k*spot: Food and drink

But can she cook chinese food?

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 02:39:14 GMT

I got a comment today asking me if I can cook chinese food - in fact, I've been ask this a lot by people because it seems like I never cook chinese food. I definitely CAN cook chinese food (and pretty well, trained by the best chinese cook I know, my mom) but I don't really cook chinese that often for a couple of reasons:

I ate nothing but chinese food growing up. In fact, of my 18 years at home with my family, probably less than 10% were eaten with a fork and knife - most were eaten with chopsticks and accompanied with a bowl of rice. Very rarely do I actually FEEL like eating chinese food (except in Toronto where the food is awesome), much less cooking it. I'm pretty chinese fooded out even so many years later.
There isn't a lot of challenge to chinese food cooking to me - I'm very familiar with the ingredients - whereas things like parsnips, fennel, pumpkins, celery root - these are all things I've never cooked with before and I'm totally fascinated with how to prepare them, what goes well with them, etc.
High standards coupled with laziness - truthfully the dishes I would want to eat/make are WAY too labour intensive for it to be worth my time (sharksfin soup for example) that I'd rather just go out to order it (though I'm a snob and think Seattle chinese food blows) - or better yet, go home to Toronto to eat it or have my mom make it :)
I hate chinese vegetables. Not that it should stop me from cooking chinese food, but I think bok choy, choy sum and pretty much every other chinese green is totally nasty.

So there you have it, can cook chinese food but probably won't.

WIMFD: Roasted fennel with olives and garlic

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 21:54:22 GMT

Bon Appetit's November issue is full of thanksgiving goodness - I want to roast a turkey every day! Anyway, since I'm unsure of who is going to be doing the cooking at T's fam's place for thanksgiving, I didn't want to lose out on trying out some of the recipes.

I love fennel, though I usually use it raw in salads and I've never actually 'cooked' it before, so I tried this - Roasted fennel with olives and garlic - and seriously, its awesome... if you're looking for a good (and easy to make) side for thanksgiving, this is totally worth it. Finding fennel sometimes can be a pain the ass, since the only place I've consistently found fennel is at Whole foods and its so much more expensive there than if you can find it at Safeway and Trader Joes (though they only sporadically carry it so its good to have WF as your backup).

I really wanted to try the Brussels Sprout Hash with Carmelized Shallots but I couldn't stomach the idea of the entire apartment smelling like stinky gym shoes all evening while they cooked (plus, not everyone likes brussel sprouts) or the Butternut Squash Gratin with Goat Cheese and Hazelnuts too but T isn't as crazy about butternut squash as I am. The fennel went over well with all so I'm happy. I'll have to try those other ones another time.

WIMFD: Pumpkin soup with red pepper mousse

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 19:11:35 GMT

Until only last year had I ever ate pumpkin - it always struck me as being kinda gross - probably because the only time I really ever saw pumpkins was when I was a kid carving them at school and I can't imagine eating anything that had been molested by dirty kid hands.

Anyway, last week T was in San Francisco for work and called me one night so I could keep him company while he ate his dinner. He described this fantastic pumpkin soup that he was drinking and it sounded interesting to try to duplicate.

I ended up using this recipe on Epicurious (which btw, is where I get most of my recipes, that site is the awesomest ever) and it turned out great. Based on the comments I had modified the recipe slightly using more chicken broth than water to make sure it wasn't bland, as well as more carrots and onions. Highly recommend this recipe, its great for fall.

WIMFD: Orecchiette pasta with sausage and roasted peppers

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 23:50:11 GMT

Yes, I do cook a lot these days but no, cwkeating, I didn't take any pictures (though I should have). As a result, this blog entry will probably be more boring than my normal boring entries about cooking :)

I (heart) pasta and lately I've been inspired to learn how to make more interesting pasta dishes at home after having some fantastic but somewhat overpriced meals at union, tavolata and stumbling goat.

I made something similar to this recipe last night, I roasted yellow and red peppers and kept them as thin strips instead of making a sauce. Overall the recipe I used was pretty good, but the pasta really could have used some acidity to it - and I think using some tomato paste or even some balsamic vinegar would have made all the difference in the one I tried. I think I'll try the recipe again with some modifications.

I know its sort of cheating to use boxed pasta (and that it makes a world of difference) so I think I'm going to try to make my own pasta at some point...I just have to convince T to let me buy more kitchen apparatus' ... can someone please tell him that counter space is totally overrated?

WIMFD: Chicken with black-pepper maple sauce &Roasted butternut squash with lime juice

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 22:01:51 GMT

I've made this chicken recipe before but cheated since it was last minute and I only had chicken breasts and not a whole chicken. This time I actually followed the recipe exactly - it was a lot less daunting than I expected since I got the butcher to do all the work of cutting the backbone off the chicken for me so that it could easily be cooked flat.

I thought the squash with lime would be a nice switch up, since usually I make squash candied instead of savory. I also had a potato leek soup, but since I didn't have any milk or cream the texture was pretty pitiful...oh well, can't win them all.

Anyway, dinner was great, it went over well with my fellow 'my significant other is in another city more interesting than Seattle' friends who got together to eat and drink.

WIMFD: Meatball sliders

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 23:55:42 GMT

Bon Appetite's September issue featured "Meatball Sliders" on the cover and I just had to try them out since I've really been missing sliders in my life the last couple of months.

[For those who aren't familiar with the bar scene around seattle, back in the day Del Rey used to have $1 happy hour pulled pork sliders which were fantastic to start off an evening of drinking or end off an evening of drinking. Anyway, they changed their menu to mexican and don't have them anymore. Since then I've been mourning the loss of the slider - Belltown bistro and cascadia both do mini burgers but they just aren't the same]

The recipe is really easy and straight forward and I would definitely make it again for my next party. It was a bit challenging finding the right size buns and in the end I opted for a small roll that was a bit bigger than the recipe called for (and subsequently made the meatballs slightly larger as well to keep everything in proportion) but they still turned out fine, and when you have a big group of folks getting ready to ride the bull, its the perfect fix.

WIMFD: Chicken with black-pepper maple sauce

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 22:06:07 GMT

I didn't have a whole chicken but chicken breasts work well too. This was supposed to be a 'fast' recipe but its a bit of a pain to have a bunch of pans on the stove at the same time.

anyway, T really liked this and I'd consider making it again, this time actually measuring ingredients too. maybe.

Recipe is here: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/233973

cache: customer service

Wed, 02 May 2007 23:04:51 GMT

[Follow up to an entry I wrote a couple months ago...]

I got a comment a couple weeks back from the folks that run Cache - seems they google'ed and found my entry. They were nice enough to follow up with an invite to come try again.

Hi Karen, I'm the cook behind Caché and wanted to apologize that you were unhappy about your experience. Spanish Night, IIRC, was our third event so we were still pretty new to the whole thing. I agree about the ventilation and we won't be deep-frying in our space in the near future. After some guests from our first and second event left over-stuffed but happy, we decided to scale back on the portions/richness of the food for Spanish Night and I may have been overzealous in that regard if you left unsatisfied. If I had known, I would have been more than happy to offer you another plate as we had plenty of leftovers! As with all restaurants, I think we learned a lot in the last 2.5 months that we've been open, and the feedback about the food, especially in the last month and a half, have been overwhelmingly positive. We're getting private bookings from guests who came and enjoyed themselves so much that they now want to host small dinner parties here for their friends. I'd like to offer you a free meal at our most popular event if you're interested for Sunday, May 6th (foie gras custard, braised pork belly wrapped in bacon, duck confit pot pie, dessert, and wine pairings). Please email me at info@cacheseattle.com if you're available and interested in coming again.

Unfortunately I can't make it :( but I think some friends are ... I hope they have a better experience now that Cache seems to have ironed out the kinks.

25 for 25

Sat, 03 Mar 2007 02:44:57 GMT

25 for 25 is back - I always say that I'll try to go but rarely do I ever make it to more than one restaurant. It's not that I haven't eaten at these places before but moreso I try to go because its kind of an excuse to go out and eat without feeling guilty about the cost of eating out so often. The logic makes zero sense, I know.

Restaurant: Steelhead Diner

Sat, 17 Feb 2007 00:58:13 GMT

I went to check out Steelhead last night in the market - as far as new restaurants go, Tavolata is still my favorite new place - I could eat at Tavolata every night.

Anyway, I think Steelhead pulled off the diner decor well and I like that it overlooks the market - it probably would have been even nicer had I gotten there before the sun went down. The staff there is super friendly and super eager about the menu, and they've got a great wine list and knowledgeable staff. I'm curious to see how well it does as I've heard the previous restaurant that occupied that space totally tanked - after dark there isn't a whole lot of foot traffic so it'll be word of mouth and reputation to draw people to the restaurant.

I *could* go back to Steelhead but its not my first choice.

More baking: Madeleines!

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 07:09:14 GMT

Inspired by T reading a passage from Swann's Way by Proust to me on Sunday, I decided to bake some madeleines.

I've never made madeleines before (in fact, i dont know if I've ever even tasted one, I've just seen them - cute little cookies with waves). They turned out great - though we both decided a bit of almond essence definitely enhances the cookies. They're also surprisingly low in butter and sugar. I always assumed they were as fatty as normal butter cookies but they're not.

(and no, thats not my plate of madeleines with my silver tea kettle. that's the picture that came w/ the recipe. really.)

DRY Soda - Culinary Soda

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 23:05:05 GMT

Over the last month and a half, I've witnessed the building and opening of this little store front a block and a half from my house - without any signage, peeking through the window I would have thought it was some sort of design or architecture firm, but as they continued to build out their space, they put in a counter a number of fridges with soda bottles in them. Finally they added their signage - Dry Soda Company - and I was extremely curious to find out what kind of place this was. (And selfishly since I own property in the neighbourhood, I always want to know what kind of businesses are moving in and what impact they'll have on the overall value of the neighbourhood).

Turns out, its actually the head offices of a new soda company that specializes in sodas that pair with food, as an alternative to wine. Here's their little schpeel:

Seattle-based DRY Soda Co. offers the first culinary soda, a line of all-natural, lightly sweet beverages designed for those wanting a sophisticated non-alcoholic option to accompany a great meal or simply a night out with friends. DRY combines the subtle essence of nature and the kitchen in its four cuisine inspired flavors: kumquat, rhubarb, lemongrass and lavender.

In a fashion similar to fine wines, DRY was developed to be paired with great foods, and when poured, each flavor teases the senses with an effervescent mix of fragrance and flavor. DRY is all-natural, non-caffeinated, flavored with fruit and herb extracts, and sweetened with a small amount of pure cane sugar. In addition, each bottle of DRY Soda contains only 50-70 calories — far fewer than conventional sodas

Interestingly, the woman at the store gave us a bit of history in how the idea for this was conceived - basically the proprietor was a big foodie but since she had kids, could never enjoy wine with her meals during the periods when she was pregnant. She worked with local restauranteurs and chefs to come up with the different combinations to pair with food so she could still have good beverage pairings with her meals. Pretty smart eh?

Anyway, it does sound a lot like frou-frou-chic-chic soda (and it kinda is) but you can definitely see how they would pair with food and they're actually pretty good. My fave is the lavendar and the kumquat flavors.

You can get them at Dry Soda or at places like Whole Foods.

More baking: Elvis Presley's favorite pound cake (part 2)

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 23:30:14 GMT

So I made Elvis Presley's Favorite Pound Cake last night and it turned out really well. Yay! I brought it to work today to feed my co-workers.

It took WAY longer than I thought it would, mostly because I didn't realize that the 10 times they tell you to beat things really adds a ton of time; not to mention the thing took an hour and twenty minutes to bake! Poor T was trying to take a nap and had to listen to the incessant whir of the mixer.

I need to find my photo downloader doo-dad, but mine turned out pretty good. The scary part is that I ran some numbers on the nutritional content and its crazy (but makes sense since its Elvis, like come on!)

Most people took way smaller pieces, but of the round cake, if you sliced it into 14 pieces, each slice would have 483 calories, 22 grams of fat, and 28 grams of saturated fat. Eek!

More baking: Cupcakes!

Mon, 11 Dec 2006 20:53:35 GMT

So I'm a bit overwhelmed and haven't had a chance to make Elvis' pound cake yet.

Instead, I finally dug into my cupcake book and made some Cinnamon sugar puff cupcakes - they turned out awesome despite my little mistake (I forgot to add the egg and was all confused after I put into into the mini muffin tins why the batter was so gooey and thick - I had to put everything back in the bowl and mix in the egg and then re-distribute into the tins).

The best part is that they taste like little cinnamon sugar donuts but they're baked not fried.

and if you're wondering, they are all gone.

WIMFD: Sake steamed sea bass with ginger and green onions

Sat, 02 Dec 2006 03:13:27 GMT

This was super yummy and easy to make: Sake Steamed Sea Bass with Ginger and Green Onions @ epicurious.com

Taste:
Ease of preparation: (the whole meal took less than 20 minutes including prep AND cooking)
Actual resemblance to picture:

(damn spaces for not offering the thumbs up emoticon by default! i had to cut and paste this ghetto non-transparent gif!)

Restaurant: Serious Pie. meh.

Sat, 02 Dec 2006 01:10:04 GMT

So, I love Tom Douglas, and Tom Douglas restaurants (Dahlia Lounge and Palace Kitchen are my faves) but I wasn't so crazy about Serious Pie - maybe I had too high expectations going in?

Anyway, apparently reviewers have raved about it, but compared to the atmosphere of a place like via tribunali or the usual tom douglas restaurant, it just seemed a bit lacking. The food was ok - though they're more like flatbreads than they are pizzas (and they're frickin' expensive for pizza). I had the pizza with the clams and pancetta - and if you by chance got the right bite of clams and pancetta it was good, but otherwise it was a bit off with either too much clam or too much pancetta.

I dont think I'll be adding to my list of fave restaurants but it was definitely worth trying out. I doubt I'll go back or organize my next group dinner there.

Random Ingredient: Rhubarb (postponed)

Thu, 30 Nov 2006 20:31:47 GMT

So I went to Whole Foods last night and they dont have any rhubarb. And really, if Whole Foods doesn't have any rhubarb, I'm assuming no one will since its out of season (However, beets sure are in season - I counted 6 types of beets when I was there last night. I didn't know beets came in so many colors!)

I also learned that brussel sprouts grow on stalks! Maybe you knew that already but it never even occured to me how brussel sprouts grew. I always assumed they grew like little mini lettuce or cabbages

More baking: Elvis Presley's favorite pound cake

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 01:39:43 GMT

Umm, like hello, i love pound cake and this cake looks SOOOO tasty. Here's the recipe.

It's funny - when I was a kid my mom used to make pound cake and for whatever reason I didn't like pound cake at all. Slowly as a I got older I guess I started to appreciate that not every dessert needs to be covered in a. icing b. ice cream c. sprinkles and started to really like pound cake. I think they call that process maturity. Or the fear of diabetes.

Anyway, looking at this picture is making me hungry!

I know what I'm going to be making this weekend after I go hunt down the special pan it calls for.

Random Ingredient: Rhubarb

Mon, 27 Nov 2006 19:18:27 GMT

Before I forget about it - Greg just challenged me to use rhubarb in my next dish.

Dessert seems like the obvious choice off the top of my head but I'm curious to see what else I could do?

Post thanksgiving

Sun, 26 Nov 2006 04:52:35 GMT

So my thanksgiving contributions to G + J's thanksgiving feast all turned out well. J's turkey was awesome, S's port contributions were great, and T's mashed potatoes were yummy. My gingerbread cake turned out beautifully - it was my fave - AND it looked exactly as the picture! The apple pie though was what everyone else seemed to love. Classic dessert I guess. I also sent everyone home with a box of cookies I baked that day as well - white chocolate chip macadamia nut. Yay for fatty american holidays!

More baking: Gingerbread squares with honey mascarpone cream

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 23:22:35 GMT

I've been baking cookies again (no chocolate chocolate chip yet - just regular chocolate chip cookies and sugar cookies) but for thanksgiving I think I'm going to bake a pie (most likely apple, MAYBE pumpkin but I dont really like pumpkin) and some gingerbread squares to bring to G + J's thanksgiving dinner.

Doesn't that gingerbread square look tasty? I hope mine ends up looking like that. Wish me luck!

Random Ingredient: Parsnip (part 2)

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 23:19:18 GMT

So this weekend I decided to use the parsnip to make the parsnip gnocchi.

It was kind of a semi-failure in that it turned out as expected but we didn't really like it. The recipe called for the gnocchi to be baked but the end result was like eating little crackers. Kind of weird. The other thing about the recipe is that it makes enough gnocchi to feed like a nine million people. Ok, maybe not, but when we futzed up the first batch by making a sauce that was too overpowering (white sauce with sundried tomates and proscuitto), we still had enough for a second batch (olive oil, butter, shallots and rosemary - better) and STILL have some left over (still in the piping bag) for me to try boiling the gnocchi instead of baking it.

Anyway, I'm glad I got rid of the parsnip, I will definitely never try this recipe again.

Random ingredient: parsnip

Thu, 16 Nov 2006 20:51:14 GMT

So for those of you who asked, this is a parsnip. It kind looks like a fatter albino carrot.

Anyway, I was debating using the parsnips in Parsnip and Apple Soup (since we still have nine million apples) or maybe Parsnip Gnocchi (except that it looks kinda hard to do). We'll see ...

Random ingredients: yams, celery root

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 19:21:39 GMT

In the last two months, T and I subscribed to a service called Pioneer Organics - basically an organic food home delvery service. While we decided to cancel using pioneer organics because each order they would manage to send us some sort of moldy fruit or rotting vegetable, and each week we would forget to change the default order and we'd end up with gross things like chard, they did send us some nice vegetables that inspired me to start cooking. First it was the 12lbs of yams they sent us. Ok, not really but enough yams to feed at least a small army. In a drunken daze at the pre-party and McLeod Residence, I tried to convince Steve to let me bring mashed yams or baked yams to his dinner party. Steve declined, saying it didn't fit in with the theme of his menu, but would allow me to bring yams if they came in the form of dessert. So, inspired by C, I made a sweet potato pie with marshmallows. Lookie! Too bad mine didn't actually look like this - my marshmallows all floated to the top and made the thing look all lumpy. But it tasted damn good (and lots of whipped cream covers lumps)

The other thing that pioneer organics sent us a lot of was apples. Every week, more apples. So, inspired by my pie last weekend, I made an apple pie (and also some sugar cookies). More yum!

The most recent random ingredient was a celery root. Now, the truth is, the thing in the fridge was not a celery root - I dont think I've ever eaten a celery root so if it wasn't for my trip to whole foods in Seattle to get some chicken to make Braised Chicken with Celery root I wouldn't have passed by the product section to realize the things in my fridge were PARSNIPS. Oops.

If you're wondering, a celery root looks like what a Hobbit's foot would look like if it was a vegetable.

Anyway, now that I have these random parnsips in my fridge, I guess I know what my next meal will include.

Talking about 25 for $25 is back

Wed, 26 Oct 2005 00:27:43 GMT

ooooh lets go pig out! yay!

Quote

25 for $25 is back

Everybody go!

This is a great deal, and a good excuse to check out good restaurants. I like that the site has menus, too, so you can check them out. If you can make it to any of the 12.50 lunches, that sounds even better.

Last time, i had good meals at Cascadia and Barking Frog. I wanna check out Fish Club and Nells this time - they're two of the only ones i haven't been to on that list. I'm always happy going back to Zoe and Brasa and a couple of others, too.

Cascadia's menu looks pretty interesting this time around, too. It's worth noting that they do a $25 prix fixe menu all the time, though, so you can hit other places during November, then go check them out any time...

mmm cookies!

Thu, 20 Oct 2005 07:59:50 GMT

ok, so I decided that i should start baking more cookies like i used to - so here's my first attempt at keeping this goal.

I would have made the chocolate chocolate chip ones had I had more room in my freezer (you need to freeze the seperated cookie dough before you bake them). I guess I've been to costco a couple times too many this month :)

my morning routine: fatty alert!

Thu, 14 Apr 2005 01:15:58 GMT

Every morning (just about), I go to starbucks for a grande soy latte and a cinnamon scone.

As it turns out, just in breakfast alone I'm consuming 720 calories! GEEBUS! I mean, its not like I thought I was being healthy or anything, I just didn't realize that most of my daily intake of calories and fat were coming from my tasty brekkie.

I do think its cool that you can find out all this info pretty easily, but now I wish I hadn't looked. I feel so guilty...oh well, on the positive side, at least I know with all the soy I drink I'm safe from osteoperosis. Or at least that's how I will justify my brekkie in the future

Soy Latte

Serving Size 16 fl. oz.
Calories   210
Fat Calories   50
Total Fat (g)   6
Saturated Fat (g)   1
Cholesterol (mg)   0
Sodium (mg)   160
Total Carbohydrates (g)   28
Fiber (g)   2
Sugars (g)   21
Protein (g)   11
Vitamin A   15%
Vitamin C   0%
Calcium   50%
Iron   10%

Cinnamon Scone

Serving Size 128g
Calories   510
Fat Calories   200
Total Fat (g)   23
Saturated Fat (g)   10
Cholesterol (mg)   50
Sodium (mg)   480
Total Carbohydrates (g)   71
Fiber (g)   2
Sugars (g)   29
Protein (g)   6
Vitamin A   15%
Vitamin C   0%
Calcium   6%
Iron   20%

Starbucks launches alcoholic drink

Thu, 17 Feb 2005 21:51:49 GMT

this is my kind of beverage! hot damn!

Quote

MSNBC - Starbucks launches alcoholic drink

shiros and ghetto bada night

Fri, 17 Dec 2004 00:39:05 GMT

third night in a row of sushi...this time at shiros with james, charlie and vlad. We met up with Matt (and briefly thomas) at Bada to chill out and have some drinks (as well as test out theories. Note: Need to get the diagram Charlie drew). Charlie wore his camoflauge instead of his oversized jersey and cap, but got down with the ghetto asian crowd nonetheless. I don't know why he was so adverse to coming to hip hop classes all those times, the man loves to dance!

I ended up staying out a lot longer than intended, important conversations that needed to happen, documenting charlie in the asian habitat. You know, things like that. Pictures to come if I ever get them off James' camera.

props to Cody for making sure I got the 'special' drink, or else my night might have not been that fun.