It's June Already?

Why hello there. Uhm, okay. It's definitely been a lot longer than I thought it was going to be since my last post. But, but, but, I have good excuses! The month of May has been ridiculous. I'm not sure if April or May has been more ridiculous. April was full of dance performances.

"The Croton Flower Blooms," ethnic Wa Chinese dance.

Photograph courtesy of Mike Ross.

"Wind Flow," ethnic Han Chinese dance.

Photograph courtesy of Mike Ross.

Okay, I'm only kind of sorry for these dance photos. I've been going through some serious dance withdrawal the past month, and so I've been reliving performances through all my photos! Part of me really wants to find a job in San Francisco, so I can just head over to a dance studio after work. :) (Speaking of which, I really really wish people would get back to me in the two weeks they say they will after an interview... no response is worse than a rejection!! In other news, the job that I had an interview for would've been amazing--working with and outreaching to homeless and at-risk youth in San Francisco. But, alas, they refuse to get back to me.)

Anyhow, aside from dance in April, May has actually been pretty full of baking! Mainly because there has been lots of birthdays and graduations and whatnot.

There was Ryan's birthday and a yellow butter cake with chocolate buttercream frosting (he likes very sweet cakes with no fruit, hehehe.)

There was a random carrot cake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting for sh$ts and giggles.

There was Mike's birthday! Lots of roomie love xoxoxo :)

That was a raspberry passion fruit white chocolate cheesecake (with an Oreo cookie crust). It was devoured, and it was delicious. It was also extremely lethal. Personally, I prefer a plain cheesecake (I despise white chocolate, haha!), but yes, it was still devoured.

And there was Alice's graduation cupcakes!

They were chocolate cupcakes with raspberry buttercream frosting decorated, of course, with Cal colors. :)

And finally, there was another graduation party (Eric graduated from the Monterey College of Law!) in Santa Cruz to bake for.

This was a decadent chocolate cake with mixed berry filling and cream cheese frosting. The cake itself was very rich chocolate cake that was soft with a lovely crumb... the only thing is that it also makes it a b!tch to work with (I seem to be more colorful with my language today than usual--my apologies) as it kept on falling apart, even when it was cooled, and even after it was frozen!

So life's been a little hectic and a little stressful. At least May was at least spotted with random days of sunshine and times for new haircuts (I cut my bangs!) and pretty dresses. :)

Photograph courtesy of Scott Milliken.

There have also been random things like blueberry buttermilk pancakes.

Oh yeah, and a surprise birthday party that my friends threw for me. :)

It was delicious sushi. I love sushi. I love Asian food, especially Japanese food and simple Chinese food. I ate so much sashimi that day. Yum.

And finally, on Memorial Day, there was a lovely BBQ at my apartment! Mike was having lots of fun with his new toy. :P We had grilled Hawaiian BBQ tofu, chicken, and pineapple.

Of course, there were also appetizers. There was roasted garlic garlic hummus (yes, it's that garlic-y), hummus, guacamole, deviled eggs, Italian pasta salad, and a mango Southern sweet tea.

And S'MORES! S'MORES! (and Banana Boats, but I totally forgot to take photos of them! Banana boats = banana split in half stuffed with chocolate chips and/or other things, wrapped in foil, and roasted for 5-10 minutes until warm and delicious. It's good for camping as a dessert!)

MUAHAHAHA FIRE!!!

And finally, there has been some hiking here and there. I leave you with a triptych of the beautiful Pt. Reyes. :)

Tiramisu Birthday Cake (and dancing!)

Hi all. So although there has been lots of baking and cooking the past couple of weeks, there has also been lots of dancing and ridiculousness... my Chinese dance team held a showcase, and I was in 5 of the dances, organizing 4 of them, and whatnot, so I haven't been around the computer that much, and if I was, I was probably doing something related to dance, hehe. But it was amazing and awesome, and it was, in my opinion, a huge success. :)

Photograph courtesy of Eric Eakin.

Photograph courtesy of Eric Eakin.

Photograph courtesy of Eric Eakin.

Photograph courtesy of Eric Eakin.

So last weekend was also my good friend's (and dance buddy!) birthday. (That's her below!)

Photograph courtesy of Eric Eakin.

I was trying to figure out what to make. She likes chocolate and coffee-flavored things. I didn't feel like making a basic layered chocolate cake or just a bunch of cupcakes... it felt too boring for such an awesome occasion. So... what to do? Chocolate... coffee... tiramisu, of course! But with tiramisu, usually you don't just carry it around in a cake box, and it kind of stays in its baking dish until served, and I didn't feel like walking around the streets of San Francisco with a heavy Pyrex glass baking dish. That, and I didn't feel like making ladyfingers from scratch nor going out on a hunt for them (apparently they're annoying to try and find around here... and TJ's only has them seasonally? anyway.). I know, my life is so hard, right?

So, of course. Why not make a tiramisu but in cake format?

I think it turned out fairly wel. It had two cake layers soaked in an espresso syrup. In between, there was a layer of Kahlua-mascarpone-whipped cream with a nice layer of finely chopped dark chocolate, topped with an espresso-Kahlua-mascarpone-whipped cream frosting all over the cake. Ooh, and then I lined the sides with chocolate covered espresso beans.

Aside from the colossal mess of cocoa powder in the kitchen, I'd say it was a pretty big success. Cocoa powder was seriously everywhere. Lesson of the day? Sure, cocoa power levels out a little when you blow on it, but unfortunately, the cocoa powder goes elsewhere, i.e. on top of counter tops, toaster, sink, floor...

Yeah, everywhere.

Either way, the birthday girl had a bottomless mimosas brunch at Lime in San Francisco (it's a crazy place... it's like you're clubbing with food at 11:30 in the morning).

I'd say she was fairly happy with the cake. :)

Thanks for indulging me in my vomit of dance and photographs, and I promise to have some recipes up soon. :)

New Layout!

Hi all. The month is drawing to an end, and as each day passes, it's another day closer to this blog's first birthday. It's a bittersweet sort of realization, seeing as it unfortunately coincides with my graduation and unemployment. But such is life. But I've been soothing my poor soul with my (re)new(ed) singer obsession, Bat for Lashes.  She's pretty awesome.  Her voice is slightly haunting, and reminds me of Tori Amos in some ways.

Prescilla from Bat for Lashes on Vimeo.

I've been listening to this song on repeat for pretty much the whole day while playing with photographs and css/xhtml. As useful as Blogger is, it's slightly limiting and frustrating to edit the layout with all its widgets and gadgets and whatnot. Staring at the expanded code for the widgets made my brain melt a little.

Anyhow, I wanted to liven up the page a little. I usually play it safe with very neutral colors (well, technically black and white aren't colors, but we'll pretend they are) that aren't very glaring or diverse. This time, I'm going for the whole green/teal thing. I think it works well with my header photo, don't you think?

I also added pages! That way, I can revel in my vain self-whoring. That, and now there's a menu page! With photos! Go go go check it out!  I'll hopefully be adding a recipe index section as well whenever I get around to it...

I want to thank everyone for all their comments, emails, and orders so far. It's definitely been making this past year a lot easier, especially as May is inching closer.

I've been baking here and there since coming back from LA, but most of my time is spent working on dance stuff! My dance group has our first showcase coming up, and I decided to be in 5 dances (semi-in charge for 4 of them), I've been working on advertising flyers and programs, and whatnot, so I've been keeping busy. I've also fallen slightly behind on my economics homework, oops.

Anyhow, I hope y'all like the new layout!  And I leave you with one more Bat for Lashes song.

Sleep Alone from Bat for Lashes on Vimeo.

NED Awareness Week: Eating Disorders and "Culture"

**WARNING: This post contains images that may be considered not safe for work, or considered to be triggers suffering from or recovering from an eating disorder**

As the warning above suggests, I'm going to dive a little deeper into the cultural social issues regarding eating disorders. I am saying now that I do not condone supporting eating disorders nor do I believe that those with eating disorders should be judged and shunned. I write this entry with all seriousness (and with a little bit of apprehension). Some of you may be familiar with what I am going to write about, and some of you may recoil and react in a shocked, or even negative way. I'd say that I would love discussion, but it seemed that y'all are shy or scared of commenting anyway. Again, I speak only from personal experience and research, and not from a stance of professional authority. Here it goes.

What has been of interest to me (both analytically and personally) is the culture that has evolved around eating disorders. For those of you that don't know, there is a whole sub-culture (not sure if that's the right word...) of "Pro-Ana" ("Pro-Anorexia") individuals. Especially with the emergence of the internet, what began as a more or less underground webring of webpages and sites dedicated to the support of those living with eating disorders, has exploded with the creation of blogging and online communities such as Livejournal.com and Xanga.com. And no, I don't blame the internet and consider it a bad thing. It's a tool that people use, and like people, the way that it is used is two-faced as well. At the same time, websites and these online communities have also created a haven and a safe place for people to be more open about their own personal experiences and help others recovering from eating disorders.

Oh yes, and I apologize if this entry is a little clunky and not the most elegant read. Because of my own experiences and exposure to those suffering from eating disorders, this is a little hard to write about at times.

I remember back in the early part of the 2000s, there had been some discussion about Pro-Ana websites. One ridiculously hot and lazy afternoon after class, instead of studying for my AP US History class in high school, I decided to sprawl on the sofa in front of the TV and channel surf. If memory serves me correctly, there really isn't much on in the early afternoon except children's cartoons, soap operas, and TV talk shows like Dr. Phil and Oprah. So, while channel surfing, I stumbled across Oprah (yes, Oprah! Don't judge me. I swear it's the only Oprah episode I ever watched. And I hate the Oprah Book club, grrrr. I am ashamed of carrying around a book with a giant "O" sticker on it, augh. Actually, come to think of it, I'm not sure if it was Oprah. Or Dr. Phil. Or somebody else... but we'll just stick with Opera for now) talking to a young girl and how she had developed an eating disorder which had begun when her mother had started to diet. This then delved into a spiel about Pro-Ana websites.

Not only do these websites support fellow strangers suffering from eating disorders through encouraging words and phrases such as "Nothing tastes as good as hunger," and "I envy your hipbones," but through specific song lyrics, tips for starving yourself and hiding your eating disorder, and what seems to be a favorite, "Thinspiration." Thinspiration, or "Thinspo," are images that people post and share online of individuals who they deem to be "beautiful" or "perfect." What many people discuss is this desire to reach "perfection," or this ideal image that they have in their heads. Some, of not many, of those suffering from eating disorders are plagued with this desire to be the perfect person. More often than not, it's not about the food or even to be considered the "hottest person in the room," (though it's the latter as well at times) but it's about being that perfect person, in control of him/herself in all aspects of life. Anyhow, that's a digression.

I have put the rest of the entry behind a cut because there are images that people might be sensitive to.

National Eating Disorders Week (Feb 21-27)

This coming week, February 21-27, is the National Eating Disorders Awareness Week. I figure this is probably a good place to talk about this. Eating disorders are a very touchy subject in a society that revolves around image. What has been interesting to me is to see what the sociological trend that has emerged and evolved surrounding eating disorders in the past ten years or so.

There has been so much focus around weight and image, ranging from Milan banning models with a BMI (Body Mass Index) lower than 18.5 to the obesity epidemic which has led to Japan's recent move to legally limit the waist size of their population. And here, in America, food is a large part of our culture, as it is with many, or even most, other cultures as well. At the same time, discussion of eating disorders tends to be so taboo (and in some cultures more than others), which is understandable because it is such a sensitive subject. Though, maybe if it were less taboo it's be less sensitive? ...Let's not digress into a philosophical sociological discussion about the chicken or the egg here.

I apologize in advance if this becomes a very technical post. I'm honestly not sure where I'm going with this. I will say now that I have had my own encounters with eating disorders, as I'm sure most of you have--whether its yourself, a friend, or a relative/sibling to some degree or another. I will say right now, though, that all of my information is through my own research and my own experiences/exposure to eating disorders. No two stories are ever exactly the same, of course. But let's just start with the technical... (Click jump for more information.)

Lunar New Year and Valentine's Day!

Xing nian kuai le! Gong xi fa cai. (i.e. Have a prosperous new year.) Oh yeah, and Valentine's Day. And President's Day! ...And happy Mardi Gras today. Goodness gracious it's a bunch of things to celebrate about recently!

Of course, that means there has been lots of baking/cooking and handing out of delicious goodies. There have been various dark chocolate truffles, Chinese almond cookies, and red bean nian gao (sticky rice cake)!

So February 14th was not only Valentine's Day, but it was also Chinese/Lunar New Years! It's now the year of the Tiger... it's my year! This meant only one thing: hot pot!

Photograph courtesy of Avi

What is 火鍋 (i.e. hot pot), you ask? Clearly, as you can see from the photograph, it is loads of fun. (And no, I wasn't the only girl there!) Click below to see more of what hot pot is and for Chinese Almond Cookies and Red Bean Nian Gao (stick rice cake)! :)

Garlic and Herb Focaccia (and an Egret)

Hey all. I can't believe it's already February. If you didn't know, this coming weekend is Chinese New Years, Valentine's Day, and President's Day! And then Tuesday is Mardi Gras. Craziness, ain't it? I can't believe it's February already.

Anyhow, this past week I also decided to come face-to-face with something I've been avoiding... breads that take overnight to proof (to do that whole... developing the flavors thing!). The only other one I've done was that ridiculously amazing but labor-intensive brioche loaf. Of course, there are less time and labor intensive focaccia recipes out there, but oh, how can I deny Peter Reinhart? His recipes and formulas and instructions have yet to fail me. Anyhow, this involved lots of waiting, over-night refrigeration, and making my own garlic and herb olive oil! But it was worth it... doesn't it look tasty?



Oh. Minor digression. While I walked to Trader Joe's to buy fresh basil (I forgot fresh basil! How could I forget the fresh basil?!?), I saw a gorgeous white egret that decides to show itself on our little bay every so often. All I had was my phone camera, so I took a picture with my phone for the time being (it's my new phone wallpaper!), annoyed that I didn't have my camera with me. On the way back from TJs, I saw it was still there! Awesomeness. Still, it was starting to get really cold, windy, and cloudy, so I decided to hide back in my apartment. However, discussing this with my friend, I decided that I might as well go outside and track this bird outside.



Click below to see more photos and to read about Peter Reinhart's focaccia!

Food, Politics, Economy: Today’s Food Crisis and Polanyi’s Great Transformation

Hi all. So I've been wanting to write about food and politics for a while, but it's been hard to motivate myself to get enough energy to be riled up about food and politics because I feel like most of my energy is being drained by cover letters, resumes, and interviews (Yes, interviews! I said interviews! ...Well, we'll see. When I get good news, trust me, the whole world will hear about it).

So, for those of you that don't know my eating habits, I don't eat beef anymore, and I try to eliminate high fructose corn syrup (so hard, you have no idea) from my diet. Sure, there are health reasons, but it started actually in large due to political and ecological reasons. I also try my hardest to try and buy fair trade chocolates, coffee (not that I drink coffee), etc. I haven't been able to bring myself to write a whole shpiel about all of the personal reasons why I don't or try not to consume such products. So, I've decided that a good start would be to post an essay that I wrote for one of my interdisciplinary studies classes. I apologize if it seems a little dry to some, but... well, too bad, I find the subject fascinating.

(This is where I become a little Berkeley hippie hate neoliberal globalization on you.) The assignment was to write a response to an article by Walden Bello titled "Manufacturing a Food Crisis" using various economists that were discussed in class. In a nutshell, Bello's article discusses how the food crisis that had developed by 2008 was "artificially created" (i.e. man-made) through political decisions that transformed the agricultural market. I chose to analyze Bello's article through Polanyi's The Great Transformation (Polanyi is amazing, by the way.) and his theoretical and historical account of the development of the capitalist "free market" economy. Polanyi wrote in his book, The Great Transformation, "Laissez-faire was planned; planning was not." Following this theory, economic decisions are heavily tied to politics and can have dramatic effects on society. Politics, economics, and society are all inextricably linked. The "free market" policies that the Global North (i.e. developed countries, first world countries, etc.) forces upon the Global South and other various political decisions affect the economy and society as well.

Why, do you ask, am I writing about this? I think it's important for people to be conscious of what they consume, whether it be food, electronics, what have you. And, since this is a food blog, I figure why not. That, and because I don't think many people, especially in the Global North, realize how much about the politics behind food and how much the food industry is tied up in the global economy.

Click below to read more (Please keep in mind that this was written for class back in the summer of 2008, and was, of course, therefore written all the night before/morning of. So I apologize for potential lack of coherency and poor writing... but I swear I did my research beforehand!!)  Any responses/thoughts/retorts highly encouraged!!

Thanksgiving #1

(First off, I would like to say that whoever is taking my photos and putting them on myspace.com, please either stop, or at least let me know who you are.)

Hi all! I hope you guys had a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday, whether you spent it gorging on food, skiing or snowboarding, or what have you. I had the fortune of having TWO fantastic Thanksgiving meals. The first, being with my family. There was a huge table with mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and of course, a giant 16 pound turkey!

So my roommate and I drove down to my parents place. First off, I would like to say that the autumn colors are just gorgeous right now.



There was a whole day of cooking and cleaning, there were a few of us stacked up in the kitchen, with anything from maple sweet potatoes to clam chowder. Needless to say, there were definitely many cooks in the kitchen.



Click below to see more of the Thanksgiving feast!

Cupcakes and cakes, oh my!

Hi all! Okay, okay, I'm still alive, I promise. I'm sorry for being so MIA this month... thanks and apologies to those who have been continuously checking without anything exciting and new to see.

Honestly, it's been a kind of a dragging much in terms of productivity. This whole job search thing is extremely frustrating and I'm getting sick of typing up cover letters. So I have kind of avoided anything that involved typing a copious amount of typing and thinking. I feel guilty because I've been wanting to write a few posts about food and politics, but I just can't seem to bring myself to do it. Eventually, eventually.

But enough whining, it's still been a good month regardless. I've made some awesome friends, I'm actually getting out and being social, how exciting is that? I had a chance to watch my fellow dance girls perform once already!







Aren't they beautiful? It's an epic dance, "Ode to the Plum Blossom," and it was an awesome performance. :)

So the past month has involved a decent amount of baking, including a cake for an order, a vegan cake for a fellow vegan friend, and 5 dozen cupcakes for a young girl's birthday!





Click the jump for more cakes and cupcakes!

Halloween has come and gone.

So Halloween this year was pretty awesome.

First, there was going to a pumpkin patch and actually carving pumpkins! I went with a few guys... two of them from India, so this was their first Halloween! Our pumpkins were awesome.



Mine was the Scarecrow! Do you have any idea what a pain it is to care thin slices out of a pumpkin with dull blades from a Safeway pumpkin-carving kit?! Anyway. What an awesome day last weekend!

Then there was this past weekend! It involved dry ice, Twister, music, costumes, and, oh yeah, FOOD. We had about 15 people over, and, of course, I made way too much food. I think people might have filled up on the appetizers. :| There were vegetarians and vegans, and there was enough food for everyone. I didn't have much time to make anything especially Halloween-themed, but at least I had enough food to feed everyone!

Unfortunately, since I was so busy with food and actually hanging out with people, I didn't have a chance to take many photos of the food. I had a chance to take a photo of the table before the craziness all began!



Those are some of the appetizers (all home-made): hummus with seasoned pita chips, bruschetta with tomato and basil, cinnamon apple challah.

The final menu went as follows (and I actually finished most of it on time... amazing, I know!!) I'll post recipes to a few of them in the up-coming weeks. :)

Appetizers
* Hummus with home-made pita chips (vegan)
* Cinnamon apple challah (vegetarian)
* Parmesan zucchini sticks (vegetarian)
* Parmesan breaded chicken
* Bruschetta with tomato and basil (vegan)

Main Course
* Spinach feta quiche (vegetarian)
* Turkey pasta bake
* Peanut soba noodles (vegan)

Dessert
* Pumpkin pie (vegetarian)
* Caramel apple bites (well, it was partially successful?) (vegetarian)
* Persimmon pomegranate salad (vegan)

I hope all of you had a fun and safe Halloween!


Photography courtesy of Debanshu (Chinu) Singh

P.S. I hope you had an awesome birthday, little brother, even though you probably don't read this!

Photography, pound cake, and so much catching up

So for any of you living in California, or more specifically, the Bay Area... seriously, what's with the weather? Pouring rains, ridiculous humidity and mid-70s the next day, and "afternoon showers" that flood streets and burst pipes in the 5 hours it rains. Seriously? However, it has led to some great opportunities for photography and playing around with my camera.



The nights in the past few weeks have been amazingly clear, and the previous photograph and the next ones are a result from playing around with my shutter speed.

Look at how amazingly still that water is! This is the bay... all summer it was ridiculously windy, and it was definitely a lot colder at night back in July and August. Again, I'm not the biggest fan of scenic/still photography, but it's still fun to capture the weather and light is always fun to play around with... like when the sky opens up on the Bay with San Francisco in the background.



The sunset on Monday night after the afternoon "showers" was gorgeous. I was waiting at the bus stop on the way to an Owl City concert in the city, and the sunset was just so gorgeous that I couldn't resist.





But enough pictures of the bay (I promise there won't be too many anymore... I mean, you can only have so many pictures of the same place before you get sick of seeing yet another pretty sunset or "Jesus beams."). I have a backlog of photos of the food that I baked 2 weeks ago, and I totally forgot about the cranberry cream cheese pound cake that I baked for the tea party!



So, for some carrot cake, celebration challah, and cranberry cream cheese pound cake, click below! I apologize for the half-photographed steps, but I was in a constant rush making all of these. (Recipe for pound cake below as well!)

High Tea!

So I've wanted to have a tea party for the longest time... finger sandwiches, warm tea, scones, and the works. Finally, this past Sunday, I was finally able to put together a tea party with some of my dance girls. :) Aside from not having the time to put together petit fours, I'd say it was awesome... because we're worth it. ;)



Sooo much food! And I even had a bouquet of flowers from TJs to arrange on the table. :)

Click below to see all the beautiful food!

Baking Fiasco, House Sitting, and Restaurants

Jambo! Habari za leo? Mzuri sana. That's Swahili for Hi! How are you? Very good. Yeah, I'm drawing a blank for how to start out my entries, and I've been missing Swahili, so I figured why not. This past week has been ridiculously oh my goodness so freakin' crazy busy. Yes. I'm currently at my parents' house house-sitting and have been so since this past Thursday night. This means that any baking that is to be had required driving and hour up back to my apartment, but making sure that I ended up back at the house to walk the dog and such. Oh! So yes, even though it largely sucks, and I can't really bake or process photos or anything, I have a chance to play with the dogs... m... fuzz therapy. :) Second, I get to play the piano which I've missed oh so much. &lt 3 ...Clearly, I just need to learn to play a more portable instrument...

So this past week (and change), I've worked on an order for 3 dozen oatmeal raisin cookies, those moon cakes I posted about earlier, snickerdoodle blondies, vegan chocolate raspberry cookies, celebration challah (it's like a two-decker challah, SO AWESOME!), carrot cake, more snickerdoodle blondies, and food for high tea at my apartment (Yes, I had a fancy, home-made tea party at my place with dance girls because WE DESERVE IT :D). I've also managed to fit going to the SF MOMA, Exploratorium, and eating out! I've been trying to hang out with my friends once a week--usually this means a late dinner, since everyone is working. Hopefully I will be too, soon...

Aren't they so cute?!





But enough about me... food! While I currently don't have any pictures ready for most of the things I've done in the past week. However, I like to introduce people to new restaurants that are different and exciting. A couple weeks before, we went to one of my favorite Chinese restaurants in the South Bay. It's called Tong Soon gardens, and is a Schezuan/Mandarin/Korean restaurant, and it's fantastic. No pictures of the food, but I'm sure I'm going back at some point, and will write a review then.

But, this past week, we went to Layang Layang, a Malasian-Indonesian place. Apparently the name means "kite," and the interior is beautifully decorated, albeit, a little dark. I don't have a picture of the outside, but here's a picture of their beautiful tablecloth!



I apologize for the poor quality of these pictures... the lighting was dim, and my camera was on some wonky setting that I didn't realize, making the exposure time way too short, leaving me with dark, not so pretty photos. Alas. But see more photos and reviews after the cut!