Fewd Blawg

Chinese food - unhealthy?

2007-03-22T01:39:00.000-07:00

Jenn on reappropriate blogs about a recent piece of desperate omgihavetomeetadeadline bit of "science" writing. And it's about Chinese food.

Carrot bonanza

2007-02-12T16:30:00.001-08:00

In our organic veggie box this week we got another bunch of carrots. I'm not used to so many carrots. Carrots shall be my friend!

I spent some time looking for new ways for me to use carrots beyond just including them in a Mirepoix and I wanted them to be le spicey. Before I knew it, I had too many carrot recipes to pass up. I reprint them here for posterity and so I don't lose them. Y'know, apparently internet searchers love to find lists of things? It gives them great joy.

On to the untried and potentially false carrot recipes:

Curried Carrot Soup (duh!)
Seared jumbo scallops, spicy carrot fritters, yoghurt sauce
Spicy Carrot Sauce (chipotle-flavored)
Spicy Carrot Sambal
Som Tam (Spicy Thai Carrot Salad)
Som Tam #2 (for good measure)
Hmong-style Spicy Carrot Salad
Spicy Carrot Purée with Harissa
Spicy Carrot Purée with Harissa #2 (adapted)
Spicy Carrot Pickle (Indian)
Spicy Carrot Chutney (Indian)
Spicy Carrot Dip ("American")
Broccoli and Tofu with Spicy Carrot Orange Sauce (Chinese-esque)
Roasted Lamb Rump With Spicy Carrot Purée, Couscous & Pine Nut Ciabatta Sauce
Sweet & Spicy Carrot Pudding
Spicy Carrot Tahini (but where?!)

That last one, the Spicy Carrot Tahini, eluded me in recipe form, but intrigued me on the menus I saw it on. One day, it shall be mine!

I shall try and bloggerate whichever recipe I choose for the utilization of carrottage. Gooooo beta carotene!

[x-posted]

Li-i-i-i-isa... Don't E-e-e-e-at Me! (or What Kind of Vegan Are You Anyway?)

2007-02-10T21:53:00.000-08:00

Many readers of this blog are acquainted with my previous attempt to reduce my culinary dependence on animals, "social meat eating," in which I would eat meat if I was with company in a situation where communal dishes were being shared, family-style. This failed because I would just find many occasions to go to family-style restaurants. While my sociable eating benefitted, the animals (and environment) did not. Understandably, many friends were amused by the social-meat-eating paradigm, so open was it to accomodating my carnivorous recalcitrance. I eventually gave up on it and went back to meat-eating.

I never tried vegetarianism. I had noted with some dismay that when some I knew switched from meat-eating to vegetarian diets, their eating relied very heavily on cheese, milk and eggs.

For a while, I tried no-meat-at-home, but this shared the same flaw as "social meat eating," and I just ended up eating out a lot.

For these reasons, I decided to be a realistic vegan.

Vegan because it was difficult to logically draw the line between meat and dairy/eggs, as well as between food and other products (leather, cosmetics, etc.). Realistic because I realized that lapses and occasional exceptions were not The End OMG Total Failure. I also have to admit that I like the hard-core-ness of being vegan. In a way it's easier to explain being vegan than being vegetarian.

I liken this stance to those who realize both that lying is wrong, yet who cannot honestly (ho-ho) say that they have never told a lie, and realize that some lies are worse than others.

Another way I think of it is my animal-exploitation-minimization program, akin to the risk-management strategy when it comes to STD-transmission prevention. Frankly, coming up with a veganism that I can stick to is more important to me than being The Perfect Vegan for a few months or years, and then giving up.

How has my veganism been fast-and-loose?

1) Once a month I eat meat (I may be phasing this out)
2) If after the fact I find out that something I'm eating has animal products in it, I don't freak out or even stop eating
3) I used to eat ethical eggs from a CSA (but I have since let my share lapse)
4) Sometimes I eat snacks with animal products if someone else paid for them
5) I'll eat the free cheese at Rainbow Grocery
6) I've sneaked tastes of food with animal products in it that someone has made in their home, because I can't stand not knowing how their cooking tastes. I'm a curious (and judgmental) old bugger.

But really, my best answer to "what kind of vegan are you?" is "what kind of vegan are you?"

Fluffy Mackerel

2007-02-09T10:55:00.001-08:00

Sometimes you stumble across something on the web that makes life just a little bit more worth living. Other times, you stumble on to something on the web that makes you want to die just a little bit more.

In rare, special moments you stumble across the unholy marriage of both these things and it all just works.

Behold this internet gold--I give you Fluffy Mackerel Pudding!

This gem comes to us from the Weight Watcher's recipe cards of yester year. Check them out. Oh, and you'll definitely want to recreate them, and photograph them, and upload them to flickr. Yes, you do!

by Mirandala

[hat-tip Rich, x-posted]

Cooking with fetuses!

2007-02-08T22:43:00.001-08:00

Sort of.

In a recurring culinary interest, obsession, and/or perversion, I have wondered whether cooking an animal (for those non-veg folks out there) with it's fetus would make for a tasty culinary advancement.

Imagine if you will roasted pig with piglets basting inside. Yummy!

Anyway, it seems that a creative cook is doing something just like that: unlaid eggs.

Not everybody loves them, but ever since Mr. Barber dropped the term “embryonic eggs” from the menu in favor of “immature,” fewer customers have balked.

I love me some embryos!

[x-posted]

The "Curry Coast"

2007-02-03T19:38:00.001-08:00

Best cooking day ever! In a day of personal indulgence I spent all Friday, 10am to 6pm cooking. Delightfully delicious!

Diced chiles and onions for the Avial

I have to give mad food props to the Demeber issue of Food and Wine, from whence all my recipes were stolen. The article is about this small inn/farm in Southwester Indian and in predictable modern foodie writing talks just enough about the land and people to set the scene for the food. Check it out,

For me the odd name evokes a dreamy paradigm of south India—an arch of vermilion bougainvillea blossoms, the sheen of lake waters interrupted by a dugout’s narrow wake and, above all, the blissful silence, broken only by birdsong, the chatter of women washing clothes along the shore and the chants from a Hindu temple across the canal.

What could be better? The food, silly! For the feasty goodness I made "Red Fish (tofu) Curry," "Curry with Potatoes and Squash," "Anu's Avial" and "Indian-spiced String Beans." Huzzah!

Pineaplle and spices

The dishes were quite good, but very different from what you're probably familiar with around Indian food. Lots of coconut, curry leaves and fresh green chiles. All the dishes were pretty fast and didn't take too much prep work--so it was cool to be able to make so many for one dinner.

I think the best one turned out to be the red tofu curry, which was sour and spicy from the tamarind in it. I replaced the called-for fish with tofu because to make it vegetarian and it turned out quite well.

Curry leaves, pepper and mustard seeds frying

Another winner was the Anu's Avial which was a vegetable and coconut mash but with no mashing, if that makes sense. It was delicious and coconutty.

Yogurt mixed into the Avial to make it tangy delicious

All in all it was a yummy success!

2007-02-03T19:33:00.000-08:00

So I recently caved and, along with like, every single food blog (and flickr user!), got a copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World (which really could be called Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The Blogosphere). I even bought it at my local lefty bookstore (Modern Times).

Never content to use a recipe right out of a book (because I'm better than you), I decided to tweak their basic vanilla cupcake recipe, to create a pretty cupcake that looked (a little) like the one on the cover, but with something extra.

The difference was cardamom.

Cardamom is a superb dessert spice, and its creamy, sweet high note gives my baking a much needed boost of elegance. Cardamom alone, however, can be a little cloying and reedy (like a single piccolo player wheezing the melody line all by herself).

I rooted around the kitchen for something to balance it. Cloves might have been good, but my cloves had been hanging out near the coriander seeds their whole lives, and had gotten that "don't even think about using me in anything other than a curry" smell.

I ended up steeping the cardamom pods with tangerine skins in the soymilk called for in the recipe and then proceeded according to the book (omitting the vanilla).

And thus, Tangerine-Cardamom Cupcakes with Rose Icing and Pistachios were born.

The cupcakes turned out great. They're moist, they're sweet, and they're spicy. The rose in the icing is noticeable but not overpowering. My only complaint is that the pistachios are a bit underwhelming, though undeniably pretty. Perhaps I should have made them into a praline first.

Eat. At. Home.

2007-01-22T21:08:00.000-08:00

I've resolved to make all my meals at home this week, starting today. More accurately, I won't be eating any take-out or restaurant meals this week. I have to admit, it was rough to start out with. I ended up having a clif bar for lunch and then a protein shake later in the day between classes.

For dinner, however, I made a nourishing vegan meal of quinoa and curry. In the curry there are beans, kale, carrots, and assorted mushrooms. The assorted mushrooms actually come frozen from some organic frozen veggie brand. I forget which. Anyway, they weren't great. Kale and carrots were fresh, and hence tasty. Beans were from a can and acceptable, though some of their skins were a bit tough.

I'm now a huge quinoa fan, by the way. I love the little cooked pearls, and the crunchy popping texture.

Bitter, sweet, and sour

2007-01-19T12:08:00.000-08:00

Because of their sharp acidity and deep flavor, blood oranges lend themselves to a variety of preparations. In this salad, sweet-tart supremes of blood orange lie in a bed of bitter, spicy watercress. Smoothed by extra virgin olive oil, salt, and a dash of lemon juice, each bite gives a full spectrum of flavor.

Eating this salad reminded me that local winter produce consists of more than just root vegetables and sturdy greens. Savoring the bright tastes, I thought of Camus' statement about finding an invincible summer in the midst of winter. Sadly, the day after I enjoyed the jewel-like slices of blood orange came the news that frost killed seventy-five percent of California's citrus crop this year.

Bread baking

2006-12-30T20:27:00.000-08:00

I'm currently at my parents' house in Northbrook, with very little to do except finish reading M.F.K. Fisher's The Gastronomical Me and progress in my Nintendo DS games. This afternoon, my sister Stephanie expressed a desire to "bake something." We decided to make bread, and I decided to try Nigel Slater's recipe as reported by the Amateur Gourmet here. Eight cups of flour seemed excessive, so we cut the recipe in half. Here we are posing ridiculously with the finished product. We're trying to make a heart, with the loaf at the bottom.

I am pretty happy with the results. The finished loaf is very salty and flavorful. The crust is not as thick and crisp as the one I achieved with the recent New York Times no-knead method, but it still cracked pleasantly under my teeth. The detail below shows the crumb, which is denser than ideal. Since the house is pretty cold, I think I should have let the second rise go longer than an hour. My family says the bread is delicious, though, so I hope there's still some left for me to share with Andy on the plane tomorrow back to San Jose.

Broiled Squab with Cauliflower Pasta

2006-11-28T22:46:00.000-08:00

When I ordered our Thanksgiving wild turkey from D'Artagnan, I also bought a couple of squabs to take advantage of the flat shipping rate. Last night, I butterflied the squabs, generously brushed them with butter, and slid them under the broiler. When the birds were a beautiful golden brown on the outside and medium rare on the inside, I dusted them with salt, parsley, and sweet paprika. The meat tasted rich and gamey, like duck with a slight hint of liver. Behold:

With the squab, we ate pasta with cauliflower, olive oil, anchovies, and lots of garlic. Yum.

Pizzeria Delfina

2006-11-26T15:02:00.000-08:00

After looking at furniture at San Francisco yesterday, Andy and I made a spur of the moment visit to Pizzeria Delfina. Pictured above are the Monterey Bay Sardines "In Saor." These were delicious. The olive-oil and vinegar-slicked onions studded with dried currants, parsley, and pine nuts were a terrific complement to the rich oily fish. Heaping everything onto the crostini added a satisfying crunch. The Salsiccia pizza we ordered was equally successful. It contained housemade fennel sausage, tomato, bell peppers, onions and mozzarella and came with a tiny plate of grated pecorino, dried oregano, and red pepper flakes. I especially enjoyed the bright fennel and herb flavor of the sausage. Pizzeria Delfina is rapidly becoming one of my favorite restaurants.

Thank You, India(n Americans)

2006-11-24T01:42:00.000-08:00

Sometimes Thanksgiving is a disaster. People don't get along, the TV does little to take the edge off of the social awkwardness, and the food is obligatorily stodgy and heavy, quickly reaching room temperature and drying out faster than you can say "factory farmed."

This was not one of those Thanksgivings.

The old standards were there, of course, but they were given an appropriately Bay Area foodie twist.

The turkey was a heritage breed (ordered from D'Artagnan). Obscenely pricey, but hey, I don't eat meat that often any more, and also the dark meat was LIKE BUTTAH. The white meat tasted like Really Good Pork. It was prepared simply - a rub the day before with salt, pepper and thyme, then roasted to an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Andy and I greedily ate the oysters at the counter. They were gamey, dense, fine-grained and moist - as though made into pate.

Mashed potato stuffing, a cunning portmanteau of a dish, accompanied the turkey. Cheese, mashed potato, breadcrumbs, stock, thyme and butter.

The gravy was given substance by thinly sliced king trumpet and shiitake mushrooms, and thickened with corn starch rather than wheat flour (because one of the guests was off gluten. I know, I know. Don't go there.)

Squash soup was tweaked with some garlic, parsley, thyme and bay (this doesn't sound like much tweaking, but the original had only squash, leeks and ginger - a bit too sweet for some palates). It was finished with creme fraiche, natch.

Green beans got parboiled then sauteed with olive oil, chopped shallots and thinly sliced Buddha's hand. Meyer lemon juice finished off the quick pan glaze.

We started with a salad, which was actually pretty standard - lettuce, walnuts, blue and goats cheese, avocado and a delightful vinaigrette a la minute by Andy. I got some flak for not tearing up the lettuce leaves into smaller pieces.

Poached pears took a turn for the adult, as Ron upped the amount of wine in the recipe, and put in fresh ground cloves.

Ursula's apple galette was perfectly cooked, and yes, the crust was flaky AND tender.

Burger Queen

2006-11-20T02:30:00.000-08:00

Inspired by Michael Procopio's* post over on Bay Area Bites about his own foodie-challenged childhood and his current endeavors at creating fries and a shake, I'm going to recount my years as a frequent Burger King diner (gasp!).

*I used my cyberstalker skills to track down his other blog, but sadly, it has nothing on it right now. I did find a soulfully depressed European Existentialist picture of him on his blogger profile, though.

YUM! Has someone thought about compiling a Hot Foodies calendar? If not, then YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST, FOLKS! Speaking of which, I am eternally grateful to Urse for pointing me to this picture and interview with Fred Schilling of Dagoba. Here he is, surrounded by Mason jars full of beans (Cacao beans and Mason Jars - can you get any foodier?):

I'd like to wrap my foil around his chocolate bar.

Also on this list would be Gabriel Roth, who writes Edible Complex for the SF Bay Guardian. I can't find a good photo of him on the internets, in part because there is a musician named Gabrielle Roth who is sucking up all the google hits. Good for her, though. You'll have to take my word for it.

Actually, of all the people in this post, Gabriel Roth is the only one I've seen in real life, and so his hotness-reliability-index is the highest of the lot. For me, anyway. What is hotness-reliability, you ask? It's the quality of being and staying hot from all angles and over periods of time, not just after a team of make-up artists and photographers have worked you (or after taking 45 different pictures of yourself in the bathroom mirror and finding the one where your stomach looks naturally flat, and not like you're sucking it in, which you totally are). If you've seen tabloid pictures of the New Britney Spears, you know what I mean.

Ilan Hall, one of the contestants on Top Chef, should be in the Calendar also. His look has sort of a hipster-meets... umm... well, okay, fine, he just looks like a hipster. No photo of him on here, just in case we get sued by Bravo. I think he's going to win. He's basically a revamped Harold. Oh hell, here's his photo, clearly cribbed from the Top Chef site. FAIR USE, I say, FAIR USE:

Okay, that was supposed to be an aside, but it's turned into a whole post. Maybe I'll talk about my childhood in Burger King another time. Actually, you know what, I can sum it up in a few sentences: I was a kid with thousands of years of Imperial Chinese cuisine as my ethnic heritage, growing up in Southeast Asia, where three or four of the world's best cuisines came together in a syncretic miracle of deliciousness, and all I could think to eat almost every other weekday for lunch was a Double Bacon Cheeseburger, fries, and a Coke, in the sticky-floored, poorly-ventilated basement level Burger King that was closest to the D&D bookstore. Also I was fat.

Ooh, ooh, here's the link: sometimes when I read other food blogs or watch TV and see talented, good-looking foodies and food-writers, I am once again the fat kid eating bad burgers and dreaming about being (or screwing) a paladin.

Oh, another aside: I recently heard somewhere, or maybe I read (damn it! I can't remember where now) someone describe another person as "the kind of guy who derives additional pleasure from eating meat because he can make fun of vegetarians." Sadly, Gabriel Roth seems to fall into this category (I'm not saying the column ain't funny though). Then again, so does Anthony Bourdain.

Santa Monica Farmers' Market

2006-10-07T20:13:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to show you what I found at the famous Santa Monica farmers' market. It's as amazing as the Good Food podcast makes it sound. The coolest thing I found was fresh passionfruit. Here's a photo of the tasty seedy gooeyness. The vendor gave me a sample and told me that the husks can be used to make tea. I haven't done that yet, but it's worth a try. I'm going to try to go to the market every other week since Pasadena already has a pretty nice one on Thursdays.

Also, I recently got a bread machine. I made a Rosemary French Bread and a Challah bread. Both turned out well. Next I'm going to try a pumpkin pull-apart loaf. Here's a picture of the challah:

A Drink for Ms. Toguri

2006-10-01T23:34:00.000-07:00

Iva Toguri died on Tuesday. Today, serendipitously, I created a new cocktail, and I have decided to name it in her honor (or more precisely, in memory of her wartime nickname).

Tokyo Rosé*

*Apparently there already is a Tokyo Rose cocktail, but please note the accent on mine that distinguishes it from your garden variety English word.

Toguri was a Japanese American who got stuck in Japan during WWII. Upon her return to the U.S., she was convicted of being a traitor for taking part in Japanese radio propaganda. She was pardoned in 1977 by President Ford. Toguri maintained that she deliberately used her position to create ineffective propaganda, using an outrageously heavyhanded tone that was easily dismissed by any Americans listening.

In contrast, this cocktail needs a light hand with the ingredients. It's not very alcoholic, so you can mix yourself up a pitcher and drink it while listening to the radio.

1/2 tsp rosewater
1 1/2 tbsp raspberry syrup
1 c. sparkling water
1 shot sake
A grape

1) Mix the first four ingredients.
2) Pour into martini glass
3) Drop in the grape.
4) Watch the fun grape dance!
5) Think about WWII.
6) Drink!

Jonathan Gold

2006-09-08T20:41:00.000-07:00

Now that I'm in LA, I've been going to the places that have been recommended by Jonathan Gold of Good Food fame. I've tried two so far: Bulgarini gelato and Macau Street. Both trips turned out delicious so I think I'll follow his food picks more often.

The gelato. Gold says it's better than any gelato he's tasted in Italy or France. I can't confirm or deny that conclusion because I'm neither so worldly nor so materially obssessed with competition. However, I can say that it was the best I've tasted - even better than Naia (can't you hear the Buddhas crying "Hypocrite!"?). I had a cup with pistachio and lemon cream. So nutty, so lemony, so creamy, so refreshing was the tasty treat that I might make it a weekly thing since it's a 2 minute walk away from the apartment.

The uniqueness of the place lay not only in the freshness and homemade quality of the gelato, but also in its set up. The whole place was a single cart in the courtyard of the Pacific Asia Museum of Pasadena. Thankfully, I didn't have to pay for a museum ticket because you know how much I hate Asians, let alone their history and culture.

Macau Street. This is one of many Chinese restaurants in Monterey Park - the chinkiest town west of chinkland. I had all the recommended dishes from Jonathan Gold's article: preserved duck clay pot rice, bbq pork neck with fermented bean dip, fried crab with fried garlic bits, roast squab, and cookies laced with bits of lard. I did not have the foresight to bring a camera, so I can't show you how sexy meat on a plate can be (suck it you vegans! suck my meat on a plate!). The cookies were the most unique thing I had. It had a texture like toffee cookies and had a strange balance of sweet and salty. The lard provided the icing on the cookie. The closest thing I could compare it to would be one of those chinese wedding cookies, if that helps.

Next up, I might post some pictures if I have my camera handy or I might blog about the farmers' markets I've been going to. I still haven't been to the markets on the west side. I'll update when I do.

A-U-T-O-Matic

2006-09-06T23:48:00.001-07:00

Today I had a fewdblogworthy eating experience. It was not especially delicious or savory, but it was certainly unique, and disturbingly satisfying. That's right; I bought food out of an automat. You know, an automat. A vending machine / wall of mini-ovens that dispense hot, prepared food at the mere insertion of a coin.

This automat, Bamn! (not to be confused with BAMN, the Michigan-based civil rights organization), located on St. Mark's in the East Village, NYC, is allegedly (according to that most trustworthy of all sources, the Wiki) the first automat to exist in the U.S. for 15 years. I had seen one of these before, in the Netherlands when I was in high school, but I don't think there was a single item my vegetarian self could have eaten, so tonight was my first automatic (as it were) eating experience. I'm guessing that there isn't not a relationship between decriminalized pot in Amsterdam and the life of the automat, so it makes sense that the automat would be located within easy walking distance of the various types of substance dispensaries of the East Village. I mean, you'd have to be on something to eat food out of a wall of hot pink ovens, right? Right? I'm not going to lie - the food I ate at Bamn! (that name has got to go) was not half bad. I ate...a macaroni and cheese croquette. That's right, deep fried macaroni and cheese. So awful. So amazing. Such a good trade for two dollars in loose change. Other items included the Mozarella sticks (standard), chicken burger (standard), and peanut butter and jelly empanada (hmm....). I went at night so it was mostly munchies, but based on the photo, it looks like they shuffle in more breakfast appropriate items in the morning. The deep fried mac-n-cheese made the perfect post-beer snack, though I did spend the train ride home pondering Important Questions About Man's Place in the Modern World. Also, having to pee.

Thanks to Kathryn for the photos shamelessly lifted from her flickr account (but she's my friend, so its ok)

Feeling the Crunch

2006-09-03T14:59:00.000-07:00

I haven't shaved for more than a week. My hair is growing way out as I haven't had it cut for months. I've recently gone vegan (working on a post about that soon, I promise). I live in a house with 5-6 other people right now. I've been wearing sandals every day to school. I bought a bunch of potted herbs from the farmers' market.

And yesterday I made granola.

It's a very hippie time for me.

Luckily, it's also a very foodie time (as always), which is why I made this granola with hazelnuts and cacao nibs, as well as dried organic cranberries (sweetened with apple juice). The recipe loosely follows Alton Brown's, but I cut back on the sugar and nuts so that I would actually end up with granola instead of Candied Nuts With Oat Garnish (which is sorta what his recipe ends up being).

Foodie Hippie Granola

Preheat your oven to 250F/120C

Mix together:
9 cups of oats (rolled, not quick cooking)
1 cup hazelnuts, skin on, broken into pieces (I did this with some perfunctory thumping with a mortar and pestle. I tried the rolling pin + kitchen cloth thing before and it didn't really work out)
1 1/2 cups slivered almonds
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup maple syrup
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Spread this out on baking sheets and put them in the oven. Stir this up every 15 minutes. Total baking time is about an hour and a half (I like my granola well-cooked).

Take out of the oven and let cool completely, then mix in:
1 1/2 cups dried cranberries
1 1/2 cups cacao nibs

Store in an airtight container (or, if you eat it every day like me, store half of it in a plastic bag on the counter, since it doesn't hang around long enough to go stale)

Hot, sweet, and sticky...

2006-08-30T13:50:00.000-07:00

They're cinnamon rolls!

I was stressing Monday when I was going through my human subjects application. I've always found that baking really helps me destress. Plus, I've been wanting to make these suckers for a while now.

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com
I made the full recipe of dough, and rolled them all up into rolls and made the 'slices' with dental floss. I ended up letting one batch rise as usual, and the other half I froze for cinnamon rolls at a later date.

These were best out of the oven, steaming and nutty. What I liked best about these is that the dough was not overly saturated with stickiness. Of course the frosting was sweet and sticky, but the actual rolls still had that nice pastry/breadiness. And the chopped walnuts REALLY stood out in a delicious way against the browned dough. I would definitely do this again.

Cinnamon Rolls

for dough
* 1 cup milk
* 1 cup water
* 1/4 cup butter
* 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
* 6 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 2 eggs

for filling:
* 1/3 cup butter, softened
* 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
* 3/4 cup white sugar
* 3/4 cup raisins (optional)
* 3/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

for icing:
* 2 cups confectioners' sugar
* 3 tablespoons butter, melted
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 3 tablespoons milk

DIRECTIONS:

1. heat 1 cup milk, water, and 1/4 cup butter until very warm (butter doesn't need to be completely melted). (I microwaved it all for 40-50 sec). Place milk mixture, salt, flour, yeast, sugar, and eggs in the pan of the bread machine in the order suggested by the manufacturer. Select the Dough cycle. Press Start. (or use your kitchen aid with the dough hook attachment).

2. Once Dough cycle is complete, remove the dough from the bread machine. Punch down, and divide into 2 parts. On a floured surface, roll each part into a large rectangle. (I think I rolled until it was about 1/2" thick, but it certainly doesn't have to be precise). Smear each rectangle with the softened butter. Combine the cinnamon and 3/4 cup sugar. Sprinkle over the rectangles. Generously sprinkle the raisins and/or chopped nuts over the top.

3. Roll the dough up into two logs starting at the long side. Cut each log into 12 slices. (here is where you can use dental floss or thread to make the slices. Slide the thread under the log, wrap around the log, and pull ends past each other). Place the rolls cut side down into two 9x13 inch greased baking pans (or silicone sheet). Cover, and let rise in a warm place until almost doubled (about 30 minutes).

4. Bake in a preheated 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) oven for 18 to 20 minutes, or until golden. Combine the confectioners' sugar, 3 tablespoons melted butter, vanilla, and 3 tablespoons milk. Frosting should be thick. Spread over baked rolls and enjoy.

x-posted to my blog

The Color Red

2006-08-23T12:05:00.000-07:00

The Friday I got back from Australia, Urse, Fuson and I headed down to Santa Cruz to the Mecca of tasty, red-to-the-core, union-labor, organic, $4-a-pint-at-the-market strawberries, Swanton Berry Farm. This has become something of a summer ritual for Ursula and me. I think we've gone down to Swanton for the past 3 years. Sadly, because we went quite late in the season this time, the strawberries were a little sad.

Still, it was wonderful to drive down the California coast. The cool fresh air and sunshine reminding me that I really was back, and that, Mark Twain's possible (bitchy) comment notwithstanding, it really was summer.

Although some strawberries looked like this (still not red to the core, but at least red all over):

Most looked like this:

Perhaps it was the jetlag, perhaps it was my own pickiness (no pun intended), but I ended up only collecting 2 pints of strawberries after about a half hour or so of wandering the rows. Urse and Fuson did much better, collecting about half a flat each:

We stopped in at the farmstand to pay (on the honor system), and to try the strawberry and blackberry jams they had out. They had a cute chalkboard with a paper hand that I don't think was there last year (not sure, though):

I'll leave you with California's gorgeous coastline as seen from the window of Ursula's car:

Ode on a Grecian Bistro

2006-08-07T05:02:00.000-07:00

THOU still unpictured dish of greek delight,
Thou foster-child of foolishness and sloth,
Ming, incompetent, though you had in his sight
thought not to photograph e'en the tablecloth:
What leaf-fringed pork loin haunted thy serving dish
of porcelain, of fine glass, or of both,
In Oliver Lane, that's in the CBD?
What herbs and oils are these? What fragrant broth?
What diced root? What strange exotic fish?
What jus and sauces? What rich fricasee?

The fondant cream was sweet, but is, unseen,
no sweeter; therefore, dear blog reader, complain;
Not to my sensual ear, but, far more swift,
whine to my email, through ether send your pain:
Fair squid, you started with, stewed with young leaves
of fennel, suffused with sweet perfume;
Its bold flavor, never, never can we see
presented on this blog, and so we grieve;
We wanted pictures, instead got poetry,
poor poetry at that. Cruel joke, we presume?

Oh crappy, crappy post! that cannot shed
new light in channels red green blue;
And, crappy blogger, when he ate
his dishes, pork loin, squid stew;
Was happy, love! more happy, happy love!
For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd,
for ever steaming, from the kitchen fresh brung
in his memory, but lord above,
not in yours: high-sorrowful and cloy'd,
lacks appetite to moist your parched tongue.

What fine organic pig was sacrificed?
By what green butcher, O mysterious beast,
were'st thou so lovingly carved and stuffed,
and with that silken caulfat so well drest?
What Cretan leeks brought in by air or sea,
or o'er land from local farmers hands,
do dress thy browned form, this afternoon?
But, sticky sauce, thy sweetness needs to be
offset by piquancy, and you could stand
some lemon too. You overwhelm too soon.

O sweet dessert! fair plate of fruit! with piece
of nutty earthy halva, finely wrought,
in a quenelle - cut right through the grease;
Thou, final dish! dost juicy delight brought
As doth Greek coffee: So unusual!
When roasty drink you have consumed posthaste,
then water flavored with the scent of rose
you drink, and leave refreshed. To thouself say'st,
'Beauty is truth, and truth beauty,-that is all
Ye know on earth.' (so don't bug me for photos)

Dinner tonight

2006-08-03T19:24:00.000-07:00

On weekdays when I go grocery shopping, I generally don't have time to cook. Usually I eat leftovers, takeout, or frozen food, but I was inspired by all the great ingredients in the market right now to make a fresh, easy dinner. I threw together a salad of arugula and green figs dressed with arbequina olive oil, lemon juice, and fleur de sel. Along with the salad I ate slices of Acme sour baguette with Marcel & Henri pâté de campagne. Don't worry, Ming, you'll be back in California soon enough.

Secret, Secret, I've got a secret!

2006-08-03T06:33:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, I ate at two restaurants, and uncovered two secrets. Well, maybe three. Yu-U's secret is its own continued existence. Flower Drum's secret is the not-on-the-menu menu (and I don't mean the written-in-Chinese-on-the-walls menu either - this menu isn't written anywhere but the memories of the waiters and chefs). The third secret? You'll have to read to the end of the post to find out.

Sadly, I only have two photos of food at these two restaurants. I was just too embarrassed by the idea of snapping photos during a meal. Luckily, I managed to overcome this photo-shame after some wine at Flower Drum. This convinces me that in the future, I must get slightly drunk before I go to restaurants alone or with respectable non-photo taking folk, so that I will have the courage to whip out my camera, despite the stares of my fellow patrons.

Yes, I am neurotic and full of shame. But you already knew that.

Only Yu-U

This is the only sign that marks the entrance to Yu-U. It is about the size of a greeting card. This is in fact the only outward sign that Yu-U even exists. The sign is in a shaded doorway off a tiny alley, which in turn connects only to a minor street. Graffiti covers the door, whose red paint is faded. The handle of the door looks worn.

When I arrived at 11:45 and tried to open the door, it was locked tight. I knocked. There was no response. The place gave all indication of having closed up shop.

I waited anyway.

Exactly at noon, I heard someone coming towards the door from the other side - footsteps ascending stairs. The door opened to reveal two women, who silently and nonchalantly mounted the following sign on the door:

Barely glancing at me, they turned around and the door started to close.

"Can I come in?" I asked, perhaps too loudly.

One of the women stopped, turned to stare at me, and hesitantly asked, "How many?" The other woman retreated down the stairs into the restaurant.

I was the only one in the alley except for two older white women who were obviously not with me (and seemed surprised to see the door open at all - I think they might have been going to Mini, whose entrance shares the alley with Yu-U's. I'll post about Mini next time)

"Just one," I said.

She frowned, as if thinking it over. I smiled what I hoped was a winning smile (in fact, I wasn't going so much for "winning" as "I'm so embarrassed to be imposing on your hospitality, but I really really REALLY want to eat here because I've heard so much about your food, and I know you often fill up quickly, but I got here early, and I'll eat fast and leave, and I'll be SUPER nice to my servers" - I'm sure there's an onomatopeia word for the sound your mouth makes when in that expression)

She stepped aside and motioned for me to come in. I saw her cast a somewhat suspicious glance at the two women who were still waiting in the alley, and then she followed me down the stairs, shutting the door behind her.

And... that's all I'm going to say about Yu-U. Some things a lady ain't s'posed to talk about. You'll just have to find it and eat there yourself when you're in Melbourne. Or hang out with me and ask me all about it.

Flower Drum

I went back to the office feeling quite refreshed by my lunch at Yu-U. A good thing too, as that night I went to Flower Drum.

You might be thinking to yourself: not another restaurant! You just had lunch in Yu-U and now you're having dinner at another fancy place? God, how often do you eat out, Ming?

To which I'd reply, you can eat out Ming whenever you want! Ho ho ho.

No? Too racy?

Anyway. Flower Drum.

Flower Drum is the subject of much controversy in the Melbourne foodie scene. Many who have eaten there say it's all hype, just your standard whiteyfied Chinese food but 3 times the price. Others who consider themselves "in the know" call it the best Chinese food in Melbourne, fine dining at its best.

To borrow an American metaphor, it's like the high school's most popular cheerleader. Is she an energetic, witty, sensitive, loyal, all-round great person? Or is she a mean, shallow, I-don't-know-what-he-sees-in-her, I-wish-she-was-my-friend, willing tool of the establishment? The answer is: both.

Luckily we went to Flower Drum as friends of the head cheerleader. A former food columnist, long time Flower Drum patron, and truly a bon vivant (bonne vivante?), SL is my uncle's friend from college, and I wish I'd met her earlier. She was on a first name basis with the waiter and apparently has had a standing reservation there at Chinese New Year for the past ten years or so. She's been a regular for 20 years.

We didn't order off the menu (really just a decoy for non-regulars, to ensure they never return - In my imagination, whenever some NOOB orders a dish on the menu, the chef just pulls something out of the freezer and tosses it in the microwave, then returns to the real work of making dishes for the regulars, while waitstaff in the kitchen snicker knowingly).

Instead, SL and the waiter (Barney, I think) figured out what we should eat that evening in a conversation far too rapid and far too Cantonese for me to understand. I heard "kai lan" and that was about it. My cousin Justin asked if there was going to be any duck. There wasn't, but it quickly got added. A good thing too - that duck was tasty!

There's really little point in telling you what we had*, since it's likely that they change the recommended food as stuff comes in. However, I feel I must mention two dishes. This is mainly because they were the two I photographed, but also because they were especially memorable, for different reasons.

*For my own edification and to allow your imagination free reign, however, I will list minimal titles of the dishes here:
XO sauce (Dried scallops, chilli, chilli oil)
Crab Xiao Long Bao
Stir fried conch with steamed asparagus and oyster and shrimp sauce
Peking duck
Barbecued Squab with five spice salt and lime juice
Wagyu beef with kailan
Fried egg white rice
fruit platter (watermelon, mangosteen, starfruit, strange variety of persimmon)
Durian sago pudding

I Wagyu. You Wagme. We all Wag-eachother for WAGYU!

The Wagyu with Kai Lan was memorable because it was awesome. You know how seared foie gras is like meat butter? This Wagyu was like beef brie. Caramely on the outside, meltingly soft on the inside. Not an ounce of gristle to be tasted (not even a picogram of gristle, since Australia is metric). Creamy without being greasy, beefy without being gamey, rare without tasting raw. If Aristotle could have tasted this meat, he would have made it one of his virtues.

Yeah, that's right. I paid some attention in Greek Phil after all.

The other dish was a dessert:

Dessert fit for a King (of fruits)

The Durian Sago Pudding was memorable for a quite different reason.

Durian is sometimes called the "king of fruits". I've often thought that if this were true, it attained its position through bloody, vengeful drawn-out wars followed by brutal suppression of dissent.

This is because of durian's (in)famous smell. In the hot and humid weather of Singapore and Malaysia, the durian's scent makes its oppressive presence known. Like the KGB, it invades every room of the house and infiltrates every cavity of your body.

This is fine if you like the smell. As a small child, I loved it. The scent of durians on the car ride home from the stall was sweet promise of custardy delights to come. The lingering durianstickiness in the air after we'd had our fill was a reminder of its rich, honeyed, unctuous pale yellow flesh.

Then, at some point that I don't remember (before the age of 8), I developed a strong aversion to durians, and hence their smell. The merest hint of it in the living room became occasion for prompt sequestering in my room, followed by dramatic gagging noises for the benefit of anyone in my family who cared to listen. I would scream in disgust if someone breathed in my direction after eating it. I'd insist on rolling down the car windows for days after a single durian had been in the trunk (double or triple wrapped). After a durian-eating episode, I'd smell it on everything - ice, vegetables, stationery, and complain loudly whenever I did (or imagined I did). Even durian products, like durian candy or durian cake (much milder than the fruit itself) occasioned anguished howls of protest if discovered in the fridge. I was quite the durian-hating terror.

Upon leaving Singapore for the UK and then the U.S., I was relieved to find I wouldn't have to encounter durians or durian products unless I sought them out. I never did, of course.

When the dessert arrived, I could smell that familiar smell. Not wanting to be rude, I tried some. So that's why this bowl of sago was memorable - it was the first time I'd tasted anything with durian in it for at least 17 years.

And you want to know a secret?

It was okay.

A Run-In With K-Food

2006-08-02T16:35:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday my boyfriend ran the second half of the San Francisco Marathon. He did an awesome job (2:07:21), despite initially running with a pace group that ran faster than they had advertised.

My friend Susanne also ran. Her performance was doubly impressive because she single-handedly organized a fund-raising effort around her running. That is to say, she wanted to raise money for The Stop AIDS Project, and so she coordinated with them on her own so that she could get sponsors and stuff. (I think she's raised like $2000 so far, and she's still getting money from people.*) It just goes to show you that the actions of individuals can change the world.

Anyway, how does this all relate to food?... Well, after running one is supposed to eat a good deal of protein, I'm told. I guess this is because it's a good source of calories and your muscles are all in need of rebuilding and whatnot. So, post-marathon, Dave and I went for a protein-rich dinner of Korean food at Dong Baek at O'Farrell and Leavenworth.

We found the recommendation on Chowhound, and needless to say we were not let down. We ordered the kal bi and the doon tofu chi gae (Tofu soup). SOOOO GOOD! While I feel like the kal bi was quite tasty, but not overwhelmingly so, the sides it was served with were awesome. The soup, however, was just plain out-of-this-world. It was creamy silken tofu served in a exceptionally spicy beef stock with pieces of beef and whole oysters in it. The oysters were incredible, so flavorful and perfectly tender. There were also mushrooms, which, mingerspice, I will grudgingly admit that I found delicious, as well as a few other minor vegetable accents.

With the check they brought a complimentary cup of a sweet chilled ginger cinnamon drink which was tasty, despite knowing that is was mostly sugar and water.

I can't find any pictures of their food, but their VERY EXTENSIVE menu is here.

* You can still sponsor her. Go here for details.