Yuzu Eats

Afternoon Tea at Jin Patisserie

2008-10-20T11:41:00.000-07:00

Yuzu is Reading
One Fifth Avenue
Candace Bushnell

A coworker and I lunched at Venice's Jin Patisserie last week. It took us just over ten minutes to drive there, and we scored street parking right in front of the eatery. There were two showers (one bridal, one baby) going on, so seating was very limited. We ended up sitting on two mismatched chairs with five little "stools" pushed together to comprise our table. Although we had no umbrella to shade us from the sun, we were fortunate to sit by some lovely bamboo which kept us sunburn-free.

We both ordered the Afternoon Tea ($19) as it was our first time eating there, and we wanted a decent sampling of what Jin has to offer. The meal comes with a pot of infused tea of your choice — I went with the Péché Mignon because I like sweet teas. It's a Chinese green tea flavored with peach, passion fruit, melon and wild strawberry. It tasted yummy and fruity, and I didn't even have to add sugar to sweeten it up. A short while after receiving our teapots, our meals came out.

The set we got that day came with two egg-salad finger sandwiches, mini mushroom & spinach quiche, tiny macaron, two bite-size cakes, two mini scones w/jam and clotted cream, slice of butter cake, mascarpone & peach parfait and a caramel clove chocolate. As you can see, the sweets outweighed the savories. Three savory pieces and eight sweets? As much as I like sweets in small doses, I wish there was a better balance.

Not surprisingly, neither of us finished our sweets, so we packed them up to take with us. Before heading back to the office, I had to pick up a box of the much-blogged-about macarons. I went with a pack of eight and asked for a variety with no repeats — there were 10 flavors available.

I later discovered that the woman packed two caramel macarons, both of which were cracked and oozing caramel filling inside the pretty box. And I have no idea which flavors I missed out on. I made it through the box of macarons in several sittings, with help of my three-year-old niece who loves gulping down pretty macarons like nobody's business. My favorites: vanilla, strawberry and pistachio. Lemon was good as well. Chocolate was okay. Caramel is a never-again. The verdict on Jin's macarons? Way better than Cake House's, and almost as good as Bouchon's.

I would definitely eat at Jin again and maybe try the Lunch Set next time. The savories offered with this particular Afternoon Tea were really tasty, but I'm a carnivore and would've liked something with chicken or fish. So in the future I'll order a sandwich with chicken, prosciutto, shrimp or salmon.

Jin Patisserie
1202 Abbot Kinney Blvd.
Venice, CA 90291
(310) 399-8801

Autumnal Cookies

2008-10-09T11:38:00.000-07:00

Yuzu is Reading
Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist
Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

I have been out sick most of this week. Some virus has been making the rounds through my office, as several other coworkers have been calling in sick as well. I've been in my pajamas for the past couple of days. Watched a lot of daytime TV. Surprisingly didn't do any crafting or much reading (I'm too lazy and tired to make an effort with anything).

Last weekend, however, I baked some cookies to welcome the season of autumn. They're plain sugar cookies with a festive touch — green & brown sprinkles and orange candy pumpkins that sort'a look like hearts.

We're still experiencing a bit of a heatwave in southern California. Temperatures are higher than normal. It was cloudy and rained for a split second last weekend, but it's back to hot, sunny days again. I wish it would quit being so hot!

Felt Macaron Plushies

2008-09-30T16:31:00.000-07:00

Yuzu is Watching
Gavin & Stacey: Complete BBC Series 1
Mathew Horne, Joanna Page, Ruth Jones, James Corden

Motivated by my fascination with macarons, I had the need to make some of my own last month. Not edible ones, of course. Just macarons sewn by hand. :) I used sheets of acrylic felt, of which I have an abundance, to make the food plushies. Below are raspberry, original (almond) and chocolate flavors. Their sizes are true to life.

It's officially autumn now, but the weather is much like that of midsummer. This week we're having temps of 80-100ºF (25-40ºC). As much as I love the longer days of summertime, I'm done with the heat. I want it to get cold already! I feel like baking pumpkin bread or something autumny like that.

Macarons from Cake House

2008-08-21T11:15:00.000-07:00

Yuzu is Listening To
Spring Awakening
2006 Original Broadway Cast

A couple of workmates and I went to lunch on Sawtelle Boulevard in West L.A., where there is an abundance of Japanese restaurants and stores carrying cute knickknacks. After spending an hour (or two) browsing the shops, we felt it was time for dessert. So we made our way to Beard Papa. But before crossing the street, I spied some colorful macarons in a bakery window. I rarely get to eat macarons because they're not widely available, and I have to drive far (or fly to New York) to eat some. So I was quite pleased that a Korean bakery named Cake House offered them in their shop. I bought four macarons at $1.50 each — chocolate, lemon, raspberry and green tea — and later enjoyed them with my little niece. Verdict? The chocolate was yummy, as was the green tea (you can really taste the matcha), but the raspberry and lemon ones were rather dry. Perhaps this is because the macarons are not baked on the premises, so who knows how fresh they are when they're sold?

Later that day, I realized there's a Cake House in Buena Park, so much closer to me than the one I visited off of Sawtelle. Apparently, I had been driving past this bakery in Orange County every day, never knowing it existed because it's nestled in a strip mall next to a Ralphs supermarket. One would never expect to find macarons near Ralphs, after all.

The day after I visited the L.A. location, I made a quick trip to the Buena Park Cake House after work and purchased every flavor macaron they had available — coffee, chocolate, raspberry, lemon, green tea and blueberry. I shared them with my mom and dad, who enjoyed them with a cup of hot green tea. The blueberry macaron (which my mom thought would've been taro-flavored) didn't taste much like blueberry. It was more like a plain macaron with blue food coloring. The other flavors tasted the same as they did before. I didn't try the coffee one, as I gave it to my dad, the coffee addict.

I much prefer the Orange County location to the L.A. one because, for one thing, it's much bigger. The shop has tables in the back that you can sit at and hang out with friends. The baked goods, with the exception of the cakes and fancy pastries, are available for customers to just grab and place them in plastic basket trays to bring up to the counter for checkout. I'm glad I got to try the various macarons Cake House has to offer, but they sure don't beat the yumminess that is Bouchon Bakery's macaron.

Cake House
11301 Olympic Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90064
(310) 914 0404 Cake House
5410 Beach Blvd.
Buena Park, CA 90621
(714) 522-0101

Green Tea Bag

2008-08-21T11:08:00.000-07:00

Yuzu is Reading
Softies: Simple Instructions for 25 Plush Pals
Therese Laskey

Yawn...I am so sleepy from staying up past 1:00 a.m. every night watching the Summer Olympics. They are addicting! I'm going to miss the games when they're over. :(

I picked up the Softies book above when I went to Borders during my lunch break earlier in the week. I had been eyeing it for a long time, and after perusing it from cover to cover, I finally took it home with me. There are just so many cute projects in there! I started with something quick and simple — the green tea bag.

This is the tiniest thing I've sewn on a sewing machine. Normally I screw things up so badly on the machine when trying to sew something small, that I resort to sewing it by hand. But this was a win! I'm now looking through my Aranzi Aronzo books to see if maybe I'll try something in those...or make another plushy from this book.

Strawberry Hello Kitty

2008-08-04T13:40:00.000-07:00

Yuzu is Reading
The Seer of Shadows
Avi

Strawberries are food. So a crocheted strawberry Hello Kitty is food-inspired craftiness. :D I made this amigurumi a couple of weeks ago. As with a lot of the plushies I make, my niece got her little hands on the kitty as soon as I finished it. This is the first Hello Kitty I've crocheted, and I'm amazed at how easy it was!

Ever since I read The Mystery of the Third Lucretia, I've been on the lookout for new mystery/suspense books in the juvenile section of the library. I picked up the book noted above, and so far it's interesting enough to keep me reading. I'm also slowly working my way through the rest of the Narnia series (by listening to the audio books during my commute). A little less than three to go.

Crocheted Cupcakes

2008-07-21T12:27:00.000-07:00

Yuzu Just Finished Reading
The Mystery of the Third Lucretia
Susan Runholt

I crocheted a couple of cupcakes last week using this pattern. They're chocolate-strawberry and red velvet, and they're just slightly smaller than real-life cupcakes. The first cupcake has a vanilla flower on top, and the other has a chocolate flower. I used worsted-weight, 100% wool yarn and Swarovski crystals. They turned out kind'a cute, and I'll probably end up making more. They're really quick to make (save for the sewing parts).

I just finished reading a young-adult mystery novel called The Mystery of the Third Lucretia, which I really enjoyed. It takes you through the streets of London, Paris and Amsterdam along with two teenage girls who uncover, well, a mystery. ;P If you like Dutch art, European travel, or books about friendship and mother/daughter relationships, this is a good read. I also liked reading about the food the girls eat while dining out in Europe.

Un-Macarons for Bastille Day

2008-07-14T10:29:00.000-07:00

Yuzu is Listening To
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Harry Gregson-Williams

In celebration of France's national holiday, I brought some wannabe French treats to work today. Almost everyone knows of France's famous little sweet, the macaron. Inspired by My Paper Crane's wannabe macarons, I baked my own version of the treat.

They're sugar cookies sandwiched together with frosting. The brown ones are chocolate, the pink are raspberry, the green are pandan, the yellow are yuzu, and the violet and teal ones are almond-flavored (I ran out of other flavorings, although ube would've been cool for violet). With the exception of the chocolate "macarons", I used bottles of pure extracts to flavor the cookies and frosting. I cheated on the frosting and used the store-bought kind, but I changed the flavor up a bit to match the cookies I paired them with. The longest step in the process was mixing the food coloring to get each section of cookie dough (and frosting) the right color, but I'm really happy with how colorful and flavorful these turned out.

Faux Chocolate Truffles

2008-05-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

Yuzu is Watching
Hairspray
John Travolta, Michelle Pffeifer, Queen Latifah and Zac Efron

Sorry, not a real food post again. =P I made more crocheted food to share with you! These little truffles were inspired by Pukashell's adorable little bon bons. I wanted to crochet something super quick and easy, and this trio of truffles fits the bill.

I bought 'puffy' paint (which I probably hadn't used since junior high school) at Michaels and used it to add the drizzle effect on the tops. The flavors are (clockwise from the top) raspberry white chocolate, lemon with milk chocolate, and chocolate strawberry. Yum!

Strawberry Pudding...Sort Of

2008-04-28T10:32:00.000-07:00

Yuzu is Reading
Northanger Abbey
Jane Austen

This is a food journal, and while this doesn't technically qualify as 'food', it's a likeness of food. :) So I thought I'd post it. I've made several food-related crafts over the years, and hopefully I'll keep making more.

It was so hot out this past weekend, I spent most of my time indoors. To pass the time while watching television, I crocheted this strawberry pudding. It looks kind of like a miniature flan. My favorite part is the teensy strawberry on top of its head. :)

Cupcakes for My Sister

2008-04-03T12:45:00.000-07:00

Yuzu is Reading
Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent
Anthony Rapp

My sister's birthday was last week. She'd just given birth to her second daughter the day before. As we awaited their return home from the hospital, I baked cupcakes to celebrate both birthdays. I was babysitting my two-year-old niece at the time, so I didn't want to fuss with a bunch of ingredients. Thank goodness for boxed cake mixes. Vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting...mmm!

My sister likes her cupcakes simple. So I didn't pipe the frosting or cover the tops with sprinkles. Instead, I used an offset spatula to spread the frosting, and I topped the cakes with sliced strawberries. They came out quite tasty, and my sister liked them a lot. Mission completion!

Spaghetti is Yummy

2008-03-20T15:40:00.000-07:00

Yuzu is Watching
Becoming Jane
Anne Hathaway, James McAvoy, Julie Walters, James Cromwell, Maggie Smith

After church on Sunday, I swung by the grocery store to pick up some ground beef, onions, grape tomatoes and basil (the only ingredients I was lacking at home) to cook spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. I've only made homemade tomato sauce a few times, and I find that using a good jarred sauce saves so much time and tastes just as good. I didn't even use a recipe for the meatballs — I just eyeballed all the ingredients as I tossed them into the large bowl to mush the meat with my hands. The eyeballing worked well, because the meatballs were juicy and delicious!

I bought a large container of fresh basil leaves and totally went crazy with it when I fixed my bowl. I took a few leaves and tore them over my warm pasta. I know basil has quite a strong, peppery flavor and is probably best used moderately. But I always put a lot of freshly ground pepper on everything I eat anyway, so what harm is there in adding even more peppery goodness?

Bakery Tour at Disney's California Adventure

2008-01-30T12:45:00.000-08:00

Yuzu is Listening To
Under the Blacklight
Rilo Kiley

On one of several trips to the Magic Kingdom this month, I took some photos of the Bakery Tour by Boudin® Bakery at Disney's California Adventure theme park. In all the years that I've been going to the Disneyland Resort, I didn't even realize this tour existed.

There's a process that Boudin's been using for over 150 years to make their famous sourdough bread. I wasn't really paying attention to the video that was playing overhead as I walked through the tour because I was busy trying to take indoor pictures from behind the glass while munching on the free sourdough bread samples they gave me when I first entered the tour. Isn't it cute how there are Mickey Mouse-shaped heads throughout the bakery? Disney has to leave their mark on everything, after all.

Click for a closer look

©2008 Yuzu Eats

After the sourdough breads are done, they're brought over to the kitchen where someone slices into the tops to turn them into bread bowls. Then they're ready to fill with a variety of delicious soups served up in the theme park. The next time you find yourself in a Disney theme park, you have to try a soup bread bowl (especially the clam chowder bowls served in New Orleans Square at Disneyland). They're quite yummy, and they're definitely a nice break from typical amusement-park food.

Caprese Tartlets

2007-12-18T13:42:00.000-08:00

Yuzu is Watching
December Boys
Daniel Radcliffe, Lee Cormie, Christian Byers, James Fraser

My department had a holiday pot luck today at work. If I ever bring food to share with coworkers, it's almost always something sweet. But I opted for the savory this time because I figured there'd be a lot of sweets already. We've been receiving baskets of muffins, cookies, chocolate and fruit from various vendors. I'm kind'a sugar'd out...and it's not even Christmas yet!

I woke up early this morning to bake something I came up with while I was grocery shopping over the weekend. I knew I wanted to make something very simple with very few ingredients. And, well, here's my contribution to the department pot luck.

I used crescent-roll dough to create little shells and filled them with shredded mozzarella, diced tomatoes, fresh basil and freshly ground pepper. I baked them in a mini-muffin pan for eight minutes in a 375ºF oven, and the result was four dozen little caprese-style tartlets.* Kind of a nice festive snack for the holidays!

*Or you can call them what they look like — mini pizzas.

Tiny Thai for the Solo Diner

2007-12-12T17:43:00.000-08:00

Yuzu is Listening To
Jersey Boys (2005 Original Broadway Cast)
John Lloyd Young, Christian Hoff, Daniel Reichard, J. Robert Spencer

I have been craving Thai food lately. So much so that I made the mistake of ordering the Thai chicken pasta at The Cheesecake Factory this past weekend (a peanut-allergy sufferer's worst nightmare). It was like eating a jar of Skippy peanut butter, tossed with linguine, chicken-breast chunks, bean sprouts and a can of crushed peanuts. It wasn't completely horrible because I do like peanut butter, but I think it's a little heavy on the peanuts. I wish I took a picture of the plate when the server brought it over — peanuts ALL around the edge. A lot of them.

From now on, I shall not let my current cravings dictate what I order if I'm not in the right establishment to order that particular food. Stick to what each restaurant does best, that's what I learned. Funnily enough, I already knew this a few months ago when I was in New York City and was craving Thai curry..

Dim lighting = blurry photo

©2007 Yuzu Eats

That right there is probably one of the best meals I've ever eaten. I don't know if it was because I was 3,000 miles away from home, and the stewy dish was comforting to me. But gosh...chicken panang curry from Tiny Thai Cafe, you were delicious. It was sweet, slightly spicy, and light...all at the same time. The chicken breast was tender and absorbed the flavor of the curry very nicely. The curry juices mixed with steamed Jasmine rice — yum! I think coconut milk should be used in every dish. ;)

Original image from Tiny Thai

The restaurant, which is located in Manhattan's famous Hell's Kitchen, was difficult for me to spot at first. I must've walked by it two or three times before realizing it was there. The front of the restaurant is that small. Once inside, I was warmly greeted and seated at a table for two (for my party of one). I placed my order and was served my meal with a minimal wait. I ate dinner here before seeing a Broadway show (hooray for multiple viewings of Rent!). The restaurant is just far enough from the craziness of Times Square to not have the Broadway crowds, but it's close enough to only have to walk a few blocks to the various theaters. I am definitely going to eat here again when I go back to New York.

Tiny Thai Cafe
693 9th Avenue (between 47th & 48th Sts.)
New York, NY 10036
(212) 265-2229

Notes to the solo diner: It's not a bad experience to eat at a restaurant all by yourself. Pick a time of day when a restaurant is less likely to be busy so that your servers will be more attentive to your table of one. And don't sit at the table near the window, because people on the street might point and laugh at you (kidding).

Green Tea Muffins

2007-12-04T12:10:00.000-08:00

Yuzu is Watching
Rent
Anthony Rapp, Adam Pascal, Jesse L. Martin, Wilson Jermaine Heredia,
Idina Menzel, Taye Diggs, Rosario Dawson, Tracie Thoms

I went to the ophthalmologist last week and found out I have a bacterial infection in both of my eyes, so I've been on antibiotic eye-drop medication for about six days now. I am back at work today, and so far my eyes are doing okay. I just can't strain them too much by reading a whole lot. So what am I doing? I'm blogging! ;P

Picked up some green tea muffin mix at Trader Joe's last week and baked them for my parents, who love to drink green tea. I'd tried them previously when someone baked them at work, but wanted to give them a go myself. I used my jumbo muffin pan for the first time, and the batter was the perfect amount to make six plump muffins. I added a few pinches of sugar to the mix because I personally like green tea a little sweet. The muffins came out yummy, moist and not very sweet at all. I think I found a good balance of sweetness because they were sweet enough for me (a sweet tooth), yet not too sweet for my parents (who aren't into sweets as much as I am).

I finally watched Rent, the movie based on one of my most favorite Broadway musicals ever. I had really low expectations of it because you can never be too sure about stage-to-screen adaptations. But it was surprisingly good! I've watched it twice already. My Rent CDs are back in rotation after a few weeks' hiatus.

Pumpkin Cake

2007-11-27T14:40:00.000-08:00

Yuzu is Watching
Knocked Up
Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl

I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday last week! Did you eat good? I didn't eat as much as I expected to. The food was great, of course, but I guess I just wasn't in the mood for stuffing myself.

For dessert, my mom baked her traditional walnut cherry cheese delight (which is basically a yummy cheesecake), and I baked something new. Pumpkin cake! Well, pumpkin bars, depending on how you slice it. I call it cake because it wasn't dense enough to be a bar, and it was so moist and delicious, it's pretty much like a cake!

The recipe for the cake/bar portion is courtesy of Food Network, with minor tweaking by yours truly. The frosting recipe is for my most favorite cream cheese frosting in the world. Try it — it's easy!

Pumpkin Cake
4 eggs
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 15 oz. can pure pumpkin
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Using an electric mixer at medium speed, combine the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin until light and fluffy. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix at low speed until thoroughly combined, and batter is smooth. Spread the batter into a greased 13 x 9" baking dish. Bake for 35 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting.

Frosting:
1 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/8 tsp. salt
3¾ cups sifted confectioners' sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream the butter, cheese and salt with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add sugar gradually until smooth. Add vanilla extract and mix until incorporated. Spread onto cooled cake.

Rice To Riches

2007-10-25T12:18:00.001-07:00

Yuzu is Listening To
Spring Awakening
2006 Original Broadway Cast
see related

How have I managed to eat at this place several times and not once blogged about it? It's been in my links list since I started this blog. I first happened upon Rice To Riches three and a half years ago. Eatdrink&bemerry suggested I check the place out because...umm, we're Asian and we like rice. ;P But it's so much more than rice — it's all about rice pudding here.

I've eaten here with friends, and I also took my parents here a couple of times. Mom and Dad seem to really like this place because a) their rice pudding is yummy, and b) their public restroom is probably the cleanest non-hotel restroom they've ever seen in New York City. Located right off Mulberry Street in NoLIta, Rice To Riches sticks out like a sore thumb on Spring Street with its futuristic, brushed-metal exterior. Upon entering the store, you see high, white tables shaped like surfboards (or maybe they're supposed to be like rice kernels) and flat-screen televisions displaying colorful, bizarre pop art that mostly has to do with food. I think I recall spotting a doggie on the screen one time, though. Sometimes the TVs display random definitions like "SLEEP: a poor substitute for caffeine."

The ambiance is retro and modern at the same time.

Rice To Riches makes their pudding right in the store, so you can be sure you're getting the freshest rice pudding available. Their flavors carry some interesting names that almost seem to give them their own personalities. Take, for instance, Stubborn Banana or Forbidden Apple. Or maybe you're in the mood for a Cinnamon Sling, Almond Shmalmond, Coconut Coma, Don' Cappuccino or perhaps even Sex, Drugs 'n' Rocky Road. Their puddings can be topped with anything from 'blessings' (toasted coconut) to 'mischief' (graham cracker crumbs). Pudding flavors and toppings vary throughout the year. My dad had a yummy mango pudding last year, but it wasn't there when I went a few weeks ago.

I'm so predictable — I get Understanding Vanilla every time.
It understands how boring I can sometimes be with flavor choices.

It's been a lot of restaurants' and stores' goals lately to be certified green. Using less plastic, more recycled paper and generating less waste in general is what many businesses are doing to help the environment. I've read complaints that the plastic containers in which Rice To Riches serves their rice pudding are not good for the environment. Nay, I say! Why throw away those containers after you're done stuffing your face with rice pudding? From the very first time I went to Rice To Riches, I vowed to save every container I've ever used. The second and third (and fourth) times I ate there, I asked for containers in specific colors because I wanted to complete my collection. I only have the 'solo' sizes, though...not the 'sumo' ones. =O

Their containers are really cute and quite durable, so
I save them and reuse 'em to carry snacks in my bag.

A word of caution: if you are watching your carb intake, it's best to steer clear of Rice To Riches. This place prides itself on being carb-heavy. There's a sign hanging over the cash register that says, "We sell rice pudding. If you don't want that you can have rice pudding. And if you don't want that you can have rice pudding." Rice pudding is pretty much all you get here. And that is totally fine with me.

Rice To Riches
37 Spring Street (at Mulberry)
New York, NY 10012-5723
(212) 274-0008

Master Chef

2007-10-23T11:32:00.000-07:00

Last year I blogged about a game for the Nintendo DS entitled Cooking Mama. That was the game that made me actually go out and buy a pink Nintendo DS Lite. I still play the game every once in a while, but only if I'm completely and utterly bored. Don't get me wrong, it's a pretty fun game, but after I've cooked so many dishes on there, I'm worn out. ;P

©Imagine | Ubisoft

Imagine just released a new cooking game today called Master Chef. The game play is very similar to that of Cooking Mama in the sense that you use the DS's stylus to do various kitchen tasks, i.e., chop, peel, slice, knead, stir. But it goes beyond all the cooking mini-games by including features like kitchen challenges and cooking quizzes, and even the ability to customize your kitchen with appliances! Sounds like a sweet game to me. Now if only it was as low in price as Cooking Mama was.

La Creperie Café

2007-10-09T10:28:00.000-07:00

A great place to dine at on a sunny afternoon is La Creperie Café in Belmont Shore. It's a French café that serves up a variety of delectable savory and sweet crêpes, as well as pastas, salads and sandwiches.

The front of the restaurant on Second Street

The east-facing wall inside the restaurant

A fake window on the west-facing wall inside

Heh...a crazy bicycle stuck on the wall

I always order a crêpe when I eat here. Their pastas and sandwiches are equally tasty, but I think at least one person at the table should order a crêpe, and that person usually ends up being me. Be sure to order a basket of garlic fries to share at the table — they are so yummy, with chopped parsley and real chunks of garlic to satisfy the taste buds.

You cannot have a meal here without the fries!

Au Bon Curry Crêpe
Curry, coconut milk, chicken breast and cilantro cream sauce,
topped with sour cream & mango chutney

©2007 Yuzu Eats

The chicken breast pieces in the crêpe were a good size; actually, they were quite filling. The curry itself was tasty, but I could've done without the mango chutney. Don't get me wrong — I love mango stuff — but I felt that its sweetness tended to overpower the flavor of the curry. When I order a curry dish, I expect to mostly taste the curry. But, in this case, I tasted a whole lotta mango, and only a little bit of coconut milk and curry flavor. About halfway through eating the crêpe, I scraped the mango chutney off of it so that I could enjoy the curry. Not sure about the sour cream on top either. I enjoy sour cream with Mexican dishes, but I've never before had sour cream with curry. It's not an entirely bad combination ('cause it's hard for me to say no to sour cream) — it just caught me by surprise, that's all.

The restaurant is relatively small, so expect a long wait. I've been seated immediately on a week night, but on weekends I've waited up to over an hour to get a table. Weekdays are generally less crowded, especially in the middle of the day when you can also take advantage of their smaller-sized lunch portions at lower prices. If you choose to dine outside, feel free to bring your dog. The major downside about eating outside is inhaling the secondhand smoke of diners who have cigarettes with their meal.

La Crêperie Café
4911 E. Second St. (between Argonne and St. Joseph)
Long Beach, CA 90803
(562) 434-8499

Bouchon Bakery

2007-10-04T11:30:00.000-07:00

Yuzu is Listening To
The Best Of Rent: Highlights From The Original Cast Album
Anthony Rapp, Adam Pascal, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Jesse L. Martin,
Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Fredi Walker, Idina Menzel, Taye Diggs
see related

When you grab a bite to eat at a shopping mall, you probably think Panda Express, Sbarro, Steak Escape, Hot Dog on a Stick and Cinnabon, right? That's not the case when you're shopping (or window-shopping) at the Shops at Columbus Circle, located inside the Time Warner Center in New York City. But then it's not like the malls most of us are used to, as the building complex is also the home of luxury condominiums, the Mandarin Oriental Hotel and the worldwide headquarters of Time Warner. After attending Sunday Mass at a Catholic Church in the Upper West Side last weekend, I strolled down Columbus Avenue and made my way down to Columbus Circle. I went inside a few stores and looked around. But it wasn't until I hit up J.Crew that I was finally able to buy a couple things that wouldn't break the bank. Hooray for "30% off" signage! I was feeling rather hungry after my non-shopping, so I went up to the third floor to check out the Bouchon Bakery, a restaurant I had read about but had never tried.

The express counter had more customers than the actual restaurant.

On a late Sunday morning, you can expect that this place wasn't very crowded. A few couples sat at tables; some families partook in a boulangerie-style Sunday brunch. Since I was dining solo, I opted for the express counter, which serves up delightful sandwiches and a nice selection of freshly baked French pastries. I wanted to try the ham & cheese on a baguette, but someone snatched the last one, and it was going to be at least eight minutes until they brought out some more. So I went with my second choice, a ham & cheese croissant (yes, I do likes me some ham & cheese sammies). I also bought a brioche à tête and a vanilla macaron for dessert.

It was a gorgeous day outside, so I took my food and ate it outside near the fountain surrounding Gaetano Russo's sculpture of Christopher Columbus, right smack in the middle of Columbus Circle. There were quite a few individuals sitting out on the benches, munching away on lunch and listening to their iPod®s or reading a book. I ate my ham & cheese croissant as I perused a Williams-Sonoma catalog. The croissant was perfectly flaky and buttery. The cheese was a bit rich, but it was still yummy. I didn't dig into the macaron until later that day after watching Monty Python's Spamalot down at the Shubert Theatre. It was a nice after-theatre snack. I could really taste the almond flavor in it. The 2½" macaron was chewy, and the filling was rich and buttery. A few hours later, I ate the brioche before catching the evening show of Spring Awakening at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre. It tasted okay, but seemed a bit dry. Perhaps because I waited too long to eat it.

I'd recommend the Bouchon Bakery if you're not against spending around $7–10 for a simple sandwich (or more if you get something fancier). The atmosphere is a nice balance between upscale and casual [mall] dining. If your tummy's not in the mood for a meal, I think this place is worth at least a walk-by of the dessert counter. The way the treats are displayed so prettily will probably make you hungry.

Bouchon Bakery (inside Time Warner Center)
10 Columbus Circle
New York, NY 10019
(212) 823-9366

Miyabi-Tei on a Sunday

2007-09-24T13:28:00.000-07:00

Yuzu is Playing
MySims
Electronic Arts
see related

My mom needed to go to a Japanese store to stock up on boxes of bagged green tea, so I said, "Mitsuwa Marketplace!" I drove mom and dad to Costa Mesa yesterday to eat lunch and do some grocery shopping. Uhh...12:30 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon? Not the best time to eat there if you want to actually sit down at a table while enjoying your food. My dad was hovering over various tables, waiting for families to leave, while my mom and I ordered the food. We settled on Miyabi-Tei, which had the shortest line of all the eateries in the marketplace.

Almost every time we go to Mitsuwa, we end up ordering at Miyabi-Tei. Probably because it's usually got the shortest wait, but also because I really do like their food. I always get something different when I eat there. Last time I went I had a curry plate. Yesterday, however, I went with the Hamburg Plate ($6.25). It is seriously a bargain, with miso soup, mashed potato, a generous bowl of rice, and a hamburg steak served on a bed of lettuce & bean sprouts, and topped with caramelized onions, with a side of minced daikon.

I normally don't shove onions in my mouth, but these...I had to.

This is probably the best hamburg I've tasted. Either that means it's really good, or I just haven't eaten a whole lot of hamburg steaks in my lifetime. The beef is relatively juicy (not in the least bit dry by my standards — whatever those are), and the flavor of the meat has a hint of sweetness. I don't know how they season it, but it's tasty. I have a recipe for hamburg that I'd like to try. I wonder if it'll taste anything at all like this one.

Miyabi-Tei (inside Mitsuwa Marketplace)
665 Paularino Ave.
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
(714) 754-7044

Mac 'N' Cheese Soup

2007-09-20T15:15:00.000-07:00

Yuzu is Listening To
Undiscovered
James Morrison
see related

I left work after only a few hours today because I was feeling kind'a queasy all morning. I hadn't eaten anything for breakfast because I just wasn't feeling hungry, but I munched on half a muffin while I was at work. As soon as I got home I started making myself some soup. I normally make chicken noodle soup when I feel crappy, but I wanted something else. Something that's been a comfort food since I was a kid — mac 'n' cheese! I made a bit of a grown-up version in the form of a veggie mac 'n' cheese soup.

If you're interested in a 'soupy' soup, this one isn't it. It's got a creamy texture, so it's kind of a cross between macaroni soup and traditional baked mac 'n' cheese.

Mac 'N' Cheese Soup
1 can (14 oz.) reduced-sodium chicken broth
¾ cup small elbow macaroni
1 cup broccoli florets, chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and sliced
1 tbsp. all-purpose flour
¾ cup nonfat milk
½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
ground black pepper (optional)

In a medium saucepan on high heat, bring chicken broth to a boil. Add macaroni, stir and let simmer over medium heat for approximately 5 minutes. Add broccoli and carrots and cook another 5 minutes.

Mix flour and milk together in a bowl until it's well combined. Slowly add it to the macaroni mixture, stirring until it's got a relatively thick consistency. Add small amounts of cheese at a time, stirring it around until it's melted, until all the cheese has been added. Season with ground black pepper if desired.

Serves two.

I ate the soup out of my Le Creuset petit casserole

Mmm...Cream Puffs

2007-08-24T13:28:00.000-07:00

Yuzu is Listening To
High School Musical 2 Soundtrack
see related

For the most part, I will avoid going to Hollywood — or anywhere in the city of Los Angeles — if I can help it. But two weeks ago my aunt was in town, and my family and I took her around local places so she could see some sights. One of our stops was Hollywood & Highland.

The most exciting thing at Hollywood & Highland (for me, at least) was seeing the hand-, wand- and footprints of the Harry Potter trio in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre. After I put my hands on the cement blocks there, we strolled down to the shopping area and — lo and behold — I spotted Beard Papa. I completely forgot one was located here! ::slaps forehead::

It's so clean and new-looking still. :)

My dad ordered half a dozen, and we ate them while warm — delicious!

I ordered a green tea latte with tapioca, which was refreshing on such a hot day.

My parents and aunt were asking me, "Why is it called Beard Papa?" To which I replied, "The logo has a picture of an old man with a beard." ;P Frankly, I think he looks like a cartoon version of the Gorton's Fisherman.

I generally don't eat at places that have been hyped up on food blogs or TV programs (did you see Pinkberry featured on MTV's The Hills this week? I still haven't eaten there). But I've been wanting to try these cream puffs for a long time. I wasn't disappointed, I'm happy to say. They're so fresh, straight from the oven and pumped full of custard right before your eyes. There was a green tea-flavored cream puff on special the day we went, but unfortunately I didn't try it. :( Sounds like it would've been good, though.

Beard Papa Sweets Café
6801 Hollywood Blvd., Suite 153
Hollywood, CA 90028
(323) 462-6100

Red Velvet

2007-08-03T12:35:00.000-07:00

Gahh...so lazy. I want to sleep. I should've gone to bed early last night, but after watching Late Night with David Letterman, I decided to do some beading. Why was I beading after 1:00 in the morning? I don't know. I haven't beaded in over a month, so I just felt like it last night.

Tomorrow is a coworker's birthday. We wanted to have some treats for him today, so I baked red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I had one for breakfast this morning, and now I feel quite sluggish.

Putting a Birthday Gift to Good Use

2007-07-06T12:45:00.000-07:00

Yuzu is Listening To
Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus
Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus
see related

Okay, so I've been lazy with updating my food blog. I really don't want to be on the Internet that much because I'm being very careful not to accidentally read Harry Potter spoilers (past experience has taught me that these spoilers can show up anywhere, even non-HP sites). *nerd alert* With the book release only two weeks away (whoa!), there are bound to be some dumbasses who feel like spoiling the fun for us fans. So my visits to the Internets will probably be sparse very soon.

Anyway...it was my birthday last week, and I have been pretty much eating a lot of sweets — specifically cupcakes (although I've had some slices of cheesecake and mochi ice cream here and there). Independence day was two days ago, and I'd originally planned on baking some patriotic cupcakes with red, white and blue stars and sprinkles — but I didn't have any of those things in my pantry. ;P I ended up baking these instead.

Chocolate cupcakes with pink strawberry frosting and chocolate jimmies

I transported them in one of my new cupcake carriers from Crate & Barrel

©2007 Yuzu Eats

The cupcake carriers were a gift from my parents and my sister, who demanded, "Now bake some cupcakes!" It didn't take me long before I put one of the carriers to use. Each one holds 2 dozen cupcakes. The second carrier will come in handy for those rare occasions when I'll bake some cupcakes to bring to the office.

Back From Hiatus...and With Lots of Bento!

2007-06-13T13:50:00.000-07:00

Yuzu is Listening To
Call Me Irresponsible
Michael Bublé
see related

First off, allow me to apologize for not commenting on your blogs in the past month or two. I didn't expect to be away from food blogging for so long — sorry about that! I kind'a took a little break there for a while. Went on vacation to a couple of Hawaiian islands last month and ate Japanese food almost every day (and loved it!). Work has gotten so busy, leaving me too tired when I get home to cook or take worthwhile pictures of food. But I wanted to check in with you guys real quick and post some of my recent boxed lunches from the past week.

Shrimp fried in butter, garlic & pepper fried rice, seasoned mixed veggies

Chicken cutlet with tonkatsu sauce, edamame,
steamed mixed veggies & extra sauce (in the little tomato)

Pizza, seasoned mixed veggies, edamame
(pretty much a combo of the two previous bento, but with pizza!)

Panko-breaded shrimp, scrambled eggs, sweet cherry tomatoes,
flower-shaped Portuguese sausage patties, SPAM musubi and
(hiding behind the musubi) a carrot bottle w/soy sauce

©2007 Yuzu Eats

Lunch with the Sugarbunnies

2007-04-13T13:42:00.000-07:00

I don't normally eat sandwiches for lunch. I usually like some kind of rice or pasta dish. But I just bought a loaf of whole-grain wheat bread last night and felt like eating some little sammiches for lunch this afternoon. I used a biscuit cutter to cut the sandwiches into those little circles. The cutter has scalloped edges, but it's hard to see that on the sandwich because of the bread's texture.

Little ham & cheese whole-wheat sammies with carrot and celery sticks

©2007 Yuzu Eats

The Sugarbunnies strike a pose with their bento box

I'm sorry I haven't been commenting on your blogs lately. I'll get back to it, I promise! Thanks for reading. :)

Return of Obento

2007-04-10T10:55:00.000-07:00

Yuzu is Reading
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
J.K. Rowling
see related

It's been a long time coming, but after many, many months I've finally gotten around to making a bento post! In an effort to save money and not have to resort to buying lunch from the cafeteria, I have been packing a lunch almost every day for the past several months. I've been getting a lot of use out of my bento boxes, that's for sure. I just haven't posted any of my lunches in a while because they weren't particularly creative or photogenic. But I'm posting my lunch for today because I think it looks cute!

Spicy tuna roll, shrimp tempura roll and edamame
with a soy-sauce-filled cherry bottle

©2007 Yuzu Eats

I like it when my bento stuff matches, so...there it is.

Shrimp, Tomato & Basil Pasta

2007-03-19T12:53:00.000-07:00

I hadn't really cooked in a while. We've been ordering a lot of takeout at home. Quick, yes. But it can really add up. Yesterday my sister and I went to the grocery store so I could buy some fresh ingredients to make a light pasta for the family. I looked through my old Everyday Food magazines because I recall seeing a recipe in one of them that I'd wanted to try. It was for shrimp, tomato and basil pasta. And I loves me some shrimp, tomatoes and basil.

I do enjoy a good, hearty pasta dish. But I also like to eat light pasta dishes once in a while. This one definitely tastes light, but surprisingly it sates the appetite just fine. Here's the recipe, with a few minor adjustments.

Shrimp, Tomato and Basil Pasta (from Everyday Food by Martha Stewart)
1½ lbs. medium shrimp, peeled and deveined, with tails removed
course salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 can (14.5 oz.) diced tomatoes
2 cups water
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
1 lb. linguine
1 cup lightly packed fresh basil, torn into small pieces

Season shrimp with salt and pepper. In a large skillet, heat 4 tsp. of extra virgin olive oil over high heat. Add shrimp and cook until opaque, turning occassionally (about 2-3 minutes). Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

To make the sauce, add remaining 2 tsp. of extra virgin olive oil and the minced garlic to the same skillet. Cook the garlic over medium heat for about 30 seconds, until they're fragrant. Add canned tomatoes, with the juice. Add 2 cups of water and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring occassionally, until the tomatoes have softened and are saucy. Remove from heat and add cherry tomatoes.

While the sauce is simmering, cook linguine in a large pot of salted water according to package directions. When cooked, drain the pasta and return it to the pot. Add sauce, shrimp and basil. Season with a little salt & pepper and toss. Garnish with additional torn basil leaves, if desired. Top with freshly grated Parmesan if you like. Serve immediately.

Serves 4-6.

Twisty Bread

2007-03-08T13:15:00.000-08:00

Yuzu is Watching
Little Miss Sunshine
see related

I apologize for neglecting this blog in the past several weeks. I caught a cold bug a couple weeks ago that left me at home for a whole week, unable to go to work or do anything really productive. If you've stayed at home for days, you know how boring it can get. Since I was not feeling up to sitting in front of the computer reading blogs or posting on blogs, I used whatever time I wasn't sleeping or watching TV to cook & bake! I made muffins, a couple of pizzas and these garlic twisty breadsticks.

I've found that making bread is very therapeutic. There are few things that can bring me the joy that beating a ball of dough with my fist can bring. And when the dough doubles in size while resting — ooh, that's so exciting! Using a rolling pin is pretty fun too.

Cupcake & Tea for Dessert

2007-02-12T10:38:00.000-08:00

Yuzu is Reading
Utterly Me, Clarice Bean
Lauren Child
see related

For someone who doesn't drink coffee, I sure make a lot of trips to Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. I like it so much better than Starbucks. I'm more of a tea drinker, so I guess that explains my preference for Coffee Bean. I had dinner with my parents this past weekend, and afterward we went to Coffee Bean for dessert.

I tried one of their cupcakes for the first time. It was chocolate with cream cheese frosting. The cake part of it was actually moist. I was expecting it to be dry like the cupcakes at Starbucks. I was pleasantly surprised! The only thing I didn't like about the cake was that there were about 5 chocolate chips in there. But I picked them out as I ate the cupcake. I don't like chocolate chips in chocolate cake. Just like I don't like chocolate cookies with chocolate chips. Chocolate overkill. Okay, now the frosting...the frosting was like eating a cheesecake. You know how most cream cheese frostings taste? This was a bit sweeter, because it tasted like cheesecake. Not that it's a bad thing. But this cupcake was definitely a decadent little treat. I'll probably be eating more of these in the near future...

Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf
1080 E. Imperial Hwy, #E2
Brea CA, 92821

Smile — It's a Potato!

2007-02-07T17:54:00.000-08:00

Yuzu is Watching
The Office - Season Two
see related

It's a potato — and he's so happy to see you! Some people get creeped out when their food is smiling at them, but not me. I love happy food! And these smiling potatoes from McCain are no exception.

On the cuteness meter, these potatoes rank high in my book. You can't help but smile when you look at them. Unless, like I mentioned earlier, you're not a fan of smiling food. They're crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, kind of like mashed potatoes. As far as taste is concerned, they taste just as you'd expect — like frozen potatoes. Eaten with ketcup, however, they don't taste too bad.

B.T. McElrath Chocolatier

2007-01-23T12:20:00.000-08:00

Yuzu is Watching
The Office - Season One
see related

Do you sometimes take photos of something you ate, with the intention of blogging about it, only to eventually forget to include it on your food blog? Happens to me all the time. I'd forgotten that I took these pictures last July (eeks!).

My brother-in-law brought home a few pieces of fine chocolate from B.T. McElrath chocolatier when he went to San Francisco. I'd never before tried anything made my Mr. Brian McElrath, but I was immediately in awe of his beautiful chocolate designs. Seriously, this chocolate is so pretty, it's almost a crime to destroy it by consumption. Below are the pieces I tried out.

Chile-Limón
milk chocolate truffle with chili and lemon

©2007 Yuzu Eats

Orange Blossom
dark chocolate flower-shaped truffle filled with orange ganache

Cherry Snapper
Michigan cherries surrounded by 34% cacao milk chocolate

I love that turtle! It makes me not want to eat plain, square-shaped chocolates ever again! Okay, not really. All the chocolates were quite delicious, though. The Chile-Limón truffle — you can mostly taste the limón, but the chili kicks in as you're swallowing the chocolate. The Orange Blossom — this was my favorite, with its oh-so-yummy orange ganache filling. I ♥ the combination of chocolate and citrus. The Cherry Snapper — well, I think this one needs a new name because the turtle shape is really the highlight of this piece. Not that the chocolate was bad, but c'mon...it's a turtle, and it's so cute! 'Cherry Turtles' is a better name, methinks.

B.T. McElrath Chocolates at Andronico's
1200 Irving St.
San Francisco, CA 94122
(415) 661-3220

Best Yuzu Sugar Cookies Ever

2007-01-16T13:20:00.000-08:00

Yuzu is Watching
The Office - The Complete Collection BBC Edition
(First and Second Series Plus Special)
see related

I've only baked a few desserts so far with yuzus, but this is my favorite thus far. My mom wanted me to bake cookies yesterday, so I searched for a recipe that called for ingredients my parents had in their pantry. ;) I also had a couple yuzus from my yuzu tree that I wanted to use, and I was able to incorporate them into a recipe to make sugar cookies with a nice citrus flavor.

I'm very happy the way these cookies turned out, because they weren't too sweet, and the yuzu flavor wasn't overpowering the cookie. The cookies are moist & chewy, with crispy edges. My parents liked them a lot, so that spells success to me! Here's the recipe for anyone who wants to try these out. You can substitute lemon for yuzu, as I know how difficult it is to have actual yuzus on hand.

Best Yuzu Sugar Cookies Ever
3½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling
¼ cup light-brown sugar, packed
zest of 2 yuzus (approx. 1 tbsp.)
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 tbsp. freshly squeezed yuzu juice

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Sift flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Using a freestanding mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix sugar, brown sugar and zest. Add butter until mixture is light & fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and then the yuzu juice. Slowly add the flour mixture until a soft dough forms. Scoop 1½" balls of dough onto baking sheet. Flatten the balls slightly with the palm of your hand, and sprinkle a bit of granulated sugar on top. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let them sit for about a minute. Then move cookies to cooling rack.

Makes 30 cookies, 3" (7½ cm) in diameter.

Pepper-Parmesan Bread

2007-01-08T11:38:00.000-08:00

Yuzu is Watching
Pride & Prejudice
see related

I was home all weekend, recovering from my cold last week. I knitted, tried to get back into crochet again, and watched some movies on the telly. Amidst all the DVD- and movie-watching (I watched the entire BBC series of The Office on DVD, plus some movies on AMC, VH1 and Disney Channel), I decided to bake some bread and make the house smell delicious. I read an easy recipe in Los Angeles Times last week for a pepper-parmesan bread. I ♥ pepper (and cheese, for that matter), so I tried out this bread to see how it'd turn out.

The obligatory in-the-oven photo

Look at the nice texture and golden color

I used a peppercorn medley (black, green, white and pink peppercorns) instead of just the plain black ones. Some people might find the pepper taste in this bread too strong, but I think it had a nice kick to it. If you want, you could probably lessen the amount of pepper if you want a more subtle taste.

Pepper-Parmesan Bread (from Los Angeles Times)
2 tbsp. melted butter
2 cups flour
1 tbsp. sugar
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. freshly ground pepper
1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
2 large eggs
1 cup whole milk

Preheat oven to 350ºF degrees. Butter 9” x 5” loaf pan and set aside. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and pepper, and mix with a whisk until thoroughly combined; make sure the pepper is well distributed. Stir in the cheese. In another bowl, combine the eggs, milk and melted butter, and mix lightly. Pour into the bowl with the dry ingredients and cheese. Mix with a rubber spatula until all the ingredients are well moistened. Scrape the dough into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool slightly before turning out of the pan.

Slice it up and spread some butter on that baby!

Finally a Christmas Update

2007-01-02T11:35:00.000-08:00

Yuzu is Listening To
Welcome To Ralph's World
Ralph Covert
see related

I hope everyone had a good holiday break. I enjoyed a nice week and a half off, relaxing with family, eating nonstop and sleeping in really late. I meant to update my journal right after Christmas so I can show you what I baked over the holidays, but I took a break from blogging last week. So I'm posting my Christmas goodies now.

These were actually chocolate cookies, not gingerbread

Green Christmas tree sugar cookies

Butter yellow cupcakes with vanilla frosting and festive sprinkles

These cupcakes were made with Pillsbury cake mix
which came with Christmas-colored candy bits

I covered them in Pillsbury vanilla frosting topped with fun Christmas shapes

I think I've had enough sweets in the past couple of weeks to last me all through January. But that doesn't mean I won't have an ice-cream cone or a few cookies here and there. ;) Happy new year, everyone!

Hot Chocolate & Biscuits

2006-12-13T10:55:00.000-08:00

Yuzu is Listening To
Christmas Remixed: Holiday Classics Re-Grooved
Various Artists
see related

I love listening to holiday music. It gets me in the mood for Christmas. There's nothing quite like the cozy feeling of sitting in the living room, listening to Christmas songs and looking at the lights on the Christmas tree. The other night, I just chilled out on the sofa with a cup of hot chocolate and some biscuits.

Burton's Jammie Dodgers:
delicious stretchy jam splodged between 2 yummy shortbread biscuits

Cute nighttime snack...and festive-looking too!

©2006 Yuzu Eats

Share the Melon-Pan Love

2006-12-11T14:00:00.000-08:00

Yuzu is Listening To
The Sweet Escape
Gwen Stefani
see related

Everyone's entitled to a cute, silly post every once in a while, right? As long as it involves food! =) I bought a melon pan for myself the other day, and I left it on the kitchen counter. When I returned, look what I found!

If you don't know much about melon pan, here are some cool things to know about it:

"Melon pan" gets its name because it resembles, well, a melon!
Namely the muskmelon, or cantaloupe.

The outer (or top) layer is a cookie dough,
and the inner (or bottom) layer is the actual bread.

Melon pan is most often served with an underbaked cookie-dough layer because baking it any longer will result in an overbaked bread portion. That's why melon pan is so light in color, as opposed to a golden-brown color one would associate with finished baked goods. I've tried many varieties of melon pan. Some were green and completely bread-like (no outer cookie layer), while others were filled with green melon-flavored custard. I haven't decided which one I like the best. I kind'a like the whole cookie/bread combo, so that might be my favorite right now. Nothing beats eating a cookie and bread at the same time!

I couldn't resist. I ended up sharing the melon pan with the turtle
and my niece while watching Miracle on 34th Street on AMC. :)

The Yuzu Tree Giveth

2006-12-07T11:00:00.000-08:00

Yuzu is Watching
The Da Vinci Code
see related

My blog has been lacking in posts lately because (a) I was on vacation in Chicago for a while, and (b) I've been bitten by a cold bug that's left me too lazy to post anything in the last week. But I return with a yummy yuzu entry! My yuzu tree has been blooming ever so wonderfully, and I picked one of its fruits to make a citrusy dessert which I brought to Thanksgiving dinner a couple weeks ago.

I took a simple lemon bar recipe and tweaked it so they'd yield yuzu bars instead. I'm not really a fan of lemon bars, because they taste too eggy to me. But I know other people love lemon bars, so I baked these for them. ♥ This recipe will produce yuzu bars that burst with a lot of citrus flavor. If you prefer a more subtle citrus taste, switch all the 'yuzu' parts in the recipe with lemon and decrease the amount of lemon juice to 6 teaspoons.

Yuzu Bars
Crust:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
½ cup confectioners' sugar
2 cups flour
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Combine ingredients and mix well. Press mixture in 9" x 13" greased glass pan. Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

Filling:
4 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup flour
2 cups granulated sugar
7 tsp. yuzu juice (bottled yuzu juice will suffice as well)
zest of 1 yuzu

Combine flour and sugar; mix in beaten eggs, yuzu juice and zest. Pour onto slightly cooled crust. Bake at 350°F for 25 minutes or until filling is set. Cool and sprinkle with confectioners' sugar.

Tartaruga Mozzarella

2006-11-20T10:30:00.000-08:00

I'm really digging turtle bread lately. So I made more! Baking bread is so fun and rewarding. Of course it can be a bit time-consuming (especially when making cool-shaped breads), but it's definitely worth it.

Last week I baked one plain, large turtle bread. This time around, I baked four little Italian turtle breads seasoned with fresh garlic, dried herbs and filled with yummy cheese. These are the same as the mozzarella balls I posted last time, but they're bigger and shaped like turtles.

The dough already smelled yummy while it was resting (all thanks to the garlic).

I ♥ fresh mozzarella cheese!

I think the turtles look their cutest when they're puffing up in the oven. :)

Nice & golden! And still cute.

My bread turtles like resting on fresh herbs.

And, of course, you gotta see the inside — melted, gooey mozzarella.

These turtles are a lot smaller than the turtle bread I baked last week. They ended up being 5½" (14 cm) from head to tail and 2½" (6½ cm) high. So cute! They're really tasty when you tear pieces off and dip them in marinara sauce — yum!

Bread Balls Stuffed w/Cheese

2006-11-13T10:08:00.000-08:00

I baked bread again over the weekend. I never thought baking bread would be addicting, but it's starting to become an obsession for me.

I wanted to bake a snack bread for my family to eat in between lunch and dinner. 'Cause a few hours after lunch passes, everyone's hungry. I decided to make little balls stuffed with fresh mozzarella.

The dough getting baked in the oven

These are really easy to make, and they take about an hour from start to finish. Here's the recipe that I came up with.

Mozzarella Balls
2½ cups all-purpose flour
1 package active dry yeast
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. kosher salt
½ cup warm water
1/3 cup warm milk
1½ tbsp. butter or margarine
1 generous tsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. dried basil
½ tsp. dried thyme
1 egg
2 tbsp. jarred tomato sauce
1/3 cup fresh mozzarella, chopped into ½" cubes

In a medium bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water (105°F to 115°F). Stir in sugar, salt, warm milk, melted butter and 1½ cups of the flour. Add the basil, thyme and garlic, and incorporate. Stir in the egg. Then stir in the remaining cup of flour.

On a lightly floured cutting board or countertop, knead the dough for 5 minutes until it's smooth. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Lightly grease a baking sheet with cooking spray. Split the dough into 16 even sections. Do all of the following steps for each section: (1) flatten dough with your hands to make sort of like a mini pizza dough ; (2) put a drop of tomato sauce in the center of the flattened dough and spread it around (be careful not to let it spread to the edges, though); (3) place a few mozzarella cubes in the center; (4) then fold the edges of the flattened dough circle over the center to hold the cheese inside, and pinch it shut.

Place all 16 balls onto the baking sheet (pinched side down), about 2 inches apart. Brush all over with melted butter and pop them in the oven. Bake for approximately 25 minutes (could be slightly less, depending on your oven), or until golden brown.

I Baked Turtle Bread

2006-11-06T12:00:00.000-08:00

Yuzu is Watching
Nacho Libre
see related

Anyone who knows me well knows that I love to eat bread. But I'm not known to bake it. I bake cookies and mini cakes, but not bread. Until now! I found a few recipes for turtle bread on the Internet and tried the one that I thought looked the best.

I shaped the dough and let it rise...

...then cut out a criss-cross 'shell' and popped it in the oven.

This is a fun recipe to make with kids. You can have them help you shape the turtle's body parts and then assemble them. It feeds quite a lot too. My bread came out to be 9" (23 cm) from head to tail and 3" (7½ cm) high.

Turtle Bread
2½ cups all-purpose flour
1 package active dry yeast
1 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
½ cup warm water
1/3 cup warm milk
1 tbsp. butter or margarine
1 egg
2 raisins

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water (105°F to 115°F). Stir in sugar, salt, warm milk, melted butter and 1½ cups of the flour. Stir in the egg. Stir in the remaining cup of flour.

Lightly flour a large cutting board, or your clean kitchen counter, and knead the dough for about 5 minutes until it's smooth and springs back when you poke it. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.

Lightly grease a cookie sheet with cooking spray. Shape a 2½" piece of dough into a ball for the turtle’s head. Shape 4 walnut-sized pieces of dough into balls for the feet. Shape a half-walnut-sized piece of dough into a tail. Shape the remaining dough into a big ball for the turtle's body. Place all 7 pieces onto the baking sheet, forming the turtle's shape. Attach the head, feet and tail by placing one end of each under edge of body to secure. Use your pinky finger to poke little holes into the turtle's head and press raisins in for the eyes. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 20 minutes.

Heat the oven to 400°F. Using a serrated knife, make a ¼"-deep circular cut around the top edge of the body. Make criss-cross cuts in the center to look like a turtle's shell. Bake for about 20 to 25, or until golden brown. Serves 4 to 6.

Lemony Puff Pastry

2006-09-25T11:04:00.000-07:00

Yuzu is Watching
Billy Elliot
see related

Last night I made beef brisket for dinner, and I wanted to finish off the meal with a delicious homemade dessert. I settled for semi-homemade. At the encouragement of Mel, I decided to give lemon curd a try. I bought a jar of lemon curd (straight from England — might as well start by trying the good stuff). I mixed it with whipped cream, and it resulted in a yummy lemon mousse. Here's what I did with it:

I used frozen puff pastry shells that were super easy to prepare. Just take them out of the package, pop them in the oven for 20 minutes, and they're done! I filled the pastry shells with the lemon mousse, topped with a bit of whipped cream and then finished off the presentation with fresh lemon zest. It was seriously one of the best desserts I've ever eaten — ever.

Mini Cupcakes for the Office

2006-09-11T17:35:00.000-07:00

I was in a baking mood again this past weekend, and I decided to try out a recipe that I found in one of Martha Stewart's magazines. Looked like an easy vanilla cupcake recipe. It was my supervisor's birthday, and I thought what better occasion to bring cupcakes to the office than to celebrate a birthday? I went with a simple decoratation — mint green frosting with piped-on pink flowers.

The cakes were a teensy bit dry, but they weren't too bad. I have yet to find a perfect vanilla cupcake recipe. These came out pretty, though! I like the fact that the cakes turned out quite uniform, with nice curved tops that sprung back when I pressed on 'em.

Hello Kitty Birthday Cake

2006-09-04T22:44:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of updates! I'll make up for it by posting something cute. :) It's a birthday cake that I made for my niece who turned one year old this past weekend.

Hello Kitty cake

©2006 Yuzu Eats

I'd never before attempted a shaped cake before, let alone one for which I didn't have a special baking pan. I used a boxed strawberry cake mix to bake a 13x9" rectangular cake. After it cooled, I took the cake out of the pan and laid it on a sheet of wax paper, where I used a serrated knife to cut out an oval and two triangles (Kitty's head and ears). I put them onto that square plate and placed plastic straws into the cake to secure the ears to the head. After that, it was frosting time! I whipped up a really quick batch of vanilla buttercream frosting and separated it into portions which I dyed into different colors to make up Hello Kitty's face. I used a star pastry tip to pipe white frosting all over, and again to pipe the red bow. Lastly, I made my own pastry bags out of parchment paper, snipped the tips, and used those to add the nose, eyes and whiskers.

My niece seemed to enjoy the cake, but she was reluctant to dig in at first — maybe she didn't want to mess up Kitty's face. ^_^ Unfortunately, none of the other kids at the party got to try the cake because my niece eventually smooshed the whole thing to bits. Some of it actually made its way into her mouth, while the rest was on the table, her hands, her bib and parts of her face.

Cooking Mama

2006-08-02T10:28:00.000-07:00

I'm not much of a gamer. The last gaming system I bought was a Nintendo Game Boy Advance SP several years ago. But a new title from Taito might push me towards the electronics store to buy myself a Nintendo DS Lite. It's a game called Cooking Mama, in which you test your cooking skills and get judged/scored by Mama. You use the stylus and touchscreen to prepare meals from start to finish — chop, slice, knead, mash, grate, peel, strain, etc. You can even blow into the mic to cool down food that's too hot! Whoa — what a neat concept! Click on the full link to see more screen shots, courtesy of IGN.

Chop the tomatoes!

Coat the chicken (or whatever that's supposed to be)!

Knead the dough!

Plate it up and show it to Mama. :)

©Taito

Oh my gosh, this is just too cute for words! You can watch a trailer of the game here on You Tube (a longer, Japanese version is also up for viewing here). The Japanese version is already available, but the U.S. version won't be available until December 31. In the meantime, I could start setting aside a little bit of money from each paycheck for the "Nintendo DS Lite/Cooking Mama" fund.

Yuzu Biscuits

2006-07-31T09:50:00.000-07:00

Experimenting in the kitchen again! I came up with a recipe for some yuzu biscuits. It's basically like shortbread, but with a nice hint of citrus flavor. They go well with a cup of hot tea or a glass of milk. Mmm!

The recipe calls for yuzu juice. Since it's nearly impossible to find fresh yuzus anywhere but Japan, bottled yuzu juice is perfectly fine. You can buy it at a Japanese market or gourmet grocery store.

Yuzu Biscuits
½ cup unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1½ tbsp. yuzu juice
1 tsp. citrus zest (lemon or lime is fine if you have no yuzus)
½ tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
yellow food coloring (optional)

Using a stand mixer or handheld mixer, beat butter and sugar until creamy. Beat in the egg until light & fluffy. Mix in the flour, yuzu juice, citrus zest, baking powder and salt. If you wish, add a few drops of yellow food coloring and incorporate into the dough to give it a vibrant yellow color. Wrap the dough in wax paper, and let sit in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, or until firm.

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Lay dough on a floured surface and use a rolling pin to roll the dough until it's ¼" thick. Use a floured cookie cutter of any shape you want to cut the dough. Placed the cut pieces onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake for approximately 12-15 minutes, or until the edges are very light golden brown. Remove cookies from cookie sheets and place on cooling rack. Eat with tea. :)

Frosted Cupcakery

2006-07-23T21:57:00.000-07:00

Today my family and I went to Belmont Shore to check out the cupcakes at the new Frosted Cupcakery. It's a really cute little bakery right off Second Street. I bought several cupcakes (because I couldn't decide on just one).

A sandwich board sign on Second Street

©2006 Yuzu Eats

Chocolate Banana Nut

Red Velvet

Royal White Chocolate

Chocolate Vanilla (still in the paper holder thingy)

All their cupcakes are priced at $2.75 each. You can buy one dozen for $28 (at a savings of $5). The frostings on these cupcakes are so yummy. Very creamy and just the right amount of sweetness. The cake can be a bit on the dry side (only slightly), but not so much that it detracts from the flavor of the cupcake. Overall, I'd recommend this cute bakery to anyone who's in the mood for a little sweet snack at a decent price. Plus, the owner is super nice 'n' friendly.

Frosted Cupcakery
195 Claremont Ave.
Long Beach, CA 90803
(562) 987-1080

Mochi Ice Cream

2006-07-20T10:57:00.000-07:00

Yuzu is Watching
The Wedding Date
see related

When the weather gets as hot as it's been recently, I like to cool off with a refreshing ice cream treat. I've been eating some form of ice cream at least once a day for the past couple weeks. Big Sticks, frozen yogurt bars, ice cream sandwiches, gelato — you name it, I've been eating it. One ice cream treat I hadn't eaten in a long time is mochi ice cream. Mochi is a Japanese treat made of glutinous rice. Mochi ice cream is basically ice cream wrapped in a mochi covering. Delicious!

A few days ago my parents had a craving for mochi ice cream. We stopped at the market to buy 20 lbs. of rice ('cause I was all out), and then we swung by the frozen section to pick up two boxes of mochi ice cream, made by Mikawaya.

Strawberry mochi ice cream

©2006 Yuzu Eats

This particular brand of mochi ice cream comes in seven different flavors — chocolate, green tea, kona coffee, mango, red bean, strawberry and vanilla. My favorites are strawberry and mango. Each mochi ice cream ball is about 1¾" across, making a decent serving size. It might seem small, but since it's made out of sticky rice, one piece sates my appetite just fine.

Tilapia Bento

2006-07-17T10:57:00.000-07:00

Yuzu is Listening To
Love. Angel. Music. Baby.
Gwen Stefani
see related

I cooked dinner for the family last night, and it was pretty yummy. =9 There was a teensy bit left over, and my mom said I should bring it to work. So I packed it into a new bento box I bought recently in Little Tokyo. It's a pretty, red two-tiered plastic box with usagi and sakura on it, and it came with its own matching kinchaku.

I just love two-tiered bento boxes!

Lemon 'n' basil tilapia filet, steamed rice w/carrot & basil flower garnish

Apricot jam-filled 'ravioli' cookies I baked for last night's dessert

Pandan sponge cake (from the Filipino market)

I've been eating fried tilapia ever since I can remember. It's one of the dishes my parents often cooked when I was a kid, and still cook to this day. Take a couple of whole tilapias and fry them in a pan — heads 'n' all. Crispy and tasty! The tilapia is becoming more popular now, not just in Filipino cuisine. Now I see tilapia filets at standard super markets, and they even serve it at the café at the office sometimes. I baked these tilapia filets instead of frying them. I seasoned them with kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, fresh basil leaves and freshly squeezed lemon juice. And I added some butter to the tops so they'd stay moist in the oven.

The recipe to the ravioli cookies can be found here.

Ravioli Dolci

2006-07-16T23:35:00.000-07:00

Yuzu is Watching
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
see related

It's been mad hot in southern California this past week. Not exactly the kind of weather that's conducive to baking. But I felt like baking anyway. I ended up creating a cookie that my family enjoyed with coffee & tea. :) They're butter cookies that are shaped like ravioli! And they're filled with yumminess too.

The recipe calls for very basic ingredients. The jam can be any flavor you like. The assembly can take some time if you're not used to making rolled cookies. I'm still very much a novice in this area, but the cookies came out decent.

Ravioli Dolci
1½ cups all-purpose flour
¼ tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
6 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
½ cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/8 cup apricot jam (or jam of your choice)

Stir together the flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. Using a stand mixer or handheld mixer at medium speed, beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract. Switch to a lower speed and slowly add the flour mixture until all the ingredients are combined to form a soft dough. Split the dough in half, wrap each in wax paper, and let sit in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour so it becomes a bit firm.

Preheat oven to 375ºF. Lay one piece of dough on a floured surface and use a rolling pin to roll the dough into a 7 x 10½" rectangle. Use a knife to score the dough into 24 1¾" squares (don't actually cut through dough). Place ¼ teaspoon of jam into the center of each square. Take the second piece of dough and, working on top of floured wax paper, roll it into another 7 x 10½" rectangle. Lift the dough rectangle on the wax paper and flip the dough onto the other dough rectangle (with the jam on it). You'll be able to see the little bumps underneath the dough where you scooped the jam. Use a fluted pastry wheel to cut into 24 1¾" squares. You should have what looks like a sheet of uncooked ravioli. Place each 'ravioli' onto two ungreased cookie sheets, at least 1 inch apart. Bake for about 12-15 minutes, or until the fluted edges are light golden brown, but the tops are still fairly light. Remove cookies from cookie sheets and place on cooling rack. Use a sieve to garnish cookies with powdered sugar.

Chicken Pomodori Panino

2006-07-13T22:34:00.000-07:00

Dinner tonight was takeout from Corner Bakery. It's a chicken pomodori panino, which consists of sliced chicken breast, fresh basil and spinach, oven-roasted tomatoes, provolone cheese and pesto mayonnaise.

I'm going to invest in a panini grill. First I was thinking about buying a panini-press pan, but it turns out that the electric presses are actually a lot cheaper. Besides, I can make more than panini in a grill, right? I can grill chicken, fish and vegetables too.

Corner Bakery
103 W. Imperial Hwy., Suite C
Brea, CA 92821
(714) 257-9208

Kitty Loves Cupcakes

2006-07-12T09:24:00.000-07:00

This is a rather silly post, but it's food-related...with Hello Kitty. :) I bought some really pretty cupcakes at the bakery last week, and before I ate them (no, not in one sitting...that would be overkill), I snapped some photos of a couple of my little Hello Kitty plush dolls with the cupcakes. Enjoy the pictures. Hopefully they'll put a smile on your face.

Is that a fancy boa Hello Kitty's wearing?

Lemon cupcake with raspberry frosting and white chocolate shavings

Vanilla cupcake with strawberry cream frosting

Kitty loves cuppycakes ♥

©2006 Yuzu Eats

I ♡ Carrot Flowers

2006-07-10T10:20:00.002-07:00

Yuzu is Listening To
Under the Iron Sea
Keane
see related

I haven't used my Leaflet box in a while, so I decided to break it out and fill it up with delicious food. I made this food for dinner, but there was a small bit left over — the perfect amount to fit into this bento box!

Breaded chicken tenders with mini carrot
flowers on a bed of fresh basil leaves

Seasoned roasted red potatoes

Crunchy green beans seasoned with garlic salt, pepper
and melted butter...with more mini carrot flowers

Here are the recipes. As with a lot of the cooking I do, I don't really measure things exactly, so just kind of eyeball it if you try these recipes:

Chicken Tenders
1 lb. chicken breast tenders
¾ cup vegetable oil (I used 100% cholesterol-free canola oil)
1 large egg
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 to 1½ cups bread crumbs

Heat up a medium-sized skillet on medium-high heat. Add vegetable oil to the hot pan, and let it heat up. Beat egg in a small bowl. Season chicken tenders with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Dip each tender into the egg wash, and then roll each one in bread crumbs, making sure to coat them completely. Place the breaded tenders into the hot oil, cooking each side for about 1-2 minutes. Since chicken tenders are thinly sliced, you don't need to cook them for very long. When they're a deep golden brown, they're done. Drain and serve.

Roasted Potatoes
6 or 7 medium-sized red potatoes
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
cracked black pepper
garlic salt
dried herbs (parsley, basil, oregano)

Preheat the oven to 425ºF.

Rinse the potatoes and chop them into ¾-inch cubes. Drizzle extra virgin olive oil into a baking pan lined with aluminum foil. Place the chopped potatoes into the pan. Sprinkle cracked black pepper, garlic salt and dried herbs over the potatoes, then use your hands to rub the seasoning onto the potatoes, lightly 'tossing' them around the pan so that the other sides get coated with the olive oil. Put 'em in the oven and bake for about 40-50 minutes until the edges of the potatoes look nice 'n' brown.

Crunchy Green Beans
½ lb. fresh green beans
freshly ground black pepper
garlic salt
1 tbsp. butter or margarine (optional)

Fill a medium-sized saucepan with water, and bring it to a boil. Snap (or chop) the tips off the green beans. I chopped them in half to fit into my bento box, but I prefer them full-length. Boil them for about 7-8 minutes. Drain immediately and place the beans into a large bowl of cold water. This will stop the cooking process and allow the beans to remain crunchy, yet cooked. After a minute or two, remove from the cold water. The beans should still be slightly warm. Sprinkle some garlic salt and freshly ground black pepper on them. For more flavor, add the butter and let it melt over the beans.

Starry Dodgers

2006-07-05T09:05:00.000-07:00

Yuzu is Watching
Flight 93
see related

I've been fascinated with Jammie Dodgers for quite some time. I just like sandwich cookies, in general. I was in a baking mood last night, so before I went to sleep, I decided to bake some sandwich cookies of my own. And since it was Independence Day in the U.S., and stars and stripes abounded throughout the country, I thought I'd use a star cookie cutter to make the holes in the cookies.

A few of the raspberry jam-filled cookies plated

What did I do with the star centers that I cut out?

Made a whole bunch of mini star cookies (they're 1", or 2½ cm, across).

This was my first time making sandwich cookies. I think they turned out pretty. :) I don't have a recipe for this. I just used a basic sugar cookie recipe, rolled out the dough, and used cookie cutters to cut the shapes. I made two dozen circle cookies, and two dozen circle cookies with the star shape cut out. Then I baked 'em at 375°F for 6-8 minutes (removing from the oven just before they turned golden brown). After they cooled, I scooped raspberry jam onto the whole circles, while the circles with the "star holes" in them received a light 'rainfall' of confectioners' sugar. I placed the cookie pieces together and...viola! The mini star dough pieces that were left over, I baked for 5 minutes.

Birthday Leftovers

2006-06-30T09:45:00.000-07:00

Yuzu is Listening To
We Don't Need To Whisper
Angels and Airwaves
see related

Could I be lacking any more in journal updates? I'm going to try and post more entries in July than I did this month. For starters, here's a bento I put together for today's lunch. It was my birthday yesterday, and I had a lot of leftovers from dinner. I thought it'd be nifty to make a bento out of them because leftovers from the night before can make a really yummy lunch!

Lightly breaded chicken cutlet with lemon zest

Mashed potatoes and succotash w/red bell peppers & zucchini

A Powerpuff Girl cupcake in one of my Cup-A-Cake containers

The height of Blossom's hair bow didn't allow for full closure of the Cup-A-Cake, so I had to take it off before closing the container.

Giordano's World Famous Stuffed Pizza

2006-06-23T13:35:00.000-07:00

You can't visit Chicago without eating a slice of stuffed pizza. I love pizza (who doesn't?), so having some was high on my to-do list on my trip. We ordered takeout from Giordano's on Rush Street. Giordano's is probably the most famous restaurant in the Chicago area for stuffed pizza.

Stuffed pizza with tomatoes and Italian sausage

©2006 Yuzu Eats

The verdict? It tastes all right. The sauce is good, and so is the dough. A bit too much cheese for my liking (but that's what makes it 'stuffed'). I'm glad I got to try Chicago-style pizza in the heart of Chicago, but I prefer New York-style pizza all the way.

Frango Mint Chocolates

2006-06-22T20:45:00.000-07:00

A cool thing about traveling is eating/buying foods you can't get when you're at home. One such treat is Frango Chocolates. You can buy them at Marshall Field's, a huge department store in Chicago. I bought several boxes of their famous mint chocolates when I was there this week, as well as a little box of raspberry chocolates (which are quite tasty). The texture of the chocolate is very smooth and melts nicely on the tongue. Perhaps this was just because it's been so humid lately (especially in the Midwest), and the chocolate would already be melting before I ate any, but still...it's got a good consistency.

The Frango chocolates pictured above are special-edition pink mint chocolates. They taste the same as the regular mint chocolates, the only difference being the color of the outer chocolate layer. Part of the proceeds of this special pink edition goes to breast cancer research. I love buying things that are pink, and it's especially cool when some of the money gets donated to such a worthy cause.

Bananas & Crème

2006-06-09T20:21:00.000-07:00

I had a mean craving for a cold blended beverage, so I drove to the Starbucks down the street from my house to buy one of their newest drinks, the Bananas & Crème Frappuccino® Blended Crème. It's like drinking a liquified banana split. That's how strong the banana flavor is. But I like bananas, so it's good to me. The drink combines banana syrup and milk, blended with ice for the ultimate banana refreshment.

Healthy Fruity Bento

2006-06-01T11:00:00.000-07:00

Yuzu is Listening To
Amélie: Original Soundtrack Recording
Yann Tiersen
see related

Happy first day of June! The weather has been so sunny and warm. I'm ready for summer! Summer is great because there are so many yummy fruits in season. Today's bento is made with fresh, ripe, fruity ingredients.

Linguine in a lemon basil sauce with sliced grape tomatoes,
Italian parsley, lemon zest and freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Sweet, ripe banana slices shaped like flowers

I didn't use a recipe for the linguine, but it's almost identical to the lemon spaghetti I cooked on Mother's Day a couple weeks ago. The only difference is that I added freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and citrus zest to the lemon juice/olive oil mixture before I tossed the noodles in it. The lemons I squeezed for this meal were picked by yours truly from a little lemon tree in my parents' backyard. They were so yellow and ripe! The juice was just perfect when I mixed it with extra virgin olive oil and the rest of the ingredients to make the sauce. The lemons also made for pretty, vibrant citrus zest to top the pasta.

Caprese Salad

2006-05-27T23:18:00.000-07:00

Every time I see a ball of fresh mozzarella at the super market (at a good price), I have to buy it. I have quite a bit of mozzarella in my refrigerator right now. I'm also buying fresh basil leaves almost weekly, even if I have no plans to cook anything with basil. 'Cause I never know when I'm going to want a piece of basil to munch on!

One of my favorite dishes to eat with the above ingredients is Caprese salad. I wasn't into this type of salad too much until I ate it as a sandwich from the café at work. It was sandwiched between two pieces of ciabatta bread and had some balsamic vinegar mixed in there. Delicious! Below is a Caprese salad that I made as an appetizer for dinner earlier tonight.

Italian Bento

2006-05-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

Yuzu is Watching
Gidget - The Complete Series
Sally Field, Don Porter, Betty Conner, Pete Duel
see related

As you've noticed from previous entries this month, I've been enjoying cooking & eating Italian food more than ever before. I thought I'd combine my love of Italian fare and bento making to create this tasty Italian bento, consisting of caprese salad and fusilli pasta in sundried tomato alfredo sauce with Italian sausage and fresh thyme, plus a grape tomato & basil flower for garnish.

The alfredo sauce came from a jar. The bottom tier is probably my favorite cold antipasti. There's nothing quite like the combined flavors of balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, vine-ripe tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and crisp basil leaves - it's so delicious.

Bento Fit For a Kid

2006-05-18T10:10:00.000-07:00

Yuzu is Listening To
Demon Days
Gorillaz
see related

I haven't posted any bentos in a very long time. Give me some time to get back into the swing of things. I'm trying to rack my brain for some cute bento ideas. I actually have some ideas, but I've yet to implement them. In the meantime, here's a very simple bento I made for my lunch today using foods I loved as a kid (and still enjoy).

Two little octopuses atop a bed of Kraft™ Macaroni 'n' Cheese, with flower-shaped carrot slices and parsley (for garnish). I really had to improvise with these octopuses. I have no mini weiners, so I used a regular-size hot dog and cut it in half to make two little weiners. I didn't have an octopus-shaped weiner cutter either, so I used a small sharp knife to cut the octopus shape on each weiner before cooking 'em. The mac 'n' cheese is the new Thick & Creamy variety from Kraft. It tastes so much better than the regular mac. Yummy!

Mother's Day Italian

2006-05-15T13:45:00.000-07:00

I hope you mothers out there had a fabulous Mother's Day yesterday. We went to church in the morning, ate Japanese food for lunch, shopped at the mall, and then I cooked dinner for everyone. I'm really digging on Italian grub (as you can tell from my last post), so I made some more Italian food for Mother's Day.

Look at these vine-ripe tomatoes – gorgeous!

Chicken Parmesan served with lemon spaghetti
and fresh greens w/balsamic vinaigrette

©2006 Yuzu Eats

I know chicken Parmesan is usually breaded, but...I don't know how to do that. ;P And this way seemed healthier for some reason. The recipes can be found here at my Live Journal.

Alone in Avocado Land

2006-05-09T23:17:00.000-07:00

The avocado is one of the most loved fruits around. Add some slices to a BLT to make a BLTA, mash some to make guacamole...people just love it. Aside from my big sister, I might be the only person alive who does not like avocados. At Mexican restaurants I always order my meals sans the guacamole, or I just let someone else at the table eat it. People think I'm crazy for not liking avocado. Maybe it's a taste I'll grow to love. But, for now, I'll pass.

Avocado eggrolls

©2006 Yuzu Eats

While dining at The Cheesecake Factory with my family, we ordered a sampler of appetizer favorites. Pictured above are avocado eggrolls: chunks of fresh avocado, sun-dried tomato, red onion and cilantro deep-fried in a crisp Chinese wrapper and served with a tamarind-cashew dipping sauce.

The Cheesecake Factory
Brea Mall
120 Brea Mall Way
Brea, CA 92821
(714) 255-0115

Yummy Farfalle

2006-05-09T12:35:00.000-07:00

I haven't been making any pretty bentos lately, frankly because I've been kind'a busy. But I have had a chance to cook for dinner recently. Below is an Italian dish I made last week using farfalle (Italian for "butterflies") pasta. I didn't really have anything specific in mind while I was making it. I kind of just threw some ingredients together, and viola!

Here's the quasi-recipe. I didn't measure everything exactly, so these are approximations:

1 lb. lean ground beef
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp. finely chopped onion
2 14½-oz. cans of diced tomatoes
1 tsp. chopped basil
¼ tsp. thyme
¼ tsp. rosemary
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
ground red cayenne pepper, to taste
1 tsp. white wine
1 16-oz. package of farfalle pasta

½ tsp. extra virgin olive oil (and add'l to prevent pasta from sticking)In a large skillet, heat the extra virgin olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and chopped onions to the skillet and cook until slightly brown. Add the lean ground beef and keep stirring until the meat is cooked all the way through (no red!). There should be very little to no fat drippings if you use lean beef, but drain if necessary. Once meat is done, add the canned tomatoes and blend well. Toss in the basil, thyme and rosemary. Sprinkle a little bit of ground black pepper and red cayenne pepper (just enough to to add a little bit of a 'kick'). Then add the white wine. Keep stirring so that the herbs will distribute evenly throughout the sauce. It will be slightly thin. Let simmer over a low heat so that some of the 'juice' will evaporate.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add several drops of extra virgin olive oil to the water and add the pasta. Cook according to the directions written on the package. Drain and serve immediately with meat sauce on top. Garnish with parsley, if desired. I used regular parsley here because I didn't have any flatleaf parsley on hand.

Serves 4 healthy portions.

Anniversary Brunch

2006-05-07T21:06:00.000-07:00

It was my parents' wedding anniversary a few days ago, and we took them out to brunch today to celebrate. I like brunch. You can choose to eat breakfast or lunch...or have a little bit of both. I really do enjoy a good breakfast, so that's what I ordered. A Belgian waffle, to be exact. Normally I can't finish Belgian waffles because I feel full after eating about half of it. But for some reason I was able to actually finish this one. It was topped with warm strawberries, toasted pecans and chantilly cream.

Sometimes I think about buying a waffle maker for home, but I doubt I'd ever use it. I think it'd be too much work to clean it up. I think I'll stick to ordering waffles at restaurants.

Shrimpy Bento

2006-04-27T11:45:00.000-07:00

I love to eat shrimp. And I also love how easy it is to pack a bento when I have a freezer of yummies purchased at Costco. Here's a bento I made with tempura shrimp in the starring role:

Spaghetti in Little Italy

2006-04-24T21:48:00.000-07:00

Another post on Manhattan food! One of my favorite neighborhoods in New York for good eatin' is Little Italy. When I was in the city last week, I made it a point to have spaghetti and meatballs in an authentic Italian restaurant. When strolling along the streets of Little Italy, you tend to get hungry seeing all the signs outside restaurant windows, advertising their yummy lunch specials. It was tough trying to decide where to eat, but we ended up choosing Casa Bella Italian Ristorante on Mulberry & Hester. Good choice!

This had to be the best bowl of spaghetti & meatballs I've ever eaten. The portion was just the right size. I normally can't finish pasta dishes at restaurants, but this serving was just right for me and my appetite. The meatballs were very tasty and tender...such a wonderful flavor. I can't describe it; it was just so good!

Casa Bella Italian Ristorante
127 Mulberry St. (at Hester St.)
New York, NY 10013
(212) 431-4080

Breakfast in Central Park

2006-04-23T01:34:00.000-07:00

Just returned from New York City. Every time I go there, I love the city more and more. On Friday, we took a stroll up to Central Park from our hotel in the Theatre District. Along the way, we stopped at Le Pain Quotidien on 7th Avenue to buy some breakfast pastries.

I took that picture as my dad was holding the apple turnover in Central Park. In addition to the turnover, we had a croissant and brioche (I didn't get to take pictures of those before they got eaten). The baked goods are tasty. Not anything spectacular, but good for a quick bite before a long day of walking around the city.

Le Pain Quotidien
922 Seventh Ave.
New York, NY 10019
(212) 757-0775

Easter Cupcakes

2006-04-16T17:17:00.000-07:00

Yuzu is Watching
The Wedding Date
see related

Happy Easter, everyone! I hope you've had a nice Sunday with your families. I wanted to bake something pretty for Easter, but ended up making regular fudge brownies instead. No pictures of them, though, because my family and I ate 'em all up (with vanilla ice cream and raspberries...yum!).

My mom and I went to the market to pick up some fruits and vegetables, and I saw these pretty cupcakes in the bakery section. Of course I had to buy them. They're so festive, aren't they?

Kitty-Face Bento

2006-04-13T10:20:00.000-07:00

Yuzu is Watching
What the Bleep Do We Know!?
see related

Oh my gosh, three bento posts in a row? I guess this is to make up for last week – when the bento-ness was missing from my journal. Today's bento features a bento box I've never posted before, but it's been sitting in my cupboard for ages. This kitty has a mean ol' appetite, and he's ready to eat whatever I put in front of him (or inside him).

This bento contains rice with furikake, grilled chicken breast, grape tomatoes and a teriyaki sauce bottle, with sweet potato manju for dessert in a separate container. I've had this bento box for well over ten years — it's quite old! I have a few old bento boxes that I used many, many years ago. It's actually hard to tell that this box has been in my possession for over ten years. I suppose I take pretty good care of my bento stuff. :) Here's proof that it's possible to own plastic things for a very long time and still keep them looking shiny & new.

East Meets West — Bento Style

2006-04-11T09:50:00.000-07:00

Yuzu is Watching
Good Night, and Good Luck
see related

Today's bento is all dressed up in a blue box with matching blue accessories, and it features foods that are both Asian and American. Mmm...yummy combination!

Chicken gyoza, grape tomatoes, raspberries and a brownie

Mmm...I ♥ raspberries!

Bento Flags

2006-04-10T09:41:00.000-07:00

Yuzu is Watching
Dodgeball - A True Underdog Story
see related

I haven't posted any bento entries in over a week, but I'm back with another bento. Hooray! This one is lacking in food ingredients (it's just coconut shrimp and steamed rice), so I made up for it with cute embellishments.

You're probably wondering if I cooked those coconut shrimp myself. The answer is no. My parents bought a box of them at Costco (love that store!). You just have to pop them in the oven for a while, and they're done! So delicious.

Yellow Cupcakes

2006-04-04T10:26:00.000-07:00

Yuzu is Listening To
Sixteen Stone
Bush
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More cupcakes! I didn't decorate these too elaborately. Just piped on some yellow frosting with a star pastry tip. I could've topped them with something like fresh fruit, but...I didn't have any fruit in the house. Well, we have Fuji apples, but I don't think those would've fit well on these cakes. =P

These photos aren't the best, but...it was late and I was tired. Plus my camera battery was running low. The cupcakes tasted good, though! I was able to snag one away from the batch before the rest of them were eaten up by my relatives.

Flower Spritz Cookies for Springtime

2006-04-03T09:50:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to get more into baking again. I baked these little flower spritz cookies last Friday. I'd never made them this shape before, and I'm pleased with how 'puffy' they turned out. They were chewy too. Mmm. =9

Here's the recipe for those who are interested.

1½ c. butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
½ tsp. almond extract
3½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
few drops of food coloring (optional)

Preheat oven to 375°F. Thoroughly cream butter and sugar. Add egg, milk, vanilla and almond extract; beat well. Stir together flour and baking powder; gradually add to creamed mixture, mixing to make a smooth dough. If you decide to add any food coloring, make sure to add a bit more flour to keep the consistency of the dough rather thick, as water-based food colorings will thin out the mixture. Place dough into cookie press and press cookies onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake 8-9 minutes or until very lightly browned around edges. Remove cookies from baking sheet so the bottoms don't get burned.

Mikan Bouya (みかんぼうや) Bento

2006-03-30T09:51:00.000-08:00

Yuzu is Watching
Alex & Emma
see related

I attempted to make another bento based on a Japanese character. This time it was San-X's Mikan Bouya. I used ketchup to give the rice an orange tint, and I molded it into the shape of a mikan. The eyes and mouth are pieces of nori that I cut out, and the leaft/stem is fresh mint.

I had it with grilled chicken breast and a vegetable mix
consisting of carrot hearts, broccoli and red bell peppers

©2006 Yuzu Eats

Susuwatari (ススワタリ) Bento

2006-03-28T10:10:00.000-08:00

I challenged myself with this bento. It was a bit time-consuming, but I think the end result made it worth the effort. If you've seen the film Tonari No Totoro, you'll recognize these little guys.

Susuwatari chicken rice balls, star-shaped carrot slices and steamed broccoli

The inside is ground chicken meat with carrots and scallions

©2006 Yuzu Eats

Mini Pink Cupcakes w/Rainbow Sprinkles

2006-03-27T09:29:00.000-08:00

I hadn't baked cupcakes in over a month. I felt cupcake time was way overdue this weekend, so I baked seven dozen mini cakes to share with some family & friends who came over yesterday. They're miniature yellow cupcakes with strawberry frosting and rainbow sprinkles.

Hawaiian Leftovers = Yummy Obento

2006-03-24T09:50:00.000-08:00

Yuzu is Watching
Sister Act 2
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The easiest bentos to make are the ones that are comprised of leftovers from dinner the night before. Here's a bento I put together a couple weeks ago but forgot to post (oops). It contains Korean BBQ beef from a Hawaiian restaurant, rice sprinkled with furikake, sweet potato manju (also from the Hawaiian restaurant), orange slices and namacha green tea.

Zaru Soba

2006-03-21T09:40:00.000-08:00

Yuzu is Watching
Titanic
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I couldn't think of anything really creative to make for lunch today, so I made a very basic, simple bento. Zaru soba...minus the zaru.

Zaru soba is a very common Japanese lunch. It's normally served on top of a bamboo draining basket (called a zaru), but I couldn't fit one of those into this little bento box. Haha! The noodles are boiled and then served cold with shreds of dried seaweed and a dipping sauce consisting of shoyu sauce, scallions and wasabi. I didn't include the wasabi and seaweed in this meal. I eat it that way at restaurants, but I didn't pack those ingredients into this particular lunch. I like to eat zaru soba every once in a while. Not too often, though, as the soba is jam-packed with tons of carbohydrates! =O

Crème Brulée

2006-03-19T21:18:00.000-08:00

I rarely eat crème brulée. I probably have it once a year, at most. Today my family and I went out for a day of shopping, but before that, we ate lunch at Wolfgang Puck's. I wanted to have something sweet for dessert, so I ordered a crème brulée and split it with the rest of the family.

Wolfgang Puck Café
South Coast Plaza
3333 Bristol St.
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
(714) 546-9653

Sakana No Bento

2006-03-17T09:24:00.000-08:00

It's third Friday of Lent. Yes, that means I'm having another fishy bento for lunch! I had some fun with this one. ^__^ I cooked a batch of super sticky rice and formed some of it into the shape of a fish (no molds used here, just my hands). I put some tuna onto the center of the fish, and then topped it with another molded rice fish of the same size. I wrapped the bottom half of the fish in nori, cut out a nori eye & mouth and a carrot cheek, and then garnished with a carrot flower and curly parsley.

The other tier of this bento contains a soy-sauce fish, carrot sticks
and food for the gods (a dessert that my mom baked)

Here's a closer look at the food for the gods

I showed this bento to my family before I sealed it and packed it in a kinchaku. They asked how I was planning on eating it. Like, if I was going to start with the face first and then work my way down to the tail. Haha! I guess I'll start with the face. Put it out of its misery, right?. ;P

Hakoya Strikes Back

2006-03-15T09:54:00.000-08:00

It's bento time again. I decided to bring back my Hakoya bento box and fill it with varying levels of yumminess: mini chicken siu mai, Nishiki rice w/scallions and crescent-moon carrots, dry roasted almonds and Scottish butter shortbread.

This is the largest bento box I own. I really like the size of it. There's room for all kinds of stuff. As you can see, I didn't even fill up the top tier. I like that I can pack lunches in a variety of sizes with each bento box. It all depends on how hungry I think I'm going to be. ;)

Cappuccino

2006-03-14T19:44:00.000-08:00

A cappuccino is an espresso coffee that's topped with a combination of foamed and steamed milk. I don't drink cappuccinos, but I sure do like the way they look.

I went out to a long lunch today with my boss, supervisor and several workmates at Hal's Bar & Grill in Venice. One of them ordered a cappuccino after we finished eating lunch, and I couldn't resist taking a picture of it.

Hal's Bar & Grill
1349 Abbot Kinney Blvd.
Venice, CA 90292
(310) 396-3105

Sakuras & Onigiri

2006-03-10T10:05:00.000-08:00

It's another Friday of Lent, which means a non-meat obento. But fish is good! And that's what I packed for myself in this beautiful laquered bento box shipped to me straight from Japan.

Salmon onigiri wrapped in nori, orange cream sandwich crackers and puchi pudding

A closeup of the dessert tier

Game For Another Bento?

2006-03-06T10:00:00.000-08:00

Yuzu is Watching
Jeux d'enfants
see related

It's time for yet another bento. I cooked and packed everything last night, because I never have time to put together lunches in the morning before going to work. I just don't wake up that early. :) This bento was packed into one of my microwaveable two-tiered bento boxes.

Chicken spring rolls (from the Costco frozen-food section)

The other tier contained yakisoba I cooked with carrots & broccoli

Jell-O Cheesecake

2006-03-05T21:45:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite Hawaiian desserts is Jell-O® cheesecake. I'd only eaten it at Hawaiian restaurants, and I wanted to enjoy it at home. Plus I wanted to bake something for my family, and I decided to take a break from cupcakes and cookies. ;) So here's the Jell-O cheesecake I made:

The slice is kind'a messy, but it was hard to cut a pretty piece from the pan! I guess the point is that it tastes good, right?

½ cup butter (1 stick)
¼ cup brown sugar
1 cup flour
½ cup chopped walnuts
1 box lemon Jell-O® (3 oz.)
1 cup hot water
2 8-oz. packages of cream cheese at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 can chilled evaporated milk (12 oz.)
1 box raspberry Jell-O® (3 oz.)

Beat butter and brown sugar, then add flour and walnuts. Press into greased 9x13" pan and bake at 400°F for about 10-15 minutes. Set aside and let cool.

Dissolve lemon Jell-O with hot water. Let thicken a bit in the refrigerator. Blend the sugar and cream cheese. Add the slightly thickened Jell-O. Whip the evaporated milk with wire whisk. Blend in the Jell-O/cream cheese mixture. Pour into pan over cooled crust. Chill at least 6 hours to allow it to set.

Follow directions on the box for raspberry Jell-O. Chill in refrigerator until slightly thickened and then spoon it into the pan over the chilled cheesecake. Chill cake until raspberry Jell-O is firm.

Hamu Bento — Without the 'Ham'

2006-03-03T10:45:00.000-08:00

I've got another bento to share today. Since today is the first Friday of Lent, my lunch consists of no meat. Here's a closeup of what I packed for lunch today — heart-shaped onigiri topped with heart-shaped carrot slices, a soy sauce bottle and strawberries.

Neatly packed in my Hamtaro bento box

Obento

2006-02-27T09:45:00.000-08:00

Yuzu is Watching
My Neighbor Totoro
see related

The obento has been a Japanese tradition for centuries. As its basic, obento means "boxed lunch." Busy working people can buy ready-made bentos at the train station, or you can order a bento for lunch at a Japanese restaurant. My favorite type of bento, however, is the one packed at home inside plastic tiered boxes. You've probably seen this type of bento in a lot of Japanese animated films, such as Tonari No Totoro, an example of which is shown below.

The bulk of the bento is made up of rice. Add to that some meat and vegetables, and you've got yourself a complete bento. I also like to add something sweet to some of my bentos for dessert. I have a bunch of bento boxes, one of which is shown below. It's one of my larger bento boxes, and it's made by Hakoya, maker of high-quality bento boxes.

The bento pictured above is a light and healthy lunch I packed for myself that consists of three flower-shaped onigiri, fish-shaped soy-sauce bottle, with ripe strawberries and miniature purin for dessert. The onigiri I made for this meal were very plain. Just nishiki rice mixed with furikake. Bentos should be nutritious and pleasing to the eye. It's a general rule that your bento should always have three colors — red, yellow and green — to keep everything balanced. I think I followed that rule here (you can't see it, but the purin is yellow). Here's looking forward to many more bento posts on this blog!

Croquette Pan

2006-02-26T23:55:00.000-08:00

I remember the first time I tried croquette many years ago. It was at a Japanese restaurant. These delicious little breaded balls of yumminess were served as a side dish to the salmon teriyaki I had ordered. My first thought upon eating them was, 'Fried mashed potatoes!' Of course, croquette is a lot more than just mashed potato that's breaded and fried. Croquette includes vegetables, and sometimes even cheese, meat or poultry.

As I mentioned in a blog entry last year, I'm fascinated with the different types of breads that are offered in Japanese bakeries. One unique bread that I'd never seen before until this weekend was croquette pan. To take mashed veggies, bread the mixture, fry it, and then wrap it in dough and bake it - I call it tasty!

Shrimp Calzones

2006-02-23T22:00:00.000-08:00

I'd never made calzones before, so I thought I'd give 'em a try. I was a bit nervous about making pizza dough. I think the last time I attempted to make bread was when I was in elementary school, and we had to bake bread with different types of yeast for a science project. If I recall correctly, the bread didn't turn out so well. I'm happy to report that this time the result was much better.

The pizza dough as I kneaded it

The inside was stuffed with shrimp in a homemade white-wine tomato sauce

Here is the pizza dough recipe, which I borrowed from Giada De Laurentiis:

½ cup warm water (105-110ºF)
2 tsp. active dry yeast
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading
1 tsp. salt
3 tbsp. olive oil, plus more for bowl

Mix the warm water and yeast in a small bowl to blend. Let stand until the yeast dissolves, about 5 minutes. Mix the flour and salt to blend, then blend in the oil. Add the yeast mixture and blend until a dough forms. Turn the dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth, about 1 minute. Transfer the dough to a large oiled bowl and turn the dough to coat with the oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm area, away from drafts, until the dough doubles in volume (about 1 hour). Punch down the dough and form into ball. The dough can be used immediately or stored airtight in the refrigerator for 1 day.

I served these to my family for lunch, and they liked them. I think that's the best part of cooking — seeing others enjoy what you made for them. :) Gives me the warm fuzzies.

Lucky Puffs

2006-02-21T10:54:00.000-08:00

Yuzu is Watching
Garden State
see related

I rarely eat Hostess Sno Balls®, but I sure do enjoy 'em when I do! For those who don't get these treats in their countries, Sno Balls are coconut- and marshmallow-covered chocolate cupcakes with cream filling. They normally come in white or pink, but check out these cool St. Patrick's Day-themed Sno Balls called Lucky Puffs.

I forgot to take a picture of the cream filling before I scoffed it all down. Haha! I did a Google search and found that Hostess® also puts out some lavendar Sno Balls for Easter (to resemble Easter eggs, I suppose). If your grocery store or convenience store carries Hostess treats, look out for the cool-colored ones! The pink ones are still my favorite. :)

I Ate a Cupcake on Valentine's Day

2006-02-15T07:28:00.000-08:00

Yuzu is Watching
Napoleon Dynamite
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Yeah...there's really nothing new about me eating a cupcake, as I eat them weekly (sometimes daily). But I thought this cupcake I got yesterday on Valentine's Day was so cute, I decided to take pictures of it.

Check out the lopsided frosting - ha!

Mango & Strawberry Gelato

2006-02-06T09:34:00.000-08:00

It's right smack in the middle of winter right now, and one wouldn't think of eating a cold treat like ice cream during this season. But, hey, I live in southern California, and temperatures rarely drop below 45ºF. On Saturday when I was out shopping with my family, my brother-in-law and I stopped inside Melt Gelato to buy some of the delicious stuff. I ordered one scoop of mango and one scoop of strawberry.

Gelato is a lot like American ice cream, but there are some differences. Among them, gelato is made with milk instead of cream. And there is a lot less air pumped into gelato than ice cream, making it denser. As a result, gelato tends to be higher in fat content than ice cream. But I still love the stuff! I eat more ice cream than gelato, but that's only because ice cream is so easy to get at the market. Gelato...not so much.

Melt Gelato
The Block at Orange
20 City Blvd. West
Suite 811
Orange, CA 92868

Chocolate and Vanilla Spritz

2006-02-06T09:28:00.000-08:00

Yuzu is Watching
Spider-Man 2
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I made chocolate and vanilla spritz cookies for a Super Bowl party I went to with my family yesterday. For those of you living outside of the U.S., Super Bowl Sunday is a huge event for Americans. We gather in front of the television and watch a football game (our crazy American 'football', not what the rest of the world calls 'football'), while eating tons of food. :)

Chocolate Sumthin'

2006-02-05T09:30:00.000-08:00

Yuzu is Listening To
High School Musical
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Ahh...there's no joy like that which comes from experimenting in the kitchen and coming up with something doesn't taste like rubbish. I took a regular sugar cookie recipe, added some more sugar, a bit of unsweetened cocoa powder and a dash of pure vanilla extract (I really didn't measure anything), and this is what came of it: a chewy, chocolate...something. Cookie. I don't know what to call it. Chocolate cookie? Yeah, that sounds good.

Cupcakes w/Milk Chocolate Frosting & Cherries

2006-02-04T00:30:00.000-08:00

Yuzu is Watching
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
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My family's in the living room watching The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and I'm here in the kitchen...blogging about cupcakes. :) I haven't baked cupcakes in a while, so I figured I might as well make some tonight while the 'rents are here. These are butter yellow cupcakes with milk chocolate frosting.

Pizza Crêpe

2006-02-03T22:00:00.000-08:00

I had lunch with my sister today at EuroStation Waffles. They serve a variety of waffles and sweet or savory crêpes. My sister ordered a sweet strawberry chocolate crêpe, and I opted for the savory with a pizza crêpe.

This crêpe had a whole lot of mozzarella in it. Not that it's a bad thing to have a lot of mozzarella, but it made me feel a bit full. And I don't normally feel sated after eating a crêpe. The edges of our crêpes were nice 'n' crispy...perfect. Just the way I like my crêpes!

EuroStation Waffles
Promenade at Howard Hughes Center
601 Center Drive, Unit 208
Los Angeles, CA 90045
(310) 410-0820