My First Turkey

My older sister usually makes the turkey every Thanksgiving but this year she couldn’t make it because she just gave birth to my nephew so I decided to take on the challenge. I’ve never made turkey in my life and I didn’t have a single clue where to start but I was determined to make a delicious turkey. My sister gave me this helpful recipe by Alton Brown and she also gave me helpful tips along the way. The easiest step was buying everything I needed including the turkey which was 20 lbs. The toughest steps were making candied ginger from scratch and brining the turkey. The entire process took 4 days and it was quite tough cleaning and moving a 20 lb turkey. I was worried about dropping it the entire time and I was so relieved when it was finally on the dining table. Surprisingly, every person at Thanksgiving dinner loved eating the turkey. From this accomplishment, I realized that I can cook anything I am determined to. Keep in mind, I’m a very inexperienced cook but I always try to stay positive and tell myself that it will come out good.

Cooking Savings

My mom always tells me that it’s not about how much money you make but how much you can save and that I can save a lot of money by cooking at home. Being in my 20s, it’s a bit hard to eat at home all the time since I always have the urge to go out and try new restaurants with my friends. However, after coming across pictures of bugs and rodents at several restaurants and getting stomach aches at numerous dirty restaurants, I decided it was time to give in to my mom’s advice. I love to eat all types of noodle soups so I looked up recipes online and tried making various Vietnamese noodle soups for the first time. I tried making Pho Ga (Chicken Pho) noodle soup and it cost me $15 for 10 servings then I tried making Bun Rieu noodle soup and it cost me $30 for 10 servings. From doing the simple math, you’ll find that it only cost me $1.50 serving for Pho Ga and $3.00 a serving for Bun Rieu and most restaurants charge $8-10 a serving. I decided to share most of the food with my Mom and family and they were all very impressed with the taste. Not only did I save a lot of money from cooking at home, I also built a sense of confidence with cooking. Also, I noticed that I’ve been able to loose weight naturally from cooking good and healthy food which is a great plus. Cooking at home is very beneficial and I encourage anyone who wants to cook to try it and don’t be scared of long strenuous recipes. There are tons of very detailed step-by-step recipes online and several videos as well that are very helpful. I’m really glad I took my mom’s advice and started cooking at home. Someday, I would like to become more innovative with my cooking and combine different cuisines and spices together to find out what the outcome will be.

Pho Profits?

I googled “Pho profit margins” and found this Pho restaurant for sale in San Diego for $600K:

I was not surprised to find out that the gross income is $1.3 million for a profitable Pho restaurant. When I did the calculations of popular Pho restaurants I like to go to, I found that their gross income was over $1 million. I’m sure it mainly has to do with the cost of making Pho which is less than $1 a bowl. Even with the labor costs calculated in, I think profitable Pho restaurants are still making a 50% or more profit which is probably why there are so many Pho restaurants. Everyone wants to get in on the profits but of course, not everyone succeeds. When analyzing whether or not it’s worth it to own a Pho restaurant, I would need to find out how the broth tastes and if people like it. Also, is there a team you can count on to consistently make the same broth everyday and provide good customer service? Another big factor would be whether or not the location is good. If yes to all of the above then go for it!

Whoever thought of the concept of Pho which is a simple Vietnamese beef noodle soup is a genius! The question  for the innovators out there would be, what’s next? What can be combined with Pho to make it even greater? Will people ever get sick of Pho? If you have any ideas or comments, please tell me!

Candy Crush Addiction

One day my friend mentioned to me that she was suddenly craving for candy because she was playing Candy Crush. At that moment, it hit me that Candy Crush was subliminally advertising candy and encouraging people to eat it. I also thought about how it would be easy for candy companies to advertise Candy Crush on their products to get consumers to buy them just like how many companies advertised Angry Birds during it’s phase of popularity to get consumers to buy them. Everyone wants to get in on the hottest thing on the market and right now, it’s Candy Crush. If you don’t know anything about the game, here are a couple of fun facts:

• According to ThinkGaming.com, Candy Crush earns $850,000 per day and it’s still the highest grossing game in the App Store
• According to AppData, Candy Crush is one of the all-time most addicting online games with 700 million games played every day on mobile devices alone
• According to AppData, there are more than 100 million people playing the game
• According to King, the creator of Candy Crush, only 30% of players makes in-app purchases

Initially, I just thought Candy Crush was another one of those addictive games that people would play and eventually stop playing but the game was released over a year ago and there are still millions of people playing it. I’m sure King is sitting on a throne because of this game. It always boggles my mind how people can come up with simple yet brilliant ideas and succeed! I’m sure King did a ton of research on their target market and tested this game out before releasing it but I doubt they expected this much success. Candy Crush is truly an innovative game because it’s very different from other games and the creators made a very successful game through discovery and experimenting. How so you might ask? Well they made observations on what types of games people like and experimented by having people test it out and eventually released it to find out how the game will turn out. It seems like they are still experimenting with the game because they are consistently releasing new levels every week and also it periodically asks you to rank the level from boring to fun. It seems like they want to be consistently innovative, keep their players happy, and stay successful. Being a Candy Crush addict myself, I can’t wait to see what King comes out with next!

Ramen Burger Phenomenon

My sister randomly sent me a picture of a weird looking burger that looked like ramen noodles in a bun shape and a burger patty in the middle. She followed up with a text that said “ramen burger.” Due to my curiosity, I Googled it right away to find out more information about it and why I didn’t know about it prior to her text. I learned that it just debuted at a food fair in Brooklyn and it was created by Keizo Shimamoto in New York. One of the first thoughts that came to my mind was, “why didn’t I think of this before?” It seemed like a simple yet innovative and creative idea that is profitable and successful. People will wait in long lines just to try a ramen burger made by Shimamoto. Thanks to him, I’m sure there are tons of restaurants and food trucks everywhere trying to create a copycat just to get in on the profits and success.

Part of being innovative is truly observing and understanding other innovative ideas. A ramen burger might seem like a simple thing but the bottom line is that it is still an innovation. I found it incredibly fascinating that someone thought of this idea because it’s noodles plus a burger patty. I might someday want to create something innovative with food and if I do, I would go observe Shimamoto and other innovative chefs to brainstorm ideas.

Noodles to Success!

I really love eating noodles and I can’t quite seem to figure out why I love eating them so much. I like to eat all types of noodles such as pho noodles, ho fun, spaghetti, and penne. I always like to frequent the same noodle restaurants and sometimes I venture out and try new ones. Shown in the photo above is “Nam Vang” which means Cambodian noodles and it’s from my favorite noodle restaurant of all time – Vien Huong (VH) located in the heart of Oakland Chinatown. I’ve been eating at VH since I was in diapers, something about the broth and all the different types of meat they put in it makes it just delicious. I’ve shared countless memories eating at VH and I’ve introduced the restaurant to many of my close friends.

VH is one of those restaurants that you usually have to wait in line to eat at. Anytime I step into a successful business like this one, I start to ask myself questions such as how the business became successful, who is the owner and what are their daily/yearly profits? From an Innovators perspective, I can’t help but to ask these questions even though I don’t have any interest in owning a restaurant. Throughout the years I’ve made several observations while eating at various noodle restaurants, I’ve observed that it doesn’t cost much to make a bowl of noodle soup and profits are fairly high. It’s always the same quality of food and over the years, the prices always increase and the current average is $10/bowl (w/tip). Most popular noodle restaurants that I frequent have been in business for over 20-30 years and the interior/exterior doesn’t change much, the owners rarely renovate or change the bowls and utensils which means the owners pocket a majority of the profits. Also from my observations, the most important factors of a successful noodle restaurant are good broth, consistency, and good quality meat. If you are an Innovator interested in opening a new noodle restaurant, I suggest that you start off by trying VH then compare it to other noodle restaurants.