De Baking Psychopath

Nob Hill Chinatown Gate Curry Truck Taco Truck Inside the Ferry Building Oakland Bay Bridge Long pier jutting into the bay Mission tower in the distance Biscoff Coffee Corner, only one in the US! Gull, eying everyone's food "The Rock": Alcatraz They paid $6 for this old street car ride. Rip-off. Ferry building in all its glory Do you see that freaking hill in the background? The 45 degree angle incline?! Interestingly shaped building downtown Gigantic church in Japantown Sanrio store! The old school bakery I got the gigantic pork buns from Rows and rows of jam! Farmer's Market bounty Avocados galore Mushroom, mushroom! The Occupy SF movement, in their dirty tents and sad doggies Another interesting building

This doesn't even include the loaves of sourdough bread, assortment of Chinese bakery items, and fancy cookies I hauled back. I ate and am still eating well from SF.

This year for National Bundt Day and our department's yearly fall luncheon, I made the Double Apple Bundt Cake from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From my home to yours . The double apple comes from shredded fresh apple and apple butter in the batter. Instead of raisins, I added 1 cup of frozen cranberries. And to frost it, I topped the cake with my favorite caramel frosting . In full disclosure, this bundt was a Frankenstein bundt! I unmolded the cake when the recipe said I could, but it was so steamy and delicate that I totally cracked it into several pieces trying to get it onto my cake carrier! Good thing the frosting covered up all the seams! Luckily no one really noticed or cared, but they did notice the taste. It was sooo good: moist, full of sweet apple and spice flavors, the tart cranberries were a great contrast, and the caramel frosting just reinforced the fall apple flavors. I got a lot of good feedback and requests for the recipe.  Happy Bundt Da...

 Bibimbap from the cute Korean sub store across the street from my hotel and a green milk tea with tapioca.  Potato-stuffed samosa from the Ferry Building Farmer's Market topped with cilantro and mango chutneys  Shrimp po'boy. 'Nuff said. Half-pint of coffee ice cream. Too bad I didn't have a bag of potato chips to eat with it...ultimate salty-sweet combo!

This is where my food picture documentation has started to be more patchy. First I went to Berkeley and also Chinatown with people, but I always forget to take pictures of the food when I am trying to catch up with people. We had some wonderful Taiwanese food in Berkeley, and then in Chinatown I had some decent dim sum and really awesome sizzling pepper steak and yummy bok choy.   But somewhere in between I went to Japantown. I got some mochi and salmon-stuffed rice ball (pictured above). And a ham and cheese and veggie crepe with sweet Japanese mayo. Yum! Not too heavy and crisp, and fresh. And today I took a bakery trip to Chinatown. From the top, going clockwise, we have an egg custard tart, paper-lined sponge cake, "dry pork" bun, and custard bun. Also from Chinatown was this beautiful baked pork bun from a really old school joint.  Inside was meaty and fatty and sweet and delicious. The bread was more brioche-y than a no...

Yesterday was Ferry Building Farmer's Market Eating Day. There was also gorgeous produce. And this crazy looking rotisserie truck. If you click on the picture to enlarge, you'll see that there are what looks like small pigs on the spit, rotating and dripping fat onto a pile of potatoes at the bottom. I'm drooling just typing that. I didn't figure I had enough belly to eat that but we'll see if they come back on Tuesday... Korean-inspired street food. I got the taco, pictured further down in the post. I think I had to get a small bag of chicharrones (fried pig skin) from these flying pigs. Here is the Korean taco, which is kimchi, rice and marinated beef on a seaweed shell. And the pièce de résistance , slow cooked pork ramen. FRESH noodles, huge chunks of tender pork, a party-in-your-mouth array of veggie accoutrements (such as dried seaweed, fresh English peas, roasted Brussels sprouts leaves), and of course (my ...