Momofuku Pork Belly Buns

After making the Pork Steam Buns awhile ago, S suggested that I test out the famous Momofuku's Pork Belly Buns by David Chang. She sent me the recipe here. It was simple enough and did not require that many ingredients, but there were a lot of steps.
My initial thought had been to make the brine for the pork belly on Monday night and have it sit until Tuesday after work, where I would roast the belly and make the dough. However, after making the brine and then reading through the entire recipe, I realized if I started at 5:30pm (usual time I get home after work), we would not actually eat until midnight. Thus, I had to push the work off to T, who graciously accepted and they turned out great!
I have never actually had Momofuku's before, but my sister had. I asked her if they were the same and she said no. She said Chang's were very greasy and fatty and the ones we made were not. She didn't actually say which ones were better, but she did say these were very good. Success!

They were absolutely delicious. The fattiness of the pork, lightness of the buns---heaven. I stopped my inner fat kid though and only had two buns while T had six! If it didn't take hours to make or was not so fattening, I would want to eat them all the time! I saw that the cost at Chang's restaurant was $9 for two buns. I think this cost us about $10 for over a dozen buns and we still had pork belly leftover.

Note: I used my light box and my sister's digital SLR camera to take these photos. I still cannot get the lighting the way I want it (why is it so yellow/orange?), but I think they turned out better than my usual iPhone photos. The second photo was without the lights and just the camera's flash.

School Lunches, Fruits and Vegs

I've been reading the Fed Up: School Lunch Project pretty regularly since I saw it in SE two months ago. It's a blog created by an anonymous teacher who has decided to eat a school lunch every day in 2010. It's pretty interesting and gross to see what her school offers. I remember my school lunches in elementary and middle school being more appealing and healthier. It was definitely not that prepackaged either.

She posted a link from Health Child, Healthy World that listed the 10 fruit and vegetables you should buy organic based on studies from the Consumer Union and the Environmental Working Group. I like to go to Farmer's Markets but I am not an avid organic buyer at all. Mostly because it's more expensive and I really am not that concerned healthwise. BUT after reading this, I am definitely only buying organic for these items.

Here is their list (click link above to see why):

Peaches


Apples

Nectarines

Strawberries


Pears

Sweet Bell Peppers

Celery

Imported Grapes

Spinach
Potatoes


My Very Own Croquembouche

I went home this past weekend to run the Great Urban Race with N in downtown Phoenix and to celebrate Chinese Lunar New Years with my family. When I got home Sunday afternoon, I found this on the counter:

T had made me my very own croquembouche! A croquembouche is a french dessert piece that is a cone of cream puffs and then decorated with spun sugar, nuts, caramel, chocolate, and whatever else.

T's version was a complete tower (no holding structure in the middle- that's skill) of cream puffs filled with strawberry whipped cream, sugar cookies, and spun sugar. I was most impressed with the spun sugar because it not only looks really cool, it tastes really good. It was a nice treat and a surprise because T rarely ever makes desserts and when he bakes, its usually bread. But his cream puffs are delicious and of course, I could eat spun sugar all day long.

I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday weekend. It was a big one. Happy late Valentine's Day, Chinese Lunar New Year, and Arizona's Birthday!

I Want One: Decorating Pen

I am horrible with piping so that's really why I rarely ever make cakes. But I saw this Cuisipro Decorating Pen on Serious Eats last week and I want one! Reading the SE review, it doesn't seem nearly as useful and cool, since the two tips only fits certain viscosity so it's more for saucing rather than frosting. I still want it. It's only $9.99 on Amazon.

New Show From Producers of Top Chef

Saw on Eat Me Daily that NBC is going to have a new reality show from the same producers of Top Chef. The prize will be a restaurant chain with four locations in different U.S. cities. "Contestants will have to impress "a panel of wealthy investors from the cooking and business worlds" with their restaurant concepts, menus, marketability, and management skills.

Reminds of that ABC show Shark Tank where the contestants sells their idea to a bunch of wealthy investors, which is not all that interesting. Do we really need more chain restaurants in the world?

Top Chef: Just Desserts

NY Daily News reported that Bravo annouced today that they are going to start a new spin-off series called "Top Chef: Just Desserts." The show is expected to air in 2010, but no judges or contestants have been selected (for casting info, go to www.BravoTV.com/casting).

Frances Berwick, Bravo's VP and general manager told Variety that the show was inspired in part by the difficulty that desserts have posted for "Top Chef" cooks.

"Their Achilles heel is usually the desserts," Berwick said of the "Top Chef" contestants. "As this has gone on, we've been thinking that it would be fun to do a 'Top Chef' with experienced pastry chefs. We've had a few pastry chefs on 'Top Chef,' but they haven't gone too far. It's just a different skill."

I am so very excited about this! And just last Thursday, they annouced they were picking up a second season of "Top Chef Masters." Ahhh I love Bravo!

I Knew Kids Were Like Animals!

Eat Me Daily posted a video from Steve V at Vimeo that was a modern remake of the now classic Stanford psychological experiment from the 60s where kids are put in a room with a marshmallow. They are told they cannot eat it until the researcher comes back and if they wait, they get a second one. It's pretty funny. There is one kid who is so cute. He keeps smelling it and looks so tortured. He also looks like one of my ex coworker when he was little.

Oh, The Temptation from Steve V on Vimeo.

I compare these kids to animals because of this YouTube video I saw about a year ago on this crazy Japanese game show where they stack food on animals. This one is so cute (probably because I love animals more than I like kids)! The little girl who scratches the marshmallow is like the chimpanzee!

Yanko Design

Yanko Design is a really cool site that shows modern designs, a lot of them are international. They take something classic and turn it into some totally cutting edge and interesting. They have things from kitchen products, medical use, furniture, etc.

I found their site about six months ago for the first time when I read about the Muji Spice Taste-Leaf book. A book with pages that are embedded with different spices. I thought it was a cool concept. Here are some images:

Today I saw the One-Hand Kitchen Equipment made specifically for fractured, permanently disabled, and paralyzed people in mind. The designer, Gabriele Meldaikyte, really thought about cooking processes for each item and I love that! Although it's not really available in stores, I think the idea behind it is really noble. Here are some images (but check them all out here):

If you got a few minutes to waste, I reccomend checking the site out. There are some really interesting and innovative things on there (not just food or kitchen related--although those happen to be my favorite).

Meat Tenderization Ring

Saw this ring on World Famous Design Junkies site. Neat. I would consider getting one. You never know when there will be meat to pound or someone's face...

Food In Real Life

I came across a pretty fun blog today called Food In Real Life. The site says, "Preaching truth to packaging. Pictures of packaged food, cooked to specifications, compared to the photo on the box." Here's an example:

T doesn't really let me eat prepackaged food anymore but I definitely had my fair share of them when I was in undergrad. The photo on the box really sold the food for me. but after I prepared it, I would become severly disappointed so I guess it's a good thing I never eat these anymore.

Some of the photos do kind of match the real food though, so maybe I can talk T to letting me eat those :) Check it out here: Food In Real Life.

Mexican Hot Dogs (Sonoran Dog)

On Tuesday's dining and wine section of The New York Times, there was a fun article about the Mexican hot dog. It highlighted the popularity of the hot dogs served in Tucson and some of its vendors, known as hotdoguero.

I remember a friend from high school went to Sonora and Hermosillo and talked about how good their hot dogs were compared to the US dog. But I didn't really know what a Mexican hot dog was until I moved to Tucson 5 years ago. In college, my sorority sisters would rave about how delicious and fattening they were and being the young vain college student I was, the fattening description never turned me on so I never wanted to try one.

However, they opened an El Guero Canelo (a very unpretentious, extremely cheap, and popular authentic Mexican food restaurant), famous for their hot dogs, about 7 minutes from my house so we frequent the place often. Although I have been to the place dozens of times, I have yet to order a hot dog. I've had a bite of one here and there, but something about a hot dog wrapped in bacon, covered in beans, tomatoes, onions, mustard, salsa, mayonnaise stuffed in a soft slightly sweet bun still does not do it for me. Although I do admit the few bites I have had have been good, it's just too much.

At any rate, read the article if you are a fan or are just curious. But most importantly, if you haven't already, you need to try a Sonoran hot dog for yourself. It's really is uniquely different and delicious.

[image via The New York Times]

Mini Yogurt Cake

Since I've moved back to Tucson, I plan on getting back into baking since I have more people to share it with. On Sunday, T suggested that since he was making dinner (champagne risotto with baby heirloom tomatoes), that I should handle the dessert.

I had quite a few recipes that I have been wanting to try, but I was also feeling lazy so I didn't want to make something too difficult. I love the Food Librarian's blog so I decided to make her mini-yogurt cake with fresh strawberries (adapted from the Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa Lemon Yogurt Cake recipe). The ingredients for the cake are scaled to be only a quarter of the original recipe, which worked perfectly for us since it's just T and I and we had no use for a whole loaf cake or a dozen cupcakes.

This was the final product. The actual size is a bit smaller than a regular cupcake. They were tasty and light. I particularly liked the texture and how the edges got a little crispy.

Last night, my sister said she wanted some more of the cakes. The previous night, I had only made 6 cupcakes. Since we had yogurt left in the house and the recipe was really simple, I decided to make them again. I wanted to use my mini cupcake pan since I love all things super mini. I was able to get 11 mini cupcakes. They tasted fine again and the best part about them being tinier was that they got even crispier on the edges.

I'm always nervous about making dessert for T because first, he doesn't like desserts and second, he's a trained chef so I feel he would be really critical of anything I make. However, he said they were good (but mostly, because he thinks anything I'm willing to make him is delicious...begin the awws).

Also, I plan on making a light box soon because the lighting in our house is not so good and if I plan on baking, I want good photographic evidence. :)

Changes

I have not been blogging as much lately because I have been so busy with recent changes in my life. Last Saturday, I moved back to Tucson. I went back to my old employer and started a new position yesterday as the Department's Senior Accountant. It wasn't that I was not happy at my previous job, but the Department has always treated me so well and made me feel very accomplished. So when E offered me my old office, a new title, a bigger salary, and a chance to go to grad school (I want to get my MPA) a few weeks ago, I could not turn it down.

As you can see from the picture above, the Department has been very welcoming to my return. Faculty, staff, and students have been stopping by my temporary office (I don't move back into my office until Thursday) and telling me how happy and glad they are to have me back. Nothing makes me feel better than a pat on the back and I love feeling appreciated. Even though it is only my second day, I am already swamped with work, but I am really enjoying it.

A bonus to my move is that T and I now live together. Even though it has only been a few days, it has been wonderful. He makes me coffee and breakfast everyday before I leave for work and cooks me the most delicious homemade dinners every night (pork chops, champagne risotto, babyback ribs so far).

We watched Food, Inc. this weekend and it definitely makes you think twice about how your food is being produced. I have always been conscious of healthy eating, food safety, and keeping it local, but I am even more aware now. I really want to make a difference for our society (hopefully I can do something on a grander scale after my public admin degree). Some things just make me sick and sad. If the movie is playing in your town, I suggest you go check it out.

That's it for now. Just wanted to let you all know I'm very content with where I am in life. I will be back in Phoenix often to help my mother out at their restaurant on the weekends, but for now, I'm changing from a Phoenician to a Tucsonian.

Starbucks Serves Booze?!

According to the NY Post, one of the Seattle stores next week will offer bottled beer and glasses of wine. Starbucks says they hope to expand their stores to a version of European-style coffeehouses, with live music, poetry readings, manual machines, and beer and wine.

No word whether Starbucks will come out with their own line of alcohol, but they will be testing the new stuff in three different Seattle stores and decide to expand based on how well they do.

It's not like I ever hang out at a Starbucks except when I was in college and tried to study there. I usually do the drive-thru if the line is not too long or I grab and go. But if there is beer and wine, maybe it'll be nice to have some place nice and quiet to hang out and enjoy a glass of wine without having to go into a bar.

Update:
Speaking of Starbucks, N just sent me this link for a free Starbucks pastry tomorrow with a purchase of a beverage: http://www.starbucks.com/retail/free_pastry.html

Top Chef: Las Vegas

Get your TiVo ready, the sixth season of Top Chef, Top Chef: Las Vegas is set to start August 26.

Celebrities set to make guest appearances are Natalie Portman, Wolfgang Puck, Todd English, Danile Boulud, Tyler Florence (yay! my favorite FN person), Laurent Tourondel, and Nigella Lawson (who I heard talking about her book on NPR and don't really like).

There are no really cute contestants this year so I just hope they're all really great cooks. I like Top Chef Masters, but I'm very excited for the new season!

[image via bravotv.com]

Death by Chocolate

A New Jersey man died Wednesday morning after falling into a a vat of melted chocolate in a processing plant. The 29 year old temp worker at Cocoa Services, Inc. was loading chocolate into the vat where it's melted and mixed before being shipped to make candy. He fell in after a blade used to mix raw chocolate hit him.

County Prosecutor says a co-worker tried to shut off the machine and two others tried to pull the man out of the 8-foot-deep vat.

How sad. It wasn't even his real job and he had to die Death by Chocolate. I always wanted to swim in a vat of chocolate, but in something safer, like a kiddie pool. Or a pool of spaghetti (like in the movie Patch Adams).

[image via cbs13.com]

For My Phoenix Chefs and Homecooks

For the reality series, The Next Food Network Star, the Food Network is coming to the Valley on July 8th for an open casting call for its 2010 season.

So, if you have hopes of becoming the host of your own cooking show, be at the Embassy Suites (4415 E. Paradise Village Parkway) from 10 am to 4 pm next Wednesday.

You need to bring in two recent photos, a copy of your resume, a legible copy of either passport, social security card, or driver license, and a filled out application. For any questions about the show or casting, you can email: nfns6@yahoo.com. Click here for list of other cities open casting call dates.

I would totally do it-- if I could actually cook.

Still here

Hi! I know I have totally been slacking on the blogging front. I was sick all last week and have been a bit busier at work. And now I'm recovering from the weekend of partying and from being sick.

Quick update on food we ate this weekend though. I took N to Roka Akor (a Japanese restaurant/robata grill/shochu lounge) in Scottsdale for her birthday dinner. T and I have eaten there a few times now and its always been decent food. T, N, and I got the omakase, and there was a massive amount of food. Everything for the most part was tasty, but I was disappointed in the lack of fish we actually got. I honestly quit eating halfway through because I was so stuffed. We had so much stuff boxed up but we left in a hurry and thus, lost our midnight snack. I hope I can remember everything...
[image via Rokaakor.com]
For starters we had butterfish tataki with white asparagus (I get this everytime I've gone so far), beef tataki with a chili ponzu sauce, fried tofu with a avocado and wasabi sauce, ginger, and ponzu sauce, burnt tomato salad, and fried oysters with ponzu and shisho. T said he was ponzu-ed out by this point.

Next up, we had sushi: toro tuna roll (two kinds-one had a huge hunk of pickled radish inside), spanish mackarel sashimi (two kinds-both delicious), tuna and yellowtail sashimi, sea bream sashimi, and I think one more thing. I wish we had more sashimi though. Their fish is really good.

Following the fish, butternut squash tempura with a Japanese pepper broth, Yuzo marinated black cod, grilled wild madagascan tiger prawns (HUGE-size of my forearm basically, it was insane), grilled pork belly with marinated beets, cold soba noodles in broth with quail egg and green onions, baby pork ribs with sweet corn in butter and soy, grilled Shishito peppers with ponzu and bonito flakes. I feel like I am forgetting something, but even this list is quite large.

We were suppose to get lamb cutlets too, but the three of us were majorly stuffed so we just called for dessert (pictured below). The desserts change everyday and is always an assortment of sorbets, fresh fruit-like lychee and mangosteen, and other neat things (we got green tea custard with banana foam, some passion fruit thing, and a peanut butter sorbet on top of some cake I can't remember). For N's birthday, they brought out the sample platter (I guess that's what it is called) for free. The Yuzu sorbet was hands down the favorite from the three of us.

After rethinking about everything we ate, I feel like a fatty. For $98/person, it was seriously the most food I've ever gotten. There were some things I did not like, but overall, the food was yummy, the service is always really good (they gave us free sake and free dessert!), so I will most likely go back.

I apologize for the lack of creativity in writing this post. It's noon and I'm ready for lunch so I just wanted to let you all know I'm still alive and blogging! :)

I'm In Love with San Diego!

We got off the boat on Thursday in San Diego and checked into the Hotel Solamar in the Gaslamp Quarters. The hotel is nice and the room are a good size, but I would not recommend it. They had a rooftop pool/bar so that was nice, but the bar and security staff were really strict and rude about kicking us out when they closed at midnight! I had to bring my drink with me. Twice!

At any rate, on to the food! So Thursday, I really wanted ramen. I've been to Tajima a few years ago with some of my sorority sisters, so I wanted to go again. This time, I had the spicy ramen and it was delicious! It was the best thing I had since being on vacation. The broth had a good back kick to it and as you ate more, it had really good heat. The noodles were good too. Nothing worst than mushy ramen. Yum! I wish I could have some more now.

For dinner, we went to Kaito Sushi in Encinitas which was highly recommended on Yelp and by S (who I now consider a local and has good taste in food). The place was smaller than I expected but the perfect size for what it was. The sushi chef was chatty, there were a few other tables and he was the only one working so it was not as attentive. But that's okay, I was there for the fish!

We asked for the omakase or "it's up to you" so the chef just served us what he thought was the best. In order, we had halibut, shad (pictured above), kampachi, squid, bluefin tuna, giant washington clam, octopus, ono, saltwater eel, and uni. T had a toro tuna hand roll too, but I was too full. The fish was so delicious! All the reviewers and S were not joking about the high quality of the fish. You could taste how fresh everything was and the sweetness of each fish. I especially enjoyed the shad, kampachi, and uni which were my favorites of the night. The only thing I didn't like was the squid (pictured below). It had that gummy feel that I really hate (just like ebi) so it was hard to stomach for me. Overall though, I really liked the place. I love places that are full of delicious and great quality ingredients, but has a very unpretentious feel. The price was really reasonable too. About $60 per person I think.

The next day, we wanted to go kayaking and snokeling. The snorkel rental guy said we would be better off kayaking as there was not much to see that day. I love kayaking! We got to see seals and here them whine (or at least that is what it sounds like). They're so cute!

We had thai food for lunch at Kafe Yen because T went there years ago and remembered he really liked it. He had said that their mieng kham (leaf wrapped in toasted coconut, peanuts, ginger, lime, and shrimp) was one of the best bites he's ever had. I thought they were good, but nothing I'll probably remember or crave.

We did get Yogurtland after and I'm definitely craving that now though. It was so cheap and as T said, it had a great mouth feel. My sister tells me they've opened one in Tempe so maybe I'll go this weekend.

At night, we wanted oysters so we walked over to Oceanaire since we saw it earlier that afternoon while grabbing coffee by our hotel. Turns out, Brian Malarkey from Top Chef Season 3 Miami owns it and is actually at the restaurant. The oysters were very delicious and I wanted more. We also got escargot and an order of rock shrimp.

For entree I ordered the lobster encrusted halibut with English peas and sweet corn. That was tasty, except the lobster crust was over salted. The fish was cooked really well and the beurre blanc broth sauce with it was excellent. The corn really added a good sweetness to the dish. I opted out of dessert, because we still had half a bottle of wine left and I was really stuffed. But I always have room for oysters so we ordered more. They were out of the kind we had earlier so they comped us on the next half dozen which were not as good. And I ended on a bad oyster so bleh.

This is a terrible picture, but I told our waiter, Jorge, that I was a fan of Brian (well okay, I did root for Hung the whole season, but Brian was good looking!) and he told the chef who then came out. He was really nice and humble. Overall, the food was okay. I would give it a 7 out of 10. If you like seafood, big portions and reasonable prices, this is a good choice.

I'm absolutely in love with the city of San Diego. I love the ocean, I like the night life, the people, and of course, the food. Everytime I go, I forget how much I liked it. I wanted to go there for college but never applied since I didn't want to take the SAT II for UC's school. So perhaps in a few years, if I ever figure out what I want to do with my life, I can work it out that San Diego is a part of it. Until then, I'm ready to take another weekend trip out there soon!

Artisan Bread

[image via artisanbreadinfive.com]
T baked a bread in the dutch oven last week. When it came out, it was not all covered in flour like I expected (see picture above), which is how I thought this artisan bread to look.

When I questioned him, he told me, "It used to be they would let bread rise in canvasses upside down, so they could flop it onto a pizza stone without the top sticking, but now it's just for looks."

You learn something new everything. I thought the flour look is nice though.