@ work today, I was hanging out with a few interns. One of them was from Villanova and the other ones were from the University of Floria and Carnegie Melon. They were fun, friendly, and supportive. We went to Chipotle for lunch and spent a good amount of time looking at the Hudson River from our window.
When I got back, I told HT to come over and cook steak, because, the last time when I had dinner at his house, I ate the best steak ever, and I was craving it today. We went to Stop n Shop to get all the ingredients that we needed; the only 1 thing missing was thyme so we had to use pizza seasoning instead. It wasn’t ideal, but it didn’t affect the quality of the steak either (i think). I took a lot of videos and pictures so I could memorize the steps and redo this myself, but I’m pretty sure I will not do it myself because I believe that a dish is only @ its best when the right person cooks it. Enjoy this step-by-step process to cook the perfect steak by chef HT. Oh wait funny enough, the first demo failed because there were 2 thin slices of beef, not 1 thick slice haha.
1/ Choosing the right steak: Evenly spread between lean and fat (think about wagyu beef)
2/ Wash and dry the steak using paper towels
3/ Chop garlic + prepare rosemary
4/ Salt + pepper the steak (don’t forget the edges)
5/ Oil the pan (a small amount)
6/ High heat
7/ When the pan is hot (see smoke), put the steak in; don’t forget the edges (2.5 minutes)
6/ Flip the steak, add butter, add garlic; continuously pour oil + butter mixture over the steak to keep it moist.
7/ Voila! Serve steak with pan-seared tomatoes (no need oil)+ mashed potatoes + sesame sauce!
Second story, I got into a fight with my parents. Long story short, I have plans to go home for less than 2 weeks after my internship and then come back to Villanova with my brother. However, the plane ticket for the trip to the US is very expensive and the landing time would be tricky – at around midnight. Plus, we might have to get extra paperwork in Japan to transfer between airports… Everything was so inconvenient, so I suggested that I stayed in the US this summer – meaning that I would cancel my flight ticket to Vietnam and we lost about 300 dollars, which is actually still a lot cheaper than these crazy options; plus, I wouldn’t have to worry about my visa situation. The only issue is I might not be able to be with my parents any time soon. My dad was really mad and told me to never come back when I proposed that; in reaction to that, I was just mad back because I knew I wasn’t wrong either – I knew I had a rational idea. But, now that I think more about it, my dad just really wanted me to come home for the summer, even for only a short time. He has been spending billions of VND for me to study in the US, then why he would mind expensive flight tickets, given the possibility of not seeing me again for a long time otherwise. In a million years, he would ever say that he misses me a lot, but I stg he would pay like a house for me to just come and be at home for a few hours! At the end, we did find a much better flight ticket as it solved all the issues. However, I’m still thinking about that very short moment that happened earlier. I miss mom and dad a lot more than I thought 😦
Trang "Tee" Nguyen 