After lunch at SALT, we walked around the Pearl Street Mall, an outdoor walking mall closed to traffic similar to 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica. We made a few observations about the stores we saw. For one thing, there were a lot of shops for outdoor activities. That's totally understandable as Boulder is right next to the Rocky Mountains. There were several exotic stores with world/ethnic clothing, accessories, knick knacks, etc. We also passed by multiple "apothecaries" that sold herbs, spices, oils, etc. It felt like a concentrated Berkeley-esque hippie land tucked away in the mountains.
So, after the late lunch (we didn't eat until close to 3pm), we drove back to Denver and walked around the Cherry Creek mall until it was dinner time. Lawrence wasn't particularly hungry so we eventually decided on sushi for dinner.
We went to Sushi Den, one of the top sushi bars in Denver. They fly their fish in from the Nagahama fish market in Japan. Their selection is uniquely exotic for prices that are extremely reasonable. We wanted to take advantage of that and so ordered several fish that we don't normally get the chance to try, including Tilefish, Needlefish, wild Yellowtail, Golden Eye Snapper, Spanish Mackerel, Japanese Shad, Albacore sashimi, and Royal Miyagi Oysters sushi-style. They mixed up an order and we actually got an extra order of salmon for free.
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Friday, March 11, 2011
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Denver trip, part 1
Lawrence and i were in Denver last week. We flew in Friday night and after checkinng into our room we went out to grab some food. We didn't have a car yet so we walked several blocks through downtown to the Denver Diner. They served fresh cooked diner comfort food and the place was packed. The biscuits and gravy Lawrence ordered were surprisingly light. The fried chicken tenders I ordered were very juicy. It was a good hearty meal for a pair of weary travelers at 1am.
Saturday we rented a car from the closest place we could find that still had a small sedan available. It was still halfway to Boulder, so we drove on up to check out the area. We walked around the Pearl Street Mall and had lunch at a place called SALT. It was a cute space and they gave 2 types of salt to try with the bread. One was a black volcanic Hawaiian salt, and the other was a French fleur de sel salt. They cook seasonally and source locally, organic, and sustainable whenever possible.
Lawrence ordered the Rotisserie Chicken Pot Pie. It was certainly not traditional. The chicken and vegetables came in a wide shallow bowl and looked like a sort of creamy chicken stew. In the middle, a large square of puff pastry sat on top. I ordered the Butternut Squash Cannelloni, which came with "garlic seared chard" and sage brown butter". It was similar in concept to the traditional butternut squash ravioli in sage brown butter, but in the cannelloni pasta it practically oozed butternut squash everywhere. It was very good and in fact, Lawrence liked my dish better than his chicken pot pie.
For dessert we got the Roasted Local Honeycrisp Apple. It came with cinnamon puff pastry, brown butter walnut ice cream, and a caramel sauce. The tanginess of the apple went great with the sweetness of the other components.
Overall, we had a very enjoyable meal. Portion sizes were relatively large (I would have been super full if I had finished my entire entree). I would come back if I were in the area, but at the same time I would not necessarily go here over trying another good local restaurant.
Saturday we rented a car from the closest place we could find that still had a small sedan available. It was still halfway to Boulder, so we drove on up to check out the area. We walked around the Pearl Street Mall and had lunch at a place called SALT. It was a cute space and they gave 2 types of salt to try with the bread. One was a black volcanic Hawaiian salt, and the other was a French fleur de sel salt. They cook seasonally and source locally, organic, and sustainable whenever possible.
Lawrence ordered the Rotisserie Chicken Pot Pie. It was certainly not traditional. The chicken and vegetables came in a wide shallow bowl and looked like a sort of creamy chicken stew. In the middle, a large square of puff pastry sat on top. I ordered the Butternut Squash Cannelloni, which came with "garlic seared chard" and sage brown butter". It was similar in concept to the traditional butternut squash ravioli in sage brown butter, but in the cannelloni pasta it practically oozed butternut squash everywhere. It was very good and in fact, Lawrence liked my dish better than his chicken pot pie.
For dessert we got the Roasted Local Honeycrisp Apple. It came with cinnamon puff pastry, brown butter walnut ice cream, and a caramel sauce. The tanginess of the apple went great with the sweetness of the other components.
Overall, we had a very enjoyable meal. Portion sizes were relatively large (I would have been super full if I had finished my entire entree). I would come back if I were in the area, but at the same time I would not necessarily go here over trying another good local restaurant.
Friday, January 28, 2011
50 SF Treats to eat before you die
http://www.7x7.com/eat-drink/big-sweet-sf-50-treats-eat-you-die
I've already had a few items from this list -
- Egg tarts from Golden Gate Bakery - Sadly, they're not the same as they used to be before their pastry chef died.
- Sam's Sundae from Bi-Rite Creamery - DELISH! Didn't realize that Tartine was right next door too.
While I haven't had the items on the list, I've had other items from these purveyors of desserty goodness:
- Three Twins Ice Cream
- Humphrey Slocombe
- Chow
- Dynamo Donut
I've already had a few items from this list -
- Egg tarts from Golden Gate Bakery - Sadly, they're not the same as they used to be before their pastry chef died.
- Sam's Sundae from Bi-Rite Creamery - DELISH! Didn't realize that Tartine was right next door too.
While I haven't had the items on the list, I've had other items from these purveyors of desserty goodness:
- Three Twins Ice Cream
- Humphrey Slocombe
- Chow
- Dynamo Donut
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Cookie Baking
A little while back, I bought the Martha Stewart Cookie book. The lime meltaway cookies that I made from a recipe on a cooking blog I follow was based on the one from Martha Stewart's book. I wanted to make my way through lots of cookies (probably not all as a few of them require specialized molds). I started off with 3 - the Honey Florentines, the Gingersnap Palmiers, and the Cornmeal Thyme Cookies. I made these on Thanksgiving morning with the idea that I'd have some to give out to family later that day.
The honey florentines seemed a little bit off... too sticky and not crunchy enough. I wanted to try adding chocolate to them. It seemed like a good idea at the time... but then I realized that I didn't have enough time to let the chocolate harden enough so it wouldn't get smeared, or even (if I were overly ambitious) to attempt to temper the chocolate so it wouldn't melt at body temperature. So in the end, these were a failure. Lawrence and I ended up eating these.
The Gingersnap Palmiers were interesting. They weren't completely made from scratch as they called for frozen puff pastry dough. The sauce used to glaze the dough had raw grated ginger, molasses, and black pepper in it. After the dough was brushed with glaze and rolled up, it had to be wrapped and frozen for a few hours. Then, it was sliced. My first batch, I let it bake for slightly too long because I was pressed for time and had to shower. I was mad at myself for making such a stupid mistake. These failed too, but I still ended up eating them. I think the molasses glaze made them look darker and they weren't actually as burnt as they looked. I didn't take any pictures of these. I did bake more later, and those turned out beautiful. I brought some to Lawrence's family's Thanksgiving dinner. I also gave a bag to my parents when we went out for my brother's birthday. Sadly, I forgot to take pictures of the good ones!
Third was the cornmeal thyme cookies. I had to run out on Thanksgiving morning to buy the fresh thyme and dried currants used in these cookies. Other than those ingredients, these were a breeze to make. I used a medium grind cornmeal that I had in the fridge for a while. These cookies were surprisingly good, though the cornmeal was a little too coarse. I wrapped these up and gave some to my aunt and uncle as well as my parents. They don't look particularly great, but they were interesting to eat.
Lastly, today I tried making a classic chewy chocolate chip cookie. There are three kinds of chocolate chip cookies in the Martha Stewart book - soft and chewy, thin and crispy, and dense and cakey. I made the first because that's how Lawrence likes his chocolate chip cookies. At first I thought the butter might have melted too much before I started mixing in the sugar but the cookies didn't spread much so I guess not! They looked weird when taking them out of the oven - thick, brown along the bottom and edges, but undercooked-looking on top. What caused the thickness, I think, was the large sized chocolate chips I used. There was also an over-abundance of chips. I halved the recipe as I only had one cup of chocolate chips so I only made 16 cookies. Some of them also may have been a little large as the original recipe says it makes 3 dozen. Sorry the light in this picture is pretty bad. I would make color adjustments, but I don't think it would make these pasty-looking cookies any prettier.
The honey florentines seemed a little bit off... too sticky and not crunchy enough. I wanted to try adding chocolate to them. It seemed like a good idea at the time... but then I realized that I didn't have enough time to let the chocolate harden enough so it wouldn't get smeared, or even (if I were overly ambitious) to attempt to temper the chocolate so it wouldn't melt at body temperature. So in the end, these were a failure. Lawrence and I ended up eating these.
The Gingersnap Palmiers were interesting. They weren't completely made from scratch as they called for frozen puff pastry dough. The sauce used to glaze the dough had raw grated ginger, molasses, and black pepper in it. After the dough was brushed with glaze and rolled up, it had to be wrapped and frozen for a few hours. Then, it was sliced. My first batch, I let it bake for slightly too long because I was pressed for time and had to shower. I was mad at myself for making such a stupid mistake. These failed too, but I still ended up eating them. I think the molasses glaze made them look darker and they weren't actually as burnt as they looked. I didn't take any pictures of these. I did bake more later, and those turned out beautiful. I brought some to Lawrence's family's Thanksgiving dinner. I also gave a bag to my parents when we went out for my brother's birthday. Sadly, I forgot to take pictures of the good ones!
Third was the cornmeal thyme cookies. I had to run out on Thanksgiving morning to buy the fresh thyme and dried currants used in these cookies. Other than those ingredients, these were a breeze to make. I used a medium grind cornmeal that I had in the fridge for a while. These cookies were surprisingly good, though the cornmeal was a little too coarse. I wrapped these up and gave some to my aunt and uncle as well as my parents. They don't look particularly great, but they were interesting to eat.
Lastly, today I tried making a classic chewy chocolate chip cookie. There are three kinds of chocolate chip cookies in the Martha Stewart book - soft and chewy, thin and crispy, and dense and cakey. I made the first because that's how Lawrence likes his chocolate chip cookies. At first I thought the butter might have melted too much before I started mixing in the sugar but the cookies didn't spread much so I guess not! They looked weird when taking them out of the oven - thick, brown along the bottom and edges, but undercooked-looking on top. What caused the thickness, I think, was the large sized chocolate chips I used. There was also an over-abundance of chips. I halved the recipe as I only had one cup of chocolate chips so I only made 16 cookies. Some of them also may have been a little large as the original recipe says it makes 3 dozen. Sorry the light in this picture is pretty bad. I would make color adjustments, but I don't think it would make these pasty-looking cookies any prettier.
Recent Cooking
A month and a half ago, Lawrence got into making pizzas. We already had a brand new, beautiful Emile Henry pizza stone to replace the tile I was using previously. Our first attempt was a flop, literally. As Lawrence was trying to slide the pizza onto the stone from our bamboo cutting board, half of it got stuck beneath itself and the mozzarella and tomato sauce got seared to the 500F pizza stone. Thankfully, Barkeeper's Friend was able to get all the burned sauce and cheese off. The amount of dough we had was enough for 2 pizzas, so I slid the 2nd pizza onto the stone and we enjoyed a beautifully cooked pizza.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
late night cooking
Late night cooking = bad idea. Especially when it's something I haven't made before. I had been meaning to make some Chinese pan-fried chive dumplings for a while now. Apparently for too long as the chives I bought were partially rotting. I had to go through each stalk, not just to wash them, but to pick off any slimy rotted portions. This took a LOT longer than expected. I started at 10:30pm but did not finish until 2am.
This was the recipe I followed: Stuffed Pancakes with Garlic Chives
The dough calls for boiling water. Why? I don't know. I didn't have any pork on hand so mine only had vermicelli, egg, and chives as filling. The second most time consuming part was wrapping the damn things. When a recipe calls for 1 lb of flour for a dough that then needs to be divided into small chunks to wrap things with, that should be a clue to either cut the recipe in half or not start it at 10:30pm.
Silly me, I made the entire portion of dough and separated it into 16 balls. I continuously wrapped until 2am, by which time my back and legs hurt. I couldn't even try one because Lawrence didn't want me to fry them up that late at night. Instead I got up extra early this morning to fry some up. I made them last night so that I could bring them for lunch so I better have some for lunch.
I was a little bit skeptical because the chives & vermicelli were not cooked before wrapping but they steamed up nicely inside the dumplings while they were being pan fried. It actually turned out pretty good, but I think I'll try cooking the next batch at a medium-high heat instead of full on high. I think the outsides got too dark before the dough could fully cook. However, the one I ate seemed cooked through so I don't know if it's even an issue.
Three pan-fried chive dumplings + 3 slices pan-fried turnip cake with sweet chili sauce = nom nom lunch!
This was the recipe I followed: Stuffed Pancakes with Garlic Chives
The dough calls for boiling water. Why? I don't know. I didn't have any pork on hand so mine only had vermicelli, egg, and chives as filling. The second most time consuming part was wrapping the damn things. When a recipe calls for 1 lb of flour for a dough that then needs to be divided into small chunks to wrap things with, that should be a clue to either cut the recipe in half or not start it at 10:30pm.
Silly me, I made the entire portion of dough and separated it into 16 balls. I continuously wrapped until 2am, by which time my back and legs hurt. I couldn't even try one because Lawrence didn't want me to fry them up that late at night. Instead I got up extra early this morning to fry some up. I made them last night so that I could bring them for lunch so I better have some for lunch.
I was a little bit skeptical because the chives & vermicelli were not cooked before wrapping but they steamed up nicely inside the dumplings while they were being pan fried. It actually turned out pretty good, but I think I'll try cooking the next batch at a medium-high heat instead of full on high. I think the outsides got too dark before the dough could fully cook. However, the one I ate seemed cooked through so I don't know if it's even an issue.
Three pan-fried chive dumplings + 3 slices pan-fried turnip cake with sweet chili sauce = nom nom lunch!
Saturday, August 7, 2010
breakfast
egg whites mixed with green onion, topped with a little bit of light soy sauce
steel cut oatmeal, mixed with applesauce, honey, and chopped nectarines
steel cut oatmeal, mixed with applesauce, honey, and chopped nectarines
Friday, August 6, 2010
Friday Dinner
Lawrence went to Gyu-Kaku for dinner with his brother...without me and without even telling me until I called him to ask what he was doing. :/ So, I made dinner for myself. There were a few recipes out of "How to Cook Everything" I had wanted to try and I already had all the ingredients. I made 2 dishes: quinoa with shallots, leeks, and scallions; and garlic roasted brussels sprouts.
The quinoa was pretty good. It was real easy to eat and is supposed to be *super* nutritious. I did not burn my brussels sprouts this time. They ended up nicely browned. I wonder if my oven runs hot? I only needed to cook them for 20 minutes at 450F, versus the 30 minutes instructed in the book. This time I also smashed each clove of garlic with the flat of my knife before adding it. They ended up deliciously crispy at the end.
The quinoa was pretty good. It was real easy to eat and is supposed to be *super* nutritious. I did not burn my brussels sprouts this time. They ended up nicely browned. I wonder if my oven runs hot? I only needed to cook them for 20 minutes at 450F, versus the 30 minutes instructed in the book. This time I also smashed each clove of garlic with the flat of my knife before adding it. They ended up deliciously crispy at the end.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
cooking
From Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything:
- Black Beans and Rice
- Lentils and Potatoes
From Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice:
- Broccoli Cheddar Cheese Soup
Soup turned out great. For the black beans and rice, I used canned instead of the dry beans called for in the recipe. I think I needed much more water while it baked because the rice took a long time and was still pretty hard by the time I was done. I guess I thought as long as the stuff was liquid, the rice would be getting water - not true. I used red lentils instead of the brown called for in the other recipe. Apparently red lentils cook A LOT faster. It was my first time cooking lentils and I wayyy overcooked it. It turned out to be more of a mashed lentils and potatoes dish than anything resembling an Indian dal.
In the end, I didn't get to do more than taste a few partial spoonfuls of each. It's almost 2am and I'm too tired to be hungry. Ordinarily I'd be fine but I had a workout tonight and I probably really need the protein. :/
Oh, and by the way, tonight's workout:
3 sets of 10 reps each of the following series (using a 45 lb. bar)
- partial deadlift
- bent-over row
- clean
- squat
- press
- Black Beans and Rice
- Lentils and Potatoes
From Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice:
- Broccoli Cheddar Cheese Soup
Soup turned out great. For the black beans and rice, I used canned instead of the dry beans called for in the recipe. I think I needed much more water while it baked because the rice took a long time and was still pretty hard by the time I was done. I guess I thought as long as the stuff was liquid, the rice would be getting water - not true. I used red lentils instead of the brown called for in the other recipe. Apparently red lentils cook A LOT faster. It was my first time cooking lentils and I wayyy overcooked it. It turned out to be more of a mashed lentils and potatoes dish than anything resembling an Indian dal.
In the end, I didn't get to do more than taste a few partial spoonfuls of each. It's almost 2am and I'm too tired to be hungry. Ordinarily I'd be fine but I had a workout tonight and I probably really need the protein. :/
Oh, and by the way, tonight's workout:
3 sets of 10 reps each of the following series (using a 45 lb. bar)
- partial deadlift
- bent-over row
- clean
- squat
- press
Thursday, April 15, 2010
exploring downtown
I walked around a part of downtown I had never explored today. Lunch was at the LA Cafe (on the same block as Syrup Desserts - Spring St. between 6th & 7th). I had a Shanghai Salad - pricey at close to $10 but decently sized with lots of chicken & fried wonton strips. Passed by Cole's which serves french dipped sandwiches. Coworker said it was NOT good. Phillippe's remains our french dip goto place. Next door was Blu LA Cafe with a gorgeous photo of a juicy burger. Reviews on Yelp look mixed. Next to that was Babycakes. We stopped by to sample their baked goods - mostly cupcakes. They specialize in gluten-free/vegan cupcakes. They use spelt, a wheat variant, agave as sweetener instead of sugar, and are dairy-, egg-, and soy-free. I got a red velvet. Definitely interesting. Not light and fluffy but I like the frosting (there'st just enough and it's not a sugary monstrosity of death). Note: I am not a cupcake connoisseur.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Long posts are hard
I don't have the time to write out all the long posts I'd like to write but I still want to post about my experiences for posterity. Eventually I'll get caught up on the backlog I suppose. Meanwhile, I can't let that prevent me from posting.
Last night I worked out with kettlebells again for the first time in a long time.
12kg
- 30x two-handed swings
- 30x left-handed swings
- 30x right-handed swings
- 15x alternating single-handed swings (30 total)
2x 8kg
- 10x alternating presses (20 total), followed by 10 seconds holding both straight up
- 20x double swings
2x 16kg
- 15x double suitcase deadlift
After my workout, Lawrence surprised me from behind as I was talking to him on the cell phone. :) We went to the Container Store to scout out our organization options. We'll probably be getting kitchen shelving as the kitchen at our new apartment has limited counter space. We need something we can put the rice cooker & stand mixer on. I'd love to custom design something using their modular kitchen shelving units. I think I've also finally come to terms with the quantity and quality of my stash. There is a ton of yarn that I can and should donate because while I MAY take the time to devise a suitable project, it would be so rare of an occurrence that I would just be fooling myself. I'd like to cut down on a lot of the yarn I have so that I'll actually use the nice stuff and not feel overwhelmed by it.
I suggested going home to cook something for dinner but then we both realized we felt like Indian food. We went to All India Cafe in old town and had some Palak Paneer, Aloo Gobi, rice, & garlic naan. It isn't my favorite Indian restaurant (I can't say I'm crazy about any of the ones in Pasadena I've been to) but the cauliflower in the Aloo Gobi was sooo good! We thought to ourselves how marked up the prices must be. Each of the vegetarian entrees were about $8-10. Portions were not huge and comprised largely of non-exotic vegetables - cauliflower, potato, spinach. Since these are also Indian home foods, how difficult could it be for us to cook it? We'll see. We saved enough leftovers for my lunch today. I also sliced up some char siu (bbq pork) that I made last week.
Last night I worked out with kettlebells again for the first time in a long time.
12kg
- 30x two-handed swings
- 30x left-handed swings
- 30x right-handed swings
- 15x alternating single-handed swings (30 total)
2x 8kg
- 10x alternating presses (20 total), followed by 10 seconds holding both straight up
- 20x double swings
2x 16kg
- 15x double suitcase deadlift
After my workout, Lawrence surprised me from behind as I was talking to him on the cell phone. :) We went to the Container Store to scout out our organization options. We'll probably be getting kitchen shelving as the kitchen at our new apartment has limited counter space. We need something we can put the rice cooker & stand mixer on. I'd love to custom design something using their modular kitchen shelving units. I think I've also finally come to terms with the quantity and quality of my stash. There is a ton of yarn that I can and should donate because while I MAY take the time to devise a suitable project, it would be so rare of an occurrence that I would just be fooling myself. I'd like to cut down on a lot of the yarn I have so that I'll actually use the nice stuff and not feel overwhelmed by it.
I suggested going home to cook something for dinner but then we both realized we felt like Indian food. We went to All India Cafe in old town and had some Palak Paneer, Aloo Gobi, rice, & garlic naan. It isn't my favorite Indian restaurant (I can't say I'm crazy about any of the ones in Pasadena I've been to) but the cauliflower in the Aloo Gobi was sooo good! We thought to ourselves how marked up the prices must be. Each of the vegetarian entrees were about $8-10. Portions were not huge and comprised largely of non-exotic vegetables - cauliflower, potato, spinach. Since these are also Indian home foods, how difficult could it be for us to cook it? We'll see. We saved enough leftovers for my lunch today. I also sliced up some char siu (bbq pork) that I made last week.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Weekend in SF
I've decided to split this up into multiple posts. There's just too much to write about for one go. These posts are not really meant to be informative - more like a personal journal for me to record my impressions.
A couple weeks ago, we suddenly got the opportunity to go up to San Francisco to hang out with Josh & Sonny. I wasn't able to be there Friday until late at night so I missed out on the food concept tasting. Saturday we rented a car and drove up to Calistoga to stay at the Solage spa & resort. We ate at their Michelin-starred restaurant, Solbar, and relaxed at the geothermally heated pools before getting a relaxing mud treatment.
Sunday we drove to Yountville for brunch at Ad Hoc, and then drove up & down the highway for wine tastings. We stopped at Opus One, Robert Mondavi, & Joseph Phelps. For a late lunch we went to the Oxbow Public Market in Napa and gorged ourselves on raw oysters. We also tried a place there called Pica Pica Maize Kitchen. It serves Venezuelan street food consisting of various fillings over your choice of three different corn breads.
For dinner, we were back in San Francisco and tried out Heaven's Dog. Monday & Tuesday we relaxed in SF, shopping, eating, and looking at condos. I didn't call anyone up to hang out with because I wasn't sure of Josh & Sonny's plans and I didn't feel like I should go run off on my own but Lawrence assures me that it would be normal if I want to do so next time.
A couple weeks ago, we suddenly got the opportunity to go up to San Francisco to hang out with Josh & Sonny. I wasn't able to be there Friday until late at night so I missed out on the food concept tasting. Saturday we rented a car and drove up to Calistoga to stay at the Solage spa & resort. We ate at their Michelin-starred restaurant, Solbar, and relaxed at the geothermally heated pools before getting a relaxing mud treatment.
Sunday we drove to Yountville for brunch at Ad Hoc, and then drove up & down the highway for wine tastings. We stopped at Opus One, Robert Mondavi, & Joseph Phelps. For a late lunch we went to the Oxbow Public Market in Napa and gorged ourselves on raw oysters. We also tried a place there called Pica Pica Maize Kitchen. It serves Venezuelan street food consisting of various fillings over your choice of three different corn breads.
For dinner, we were back in San Francisco and tried out Heaven's Dog. Monday & Tuesday we relaxed in SF, shopping, eating, and looking at condos. I didn't call anyone up to hang out with because I wasn't sure of Josh & Sonny's plans and I didn't feel like I should go run off on my own but Lawrence assures me that it would be normal if I want to do so next time.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Workout & cookies
Tonight's workout:
- Holding onto one end of a 45 lb. bar with both arms held straight out, lunge to one side. Lunge to the other side while bringing the end of the bar over.
- Lunges with a 24 lb. bar held on one shoulder, repeat with the bar held on the other shoulder.
- Raise the 24lb. bar, lifting it straight up hand over hand, then lower it hand over hand.
- Assisted pull-ups.
- With upper back resting on a balance ball and a bar held with arms straight, bring one tip over the head to touch the ground and then the other tip between the legs to touch the ground.
On my way home from the gym, I went to Sur La Table and bought a BeaterBlade mixer attachment with silicone wings that scrape the sides of the bowl and a Microplane zester. I also stopped by Gelson's for a bag of key limes and a bag of King Arthur All-Purpose Flour. This was so I could make a batch of key lime meltaways, recipe courtesy of smitten kitchen (adapted from Martha Stewart's recipe).
[cooling on the rack after baking]
[after being coated with powdered sugar]
Delicious! The flat beater attachment worked perfectly. I might need a little more sugar in the dough. I also wouldn't mind adding more lime zest. I definitely need to use regular salt instead of Kosher salt, which was the only salt I had. :< The texture of the cookies, however, turned out perfectly light and powdery. Too bad Lawrence doesn't like citrus zest of any sort in anything. I'm too lazy to take pictures since it's so late at night. I still have another log of the dough in the fridge so I'll take pictures of the next batch.
- Holding onto one end of a 45 lb. bar with both arms held straight out, lunge to one side. Lunge to the other side while bringing the end of the bar over.
- Lunges with a 24 lb. bar held on one shoulder, repeat with the bar held on the other shoulder.
- Raise the 24lb. bar, lifting it straight up hand over hand, then lower it hand over hand.
- Assisted pull-ups.
- With upper back resting on a balance ball and a bar held with arms straight, bring one tip over the head to touch the ground and then the other tip between the legs to touch the ground.
On my way home from the gym, I went to Sur La Table and bought a BeaterBlade mixer attachment with silicone wings that scrape the sides of the bowl and a Microplane zester. I also stopped by Gelson's for a bag of key limes and a bag of King Arthur All-Purpose Flour. This was so I could make a batch of key lime meltaways, recipe courtesy of smitten kitchen (adapted from Martha Stewart's recipe).
Delicious! The flat beater attachment worked perfectly. I might need a little more sugar in the dough. I also wouldn't mind adding more lime zest. I definitely need to use regular salt instead of Kosher salt, which was the only salt I had. :< The texture of the cookies, however, turned out perfectly light and powdery. Too bad Lawrence doesn't like citrus zest of any sort in anything. I'm too lazy to take pictures since it's so late at night. I still have another log of the dough in the fridge so I'll take pictures of the next batch.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Thursday, whew.
Thursday:
- office Pie Day, celebrating Black History month, Chinese New Year, President's Day, & Valentine's Day
- last day of bootcamp (testing out)
- got to eat some khao soi & Korean fried chicken.
Pie Day! It was mostly an excuse to take advantage of Marie Callendars' bi-annual month-long pie sale.
Bootcamp! It was the last day, meaning it was testing out day! I lost 6 lbs overall, 3 inches in the waist, more inches all over, and 1% body fat. I almost doubled the amount of sit-ups I could do and slightly increased the number of push-ups. I also did the timed mile run in 8 minutes. I don't know how much of any improvement that is from the beginning, but I'm guessing a big improvement. I haaated running outdoors but I think I've gotten better at it now. I've built up more stamina and I'm considering getting Lawrence to go running with me at night. The next session starts in March and I'm still trying to decide whether or not to do it. The amount of time it takes and the dietary limitations are pretty stressful.
Dinner! For dinner, we went to a Thai restaurant over in Hollywood. It's a place that specializes in Northern Thai cuisine, which means they have khao soi! Khao soi is a curry noodle soup using a coconut-based curry with egg noodles. The places I've had it typically serve it also with chicken, red onion, pickled cabbage, and lime juice, topped with crunchy fried noodles. It was very good and definitely had a spicy kick to it.
We decided to top by Kyochon on our way home as we had heard about the Korean fried chicken phenomenon several times now. It took 20 minutes for our to-go order but apparently that's normal. Lawrence didn't want to wait until we got home so we had some in the car. Now this is some delicious fried chicken! They're supposed to be double-fried, which is why they take so long. This technique produces a yummy chicken wing with tender meat inside and a crispy mouthful of skin on the outside. The soy garlic sauce was good, but I felt like it would have been even better if I had honey to dip it in. The spicy chicken had a spiciness that crept up on you, but once it did - OUCH. That was some painful spice on my tongue! Lawrence's first spicy piece wasn't very spicy so he happily ate another. I guess that's when the heat kicked in...lol. He hopped around the apartment complaining about the pain while I laughed to myself. See, it wasn't me being a spice wuss!
- office Pie Day, celebrating Black History month, Chinese New Year, President's Day, & Valentine's Day
- last day of bootcamp (testing out)
- got to eat some khao soi & Korean fried chicken.
Pie Day! It was mostly an excuse to take advantage of Marie Callendars' bi-annual month-long pie sale.
Bootcamp! It was the last day, meaning it was testing out day! I lost 6 lbs overall, 3 inches in the waist, more inches all over, and 1% body fat. I almost doubled the amount of sit-ups I could do and slightly increased the number of push-ups. I also did the timed mile run in 8 minutes. I don't know how much of any improvement that is from the beginning, but I'm guessing a big improvement. I haaated running outdoors but I think I've gotten better at it now. I've built up more stamina and I'm considering getting Lawrence to go running with me at night. The next session starts in March and I'm still trying to decide whether or not to do it. The amount of time it takes and the dietary limitations are pretty stressful.
Dinner! For dinner, we went to a Thai restaurant over in Hollywood. It's a place that specializes in Northern Thai cuisine, which means they have khao soi! Khao soi is a curry noodle soup using a coconut-based curry with egg noodles. The places I've had it typically serve it also with chicken, red onion, pickled cabbage, and lime juice, topped with crunchy fried noodles. It was very good and definitely had a spicy kick to it.
We decided to top by Kyochon on our way home as we had heard about the Korean fried chicken phenomenon several times now. It took 20 minutes for our to-go order but apparently that's normal. Lawrence didn't want to wait until we got home so we had some in the car. Now this is some delicious fried chicken! They're supposed to be double-fried, which is why they take so long. This technique produces a yummy chicken wing with tender meat inside and a crispy mouthful of skin on the outside. The soy garlic sauce was good, but I felt like it would have been even better if I had honey to dip it in. The spicy chicken had a spiciness that crept up on you, but once it did - OUCH. That was some painful spice on my tongue! Lawrence's first spicy piece wasn't very spicy so he happily ate another. I guess that's when the heat kicked in...lol. He hopped around the apartment complaining about the pain while I laughed to myself. See, it wasn't me being a spice wuss!
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Thai food
I miss Thai food. Sure, Saladang and Saladang Song in Pasadena are nice, but I need a place where I can get good, cheap, non-pretentious, Thai home cooking. We haven't explored the wealth of Thai food in LA, I think because Lawrence was tired of having so much Thai for so long...but I reallly want some. NAO.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
LA Street Food Fest [after]
We got up before 5am and were out the door by 5:30am. I wanted to make sure we got some breakfast so we stopped by Jack-in-the-Box. By 6:30am we were at the LA Center Studios, where the event was being held. The guy we met there gave us a tour of a set. They film a lot of stuff there and apparently they were still in the process of filming The Next Food Network Star (airing summer this year) so we got to see the set. :) That was pretty cool.
We spent the next 3 hours setting up the booth for MobiMunch. It was exciting to watch as the food trucks trickled in. The chef I met on Wednesday was Ludo Lefebvre from LudoBites. MobiMunch sponsored the food truck he was cooking on. Apparently there's some backstory behind how that came about but I won't get into that here. Jeffrey Saad (finalist on The Next Food Network Star) came to the event as well to act as sort of an ambassador for MobiMunch.
The event itself was O.M.G. insane. A quick search today showed that reactions have been very mixed - people were either excited they got a chance to try the food there or were pissed off at how long the lines were. Since we were stationed in an open space in front of the LudoBites truck, we were able to witness the chaos first hand but not get totally consumed by it. The LudoBites line grew quickly, expanding straight out until it hit the fence and wrapped around...hit another line and turned again. At that point I lost track of the end of the line. The location was enclosed so there was a longgg line outside to even get in. It wrapped around the block, made a snake-line through the parking lot next door, and continued to wrap further around the block - I don't even know how long it went for because I was inside the whole time.
So, even though we were at the event, we only really got to try a handful of food. We were able to get some of Ludo's chicken. One of the girls volunteering with us was able to snag some popsicles from PopShop. I had a lime mint mojita popsicle, and it was deliciously refreshing. It got to be very sunny by mid afternoon. I was able to get into the VIP section and try out some other vendors there - The Fry Girl, The Dim Sum Truck, and The Tea Salon. The lines everywhere were seriously ridiculous. Some people had to wait 2 hours for Ludo's chicken, and then another hour to get their order. The most successful people separated for a divide-and-conquer approach to hit up the most popular vendors.
At the very least, I feel the event was a great intro to the newest street food out there and really gives me more incentive to go find the trucks and try them out on my own time. If I went to the event on my own, I probably would have gotten really pissed off too.
We spent the next 3 hours setting up the booth for MobiMunch. It was exciting to watch as the food trucks trickled in. The chef I met on Wednesday was Ludo Lefebvre from LudoBites. MobiMunch sponsored the food truck he was cooking on. Apparently there's some backstory behind how that came about but I won't get into that here. Jeffrey Saad (finalist on The Next Food Network Star) came to the event as well to act as sort of an ambassador for MobiMunch.
The event itself was O.M.G. insane. A quick search today showed that reactions have been very mixed - people were either excited they got a chance to try the food there or were pissed off at how long the lines were. Since we were stationed in an open space in front of the LudoBites truck, we were able to witness the chaos first hand but not get totally consumed by it. The LudoBites line grew quickly, expanding straight out until it hit the fence and wrapped around...hit another line and turned again. At that point I lost track of the end of the line. The location was enclosed so there was a longgg line outside to even get in. It wrapped around the block, made a snake-line through the parking lot next door, and continued to wrap further around the block - I don't even know how long it went for because I was inside the whole time.
So, even though we were at the event, we only really got to try a handful of food. We were able to get some of Ludo's chicken. One of the girls volunteering with us was able to snag some popsicles from PopShop. I had a lime mint mojita popsicle, and it was deliciously refreshing. It got to be very sunny by mid afternoon. I was able to get into the VIP section and try out some other vendors there - The Fry Girl, The Dim Sum Truck, and The Tea Salon. The lines everywhere were seriously ridiculous. Some people had to wait 2 hours for Ludo's chicken, and then another hour to get their order. The most successful people separated for a divide-and-conquer approach to hit up the most popular vendors.
At the very least, I feel the event was a great intro to the newest street food out there and really gives me more incentive to go find the trucks and try them out on my own time. If I went to the event on my own, I probably would have gotten really pissed off too.
Friday, February 12, 2010
L A Street Food Fest
w00t! Totally looking forward to this. We're going to be up at 5am - set up on location is at 7am. The event doesn't actually start until 11am and it runs until 5pm. Afterward...I still have to head over to my parents for Chinese New Year stuff.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Sick?!
Speaking of being sick...I hate being sick - who doesn't? I'm pretty sure I caught whatever it was Lawrence had a couple weeks ago. Yesterday, however, was a fortuitous day to get sick. Josh is in town, the LA Street Food festival is this Saturday, and that means there's a lot to do for the business!
I slept till pretty late in the morning and Lawrence was late to his dental appointment. After he got back, his brother asked if we wanted to go check out a certain food truck that just finished getting wrapped (i.e. covered in a vinyl wrap so as to change the visual of the appearance of the truck in a non-permanent, easily switchable way). This truck is being used by a certain celebrity chef on Saturday's street food fest. I just recently started following LA Weekly and a few over local L.A. oriented restaurant-food blogs and so I've heard about this chef. Screw my cold - I wasn't going to give up this opportunity to meet the guy!
The truck looked totally badass, with his totally badass logo of an angry coq (French for rooster, harhar) wielding a knife. There was a small film crew there taping the chef for a reality tv show based on the chef. They tested out the deep fryers on the truck and we got to try out the inaugural food truck-fried chicken. It was juicy, flavorful, and totally delicious! The chef and his wife were very friendly, personable, nice. We got to chat with them and it was soooo cool & fun.
That night we went to have dinner with them at the Lazy Ox Canteen. It was funny...when Josh asked if we wanted to go have dinner with them Lawrence was a little hesitant (I didn't want to seem overly eager by screaming out "OH GAWD, YES!!!"). Then Josh mentioned they were going to the Lazy Ox Canteen, and both of us lit up and were like "OKAY!" Haha. I had heard it mentioned all over the LA food blogosphere and really wanted to give it a try. Dinner ended up being not so much about the food as Josh, in his enthusiasm, ended up dominating the conversation with his "company pitch". :P All in all, it was a great time. I felt bad for our servers as they kept on coming by to see if they could bring us our second course, but everyone was either too busy talking or just plain not hungry from all the fried chicken we had earlier in the afternoon. I tried to eat a lot of the salad and veggies (luckily we ordered plenty), but yes - my bootcamp diet went out the window. I didn't order a beer and mentioned I was kind of on a diet. The chef was like - oh yes, I'm always on a diet - bread, butter, etc....LOL. There's nothing better than a fresh, warm baguette for this French chef and I totally agree.
Man, I SO wish I had done my food research before going to Paris with my mom that one year. I totally missed out on the opportunity to experience some of the best food in the world. Lawrence and I will have to go there some day. He's so cute too, he said I should ask about the famous Parisian artisan bread baker I had been reading about in Peter Reinhart's book, The Bread Baker's Apprentice. I did mention that I had just gotten into artisan bread baking. :D
So yeah, to sum it all up - I had an awesome day meeting some awesome people who cook deeeelicious food. I felt like the odd duck out cause I'm just a lowly code monkey who works on a computer all day. Speaking of which...it feels good to get back into some REAL coding, no matter how much I complain about the frustration. It's only frustrating until you figure it out, then it's like the biggest satisfaction ever. :D Even so, it's nice to occasionally take a break from the code to do stuff like refactoring or UI design.
I slept till pretty late in the morning and Lawrence was late to his dental appointment. After he got back, his brother asked if we wanted to go check out a certain food truck that just finished getting wrapped (i.e. covered in a vinyl wrap so as to change the visual of the appearance of the truck in a non-permanent, easily switchable way). This truck is being used by a certain celebrity chef on Saturday's street food fest. I just recently started following LA Weekly and a few over local L.A. oriented restaurant-food blogs and so I've heard about this chef. Screw my cold - I wasn't going to give up this opportunity to meet the guy!
The truck looked totally badass, with his totally badass logo of an angry coq (French for rooster, harhar) wielding a knife. There was a small film crew there taping the chef for a reality tv show based on the chef. They tested out the deep fryers on the truck and we got to try out the inaugural food truck-fried chicken. It was juicy, flavorful, and totally delicious! The chef and his wife were very friendly, personable, nice. We got to chat with them and it was soooo cool & fun.
That night we went to have dinner with them at the Lazy Ox Canteen. It was funny...when Josh asked if we wanted to go have dinner with them Lawrence was a little hesitant (I didn't want to seem overly eager by screaming out "OH GAWD, YES!!!"). Then Josh mentioned they were going to the Lazy Ox Canteen, and both of us lit up and were like "OKAY!" Haha. I had heard it mentioned all over the LA food blogosphere and really wanted to give it a try. Dinner ended up being not so much about the food as Josh, in his enthusiasm, ended up dominating the conversation with his "company pitch". :P All in all, it was a great time. I felt bad for our servers as they kept on coming by to see if they could bring us our second course, but everyone was either too busy talking or just plain not hungry from all the fried chicken we had earlier in the afternoon. I tried to eat a lot of the salad and veggies (luckily we ordered plenty), but yes - my bootcamp diet went out the window. I didn't order a beer and mentioned I was kind of on a diet. The chef was like - oh yes, I'm always on a diet - bread, butter, etc....LOL. There's nothing better than a fresh, warm baguette for this French chef and I totally agree.
Man, I SO wish I had done my food research before going to Paris with my mom that one year. I totally missed out on the opportunity to experience some of the best food in the world. Lawrence and I will have to go there some day. He's so cute too, he said I should ask about the famous Parisian artisan bread baker I had been reading about in Peter Reinhart's book, The Bread Baker's Apprentice. I did mention that I had just gotten into artisan bread baking. :D
So yeah, to sum it all up - I had an awesome day meeting some awesome people who cook deeeelicious food. I felt like the odd duck out cause I'm just a lowly code monkey who works on a computer all day. Speaking of which...it feels good to get back into some REAL coding, no matter how much I complain about the frustration. It's only frustrating until you figure it out, then it's like the biggest satisfaction ever. :D Even so, it's nice to occasionally take a break from the code to do stuff like refactoring or UI design.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
w00t
164 lbs. It's not that much less than 165.5lbs, but at least it's going DOWN. I need to totally DDR it up on my off days. This past week of exercise was not so bad even though I missed Tuesday.
Last night we went to So Kong Dong for some soon tofu (Korean tofu pot). It was pretty good, but the broth wasn't as hearty as I expected, especially given that I ordered my regular spicy. I'd like to eat more soontofu for dinner but I only know of one Korean place in Pasadena, and they're more contemporary.
Last night we went to So Kong Dong for some soon tofu (Korean tofu pot). It was pretty good, but the broth wasn't as hearty as I expected, especially given that I ordered my regular spicy. I'd like to eat more soontofu for dinner but I only know of one Korean place in Pasadena, and they're more contemporary.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Developer rant + other news
Have I already complained about how much JavaScript frustrates me? AJAX + ASP.NET = headdesk. I guess it's because I'm really not that familiar with AJAX, its integration with .NET, or the gritty .NET stuff involving authentication/access/webservices/etc.
I'm trying to figure out how to do certain things with my code, and it seems like it should be simple enough. I mean, functionally it's pretty basic. The problem seems to be with the way I'm implementing it. I don't know how I'm *supposed* to implement it so I've just got to try something that looks like it should work...until I realize it doesn't and then try something else.
_______________________________
Grr. It doesn't help that I've been getting only 6 or so hours of sleep each night. I missed my workouts Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday, I partially made up for by digging out the DDR and doing 40 minutes of cardio. It was good, and I can still do medium difficulty songs easily. The heavy songs with tricky footwork are still beyond me.
So on Saturday I went to Salon Sessions in Pasadena to get a hair cut. Angela was really cool and even gave me a card for a free makeup session (because I'm a n00b who doesn't know how to put on makeup and she's really sweet and wants to teach me)!
Lawrence picked up my bro on Friday after going out to Riverside to pick up Phillip from his job interview after Phillip's car broke down. We ate at Shabu House in Little Tokyo. We walked over to Wurstkuche afterward, but they were packed and so I didn't get to buy my bro a beer. Saturday, he went out with us to the IMAX at the Ontario Mills mall. We met up with Lawrence's cousins to watch Avatar. After that, we went to Rowland Heights for some sushi at a HK market plaza that was surprisingly not bad. We went to William & Cathy's house to hang out and I taught my bro to play Cantonese mahjong. I knit a bit and ended up falling asleep for a few hours. We didn't leave until close to 4am.
Sunday we went to Golden State Cafe (finally!) in Hollywood. Lawrence and Wilson got the burger, with a side of sweet potato wedges and fries, respectively. I got the grilled chicken caesar salad. We all agreed it was yummy! :) I also got to try some Scoops gelato, Brown Bread flavor...omg, delicious!
I'm trying to figure out how to do certain things with my code, and it seems like it should be simple enough. I mean, functionally it's pretty basic. The problem seems to be with the way I'm implementing it. I don't know how I'm *supposed* to implement it so I've just got to try something that looks like it should work...until I realize it doesn't and then try something else.
_______________________________
Grr. It doesn't help that I've been getting only 6 or so hours of sleep each night. I missed my workouts Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday, I partially made up for by digging out the DDR and doing 40 minutes of cardio. It was good, and I can still do medium difficulty songs easily. The heavy songs with tricky footwork are still beyond me.
So on Saturday I went to Salon Sessions in Pasadena to get a hair cut. Angela was really cool and even gave me a card for a free makeup session (because I'm a n00b who doesn't know how to put on makeup and she's really sweet and wants to teach me)!
Lawrence picked up my bro on Friday after going out to Riverside to pick up Phillip from his job interview after Phillip's car broke down. We ate at Shabu House in Little Tokyo. We walked over to Wurstkuche afterward, but they were packed and so I didn't get to buy my bro a beer. Saturday, he went out with us to the IMAX at the Ontario Mills mall. We met up with Lawrence's cousins to watch Avatar. After that, we went to Rowland Heights for some sushi at a HK market plaza that was surprisingly not bad. We went to William & Cathy's house to hang out and I taught my bro to play Cantonese mahjong. I knit a bit and ended up falling asleep for a few hours. We didn't leave until close to 4am.
Sunday we went to Golden State Cafe (finally!) in Hollywood. Lawrence and Wilson got the burger, with a side of sweet potato wedges and fries, respectively. I got the grilled chicken caesar salad. We all agreed it was yummy! :) I also got to try some Scoops gelato, Brown Bread flavor...omg, delicious!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)