Sunday, January 29, 2006 

Happy Chinese New Year's!

in celebration of Chinese New Year's (2006 is the year of the dog) - here's a recipe for Neen Gow, a cake traditionally eaten on New Year's day.

the Chinese New Year is based on the lunar calendar, so the date changes from year to year. this year, it starts today Jan. 29th.

NEW YEAR'S CAKE (NEEN GOW)
Neen Gow, New Year's Cake, is the most important cake eaten on New Year's — the main ingredient, glutinous rice flour, is a symbol of cohesiveness.

i made Neen gow according to this recipe a couple years ago. the recipe is very simple. you can eat it as is or better yet, dip slices in egg batter and pan fry.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/100770

this month's issue of Gourmet magazine also has a special on Chinese New Year's which includes some recipes of traditional New Year's dishes.

http://www.epicurious.com/gourmet/menus/lunar

12:27 PM | |

 

Harvard Sq. Restaurant Menus

thanks to Nate for passing this on! a link to many Harvard Sq. restaurant menus - for those times when you wish you had a menu for ordering take-out...

http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~lipoff/miscellaneous/menus/

12:24 PM | |

Wednesday, January 25, 2006 

NY Times article

"my week as a waiter"

an article from the NY Times about a writer's experience as a waiter at Cambridge's well-known East Coast Grill.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/25/dining/25note.html?pagewanted=all

8:48 PM | |

Tuesday, January 24, 2006 

cooking is a science

thoughts on cooking...

i was just remarking to a friend today that cooking shares many similarities with research. you are only as good as your reagents (ingredients), equipment and protocol (recipe). armed with good ingredients and a good recipe, good results are sure to follow provided that you follow the directions accordingly. if you skip a critical ingredient, take shortcuts or mix things out of sequence, the results can be disastrous or disappointing. the endeavor would have been a complete waste of time. trust me, i learned this the hard way when i used to do exactly that when i first tried to cook or bake. and of course, you keep adjusting/adapting the protocol in order to optimize it (to your tastes, to improve on previous results, etc.)

you gotta admit, cooking is an art and a science.

yes, speaking of science, i should be working on my research related things and yet i'm currently adding to my blog...no, it's not a reflection of my priorities. just a reality of my procrastinating nature.

7:59 PM | |

Monday, January 23, 2006 

egg custard tarts part deux

my chinese friends would recognize the picture below as an egg custard tart (dan tat) which are usually sold in Chinese bakeries or served at dim sum.


i recently discovered that in portugal, they also have egg custard tarts which are called pasteis de nata! i was reading one of my favorite food blogs, Chocolate and Zuchini, when I came upon an entry where she described some portugese pastries. i recognized the pasteis de nata in her picture as an egg custard tart. i never knew that the egg custard tarts found in chinese bakeries may actually have a foreign origin. or might it be the other way around?

anyway, so i asked my Portugese friends about these portugese pastries and their description matched what i know as an egg custart tart. so i got a couple from a chinese bakery for them to try. I asked their opinion of how it tasted in comparison to the portugese version - they said it was very similar, only that the tops of the pasteis de nata are broiled (like a creme brulee), the custard more custardy and the pastry crisper. this sounds like the good egg custard tarts you can find at Golden Gate Bakery in SF Chinatown! hm, i'd love to try an authentic pasteis de nata in Portugal someday...

to read the entry about pasteis de nata:
http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2004/07/pastelarias_here_i_come.php

3:51 PM | |

Tuesday, January 17, 2006 

Tea

my friend Marta sent me this quote:

"There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be diminished by a nice cup of tea"
-Bernard-Paul Heroux-, 1900's Basque philosopher.

i like that quote! even though sometimes it feels silly to be excited about food - it IS a very important part of our lives - it has the ability to cheer us up, to remind us of good times and to bring friends and family together...

i think i'll go home and have a nice cup of tea...i think maybe some genmai cha tonight...

7:53 PM | |

Monday, January 16, 2006 

2005 Top 100 Bay Area Restaurants

this link may be helpful to those wanting to explore the great restaurants that the Bay Area has to offer:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/listings/restaurants/top100?cuisine=&loc=&term=&Submit=Search&Go.x=14&Go.y=9&Go=Search

6:43 PM | |

Thursday, January 12, 2006 

homemade cookies surprise

a couple days ago, a package arrived for me. now, it's always great to receive mail, let alone packages, so it was a pleasant surprise. and guess what was inside? homemade cookies baked by my friends Jenny and Joy! and not just ONE kind of cookie, but SEVEN!!! all of them were gorgeous - each type of cookie wrapped prettily in individual bags and tied with different colored ribbons. they even came with handmade, decorated labels.

now, Jenny and Joy are true gourmets. they are so knowledgeable about different types of foods and restaurants and they love to cook and bake as well. Not only that, everything they make always look so yummy, as if they were store-bought from a gourmet food shop or bakery. so of course, all the cookies were delicious (and quickly disappeared within two days). my favorites were the chocolate brownie cookies. Joy was so nice to share the recipe and I subsequently found later in the day posted on a great food blog, In My Kitchen.(http://www.murrayhill5.net/blog/inmykitchenblog/).

here is the recipe for the cookies:

http://www.murrayhill5.net/blog/inmykitchenblog/archives/000562.html

update (1/24/06) - so this past weekend, i baked the chocolate brownie cookies according to the recipe above and they turned out great. =) the cookies had the perfect brownie-ish texture i like - chewy AND fudgy, moist, chocolatey and not at all dry or cake-like. if you are like me, you might balk at the idea of beating the eggs, sugar and vanilla for 15 minutes (!) but trust me, i believe they make a huge difference in developing the right texture for these cookies. i don't have a kitchen-aid so i had to hold my electric hand-mixer to beat the mixture for the required amount of time!

if you use nonstick cookware, wait for the cookies to cool a couple minutes before transferring them to the cooling rack. otherwise, you'll risk breaking off a part of the bottom of the cookie, leaving small chocolate circles remaining on your sheet.

thanks to Joy for sharing this recipe!

9:24 PM | |

Sunday, January 08, 2006 

current food reading

the latest issue of Gourmet magazine is pretty cool - it features 65 recipes from 65 years.

http://www.epicurious.com/gourmet/features/65th/index

also came across the book, The Gastronomical Me by MFK Fisher at the Harvard Coop. i read the back cover and it sounds pretty interesting. look forward to reading it. it reminds me of Ruth Reichl's Garlic and Sapphires in which she writes about her experiences as an undercover food critic. now that's a job i'd LOVE to have. either a food critic or someone who travels and writes pieces about their travel experiences. doesn't that sound like a dream job?

7:37 PM | |

Thursday, January 05, 2006 

chinese restaurant rec for Boston

quick recommendation for those interested in good, authentic chinese food in the Boston area:

Shanghai Gate
204 Harvard Avenue
Allston, Boston
617-566-7344

http://www.boston.com/dining/restaurant/1771


Sichuan Garden (spicy!)
295 Washington St.
Brookline, MA 02445

http://restaurants.boston.com/restaurants-view-6177341870-sichuan_garden-brookline-ma.htm

sadly, there aren't too many good ones around that i know of. i'm sure more exist, but i haven't found them yet, i guess. but the chinese restaurants in Boston do not compare to the ones in SF.

for decent dim sum (Chinese brunch, almost like tapas where you sample many different items both sweet and savory) in Boston:

China Pearl
9 Tyler St
Boston, MA 02111
(617) 426-4388

Hei La Moon
88 Beach St
Boston, MA
(617) 338-8813

dim sum is very popular on the weekends. anytime after 10am, it gets really busy. if you don't want to wait and don't mind waking up early on a weekend, that's the way to go.

11:52 AM | |

Monday, January 02, 2006 

Beard Papa's Cream Puffs

i spent part of New Year's Eve strolling around downtown crossing and made my way over to Quincy Market/Fanueille Hall, an area i'm not usually in unless i'm showing guests around Boston. it's a quaint area where many people (mostly tourists) mill around and check out the food stalls and shops.

it was snowing lightly that day so i was walking inside where the food stalls were, trying to stay warm. all of a sudden, i noticed a new stall selling cream puffs. i had never heard of it before - this place with a cheerful sign "Beard Papa's cream puffs". i didn't even realize i was hungry until i saw the tantalizing cream puffs on display (hadn't eaten lunch that day other than some canned soup). there were several different choices of fillings - from the original vanilla bean custard to belgian chocolate custard, etc. when in doubt, i tend to opt for the original (usually the best) so i decided to go for the original. this cream puff was indeed very yummy. the vanilla bean custard was light and creamy, not heavy at all like the custards in donut fillings. you can taste that the vanilla used for custard was quality stuff. the pastry outside was crisp and slightly warm... no wonder people were ordering these cream puffs by the half or full dozen. but a word of warning - the powdered sugar sprinkled atop the cream puff makes enjoying this pastry a little messy.

Beard Papa's Cream Puffs
Quincy Market/Faneuille Hall (Boston)
and other locations (coming soon to SF!)
http://www.muginohousa.com/index.html

7:45 AM | |