tokyo table

My family plus dan and jwoo came here for dinner during winter break. Its in the Diamond Jamboree plaza which is the plaza with 85°C, the super popular place. Well it was an interesting place, kinda fusion-y, maybe owned by a Korean? I can't be sure.
There were a lot of people waiting, so we didn't get an actual table, but settled for a bar table...kinda. Very hard to describe. Well we got several appetizers, because actually they are pretty slow... But this is shrimp or spicy tuna summer roll (we got both) and a scallop dynamite. The summer rolls were okay, very ordinary. The dynamite was not a traditional kind, it kinda reminded me of nachos, but it was good.
This is yakitori. It was normal and just tasted like chicken teriyaki.
This is bacon wrapped asparagus. Well, anything wrapped in bacon is yummy. But normal...
My dad ordered a kaisen don plate which was marinated diced tuna, salmon, and yellowtail topped w/ ikura (salmon roe) on a bowl of sushi rice. This was yummy.My mommy got an assorted nigiri plate. Normal, normal but at least their fish was fresh.

The rest of us got udon, ramen, yakisoba, and a roll. Nothing too special. So the table next to us got this dessert which was flambéd in front of them. Because it looked so cool, we asked the waiter what it was and order it.

So cool! So it was a banana flambe. This was baked bananas drizzled with caramel and chocolate, topped with two scoops of vanilla ice cream.

It was pretty dericious. But I can never resist ice cream.

I guess it was overall alright. It's pretty pricey but good.

Tokyo Table

http://www.tokyotable.com/

2710 Alton Parkway

Irvine, CA 92606

world nutella day: nutella cookies

I'm a day late. So sad, but yesterday was World Nutella Day! Of course I had to bake with nutella. So jwoo has two big bottles/jars of nutella and being the nice person I am, I am helping him finish it. :]
This was my first time making Nutella cookies and they turned out well... nice and soft and chewy.
Yum, yum dough. This only made 30 cookies.
They spread out a lot and look pretty perfectly round. Yays.

Here's the recipe!

Ingredients:

½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
½ cup Nutella or other hazelnut chocolate spread
1 egg
½ tsp. Frangelico (if you have it, if not vanilla will work just fine)
1 ½ cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips (I used white chocolate chips and added almonds)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F.

Cream butter with an electric mixer about 1 minute until smooth. Add in both sugars. Beat on high speed about 3 minutes until light & fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

With the mixer on low, add the egg and Frangelico (or vanilla). Then add the Nutella and mix well.

In a small bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, and mix on low speed until incorporated. Increase the speed to medium and mix just until the dough is smooth. Fold in chocolate chips.

Using a small ice cream scoop (or a teaspoon) form the dough into balls and place on greased cookie sheet. To prevent my cookies from spreading too much, I stuck the cookie sheets in the fridge for about 10 minutes before baking, but probably freezer is more effective.

Bake 6-7 minutes (or 7-8 if baking from freezer). Let cookies cool about 5 minutes and transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Nutella cookies courtesy of Erin's Food Files

chocolate fallen soufflé cupcakes

These are yummy. That's it. I've made them a couple of times for birthdays and gifts and they are very easy and do-able.

I wish I could say that I can make soufflés but I can't. This is my closest attempt...and they're fallen... These are definitely a go-to recipe when you don't know what to make!

These are step-by-step pictures on the process and it may seem time-consuming and mean lots of equipment to wash...it is. But I am the master of trying to lessen the amount of dishes to wash and use the easiest, most time-saving ways. So if I'm willing to do this, then I'm sure everyone will be able to.

First you have to melt the chocolate, butter, and espresso powder on the stove. Keep an eye on this and keep stirring or your chocolate will easily burn. Once chocolate is all melted, take it off the stove and set it aside to cool down.
Next, whisk egg whites until soft peaks form. I used a hand-held mixer because I don't have a stand mixer. Using electric mixers is very useful and time-saving. I think my arm would break off if I didn't have one. Add in some of the sugar and all the salt until medium firm peaks form.
It's not too bad. Be careful not to overmix which I always end up doing because it's so fast with the electric mixer.

Well for the next step, I forgot to take pictures...but it's basically in a separate bowl, mix the egg yolks and sugar together until thick and pale (used an electric mixer, it's very fast!). Then add the cooled down chocolate and vanilla extract into the mixture.
Then gently fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture using a spatula.
It doesn't have to be perfect, but try to not deflate the egg whites. And that's it! So I used a pot for melting, a bowl for egg whites, a bowl for egg yolk mixture, one beater (which I beat the egg whites first so I didn't have to wash and clean for the egg yolk mixture), and spatula. Nothing to it!
Line up your cupcake tin with liners. This is very important to have liners because the cupcakes will not come out even if you butter your tin generously. They're too delicate.
Fill them up about 3/4ths the way. I had a little more leftover from the 12, so I filled up the rest in a ramekin.
Bake and voila! First they're slightly puffy, but then they fall...hence the name fallen soufflé.

Here's the recipe! Guess where I got it from? Of course! Smitten kitchen! She adds a white chocolate mint cream, but I didn't. If you eat it with vanilla ice cream...omggg its super yummy especially when the cupcake is warm. My step to step is slightly different, but results should be the same!

Ingredients:

6 ounces (170 grams) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped (I used semisweet)
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) (86 grams) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
Heaping 1/4 teaspoon (1 gram) espresso or instant coffee powder
3 large eggs, separated
6 tablespoons (97 grams) sugar, divided
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 9 standard-size (3-ounce) muffin cups with paper liners. Stir chocolate, butter and espresso powder together in heavy medium saucepan over low heat mostly melted, then remove from the heat and whisk until it is fully melted and smooth. (I like to put the butter underneath the chocolate in the pan, so that it protects the chocolate from the direct heat.) Cool to lukewarm, stirring occasionally.

Using electric mixer (a hand mixer, rather than a stand mixer, actually works best here because the volumes are so small) beat egg yolks and 3 tablespoons sugar in medium bowl until mixture is very thick and pale, about 2 minutes. Briefly beat lukewarm chocolate mixture, then vanilla extract, into yolk mixture. Using clean dry beaters, beat egg whites in another medium bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually add remaining 3 tablespoons sugar and all of the salt, beating until medium-firm peaks form. Fold whites into chocolate mixture in 3 additions. Divide batter among prepared cups, filling each three-fourths of the way.

Bake cakes until tops are puffed and dry to the touch (some may crack, embrace it) and a tester inserted into the centers comes out with some moist crumbs attached, about 15 to 20 minutes. Cool in pan on a cooling rack, where the cupcakes will almost immediately start to fall.

Chocolate fallen soufflé cupackes courtesy of smittenkitchen

沙茶 popcorn

For Thanksgiving, we went to Connie and David's house. David was craving some snackies and apparently, him and bplee invented their own snack. They called it 沙茶 popcorn and the ingredients are exactly what it says: 沙茶酱 and popcorn. You can buy any old popcorn, David used butter flavored microwavable popcorn.

Now for those of you who do not know what 沙茶酱 is, it is a kind of Asian barbeque sauce, mostly originated from Southeast Asia for their satays. How I know it is the sauce we use to dip our hot pot ingredients.

There's no recipe for it, it's about how much of the 沙茶酱 flavor you want in it. First pop the corn and place in bowl with lid; while it's still warm, add as much 沙茶酱 in it. 沙茶酱 has this layer of oil and then the crushed spices. I'd say, putting more of the oil in it would flavor the popcorn better because the chunky spices end up clumping.

Then shake it all up. Look at David shaking the pot.

This is what you end up with. Sounds pretty crazy, but it's pretty delicious.

masse's

Since it's the holiday season, I wanted to put up a picture of something festive! Of course, I immediately thought of Masse's.

D's sister, brother-in-law, and nephew all have birthdays around the same time, so when we went to visit, I brought this cake.

Isn't it beautiful? I went up to their counter, bright and early and picked out prettiest one there. I was so excited, I even forgot to ask what kind of cake it was! What a mistake. It was tart, not too sweet, with wonderful textures. The fruits and chocolate were a perfect complement!

I'll have to put up pictures of Jen and Peter's wedding cake. Masse's is so amazing.

Masse's Pastries

1469 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA
(510) 649-1004