Updates in the New Year

I can’t wait for spring. Bring on those allergies!

Beautiful cherry blossoms outside Student Housing building

Oh, and happy belated Valentine’s Day to you!

Happy Valentine's Day :)

A purple daisy for you! --- Basket of roses and purple daisies courtesy of my mom.

Received a terrarium from Papa

It was one of my best friend’s birthday on January 23rd so I sent her a lovely care package filled with goodies.

Birthday Care Package: Chocolate covered pomegranit seeds, chocolate mints, Hi-Chew candy, a stuffed cow with a T-shirt that reads "Someone from UC Davis loves me", and a cute ducky letter ---- oh, and don't mind the awkward person in the background...that's just my friend (I think) or her roommate P

Dry Hair Remedy

My hair has been feeling dry because of the cold winter weather here, so I found a new way of hydrating it: avacados, bananas, and egg.

Now don’t laugh because it works. Ladies (and gents), if you have dry hair on the verge of split ends this is a great remedy.Many shampoos that claim to rehydrate hair have avacado oils so why not just ditch the extra chemicals and go straight for the real fruit? Bananas are also helpful for making hair shiny. However, I listed it below as optional because it gets very sticky and is hard to remove.

After the first use, I saw a great difference. My hair was soft and shinier. The next week I didn’t even have time to use the homemade remedy and my hair still was soft after shampooing.

Here’s what I did:

– 1 ripe avocado, mashed

– 1 egg, beaten lightly

– 1/2 ripe banana, mashed (optional)

– long-toothed comb (a must-have if using banana)

As you can see, the banana and avacado here are not that ripe. You MUST use ripe fruits otherwise the avacado will crumble instead of turning into a mush. Banana is also hard to smush but still useable.

After combining all these together in a clean bowl, spread onto the dry parts of your hair. For me, this was from the mid part of my hair to the bottoms (not the top). Lather up your hair as if you were shampooing. Keep in hair for 2 hours. Wash out, and then shampoo and condition hair as usual. Do this twice a week at least. Results guaranteed! :)

*If using the banana, then make sure you have a long-toothed comb. I suggest leaving hair wet after washing it, and thoroughly combing all the banana fibers out.

Since I’ve been away for a long time, I’ll just sum up these past 3-4 months as:

– fun! Met lots of nice people at college.

– successful! Got a 4.0 last quarter.

– laid back! It didn’t seem like that last quarter but compared to this quarter, it sure is. This quarter is a killer with the extra class I’m taking, applying for jobs, and finding the right apartment to live in next school year.

Since it is the new year, I do have some resolutions:

1. Make more friends. –> I have a great start already :)

CKI Greengate Elementary Volunteer Event --- awesome people, might I add. <3

2. Maintain friendships better. –>Working on this. Care package is a start!

3. Keep up my grades. –>So far, so good.

4. Apply (and hopefully get hired) for a job during summer and/or the next school year. –>So far, I have a job for the summer as an Orientation Leader for incoming freshmen and transfer students! Yea!

5. Make the most of college socially, academically, and spiritually. –>Bible study is going well.

Things I would like to do:

– read more often

– sleep more

– go out more

– bake more

– update this blog more!

What are your new year’s resolutions? Or, why don’t you have any?

Food-related Tidbits from my Classes:

Think of this essay as orange. You want to squeeze it to get the juice, but you don’t want to squeeze it so much that all the pulp and seeds come out. I will grade your essay as if it were a glass of orange juice so try not to over think (and do) it; I don’t want any pulp or seeds. – Cultural Anthropology Teacher Assistant (TA)

You can’t be nice. In economics you’ll find that when you try to give something away you simply can’t do it. For example, there’s this restaurant in San Francisco that serves a $20 meal for only $10. Great deal right? Well not really. You see, the line of people waiting to eat at the restaurant is extremely long. People wait anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour before they are seated. They pay less $ but they lose their time, which could be used for something more productively. Like they could be eating somewhere else, spending their money elsewhere, which would help society’s economy. This of course assumes that the monetary value of the people waiting is the same for all
…
Now assume the restaurant owners feel bad for the people waiting in line so they start serving FREE wine. Nice right? Nope. By doing this, the restaurant is creating rent seeking loss, hurting society’s total surplus, and wasting people’s time. – Microeconomics Professor

A mi me gusta cocinar, comer, y cenar. Y tu? – phrase from my Spanish essay (pardon the lack of accents and upside ? mark)

Translation: I like to cook, eat, and dine out. And you?

Comment below on what you like to cook or bake.

77. Cooks often add some salt to water before boiling it. Some people say this helps the cooking process by raising the boiling point of the water. Others say not enough salt is usually added to make any noticeable difference. Approximately how many grams of NaCl (salt) must be added to a liter of water at 1 atmosphere of pressure (normal room pressure) to raise the boiling point by 2C? Is this a typical amount of salt that you might add to cooking water? – Problem from my chemistry textbook

In regards, to this question what is salt used for if it’s not to raise the boiling point? I know some cooks add salt to water when boiling pasta to make it tastier.

Wow. 113 grams of salt is needed! Feel free to double check my math. There's always room for mistakes.

First Post from My Davis Dorm

Hi Everyone!

I’m here to quickly post up some pictures of my food adventures at UC Davis. For those who know me personally, you will have seen some photos on facebook but I have some new photos and stories here.

FYI: If you’re interested in more frequent updates on my food adventures, then you can follow me on twitter: @Notebookworthy. :)

Downtown Davis Farmer’s Market

Check out the prickly pears on the right! Who knew they existed? And I never knew there were different shades of purple that eggplant could be. And don't even get me started on how strange those squash look. Amazing. *I also like their sense of humor. The sign over the eggplant says "Grill me! I'm a superstar." :P

So at the farmer’s markets, I usually go with my friend Liz and the last time we went, we ended up walking up and down and all around the market 6 times, and each time we saw something different. The second time we went there we learned not to eat breakfast before hand and to instead get there early and buy a freshly baked pastry. I got a large cinnamon roll – the size of my whole hand with fingers extended! – and she got a scone and expresso.

But the first time we went we had a good time too because we ended up buying fresh basil, chinese long green beans, several types of eggplant, squash, and garlic. Then we made a veggie stir fry the next night. We were happy kids especially since we were so used to eating like this at our homes.

Segundo Residence Hall Garden

Luckily, I don’t have to go all the way to the official student farm which is located off of campus because the residence hall here has a little garden where we can grow produce. After the summer vegetables were harvested, we planted the fall (winter?) produce like purple and white beets, green beans, squash, tomatoes, basil, and much much more. I was only able to stay for an hour so I’m not sure what else they planted but I passed by the other day and all the boxes are filled so this week I’ll figure out what else they planted.

No more having to try growing tomatoes all by myself on the rooftop of my apartment. I've got a garden team!

The Green Chef Challenge: Team Cuarto!

At the Dining Commons (DC), I saw a sign posted calling all cooking enthusiasts. How could I not resist?

Photo credit: UCD

I got lost on my way to Cuarto (the dorms of campus) and almost ended up on the freeway….on a cruiser bike. Right before the road turned into an on ramp, I pulled into some apartments’ parking lot and called the coordinator. Luckily, she steered me in the right direction. :)

We had a team of five and one UCD chef, a list of vegetables produced on the Student Farm, and a 3-hour time limit to create a dish for the judges who would judge the dish on appearance, taste, and reproducibility.

Some of the ingredients:

• eggplant
• olive oil
• setan (meat substitute, made of flour)
• cherry tomatoes
• mini strawberries
• vinaigrette sauce
• boy choy
• zucchini
• brown rice
• sea salt
  

  Photo credit: UCD

We could NOT use:

• garlic
• onions
• oil

It was difficult to create the flavors we wanted since we couldn’t use the above items, but I think we did pretty good considering we were limited.

The chef had great ideas so we mainly went with his ideas but we were free to incorporate some of our ideas and own techniques while prepping and cooking.

photo credit: UCD

And our final creation included:

1. Mixed vegetable gazpacho (cold soup) with fried eggplant chips on top
2. Bok choy vegetable fried rice in a thin zucchini wrap topped with fried setan and fresh cherry tomatoes
3. Strawberries rolled in a fresh vinaigrette sauce

photo credit: UCD

Cooking Club

I also joined the Cooking Club at Davis. The first meeting’s theme was “Home” so I made an apple blueberry cobbler with a cinnamon walnut crumble on top. It was a hit! The girl behind me was talking to someone and she said, “OH MY GOD. This cobbler is delicious, guys! I’m going to get some more.” It made my evening and helped me survive through Philosophy discussion which was right after.

(unbaked) Apple Blueberry Cobbler with Cinnamon Walnut Crumble Topping -- yes, there was oatmeal in the crumble too!

My plate: pesto pasta, marinara pasta, banana bread, poppy sead cupcake, chocolate chip cookie, and my cobbler :)

This week’s theme is Halloween so I’m going to bake pumpkin spice cupcakes in halloween cupcake liners. So excited!!!

Hopefully I don’t get sick this week though. Last week baking with a fever was no fun. :(

Circle K International – UCD

I happened to see a post on the UCD Class of 2015 post asking if anyone was going to the Circle K meeting. Having nothing to do and simply browsing through the site, I kept reading the comments. Someone asked, “What is Circle K?” The original person responded saying it’s a community service organization/club on campus.

Since I was looking for this kind of club, I was immediately hooked. I Googled what Circle K was and found their website here.

I was sort of thrown off with all the video game references because I thought “Eh… I may not fit in with this group after all…” but I went to the calendar and I liked the various events they held and the other service organizations they were affiliated with. I was especially intrigued by the “Challah for Baking” weekly event.

After emailing back and forth with the service rep from Circle K, I went to Challah for Hunger, had lots of fun, and then went to the general CK that night.

Funny story about that meeting actually. A couple of the CK members at Challah for Hunger mentioned that the meeting’s theme was plaid. “Where any plaid you have,” they urged warned. It felt like a warning at least. Their facial expressions seem to say, ‘If you don’t wear plaid you’re going to have to suffer some sort of embarrassing public humiliation.

After Challah for Hunger I went back to the dorm and pretty much ran around the tiny little room as if I were a tornado. I tore through my drawers and closet as if the building were on fire and I was trying to find my most precious possession. I was about to give up finding a plaid anything when I remembered that I had this plaid pajama top.

I wasn’t sure if this was something that was presentable for outside but I had nothing else. The plaid shirt was sort of fuzzy, made of red material with forest green lines so I paired it with a lighter forest green shorts with a brown belt and a yellow tank top. I figured I was going to go for a “forest ranger” look. Luckily, it didn’t turn out too weird and at the meeting, I won team points for being in theme clothing for my new CK family – the Zoras!

Right after the meeting, I had to go to the Dining Commons (DC) to have a reunion with the Green Chef Challenge participants so I simply went there with my plaid costume. It was getting cold so I buttoned my plaid shirt up all the way – which was a bad idea – because I really did look like I was about to crawl into bed and go to sleep (haha). And funny thing too was that we took pictures so now there’s evidence! But, I’m not posting the pictures here… :P

Anyway so since I like adore being in CK a lot especially in the Zora’s, I decided to bake them cookies for the next meeting. Unfortunately I had baked for three straight hours the day of the meeting while having a fever so I was not in great shape in time for the meeting. I dropped off the cookies with the team leader hoping they would get eaten, but they weren’t eaten until two days later! By then my beautiful graham cracker topping was not crunchy, but everyone still loved them. :)

Inspired by Picky Palate's S'more Cookies (recipe here). I was actually going to only make 1 batch but decided that I didn't have time (and energy) to bake cupcakes for CK so I just doubled the recipe. By the way, when Picky Palate calls them giant, she wasn't lying. Look at how huge they are!

Challah for Hunger

Yeeee - challah if you like Challah for Hunger! ;)

I just mentioned that I volunteered at Challah for Hunger and for those who don’t know what challah is, it’s a Jewish bread. Now I knew it was bread but I didn’t know it was a Jewish bread so when I showed up at the volunteer club house – it’s literally a house – I was surprise but not deterred. Besides the house smelled of sweet pumpkin and cinnamon. (That week the recipe was for cinnamon sugar and pumpkin challah – yum!)

I eagerly joined where I could that first day which was simply making labels for the bags and putting the finished challah in them. Just to show you how bad of a speller I am, I was constantly misspelling every other bag by writing, “Cinnamon” and then “Cinnamin” (incorrect). Haha… luckily the guy next to me noticed and corrected me before I wrote too many “Cinnamin” bags.

Pumpkin Spice Challah - Week 1

The next week I actually participated in shaping the loaves with contained either nutella or olives. I’m actually pretty good at making the filling stay inside of the challah strands. :) And then because I was going home that weekend, I bought one olive challah and one nutalla challah. I was just going to buy one, but when I was given a sample of freshly baked olive and nutalla challah my taste buds gave me no choice!

Olive Challah - Week 2 ---- This one I actually ate with my mom and we warmed it up for 30 seconds and the whole loaf was delicious. The bread was soft like Filipino sweet bread but it was firmer than that; and the savory taste of the olives complemented the bread so well. Too bad we didn't have any olive oil to dip it in. And if you're wondering about the nutella, it didn't last long enough for a picture (haha).

The third week I showed up on time at 1pm and participated again in shaping the bread and filling it with pesto. (mhm…) I wish I could have tasted it but I had to leave early to help out at the Resident Garden and then see my Stats TA. (boo…)

The Dining Commons – Segundo

Eggplant Provencal with side salad and setan

Farm to College Theme Night

Farm to College Theme Night - all of these are REAL

Ta Ta for Now!

So since it’s Halloween Eve, I want to wish you all a Happy Halloween!! I hope you taste all the lovely holiday foods out there. The seasonal treats make this time of year very special and memorable.

A Reflection and Food Craving

I’ve been on an Easter Break/Spring Break since last Friday. You probably couldn’t tell since I haven’t really posted much.

But as I’m sitting here with all my AP Government loose notes, open binder, electronic book opened (and the movie Tangled in a minimized screen), I started to think about what I do for fun.

This all came to my attention during a scholarship interview on Tuesday. The lady said, “So I see you’re taking a lot of AP classes; you play the violin; you volunteer; and you bake. But what do you do in your free time, you know, for fun?”

My pound cake - How could baking not be fun?

And I basically smiled at her and said, “I have fun volunteering and baking so those two things are not ‘chores’ for me. But when I have the time, I love to check out different restaurants and bakeries with my mom.”

I’m not sure if she understood what food means to me though. I mean, sure a weeknight dinner is just a dinner, a 30-minute break where I scarf down the (delicious) food my mom makes before I hit the books again.

Aren't they beautiful? Would she see what I see?

But long weekends and holidays are absolutely beautiful. We wake up early to try a new breakfast place. (We tried to go to Mama’s Cafe in North Beach last Sunday, but it was way too busy.)

I’m not sure if that seemed exciting and fun to the lady, but I hope I came off as a good candidate.

Anyway, after thinking about my interview I got to thinking about how I wished I had time to bake. And then I looked at what I had been eating.

Breakfast? Fruits, slice of sourdough toast, and popcorn.

Now popcorn may sound strange, but I love popping my own popcorn in a pot at home. I don’t like butter or salt, but sometimes I’ll sprinkle some strange grated/powder cheese thing on it. It sounds gross, but it’s delicious.

I think I had two bowls of popcorn just today. I’m totally over doing it, I know, but having been without it for 40 days is hard. (My mom gave it up so I didn’t want to eat it around her.)

But here is perhaps the strangest thing I’ve eaten this week for breakfast: bananas on sourdough toast.

Bananas on Sourdough Toast - who knew the sourdough taste and its texture would complement the sweet soft banana slices?

I have no idea what inspired me to do this, but I woke up craving sliced ripe bananas on toast. Sometimes cravings are just cravings and the actual dish is disgusting, but let me tell you, it was just as good as I had imagined.

I know I dreamt something last night so if any idea “Inception” happened, then perhaps that’s why. Other than that, I have no clue how I got this idea.

I wonder… do you have anything “strange” that you eat/make/bake? Perhaps I’m not the only one of my kind… :)

What’s Up, Doc?

Well, not that you’ll be calling my “Doc” any time soon, but I just thought I’d update you on what I’ve been doing lately.

For my 18th birthday (Whoo! – Guess who’s a legal adult now?), my fellow foodie French friend Coline gave me “A Homemade Life” by the Orangette blogger Molly Wizenberg. After reading just the first couple of pages – I stopped after the blueberry-raspberry pound cake recipe – I felt sorry that I have been neglecting my blog. So here I am once more, typing away.

Though instead of typing out what I’ve been doing lately, I decided to post up pictures. Hope you enjoy. :)

For Senior Seminar, I read Carr's article "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" and came across the phrase "pancake people". I had to stop and doodle a little pancake man with a bottle of syrup next to him.

I received a whole bag of dried Chinese mushrooms last Saturday. I've never used these in cooking before ... Does anyone know how to use them?

 

Can you guess what's the unnatural food in the picture? :) Got it at Jolly Bee's drive-thru Saturday night, and to be honest, their banana-lanka pie is much better.(If you don't know, Jolly Bee's serves Filipino fast food. It's nothing like the real stuff by the way - surprise, surprise.)

A lovely Sunday lunch at Japan Town. There's egg, pork, seaweed, (immitation) crab, cucumbers, carrots, and mushrooms on top of cold ramen. YUM.

Among other things, this daily calendar (which I received from my friends for my birthday) showcases a new cookie recipe/variety each day. Somehow I get the feeling my friends are going to be wanting me to make some of these cookies. And you know know, I'm just as happy to :P

I don't know if this always happens, but my Cook's Illustrated issues for Jan/Feb and March/April came in at the same time. (Curious, aye?) But as I read through the issues last night, I stumbled upon a whole wheat sandwich bread recipe I want to try as well as a split pea soup recipe, a potato galette recipe, and good tips for baking cookies.

Just some of the Valentine's Day candy and cards I got. Ironically, the fortune cookie came a day later. Does this mean I have more luxury coming? Haha

And there you have it: my week of culinary inspirations. :)

Gingerbread Houses Were Made for December

In the words of my college counselor, I am taking a “university level Great Books” class, also known as Senior Seminar. In this class, I am given 100 hours to do something interdisciplinary that I have never done before. I originally thought of:

a) Making a telescope with real glass
b) Making a miniature, but human-sized planetarium
c) Making kites of different materials in different geometric shapes
d) Constructing a famous SF structure out of gingerbread

Well, when I factored in money, time, supplies, knowledge – and well, reality? – I ended up crossing out the first two:

a) Making a telescope with real glass
b) Making a miniature, but human-sized planetarium
c) Making kites of different materials in different geometric shapes
d) Constructing a famous SF structure out of gingerbread

And then when I factored in my REAL interest, the list looked like this:

a) Making a telescope with real glass
b) Making a miniature, but human-sized planetarium
c) Making kites of different materials in different geometric shapes
d) Constructing a famous SF structure out of gingerbread

And that was how I came up with my final plan: construct something out of gingerbread!

But what exactly? Ah, that question was easily answered: San Francisco’s Painted Ladies.

So, that’s what I’m going to be doing during December – making three of the houses – because January won’t give me enough time with schoolwork and all that.

I think the best part of the project is going to be holding a baking class for De Marillac Academy students, who if you don’t know come from San Francisco’s under-served neighborhoods. These students attend the middle school for free because their parents cannot afford to send them to school. My high school is technically the sister school, so I thought that I would follow in the Lasallian and Vincentian footsteps and help the middle school students out. After all, baking is an art and art is important to a child’s development.

Since I don’t have all the financial means to buy all the supplies and ingredients, I’m writing letters to Safeway, Lucky’s, possibly Trader Joe’s, and possibly Sur la Table. (I’ve taken several baking classes so maybe they would be willing to donate supplies to a worthy cause?) Anyway, I’m hoping this works out because this would be a great opportunity for these kids. They deserve it.

Anyway, since this is officially my last school day of 2010 – as someone reminded me the other day – I am now out for Christmas Break. Life’s good. :)

Class Reflections: Literature and Food

As I’m sitting here in my school’s newspaper room, I’ve decided that I’m going to share a story with you. I already studied for my AP Chemistry “mini test” based on the vodcast so I think I can take a break. Besides balancing equations and working with chemical formulas is a bit too much this early in the morning.

So yesterday in my Literature and Science class – previously known as the Bioethics class – my teacher asked us an insightful question.

Do you read literature because it is a means to an end or an end unto itself?

At first, everyone in the class was unsure of what she meant. “A means to an end” is something we’ve all heard before but “an end unto itself” – what did that mean?

I suppose my teacher knew that this question would confuse all of us so she asked a boy in the class, “Why do you eat?” And he replied, “Because I’m hungry.” Another girl responded that she needed nutrition. Someone else said “Because my parents tell me to.”

These were all legitimate answers, but when my turn came, I responded (something along the lines of): “I enjoy eating especially when it’s a type of food that I’ve never tried before. Sometimes the dishes look interesting and so I just can’t wait to try it”.

My best friend, Michelle, who was standing next to me just smiled and whispered, “You’re such a foodie!” I  smiled back.

But apparently, I helped the teacher make her point as she said that my response would fall under the category of “Living to Eat” while the other answers would fall under the category of “Eating to Live”. She said there was nothing wrong with either category.

And then she said that “Eating to Live” was like “a means to an end” whereas “Living to Eat” was like “an end unto itself”. That’s when her previous question finally made sense.

Seeing the clarity in our eyes, my teacher smiled and then rephrased the question,

“So, is literature read to learn something or is it read for pleasure and then in the process, we learn something?”

As for myself, I think I read most literature because I am told to in school, but I end up taking more out of it than I expected. Yet, like with Ann Mah’s Kitchen Chinese, I do read for pleasure too. Like my teacher said about the food categories, there’s nothing wrong with either.

So now I ask you the same two questions:

Is literature a means to an end or an end unto itself?

(And the more fun one)

Do you eat to live or live to eat?

My Last Day of Summer Vacation

It is already here: the last day of summer vacation.

This is what dawns on me as I wake up at 7:40 am from a rather random dream of negotiating with someone. Not wanting to resume the strange dream, I manage to stay awake by reading Kitchen Chinese the novel about food, family, and finding yourself written by Ann Mah.

I read a couple of chapters with the local news turned on in the background and find myself amused with the main character (Isabelle Lee) and her adventures of going back to China.

After about an hour, I trudge to the kitchen – still in  my pjs – to eat some Corn Flakes, oatmeal, and toast – my usual breakfast at Davis. Once my mouth is tired of chewing I start to realize that two hours have passed and I’ve done nothing remarkable on my last day of summer vacation.

But then I think, “Well, this is how I want to spend my last day. I want to relax and kick back before the hustle and bustle of school life comes back and my nights are filled with endless amounts of homework. When is the next time that I’ll get to wake up and be lazy like this?”

And so, this is how I’m spending my day. Granted I’ve actually made a simple plan for the rest of the day.

My mom doesn’t know it yet, but I’m planning to make a spaghetti with meat sauce and fresh garlic bread. I was going to make meatballs, but those didn’t turn out so well before … The meatballs were lumpy and falling apart. If I have time, I’m going to stop by the local deli and pick up some turkey meatballs because they are delicious.

So right now, I’m making the bread for the garlic bread. According to Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Everyday, I am making Pain à l’Ancienne Rustic Bread, which makes  2 large ciabatta loaves, 3 small ciabatta loaves, or 6 to 8 mini baguettes. I don’t know if this is what is usually used for garlic bread, but I’ve always liked ciabatta bread and figured I could easily convert it into garlic ciabatta bread. I will, however, most likely shape the dough into the mini baguettes so that I can use the other baguettes for sandwiches sometime during this week.

I’m actually glad I’m starting with the bread now because by the time I realize that I want to make bread for dinner, it’s too late. (Sometimes I start at 4pm – not smart). Still, a lot of things can go wrong so whether or not the bread turns out well, I’ll let you know and upload so pictures too.

As for the spaghetti, we’ve got noodles at home; I have a recipe for spicy tomato sauce (like a pomodoro sauce); and I’ll try to pick up the meatballs later this afternoon.

I’m excited for the rest of the day seeing as I have something to do now. Hopefully I’ll not look back and think, “Why did I do that on my last day of summer vacation???” But thinking about it right now, I don’t think I will be doing that. :)

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this August day. I know that in San Francisco they have actually called today a “Spare the Air Day” because the weather is supposed to get into the 80s today and mid 90s inland. It’s going to be a warm day! It’s finally summer by the Bay.

“Kitchen Chinese” by Ann Mah

Just had a wonderful day at Pier 39 and Fisherman’s Wharf showing around a friend (Ivy) from Ohio. Watching her look at the everything – the sea, the people, the food – was refreshing. I know that sometimes I crave to go the Wharf sometimes too, but my reaction to the Wharf was nothing compared to her amazement and interest.

As we sat eating strawberry nutella crepes, we looked on at the crowds of tourists snapping photos, shouting about, and stumbling through their fanny packs and purses. I couldn’t help but mention how silly they look. To that she said, “They do look pretty silly, don’t they? I just find it so cool how they come to visit YOUR city. In Ohio, no one comes there with as much enthusiasm.”

And she was right (as far as I know).

I tried to imagine not living in a tourist-attracting city. It was hard to say the least. No more red double-decked buses, noisy tour guides, and swarms of tourists that are willing to pay $25 for a “I <3 SF” shirt and a load of magnets with funny messages like “The choice of dinner today is: Take it or Leave it”.

I think I’d miss San Francisco if I left it. In fact, I’m going to miss it a lot when I officially leave for my UC Davis summer program on June 20th. But it’s for college prep so it’s worth it, right?

Anyhow, as I was sitting with my friend Ivy, I started to remember the foodie book I had started. It’s a novel by Ann Mah called Kitchen Chinese. In Mah’s words, it’s “a novel about food, family and finding yourself”. And indeed, this is correct.

For Ann Mah’s website, blog, and updates on her current city (Paris), go here.

I have to say that I’m enjoying reading her casual writing. It’s almost like she’s talking to you. Basically, the novel is a fictional account – to my dismay – of the main character’s travel to China. The main character is a young women born and raised in New York as an “American born Chinese” so she doesn’t know any more Chinese than the basic words used when cooking in the kitchen. Hence the title, Kitchen Chinese. After a failed relationship and journalist career in NYC, she decides to move to China to follow her brainy sister who has somehow turned herself from an Ivy League nerd to a pop culture in-crowd member. China is where the main character finds herself and reconnects with her roots – all through adventures of food.

I can’t tell whether I just made it sound really cliche and boring, but you’ll have to at least see the book itself. I can’t say that the writing is superb, but it’s definitely a comfortable read. It’s been the perfect companion on the days I like to go to my neighborhood’s local cafe. Mah’s writing is humorous and funny. Sort of reminds me of my style, though I’m not too sure what my style is either.

Also, if they come out with a movie about Kitchen Chinese, you’ll be “in the know”! As much as I enjoyed watching Julie & Julia, I regret not having read the book. In fact, I don’t even own the book! It’s definitely on my “thing to buy” list though.

Did I mention that I was literally a month late from being able to meet her at the Van Ness Books Inc. store? I was so devastated. I was ready to ask her questions about her travels too! I just Googled her name and the book and found a list of her visiting/tour schedule. But alas, I was too late.

So if you’re looking for a casual entertaining read for those moments when you want to relax and read something without doing a major brain workout, then you’ve found the book.

By the way, I can’t wait until this weekend because according to the weather forecasts, it’s going to be sunny and warm with light breezes. What could be better than that? With this kind of weather, it’s time to go out and enjoy the city!

Double Treat: Omnivore Bookstore & Peter Reinhart!

Omnivore Event
March 5, 9:30 am:  Peter Reinhart

I am so excited for because in less than 36 hours I will be at San Francisco’s acclaimed Omnivore (Culinary/Baking) Book Store on Cesar Chavez Street. Why might I be so excited to be there at 9 a.m.? Well, because I finally get to meet and talk to Peter Reinhart, author of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice (and many other books)! He is coming to the Bay Area to talk about baking breakfast breads.

Complete List of Omnivore Events

At the same time, I am extremely nervous to meet him. Online it mentions that visitors can “bake some to share, if [they] feel moved!” I would love to bake something and bring it there, but I do not know if my baking skills are quite up to par to present it to the Bread Master himself! I was considering on baking cinnamon rolls using his recipe, but I thought that maybe that might be worse since he would know what the cinnamon rolls should taste like. Eh, I might just have to figure out something else. If you have any ideas, please leave a comment.

But anyway, I just wanted to share my anxious feelings as well as invite you to come out to this visionary bookstore. I have to say that I did not know that a cullinary bookstore like Omnivore existed. Then again, this is San Francisco I am talking about, so this should not come as much of a surprise. Still, I am quite interested to explore the bookstore itself.

Omnivore sells vintage books and signed books as well as newly released books. If you are looking for letter by M. F. K. Fisher, then you have found the correct place! These letters range from $50 – $200 so depending on how much you want to spend, you can have your pick.

So there you have it: a great upcoming event (Reinhart) and a lovely new bookstore (Omnivore).

And of course, I will write about Friday’s meeting and post up the pictures that I take. :)

Peter Reinhart: A Legendary Man, Philosopher, Baker

Peter Reinhart Links

Miniature Bio

Personal blog: Peter Reinhart’s Weblog

Amazon’s Collection of Peter Reinhart books

Video of Lecture at Taste3

Well, the topic for this post is really overdue because the person whom I am writing about deserves a lot of credit, but I digress no longer!

My Story

As I was trying to find a picture of Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Everyday (the book I used to make Peter Reinhart’s cinnamon rolls that I wrote about here), I stumbled across the Mr. Reinhart’s blog at: http://peterreinhart.typepad.com/. I easily found myself musing over the different posts amazed that such a well-known author would have time to keep a blog regularly updated. I somehow ended up on his October post in which he wrote that

If you send me a stamped, self-addressed envelope to: Peter Reinhart, PO Box 79157, Charlotte, NC 29271, I will send you a signed bookplate to paste into your book. This way you can buy the book from your favorite bookseller at a better price than I can offer you and still get it signed. In your note, please say who you would like the bookplate(s) to be signed to.

Honestly, after I had finished reading it, I re-read it again because I have a bad habit of skimming over things rather than fully reading them. So after I re-read it, I realized that I had been holding my breath because I felt a tightness in my chest building up. I could not believe it – the Mr. Peter Reinhart gave out his address online for his readers to write to him to receive the bookplate(s)! It did not matter to me that I did not even know what a bookplate was or that the post was from October of 2009 because I was stunned. I stared dumbly at his post for a while longer and then scrolled around madly trying to read his other posts for clues as to whether or not he would be able to send any more. I saw nothing more than this on October 13th:

Thanks to one of our alert readers, Canan K., it appears as though I screwed up the zipcode in the previous post. For those wanting signed bookplates, the correct address should be:Peter Reinhart

PO Box 79157

Charlotte, NC 28271   <I had written a 9 instead of an 8>

Please refer to the previous post for related details. So sorry–if you already sent it to the other zipcode it may take longer to find me or it may get returned to you. Please give me it an extra week or so; it should sort itself out and the book won’t be released for about 2 more weeks. Thanks for your patience!

And this on October 25th:

Hi Everyone,

The zipcode screw up I made didn’t seem to stop the mail from arriving, so I’m sending out the first batch of bookplates tomorrow (Monday). Even the ones with the wrong zip still arrived. Thank you all for sending in for them and for including the self-addressed, stamped envelopes. I have over 200 requests already, so you can see how the costs can add up. My hand is cramped from signing the bookplates all weekend, but I’m just about caught up.  For those who still plan to request one, please see the previous two posts.

I could hardly hope to think he would send me a bookplate – whatever it was – since I had read this post in January – JANUARY. This was THREE months after he had written the posts. He even mentioned the costs adding up. Still, I could not just let this go. After I had been waiting for a whole year to bake from one Mr. Reinhart’s books (particularly The Bread Baker’s Apprentice), I had received his other two books Artisan Breads Everyday and Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor. Now just two weeks later, I stumbled across this bread master’s blog and his P.O. Box, and was now in closer connection to him than ever.

As the young, ambitious baker that I am, I was determined to write him that letter any how. I figured that the worst that could happen was that one of his publisher’s or agents would come across it eventually, screen it, and then maybe (maybe!) it would reach him so that he could read it himself. The letter turned out a lot longer than I had expected  – two pages longer – but I enjoyed writing every bit of it. I ended up kind of telling a bit of personal history and explaining my love of baking. The last little paragraph was where I mentioned the book plate. I was not even sure how to introduce the topic, but I wrote to the best of my ability. I proofread my letter, then sent it out by the end of the week in a large manila envelope along with two pictures of my cinnamon rolls and garlic pretzels that I had baked based off of his recipe.

About a week later on January 19th …

I received an email from the legendary bread master himself! As you can imagine, I reread the email a thousand times before anything clicked in my head. I knew that I had written about my blog and included the link, but he actually found my email address on the site, and sent me an email! I could not imagine how my letter had gotten me that far! People do indeed read letters – no middlemen attached! Moreover, he mentioned my blog on his blog, which is probably how you ended up here in the first place. :)

Well, after another email, he informed of several important places to eat at in San Francisco, namely ACME at the Ferry Building and La Boulange Bakery and Cafe on Filmore and California Street. I resolved to go to either bakery with my mom the next available weekend that we could to which she responded that we could go to La Boulange the very next weekend; so that’s just what we did. We went there, ate there, and indulged ourselves with the open-faced chicken with mushroom cream sandwich with tomato soup, the BLT with fries, and a vegetable galette. It was complete bliss. I ate everything single thing from every morsel of the freshly baked whole wheat bread to the last drop of the tomato soup. We left feeling happy and satisfied glad to have tried a restaurant reccomended by the bread legend himself. As for ACME, I wrote about it in my blog here. But basically, my favorite thing there was what was called the “Teeny Bread” because it was so soft and moist like a sponge cake.

Now, about a month after the legendary email …

• I set on my calendar for  March 5 to go to Omnivore books to see Mr. Reinhart for his book signing. I do not exactly have any more books for him to sign since he already sent in the bookplates, but I am going to show up anyway just to see him in person. I have no idea what to wear or what to say or what to bake! (On his blog, he wrote “Bring something delicious!”) I am open to suggestions of all kinds so please comment below.
  
• After researching more about Mr. Reinhart, I came across his lecture in which he talks about the science of fermentation and whole grain breads. I listed the link below.
• For my birthday (February 4th) my mom completed my initial “wishlist” book by getting me Mr. Reinhart’s award-winning book The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, which I have yet to try something from it. I have made the cinnamon rolls twice now. :)
• Because my mom also got me other baking books and some friends pitched in and bought my some baking equipment, I think I’m going to try to create another page listing my baking tools and recommended baking books. I’ll probably call the page “In my Kitchen & On the Shelf: the baking tools and baking books I use”. This can be useful at times to understand how I bake and why certain things turn out the way that they do.

I suppose that the end of my little update and story. However, I must thank Mr. Reinhart for his wonderful encouragement and for his wisdom:

In the end, the goal is to work with your head, not just your hands.

P.S. I want to wish you a Happy Valentine’s Day and Happy Chinese New Year! I wish I had made something more festive, but I’ll try to make something later today and then post about it on Monday.