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May 12, 2012 · 2:20 pm

Miniblog: Squat & Gobble

My two days in San Francisco are up, but before I head off to the airport we’re having a last brunch. And one of my favorite places for brunch out here is Squat & Gobble.

After all, what could be better than reasonably-priced, large glasses of delicious coffee… 
Filed under Miniblogs, San Francisco

May 11, 2012 · 3:19 pm

Miniblog: Woodhouse Fish Co.

My freshman year of college is over.

Well, I still have a take-home final to hand in, but I’ve packed up my room, said goodbye to all my friends, and flown off to San Francisco to hang out with my granddad for a few days before going home.

This has been, without a doubt, the best year of my life so far and it was really hard to leave it.

But having a fantastic seafood brunch at the Woodhouse Fish Co. helps a little bit.

Even though it’s May, which is a month that doesn’t have an R in it, meaning it’s not oyster season, the oysters we started with were pretty darn good. 

February 4, 2012 · 5:00 pm

Brown Sugar Coconut Nian Gao (From Scratch!) | 紅糖椰汁年糕

The Chinese character 糕 gao can be used on its own or in combination with other characters to mean, more or less, “fairly solid food somewhat like a cake but not always what would be considered a cake from a Western perspective”.  Examples include 蛋糕 dan gao, lit. “egg cake”, which refers to (for lack of a better term) normal cakes, and  雪糕 (xue gao in Mandarin, but it’s primarily a Cantonese term; lit. “snow cake”), which means “ice cream”.

So 年糕 nian gao, lit. “year cake”, is a difficult food to explain,  not least because there are several different types that can be served several different ways, like non-glutinous Shanghainese 年糕 nian gao that can be stir-fried with meat and vegetables for a savory dish or sprinkled with granulated sugar for dessert.  I prefer Cantonese 年糕 nian gao though – it can be served as a super-sticky pudding or cut into slices, dipped in egg and pan-fried.  The way I ended up getting people to eat it without being able to do a great translation was, “It’s, like, a glutinous rice cake?  Well, not really a cake, but – here, just try it.”

And then the 年糕 nian gao did its own talking.

Anyway, let’s start from the very beginning (a very good place to start).  Why did I have Cantonese 年糕 nian gao on hand, anyway?  Well, I decided that since it was Chinese New Year, it was a good time to undertake an overly ambitious dorm cooking project.  (I have been cooking a little since I got to college, but nothing I haven’t made before.)  I did the majority of the prep work in my room – my roommate’s hot water pot was a great help. 
Filed under By Ingredient, By Meal, By Type, Chinese, Dessert, Glutinous, Recipes

November 19, 2011 · 2:44 pm

Walnut and Blue Cheese Salad | Working off the Backlog

I’ve spent every summer in San Francisco with my 公公 (gong gong, granddad) since I can remember.  (Don’t worry, this is the last post about my summer.  We can move on soon.) I used to be braver.  I’d venture into his basement despite the albino spiders with unnatural numbers of eyes and go out the back door into the untended garden, only to encounter mutant bees that still buzzed around despite the freezing San Francisco summer. 