ici

N, I am so, so jealous of your trip. I really want a donut now. A mochi donut. Maybe more than one. Probably 5. Or 10.

So, in my jealous rage, I will post about Ici, because I know you love it. Yes, I am shameless. Yes, I also know you will be back here soon and this post will mean nothing! Please, just let me have my moment of insanity.

The Bay Area is notorious for spawning restaurants out of Alice Waters (creator of Chez Panisse), who is often credited for the sustainable, green, organic movement in New American cuisine/restaurants. Now, I don't know much about that--it makes for simple dishes with fresh ingredients, but it also comes with a hefty price tag. Ici is an ice cream shop, created by a pastry chef who worked for Waters, with these same principles. Good ingredients, but you pay for it.



Nevertheless, the ice cream there is (at times) creative and delicious. Their flavors include classics like vanilla and chocolate, but they often experiment with other pairings, such as chicory coffee, earl grey, candied walnut, cilantro-lime (don't ask!)...

I got a scoop of candied Meyer lemon with a scoop of chicory coffee (the strangest pairing, both are delicious on its own, but I wouldn't get them together again) on top of their famous cone with a chocolate bottom. Dan got a caramel something or other with apricot? I totally forgot, but those were interesting too.



The lines are atrocious, always, and the flavors, which change daily, are hit-or-miss, but on a hit day, it's so worth it. They're really nice people--you can try all the flavors you want before making your decision!

Ici Ice Cream
http://www.ici-icecream.com/
2948 College Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94705

cheesecake: new york style

This is new york cheesecake with strawberry topping.

I've actually been set on making cheesecake for will j's birthday because there was this one day when he said he really liked cheesecake. And he said anything with strawberries he'll eat...so naturally I made strawberry topping.

This was actually pretty complicated to make. It took me two days to make this. I saw this on smittenkitchen and I couldn't resist. I've always been scared of cheesecakes since there's so much cream cheese. The ironic thing is that New York cheesecake has MORE cream cheese than a normal cheesecake so why I chose to make this instead...I have no idea.

I first made the crust. Obviously I am not very good at crushing the graham crackers as you see those bits and pieces of graham cracker. I also probably did not use enough graham crackers as my crust looks pretty ugly. But oh wells...what can you do? But I made this a day ahead.
I made the filling the next day. Do you see that madness?! I bought that cream cheese thing from Costco and it was seriously intense. It was tough to get it creamy but thank goodness for a hand mixer which made my life so much easier.
I made the strawberry sauce a day ahead. It's super easy and I used the same recipe on smittenkitchen except that I changed the fruit and also added less sugar because those strawberries were really sweet. It ended up not being too sweet which countered the cheesecake itself.
Haha...what an ugly mess. It was really interesting baking it because I wasn't really sure how it was supposed to turn out in baking it at 550 degrees. But yeah...no good. And I had no idea when it was fully cooked or not and I couldn't tell so I kept opening it to check and wasn't sure. It was very frustrating and time consuming. But hey it turned out fine.
So I scrapped it off and somehow...my crust burned also. I can't figure out why, but I scrapped the really burnt parts off as well. Sadness. I also wasn't sure if it tasted alright. This is the thing with cakes...you can't really try some without ruining the cake. But luckily it was good. Yay!
But here it is. All finished and topped.

Ingredients:

Crumb crust
8 ounces finely ground graham crackers or cookies such as chocolate or vanilla wafers
8 tablespoons (1 stick or 4 ounces or 113 grams) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar (I put less)
1/4 teaspoon salt

Very tall cheesecake filling:
5 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar (I put less)
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
5 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Cherry topping
10 ounces sweet or sour cherries, pitted (I used strawberries)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup sugar (This is adjustable depending on the sweetness of your fruit)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 cup water

Directions:

Make crumb crust: Stir together crust ingredients and press onto bottom and up the sides, stopping one inch shy of the top rim, of a buttered 9 1/2-inch (or 24 cm) springform pan. You can fill it right away but you can pop it into the freezer so it quickly sets while you prepare the filling. (I did this a day ahead so I didn't freeze it)

Make very tall cheesecake filling: Preheat oven to 550 degrees (yes, this is correct). Beat together cream cheese, sugar, flour and zest with an electric mixer until smooth. Add vanilla, then eggs and yolks, one at a time, beating on low speed until each ingredient is incorporated. Scrape bowl down between additions; I cannot stress this enough as if you do not, you’ll end up with unmixed stripes of cream cheese. I always find at least one, despite my best efforts.

Put springform pan with crust in a shallow baking pan (to catch drips). Pour filling into crust (springform pan will be completely full) and baking in baking pan in the middle of the oven for 12 minutes or until puffed. Please watch your cake because some ovens will top-brown very quickly and if yours does too fast, turn the oven down as soon as you catch it. Reduce the temperature to 200 degrees and continue baking until cake is mostly firm (center will still be slightly wobbly when pan is gently shaken), about one hour more.

Run a knife around the top edge of the cake to loosen it and cool the cake completely in springform on a rack, then chill it, loosely covered, at least 6 hours.

Make cherry topping (optional): Place all ingredients together in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil. Once it is boiling, cook it for an additional one to two minutes then remove from heat. Cool completely.

Remove side of pan and transfer cake to a plate. If you had any wonky baking issues, you might need to trim the cake flat.

Spread topping (if using) over chilled cheesecake.

*Cheesecake keeps, covered and chilled, 2 weeks.

New York cheesecake courtesy of smittenkitchen

Mmm yay! I don't think I would make it again unless I'm feeling ambitious or have some help. But it was good I think! Yumyumyum.

fruit tart = favorite

My favorite dessert hands down... umm if I don't count ice cream... Haha, I just like sweets, but those two are definitely my favorites. So m actually really likes fruit tarts too, since she isn't SUPER fond of cakes and stuff. It was her birthday and we were making all of her favorite foods. SO EXCITING! Always love excuses to try something crazy.

So anyways, I had gotten lots of tart pans from Jennfer for Christmas and I've been dying to use them...but never really had the chance to. So I jumped at the chance!!

I took recipes from several people but I looking at all the different sites they're mostly the all the same.

I made this over the course three days. I made the crust first because I am always scared of crusts because I suck. Plus this one had to be frozen and then baked...sooooooo yes that's what I did. Thank goodness for food processors cause they make your life easier. Haha, so I didn't have a rolling pin...so that's why there's my ghetto cup version of a rolling pin. Hey, it worked alright!
I made the custard while the crust was chilling on the second day because the pastry cream had to be cooled before putting on the crust and I didn't need the tart to be finished until Saturday. The pastry cream was SO EASY to make and SUPER DELICIOUS! Yummmm I love vanilla.

I had lots of help from Jess and Jwoo. It was super fun and exciting! No it doesn't look super appetizing and I sucked at spreading it evenly and beautifully. But it's okay...cause it was covered!

Look at all that fruit! I used strawberries, blueberries, kiwis, mangoes, blackberries, and raspberries. Yes, I went a little crazy when I went to Berkeley Bowl...and the ironic thing is that I shopped for some of the fruit with m. Haha, yes so slick. I love fruit!!

So here are the recipes!

For the crust (Of course I need to use smittenkitchen recipe. HAHA!)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick plus 1 tablespoon (9 tablespoons; 4 1/2 ounces) very cold (or frozen) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg

Directions:

1. Pulse the flour, sugar and salt together in the bowl of a food processor. Scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is coarsely cut in. (You’re looking for some pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and some the size of peas.) Stir the yolk, just to break it up, and add it a little at a time, pulsing after each addition. When the egg is in, process in long pulses–about 10 seconds each–until the dough, which will look granular soon after the egg is added, forms clumps and curds. Just before you reach this stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change–heads up. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and, very lightly and sparingly, knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing. Chill the dough, wrapped in plastic, for about 2 hours before rolling.

2. To roll the dough: Butter a 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Roll out chilled dough on floured sheet of parchment paper to 12-inch round, lifting and turning dough occasionally to free from paper. (Alternately, you can roll this out between two pieces of plastic, though flour the dough a bit anyway.) Using paper as aid, turn dough into 9-inch-diameter tart pan with removable bottom; peel off paper. Seal any cracks in dough. Trim overhang to 1/2 inch. Fold overhang in, making double-thick sides. Pierce crust all over with fork.

Alternately, you can press the dough in as soon as it is processed: Press it evenly across the bottom and up the sides of the tart shell. You want to press hard enough that the pieces cling to one another, but not so hard that it loses its crumbly texture.

3. Freeze the crust for at least 30 minutes, preferably longer, before baking.

4. To fully or partially bake the crust: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter the shiny side of a piece of aluminum foil (or use nonstick foil) and fit the foil, buttered side down, tightly against the crust. And here is the very best part: Since you froze the crust, you can bake it without weights. Put the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake the crust for 20 to 25 minutes.

5. Carefully remove the foil. If the crust has puffed, press it down gently with the back of a spoon. Bake the crust about 10 minutes longer to fully bake it, or until it is firm and golden brown, brown being the important word: a pale crust doesn’t have a lot of flavor. (To partially bake it, only an additional 5 minutes is needed.) Transfer the pan to a rack and cool the crust to room temperature, and proceed with the rest of your recipe.

Pastry cream (from prettytastycakes):

Ingredients:

2 cups milk
1/3 cup sugar
2 egg yolks
1 whole egg
3 tblsp cornstarch
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 stick (2 tblsp) butter

Directions:

1. In a saucepan, dissolve first portion of sugar in milk, bringing to boil.

2. Whisk egg and yolks in a bowl. Sift cornstarch and second portion of sugar into eggs and beat until smooth.

3. Slowly pour hot milk into eggs in a steady stream (to avoid cooking eggs).

4. Transfer mixture back to saucepan and reheat until boiling. Stir constantly. When mixture comes to a boil – it will be thick – remove from heat.

5. Stir in butter and mix until melted.

6. Transfer to a clean bowl and chill for at least three hours. I added a tablespoon of Cointreau to my pastry cream after the butter. Pastry cream can be flavored with other liqueurs, vanilla bean, chocolate, etc. (I used vanilla extract!)

This picture looks so much better than the previous ones huh? It's because it is!! Obviously its not taken by me but by Jwoo! Yay for nice cameras.

By the way, the fruit tart was really really good! Yay success! No fear of tarts! :D

bi-rite creamery

Speaking of The Best Thing I Ever Ate, the show also featured Bi-Rite Creamery in San Francisco, which we have been to!!

The ice cream (salted caramel, need I say more?) is really, really good. No really, I have to stress that. They write the flavors of the day on a charming blackboard and also on the glass display. They'll let you try all the flavors you want. Yes, good service, but trust me, you're paying for it.


The last time I went, they had set up a softserve counter with a couple of baked items. I wouldn't wait in line for these things; instead, brave the insanity and walk to the other end of the block to wait in line for the real ice cream.


They also have a cute little market where you can buy produce, groceries, and other specialty items. Love!

Bi-Rite Creamery
3692 18th St
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 626-5600

bread pudding

I'm actually not a huge fan of bread. I know, it's kind of blasphemous, but I don't know why it just never appealed to me. Maybe because I like rice so much more? But I digress.

I do love bread pudding though, with a passion. What could be better than a custard-y, gooey, soft, but crusty bread pudding with fruits and ice cream? I know you are speechless. No, I kid.

But seriously now. Remember N's paella post? Well, there wasn't just paella at that dinner, there was tempura bacon (ah yes, can't go a post without mentioning bacon), homemade French fries, broccoli, but most importantly (we all know dessert is the most crucial part of a meal), there was bread pudding. Made by this girl here.

We had made bread pudding together before with frozen peaches and cinnamon and it was delicious. However, this time, Melody went all out--she whipped out a half a stick of butter. I kid you not. When I saw that, I knew that this bread pudding would be irresistible.

I'll have to ask her where she got the recipe, but there was an egg and milk mixture, challah bread, apples and raisins. Oh and brown sugar. Mustn't forget that! She sautéed the ingredients (minus the bread and custard mix) in the butter, then layered it in between the bread and poured the custard over.

Then she baked it until a toothpick came out clean, around 40-50 minutes.

The end result. We ate it with ice cream. I don't have words to describe the sensation of warm, sweet, crunchy, soft bread with a wonderful contrast of cold, melting ice cream.

san diego adventures and my mama's birthday part 2

Part 2 is all about desserts. We went to Extraordinary Desserts, which boasts cakes, tarts, and other baked goods, with ice cream, tea, coffee, and drinks as well as savory food. Situated in an urban warehouse with modern decor, Extraordinary Desserts is a bustling hub for San Diegans who want to grab a bite, chill with friends, or sample sweets. (We went to the location near the Gaslamp District.)




We ordered a beignet, which is somewhat of a French donut, served with strawberry ice cream. I confess, I didn't think it was that special (maybe I expected more because it was on the specials list or maybe I'm just spoiled because we have great bakeries in the Bay Area); it was a bit sweet for my taste.

We also had a coffeecake, but my mother, who ordered this, was sadly disappointed because Asian bakeries, when they say coffeecake, mean coffee-flavored cake, whereas American/European bakeries mean cake to eat with coffee. Nevertheless, it was good, but also a tad sweet. Still who could say no to that presentation?

Daddy ordered some tea (cute no?), but I didn't think it was worth the money really, but the teabag (I know, blasphemous!) was unique and they filled the pot with hot water each time you asked.

Some more pictures:

Extraordinary Desserts
1439 Union St
San Diego, CA 92101

sue's baby shower

Our pastor and his wife are having a baby and he (his name is Matthew!) is due next week! It's so exciting. We had a baby shower for them at Christie's house. We had food, played games, opened presents and there was even a pinata!

Measuring Sue to see how wide she is (41.5 inches! Justin won that game).


May made this amazing cheesecake, topped with blueberries! I don't normally like cheesecake, but I ate some of this one--it was delicious.

Harmony made chocolate cupcakes with a meringue topping. Mmmm.

N made brownies and her signature oatmeal butterscotch cookies--but I'll leave it to her to tell you about those.

chinese new year highlights

Fried fish. And--

Silky tofu pudding with boba (tapioca pearls)! So delicious. More on Chinese New Year later--for now, know and fear my mom and aunt, for they are awesome cooks.

vegas

Vegas is known for its high-end cuisine, but my family is not known for appreciating such food--I blame it on the fact that we're Asian. Since we're Asian, we HAD to get the best deal on food--so we had buffets (only 1 meal a day! My family told us to save our appetites. A little ridiculous? Just a smidge). We waited for the M buffet for over 2 hours and we waited for the Paris buffet for over 2 and a half. Just a little crazy? I think so.

The dessert selection at M's Stubio B was awesome. It didn't make up for the mediocre food, but look:

They had around ten(?) delicious gelato flavors that they made fresh there, different kinds of mousses, creme brulee, flan, all sorts of cookies, pies, and cakes...I could go on and on. They also had wedding cakes on display. We didn't get pictures of everything, but let me leave you with pictures of Jean Philippe's Patisserie in Aria (there's one in Bellagio also, with a HUGE chocolate fondue).







Aren't they gorgeous?

It solidified my preconception about Vegas--it's all looks, all glitter and glamour, but no substance. Of course they're going to do well on the desserts--it's the last thing you'll eat!

Not that I'm complaining. They may be twice as good to look at than to actually eat, but that doesn't stop us from enjoying it (though the price might...a little).