Ling

Ling's Favourite Brownies (revised 08/22/05) Serves 10 as Dessert. I've been playing around with my brownie recipe for a few months, and I'm pretty happy with this version. Not only is it easy to put together, but it produces the densest, fudgiest brownies I've ever tasted. I've used both Scharffen Berger and Valrhona for this recipe. Use whichever chocolate you like, as long as it's of good quality. 5 oz unsweetened Scharffen Berger chocolate 3 oz bittersweet (70%) Scharffen Berger or Valrhona Guanaja 2 c granulated sugar 1 c butter 1 T vanilla extract 4 eggs 1 c flour (dip and sweep) 2 T cocoa powder 1/2 tsp salt 1. Melt the butter and both types of chocolate over medium heat in a saucepan. 2. Beat eggs in mixing bowl with a hand mixer on high speed for 4 minutes, until pale. 3. Gradually add sugar and vanilla extract. 4. Temper the eggs with the chocolate mixture, then add all of the mixture into the bowl. 5. Slowly incorporate the flour, salt, and cocoa. Beat the batter vigorously with a wooden spoon for about 30 seconds until the batter looks shiny. 6. Pour batter into an ungreased, non-stick pan (I use a 9" cake round, and this fits perfectly.) Smooth the top of the batter. 7. Bake in a pre-heated 325 degree oven for approximately 25 minutes (there should be moist crumbs on the skewer when testing for doneness). "Serves 10" is just an estimate--the brownies are quite rich, so some may be satisfied with just a sliver. However, if you're like me, half the pan will be gone before you know it. 😉 Keywords: Dessert, Easy, Chocolate, Snack, Brownies/Bars, American ( RG1291 )

I ate some scrambled eggs, and fig and caribou pate.

I believe it's a variant of the word "amuck".

Yes, sorry it was Canucklehead. I remember laughing out loud when I read "curio". That's got to be the dorkiest word, ever.

Who uses this word, seriously?! A few days ago, I noticed (Vancouver) Lee using the word "curio" in one of his posts. And Joie uses "magnanimous" sometimes. Egullet is running amok with word-geeks.

butter, is this the wine we had at the BBQ? I looked at the bottle you brought and I'm quite sure it was a 2003 Nota Bene.

My parents tell me I was raised on abalone and chicken congee.

Tuesday: Had the porky-soup dumplings, the pan-fried pancake with beef rolled up inside, the hot and sour soup, and the tan tan noodles at Ba Guo Bu Yi. It's been awhile since I've been here, and though everything was good, I prefer the food at Shanghai Wind. The soup dumplings at Ba Guo Bu Yi hold an incredible amount of soup within the thin wrapping, but I think I enjoy the thicker wrapping and the more flavourful soup at Shanghai Wind. I also like the hot and sour soup at Shanghai Wind more, as the soup served at Ba Guo Bu Yi didn't seem sour enough and I ended up adding spoons of black vinegar into my bowl. The pan-fried pancakes with beef is one of my favourite dishes at Vogue, but the ones we got didn't contain much beef or sauce, and the pancake wasn't browned at all. (However, I don't know if this is the authentic way of making the dish...just stating what I prefer.) The tan tan noodles were good--savoury, with lots of chopped peanuts, and salty/spicy from the preserved vegetables. Finished off my lunch with a (very average) peanut butter cookie from Starbucks. Tuesday night: I ate a huge, multi-course dinner at home, but that didn't stop me from having a second dinner at Shiru-Bay. Best of all, it was FREE. I guess the chefs remember me, because I got complimentary plates of the ebi chili-mayo, the scallops with the vegetables (cooked in the deep-fryer!), and the salmon tartare with sun-dried tomatoes, served with a warmed pita. I've never had such special treatment before. Clearly, they've mistaken me for some sort of celebrity. I also got my first kiss from a cougar. But that's another story. Tonight: Instead of lunch plans, I took my friend to Yuji's and he even brought his digital camera to take pics of the food without me having to ask! It was his first time here, and he enjoyed the food very much. We had the flounder with ponzu, flounder fin (endgawa? I still don't know how to spell this!), grilled beef tongue, sugi king fish with julienned vegetables and wasabi dressing, steamed wild boar, mango tuna salmon roll, dynamite roll, and my favourite hot item on the menu--the sweet potato fries (especially with that tartar sauce!) And then we went to Safeway and loaded up our basket with three bags of Kettle Chips to scarf down while watching gory movies (all different flavours...my favourite was red pepper and cream cheese.) 'Twas a good meal.

I am eating C Restaurant's black sesame and nori crackers. The red onion and caper ones are still my favourite, though.

sounds like a cute place to take a date

most of a batch of shortbread, dipped in Valrhona 64% (Manjari)

We should go desserting there. Dulce de Leche churros!

I love durian! It's the king of fruits! (It's not my favourite fruit, but I think it's very delicious. Sweet and custardy....yum! Especially good partially-frozen, so the smell isn't as bad, imo.)

You're right--I only get tako yaki when a friend is lining up for them anyway, and can get me an order. The lines are way too long, and they're not the best. Still a good snack, though. I get the puffy egg things from Parker Place too! I agree, they are better than the Night Market ones. Host's note: this topic continues here: "Truth be told: Where've you eaten lately? (Part 2)"

Friday night: Had my first dinner at Shiru-Bay. Ordered the famous deep-fried ebi with chili-mayo (definitely the best dish of the ones I sampled), some sort of vegetarian fried rice (quite different from Chinese fried rice--this was rather wet, and covered in a sauce that tasted like chicken stock thickened with cornstarch, with beaten egg swirled in), beef carpaccio with matchsticks of Fuji apple and truffle oil, negitoro on buttered toast, marinated tako wrapped in nori (an appetizer that came near the end of the meal) and seared bonito (slightly fishy-tasting, but am told this is characteristic of the fish). The chef also offered me a taste of the cinnamon/maple braised ribs--a bit unbalanced in sweetness, imo. I think the only dish I would go back for is the ebi with mayo--I could eat a few platters of those. Plump, sweet prawns encased in a light-tasting, hot-out-of-the-fryer coating, smothered in spicy mayonnaise. Fat on fat. What's not to like? I tasted many glasses of wine, but nothing stood out. Then I headed to Umami with the intention to only get the blue cheese creme brulee, but I guess I wouldn't be Ling if I didn't eat a second dinner, now would I? So I started with the creme brulee and the matcha semifreddo (both good, but not great desserts--the creme brulee had less of that salty blue-cheese flavour I loved) and then I moved onto the seared duck breast with gobo, cranberry and cherry demi-glace, and sauteed wild mushrooms. Quite delicious--I especially enjoyed the crispy duck skin. My favourite dish of the night--in fact, possibly the BEST pasta dish I'd ever eaten--was the wild mushroom pasta with shredded nori. The smell of the nori hits you before you dig into the earthy, chewy tagliatelle. The wine list is very reasonably priced. Monday night: Dinner at Adesso Bistro. (I am slowing trying to get my friends to stop going to places like Moxie's and Milestone's all the time. ) I finally had the veal with spicy tuna mayonnaise--it was good, but could've used some black pepper. I drank a glass of Tempranillo. Shared the calamari (different from what I remember--much lighter coating...barely coated, actually), the chorizo pizza (crust wasn't as flaky and delicate, but it was still thin), and the marscapone cheesecake with spiced apple and caramel (the cheesecake base was a bit too sweet for me, but I really enjoyed the rich taste and smell of the egg yolks in this recipe).

I only caught the last 40 minutes of the show, so I guess I missed out on the introduction to the contestants, etc. At no time did I actually think "Hell's Kitchen" was an actual restaurant, or that the people waiting 2 hours for their dinners were paying customers. I just took the show for what it is--an hour of cheap entertainment with little educational value (based on the first show), peppered with Ramsey's infamous tirades. The show was fun, and I enjoyed it. I don't think every show on TV needs to be informative, "real", or PC. Sometimes, I just want to see someone being lambasted as an "overgrown muffin".

^I did suggest increasing the amount of sugar, but that was because I made the cake plain, without frosting.

Here's a tip: about 1/2 hour before the Night Market closes, most of the food vendors mark their food at 50% off. And during the last 15 minutes, some of the vendors practically give their food away. I've never had good bubble tea there (in fact, it's quite horrible--warm tap water, with a few scoops of powder thrown in at the last minute, so it doesn't get completely mixed in), but the Dragon Beard candy is always good. I usually get the curry fish balls, the puffy, egg-y thing made from crepe batter made in a waffle-iron like contraption (not the best I've had, but the guy is so entertaining! ) and the tako yaki. And they usually have Those Little Donuts too!

Actually, the pastry was an amuse bouche for my two dinners and dessert at Shiru-Bay and Umami.

-the crispy/soft and fatty meat on the prime rib, right by the bone -flourless chocolate cakes, made with an excellent bittersweet chocolate -smoky pulled pork, slathered with bbq sauce -warm and buttery croissants that flake and leave crumbs all over your lips -creamy truffles gently spiced with cinnamon and rolled in cocoa -hot sourdough bread with sweet butter -chantrelles, porcini, and morels in a creamy risotto, topped with shaved truffle and drizzled with truffle oil -Vacherin and stilton

oops--you're right. It's been years since I've made Julia Child's genoise, as it isn't my favourite cake to bake.

The array of pastries for $2 each at Patisserie Bordeaux are a steal. I had the Religeuse yesterday for $2.75--a large cream puff filled with mocha pastry cream, topped with a smaller cream puff filled with chocolate pastry cream. It was a little too sweet with the icing, but it provided a much needed sugar hit in the late afternoon.

I've only heard good things about Fire and Water, and it's the restaurant I plan to try the next time I visit Victoria.

I use Julia Child's genoise recipe, with AP flour. I've never had problems with it either. Is your leavening fresh?

I haven't had any bad PMS cravings in a few months, but this month is particularly bad. After a host of carb-laden, delicious, home-baked goodies at a cocktail party last night (my favourites were the cheese biscuits stuffed with a fat olives, and the bread I mounded with marscapone/cambozola spread ), I went home and ransacked the house for anything sweet. I ended up eating 3 blueberries muffins from Costco (yes, the big ones.) This morning I woke up and had a killer craving for chocolate--any kind of chocolate. I was out of the good stuff, so I went to 7-11 and bought a box of Chips Ahoy cookies. I swear, I haven't eaten these since I was a kid. I finished the whole box in 10 minutes, tops. Feeling bloated but somwhat happier....now off to find the "PMS-bloat outfit" (my baggiest pair of jeans, and a track jacket.)