McDonald's

Shocked?! I haven't eaten at McDonald's in years! But today I had a strange craving for a fish sandwich. I figured it'd be $2 even if it weren't on the dollar menu. Imagine my horror when my bill was $2.80!


Indignation at being ripped off aside, this was one of the best fish sandwiches I can remember. They must have just heated it up, because the bread was soft and the fish was crunchy around the outside and--dare I say--moist and piping hot on the inside. There was also the perfect amount of tartar sauce.

I guess I'm being contrary by saying it was overpriced and then saying it was a very respectably made fish sandwich, but really. $3? I can buy enough sauce and pasta at Trader Joe's to feed four people for that amount of money. The sandwich was tiny. I finished it in five bites.

Photo Catch Up

I have no big food plans today, after two straight days of cake and such. But I do have a few random photos to share.

Kimchi chigae (stew) was dinner for the last two nights. Like any stew, anything goes. This time I used:

• one can of chicken stock
• two can's worth of water
• a huge dollop of Korean chili paste (basically as much as I could pick up with a metal soup spoon--maybe 1/8th cup?)
• three dried chilis
• a teaspoon of Hondashi (dried bonito fish powder)
• three or four cups of sliced napa kimchi
• sliced up Korean rice cake (dukk). It's optional but I love them and they're pretty
• two ears of corn
• a handful of raw sliced pork
• one package of silken tofu, cut into six large pieces
• and a handful of baby octopi

Soak dukk in warm/hot water for twenty minutes or more. Put all ingredients up to and including the kimchi in a pot. Add more water if it doesn't look soupy enough. Bring to a boil, and add the dukk and simmer for 10 minutes, longer if you have bigger pieces. Add the corn and cook for 5 minutes. Add the pork, octopi and tofu, and cook 5 more minutes or until cooked through. You can always add more vegetables, like spinach or bean sprouts.

The red velvet cake from Doughboy's is everything is should be: so moist it's practically wet, searingly red, with a very soft and smooth cream cheese frosting that packs quite a tang.

The bread pudding was good, but not my ideal for bread pudding. I prefer bread pudding that's not homogenous like this one is. I like some of it to look like this (soaked bread) but for there to be chunks of pure custard, like my bread pudding gold standard at Tartine in San Francisco. The bottom half of Doughboy's bread pudding was a little more custardy than the top half, so I liked that part best. I'm being picky though--Doughboy's desserts are pretty awesome.

Thank you Susan for suggesting Doughboy's! I would never be in that area if you hadn't mentioned it, but since I went there I realized it's a really cute area. Plus, there's a good (and not overpriced) yarn store two doors down from the restaurant! Yay!

Doughboy's

I never thought I'd find a place so affordable yet tasty in Beverly Hills.

Doughboy's is famous for their red velvet cake (far left). At $5.50 a pop, their cakes are really big for the price. I think they save on labor because the cakes are not preciously decorated, but I like down home desserts more than overly fancy ones anyway.

I sat at the bar so I could stare at the baked goods. Look at all the choices, and how enormous they are! I wish I'd put up a hand for scale, because those coconut macaroon cookies were easily as big as an open hand. The biscotti are a foot long, and the lemon bars are about four square inches.

Just like everything else in the restaurant, my french onion soup came in an enormous crock. I think there was about a quart of soup in it, plus half a baguette. I ate less than half and was stuffed. The cheese was so stringy that I actually had a really hard time getting it to break so i could eat it. Which, of course, means I loved it. Most of Doughboy's entrees are under $10, and all the choices sound really good. Creamy polenta and muesli were on the breakfast menu, an assortment of pancakes and waffles in the griddle menu, mufalettas and other kinds of sandwiches, grilled cheese and tomato soup combos, meatloaf sandwiches, and a list of about 7 kinds of chilis and soups. The guy next to me had a bowl of chili the size of a pho bowl. Two people could share an entree and a dessert, get a couple drinks, and get out of the restaurant for under $20 total. Incredible. Just incredible.

A Few "Meh" Meals

Yesterday's food adventures were a parade of mediocrity.

So pretty, right? Delice Bakery is listed as one of the top 10 bakeries in Los Angeles on a lot of web sites, so when I happend to drive past it I stopped in for some treats. I ate a mini chocolate croissant in the car, so it's not pictured here. That croissant was AMAZING. Light, flakey, buttery, with just enough chocolate melted just enough to be soft but not drippy.

The Monte Blanc, which the clerk told me was the most popular choice for wedding cakes, wasn't even cake! It was an overly sweet layering of white chocolate mousse (ick) and milk chocolate mousse (which they dared to call dark chocolate mousse). The layers were separated by almond cookie crumbles drenched in sugar water, and the curls on top were super hard. Totally disappointing. Then, the apple tart was mushy, not very flavorful, slightly burnt even for someone who loves burnt caramel, with a soggy crust. Ick. Compared to the $1 mini croissant, these two $5 treats were an utter disappointment.

Lee's Family Restaurant in Koreatown was okay, but not stellar. It's cheap ($6 or $7) for cold noodles in spicy sauce. I chose arrowroot noodles. It's just another one of the hundreds of restaurants in Koreatown. The food's fine, the wait's short, the prices are good, but there's no reason to travel for Lee's.

Waka Waka Wakasan!

I think we have a new favorite in West LA! In addition to a great meal for under $40, we spotted Harrison Ford spending an intimate night out alone on the town with Calista Flockhart! Yes, my first star sighting was a double.


The server is telling J that we're going to have a 20 minute wait. Sigh. Look at my hat! Also, at Wakasan you don't order. You just sit down and wait for food to come.

First course: blanched baby bok choi marinated in bonito stock and topped with bonito flakes. This was surprisingly flavorful for something that looked so plain.

Second course: marinated root vegetables and clear noodles (we think).

Third course (from left): halibut, tuna, and amberjack sashimi. The fish quality was very good, probably the best I've had in LA proper so far.

Tempura fried fish cakes. We all wish they hadn't served them floating in the dipping sauce because it made them soggy, but otherwise they were good.

Egg custard mixed with seaweed.

Grilled and then marinated pomfret with onions. I could have used some rice with this, as it was both salty and vinegary.

Grilled miso salmon with a miniature gourd. The gourd tasted like a giant caperberry, and the salmon came just as we were wishing for some more hot food after several cold dishes in a row.

Oden (Japanese stew) with fishcake with chestnuts, poached chicken, and daikon. Not to brag, but I think my oden is better. I probably use more sake than they do.

Soft tofu with salmon roe. The tofu was silky and clean tasting, but the real surprise was the giant salmon roe. If you look closely you can see they have a darker orange center. They were very fresh and popped in my mouth. Towards the end I couldn't eat any more because they gave so much per bowl that it was too much saltiness for me. I'm not complaining--better too much than too little!

I forgot a photo along the way. Each person was given FOUR deep fried whole shrimp! They weren't the best fried shrimp ever, but it was perfectly acceptable and a huge portion.

Egg custard (chawan mushi). Perfectly smooth, piping hot, and full of goodies on the bottom like shrimp, mushroom, fish cake, etc. A great hot dish to end the meal.

The final dish was plum ice cream with crunchy bits of sweet candied plums throughout. We joked that it was so good even Calista was seen scarfing it down.

Total damage per person was $35 after tax and tip for twelve courses plus dessert. Incredible, no? Beer was $4 for a large mug, or just $12 if you can finish a 60 oz. pitcher. Definitely one of the best values in LA.

My Way Deli

We tried to go to New Capital for dim sum today, but the place was bursting at the seams because there was some kind of big party going on in addition to the usual crowds. We ended up at an almost empty cafe next door, which turned out to be pretty decent.

The menu is extremely Taiwanese, which of course made me very happy.

Stinky tofu around here doesn't usually come with all these sides, so I really liked that there was garlic, hot sauce, and soy sauce along with the really delicious pickled vegetables. However, the tofu just wasn't stinky enough. Boo.

Glutinous Rice stuffed intestines. This is classic Taiwanese, served with Taiwanese style sausages. I liked this dish the most today. The outside had a nice balance of white pepper and five spice powder, the casing was just chewy enough to be substantial without being gross, and the rice was properly seasoned and cooked just all the way through without being mushy.

Oyster noodles, a classic street food. J thought it was okay, but not fantastic. I didn't think the flavors were strong enough.

My peddler's noodles (also street food) were also not strongly flavored enough. Everything was right; the soup just needed to be more concentrated.

Mi Piace

We went to Old Town Pasadena for an afternoon snack today, but somehow my sisters turned it into 4 p.m. dinner.

Tuna wonton tower.

Mushroom, olive, and feta pizza.

Mediterranean salad.

Seasoned fries.

Almond Roca cake. Food at Mi Piace is fine, but service is incredibly lackluster and prices are high. We go because it's Old Town and it's hard to find anything that's not stupidly trendy, but I think I'm going to try harder for an alternative next time. We wanted to go to Rose Tea Garden, but they stop serving afternoon tea at 3!

We were in the area to attend...drumroll...a bridal convention. I know, gag. My mom really wanted to go. Wow. Talk about sensory overload. Above is my edited stash (all the stuff I'm actually going to read). I made out with a ton of magazines, some fun photos of me with my sisters, three candles in tins, a bunch of candy, a chocolate bar, sunblock, lip balm, and some bath salts. It was interesting, but I can't say it was a good convention in terms of giving me very many usable ideas. Mostly, it was just overpriced vendors trying to get business. We did find one extremely good and seemingly reasonable caterer though. Her name's on the list.

Fitness Report

I can't look at that photo of those magazines any longer.

Fitness report time! I'm now jogging 1.5-2 miles at a time, and then run/walking a third mile a few times a week to increase my endurance. I'm benching 65, curling 15 while standing on one foot, doing 80s on my lat pulldowns, and working hard on my triceps so I can do dips. My chin up negatives are perfect and I'm working on a pull up. The abs are a work in progress, but they're coming along even in this fuzzy photo.

This post is Joann-tacular. Don't expect another like it for a loooooooooooooong time.

Gaaaaaaag

Gag alert. Look away if girly topics upset your stomach.

I can't drag my feet too much more on this if I want to be married by early 2008, so I raided the nearest Border's today. I also stopped by Staples for a cute notepad and file box, because stationery stores excite me more than wedding shops. Go figure. I'm not very organized by nature, but I'm hoping I can at least start stashing info for different topics in folders (location, food, dress, flowers, band, photographer, etc.) and then get more organized after I've narrowed down some choices.

Wish me luck! I need all the help I can get. Any super girls out there want to help me?! I am so not Bridezilla. I wish I had Monica's wedding binder from Friends.

I wore my new knit hat today. There were compliments. :)

Viktor Benes

I got a surprise cake last night!

J, tired of my whining about chocolate cravings, brought this home last night. He probably thinks bringing home one giant cake will shut me up for awhile. Muahahaha, never! Just kidding. He got to the supermarket and this was on sale so he went for it. Smart man.

Obligatory cross section photo. Viktor Benes is a popular chain of bakeries in LA. I have to admit, it's pretty darned good considering you can get it at your local Gelson's. I don't like foamy cake filling, though, so that was kind of a let down. The cake itself was nice and moist, and the chocolate part of the frosting was tasty too.

For his troubles, J was rewarded with a four-citrus cocktail. It's the juice of one lime and one blood orange mixed with a little regular orange juice, grapefruit infused vodka, and agave nectar. The pomegranate seeds are there just for fun.

Braised Pork Belly

Chinese braised pork belly is bad news for the waist line, but what do I care. I've lost all my holiday weight, have my two pack+ back on track (that would be a two pack sheathed in a respectable layer of body fat), and run over two miles at a time now. So ha, pork belly, prepare to be eaten.

If you can boil water and set a timer, you can make this dish taste delicious. Remember, fatty foods are harder to screw up than lean food.

• 1/2 slab pork belly (99 Ranch always sells these in 2-3 lb. slabs, which is way too big for two people)
• soy sauce
• water
• 2 star anise
• 2 Tbs. brown sugar (or whatever sugar you have on hand)
• 10 peppercorns
• 1 dried chili (optional)
• 4 thick slices ginger
• 1-6 bunches green onion, with just the roots chopped off. This is totally up to you. Add one bunch for flavor, or up to six if you like to eat long strands of braised green onions like I do. I almost like it more than I like the pork.
• 1/3 cup rice wine

Sear the pork belly on all sides, and place in a pot just big enough to hold it. Cover halfway with water, then add enough soy sauce to come up to the sides of but not completely cover the pork. You can get away with covering the pork just halfway if you remember to flip it over halfway through cooking. I like to not waste a lot of soy sauce doing this; there's no reason to drown the pork. You should have no more than 1/2 as much soy sauce as water, or the whole thing will be too salty. Throw in all the other ingredients. Bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer.

Set a timer for 2 hours, checking periodically to make sure the liquid is simmering and not boiling rapidly. Flip the pork halfway through if you want to make sure the skin side is evenly darkened by the soy sauce.

The pork is ready when you can break it easily with a fork. If you've ever had or made pulled pork, that's a good reference. Remove the whole thing from the braising liquid, cool until you can slice it, and then serve on a plate with the green onions piled on and a little of the braising liquid poured over it. If you reduce the liquid you can get a thicker sauce, but I find that unnecessary and sometimes too salty.

Hat? Done!

I love knitting hats. They're quick work but look more complicated scarves, and I don't need to make two of a kind to achieve functionality.

This is my first hat that's not a beanie. Not to shabby, eh? The pattern calls for a plastic mesh for the brim, but it's looking pretty good even without that. I got that funny blue/purple effect by knitting a thread of fuzzy purple yarn along with the main color. The fuzziness also makes the hat warmer.

Santa Monica Seafood

Yay, my sister finall sent me photos from this Sunday's outting to Santa Monica.

After checking out the farmers' market on Main and Ocean Park Avenue--which, by the way, is pretty fun--we went to Santa Monica Seafood for happy hour. It's so funny to go with people who are young enough that they get carded 100% of the time. Funny, and a little sad (for me). Hehe...no one ever got carded in SF, even the when they were nineteen.

We started with plates of calamari and deep fried smelt. These are pretty darned good. The breading is fairly light, the food comes hot, and the smelt were really fat.

I forget the name of the oysters we had. Suffice it to say they weren't Ocean Avenue's best, but J says they were better than the Malpecs he had last time. Our favorites are Hama Hamas and, of course, kumamotos. But when you go for happy hour you stick to the specials!

I say they weren't as good like I'm judging them poorly, but we had a second tray of oysters anyway. So you see, they were fine.

As if oysters weren't enough, then four of us (sans driver) decided to have shooters too! These have an oyster, vodka, lemon juice, Tobasco, and a little raw horseradish in them. I kind of liked them. They were surprisingly sweet.

Total damage for 5 people was $150 after tip for:

-4 dozen oysters

-2 beers

-1 bloody mary (not worth ordering, IMO)

-4 oyster shooters

-calamari

-smelt

T, we sure could have used that 15% off from KCRW! But honestly, that's not a horrible amount for what we ate and drank. It's one of those situations when I have to remember that expensive and overpriced are two different things.

When you go to Ocean Avenue Seafood you also get to stalk the creatures in their aquariums. I liked the leopard patterned eel the best, but he was camera shy.

I needed something solid after all that drinking, so we went to Ye Olde King's Heade and I bought a Britich Chunky Kit Kat. I don't know what I was expecting, but one giant Kit Kat was definitely not what I had in mind. It's funny though, isn't it? It also tastes exactly like a regular American Kit Kat.

Cooked another Indian meal last night because I wanted to try my hand at chicken tikka masala.

Unfortunately, the chickpeas weren't as good as last week. I think I like them a little more watery. The chicken tikka masalas was passable, but very obviously suffering from a lack of (even more) heavy cream and butter/ghee. Pam and I had a brainstorming session, the result of which is that I think I need to use tomato sauce instead of pureed canned tomatoes to get the smoothness I'm after. And really cooking down the sauce would help as well. We won't feel like eating Indian for awhile, but when I figure it out a recipe will be posted.

My latest project. I've been knitting a lot lately. The primary reason is I really want to/need to use up my yarn stash. I can't let myself buy more yarn when I have balls and balls of it piled up in the closet. The second reason is I don't want Christmas to roll around again and not have a box of goodies stashed away to pick out for people. I learned the hard way that starting in December is not the way to go, both because I don't own a knitting machine (yes, they really make those! You can knit a sweater in a day) and because this is a good way to spread out the spending.

More Not Food

I sprained my ankle and was stuck at home most of the day, so I dug up my bag o' beads and made this necklace.

It's cute, but my camera wouldn't focus in on the shiny metal. The circle is matte metal, like it was scratched up all over on purpose, and the ring is textured like it was beaten with a mallet. Cute, but I can't for the life of me imagine why boutiques are able to charge an arm and a leg for simlar necklaces. It's a chain attached to a ring on one end and a bead of your choice on the other end. Such a no brainer! You don't even need to buy or attach the usual necklace closures!

Grilled Cheese Sandwich and Tomato Soup

This classic American lunch was made completely from ingredients purchased at Trader Joe's, and took about 10 minutes to whip up.

I used poppyseed bread and TJ's cheddar, both on sale for under $3. I buttered my grill a little and grilled the toast until crispy. Look how stringy that cheese gets!

The cream of tomato soup comes in a paper carton near the chicken stock and canned soup. It's $2 a quart and quite good. I like to immerse part of the sandwich completely so the bread soaks up the soup and the cheese gets really soft and stringy. I eat the other pieces plain or dunked in soup/

Meatless Tuesday

I just realized I didn't eat any meat yesterday. Weird, I know.

My dinner looks like fake food. The tomato dish is a favorite comfort food of mine.

• scramble two eggs until they are still very runny, and set aside.
• slice three tomatoes into very thin wedges. I would say the thickest part of each wedge should be no more than half an inch thick--thinner if possible. You can fudge the amounts, but there should be more tomato than egg.
• Sautee the tomatoes over medium heat in the pan that you were cooking the eggs in. Add a heaping tablespoon of sugar, a half teaspoon of salt, and a little pepper (optional). Simmer until the tomatoes start to fall apart.
• turn off the heat and stir the eggs back in.

Burping Blankets

We're eating plain noodle soup with kimchi tonight, so there are no photos. Instead, a crafty photo of food-related objects. They're burping blankets, which you put over your shoulder so that when (not if, when) a baby pukes up his milk, it lands on the blanket and not all over you. Great in theory, but I'm pretty sure parents still get puked on all the time.

I'm making a stack of these for my sister, who's going to a baby shower in a couple of weeks. We went to the fabric store this weekend and she picked out this rubber duck pattern that she thought her friend would like. We also found textured terry cloth, which is so much nicer than the regular stuff I usually see. The leftovers will make nice kitchen towels. Burping blankets are a cinch to cut out and stitch up. It's ridiculous that they cost $10-30 each in cute baby boutiques because my sister paid $6.61 for enough fabric and thread to make several. Granted, we didn't use designer fabric and we happened to walk in on a sale, but $30 for a 9x15" barf cloth? Who buys those?

I also made a few bibs with velcro closures. Babies are so lucky. They get the cutest presents.

Santa Monica Swag

Went on a little field trip to the Sunday Santa Monica farmers' market and environs yesterday. Here's our loot:

The orange is a blavel (I think). Whatever it's called, it's a delicious hybrid of a navel orange and a blood orange. For me, it's the perfect orange for eating as is. Navels have always been my favorite orange because they're so juicy and sweet, and I love the flavor and color of blood oranges but sometimes they're just too tangy to eat as is.

The Bovril and Earl Grey are some British foods J and I have been craving for awhile, respectively. Bovril is beef extract and yeast, which sounds disgusting but actually tastes like beef stew. The Brits drink it with water as a warming winter beverage, or put it over rice and butter as an easy meal. Bovril is high in protein and relatively low in everything else, so I don't see the harm in eating it every so often. The Ahmad Earl Grey is a lot stronger than Twinnings, Harley & Sons, or Republic of Tea, so I'm very happy with it. I just hope it's not a fluke that this pack is extra strong.

Sunday Brunch

My sisters drove all the way out to visit today, so of course they were greeted with a big fat brunch:

Four Sea

Four Sea is, hands down, my favorite Chinese breakfast place in all of California. I'll let the photos do the talking. I like their food enough to forgive them for having a name like Four Sea. In Chinese, there's no equivalent to adding an s at the end of a word to indicate a plura. Two dog, a dozen egg, one million dollar--if the number before the word is more than one, you don't need to add something at the end to repeat that you mean more than one.

Like most restauranta in LA, Four Sea is in a nondescript strip mall. I've never been to Joy Sauna, but Malan Noodles next door is pretty good if you like hand pulled noodles made on site.

Look, you can't beat the prices. I can usually eat for $5, or stuff myself completely silly for a few dollars more.

The danger is that I always want to take home $20 worth of stuff too.


During our most recent visit, we settled for a gua bao (steamed bun filled with braised pork belly and pickled mustard greens), sao bing (flakey pastry dough filled with pork loin slices), you tiao (deep fried bread), and savory soy milk with green onions and you tiao in it. There are two round pastries on that plate to the left as well, one filled with sugar filling and one with turnip.



Four Seas
Vons plaza on Hacienda Blvd (at Halliburton)
Hacienda Heights, CA

My Tangled Web

I'm determined to finish the other glove this weekend, because if I let myself lose steam I'll never complete the pair. Here's most of the wrist:




It also occured to me, while knitting, how ridiculous double pointed needles are to work with. I'm used to it now, but it just looks like the most unnecessarily complicated thing in the world. Let's see if I can explain what's going on here.

When knitting small tubes like gloves, socks, or even sleeves, it's ideal to knit a tube instead of two flat pieces that are later sewn together. Sewing with yarn is tedious, has a lot of room for error, and makes a big ugly seam. It's better just to knit a tube as you go along, sort of like how in kindergarten you'd make a big string of Play Doh and coil it into a cylinder and let it dry up into a penci holder. To accomplish this task, knitters need three needles to form the yarn into a triangle. If three straight edges form a triangle, the knit piece you make with them will be a tube once you remove the straight edges. Tada! The fourth needle is what you use to work the yarn along the three unmoving straight edges. I know, more than you ever wanted to know, but I find the it fascinating that people came up with all this centuries ago.

When I'm working this monster, it looks like I'm wrestling a tree.

Bacon Cheddar Pretzel Bread Twists

Say the title five times quickly!


These are inspired by the twists at Rockenwagner Bakery, for which I refuse to pay $3.50. Total cost for my batch of six was $3 for me because I have a lot of odds and ends in my kitchen, but I calculate it to be around $15 if you have to buy everything--but you'll also be left with a half pound of cheddar, lots of sesame seeds, and half a pound of bacon when you're done. So it's more like $15 for the first batch, but you could easily make three or four batches if you spend $20.

To make things really easy on myself, I used a 99 cent ball of Trader Joe's plain pizza dough. Rolled it out, and lined half of it with half a pound of Trader Joe's applewood smoked bacon. I actually added one more slice after this photo.

Cover the bacon with about a cup of cheddar and one tablespoon each of white and black sesame seeds. Use poppyseeds or other seeds if you prefer. Fold the dough over, or cut it and use the plain half to cover the bacon.

Brush the top of the dough with an egg wash, then cover liberally with one color of sesame seeds. Carefully flip the dough over, and repeat with the other color of seeds.

Slice the dough into six equal sized strips (about one inch wide each). Twist so that the white and black seeds both show, and place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Cover with a little bit of cheddar.

Pre heat the oven to 375 for half an hour while the dough rises, lightly covered with a towel or plastic wrap. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until brown around the edges. Cool slightly before digging in so the bacon and cheese will be crispy.

Comparison notes for the future:

• T, who introduced me to these, is right that Rockenwagner uses a lot less bacon than I did. They most likely cook a lot of bacon, cool and crumble it, then sprinkle handfuls onto the dough. But heck, I like bacon, so why not treat myself. I would cook it a little first if you like really crispy bacon. Mine was meaty and chewy, which I like just fine.
• My ingredients included Tillamook extra sharp cheddar and good smoked bacon, so the flavors were actually superior to that of Rockenwagner's twists. I'm not being big-headed, I'm just saying that when you make something with this few ingredients, the quality of each ingredient really makes a difference.
• The Trader Joe's pizza dough doesn't rise much, which was a problem for me. I might proof it next time, or make my own pizza dough. Because it didn't rise, the sesame seeds didn't become separated from each other like they are supposed to be. If I do use TJ's dough again, I would use less seeds.
• You could easily use just one type of seeds, or none at all. But the alternating white and black twists are so pretty!
• Rockenwagner uses a lot more cheese on top of the twists. Each twist actually has big crunchy sheets of crusted cheese coming off it. Which actually tastes incredibly good. I'll use more cheese next time. The thing with melting cheese in the oven is that just enough makes a thin, lacy, crispy sheet but too much makes a thick, hard, burnt mess. It's a fine line to walk, so err on the side of too little if you're not sure.

Spicy Tasty Fish

Spicy Tasty Fish is not my name for this dish, it's the name that came on the spice packet I used to make it!

The blend is a Szechuan influenced one with Szechuan peppercorns, black peppercorns, coriander, plenty of chili oil, dried chilis, and some other stuff. Man it was spicy! We cooked up the white fish that Jimmy caught, which has been sitting in the freezer for a few weeks. Yum!

I also finished half of a project today. The annoying part about knitting is sewing in dangling ends, closing up the openings (there are always two holes near the thumbs that need to be sewn closed), and making a mirror image of the first fingerless glove. Making the second glove (or sock) is always so boring after the challenge of tackling a new pattern has been overcome. I think I did a good job, though. It looks pretty much like the original from knitty.com (click to see the original).

Indian at Home

I think I could get used to making Indian food at home. The couple next door is always making incredible smelling food, and it makes me Jealous with a capital J. Of course, the pain in the patooty part of this plan is having to start a whole new collection of spices.

Basmati rice is easy enough. I didn't have saffron, but a dash each of tumeric and paprika plus a bay leaf gave the rice some aroma.

The butter chicken was my least favorite dish last night. I've only had butter chicken at Little Delhi in SF. Their version tastes more like chicken tikka masala than what I made last night, so I think I'm going to stick to making CTM from now on.

The chana masala (chickpeas) were much tastier. They were really easy, too! You can use a can of chickpeas (aka. garbanzo beans) or throw a cup of them in water before you go to work in the morning. I boiled mine in water for twenty minutes, turned off the flame and let them soak for over an hour, then cooked them for another twenty minutes to get them very soft. During the last fifteen minutes of cooking I threw in two whole potatoes. However you cook them, just make sure the beans and optional potatoes are cooked through before you start this:

• Dice one large onion into tiny pieces.
• Sautee in one tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat until the onions are practically mush. Add a little cooking water from the garbanzo beans if you need to.
• Add the garbanzo beans to the onions, stir well, and then add the potatoes once you've peeled and diced them. Save the cooking liquid from the garbanzo beans.
• Puree half a bunch of cilantro, stems and all, in a blender with a little water. Add the puree to the pot (this is optional, but it's so pretty)
• Add two tablespoons of garam masala, which you can find at an Indian market or a fancy supermarket like Whole Foods. Add a teaspoon of turmeric if you have it. I like the fragrance and color.
• Stir well, making sure the spices coat all the beans. Add a cup of chicken stock or cooking water from the garbanzo beans. Add more liquid if you think you need to.
• Don't be afraid to mash some of the potatoes and garbanzo beans. It will give you a nice thick curry.
• Add salt and pepper to taste, and simmer until the curry has thickened and the flavors have penetrated the garbanzo beans and potatoes. I would say at least ten minutes, or as long as a few hours if dinner is a long ways off.
  

I know, roasted butternut squash is not Indian. But C had never eaten it before, so I thought a plain roast butternut squash tossed in olive oil, a teaspoon of maple syrup, and a sprinkling of salt would be a good introduction to the vegetable. This was a small butternut squash, so it was less sugary sweet than most I've had. I kind of liked that. It made it taste more like a vegetable and less like a weird sweet dish.

No time to bake, and hot chocolate is a great cold weather dessert. C brought some Godiva dark chocolate liquer (yay!) and whipping cream so we could have hot chocolate with the works.

Taking Apart a Chicken

I'll post the finished dinner later, but first I have to brag. I can now make a whole chicken look like this in under two minutes. I think that kind of time is Julia Child worthy!

It's really not hard to take a chicken apart if you know what you're doing. Here are some simple steps:

• a sharp knife helps, but it doesn't even need to be razor sharp.
• a small chicken or a cornish game hen would be a good first bird to practice on.
• slice along the fold that connects the top of the thigh to the body. When you hit bone, stop and put your knife down. Hold the body with one hand and the leg with the other hand. Bend the bone the wrong way until it snaps. You do not need to be very strong to accomplish this. You'll see the knobby part of the thigh bone sticking out. Pick your knife back up and slice along the knobby bone where you've created a gap between the thigh bone and body bones. See? You don't even need to cut through bone.
• Do the same with the other leg, and the two wings.
• Cut through the breast and open up the chicken. The breast bones are very brittle. If you put your knife on the chicken and press down firmly, the rib cage will crack. There's absolutely no reason to lift your knife high in the air and come crashing down on the chicken.
• Open up the chicken so that the ribs and neck bone are exposed to you. Place your knife along one side of the neck bone and cut through it using your free hand to press down firmly on the knife. Don't bother trying to cut through the neck bone itself.
• Cut along the other side of the neck bone. Decide if you want to keep the neck bone or toss it. I usually have reason to keep it.

You now have two legs, two wings, and two halves of the body/breast. You might be done, or you might need to cut further.

• To cut the breast meat into pieces, put the piece bone side down on your cutting board. Slice through the skin and meat, then press firmly on the back of your knife with your free hand to break the bones. When you hear the bones snap, you can remove your free hand and wiggle the knife around to ease it through the crack you've created. The point is to never saw through bone. Sawing is ineffective and hard on your knife.
• To cut the wings, slice through the joints until you hit bone, then snap the bones back the wrong way. Slice through the cracks you've created. Do the same to separate the thigh from the drumstick.
• Cutting the drumsticks themselves requires the most strength and hand-eye coordination. You need to slice through the skin and meat and expose a little bit of bone. Then take the heel of the blade of your knife (where there's a sharp 90 degree angle) and use it to break the bone. If you only manage to crack the bone, you can snap the rest of the bone with your hands. Then, as before, slice through the cracks in the bones to separate the two pieces of meat.

It's incredible how much longer it took me to describe what I did than it took me to actually cut up the chicken.

Trader Joe's Pappardelle

Quick meal:

I thawed some marinara that was stashed in the freezer, and cooked up some Trader Joe's pappardelle. It costs more than regular dried pasta, but it's delicious and totally worth it if you're a fan of wide pasta like I am. You don't get much for your $2-3. I prefer the fresh pappardelle at Bay Cities Deli, which only costs $2. But it's nice to have dried pasta that's ready to go any time. I added a little fresh basil to the sauce to liven it up, but other than that this was a 10 minute meal.

The coffee is Peet's Columbian Curacol blend. It's okay, but nothing to write home about.

Shepherd's Pie

Cold times call for comfort food:

Yummy. Beef, corn, carrots, peas, onions, shallots, and plenty of buttery potatoes.

This is what shepherd's pie looks like before it goes into the oven. I wet my hands a little to create a smooth surface, but was careful not to actually mashed the potatoes into a solid, hard clump.

Shepherd's pie after 40 minutes in the oven. I punched a bunch of little holes in the top with chopsticks, then a few larger holes with a small knife, so there would be room for steam to escape during baking.

I also made some basil bread because C brought us some basil from last week's farmers' market. It smelled really great in the oven, so I was disappointed that the flavor isn't that apparent in the final loaf. I guess I need to actually puree the basil into a pesto-like paste and incorporate into the dough to get a flavorful green bread.

Best Szechuan

Fire in the mouth!

I love Szechuan food. We had take out from Best Szechuan this weekend. The long pale strips are thick mung bean noodles in chili oil and Szechuan peppercorns. Moving clockwise, there's pork and wood ear mushrooms in a sweet and spicy sauce, "water cooked" beef wherein the "water" is actually boiling red chili oil, and a new dish called "saliva chicken." I assume because it's so spicy you immediately start salivating when you come within ten feet of it.

We also (as always) order the claypot chicken soup because it's completely non spicy, and the best way to wash down such a fiery meal. They take a stewing chicken and pork hocks and simmer until the broth is milky and opaque. Then they add some bamboo shoots and bamboo hearts (aka. bamboo fungus). We also had Yang Chow fried rice. I'll have to remember a photos next time.

A complete meal was just under $50 for four hungry people. That's four dishes, a container of fried rice, and three of those large styrofoam tubs of soup. Incredible deal, don't you think?

Friday Oyster Omelet Reminder

Hey people, more oyster omelet photos. It's a reminder to those of you who said you were going to try making it this weekend. Don't forget to send me photos so we can do an omelet gallery! Look at that money shot of the oyster.

This is what the omelet should look like when it's done on both sides. Mine's a little uneven because I had a large pot on the stove and forgot to move it, so the wok was a little off the flame. Also, remember the second side of the omelet cooks more quickly than the first.

And finally, a close up of the starchiness. This is one gooey dish.

Papri Chaat

One of my favorite dishes at Chaat Cafe in San Francisco was papri chaat. I call it Indian muesli, because it's basically yogurt mixed with some crunchy stuff and sweet sauce. The version at Chaat Cafe is a perfect balance of sweet and salty, crunchy and smooth, spicy and sweet, and hot and cold. I know a lot of Indians eat papri chaat for breakfast, but for me it was the perfect light lunch. Or, paired with a few samosas, a filling hearty meal.

My own version isn't even in the same ballpark, probably because I didn't make anything from scratch. I bought Trader Joe's 2% Greek yogurt and put some canned garbanzo beans, boiled red potatoes, green chutney, tamarind chutney, and Indian crunchy snacks on it. The tamarind chutney I sort of made from scratch, with tamarind concentrate, brown sugar, water, and dried figs (dates are usually used, but I had figs and actually liked the flavor). If I figure out how to make this more authentic, I'll let y'all know. Pam, any pearls of wisdom? I know, I totally lazied out on this one.

I found these cute spoons at Cost Plus. I don't know how practical they'll be, but they were on sale and I thought having a long handle might make the spoons good for measuring and then mixing with the same spoon.

Tuna Potato Salad

Sorry folks. Blogger's been weird while they launch a new version, but it looks like everything's okay now.

I love Persian cucumbers. They have a thinner skin than regular cucumbers and tend to be more sweet and crisp. Today, they were $1.60 for a box of six or seven at Trader Joe's. If you like cucumbers, run over there now before they're gone! Paired with a hearty tuna salad, this nutrient dense lunch gave me enough stamina to run 3 miles. Yay! I've never continuously moved for three consecutive miles in my entire life, so it's quite a feat even though I had to take two walking breaks during the last mile.

Look, my cast iron skillet has a new outfit! And hopefully, I won't almost burn myself on the handle any more.

And, as usual, some non-food fun with some Italian wool I found on sale at F&S Fabrics.

Taiwanese Oyster Pancake

After several test runs, I'm ready to post my recipe for Taiwanese oyster omelets and accompanying sauce. Honestly, this tastes better than the versions at most restaurants. Not because I'm so great at making it, but because restaurants in the states are so terrible at getting it right. If you think about it, not that many restaurants get regular egg omlets right either, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised.


OMELET

• 1/2 bag of frozen oysters from an Asian market, or 7-10 oysters depending on your budget and preference.
• 1/2 cup cold water
• 1 sprig Chinese lettuce (a-chai), about 10 leaves
• 2 eggs, well beaten
• 1/4 cup tapioca starch or sweet potato starch
  

Defrost the oysters, and cut them in half if they're any bigger than an inch and a half long. In Taiwan, there's an abundance of marble sized oysters so that's what they get to use. Save any liquor that results from defrosting.

Start heating a tablespoon of neutral oil in a large nonstick pan or wok over high heat. Combine the beaten eggs, half a teaspoon of salt, and the vegetables in a bowl. Lightly toss to coat everything with the eggs. Set aside.

Add enough water to the oyster liquor to make 1/2 a cup of liquid. Add the starch to this and stir until it's completely smooth. Remember to give it a stir before you pour it into the pan, as starch settles to the bottom of a cup of water very quickly.

When the oil starts smoking, pour in the starch, then the egg mixture, and stir a few times with a wooden spoon. Because you do want the starch and egg to stay somewhat separate, your stirring should be scraping the bottom of the wok a few different directions a few times, not vigorous stirring. Stirring like this also helps more of the liquid come into contact with the bottom of the wok and brings up the bits that are already cooked, speeding up the cooking time a little. I tried this in a cast iron pot (above), but I would not recommend it because there's no room for flipping. A large wok worked much better.

Turn the flame down to medium, and let sit until the bottom becomes crusty and golden. The omelet is ready to flip when you can gently shake it around the pan without any of it sticking. It should take several minutes, during which you can make the sauce below. Flip the pancake, turn the flame down just a bit, let the other side get crusty as well. This one was flipped prematurely, but only by maybe 30 seconds.

RED SAUCE

• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup soy paste (you'll see it next to the soy sauce; it's thick like hoisin sauce, and also great on daikon cakes!)
• 1 glove garlic, completely pulverized
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar, or more if you like. White sugar is fine too
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch mixed into a slurry with 4 tablespoons water

Combine everything but the starch in a small pan, and stir to combine over low heat. When it starts to boil, add half the cornstarch slurry and whisk well to combine. The sauce will start to thicken immediately. If you want it thicker, add the rest of the cornstarch. If the flavor's too intense, or if you add too much starch, you can add a splash of water and whisk it in to thin out the sauce.

Craftacular Potholder

My first attempt at quilting and binding:

It's only 6x6" but I call it a success! I think the fabric would make awesome pajamas, but unfortunately there was only a very small piece left. Enough for the pillow below, this potholder, and maybe one or two other small projects.

Tamales, the Inside

It felt weird to have three tamales in the freezer that I literally made last year, so I ate them for lunch.

Then, I remembered I promised to post a photo of what they look like on the inside. These have pork filling, and I poured some Trader Joe's Mexican Red Sauce and Tapatio over it for a quick flavor fix. The red sauce isn't bad; it tastes better than the stuff that comes on enchiladas in most restaurant.

Knife-Cut Noodles

I've made it a personal mission to master Chinese knife-cut noodles before the month is out. It's just too hard to find a place that makes them, and I can't eat at Heavy Noodling every week. Notes to self:

• add salt to the dough
• knead the dough longer to develop the gluten further
• roll out the dough to a quarter inch thick or less
• make the noodles on the short side, like six inches or shorter
• cut small skinny strips as well as thick ones so there's contrasting textures. The whole point of this kind of noodle is to have irregularity
• invest in a pizza cutter to make cutting easier
• don't over boil
• Return to Heavy Noodling to do a taste comparison

And some colorful pillows, just for fun. I ran out of pillow stuffing for the third one, but I'm not sure I like it enough to bother. The tiny pastel dots are really cute up close, but hard to see from far away.

Vegetable Detox

I think J and I are both in the mood to eat mostly vegetables for at least a week.

I also thought I'd mention $2 bags of pork and beef bones, found at most Asian markets. I can usually make a gallon of good hearty stock with it, which is so much cheaper and tastier than canned stock. Today, I picked off what little meat was on the bones and added pinto beans, a can of tomatoes, potatoes, celery, carrots, parsley, marjoram, salt, and pepper. A perfectly hearty dinner when paired with some leftover onion bread, but still healthy and refreshing after a week of overeating.

The little wooden pot is a present from my sisters. I have one for sugar and one for salt. I love kitchen gifts; thanks, gals!

Happy 2007!

I think our apartment almost exploded last night. At the last second, we got a bunch of calls from people saying they'd decided to come to our NYE party. So we ballooned from 10 to 15 people overnight! There was plenty of food to go around, thankfully.

Champagne glasses, cleaned and labelled. We actually had to ask my sisters to bring more glasses from home, because we only own eight. But aren't the tags cute? Get it, bubbles for bubbly? I made them from scrap book paper.

No knead bread, with sauteed shallots and amazing bread flour from Surfas. The flour is extra fine and has a high gluten content. The dough was visibly more bouncy and silky from the get go.

Cheddar crackers with black and white sesame, and rosemary marjoram herbed crackers with sea salt. The green plate was actually made into an appetizer platter after I took this photo. There was olive spread, brie, prosciutto, and chorizo. Maybe I didn't photograh it because I didn't make any of that. If it's not homemade, who cares? Hehe, if any guests took a photo of the platter I'll post it later.

Small muchies included paprika dusted puff shells filled with dilled cream cheese and gravlax, steamed asparatus, and mini mushroom quiches topped with shrimp. I was especially proud of the quiche cups, which were flakey and slightly wheaty. J came up with the idea of putting a few tea lights under the quiche to keep them warm, and it totally worked! And the three-tiered plate holder is a fantastic space saver.