An Evening Without Power

After a severe storm in the bay area, our house went out of power on Wednesday and didn’t have it back till Thursday evening.

So we spent an evening with no electricity. It was actually kind of nice, at least it was for one night. We both wore a headlamp to get around in the house, almost felt like camping. We would just need some campfire, some tri-tip, and some s’mores to complete the experience!

We lit some candles, chatted, talked about what happened during the day. Pascal got to catch up on some sleep and I got to use the remaining power of my laptop (good that I had it fully charged the night before) to do some uninterrupted writing.

Sometimes when I get home, I am presented with many possible activities. So I end up reading a few pages of one book, then going off to check emails and getting sucked in facebook updates, all the while watching the latest episode of my favorite show and chatting with friends on IM.

So it was kind of nice to have so little choice and just focus on that one thing I could do at a time. That reminds me of the time when we were traveling, the only “entertainment” at night would be reading whatever book we had at hand (or listening to street noise). That actually made me rediscover the joy of reading, something I had lost amid a busy working life in a foreign land. The simple pleasure in life…

With all that said, I am still glad the power is back on now…

Bedroom in candlelight

Saving the frozen foie gras by burying it under ice cubes :)

Cafe of the World I

During the new year we spent a few days in Tahoe. On the last day, we stopped at Gear and Grind Café in Tahoe City for breakfast. The place is half ski/bike shop, half café. In the middle of the café are two couches, old but comfy. Behind the couches by the window, a couple of computers offer internet access. On the walls scatter posters, maps, ads, and photos. There is also a shelf of books and a sign that says “book exchange”.

Yeah I know this place. I’ve been here many times, only it was on a different continent, and in a different timezone.

Being there brought back such nostalgic feeling, almost homesick. During our year traveling, we’ve spent time at many cafes, to take a pit stop, to use the internet, or just to watch the world go by. For most of them, I can’t even remember if the coffee was any good or if the food was priced fairly. I just remember moments, feelings, and conversations.  I can’t even remember the name of many places where we spent much of our time.

There is this place in Lijiang, China where we went everyday to stuff ourselves with their Naxi breakfast. It is only after some googling I recall the name again. Prague Café. It sounds neither Chinese-y nor backpacker-ish. But it has everything a backpacker can hope for – internet (slow but bearable), book exchange, food reasonably priced and nice portion, and best of all, travel diaries left behind by many visitors. It is because of that we avoided some tourist traps the travel agencies about to set up for us. Some of the travel stories are fresh off the press, they were written just a couple of days before. It feels as if the ink was still drying as I read, and through that, some kind of inexplicable time-space connection has been made between me and writer, who I never met, and probably will never ever.

Prague Cafe, Lijiang, China

View from Prague Cafe

Speaking of China, I have to mention this other café in Yanshuo. Again, name forgotten, but that’s not important. Being an internet addict, I went straight to check my emails as we arrive. As soon as I left, the waitress came and sat down by Pascal and said she wants to practice English. So they talked, and I continued to check my email with a smirk. When I returned, he told me the waitress had lower her voice and whispered,

“is that lady your tour guide?”, she pointed my direction.

“no, she is my fiancée”.

“fiancée? what is that?”

“you know, one level above girl friend?” he replied, not sure how else to explained that

“ah I see”

She excused herself not long after that. (sorry girl, he is taken). I guess I did look a bit like a local tour guide with my piggy tails and very functional (but not esthetic) outfit.

There are also places that aren’t geared toward travelers, but we felt right at home nonetheless.

In Ushuaia, the southern tip of Argentina, there is this café we went everyday after returning from Antarctica and before catching the next cheap flight back to Buenos Aires. It doesn’t have internet access or book exchange, doesn’t have bunch of backpackers flipping through Lonely Planet, but the second floor has a huge window and a few really comfy couches. We sat there, ate, read, and just observed the streets beneath us. In this town, you can pretty much divide all the non-locals into two kinds – BA or AA. Not talking about airline here. They stand for Before Antarctica and After Antarctica. Everyone here is either here waiting to get on a ship to the Big South, or just return from there. We start to pick out people on the street and debate which group they belong to. Sometimes you just know.

One day, we heard footsteps coming up the stairs and a cheerful “Hey you guys!”, it turned out to be a friend we met at El Chalten, a small town in Patagonia. We chatted away and caught up like old friends, even though our “friendship” was based on a mere 10-minute conversation at the hostel we stayed. His name is Ido. Ido just got out of Israel army and wanted to be a writer. He, just like many young Israeli, decided to muster as much money as they can and bought a one-way ticket to South America. He slept at the cheapest accomodation possible, wrote whenever inspiration strikes. He had told us the night before he couldn’t sleep, and suddenly words start to flow in his head, he got up and wrote away till dawn. He showed us his notepad – a few crumpled napkins. He was excited to tell us a publisher back home wanted to publish his poems. I was almost jealous of this young, free spirit. As we grow older, we start to have more and more baggage. Sometimes it’s just responsibility that comes naturally when we grow old, sometimes it’s the comfort and habits that are hard to break, and sometimes the fact of  owning more means letting it go harder. It takes a certain amount of courage, and naivety to do that. I am glad we followed our gut and spent a year traveling, but there are certain things I couldn’t give up. Sometimes, when less choices are present in life, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. it might just keep you focused.

Ida, Pascal, and me @ the name-forgotten cafe in Ushuaia, Argentina

but i digressed, there are many more of our cafe experience i’d like to write about. i’ll write about them in the upcoming posts. stay tuned!

in the meantime, what is your favorite or most memorable cafe experience?

Christmas Dinner: Behind the Scenes II

I feel a little bit slacking when everyone else is talking about New Year resolution when I am still on Christmas! The Christmas tree at our place is counting its days (I know we were supposed to take it down like two days ago). So I’d better get this entry out!

table setting

The challenge of doing a prix fixe dinner party at home is, since dishes are served in order, they need to be kept warm. But not all the dishes can be made ahead, foie gras, for one, is best prepared a la minute. In a professional kitchen, there are line cooks responsible for each station. But in our little kitchen, it’s just me and hubby. Two pairs of hands, four burners and one oven, and in case you are wondering, we have no maid. ☺

So between courses, we ducked into our kitchen to prepare the next dish. I felt a little guilty to have left our guests’ stomach half empty but we comforted ourselves by thinking: this is the typical wait time in a high end restaurant anyway! I told them it’s our trick to starve them first so they will be happy no matter what is served to them!

Here is the list of the dishes we prepared-

Red Pepper Cream Soup

Red bell peppers sautéed in butter with chopped onion and minced garlic, added chicken broth, boiled and simmered. It was then pureed until smooth and sent through a strainer. I suspect roasting instead of sautéing the red peppers would have brought out the flavor better! I also think I might have added too much chicken broth and the soup came out a little bland in taste. But I was able to compensate it with some cream, mint leaves, and seasoning so it turned out pretty good. It was made ahead and warmed up before served.

red pepper cream soup

Seared Foie Gras on toasted bread, with cranberry chutney

I already have an entry on this. Like I said, it has to be prepared a la minute (a la minute, I just love how it sounds! The food already feels tastier this way!) The cranberry chutney is best made ahead and warmed up before served. This way it allows the flavor to integrate and give a smoother mouthfeel – not an ensemble of 5~8 different ingredients dancing on your palette! The foie gras was just excellent, it melts in your mouth. Although The grade B foie gras we got is not the highest grade, it is the best for searing. the fatty content of the foie gras pairs very well with the fruity flavor of the chutney, with the crunchiness from the toasted bread, it was perfect – if I may say so myself. :)

Arnaud’s smoke salmon

Our friend Arnaud brought some home-made smoked salmon. It is probably one of the best smoked salmon we’ve every had. He had purchased the salmon 2 months ago when it was still in season and had it freshly frozen. He had told us how he smoked the salmon but i don’t think any of that registered in my head, i was just too busy eating :P

Arnaud’s smoked salmon

Main Course – roast rib eye w/ blanched green beans and sautéed baby potatoes

We roast the rib eye in the oven, first seared it in 450F for 15 minutes, then turned down the heat to let it roast slowly until internal temperature reached 130 degree. We turned down the oven to 190 (thank you Arnaud for keeping an eye on it!) to keep it warm. we prepared the side dishes a la minute – green beans were already blanched but were stir-fried on the spot with bacon; baby potatoes took a little time to cook through but our guests just kept the conversation and laughters going at the table and it was a relief to know they were having fun and weren’t starved and bored to death waiting for the main course!

some guests have said they liked the cranberry chutney a lot. So here is the recipe-

——————————————

CRANBERY CHUTNEY recipe

(I don’t have the exact formula to make it. but it’s one of those dishes you can customize to your liking – more cranberries, less cranberries, more sugar, less sugar, more wine, less wine. then just bring them to a boil and let it simmer until you like what you taste. Let your taste buds decide!)

Dried cranberries

Raisins

prunes (optional)

Apple cider

Sugar/brown sugar

rice wine vinegar

Cinnamon stick

Port wine (a must. It changes everything)

Brandy (just a splash, optional)

Cloves (optional. I only put a tiny bit)

———————————————

Enjoy!

Christmas Dinner – Behind the scenes I: Dessert

It’s a little late to talk about Christmas dinner. I know. But better late than never, right?

We had a few friends over for dinner on Christmas Eve. The festivity in the holiday season air somehow makes us feel confident to pull off a 4-course menu – red pepper cream soup, seared foie gras with cranberry chutney, smoked salmon (courtesy of Arnaud); main course is roast rib eye with blanched green beans and sautéed baby potatoes. Must not forget about dessert – black forest cake.

My experience told me the more I could make ahead the better, especially the dessert. Because I’ll always run out of time no matter how early I start on the party day! So I had planned to work on the cake the night before. But at about 9PM and with all the ingredients ready, I realized I didn’t have an appropriate cake pan (way to go, chef!). so I rushed to the mall – the only place with a cake pan for sale that’s still open. After getting a 9” cake pan at Williams-Sonoma I decided to spend a little time in the mall. And you can guess the rest: at the end of the night I got home with some new clothes and no dessert was made.

So there goes my plan of sleeping in next day. I got up early to make the chocolate cake for black forest. The cake baked just in time so I could go do an airport drop-off while letting it cool.

When I got back I started to work on other parts of the cake – cherry pie filing, chocolate ganache, whipped cream, and rum syrup, among other things (yes, dessert wasn’t the only thing we served) The decorating looks easy enough on YouTube, but what I failed to factor in was every step adds up. It was almost 4PM when I was finally ready to assemble the cake.

As I got ready to halve the cake to put fillings in, I realized, the chocolate cake was too short. It’ll look more like a black forest pie! I was going to give it a go. So it’s short, so what? It tastes the same! But hubby said neh, black forest gotta look like black forest. So with less than 2 hours to show time, I started again to mix cocoa powder, flour, baking powder and baking soda, whipped together eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla extract, combined the dry and wet ingredients, poured the batter in the cake pan, and sent it to the oven.

And again, that goes my plan of presenting a finished black forest elegantly. Guests walked in as I plastered layers of chocolate ganache on it, with YouTube video in front of me. Lol!

Here are some pictures:

plastering layers of ganache on the cake

chocolate cake as the base of black forest

final product!

here are the links where i got the recipes from – enjoy!

chocolate cake

black forest cake decoration

Foie Gras Is In The Plate

A quick entry to talk about our attempt to sear foie gras last night. A few pieces were slightly burned, but overall it was a success and we did not burn down the kitchen! We served it on toast, topped with cranberry chutney. The searing created lots of smoke in the kitchen but surprisingly it didn’t set off the alarm (hmm is the smoke detector really working?? )

The challenge of it is not having enough clean pans to work with, and to serve every piece HOT at the same time. We tried to sear 3~4 pieces at a time but the rendered fat seems to make the next batches burn easily. It created so much smoke we had to open the front and back door to let the air flow. So note for next time: must have enough clean pans handy! No worries because Pascal got a foie gras cookbook for Xmas gift so there will be plenty of “experiments” to come.

Funny thing is the Asians ladies (Karen and I) both preferred having lots of chutney for flavoring but the French like it without,just bare and to the point.

More about the dinner to come later.

up: (left)removed the duck liver from package (right) cut up into individual serving size

down: (left)After searing 12 pieces of foie gras, the kitchen got really smokey (right)final product: seared foie gras on toasted bread with cranberry and raisin chutney

Foie Gras is in place!

Some people say foie gras has an acquired taste, if you are not french. The first time I had foie gras was in 2001, in La Folie @ San Francisco. Pascal and I had been dating for a few months and I decided to take him to a nice restaurant for his birthday. I don’t remember if it was love at first bite, but very soon I knew I wanted more (I mean the foie gras). over the years we had gone back a few times, if dining french is like watching a movie, then foie gras is the climax. But the joy is so fleeting. The 1 oz. serving doesn’t last very long. We savored every bite of it. In restaurants they often give you a palette cleanser after the course, something like mint shaved ice or fruity sorbet. but why did i want to cleanse my palette when it is in culinary heaven? We always say jokingly it’s the true display of love if one offers the last bite to the other :)

so this year we are going to try to make our own foie gras. the plan is to sear it and not burning down the kitchen. we got this 3 lbs delicacy today – ok, not a delicacy

yet, but hopefully it will turn into one in a few days. We’ll worry about the cholesterol later. stay tuned for the result!

holiday tea party

It was raining like crazy on Saturday. I’ve been looking forward to some cold, rainy days to set the tone for the holidays so i am not complaining. The rain really got me into the lazy holiday mood where first priority is to stay warm, dry, and full. Warm and dry might be at times difficult but staying full is not a problem. :)

I spent most of my weekend in the kitchen, getting ready for a holiday tea party i was throwing. I made tea sandwiches, cheesecake cookies, mini fruit tarts; Anne brought some amazing homemade Taiwanese pineapple cakes and it was yum! With Christmas tree on the side, candles lit, tea served,we had a wonderful afternoon.

here are some pictures from the party.

’tis the season

When Starbucks start to use holiday cups a month ago, I knew holiday season was creeping up on us. But it wasn’t until after Thanksgiving, the sudden temperature drop and my email inbox cluttered with holiday coupons did I realize holiday IS really around the corner.

We are determined to make it very Christmas-y this year because this is the first year in a long time we are spending the holiday season at home. We picked up a Xmas tree from a nearby lot yesterday – a 6″ beauty, fragrant and not too busy. We spent 20 minutes dressing it up, even felt a little ceremonial as we hung the first ornament on it. I know an artificial tree is more economical and might even be more environmental friendly but the scent from a fresh Christmas tree reminds us holiday is here, every time we step in the house…

With a Christmas tree around, I am in full speed for the holiday, and that means lots of chocolate, good food (more calories consumed), a relaxed mood (less calories burned), and some holiday pounds that I start to pack on. :)

Just Some Tuesday Night Home Cooking

It is cold today. After work, instead of heading to yoga class, i went straight home and made myself some Taiwanese sesame oil mushroom chicken soup with vermicelli (香菇麻油雞麵線).

It turned out pretty good, I think. I had two bowls of it for dinner! Now I just collapsed on the couch with a full stomach. I don’t know how authentic it turned out. I wasn’t a big fan of it when I still lived in Taiwan, so I don’t have a developed taste buds to judge it. but it’s good enough for me, otherwise i wouldn’t have had so much! :)

The dinner i made last night!