Kahlua Whip Cream

I experimented with Kahlua Whipped Cream tonight. I can't believe I waited so long! I used the usual heavy whipping cream, then I added 2 teaspoons of kahlua. It came out fairly mild, but with just a taste of the kahlua. The aftertaste is just right, if you ask me =D

I scooped some vanilla ice cream for Xang and topped it with the whipped cream (but didn't tell him about the flavoring) and he really liked it.

I'll be experimenting with more flavors...

Takoyaki

Takoyaki is fried (yaki) octopus (tako) balls.  It is a regional speciality of the Kansai (Osaka) area and dearly loved by the Japanese people.  I have to confess that when I first moved to the Osaka area I did not like takoyaki very much.  But over the years it has "grown" on me. 

Kids in Japan love takoyaki.  

It makes a nice little snack.  Luke and I ate this takoyaki snack at the little stand near our train station.  What a deal.  Five little octopus balls for only 100 yen!

When you visit Osaka, you can even visit the takoyaki museum (photo above).  Enjoy!

Crate & Barrel's Creme Brulee

As far as I’m concerned, if something tastes good, it tastes even better if you get a deal on it. A couple weeks ago I was at Crate & Barrel and found a crème brulee mix on holiday clearance. Regular price was $4.95, sale price was $1.50! I didn’t know how good it would be but, I took home the last 3 boxes on the shelf =D

I’ve always liked crème brulee, and I’ve always wanted to learn how to make it. In fact, a long time ago, my mom even bought me one of those culinary torches so that I could melt the sugar on top. I’ve only used it a couple times, so this was a great opportunity.

The mix makes 4 cappuccino crème brulees. I experimented and added 1/2 teaspoon kahlua to 2 of them. Here’s a picture of one of the dishes, with the culinary torch. I added whipped cream too, since I think good whipped cream goes with everything!


A close-up of the creme brulee

Creme brulee, whip cream maker, and culinary torch.

(The whipped cream maker is my other favorite kitchen gadget. Just add heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar, and insert a nitrogen cartridge and yahoo! The pamphlet said you can also add chocolate, liqueur, or other flavors, but I haven’t yet tried them. I will do that soon though and post how it goes.)

I have 2 more boxes of the mix, and I’ll definitely be enjoying them!

Sushi Avenue and Egg Works

I have more photos to transfer from my phone (I forgot if there was an easy way to do it!). I've been eating out too much. Last Wed. Suki and I went to Sushi Avenue (On Flamingo off the 215) where we always order the Chirashi and share an Agedashi Tofu. The fish is always fresh and most of the time I like the rice.


We average going there once a week. The week before, we were kinda in a hurry so it was great because when we ordered, the waitress confessed she had already put our order in!



I want to someday make my own agedashi dofu...I already tried once, but the sauce didn't come out very good. That wasn't the only thing that went wrong, but one thing at a time!

The other pictures I have are from breakfast at Egg Works on Flamingo and Ft. Apache. I'm happy to find there are breakfast places here...I just didn't know they were here!

I had the works parfait? I already forgot what it was called! Yogurt, granola, blueberries, mandarin oranges, bananas...yummy.



It came with a choice of toast or muffin and Haley and the waitress suggested the carrot cake muffin. Excellent suggestion - very moist.

Haley had the Works scramble with spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms and feta cheese. I may have to order that next time.

Kara's Cupcakes, Palo Alto, CA

It seems like everybody has cupcake fever. Cupcakes, cupcakes, and more cupcakes. Most of the bakeries tout that they have the best cupcakes in the Bay Area. I'm a little wary. My favorite bakery began making fancy cupcakes about a year ago and they are AWFUL. Every thing else is lovely, but not the cupcakes. Plus they're EXPENSIVE. I digress.

Recently, a couple of well known cupcake purveyors opened up shop in Palo Alto. One of them is Kara's Cupcakes. It's pretty legendary in how good their cupcakes are and has 4 locations in the Bay Area. I was curious. I convinced Rick to take me (I was too lazy to drive myself :D) by telling him how wonderful the cupcakes are. Being a good husband, we packed up the Emi-chan and drove off to Kara's.

It's a cute little shop. Very pink. If I was a guy, I wouldn't be comfortable in this place unless I was with my girlfriend/wife/sister/mom/female friend. Except for these 2 guys...


The show case had rows and rows of cute, fluffy looking cupcakes. I chose 3 cupcakes: Sweet Vanilla, Sweet Chocolate, and Java.

L to R: Sweet Vanilla, Java
Bottom: Sweet Chocolate

After dinner, Rick and I taste tested 2 of the cupcakes. I had Sweet Vanilla and Rick had Java. I wasn't really thrilled with the Sweet Vanilla. It just tasted like...vanilla (duh). Kinda bland and frosting was a little too sweet. Rick liked the Java. The butter cream frosting had bits of coffee beans mixed in. However, he wasn't too thrilled when I told him how much each cupcake cost: $3.25 each. He said his cupcake didn't taste very good after I told him the price. I took a taste and really liked the frosting. It had oomph compared to the vanilla.

The next day, I ate the Sweet Chocolate (it was really for Emi-chan, but I was hungry). I really enjoyed this one. It was like eating a very luscious, expensive box of chocolate candy. The sweet frosting and the simple cake balanced each other out very well.

Overall, I liked Kara's Cupcakes and will visit, but only after I save up my quarters so I can afford to come back again.

Here for a moment...

...and gone in a flash!

Pho for lunch

There are 2 restaurants that I usually go to with Suki. And today we went to one of them, Pho Kim Long. I don't even know what it is she orders, but we usually have pho and spring rolls. If I ever go without her, I'll have to ask her what we have. On second thought, the staff knows her and I think they might remember my face now so I could just ask them what I usually eat! It's on Spring Mountain Rd. in the Chinatown area...yes, Vegas has a Chinatown (I always call it China-block though!).

Thai Food in Long Beach, WA & Photo-worthy Lattes

A lot of times, I think food tastes better when you find it in unexpected places. Like, last October, we went to the Long Beach Peninsula in Washington. It’s a couple of small coastal towns with, presumably, good seafood. I say presumably because I only got to try clam chowder once, and I was so busy trying to keep Sydney from making too much noise that I didn’t really taste it. It’s a good reason to go back though, don’t you think?

Anyways, the other reason I didn’t get to really try any seafood is because on the one full night we had there, Xang was craving a Thai iced tea (which I still don’t understand why?) But, his craving led us to a place called Long Beach Thai Cuisine. I was pretty concerned when we walked in – Mexican music was playing. Not a good sign!

But, nonetheless, once we sat down, I decided that if I couldn’t have a “real” seafood dish like linguine with clams or cioppino, I was going to get something as seafoody as possible. So, I forget what the dish was called, but it had sea scallops (my favorite!), prawns, clams, mushrooms, and bamboo shoots in a garlicky shoyu-y type sauce. It was *so* good.

The other plate we ordered was Garlic Duck Bok Choy. I actually took a picture of the description so I would remember it, I’m so glad I did! Marinated deep fried duck breast with fresh garlic, black pepper, satay bok choy topped with a garlic wine sauce. Again, I was practically drooling as I ate!

Sometimes, I’m not sure if food is good because it’s good, or it’s good because I’m so hungry at that moment that anything would taste good, or if it’s just so unexpected that it’s good. But there was no question about this food. It was good. Really good. I wasn’t all that hungry by the time we sat down, but then the food came and I scarfed most of the plates – I couldn’t seem to get enough of the flavor in my mouth!

Our waitress was just as interesting as the food. Turns out she and her twin sister came from Thailand 3 years ago to join their mom. They attend the local high school. Their mom had settled in Astoria after marrying a Mexican guy (which explained the Mexican music). I didn’t take a picture of the sisters, but I wish I did. Now that I’m blogging about my food adventures, I’ll be sure to think of it next time!

Later, as we were leaving town, I had to stop by a (sort of) famous café in Astoria. Coffee Girl is a cute little café at the end of Pier 39 (http://thecoffeegirl.net/). According to a sign at the café, it’s the same place that served coffee to the sailors when the ships came in wa-ay back when. You have to drive down this rather…rustic…pier that seems to only fit one car at a time to get there! Anyways, the coffee is good, but they’re more famous for the pictures they draw in the latte foam. It was just before Halloween when we visited, so I got a jack o’lantern. I just found this on YouTube of the café http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwUOPW74ce4 The drawings in the video are simples ones, but I saw some as complicated as a fisherman – an actual person casting a fishing pole!

There were other non-food attractions that we didn’t get to see/do out there, so I hope to return some day. I will definitely return to eat!

Here we go!

It started when I went on my own "food tour" to LA and blogged about it in my private blog. My mission was to hit some Izakayas in the Gardena/Torrance area (and we went to J-town too). As I posted, there were a few commenters and I wondered if they would want to do a group blog and share about their food adventures and 3 friends expressed their interest. And so here we are JoAnn (me) from Las Vegas, NV, Chris from the Kansai area in Japan, Linda from Sunnyvale, CA, and Lynn from Portland area in OR starting our blog about food.

I'm excited to do something together like this with them. I've known Chris for over 10 years and Lynn and Linda for about 20 years??!! Why did I have to count the years just now!? Yikes!! Anyway, since we all live in different states/country, it'll be fun to discover new places/foods through eachothers' eyes. And I think this will encourage me to be more intentional and look for more enjoyable food.

I've been trying to get Lynn to publicly blog for years now and it's finally happening! =) Yes Lynn, this counts...unless you pull a fast one and decide to only post pictures with no captions, explanations or any trace of the alphabet!

Looking forward to seeing all of your posts =)