Baking

I've been baking a lot recently. Behold:


Chocolate Chip Cookies


Chocolate Cranberry Pecan No-Knead Bread (I subbed cranberries for the cherries)


Pumpkin Surprise Pie ("surprise" = cheesecake layer)


Lemon Polenta Cake


Bourbon Pumpkin Cheesecake


Pumpkin Pecan Pie


Banana Muffins

mystery fruit hubby brought home...

...may be quince - excited!

See this picture.

First attempt at bread baking

With my lovely new-ish Emile Henry stoneware crock (purchased from Costco at about half the average online price) and a jar of active dry yeast found in the fridge, I thought I should finally try the famous No-Knead Bread that has made it's way around the baking blogosphere.

It came together well at first:


But then, perhaps precisely that the yeast has been in the fridge for an indeterminate amount of time, it never really rose much from this:


I baked it anyways, and it was ok. Much more successful was the lentil soup I made to go along with it. But I'm going to get some fresh yeast, and try again this weekend - this time the chocolate-cherry pecan version.

Back from Paris and London

I just got back from my holiday to London and Paris. A big thank you to Eve, Tom, Nicky, Caroline, Camil, and Candice for their hospitality - 'twas a lovely trip! Some thoughts:

• We walked a lot - we averaged about 20,000 steps a day. Note that the health professionals recommend 10,000 steps a day, so we really went above and beyond.
  
• Great weather in London, too chilly for my acclimated sub-tropical self in Paris. Gloves and a hat would've made my visit so much more pleasant.
• Favorite London museum: National Portrait Gallery (thanks Tom, for taking us there!)
• Pret a Manger is to London like 7-11 is to Taiwan. Unlike 7-11 in Taiwan, it is not open 24/7, you cannot buy everything from socks to piping hot fish balls on a stick, and you cannot pay your utility bills and send DHL packages. But they are all over the place. And they offer tasty food.
  

Wall of cheese at Neal's Yard Dairy. Borough Market was great, but incredibly crowded on Saturdays. No offense to the Brits, but I didn't take to the meat pies. I did like the cheddar's at Neal's Yard Dairy (there was a really fabulous floral one, the Isle of Mull?).

I prefer the macarons at Pierre Hermé (pictured above) to Ladureé's. If you are a filling person, go to Ladureé, but the appeal of the macaron is the texture of the cookie. We had an amazing passionfruit and chocolate macaron at Pierre Hermé.

Amazing yogurt and peach gelato at Pozetto. Neil had nocciola (hazelnut) and fior di latte (literally, milk's flower - pure fresh milk) - also very good:

Fresh figs!

We spent much more than budgeted at Denise Acabo's chocolaterie. She is a hoot - very engaging and an excellent salewoman.

More impressions later.

Organic vegan chocolate chip cookies

Last night I came home late for work and really wanted to bake, but not put in a lot of effort. I had a Goodbaker mix that I've been wanting to try, so that's what I used. It was really simple - empty the bag, add a little oil and water, mix, and scoop out.

The organic vegan chocolate chip cookies were really good!


They did taste healthy, in a really good way. There was good texture, depth of flavor, and enough salt to contrast against the sweetness. I'd definitely get them again.

La Dolce Vita

It's almost February, and we leave for Sri Lanka on Friday for an early start to the Lunar New Year holiday. Meanwhile, here is a photo of Malapascua, a small island off of Cebu in the Philippines, where we spent the western New Year's.



While there, we ate at the best restaurant on the island, La Dolce Vita. We were so busy enjoying the food, I forgot to take photos. Thankfully, this blogger did.

Pumpkin pie brownies

I got to celebrate Halloween exactly the way I wanted to, by baking pumpkin pie brownies, inspired by a recipe for the same from the Post Punk Vegan Kitchen. Except mine wasn't 100% vegan, as I have conventional brownie mix to use up. It was still yummy!

Enjoy!

the end of the seas...coming soon

I just read this fascinating article on overfishing at Salon.com - read it if you want to be shocked at how poorly managed fisheries are around the world. And, if you want to do something about it, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Oceans Alive have great guides on better choices at the fishmonger. And, if you're like me and live abroad, fishbase.org is an amazing fish database. If you've ever wanted to know what grouper is called in Chinese, as well as all the various grouper species, fishbase is the place.

Now I just need to make my own handy guide for the fish market...

Foodie Bliss!

Recently, department store powerhouse Sogo opened their latest branch in Taipei, at the Zhongxiao-Fuxing MRT station. With a CitySuper and Din Tai Fung on the premises, there seemed to be no reason to go to Breeze.

But today, Sophie told me that she had seen Dean & De Luca there. Originally, going to Breeze for lunch seemed to far, but once she mentioned Dean & De Luca, I had to make a pilgrimage to the renowned New York City purveyor of fine foods. Real salads, not limp leaves of iceberg! A selection of fine salts! Chocolates, including Scharffen-Berger! Quite exciting, indeed.

We had a little soup and mix-and-match salad plate, which at NT$250, is pricey for Taipei but still affordable. I had a cold spaghetti salad with poppy seeds and cherry tomatoes, grilled vegetables, poached fish in a vinegary sauce, and sliced roasted duck and onions along with vegetable soup. For dessert, I bought 3 dried figs. Yummy.

In other food-related news, Michael Pollan exhorts us to "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

To which I think I accomplished quite well at lunch today.

Cupcakes!

Yesterday I took a cooking class on cupcakes and mini bundt cakes. We made chocolate "peanut butter cup" cupcakes, sunflower decorated cupcakes, vanilla bean cakes with vanilla rum glaze, and banana caramel mini cakes. The teacher said I was a natural with a pastry bag!



Unfortunately, I've lost my sense of L.A. magnitude and when signing up for the class, I didn't realize that the drive from my home to the cooking school in Westlake Village would be such a trek!

Super orange juice

It's been awhile as I've been busy. Came back from a short vacation to Hong Kong and Shanghai to start at my new job on Monday. Unfortunately, the air conditioning was a bit too high, and I caught a bit of a cold. So this morning I am drinking my super "orange" juice smoothie, the recipe which I got from Mate's cookbook while in Shanghai:

Blend together:
1 orange, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1/2 mango, peeled and cut from pit
1/2 small papaya, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1/4 pineapple, chopped

It's supposedly good for days after a time of over-indulgence. Plus, it's full of vitamin C and good enzymes. The enzymes in pineapple are also supposedly aid the body to heal bruises. The best thing is, this smoothie is super-yummy!

the simple pleasures cafe

I've spent all day at my favorite cafe, whose name I'm not quite sure how to translate. In Chinese, the cafe's name is Yang-chun Shang-hao. Yang-chun evokes spring's brightness and warmth as summer approaches, and is also used to mean something that is simple and of good value. However, Value Cafe doesn't quite cut it as a translation - sounds rather sketchy, like ValuJet. Any suggestions for an English name?

Anyways, the cafe is great - simply but elegantly decorated, and the staff is great. They proprietors are always giving me treats on the house (although bad for my waistline), directing smokers to sit away from me, refilling my water glass, and they don't mind if I bring in my own food. I'm trying to eat very healthfully, because with all the sitting I do all day, I definitely feel the effects of a poor diet.

Back to the cafe - replay of last Monday's conversation between the proprietors and me:

"I'd like to order dinner."
"Oh, we went out and played yesterday and didn't order any food. So today all we have are french fries."
"Uhhhh..."
"But you can go out and buy some food and bring it back!"
"Really? Oh, well, I'll just order some dessert then. I think I'd like that tart."
"Oh, that tart wasn't made today, so we'll just give it to you."
"Um, can I buy anything from you guys? A cup of coffee?"

Money-grubbing capitalists they are not. Oh, and there's free wireless Internet access, too.

The cafe is at #447-24 Guangfu South Road. If you're going north on Guangfu from Xinyi (i.e. walking towards Renai), make a right at the lane marked by a Family Mart. The cafe is a few doors down, and has a mint green wooden gate that leads to a small courtyard (there's no sign). It's next door to the Carbon Bistro.

Yumm...

An absolutely gorgeous day today: the sun was shining, the weather was warm but not too hot, and there was a breeze that was just enough to gently caress my legs as I went out and about.

I just had the best dinner - I rolled some goat cheese in ground walnuts, and put them on top of some spring mix along with dried cranberries. Yummy. Unfortunately, just about everything in my dinner was imported, which isn't particularly environmentally-friendly, although it was lacto vegetarian. On the other hand (and this is my CFA studying kicking in), I doubt that Taiwan has any comparative advantage to producing its own goat cheese, spring mix, and cranberries. I suppose the proper solution would be to eat only Taiwanese/Chinese food, but I'd get tired of that very quickly, as I'm someone who has been spoiled by the variety afforded by trade.

Anyways, I've had the best weekend - plenty of rest, lots of studying accomplished, exercise, good food, and great weather.

Martha Stewart may now be the tarnished diva of domesticity, but Angela and Felix are virtuosos of fun. Last Monday, the couple threw an Oscars party at Felix's place. Gather about ten hungry women together on Oscar's night with one guy whipping up a fabulous Malaysian feast and you have some pretty satisfied tummies!

Felix prepared laksa, a traditional Malaysian-style noodle soup. An aromatic soup full of spices and chili was spooned over rice vermicelli, shrimp, bean sprouts, shredded omlets, and other fresh vegetables. I loved accompanying the noodles with the Malaysian pickles, the peanutty sauce mellowing the spiciness of the pickled cucumbers. Equally good were the chili beef and the chili belachan fish (belachan is a fish paste from Malaysia). The beef was tender, with a warming spiciness. The fish was crisp on the outside, meltingly soft on the inside. I originally though I'd share just one with Bonnie, but began eyeing the second platter of fish Felix brought out after we polished off the first.

On a future visit (Angela and Felix, I hope there is a future invite waiting for me!), I would have just the beef and pickles over white rice. The food reminded me of one of my favorite Korean dishes, bi bim bap, which I love eating in cold weather because of how it is warming and comforting without any hint of heaviness. Comfort food without the hangover.

I'd definitely follow the main entree with a few helpings of Felix's rojak fruit salad. A mixture of tofu, cucumber, guava, and pineapple, seemed strange at first glance, but made sense when drizzled with the rojak sauce, a dark, velvety sauce that was just shy of being too sweet.

For dessert, Felix served squares of white toast spread thickly with kaya coconut jam, with a drizzle of condensed milk on top. The smooth unctuousness of the jam made me want to eat another slice...but there was no longer even a smidgen of room left in my stomach. If you're doing Atkins, South Beach, low-glycemic index, or any sort of diet, beware of the toast with the kaya coconut jam!

Felix had written in the invite that he and Angela sent out that he hoped we would leave his home a few pounds heavier...that was definitely true.

I used to dislike papaya, which had a far too pungent smell that would always make me nauseous. Recently, though, I've developed a fondness for it...actually, while on my trip to Thailand, where it was in the fruit medley one morning. Either the fruit has become milder (it does seem lighter in color now than in the summer) and sweeter, or my taste buds have changed...like the many other parts of me that have changed since moving to Asia...

Berta's Bangkok Index:
+ Baipai Thai Cooking School
+ Body Tune massage: ask for Jaruwan (#7) at the Silom Road branch.
+ Yoga Elements Studio: yoga - a self-administered massage!
+ Rut & Lek Seafood: the intersection of Yaowarat Road and Soi Texas in Chinatown. Frong the Ratchavongse pier on the Chao Phrya River, go north and make a right when you hit Yaowarat Road. Soi Texas is about two blocks down the road, and the "restaurant " (it's an expansive sidewalk affair) will be on your left. Highly recommended are the crab fried rice, crab curry, and shrimp with black pepper.

Today I had took a Thai cooking class at a school located in the Bangkok suburbs, in a beautiful open air teak home. I learned how to make fish cakes, chicken larb, padaman pork curry, and water chestnuts in coconut milk. I definitely want to come back to Thailand and take the whole 5-course series.

Later, I stopped by a local grocery store to pick up curry pastes and fish sauce (total, less than $2). Thailand is so liveable. There is so much good food, and the grocery store had such a nice selection of food staples. I don't understand why groceries in Hong Kong and Bangkok are so much better than those in Taiwan (although Taiwanese grocery stores are improving). Maybe it's a population issue, a minimum number of people needed in order to support demand for international foods.

Anyways, I must be jetting off to my yoga class now...!