De Baking Psychopath

  Gus! Beloved Gus! In the last 9 months since I created Gus, he's fed our family so well! Bread, pizza, crumpets, pancakes/waffles, naan...everything has been tasty and fragrant! Long live Gus! It is therefore fitting for me to share this wonderful sourdough recipe as my 200th blog post, as in many ways this sourdough starter has represented the journey and learning curve of discovering and executing new baking recipes over the last few years. It has been a tasty and wonderful time of personal growth that you, my readers, have shared with me over the Interwebs.  This recipe was first used for its intended purpose: pizza. The pizza crust from this recipe is great--fluffy and stretchy and really fragrant from the "Pizza Dough Flavor" from King Arthur Flour (basically a blend of cheese powder).  Then we decided to use this recipe to make rolls to eat BBQ with, and that was a smashing success, so since then we've made this recipe as rolls a few more ...

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...

On April 12, this blog turned 1 year old! Although I did not have a post ready to celebrate this joyous occasion, I wanted to take the opportunity to thank you, my readers, for sharing this culinary journey with me. Approximately 65 recipes posted this year! I've meanwhile probably accumulated a to-do list of at least 5 times that magnitude with all the recipe books I've bought and recipes I've printed or copied, so stay tuned for more deliciousness in the year to come!