The Omnivore's Hundred (58 out of 100 for me!)

Here's a meme for you foodies out there! Bold the ones you've tried, and cross out the ones you would never put in your mouth. Have fun!

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1. Venison

2. Nettle tea

3. Huevos rancheros

4. Steak tartare (carpaccio yes, tartare, no :()

5. Crocodile

6. Black pudding

7. Cheese fondue

8. Carp

9. Borscht

10. Baba ghanoush

11. Calamari

12. Pho

13. PB&J sandwich

14. Aloo gobi

15. Hot dog from a street cart

16. Epoisses

17. Black truffle

18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes

19. Steamed pork buns

20. Pistachio ice cream

21. Heirloom tomatoes [blogged]

22. Fresh wild berries

23. Foie gras

24. Rice and beans

25. Brawn or head cheese

26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper

27. Dulce de leche (making your own is awesome easy when you use tins of sweetened condensed milk!)

28. Oysters

29. Baklava

30. Bagna cauda

31. Wasabi peas

32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl (Boudin!)

33. Salted lassi (I've had sweet lassi, and lassi with mango...)

34. Sauerkraut

35. Root beer float

36. Cognac with a fat cigar (I've had both, but on separate occasions)

37. Clotted Cream Tea

38. Vodka Jelly/Jell-O

39. Gumbo

40. Oxtail

41. Curried goat (not sure if I've actually had them together, but I've also had them on separate occasions..)

42. Whole insects

43. Phaal

44. Goat's milk (in cheese, not sure if I've had it in milk form yet)

45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth $120 or more (knowing my cousins and brother, I probably have)

46. Fugu

47. Chicken tikka masala

48. Eel

49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut

50. Sea urchin (I love uni!)

51. Prickly pear

52. Umeboshi

53. Abalone

54. Paneer

55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal (unfortnately..)

56. Spaetzle

57. Dirty gin martini

58. Beer above 8% ABV (not so sure about this one)

59. Poutine [Available in SF here] (no, but I've tried In-N-Out fries Animal-style.. :)

60. Carob chips

61. S’mores

62. Sweetbreads

63. kaolin

64. Currywurst

65. Durian (in candies and ice cream, I must have tried the real fruit at least once, but the smell really is quite pungent..)

66. Frogs’ legs

67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake

68. Haggis

69. Fried plantain

70. Chitterlings or andouillette

71. Gazpacho

72. Caviar and blini

73. Louche absinthe

74. Gjetost or brunost (Hm...probably...)

75. Roadkill (Ugh!! Maybe if I were desperate enough...which I don't think will ever happen...)

76. Baijiu

77. Hostess Fruit Pie (blegh)

78. Snail

79. Lapsang Souchong

80. Bellini

81. Tom Yum

82. Eggs Benedict

83. Pocky

84. 3 Michelin Star Tasting Menu (Someday, I will!)

85. Kobe beef

86. Hare (Does rabbit count?)

87. Goulash

88. Flowers

89. Horse

90. Criollo chocolate

91. Spam

92. Soft shell crab

93. Rose harissa [only had regular harissa, must correct this]

94. Catfish

95. Mole poblano

96. Bagel and lox

97. Lobster Thermidor

98. Polenta

99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee

100. Snake

Half-Assed...

I was going to attempt to post pictures, but I got discouraged by Flickr (I'm going to just have to use the links from the pictures I posted in Facebook) and distracted by my guitar and what I thought was a song but turned out to be my usual half a stanza of a verse, which I may or may not forget by tomorrow morning*, who knows. So instead, I'm just going to talk about school, especially since it starts in about a day and a half.

The orientation last Saturday went well. The ride over using the Muni train and bus was a bit nerve-wracking, but I made it there and with time to spare. So much time, in fact, that I was there 20 minutes before the orientation was supposed to start. Which didn't matter, since we started like an hour and a half late. Once we got the ball rolling with the smarmy introductions of the important people at school, we got to walking around the building and checking out our future classrooms. I would just like to say that my reaction to the butchery room has simply confirmed that I have taken the right path and stuck with pastry rather than moving to the full culinary program. I don't know if I could have lasted in there smelling for hours what I only took one whiff of before I decided to leave the room. But the baking kitchen was beautiful! Towards the end of the tour, we got our work shoes (the infamously uncomfortable and just plain ugly shoes..) and our uniforms and books! I, personally, was very disappointed in that we didn't get our knife kits yet, but was ultimately glad that we didn't, because I unfortunately had to lug all that crap home by myself on the Muni. Just imagine a big ol' laundry bag stuffed with 24 side towels, 5 commis hats, 5 chef's coats, 5 pairs of checkered pants, 5 neckchiefs, 5 aprons, my shoes, and a couple of textbooks and a big binder. I vaguely remember someone warning me to bring someone along, if not at least just drive to the orientation (just like I vaguely remember someone telling me in March that the campus I was to visit was on Rhode Island St. and not in Polk.. >.<), but oh well.

The school itself is in a kind of shady area (Potrero Hill is not as bad as the old campus in the Tenderloin, though!), but apparently since the arrival of CCA it has been shaping up a bit, albeit very slowly. I wonder what going home at 8pm everyday is going to be like. It's ironic enough that I complained about Seattle and not wanting to live in the city, and yet here I am in another big city, wandering around and using bus transportation.

I met a few people during the orientation. One was a guy from Western Washington University who finished his degree in management before coming down for his culinary degree. One good thing he told me about San Francisco is that you can take your bike onto the trains, but if you do it during rush hour, you will be kicked off the train. The next one was a girl named Phieta, who will be my classmate in pastry. Besides the other students and faculty that I've met, I was able to speak to Haley, who had previously taken care of me as a new student before she moved to a new department (from Admissions to Student Services). I also walked past my finanical aid advisor, Corina, without realizing it until we spoke on the phone afterwards.

The ride home was interesting, seeing that the bus I took to the train was quite packed, so maneuvering around the other riders was kinda difficult with all that junk I had to take home. I met a fellow classmate (culinary) on the bus as well, and it turns out he's a musician, too. We might collab, I'll have to see how things go with work and school and all. Anyway, I finally made it home at around 2 or 3, and passed out hardcore.

I guess you can say I'm excited...I'm just so worried about getting good grades, and actually enjoying going to school. I know it's not your regular liberal arts university at all, but still. I (and my mom) sacrificed a lot just to get me here, so it's all I can do to not screw up. I suppose that these past few weeks of not really having much to worry about has given me the opportunity to make myself sick with worry about anything my mind can concoct. I really can't wait to start school and work and take my mind off of my worries.

Oh, which reminds me...I start work at Williams-Sonoma officially next week! I was hoping they'd get me on the schedule earlier, seeing that I'm quite tired of being broke, but they couldn't so I have to see if they'll need me later on this week, or just wait till the 25th. I'm excited, because I'm getting pretty decent pay for a mall job ($9.75 to start isn't so bad), and I get 40% discount from all Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, and West Elm stores! So...all the ridiculously expensive knives are now only slightly less so! Yay! hehe. I'm a bit nervous as I'll be doing both front and back duties, meaning I can't just hide away from customers and that I'll have to know enough about what we sell to give sales pitches.

Well, that's all for now, I guess. I was going to cook some kaldareta (a Filipino beef stew), but since I used my cash last night to buy a delicious burger at Darla's (I couldn't take it anymore, I needed to get out of the house after spending all day doing laundry and ironing my uniforms, so I accompanied my roommate, Van, to a bakery near Irving and wouldn't you know it if we happened to stop by right near Darla's!) I don't have the money for buying the ingredients for tonight's dinner. :( We'll see...if I really feel like it in about an hour or so, I'll just hop over to Safeway and just use my credit card.


*It is actually tomorrow morning now, or afternoon anyway, since I fell asleep at 5am halfway through writing this entry.

Let me reassure you (or at least myself)...

...that I am not dead, I merely have taken time off because 1.) I simply have been busy enjoying what's left of my summer, and b.) I myself have not done anything food-wise that has been worthy enough to blog about (right away, anyway).

But!! I will make it up to you. I have tons of pictures from the summer, which I would love to share with you (in the form of flickr slideshows, or links to their eventual albums on facebook). Also, I went to my school orientation yesterday! So stories will ensue.

For now, however, I'm still adjusting to life in San Francisco. While the weather is still frumpy, I hear the Indian summer will make up for all of it. Also, my roommates are pretty cool (I guess I finally got something good out of Craigslist!). I do, however, miss Kevin and Shortcake, and all my friends.

So here's to a new life, new friends, and new life with old friends, and a great time at school! :D

I almost died... (The Roasted Elephant Garlic Mashed Potatoes Saga)

I know, it's been a while. Nothing food-related has happened to me lately, really...except a pretty good dinner at this restaurant called Stanford's (if you order the tenderloin tips, be sure to ask for the bing cherry demi-glace instead of the original!), and I made muffins last week (if I make them again today or some other time, I'll be sure to post pictures and the recipe). The day before yesterday, though, shall go down in my cooking history as the best mashed potatoes I have ever made. Actually, I think this was the first time I've ever even made them, but still.

Okay, it's not rocket science. But after tweaking an already good recipe I found for garlic mashed potatoes, I think I really have a winner here. So, without further ado, I give you:


Roasted Elephant Garlic Mashed Potatoes!

Elephant? Elephant garlic?? What the heck? ....That's what you're saying or thinking, right? Well, yes, that's what I said. ELEPHANT GARLIC.


As in, garlic so big it comfortably sits in the hand of your palm.


It's actually more related to a leek than a garlic, which explains why it has such a milder garlic flavor than one would expect, especially with it being so large. I happened to see this little (ha!) baby at WinCo, and damn it all if I didn't buy one because it was just so big. When I brought it home, I really didn't know what to do with it. I used 1/3 (ONE THIRD!!) of one clove as a substitute for one clove of a regular-sized garlic in some sardines from a tin in tomato sauce that I cooked up last week and was disappointed, of course, in how mild the flavor was.

It wasn't until the day before yesterday that I thought of my Elephant garlic in the pantry, just crying out for attention. Kevin grilled up with some steak the other day in my new 14" Weber grill, but we didn't grill all of it in one go. Not wanting to make haste and in turn possibly make waste, I thought of making mashed potatoes to go with some of the steak I wanted to fry up for dinner the next night. The next day, we passed by the Renton City Center on my way to drop Kevin off at the transit center to catch his bus to work, and I realized that there was a Farmers' Market (every Tuesday from 3pm)! I proceeded to buy 4 large (read: ones the size of my fist) Russet red potatoes, a bunch of asparagus, and some strawberries that I have yet to figure out in what I shall use them.

Anyway, so by the end of the night, the menu was as follows: Thin steak marinated for two days in Stubb's, Elephant Garlic Asparagus with Parmesan, and Roasted Elephant Garlic mashed potatoes. Here are the recipes, but before I continue I would like to say that I. LOVE. CHEESE. Having said that, the measurements below for Parmesan cheese is probably half of what I actually put in there.



Roasted Elephant Garlic Mashed Potatoes

You need:
4 Russet potatoes the size of my fist (heh), peeled if desired, and cubed
3 cloves of Elephant garlic, chopped
olive oil, to drizzle over garlic
1/2 (or more..) cup of grated Parmesan cheese
3 tbsp butter (add a tbsp or two if richer potatoes are desired)
1/2 cup milk (half and half or heavy cream may be substituted for creamier potatoes)
salt, pepper, and chopped parsley, to taste

1. Drizzle olive oil over chopped Elephant garlic, bake at 375 degrees (or broil) until golden brown.
2. Meanwhile, boil potatoes in slightly salted water until tender enough to mash with a fork.
3. Using electric mixer or masher, combine all ingredients above, beat or mash until consistency desired is reached. Serves at least 4.


Elephant Garlic Asparagus with Parmesan

You need:
1 bunch of fresh asparagus, bottoms cut off, can be cut into 1- or 2-inch pieces if desired
2 tbsp olive oil
1 clove Elephant garlic, minced
salt, to taste
grated Parmesan cheese, to taste

1. Heat oil in a pan over medium to medium high heat. Toast garlic until golden brown, taking care to stir often so garlic sticks as little as possible.
2. Toss in asparagus, sprinkle salt on top, and saute until the asparagus is tender.
3. Transfer to serving bowl or plate, and top with grated Parmesan. If desired, the asparagus and cheese can be placed in the broiler for a few minutes to make the cheese crispy. Serves at least 2.


BONUS PICS!!

my sexy mixer


my sexy grill


cream puffs I made for our small get-together at Lois's to meet baby Aria! I'm reaching out for the small ducky shaped one...


see? ^_^

Heston Blumenthal is my new hero.

Not so long ago, my friend, Nick, told me about his attempt at bacon ice cream. Needless to say, he was almost banned from his mom's kitchen for it, but that only propelled us into finding more unconventional uses for bacon.

That was about a month or so ago, and since then I hadn't really thought about bacon ice cream until now. Through a bit of link association (you know, when you start reading one thing, find and click a link to something interesting, and on that page you find another link, so on and so forth), I ended up on the blog archives of Ice Cream Ireland. Once again, bacon ice cream had resurfaced into my conscious, but this time in the form of Egg and Bacon ice cream.

This little gem is from "Kitchen Chemistry", which aired on Discovery Science in the UK. Through another bit of link association on Youtube, I came upon Heston Blumenthal's mini-series, "In Search of Perfection", in particular, the search for the Perfect Burger.







With an opening theme song almost as catchy as the Katamari theme and the very charismatic Heston Blumenthal as your host, I found it extremely hard not to like this show. And now I have another really bad reason why I will be late to work today. :)

Bodacious Barbecue!

Yesterday, Kevin and I went to this great little mom and pop place in Renton with wonderful service and some great sweet tea called Bill's Bodacious Barbecue. Kevin and I felt like going out and enjoying the sun, which seems to be making more and more of an appearance finally, so we headed out in search of food and a park to enjoy the rest of the afternoon (as we got a late start to our day). As we began our drive, we were deliberating what to get (fast food? Panera? Famous Dave's?), but Kevin could tell that I ultimately didn't want any of our usual fares. Suddenly, he asked me again, "Do you want barbecue?" Knowing full well he didn't mean Famous Dave's which I had already shot down, I said, "...Sure..." and before I knew it, Kevin had turned into the Ikea parking lot to make a shortcut and drove back around to where we came from, and then headed in the complete opposite direction than what we had started.

We drove up to a place that didn't look so charming on the outside which made me apprehensive of what I might find inside, but once we stepped in the door my mind changed a little. There were well done murals of a forest and a mountain (most likely Rainer), a nice big flat screen up in the corner, and, of course, the display cases showcasing some very homestyle-looking desserts. Carol, Bodacious Bill's wife, took good care of us at the register, helped us decide what to order, and gave us great directions on how to get to a very nice park by the water near the Fry's in Renton (I know, strange location, but really a nice oasis in the business district jungle).

So we munched on tender, smoky ribs, beef brisket, corn muffins, and red beans and rice (for Kevin) and potato salad (for me). I think the star of the meal (not including desserts, because they each deserved a star of their own) was definitely the ribs; the meat was tender, juicy, and just fell right off the bones. The beef brisket, too, was soft and flavorful, but half of me wished we had just gotten a whole slab of ribs. The barbecue sauce was tangy, not too sweet, and had just the right amount of spice to give it a kick, but not to mask everything with a peppery fire. I'm not quite a connoisseur of cornbread, so I personally thought it was dry compared to the cornbread I had made out of a Jiffy box and to which I added sundried tomatoes and garlic for Thanksgiving last year. But once I slathered butter on it, I couldn't help but gobble the golden morsel up in a flash. Kevin said the cornbread was good (he drizzled a bit of honey on his), and he loves cornbread, so if you can't take my word for it, take his.



The sweet tea was the best I have ever had, and was served full in cups the size of my head. Who can beat that?



The blackberry cobbler and sweet potato pie were great enders to the feast. We had eaten so much before dessert, though, that we had to end up taking them home barely touched... which is no problem to me, because I have a feeling I will fully enjoy eating some reaheated pie and cobbler with some of the Vanilla Honey Bee ice cream I have stashed away in the freezer at home. :)


My favorite dessert anytime, anywhere. :) Anyway, we took a nap/lazed about in the park for a good hour or so after our feast, then went to Fry's to drool over all the electronics we were too broke to buy. We consoled ourselves by watching Iron Man, which was a really great movie! Hopefully, it's the start to a string of movies that look really good that are coming out this spring/summer. Next up, Speed Racer, Indiana Jones, The Dark Knight, Wall-E.

I should find a good recipe for sweet tea and ribs and cornbread (homemade this time!)...

sheer joy

It's one of very few things I will miss about Washington, but eating Aplets and Cotlets seem to do my soul good once in a while. I guess it's the memories that come attached to it (my mom would let us have one late at night once in a while as a special treat), but who can resist the apple- or apricot-flavored jelly candies with delicious crunchy walnuts inside? Cola-flavored gummies come in close, but not too close..



Also, Haagen Dazs is premiering (rereleasing? Apparently, it was sold about 10 years ago as well..) a new flavor of ice cream! Vanilla Honey Bee!! It is AMAZING. At first, the honey taste isn't so strong, but the more you eat it, the more intense it becomes! If I ever work on my own kind of honey ice cream (the ice cream attachment for my Kitchenaid is sooo expensive.. $80 T_T), I might add some swirls of real honey in it, but the Vanilla Honey Bee ice crea is perfect how the honey flavor builds as you eat. In fact, I told Lois when we tried some that people would be sad after they ate a scoop, because once you start really getting into the flavor, your ice cream is finished! I was speaking from personal experience, of course. :) So come try some at FREE CONE DAY, May 13, at University Haagen Dazs on the Ave!! :D

Dinner at Andy's on Friday night was amazing...kakifurai (fried oysters), and tiny fried fish, sushi and rolls, miso soup made up the bulk of the menu. Next time we will tackle macaroons with Frangelico-flavored filling! :D

In other news, I bought myself a new 7-inch santoku knife with a pink handle by Kitchenaid. I will post updates on said purchase once I get a chance to try it out. ^_^