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Ling

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Everything posted by Ling

  1. ^Good batter too, eh May? Today I'm baking sticky toffee pudding with my kiddie cooking class. I'm also making another Tarte Grenobloise and chocolate mousse-filled cream puffs for this awesome "Chocolate Soiree" I'm attending. The host sent me this: ******* We'll have a bunch of rare and top-class chocolates for tasting (Amedei, Domori, El Ray, Guido Gobbino, Valrhona, etc.), truffles and filled chocolates from New York, Chicago, Montreal, and Vancouver (Marcolini, Christopher Norman, Vosges, Chocolats Genevieve Grandbois, Sweet Obsessions), petit fours from Ganache Patisserie, and a couple of chocolate fountains (milk and dark). Themis, from Chocoatl, will be on hand with his own chocolates to preside over a tasting and discuss the different cocoas, etc. I just finished making my ice cream (one Valhrona dark with El Rey Ioca white chocolate chips, the other a Callebeau milk with Scharffen Berger dark chocolate covered cocoa nibs). ******* I am soooooo excited!
  2. I'm trying to pick a favourite from the Mistral, but I just can't. That's when you know you've had an excellent meal.
  3. ^I haven't made crepes in years! I could definitely use the practice. I've been drooling over that Lady M Mille crepes picture as well. Count me in!
  4. Ling

    Rare

    ^In defense of my "overzealous freak-ism" , there wouldn't be a point to this forum if people just posted stuff like: "I ate at ___________. Food was great."
  5. Wow, you are high standards! (That's a good thing.) Pre-made puff is not great, but it's not quite as bad as some of the things listed here, I think.
  6. What's wrong with liver? I love liver...and snails. Agree with the Velveeta and margarine suggestions. Here's another: canned frosting *shudder*
  7. a batch of peanut butter cookie dough Well, almost a batch. I baked about 6 cookies with the remaining dough I didn't eat. Also, a nice steaming bowl of green bean and tapioca "tong siu" (err..."sugar water" in Cantonese?) It is basically rock sugar, water, green bean, and tapioca cooked together until the green bean and tapioca are very, very soft. They serve as a thickener for the barely-sweet "soup" dessert.
  8. A few days ago, I had dinner with four friends at Phnom Penh. My current favourite dish--the rare beef with onions, peppers, anchovy/lemon dressing butter beef with garlic chips...this is another one of my favourites beef filet with rice...we ordered this b/c my friend's gf likes it. Beef is cooked through. Pretty standard stuff. ribs...fried. huge portion. shrimp paste on sugar cane (not my favourite. No "springy" aka "dan gna" texture...but I'm not a big fan of shrimp paste to begin with) their famous fried squid wings...served with the same pungent sauce as the squid and the ribs. We got two plates of the wings. We are gluttons. I love Phnom Pehn! Saturday...Dockside Brewing Company Dinner resos for 30 at 7pm; it was a birthday party. I drank the Libery School 2002 Chardonnay (excellent) and had the Effingham oysters with mango salsa. (Gave the salsa to my friend, as I prefer my oysters naked, or near-naked.) I had a really unfortunate main...I'm still kind of scratching my head over this. Usually, I try to pick the thing that seems the most interesting on the menu...but this dish just wasn't that good at all. I had the halibut "t-bone" with tobiko beurre blanc, coconut rice, pinot-noir poached pear. The fish was overcooked and undersalted. In fact, I don't even know if there was any salt on any of the items on my plate. The tobiko added a weird texture to the sauce that reminded me of fish cartilage when I was eating the fish...ok so I guess it wasn't as interesting as I had hoped it would be. The pear was fine...but wine-poached pears always remind me of dessert. I thought it would add to the dish, but it just sat off to the side looking strangely out-of-place. The coconut rice had the barest whiff of coconut...it was so bland, none of my friends wanted to eat it either. The rice was topped with a sizeable, unattractive garnish of julienned vegetables coated in batter, then fried. However, my friend's dish--the lamb sirloin with goat cheese--was wonderful! Lamb was deliciously juicy and tender, with rich brown sauce. Perfect balance of seasoning for my tastes. He gave me three huge bites. I also had some of my other friend's lobster ravioli--big portion for $19, but pasta was quite thick and not as light-tasting as the ravioli I've had at other restaurants. He thought the dish was just OK and I agree with him there. Then I went to another birthday party at a club, and by the time we were done, it was 4 a.m. and we were drunk and hungry. We ate at Pho Hoa. I had the pho with rare beef, fatty flank, tendon, and tripe. J had this grilled pork dish with rice, and gave me a bite too.
  9. Baby corn--I've always thought it was so strange how you could eat the cob. But I still love it, and it has its place in some Chinese dishes.
  10. I don't know--I just looked at the ingredients list after seeing the price. Nondescript brandy, I guess. (And you guys weren't kidding about "paying dearly" if I were to buy them from Meinhardt! ) And thank-you all for pointing me towards Euro Foods! If you're interested in seeing the finished cake, I posted pictures here: Black Forest cake
  11. I eat way too much cookie dough, man.
  12. Is it honestly very "heaty"? Isn't that an old wives' tale?
  13. Is it not too obvious for me to post in this thread? I have a box of truffles next to my bed. Two Dagoba bars on my bathroom counter. A pretty decent selection of high-end chocolates for eating and baking in my pantry. And chocolate in my car too. I grab a handful of Valrhona feves whenever I pass the kitchen. And a heaping tablespoon (usually more like 4 heaping tablespoons) of Nutella. Sometimes I make ganache and just eat it with a spoon. I get cravings for brownies too, so I always keep some in the freezer.
  14. I stopped in yesterday - closest I could find was canned bing cherries and sour cherry preserves. I guess the quest continues... ← No, they had canned sour cherries also. (I passed on the Bing cherries and the preserves.) However, the canned sour cherries were in a "light syrup" that I rinsed off...then I bumped up the acidity in the recipe by adding more lemon zest and a healthy squeeze of lemon juice. (Cherries were poached in Port, black pepper, cinnamon, orange juice and the aforementioned lemon juice and zest.) They also have sour cherries (300 grams) in kirsch and brandy for $40 at Meinhardt. The packaging was pretty, though.
  15. Here are some pictures from Dahlia Lounge (including that lemon tart!) I think I will have to make it down to Seattle soon to have the peanut butter ice-cream! I missed many places when I was down there in September that I wanted to go to...Le Pichet and Fran's especially! Sun Sui Wah is pretty good for Chinese, but apparently the squab dish that you (and I) like so much is not so good anymore. Sea Harbour is a favourite of Vancouver Egulleter canucklehead, who is much more knowledgable about Chinese regional cuisine than me. It is located in Richmond. photos from Sea Harbour There's also many pictures/reviews in this thread! Chinese in Vancouver
  16. I don't have any round cake rings. I used my 9" springform for this cake. I tried to curl the whipped cream a bit over the top edge of the cake the way it looks in the book. The top of the cake--I just made quick stencils with thick paper, laid them on top of the cake, then dusted with cocoa powder. Takes only about a minute to decorate this way!
  17. ^I think your mousse looks great! PH's Black Forest cake Valrhona cocoa cakes sour cherries poached in port, cinnamon, orange juice, lemon zest, black pepper chocolate mousse (I used Cacao Berry orange dark chocolate)
  18. I think I like the look of the cake without the whipped cream on the sides better. inside shot
  19. That's quite a line-up. I wish I was there to finish up the desserts for you all. I love Michel Cluizel, Valrhona Manjari, and Nutella. Date ice-cream sounds very interesting and delicious as well! Do you have a favourite dessert in Seattle, Henry? When I was eating my way through the Dahlia Lounge pastry case, my favourite was the lemon tart with Italian meringue.
  20. I made the Black Forest cake (pics to come shortly) and it was INCREDIBLE! I thought I wasn't a fan of Black Forest but that's because I've never had a good one. Changes: -I increased the amount of kirsch in the cream to 3 tbsp. as recommended in this thread (I tasted the cream with 1 tbsp. of liqueur, then 2 tbsp., but 3 tbsp. did seem to be the best) -apparently, Valrhona is very difficult to get in Vancouver right now (the stores only seem to be carrying white and milk, no more bittersweet!) so I used dark chocolate orange Cacao Barry and it was really good with the flavours in the cake. I don't normally enjoy citrus (or any sort of acidity) and chocolate together, but the orange flavour in this chocolate is not overwhelming. -I used sour cherries that were packed in a "light syrup", and although I rinsed them, I added an extra squeeze of lemon juice and an extra strip of zest into the poaching liquid to bump up the acidity. ETA: One more thing--I broke my cake leveller (the tool with the wire) trying to level the cocoa cakes when they were frozen. Usually, I level other cakes when frozen with this tool, but the cocoa cake is quite dense so I wouldn't recommend trying to split it with the tool unless you defrost the cakes first.
  21. I want a Salumi apron too! Did you use a recipe for the eggplant parmesiano? I made one awhile back using Emeril's recipe (it has meat) and it was pretty good. I haven't thought of putting in anchovy paste in the sauce...sounds like a good addition!
  22. Are the eclairs from the PH book, Patrick? I was thinking about doing eclairs or cream puffs with my kiddie cooking class next week. I think they'll have fun making them. Yesterday I had truffles and strawberry cheesecake (NY style). Today I had truffles and Golden Oreos. The Golden Oreos weren't great. ETA: half a box of these really good Chinese eggroll cookies called "The Original Eggroll". And some pineapple "cake" (an Asian cookie that's kind of soft, shortbread-like that encases a pineapple filling).
  23. Absolutely amazing blog! I love the creative use of space in your kitchen, and the meals you've shown us look incredible. I can't wait to come down to Seattle and eat at Monsoon and Veil!
  24. ^I don't know...I've never been to Euro Deli/Euro Food Plus. Does Euro Food Plus carry the jarred sour cherries? TIA
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