vickichowder: February 2013

ELEPHANT & CASTLE AND THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY

If you've read one of my previous posts, you may know that I was planning to go to Grove City, Pennsylvania - for what? Strictly two things: shopping and eating. Going to the Grove City Premium Outlet was a confirmed destination, but we also went to Millcreek Mall on the way there (where I scored some really awesome deals)

Bourbon chicken in the top right - Our favourite from China Max

Our hotel is located 15 minutes away from the outlet by car, so we spent a good half of two days there. And what better fast food to fuel your body for the fast paced shopping than China Max? Through a friendly conversation in Mandarin with the lady at the counter, we got extra packed rice and chicken *Chinese bias*

Why can't all sales racks (at a bra store, I'm trying to be funny) look like this

Maybe it was because it was near closing and they had time to organize their racks, but this the most organized sale rack ever.

From Peace Love and Little Donuts

The first night, Julie and I experienced a bad evening because we just couldn't find anything after scouring through 4 stores! But after finding this cute doughnut shop that was just about to close, our night was made well. I ordered the strawberry cheesecake, she ordered the strawberry... crème? I don't quite remember *sorry*

We didn't end up buying any candy from this bin though!

A stop at a Walmart in the states is almost as natural as a stop to a McDonald's (where we ordered 20 pieces of nuggets for $5). The rest of this post will mainly be pictures. Enjoy~

I love Hello Kitty, and Winnie the Pooh

The hotel we stayed at had free breakfast = morning buffets

Midnight snack: We bought milk and oranges from Walmart

I've never seen this many variety of Monopoly all together...

Our first dinner was at Elephant & Castle. We've been there before from our previous trip to Grove City, and it wasn't that bad! Plus, I had to go again to try their Baileys Cheesecake which I didn't last time.

Julie and I shared this

Grilled chicken, topped with bacon, cheddar and jack cheese, caramelized onion, mushroom, served with garlic-y potatoes.

Baileys cheesecake

It had no Baileys flavour at all - all I tasted was the caramel sauce, but it was still yummy (: Just a very misleading name.

3 Baileys in the back. And yes, that is Frangelico (yellow label)!

+ 2 here = 5!

I think my family and I have a thing for Baileys. We have five 1-L bottles of it, in the original (3), hazelnut, and crème caramel flavour. And after coming back from the states, we added the 1-L biscotti flavour to our collection *yay*

Deep fried cheese, with more cheese on top

Shrimp with Angel Hair

Shrimp sautéed with lemon, garlic, herbs, with sweet basil and tomato on top of angel hair pasta with a touch of marinara sauce. This is my second time having this dish.

Cajun Jambalaya Pasta

Their most popular pasta dish: shrimp and chicken sautéed with tomato, onions and peppers in a very spicy Cajun sauce. All on top of fresh linguine Their linguine is impeccably delicious! And this too is my second time ordering this dish.

Tiramisu Cheesecake

Coffee + liqueur soaked case base, creamy cheesecake, and mascarpone layer, served with their delicious cream (I ate mouthfuls of it), and guess what? It's also my second time eating this one.

I've been eating at The Cheesecake Factory since 4 years ago, and it never fails to impress or satisfy my each time. You should really go there if you happen to visit the states (this is, of course, directing to my non-USA readers)!

To end this lengthy post, I'd like to point out the start of my coffee obsession. I'm not sure if it's something to be proud of or not, but it tastes damn delicious. My future kitchen will consist of Hario products, which I finally found at Williams-Sonoma:

Hario cloth drip

MUAH MUAH MUAH

VICKI CHOW

P/S

I currently am suffering through an intense headache because I didn't have any caffeine at all today! Instead, I spent my time doing assignments, making an awesome sauce for my bucatini *adds to list of things to blog about*

Hario siphon

I'd love to see one of these in action one day.

Hope that when you have gloomy headache days, a cup of coffee will cheer you up!

, by vickichowder

BISCUIT

RECIPE: POCKY

Yes, Valentine's day was indeed a couple of weeks ago, but I've been so busy that I haven't had the time to even upload and edit all my photos for my blog! But here it is, the super late v-day post, where I will provide you with an extremely legit tasting pocky (what became of the dough from the end of my previous post).

Square pictures = Instagram-ed pictures

I was fooled when I first tried it. Did someone secretly swap the pocky stick that I made with the Glico one right before I put it into my mouth? You are probably just as skeptical as I was, so please try making this and you will understand how mind-blown I was after my first bite.

We put combinations of almost everything on the pocky

~ Ingredients ~

6 g dried yeast

65 ml lukewarm milk

100 g bread flour

80 g all-purpose flour

15 g icing sugar

1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp each tahini (sesame paste) and liquid honey

50 ml room temperature water

25 g room temperature butter

~ Method ~

1. Mix yeast and milk, let it sit for 10-15 minutes

2. Mix honey+tahini+yeast+milk

3. Mix dry ingredients, mix in #2 mixture

4. Knead until it comes together

5. Knead in water and butter

6. Knead until it is firm and smooth (took me 30 minutes by hand)

7. Wrap it in plastic wrap and rest it in the fridge for minimum 1 hour

8. Roll it between 2 plastic wraps to 4 mm thick, put in fridge for 20 minutes

9. Use a ruler and sharp knife to cut 5 mm by 15 cm strips (a little longer/shorter doesn't hurt)

10. Bake on a lined pan for 10-15 minutes at a 350 F / 180 C oven

11. Take them out to cool when they turn a golden color!

Now pour melted chocolate on your cooled sticks

Sprinkle on whatever you fancy:

crushed coffee beans, cocoa nibs, cinnamon, matcha powder, dried fruits, nuts, coconut, candy, more chocolate?

Let it cool in the fridge and then, enjoy~

MUAH MUAH MUAH

VICKI CHOW

P/S

I just came back from a week filled with never-ending activities and should be extremely exhausted. After calculating that I'm currently still awake since the last time I woke from sleep 24 hours ago, I think I need a good quality shut-eye before going back to school.

Nevertheless, I had an amazing time in the states and Montreal, but I had to cancel the auto show! There was no way I could have had the energy after three days of walking in Montreal and a 6 hours bus ride which turned into a 12 hour one (perhaps I shall have more on that later - or not).

So the next post *I promise* will showcase my days in Pennsylvania and Buffalo, so keep your eyes peeled (what kind of expression is that?) on my blog (:

My black forest cake in trifle form + ground coffee + ground almonds + cake crumbs on top

I hope you get the chance to try my recipes!

, by vickichowder

CHINESE

CNY & SWEET DREAMS

Happy Chinese New Years! Although I am a bit late from the first day of the new year, CNY is typically celebrated for 15 days after the first day of the new year (: Besides coming back for red pocket (envelopes with money) from family and friends, the other big factor to go home is to spend time with family and eat meals together. Here are some pictures from the first meal I ate on new year's eve.

XO sauce fried turnip/white radish cake

Deep fried doughnut (not sweet nor salty), to be eaten with congee

Deep fried fish skin (we eat it dipped with the clear broth)

Along with congee and fried vermicelli, my late, late brunch was finally satisfied. Daddy and I went to the Chinese restaurant Sam Woo for the crispy-skin pork. The line was almost a 15 minute wait, and by the time it almost got to us, only the pork butt was left and a new whole pork hasn't finished roasting yet. To top that off, neither of us had enough cash cause I forgot my wallet at the book store (which thankfully was there when I went back to retrieve it).

Crispy skin pork

BBQ duck

Vegetarian dish with lots of deep fried soy bean curd

More vegetarian food. The round slices with holes are lotus root

Steamed fish - my favourite part of this is the cheek

Chinese braised mushroom and dried oysters (making it have a super concentrated flavour)

Chinese new year cakes (it's sticky and chewy)

Deep fried egg chip/cracker? I really don't know, but it's really yummy!

Before the week of the new years, my throat was incredibly dry and I kept steaming the Asian pears to eat because it's supposed to be very good for your throat.

After cutting the top off like a lid, scoop out the seeds then fill it with honey and jujube. Replace the top part of the pear and steam it for a good 40 minutes so it becomes soft and sweet.

Sweet Dreams is the name of a bubble tea cafe in Waterloo, and recently, the manager asked if I would make some mousse cakes and cupcakes for her to sell there! And so I made mousse cake and cupcake and sold it there.

It feels so nice to see your cakes inside a display thingy

I wish I had more interesting things to say, but I hope my pictures speak more to you than the words which I am typing now - as I've been through an exceptionally busy week for some reason and feel rather exhausted *yawn*

MUAH MUAH MUAH

VICKI CHOW

P/S

This upcoming week is our reading week and I will be going to a multitude of places:

1. Pennsylvania's Grove City Outlet and Millcreek Mall
2. Buffalo's Walden Galleria
3. Montreal & McGill University
4. The autoshow in Metro Toronto Convention Centre

CNY (Chinese New Year) is near - food and money is near.

I don't know which one of the four I should be most hyped up about because they each encompass my favourite things: shopping, food, cars.

Please be on my blog again soon when I will be posting up pictures of my adventures in the US, Montreal, and Toronto!

This is dough which was made into something delicious that I will post up next time!

Wishing everyone who has reading week this week an amazing break from your studies (:

, by vickichowder

BAKING

THE PROMISED ENTREMET & FMT

Maybe you have read and remembered that in my previous post, I mentioned that I would be making an entremet and that it would have to be tasted and critiqued before it made its appearance on my blog. And so I have created this layered dessert, I had people eat it, and I had people say some things about it.

Nice lighting makes my food look mouth-watering from every angle - don't you think so?

"It's so yummy!" "It's really good!" "It's [adjective of very] [adjective of delicious] [exclamation mark]"

An example of terrible lighting = terrible looking dessert.

I was constantly tasting each component of the cake as I made it, but I wasn't the first one to take a bite of the full thing - so I was rather nervous as to how it would taste since I never made cinnamon mousse before.

But it yielded only positive responses (how nerdy is it that I picture graphs of functions in my head upon typing the word positive)! So here is a breakdown of the cake that is making me think of whether or not baking should be more than a hobby:

From top to bottom: green tea chocolate, Italian meringue, caramelized banana, cinnamon mousse, milk chocolate mousse, cinnamon mousse (again), coffee sponge soaked with coffee syrup

I've been into boozy baking: Oatmeal cookies with rum raisins

My Mommy doesn't like it when I make these time-consuming desserts. She doesn't understand why I would take so much out of my day to construct such a cake - when I could simply make a plain cream-and-fruit-filled-sponge and be done with it. I tell her that since

"You're not the one making it, you shouldn't worry or be concerned. So just eat and smile so I feel encouraged to be a better baker (:"

My babies are baking

But of course, I cannot spend all my time on these layered sweets. I have gotten into a habit of baking cookies late into the night. It's quite a blessing that my neighbours have yet to complain about the noise of my electric beater past one in the morning (I appreciate you, my neighbours, for not getting angry yet).

Oh yes, and another habit, which I'm afraid has become rather of an addiction for me lately, is going to the gym! I feel super motivated to go - it's almost as motivating as FMT (Farmer's Market Thursday)! Today is indeed Thursday, and so I went to the market and bought some bread.

My brunch, to which I added much more cream after taking this photo.

The bread guy at the market (who calls my friend and I "Cantonese" as though it were our names) sells 2 bread for $5, but usually sells 3 for the price of 2 for us. Today, however, we were given another extra bread - so 4 for only $5!! I made it into egg-y cinnamon French toast, and topped it with some lightly sweetened Chantilly cream (essentially whipped cream) and honey.

Lastly, I'd like to end today's post with what I usually start my mornings with:

My caffeine addiction has returned! Besides buying milk tea and coffee when I go out, I make it too often at home. So I try to make smoothies more often as an alternative to coffee - but I don't think it works that way ):

MUAH MUAH MUAH

VICKI CHOW

P/S

In addition to caffeine addiction, my appetite has also returned! *yay*

I had AYCE with a long lost friend today. Afterwards, we accidentally took a detour and wound up on a sketch part of the road which had no lights and barely any cars O_O But we eventually turned back onto the right side of the road.

CNY (Chinese New Year) is near - food and money is near.

So last week's dilemma was loss of appetite, and this week's dilemma is:

My super dry-all-the-time throat.

I really hope that it somehow recovers so I can eat all the delicious not-good-for-the-throat Chinese New Year food this weekend!

Chinese people are auspicious when CNY rolls around. For example, you cannot cut your hair for thirty (ish) days from the start of new year, or you "cut off your fortune".

Happy CNY everyone!

, by vickichowder

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