I’m baaaaaaaaaaack!

Wow, it’s been an amazing summer. God has been (and continues to be) so good and I learned so much on my local mission trip in Santa Monica. If you want to read about it, click here.

Going back to school I knew this semester was going to be CRAY-ZEE. I’m taking one of the hardest film production courses. I’m talking late night classes, filming on the weekends, scouting locations, casting actors, etc. It’s all one big hot mess, but it’s exciting. And you’ll be pleased to know that my film is about FOOD. THAT’S RIGHT!!! That’s one thing I’m super amped about. My protagonist is a baker who tries to win over her love’s affections through her baking (I swear this isn’t based off my life). Now, coming back to USC, you know I had to get my hands messy with some flour. I haven’t baked for two months (I made Oreo truffles, but that isn’t real baking… no oven required), so I’ve been itching to bake. ITCHING.

If all y’all didn’t know by now, I’m part of a Christian fellowship on campus called Cru (aka Campus Crusade for Christ). We had a leadership meeting about a week ago and I decided to show up with cinnamon roll cookies. I’ve never made cinnamon rolls or cookies in this roll fashion, so it was a fun challenge. It came out well and one of my friends had five or more that night. I would say that they were a success. =P I also had some at home and ate them for breakfast occasionally. They’re like cinnamon rolls, but denser. I recommend microwaving them for like 30 seconds (if you refrigerated them overnight) if you want to eat them for breakfast. I also made dark chocolate banana banana bread (that’s right! TWO bananas. It’s that banana-y. All this banana talk makes me want to rewatch the Despicable Me banana short with minions! And I just realized that I’ve posted that before. Oh wells, no hurt in watching it again!). That was gone real soon. I just felt sooo good baking again.

And onto something not baked! So a little unknown fact about me: I don’t like to cook meat. In fact, I want my future-husband to be great at cooking meat—it’s an actual quality I’m looking for. You could kill someone this undercooked meat! So I tend to shy away from it and overcooked meat is just unpleasant. However, thanks too good ol’ Gordon Ramsay, I learned a thing or two about cooking meat this summer. If you haven’t watched it yet, go watch ‘The F Word.’ It’s currently free on Hulu and a great show. I use to have problems cooking chicken ‘cause it would get too dry. Or even when the outside looked all golden, the inside was still raw. From watching the master (not a pun to the show ‘MasterChef,’ which is a great show by the way), I learned to first season chicken (just simple salt and pepper will do) and then place it into a hot pan of olive oil skin down first. I use to put butter right away into the pan, but you’re not suppose to do that later ‘cause the butter burns faster. So after cooking the skin side until it’s golden and crispy, flip it over and do the same to the other side. When the non-skin side is cooking, generously place butter on top of the chicken. To add flavor, I mixed minced garlic and basil in my butter. As the butter sits on top of the skin, it will slowly melt and slide to the bottom. You want to occasionally tip the pan and spoon the butter back to the top of the chicken. After the chicken is gold all around, place it in the oven at about 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Voila! The chicken will come out crispy and juicy. So proud of myself!

Sadly, I won’t be able to food blog as much as I’d like this semester ‘cause of all the film production madness, but I’ll try to update you time to time. I’d love to show my film production pictures eventually as well! And, I’m planning on studying abroad in London next Spring, so that will bring exciting food adventures! So much is going to happen this year and I can’t wait to share it with you! 

Tea Party

My sister’s getting married and I think it’s bonkers. Okay, well it’s not totally bonkers and I’ve grown to warm up to her fiancé, but nevertheless it’s so weird for me and I don’t think it’ll sink in till the actual day of the wedding. Even prepping for her bridal shower was surreal. As expected, I volunteered to cover food for the day while the other bridesmaids were responsible for decorations, invitations, favors, etc. We all decided that Amy would like a tea party, so I figured I would stick with little portions and fresh and simple dishes. Sadly, I don’t have photographs of all the food yet (in the process of collecting them all from friends who took pictures), but I got the important photos of dishes I made entirely from scratch. So the menu of the day consisted of traditional tomato bruschetta, smoked salmon bruschetta, raspberry crumb bars, vanilla bean scones, and chocolate-dipped sugar cookies that look like tea bags (specially requested by the bride-to-be). Bruschetta is pretty easy to make and I followed Pioneer Woman’s recipe. Thanks to good ol’ Costco, I got a load of red grape tomatoes for cheap, but didn’t use yellow grape tomatoes (like the recipe asked for) because they weren’t available there. The dish was a hit and I had so much left over tomatoes that my sister, her to-be mother-in-law, and my grandma took some home with them. The dish is really fresh and light and great for the summer (wow, I just sounded like some Food Network chef right there).

The smoked salmon bruschetta (not shown) was the only dish with protein and was mainly chosen ‘cause it was simple, delicious, and also used baguettes. All I did was buttered and toasted slices of baguette, spread a layer of cream cheese on top, and then laid a thin layer of smoked salmon. Easy peasy. The only things I wish I added were capers or some type of garnish. Moving onto the desserts, I made raspberry crumb bars. I didn’t photograph the process of making them ‘cause I’m made them a few times already and have photographs in another post. Now, what is a tea party without scones? I have never made scones before, let alone work with vanilla beans. You know when you buy Haagen-Dazs or some fancy ice cream and see those black dots and feel all fancy ‘cause you know they used REAL vanilla beans? Well I got to scrape vanilla beans and take out those little specks (which are called “caviar”—fancy, no?) and add them to the glaze that went on top. Vanilla beans are really expensive fyi. Granted I had little time and only went to the nearby Sprouts and got organic vanilla beans, but still… $10 for two beans? What the?! I altered the recipe so that I only had to use two beans and just substituted vanilla extract in the dough. I felt so legit scraping out the caviar and seeing my finished scones with black specks. Oh, and I tried some of those specks raw (thinking that they’d taste super vanilla-y), and they were gross. So yeah, I don’t advise that. I think the vanilla flavors really come out of the caviar when you let them sit in a medium (like the glaze), and not when you eat them straight up raw. Lesson learned.

And lastly, the teabag-inspired sugar cookies. So my sister has a Pinterest (and I do as well!) and she had these cookies pinned and she hinted (maybe not hinted, but had blinking bright lights and arrows and lots of winks) that she’d like to have these cookies. Well… I HAD to make them. They looked simple enough and figured they were either sugar cookies or short bread dipped in chocolate. I decided to go the sugar cookie route ‘cause I made them before. Now, the toughest part about these cookies in actually their shape. There aren’t cookie cutters shaped like a tea bag (please correct me if I’m wrong), and so I figured I had to hand cut each. Sadly, hand cutting each turned out a disaster (although in the picture it looks pretty darn cool) because the dough kept sticking on the counter and wouldn’t stay in tact as I transferred the cookies to the baking sheet. What ended up really happening was that I used this present-shaped cookie cutter (I have a bunch of Christmas cookie cutters and no normal square ones) and then cut here and there to make it into a tea bag shape. I then used a straw to poke a large hole. Because sugar cookies expand, the hole had to be quite big in order for the hole not to close up in the baking process. And just to add a little touch, I made teabag tags with “A” (for Amy) for each cookie. If I ever make these again, I might use short bread because they might not expand as much and distort the desired shape.

After all this, I think I can take on mini-catering gigs… as long as I only need to feed 20 people or less! So hit me up! (I’m mostly joking, but slightly serious…)

Last Food Adventures [as a Sophomore]

It’s summer! As exciting as it is to not have classes and exams, I’m going to miss USC. I have made such good friends this year and had so many adventures, so I’m sad to see everyone disperse. I’m especially sad to see the seniors leave. The Class of 2012 is pretty awesome. Interestingly enough, for me summer doesn’t mean more food escapades. Being at home means more home cooked meals by my mom and less outings, or at least fun outings (my parents aren’t foodies and like to stick to the familiar like Applebee’s or Souplantation—fine establishments, but not interesting enough to tickle my fancy). My dad and mom are also trying to be healthier and so baking is not welcomed here (sad day). My sister’s bridal shower is coming up though and I volunteered to be in charge or food, so that’s going to be exciting. I’m going to be cooking and baking for 30 people! But until that happens, all I can do is reminisce on the last food adventures I had…

Good ol’ Groupon. So a few months ago, my friend Todd and I decided to buy a Groupon for Samba. I’ve only had Brazilian BBQ once and it’s just fun experience. Plus, half off of Brazilian BBQ is a steal! The food was overall pretty good and the panoramic ocean view of the bay was pretty spectacular, but I have to say I was disappointed in the variety of meat they had. Libra Brazilian Steakhouse (the other Brazilian BBQ place I’ve been to) had a crazy list of different meats. However, Samba’s bacon wrapped turkey is unbelievable. I thought it was scallops because it was so soft and melted in my mouth like butter. Simply amazing.

Moving on to Sweet Rose Creamery. I’ve been wanting to go to this ice cream shop for a while now. I had a tab open for months and it just lingered there ‘cause I refused to close it until I went (I thought I’d forget about it if I closed it to be honest). Luckily I know some boys that love ice cream and spontaneous adventures! So during dead week (USC gives their students a few days to study before finals hit), I got a band of some super nerdy, but awesome, guys to come with me. My friend Josh and I shared The Bacon Sundae. To be honest, I didn’t get this sundae ‘cause I love bacon, but ‘cause I thought it would photograph really well. And it did! It was good though. The huge bacon garnish looked good, but it was a bit too bacon-y for Josh’s liking. Sweet Rose also has unique flavors like basil and olive oil. I’d love to go back and try some other flavors in the future. More fun adventures to come in Santa Monica!

Now we’re going to take a trip two hours south to San Diego! Well, I’m back home for the summer and one of my closest friends, Lucia, and I got to hang out last week. We decided to splurge a bit and go to The Cottage. This is a super cute restaurant and guess what… it looks like a cottage! I read reviews on Yelp about the ridiculous long waits, but it wasn’t too bad on a Friday late morning. And! To add to its cuteness… there were blankets in a basket set aside for people who have to wait a long time. Lucia got Stuffed French Toast, while I tried Eggs La Jolla. I never had eggs benedict before, but the dish came highly recommended on Yelp. Lucia’s French toast was pretty darn delicious. So fluffy and just the right amount of sweetness. My dish was good too, but because I’ve never had eggs benedict before I wasn’t sure if it was made super well or not. I wish the hollandaise sauce had more flavor. It was just creamy. As for the eggs, it was good and soft and didn’t have that an unappealing taste. I’m not a big fan of yolky eggs, but this was good. I do wish the overall dish was easier to eat though and the potatoes on the side were a disappointment. I’d say that environment gets a 5/5, but the food (at least my dish) gets more of a 3/5.

And lastly, Extraordinary Desserts. Man-o-man do I love this place! I’ve been here many times before, but I have not written about it yet. Extraordinary Desserts in located in Downtown San Diego. There are only two shops—one is in Little Tokyo and is more intimate and good for a date, the other is close to Balboa Park and is super cute and great for afternoon tea. Now, I totally think an Extraordinary Desserts should be opened in LA ‘cause it would do so well. The desserts are fabulous (yes, fab-u-lous) and beautifully made. The garnishes often include flowers, fruit, and gold foil. I got the Napoleon this time around and Lucia got the Viking (not photographed, but basically a crazy chocolate layered cake). The Napoleon is pretty messy to eat, but oh so good. The whipped cream is extremely fresh and light. Typically I like to sit down and eat at the actual shop, but we were tight on time so we had to take it to go. If you do eat there, they plate the dessert beautifully with some type of fruit syrup design. Their teas are pretty awesome too. Even with to go, I got raspberry syrup on the side. Man I love this place! If any of you are in San Diego, check it out!

In case y’all don’t know, the rest of the summer I’ll be jetting off to Taiwan for my cousin’s wedding, then spending two months in Santa Monica for a local mission trip, and then my sister’s getting married! I don’t know if I’ll get to go out to anymore hip restaurants any time soon, so this is au revoir for three months (let’s be honest though, I suck at posting regularly so this hiatus isn’t that big of a deal or even noticeable). I hope to post about my sister’s bridal shower and wedding, but no promises.

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One more note! I’m thinking about changing food blog name and look. My roommate, Samantha, and I came up with “Mochi Lips.” It’s a long, but funny, story (perhaps one day I’ll share it). Anywho, I’d like to make this blog more modern and mature, but if you like the cutesy-ness of it, let me know. Hrm… my sister also calls me “Bubs” so that’s a potential name… No matter what, the food blogging will not end! =)

Hug From Inside

Oh boy, my sophomore year is coming to a close and I can’t take it. I had such a blast this year, it’s ridiculous how good God is and how much He lovingly blessed me this year. And as an overflow of His love, I love others—particularly through baking. As usual, the end of the year means end of the year parties. Lots of laughter, sharing of memories, hugging, tears, and FOOD. Now I want to start with the inside out chocolate chip cookies, which I baked for my film class. They’re really just plain chocolate chip cookies, but I wanted to be that much more creative and stick the chocolate chips inside the cookie instead of outside. I basically rolled the cookie dough into a ball, used my finger to hollow out a hole, crammed chocolate chips into that hole, and then sealed it back up. I’ve used this chocolate chip cookie recipe a few times now and it’s always a hit. Also, I want to note, that my cookies are not puffy! This might sound weird, but my cookies have been puffy every single time I’ve baked. They expand or something and it’s with all different recipes too! So if you know the chemistry behind what that happens, please explain it to me.

Now this crazy colorful dessert you see below is something entirely new and original. The end of the year also means I need to get rid of a bunch of food. USC’s Campus Crusade for Christ had a planning retreat and I wanted to bake something, but also wanted to get rid of some ingredients (That’s right! Killin’ two birds with one stone). I had key lime pie filling, frozen strawberries, lemon zest, graham crackers, and vanilla pudding. Now the vanilla pudding actually wasn’t mine, but my friend’s and she want to get rid of it too. So I basically made a graham cracker crust, topped it with vanilla pudding, and then topped that with key lime pie filling and strawberry puree (with a hint of lemon in it). And VIOLA! It was actually not bad. Pie-like. I think some people were scared of eating it though (the bright colors might have thrown them off… it reminds me of fruit roll-ups!) so I still ended up having a bunch left over… and then I ate it for a couple of days. Healthy. But at least I got one fan! One of my friends ate at least five of them, so that was complimentary.

And I saved the best for last: cookie doughcheesecake bars. Oh baby. Let me tell you, I got hugs… HUGS… for these puppies. I never get hugs for my baking, let alone hugs from guys I practically didn’t know! This recipe was super highly ranked on Punckfork, so I had to try it out! Plus, it was made for Cru’s senior party and what a better way to say goodbye to some of my dearest friends than to give ‘em some bakin’ love? Now, I want to tie in the title of this blog! So one of my dear friends, Jesse, is graduating. BUT! He’s staying at USC for an extra semester to get his masters degree and so I refused to hug him goodbye. Nevertheless, he ate my bars and we joked how it was like a hug from inside. A stomach hug full of sweetness. So there. My title makes sense! I hope all my baking makes people feel like they’re hugged from inside. Oh, and I welcome all hugs for any of my baking and cooking fyi (and I accept gifts and money as well…).

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Oh! One last thing. I also made lemon bars from scratch and they were awesome, but I couldn’t get good pictures (forgot my camera and then my phone died). But I seriously recommend it to anyone. There was a lot of egg involved, so the smell of it wasn’t totally lemony, but still very tasty. 

Eat Your Heart Out

My my my, how fast a semester whizzes by! I only have a week left of school and I’m not quite ready to leave yet. Too many great memories were made this year, too many wonderful people were met, and too much good food was eaten! Like that transition? Now I’m not about to go all sappy and post about my life (it’s real tempting, trust me), ‘cause this is a food blog after all, but I might do a personal entry on my new WordPress if you want to check it out (I have my portfolio, films, and more on that website if you want know more about me and what I do—yes, I’m a multifaceted person with other interests other than food, though food is pretty darn awesome).

Now back to FOOD! So I’ve had the privilege to eat great food this semester despite running around like a chicken with its head cut off (hrm… a bit too morbid of a visual? I think not! Seriously, film school can drive you crazy). Driving from LA to San Diego (Hometown! WHOO!), and vice versa, I’ve gotten the pleasure to stop by Irvine where my bestie, Miss Michelle, goes to UCI. Luckily, Irvine is a wonderful city with lots of yummy Asian food. We went to Classroom 302 (there’s one in Rowland Heights too), which is an awesome Taiwanese comfort food restaurant. All I have to say is, it’s the BOMB. Their food makes me all warm inside and proud to be Taiwanese. So good.

Continuing with Asian food, I went to Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot with the fam a few weeks ago and it was delicious. I’ve been there a couple of times already, but it never gets old. I was told that their soup is boiled with bones for hours and hours to create that flavorful broth. Plus, they toss in all these different herbs and spices. It’s a great place to go when the weather is cold, but don’t go alone or in a small group! Hot pot is a family style kind of dining (the best kind of dining, I think).

And Nickel Diner… AGAIN! Man, Nickel Diner has to be one of my favorite places now. The service is impeccable (I think my water was filled like 5 times that night… I take a gulp and there’s the waiter waiting to fill my cup!) and the food is nom-worthy. I’ve been there twice since my visit with Miss Kathryn (once with my lovely sister and another time with the fabulous Miss Melissa) and both times I got their beef stew with mushrooms. It’s so good and the mashed potatoes are so creamy. They also have carrots and parsnips on the side that creates this interesting texture and sweetness to the whole dish. And of course their dessert was top notch. That s’mores cake… the waiter brought a blow torch to our table and lit the marshmallow top like roasting a marshmallow on the campfire. Points for presentation! 

Speaking of repeating places to eat. I headed back to Bossa Nova for a third time. The food was delicious as usual, but I can’t say anything stood out to me this time around. Just enjoy the pictures and drool. DROOL.

And lastly, Sage. Now I went to Sage because my friend was doing a food magazine project and she needed to photograph vegan food. The avocado bruschetta was amazing, but I have to say I wasn’t impressed with the entrees. I had the mushroom steak and it was so sour! And the mashed potatoes weren’t anything special. Plain really (but I suppose that helped with balancing out the intensely sour mushrooms). Irene’s dish looked amazing, but it was kind of sour too. She actually didn’t end up finishing the dish because it had pine nuts in it and she’s allergic to nuts. Whoops! All I have to say is that I’m glad I’m not vegan. I love meat and butter in my mashed potatoes. Mmmm… 

With that being said, I’m heading out to eat Brazilian BBQ tonight at Samba Brazilian Steakhouse. Peace out.

Happy Saturday

I love recipes. The measurement, the instructions, the time increments… I feel like I can’t go wrong. Once in a while I’ll do some improv cooking with whatever food is left in my fridge and most of the time something edible comes out. But sometimes… MAGIC happens. I made a tasty bagelwich today (I have no idea if other people have coined the term “bagelwich” yet, but I’m claiming I came up with it for now!). I had half an onion, an egg, a frozen bagel, and some cream cheese moping around in my fridge (Yes, I imagine they were moping. Who knows what food does when the fridge light goes out?!). I finely cut the onion and then sautéed it with some Asian hot sauce (I like things with a kick) and soy sauce. I cooked the onion strings until they were a golden brown. Then grouped the onion together in a bagel-sized circle and cracked the egg on top. After the egg was partially cooked, I flipped the egg onion pancake-like creation so that the egg was cooked all the way through. I toasted the bagel and put a happy helping of cream cheese on both halves. Put it all together and violà! It was GOOD.

Later today I also made Jello! I had lemon, grape, and strawberry powder left over from baking (I got a lot of compliments for the Jello Pastel Cookies I made a few weeks back), and decided I wanted to make rainbow layered Jello. I don’t know about you kids, but Jello wasn’t a huge thing in my childhood. It was not an Asian snack so-to-speak. I remember trading some stuff in my lunch box with a boy who had orange Jello in fourth grade. Good times… Anywho, Jello is just so fun and I remember my friends’ moms making layered Jello for kids at school. Although it took longer than expected (you got to wait till each layer is settled and somewhat firm to pour in another layer), it was totally worth it. Look at it! It’s so beautiful!

Today was a good day. It was incredibly busy, but good. It was a happy Saturday and these simple food creations just made it all the more better. I hope you have many happy days ahead. =)

Dining in LA

These past two weeks it’s been dineLa Restaurant Week, so you can just imagine how excited I was. Last time I went to Libra Brazilian Steakhouse with three other friends and this time… TWENTY-ONE PEOPLE came! After much voting, we decided on Cafe Bizou, a French restaurant in Santa Monica. The set menu was so legit:

The food was delicious. I’d love to go back there another time to try other things. I highly, HIGHLY recommend this restaurant. À bientôt!