Ling

Hmmm...a chibouste sounds like it would go nicely with a thick buttercream and crispy meringue. Thanks for your help--I think I'll do a chibouste layer in my cake.

peanut butter cream tart (with an Oreo crust) yum! Sooooo full.

I don't squeeze.

Thanks for the mirror chocolate glaze recipe! Is Chibouste pastry cream? I've never made chibouste before...but I've done pastry cream. What's the difference? (And do you have a recipe for that too? )

I don't watch hockey, but Tatlow's has big screens. They have decent nachos. I had a nacho eating contest there once, after a big meal at Amarcord. I hung out at Tatlow's way too much last month...haha.

Wow, such high praise! That made my day...thank-you!

No...I'm not shocked. I was a bit surprised when I first heard about it. During one of the infamous Morimoto/Flay battles on the original series, a little boy was brought in to meet Morimoto the night before the battle. Morimoto was in the kitchen doing prep work, so I assume that he must have had an idea what the theme ingredient might be.

I never make bread pudding with bread either. I use croissants.

fig and brie tart, with candied walnuts?

^Another option with the gingersnaps could be pieces of candied ginger. To make the chocolate crust a little fancier, you could paint melted dark chocolate over the crust before you put the filling in.

^Ahhh....you are a genius. OK, so now it's going to be chocolate cake, dacquoise, and caramel buttercream. I think I'll scrap the chocolate mousse...I've done lots of mousse cakes already.

well this isn't exactly an "after dinner dessert"...it was more like dinner. I ate most of a pan of chocolate walnut fudge. Only my second time making fudge...yeah I'm not a big fan of it.

How about a shortcrust with ground almonds? A dark chocolate cookie crust? You could make a nut brittle, pulse it in the food processor, and sprinkle that on top of your cheesecake for crunch. Or decorate the top with shards of the brittle.

big bowl of ice-cream

If you're planning to go to Shanghai Wind, they are closed on Tuesdays and you will need to call ahead early for reservations. I've tried calling twice for reservations recently, and they were all booked until 8:30 p.m. when I called in the afternoon! (Called on Fridays, which I suspect is their busiest night.) You should be able to snag a table at lunch if you go early (around 11ish) for dinner (around 5pm).

a muffin and coffee ice cream

Thanks for the reply, and I'm surprised you remembered my Chinese name! But it's Yuen Ling, not Yuen. Let me see if I got this right--the layering should go: cake chocolate Amaretto mousse dacquoise chocolate Amaretto mousse cake (and then repeat) Is this correct? If so, I think I'll just do 3 cake layers. Also, what do you think about a caramel layer? Do you think there will be too much going on in the cake? I was originally thinking about doing the caramel somewhere in the middle...perhaps 4 layers of cake, with the caramel sandwiching the 2nd and 3rd layer. So in total, that would be 4 layers of mousse, 2 layers of nut dacquoise, 1 layer of caramel, and 4 thin layers of chocolate cake. Or another option would be buttercream. Should I do: cake chocolate Amaretto mousse dacquoise chocolate buttercream cake (then repeat) If I go this route, I would probably ditch the caramel layer. And I would love the chocolate glaze recipe!

Well, dessert after lunch were Korova cookies, chocolate ice-cream, and coffee ice-cream.

I plan on making my own birthday cake this year, and I'd like to take the opportunity to do some things I haven't done before. I have no cake decorating skills, so I don't know how to decorate my cake. (The extent of my abilities is swirling some white chocolate in some dark chocolate for those swirls...but I'm kind of tired of doing that). But here's the plan for my birthday cake: -4 layers of chocolate cake (a rich, moist cake with sour cream in the batter...recipe from Cook's Illustrated 'Best Chocolate cupcake' recipe) -hazelnut dacquoise -caramel layer -chocolate mousse, possibly spiked with liqueur I'm thinking about just covering the entire cake with ganache if I wuss out on the decorating. I've never made a dacquoise before--just the soft meringue you put on lemon meringue pies, and Italian meringue. I'm not even quite sure how crispy a dacquoise is supposed to be--ideally, I'm looking for something to add some texture to my cake. Would I sandwich the dacquoise directly between 2 cake layers, or would I put it on top of some mousse? And would the mousse make the dacquoise soggy? I am thinking about leaving out the caramel...I don't want too much going on in the cake. I also don't really like fruit (even strawberries or raspberries) with chocolate, so that's out. I'm going to do a trial run for my cake for my friend's housewarming party on September 9th...so I will post pictures of my trial cake and you can all see it and make additional suggestions.

I had a really mediocre dessert. I had black forest cake from Safeway , a bowl of coffee ice-cream, and a bowl of Heavenly Hash ice-cream (both from Lucerne).

Wednesday night I can't believe I'm admitting this on Egullet, but I ate the $3.95 breakfast special at Bino's in Burnaby after much arm-twisting by my friend who's leaving for Regina soon. He's a big Bino's fan from waaaay back (to quote him: "Where else can you get a big plate of greasy diner food for 4 bucks AND get to dine next to hookers?!!!!") so another friend of ours got him a custom-printed t-shirt with the Bino's logo on it! And of course, he wore it proudly on Wednesday night, to the amusement of our server. There were seven of us and we all ordered the 4 dollar breakfast special (2 eggs, sausage or bacon, toast and hashbrowns or pancakes). The food was as tasty as it looked. Actually, I don't know which was more disgusting--the food, or the sight of my friend's bare ass when he mooned me on the drive home. (And did you know you can order wine for $3.50 a glass to complement your meal at Bino's? I did not take them up on that offer.) Friday night Rare steak and tripe pho at Pho Lan in Richmond with my best friend. We used to come here every week after class a few years ago. Ahhh memories. We ate a cheap dinner, so I didn't feel too bad when we went to Richmond Center afterwards and I blew $200 on a skirt. Saturday night...well, Sunday morning I had a pretty late date and the movie ended at 12:30a.m., and there wasn't much choice as to what was still open in Richmond. We checked both Cactus Club and Sammy J's (both closed) and so we went to Boston Pizza I had the shrimp and cheese stuffed mushroom caps and a glass of Chardonnay from Jackson-Triggs. He had some girly frou frou margarhita...I think it was mango. He told me how he just put an offer in for a new condo and said he would want me to help him choose his new kitchen appliances if he got the place! And we are cooking dinner together at his (current) condo later on in the week!

Sounds like a wonderful meal! The vanilla ice-cream truffle sounds really special.

Oh yeah! I thought it was fermented something... I do like lam yue though - in those "little chicken biscuits" (gai zai bang), lam yue roast chicken, lam yue roasted peanuts, & also lamb hot pots & tong choy (for a minute I was thinking "tong ho", as in chrysanthemum leaves, which I DESPISE. It's one of the few vegetables I won't eat). ← nam yue is the red fermented tofu stuff...and foo yue is the yellowish/white one. Does anyone know what the difference is? I love both...especially nam yue in the Buddhist feast dish!

The moistest, fudgiest brownies ever...I think I've finally perfected my recipe. Recipe here: http://recipes.egullet.org/recipes/r1291.h...d6f5711fe610568

A NY-syle cheesecake I made, with an extra thick graham crust and sour cream topping