De Baking Psychopath

Another year has passed, and another roommate weekend was warranted, this time in Philadelphia! We had a whirlwind of a weekend, filled with food, random shopping, and catching up! Not pictured-- Friday night we went to Monk's Cafe , where we had yummy beers, buffalo-style fried frogs legs, steamed mussels, hamburger with truffled cheese and mushrooms, and duck confit. It was a hearty and delicious start to our weekend (although very dark and hence not photo-friendly). On the way back, we picked up frozen yogurt from Yogorino , which we brought back to the apartment to sprinkle on some crazy-awesome granola I had brought with me (recipe soon!). Bright and early Saturday morning, we took a stroll to the nearby Metropolitan Bakery and raided their day-old bin as well as bought several fresh treats. Eaten for breakfast: coffee/tea, carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, chocolate croissant, nut and seed roll, lemon vs raspberry bar taste test. Not eaten but saved for late...

This was a dessert created out of necessity but turned out quite delicious in its own right. The task was to come up with something that was dairy free and gluten free. A flash of memory reminded me of the faux cheesecake a high school teacher of mine came up with when she had just moved to Taiwan many years ago and could not get any American cream cheese. So instead, she used fresh tofu. It ended up being a lighter and healthier version of the classic dessert that was so enjoyed by her family and guests, that even after she gained access to cream cheese again, she would substitute half the cream cheese with tofu. So to achieve my goal, I paired an all-tofu version of the recipe with a nut crust and homemade blueberry jam for a very respectable fancy dessert! For even less calories, you can substitute the sugar with Splenda. The softer and silkier your tofu, the less prominent the taste of the tofu will be; I used firm tofu one of the two times and it ended up much firmer and ...

This is our new sandwich bread! I recently was lucky to get my hands on a Pullman bread pan and immediately set out to recreate the nicely quadrilateral breads of our youth in Taiwan.  This style of bread, made in a long loaf pan with a lid, is originally French in origin, I think. The Japanese, being the Francophiles they are, made this butter and milk-enriched bread a common item in their bread shops, and the Taiwanese, being the Nipponophiles we are, grew up buying it from all the Japanese and European style bakeries on the island. I used the well-rated recipe on King Arthur Flour's website for my first try, and the only three changes I made were that 1) I used rice flour (non-glutinous) instead of potato flour because I was too lazy to go out and get some, and 2) I let it rise twice before forming the loaf and letting the dough proof in the pan (3 rises total), and 3) I used powdered goat's milk instead of the nonfat dry milk in the recipe. ...

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...

This weekend, we headed out to central PA to check out the 47th Annual Bedford Fall Foliage Festival . We took a scenic trip down the turnpike and found ourselves in the midst of this craziness: A festival of epic proportions! Arts, crafts and decorations of all sorts, gourmet foods, and food trucks galore! We were acutely aware that we provided a full 25% of the Asian contingent at the whole festival...REPRESENT! Since I am mildly (i.e. completely) obsessed with Guy on a Buffalo , when we saw this truck... ...OF COURSE we had to eat a buffalo burger and buffalo polish sausage. Delicious! Since Bedford is fairly close to State College, we were filled with glee to see this sight: OH YEAH. This was our first taste of ice cream from the Penn State Creamery, and we selected Butter Pecan and Death by Chocolate. We give both flavors two thumbs up. It was rich, smooooth and creamy, and amazingly it was relatively heat stable. We walked around ...

And for the finale to this tasty travelogue, I give you the conglomerate of the sweets I tasted and happened to take pictures of during this trip. Starting with ice cream! I previously posted about the Turkish ice cream we had in the streets of Lugang after seeing the Mazu Temple, but here is a common sight at any department store food court in Taiwan: Asian-Italian gelato. Italian in style, Asian in flavors. The flavor combo I chose was passion fruit (left, with the seeds!) and milk (right), which I ate in combination to create an Asian creamsicle. It was quite yummy. And of course, Mister Donut . This chain was originally American, then bought by Dunkin Donuts and basically shut down in the US. A Japanese company then got the franchising rights later and the chain has been making it's way through Asia slowly. It has opened in Taiwan as a joint venture between the Japanese company and Uni-President, the scary-successful conglomerate in Taiwan that also owns 7-Eleven and Starbuck...