Our group lunch in La Paz

we were starving, the eating time is 2pm on this tour, i wondered why??? good thing we had some sweet empanadas with us...

3 kinds of salsa (green, red and the most interesting one - red with coffee) for the chips, all were good and spicey....


our 1st course soup, tomato veggie noodle soup. i love the soup with a squirt of fresh lime juice, i was just following what others were doing...


main course for me, beef fajita. add the hot salsa and fresh lime juice, yummy...


i loved the comlementary soursop beverage, reminded me of the vietnamese drinks...

La Paz

the next day, we took a trip to La Paz - a town about an hr (driving) north of Cabo.

we stopped at a mining town on the way, here's the town's church


shot of the semi desert from the van's window


first stop in La Paz, the rug place


a beautiful beach in La Paz, i wish we'd stop here for a while


a cathedral down town La Paz


a cute street down town La Paz


Forever 33 boutique, i love it....

the garlic restaurant

after we were done with sunning ourselves on the beach, we asked the concierge for an authentic mexican restaurant reccommendation, she pointed us to the Garlic restaurant (the word garlic was in spanish but i forgot how to spell)

a random shot of the restaurant interior


our appetizer, almost gone


my friend ordered the seafood skewers


and the other ordered the beef skewers


i had the shrimp fondue with homemade sauce


my dish was salty, everything tasted fresh except for the salty-ness. there was no one in the restaurant but us, i wondered why the concierge reccommended this one????

Cabo vacation

no baking last weekend and this weekend since i was away in Cabo San Lucas. we ( 2 friends from work and i) arrived in the evening, for our first night, we just did the buffet while watching the live nightly themed entertainment on stage. the food was good, the entertainment was.... entertaining.

the next day, we had to go to a time-share seminar in order to get all the discount and free things. that seminar took up the whole day and we spent the rest of the day on the beach.

view of the beach between my toes


the Sea of Cortez

Blowfish sushi

farewell party for a colleague, we went to Blowfish sushi. i forgot the camera so no photo for this post.
i like the decor, there's japanese amination both on TV and framed arts on the wall. the staff was friendly and the crowd was eclectic on this wednesday night.
the drinks are colorful and taste just like the way they look. i had a Krazy Kamikaze, delish and later a pinot gris, perfect as well. there was 14 of us and there was many dishes.... i had the kobe beef carpaccio and a scallop roll, both were excellent and beautifully plated. there were so many good looking dishes on the table that i wanted to try but didn't since everything was in small portion... i must come back here to try everything then...

http://www.blowfishsushi.com/

Chocolate cake

another recipe from Martha Stewart's "Desserts" book for this week baking. i baked them in mini cheesecake molds instead of spring form pans as Martha's recipe. i also added the grand marnier.

here's the recipe:

for the ganache:

55-60gr dark chocolate, coarsely chopped. i used El Rey brand 70% cocoa.
90gr heavy cream

for the cake:

355 gr dark chocolate, coarsely chopped, same brand as above.

90 gr sugar (to mix with yolk)
65 gr sugar (for meringue - or eggwhites)
85-90 gr butter, slice into 1/4" thick slices.
80-85 gr yolk, about 5 yolks
165-170 gr eggwhite, about 5 whites.
75 gr almond flour (ground almond), sifted.
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
2 teaspoons grand marnier, optional
powder sugar for dusting, optional
more butter to greasing molds

method:

cut parchment into 12 1 and 7/8" rounds to line the bottom of mold. also cut 12 3" x 12" strips of parchement to make the molds.

melt butter for greasing. brush parchment rounds and strips with melted butter, line bottom with rounds and roll strips into 2" cylinders. insert cylinders into mold. wrap bottom of mold with foil to catch dripping if any, set the whole thing on jelly roll pan.

Ganache:

over medium heat, bring cream to bubbling point, pour over chocolate, let it sit for 5 minutes and stir until smooth. Fill ganache in 12 small cubes in ice tray and freeze in freezer.

Cake batter:

in double boiler (or set a glass bowl over a pot of water, melt chocolate with butter over simmering water. let it cool down a bit.

beat egg yolks with sugar and vanilla until the color turns pale yellow, about 2 minutes on medium and 3 minutes on high.

fold melted chocolate in to yolk.

fold amond in to chocolate/yolk mixture. set a side.

beat egg white with a pinch of salt and then sugar to a stiff meringue.

fold meringue into yolk mixture in 3 to 4 portions.

fill parchment cylinders 1/3 way. unmold ganache from icetray and insert in center of each cynlider.

fill cylinders with the rest of batter, cover ganache completely.

freeze in freezer for an hr.

preheat oven at 375F. transfer baking tray from frezzer to oven and bake for about 30 minutes.

let the cake cool on rack for 10 minute before unmold.

add a few drops of grand marnier to each cake. dust with powder sugar - optional. serve warm, cake can be kept covered at room temp for a day or longer in refrigerator. for the best taste, re-heat cakes in microwave for about 15 seconds if not serving cake immediately.

Chouquet's

i was in the middle of baking the pistachio macarons and my friend called me up for brunch. Chouquet's is the place we wanted to try this time since i'd read in the paper a while back that the new chef is from Paris.

we got a table outside right away. the place is clean, modern, kind of normal bistro place - nothing worth mentioning about the decor.

the crowd here is definitely pacific height crowd, yuppies!

the staff were friendly and service was prompt, food came on time and i felt kind of rushed at the end.

i had the croque monsieur with mixed green salad and a side order of fries. the croque Mr was perfect, opened face, the bread was light and grilled to golden brown around the edges. the cheese was bubbling on top with spots of golden brown. the salad was ok, i thought the dressing could be more interesting. fries were perfect, golden brown, crispy and soft, not an easy thing to make. my friend ordered the smoked trout with fingerling potato salad. she got the smoked salmon instead. we asked the waitress if it was salmon and she insisted that it was trout. she was running around like crazy and my friend didn't want to make a fuss so she ate it anyway. it was very good she said, a bit heavy handed with the dressing! our waitress brought out the check and ask if we wanted dessert. we didn't want any desert but i thought it was rude to bring the check before asking us if we wanted anything else. while the food is good, i don't think i'll be back here anytime soon because of the salmon/trout incident and just simply of the bad waitress. San Francisco is filled with excellent restaurants, i hope Chouquet's realize this and train their staff adequately.

i forgot to take photos again!