Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Pear'fection at the Americano


Monday night, madame Yoko called me up for drinks and snacks at the Americano afterwork. it's too early in the week for drinks but i needed it.

we got to Americano around 7:00pm. the crowd was not so hot that night, mostly hotel patrons or some sort of business people. good thing about monday night is that we can find seats real easy. the cocktail menu is short but packed with good drinks. i ordered a pear'fection, some kind of pear drink... it was so strong (a good thing!) that i couldn't remember what was in the drink. i think madame had martini and more white wine later. we ordered a mushroom pizza and italian sausage, kind of tapas size. everything was excellent as always but my favorite has to be the pear'fection and the sausage. the cocktail - even though infused with pear and had sugar in it - is still very dry which is excellent. the sausage was perfectly seasoned, grilled and served on a small bed of frissee and roasted red bell pepper.

Americano is in the lobby of hotel Vitale - a waterfront hotel/restaurant with upclosed view of the bay brigde and the east bay. definitely a good place for drinks, food and social afterwork (or before work or mid day...)

http://www.americanorestaurant.com/info.html

Monday, January 28, 2008

Stuffed tofu and roasted cherry tomatoes

it's been raining for days and the closest grocery shops in my area are in japan town. so i walked in the rain to Ninjima market and got some fried tofu skin, crimini mushrooms, ground pork and cherry tomatoes. lunch will be healthy this week, since i decided to stuffed the fried tofu skin with roasted mushrooms, ground pork, roasted garlic and minced tofu skin.

preheat oven at broil 500 degree F. i washed and dried all the tomatoes and mushrooms, tossed them in olive oil and whole roasted garlic gloves. place them in a baking dish, sprinkle with coarse salt and pepper, bake under the broiler for 10 minutes, the tomato skins will blister. take them out at let them cool down, warm to the touch. slice mushroom and garlic, mix them well with ground pork and mince tofu skin, season with honey, salt, pepper and soy sauce. i had 10 pockets of tofu skin and enough filling to fill them all. place the stuffed tofu pockets in the baking dish, cover with foil, poke some holes in the foil to let the steam out and bake at 375 degree F for 30 minutes. turn off the oven and let the stuffed tofu rest in the oven for 10 minutes.

For lunch, i packed the stuffed tofu with roasted cherry tomatoes over a small bed of steam jasmine rice. and bon appetit...

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Rambutan (Chom chom in Vietnamese)



i wanted to get some jasmine rice and since i was already in the tenderloin, i went into one of the asian grocery shops in the neighborhood. i was so happy to find the Chom chom fruits (rambutan) and they are fresh!!! not the frozen ones with the black and blue skin that suffered from freezer burnt. i wondered if they are grown here in California or may be imported from Mexico??? they are kind of expensive at $5.99/lb...


wonder what they taste like? the texture is almost like lichee but has more bite to it. they are far far less fragant and less sweet compare to lichees. and there's a woodsy seed in the center...


haven't had chom chom for years, i took them home and devoured almost a pound of the red hairy fruit... yum!

Vietnamese crepe at Ngoc Mai


Sunday morning, i filed my tax and headed to the tenderloin for brunch. it's a dive - hole in the wall maw and paw place, paw is the chef and they have dishes from the central region of viet nam.

i love the crispy crunchy crepe filled with pork, shrimps, bean sprouts and mung beans. it's really messy to eat this dish. break off a small chunk of the crepe, wrap it in a lettuce leaf with the herbs, dip it in fish sauce and then it'd be ready for eating.

the crepe here is good, not the best but very few places in san francisco offer this dish so it'll do for now. i also ordered another specialty here - the tapioca starch dumplings fill with pork and shrimp, steamed in banana leaf wrapping. the dumplings are translucent and have a super chewy texture which i love... check it out if you are not afraid of hole in the wall in the tenderloin!

Ngoc Mai Restaurant
547 Hyde st.
San Francisco, 94109
415-931-4899

Saturday, January 26, 2008

caramel fleur de sel macarons and cracked babies


i tried to make macarons again using Duncan's recipe at Syrup and Tang with a mild success. about 40% of the batch had big air pockets and therefore had cracked tops, lopsided feet or no feet - poor cracked babies!


i let the macarons rest a bit longer so the top shells can dry out a bit more and baked them at a slightly higher temperature (the recipe calls for 160 degree C which converts to 320 degree F). they came out much better with more even feet and no crack. so here's the recipe (that worked this time):

135 gr almond flour
135 gr powder sugar
135 gr sugar
100 gr egg white
32 gr water

1. mix almond and powder sugar. i ground them again in a coffee grinder which produces a much finer flour than a food processor. sift the mixture through a medium sieve.

2. divide egg into 2 equal parts - 50gr each.

3. add sugar and water to a small sauce pan, cook on high until the temperature registers 240-245 degree F on a candy thermometer - or firm ball.

4. a minute before the sugar get to the firm ball temperature, beat 50 gr egg white at medium speed to soft peak. pour in the hot sugar at a steady stream and continue beating at medium speed. once finish with the hot sugar, increase to high speed and beat until the meringue cool down, should be warm to the touch and the meringue should be at stiff peak - this beating took less than 2 minutes for me.

5. add the remaining 50 gr egg white (i gave the egg white a few whisk just to break it up a little) to the almond mixture, add the meringue all at once and fold until everything is incorporated. i used a flexible spatula for this task before but always found that it would take longer to fold and sometime the batter ended up over mixed. i used my hand this time (clean of course), and the mixture came together instantly. the whole folding process took less than 30 seconds.

6. preheat oven at 325 degree F. stack double heavy cookie trays. pipe macaron batter on parchment using 1/2" plain tip in whatever size you prefer, i piped mine at 1-1/4" rounds. tap hard under the cookie sheet to get rid of the piped peaks and to make the piped batter spread evenly. let the piped macarons rest for about 1 - 2 hrs so the top shells have time to form. i rested the macarons 2 hrs this time, when i baked them at 1 hr rest time and at 320 degree F, i ended up with cracked babies.

7. baked for about 10 minutes, rotate half way to get even baking. take the macarons on parchment off the baking tray and rest on cool surface, i rested mine on marble. some suggested placing them in freezer for a couple minutes. macarons should come off the parchment easily.


8. let them cool and sandwich them with whatever flavor you like. i used caramel fleur de sel since i made it last week using chubby hubby's recipe.

i will try the regular meringue method next week (the meringue with hot sugar is italian meringue). last week, even though i had a disaster with macarons using regular meringue, the feet on the macarons were much more robust (than this week) which is the look i prefer. i will also mix by hand next time to prevent the overmixing. stay tune!

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Macaron disaster Sunday


I tried a new recipe for the macarons and was disappointed again! this recipe uses 225gr powder sugar, 125gr almond flour, 100gr egg white aged 24 hrs or more, 25 gr sugar. It seems like alot of powder sugar in this recipe and the batter was too thick, I mixed it a bit more to make the batter a hair thinner so it is pipable. The macarons came out too chewy and deflated (look at the sad picture!). Thanks to Duncan at Syrup and Tang for his detail explanation of his own macaron adventure. I made caramel fleur de sel for macaron filling last night too, just a hair on the salty side but still pretty good. I did not weight the fleur de sel because i don't have a digital scale to weight small amount. Lesson learn, I will use less fleur de sel next time. Well, I can save the caramel filling for next week. I will try the italian meringue method next using Duncan's recipe at Syrup and Tang, stay tuned!

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Pho at Bodega Bistro


Saturday morning, 1/18, I was heading to my favorite "pho" place in the tenderloin for lunch. The pho was extra good today since the noodle was more "al dente" which i prefer. The rare beef here at Bodega is much more tender and flavorful than most pho places. i'm not sure if the Chef uses a different cut of meat, slice the meat by hand (vs. by machine as most pho places do) and tenderize the meat with meat mallet??? The soup is not difficult to make but I eat out since it is much more convenient and inexpensive. There're many ingredients that go into the broth, not worth making it at home unless you are making it for 10 people or more. The staff is friendly, service is promt...

Definitely recommended if you are in the neighborhood.

Bodega Bistro
607 Larkin st.
San Francisco, CA 94109
415.921.1218

Mecca SF


Thursday night, January 17th, some old friends met up with me at Mecca for drinks and chow. it was "Ladies night" at Mecca or were we at the premiere of the "L" word...? Drinks were good, we love the fresh crushed blackberry with vodka drink... The dinner menu has some american classics with a twist and a wink! I had the mini burgers with Kobe beef and tomato confits and the crab cakes. 2 orders of mac and cheese and one order of seared tuna??? All was good but not enough to inspire me to recreate any of the dishes. We love the space, after all these years and the recent fire, it still looks the same - enveloped in deep red floor to ceiling velvet drapes and dimly lit with candle light. the live entertainment that night featured some violinist and some rapper?!? interesting choices but we left before it get started... Definitely a San Francisco experience...

http://www.sfmecca.com/pages/home_.html

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Mole Poblano at Maya

after 111 Minna, it's chow time!!! Osha Thai across the street was packed and noisy... we headed toward Maya which was also packed but less noisy, a block away. Mole Poblano was my entree - a small size has 3 small pieces of tender grilled chicken atop a small mount of cilantro rice, 2 thick slices of fried plantains on the side and everything was topped with mole poblano sauce. it was delicious! i am going to attempt to recreate this dish at home....soon...

and desert, banana crepe in caramel sauce served with coconut ice cream and maccadamia topping... Yum!

http://www.modernmexican.com/mayasf/

Drinks at 111 Minna


Wedneday 2/16 round 7pm., we gathered at 111 Minna to toast our little friend's birthday. Fun place, drinks are ok, young (or at heart) crowd, art.... is up to your interpretation... Good to see familiar faces that i haven't seen in a while and met some new ones. Check it out at http://www.111minnagallery.com/

Sunday, January 13, 2008

madeleine cookies





i was going to make macarons for my first post but i found this recipe on line http://chezpim.typepad.com/blogs/2003/03/madeleines_madn.html and decided to try it out. Beside, i've been making macarons with moderate success, a little discouraging but i think i'll try again next week.

i made these with matcha and jasmin instead of the earlgrey as above recipe. i think i didn't add enough matcha. i'm not sure about the jasmin, i think it's fighting with the butter flavor or something.... if i make this again, i think i'll add a good 2 teaspoons of matcha and skip the jasmin. i overbaked them since i like madeleine on the crusty, crunch side. anyway, this kind of cookie is a bit rich for me even though i made them mini size. i probably won't make this again anytime soon, it's not at the top of my favorites list.