Tasty Food Things

Okay...

2011-07-29T12:08:00.001-07:00

So the posts I just put up are a little out of order... or something like that. I got confused... aaaaaaannndddd.... I think I still am, a little. I think.

In any case, if there are repeats of numbering issues, just pretend they're not there :)

Hong Kong Eats - Part VII

2011-07-29T11:26:00.000-07:00

Look at that tree...

How did it grow that way...?

We're at the Landmark Cafe.

Iced coffees and smiles all around!

My sister got scones which also came with cream and jam, which I forgot to take a picture of.

I got smoked salmon on toast with dill.

Mmmm... Salmon....

Luke got a Club Sandwich that came with killer fries.

Avocadooooo! Love avocados!

This is the walk we take from the Landmark to HK Park :)

And this is a view of HK from the Peak :) It was super foggy that night.

We fed the feral kitties of the peak. They little guys were super skittish and very hungry.

Sadly, the kitty did not want to be friends.

Even the tram station was obscured by the fog O.O Looks spooky!

McDonalds is surprisingly nice in HK. They look more like what we'd expect Starbucks to look like.. which was kind of surreal in a way..

I met my father at the Landmark again a few days later.

Mmmm... Cappuccino...

This sounded interesting: A chocolate cake with ganache, cream, bitter orange and rosemary.

It was pretty good, but suuuuper rich. Chocolate is nice, but I usually have it in tiny doses.

I do like the flavors, though.

The rosemary was a nice contrast to the chocolate and complimented the orange.

There were these tiny, crunchy little balls hidden in the mousse that gave it a nice crunch.

With all the other components being so rich and creamy, the little bobbles were a nice surprise.

Random Hong Kong cat and my sisiter.

Another kitty and Luke.

Ahhh... Hong Kong at night :3

Hong Kong Eats - Part V

2011-03-25T11:31:00.001-07:00

When I was in HK, Dad and I would get up pretty early (around 5-7 each morning) and we would go for walks.

We were right by the coast. I loved the smell of the ocean in the morning.

It was windy and there was a little chill, but it was a wonderful way to start the morning.

We were staying at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, so for breakfast, we headed for the cantina.

I wish I had gotten some more pictures. The two eating areas they had at HKUST were really very nice, clean and served realllllllly tasty food.

We each got soy sauce noodles, jukk (Chinese rice porridge) with pork, peanuts and thousand year old eggs, and milk tea.

Milk tea is pretty strong and a great substitute for coffee. I actually prefer it.

TURTLE!

This is not Sparta, it's a chocolate shop. And a pretty popular one.

Sky walks, pretty much like sidewalks, but above and over the traffic to ease congestion.

Strawberry smoothie.

Coffee. We needed the caffeine kick.

Lychee iced tea and a coconut iced thingy. Both very refreshing.

Obligatory "V" picture.

Purcuitto and melon: a winning combination!

Smoked salmon plate. The sauces were creamy and tangy and the bitterness of the greens were a nice way to break through the richness of the salmon and creams.

And of course we need dessert! There was a tiramisu, a chestnut creme brulee, molten chocolate cake, cheese cake and that triangle thing is actually ice cream.

We also got snake wine! More for the novelty than anything else.

I gave it as a gift to my boyfriend.

And no. We haven't drank it.... YET.

Hong Kong Eats - Part VI

2011-03-25T10:58:00.001-07:00

The hustle and bustle of Causeway Bay. We're going in search of spicy crab!

In Hong Kong there are many places that feature Spicy Crab. The place we're going to is called Under Bridge Spicy Crab.

It originated as a small stall under a bridge, near a typhoon shelter. Around Causeway Bay there used to be a great deal of dancing clubs. I was told that when people came out they bought food from the vendors, one of them being Spicy Crab.

Behold, crabs!

Their claws are bound to their bodies, to there is no pinching or loss of appendages when they're moved or scuffle with each other.

Mmmmm... Eel!

Ah, mantis prawns! They're also known as 'pissing shrimp'... but Mantis Prawn just sounds so much better.

They're weird looking critters and spiny and sharp, but damn, are they good.

Lobsters!

Inside the restaurant. I love the lanterns.

A gathering of family and friends!

Clams cooked up in spices and black bean sauce. The clams were very fresh and had tender, sweet flesh. The sauce was not too thick or thin, coating the clams perfectly. The little bite of spice at the end was nice.

Water spinach with dried scallops and mushrooms.

We needed some veggies on the table ^_-

Shrimp, very simply cooked with a little oil and salt.

Quickly stirfried and served while piping hot.

The best thing about shrimp being served whole is the head.

I love, love, looooooooooove eating shrimp heads.

SNAILS! Boiled sea snails, simple and tasty. A little chewy, but tender and rich.

Snails may seem a little off putting, but don't knock it till you try it.

They're surprisingly good.

You pull the little snails out of their shells with a toothpick.

And it looks like this!

Then you eat it!

The shells really pile up...

TA DAAA!!!! Spicy Crab is made from live crabs, quartered, fried with chinese peppers and served underneath a HEAPING pile of deep fried garlic and scallions.

It's a little hard to tell that there is a goldmine of sweet, juicy crab under there, but there is.

It's a hell of a lot of garlic. Delicious, delicious garlic...

Lookit!

That's one massive claw.

That's excitement right there!

Or... something else... like hunger? Anticipation? Seafood euphoria?

In any case, she's happy to have it.

Mantis prawns served in a similar manner to the crab. The fried garlic seemed to have a lot more hot chilies than the crab. But that's good, I am very fond of spicy.

His close-up.

Weird looking dude, huh?

The aftermath...!

To clean our hands we god bowls of tea with lemon in it. It does a good job, and your hands come out smelling nice, despite the seafood.

Fruit for the dessert is always nice. Juicy watermelon is a great way to end a finger licking meal.

Hong Kong Eats - Part IV

2011-03-25T10:13:00.000-07:00

While we were in Hong Kong many mornings looked like this:

It was technically winter there, kind of like winter in FL, misty, a little chilly and still pretty humid.

A lot nicer than the midwest, in any case :)

Sweater weather > Coat weather.

That day I went around with my cousin. We stopped to get some noodles first, which looked pretty good....

However, the noodles were over cooked an fell apart in our chopsticks... Not the best. According to my cousin Anson, it usually wasn't like this.

After abandoning our disappointing fare, we met up with my grandmother.

We went somewhere else, mainly for something to drink and a little snack.

Anson recommended I try this:

It's bread fried in butter (really tasty, soft on the inside with the perfect crispy outside) with condensed milk on top. Sweet, rich, crunchy... what's not to like?

Lemon tea. It's rather popular in Hong Kong and is very light and refreshing.

It can be served in hot or cold form.

That day was relatively warm, so we went with the iced.

Ahhh, Hong Kong style French Toast.

I featured it in one of my earlier posts, and now here it is again!

Two thick slices of bread with a generous amount of peanut butter or condensed milk in the middle, dipped in an egg-milk mixture, then deep fried for crispiness and then eaten with syrup.

Oh hells yes.

I walked around with Anson for a while longer while my grandmother went back home.

We talked, window shopped and sipped coffe until it was time for dinner.

Around 7 we headed back to the apartment for a nice home-cooked meal.

My Uncle, Grandmother and Anson :)

Me and my relatives <3

I forgot to take pictures of the soup... but this is the stuff that went into it.

Typically, a soup is served at the beginning of the meal.

It's just the broth, so the stuff that went into the soup is strained out and served separately.

It's usually a mild soup and is very comforting.

One of my favorite dishes in the world! It's called 'jai' and is traditionally eaten on New Years. It's a Buddhist dish and is comprised of vegetables and tofu. The weird looking black hair-like stringy stuff is mermaid hair (also known as black fungus or hair vegetable) which is a fungus that basically looks like hair. As weird as it looks, it's delicious.

My Grandmother and Aunt taught me how to make this a few years ago (when I was like... 14)

and though I can make it decently, my grandmother makes it best :)

Mmm... Steamed fish! Served with light soy and sliced ginger and green onions.

Very simple, but very satisfying.

After dinner my Uncle drove me home, with my Grandmother and Anson coming along.

I was laden with foodstuffs; lots of leftovers from dinner and these fruits:

(These aren't actually all the fruit, we had a lot more. I just thought this looked nicer)

At the top is dragon fruit.

The red fruits are called 'rose apples' and are one of my favorite fruits when we visit Hong Kong.

They're crunchy and have a subtle sweetness with a hint of clove. It has about the same flesh to water ratio as a watermelon, so it's super juicy.

In the middle is what is known as a 'custard apple' or 'soursop', more on that later.

We also had mangoes and starfruit. The mangoes were so ripe and they smelled incredible.

Sliced star fruit and rose apples.

I'd never had a soursop before! Dad was very excited to show us (me, my sister and her boyfriend). He said they were very hard to get when he was little.

I had been curious about the fruit since earlier that day when my grandmother bought it for us.

The outside looked scaly, but upon touching it, it was soft and slightly spongy.

Dad held it in his hands and just pulled it apart!

This is what it looks like!

It was very soft on the inside, but still a bit firm.

The most memorable thing about this was the taste.

It was really sweet...Sweeter than packets of sugar or honey.

The fruit has a mild strawberry taste and notes that are reminiscent of a pineapple,

but it was so sweet that it was hard to eat more than one piece in a sitting without a cup of tea.

Aaaaand here is Hong Kong at dusk, on a grey day.

Also, the turtles of Hong Kong :) They're so very cute and they're EVERYWHERE.

More soon!

Hong Kong Eats - Part III

2011-03-22T13:22:00.000-07:00

One of the best things about Hong Kong are the mass amounts of bakeries.

A lot of places have small breads and cakes pre-packaged in single serving sizes. I got a little melon cake and a sponge cake, labeled as "white albumen cake" which is a weird thing to call it...

Look how cute! I love the packaging.

It has a crumbly, mild bread filled with a dense,

slightly chewy/sticky inside of melon flavored goodness.

Sponge cake in all it's spongey goodness.

Fluffy!

A little breakfast platter I made for Dad one morning. Fresh kiwi too!

One night we went to dinner with my Uncle and Grandmother.

This is what we got :)

Jukk, also known as congee, is basically rice porridge thats very popular in Cantonese cuisine.

It's kind of like a comfort food. It can be served plain, but most of the time things are added to it, like various meats (shredded chicken, pork, etc), thousand year old eggs, peanuts, green onions, etc... It's very soothing and mild.

Steamed rice served in a banana leaf, this is it unwrapped.

These are typically filled with meats and other goodies.

Mmmmm... one of my favorite things. Tender, soft rice noodles filled with shrimp.

They're essentially large rice noodle sheets that are folded/rolled with various fillings. I usually like the shrimp or a soft beef mixture they put inside (think asian meatloaf).

It's served with a light, sweet soy.

Delicious, delicious pigeon.

It's crispy on the outside and has very tender, moist meat (if cooked correctly).

It's a relatively small bird, so each pigeon is cut into fourths.

Frog legs! Stir fried with green onions ginger. Mmmmm...

Fish heads!

These are cut apart, deep fried in a light crispy,

flavorful batter and then cooked in a clay pot with some veggies and aromatics.

In the U.S. the fish head is usually discarded, but in Chinese cuisine, it's regarded as the best part of the fish. It can still have a fair amount of meat and has a lot of good omega 3 fatty parts, which are tasty and good for you. Re-think fish heads if you haven't tried them :)

Mmmmmm.... Dinner!

More to come....

Hong Kong Eats - Part II

2011-03-16T07:44:00.000-07:00

During the months of February and March, Hong Kong has it's Arts Festival. We visited the Cultural Center on the Kowloon side. There were lots of posters up for upcoming performances, a school dance group doing a showcase, and exhibits all over the place.

We saw a poster for a dance performance while we were there and we ended up going later on that week. It was absolutely beautiful and we all had a great time.

This is the stage before the performance started.

Before the show we grabbed dinner at the restaurant located in the Cultural Center called Serenade.

The place was very nice and had a good view of the harbor.

This is the atrium.

Dad did a lot of the ordering.

Our table was very full, and the food kept coming.

Ta-Da!

This is a veggie dish with earwig (a type of black fungus with a distinct texture and mild, earthy taste.) It was accompanied with cucumber, onions and goji berries. The picture is slightly hazy because there was a lot of steam coming off this dish.

A little hedgehog!

It had friends.

Octopi!

Cathy and Luke look quite mysterious in the background...

Kind of a mini dim sum tasting platter thing. The octopi and hedgehogs were a cute touch, though I did feel a little bad biting into them... which is why you eat the face first, so it doesn't stare at you and judge.

Ahh, goose. While in Hong Kong, we probably ate our weight in goose. It's very popular there, with several places famous for and specializing in goose. Like all water foul, they have quite a bit of fat, which can taste very good, but is quite heavy.

You will notice that it comes pre-sliced. This is customary in China/Hong Kong. After the bird is finished, it's placed on a large, very thick wooden block and cut in this style. You need a very strong, heavy cleaver and a person who has good aim and a strong arm. The bones are cut straight through.

If you're not used to this style of serving, it takes a little getting used to because you kind of have to eat around little bones and such. I prefer it, actually, because it's convenient and saves the trouble of having to cut things at the table.

Also, you will notice it still has it's head on.

Most birds are served this way and fish are also served whole as well.

Savory bread buns filled with minced meats. The bread is not baked, but steamed and is usually milk based. It has a sweet taste and light texture.

Also, we had broccoli with garlic. Very simple, but very good.

Veggies were nice to have, since a lot of our meals were meat-heavy.

Those weird looking roll things are thinly sliced bamboo shoots wrapped around a mix of earwig, mermaid hair (another type of fungus that literally looks like black hair. It's also known as black fungus and hair vegetable. Though very strange looking, it's very delicious) and a few other veggies. Served with goji berries and edamame.

Soft tofu stuffed with minced shrimp and bamboo shoot (probably pork fat as well, because in Hong Kong it's used in a lot of things) with Chinese broccoli on the side. The sauce is a very light soy-based brothy mix that was on the sweet side.

Victory melon and fish! Victory melons are weird looking. They're long and have kind of spiny parts that run the length of it. The outside is usually peeled off.

The flesh and seeds are edible, and it's look is similar to that of a cucumber, but a lot more tender. The seeds are large but very soft. Sometimes it can have a touch of bitterness to it, but finishes sweet.

Fried rice with bits of chive, shrimp and roasted pork.

It was a glorious meal followed by an equally glorious performance.

When we got out, the view looked like this:

It's so pretty at night!

More fooding adventures to come.... Dun dun dunnnnn!

Hong Kong Eats: Part I of Many

2011-02-23T21:41:00.001-08:00

Oh, Hong Kong, Hong Kong.... How I love you!

It's a great place to be. I like the hustle and bustle, the parks and gardens, people watching, shopping, the mountains, hills and twisty up and down streets, the ocean, the lights, the plants... Oh I could go on forever, but the one thing I love most is the food.

Hong Kong is an gourmand's paradise. You can find anything and everything here and in the summer the fruits are absolutely to die for.

I'm gonna start off pretty simple, the first thing I ate here were udon noodles, fish balls and sliced cucumber. We'd just gotten into HK, and I was dead tired. Luckily, my father and my sister's boyfriend were energetic, so the men went out hunting while Cathy and I flopped down on the beds to recharge our batteries.

These cucumbers are AMAAAAAZING, by the way. Super, ultra crunchy and really sweet. Very refreshing, and a perfect compliment to the thick chewy noodles and spongy, salty, meaty fish balls.

We went to HK Park for lunch the next day. This is what we got:

This is an avocado salad with mango and crab meat. It was a little rich, and honestly a little too sweet and bland. I would have liked more crab and some line juice in there... and maybe a touch of something spicy. Not too bad though, the avocados were ripe and the presentation was veery nice.

You can't really see it, but there's fire in there!

On top of it was a whole fish swimming (ha ha, a pun!) in a tangy lemongrass soup. It bubbled and boiled the entire time, and the soup was a nice compliment to the mild, soft fish. The vast amount of veggies was appreciated.

To recharge our batteries we chose not coffee or sodas, but traditional herbal teas. Dad and I got plum tea, that was mildly sweet, a little tangy and had a slight medicinal after taste. It was good for nausea and headaches (I was still a little jetlagged, so it did me a world of good). Luke got a hempseed based tea, which I didn't try, but he said it was good. Cathy got a... I'm not sure what it was because I wasn't paying attention, but it tasted very strongly of herbs, with an earthy, bitter, deep flavor that was slightly tannic for a second. The after taste is quite sweet though, kind of like sucking on a lemon. Once you get past the initial taste you're left with sugar on your tongue.

That night we went to dinner with our family. We have quite a few relatives in HK, so it was a big table with a large lazy susan and many dishes.

Roast suckling pig is a must when you come to HK. The meat is tender and juicy and the skin is crisped up in such a way it's like eating chips. It's rather rich, due to the thin layer of fat between the meat and crunchy skin, but lets be honest, fat adds flavor. Lots of it.

Ooooo... Shrimp! I am quite fond of shrimp. These were deep fried with the shell and head on, but the legs were cut off for easy peeling. I love fried shrimp heads. The best stuff is in there and if it's made just it crunches like chips. Definitely a favorite of mine :)

This is kind of fired pomelo skin that's then been stewed and simmered with veggies. I forgot what the vegetable was, but it was rather good with mustard. The pomelo left something to be desired though... I think the texture a little odd. It was spongy... but kind of mealy. I think it's more of an acquired taste which I have yet to develop.

Soy sauce chicken with crispy skin. Mmmmm....

I think this was probably my favorite dish of the night. Broccoli, fried silken tofu with thick slices of shiitake mushrooms in a light soy-based sauce. Delicious.

Fried rice with Chinese sausage, eggs, tiny shrimp and some veggies.

Sweet and sour pork with bell peppers and pineapple served with fried wontons.

Hot steamed sponge cake for dessert!

Aaaaaand, this marvelous weird jelly! The top layer had goji berried and flowers, the middle layer was coconut and the bottom layer tasted of raspberries but had red bean in it... So I'm not actually sure what it was. But all the flavors blended well.

The next morning I made breakfast with the left overs from the day before. My sister had some spicy fried rice left from lunch. I added some more eggs and diced cucumbers to take the edge off the spice.

Later that day we went to Central and walked around and did some shopping. We explored the area where there are tons of fruit, meat and veggie vendors. This is one of my favorite things about Hong Kong.

One of many streets filled with edible goodies to buy!

Various grains being sold.

The seafood in HK is terrific. Always fresh and delicious looking... I wanted everything! I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked because I was cary quite a few things, but you can be sure there will be loads more of these pictures in the coming days.

So much variety at one shop!

Everything is s fresh, a lot of them are still alive, which is the best way to get your seafood.

These giant prawns were really massive! Though not alive, you can tell by the color that they're very fresh.

Mmmm.... Meat!

Delightful veggies!

Some rather large Victory Melons. Cathy's had is there for scale.

HUGE CARROTS.

Some places sell prepared dishes like this, for the person on the go or if you don't feel like cooking that night.

We ran into my grandmother while looking at veggies and she took us to the best wonton place in all of HK. My father took us there last time we were here. It's a tiny place. The kitchen is one small cubicle in the front which is all glass. You can see them preparing everything and there are large vats of soup and simmering wontons. Tiny blue porcelain bowls are stacked up high.

Cathy and Luke with an order of Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce. It's always nice to balance meals out with veggies.

My grandmother and me!

Luke slurping down some tasty broth.

It's a small bowl, but piled high with delicious eggy noodles and small, bite-sized wontons. They have a delicate skin, but the shrimp have that nice crunch to them; a sign of freshness and quality. Best. Wontons. Ever.

Another variety of wonton they serve. They're bigger and have bamboo shoots and earwig inside. Earwig is a type of fungi, not a bug.

The men in front even posed for me :)

Small kitchen, but functional and they produce such good food!

I love looking at beautiful pastries and they're everywhere in HK. Even in the metro stations there are bakeries selling bread, buns and most importantly, gorgeous cakes.

One thing I like about the cakes and pastries here is the icing, which is thick, creamy but not heavy and also the use of fruits. Most deserts are chocked full of fresh fruit and they don't have the tacky, too-sweet glaze you find in a lot of American bakeries. Yes, I am a bit of a cake snob... but really, once you have cakes like these, most other ones are spoiled for you...

Dinner with Dad! This is a restaurant quite near out place that's open till 10pm. We went for dinner.

Simple broccoli with garlic.

Scallops with... I think cuttle fish... or squid..? We don't know what it was, but it was tasty and delicious. Also with sweet, crunchy, thick snow peas. They were probably my favorite thing about the dish.

Soy sauce chicken :)

You can see that the chicken is cut across the bone, and that the bone marrow is still quite red. Here, chicken tends to be cooked for shorter, so the meat is still slightly pink. It's a lot more tender and juicy that way and I don't think the Chinese have as much hang-ups about the slight possibility of salmonella that we do in the States. It is damn good chicken.

Because I love eating shrimp heads, Dad ordered this! These shrimp were massive, meaty and deep fried to the point that the shell was so crunchy it was edible. The heads were soooo good! It was a salty, heavy soy sauce with a touch of sugar, garlic and some other spices.

Lookit!

Oh wow... So last night I went out with my friend Lisa, who is a marvelous fashion designer here in HK. We met up at the MTR station and she took me to these swanky places!

Aqua was our first stop, on the 29th floor of a beautiful building. It was like a room made of glass and we had a panoramic view of Hong Kong from Kowloon.

I was too busy looking around and admiring the view, I forgot to take pictures!

The table tops glowed blue and were one of the few light sources. We had an incredible view though :)

I got a cucumber based drink, that had hints of kumquat. It was cool, crisp and very refreshing. Lisa had an Amaretto Sour.

Awesome view! XD

This is a picture of the bar I found on Google.

Below is the restaurant where we had dinner!

For starter, razor clams! I'd never eaten them before, but I do remember harassing them a lot as a child in HK because when you poked them, they'd spit at you. My Dad told me not to do that because I was making them angry.

These were served chilled in a very mild brothy-sauce. They were topped generously with raw garlic, and green onions. The clams were very tender and had a lovely texture and a mild sweet taste, which was offset by the spice of the raw garlic. I loved it.

Lisa taking a picture :)

Next, we had the house specialty: LAMB. The presentation is wonderful for this! There were think pancakes you wrapped the lamb in, slivers of spring onion, a light sauce, and a small ball of pressed garlic sitting atop a black stone. Beautiful.

Ready to be wrapped up and eaten!

The lamb was slow roasted and the skin crisped up in such a way it sparkled. Lamb tends to have that very distinct lamb taste, but this lamb devoid of that kind of undertone. The meat was tender, juicy and rich. It was so good.

Next was this soft, flakey, rich fish dish. It was topped with that I think was fried something with garlic. It was very mild but had a wonderful flavor. I loved the texture of the fish; it was like cutting through butter.

:) Yummm!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaand DESSERT!

Two types of icecream: black and white sesame and raspberry.

It was served on a bed of this interesting and seemingly indescribable cereal-like puffy, crumbly pastry that was honey-like in stickiness but also crunchy at the same time... It sounds weird, but it was oddly pleasing.

In the leaf funnels were toppings: black sesame, raisins and dried chopped cherries.

Beautiful presentation, one again!

The foyer of the restaurant.

The ceiling was studded with red lanterns.... very mystical and beautiful.

So, that's it for right now... but definitely more to come.

So much to eat, so little time!

CAKE

2010-11-30T19:59:00.000-08:00

Cake!

I love cake.... And so do most people!

I know its been a few days since Thanksgiving, but after that freakishly long Roast Goose post I decided to wait a bit more before doing the cake post... Since it might also be very long... and I didn't want to flood people with too much cookery... and my brain needed to rest.....

But now I shall post about cake! Marvelous, marvelous CAKE.

Things you will need:

For the cake:
7 eggs, separated
1 cup sugar + 2/3 cup sugar (you'll see why later)
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 cup softened butter
1 cap-full of vanilla extract
zest from 1 lemon
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup flour
2 pinches of salt
1/3 cup milk

Other things you may want:
1 bag of fresh cranberries
1/3 or 1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup of water
1 container of heavy whipping cream (I forget how they measure them... so if you're buying it at the store, get the short container of whipping cream... though you may need more... So, I guess you could always use a large one, and use the extra for eggnog or to put in cocoa or something. But I'm getting off topic, and I'm not really sure that was at all helpful. Sorry, I don't really measure when I cook. The most important thing is that you have enough whipped cream to cover the cake)
1 ripe pomegranate

So, I wanted something that looked festive, since it's that time of the year.

I decided on red and white, like Santa... or candy canes! That's why for the garnish I decided on cranberries and pomegranates. Their tartness can offset the whipped cream and enhance the flavor of the cake, which has the lemon zest in it.

What to do first? I made the cake in one day, so I will go through my process as I multi-tasked. First I will list the steps to avoid confusion:

1. Separating Eggs
2. Cranberries + Cake Prep
3. Back to Cake
4. Cranberries, Cream and Pomegranate
5. Cool Cake and Wait
6. Assembly

1. Separating Eggs

You will need:
7 eggs

Separating eggs is a lot easier than it looks, but it's very unforgiving if you mess up. Make sure that you don't get any of the yolk into the whites because they will not foam up otherwise.

Separating the eggs is easy. Crack the egg in half and then gently pour the yolk from one half to the other until the whites have slid away.

Another way you can do it is to crack the egg open and tip it out into your hand. If you open your fingers a little, the whites slide off, and your left holding the yolk. I prefer the second way since it lessens the chance of the yolk being broken by the eggshell.

Once the eggs are separated, set the whites aside and let them sit for about 30 minutes, or until they are room temperature. Cold egg whites take longer to whip up and also don't get as fluffy.

Set the yolks aside as well.

Remember to put both the whites and the yolks in big mixing bowls.

2. Cranberries + Cake Prep

You will need:
1 bag of cranberries
1 cup of water
1/3 cup brown sugar
Also:
1 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 pinches salt

I always thought cranberry sauce was hard to make. To me, it was this mysterious concoction that came in a can and the fact that everyone seemed to get it in a can made it seem impossible to make.

Not so.

I was actually irked by how easy it was because for so long, I had thought it difficult.

So, take your cranberries and wash them, then drain them.

Boil a cup of water and add in some brown sugar. I added two bars of brown sugar that we buy from the Chinese grocery store. It's actually very tasty and sometimes we eat it as candy :) All together it adds up to about 1/3 of a cup of sugar... perhaps less.

I didn't wan the cranberry sauce too sweet. I wanted it there for the tartness. You may add more sugar if you like, or less if you so choose.

Once the sugar has dissolved and the water is boiling, add your cranberries. They will soon begin to make a popping noise, and their skins will burst. Stir them frequently, until the berries disintegrate and everything is saucy. This doesn't really take long.

They're starting to pop!

It's pretty easy... O.o

Set this aside until your ready to use them later. Keep them in the pot.

To speed things along when you make the cake mix, sift the flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl.

3. Back to Cake

For the meringue, you will need:

7 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1 tsp cream of tartar
For the batter, you will need:
7 egg yolks
2/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup softened butter
1 cap-full of vanilla extract
zest from 1 lemon

the flour/baking soda/salt that's been sifted
1/3 cup milk

Back to the cake!

By now, the whites should be room temp. If not, wait a little while longer.

Also, have a spatula handy to scrape the sides of the bowl if you need to. Preheat your oven at this point too. Set it to 350F.

Measure out about 1 cup of flour and mix in the cream of tartar with it. Have it set aside in a small bowl or measuring cup for easy pouring.

When making a meringue, it's easiest to make it with room temp. egg whites. If you add the sugar in the beginning it'll take a lot longer to fluff up. Add the sugar gradually after the whites have been whipped up and start being able to hold their shape.

Start whipping the whites at medium speed, or high speed. I don't really think it matters too much, since the main goal is to introduce air into the whites, to get them all fluffy. Without sugar, the whites look very foamy and a little transparent.

Egg whites sans sugar.

As they begin to froth up more and be able to hold their shape, gradually add in the sugar and cream of tartar. Adding the sugar like this helps it get incorporated and dissolve. The eggs are fluffy at this point, so adding the cream of tartar helps keep it like that. After you introduce the sugar, the consistency of the meringue changes and looks opaque.

Keep whipping the eggs until they are very stiff that they make tiny, stiff peaks. They'll also hold the impressions of the mixer and be thick enough that you can hold the bowl upside down (be careful when you do that, by the way). If you can still feel grains of sugar, keep mixing until they disappear.

They should look like this!

Now that your meringue is done, time for part two of the batter.

Add the butter and the remaining sugar to the yolks and whip them with the electric mixer until fluffy and light yellow in color. Add in the vanilla and the lemon zest, and mix a little more.
Gradually add in the flour and milk and mix until just incorporated.

See, it turns lighter and a little fluffy.

Zest and vanilla added.

Flour added. The less lumpy, the better.

Now for the delicate part. Fold the meringue into the batter. This is most easily done when you add the lighter batter to the heavier; in this case, add the meringue a spatula-full at a time to the yolk-batter. When you fold the meringue in, do it very gently, as to preserve the bubbles. Put the meringue on top, then gently cut it down vertically through both mixtures, down the bottom of the bowl and up the side. Turn the bowl each time you do this. Keep doing this until all the meringue is mixed with the batter and it has a pale yellow color.

I forgot to photograph the folding... D:

Carefully pour this mixture into a bundt cake pan that has a removable center part. Make sure the pan in ungreased.

Pop your cake into the oven and bake for about 45mins to an hour. be very careful about checking the cake for done-ness, since it can deflate fairly quickly. Don't take peeks at it as it bakes!

4. Cranberries, Cream and Pomegranate

You will need:
The cranberries
The cream
The pomegranate

Back to the cranberries!

Take the pot with the cranberry sauce in it and add in about half a cup more of water and stir it into the sauce. Then, put it all in a blender and puree it. Strain this mixture, and set aside the pulp in a small bowl. We'll need it later.

It's a little steamy because I added hot water.

Return the strained sauce to the pot and boil until the volume is reduced by 1/3.

Take a large bowl (preferably metal and chilled) and pour in the heavy whipping cream. Whip it until firm. I didn't bother adding any sugar, since the cake is sweet enough. Cover this and set it in the fridge.

Take the pomegranate and wash it thoroughly. Score the sides, and carefully pry it open. I recommend wearing a black shirt while doing this, so even if you do get some pomegranate juice on you, it won't be that noticeable. Remove the seeds and set these aside as well.

5. Cool Cake and Wait

I also forgot to take pictures for this part, as well... I need to get better about that...

When the cake is done, take it out and set it upside down. Be very sure that the cake is cooked through, otherwise the middle will plop out and you will be sad. I know I was....

You can place it on a bottle top, through the middle-hole or you can just leave the oven open and set it on one of the racks. Let it cool for about an hour or two till it's room temperature to the touch.

When you're ready to remove the cake take a knife and gently run it around the outer edge of the pan. Remove the cake from the outer portion of the pan, and run the knife along the bottom and then around the middle. Gently tip upside down onto a plate.

6. Assembly

You will need:
Paper towels (a few of them damp, it helps a lot)
Cake decorating bags and icing tips
Brush (the silicone ones are pretty nice, the more I use them, the more I like them)
Cake-icing tool (or something very long and flat that you can even out the whipped cream)
Cranberry pulp
Cranberry sauce
Whipped cream
Pomegranates

Most of the stuff I listed is pictured here.

Clear away any crumbs on the plate that you have the cake on.

In a small pot, boil the cranberry pulp until bubbly. You can even add a little sugar to this, since it's going to be a glaze for the cake. Adding a little more sugar will make the pulpy mixture a little more thick, and help seal the cake better. You can also add a couple spoonfuls of jam, if you'd like.

Glazing the cake it a good idea because it helps seal in little crumbs so they don't come off while you decorate the cake and it also acts as a buffer to additional moisture, so your cake won't get too soggy.

Once the mix is bubbly, remove it from the heat and brush it onto the cake. It's easiest to do this when the mixture is still hot. You don't have to use all the mixture, but make sure that you didn't miss any spots.

Let this dry for about 10-15 minutes. Clean up the edges of the plate too!

From here, you can do your own thing and decorate it however you like. This is what I did:

I spread on a layer of the whipped cream over the cake. It helps to work from the top down; once you smooth out the top, work on the sides. After I was done spreading the whipped cream, I cleaned off the edges of the plate with a damp paper towel.

When using the decorating bags, it helps to fold part of it over your hand before you start filling it. This makes it easier to twist up and helps avoid any unnecessary mess. When decorating a cake, I like to try out the nibs before I start on the actual cake. A little practice before going onto the final is good

I spread the cranberry sauce onto the sides and used the pomegranate seeds on the top. When placing the seeds on top, I used a small spoon because dropping it on with my hands was just too unpredictable. You get a lot more control with a spoon.

After you're done decorating, pop the cake in the fridge to let everything firm up. About 30-45 mins later it's ready to eat!

Enjoy!

Thanksgiving: Roast Goose

2010-11-26T17:04:00.000-08:00

Oh, how I love the holidays... And one of the best things about the holidays is the food, of course!

Our Goose this year! :D

For the past 3 years, I've made a Turducken for Thanksgiving. It was a hulking monstrosity of a boneless chicken stuffed in a boneless duck then stuffed in a boneless turkey and weighed about 35lbs. Of course, while at college we had a HUGE Thanksgiving potluck with everyone who stayed at school for the holiday; so with 30+ people, a Turducken was a good option.

THIS year, however, is the first Thanksgiving I'm at home in four years. It's just our little family group, so a Turducken is overkill, as is a whole turkey. After all, we're only feeding five.

So this year, I tackled a goose. I've never made a goose before, and Dad seemed pretty into the idea. We wanted to do it in the Cantonese style, filled with aromatic spices and with fiery red skin.

After looking online for a while, it seemed to prepare it in the traditional manner took a lot of prep work. Since the goose is a water bird it has a lot of fat. Steps are taken to help drain the fat from the fowl, but not so much that it's dry and tough.

The first thing we did was acquire a goose. Where to find a goose? WholeFoods, actually. It was a lot simpler to find a goose than I thought, since it's not commonly eaten in the US, but lo and behold, it was not. However, goose is a little pricey, so a duck would work equally well for this recipe.

Now that we had to goose, a plan was set up:

1. Brine
2. Dry
3. Sewing and other stuff
4. Marinade and more sewing
5. Trussing
6. Blanching
7. Glazing and more drying
8. Cooking
9. Un-stitching
10. EATING

Okay... so, first thing's first:

Brine:

You Need (this is a super simple brine, to get fancier, add stock and/or herbs):
- A really big pot/bowl/container
- About a cup of salt
- Water (just enough to cover the bird)

I used a very large pot for this. Be careful when carrying it!

Soaking the bird in brine is a good idea to do the night before. In this case, it's 2 nights before.

Before going to bed, I prepared the bird to be soaked in brine.

When you unwrap the goose, there is a lot of fat in the back cavity of the bird. This is where their fat glands are located that the geese use to groom themselves and waterproof their feathers. while useful in life, not so useful for us. You can easily pull out these large chunks of fat, or cut them out if you so choose.

Also, remove the giblets and set them aside, or freeze them or cook them for a snack... we actually haven't done anything with them yet, so they're in the freezer.

Place the goose in the large pot/container and fill it with water about half way. Then, dissolve the salt in hot water. Since there is a lot of salt, add in the water and mix it around until part of it dissolves. Pour off the dissolved water, and repeat this process until all the salt has been dissolved. Doing this doesn't really take that long.

Once you've added the salt, add more water until the goose is fully covered by water. Swirl the water a bit, to make sure the salt it evenly incorporated into the water.

Cover and let sit in the fridge overnight.

The salty water will create a nice, juicy goose and help season the meat a little bit.

Oh, and why brine the bird, you may ask? It helps make the meat juicy and the salt soaks into the meat, which helps impart flavor into the goose.

Drying:

Drying the bird is important, since this is going to be roasted in the oven. If there's too much moisture it'll get soggy and the skin will be limp and less appealing.

So, the next morning, take the bird out of the brine (dump the brining water, you're not gonna need it). You can put the bird on your roasting rack, since it'll be suspended above the pan and the water can drip off the bird. If you put the rack at an angle, it'll help the water drain off more.

Roast rack and pan. Very convenient!

Return the goose, rack, pan and all, to the fridge for a few more hours (um, I left it from 12 in the afternoon till the evening sometime... I can't rightly remember, since I took a nap before.. but it was drying for at least 4 hours) to let it drain and dry.

Drying....

Also, take this opportunity to remove any bits of feather left on the goose. It might sound/look gross, but sometimes the end bits of the feather get stuck in the skin. the easiest way to pluck these is with needle nose pliers. Tweezers are okay, but they don't have the grip that the pliers do. Since geese are fatty birds, the oil makes tweezers harder to use. Just make sure that you clean the pliers very well. With very hot water.

Sewing and other stuff:

Okay, so now that the goose is dry and feather-free, it's time to sew it up. Why sew? Because the marinade goes inside the goose! Therefore, sew it well.

Things you need:
- Large sewing needle
- Spool of thread. Any color is fine.
- Thimble

Here, I have a ridiculously large needle, used for embroidery thread or yarn, hence why it is so large. This is far easier to use than the trussing kits they sell at the grocery store, because it's easier to thread, you can control the length of the string more easily, since you have more on hand, and the needle is far sharper than a skewer. The thimble is also important. Again, since geese are greasy the thimble will help you grip the needle, even if your hands get oily.

When reading up on how to make the goose, it usually only called for sewing up the bottom cavity, since in Hong Kong and China birds are commonly served with the neck and head still attached. Well, seeing as we're in the US and birds are served neck-and-headless, we have to sew up two cavities.

Before you do that, though, there are a couple things to take care of. First of all, the drier the bird, the easier this will be, so make sure you pat the bird as thoroughly as you can with paper towels.

The first thing you need to do is take a good looks at both openings of the bird, and assess if there is enough skin to cover each side when you sew it up. The neck-side opening was insufficient, due to the fact the neck stump stuck up out of the cavity a bit and also, the wish-bone was in the way.

You will need:
- A very sharp paring knife.
- Perhaps band-aids, just in case (I ended up needing one, so best be careful)
- Something to help prop the bird up (it'll help free up your hands, so you have more control when you do this. It's a lot harder if the bird is not vertical and stable)

You want a short, sharp blade for this. It's a lot easier to maneuver around the bone this way, so you can cut closer and leave more meat intact.

First, take out the wishbone, located at the very top of the sternum. It's pretty easy to remove. Take hold of the area between the neck and the wish-bone with one hand, so you have better stability. Run the knife along the edges of the bone, keeping as close it it as possible. It's kind of tracing all along the bone, in wide strokes to cut the meat from the bone. When the prongs are separated from the body, you can give it a bit of a twist and one or two small cuts and it pops right out.

It looks weird... but this is part of the wishbone that I have my finger hooked around.

Secondly, I have to remove a bit of the neck. You want to be able to sew up the skin around it, so make sure that when you trim down the neck it comes below the top of the cavity. It's hard to find the edges of the vertebrae by feel, so just make and incision where you want to. Slowly and carefully cut around the flesh until the central bones and tendons are exposed. Cut the tendons and then carefully wedge the knife in between two vertebrae and make small slicing motions until it comes off. Make sure to be very careful about not cutting the skin.

It's easiest to do this when one hand holds the bird, and the other has the knife and makes as little contact with the skin and meat as possible. You want your knife-wielding hand to be more oil-free as to avoid slipping and perhaps accidentally cutting open your knuckle.... which happened. You have been cautioned.

This may seem weird, but now we separate the skin from the flesh. Traditionally, this is done by pumping air into the goose, via the neck, but since there is no neck you can either use your hands or a chopstick to separate the skin from the breast and back. Don't bother with the legs or wings.

Okay, so once that bit is done it's time to sew. Take the thread and measure out how much you will need plus 5 inches; now unspool about 8X that amount. Hold the sting by each end, and fold it over. Fold it again. Now run it under a few drops of water, so the threads stick together. Thread it through the needle and tie both ends together. You'll end up with a thick thread, that's just as good as trussing twine.

The thread's been folded over a few times, so you can see how thick it's gotten.

Sew up the neck cavity very tightly.

After you do that, lightly poke the goose all over with the tip of the needle. Do it at an angle and very softly. You want to break the skin, but not poke deep enough to kit the meat. Doing this will allow more fat to drain from the skin, but leave the meat moist.

Marinade and more sewing:

Now, it's time to make the marinade for the inside of the bird.

I never really measure when I cook, so adjust as you see fit.

You will need:
- 3 Spoonfuls of cooking oil
- 12 Chunks of ginger, pressed flat (this released more juice. press the ginger with the flat side of a large knife)
- 3-4 Green onions in 1 inch pieces
- 3-4 Cloves of garlic, diced
- 1 Spoonful of ground white pepper
- 1 Spoonful of five spice powder
- 2 Star anise, whole
- Soy sauce (about 1/4 cup, I think)
- Dark soy sauce (heavier and more robust than regular soy. Add about as much as the regular soy.)
- Chinese cooking wine (a little more than both soy sauces combined)
- Honey (a spoonful or two, depending on how sweet you like it)
- Salt (if it's not salty enough, and you don't want to add more liquid)

In a small pot, heat the oil to the point of boiling. This should not take very long, so do not leave it unattended or else it will catch on fire.

Once it's hot, add in the ginger, green onions and garlic. Let them simmer for a little while, but don't let anything burn.

After a couple minutes, add in the white pepper, five spice powder and star anise for a few more minutes. It will start smelling really good.

Add in the rest of the ingredients at this point and turn the heat to medium. Have a tiny taste and see if you need to add more of this or that. Once it reaches a flavor you are satisfied with, turn off the heat and let it cool off for a while. Do not add it to the cavity when it's piping hot.

When it's cooled down enough you can touch with your hands and not feel pain, it's good to go.

Carefully pour it into the cavity of the bird. Use a spoon or measuring cup if necessary.

Now sew up the other end good and tight. Sew it twice if you need to. You don't want any marinade to escape.

All sewed up and tied.

Trussing:

Before you start trussing, fill a large pot with water and start it boiling. You'll need this for blanching.

Tying the wing-tips

Trussing basically means tying up the bird in a secure way. I used kite string for this, because I don't like twine. Any strong, thick, cloth string will work for this. Securely tie the legs together and then the wing-tips. To keep the wings close to the body for easy handling and nicer presentation, take some string and tie it beneath the second wing joints (the elbow looking parts) and secure it to the part of the legs that you tied up. It should be nice and together at this point.

Blanching:

Blanching gets rid of impurities on the skin, make the skin tighter, firm up the shape of the bird and draws out some oil from the skin.

Once the large pot is boiling, grab the goose by the tied together legs, and slowly lower it into the boiling water. If the pot it big enough to put the goose in, you can submerge it for a few minutes (about 4 or 5), just make sure that the water doesn't over-flow because that will hurt a lot.

If you cannot put the goose the entire way in, dip it repeatedly and use a ladle to pour the boiling water over it. Be careful not to get burned.

Glazing and more drying:

After blanching it, pat it dry with paper towels.

And now for the glaze.

You will need:
- Honey
- Vinegar
- Soy sauce

The glaze is 4 parts honey, 1 part vinegar and 1 part soy sauce. Place all these in a pot and heat till syrupy. Stir constantly and make sure the heat isn't too high. If unattended, it will bubble over at an alarming rate.

When the glaze is done, brush it over the entire goose. Save the remaining glaze for the next day/when you cook it.

Place the goose somewhere to dry for at least 4 hours to overnight. Ideally, you'd hang it somewhere cool and dry, but if you don't have anywhere to hang a goose, place it on the roasting rack, where it's elevated. Leave somewhere cool to dry.

Cooking:

This is the easy part! Heat the oven to 450F. While you wait for it to heat up, brush the goose with another layer of the glaze and place it breast-side down in the roasting rack. Pour some water into the pan, so the drippings don't burn during cooking.

Ready for cooking. The dark splotches are from where the marinade leaked out.

Cook the goose at 450F for about 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 340F. Turn the goose over. I did this by folding two sheets of paper towels over and using them as potholders (I made two of these, so 4 sheets of paper towels all together). DO NOT use a fork or something sharp to turn the bird, because it will pierce the skin and make it look messy... but most importantly, you want to keep the marinade INSIDE the goose. Sharp things are a no-no. The paper-towel-holder method worked well, and I didn't burn myself.

Each time you turn the goose, brush a layer of marinade on. Turn the goose every half hour for about 3 hours.

If there is not enough marinade, you can make more.

When the goose is nearing it's end, turn the oven up to 450F again (make sure it's breast-side down at this point). Cover it with a generous layer of glaze. Watch carefully that the skin doesn't burn.

When the skin is bubbly and a nice deep red-brown color, flip it breast-side up. Again, apply a generous dose of glaze and pop it back in the oven.

Monitor it closely, and once it's reached that nice caramelized-reddish color it's done!

Unstitching:

Once the goose is out of the oven, use some kitchen sheers to remove the stitching then drain the cavity.

Transfer the goose to a nice plate (with garnish if you so choose. I used shaved carrot and green onions)

Pour the drippings into a container (it makes a great marinade or sauce) and pour off all the fat. You can make a quick sauce by adding cornstarch and cooking it for a bit to thicken it, or you don't have to. Completely optional.

GOOSE IS DONE

North Market, French Onion Soup and Oven Roasted Potatoes

2010-09-08T18:17:00.000-07:00

Trip to North Market

A few days ago, I was struck by the strong desire to make French Onion Soup, completely from scratch. I wanted to make the beef broth and the caramelized onions myself; I think when things are homemade, they taste better.

For ingredients, I decided to go to North Market, mostly because I knew I could get good quality Gruyere cheese and soup bones there. I also haven't been there in a while, so I thought I would make a post of it.

For those of you who live in Columbus, you probably know of North Market. It has various stalls that have prepared foods, fresh produce and meat and poultry. Many things there, you can't find at large chain stores and it's just good fun to go there, especially on weekends.

There were vendors outside selling produce! I love gourds! So cute ^_^

Usually, when I go to North Market, I hit up the same places: Jeni's Ice Cream (it's so good, it's ruined me for all other ice creams :p), Pure Imagination Chocolatier, Taste of India and Lac Viet Market... and few others...

Don't these pastries look divine? From Mozart's North Market Bakery.

But I was on a mission for ingredients, and that meant going to vendors I usually walk by or just take a passing glance at.

First off, I wanted Gruyere... mmm... Gruyere is very tasty, slightly nutty and creamy. No wonder people like to use this in French Onion Soup. For really good cheese, Curds & Whey is great. There's a great variety of cheese and the staff are friendly and have great advice about cheese pairings with wines and fruits.

I got a nice bit of Gruyere here, sliced and everything.

Next, I wanted beef bones to make a tasty broth. I wanted something with a good bit of marrow because I love the rich flavor it gives. I tried North Market Poultry and Game first, which has a tasty selection of poultry. I once picked up a really nice, fat chicken there one winter for Christmas dinner. They also have bison and rabbit there too! One day, I would like to try making rabbit stew, but that's a venture for another day...

Turns out, they didn't have the kind of bones I was looking for, but were nice and directed me to Bluescreek Farm meats where they had non-frozen soup bones. Before I made my way over, however, I looked at The Fish Guys because I love nice seafood. I was quite taken by the fish heads (I know, 'Eeew!'), the had salmon heads and a huge grouper head. Now, I know a lot of people are creeped out by fish heads, but they actually have a lot of meat and a good deal of omega 3 fatty acids, which are very good for us. Once you get past the fact it's a head, they make for really good eating. If you get them cut in half, you can bake them in the oven with a little salt and they taste great. I got one for my sister and they cut it for me too. It's such a hassle to try to do it at home, as I'm sure my Sophomore and Junior year roommates remember....

Mmmm... Fish!

On the way to getting beef bones, I stopped by North Market Spices to look at spices. I am such a sucker for spices. I love the way they displayed them, and they even had small jars that you can open up and sniff. Now, with spices like basil or thyme, I like growing them at home, but come winter, our fresh spices wil be out. I know I'll be visiting again, probably soon.... The staff are very nice and they have a great selection of exotic spices, perfect for any palette.

Impressive, no?

Omega Artisan Bakery was another stop I made. I needed bread, and was originally gonna purchase something a little cheaper from a grocery store bakery, but I've never gotten bread here and thought it would be a nice opportunity to try it. I picked up a French-style baguette because I wanted to compare it to the baguettes I had in Paris. French Bread in the US is definitely not like it is in France, and while I don't want to sound like a bread snob, it's hard not to... The bread at Omega was quite tasty, and the closest in taste and texture to real French bread. It had a nice crunchy crust that crackled and a soft, chewy inside that was airy and not sweet (thank god, too many breads in the US are too sweet). I stuffed my baguette into my grocery satchel and went about on my quest.

Look at all the tasty breads!

Wonderfully airy insides of the Baguette.

At Bluescreek, I perused their selection of beef. It all looked very good, and they had a nice pile of soup bones. I got a few, and requested a couple have a nice bit of meat on them, which I would use later. The selection of meats was very nice and I think I will be back next time I make French Onion Soup because the beef broth came out so good.

Upon leaving, I saw some of the vendors outside ad picked up a little basketful of red potatoes. They looked really good, and I thought I'd roast them up in the oven. Mmmmm....

Here are more pitcures from my tasty adventure:

The Green Grocer!

Pastaria pastas... they are very good, but alas, for another day!

Home made sauces and fresh made pasta... plus Tiramisu. Omg...!

Olive oils of all sorts of flavors. Very good stuff.

So, all in all, a pretty worthy haul from shopping:

Now, onto the soup!

I'm pretty sure some soup purists would call my soup sub-par or not authentic, but when you cook at home, you make it your own. I know it's not going to be REAL French Onion Soup, but it came out pretty damn good, if I may say so myself.

The bottom line: Do what feels right in your own kitchen and make it how you like!

I'm making the beef broth and caramelized onions a day in advance. The onions always... ALWAYS seem to take longer than recipes tell you, especially if you're gonna be making a lot of them.

Caramelized Onions

To caramelize your onions you need:
~ Onions (I used a mix of purple onions and yellow ones. Some recipes say to only use purple ones, other tell you to never use them... So, I ended up using both. I don't think it makes a huge difference)

~ Olive oil/butter or both! I used a mix, half and half
~ A little water/white wine/dry sherry/broth to deglaze the pan if you need to. (Deglazing means that you add some liquid to get the brow bits at the bottom of the pan unstuck. Those bits have a ton of flavor)
~ Salt (Some recipes shun adding salt, others say it's a must.... so just do what feels right to you)
~ Sugar (optional; I didn't add any, but it can help the caramelization)

1. Chop up the onions lengthwise into slivers. Don't make them too thin, though!
2. Add some olive oil to the pan and some butter. I didn't give a measurement when listing the ingredients because it doesn't have to be very precise. Add enough butter/olive oil to lightly coat the onion slices. For about 8 onions, I used 2 tablespoons olive oil and 3 table spoons butter. I love the smell of cooking butter.

3. Heat oil and butter until the top is shimmery. Add the onions, stirring well so that all the pieces are lightly covered in buttery goodness.
4. Now comes the long part... Make sure you have your pan on medium heat. Place a cap on top of the pan, but make sure it's offset, so that the steam can escape. I like doing it this way so the heat circulates and helps cook the onions faster, but the moisture can escape, which means better caramelization. Stir this every.... 7-10 minutes... that should be good.
5. As they continue cooking, you should stir them fairly often, to prevent burning and also to make sure that the onions all get equal amounts of pan-time.
6. The onions will eventually begin to cook down. When this happens, soon, they will begin to turn a little golden in color. Continue stirring often. If you are opting to add sugar to help with caramelizing, this is the time. That, and salt.

7. When they start browning, be careful, because the line between caramelization and burning is a fine one. It's okay if they stick to the pan a little, that gives it flavor. Just make sure you don't let it sit stuck for too long, and when you do unstick them, make sure to loosen the stuck bits too. At this stage to you can deglaze a little bit, by adding tiny bits of broth/wine/water to the onions. Just a little, though.
8. Once your onions take on a rich, dark brown, they are complete! Let them cool a little before putting them in a container. If you leave them over-night, the flavor greatly improves, which is why it's good to make these in advance.

Beef Broth:
Beef bones/ knuckles/ Beef anything, really
A lot of water... measure out how many cups of water you're gonna use in your recipe, then add an additional 5-6 cups. This way you'll have extra even though it will boil down quite a bit.
A really big pot
Salt (optional)

I just made a really simple beef broth for the French Onion Soup. Beef is the prefered broth, but you can use chicken, pork or vegetable if you prefer. I like it with beef, personally.

I'm not really gonna give step by step instructions for the broth, because it's so simple. Just remember to:

1. Heat it up to a boil, then turn the temperature down to Low or Medium Low.
2. Stir occasionally.
3. Skim the surface from time to time to help get rid of boiled residue and fat.

Never skimmed... this is the kinda stuff you need to get rid of in order to have a nice broth.

There are bubbles, and a little fat on the top. Skim off as much as you can.

I boiled mine for about.... 5-6 hours, perhaps a little longer.

When the meat was falling off the bone, I fished the bones out and pulled the meat off. At this point, it's really easy to do, so you can just use a fork to get the meat. I'm gonna use this meat with the little read potatoes I bought.

Return the bones to the pot and continue cooking on low. When it's reached a flavor you deem worthy, turn off the heat and let it cool then skim the surface one more time, to rid it of excess fat.

Finished broth!

Oven Roasted Red Potatoes

Ingredients:
Small red potatoes, about 17 or 18, cut in bite sized pieces
1 package button mushrooms, diced
Beef from the beef bones, also chopped
Garlic, about 3 cloves minced
Rosemary (fresh is best! About one sprig)
Olive Oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Glaze:
1/2 spoon of brown sugar or honey
1 tbsp of butter
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt
Garlic powder
Pepper

Preheat the oven to 375F.

1. Chop up the potatoes, mushrooms and beef into bite sized pieces.

2. Mince up the garlic and rosemary and mix them in a little bowl with the olive oil, salt and pepper.

3. Add the olive oil mix to the chopped potatoes and stuff. Toss them all together so pieces are evenly coated.

4. Put it into a oven safe bowl/container/thingy and cover it with foil so it wont dry out.

5. Bake for about 40ish mins, then remove the foil. In a small bowl mix up the glaze.
6. After about 10 mins, generously brush the glaze onto the top of the potatoes.
7. Keep baking until the potatoes are nicely browned and sizzle a little around the edges.
8. Remove and wait about 5 mins before eating. It'll be really HOT!

...I forgot to snap a picture of the final product... but it looked great and tasted really good!

French Onion Soup!!! OMG Nom Nom Nom....

I loooooove French Onion Soup.... so after all that preperation, here it is!!!

Ingredients:
Caramelized onions... about 8 onions worth
8 cups of beef broth, plus 2 more on reserve
A few sprigs of thyme, tied together with a string
1 Bay leaf
Salt and pepper to taste
A few shakes Worcestershire sauce (I thought it'd be weird, but it makes a big difference! Some people also use Balsamic Vinegar)
A little more than 1/2 cup of white wine
A few slices toasted French bread (depending on how you're serving it, the number of slices will vary)
Gruyere cheese, sliced or grated, enough to cover the surface of your individual bowls, or one large serving (I made mine in a large bowl, for communal dining. Less to wash!)
About a handful of grated Parmesan (it adds a little oomph!)

0. Before you do anything, toast the bread! Put a little foil down on a baking sheet and place your bread there in however many slices you need.

Heat the oven to 400F and toast the bread till golden brown and crunchy all the way through. To check if it's done, use a toothpick to poke the center. If you can feel a little give, that mean the middle is still a little moist. Keep cooking it until it's dry throughout, then remove from the oven.

1. Okay, so get a large pot and dump in the caramelized onions. If you made them in advance, let them heat up a bit in the pan, but don't let them burn. Add in a little broth, enough to just cover the onions, and bring it to a simmer, then add about 8 cups of broth.

2. Add in the thyme and bay leaf. It's worth it to tie up the thyme, so it's easier to fish out later. You wan the flavor, not the leaves.
3. Once everything is simmering, cover the pot and let it cook for 30-40 minutes on low, or medium low.

4. Okay, now taste the soup and add in the desired amount of salt and pepper. If you add in too much salt, no worries! That's why you have the extra broth on hand, just in case. I usually reserve about 2 or so cups. It allows for more wiggle room when seasoning.
5. At this point, I like to ladle out some of the soup into a little bowl and season it, just to see how it tastes.

This way, you can experiment without touching the main supply, just in case you mess up. Put in a drop or two of the Worcestershire sauce and a little bit of white wine, to see of you like it. If you do, add these two ingredients into the soup, starting with very little, and working your way up from there.

I'd reccomend adding the Worcestershire sauce via spoon instead of shaking it directly from the bottle, because sometimes you get too much. It's a strong taste, so a little goes a long way. As for the wine, to better control the portions, I like to put it in a measuring cup for easier and more controlled pouring.

If you don't like the way it tastes, that fine too :) Some people like it without. Or some people put in sherry instead. In the end, it's really up to you!

6. Place the oven rack to the lowest, or second lowest placement in the the oven. Set your broiler to 380F. Put your soup in its serving container. Here, I used a large ceramic pot and made one large serving. Add the soup, then place the toasted bread atop it.

The finishing touches!

7. Generously spread the Gruyere on top of the bread and sprinkle the Parmesean evenly on top of that. Now, pop it into the oven and bake it for about 10-15 mins or until the cheese is golden brown a deliciously gooey!!!

8. Remove the soup from the oven and let it sit for at least 7 minutes, so you don't burn yourself.
9. EAT!!!

I hope you enjoy these recipes, becuase I do!

Chicken Pot Pie!

2010-08-07T21:23:00.000-07:00

On day, sometime this spring, I had a dream about making Chicken Pot Pie. I had never made one before but was possessed by a strong desire to make it. The very next day I tried my hand at it, with good results. My boyfriend Joe became very fond of it, and since then, I have made more than a few.

Since the summer began, I have not seem Joe in a while. Missing him, I decided to make the Pot Pie, if only to taunt him with it from afar.

I cook because I caaaaaaare :D

Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients:
Well, let me first say that pretty much anything goes here... Today I had these veggie available:

1/4 of a head of cabbage. I used 1/2 a cabbage that we had in the fridge, but it proved too much.
1/2 a large eggplant
1/2 a zucchini (from our garden :D )
1 large onion
3 carrots (great for a splash of color and sweetness)
1 bag of mixed frozen veggies I found in the freezer (contains corn, green beans and peas)

4-6 cloves garlic
1/2 spoon red pepper flakes (if you like spiciness)
4-6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (or breast, but personally, I prefer dark meat)
3/4 cup mushroom soup (or add 1/2 cup of milk, but add an extra tablespoon of flour later)
a few shakes of Worcestershire sauce or few slices extra sharp cheddar (for a bit of tangy-ness)
2-3 tablespoons flour (depending on how much moisture is given off after cooking the veggies, and and extra spoonful is using milk and not mushroom soup)
Salt and black pepper to taste

1 box prepared of 2 pie crusts, 9 inches wide
bowl of water, set to the side
1 egg, whipped

1. Dice up all the veggies into bite sized pieces and set aside. Cut the chicken into bite sized-pieces as well and set these aside too. Mince the garlic.

I didn't buy boneless-skinless chicken.

If you didn't either, no biggie.

Just remove the skin, trim off the fat and cut as close to the bone as possible.

You can save the bones and boil them to make a tasty chicken stock later.

2. In a large pot, put in a bit of oil and put in the garlic and red pepper flakes. This will infuse the oil with the flavors. Let it simmer for 2-3 minutes.
3. Add in the veggies and cover the pot, letting it cook on medium for about 10 minutes, until veggies are tender.
4. Toss the chicken into the mix and put the lid back on for about 7 mins, or until just cooked.

5. Add in the mushroom soup and Worcestershire sauce. Mix it well and remove from heat.
6. Once it's removed from the range, slowly add in the flour, salt and pepper.
7. Let this mixture cool for a while, until luke warm. I let mine sit out for about 10 mins, then placed it in the fridge to chill a bit more, stirring ocassionally. If this is too warm when you put it in the crusts, then the crusts will become really floppy and melty. No good.
8. Prepare the pie tin by sprinkling the bottom with a bit of flour. Gently unroll one crust and place it on the bottom, making sure it's even on all sides. Also, at this point, you can pre-heat the oven to 350F.
9. Cafefully pour in the filling, you may even need someone to help you. There will be a lot, so be careful not to have it spill over the edges. It should create a nice peak, which you need to smooth out a bit.

10. Alse carefully, unroll the second crust and place it on top of the filing, making sure each of the sides are equally over the edge.
11. Lift up the edge of the top crust and dip a finger into the water, wetting the bottom crust. Do this al around the pie, then dry your hands. If your fingers are still a littl moist, dip them in a bit of flour to prevent sticking, and crimp the edges together.
12. Cut a few slits at the top of the pie to let steam out. Cover the edges with foil and place in the oven. I like to keep mine on a baking sheet, so it's easier to take in and out, and can also catch any drippings, if there are any.

13. Bake for 40 mins. After that, remove the foil.
14. Bush the top with a couple coats of egg to give it that shiny, golden color. Bake for 15 more minutes.
15. Remove the pie from the oven and let sit for about 40 mins to let it cool.

16. Cut and serve!

Coconut Custard with Fresh Peaches

2010-07-21T04:48:00.000-07:00

Since I cannot sleep I shall cook! A custard... At 4 in the morning.... Oh gawd...

But anyhoo, here's the recipe:

Coconut Custard with Fresh Peaches

Ingredients:
1 pre-made 9 inch pie crust
1 eggwhite (the yolk can be added to the rest of the eggs)
5 medium eggs/4 large eggs
1 can coconut milk

3/4 cups sugar (I used brown sugar, but granulated is good too)
1 capfull of vanilla extract
3 good shakes of nutmeg
2 pinches of salt
2 peaches, sliced

1. Preheat the oven to 425 F.
2. Roll out the pie crust into the pie pan. Crimp the edges if you'd like. I like to because its fun. It's also 3. in the morning and I'm bored.... take a fork and prick the bottom of the pie crust with it, this will keep it from puffing up. The egg whites will prevent the custard from making the crust too soggy.

4. Cover the edges with foil to prevent them from over cooking. Bake for about 10-15 mins, until firm and lightly browned. Remove from the oven and them let cool for about 8 mins.
5. Combine eggs, coconut milk, sugar, vanilla, nutmeg and salt. Whisk together till smooth and pour into the pie crust. Keep the foil over the edges to prevent burning. Bake at 375 for about 30-40 mins. Test it when the top gets nicely browned and when you insert a chopstick or tooth pick it comes out clean. It'll be a little jiggly, but it's okay. It'll firm up later.
6. Let the pie cool for.... however long it takes to cool... When warmish and firm, cut the peaches and arrange pleasingly on the pie. It'll be pretty and tasty. Yum!

Consume with friends.

Tomato Sauce with Fettuccine

2010-07-21T01:57:00.000-07:00

Mmmmm, I love pasta!

I've been making this sauce since high school. After watching a lot of cooking shows, I took what I liked from each recipe and created this:

Tomato Sauce

We grow herbs at our house :) They grow pretty well and are great to have on hand when you're cooking. Plus, they smell really good.

Ingredients:
3-5 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 onions, diced
1 spoonful of crushed red pepper (less, or omit if you don't like it spicy)
2-3 cans of stewed tomatoes, unsalted
2 bay leaves
6-8 leaves fresh basil, chopped or a few good shakes of the dried stuff
4-5 leaves of fresh oregano, chopped or (again) a few good shakes of the dried stuff
salt to taste
add a little sugar if you'd like
1 tablespoon of butter at the end, or a drizzle of olive oil

1. Take a large pot and pour in some olive oil. Heat it up for a minute and add in the garlic and onions so they crackle. Also add in the red pepper.

2. Cook the garlic, onions and red pepper until the onions are semi-transparent. The oil should be taking on a reddish tinge due to the pepper.

3. Put the tomatoes in a blender and pulse 4-6 times. You want to chop down the tomatoes, but not puree them. I like some texture to the sauce.

4. Add the tomatoes to the pot and add the rest of the spices. Let stew for about 10 mins on medium heat.

5. At the end, add in the butter or drizzle of olive oil.
6. We also had some frozen shrimp that I added later.

Serve over pasta! I am partial to fettuccine or shells.

^_^ Enjoy!

Ja-Jang Dukk-Bokki (Korean Rice Cakes in Black Bean Sauce)

2010-06-26T16:24:00.000-07:00

I love Korean rice cakes, lovely chewy little cylinders of ricey goodness. Pair that with a sweet/savory black bean sauce, and you've got a winning combination.

Ja-Jang Myeon is a popular food among Koreans, but is Chinese in origin. It consists of a thick black bean sauce which is fried along with other ingredients, like onions, veggies, meats or seafoods. Ther noodles served with it are thick white noodles made from wheat flour.

Last time I was in Hong Kong, Shanghai cuisine was rather popular. My uncles and aunts took us to a few places that served it, and at one we has thin sliced rice cakes with a thick black bean sauce. I was inspired to try a dish like it when I got home, and substitute the noodles with rice cakes instead.

Ingredients are as follows:

2 large onions, sliced or diced, however you prefer (I diced them, then wished I had sliced them into slivers instead. A lot easier for picking up with chopsticks)
1/2 a pack of Korean rice cakes
1/2 cup water, just in case you need it
1 large heaping spoonful of Korean black bean sauce
1 spoonful of Chinese oyster sauce
1 spoonful of sugar
3-4 spoonfuls of soy sauce
2 spoonfuls of vinegar
1 box of firm tofu (optional)
2 long stalks of green onions, diced up finely.

1. Sautee the onions in a large skillet with a little oil. Add rice cakes when onions are a third done. Cover until rice cakes are soft. Add a little water to keep the rice cakes from burning.

2. When rice cakes are soft, add the black bean sauce and oyster sauce to it, stirring to make sure every thing is coated evenly. Add a little water in case it's too dry.

3. Add the rest of the ingredients, adjusting to taste. Personally, I like mine a little more sweet, so I add a tad bit more sugar. If you like yours a little less sweet, add 1 spoonful instead and maybe a little more soysauce.

4. Lastly, add in the tofu and cover the skillet until the tofu is heated up.

5. Plate and garnish with green onions.

Enjoy and share with friends! :D

Coconut Custard with Raspberries and Chocolate Rum Sauce

2010-06-21T08:44:00.000-07:00

Today was a day for custard.

Earlier I went to dim sum with my family. I was really looking forward to the little egg custards which are standard fare for dim sum. These little flaky pastries have a smooth yellow custard that is gentle in flavor.

Today, they were okay... I was very 'meh' about them.

So I decided to make my own.

I've never made custard before, but different flavors and ingredients began swirling around in my head once I decided to try my hand at these little treats.

First off, I made the crusts. I don't really like making pastry crusts... the ratio of ingredients, the temperature and the right amount of mixing it.... it seems tedious...

I used to make a lot of pies in high school, so i had some basic crust skills from then.

Use:
Butter
Flour
Salt
Ice water
A cold bowl to mix it in. Stick it in the freezer first.

I'm awful at giving measurements, and this time I eyeballed everything. Next time I make this I'll get better ideas of measurements, but this time was just experimental.

Cut the butter into small cubes, the colder the butter the better, so they dont melt too much while mixing the dough. Mix em around with the flour and salt until crumbly, chunks of butter are good for a flakey crust. Add ice water as needed. Make sure it's moist, but not wet. Should be crumbly little pieces before you pack it all together, wrap it in plastic and stick it in the fridge for at least an hour or so.

Now for the fun part!

I decided not to make a straight up egg tart. Instead, I used coconut milk in place of cows milk, both for richness and taste. I think the teeny bit of nuttiness deepens the creamy nature of this custard.

Custard was:
Coconut milk
4 eggs, separated; whites beaten to meringue
Dash of salt
Sugar
Spoonful of flour
Dash of vanilla

Little custards right out of the pan, before decorating and chocolate.

I mixed everything together with an electric mixer, without the whites. It came out pretty thick and tasty, but I wanted a rich in flavor, light in texture dessert. So I folded in the whipped whites. It made the surface a bit bubbly when baking, but texture-wise was still smooth inside. I think next time I may just use the yolks for a nice smooth surface.

The chocolate sauce was:
Semi sweet chocolate chips
Rum

Melt the chips then add the rum till they get to a nice pouring consistency. I like this combo because it's simple and the rum gives the chocolate a tiny extra bit of bitterness. It's not overwhelmingly alcoholly either.

Raspberries made a great topping, though most any fruit will do. Drizzle on the chocolate sauce and you're good to go!

More Jellies!

2010-06-17T17:43:00.000-07:00

After yesterdays adventures with agar agar, I had to make more... I was thinking of more flavor combinations.

These jellies are little, so I wanted them to have bolder, more intense flavors. I cut down on the sugar because I wanted it to be more about the fruits and spices than just tasting like candy.

The first idea I had was Lime-Coconut with Pinapple. We had some frozen pinapples so I pureed some, added water, agar agar and a little sugar. I also made some agar agar with coconut milk and lime juice. These two are combined to make a great tasting little treat. The lime and pinapple hits you first with the tartness and there's a smooth creamy finish from the coconut milk.

Peach-Rambutan. Rambutans are like lychee, but with a milder flavor. Canned ones are great for these jellies because they have a consistent texture. Canned lychees have tougher bits nearer to where the pits were taken out. I peeled the peach and pureed it, added water and boiled it. As it boiled I skimmed off the bubbles to create a clearer juice. I also added a teeny bit of sugar then the agar agar. This one is very much like what you can get commercially. Peach flavored lychee jellies are very popular, though my version is a little more gentle and less sweet.

Next was something a little more mellow, Chai Tea with Ginger and Pear. For this, I boiled some ginger slices in Chai I brewed earlier. I also added some brown sugar for a deeper sweetness. I originally wanted to add honey, but we were out. I sliced some pears and layered them. After it had cooled and firmed up, I flipped it out of the mold and cut them into squares. The Chai and ginger leave a bit of a spicy feeling on the tongue and the pear gives nice texture and sweetness to this one.

Lastly, I made Strawberry-Kiwi Jellies. I made three seperate parts, one with pureed strawberries, one with pureed kiwis and one with coconut milk. I like these ones best, mostly because they remind me of watermelon with the color. The coconut milk adds a nice creamyness to this otherwise tart dessert. The little crunchy seeds of the kiwi are great for texture.

Lychee and Kiwi Jellies

2010-06-16T14:52:00.000-07:00

If anyone has ever been to a Chinese market, they have probably seen bucket-like jars filled with jelly candies, usually containing lychee. These are very popular snacks and are made with agar agar, a extract from certain types of seaweed. The jelly made from this is not like Jello, it's still jelly like, but doesnt melt when it gets hot. It can be made into a lot of flavors and cream, milk or coconut milk can be added to create a creamy taste. Popular kinds of recipes are mago puddings and almond flavored jelly served with fruit.

Here, I have some powdered agar agar. It's sold in powdered and strand form; both need to be dissolved completely. Boil some water; I also opened a can of lychees and added the syrup to the boiling water. My final product came out a little too sweet because I forgot that the powdered agar agar had sugar added into it. Some do, some don't. Make sure you check.

Being Asian, we have a ton of little cups that make perfect molds and containers. I pulled out some and got some larger cups for the different colors and flavors.

I had red, green and blue dyes so i added little amounts of those to the agar agar mixes. Some food color containers have a little top that can dispense one drop at a time, but there are also ones that just have a screw-off top. These can be tricky to pour, so just dip the end of a chopstick or toothpick in and mix it into the agar agar.

I also added a little coconut milk to one of the cups so the the jelly could be a little creamy.

Work fast when working with containters this small. Pour them before the jelly sets. It helps a lot to plan before you color and pour everything. I decided that next time I will probably not use blue... it just does not look as appealing as green or red.

I also cut up some kiwi and stacked them in the flute cups. I also added lychee pieces to some of the other jellies.

Ta-Da! Try it at home, it's fun! I made all these kinda tiny, perfect to a little treat when you want something sweet.

Immitation Chipotle Rice and Corn Salsa

2010-06-13T19:38:00.000-07:00

Chipotle is very popular because it's so simple and very satisfying. I was thinking about it, and decided to try to recreate some of the stuff they make right in my own home. I decided on imitating the rice and the corn salsa because they are both very tasty and also quite simple.

It turned out like this:

Rice, Chipotle style:

Ingredients:
2 cups long grain rice (I used jasmine rice, I really like the fragrance and taste of it, but anything is fine. It was what was available at home.)
1 handful cilantro
1 lime
3 pinches of salt
1 spoonful of oil
All these ingredient portions can be altered. Less lime f you like it less sour, less cilantro if you like it less cilantro-ey.... etc

1. Cook the rice and let it cool a bit.
2. Mince the cilantro and add to rice.

3. Juice the lime and add it to the rice. Add salt and oil and mix everything together.
T'is done.

Corn Salsa

1 pack of frozen corn, thawed, but still cold
1 handful of cilantro
1 or 2 fresh jalepenos
1/4 of an onion
2 limes
1 tsp salt... a little less than that, perhaps. I dont know, I hardly ever really measure.

1. Okay, so mince up the cilantro, jalepenos, onion real fine and toss them in with the corn.

2. Juice the limes and add it and the salt to the corn mix.
3. Mix well. You can let this sit in the fridge for an hour or so to let the flavors mix a little more or you can eat it right away.

I like to have this with sliced avocados and some type of light meat. Fish or shredded chicken breast works really well because their flavors mingle well with the lime juice. A dollop of tour cream and some diced tomatoes are always a welcome addition as well. Enjoy!

Sponge Cake with Lots of Fruit

2010-05-31T20:51:00.000-07:00

I like cake. I like it even more if it is accompanied by fruit and some cream.

Sponge cake is light, fluffy and perfect for this. Here is what I do.....

I forgot to take pictures at some points, so some steps will have no pictures.....

Sponge Cake with Lots of Fruit

Cake Ingredients:
6 eggs (seperated)
1 cup sugar
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 cup flour
1 pinch salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup softened butter
1/3 cup sour cream
1 cap-full of vanilla (aprx. a tsp)
The zest of 1 medium lemon

Filling:
1 16oz bag of frozen berries (any kind of berries or mixed)
1/2 box of ripe strawberries, diced

Topping:
16oz of heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar

Garnish:
3 mangoes cubed
1 box ripe strawberries
1 1/2 box black berries
mint leaves

CAKE
0. Heat oven to 350 F. Also, grease up and flour 2 pans. I chose square ones. You can also have square ones, but they can be circles or hearts too.
1. Separate eggs. Set yolks aside.

2. Add in sugar and cream of tartar. Beat with an electric mixer until very white and fluffy and forms stiff little peaks.... this takes a loooong time, so have patience.

3. When that is done, add the flour, baking soda and salt and mix around till it's all pretty homogeneous. Then add in the rest of the ingredients; butter, yolks, sour cream, vanilla and the lemon zest.

4. Beat them together.
5. Okay, so now, fold in the yolk mixture with the beaten egg whites. Folding helps keep in the air bubbles that makes it fluffy, so while it takes a little longer, it's worth it.

6. Pour this mix into 2 pans. Bake at 350F for... 45 mins... Until done and the whole house smells of cakey goodness.
7. When done, set aside to cool. We've got more work to do!

FILLING
Ummm.... so this is like... part of the filling... just preparation for when ou assemble the cake. This can be done while the cake is baking, or cooling. It's your call.
1. Take the bag of frozen berries and dump them in a saucepan. Here in the pictures, I'm using a pot. I was wrong to. Saucepan is better.

2. Let them cook up a bit, then go to town on them with a potato masher. Mash em up good, so you have a fabulous smelling slurry of berry goo.

3. Let it cook until most of the moisture's gone. You want a thick jam-like consistency. You're going to coat the cake with this so it doesnt get too soggy.

4. Set aside and let it cool.
5. Wash strawberries and dry them.
6. Dice strawberries and set them aside for later use.

TOPPING
1. Okay, so now whip up the whipped cream with the powdered sugar.

GARNISH
1. Mangoes need to cut into cuuuuubes. Here is the secret to cubing the mango!
2. Cut the mango on either side of the seed, so you end up with 3 pieces, the seed being a thin slice.
3. Score the slices with the meat in them, then flip the skin upwards. The scored pieces now pop out and can easily be cut off. Ta-da! The skin can be peeled off the seed pieces and you can eat the meat around the seed. I never bother trying to cut the meat from it, just snack!

4. Place the cubed mango on a paper towel to soak up any excess moisture.
5. Wash the strawberries and black berries. cut the tops off the strawberries and cut them in half.

Okay, so now you're ready to assemble the cake1
1. By now the cakes are cooled. Now cover the tops with the berry paste. Use 1/3 per side, leaving 1/3 for later.

2. Place one cake on a plate. Cover with a thin layer of the whipped cream, then cover with the diced strawberries.

3. Add a little more whipped cream on top of this to fill in the cracks between the strawberries.

4. Place the second layer on top, berry-paste side down. Now use the remaining berry-paste to cover the top.

(we took out a little piece... for taste testing...)

5. Use the rest of the whipped cream and pour it on top. Use a spatula to smooth it out, working from the top down. Cover the top and sides.

6. Start garnishing, do it any way you like, but this is how I did it!

7. EAT!

Hong Kong Style French Toast.... With a Twist!

2010-05-21T16:27:00.000-07:00

Okay, so Hong Kong style French toast is a popular food item in Western-style restaurants there. It's essentially the same as the original.... except it's two pieces of bread with a generous portion of peanut butter and condensed milk in the center (sometimes a little butter too), deep fried with an eggy-milk coating and served with more condensed milk or honey for dipping.... and has a nice fat slice of butter on top. It's mighty tasty, though not all that good for you.

I've made it before, but now that I'm home in Ohio, I find that I have no peanut butter. I refused to believe this, and after obsessively searching, I found organic chocolate flavored paenut butter... Hmmmm.... So I tweaked the recipe a little bit to include the chocolaty spread and added a few slices of bananas... to make me feel better about eating it. Also, peanut butter and chocolate go great with bananas.

Hong Kong Style French Toast.... With a Twist!

Ingredients:

Sliced bread, this can be anything but I prefer Italian style bread for this. Also, if it's a little dry that's good; it won't get too soggy.
Peanut butter
1/2 Banana, sliced
2 medium sized eggs
A splash of milk

1. Spread a generous amount of peanut butter on both pieces of bread.
2. Put 2-3 slices of banana onto the bread. Sandwich the bread.

3. Whisk the eggs and milk in a shallow bowl.

4. Add oil to a skillet, about..... 2-3 tablespoons? I dunno, really. I never measure. Just add what feels right to fry up the toast. Turn to medium high heat.
5. Evenly coat your peanut butter and banana sandwiches in the eggy mix. Place them in the heated skillet.

6. Cook and flip them till evenly browned on each side.

(Mom placed some shrimp chips on the side to soak up some excess oil,

that's what those little things are)

7. Plate and serve!

Veggie Pasta

2010-05-09T16:47:00.000-07:00

This is a nice dish that an help you get rid of any leftover veggies you may have. Here, I used green beans, leftover carrots (also for color), mushrooms I used half of last night and garlic and onions.

A dish like this can still have tons of flavor and be light. Seasonings are red pepper flakes for spice, basil for flavor (if you have fresh basil that's even better!) and grated parmesean as a topping.

Veggie Pasta:

Ingredients:
Olive oil
A few garlic cloves, minced
Half an onion, diced
Green beans, about 3 or so handfuls
Carrots, one handful of the cut kind
One box pasta of your choice, though I am partial to shells :)
4 or 5 shakes of basil
3 shakes of red pepper flakes
Salt to taste (everything is to taste, actually)
Diced tomatoes, bell peppers and broccoli would also be great in a dish like this. It's very flexible.

1. Boil water and dump in pasta. Drain and set aside. Add a teeny bit of olive oil and toss just so the pasta doesnt stick to itself.
2. In a large pot, add about 3 tablespoons olive oil and let it get hot. Add in garlic and onions, cooking these ingredients first help flavor the oil and add more dimension to your dish. Heat should be on medium high.

3. Add in the basil and red pepper once the onions have turned translucent.

4. Add carrots. They take longer to cook than the other veggies. Turn heat down to medium and cover with a lid, leaving it ajar for steam to escape.

5. Green beans after the carrots have cooked up for a few minutes, depending on how well donw you like your veggies.

6. Mushroom go in next. Wait till the green beans and carrots are almost done. Mushrooms are quick.

7. Add salt to taste.
8. Stir in pasta.
9. Plate and eat!

This dish can be enjoyed by itself or along side another dish. I recommend lemon chicken or fish. We're having this with almond crusted grouper, the recipe to which I shall post later.

Cruise Last Winter

2010-05-08T22:10:00.000-07:00

Before last winter, I'd never been on a cruise. My mom got it for my dad as a Christmas present and it as oodles of fun. We went to the Bahamas and has a wonderful time. The food was good too :)

Spring rolls!

Stone fruit salad.

Tomato soup. Creamy with a hint of spice :)

Roast prime rib with horse radish potatoes.

Tilapia with rice and veggies in a mango/Thai inspired sauce.

Desserts! From top left clockwise: Fruit pudding, key lime pie, cheesecake and a cheese platter.

Sweet and sour soup.

Hot strawberry soup. It was actually quite good :)

My sister and shrimp in a glass!

My dad with an assorted fruit plate.

Ooooh, seafood pasta with a creme sauce. It has fish, muscles, shrimp and lobster.

Fried polenta in a light tomato sauce over spinach.

Laaaaaaaaaaaaaamb!

Dessert cup of fruit, cake and cream.

Key lime pudding.

Molten chocolate cake.

Citrus fruit salad.

Toast with prosciutto and a salad.

Thai inspired noodles with duck, veggies and mangoes.

Bowtie pasta with kielbasa and veggies.

Bass with asparagus.

Dad and I with wine.

Cheesecake with blueberry preserves.

Mango souffle.

Escargot.

Steak tartar.

Yakitori with a nori roll and soy sauce.

I forget what this was, but it looks good. That roasted tomato on the mashed potato looks good.

Lime sorbet.

Raspberry soup with cream and biscotti bits.

Mmmm.... Tomato anitpasti. Mozarella and basil drizzled with olive oil.

Chrysanthemum Tea

2010-05-05T07:19:00.000-07:00

Chrysanthemum tea is a popular tea. In addition to being tasty, the health benefits are very nice :)

Chrysanthemum tea is made from the flower of the chrysanthemum plant. They are dried and then seeped in hot water. The resulting tea is light yellow in color and smells of flowers. Rock sugar is added for sweetness. I usually make a large batch of this and keep it in the fridge. It's great cold or hot!

Chrysanthemum tea is good for you as much as it is good for drinking. Consumed hot, it aids in digestion when eating food. Chinese believe that drinking hot tea with meals helps digest because it help break down the fat in the foods we eat. It also helps with allergies a great deal. Chrysanthemum tea is what is called a 'cooling' tea. When you have allergies, the senses are inflamed, therefore, if you 'cool' them then it helps. It can be drunk for respiratory problems, or can be applied to the face if you eyes are red, puffy and irritated from allergies. This actually helps a lot and is really soothing for the eyes.

Blemishes and acne can also be helped by this marvelous drink. Pimples and skin problems are known as 'heat in th body' because it's a type of inflamtion caused by dirt and other impurities that get under the skin. Drinking this can dramatically help because it cools you down a lot.

So, there you have it: chrysanthemum tea is a great drink whether it's just for taste or health or both.

Enjoy!

Raspberry Plum Tarts

2010-05-03T11:05:00.000-07:00

For desserts, I love fruits to be incorperated. I feel it's a nice finish to a meal and cleans the palette.

I like to make fruit tarts because they are so versatile. Here, I made a raspberry and plum tart.

The sweetness of the plums play off the tartness of the raspberries and a nice dollop of ice cream is always a welcome addition. I used frozen raspberries and strawberries for the base and fresh plums, cut into nice little wedges. I also like to use pre-made doughs. Puff pastry dough is inexpensive and extremely versatile; you can make so many different types of desserts with them.

Raspberry Plum Tarts

Ingredients (again, I hardly ever measure when I cook, so don't feel like you have to stick to these measurements. everything is fine when done to taste)

Pre-made puff pastry sheets. There are usually 2 sheets in a box, each folded into thirds. I cut each sheet into 9 pieces after they have been thawed.
1 bag frozen raspberries
1 handfull frozen strawberries
1 level spoonful dark brown sugar
2 pinches of nutmeg (optional)
5 plums, cut into 10-12 wedges each

1. Remove puff pastry sheets and let them thaw. Set the oven to 350.
2. Empty the bag of raspberries and the strawberries into a saucepan. Turn the stove to medium high. Once the fruits start to heat up and get soft, mash them with a potato masher or fork.

Let it simmer and reduce till it's thick. Add in sugar and nutmeg.

3. While the mixture is simmering, cut the plums into wedges, about 10 or 12 pieces each plum.

4. By the time the mixture has cooked down, it'll be time to cut up the dough sheets. Each sheet can be cut into 9 square pieces.

Each piece should be about yay big.

5. Once the pieces are cut, flatten out a square shape in the middle with your thumb and forefinger. We do this so the raspberry mixture has somewhere to sit. The edges should be left un-pinched and should be 1cm wide.

When the middle is flattened, the pieces should get a little bigger. Like here

6. The edges should be folded over, to create a fence-like area to keep in the raspberries.

7. Spoon in the raspberry mixture and make sure they cover the area.

8. Place 3 plum wedges in top, overlapping each other slightly.

9. Pop it into the oven for 10-15 mins, until nice and golden brown.
10. When they're done, take them out and let them cool for about 10-20 mins. Serve with ice cream and garnish with mint leaves if you have them..... which I don't right now, but still, it'd look super :)
11. Enjoy with friends!

Pork Stew

2010-05-03T10:56:00.000-07:00

Stews are nice, conveniet, low-hassle comfort foods. It's nice to pop everything into a cooker, leave it for a few hours and have a perfectly cooked meal.

I find that I like using meats attatched to the bone for my stews because the marrow in the bones releases such nice flavor. Pork neck bones are great for stews, they are inexpensive and some of the most tender pork meat is located around the bone. Ribs are also great for this or oxtail. I like to cook it until the meat is falling off the bone. I then take out the bones, add some veggies and then serve.

Pork Stew with Shell Pasta

Ingredients:
1 pack pork neck bones
2 or 3 cups of water
A few pieces of garlic, diced (3 or 4, but if you want more, that's cool too!)
1 onion, cut into halves. Put one half aside for laters
Salt to taste... though since it's raw meat, do not taste it at the moment. It's better to under-salt than over-salt
Small spoonful of sugar
Spoonful of red pepper flakes if you like some spice
1 cabbage (regular or nappa... i like both, so whichever is on hand is fine)
4 or 5 potatoes

1. Okay, so rise the pork bones first to get rid of grainy bone-ness from when the bones were cut. Once rinsed, put into pot/crockpot/rice cooker and add water. I use a rice cooker; it's like a fast slow cooker... which sounds werid, but it gets the stew perfect every time

2. Crush the garlic with the flat side of a knife. This makes for easier peeling. Coarsely chop the cloves and add to the pork.

3. Cut the onion in half. Set aside one half for later. With the half you are using now, chop off the top and bottom tips to make for easier peeling. Coarsely chop these as well.

This half of the onion is mostly for flavor, by the time the stew is done these onion parts will be so soft they'll integrate into the liquid. Add to pork.
4. Add the salt, sugar and red pepper flakes.

5. If using a pot, put a lid on it and set it to low, stirring occasionally. If using a crock pot set it on high if you're eating it that day. If you're preparing this the night before, chose medium or low. If using a rice cooker, set to cook. Let stew cook until meat falls off the bone.

6. Once the meat is falling off the bone, remove the bones from the stew. you may also want to remove teh fat from the top of the stew as well.
7. Chop up the cabbage into desired sized pieces. Add to stew.
8. Chop the potatoes and other onion half into desired sized pieces as well and toss them in too.
9. Wait till the veggies have cooked and boil some water for 1 box of shell pasta.
10. When pasta is done, drain.
11. Serve stew with the pasta.
12. Eat and enjoy with friends!

Macarons

2010-05-02T16:07:00.000-07:00

Mmm, mmm, mmmm.... Macarons are a delectible French pastry.

Store selling a varied selection of these little beauties!

The perfect macaron is hard on the outside, like an eggshell, but if a teeny tiny bit of pressure is given, it cracks, revealing the light, fluffy, moist insides.

Macarons come in variety of flavors are are popular in France, the UK and Japan. It's best to find somewhere that makes them in-house instead of getting them shipped in. It keeps the flavor fresh and the textures light and crunchy on the outsides.

My favorites are the black currant ones, which come with a layer of currant jelly in the center, ginger and pistachio.

Interior of the cafe selling macarons :)

There are so many varieties that one is bound to find something that they like. Some come with fillings, like jelly, mousse or ganache in the center, which adds another dimension to the taste and texture of these wonderful little concoctions.

Have them with coffee or tea!

Pho

2010-05-01T06:26:00.000-07:00

Pho is great. It's a vietnamese noodle soup that has rice noodles, meat and veggies.

My dad eating pho... tasty, tasty pho....

The soup in Pho is a clear beef-baised broth made from simmering beef bones (ones with lots of marrow are usually used for that delicious marrowness) and flavored with spices like cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, star anise and corriander. Charred onion and ginger also go into the broth and simmer there, releasing all their flavor. The ingredients are then taken out and strained, leaving you with a nice clear broth.

This is the broth simmering, some people like to use a crock pot for this.

Pho is typically served with fresh veggies on the side, which inclue Thai basil, mint, limes, lots of bean sprouts and spicy peppers. You can add these to taste, as well as hoisin sauce or Sriracha sauce, which is a slightly sweet, spicy sauce. I like to squeeze in lemon and add in all the veggies and a little Sriracha for that extra spice.

Pho spices! You can buy these in pre-made packets for your home-made pho.

A whole slew of meats can be used in Pho, like thin sliced steak, brisket, tendon and tripe. I preffer the tendon and trip due to the taste and texture they add to the soup. For me, texture is as important as flavor when consuming a dish.

Pho after all the goodness has been added.

What I most love about Pho is how everyone can eat it to their tastes. It's a light kind of meal, though filling, will not make you feel stuffed. It's a great comfort food.

Dim Sum

2010-04-28T08:40:00.000-07:00

Dim Sum, also referred to as Yum Cha, may just about be one of th best things in the world.

This is a meal I shared with my family the last time we visited them in California.

What is it, you ask? It a Cantonese style meal comprised of small dishes that you can get right off the cart, or in some places, order it off the menue. I like the carts better. Imagine being in a big restaurant filled with sounds of people and plates. The large, round tables each have a lazy susan on them where the steamer-baskets and small plates are placed so they an be easily shared. People pushing carts filled with all sorts of goodies manuver their way through the crowded tables, calling out what kind of foods their rolling meal carries are tacked high with.

That is essentially Dim Sum. I remeber it fondly growing up, and love it today. The sounds and smells of a good Dim Sum is one of the favorite things in life.

Looks amazing, am I right?

Dim Sum is usually comprised of buns, dumpling, rice noodle rolls which have all sorts of meats in them. Chicken, pork beef and shrimp are usual fair. Roasted meats, steamed veggies and desserts can also be found.

Fresh egg custards are divine and my all-time favorite dish is Ha Gao, a shrimp dumpling in a thin, tranparent skin made of glutous rice flour. I tried to make these babies from scratch once, and the skins are haaaard o pin down just right. So extra kudos to the ones who make them well.

An irreplaceable element of Dim Sum is, of course, the tea. If you want to eat a Dim Sum meal properly, tea is a must. Typically, tea is chrystanthemum (which is also wonderful for the complexion), oolong or puer.

Beijing Winter of 2008

2010-04-28T05:36:00.000-07:00

2008 I went to Beijing and Hong Kong with my Dad to visit relatives and also to see the sights. I also saw food:

On the streets there were tons of yummy treats, Dad and I indulged a little :)

Dad got chicken and I got squid.. both on a stick! There were all sorts of stalls and stuff selling everything from scorpions, starfish and other goodies.

On this one strip, all those lanters hanging in a row are food stalls!

The next day I got one of the sweet things from a stall. It was hawthorn berries with walnuts all encased in sugar. It was wrapped in edible rice paper to keep from sticking to me.

After going around for a while, Dad and I had hot pot for dinner.

We also got taken to this theme restaurant the next day by some of Dad's students. It was a very interesting experience.

And we even had entertainment!

Dad also took me to the faculty restaurant place at the University there. I had soup with a seahorse and other interesting a tasty items.

I believe this was a type of soup dumpling

Sea urchin!

Dad ordered something sweet for me. I do like pastries...

Aaaaannnd..... I forgot what this was, but it looks good nonetheless.

Caramel Apple Pie

2010-04-25T09:59:00.000-07:00

What goes together better than a tart apple with sweet, creamy caramel? Well, a slice of cheddar.... or peanut butter... but anyway, the point is: I made pie. I did this at.... 2 in the morning after not being able to sleep.

First off, pies need the right kind of apple. Usually, for apple pies, I like to use pink lady apples which are great. They have the right mix of tart and sweet and have a nice, crisp bite.

However, for caramel apples, Granny Smith are the way to go. I honestly can't remember the last time i bought Granny Smith apples. They are so very tart. But since the caramel will have a lot of sugar and cream it'll offset the sourness.

I usually never use measuring tools in the kitchen because it doesnt have to be precise, but for the sake of posting a recipe, I'm guesstemating... I also cheated a tad bit and used pre-made Werther's Caramels and also pre-made pie crusts you can get in the frozen section. Usually, I really do like making things from scratch... yet pie crusts have always seemed tedious to me. As for the caramels, I can snack on the candies I don't use :)

Caramel Apple Pie

Apple part:
12 Granny Smith Apples (the smaller type ones you can buy in bulk. This may seem like a lot, but it yeilds a nice domed pie) peeled, cored and sliced thin
1/2 tsp cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves and salt
2 tbsp flour (in my case I only had glutinous rice flour on hand. I've been using that in place as a thickener for a while. It cooks up a lit smoother and doesnt have a taste of its own, like what flour does)

Caramel Part:
About 24 Werthers Chewy Caramels chopped up into 2 or 3 pieces each for faster melting time
1/4 cup cream or milk (I had milk on hand, so I used that, but cream or half and half would make it more rich)
2 or 3 pinches of salt
2 tbsp butter ( I used ghee, which has that wonderful butter aroma and taste without as much fat)
Chopped peanuts or almonds optional

Preheat the oven to 350 and also take out the pie shells and let them thaw about halfway through the pie-making. I use two pie shells, one for the top, the other for the bottom.

1. Wash, peel, core and cut the apples into thin slices.

2. Put them in a pot and add the spices and flour until all the pieces are thinly coated.
3. Turn stove on to medium and cook apples until about 1/3 of the way done. Let cool for about 20 mins.
4. Combine milk, caramels and salt in a saucepan and set on medium heat. Stir it so the caramels dont stick to the bottom and burn.

5. Once the caramels have melted, continue to cook the mixture on medium or medium low. Allow for it to cook down to about 2/3 the orginal volume.
6. Once it's cooked down, add the butter and nuts, if you have them.

6. Set aside and let cool till it's a soft spreadable consistancy.... kind of like toothpaste? No... bad analogy, more like runny peanut butter...? I'm going to stop... neither of those things sound appealing...
7. When both items are relatively cool, combine them in the apple pot, but use only half the caramel mixture. Make sure all the apples get a bit of a coating from the caramel goodness.

8. Pour filling into shell carefully. There will be a lot of apples, so encourage them into a nice heaping pile. Pour the rest of the caramel on top.

9. Place other pie shell on top. You may want to take it out and roll over it with a rolling pin, so it's easier to drape over...of you can be lazy like me and not... make sure to wipe the edges with water to help seal the edges. Crimp edges with a fork to ensure sealed-ness.

10. Cut slits in the top and brush with egg whites to give it that Betty Crocker look. I did not have egg whites today, but trust me, it looks awful spiffy.

11. Place on baking sheet, just in case there is drippage from the caramel, and pop into the oven for... a while? I go by smell, if it is wafting all through the house/apartment and is nicely browned on the top then I say it's done. Let's pretend that's about 30-40 mins.
12. When it's done, let it cool for forty-five mins to an hour-ish so you do not burn your mouth on the really hot caramel.

Okaaaaay...... so, to be honest, I'm forgetful. The moral of this story, do not be forgetful. Yes, it got burned, but have no fear, it's only a little extra toasty!

Now eat it! :D

Hong Kong Goodness Cont'd

2010-04-23T23:55:00.000-07:00

I had to continue on in this post because I guess the other one got too long...

Fish and seafoods are also a feature on Hong Kong's menue. Since it is a port city water creatures are served in many delicious ways.... mmmmm.....

The great thing about buying fish here is that is is FRESH. Like live-two-seconds-before-they-hand-it-to-you fresh.

The best seafood is live, right before you eat it :)

Sooooooo good :3

One of the best things about my last visit to HK was the hotel we stayed at, the Shangri-La. It was incredible! One of the best things about the the Shangri-La? Tea time and the pastry shop... oh yeah!

To the left is on of the largest silk paintings in the world. It goes up about.... 20 stories? something ridiculous like that....

During tea time there was a quartet playing. It was extremely lovely music and my father clapped very enthusiastically for them everytime they finished a song. Later on that day when they saw us, they waved. It was sweet.

To the left is my family who came for tea <3

To the right is a tower of deliciousness.

The top and middle plate are various pastries, the bottom is tiny sandwhiches and more savory-type items.

These are some tiny cakes is picked up from the bakery at the Shangri-La later on that week. One my dad, mom sister and me. They were expertly made. Delicate, sweet enough but not overly so with the right balance of flavors.

The yellow one is a mango was mango custard, the white one was a creamy white mousse. The one with the berries was a simple sponge-like cake and the chocolate covered one was the Shangri-La specialty.

Hong Kong Goodness

2010-04-23T23:10:00.000-07:00

Hong Kong is one of the best places in the world... though I may be a tad biased, being half Cantonese. It's a bustling metropolis of old and new world shops, street hawkers, double-decker busses and a bajillion other things.

One of the best things about Hong Kong is no doubt the food... though the shopping is top notch.

Food is everywhere in Hong Kong. Fresh fruits, veggies and meats of all sorts are sold on the street, making it easy to pick up some tasty ingredients for dinner on the way home.

A wide variety of dired goods are also available in shops, which are open to the street.

Here are my sister and father with some fruit.

I loved picking up fresh fruits on the way back to the hotel.

A lot of these fruits are common in Hong Kong, but hard to find in many grocery stores in the U.S. Lychee, dragon fruits, mangosteen and durian are normal fair here.

Now these were some interesting berries. They had no seed in the middle, but the entire berry was actually made of these... fillaments compressed together vertically into a ball of fruit... kind of like straws... Uhh... That's not a great explenation of it...

But the taste was great! It was a little weird, though... To my father, my aunt and I it was sweet with a hint of tartness to it. Kind of like a raspberry and a lemon mixed together. To my mom and sister it was realllllly sour... Maybe it's a taste bud thing?

Now this is my favorite fruit: the mangosteen. It's illigal to import fresh ones to the U.S. because of a certain type of fruit fly that likes it. But, this is the fruit that Queen Victoria herself offered rewards for whoever brought some back to her.

The mangosteen is a very interesting fruit. The skin is thick and dark purple on the outside. It's easily popped open, and is very thick, but not too dense. The juice from the skin is this rich red, but the meat looks like a tiny, naked, white orange.

The taste is very sweet, with a slight crunch to the fruit and a tad sour after taste.

Now here is a cat with durians and veggies.

There is meat sold everywhere... tasty tasty meat... When I went up to take one of these pictures the man smiled and waved at me with the cleaver :)

I really want that huge block of a cutting board....

Duck..... Tasty, tasty duck......

Wagashi

2010-04-23T21:22:00.000-07:00

Wagashi: A type of Japanese confection. There are tons of different types, some with fruit, other with sweet pastes, kinds made of agar agar (like jello, but made from seaweed), mochi... and the lists go on.

One of my favorite things about these little treats is how beautiful they look.

Isn't that just divine?

One of my first introductions to wagashi was when I was.... 13? Around there... Anyhow, my aunt give my sister and I these beautiful packages from a place called Minamoto Kitchoan. They were soooo pretty, and tasty too. Mildly sweet. The jelly ones were a little chewey, but the taste was good. Like most Japanese food, it has a gentleness to it.

Wagashi is best enjoyed with tea, which is how it is usually served. If you come across some, go for it and give it a try :)

For those of you who are interested in Minamoto Kitchoan, here is their page: http://www.kitchoan.com/E/index_b_natsu2004_e.html