A Week in Paradise -St. Martin

Hello again friends! It's truly horrible to be welcomed back to Chicago with piles and piles of snow but hey, c'est la vie. Actually, I couldn't have picked a better time to scoot away from Chicago to the Carribean because by the time I got back, the Arctic chill is about to end. Yippee!!!

But anyway, St. Martin, my Carribean vacation destination, was pure heaven on Earth. Beaches abound, only the most delicious, freshest foods and great great people. We stayed at the Hotel La Plantation , on the French (or northern) side of the island. It is an interesting place just because it's a mere 5X7 miles but is shared by two countries: France and the Netherlands. People cross the borders freely and the two sides have very different feels and systems. For instance, although the US$ is widely accepted the official currencies of the French and Dutch sides are the Euro and the NAf (Netherlands Antilles florins) respectively. Both sides are blessed with beautiful beaches but the French side (though generally more expensive) has many world-class restaurants while the Dutch side is more known for the good deals you can get (in stuff like liquor and jewelry). It is also surprising the while we encountered many French people, we didn't meet any Dutch person. The actual traveling part of the trip was a drag relatively because our flights to and from St. Martin were delayed for at least an hour due to some engine-related issues and other delay reasons. The flight was long enough (~5 hours) that I wished that we were in business or first class instead of coach. And I thought it was simply inhuman for the airline to NOT give us any food during the whole ordeal. If you want a snack pack (which contains a combination of the following: meagre meat-deficient sandwiches, mini-size mini goldfish crackers, mini-pack of 2 Oreos, mini-cup applesauce, etc, you get the idea!), you have to pay $5. Yessirree, $5 for a pathetic box of snacks!

Complaints aside, the actual vacation was wonderful! We spent most of our days at the beach lazing around, reading, playing in the water or eating/drinking. It was really relaxing and wonderful but towards the end, I got tired of lathering on sunscreen every other hour (hmmm, sounds so snobbish!). Our resort was located only a mere 5-minute walk from Orient Bay Beach, the beach that was voted to be the best beach in the Carribean and I must agree (though it is the only Carribean beach I've been to so my vote doesn't really matter). The sand on Orient Beach was sugary soft and warm (never hot!) and alongside the whole stretch there are many restaurants, bars and water sport rentals. Although it sounds rather commercialized, it really wasn't that bad. I wanted to try parasailing but I just didn't get around to it...


As expected, the weather was what most would consider beautiful. I grew up right on the Equator so I don't really equate a cloudless, sunny day to beautiful. But anywayz, the days were super sunny (thank God for my SPF 50 sunscreen!) and were mostly cloudless. The nights were comfortable and the sky was so clear that we could see millions and millions of stars! I don't think I've ever seen that many stars! The resort we stayed in was also very beautiful. There are about 20 individual villas that are very colorful and surrounded with lush vegetation. Our room had a huge bed with mosquito net, kitchenette and a lovely balcony. I adored the nice little balcony and we would always spend a part of our mornings reading or knitting or just hanging out there. I really liked the natural feel of our resort but it would've been slightly nicer if the vegetation was slightly trimmed so we have an even better view of the ocean.



We only woke up super early one day (the last day) and I managed to pry my eyes open enough to snap a heavenly vision of the sunrise from our balcony.


Sights aside, the food we ate during the whole trip was really good! The worst meal we had on the island was way better than the worst meal I've had in Chicago. We wanted to take advantage of the fact the we were in the Carribean and thus, ordered a ton of seafood. In retrospect, we should've had a more balanced diet that includes fiber and minerals and stuff but whateva! We were on vacation and I made sure that we had a multivitamin every day. The best meal I had on the island was our Valentine's Day dinner. Thanks to friends at the internet food forum I frequent, I chose La California at Grand Case (a town on the French side). The town is essentially a row of restaurants along the sea. Someone on the food forum really enjoyed their pizzas and the breathtaking view. And breathtaking it was!



We were lucky enough to catch the beautiful sunset over a chilled pina colada and a strong martini.


Instead of their pizzas (which looked good too), we went with the specials: shrimp salad with smoked salmon and grilled lobster and vegetables. They were both out-of-this-world delicious! The combination of shrimp, smoked salmon, boiled eggs and greens were just so refreshing and yummy. The grilled lobster was simple but very good. It was served along with three sauces: cocktail, garlic butter and Creole. We didn't touch the cocktail sauce at all (I mean, really, cocktail sauce on lobster?!?!?) and our absolute favorite was the garlic butter. For whatever deluded reason that I can't remember, we didn't order dessert there but the dinner at La California was the best meal we had in St. Martin!


Another meal (it's more a snack, really) we thoroughly enjoyed was at L'Escargot, a cute almost chintzy restaurant at Philipsburg, which is on the Dutch side of the island. Upon entry, one can see the various mementos that decorate the restaurant, on shelves, tacked on walls and even the ceiling. Unfortunately, we weren't hungry enough for a full-blown lunch and decided to sit at the bar for a drink. We had the pina colada and their special, guavaberry daiquiri and both were very tasty and cooled us down considerably after our long walk.


My travelling companion was hungry enough for a snack and ordered the restaurant's special, escargots (duh!). We had half a dozen escargots in garlic butter with some French bread. The escargots were tender and scrumptious! They were super garlicky (which I totally love!) and were perfect to munch on a slice of fresh Franch bread. Of course, it doesn't hurt that it they were also bathed in butter!



Another remarkable meal we had was at Claude Mini Club in Marigot, the French side's capital. Marigot is a cute town that is known for its marketplace, that sells the usual chintzy souvenirs but also has gems like local fruits and vegetables and crafts. I bought a rather large bottle of vanilla extract and a dozen vanilla beans for only $20! I can't wait to bake with them! Ok, back to Claude Mini Club. We went to Claude Mini Club almost by chance or luck, if you will. We actually had sat down in another restaurant that was nearer the heart of the town (I think it was Cafe de la Mar or something along that line) but no one approached us at all even after 15 minutes of sitting around. So we decided to take our business to Claude Mini Club, which was just a 5-minute walk south, where we were seated immediately.

Claude Mini Club has a unique decor and has a seaside treehouse ambience. The two palm trees growing right through the two storeys of the restaurant and through the roof helps with that. For our lunch, we ordered a set lunch menu and a daily special, starting with their divine fish soup that was served with toast, a special sauce and shredded cheese. The soup was tasty and the crunchy toast with sauce and cheese was a great accompaniment to it.


As part of the lunch set menu was the fish. We selected red snapper with Creole seasoning and two sauces: Creole and garlic butter. The fish was tender, flaky and well-seasoned. The daily special was a combination of cold lamb and beef with a light salad. It was succulent and deliciously meaty (duh?).


However delicious the soup and entrees were, the dessert was the absolute highlight. We ordered one dessert each: the lime cake with sorbet and creme brulee. I know it's very decadent for lunch but we were on vacation after all! The lime cake was very yummy. It has a few different layers of cake and/or lime-flavored pastry cream. It was topped with a very refreshing lime sorbet (you can easily discern the chunks of lime zest!) and together, it was very good (I'm running out of decent descriptive words for food. Sad). The combination of the cold, creamy sorbet with a moist lime cake was perfect on a hot Carribean day.


The creme brulee was also out-of-this-world good! It was one of the best creme brulees I've ever had. The custard part was smooth and creamy; the bruleed sugar was of the perfect thickness and cracks like the way creme brulees should when I dove into it.


That's it for the highlight of my week in paradise. It was a much-needed break from reality but at the same time, it feels good to be back around familliar people and surroundings. I really enjoyed exploring around and lazing around in St. Martin but there's really no place like home. One interesting thing that happened was that one day when we were out scouting out restaurants for dinner, there was a blackout in the Orient Bay area, which I'm pretty sure affected the whole island too. We were stuck waiting around for the electricity to come back on at a snack bar kind of place and at the adjacent table were a group of local Frenchmen who just continued to hang out and smoke and drink like it's nothing out of the ordinary.


Another thing I found interesting (but rather sad, in a way) is that St. Martin has so many stray dogs! Surprisingly, they were all very tame and well-behaved. On the beach, they would seek out shade and then nap. Other times, the bolder ones would approach humans for scraps of food. They were all surprisingly clean-looking for strays and were very cute. There was even a golden retriever stray dog! Can you believe that such a prized and expensive dog is a stray in St. Martin? Well anyway, so I thought that was mildly sad but at the same time, I think it's a little better to be a stray dog in a warm climate than say, Chicago, where winters are cruel! Below is a picture of the cutest one I encountered who came to our breakfast table one fine day and accompanied us through the morning. I gave him a bacon scrap, which he thoroughly enjoyed, but forgot me afterwards (haha!).


I sure will miss being able to knit in paraside without the threat of a snowstorm but then again, who wants to cook/bake in the hot kitchen? Thank God for Chicago!

Oh, the weather outside is frightful!

It has been so cold and windy outside that I minimize my time outdoors. I had to come to work this past weekend and I was skeptical of the regularity of the weekend bus service so I decided to walk to campus. Was that a big mistake! The walk is usually pleasant and takes about 15-20 minutes. By the time I reached campus, my thighs were frozen and when I entered the building, they were so cold that it felt like they were burning! I'm guessing that was frostbite? It happened to me a few times because I was too stubborn to cancel a sushi date with a friend (yes! My sushi buddy's finally baaack! Yippee!).

With cold weather, along comes hot foods (and drinks too!). I decided to mull some wine this past weekend with some mulling spice that I bought at Williams & Sonoma. They were on sale ($2.99 for a whole box!) and I couldn't resist. I've also been wanting to try mulling some wine! On Saturday, after my sushi date, I stopped by at Trader Joe's and bought a bottle of their two-buck-chuck Syrah and mulled that. Talk about Trader Joe's, I love love love them! But that's another topic altogether. Next post, maybe. Anyway, mulling wine is very simple yet subtle. The only ingredients required are wine, some sugar and the mullling spices, so in that sense, it is very simple. The mulling spices include cinnamon, allspice, cloves, etc.



Now, the subtlety comes from how you mull it. I've read that you absolutely CANNOT boil it, you're supposed to simmer it gently for about half an hour. Otherwise, it'll turn out mucky and taste like crap. I followed the directions and even stood by the stove most of the time to ensure that it is simmering, not boiling. However, I got distracted by an urgent phone call and let the wine boil for maybe less than a minute! Fortunately, it turned out ok. I served it warm with a cinnamon stick as garnish and added flavor. It was a delicious winter drink but unfortunately, didn't taste so good when it has cooled. So if you do mull wine, try to finish it before it cools down. On the can of the mulling spice, it says that the mulled wine/cider can also be served when it's cool but I'm just guessing it's not to my taste.

Another thing I've been quite enamored with is a new brand of breakfast cookies that I recently discovered on Amazon.com. I've enjoyed Quaker's breakfast cookies that come in oatmeal raisin and apple cinnamon flavors but this new brand I found is way, way better! I encountered it on Amazon while I was browsing around and chanced upon Baker's Breakfast cookies. I read the reviews and found that overall, people really enjoyed the taste of these cookies in spite of the fact that they're really healthy. How healthy? Think 6g of fiber, 6g of protein, 0 trans fat and 0 cholesterol for under 300 calories! I was still skeptical but ordered some anyway. I chose the double chocolate chunk cookies and unfortunately (an fortunately) Amazon only sells them in packs of 24. Unfortunate because I wasn't sure that I was going to like them and fortunate because it turns out that I love them!

I love them because they're not only good for you, they are actually very tasty. The texture of the cookie is very soft and chewy so I guess this won't be for you if you like your cookies crisp and snappy. It is also very very chocolatey and I love biting into one of the rich chocolate chunks. It is also very filling and satisfying with the ample protein and fiber in it! They're perfect for on-the-go breakfast and snacks. Thesedays, I've been one almost every day (as part of a balanced food plan, of course) with a mug of freshly brewed piping hot Harrod's Earl Grey or delicate green tea. It's just so comforting to savor a delicious cakey cookie with a warm caffeinated drink. They'd probably be delicious with some strong coffee too. I can't wait to try out the other flavors, in particular peanut butter because I'm crazy about all things nuts! Haha~



I was rather adventurous last week and decided to try making chocolate souffle (yes, that intimidating dish that puffs up in the oven like nobody's business). It wasn't as intimidating as I thought, only rather detailed. I found that you absolutely have to butter the souffle dish thoroughly and then sprinkle sugar in it thoroughly too. And then, before sliding the souffle into the oven, you have to slide a finger between the souffle and the dish and go around so that the souffle can rise maximally. I only dipped a finger halfway down the dish on the side (should've been all the way down so it touches the bottom) and my souffle didn't rise as magnificently as I believe it could have. However, it was still awesome tasting. It wasn't too sweet and the texture was very dream-like: light, fluffy yet moist and smooth. With a scoop of vanilla ice cream, it was the perfect dessert: a mix of cold and warmth. The only disappointing thing is that the souffle almost immediately shrunk when I pulled it out of the oven because of the cold temperature in my apartment (yes! It was THAT cold!).
This pleasant souffle experience has inspired to make a cheese version with Gruyere and Ementaler some time in the near future. How exciting!

I've also been more motivated to knit recently not only because it's just so comforting to feel the soft yarn in my hands when it's cold, also because I've been trying to minimize my trash TV time on weekdays. I'm trying to limit myself to one hour of television per day; however, I'm still watching a crapload of TV during weekends though. Anywayz, I've been learning two techniques: multi-color knitting (also known as intarsia) and cables. I know how to knit multiple colors in rows, but I've been interested in acquiring the skills on how to knit patterns with many colors, not just rows. The first swatch (or knitting sample), I did with some scrap leftover yarn from my legwarmer project and I decided to do a heart pattern. It was a little bit complicated with the sparse description in my Stitch'n'Bitch book but I managed to do it! It looks so cute and awesome from the front but is rather messy in the back due to the need to twist the yarns and start new colors often. I thought that it's sooo cute that I decided to make a coaster out of it. So I made another one just like it and seamed them back-to-back together. It turned out to be a bit on the chunky side but it's a good coaster!

I'm so inspired that I plotted out a star knitting chart and I'm going to knit another coaster with the star pattern with my scrap yarn! I've also mastered the fine (and deceptively easy) art of knitting cables. Cables are those snaky patterns that twirl back and forth, very popular on sweaters. This time around, the Stitch'n'Bitch book was very very helpful because not only are there step-by-step illustrations, there are also step-by-step written instructions, making it very idiot-proof for people like me. check it out!

That'll be it for the next week or so because I'm going to St. Martin for a 8 days starting next week! Yes! Can you believe my luck? I'm going to be basking in the Carribean sun, lathered with an SPF 50 lotion, reading trashy, easy chick lit novels while sipping on a ice cold alcoholic beverage with a teeny weeny paper umbrella. Fortunately, St. Martin is also known as one of the best culinary destinations in the Carribean! I'm sooo loooking forward to fresh seafood and innovative food, which I'll update you with when I come back (... if I come back, hah!).

What dessert are you?

You Are Cheesecake

Rich, sweet, and simply perfect. You're not boring - you're just the best!

What Dessert Are You Most Like?

(Long) Ramblings about food memories...

I'm currently reading "A Cook's Tour" by Les Halles executive chef (or more commonly known as bad boy chef), Anthony Bourdain and it's a really funny anthology of his travel stories while he was filming his Food Network Program of the same name. In the book and TV series, he travels all over the world in search of the perfect meal. I haven't finished the book yet but a few lines in the first few chapters tell me that he will not find his best meal anywhere in the world except home. Kinda cheesy I know, but don't you think it's true?

Ask anyone what his/her best food memory is, and most of the time, they won't tell you about the time they dined at a 5-star, molecular gastronomy restaurant that you have to get all starched up and dressed up for. My best (and warmest) food memories are simple yet so potent that I still remember them as if they just happened yesterday. They are also associated with family, childhood, friends and home. I think my numero uno food memory is my grandmother's home-made lychee agar (or what Americans know as jello) that's studded with real, plump lychees.

As a kid, I used to hang out at my maternal grandparents' house a lot because they lived right across the street from us. I would be part of a huge battalion consisting of my cousins because most of us lived within a 4 block radius from each other. I guess we were one of those families that can be considered to be "clannish", which is not necessarily a bad thing. My parents still live pretty near their siblings and see them practically every day because they work together at the business that my grandpa established. My cousins and I used to go swimming at my grandparent's huge pool and refuse to get out of the water until our nanny threatened to throw a snail into the pool. Once we have been coaxed or coerced out of the pool, we would stampede into the dining room, bundled up in towels, still dripping with chlorinated water, all famished and our "po-po" (Chinese for grandmother) would have a feast of goodies ready for us. My favorite goodie that she always made was the lychee agar. She always made them in special, pretty cupcake-sized plastic molds that has many patterns and in each precious agar was one (or two!) plump lychees suspended in the middle. Unlike American jello, agar is firmer and has more "bite" to it. It also requires more effort and time to make. Like millions of doting grandmas worldwide, she spoiled us rotten by letting us eat however much snacks we wanted! Recently, many relatives have been remarking on how similar my looks and mannerisms are to po-po's. I can only hope I've also inherited her patience, love and skills in the kitchen :)

I also remember our family delicious celebrations during Chinese New Year, piled high with succulent noodles (a Chinese symbol for longevity), freshly cooked meat dumplings (associated with wealth/prosperity) and tangerines (for luck). My parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, sister and I would be all clothed in our brand new garb and proceeded to assemble at my maternal grandparents house for a day of cooking, eating, playing, chatting and drunken silliness (for the adults). It's also a total bonus that I would get red packets filled with some money from all the adults, which is an awesome Chinese tradition! Haha. And of course, there are the tables brimming with piping hot Chinese-Indonesian dishes, including nasi goreng (fried rice), lightly steamed fish and heart-warming soups.

One Chinese New Year when I was only 6 or 7, I wanted to organize a gift exchange among everyone and I lugged along a big box of my most precious stuff to the grandparents'. The box contained my Lucky Luke comics, random dolls that my father "caught" in one of those cheesy arcade machines and various video tapes of Hong Kong cartoons. Of course, silly me failed miserably because no one else brought anything for me (after all, it's supposed to be a gift EXCHANGE). But fortunately, that meant I could keep all the kiddy stuff I brought.

Besides humongous family gatherings, I loved to shop with my mom at the markets in Central Jakarta (now known as Chinatown) on Sunday mornings. Usually, after the morning cartoons and pastries purchased the night before, my mom and I would make our way to the markets, just the two of us (my sister would eventually join in the revelry after she was old enough). My mom was and still is a prolific barterer. At every fruit/vegetable/meat/fish stand, she would argue and pick and flirt and reason her way to get groceries for ridiculously cheap prices. I remember walking around the stalls admiring the brilliant colors and distinct scents of piles after piles of fruit. Occasionally, one of the workers there would generously bribe me with a slice of mandarin orange or a succulent lychee so that I would ask my mom to buy me a bunch of it to eat at home.
Tagging along with my mom to the market also meant going to this particular knick-knack shop I absolutely loved as a kid. The store was called "Gloria" (I think) and they'd offer cute little pencil cases, pretty sticker books and other things that only a child would cherish.

Trips to the market would also involve eating in Chinatown and my two favorite places are the Appolo Hainanese Chicken rice shop and the Jangkung fried kway tiaow stand. The Appolo chicken rice shop was my favorite restaurant ever and I particularly adored their perfectly cooked rice. The rice is special because it is not cooked in plain water but chicken stock. As with many places in Indonesia, everything is made from scratch. No canned or boxed chicken stock here! And the Hainanese-style chicken would be steamed so perfectly that the shredded chicken pieces that had been sprinkled with some sesame oil melted in my mouth. The shop itself was very bare and the decor consisted of only calendars that they probably got free of charge but it was just so cool!

The Jangkung fried kway tiaow stand had even less frills. The kitchen was an outdoor, open one what consisted of a hot gas flame with a tap somewhere and the only kitchen utensils used were the giant wok and metal spatula for frying the kway tiaow. The eating area was cramp but was always filled to the max. There was also only one cook who's nicknamed "Jangkung" which means skinny because he's as thin as a bean. He would skilfully fry up the glistening flat rice noodles with bean sprouts, chicken and shredded vegetables wearing only a white wife-beater top and cotton pants. Not very sanitary I know but he made the best kway tiaow in the whole city! And man! When you're waiting for your order to be cooked, the seductive smell of the kway tiaow being fried is enough to make you hungry! Jangkung has died since then from a heart attack (maybe he ate too much of his own product) and my parents have yet to find another kway tiaow shop that even comes close to his.

I suppose in the end, it doesn't matter what I ate as the perfect meal. Along with these saliva-inducing memories, there has always been my family who actually made them. If it weren't for the rowdy company of my parents, relatives and sister (or the quiet dignity of my po-po), I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much.

A Wonderfuly Costco weekend!

I luuurve Costco! I'm a huge sucker for cheap stuff and good deals and that's why I love Costco! For the benefit of those who have been living in a cave for the last decade or so (though, if one has been living in a cave, I suppose internet access isn't likely), Costco is an American-based warehouse supermarket for the members. The basic membership costs a little more than $30 a year and membership benefits include purchasing groceries in insanely huuuge quantities for very cheap. I had not shopped for groceries in more than 2 weeks so this Costco trip was waaay overdue. Can you believe I spent over $200? I can't either. But anyway, we did get a lot of stuff (including liquor) so it wasn't too bad.

The highlight of my splurge was the frozen Maryland crabcakes. For the past few months, I have been having a seafood withdrawal symptoms due to the shortage of good, fresh seafood in my diet! Living in the Midwest, it's quite a challenge to get reasonably-priced fresh seafood. Recently, I have been craving for crab in particular. I think those scintillating Ruby Tuesday commercials featuring the new crab cake appetizer dish helps to fire a lot of the seafood withdrawal neurons in my brain. Being the suckah that I am, I did go to Ruby Tuesday (RT) and tried their crabcake. It was quite tasty but at $9 per pop (only one pathetic crabcake per order), it was a bit too rich for my blood. The RT crabcake was a little overcooked (charred) but there were quite sizeable crab meat chunks visible. It was served with a spicy mayo sauce and a mini baby green salad.

Since then, I've just been wanting to eat some seafood all the time. It doesn't help that my one and only sushi-eating friend was out of town for a whole month! Solution: Costco crabcakes. We immediately made some as soon as we got home. There were a few ways to heat them up: (1) microwave, ech(!), (2) pan-fry, or (3) bake and then broil. I chose the third option because I was a bit occupied (which I will get to later) and so, couldn't labor over my pwetty crabcakes the whole time. The turned out beautiful and delicious! I had mine with some Indonesian Cap Jempol chili sauce and it was perfect!



As you can see for yourself, the crabcakes didn't have gigantic chunks of meat (which I would've preferred) but it was very well-seasoned and is really, really good considering they ARE frozen! I mean, really, us beggars in the Midwest cannot be choosers. Fortunately, I bought two boxes of these yummy crabcakes at Costco. It'll have to last me until I visit a place with access to the sea.

Besides a whole lot of frozen seafood and unhealthy stuff, I managed to squeeze in a lot of wonderful fresh fruit. I bought a whole pound of Chilean-imported blueberries. Not only are they nice and plump, they pop and ooze fresh, sweet yet tart goodness when you bite into them. I especially luuurve a handful of blueberries with my morning cereal. Also, I can just eat blueberries naked, all them themselves. Now, THAT is perfection.


However, I have also been in the mood to bake muffins. There's nothing better than a warm blueberry muffin with a cup of hot tea on a cold winter day while you're knitting or reading or just watching TV. But, I restrained myself from degrading my fresh blueberries and made oatmeal cookies with dried fruit instead. It was horribly cold yesterday and the the wind never stopped blowing! I flipped open one of my favorite cookbooks, The Best Light Recipe, and used the oatmeal cookie recipe. Before adding the raisins, I halved the dough into two portions. Into one, I added the classic, traditional raisins. To the other batch, I added some dried cranberries and white chocolate chunks.

BEFORE


AFTER


The cookies turned out delicious and were crisp on the outside while it was chewy in the middle. Now that they have been sitting around for a day in the tupperware, they have crisped up more. I personally like chewy cookies so I probably should've underbaked them even more but the flavor is good. The oatmeal raisin cookies are simple and you can't go wrong with them. The oatmeal white chocolate cranberry cookies were quite exciting to me. It has a refreshing combination of sweetness and tartness that I really enjoy. I gave some to my colleagues and they remarked how they couldn't believe the cookies were "light" and that's pretty cool. So far, the light recipe cookbook hasn't disappointed. Even though all the recipes call for lower-fat or lighter substitutes, the flavor and taste is never compromised.

Another thing I tried out this weekend (I sure did a lot of stuff, huh?) was to make mochi. Not really "make" because I just basically heated one dried mochi in the toaster oven. It was pretty cool because the mochi transformed from this flat disc to a puffed-up ball of chewy goodness. I had it with some soy sauce and sugar, but it wasn't as delicious as some other mochi I had with peanuts and sugar. Hmmm... I think I need to get a pack of kinako (soybean powder) that the Japanese traditionally sprinkle on mochi.



Ok, one last thing I did (the activity that kept me from pan-frying my crabcakes) was I (FINALLY!) finished my second knit bag, lining and all! If you remember, a while ago, I made a knit bag for my sister. Since I had so much leftover yarn, I decided to make another one for myself. The second bag is considerably bigger and the main difference is the lining. Instead of a pretty, flowery pink lining, I chose a green tea-ish shade of cotton that matches the green color of the yarn. It turned out pretty awesome and I'm so glad I finally finished this project. And hey, it doesn't hurt that I can use the bag and show my creation off the world. Yippee!

New Year, New Adventures

Man! Has it been forever since I last posted! It sure has been a pretty hectic new year indeed. I now have a new part-time job in another lab that works with human subjects. So now, instead of just tinkering cells in petri dishes and mice, I mess around with people. Haha! So far it's not too bad. I wanted a part-time job for 2 main reasons: (1) the extra money (d'oh!) and (2) the experience doing "clinical" or translational research might just benefit me in the future if I decide to continue a research career. So anyhoo, that's it with the boring stuff!

It was the boyf's birthday in January and I baked a birthday cake of course! It's a basic yellow butter cake recipe with chocolate frosting. I cheated with the cake, I used boxed Duncan Hines mix (hey! It was only 99 cents a box! I couldn't resist cheap, easy stuff), but I made the frosting from scratch with my new pwecious Kitchenaid stand mixer (it worked soooo well!). The cake turned out fragrant, moist and delicious. The frosting was good on the day I made it but somehow the taste deteriorated as the days passed (we couldn't in good sense finish the cake in a day!). Part of the reason might have been the fact that I used Dutch-processed cocoa instead of plain cocoa. Maybe I just didn't use enough butter! Anywayz, it looked pretty good, right?



Besides the cake, I was also inspired to make beef stew last week. The cold, blustery weather outside made a perfect accompaniment for a comforting stew dinner. The recipe was very simple and consisted of the standards: meat, potatoes, celery and carrots. It turned out delicious and was awesome for dunking sliced, toasted Italian bread! What made it really special was the tomato sauce that was added in the stew, making it tastier and appear redder than normal stews.


Talk about red, did you know that Florida now grows strawberries? I know that California has always grown strawberries all year round but Florida?!?! The strawberries below were grown in Florida and they're pretty juicy and yummy. The boyf and I have been having a pound of strawberries per day because I bought about 4 or 5 boxes of them when they were on sale at our local grocery store. So, I've been stuffing them down our throats so we'll have finished them before they go bad. I mean, really! There are worse things to stuff down your throat!


The highlight of my week is tasting wagashi, a traditional Japanese sweet, that my sister's boyfriend brought back from Japan for me (Arigato gozaimashta, Motoi-san!). I was just browsing on Amazon.com and encountered wagashi in their grocery section. Many reviewers really liked it and that got me really curious. Having done some research on Wikipedia and Google, I found out that it is a category of Japanese sweets that are traditionally served in the Japanese tea ceremony. They're usually made of rice flour and red bean (anko). Although I'm a big chocolate and ice cream fan, I also like subtler desserts that are not as sweet or overpowering. My kind sister e-mailed his boyf about it and he brought back a box of them! Joy! Check it out! Isn't the packaging simply adorable?


This kimono-clad cartoon girl is soo cuuute and the drawing of the wagashi is pretty accurate!


So anyway, I had these triangular goodies with green tea and it was perfect. Lightly sweet, delicate, chewy and oh-so Japanese! It would have been good with other light teas too, eg. ginger, herbal, etc. There are two different flavors. The first is black bean, which tastes very similar to red bean (or azuki) but is slightly stronger. I don't know what the second kind is but I'm guessing something along the line of persimmon. Both are tasty but I prefer the black bean one just because I know what it is and less bland. If you look at the pictures below, the one I suspect to be persimmon appears to have a less amount of stuffing.







That's all the new adventures so far this year but 2007 sure looks like it promises way more to come! Ciao!

Chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate!

I had a blast in SF hanging out with the cousins and trying out the SF food scene. What I didn't realize was what a big chocolate city San Fran is. I mean, SF really likes its chocolates! Everywhere we went, there would be specialty/artisan chocolates sold in all sorts of stores. I suppose I should've expected it because after all, Ghirardelli started in SF!

There was a chocolate store we chanced upon in the North Beach (or Little Italy) neighbourhood that offers a huge variety of chocolates, most of them made in California. I have been a bit of a chocolate junkie, like my mother, and I have been getting into dark chocolate. I find its complexity and mouth feel to be very rich and enjoyable. Hey, I like the occasional Hershey too but recently I've been finding milk (or even semisweet) chocolate to be a tad cloying on the tongue. I've also been inspired by a recent posting on a Chicago-based food forum that I belong to about a chocolate tasting party. Wouldn't that just be perfect for the holidays? Hmmm... I might cross that with a knitting session too! Hooray! So, anywayz, I bought a lot of chocolate in SF and they're all pretty good. The shop we encountered is "Z. Cioccolato", very Italian-ish, since it's in SF's Little Italy.


One of the chocolate bars I purchased there was a dark chocolate bar made in Boulder, Colorado for about $3.50. It contains 70% cocoa and tastes just heavenly! Unlike many other dark chocolate bars, this is smooth, creamy and rich without the slightly waxy mouth feel. The bar is not too thick and not too thin and has a nice surface area exposed for optimal tasting! There's also a love poem (awww!) in the inner side of the wrapper (which I haven't bothered reading ... yet). It would make the perfect gift for your sweetheart! Besides 70% cocoa bar, the same company also makes chocolates with other exotic flavors. They offer various cocoa percentages of dark chocolate bar in addition to raspberry-filled, espresso-infused and orange-flavored chocolate bars.

Also, at 160 calories for a third of the sizeable bar, it is a pretty good dessert or snack! Check out the other flavors they have and if you're interested, go to www.chocolove.com. They're available in select grocery stores but I found none in the Midwest. Sigh~


The other chocolate bar I got at the chocolate boutique is this 65% bittersweet chocolate by Charles Chocolates. I was too blinded by the prospect of hazelnuts in this dark chocolate and didn't realize that it also contains candied orange peels until I was about to open it and have some a few days ago. Part of the reason that I bought it was it's made in California. I mean, really, when in California, buy Californian stuff to bring home! However, this chocolate was a bit of a disappointment because to me, it doesn't have enough hazelnut flavor and the orange peel taste is too strong for me. The chocolate bar is also pretty thick (I like my chocolates thinner). Overall, it's not too bad but I wouldn't get this again. I would try the other bars this company makes but this wasn't really worth the $3.99 I paid. You can find the rest of the collection at www.charleschocolates.com.


I'm so happy that we had the chance to go to Little Osaka (SF's Japantown) for dinner and that we stopped by one of the grocery stores there! I luuurve grocery stores and I like to just even walk around and see what's available although I might not buy anything. Naturally, this grocery store has so many more Japanese products than the one I go to in Chicago. I was so excited at the sight of new, cute Japanese snacks I've never seen before that I just had to have a picture!


Okay, back to business! And of course, I bought a couple of snacks to tide myself over on the plane ride home and for times when I need some Jap goodness back home *sniff* *sniff* The first item I got was this box of milk chocolate bars called "Ghana". It's pretty dang good for milk chocolate and it has portion-controlled packaging for snacking at work. I had the impression that it was dark chocolate (which is why I bought it) but I think I was just too excited at the sight of so much Japanese snacks that I didn't read the box too carefully. But that's cool because this is one of the darkest-tasting milk chocolate I've had. Yay! I'm guessing that by naming it Ghana, the company's trying to tell us that the cacao beans they use to make it is from Ghana? Hmm, I need to learn Japanese!


Another Japanese chocolate snack I got was a box of "Meltyblend", which is basically individually-wrapped square truffle-like chocolate bites that has a strawberry-flavored center. The chocolate coating is very delicious and dark-tasting, and the individual wrapping is, again, a great portion control.


My favorite Jap snack from SF are these green tea wafer-ish cookies that has a light green tea mousse sandwiched between a thin shortbread-y cookie and a thin wafer-like cracker. It is not too sweet and you know me, I luuurve green tea!


Another huuuge favorite are these black sesame Pockys! The sesame flavor is delicious but I wish it was stronger and more potent, but that's just the sesame but in me talking.


And now, for the worst Jap snack ever, is this green tea-flavored protein-y energy bar. I thought it looked interesting and I checked out the nutrition info and it sounded really good. Since it's green tea-flavored, I thought I'd give it a shot. What could be better than a green tea power bar? ... A lot, apparently! The bars are shaped like shortbread but it does NOT taste or feel like shortbread AT ALL! It was brittle and dry and tasted like cardboard. I could make out some green tea essence but it was mild and it was just not delicious. Although I'm not one to waste food or money, I threw the whole box out after one bite. Fortunately, I only got one!


I bought a bar of the new 72% cacao bar from a Ghirardelli boutique. They had a special promotion and since my cousins and I combined our purchase, we got two additional 72% free of charge (score!). Overall, I liked the taste, it sure was intensely dark, though still not as intense as the 70% Chocolove bar above. I also liked that the bar is thin and this exposes more chocolate surface area for my tongue. However, it is a little ... what's the word ... kinda, waxy, I guess. It's not as smooth as some of the other dark chocolates I tried. At $3.50 for a big bar, it's not too bad. I'll definitely be getting more of those if they're not too expensive. Well, that's all for m forays into the rich, dark world of chocolate in SF! Have a great weekend!