Crumbs Everywhere

Unveiling the masher-massager!

2010-04-25T14:39:00.002-04:00

I've been looking for a potato masher for a long time, never satisfied with the usual Oxo with a grid of holes. I came close to getting an avocado masher with a smaller-than-usual metal maze surface, but it was overpriced. My kitchen is filled with classic ware, but I couldn't resist this Chef's Planet one. It looks nothing like a conventional masher and no wonder! I took it home today at 25% off, and guess what I found? It does a great job as a self-massager! It's hardy enough to withstand the pressure, and its vanes are made of durable plastic with smooth, rounded edges. And as you can see from the picture, this device does well on grip.

What a great multiuse tool! I daresay I will get more mileage out of pounding my neck and shoulders than I will pummelling potatoes, if the first day is any indication at all.

Mustard chicken stew with barley risotto

2010-01-17T20:32:00.005-05:00

Dinner today was unexpectedly easy and good. I was in the mood for a chicken in a pot, and this needed only a quick jaunt to the neighborhood Mexican grocer for some pollo (drumsticks was the only boned part they had). This recipe serves 2.

First, prepare the barley risotto. Finely cube 1 carrot and half a celery stick. Wash 1.5 cups pearl barley and half a cup of brown rice, add to the rice cooker, add carrot, celery, 1 bay leaf, a pinch of salt, 4 cups of water. Put the rice cooker on, and go out and buy the thing you've decided to cook. When the barley risotto is done, fluff it up, add a tablespoon of olive oil and a handful of chopped cilantro or parsley, and mix it up.

Next, make the mustard chicken stew. I have adapted Clotilde's recipe from her Chocolate and Zucchini cookbook. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil into a casserole pot, add in a smashed clove of garlic when the oil is slightly heated. Remove garlic when it has flavored the oil. Place the 4 chicken drumsticks (or legs, adjust for portion) into the pot and brown on both sides, seasoning with salt and pepper. After you've turned it the second side, put roughly chopped pieces of 1 side of bacon onto the chicken. After you've gotten a nice brown, almost crisp skin, remove the chicken, leaving the browning bacon. Add the onions and sautee with bacon. When they've become soft, add a splash of wine, about half or a third of a cup. I think a dry white should do it but I used what I had on hand - merlot. Let the wine bubble for a bit, then add 1 diced tomato. Stir, and return chicken to the pot. Add a teaspoon of dried thyme, cover, and put on medium. Stew for about 30 minutes, turning the chicken regularly.

When the chicken is cooked, add in 3 tablespoons of whole mustard (with seeds please! They turn up so nicely on the final presentation.). Cook, uncovered on medium high for 10 minutes, stirring frequently until the sauce thickens enough to coat chicken. If your guests aren't here, you can keep it warm on low. Serve on barley risotto - the mustard blends into the sauce and is pretty subtle, so you don't have to worry it tasting like your last hot dog. So yummy!

Heirloom tomatoes, chevre and arugula salad

2009-10-28T21:21:00.004-04:00

After a splendid morning at the farmers' market, oh sometime in summer: Heirloom tomatoes and herbed chevre on arugula, simple balsamic-olive oil dressing, fresh ciabatta.

Duxelles on polenta

2009-10-21T10:33:00.004-04:00

Button mushrooms braised in red wine and butter on polenta, and dusted with parsley and Parmigiano Reggiano. Is this too fancy for a second date? The conclusion is yes! But it worked out in the end.

Farfalle cooked risotto-style with zucchini and cacao nibs

2009-10-20T11:19:00.002-04:00

Absorption pasta with zucchini and cacao nibs, Columbus 2006.
Recipe from Clotilde's book.

New York eat log

2009-05-28T10:42:00.003-04:00

Roast duck, Chinatown, Manhattan
Ten Zen bubble tea
Veggie burger and homemade chips in Brookyln Public, near Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Japanese curry dog and barley ice tea at asiadog, Brooklyn Flea
Prosciutto, red pepper and mozzarella sandwich in Italian deli in Brooklyn
Rendang, Hainanese chicken and chendol at Nyonya
Bahn-mii pork and pate sandwich at Hana, Brooklyn
Meat ravioli in a shiitake cream sauce and a Pinot Grigio (Veneto) at Porto Bella, SoHo
Spinach and feta quiche at Cafe Lucca, Brooklyn
Brown sugar and pistachio financier, sweet melissa, Brooklyn

Julie & Julia - The Movie

2009-05-05T11:45:00.008-04:00

The official trailer for the Julie & Julia movie is out! I can't believe that I am (or used to be) a part of a movement that started as a small community that has grown to change so many people's lives. I was regularly exchanging views with bloggers that have since quit their jobs and started writing cookbooks. And meeting them in cute coffeeshops in Montmartre and surreptitiously passing them packets of polenta. When I started blogging, the Julie/Julia project had just about folded -- a year of recipes from Julia Child's cookbook, done by the end of 2003. But it wasn't until this year that I picked up Julia Powell's book. I'm usually not fond of autobiographies, but I was surfing in the most unlikely section in the bookstore when the book caught my eye. Would you believe that Julie & Julia is required reading for a university Comparative Studies course? I did not, either. There is a funny secret satisfaction fluttering about in my chest, thinking how this little movement that I was once a little part of, has been taken as far as university course required reading and a major motion picture starring Meryl Streep, for god's sake.

FIVE by Haagen Dazs

2009-04-22T23:00:00.004-04:00

Seeing stocks of the newly-launched Haagen Dazs series, FIVE, made me pick up regular pints just to check if there were more than five ingredients in those. Indeed there were. FIVE purports only to use the following: milk, cream, eggs, sugar and the main flavor-giving ingredient. The result? Much creamier than the regular one, with the main ingredient -- in my case, passion fruit, standing out in all its sharpness. Not as sharp and acidic, mind you, as the freshly-squeezed juice I get standing at the street corner in Laos, but anyway I can get my maracuja nearly there, I'm sold. :) I can't wait to try ginger and brown sugar!

Mok pa

2009-04-12T19:41:00.003-04:00

Here is one of my favorite Lao dishes, mok pa, beautifully demonstrated in this video by Laocook.com, a great resource for Lao cooking. Mok pa is white fish blended with fish roe, chilli, paadek, fish sauce and dressed with various herbs and aromatics, and steamed in banana leaf. Saep lai!

And if you're anything like me, you'll soon be won over to the kitschy A-Team music.

Gordon Ramsay's perfect scrambled eggs

2009-04-06T18:20:00.004-04:00

I've always been convinced the simplest dishes are the most deceptively difficult ones to do. This is from my struggles with the basics of Italian cookery, like spaghetti aglio olio, and my years of trying to perfect the carbonara.

Here is Gordon Ramsay's take on scrambled eggs. Basically he's saying we shouldn't deploy the whisk and the salt until the eggs are broken into the pan, after which we're free to kick them around while they cook through. The reason is that salt added before the eggs meet fire changes the constitution of the egg while it cooks, resulting in a less-than-ideal scramble. Ramsay also suggests having the pan in motion, bringing the egg on and off the fire while it cooks. Blobs of butter and a dollop of creme fraiche are also added when the eggs are about done. I must say the end result looks suspiciously smooth and creamy, so I'm skeptical until proven otherwise.

Tea bites

2009-04-04T20:08:00.002-04:00

My in-progress collection of recipes for snacks to drink tea with, and tea-infused food:

Earl grey tea muffins
Cookies - lavender, chai, matcha, earl grey
Green tea furikake
Chinese tea eggs (quick version)
Pancakes/waffles infused with chai or matcha

Last update: 4 April, 2009

Eating-in challenge: A week in Las Vegas

2009-03-19T16:07:00.002-04:00

On Saturday I leave for a one-week conference trip to Las Vegas. Yes, I know it's Vegas, but as a graduate student in a state university, the trip will likely blow a hole in my pocket. Apart from the cost of the flight and hotel room for a week, I hear the food's pretty expensive for this country. I've also heard about the amazing number of great restaurants. After laying awake for hours wondering how many months of credit card debt this blitz will add up to, I started to think to what extent I could rely on some food supplies I could bring over. I mean, I know $5.99 buffets are a steal, but how much of this can you eat and then, $6 is still a lot to pay for a meal.

Besides, it's a conference, which means I need to save some moolah for good coffee!

So here I'm thinking aloud, giving myself the challenge of dreaming up ways I could bank on food from home. The challenge is to eat my own lunches this way, for six days. The other challenge, of course, is how to make food that lasts till Thursday?

Here's my evolving menu:

1. couscous salad with peas and carrots (c,w)
2. savory herb and cheese scones
3. date and walnut cake
4. dried salami
5. egg mayo salad
6. tuna salad
7. bagels, artisan bread, crackers
8. tea bags: peppermint, english breakfast
9. honey
10. cereal
11. chocolate
12. almonds
13. cereal bars
14. rice with green beans and pork

Two dinners chez moi

2009-03-13T23:24:00.004-04:00

Menu 1, February
1. Polenta cakes topped with duxelles (finely-diced mushrooms cooked in wine and butter)
2. Portuguese chicken (pollo portugese) over buttered conchiglie pasta
3. Breyer's vanilla ice-cream with fresh blueberries and walnut halves

Menu 2, March
1. Potato cases filled with balsamic-marinated watercress and topped with brie
2. Fettuccini with crab and ginger alfredo
3. Straticella mousse (brought by guest)

Savory scones

2009-02-18T18:34:00.003-05:00

E. gave me this recipe for her savory scones (a welcome mainstay at those long evening seminars!) in an e-mail. I am a great fan of E.'s baking. She recently made a cake with marscapone cream, which was the best cake I'd eaten in a long time.

Back in 2007, I had two consecutive dreams about scones involving a dusk-to-twilight REM battle of what to put in them. In my dreams I had decided it would be bacon and parmesan, but I never implemented it. Two years later, I'm finally making my first scones -- in fact, doing my first baking that involves me making individual rounds of stuff. Like, you know, cookies, like. Like not involving a cake or loaf pan. I know, it took me that long.

The scones in the oven right now with grated Comte, black olives and cashews. With a sprinkle of herbes de Provence. My first thought was sundried tomatoes but I couldn't get the darn jar open!

I will post the results if they look good enough to post and if I get my camera battery loaded up in time!

E.'s E-mailed Recipe for Savory Scones or Damper (a kind of soda bread)

2 C flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 T sugar
3 T butter
1 C milk or cream

(you can add about anything sweet or savory...1/3 C shredded parmesan cheese, crushed black pepper, fresh chopped chives or cinnamon, cloves, sultanas...etc.)

mix dry ingredients together, cut in butter and crumble with hands until pea size or smaller (like making a pastry dough). add the milk/cream and knead slightly until smooth. shape into round loaf (or into multiple single serving rounds). bake on greased baking sheet @ 375 degrees F. baking time varies depending on size of rounds (30ish minutes for single servings longer for larger loaves). regardless of size should sound hollow when tapped.

Ispahan

2008-06-13T12:45:00.002-04:00

I can always trusted to be about three seasons late into food fashions. I like to think it's really a healthy ambivalence to food crazes that come and go, especially since they usually involve exorbitant prices, long lines, and not to mention a lot of silly hype. Much like witnessing the crowds go wild for the freshly-touched down Beaujolais Nouveau while in Japan. I'd rather be never than early, and sometimes better late than never. I suppose going by this rule I'll probably find out sometime in mid-2009 why donuts warrant TOTO-worthy lines that snake way across the Raffles City Marketplace atrium.

So when I was digging about for something I ate last weekend, I came across old archived articles about Pierre Hermé's visit to Singapore, which apparently caused a stampede and an instant black market for tickets to this and that. The fascinating bio of Monsieur Macaron aside, there was also the shock of finding my coveted dessert, with exactly the same name and ingredients, being attributed to him. These Ispahans, named after the variety of rose that gave the macaron its flavor, these delicate mini-stacks of raspberry, lychee and rose petal cream, were staring from the dessert counter of Bakerzin. Surely we're not seeing the McMacaron?

In any case it was gorgeous and enticing enough for a second go, sometime before I leave next week. And here is the recipe I found on a rather random Pierre Hermé tribute page.

Ispahan

Ingredients
(Makes about 42 x 55mm shells - roughly 60 smaller petits fours)

For almond paste for macaroon base
390g ground almonds
390g icing sugar
145g fresh egg whites
5g carmine colouring
5g strawberry colouring

For meringue
380g granulated sugar
95ml water
145g egg whites (older ones are better)
2g powdered egg white

For the rose petal cream
900g butter cream*
50ml rose syrup
Optional: 90g creamed butter with 5ml essence of rose

* Butter cream recipe incorporates enriched crème anglaise and Italian meringue - see opposite page

For assembly (per Ispahan)
2 x 55mm macaroons (see separate recipe)
20g-25g rose petal cream
8 raspberries
1 heaped tsp chopped lychee (see note at end of recipe on opposite page)
2 drops glucose
1 red rose petal

Method

The equal quantities of ground almonds and icing sugar, mixed together, is called a "tant pour tant" by pastry chefs. Beat in the egg whites to form a tacky dough.

For the meringue, put the sugar and water in a pan and boil to 121°C (1). Meanwhile, start whisking the egg whites and powdered egg until they start to rise.

While continuing to whisk the whites, pour the boiling sugar on to them in a steady stream so the sugar cooks the whites (2).

Continue whisking at a moderate speed until the temperature of the meringue drops to between 45°C and 40°C.

Put the almond paste in a mixing bowl and beat in the colouring (3). Beat in about a fifth of the warm meringue. Fold in the rest of the meringue and work it well until it obtains a dropping texture (4).

Prepare a baking sheet. On it place a sheet of baking parchment with 55mm circles marked on it. Leave 1cm gaps between each circle.

Fill a piping bag with a Savoy plain tube (10 or 12 mm) with the mixture. Pipe about 42 macaroon circles (5).

Lift the tray, tap the underside all over with your free hand. Each circle will spread a little and even out.

Leave the mixture in a warm, dry place for 35 to 40 minutes before baking.

The macaroons are ready to bake when their surface is smooth and no longer sticky. If you don't allow them to set their surface will crack during baking.

Preheat a convection oven to 165°C. Put the tray of macaroons in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes. Every oven is different. They are ready when the surface is crisp and the underneath is also set and lifts easily off the baking sheet.

Filling base

Enriched creme anglaise

Ingredients
180ml milk
140g egg yolks
140g caster sugar

Method
Boil the milk. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together till the sugar has dissolved (6 & 7). Pour the milk over the yolks and then pour the mixture back into the pan (8). Heat to 85°C. Take off the heat and pour into a cool bowl. Whisk the mixture until it whitens, thickens and cools.

Italian meringue

Ingredients
125g egg whites
15g caster sugar
250g granulated sugar
75ml water

Method
Whisk the egg whites and 15g sugar until well risen and quite firm. Boil the granulated sugar and water to 121°C. while continuing to whisk the whites, pour on the boiling syrup in a steady stream. Whisk until the meringue is cold, shiny and firm.

Butter cream

Ingredients
450ml crème anglaise*
750g softened unsalted butter
350g Italian meringue*

* See two previous recipes

Method
Combine the ingredients together either by beating or whisking. They may appear to separate, but will always come back to form a smooth emulsion.

• Note: there's enough of the mixture for about 1.5 recipes.

To make the rose petal cream, beat the butter cream and rose syrup with optional creamed essence (9).

Put one macaroon shell on the work surface, flat side up. Pipe a circle of rose petal cream around the inside of its circumference and lay seven raspberries on the cream (10).

Spoon the chopped lychee into the centre of the ring (11). Pipe a small blob of rose petal cream on the lychee (12).

Fit the second macaroon shell on top (13). Refrigerate for 24 hours for the best result. Pipe two small drops of glucose on the top macaroon and use to fix the garnish of a raspberry and a rose petal (14).

• Note on lychees. Pierre Hermé uses tinned lychees. Whether using these or fresh ones, they need to be dried out before use, otherwise their moisture will leech into the macaroons and ruin the texture. Cut the lychees coarsely. Put them in a colander or sieve. Leave to dry out for 24 hours before using them.

Source: Restaurants and Institutions

Month of cheese

2008-06-10T22:02:00.003-04:00

I've been regaled with more cheese than I can handle this month. More than I deserve, in fact. I'd like to think my approach is still more cautionary, though like my alcohol tolerance, my ability to handle fromage has shot up considerably in Laos. All thanks to the messrs and mlles of the likes of Phimphone, Simuang, and Scooby Dou, the capital's finest delicatessens. And in Singapore, none other than the trusty Carrefour house brand Reflects de France.

Here is a cheese-related eat-list, for archival purposes:
A perky orange mimolette
Good n' proper brie
Goat's cheese with honey and herbes de Provence
Heavenly reblochon
The bubbling quattro formaggio pizze at Le Provencal
Savoyarde pizza: parma ham, reblochon, potatoes, creme fraiche, onions
Discount Carrefour comte
Melted emmenthal crostini

Participants in the Great Vientiane Cheese Massacre of April 2008, chez Uncle Frank.

Singapore street food I

2007-09-17T02:08:00.001-04:00

Laksa and nasi lemak, Thomson Road; Kuching kolo mee

Saffron-braised carrot and rice croquettes

2007-09-01T23:03:00.000-04:00

Like the most ordinary of days, my most surprising recipes are conjured out of necessity and limitations, rather than detailed and long-term planning. Living at a just-moved in apartment of a friend who just moved to a new city meant that eating out was pretty much the rule of the day. But the apartment was not without a variety of dried foods, and some fresh, from one of those touristy visits to a farmers' market. And, leftover rice, which always fuels my imagination. For me, they really scream croquettes!

This one is packed with rice and carrot, the two protagonists -- the carrot was finely diced and braised in a bit of saffron and water, before being added to the batter of rice, flour, an egg, half a chopped tomato, basil, a sprinkling of breadcrumbs. Then, flattened and moulded into patties which were then dredged in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs.

Banana Bean Cafe, German Village, Columbus OH

2007-07-21T12:36:00.001-04:00

I don't eat at this lovely little cafe enough. It's Southern US meets Cuban meets French. The calamari is lightly breaded and fresh-tasting -- it's been a while but I remember the chutney as spicy -- the spinach topping was also fried, an unusual touch. Then the omelette that my friend had -- that had everything in there. The shrimp and grits were so savoury -- large, succulent shrimp.

Farfalle par absorption with zucchini and cacao

2007-07-16T19:24:00.000-04:00

This recipe is out of Clotilde's cookbook, one of my current favorite books to cook out of. This book is great for learning new combinations of ingredients and I must admit trying this recipe out of sheer curiosity of what pasta cooked by a risotto absorption method tasted like, let alone the combination of that and cacao nibs! I just knew that if I didn't employ them in some other way, my Schaffenberger cacao nibs would just go towards topping scoop after scoop of ice cream and we wouldn't want that, would we?

I won't post the recipe here -- the book is a great buy -- but basically you fry garlic and onions and then the pasta like you would arborio rice for risotto, and add stock and cook just like in a risotto. It doesn't take as long too. I would pound the cacao nib finely next time, because they tended to overpower if you bite into one in a spoonful. But they definitely give an edge to an otherwise savory pasta, putting it a notch up in extraordinariness.

Bravo, Clotilde!

Della Santina, Sonoma, California

2007-07-15T22:35:00.000-04:00

I almost didn't order this -- pappardelle cinghiale -- for fear that it would spoil my one experience of a the same dish -- made with wild boar indigenous to the Toscana region -- in a trip to Florence more than 2 years ago. Luckily I went ahead -- and of course I didn't remember the flavor so well after all, although I thought this one to be lighter -- just my imagination?

This was the one restaurant experience I remembered (and was remembered, as my friends will not fail to remind me) for almost going into a fit at the sight of the menu -- real northern Italian, brings back the good 'ol days of living where in a place where such food was so common. I don't care if I never made it to The French Laundry and if this was some run-of-the-mill place that Californians turn their noses up at, or if the town of Sonoma reminded me of a theme park -- for god's sake you people don't know how lucky you are.

Basi Italia

2007-07-15T11:58:00.000-04:00

As they say -- the best part is the prettiest little garden you sit in to enjoy fresh, homely, no-fuss Mediterranean food. This was the weekday lunch menu, pecked at by office folks from downtown. The lovely part is the approach too -- for me, a short jaunt in the backroads of the Victorian Village residential estate to a little red-brick road in which the restaurant is (I think) a indicated by a vine-strewn discreet entryway and a little wooden swinging door leading to the garden.

Indian Dinner @ Dennison

2007-07-14T10:56:00.001-04:00

Chicken curry, garlic naan, creamy mushroom and peas, and the quintessentially Indian cookie dough ice-cream and Newcastle pale ale.

Quan Ju De, Beijing

2007-07-14T10:27:00.000-04:00

The art and style of carving duck:The crispy skin is the most precious, but check out the Olympic 5-ring burner it's on:
And finally, where many an Iron Chef sword rally was bitterly fought:

Peaches with Coconut Sorbet

2007-07-13T23:31:00.000-04:00

You might as well call me Trader's Whore by now, judging from how half of my ingredient lists come from there. Add another: sorbet like you've never tasted before goes by the name Sharon's Sorbet, and comes in various flavors. I haven't tried most of them because I've been stubbornly loyal to Coconut. '100% coconut' my ass!, you say. But baby that's what it says on the label on that pint of goodness.

Spoon some of that on top of peeled diced peaches.

It makes for a great combo here - the sweetness of the sorbet with the sourness of peach - a distant reminder of bubor cha cha. Dang sour peaches! I want to caramelize them next, get those sugars out and dancing (no pun intended, really).

Smoked oysters, potato and romaine salad with creamy dressing

2007-07-11T21:00:00.000-04:00

Adapted from this and that with several pantry limitations in mind. It's a delicious cross between a caesar, a hearty grotto salad and your little black dress.

Serves 3 for appetizers, 1 as entree.

Boil 5 medium to large red potatoes, skins on, in salted water, for about 12-15 minutes. Meanwhile, chop about half a medium-sized head of romaine lettuce, wash and drain. Dice half an onion (I used white, but I'd imagine red or purple would add color and tang). Open a can of smoked oysters, drain (I used Trader Joe's). Mix these in a large salad bowl.

Vinaigrette: Whisk 2 teaspoons white wine vinegar (I used orange champagne vineger, that's all I had), 4 tablespoons mayonnaise, 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard, salt and pepper to taste. Add 3 teaspoons of extra-virgin olive oil in a steady stream, whisking with every addition. Adjust seasonings according to how creamy you like the dressing.

Drizzle over the oyster, potato and romaine salad, and serve while potatoes are still warm. I chomped it down with a glass (ok, three) of Black Mountain Malbec.

Spaghetti with squid, green pepper and spicy scallop chutney sauce

2007-07-10T13:25:00.001-04:00

I was deliberating on what to cook for lunch -- in the midst of exams and wouldn't think of running out to buy complements, and at the same time tired of the same old ways of doing pasta. So after taking some things out of the fridge, shifting packets and bottles and half-sliced vegetables around and thinking about combinations (eliminating anchovies, capers, olives and tomato out of the equation), I decided on a slight deviation from the norm: Squid with green peppers in a spicy scallop chutney.

I sauteed about half a large onion and two finely-chopped cloves of garlic in olive oil, then added chopped green pepper, stirring for a minute before adding a tablespoon of spicy scallop chutney (procured from Hong Kong, meant as -- well, a chutney!) until the green pepper looked bright and gave off that unmistakable green peppery scent (mingled with the spicy tones of reduced scallop chutney. Then added the chopped frozen calamari (half-finger length pieces, if there ever was such a measure) and a dash of oregano, salt and pepper to taste, cook for 5 minutes, then add a teaspoon (to taste) of chutney. Then in goes the pasta (spaghetti), mix it up with a cup or less of the water used for boiling the pasta over medium-high heat.

The result: just the right amount of mouth-watering spiciness from the chutney, well-matched with the tanginess of the green pepper. And well-absorbed by the calamari, without too many clashing flavors.

Soya sauce chicken gizzards with shiitake

2006-11-07T00:05:00.000-05:00

Weekend effort: Chicken gizzards and shiitake in soya sauce, with udon and choy sum.

Izakaya Chiri--

2005-11-18T02:17:00.000-05:00

Chiri--, an izakaya off the Kawaramachi-Shijo junction and a popular student hangout. And you get student's portions too: pictured here is the house special, the party-sized udon. Wash down with umeshusoda (you guessed! sparkly plum wine!) and a roll-call of oily finger foods: deep-fried octopus legs, agedashi tofu, soft egg roll, stewed beef tendons. Going back there again tonight - what the gut needs after an evening of throwing clay.

Rolling!

2005-11-16T19:51:00.000-05:00

This was a lot of fun - my sensei Akiko was a real darling and she was taking the opportunity to speak English while teaching me how to beat, fold and bake the sponge, and roll it all up. Throughout the lesson I was hastily annotating my Japanese notes - she looked at it and went, "Can you read your handwriting?" The jam syrup spread was a syrup-cassis liquer-raspberry jam concoction, and the filling cream a complicated (ok, more complicated than yours truly has ever a-rolled up!) working together of Philly cream cheese, yoghurt, honey, fresh cream. Now this is cream!

This was definitely one heck of a good cake - the cream cheese filling gave such an burst of flavour and innovation in a Swiss Roll. The kind of cream that stuck to your guts and sent you off to pretty dreams post-dinner.

The cooking studio, like our pottery place, was like a bubble of sorts where women (men aren't allowed to join) come to cook together and in groups, forming an air of sweet acquiescent solidarity that can only happen in Japan. Little signs stuck to walls, refrigerators, gently instructed you do wash like this, put like that. The studio had three little colonies - bread, cake and cooking. The cooks were whipping up steaming pots of coconut curry, the smell of which wafted through the studio and into my hair and out into the lanes of the department store (Loft) that our studio was attached to. On your way out you can take a pleasurable ramble outside in the kitchen shopping lanes, where you'll find imported and Japanese fine and funky cooking ware - spatulas, cookware, mandolines, garlic peelers, teapots for all kinds of tea, sake sets, funky salad spoons.

Next up - an intriguing cafe au lait bread, and then the sample lessons are over - I've got a quick decision whether to take up the bread-making course at half price - sadly without Akiko's tutelage, as bread isn't her speciality.

I heart breakfast

2005-11-07T19:24:00.000-05:00

One breakfast I nearly couldn't finish: Takashimaya 'NY' poppyseed bagel, egg scrambled with bacon and tangy parsley. C. made the plate that it was on.

Pesto Breadsticks

2005-10-07T21:42:00.000-04:00

Equinoctal comfort

2005-09-29T09:43:00.000-04:00

Since coming into possession of my new cookbook - The Enlightened Kitchen by Mari Fujii - I have been waiting for an opportunity to try cooking one of those delicate meals with all sorts of fancy side-dishes. I was very pleased with how this one turned out. Although I didn't go vegetarian as Fujii recommends in her gorgeous rhapsodizing of shojin ryori (Japanese temple cooking), her luscious pictures of unexpected vegetarian combinations perched on beautiful artisanal plateware zinged me into action.

So today I gave myself over to an hour of blissful indecision and happy preparation, and produced things out of ingredients I had on hand: fried eggplant drizzled with tomato sauce; lean pork sauteed with persimmon, and ginger rice. The latter came strictly out of Fujii's book - it was chockfull of flavor, good enough on its own with a heady aroma of ginger juice. The eggplant dish was also inspired by the book - but the sauce was my time-saving substitute for the more elaborate dengaku and miso flavorings featured. I didn't know what to expect from the pork and persimmon combination, but it went really well; the cubed persimmon thrown in had just enough time to render its sweetness to the pork but still retain some bite.

It was a good meal - ginger-tangy, persimmon-sweet, eggplant-savoury. And after the cooking was done I realized how autumny it was - the eggplants and persimmons in season, while ginger rice makes for a warming change-of-season comfort dish. This was one meal in which I enjoyed the cooking and anticipation as much as I did the eating.

Blue Boy Bakery, Uji

2005-09-20T23:40:00.000-04:00

There is a little gem of a bakery right here in Obaku, Uji, which happens to be one of the best bakeries in the world. Its existence was conducted to us over lunch at the canteen, and knowing what kind of effect that always has on me, I make it my first stop leaving the university. 'The Blue Boy bakery,' whispers A., 'that's what I call it because it has a little boy on the sign - a blue sign'. 'It's right on the road just after where you would turn in to go to the JR station. It's good'.

'Does it have bread, baguette? European bread?' I ask because it has been so difficult to find non-sweet breakfast bread of the non-toast variety.

'It's good,' A. only repeats. Her boyfriend J. concurs with a nod. They say no more.

They needn't, because that evening, I find out where it is, and I find out via a carefully-planned stratified sampling scheme that they did good sweet as well as savoury breads, a tough balance to maintain. There is a good-looking crusty bread bowl made of potato flour filled with bacon and grilled cheese. That night, C. fights with me over the last morsel of foccacia but manages to finish the bacon bowl. Luckily, I'd already finished the sweet delicate apple crisp on the train.

Except for the apple crisp, I haven't bought anything twice because there's too much to try. And good thing I can't read Japanese, they must have out-of-this-world names. Today I am munching on a walnut-speckled plum-chestnut pastry with just a bit of adzuki-chocolate-tasting (but is it?) filling.

It is the kind of place people speak of in hushed tones. It is a two-person wide, four-person long store which just has enough room to conduct customers, holding on to trays, in conveyor-belt fashion, the only way to wiggle yourself to the line. No-one talks except for the smiley-friendly-efficient cashiers. In the back you can just glimpse white-cloaked angels zipping around baking tables, chopping stuff, the occasional slap of the oven door and the whiff of something good. The third time I let myself go in, failing to resist in my walks to campus, I meet R., whom I haven't seen in two months.

'Hey! How are you doing? What's up with everything?' then lowers his voice in reverence. 'Did I tell you about this place?'

'No it was somebody else. I've known it for a while'. I am saying as I eye a jam-and-cream confection and reach out to slip it on my tray.

'Careful with those,' R. laughs, seeing I have two sweet things on my tray, and it's only 10 in the morning.

Chicken livers with asparagus, onion and mash

2005-09-11T20:36:00.000-04:00

C. worked up a sweat last weekend making his yummy butterless potato mash with tasty chicken livers, fried onions and the sort of pale asparagus you find here. A fancy change from the pizza we've been so inordinately fond of on our stovetop gas grille.

Nishiki Market

2005-08-24T12:24:00.000-04:00

I hesitate about posting about the Nishiki because oh my god, my experience with this awesome food-only market has only just begun, and threatens to evolve with every trip. Each time I walk down its long and narrow thoroughfare I am bombarded by different scenes, smells and sounds. If it isn't the pickle seller going Irrashayimasse! it's the samurai-looking young men pounding the mochi at the sweets stall.

My first trip was a sleepy afternoon when sporadic tourist groups roamed; the second was a bustling Saturday noontime frenzy, where it was a jostle through and through, but when I also felt much less shy about trying the different-flavoured mochi or pickles in their little boxes or bowls (above).

If I don't know what to do with 10,000 varieties of pickles, at least I know I'll be visiting Nishiki again (and again) if only for its flowers at wholesale prices, or the purple firmness of a basket of eggplants. Or the odd cuts of meat, the strangest flat fish to be seen this side of Kansai. Or really just for the heck of being there.

Cantonese dinner at B.'s

2005-08-23T00:37:00.000-04:00

Good friends and good food: B. made sweet and sour chicken, beef and broccoli in oyster sauce, char-fried rice (with peas! scallions! egg! fried in a stockpot but with that amazing charcoal-stove crust!). The five of us, from four continents, sitting in a warm hearth of a kitchen in a Kyoto suburb, drinking all kinds of good things, talking till late.

Saturday morning, or the cooking class that wasn't

2005-08-22T23:45:00.000-04:00

The plan was summer sweets, which got me all excited about dessert, but instead we were told to come round a table with two takoyaki stoves, which you can buy in electronic stores here. The sensei was a shy young man who represented a yakisoba sauce company (C. would have had a field day).

The class was mostly in Japanese, but since takoyaki and yakisoba were no mysteries even for foreigners like myself, I bumbled my way through the class quite easily, helped by three lovely young ladies.
After the lunch and a little bowl of shaved ice dessert, we worked it all off with an hour of Bon dancing, commonly danced in village festivals in August to celebrate Obon, the month of the dead. You repeat a series of coordinated arm and leg movements while moving in a circle in tune to some trance-like chanting with basic instruments.

The eclectic plan aside, this was more of a fun social gathering than a cooking class. For next month they're promising to teach us what to do with okura, the stuff left over from making beancurd, but who knows? Maybe a spot of fan painting instead!

After all that effort for a sweltering Saturday morning I cooled down by walking through the famed Nishiki Market and buying a basket of eggplants and some fleurs du jour, before heading to Takashimaya to splurge on European bread. Our regular bread was out, so I got a cumin-flavoured half-loaf, which went well with an impromptu French onion soup the next day.

And what unbelievable luck! The already culinary Saturday ended in a superb Cantonese dinner made by a professor friend and chef extraordinaire!

Grand Marnier French Toast

2005-08-19T00:57:00.000-04:00

Sounds like something I'd love to try soon:

Grand Marnier French Toast
4 servings

6 large eggs
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup Grand Marnier or other orange-flavored liqueur
1 and 1/2 tablespoon of brown sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
8 slices whole-wheat bread -- best if slightly stale
3 tablespoons of butter for frying
Powdered sugar for dusting Preheat oven to 200F.

In a large shallow baking dish, whisk together eggs, orange juice, milk, liqueur, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Add 4 bread slices and soak 2 minutes. Turn slices over and soak 2 minutes more. Transfer soaked bread slices to a plate and repeat procedure with remaining 4 bread slices.

In a large heavy skillet or griddle, heat 1 1/2 T. butter over medium heat until foam subsides; cook half of coated bread slices until golden, about 3 minutes on each side. Transfer to a baking sheet and keep warm in oven. Cook remaining bread slices in same manner.

Dust French toast with powdered sugar and serve with warm maple syrup.

Fine dining in Kyoto

2005-08-15T22:27:00.000-04:00

What better opportunity to experience Japanese fine-dining than a farewell party for a couple of visiting professors! And the menu, if you please:

1. Stand outside the well-preserved machiya (merchant's house) waiting for the rest of the party to show.

2. Finally venture through the outer courtyard and into the reception area. Remove shoes and place in lockers provided, and find out you could have spent your last 15 minutes seated in comfortable waiting chairs like everyone else, or milling around and admiring the darkening view of the garden.

3. Allow yourself to be led into the inner corridors, where you are shown to an exquisite tatami room with an expansive ikebana arrangement in the center and two long tables on the sides adorned with meal implements and the first course in covered woven baskets.

4. Be the only person to order wine instead of Asahi. Open the basket when the others do, and collectively gasp at the delicate arrangements of sashimi, puddings, compote of sea urchin lying within the basket.

5. Find out that this is only the first course and indulge happily. Feel a bit woeful about the ice-cold red wine, and wonder if you should have ordered sake instead.

6. Receive plate of things to dunk in the hotpot, of soya bean milk.

7. Receive main course - an unexpectedly understated sushi plate.

8. Discover the best thing since air-con: plum wine or umeshu.

9. Arrive at an epiphany. that Japanese fine dining is less about the food than the presentation (the excesses, the impressions), and, as the evening wears on, an excuse to drink a whole lot of beer and lose inhibitions.

10. Tumble with the other inebriated folk through the restaurant's subtly-lit landscape garden in the moonlight on a tour of its mini-bridges, tricking streams, hanging willows, and imported limestone plunge pool. Try to shut out images from the Blair Witch Project. Find out this very fine machiya was built and owned by the man who engineered the canalization of the Kamogawa, the banks on which the house sits.

11. Realize that drinking on a Monday sets a really lousy precedent for the rest of the week.

Matcha made in heaven

2005-08-06T02:22:00.000-04:00

Creations from our first pottery class together, finally painted and fired. Just the right things for my newly-acquired pack of Uji matcha!

IMBB #17: Lemon Verbena and Lavender Jelly

2005-08-02T22:29:00.000-04:00

TasteTea is my comeback IMBB!:)

I remember my first IMBB, way back when it was in its single digits. It was one of those things that inspired me to start a food blog. Two years on, I've moved on to two more countries in different continents, seen my old blog disappear with a bad hosting company, and done nothing much with respect to food blogging except live vicariously through other people's wonderful sites. Not blogging much is also tied to the nomadism and new busy life, the stresses and non-permanence of it all leading to a mostly uninspired kitchen. But with the next 7 months in glorious Japan, I thought it was the perfect time to start it up again.

My first contribution in ages (thank you Clement for probably the most clever and inspiring themes ever) is a very simple concoction, result of the severely simplified culinary life I've been leading, as well as a pretty sparse kitchen. I just had to use verbena, my absolute number-one bedtime tea, and some dried lavender, brought over from the US in a doubled-up ziplock bag for special occasions like these. I added lavender to deepen the flavour, as verbena tends to be rather muted.

Verbena is also special because we used to live in Ascona in Ticino, Switzerland, and the Italian town just across the lake was called Verbania, named after the verbena-lined lakeshore. Verbena isn't such a popular herb but I find it a lot more soothing than camomile tea. I first drank the tea in Lausanne, where some friends were hosting us. With the strong aroma of verbena flowers, and the heady addition of fleur d'orange syrup, we almost fell asleep at the table.

The recipe

1 teabag lemon verbena, also known as vervain (mine had a bit of fleur d'orange in it)
1 teaspoon dried lavender
1 5g-sachet of agar-agar or jelly, procured with some challenge at the local Japanese supermarket
3 cups of water

Brew the lemon verbena and lavendar in the 3 cups of water, boiling gently. At the end of the brewing (according to teabag instructions), add in sachet of jelly/agar-agar and stir until it dissolves. Strain the mixture and pour into moulds as desired. Cool and refrigerate until set.

Fast food fast pay

2005-07-11T07:20:00.000-04:00

The well-travelled visitor to Japan must have seen countless of these things, but I'm still fascinated at coin-operated anything, including this intriguing machine that swallowed C.'s payment for his dish of rice-and-curry in one of the fast food establishments in Sanjo.

Lipton Tea House, Sanjo, Kyoto

2005-07-10T06:52:00.000-04:00

Lipton doesn't conjure up visions of splendour and dining ecstasy, but the Lipton Tea House in the arcaded maze of the Sanjo shopping district in downtown Kyoto is a pleasant well-lit coffee/tea parlour. I cannot be happier at the Japanese passion for pastries and baking. I let myself go today with Lipton's torte of the day, a matcha pudding on a sliver of cream and sitting on a rich chocolate fudge tart base. It was an unmatchable (pun intended) welding of bitter-sweet flavours.

Lunch in Kibune

2005-07-09T06:32:00.000-04:00

We heard the thing to do in the village of Kibune, just 20 minutes by train from Kyoto, is to dine at one of the many restaurants perched precariously over the stream that runs through the town. We found this little restaurant, the cheapest of the lot (some set menus started at $60!), but almost didn't get to sit and eat over the stream because the day's only slight drizzle was starting. Luckily for us the drops faded, so we were allowed to sit under the cover of straw and have our late lunch next to a tiny waterfall. We had the gomoku (vegetable) and also the tori (chicken) kamamesi, a pot of rice steamed in the respective broths. The soup contained the strangest little bit of plant specimen, some sort of root or tiny branch that was covered in a gelatinous goo. The meal was just about enough to energize us for the walk down to the station to train it back to Kyoto, but it was quite something to dine with the soothing sound of running water.

Sailing sandwiches

2005-06-25T04:34:00.000-04:00

Three-layer tea sandwiches of tuna mayo and cucumber and picnic ham on buttered bread, kind of inspired by the Fosters incident.

Tea at Foster's Holland Village

2005-06-25T04:31:00.000-04:00

Smoked salmon and buttered tea sandwich, hot freshly-baked buttery scones, rich tea cake. The tea: A creamy Earl Grey.

Late lunch at Ananda Bhavan's

2005-06-25T04:25:00.000-04:00

(Plus my first masala thosai since coming home.)

Fast-food for a late lunch, opposite Mustafa's, with a new jazzed up for the well-to-do jewellery-buyers, while us proletariats shimmy over to the side door entrance. Glad to see that part was unchanged. Picked up a few good old MDF masala mixes for the wintering in Japan.

The airplane gourmand

2005-06-19T00:57:00.000-04:00

To say that being upgraded has a certain thrill is a massive understatement. If I'd always looked forward to Economy Class food times (nowadays just for the heck of something interesting happening in the 14 long hours), Business Class mealtimes were even more special. I wasn't expecting anything spectacular, but oh what a refreshing thing smoked salmon is to have on the plane, accompanied by not-third rate cold sliced ham and just a delightful little quarter of grilled portobello topped with brie. Having spent most of my life in avoidance of salads, I could not identify the vinaigrette, but it was delicious. Even the Caesar dressing did not disappoint. I was surprised at the decent Chilean white that went with the meal.
The main course sent me back to earth. Of course the Japanese Bento had already been pre-ordered, pre-flight. What I got was a tough rock of a fillet mignon posing as meat, terribly overmicrowaved. The menu described the hunk of beef as wrapped by a slice of 'apple-smoked bacon'. I couldn't even tell if it were bacon, let alone apple-smoked. To add fuel to the flaming fillet was the accompaniment of insipid green beans. It was probably forgivable if not for the fact that I had already developed an aversion to them after eating dinner at a West Virginia truckstop.

Oh what the hell. I'll be critical just for the heck of it - who's really complaining when you're in Business Class heaven? :)

Due Amici

2005-06-18T00:20:00.000-04:00

Black Pepper Fettuccine with Shiitake and Sundried Tomato Cream Sauce

67 East Gay Street, Columbus, OH 43215-3103
Phone: 614-224-9373

It's one of those places reeking of bourgeois hipness, but so irresistable: high ceilings, industrial-modern red-brick-meets-steel, simple but exemplary contemporary Italian food without the clashing of tastes so often found in American cuisine. And here's the weird part: it doesn't cost as expensive as it looks, with pastas at $9.99 and wines starting at $5 a glass. The list of Italian wines is well thought-out and extensive but not overwhelming. The service is iffy: I've had relatively good service but it's pretty inconsistent: the staff isn't too well-versed in the wines, at one point recommending a fizzy Frascati over more well-bodied types suitable for the entree, and another time committing the travesty of dispensing a different wine into half-full glasses of a previous wine for our table of six. Otherwise, the decent prices and experience of a wonderful Friday night out have kept me recommending it to friends. For some reason conversations always tend to flow as fast as the wine. And I've never ventured beyond my favourite of the black pepper fettuccine with shiitake and sundried tomato cream sauce. The bread, always hot, comes with a dish of fresh-grated parmesan and black pepper in olive oil.