarmas were almost always what we had for lunch or dinner when we went in to the neighboring Arab city of Al Khobar. Back in the day (1970s), there would be a schwarma stand every few blocks just like you would see a hot dog stand in New York. The rotisserie of meat is spinning and fresh Arab (pita) bread is ready to be filled. The bread was smaller than what is sold here and so most adults would order two or three. The filling? Lamb, tahini, chopped tomatoes, onions, and cucumbers, and mint. For me a schwarma has to have some sprigs of fresh mint.

Food Trucks & Restaurants - They are Related!

Updated May 10, 2012

Original post: June 2011
Today’s topic: the relationship between trucks and restaurants both here and throughout the country. I’m not going to get all preachy. I’m just going to point out some facts that I believe emphasize that the food service industry is all related. It should be one, big, happy family versus some dysfunctional family where the siblings are always arguing. 

Our fight for food trucks is not a lonely one. I’ve been keeping tabs on the nation and the same arguments are found across the country: Chicago, Washington D.C., Miami, Dallas, Denver, Charlottesville, Minneapolis, Asheville, and even York, Pennsylvania.

My Social Media Addiction Began in the 70s

I'm sure many person has silenced me or un-friended me on Facebook or un-followed me on Twitter. I'm pretty addicted to the both of them and use them frequently. I can trace my addiction all the way back to the 1970s, before personal computers were even a thought.

You see, as I've mentioned before, I grew up overseas in Saudi Arabia from the age of 6 until I went away to boarding school at 15. Back in the 70s we were very isolated, especially being in a Muslim country. We had one English TV channel that ran from 4:30 until 11 p.m. Movies and TV were censored by clipping scenes - even kissing.  All of our imported magazines and newspapers were censored. You would get a magazine where certain pages had been completely torn out or they took a big, black magic marker and scribbled out the offending image - usually a woman in a bathing suit, etc. 

Thank goodness for the advent of the VCR. I remember watching shipped in episodes of Battlestar Gallactica on cassette tapes the size of a textbook. Those were big clunkers. Eventually the VHS and Beta sizes came out and everyone gobbled up those and traded videos. We used to have relatives in the U.S. tape all sorts of shows so that we could bring them back later. Luckily it was also the heyday of the TV mini-series. So we got things like Roots, The Thorn Birds, North & South, Shogun, and more.

Somehow this isolation created a need for me to feel connected with the outside world. Back then that meant mail. Our post office was on the other side of the compound and so going to check the mail was usually done the same time you did your grocery shopping.  (To give you an idea of the size of the compound at its peak in the early 80s, I would liken it to as large as the town of Rocklin - which is pretty darn large now.) I loved the task of being the one to check the mail, even though as a kid I couldn't expect much mail. I had pen pals in South Africa, Australia, and Connecticut,  and an occasional magazine such as National Geographic's World magazine for kids (now defunct).

When I went to boarding school and college in the 80s the mail was still very important. Overseas phone calls were too expensive back then and only happened a couple of times a year for an emergency. Nowadays everyone can use Skype and see the person they are talking to and do it all over the internet cheaply. How much things have changed!

So yes, I liken my social media addiction to Twitter and Facebook to my need to check the mail in the 70s and 80s. I have some deep desire to be connected and social media fills this need perfectly. I go through withdrawals if I forget my smartphone at home. I am an addict. But really, aren't there worse things to be addicted to?