Two Pastas for Monday

It was a lovely day to photograph pasta.


For lunch I had penne with tuna, onions, carrots, and fresh peas in a little mustard and mayo. I topped the pasta with tiny pieces of raw celery and onions as well.

Dinner is inspired by flavors from the other side of the world. Thick northern Chinese style noodles with three kinds of mushrooms (enoki, shimeji, and wood ear), pea shoots, napa cabbage, green onions, and carrots. And yes, the carrots are cut into flower shapes. Because I'm dorky like that. Don't they make you want to smile?

Detox

We had a great time at W's party this weekend, but after all that food it was time for a serious detox. Vegan dinner last night!

Shredded tofu, celery, and carrots mixed with sea salt and a few teaspoons of sesame oil. If you make this, let it sit for an hour or so to let the salt melt and distribute evenly. You can find shredded tofu in plastic packets near the other tofu in most Asian markets. The package is usually clear or has a clear window so you can see what you're getting.

Peas are in season! I feel like summer really came early this year. We bought a huge bundle of pea shoots at the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market this weekend and a few pea pods were mixed in with the shoots. The FPFM is expensive, no doubt, but at least what I'm getting is always stellar. When I buy this at Chinese markets, I often spend a good twenty minutes picking out tough stems and yellow or molded leaves. By the time I've removed all the inedible parts, my initial "savings" has probably been negated. Plus, these tender young shoots are just plain tastier.

Latest obsession: Tamaki rice. J's been curious about the recent rice hoarding, so he looked up Tamaki and found out that it's the higher end model of the more famous Calrose. Tamaki is the Lexus to Calrose's Toyota, if you will. This makes some really tasty rice: soft, shiny, and sweet with plenty of bounce. Tamaki also makes an incredible Haiga rice, which is rice which has been hulled (so it's not hard like brown rice) but retains its germ (foor more nutrient density).

Mystery: who can guess what I'm making here?

Mango Mochi

A little snack from Creations Dessert House.

I really don't think cubes of mango are the perfect thing to pair with mochi, because to my palate the natural tanginess of the fruit is jarring against the pure sweetness of mochi. But mochi this fresh and tender is so rare that I'll take it, provided the mango is as ripe as it was today.

Happy Birthday!

Oh my gosh, I'm such a girl. But I really do need better lighting in my kitchen; these chocolate cupcakes are frosted with Tiffany blue frosting!



I'm going to a birthday party, and I felt the need to bring out everyone's inner kid with cupcakes and fluffy frosting. I made Swiss meringue buttercream for the first time, and find it far superior to American buttercream. Here's a gratuitous closeup:



Packed up for the car ride:



Okay, one more.

A common complaint I hear about cupcakes is that there is way too much frosting. I agree, but also realize that to make a cupcake look adorable takes more than a dab. After a lot of trial and error I devised a trick for using less frosting without sacrificing aesthetics. I filled in the empty space between the cupcake and paper with frosting, then piped a fluffy round flower in the center for a simple yet put together look. And if you scroll back up to the picture of the cupcakes in the box, the ones frosted in this manner look a little bigger. Which, in my book, is a win!

Springtime Fun

I have herbs!

I can't believe I didn't get the name of the nursery that was selling gorgeous herb and vegetable plants at the Civic Center today. I've been waiting for months to see bigger potted plants come into season! These two are kind of interesting. Chinese mint, in the back, smells just like spearmint but has softer leaves and grows in a wide bushy shape instead of tall and thin. I thought the softer leaves would be easier to muddle in drinks and the shape was prettier as a houseplant. The spikey plant is pineapple sage, which I'd never seen before but fell in love with instantly. It hardly smells like sage at all, but has a fruity pineapple scent. I think it'll be amazing steeped in green tea. And, as promised, my potato cookbook.

Unfortunately, they didn't have big versions of all their plants. But I did get a creeping rosemary, sweet Italian basil, chives, and lemon thyme. I think I'm addicted. If I can make the room for more plants, I'm going back next week for some Italian oregano, regular sage, English thyme, Italian parsley, and/or cilantro. I know, I have a sickness. But think about herb prices. $1-2 a bundle, more if you need something in a pinch and can't shop around. Even if I use my herbs only a handful of times it'll be worth it monetarily. Not to mention having plants around the house is really nice.

Next week: repotting so they have room to grow and look presentable as houseplants.

Ham and Jarlsberg Potato Casserole

A few pictures for now; tomorrow I'll post the recipe and the cookbook it's from!

Here's dinner, wholesome and balanced with plenty of vegetables.

And here's a TV time snack later in the evening, reheated in a ramekin until crusty.

Strawberry Scones

Another winner from the Tartine Cookbook.

I have a bag of strawberry scones in my freezer! J doesn't really eat baked goods, so when I make breakfast foods I have to think about what's going to freeze well for eating over the next few weeks. Scones work well, and making 20+ is cheaper than buying even a couple at a bakery. Meaning I can afford to share!

These were made with fresh strawberries and topped with honey whipped butter. Perfect for my morning coffee, which is currently Peet's New Guinea blend.

Preventing a Chubby Hubby (or Wifey)

For whatever reason, this story has been all over the news for the last few days.

We all know anecdotally that dating leads to weight gain. Your first dates are probably all over lunch or dinner, you hit it off and want each other to meet your friends over dinners and sugary cocktails, you get closer and start having pizza and beer movie nights, you cook together or for each other, you buy each other treats, you become a couple and start throwing barbecues and dinner parties, and soon you're a fat schlub in love. Or, you're so busy trying to find time to see each other that you stop cooking and start grabbing a bucket of KFC before heading to his house. Let's face it: people like to relate over food. "Omg, he took me to the most amazing restaurant" does not score major points for no reason.

I'm not immune. Thank goodness I have decent genes, but the last two years have been tough because it's extremely difficult to stay fit or thin in Los Angeles. The severe drop in the amount of walking probably meant one less meal a day for me. Which makes a sad Pei overall. This girl needs her buttered scones. But now we're back in walkable San Francisco, and we've joined the YMCA Embarcadero! This is the coolest gym I've ever belonged to. Not only do they have a great pool and a lovely view of the Bay from the weight room, they have a bazillion classes! We've been going for a month now and I think I'm going to settle into a weekly schedule that includes three of the following in various combinations:

• Urban Bootcamp: an instructor leads the group in outdoor exercise along the Embarcadero and in Jackson Square Park.
• Yoga/Pilates: the chiropractor says I need to make a concerted effort to stretch out my spine.
• Free Weights: I'm not giving up on my long distance personal trainer's dream of making me swole. My arm muscles are coming back nicely.
• Swimming: this is J's activity, and I usually join him for fifteen minutes after my workout and/or for a full hour once a week. Hey, this kind of together time is better than couch potato time, right?
• Various classes that pop up from time to time: swimming tune ups, salsa, kickboxing, karate, taekwando, step aerobics, kinesis, and feldenkrais are all offered at the Y. I don't want to join all the classes, but sitting in one one from time to time is fun.

As a treat, I get to enjoy the hot tub, steam room, and sauna, which are cleaner than at any other gym I've been to and only found lacking when compared to a day spa. As a mental treat, our membership helps fun the Youth Chance High School, San Francisco's only publicly funded private high school. The school targets at-risk children and the school is in the basement of the gym and shares the gym's exercise facilities and computer lab.

Deborah Madison's Winter Vegetable Chowder

Another great recipe from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. Honestly, I haven't encountered a bum recipe yet from this book.

Hearty, colorful, nutritious, with enough oomph to be a meal without making you feel overladen with fat. I was missing a few spices and I used chicken stock as the base, but the soup took well to minor tweaking. Click here for a web version of the recipe.

In the future I think I'll use a cheese that melts well, like gruyere or emmenthaler. What I had on hand was a very interesting goat Cheese called Capricious. It's quite pungent, grates well, and has a very unique grain that I can only describe as more rubbery than Parmesan. I've had a chunk of this for awhile now and I think its perfect application is in pasta arrabiata.

Oden

In our continuing effort to eat more vegetables and less meat, we had oden last night.


Oden is a Japanese soup. The ingredients are usually root vegetables like carrots, daikon and potatoes along with a variety of fishcakes and fish balls, which are processed seafood formed into bouncy spheres. The soup is flavored with soy sauce, sake, sugar, and bonito or vegetable broth.

Gifts of Love

I like snacks, and I also like presents!

My lovely and talented former co-worker P met up with me for lunch and as if his company weren't enough, he came bearing gifts! Some people are so thoughtful with presents; who wouldn't want her monogram gilded onto a tea and snack tray? I don't have the patience for antiquing, but I love old tea cups of all sorts. This is definitely a fun thing to own. Now, if only I had a house elf to bring me snacks and tea on demand.

Munchies

In case you haven't noticed, I like snacks.

These are a few of my favorites: mortadella from Golden Gate Meat Company, a sour batard from ACME bakery, Jana Valley butter, a sprinkling of Korean sea salt, and Straus milk. And yes, it's whole milk. Strange thing about Straus milk. I'm not sure if it's because it's non-homogenized, but their whole milk isn't as thick as other kinds of whole milk. It's just sweet and delicious, with a few tablespoons of cream on top that can be used for all kinds of tasty treats.

Beautiful Friday Lunch

Since this weekend was shaping up to be so beautiful there was no reason to sit inside, I packed up a big bag and headed to the Embarcadero to have lunch with J.

We had beef stir fried with green garlic, an orange, and sparkling limeade. I squeezed a bunch of limes and packed the juice in the Nalgene with plenty of ice and simple syrup and brought along a can of cold club soda. Way more delicious than soda, and more healthy and refreshing to boot.

I made too much rice at lunch time, so I rolled up the leftovers with a sprinkle of salt and a tablespoon of furikake. This is a pretty typical japanese afterschool treat, which means Taiwanese kids have plenty of exposure to it too. It made me feel like a kid again.

Kowloon Tong Dessert

Check it out: I'm a Chinese woman who can parallel park.

Okay, so it was a giant space. But seriously, I can parallel park--it's not hard. I took a Zipcar out for the first time today! It was fun; I'd actually never driven around the city for any length of time. Too bad the rental was a last minute decision (J ended up not needing it for work) or I would have planned to go somewhere that I normally can't get to by bus. Oh well; at least errands were run double quick!

We took the car out for dessert last night and decided to try Kowloon Tong Desserts on 7th (between Geary and Clement) instead of going to Creations Dessert House as usual. I think we'll be going here more often! The extensive menu definitely looks worthy of exploration, and prices are much more reasonable than at Creations. Jimmy's harsmar with almond milk was $6.50, which is probably $2 less than something similar at Creations.

I ordered something that Creations doesn't even offer. It's a milk custard, which I would describe as having a texture similar to Japanese steamed egg or flan. The top of the custard is quite firm, and towards the bottom it's very loose. I ordered one with coconut milk flavor and some glutinous black rice at the bottom. It was really tasty and only $3.50. We actually found that this one dessert would have been plenty for the two of us. Bonus points: my dessert took a long time to come out, and from the wait and the way it tasted I'm pretty sure they made it fresh.

Olymic Torch Rally

I'll cut to the chase: I did not get to see the Olympic torch today. Due to security concerns, the organizers kept changing the route. Basically, the people who went out to see the torchbearers got a fat lot of nothing. I won't get into the politics of it, but what we ended up seeing were a lot of pro-Tibet and pro-China protestors and anti-protestors. I hear some areas got violent, but everyone where I was was really friendly. The atmosphere felt more like a particularly lively street fair than an angry protest.

Maybe it was because it was such a beautiful day?

There was a crowd, but a pretty tame crowd by SF standards considering this was as thick as the crowd got while I was there. The anti-war protests a few years ago were about a hundred times scarier.

If you squint, you can see the banner says "Taiwanese for a Free Tibet."

This lovely gentleman manages to avoid crowds entirely by attaching his "FREE TIBET" sign to his yacht.

The Chinese sent out a huge delegation to "protect the torch." Of course, they came with mascots. The Chinese are physically unable to stage any kind of public event without the presence of mascots. Genetic predisposition to love stuffed animals? Possible.

Look, there are still people working hard to help Taiwan take back the Mainland. Hope is not dead!

And finally, what I thought was the most elaborately constructed protest tool of the day.

It was all very interesting, but in some ways just another day in SF. Is there such a thing as being protested to death? In the end, why can't we all just get along?

Modern Thai

Here's a belated photo from a few weeks ago at Modern Thai on Polk. I stopped and looked in because the restaurant always looks like a lovely oasis on what's not a great block. I've always wondered if it's any good, and the sign for $6.50 lunch specials finally drew me in.

Pretty darned good! If you like your pad thai with an extra tanginess to take the edge off the sugar, this is the place for you. The noodles were cooked perfectly so they were loose and amply sauced, not goopy or dry. The shrimp, all five of them, were big and plump. The vegetables were crisp. But, most impressively, the tofu tasted fresh! Four out of five times that I eat pad thai I can tell that the tofu is about 24 hours from going bad and they're trying to hide it with pad thai sauce. The tofu at Modern Thai had a sweet freshness about it that was very refreshing.

Shamless plug of the day: Kiehl's Over-Night Biological Peel. I don't think I'm ready to go out and blow $42 on it, but I got a free sample the other day and finally tried it. My skin's been very dry because I'm not used to all the wind up here. I left the peel on overnight and my skin feels very dewy this morning. The results probably won't last long, but it's nice not to feel tight and crackly. Today I'm going to go buy $15 CeraVe like my dermatologist suggests.

Tea Egg

We cheated and used tea egg flavor packs to boil our eggs, but I had to take a picture of this beautifully marbled egg. Few of them turn out quite this pretty!

Slow-Cooked Beef Ribs

This is a dish for a Sunday evening, because it requires slow cooking in a tended oven. The results are a bed of tender roasted vegetables topped with a fork-tender peppery beef rib.


Don't be intimidated, however. It's incredibly easy, it just takes time! For two people you need:

• 2-3 pounds bone-in beef rib. That's the kind of beef rib where the bone is still two or three inches long, not sliced thin like for Korean BBQ.
• salt
• fresh cracked pepper
• olive oil. My friend N bought me a garlic and rosemery infused garlic oil that worked beautifully
• any mix of vegetables that you like. We had three baby potatoes, three baby carrots, half a large onion, and four very large brussel sprouts.

Salt and pepper the beef the night before, and cover well. I would say one tsp salt per pound of meat is generally enough, and enough pepper that you can see a layer of it on the meat (at least a Tbs).

Let the meat sit out and come to room temperature while you pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees. If you have time, the meat should sit out for even an hour or two. Coat the meat with two or three tablespoons of olive oil, wrap tightly with aluminum foil, place on a baking sheet, and put in the oven for two hours. After two hours, check the meat every half hour until it's fork tender. Remove from oven and let sit for half an hour. If you're not ready to eat, you can let this sit out for up to three hours. When you're ready to serve, broil the meat for ten minutes to get the top crispy, then break apart and serve one chunk on top of each plate of vegetables.

Cook the vegetables after you remove the beef from the oven. Crank the oven up to 400 degrees. Cut the vegetables into similarly sized pieces. If you're using vegetables with very different cooking times, cut the harder to cook vegetables (potatoes, carrots, yams) into smaller pieces and cut the more easily cooked vegetables (bell peppers, brussel sprouts, onions) into bigger pieces. Coat with two or three tablespoons olive oil, depending how much you've cooked. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and spread onto a greased baking sheet, then bake for about forty minutes or until cooked through and crisped on top. You may need to stir and turn the vegetables halfway through cooking. Your cooking time will vary depending on how small you cut the vegetables.

Plate and serve, preferably with some brown rice.

Zuni Gateau Victoire

Like a lot of people, I like Zuni Cafe quite a lot. The menu hardly changes, but the standbys are so good I think a riot would break out if they tried to implement many changes. One of the old favorites is the Gateau Victoire, a flourless chocolate cake.


Here's a slice from a visit a few years ago. It's a deeply dark chocolate cake made with no flour and topped with a dollop of very softly whipped cream.


And here's a slice from a cake I made for a movie night tomorrow! Aside from poor lighting and lack of artistry (and over-generosity) in administering the whipped cream, I think I did a great job. The recipe is always available at Zuni's front counter, or on line. Here it is:

ZUNI GATEAU VICTOIRE

• 1 and 1/2 tsp. butter (for coating)
• 10 oz bittersweet chocolate (I used 70% Callebaut) ,chopped
• 5 whole eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 6 Tbsp. strong brewed coffee (I used espresso from Peet's)
• 3/4 c heavy cream
• 6 Tbsp sugar (I only used five, but I don't think the recipe would be too sweet with all six)

Preheat over to 350 F. Grease a 9" cake pan with butter, line bottom and sides of pan with buttered parchment paper, and set pan aside.2.

Combine whole eggs, egg yolks, and sugar in a large heatproof bowl, set bowl over a pot of very gently simmering water, and stir until mixture is at room temperature. Remove bowl from heat and beat mixture with an electric mixer on medium speed until quadrupled in volume, 15-20 minutes.

Melt chocolate and coffee together in a medium heat-proof bowl set over the pot of simmering water, stirring often. Remove bowl from heat.

Whip cream in a medium bowl until soft peaks form.3. Fold one-quarter of the egg mixture into the melted chocolate, then fold chocolate mixture and whipped cream into remaining egg mixture. Pour batter into prepared pan and set pan in a roasting pan. Pour hot water into roasting pan to a depth of 1" and transfer to oven. Bake cake until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 1 hour.

Turn off oven, leave oven door ajar, and let cake rest for 30 minutes. Remove cake from oven in its water bath and let rest for 30 minutes more. Remove cake from water bath, invert onto a plate, and peel off parchment. Serve warm or at room temperature with whipped cream, if you like. (And/or raspberries).

Another Weeknight Meal

Another weeknight, another simple meal.

There was nothing exciting about dinner tonight. Just Chinese beef brisket (the Chinese traditionally don't remove the tendons attached to brisket) cooked in a soup of daikon, soy sauce, sugar, ginger, and star anise. The soup's eaten with noodles and topped with green onions.

Blackberries from Whole Foods were the most exciting thing I ate today. Look at the size of these suckers! Every berry in the three baskets I got was this big, and they were on sale three for $5. After I took this photo I found one berry that was about one and a half times the size of either of these. Yummy. I can't wait for pick-your-own berry season to kick in.

In workout news, I went to a cardio kickboxing class today. I'm not much for group exercise classes, mainly because I'm completely uncoordinated and always look like an idiot hopping around. But once in awhile I go to a class because it's a way to make myself keep moving for an hour. Plus, it's good for the soul to let loose and look like an idiot every so often. The class was well-paced and my legs feel like jell-o, so I guess I have no complaints.

All Around Downtown

This post is going to be less about food than about some of the things I've been enjoying about SF lately. I woke up early to go to my chiropractor's office today. I'm sure everyone's heard the jokes about how chiropractors aren't real doctors, but I love mine. I have chronic back pain from years of carrying a heavy backpack and then a large purse on my right shoulder. You know that posture: right shoulder hunched up, right pelvis thrust forward to help balance the weight. It's terrible!


I've done enough back exercises over the years that my muscles are compensating for what my spine's not doing, but I'm going to the chiropractor's regularly now to re-align my spine before I do permanent damage. I don't want to be a fifty year old hunchback!


For whatever reason, today's adjustments was unusually effective. I literally felt like I was standing up straighter and taking deeper breaths! Thus invigorated, I headed downtown for a walk.




City Hall, as seen through a grove of sycamore trees. Isn't it beautiful? It's an exact replica of the Capitol Dome, but slightly taller just to be obnoxious. There weren't any pro-Tibet protestors today. I wonder where they went? They've been at City Hall every day for the last two weeks. Maybe since Mayor Newsom finally announced the Olympic Torch route the protestors took a day off.



The Civic Center Farmers' Market. This is the city's workhorse farmers' market--the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market is the showcase market. Food, flowers, and houseplants are all relatively inexpensive here. I'm going to have to remember to save some grocery shopping for Wednesdays from now on.

I also stopped by the library and picked up a few books. I'm now officially reading all of the following:



-The Omnivore's Dilema
-A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906
-The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
-A Soldier of the Great War
-Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norell



It's a big ol' list, isnt' it? I'm the kind of nutty person who's always reading either five books or no books at all. I tend to finish most books I start, but out of five I'll usually find one that is especially interesting and power through it first. Then I'll go back to the other four, or add a book, and see if I suddenly like any of them enough to read through quickly. Odd system, I know. The last two books I finished in a hurry were Freakonomics and He Knew He Was Right. I highly recommend both!

At Home With Pei

I think we can all agree that sometimes it's nice to enjoy the simple things in life. In fact, most of our weeknight meals are quite simple. We're really trying to take Michael Pollan's advice to "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

Stir fried wintermelon topped with chopped green onions.

Dried spinach cooked in homemade pure chicken broth and noodles.

Half a baked salmon head with lemon. The meal took less than twenty minutes to prepare, which is a plus on a Tuesday.

I really believe that when food is wholesome, you need less of it both to get full and stay satisfied. Happy eating!