TROMPE CHOMP. Food Oddities And Delights. Vancouver, BC. Vancouver Food Blog

DARK CHOCOLATE PEPPERMINT COOKIES WITH MILK CHOCOLATE MIDDLES!

2011-12-06T09:00:00.000-08:00

This cookie post also appears on POPPYTALK on my baking column, "BAKE O'CLOCK" !

These rascal-ish cookies are very simple to prepare and holiday-ish in flavour - peppermint = holiday, right? These cookies have a rich, fudgy consistency and are best eaten with a tall frosty glass of milk or hot tea. Or, bag these up in some sort of cute packaging and present as a holiday gift to a loved one, or co-worker! Cookies make a delightful homemade present! I love the contrast of the dark chocolate cookie with the milk chocolate middle, with that fudgy minty-ness. Quit asking people to choose which they like better! Dark? Milk? Why not both, in one cookie!?

CHOCOMINT COOKIES WITH MILK CHOCOLATE MIDDLES

Ingredients:

1 cup of unsalted butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cups of granulated sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups of all purpose flour
1 1/4 cup Dutch process cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon of salt
2 bars of nice fancy milk chocolate (or Lindt milk chocolate chunks - I used Lindt Piccoli "Extra Au Lait" couverture chocolate, but that might be too crazy fancy to find. Plus, how many names can one milk chocolate have? Piccoli, AND Extra Au Lait? AND couverture? seems crazy).

Make it!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover two baking sheets with parchment paper (if so desired). Makes 2 dozen cookies.

1. Using a stand mixer or handheld beaters, cream the butter and sugar on high speed until light and fluffy, like an angel's soft, cloudy bed!
2. Add the eggs one at a time until incorporated.
3. Add pure vanilla extract to combine.
4. In a medium bowl, sift the dry ingredients to combine.
5. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture until combined.
6. Using a small ice cream scoop or your clean bare hands, dole out 1 inch balls onto parchment-paper covered baking sheets, a dozen per sheet.
7. Break up your chocolate bars into nice little squares. Place a square in the middle of each ball and push down with your finger.
8. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes, depending on how hot your oven gets! Turn the pans once halfway through. Leave to cool on baking sheets for 10 minutes before transferring to cooling racks (or your mouth).

Rammerjammer these into your mouth (or daintily nibble away on one like a little cheese mouse) and enjoy!

'Til next time,

xo Lyndsay

Cutting Board Craft and Brunch Birthday Party!

2011-11-19T15:33:00.000-08:00

I can't seem to do normal things for my birthday party. I always like to make it into a food competition or have a food theme of some kind. This year for my birthday, I went for something slightly different... Lately I've been seeing all these beautiful, rustic wooden cutting boards everywhere. They look so lovely for displaying cheese and fruits, or in food photography. So I decided I wanted to try and make my own wooden cutting board... and since I was going to research it, why not turn it into a craft party or sorts, so others can enjoy the process and make something for themselves too?? Fun, right!? The only not-so-cool part about hosting a brunch on my birthday was spending quite a bit of time and effort in preparing all the food. Next time I will only invite four people over, instead of twenty...! Aiyahh!

For brunch, I made spelt flour Belgian waffles, buckwheat pancakes, a breakfast potato casserole with aged cheddar and sour cream, oven-roasted hashbrown potatoes, pumpkin muffins with a cinnamon sugar topping and milk chocolate chunk cookies (my current favourite). We had a cheese board with rye bread and olive-oil baguette crostini, orange juice and fresh berries, yogurt and maple syrup for waffle toppings.

I found a lovely piece of teak at the local wood store, along with a weird off-cut piece of Madagascar ebony in the "exotic woods" section. I invited guests to bring a piece of wood to sand and oil into a lovely cutting board! Rich sanded down the ebony into the smoothest jumbo wonky piano key - it looks so shiny and black, perfect for a sushi display or a weird ice cream photo shoot! My teak wood piece turned out so nice, I really love it! My favourite cutting board was my friend Shira and Scott's, a great piece of character wood with a few silvery paint splotches on it, sanded down and oiled. They faux-aged some painted handles they found at the hardware store and attached them to the sides - perfect, super-cool looking cutting board!

Some people ate waffles and chit-chatted the afternoon away, others sliced and sanded wood, sanding down to super smooth finishes, and rubbing butcher block oil in to soak up, brighten and enliven.Cutting boards and cutting-board makers!

My teak cheese board!

And my fave cutting board of the day: Shira and Scott's awesome cutting board, aged, sanded and oiled to perfection! Man, that's going to look good with a loaf of bread and some cheese on it! Nice work, buddies!

Til next time, trompe chomp interweb world!

xo Lyndsay

IT'S PIE O'CLOCK

2011-11-10T09:00:00.000-08:00

Loco dingo pie-o'clock-o.

I did go a little bonkers in pie-making this past Sunday but it was all done with love in my heart and relaxation station on my brain. Seriously, I know many people might think that spending the day making 3 different crusts and coring and slicing apples and sautéing sweet onions, leeks and carrots and rolling out dough and chilling dough and poking little fork holes in bottoms of pie crusts, slicing figs, running many a vegetable along my trusty mandolin slicer... etc... might be a drag and a half. But for me, it was a pleasant day of non-cakes where I could have fun trying to develop a new skill in the kitchen, trying out some yummy-sounding recipes and monkeying around in Pie Land.

Veggie pot pie filling, pre-gravy

Pies cooling!

Table set for dinner. New Fog Linen tablecloth and placemats! Love!

Getting ready to slice on in.

Sliced in! Caramelized onion, goat cheese and fig tart with balsamic reduction.
So easy and so yummy!

Cutting in to Mr.Veggie Pot Pie.

Not so great lighting. Oh well!

A fun and casual-times evening with pies and pals!

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AND NOW... A FEW TIPS FOR PIE MAKING!

1. When making the precious pie dough, I find it's best when the ingredients barely come together and still appear crumbly. There are few ingredients that make up a pie dough but if those ingredients interact poorly, they can really affect the consistency of the crust! Barely touch the dough with your hands and watch your ice water. Less is more, only add a little at a time until it barely comes together.

2. Really do all those crazy things recipes call for when making pie dough, ie chilling it for the right amount of time, and chilling the pie in the freezer before it goes into the oven. It's amazing what a little stone-cold-chillin' does for a pie.

3. Don't be scared to try a pie! Like anything, pies get better with practice! I have made some seriously sucky pies and some pretty darn good ones! No biggie! No sweat!

AND HERE ARE THE LINKS TO THE PIE RECIPES!

Classic pate brisee pie dough for the apple pie. (except I add a heaping tablespoon of sugar to my dough instead of the little teaspoon because I prefer the dough to taste a little bit sweet)

Veggie pot pie with cashew mushroom gravy. You can really use any vegetables in this. The kicker is the delicious grated parmesan garlic butter crust.

Use the pate brisee recipe for this but omit the sugar. So simple and so delicious goat cheese onion tart with figs and balsamic!

Apple pie! I ditched the nutmeg and cloves.

And my recipe for maple pumpkin pie, found on Poppytalk!

Happy pie making! xo Lyndsay

MUSHROOM BEAUTY

2011-10-27T17:48:00.000-07:00

Mushroom picking is alive and well in the Pacific Northwest where I live, and every year for the past few years I've wanted to go mushroom picking for the matsutake pine mushroom - a beautiful mushroom grown where you would find pine trees, prized for its distinct, strong aroma. My friend Cindy has been going mushroom picking with her family since she was a child, and her dad is the secret mushroom man with decades of mushroom picking under his belt. So with a little secret knowledge punched into an iPhone, our little mushroom picking crew set off towards the mountains on a crisp Fall morning in October. While we sadly didn't find our special mushroom this time, we had a blast exploring the forest and its many mushroom varieties... and enjoyed a mushroom-themed hotpot for dinner!

Cindy's dad explaining where he used to go to pick mushrooms.

Our trip mascot, the adorable and hilarious baby Saya!

Into the woods we went. How beautiful our province is...

Mushrooms galore! These were golden in colour with a slick slime accumulated on its pretty ruffly top. All I could think of was the story of Babar the elephant, and how his parents died of eating poisonous mushrooms...

Upside down mushroom reminded me of a round pancake slug clinging to a branch.

False matsutake! We thought we found one.
Sadly, our area seemed to be picked over for the pine mushroom!

Lovely looking brown-capped mushrooms, but again we couldn't identify it so didn't want to end up a like a green-skinned poisoned elephant.

This was a disturbing/hilarious little find - a greyish... okay, "dink" mushroom!

THESE WERE CRAZY! They looked like they were a movie prop, light pink mushrooms with oozing red blood-like jelly. I looked this up when we got home and it's called the Bleeding Tooth Fungus. Interestingly enough, this mushroom isn't even toxic - scientists have even discovered this horrifying little shroom holds some antiobiotic properties.

A little bridge in the forest.

Sadly, no pine mushrooms for us on this trip! I must've seen over 20 varieties of other mushrooms. I think I'm mushroom crazy now. However, back at the cabin...

The reading of the dog book - Cindy looks up dogs, her partner Marc chops wood!

A nice roaring fire, with wood on deck...

...and dinner prep begins! Cindy is the master hot pot chef, which is a giant boiling pot of tangy broth housing a myriad of delicious ingredients. Items continue to be added to the broth, cooked in the broth and served right out of the soup.

We may not have picked our pine mushroom, but we brought plenty of our own - enoki mushroom strands and shiitake mushrooms...

Shredded shards of seasoned seaweed.
I like to eat this by itself, so thin, delicately crunchy and yummy!

Must have greens.

And finely grated-to-a-pulp daikon (Japanese radish), to be mixed with homemade ponzu sauce for the bottom of each soup bowl.

The broth bubbling along...

The broth cooking up the mushrooms, greens, udon noodles and tofu!

Baked sweet kambocha squash, to be used for gyoza filling.

Pan fried, handmade kabocha squash gyoza!

Super soup - hot pot party!

I'll have a side of gyoza, please! A beautiful end to a beautiful day with good friends.
Til next time, mushroom lovers! xo

Come on down to Brownie Town

2011-10-27T13:14:00.000-07:00

I started blogging on the lovely design blog POPPYTALK! Here is one of my recent posts - BROWNIES! Dark chocolate spelt brownies made with olive oil and walnuts, to be exact...

So I've been trying to eat a bit healthier of late ... it could have to do with my turning 35 really soon (aiyahhhh!) and wanting to cleanse the body somewhat... My attempt at healthy eating also includes trying to develop some baked treats that raise the health bar a little higher than my usual decadent standbys of butter, eggs and cream!

I've been straddling a bit of a vegan vibe lately too, influenced by some recent readings and books. Thus, my attempt here at a dairy-free brownie-type specimen that would hopefully fill my cravings without relying on the usual suspects of white flour, white sugar and dairy!

It took every ounce of my being not to add pieces of lush Lindt dark chocolate to the mix, instead I added walnuts (high in Omega 3's!). For the sweetener, I used brown rice syrup, which is a thick, liquid sweetener that won't send you into a sugar high and low like regular white sugar can. If you can't find brown rice syrup, you can substitute 1 1/4 cups of granulated sugar, no problemo!

Coconut milk is a rich alternative to conventional dairy, and heck coconut oil and coconut milk have been getting some good press lately too! I liked how this brownie turned out... rich with cocoa, moist from olive oil and coconut milk and not too sweet. It takes a while to set so I would even recommend refrigerating it to harden it up before serving. I sprinkled a teensy bit of icing sugar (also known as confectioner's sugar) on top as well, and for contrast, decorated with fresh raspberries!

DARK CHOCOLATE SPELT BROWNIES WITH OLIVE OIL & WALNUTS

(yields 12 brownies, baked in a 9 inch square pan)

Ingredients:

1 cup of spelt flour
1 cup of Dutch process 22-24% cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups of brown rice syrup (or 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar)
1 can (400 ml) of coconut milk
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Optional: 1/2 cup of walnuts

Make them!

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil a 9 inch square baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, sift the dry ingredients until combined.
3. Add the wet ingredients, slowly mixing to gently combine.
4. Optional: fold in the walnuts!
5. Pour batter into baking pan.
6. Bake for 45-50 minutes in the middle rack of your oven, turning pan halfway through for even baking.
7. Let cool completely on wire rack, then chill to harden in refrigerator for 1 hour before slicing.

Dust with icing sugar if you so wish - this is done by holding a little wire sieve on top of the brownies, sprinkling icing sugar into the sieve and shaking it around, creating a light dust of powdery sugar. Fresh berries add a bright blast of colour too!

Enjoy!

A Lovely Fall Cassoulet!

2011-10-07T16:59:00.000-07:00

I went to a beautiful casserole party the other night for a sweet friend's birthday. Everyone brought warm dishes of casserole delights, delicious ingredients nestled in earthenware or glass pans. It was the perfect party to get Fall rolling along. I had a few ideas but ran out of time for my initial idea (a cold layered sushi casserole!), so I went with a lovely vegetarian dish: a white bean and leek cassoulet with oven dried cherry tomatoes, topped with olive oil-rich crunchy roasted garlic croutons. To serve, place white bean mixture into your prettiest dish, and top generously with croutons. Don't put the croutons on too early as you don't want them to get soggy. Top with a sprig of beautiful rosemary if you are feeling jaunty! This can easily be a delicious, elegant and filling vegan dish as well - simply omit the butter when making the mire poix (carrots and leeks).

WHITE BEAN & LEEK CASSOULET with OVEN DRIED TOMATOES

Ingredients:

3 cans of white cannelini beans
3 large carrots, diced into cubes
2 leeks, white and light green parts only, sliced thinly in rounds
A pint of cherry or grape tomatoes
Fresh parsley
Extra virgin olive oil
Vegetable broth (I used Whole Foods organic brand, in the Tetra-pak)
A few tablespoons of unsalted butter
Sea salt and fresh ground pepper
A bulb of garlic
A crusty baguette

1. Oven-dry 2 cups of halved cherry or grape tomatoes on parchment paper on a baking sheet at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Set aside.

2. Next, in oven, roast 1 bulb of garlic with extra virgin olive oil in tin foil, for 25-30 minutes at 375 degrees (or until garlic is soft). Remove from oven, remove garlic from skin and chop finely, setting it aside.

3. While you're roasting stuff in the oven: Combine the sliced leeks, cubed carrots, 1 tablespoon of butter and a few glugs of extra virgin olive oil in a cast iron pot. Cook leeks and carrots on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until tender and caramelized, about 15 minutes. Add 1/4 cup- 1/2 cup vegetable broth to deglaze pan.

4. Add your three cans of white cannelini beans. Simmer on low for 20 minutes, allowing beans to heat. Add half of the roasted garlic to the mixture. Use potato masher to partially mash beans into broth and mixture. Season with sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.

5. Tear apart a crusty French baguette into crouton-sized pieces. Toss with 2 tablespoons or a few glugs of extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, the rest of the roasted garlic and some chopped fresh parsley. Bake in oven until crispy, 15-20 minutes on 325 degrees.

6. To assemble: fold in oven dried tomatoes (reserving a few for decoration), to bean and leek mixture. Top with garlic and parsley croutons. Place a few dried tomatoes amongst the croutons, and sprinkle with some more fresh, finely chopped parsley. Decorate with two sprigs of fresh rosemary, and serve!

Sir Chomp-a-lot: Pizza Crazy!

2011-09-18T17:08:00.000-07:00

So this post will eventually be about pizza. Scroll on down if you want to just get straight to the dough recipe. Real easy. Casual times pizza night. You'll feel like a little genius in the kitchen.

What is your favourite food? Burgers? Cake? A fancy French dish? Pad Thai? a crunchy, sour pickle?

I feel like I have so many favourites. I like to break it down categorically: savoury and sweet.

Sweet: definitely ice cream. I love ice cream. I love ice cream cakes, BIG TIME. I love ice cream sundaes, I love vanilla soft serve billowing out of a machine onto a pale, almost-tasteless cone. I even love that almost-tasteless cone, and how soft serve fills its every last hollow crevice. Chomp chomp. I'm an ice cream maniac.

But I also love a beautiful slice of pie, with a buttery perfect crust, fruit and sugar caramelized inside, topped with... sure, a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

Frozen yogurt? Bring it on. It was my dream when I was twelve years old to work at a frozen yogurt shop. I even had an interview, but because my parents only allowed me to work one day a week, the job went to another twelve year old eager beaver. Sad. Frozen yogurt pre-formed into icy blocks get unwrapped and placed into a machine, frozen fruit is thrown in... it mixes with the pull of a handle and out blobs swirls of perfection.

A perfect, rich with cocoa-powder and fudgey brownie? Yes please. But don't make it too cakey or I'll be realllly sad.

Annnnnd what about a chocolate chip cookie fresh from the oven, crisp on the bottom with melty chocolate chips?

Yes, yes and yes again. I am nuts about treats. (I also like nuts - toasted almonds, walnuts in my salad, caramelized pecans, peanut butter out of the jar...)

I'm also nuts about savoury items.

Crunchy salty, thick ridged chips, or the kettle-cooked variety? Friggin' popcorn with sea salt, fresh ground pepper, melted butter and nutritional yeast (ok, and Sciracha hot sauce).

But perhaps one food that I can really go for again and again: PIZZA. Love it. Love the tang of the tomato sauce, the crispness/chewiness/burntness of a perfect crust. Cheese bubbling from a hot wood fired oven. Maybe some fresh arugula and basil thrown on top. I made a pretty good pizza the other day which I will share with you... the reason for this post... a nice and simple pizza that will shine even harder when crisp-baked on a pizza stone.

Super Simple As-You-Like-It Pizza

Place your pizza stone or pizza tile or pizza whatever in the oven. Blast the oven on to 500 degrees. Let stone heat up BIG TIME before you put your pizza on. Turn oven down to 425 when it's time to bake your pizza.

Easy tip: I roll out my pizza dough onto a sheet of parchment paper, which makes it super easy to transfer to the pizza stone - I just bake it on the paper too, on top of the stone. Still crisps up no problem.

DOUGH RECIPE:

1. In a bowl, combine 1.5 teaspoons of active yeast with 3/4 cups of warm water and 1 teaspoon of sugar. Leave to hang out and mingle for ten minutes.

2. In a large bowl, mix to combine 2 cups of pizza flour (00 flour - or all purpose flour is fine too) and 1 teaspoon of salt .

3. Pour yeast mixture into the flour mixture with a few glugs of extra virgin olive oil. Form into a dough and knead for a good few minutes. Form into a ball and set bowl aside (covered with a damp tea-towel) to rise for 1 hour in a warm spot.

4. After 1 hour, knead again and let sit for another hour (if you have the time). If you're super hungry and feeling too impatient to re-knead, I've totally just rolled out my dough and dressed my pizza at this point - and if you're not type-A-pizza then you can go ahead and bake it!

THINGS YOU CAN PUT ON A PIZZA, IN ANY COMBINATION:

San Marzano tomatoes, crushed up, with sea salt. You can find these canned at your grocery store, or a specialty Italian grocery.

Fresh balls of white mozzarella, sliced.

Basil leaves, torn and tossed right on.

Oven-dried cherry tomatoes. Set your oven to 325, slice cherry tomatoes in two and place on a parchment-paper covered baking sheet. Let dry for 1 hour in the oven (may as well do this while the pizza dough is rising!) These are so easy to make, and are total flavour blasts!

A sprinkle or some super-thin slices of salty parmigiano reggiano.

Arugula leaves, thrown right on top once the pizza comes out.

Toasted pine nuts! A total winner!

A typical pizza (duh) starts with tomatoes or tomato sauce (you can even use a can of store-bought pizza sauce), then throw on your toppings, and pop in the oven.

Bake your pizza at 425 degrees (turned down from the inital 500 degrees) for 7-10 minutes, watching closely to ensure it doesn't burn.

My pizza I made: tomato sauce, oven dried tomatoes, toasted pine nuts, sliced spicy veggie Tofurkey sausage, fresh basil leaves, blobs of goat cheese and a light sprinkle of parmigiano reggiano, fresh arugula added post-bake.

Chompity chomp chomp. Dinner was good. Pizza is easy. Until next time...! xo

Summer Food

2011-08-07T21:17:00.001-07:00

Garden offerings. Green and yellow beans with a crunch and a snap, both fibrous and fresh. Aromatic basil and skinny-thin chives brighten any meal!

Arugula and spinach salad with paper-thin cucumber, toasted pine nuts, local blueberries, garden chives and basil.

Grilled grape tomato skewers with sea salt, balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil! Sour, juicy, BBQ-smoky and sweet.

Backyard buddies... ahhh summer.

Dogs 'n Cakes

2011-06-06T07:29:00.001-07:00

People love their dogs. People love dogs. Dogs love people? Dogs tend to hate cats. People make dogs into cakes. I am one of those people. And these people are those people... ! Enjoy!

"Spread 'em!" This pup has intense eyes. It's my party, please don't eat me! He kind of has a look of terror in his eyes. Yikes. Or maybe he's just having a very intense acupuncture session.

Masters Degree in Wienerology! Congrats, buddy!

"I like big butts and I cannot lie" - Sir Mix A Lot.
This pup's a real rump shaker, with salon-manicured black talons!

I made this one - purple pup!
Sometimes I think these look like severed heads on a plate.

I love this guy! Gak, he's just cute and smiley!

Chinese New Year!

2011-02-08T11:33:00.000-08:00

As I get older I really worry about losing my Chinese-ness. I grew up both as Chinese and Canadian here in Vancouver, BC... my parents were also born here, as were 3/4 of my grandparents... but as the older generations get older and the newer generations get more lofan, I sometimes wonder if my own grandchildren will be at all Chinesey whatsoever. I need to hang on to the bit of culture that I still retain... and one of the ways I can do that is through the food and memories...

Lee Kum Kee oyster sauce, the only and the best.

Gin duey split two ways (ha)

Doing Chinesey stuff was always just a part of who I was when I was a kid. Red envelopes stamped with gold symbols with a crisp, flat folded bill tucked inside. Back in the 1980s, we would have to hold up our laycee to a light. One dollar? Two dollars? FIVE dollars? Ooooh our grandparents always spoiled us with fives, and then a little later those purple tinted ten dollar bills... what a thrill for a little kid. "Opening it is bad luck" we were told. We didn't know why... so we stashed them away and opened them later when no one was looking. Spent the money on Archie comics and sour coke bottle candies.

A little boy with his lucky money and monkey tee!

egg foo young, with bits of shredded charsiu pork, dripping in salty buttery-flavoured gravy

paddlin' away to thick brown molasses-y oyster flavoured sauce heaven

duck salad from Foo's Ho Ho, lovingly rearranged from takeout container to plate by ME!

For the Lunar New Year, we always ate wedges of Chinese grapefruit, and only my Gonge gonge could peel them properly. It was sort of his job, to cut into the pocked pomello and extract the thin-skin covered boats of not-quite-orange, not-quite grapefruit flavoured fruit. Flat large seeds were picked out and the grapefruit eaten, along with gin duey, a.k.a. greaseballs (sesame sweet rice flour balls with a dark red bean filling) and shrimp chips, crisp and thinly sliced and styrofoam-like in texture, "shrimp fishy" in flavour and pale coloured: light green, pink and white. My Poh poh would drop the shrinkie-dink like shriveled and dried shrimp chips in to hot oil and they would sizzle, puff up and expand, floating, scooped up and laid onto a paper towel to drain. The same delightful chips would be served with a platter of crispy skin chicken at a restaurant, tucked in around different pieces of chicken.

massive amounts of vegetarian chow mein for my tall white lo-fan husband!

8 treasures buddha's feast, made by my Auntie Lorraine. Fungi galore!

Dumplings and duck salad

Sang choy bao (lettuce wrap filling made by my mom)

A mini dumpling and my dad, Go-go (short for Gonge-gonge, grandfather on mother's side)

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CNY at my mom's this year was a hybrid of homemade dishes made by my mom and auntie, mixed with old favourites from spots around town: Foo's Ho Ho (duck salad), Kent's Kitchen (veggie chow mein), Newtown Bakery (gin duey a.k.a. sesame balls a.k.a. greaseballs). My mom made lettuce wrap (sang choy bao), her filling smokey from the oysters and crunchy from water chestnut. Spoon this mixture into a crisp piece of iceberg lettuce, blob a good dollop of dark sweet hoisin sauce on there and roll up your Chinese burrito!

I always wondered if the duck salad was a Chinese Canadian hybrid dish. You don't see it on any super Chinesey menus, but places where there's sweet and sour pork and lemon chicken (such as Foo's) tends to have it.

CNY ended this year with my mom's "almond float": pale green, sweet almond flavoured gelatin squares bobbing around with canned lychee and canned peach slices in a generations-old serving bowl, and a mountain of gin duey and fresh New Town apple tarts with its layered pastry, waxy-on-the-tongue finish and not-too-sweet apple filling.

Sweet Chinese New Year dreams...

Pizza Stoned

2011-01-30T11:35:00.002-08:00

I would like to now talk about the delightful virtues of the pizza stone. I'm not even talking about the $40 version you have to buy at a gourmet kitchen store. I just mean a slab of stone, maybe it's an oversize floor tile sample, large enough to be placed in a conventional domestic oven, preheated at 500 degrees and waiting patiently to sear a crisp, perfect edge onto a rolled out piece of pizza dough.

So I had a pizza party the other night for my good pal Christa. Not only was it a pizza party but it was a secret mini living room show with her favourite musician in the world, Joel R L Phelps playing.

But since this is a post about pizza I'll save the music story for another blog.

Christa is as nuts about pizza as I am... always searching, always hoping for that great slice of perfect pizza found somewhere in one of Vancouver's gobs of dollar slice pizza shops, Italian job restaurants and modern cuisiney type places. My favourite pizza place in Vancouver is Lombardo's... we've been going there for years with my family. It never even occurred to me that it was in a weird half-empty, fairly ugly mini-mall until Rich pointed it out to me one time. Anyhow the legend goes that it was once run by a married couple, until the husband cheated and they got a divorce. The wife kept Lombardo's, the husband opened an exact copy of Lombardo's just a few blocks away but in a more jazzed-up setting, making it a snootier affair with not so great service. Garbage. Give me Lombardo's anyday over the new joint!

Lombardo's has a woodfire burning oven, the KEY to great pizza. Perfectly crisp, yet chewy too, sometimes charred on the bottom, misshapen but lovingly formed circles of dough, scattered with artichoke hearts, ham, olives or classically prepared with tomato sauce, sliced fresh mozzarella and torn basil leaves. A wooden paddle slides under the pizza and with one fell swoop blasts it straight into the hot fires of the oven's mouth, minutes away to pizza heaven.

Christa, in her pizza seeking obsession, sent me this link for the pizza party! Since we had recently had a popcorn ball-making mishap together (I sometimes like to pepper recipes with my own non-touches) there was a clear inclination that the recipe was to BE FOLLOWED!!!

Diligently I gathered the ingredients, choosing to go to the Italian foods megamart Bosa Foods (though I think I could've found everything much cheaper around where I live)... canned San Marzano whole tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, fresh fragrant basil, balls of plump Mozzarella nestled in water, salty Italian prosciutto, a hunk of Asiago cheese and grated (I felt lazy) parmiggiano reggiano. And, of course "00" pizza flour and dry active yeast for the dough!

Balls of dough were pre-made and chilled overnight in the fridge. I was freaked because some balls seemed hard and dense and other balls were light and soft like a yeasty pale balloon. I feared I may have messed up this temperamental dough...??

Paranoid as I was, I made a "test" pizza a few hours before the party the following day on a regular old circular pizza pan, the kind with holes dotted throughout it. GARBAGE! The crust was like that of a cheap frozen pizza, thick, white, not crisp and not good. I was scared... but...roll it out and bake it on a piping hot pizza stone??

The pizza stone saves all!!!!

You get the the crispest crust, a nice char in bits, still a bit of chew... the perfect crust. The mozzarella bubbling into the crust, everything coming together to form a perfect new entity of melded together ingredients. Hot, crisp, salty, tangy, pizzaperfect party time. And a chocolate cake with mocha buttercream and homemade espresso ice cream for dessert.

All hail the pizza stone. I am a convert and a half, times infinity to the highest power.

"PEEEEEEEEZZZZZAAAAAAA!!!"

xo Lyndsay

Pizza Party

2011-01-10T11:28:00.001-08:00

Can a swingin' rap-style commercial with a "Mario and Luigi" type pizza fat guy save how not-fun this game looks? Maybe!!!

Crack Pie!

2010-11-15T08:24:00.000-08:00

This pie from Momofuku Milk Bar in New York has gotten a lot of press in the last few years.. and seeing how I (sadly) wouldn't be going to New York any time soon, I wanted to try it myself! With any of Christina Tosi's recipes I've seen online and in magazines, there are always many many steps to creating the final supersweet product. You gotta WORK for that crazy treat! For instance, with her blueberry and cream cookies, you make the "milk crumbs" first (a milky streusel crumbly thing using dry skim milk powder) and then you incorporate that into the cookie dough. With crack pie, you make a big old super-buttery oat cookie on a sheet pan, bake that off, cool it then you crumble it all up and add more butter and sugar to make a cookie pie crust.

Okay- now on to the crack pie. For my birthday this year I hosted a CANADIAN FOOTBALL AND PIE party... 1 hour of hilarious, muddy football played by non-sporty types in the park right by my house in the November cold, then back to my place for oodles and oodles of pie! Hence, a perfect opportunity to try out this crazy-ass pie...

I ended up making two pies by accident because I thought I messed up the crust on the first go-around. Instead of 1/4 cup butter, I used 1/2 cup because I was so dazed and confused and tired from Cake Land. As it was mixing in my Kitchen Aid, I thought "holy dingdong, that's a lot of butter. that looks nothing like a cookie dough." I used an off-set spatula to spread the "buttery oat cookie mass" onto my cookie sheet. While it was in the oven and looking like maybe a pale sheet of barf, I realized my mistake and quickly made up another batch with 1/4 cup butter instead, spreading it again on a new cookie sheet and baking it. Still, the 1/4 cup butter version looked pretty much exactly the same, pale and somewhat barfy, and baked up the same too -- it really does crisp up and form a giant sheet cookie!

The filling is a breeze to prepare, in fact the whole process isn't difficult per say it just takes a little bit of your time. I poured the filling into both prepared pie shells, then put them in the oven, for 30 minute at 350 degrees. Then the recipe tells you to reduce to 325 degrees for another 20 minutes. Here is where I would suggest watching your oven -- I found I didn't need the entire cooking time, so bake for another 10 minutes and see what's happening. If it's somewhat browned, not quite set in the middle and has some bubbly-type things, take it out!

Let cool for 2 hours, then into the fridge uncovered overnight.

The recipe says to serve cold, but when I tried a teensy slice cold, I thought it was GROSS! The crust was like a hardened chunk of butter in my mouth and I actually spit it out. BUT, when I served both pies later at room temperature, it was CRAZY DELICIOUS! Crust stayed crisp, so yummy with the sweet and salty oats, and the filling was thick but somewhat oozy and brown sugar-sweet. You DEFINITELY need to dust this with icing sugar for presentation because it is not a beauty pageant winner otherwise! I put a single raspberry in the middle of mine too, to jazz it up. And as an annotation, I liked it served at room temperature better than served cold... you can decide for yourself though.

{ CRACK PIE recipe, from Bon Appetit }

INGREDIENTS
OAT COOKIE CRUST
• Nonstick vegetable oil spray
• 9 tablespoons (1 stick plus 1 tablespoon) unsalted butter, room temperature, divided
• 5 1/2 tablespoons (packed) golden brown sugar, divided
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 large egg
• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons old-fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon (generous) salt
FILLING
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon nonfat dry milk powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted, cooled slightly
• 6 1/2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
• 4 large egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Powdered sugar (for dusting)
PREPARATION
OAT COOKIE CRUST
• Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 13x9x2-inch metal baking pan with parchment paper; coat with nonstick spray. Combine 6 tablespoons butter, 4 tablespoons brown sugar, and 2 tablespoons sugar in medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat mixture until light and fluffy, occasionally scraping down sides of bowl, about 2 minutes. Add egg; beat until pale and fluffy. Add oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and beat until well blended, about 1 minute. Turn oat mixture out onto prepared baking pan; press out evenly to edges of pan. Bake until light golden on top, 17 to 18 minutes. Transfer baking pan to rack and cool cookie completely.
• Using hands, crumble oat cookie into large bowl; add 3 tablespoons butter and 1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar. Rub in with fingertips until mixture is moist enough to stick together. Transfer cookie crust mixture to 9-inch-diameter glass pie dish. Using fingers, press mixture evenly onto bottom and up sides of pie dish. Place pie dish with crust on rimmed baking sheet.
FILLING
• Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Whisk both sugars, milk powder, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Add melted butter and whisk until blended. Add cream, then egg yolks and vanilla and whisk until well blended. Pour filling into crust. Bake pie 30 minutes (filling may begin to bubble). Reduce oven temperature to 325°F. Continue to bake pie until filling is brown in spots and set around edges but center still moves slightly when pie dish is gently shaken, about 20 minutes longer. Cool pie 2 hours in pie dish on rack. Chill uncovered overnight. DO AHEAD Can be made 2 days ahead. Cover; keep chilled.
• Sift powdered sugar lightly over top of pie. Cut pie into wedges and serve cold. (though I thought it was better at room temp).

PANTALOON THE BAKING POODLE

2010-11-11T09:55:00.000-08:00

There are three things that I love: vintage poodle illustration and objects, ANIMALS wearing human clothing... and CAKES. Combine the three and you have... PANTALOON! The best name for a poodle ever (Pants!). And look at his adorable face! He's a friendly guy! No scary looking poodle here!

If anyone ever sent this vintage children's book to me, I would be the happiest person ever!

Images from flickr.

Baker's Coconut Cut Up Cakes!

2010-11-08T14:16:00.001-08:00

Perfectly cute. Looks like he's made of granola.

This Santa is just about the coolest cake dude on the block.
He knows it too.

Bllllassst off!!! We're goin' to Pluto! (My cake would say CANADA)

Beautiful indeed! Love those lines of dyed shredded sweetened coconut. And little dollies in jaunty caps riding up to the high heavens!

Current Obsession: Swimming Pool Cakes!

2010-10-20T17:14:00.000-07:00

Click on the photo to see who made it. Swimming pool cakes, so hilarious and crazy and fantastic!!!

Rugelach & Honey Cake

2010-09-15T17:11:00.000-07:00

Nothing odd about rugelach or honey cake, but they are certainly delightful items... For Rosh Hoshanah (yes, I am Chinese) this year, we went to our dear pal Shira's for a warm Fall dinner... I made rugelach and a moist, flavourful honey cake... the honey cake called for strong coffee (or you could use strong tea -- I used a mega strong cup of tea), orange juice and a myriad of spices, along with vegetable oil... you mix it all up and pour it into a bundt pan! I made a quick glaze using lemon juice and icing sugar, and candied some lemon slices by blanching them in water, then boiling them in simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water, boiled til syrupy) for a garnish.

Recipe for honey cake found HERE. It has the name "Majestic & Moist New Year's Honey Cake" which is pretty much the greatest name ever. MAJESTIC!

I had made rugelach once before and it's so much fun to make... the dough is a mixture of butter and creamcheese, which makes it very rich. You have to chill the dough first and then roll it out like a big old pizza round... you feel like you're making a pizza too. First you brush it with apricot jelly, then sprinkle it with ground walnuts, sugar and cinnamon, then you put your larger "fillings" in... mini chocolate chips and currants for me. I used Martha Stewart's recipe for rugelach, which can be found HERE.

Shana Tova everyone!

Recent Foodtography Snackeria

2010-07-24T18:48:00.000-07:00

Me likey a lot food photography. One day I will get to buy my dream lens. For now... some recent snaps I took of recent foodsnacks...

Taste Of Los Angeles

2010-06-11T11:58:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been so long since I chomped it up. Actually I've continued to chomp it up all this time but just haven't had time to snap pics and write about it... ! We went down to Los Angeles for my cousin's wedding in June, and we had a total blast... we ate our way through Los Angeles... a must-do for any trip we go on. I love seeing the foodstuffs that any given city or town or village or weird stop on a long drive can bring you! Rich and I had one day ONLY to explore some of L.A.'s food... we had a huge list... but that day we only made it to 5 spots in 5 hours! ;)

Presenting... the Taste of Los Angeles!

Legendary Clifton's Cafeteria. a 1930s Depression-era cafeteria in downtown Los Angeles.

Great signage!

Love this sign.

A photo of a photo of the pies...

You can't see it too well but picture an "animatronic" raccoon clunkily popping up from behind this wooden facade and catching a fish. Over and over. So excellent.

Main floor, Clifton's

Clifton's pies! Like a Wayne Thiebaud painting!

Clifton's trays all lined up.

The vanilla pudding looked just right! I had to try! With a star-tipped dollop of whip cream. (pretty sure the whip cream was edible oil product)

The hot lunch line! Carved turkey dinner with mashed potatoes and gravy.

Third floor seating! It was roped off but an employee at Clifton's told us to go on up!

Tray of delights: Spanish omelette with side of sausage, unsweetened ice tea with lemon, macaroni and cheese, jalapeno cheese bun, mashed potato, vanilla pudding

"Enjoy"

Reading up on the history of Clifton's

Old Clifton's flyers

The Cliftons! Clifford Clifton, in fact!

Upstairs dining area view

Middle floor dining area: large backlit photographic landscape vistas!

Bye Clifton's!

Next stop: Cactus Taqueria on Vine Street in West Hollywood.

Fish tacos, veggie tacos, rice and beans!

Then, on to "Milk" Bakery & Ice Cream!

Seriously mental. Caramel macarons sandwiching homemade espresso ice cream with toffee and thick swirls of caramel. Blueberry yogurt bar, fresh blueberries in frozen yogurt, dipped in white chocolate and coated with "blueberry crunch." $4.50/each.

This was really good, but sooo large and pretty sweet!

This was perfect. We should've shared this one only,
but I wanted to try two ice cream novelties...!

Next stop: In N Out Burger! The dreamiest fast food burgers in existence. For real.

The menu is simple: burger, soda, fresh cut fries, milkshake. Everything is fresh and local, service is fast. Vegetarians can get a good burger too -- just hold the patty and enjoy the fresh bun, cheese, grilled onions, crunchy lettuce and tomato!

The Double Double (double patty double cheese, grilled onions) I took home for my Dad! Yep, it flew from L.A. to Vancouver.

Iced tea with lemon, ketchup cup

Two burgers, and cheese covered fries!

My burger: grilled onions, cheese. The burger I had on the way into L.A. from the same In N Out had a bigger hunk of iceberg lettuce, but this was still delicious!

Next time we hit L.A. we will go for way more tacos, hit Joan's on Third, go back to M Cafe (macrobiotic super fresh delights) and go to Pure Luck & Scoops (vegan cafe and ice cream parlour!)

See ya soon, FoodLand!
xo

Doggy Birthday Parties

2010-03-21T10:04:00.000-07:00

I just made these crazy bulldog cupcakes and sheep dog cake. It got me curious about dog birthday parties... !

Oh You Know, Just The World's Largest Raisin Cake from 1962

2010-02-17T17:02:00.001-08:00

Not too shabby, I say. I would've liked to have seen this beauty in person. 7000 pounds of raisins? Noooo problem.

George, what a wonderful shop to behold! Best sign ever. And road arrow is pointing right atcha!

"White Castle" Cake

2010-02-13T09:19:00.001-08:00

Remember Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle? Don't even bother seeing the sequel. But check out this bonkers cake found here! Pretty sure the ketchup squirt bottle and all the "packaging" is fondant or gumpaste...! BONKERS.

Too Bonkers Not To Share

2010-02-05T09:54:00.001-08:00

Ding Dong, Your Pizza's Here!

2010-02-03T16:47:00.000-08:00

Crazy miniature pizza! Found here.

Food Comedy, Food Amazement

2010-01-28T15:46:00.001-08:00

It's "Xtreme Wild Berry Jello" Hello Kitty! Made for a bento box!

Heehee! Original image from Flickr, here.

Salmon mousse with cukes! incredible! love it so much! from Flickr, here.

Eeeheehee! I can't get over how cute and cool this picture is!! Heehee!

this is PURE INSANITY. a Jello mold found at an Asian grocery store... pic from here.

Cat Cakes

2010-01-18T11:40:00.001-08:00

Oh, the comedy and the hilarity of cat themed cakes. There's some crazy ones out there! I made this one a while back, Harold the cat...

my little buddy Harold the cat, based on a real cat...

Separated at birth! Or separated by a computer printer!

This little black and white kitty cracks me up so hard... Great cake and great cat...

This is soooo grody too yet fascinating: THE CAT LITTER CAKE. Made from cake, tootsie rolls, crunched up crackery things... ugh so sick. Here is a link to the recipe and how-to. In case you want to gross yourself out super hard by eating "cake" out of a litter box.

Beautiful Chocolate: Mast Brothers!

2009-11-22T15:22:00.000-08:00

Oh my sweet and thoughtful friend Miko fulfilled a chocolate dream of mine last week... and it was a SURPRISE! I opened up our crickety old metal black mailbox last week to retrieve the day's mail. Inside was a little package sent to me... I opened the package and squealed with delight-- a super cute birthday card from Miko, and a bar of my very own MAST BROTHERS chocolate!!! I really felt like lucky little Charlie in Charlie & The Chocolate Factory when he got his once-a-year Willy Wonka bar of chocolate for his birthday from his two sets of grandparents and his mom and dad. I felt even more like Charlie when I unwrapped the beautiful fleur de lys print paper stock to reveal a gold foil wrapped bar underneath!! And... once again... just like Charlie when he found the soggy dollar bill buried deep in the snow, then went to the nearest corner store to buy himself a bar of chocolate... I peeled back the gold foil and broke off a square of the chocolate and let it melt in my mouth.

Let me explain further.. we live in CANADA, see! No Mast Brothers chocolate here! And they only just began to provide an online ordering service, but at $100 for 10 bars, a leeeetle bit pricey... but Miko's friend Alia, who lives in Brooklyn, helped out in buying the bar for Miko to give to me!

The bar I received was dark chocolate, almonds, sea salt and olive oil, 72% Madagascar cacao! The Mast Brothers make each bar by hand... with lovely ingredients. I can relate to the painstaking process of making each piece by hand from scratch! I just think their packaging and design is just so perfect and nice. Here is a link to view more of their beautiful packaging!!

Wouldn't it be fun to have your very own chocolate factory? A mini chocolate factory in a tiny, beautiful, well-lit with natural light kitchen?

DREAMY. PS... a Willy Wonka link for you too!

TERRINE, TERRINE!

2009-11-16T12:01:00.000-08:00

TERRINE: my definition: randomness food items floating in space jammed into a mold using gelatin or other fun products.

Ie: Jello explosion table of delightful desserts...

and fun times egg and meat party trapped in clear aspic...

Oh trompechompe. I've ignored you so badly in the last two months and for this I apologize. It seems as though Cupcake Mountain has taken over my life, and my hobby of updating this here blog fell by the wayside for a bit. But no longer.

So it was my birthday once again (you know how that thing happens? Once a year it seems to occur?) on November 15th and I had another "theme" party of sorts... "FOODIE!" My cousin-in-law and I are deeply obsessed with the television program Top Chef--so much so that I bought her a subscription to Food & Wine mag for her birthday, and one for myself too... and now a foodie themed birthday. The request: that guests bring a "foodie"-ish item. I was also told that I WAS NOT ALLOWED TO MAKE A DESSERT because I am always the dessert maker at parties-- I love making them and admittedly I was in PAIN AND CONFUSION because I was like, "Uh oh. I gotta make a savoury? What the H am I gonna make??"

So... I flipped through some varying recipe books of mine... and found the perfect mix of comedy and (hopefully)... deliciousness... the TERRINE!

I had seen the terrine be prepared many times on Top Chef. Okay, so it looks like it's a bunch of things packed tightly into a stainless steel mold, then chilled, upturned and cut into fancy slices that can be laid atop crostini or plopped (placed?) in the middle of a plate. Usually made with venison, or head cheese (yum!) or tongue, I've been told... since I have become a vegetarian of late (since starting to read Eating Animals... though reading this has since been interrupted by Barney's Version)... so I made mine with fresh goat cheese, asparagus, roasted portobello and sweet red pepper and wrapped it in blanched leek leaves.

So here is my documentation of "My First Terrine" !!! Enjoy! Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart's Hors d'Oeuvres cookbook...

MY FIRST TERRINE by L.Sung

Study first. Le Cordon Bleu handbook has some nice pics and ideas... for instance, putting your filling in a piping bag. Brilliant! Much less messy than trying to paddle and pat it down with a spatula...

Martha! Look at that triple threat of terrines from her Hors d'Oeuvres handbook! The two on the left involve the use of gelatin though, which I wanted to avoid.

First, line your terrine mold with cling wrap so it overlaps over the edges. Then, add quickly blanched leeks, lengthwise, as they make a handy dandy terrine wrapper.

Fill your piping bag with filling: mine is fresh goat cheese, beat with some plain yogurt to make it smoother, and sauteed finely diced leek ends (the white part).

Bricklay those cooked-until-just-tender asparagus in! It's like they're floating in clouds of tangy chevre!

Pat pat pat down with an offset spatula. Really pack 'er in.

Add more filling: I roasted sweet red pepper and slices of portobello mushroom for about 15 minutes on 400 degrees. Let cool completely before adding to terrine of course... Continue to "pipe and pat" and layer it up until you reach the top...

When you reach the top, fold over the leek edges. Then fold over the plastic cling wrap, then put the lid onto your terrine, put into fridge and let it set for 4-6 hours until well chilled!

Carefully unmold your terrine using a flat plate on top of the terrine--flip over and carefully unmold. Then, carefully unwrap. Then, slice with a sharp serrated knife!! I also made butter crostini (using store-bought French bread) in the oven, broil both sides so it gets crispy.

Hello, cuteness!! I thought it looked like a funny little caterpillar...

Slice 'er up and place on buttered crostini... Bite into deliciousness! Hooray!

Soft Serve Ice Cream Dreams

2009-09-17T13:42:00.000-07:00

As I've said before in this blog and for anyone who knows me, one of my fave things EVER is a perfect soft serve ice cream cone! When I was in Japan visiting my sister and best friend Tara, I would have green tea and vanilla soft serve swirl ice cream almost every day-- whenever I saw it I would get it! In Japan they also have amazing flavours like black sesame soft serve, purple taro soft serve... This place in New York Momofuku makes crazy flavours too-- I've never been there but I'd like to try! There are some reviews on the ice cream here and here.

Basically whenever there is a chance to get soft serve, I will try it. I've had ice milk soft serve, high butterfat soft serve, soft serve that tastes like plastic, frozen yogurt soft serve of many different brands from different shops... soft serve sandwiched between chocolate cookies as an ice cream sandwich... It always looks like magic to me. That hum of the compressor and the motor, a pull of a handle and the smooth pouring out of white billowing fancy swirls of ice cream... Wonderful! When there is a choice of twist, I usually get vanilla. Vanilla gets a harsh rap for being boring... No way! Delish! Unless it's green tea on the other side, in which case I get swirl.

Today I got the pleasure of a real live soft serve ice cream demonstration, at a food machinery sales demo kitchen located in Port Coquitlam! Deep fryers, milkshake machines, hot holding display cases, slushie machines, the test kitchen looked like a little mini mart. Yes, I got lost on the way there, and I got lost on the way home, but my excitement kept my mood high! My new friends Sam and LK (see below!) walked me through the process of how a soft serve ice cream machine works... I even got to pump a few of my own, and try their "Razzle" maker too, which is essentially how you make a Dairy Queen blizzard. FUN!

Sam and LK also answered all of my queries, such as:

"What on earth is behind those handles that you pull down when you make the soft serve?"
Behind the handles are these little party chambers that are like big long frozen tubes. Above is a pic of the handles removed, revealing the inside. The turning mechanism attachment (as seen above, partially pulled out of the chamber) scrapes off the perfect amount of ice cream from the sides of the frozen tubes and pumps it out into a beautiful ice cream swirl. Apparently Taylor soft serve machines are the only ones with a fully frozen chamber using liquid technology; other machines use a frozen "coil" technology.

"How do you get the ice cream mix all up in there??"
On top of the machines are chambers called "hoppers". Basically where you pour your ice cream mix, which is then covered with a lid. The hoppers have a tiny hole in which a stick is inserted into it with an even TINIER hole. The mix seeps through the tiny hole, and when you pull down the lever, the right amount of mix gets sucked into the hole, to then get frozen in the frozen tube, which then billows out onto your cone. This is where you would pour in test batches of your own flavour creations: I want to try making some delighftul new flavours! Of course green tea, as I LOVE green tea soft serve, but also raspberry, caramel, etc... The key to the soft serve is texture, and my pal LK said it's tricky getting the right homemade formula. But I am gonna try!

"Can I try this thing??"
Yes, most certainly!!

Wheeee!! So fun!! My dream job!!!

My haphazard soft serve ice cream pile!

My ice cream... so fun!!!

I drove home with a whole lot of information about soft serve machines: water cooled vs. air cooled, the importance of servicing these puppies, how to replace parts, how to wash the parts, and an operating manual and a spec sheet for a specific Taylor Soft Serve ice cream machine, as well as my little ice cream cup. YAY! Now I know how these crazy machines work!! Too fun...

Welcome To The Saanich Fair!

2009-09-10T08:35:00.000-07:00

Rich admiring a very decadent pair of fur pants

Pickle on a stick!

I ate this. Guilty. Bratwurst.

Me and Candyland!

Did you know soft serve ice cream is like my most favourite thing??

Saanich Fair Kid's Cake Decorating Competition!

Saanich is in Victoria BC, which is on Vancouver Island. There are lots of farms in Saanich-- corn, tomatoes, blueberries, pumpkins... last weekend, with my in-laws, we hit up the old Saanich Fair, in its 142nd year of country fair party-times. A really amazing fair with lots of community groups running fundraising foodbooths, live animals of every kind (good GOD turkeys are unbelievable looking!! All that hanging sagging brightly colored bumpy skin and Elizabethan collar-ish rounds and rounds of stark feathers!) My favourite part was the children's barn, where everything was made by kids! So wholesome, so cute! So amazing. Sewing, crafts, cake baking, pie baking, cake decorating, art... children should absolutely be immersed in learning things other than sitting in front of a computer or video game console! Get them to bake a pie! These kids did it with no fear!!

The theme for this year's fair, BTW, was "How The West Was Fun". Welcome to Canada everybody.

I bet even a KID made this sign!! Go kid!

The cake decorating competition!! By KIDS!

10 to 12 year olds. You can picture these young gals being so stoked...

Second place in the cookie contest!! It doesn't make dimensional sense but who cares!! It's a watermelon slice sugar cookie, made by a KID!

Mexican cowboy? Third place ribbon!! Those fingers got a bit toasty but it's tough to evenly bake when you have tiny parts such as those cowboy fingers. Black licorice rope!! By a KID!!

Turd pile cake! With straw, dirt and plastic flies!! This won first place blue ribbon!!

This is darn cute. By a KID!

This is cool too. How the west was fun!! Get it?? Reese's Pieces accoutrements!

This one was feeling the literal and figurative burn of the hot lights and the being-out-all-day situation. Little Miss Lady riding a cake buggy! Great work, KID!

Shoestring potato chips as hay, Sesame Snaps as snacks... Dyed coconut flakes as grass... KID!!

So, so awesome!!!! I just want to high five them all!

Banana Cream Pie

2009-08-21T20:22:00.001-07:00

Banana cream pie has a certain lore to it doesn't it? It makes me think of 24 hour diners or grandmas. Do grandmas make banana cream pies? Who MAKES banana cream pies?? When I used to play music in bands, I remember touring and visiting a place called House of Pies in Houston, Texas. They had every conceivable pie and it was beautiful to look at. They also had 24 hour steaks, burgers, breakfast, etc...

This is the second year in a row I've made a banana cream pie for my good pal Josh on his birthday. He loves pies. I love how people love certain things. I guess I would be construed as loving pizza, and ice cream. I'd like to get better at making pies. It's a personal goal of mine!

So let me tell you about this pie. I got the recipe from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook, but instead of a traditional crust I made a graham cracker crust. I loooove graham cracker. I love S'mores so much. I love them so much some friends call me S'mung (my last name is Sung). The pie was very easy to make, just took some patience and some attention. I love how the cream custard filling thickens SO SUDDENLY! It's so cool. As soon as those bubbles start in the middle and suddenly you're stirring The Blob.

Crazy About Japanese Food

2009-08-13T16:11:00.000-07:00

Me, me, MEEE! I am crazy about Japanese food. Also, Chinese food too, seeing that I am Chinese. Also, many many many other types of foods. But this post is dedicated to the delighfully delicious treats I had at this year's Powell Street Festival here in Vancouver, BC!

I also performed with my conceptual synthpop art group GUIMAUVES at this event, dressed as blobs from space, with our set geared towards the kiddies!!

me, my cutie nephew Brody in his crab yukata, and my sis Leanne!

I am on the right hand side. My good pal Raf is on the left. Three megafans up front.

Delicious potato croquettes!

Delightfully fresh tako yaki-- fried octopus fritter balls!!

my fave, kaki gori-- shave ice with sweet red bean, mochi, green tea syrup and condensed milk...

fried tofu with miso sauce!

okonomiyaki with chicken yakitori skewer! Party pancake with beef and delightful toppings, including bonito flakes, mayo, Bulldog sauce and shredded ginger.

Imagawayaki-- pancakes filled with sweet red bean... love love love these... Check out this cuteness and coolness, wish I could order these!

Fried noodle with a side of croquette!

This is a guide with photos on how to make your own OKONOMIYAKI! Enjoy!

Until next year, Powell Street Festival... Sigh...

Easiest Peach Mint Iced Tea Ever

2009-07-23T17:48:00.001-07:00

Ever? Not as easy as turning the metal lid on a glass single serve bottle and hearing that wonderful THWOCK! But... pretty easy. You need:

Two tea bags-- I used Bergamot.
Hot water. Boil that stuff!
Peach nectar. Thick, fresh, peachy...
Sliced lemons
Fresh mint.
A jug or a big old jar.

Steep your tea in the hot water for as long as you like-- remove bags-- muddle in some mint, drop some fresh lemon slices in, glug in your peach nectar to taste, powerchill for 30 minutes in the freezer even if you like... then add ice cubes...

Then, you chug-a-lug! Or sip. You choose.

Delightful! Perfectly delightful!!!

Berlin! Ice Cream and Wiener Time

2009-06-28T20:12:00.000-07:00

Taste Of Berlin: Wiener Time! Wonderful Berlin, Germany. Packed with sordid history, high fashion, excellent Turkish food, major art, gorgeously green in Spring and Summer, 70 cent beer at the corner store, delightful cheeses and the best hearty, grainy bread... While in Berlin on our recent trip to Europe, we stood in a large line of eager tourists and Germans alike, under a bridge in the middle of the city amongst speeding cars, graffiti and tons of fat pigeons... to get a taste of a "famous German national dish"... CURRYWURST!! While we inched closer to the front of the line, I saw people poking their little wooden two pronged forks into sliced fried white sausage slathered in blobs of ketchup, mayonnaise and curry powder, with a side of fries of course!

Line of people under the bridge. "Under the bridge downtown... "

Don't even DREAM that Konnopkes Imbiss doesn't have their own awesome website!!!

These ladies take serious pride in providing some serious wiener time. They have this doo-hickey (let's call it a "wiener chopper") that you stick the fried wiener in, pull down a lever, and CLOMP!! Perfect wiener slices every time. See those little slices in the pic above? Then one woman blasts the mayo on and the other the ketchup, smiling and chuckling away with speed and efficiency. They have probably worked there for 23 years and will work there forever, likely. And they're stoked. I love that. All you need in a job is friends, pay, free wiener snacks and a sense of pride in your work.

The finished product: Currywurst mit Pommes!

RT and I with our fried national treasures.

The marzipan version of Currywurst, at KaDeWe department store!!!

The cutest little ice cream shop across the street from the apartment. Fraulein Frost!

My delicious and delightfully fresh ice cream cone: vanilla bean, and fieldberry. So good. RIch had coffee, and hazelnut; Sandra had strawberry basil. I tried them all, and all were great!

The menu at Fraulein Frost. A simple, sweet little shop, totally inspiring for a young cupcaker like myself.

Do you know the joy of Frühstück? German breakfast? So wonderful, wonderful. A platter of delights, it should really translate into. Slices of meat folded or laid out just so, a few types of good cheese, often some yogurt, a hard boiled egg and the chocolate and hazelnut spread Nutella, accompanied with a basket of fresh breads. You can mix and match your meal! Mini open faced sandwiches! Roll a slice of meat and eat it! Dig into your egg! Spread some Nutella onto your bread! Spread some of your egg onto a slice of bread, add some cheese and meat and your thinly sliced cucumber! What a great, great thing! Enjoy with a coffee, and basically your day is set.

Berlin was a real blast. And to buy an apartment there is ridiculously cheap. So I am hoping we will be back many, many times.

xo

TASTE OF AMSTERDAM

2009-06-22T16:56:00.000-07:00

Dankuvel! My hubby and I just returned from a bonkers trip to Amsterdam and Berlin, where we visited some awesome friends, and awesome cousins for a real trip to remember. Food mania! The main tourist area of Amsterdam is what I christened to be the "munchie capital of the world"... all the junk food you could ever want packed into one certain area full of tourists, marijuana smoke, pigeons, ladies of the night (and day) and people whizzing by on bicycles or mopeds. Sprinkled donuts, chocolate dipped waffle, ice cream, fries, vending machine hamburgers-- this area had it all! We had a wonderful time hanging out and staying with the host and hostess with the most and mostess-- Rich's cousin Bryan and his fine lady and fiancee Danielle. We had tons of fun and tried to eat lots, of course-- so here is a rundown of some of the things we saw, experienced or ate...

I just love this packaging! Bright red, and look at those delightful little cubes and mini forkettes!

Pink fondant iced party cakes! Dutch boob implants!

Meal of champions at the airport: icy Heineken and wiener time for me! It was a decent dog.

Please note the coin in the picture for size reference: that is ONE LARGE DUTCH NUTCAKE!

World Of Plonkers always has something cookin' eh? What next?? Only in Amsterdam?

Beautiful Vondelpark, where Rich and I spent an afternoon dozing and taking pictures of each other riding bicycles!

Pretty much some of the top fries I've eaten. Recommended by our wonderful cousins in Amsterdam, this tiny shop "Vleminckx" sounds like a an old troll huffing cough medicine then horking on the side of the road, who knew it would such deliciously delightful, freshly cut, crunchy soft and salty fries with amazing sauces, such as green peppercorn (my fave, I had it twice!) and peanut satay sauce?? Thanks Danielle for the sauce recommendation!!

My hubster with our two "mittel" sized cones. Screw the "kleine" size, we're going big!

Sauce on fries. Wonderful stuff.

This stuff was love at first bite. Speculoos! Peanut butter with an extra twist-- cinammony sugary goodness! Cousin-in-law Bryan gave me two jars to take home, and my heart BROKE when they were taken away from me at airport security!!! They were in my holiday gifts carry-on bag, and apparently peanut butter is a VERY DANGEROUS GEL. Wahhhh! I am still bummed!!!

The bestest hosts, cousin-in-law Bryan and soon to be cousin-in-law Danielle!

Cool cousin Bryan brought home a rather stellar Dutch apple pie!

Delicious! Served with berry frozen yogurt too.

Sniff sniff-- smelling the roses. Amsterdam is truly pretty, just like these flowers!

FEBO: Hot cheese party sticks! From a vending machine even!

Yes, we had to try it. Hot shwarma burger inside a little Bladerunner-esque warming oven/vending machine? Why not!

Counting coinage... "do I have enough for a cheese patty burger?"

"Why yes, I did have just enough! Come on out, you little rascal!"

Deep fried cheese in a patty format, soft bun, bits of shredded iceberg lettuce... definitely worth 1 euro 50!!!

Yay Amsterdam... we hope to visit you again soon... next up, Taste of Berlin... !!!

xo Lyndsay

Are You Dying With Pained Out Amazedness??

2009-06-01T18:25:00.001-07:00

Cakes By Destini created this bonkers cake/cupcakes combo for her nephew's 6th birthday!! Holy smokes. The attention to detail is sooo awesome...! Little hot dogs with grill marks, little corns and delicious looking mini burgers?? And watermelon sugar cookies for loot bags? Destini, you're killing me, lady! With your amazingness!

Bento Of Shape

2009-05-28T13:18:00.001-07:00

I am bent out of shape by these amazing BENTO BOX creations by Lucky Sundae!
Here is what Lucky Sundae has to say about her work:

"I'm into making Charaben(kyaraben). Charaben( the bento which designed the character of the cartoon or a picture book ) is getting popular in Japan recently. Many Japanese mothers try the cute and funny bento box for their children. I make such a kyara ben for my boy twice a week. It's 4 years custom. I learn English for a long time, but have no chance to output. Please let me know what you think about my bento and tell me when my English was wrong :-D."

Really amazing stuff! It would be tough to eat it, it's so beautifully designed!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
BUT WAIT: Check these out, by Sakurako Kitsa!

She is another bento artist with bonkers stuff. Check out her Flickr here. I find the green mayonaisey mask on the woman's face sooo weird and disturbing but soooo awesome at the same time! I originally saw her work on Poppytalk. That pale, pale thinly sliced ham is reminding me of my cousin Christopher's FAVORITE dish at Cambodian Vietnamese restaurant Phnom Penh in Vancouver, Vietnamese ham!

A Terrible New Discovery

2009-05-27T21:09:00.000-07:00

I discovered rather recently how much I enjoy crunching on delicious chips. Chips such as Kettle Chips brand salt & pepper ripple chips. Each chip is like a meal. They are very thick, crunchy and deliciously salty and peppery. They are therefore deeply evil, as they are not the best snack to eat for those trying to watch their 5"6 figure but not watching very hard.

Chip bags! Check them out! Crazy times! The top bag: I can't decide which one is me. Far left is too insane. Middle seems too drab. Right is drabber. Actually I guess I'd probs be the lady in the middle. Double denim. Also, it's definitely worth a click on the top pic for a close-up view. Ladies, you can learn some things from these Homegirls... !

This Is How We Do It

2009-05-26T15:05:00.000-07:00

Montell Jordan anyone? As a family growing up in Vancouver in the 1980s and 1990s and even today (though now I do much of the family special occasion baking!), major holidays and events always culminated in a gorgeous spread of dazzling cakes and fine pastries from Bon Ton. Nothing said special occasion better than a full-on buttercream and rich-pastry-attack Diplomat cake, with beautifully piped bright red buttercream roses atop layers of flaky buttery pastry. Everyone wanted the slice with the rose when we were kids, with a side of cream-filled chocolate eclair or a perfect jam puff! I remember stories my grandma and aunties would tell me of lining up there on Christmas Eve to get log cakes and special holiday cakes for Christmas Day.

I am sad yet happy to see they have updated their website... ! I love random websites that have no design sense, quickly put together by an uncle who read a book on Web Design For Dummies because someone told them they needed to step into the 21st century with a "web presence." But now, their site is really cute, dragging refined Old Lady Bon Ton into the world of modern, stylish, confectionary-crazed urbanites with Bon Ton's classic, ornate, and now ironically, vintage-looking cakes (they've been doing it this way since 1926! Of course they look vintage-- they are!), buttercream filled petit fours and chocolate eclairs.

I love the look of the white cakes with the single bright shiny red maraschino cherry in the center. Looks kind of like these modern retro confections, no? Yes, I love vintage look cakes and treats... but I've also always loved Bon Ton, thanks to family memories... Marzipan scrolls with "Merry Christmas", or "HappyBirthday" piped in chocolate... I snapped the above pics on Christmas Eve dinner 2008. The top two pics are from Flickr.

Nisshodo Mochiya Chichi Dango

2009-05-25T19:19:00.001-07:00

In Honolulu, Hawaii, there is an amazing little factory in a nondescript building called NISSHODO. There, if you go during business hours, you can buy straight from their little counter in the front of the factory, CHICHI DANGO in 1 pound boxes, or soft, scrumptious peanut butter mochi, red bean filled mochi, etc, etc.

What is mochi? Mochi is a soft, sweet, slightly chewy and delicious Japanese "candy." Dango, however, according to the book "The Food Of Paradise" by Rachel Laudan, is boiled dough balls of Mochiko rice flour and sugar. So a different form of mochi! I wonder if this is the method that Nisshodo follows? My next goal is to interview the wonderful folks at Nisshodo Mochiya. Perhaps on the next trip to Hawaii, or via email... !

While I wrote about Chichi Dango in a previous post, my Auntie goes to Hawaii every year for a few weeks and asked me if I wanted her to bring anything back... so of course I said my favorite mochi, Nisshodo Chichi Dango!!

I also have included a recipe I found online for basic sweet mochi. I haven't tried it yet but I thought I would share it with you. Then you can read the ingredients of what is involved in mochi!!

Basic Mochi, using Mochiko flour (Japanese rice flour, available at Fujiya in Vancouver)

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups mochiko, plus more for dusting
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/3 cups water
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup

INSTRUCTIONS

Place mochiko and salt in a large bowl and stir until thoroughly combined.
Combine water, sugar, and corn syrup in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce to a simmer and cook, stirring, until sugar is dissolved, about 5 to 6 minutes.
Make a well in the center of the mochiko mixture and pour in the sugar syrup. Stir until all flour is incorporated. Immediately turn dough onto a work surface lightly floured with mochiko and knead until smooth and elastic, about 4 to 5 minutes; dust with more mochiko as needed to prevent sticking.
Pinch off tablespoon-size pieces and, using a floured rolling pin or your hands, flatten into 3-inch circles about 1/8 inch thick.
Dust rice cakes with mochiko and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Cover in plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator or freezer, or use as desired.

Dessert Sushi, Hot Dog Cake

2009-04-29T08:12:00.001-07:00

Nigiri yum yum! Yep, it's cake!

Hot diggity cake dog! Wiener time!

Can you believe it? Too awesome. Pics from Flickr.

Flamingo

2009-04-13T12:16:00.001-07:00

Imagine a fuschia pink feathered bird in a tropical setting, with long legs and a funny beak. Now imagine that same bird hanging around at a Chinese restaurant having Dim Sum.

Flamingo on Cambie Street in Vancouver... a sparkly sign; tanks of live fish, elastic banded brown lobsters and spidery, spindly King Crab; pink tablecloths, hot steamed har-gow and pink-outfitted waitresses.

The last time I took my Poh poh to Flamingo, there was a quiet table in the corner: an older, heavy-set, awkward looking Caucasian man and a young, thin, heavily made up Asian girl in short skirt, high boots and skanky-ish shirt. Sweet and sour pork sat between them, and no conversation or even remote interest in each other took place. I wondered if "throw in a Chinese dinner" was part of the deal they made??

At another table a little fat kid squirmed around on a burgundy velveteen chair, squirmed all the way out of his tshirt and fell on his butt on the floor with no shirt on.

WILDCARDS at Flamingo!!!

Pictured here: dim sum with my Poh poh, mom and dad on a weekday afternoon.

Doesn't that crab at the bottom just look like he's saying "hellloooo" to the camera??

Some More Nutty Club Stuff

2009-04-11T21:30:00.001-07:00

More Nutty Club! My next project is to contact Scott Bathgate Industries and conduct an interview all about NUTTY CLUB! Stay tuned!

They Ain't Foolin' : Foo's Ho Ho

2009-04-02T09:40:00.000-07:00

For trillions of years and a few generations at least, my family has been going to Foo's Ho Ho in Chinatown, Vancouver. My parents still go there before B.C. Lions football games with a bunch of friends (yes, my parents have Lions season tickets!!) Foo's Ho Ho is the type of spot that sells your classic "Chinese-Canadian" style dishes-- sweet and sour pork, lemon chicken, all deep fried with a slop of thick, brightly colored sauces, but you can also get some crazier dishes, and more strictly Chinesey dishes. Or special dishes, such as the pre-order only mayonaise-drenched Peking duck salad with lychee and maraschino cherries.

The atmosphere screams painfully for a restaurant makeover-- dismally painted walls, fluorescent lighting, plastic water jugs, glasses for your hot tea, rickety old tables and seats-peeling chairs. But they keep on truckin' the way they are, they ain't gonna change, and why bother? Restaurants like this need to exist, trapped in time and still servin'. Pass me the Li Mon Gai please!!

Go Ho Ho go!

Balls Of Joy

2009-03-29T22:53:00.000-07:00

TNT!

Not quite like the ACDC song. I'm thinking more T&T Supermarket. But I always think of the song when I think of T&T, Canada's Asian supermarket superstore! So my awesome dad sometimes helps my baking business by running grocery errands for me... I love my dad!! And the other day, along with cans of coconut milk and bags of leaky icing sugar, he brought with him two boxes of frozen delights from Asian Supermarket Land:

LOTTE!! Which is the yummiest most delightfully soft Japanese mochi covered ice cream balls; and the second box: weird-ass Imuraya-brand ice cream cone coated green tea ice cream and red bean filled frozen dessert.

Lotte taste test: Scrumptious. A light and airy ball of vanilla ice cream "enrobed" (hate that word, but ridiculously fun to use, strangely) in mochi jacket.

Weird-ass ice cream cone coated green tea ice cream thing: Weird-ass. The light green colored "coating" really tasted just like those unflavoured ice cream cones you get when you cheap out at an ice cream parlour and don't get the sugar cone.

If you're having a green tea and azuki bean ice cream craving, try seeking out Maeda-en brand! Buy a pint of each flavour and scoop it up, scoop it up. Or, buy some green tea ice cream and pre-packaged azuki beans found at Japanese grocery or probs T&T, and you have a delicious little Asian-zone sundae! Note to Vancouverites: I found Maeda-en at little Norm's Fruit & Salad on Commercial Drive and Gravelly Street. NICE!

TASTE OF HAWAII

2009-03-22T22:05:00.001-07:00

My family and I just returned from a mega fun trip in Maui, land of whales, lore, and AMAZING cool food stuffs. I have fond, fond memories of family trips to Hawaii as a kid, so lucky to be able to boogie board all day, run up the sand to beach towels and umbrellas and snack on Maui onion chips, drink Hawaiian Sun guava and passionfruit ice cold canned juices and tear into teriyaki burgers from the Rainbow Drive-In in Waikiki. I remember going to Hawaii in grade 9, I had a super wicked Body Glove flourescent cut out swimsuit!

Anyhow... highlights from this trip to Maui: BUBBIES, which are delicious mochi ice cream balls found in grocery store freezers; my dad's Hawaiian style breakfast: fried spam slices, Portugese sausage, white rice and fried egg; the same fried spam between chunks of soft, fluffy King's Hawaiian sweet bread; ice cold cans of Hawaiian Sun juices; plain tart yogurt with fruit and macadamia nuts and Haupia chocolate cream pie!

On Oahu you can find plenty of "shave ice" places, which is finely finely shaved ice colored and doused in juices and sweet syrups with Japanese anko (sweet red beans) and vanilla ice cream! Matsumoto is perhaps the most famous, and there's a reason: SUPER OISHI!! Honolulu is also the home of the amazing Nisshodo mochi!! We headed straight for the "factory" and stocked up on the soft, delicious and tender Chichi Dango, a total Hawaiian taste memory for me. Also, if you're heading to Waikiki, a crucial stop is Ala Moana Center, not for the wicked stores but for the BEST FOOD FAIR EVER. Also they have Shirokiya, the Japanese department store, with the most scrumptious and well priced Japanese quick eats, like prepackaged super fresh sushi, black cod, inari, noodles and sweets. Shirokiya also has a gourmet mochi ice cream stand!

I miss swimming in the warm Pacific ocean (here in Vancouver you can really only swim in the hot days of summer cause otherwise it's too chilly!), the rustle of palm tree fingers dangling in the tropical breeze... and the FOOD!

xo

NUTTY CLUB: the sequel

2009-02-28T08:56:00.001-08:00

NUTTY CLUB: Where Nuts and Candies hang out, "famous for quality"

a fantastic photo of Nutty Club HQ by Winnipeg artist photographer Bryan Scott

A small but forgivable typing error in my favorite cupcakes sprinkles, above!

scrumptious seafood sauce? i think yes! don't forget to "bien agiter"

midgets across canada rejoice: a mix just for you, and your friends, friends like me!

So I've been into Nutty Club and its jazzy packaging for years now. Nutty Club is stuck in a bygone era, one that makes me want to continue to buy their Sprinkles, Trimettes and ju-jube Midget Mix. A look and feel that makes me continue to search for their products in mini towns in Canada and British Columbia, and seek their products on grocery store shelves. Nutty Club has never changed their wonderful branding. Candy-stripes, designed-in-the-1950s font, a Candy Man with a "Hello my darlin' Hello my baby" vibe. Wonderful, just wonderful! If they ever re-brand I may as well hang up my baking apron.

HAMBURGER CAKE 3: VENGEANCE

2009-02-16T21:54:00.000-08:00

The third installment in the popular "Hamburger Cake" series, this episode features Hamburger Cake getting all dressed up with one place to go: a 30th birthday party! Enjoying once again its chocolate ganache filling and various coloured buttercream frostings, a new addition to "Hamburger Cake 3: Vengeance" is its jumbo confetti sprinkles affixed with buttercream, used to emulate a sesame seed bun. As Rich Trawick noted, "Another Jack-In-The-Box-style hamburger cake with the flat top sourdough bun!" Right he is!

Critics rate "Hamburger Cake 3: Vengeance" with a healthy "two thumbs up" for deliciousness factor, cuteness factor and hamburger-likeness, and likeability.

Stay tuned, mega fans, for the next episode in the ever-popular "Hamburger Cake" series...!

Also, from the makers of "Hamburger Cake" comes the future production of... "HOT DOG CAKE"... stay tuned... coming in 2009 to a party near you!

HAMBURGER CAKE TWO

2009-02-01T20:49:00.000-08:00

I made this for my dad's 64th birthday!!

Trompe L'oeil: Foody Goody!

2008-11-17T21:35:00.001-08:00

My hamburger cake! Coconut vanilla cake, dark chocolate cake, buttercream and filled with chocolate coconut milk ganache!

Josh W's "Hot Dogs" that are split Twinkies with a pink coconut log roll and chopped up maraschino cherries for "relish"

Mini burgers by Amy P, vanilla wafers, chocolate peppermint patties and dyed green shredded coconut!

Rich's Churro-style dessert "french fries" with berry compote "ketchup"