Ling

^I especially love the last picture! Where is the recipe from?

^I've watched that documentary...very interesting! I love how it shows off Vancouver to those who might be unfamiliar with our fair city. (I confess I watched the documentary twice because there is an asian girl who is wearing the exact same white/purple/pink tube top that I have in my closet, and I thought it could've been me (although I didn't remember wearing that top at Feenie's.) But alas, it is not... )

Last night (well...this morning) when I got home, I ate an entire gingercake from the freezer. Damn that was good.

^That's awesome that the cake keeps well. I was going to bake that cake last night, but I went to two liquor stores and neither sold Guiness by the can or bottle. (I don't drink beer so buying a pack would kind of be a waste.) I gave up and ended up partying all night, only to come home and eat an ENTIRE "Fresh Ginger cake" (the David Lebovitz recipe that I love...I baked another one and froze it!) straight from the freezer. (And yes, the cake was still delicious!!)

For my grandma's birthday--a mango strawberry sponge cake from Anna's Cake House...reputedly the best Chinese bakery chain (for cakes, at least) in Vancouver. (I must've eaten more than a hundred slices of cake from Anna's over my lifetime!)

Yes, the meat is awesome, isn't it? I know about the marbling scale...I believe it goes up to 12. My friend, who a few weeks ago bought the same meat (Premium Kobe) as I did told me that the butcher told him that the meat was, in the butcher's opinion, an 8 on the scale. (This might be a bit of an exaggeration...I am more inclined to believe that the marbling is indeed a 5 or a 6, as I too have read that SnakeRiver doesn't get better than an 8.)

^Thanks, I really like the taste of the fresh ginger in the cakes and I hope you like it too! I use the food processor to grate the ginger.

^I think that bakery was featured in this month's Bon Appetit! They were comparing it to Magnolia Bakery in NY. The cupcakes sure look good! Which was your favourite?

Thanks for the kind words! Yes, it's about $50 for a steak...there are different prices for the different quality. I bought the steaks at Nikuya (2828 E. Hastings) and they had Wagyu for something like $17.50/100 grams, then Kobe, then Premium Kobe, and also Snakeriver Farm Kobe. The marbling was incredible...and the fat had such a pure, round flavour! I also saw the little strips of Wagyu/Kobe that I've eaten at Octopus Garden and Hapa Izakaya at Nikuya. They sell for somewhere between $2-$5 dollars/100 grams, if I remember correctly. (They are cut from a different part of the cow than the ribeyes.)

Last Saturday Dinner at Senhor Rooster's, which I wrote about already. The Coles Notes version: I liked the piri-piri sauce the best, split the lamb rack and the cornish game hen, finished with the blueberries flambeed tableside, and the flan. Last Sunday lunch Church's Chicken. Have I mentioned on Egullet how I wish they would make a sandwich using just the fried, battered chicken skin? Anyway, I had all the dark meat in the box, and some fries. (And then I started pilfering the skin from the white meat pieces...) Last Tuesday take-out from No. 9 that my sister brought home Fried rice with shrimp, and a dish of deep-fried shrimp sauteed with minced garlic and jalapeno. It was food. I was hungry. Tonight My first course tonight was my little homage to Chef Jeff and his staff at Aurora Bistro, so I thought I'd post the pictures here too. My friend and I love the Hazelmere beet salad with goat cheese at the restaurant, so I tried to make a version for dinner tonight. I'm so disappointed with my pictures though. Hazelmere farm beets, Meyer lemon and pomegranate vinaigrette, Happy Days goat cheese Wagyu beef (labelled "Premium Kobe") with mashed potatoes The mountain of mashed potatoes was actually a good 5" high at least...I have enormous dinner plates, so everything looks dwarfed! Rum creme brulee, oatmeal spice tuile

I also use the Bouchon recipe, but the cheese straw recipe sounds really interesting! I'll have to try that next.

^Ingredients can't be copyrighted, so those can be posted. Directions can be posted as long as they're in your own words.

^Those pecan sticky buns look incredible! That was one of the recipes that caught my eye when I first got the book...thanks for reminding me that I still have to try it!

2 a.m. isn't considered late for me...sometimes I go to bed at 5 a.m. due to my weird work schedule (I start work during the week at 4p.m.) I accompanied the ganache gingercake with a cup of hot chocolate (melted down some Belgian chocolate with milk, sprinkle of cinnamon).

^"Dock" means to pierce little holes into your pastry with the tines of a fork, so it doesn't puff up as much in the oven. EDIT: changed "punch" to "pierce"...I do not support violence against pastry.

My "Fresh Ginger cake" didn't have a crunchy sugary crust...it was super moist, and the top was slightly sticky. I used Delmonico "Fancy" molasses since I couldn't find a mild molasses. Next time, I'll probably use 14 tbsp molasses and 2 tbsp corn syrup to make the molasses slightly less assertive. I should mention that to all these recipes, I'm doubling the amount of spices (only after tasting the batter with the amount of spices as written, though) partly b/c my spices aren't all that great, and partly b/c I do like intensely flavoured gingercakes. (Kim...I just watched the PBS video. I think this is just a case where your tastes differ--just b/c Julia likes the recipe a lot doesn't mean that it's the best for you, necessarily! The inclusion of the cocoa and espresso powder is interesting, and I think I'll experiment and write my own gingerbread recipe after doing the Gramercy Tavern one, and try to combine all the elements about each cake that I enjoy.)

I posted my photo review on another site and a bunch of people were in at Senhor Rooster's last night after reading it...and some are lurkers on Egullet too! And some of them had the lamb that I was raving about. They've already posted their comments...everyone loved the food.

I posted the same question a few weeks ago when I was thinking about using it for a French Laundry dish. Egulleters chimed in with replies--one option is Urban Fare, and another is the fish shop located in Park Royal, I believe.

Fress, your posts crack me up. Especially the corkscrewing bit. I have to admit, as a kid, I used to try to ram about 1/3 of an orange in my mouth, so I remember the cascading juice bit as soon as you chomp down. Rather indelicate of me. I assure you I haven't tried this in many years.

Haven't had breakfast yet...(it's 2:12a.m. here)...but breakfast will be this gingerbread cake with bittersweet chocolate ganache.

I just finished the extra ganache from this... ...which will be breakfast tomorrow!

^Patrick, I love both your desserts! The napoleons look particularly good...they are perfect to me!!!

Yesterday was just more of the gingercakes I made.... Today, rum pots de creme with an oatmeal spice tuile. I saved two pots de creme to turn into creme brulee for tomorrow's dessert.

Thanks Moby It had a good crunch, and for a first time was great...but it wasn't quite as short as I would have liked - it was a tiny bit hard instead. I'm not sure what to do here. I'm going to experiment with lard quantities, liquid/fat temperatures and cooking temperatures. Does anybody have and suggestions/recommendations for this one? ← Hi Mat, I don't have much experience with hot water pastry, but I know that overworking the dough (and developing the gluten) will make it tougher. Could this be why the pastry was a bit tough? (I do remember kneading hot water pastry before, though...) I am wondering if perhaps using cake flour or adding a few tablespoons of cornstarch to your all-purpose flour (to lower gluten content) will yield a more tender pastry crust. I assume that the milk adds protein to your dough for structure? I use a beaten egg in my pie crusts instead, or a few tablespoons of sour cream. Is the hot water dough traditional (and necessary) for a pork pie? Is the pastry supposed to be flaky and light (for example, like in an apple pie?) AWESOME DEMO, btw!

^Hi Kim, I think I've read your posts in the BWJ thread...you've made that cake before twice now? Three times? Do you enjoy it? It seems like there's too much molasses in it for my tastes...the 2nd fresh ginger cake, with 2 1/2 cups of flour 1 cup sugar, and 1 cup of molasses was just about perfect for me. It's plenty sweet already, in fact. (The BWJ recipe has 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of dark brown sugar, AND 2 cups of molasses for those who don't own the book.) Seems incredibly sweet to me! Is it possible that it is a misprint? After baking the last few cakes, I think I can kind of estimate what the BWJ gingerbread cakes taste like, and it doesn't sound too appealing...I love molasses, but too much in a recipe makes it bitter and harsh, would you agree?