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

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: