wally's cafe

N's previous post really resonates with me. Even now, having graduated, I still cook up shenanigans like that. Yes, we are that cool.

But this post I wanted to highlight a local hole-in-the-wall: Wally's Cafe. I don't think there's any way I could've found this place without yelp. It's that obscure. They're behind this pool hall/club thing, tucked away in an alley. A U-shaped bar stool eating area frames the kitchen where you watch the two chefs make your food. If you're lucky, Wally will be there. With free lentil soup. And free baklava. Need I say more? Well, even if Wally's not there you get free lentil soup and baklava. BAKLAVA! (It's just fun to say.)

This is their chicken pomegranate dish. My fav!

Wally's Cafe

3900 San Pablo Ave
(at Yerba Buena Ave)
Emeryville, CA 94608

leftovers and more!

This is me and m's concoction with my leftover jajang mein from Yuyu Za Zang. We added chicken marinated in soy sauce and sesame oil, mushrooms, and broccoli! We stir fried the chicken, mushroom, and broccoli first and just added the jajang mein at the end to heat up. An entirely new meal! It didn't even taste like jajang mein anymore.

Hmm delicious!

This is what poor college students eat. That's creative juices flowing...

deep fried oc fair

So over the summer I went to the OC fair. At a fair you expect to eat over priced deep fried twinkies, turkey legs, kettle corn, etc. Even though I expected to have some kind of deep fried food...I definitely wasn't prepared for this...

DEEP FRIED BUTTER.

Yes, that is right. Deep fried butter. It's like heart attack on heart attack. And the ironic thing was that the place we got this from was called heart attack cafe. And you wonder why America suffers from obesity and heart problems.

Okay, us crazy folks decided to get their dessert platter since you know, if we're at a fair, we HAVE to eat deep fried foods. So I can tell you what it consisted of:

Yeah, so there was bunuelos, cinnamon chips, chocolate covered oreo, deep fried chocolate covered bacon, and deep fried butter. Oh and of course, it was topped with whipped cream.
I think that was all of it. So the thing about the deep fried butter is that it looks like churro so DON'T BE DECEIVED! My friend took the first bite and all this butter just gushed out. blehhhhh. so gross and unappetizing. I did not try this madness. But I can say that the deep fried chocolate covered bacon was pretty good except you feel like really really gross after.
We did pretty good...we just cut our lives in half. Please just kill me now. Thinking about this, just makes me feel like dying. So I don't suggest you get this...I suppose you can try one thing, but not that whole platter. Oh and if you get this, many people will look at you and take pictures of your food. Yes we are fatties.

OC Fair

88 Fair Drive

Costa Mesa, CA 92626

http://www.ocfair.com/2010/

rice crispy treats

I can never get the spelling quite right... In any case, this is another part in the bridal shower series. I made the easier dessert ever--rice crispy treats! They're so, so simple, but so satisfying. I used Smitten Kitchen's salted brown butter crispy treats, and oh my goodness, did the salt and browned butter make all the difference.

The most basic rice crispy treats only use rice crispy cereal (I used Trader Joe's new rice cereal!), marshmallows, and butter. Some people even omit the butter, but I wouldn't--especially when you brown it, it gives the treats a wonderful nutty flavor. Even the proportions are up to the cook: if you like yours more gooey, then more marshmallows, more crunchy, then more cereal, more taste, then more butter.

Yes. This is DEFINITELY my kind of "baking."

Lastly, the touch of salt that Deb adds in her recipe really heightens the flavor of the treat. However, if you aren't a fan of sweet savory combinations, omitting the salt is fine.

Pictures of the treats and the whole table spread! Courtesy of N, Connie and Tammy:

time to eat...

So I've decided that I am done with my Taiwan-ness. If you want to see more of my fattyness or experience...moral of the story: go to Taiwan. It's impossible to live vicariously through me because you get absolutely no satisfaction from it.

Onto other things...Jen's bridal shower. Yes as m mentioned, I made fruit tarts.

I used the same exact recipe as last time so you can refer here if you want the recipe. The only difference is that I made mini fruit tarts...its a bridal shower after all, so I used a mini muffin tin to make the crusts. Actually this was SOOOOO time consuming, because first of all, I have two 12 cup mini muffin tins (they're from Jen) and I needed to make at least 30, so yeah...and second of all...my oven was NOT usable! I baked in different places...thanks tammaymay and jwoo. I bought lots of fruits: kiwis, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries. I had trouble figuring out how to cut the kiwis and strawberries to make it pretty...

They're pretty ugly actually...but no matter. It was successful, as was the bridal shower.

Super cute stands for the desserts...maybe m will talk more of this...but it's cute right? (Oh I had a lot of fruit leftover, hence the mound of fruits)

EDIT by m: Sorry guys, just had to post another picture of these amazing tarts. :] Courtesy of Connie!