Sweets

In All recipes, Dairy, Sweets

filthy rich miso caramel ice cream

Have I mentioned how unapologetically cheap I am? Right… to elaborate we must understand that “cheap” is a strictly relative term and I am saying that strictly relatively-speaking, I am incredibly cheap. I negotiated a 30% raise in my daily allowance in the past decade which is to say that I am spending only 30% above the average of college-quality life. I gloated over the booking of a 69 euro/night ” beach hotel” in the mediterranean to Jason who, to say the least, did not share the same sentiments and boy, you should see their pool. I almost always buy non-organics only and after almost 5 years away from the states, I really really miss sinking my face in a pint of Ben’n Jerry’s that’s going $8/pint in this part of the world. Yes, I am saying technically I could afford better than the above. I’m in China for God’s sakes.

07.29.2013

In All recipes, Bakery/Pastry, Dairy, Sweets

peach mascarpone pot pie + ginger molasses cookie lid

Had I anticipated enough courage to pick up the topic of peach and mascarpone again this summer, I probably wouldn’t have cashed that sob-story so early. After that horrendous disaster of a pie, if that pile of slumpy menace could still be called that…, I was determined to quit peach forever, total rehab. After all, they quit me first. You see, that’s the other side of the story. Years ago, peaches decided to join the alliance of fruits that were waging an allergy campaign against me by inducing itchy mouth every time I tried to reach out a friendly lick. As I was addicted to rejection, every summer since was a struggling anniversary of our separation. Even after more than a decade… that day when I picked them out of the mascarpone-puddle-of-death and ate them, the peaches still made damn well sure that I was reminded. I saved them from the fate of the eternal dumpster and they repaid me with crawly esophagus… lil fuckers.

07.17.2013

In All recipes, Drinks, Sweets

sunshine. flower. tea. granita

Truth is, I was a tiny bit amused by the flock of defenders, friendly or hostile, who rushed to my incidental black tea cake to affirm America’s tea presence. To the flag-swinging crusaders, amused at how unreceptive people are to a relative comparison and because the upset words validated just as much as saying… Asians eat burgers. Lots of it at that, too. Doesn’t translate to Asia having as much burger-culture as America. And the rest tea-lovers – who were nice enough to comment (thank you!) and certainly more gracious of a human being than I ever was, who simply wanted to inform this blunt-mouthed cook that there’s a growing tea-culture in America (thanks again!) – made me feel a bit undeserved because I would totally, upmost whole-heartedly agree with you if not because of the fact that… I was too busy drinking coffee to notice.

07.10.2013

In All recipes, Bakery/Pastry, Dairy, Sweets

likely pairing dark chocolate & gouda cookie

The agony of making creative effort in the kitchen is, more often than not (and don’t tell me otherwise), we fall into the tormenting limbo between imagination and reality and sometimes the plunge feels eternally lasting. My current episode has been ruthlessly stretching into its 9th day-anniversary, on-going, in cold blood. Do feel bad because here it comes…

07.08.2013

In All recipes, Sweets

melon sorbet and white cheese

As I have some life to deal with today, I’m going to quickly leave you with’mmm… more of an idea than a recipe per se. Three years ago during our fascinating trip to Istanbul, as any cool-faced tourists with telling peek-ish eyes, we sat at nearly every meal scratching our cameras and baffled – what’s up with the plate of melons at everyone’s table, and more importantly, where’s mine?

07.01.2013

In All recipes, Bakery/Pastry, Sweets

breakfast milk tea & honey pound cake

I’m going to push my opinion-quota by saying that the US is the least tea-cultured among the other places I’ve lived in (Taiwan, Vancouver, Hong Kong… Beijing). Americans aren’t particularly keen on tea, evidently as some may now defensively refer to Snapple’s along this line as a clownish counter-argument, and now… they shall stand to be mocked by public (no, it’s too late to take it back).

06.13.2013

In All recipes, Bakery/Pastry, Dairy, Sweets

like-crack-er ice cream brownie sandwich

I know I know there must be a food-blogger authority staking-out behind a cyber-corner, waiting to ticket me just as soon as I violate the meter by hitting the “publish” button (just any second now…). TWO ICE-CREAM POSTS IN A ROLL?! BACK TO BACK!? God I have some thick-skinned nerve occupying a parking spot on this competitive block in Blogger-hood! Uh-hum… the official statement is that my sheer excitement after spotting a “cracker cheesecake sandwich” on Donna Hay via pinterest, has driven me to share it for the public-greater good regardless of my personal content-diversity agenda. And we know that all official statements are largely based on truth and integrity.

05.27.2013

In All recipes, Dairy, Sweets, Vegatables

winter warmth ice cream

Drop down on a point back in time, all the way back in my 500-sqft studio in New York when I was joyfully smooching a pint of Ben’n Jerry’s which I casually grabbed from the downstair 24hr-deli, and tell me that in the not-so-distant future, anytime-access to my beloved collection of ice cream-babies would be a thing of the past… I’d cover their ears (hush hush… bad people… bad people…) then tell you nicely to go kiss your own mad arse. Hey, I was a young, naive and ignorant little shit who thought New York City wasn’t the center of the universe. Can I please get it back if I apologize?

05.23.2013

In All recipes, Bakery/Pastry, Sweets

almond byproduct tart

If you hoard much. You know, unable to let go trunks of junks that’s jamming your life, and aren’t quite sure what the normal reaction is when you look down on a shampoo bottle where the shampoo is long gone (hi Jen) , or that your loved ones take great pleasure to be on a reality show as the world watches you being eaten away by your own shame. Yeah, hoarders. You keep everything. It’s a disease and I’m your new BFF. Because I let go of possessions beautifully. I ~~trash~~ donate things with a clean swift cut-throat almost artful peeerfection (someone needs this cheetah-print denim more than I do). And I extend my virtue to touch those in need around me – may or may not be with consent – by ~~trashing~~ donating their shit for them, too. They’re welcome.

05.05.2013

In All recipes, Dairy, Sweets, updated recipe

almond tofu x 2

I stare at the blinking cursor on my screen and completely blank out. My mind is sucked dry from a trip to the veterinarian, and as my 13-year old Dumpling lays in the hospital with a tube down his throat and a three-day-hospital-stay ahead of him, the last thing I can gather my mind to gush about are these monotone desserts. But let not the frosted land of sugary world be soiled by real-life shit that come our way, because it isn’t the desserts’ fault, no. The almond tofu is innocent, and we’re going to talk about them even with my mind absent.

05.01.2013

In All recipes, Bakery/Pastry, Sweets

accidental strawberry pot pies

I’m mega-watt sick guys. Really. STAY AWAY on the other side of the computer and try not to touch the screen I am highly contagious! This is like the 100+ times I’ve gotten sick since I moved to Beijing because my unevolved Canadianess is no match for China’s uber-advanced virus. My further disrespect for it led me to go out for a night of harmless chatters over my favorite Sichuan face-torching/throat-choking dishes, which left me MUTED after I came home. MUUUTED, people. Paralyzed and powerless even when I saw a lift of a leg at the sofa across the apartment (!!!!…!!!!….!..). ZIP! I am Ariel without a fairy tale… well plus… a couple other things but you get my point.

04.01.2013

In All recipes, Bakery/Pastry, Sweets

quitter’s mango sauce cake

I am a quitter. Yup, I am. My life has been a progression of consecutive quitting and frankly I’m surprised I haven’t ended up a… (uh wait… maybe I have…). And this is not some clever rhetorics people use as a prelude for self-flattery that usually come sneaked in the subtext. No. Really. I major quit. So the other day when I had a hunch about a cake but it came out just about as palatable as my high-school photos, my natural instinct urged me to stab my hunch in the back and return to my couch with my bag of cheetos and my romance with being a quitter (legs shaking and all).

03.28.2013