Claudine's Hideaway » Food & Restaurant

Healthy Snack: Sunflower Seeds

Claudine — Wed, 12 May 2010 12:33:00 +0000

The snacks I normally eat during break time or while working are either chocolates, biscuits, chips or fruits. Of the ones I’ve mentioned, fruits are the only healthy snack. We usually get free fruits from our GM when we do her fruit and vegetable shopping. Hehehe.. We’ve had several weeks of wonderful, sweet strawberries.

When the local restaurant near our office were giving away free pack of sunflower seeds as promotion, the whole team became hooked to it. I’m not really sure if there’s a correlation between eating sunflower seeds and acne but I’ve been having acne breakouts again. Maybe not because of the seeds but because of sleeping late, poor diet, no exercise and stress. Oh well.. I should get my lazy butt off the couch and dance to Madonna or Lady Gaga for exercise. Hahahaha!

Since I’ve been eating a lot of Sunflower seeds, I searched the net and checked if it’s really a healthy snack or junk food. Here’s what I’ve found out about this simple and harmless seed.

Health benefits:

Good source of Vitamin E, which is a fat-soluble antioxidant.
It lowers cholesterol.
Good source of magnesium which helps regulate nerve and muscle tone.
Good source of selenium, which is a cancer fighting agent
Good source of vitamin B1 and B5.

Hmm.. it seems like the health benefits sounds good. I should keep on eating it then. I wonder what are the side effects if you eat too much. My boss was saying that she sometimes can eat one 200 gram pack in one sitting if she’s watching a good movie.

In any case, this snack would be a good supplement to a healthy diet and exercise. I better start using the new running shoes I bought. I’m thinking of running every Sunday. Hopefully, I’ll be able to continue doing it regularly. I really need an accountability person to whip me up. Who knows, if I lose the flab on my stomach, I’ll catch myself a guy. Hehehe! Happy snacking!

Lanzhou Beef Noodles

Claudine — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 06:09:19 +0000

Lanzhou is the capital of Gansu province located at the northwest part of China. Nestled between mountains, the weather is perfect and the scenery is superb. As the city has a significant Muslim population, Muslim restaurants and fast food chains are found in almost every corner. No McDonalds nor Starbucks but several KFC.

The most popular food in Lanzhou is the Lanzhou Beef Noodles (兰州拉面). This dish was first created during the reign of Emperor Guangxu (1875 – 1908), Qing Dynasty (1616 – 1911). It has five main features: clear soup, white radish, red pepper, green caraway and yellow noodles. The noodles can be wide or slim to meet different preferences. A bowl of beef noodles cost 10 to 20 yuan and takes only a few minutes to prepare. According to a local, the best place to eat these noodles are in Muslim restaurants.

We had a chance to try this dish and it was huge and filling. It taste like any other noodles but maybe we just don’t know how to mix everything. Our guide put some vinegar on his noodle and spicy sauce so maybe that’s why he finished everything.

New Concept: Toilet Dining!

Claudine — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 06:50:23 +0000

When the dark restaurant became a fad in Beijing, my Friday dining group went to one of these restaurants to experience it. It was relatively expensive as the waiters need to wear night vision goggles to lead you to your table and serve your food. You order and pay for your food at the lobby area and leave your things in the locker before they lead you to your seats. It was messy, fun and quite an experience. You get to appreciate more those who were born with visual difficulties.

In China Daily online yesterday, they showed some photos of a new concept restaurant in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. This concept? Toilet Dining. It doesn’t mean that you dine in the toilet but the chairs are replaced by toilet bowls and the table has a sink below it. The dishes are served in bowls shaped like a toilet bowl.

One comment online was it was a funny concept but he wouldn’t want to try it. But hey! think of the convenience this will give you. You’re in a new country where your stomach is not used to the food and you suddenly have the urge to go to the bathroom. No need to go far as you’re sitting on one! Hehehe!

So, will you try this new concept restaurant? I would just for the fun of it.

On the other hand, my brother just told me that this concept is not new. Apparently I’m behind the times as he already received an email before with some of these pictures. He only said that the dishes in the toilet bowl are the new ones. *sigh* Why can’t I report something new?