As I blog.

Egg Dyeing on Dana (and another soup!)

2012-04-09T22:56:00.004-07:00

Five girls of very different nationalities (Filipino, Taiwanese-American, Indian, Irish, Persian-Polish-American) gathered on Dana St. Easter Sunday to decorate eggs. A few hours of neon dyeing, glittering, and painting later...

Claire's meta chick egg.


Happy's tuxedo-inspired egg.

My neon, animal print-inspired eggs.

Growing up, I always decorated eggs at my Nana's on Good Friday, a day off for most American schools. Myself, my two brothers and mom, my four cousins, and my aunts would each bring over a dozen boiled eggs, and my aunt Michelle, head organizer of almost all Wegrzyn family activities, prepared dozens of cups of dye and drying stations. Each of us grandkids would suit up in one of my grandpa's old snap-up work shirts, always ready for wear in the smock cabinet, and then we were left to our own creative inspiration.

We'd apply rubber bands, ribbons of glue, or hidden messages in white crayon on the eggs and then experiment with different dyes, sometimes just using one color, sometimes layering a few to make different shades or color off sub-sections of the egg. My cousin John almost always ended up with a range of brownish green eggs from layering too many colors at once

Michael displaying his orthographic collection of dyed eggs from Easter 2010.

Any of the eggs that cracked during dyeing (and usually a few of John's ugly green-brown eggs!) where sacrificed to a greater good, the customary egg salad lunch. And alongside egg salad, we always eat my mom's clam chowder. Why clam chowder? I have no idea. I'm quite sure there is no significance to Easter, but she made it one year, it was delicious, and thus, another detail added to our annual tradition.

After we're tired, fed, and our hands are raw from trying to wash off food coloring, each family gets to take home a Nana-made lamb cake. This is a cake made of cake and shaped like a lamb, not a cake made of lamb and shaped like a cake. I suppose both might be delicious, but the latter is a bit weird. Two years ago, my mom and aunts made competing lamb-shaped edibles in a lamb-off.

Only one of these is a genuine lamb cake! Can you guess which?

The egg dyeing tradition continued in Chicago without me last Friday, but I'm happy I was able to reenact some of it in California with friends.

I wanted to make a soup for our party too, but since Geta was coming, clam chowder was out, so I got out my ole Soup book and made a veggie-friendly alternative. And though I didn't really have any expectations for the soup, at least compared to the rest of the days' activities, it was pretty yummy and is going in my collection of repeat recipes.

Chickpea and Spinach Soup with Garlic

Recipe from SOUP

Ingredients

2 Tablespoons olive oil
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 1/4 quarts vegetable stock
2 1/2 cups finely chopped potatoes
15 oz can of chickpeas, drained
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 Tablespoons tahini
3 1/2 cups shredded spinach
cayenne pepper
salt and pepper

Directions

Heat the oil in a large saucepan and fry the onion and garlic for about 5 minutes, until the onion is soft and golden brown.
Stir in the ground cumin and coriander and cook for one minute.
Add the stock and potatoes, bring to a boil, and then simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the chickpeas and simmer for 5 minutes longer, or until the potatoes are just tender.
Blend together the cornstarch, cream, and tahini and blend into the soup.
Stir in the spinach and season generously with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and then simmer for another 2 minutes.
Serve sprinkled with cayenne pepper.

Engineering Manager Survival Kit

2012-04-04T22:47:00.000-07:00

Thanks CB :)

29

2012-04-03T22:02:00.003-07:00

Beach, Goats, and Olallieberry Pie

2012-03-18T11:45:00.001-07:00

Last weekend, my mom and I took a trip to the coast. We started with a short walk around Bean Hollow State Beach. The sky was blue, the view was gorgeous, the rocks were covered in seals... and the trail was lined with my nemesis! So far, no outbreak. Now that it's been a week, my scratching paranoia has died down and I'm cautiously optimistic that I'm safe.

We continued on to Harley Farm in Pescadero. Harley Farms is the only farmstead dairy in California, and one of the few remaining in the U.S. This means they control all aspects of their cheese production, from the grasses the goats eat and how the goats are raised to each detail of the cheese production. They let people tour the farm and dairy, play with their goats, and taste their cheese.

The farm has around 200 goats and a lama, who protects all the goats. Here is my mom, standing next to the stately protector.

We first met some of the pregnant mother goats, and then continued on to the week old kids.

Hi there.

One of the momma goats gave birth to three kids an hour before we arrived. All together now: Awwwww...

They decorate some of their cheeses with edible flowers, also grown on the farm. I asked about possible internships in their cheese decorating department. Waiting to hear back.

After the farm, we made a stop at Duarte's Tavern in Pescadero to have some of their acclaimed half and half soup (half cream of artichoke, half cream of green chili) and a slice of their olallieberry pie. Yeah, I was skeptical too, but I guess it's a legit berry. You can even pick them at a few farms in Pescadero.

All in all, this was a really nice and relaxing day trip. If you're in northern California and want to get away from Silicon Valley for awhile, go check out Pescadero!

30b30#4.3: Purple Cauliflower and Walnut Soup

2012-02-26T19:55:00.000-08:00

I'm a sucker for color. It's more expensive and has no discernible difference in taste, but I had to have the purple cauliflower over the white because, well, it's purple!

It's purple because it contains anthocyanin, plant pigment molecules that can appear red, purple, or blue, depending on the pH. They're also found in wine and red cabbage and can act as an antioxidant, so they may have some extra health benefits... yup, I'll use that as my justification.

Anyways, Dawn and I picked some of this pretty cauliflower up from the farmer's market and made an ultra-simple, particularly healthy, particularly purple soup.

The picture is kinda crap, and will be added to my ever growing pile of crappy indoor photos, but the soup was good. It's ultra-simple to make and has a nice creamy texture, without the cream. I'd make this one again and recommend it if you need a quick, light, and healthy meal.

Recipe
Based on "Cauliflower and Walnut Cream Soup" from SOUP.

Ingredients

2 heads of purple cauliflower
2 cups of stock (vegetable or chicken)
2 cups of milk
1 onion
3 Tablespoons of walnuts
Paprika and crushed walnuts to garnish

Directions

Trim the cauliflower and break into small flowerets. Roughly chop the onion.
Place the cauliflower and onion and stock in a soup pot.
Bring the stock to a boil, then cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
Add the milk and walnuts and then puree until smooth.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Serve with paprika and crushed walnuts.

Blockbuster Blowout!

2012-02-24T13:26:00.001-08:00

Last, last weekend, Dawn visited and we started watching Mad Men while making purple soup (yet another soup post coming soon). I finished up the first season two nights ago, and on a total whim, I thought I'd go see if I could rent season 2 from the Blockbuster near my house. Yes, I still do antiquated things like visit physical stores to purchase physical video rentals.

The store was a wasteland of abandoned DVD piles, mostly empty shelves, and "Everything must go!" (including the furniture, shelves, and office supplies) signs -- not surprising, given the recent announcement they're closing a third of their remaining retail stores. Anyways, I thought I'd do a once around the store to see if any of the leftover DVDs were worth their $0.99 purchase price, and I hit a total jackpot!

First, I found the complete season 2 and 3 of Mad Men for $4 and $5, respectively. This was totally serendipitous because they only had about six popular TV DVD series to choose from, and only one set of season 2 and a handful of season 3 sets.

More Don Draper and Peggy!

Second, I found the complete SAW series! If you know me, you know I love my psychological thrillers. While SAW probably ran a few movies past it should have, I still enjoyed and watched every movie in the series, and made the $7 purchase for sentimental value. Perhaps it will be something to pass down to the kids one day.

SAW marathon material... who is in? Steve?

I know video rental stores are on the outs, and it makes me a bit sad. For the same reason I fear we won't have physical book stores one day, I'll miss walking into a video store with nothing specific in mind and perusing cover art and descriptions or letting a friendly clerk sway my choice. I still have fond memories of Rentertainment at UIUC, and not just because of the ultra-cheap $1.00 rental price.

C'est la vie.

30b30#4.2: Kulajda

2012-02-12T22:22:00.000-08:00

This soup is dedicated to my colleague, Martin Straka, who encouraged me to foray into Czech cuisine during my soup making adventures. My initial research into Czech soups led me to an onion soup and a garlic soup, but Martin tells me these are reserved for hangover recovery, and a finer choice was Zelňačka (a cabbage soup) or Kulajda. I chose the latter because it had less funny decorations on the letters, and I was in a mushroom mood.

Mushrooms simmering.

This soup has a lot of dill. A lot, a lot. I'm used to using dill by the teaspoon. I put in a whole cup!

Dill!

I think the real kicker is the white vinegar, which adds some tang to the savory, creamy broth.

Unlike the last butternut squash soup, this one comes with my recommendation. Great for a quick vegetarian meal, especially on a cool winter evening.

Kulajda
Recipe based on a handful of different Kulajda recipes I found on the web and some gut instinct.

Ingredients

8 cups of stock (vegetable or chicken)
1 lb of potatoes
1 cup of fresh dill
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
15 oz mushrooms
1 cup of milk
1 cup of heavy cream
2 Tablespoons of white vinegar
1/2 cup of flour

Directions

Peel potatoes and dice into small cubes. Cook potatoes in 8 cups of broth until soft (8-10 minutes, depending on size of cubes). Don't cook too long or the potatoes will turn to mush.
Add sliced mushrooms to the soup pot.
In a separate pot, heat milk and cream, and whisk in your flour. This will be a thickening agent. Use your muscles and whisk vigorously until all of the flour lumps are out. (You can alternatively make a roux for this step, but this is the lazyman's and slightly healthier option since it has less fat.)
Pour milk-cream-flour into the soup pot, along with the dill, caraway seeds, and white vinegar.

Serve with a boiled egg and rustic bread.

Top 10 Photos of 2011

2012-01-29T00:19:00.000-08:00

Last year apparently wasn't a big photo year for me because I didn't have a ton of options to pick for an annual "Top 10" set. Either I'm getting worse, or more picky, or someone is deleting some of my photos from Flickr. In any case, here are ten that don't entirely suck:

My favorite picture from the year. Taken in a hostel in a South African township.

Taking pictures from a camel is hard; mean and wobbly creatures. I put my camera in gunshot mode and hoped for the best.

Another one taken from atop a camel in Morocco.

This is Azis. I stayed at his Berber hotel in Skoura, Morocco.

RAWR!!! Taken at Ravenside Lodge in South Africa.

I love the colors in this one. He also looked very happy. Taken at a BBQ in a township in South Africa.

I think I like this one entirely for nostalgic reasons. The mate, the fashion, the kids on the street: it all reminds me of my week in Buenos Aires.

Taken in Morocco.

Yep, taken in Morocco too.

Taken in South Africa.

30b30#4.1: Coconut Curry Butternut Squash Soup

2012-01-09T20:38:00.000-08:00

Last week I started off 2012 with a morning trip to the farmer's market. Walking down a sunny street in sandals, on January 1st, will never ever get old to this Midwest soul. It does still feel like something is missing if it's not chilly in November and cold in December, but I'm happily acclimated to Bay Area Januaries.

My prized purchase from the market was butternut squash. Well, actually eight squash. Though I passed many a full grown squash, one woman was selling bags of baby butternut squash, some strange maternal instinct kicked in, and before I knew it, I was walking home as octo-squash-mom!

The squash were actually the perfect size for an individual serving. Growing up, one of my favorite snacks (or desserts) was roast acorn squash. No one else in my family liked it, so my mom would buy and make it just for me, and often add a little butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar. Now I have to make it for myself. I sometimes veer of the trusted path and roast it with maple syrup or olive oil and salt. I've chosen to ignore that adding butter and sugar may negate the health points of eating a vegetable. I recommend you do too.

After three nights of roast squash, I wanted to try something different, which seemed like the perfect opportunity to make a soup and start work on my 30 before 30 list.

I had such high hopes for this soup. In the past year, I've eaten butternut squash soup for lunch over two dozen times at work, and never have I tired from the sweet and creamy flavor. I was hoping that my soup would come out as good as my taste buds remembered, but to be honest, it just lacked... something. It definitely wasn't a total bomb, and it had a lot of the right flavors, but it just lacked the luxurious and consistent flavor that I've come to expect.

Oh well, room for improvement.

For the purposes of documentation, I'll share the recipe below, but when I try to make a squash soup again, I'll probably be experimenting with another.

Coconut Curry Butternut Squash Soup

Ingredients

8 baby butternut squash or 1 large butternut squash
1 large onion, chopped
1 ripe tomato, chopped
2 cups chicken stock
1 can coconut milk
2 teaspoons curry powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 Tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Roast deseeded butternut squash in the oven at 400F for 30 to 45 minutes and let cool.
Scoop out the butternut squash flesh and reserve for later.
In a large pot, saute onions in olive oil until translucent. Add curry powder, cayenne, tomato, and salt and pepper, and cook together for 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the roast squash, coconut milk, and vegetable stock. Bring the mix to a boil, and then simmer for 20 minutes.
Puree the soup to a smooth consistency using either a food processor or hand blender. Taste for seasoning, and add additional stock or coconut milk as needed.

Anyone have a butternut squash soup recipe they love and can share? I suspect that I should find a recipe with a bit more fat in it (e.g. cream), and maybe stick with regular coconut milk versus lite, which is what I had at home.

To 2012!

2011-12-31T17:30:00.000-08:00

Happy new years!

Are you looking as forward to 2012 as I am? Truth be told, 2011 was a bit bumpy for me (and the world), so I'm blissfully optimistic to start this new year, and already have a long list of things to keep me busy. My friend Dawn started a "30 before 30" list awhile ago, and from searching some on the web, it seems almost everyone else has too. That decade isn't too far off for me, so I've been inspired to start a list of my own. Most of this consists of things I've been wanting to do for years and repeatedly pushed to the side or slacked on, some of them still need to be better defined, and some just sound fun. In any case, I figure I'm much more likely to actually hold myself to completing these if I write them down, so without further ado, here is my 30 before 30:

Sleep on a beach.
Get back into climbing. Climb an indoor 5.11a.
Learn how to shoot manual, instinctively.
Cook 30 new soups or stews.
Write thank you letters to my grandma and grandpa.
Make an infographic.
Watch a movie in Spanish and write a short review (in Spanish).
Organize my foreign currency.
Do something interesting with my hair. (Dye it pink?)
Volunteer.
Make a collage.
Make something Persian.
Learn how to be a better manager.
Print and exhibit some photos.
Make eggs 10 different ways.
Go unprocessed for a month.
Help a stranger.
Forgive.
Put together a Nowruz table.
Surprise someone.
Take a road trip.
Teach someone something.
Grow something I can eat. Eat it.
Bike more to work.
Learn how to drive stick.
Upcycle an outfit or accessory.
Do 3 pullups.
Sell something on etsy.com.
Relearn the world map.
Make crème brûlée.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T18:23:00.000-08:00

This hot pink dress was my grandma's...then my mom's... vintage!

Gingerbread Pacman

2011-11-29T18:43:00.001-08:00

Well folks, another family craft day has passed, and here is the proof:

Check out last year's Gingerbread Mondrian too.

Life as a Manager

2011-11-09T16:11:00.000-08:00

A few months ago, I became a manager on my team. My talented and always thoughtful colleagues went to the trouble of clear off my desk and retrofitting my computer while I was away.

Computer upgrade.

Google T.P.S. Report

External communication

Thank you friends. I look very forward to repaying the favor...

Zurich Again

2011-10-25T18:25:00.000-07:00

I'm back in Zurich and feeling nostalgic. (And jetlagged.) The air is crisp and clean and it feels like October is supposed to feel. I can see traces of breath when I exhale outside, and the kaffi (coffee) is more satisfying when I step indoors. (It also just tastes a lot better.) I'm staying in Old Town, which is a never before experienced luxury for me. This morning, I walked along the lake to work, on emaculate, cobbled paths past the familiar "polite and ignoring" strangers I walked among for over a year, and it made me feel happy. The kind of happy where you smile to yourself for no clear reason and look a bit crazed, particularly if you're doing this in stoic Switzerland. I never really felt at home in Zurich, and still have ready a short list of reasons why that might be, but being here now feels unexpectedly familiar and nice. I'm already a bit sad to only stay until Saturday morning.

Then again, I bet I'll return at some point, and my next stop is sure to be lots of fun: proper vacation, an Irish post-wedding party (with real, live, Irish people! :), a trek across the middle of the country to visit my cousin, and some yet to be planned adventures with my co-procrastinating travel companion in between. For now, I'll enjoy my remaining time in Switzerland and cross my fingers things dry up.

Empanadas y Alfajores

2011-09-29T18:37:00.000-07:00

On somewhat of a whim, I decided to attend ekoparty, a security conference in Buenos Aires. And since it takes awhile to get down to Argentina from California, I decided to add on a week of vacation to explore, practice some Castellano (well, Spanish), and catch a futbol game. I know, I know... I lead a hard life.

A refurbished oil factory, the incredible venue of ekoparty.

Ekoparty was an excellent conference. The translators were good (useful for the rare non-Spanish understanding attendees, like me) and most of the talks were pretty interesting. They also did an incredible job decking the venue out to fit a Cold Waresque theme. A huge kudos to the organizers, particularly Federico Kirchbaum, who made sure Chris and I were taken care of and fed very well during our stay. He even invited us to an asado at La Brigada after the conference, which was THE most amazing meal of meat I've ever had. I think I've found a new contender to the, "What's your last meal?" game, and its name is mollejah.

After ekoparty, the first item on my last-minute-planned-vacation agenda was to take a cooking class. Taking a cooking class is becoming a vacation trend of mine. A class makes it easy to meet new people, gives you immediate access to a friendly local person willing to share tips and stories you'll never read in a LonelyPlanet, and food is something everyone in the world knows and loves. Plus, you leave with recipes to recreate some tasty memories once you're back home.

I emailed a few places in the weeks coming up to my trip and heard back from Norma of http://www.argentinecookingclasses.com, who offers a class in how to make empanadas, guiso de lentejas, and alfajores. Norma doesn't have any chef pedigree or formal training, but she loves to cook and teach, and that sounded pretty good to me. She holds the class from her apartment in Belgrano, a barrio of Buenos Aires, which is where I headed last Saturday morning to meet Norma and the five other ladies taking the class.

Norma

After introductions, we all headed to the kitchen to chop, simmer, and stir. We started with our main dishes, beef empanadas and guiso de lentejas (lentil stew). Both dishes start with a base of sauteed onions, green and red peppers, and garlic. We set aside some of this for our empanada filling and left the rest for our guiso. To the guiso, we added chorizo, jambon, carrots, stock, cooked lentils, and tomato sauce, then let that simmer away in the corner and shifted attention to the empanadas.

For the empanada filling, we added beef, spices, and tomato sauce (to make them "juicy"). Once cooked, we took it off the stove top to cool, and once cooled, we added chopped olives, boiled eggs, and black raisins. Norma gave us a dough recipe to make, but we used ready made dough that was pre-cut into perfect empanada-sized circles. I doubt I'll be able to find this shape easily in the U.S., but the dough seemed to be the same as frozen pie crust dough, which could just as easily be rolled out and recut.

Pinch, turn, continue...

I made this one!

Norma showed us the pinch-and-turn empanada folding technique. Some of the women struggled with this step and made some pretty sad looking empanadas, but I was a natural - finally, I've found my calling! We brushed the empanadas with a thin egg glaze to make them bronze and popped them in the oven.

Beef empanadas, straight from the oven.

Lastly, we made alfajores, a traditional Argentinian cookie sandwich filled with dulce de leche. Having already been a few days in Buenos Aires by this point, I was familiar with the cookie. They're sold everywhere, ranging from cheap convenience store varieties to the more delicately packaged, chocolate dipped Havannas to freshly baked and bagged cookies of different sizes in pastelerias and restaurants. The cookie part is similar to a lemon shortbread and the filling is dulce de leche. Thick, rich, gorgeous dulce de leche.

Bake your cookies, let them cool completely, sandwich them up, and then roll them in some shredded coconut. I dare you to try and eat only one...

No skimping on the dulce de leche filling with these alfajores!

Finishing touches to our alfajores.

After all of our efforts, we sat down to trade stories and enjoy our hard work, accompanied by a salad and Argentinian Malbec. Norma gave each of us an alfajore cookie cutter as a parting gift and we left with full bellies and a few cookies to enjoy for later.

Drooling yet? I was after just flipping through all of these pictures again, so I ran out to buy some dulce de leche from the Carrefour around the corner and plan to put my cookie cutter and recipe to good use. If you're in or around Mountain View when I get back next week, look out for the girl with the bad Spanish walking around with a tray of these sweet Argentinian treats.

TCHO

2011-09-28T19:49:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago, my mom and I took a tour of the TCHO factory in San Francisco. Google stocks TCHO chocolates in our Mountain View mini-kitchens, so I'd tried the chocolate before, but didn't know much about the brand.

The tour starts with some basics in chocolate production and background of their company, which they describe as "Silicon Valley meets San Francisco foodie." Then they go on about their altruistic farming practices, obsession for detail, flavor chart, beta offerings, and desire to foster an experience... the cynic in me found this all a bit contrived, but maybe I just was getting impatient for some samples.

After the presentation, we did a short stroll up and down the plant through a sweet fog of cocoa powder; why isn't there an air freshener available in cocoa scent? We saw some women wrapping and boxing up the chocolates (queue Lucy and the Chocolate Factory flashback) and then went off to taste (sorry, experience) each of their four offerings. I can't really use the term flavor because they don't add any flavorings to their chocolates and name each type according to the natural flavor of the cocoa bean. Just like a Macintosh tastes different than a Granny Smith, or a Chardonnay tastes different than a Merlot, no two cocoa beans taste alike. And it's true that their chocolates did taste differently when I took the time to let it melt on my tongue and let my mind wander down taste description lane, but the differences are very subtle and this may have a lot to do with their variation in cocoa proportion across the types. The citrus and fruity had distinct tastes (raisin and pineapple were fruits I likened them too), but the chocolatey tasted chocolatey and the nutty tasted, well, chocolately too.

The tour lasts about an hour, is free, and most importantly, involves free chocolate! Plus, it's located right on the Embarcadero, so it's an excuse to go to San Francisco and stroll around the city afterwards.

For what it's worth, I preferred the free Sharffen Berger tour in Berkeley to this one, but unfortunately, looks like they're no longer giving tours of that plant since Hershey bought them out. Bummer.

Farmer's Market Honey Peach Ice Cream

2011-08-07T17:14:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago, I found "Ice Creams & Sorbets," by Lou Seibert Pappas on my desk, a gift from Leo, hand-delivered all the way from Sydney! After some gentle poking from abroad (something like, "make ice cream! make make make!"), I dug out my KitchenAid and brand new, never been used ice cream extension and prepared to make some ice cream!

This book has so many enticing recipes that it was hard to pick a place to start. I'd already decided on making an ice cream, so ignored the sections on sorbets, granitas, and frozen yogurts... for another time. I initially had my eye on the Mexican Chocolate ice cream. but it seemed like a heavy option for late July, and even though I can't remember a time I've actually picked a fruit ice cream over a chocolatey option, I decided to go with fruit to keep in the spirit of new endeavors. Mountain View has a lovely farmer's market off Castro St. on Sunday mornings and that's exactly where I went to get inspiration for my first homemade ice cream.

Center stage at each produce stand where hills of peaches and nectarines. The crowds were out, so I had to nudge my way in for taster pieces, but a few bites later and I was digging out my wallet to pay for a big bag of yellow peaches. (And then I went back for a few more bites :)

Free tastes!

A few weeks ago, I bought some star thistle honey from a local bee farmer, and thought that might be a healthy and flavorful replacement for some of the sugar. I also wanted to puree some of the peaches for the base and leave out the eggs to keep it a bit lighter - well, truth be told, I didn't want to mess with egg tempering on a first ice cream attempt because I think ruining these peaches and my cream and honey with badly tempered (scrambled) eggs would have ruined my Sunday.

Blanched peaches, ready for peeling.

Drizzling honey over warming peaches.

I ended up adapting Lou's Peach Ice Cream and another Honey Peach Ice Cream recipe I found online. I'll include what I did at the end, but I can't really recommend it yet. The flavor was great, but there was room for improvement with the texture, and I'm not sure exactly what to blame. It's possible that I didn't thicken the mixture enough or that I put too much into the maker at once (likely). I also didn't put any thought into balancing the sugar and fat proportions (like I learned in Gelato University), so it's likely the recipe was off too. But for a first attempt, it was still pretty yummy, and all of the guinea pigs (Hi Damien, Brandon, Manok, and Patrick!) finished a bowl without fuss. (More pictures here.)

Picture by Patrick Nehls.

Farmer's Market Honey Peace Ice Cream
(Adapted from Lou Seibert Pappas's Ice Creams & Sorbets and Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours.)

Ingredients
6 peaches
1 cup whipping cream
1 cup half and half
½ cup sugar
¼ cup honey

Directions

Blanch 6 peaches and peel. (Slit an x in the bottom, then boil for 1 minute, followed by an ice bath for 1 minute. Then peel!)
Cut up 4.5 peaches and warm with ¼ cup honey warm until the compote is soft. Then puree in a mixer and set aside.
Heat up whipping cream, half and half, sugar, vanilla, and almond extract.
Mix puree and cream mixture together and cool in refrigerator for at least 3 hours.
Make ice cream according to ice cream maker. Cut up remaining peach and pour into nearly frozen ice cream.

Touring Langa Township

2011-07-19T15:44:00.000-07:00

Molweni!

This is how my guide, Mcebisi, greeted me when he picked me up in the morning en route to visit Langa Township, the oldest township in Cape Town, South Africa. He tried to teach me some basic words and sounds in Xhosa, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa and his native tongue. Xhosa is spoken by about 18% of the population. One of the most distinctive features of the language is the prominence of click consonants. He tried valiantly, yet unsuccessfully, to help me reproduce the click sounds, and then demoed a simple sentence. The clicks make bland conversation sound musical - check out an example.

We drove from the hotel I was staying at past the Town Hall where Nelson Mandela famously addressed the city after his release from jail, and parked on an almost empty street in District 6. District 6 is the area in Cape Town that was designated as white only under the Groups Area Act -- 60,000 colored and black people were forcefully removed and the entire area was demolished in the 1970s, save for a few churches, mosques, and schools. After the fall of apartheid, the South African government began to recognize claims of former residents to the area and pledged support to rebuilding. Despite those plans, the area we drove through was barren and empty of life. Mcebisi told me that to claim property rights today, you needed to show a utility receipt from property owned... in other words, would need to present a utility bill proving residence back from the 1970s!

We continued on to Langa, where Mcebisi was born, lives today, and as he proudly proclaimed, planned to spend the rest of his life. We stopped at a building on the outskirts of the suburb where a Xhosa coming of age ceremony is performed on many of the men in Langa. 19 year old boys are brought in and circumcised; risk of infection is high and the boys typically don't drink anything for a week to minimize complications. They are left alone for a month and then return to their families as men. The ability to perform ceremonies such as these is a large reason blacks will intentionally remain in townships. Oh, and for all of my American readers that are starting to feel uncomfortable, it's politically acceptable to refer to groups of people as whites, blacks, and colored in South Africa.

Our first stop in Langa was at an arts and crafts building. I met one young man that makes his own pottery crafts and teaches children his craft. I also met two children playing music. Mcebisi told me that most people living in the townships do nothing but eat and drink alcohol. There is no culture of learning and expanding one's mind. The arts and crafts center is a place that tries to build this culture within Langa.

Langa boy playing music at the Arts & Crafts center.

We continued to walk through Langa and I heard more about daily life. We passed abandoned train cars that have been transformed into shops for selling food, getting a haircut, making a cheap phone call, basic auto repair, and other common services. We passed a pile of roasting, bloody sheep heads and I learned about smiley, a cheap and tasty (claimed, not tested) meal.

34 RAND (~5 USD) for one sheep head, which is enough to feed 4 people.

Smiley!

I asked Mcebisi why there were so many Coke-a-Cola signs on buildings and shops and shacks. He told me that Coke will give a free refrigerator to any establishment that advertises their brand and sells their product. This helps explain why it's so common to see Coke signs all over developing areas!

We discussed the different economic classes in Langa and other townships, mostly identified by the cost and location of their home. Here are some details:

Upper Class
The "Settler" homes of Langa, also known as "Beverly hills" of Langa are homes (~3 bedroom) that cost ~500,000 RAND (~70,000 USD). From the outside, these houses looked like any average single-family home you might find within the U.S. Well built, brightly painted, and situated on a larger lot of land than you'd find in a majority of residential properties in the California Bay Area. Mcebisi tells me that the people that live in these houses are known as "Black Diamonds", the growing black middle class in South Africa. Despite the poverty and lacking access to public resources, they prefer to live in the townships because of the community and culture.

Lower Class
The vast majority of people in Langa cannot afford a house and live in hostels or shanty towns. Hostels are housing units that were built in the 1920's to host migrant workers from the Eastern Cape. Each hostel consisted of units or apartments, with each unit having three or four rooms. Each room housed three to four men, and women were not allowed. When the ban on women was lifted, each room soon became the home of three families. The rooms are ~6 sq. meters and children slept on the floor and the parents in a tiny bed. The old hostels still exist and are still being used by many families in Langa. I visited this hostel which had 3 rooms, each with 3 families living in them.

9 families, most with more than 3 people, share this sink.

Two families (typically a mother, father, and 2+ children) share this room.

Shanties in Langa are the cheapest way to live. The land is free and people usually build a shack with whatever scrap material is available around Langa or in nearby dumpsters. In the cheapest case, it only costs about 200 RAND (< 30USD) to buy nails. You can alternatively pay a "professional" shanty builder for about 5000 RAND (700 USD). All shanties have access to outhouses (cleaned once a week by government) and water hoses for shared laundry and drinking.

Built by a professional shanty builder.

Typical shanty in Langa.

Woman pumping water near the shanties.

Middle class
Somewhere between the majority poor and minority upper class sits the middle class. Some choose to upgrade shanty life by building on a house property and pay the person rent for 150 RAND (~20 USD) per month, which gives them direct access to water and electricity. This is the living situation my guide had. Others live in renovated hostels for single families.

Renovated hostile for a single family.

And then there are brand new and beautiful housing units built by the government and ready for use. Depressingly, nobody currently lives there and they've been empty for 6 months because it's too expensive for anyone to afford at 3500 RAND (500 USD) per month.

Brand new housing establishments in Langa. They are beautiful, new and completely unlived in.

While touring Langa, everyone I passed was smiling, passively friendly, and only moderately curious in my presence. The mood was noticeably different than other impoverished areas I've visited, where locals are openly and directly begging for money and food. A few children came by to inspect me and one hugged my leg before running off to play. At no point did anyone ask me for money, though need here was far greater than anywhere else I've visited.

Our last stop was near some bars and BBQs. "Saturdays and Sundays are for beer, meat, partying," Mcebisi tells me quite matter-of-factly. He again comments on the lack of interest in expanding your mind and obsession of status among the majority of people living in the townships. With every Mercedes that passes, he scoffs at the skewed idol worship. He mentions that having a nice car is the only way to get a girl's attention (some things are the same everywhere), and it's common for men to buy very cheap cars and steal expensive car parts to attract more women.

Mzoli's, a famous township BBQ

Throughout our tour, Mcebisi talked frankly and openly about serious problems in South Africa: AIDs, discrimination, poverty, government, progress. I felt completely comfortable talking with him and found his perspective on all the topics informed, interesting, and honest. Taking this tour was the highlight of my trip in South Africa and a truly humbling and enlightening experience.

Marrakech to Ifrane in 3 Days

2011-06-05T18:01:00.000-07:00

I had work scheduled in Marrakech and Ifrane, so instead of flying, I decided to take a 3-day road tour with Authentic Morocco. My driver, Abdul, picked me up at 8:00 sharp, and we headed out of Marrakech and into the High Atlas Mountains.

High Atlas Mountains

Atlas Mountains

The landscape made it immediately clear why these mountains are a popular hiking and trekking destination. We took a small detour to visit the Berber city of Telouet, a Kasbah along one of the former caravan trade routes from Marrakech to the Sahara. It used to be the seat of the El Glaoui family's power, but has since been raided and is now just a crumbling ruin.

My guide in Telouet. His English was terrible and my French is terrible, so we got along great.

After a short tour and a road-side tagine, we continued through the mountains, passing through pink salt mines and mountain villages, and stopped at Ait Benhaddou, one of Morocco's most amazing fortified villages. Ait Benhaddou is also the setting of many movies filmed in Morocco, include "Lawrence of Arabia", "The Mummy", and "Gladiator."

Pink salt mines in the Atlas Mountains.

Ait Benhaddou

Syrian movie "extras" taking a break in a stream near Ait Benhaddou.

After another hour on the road, we stopped in Ouarzazate to stretch our legs and ended up getting a short serenade from this fine fellow.

Musician in Ouarzazate.

We ended our day in Skoura at Chez Azis, a Berber family hotel, that overlooked the miles of palm grove in the Skoura oasis. Chez Asiz, like the other hotels, is constructed in the traditional Berber style using mud brick and mortar.

Berber whiskey and cookies upon arrival in Skoura.

Asiz, owner of "Chez Asiz"

Berber lock on my room door :)

Berber mud brick

I started day two with a large breakfast of fried crepes, jams, orange juice, and coffee, and then bid Azis and Skoura goodbye.

Breakfast in Skoura.

We first drove through the Dades Valley, also known as the Valley of Roses, because of the fragrant rose oil and rose water produced. Each May, there is the annual Rose Festival that Moroccans from the whole country flock to attend. Abdul told me he and his brother come each year to pick up girls...

Valley of Roses

We continued driving through the mountains of orange and green and stopped briefly at the Todra Gorge to get a view of the spectacular canyons, then continued on to Merzouga.

Todra Gorge

Once in Merzouga, we went off road for 15 km until we reached the edge of the Erg Chebbi, one of the two Saharan ergs (areas of large sand dunes). Abdul bid me farewell and I set off on camel to spend a night in the Sahara with a group of Australian travelers and our camel guide, Mustafa.

Pre-camel trek: happy, warm, and dry...

I'd expected the stereotype: a relentless and scorching sun beating on the dry desert. What I got was cold, wind, and rain! Mustafa was practically dancing because of the rain, an exciting and infrequent event for him, while the rest of us layered up and wrapped our head scarves tighter around our faces to keep out the biting wind and sharp sand. I'll be honest... I was freezing.

Post-camel trek: happy, cold, and wet!

Alas, we made it to camp and shortly after we'd hung our scarves up to dry and found blankets to wrap ourselves in, Mustafa brought us Berber whiskey and salted nuts, and all was well again. After a tagine dinner, we warmed ourselves around a camp fire and got lost in a brilliant starry sky.

Mustafa warming his hands on the fire.

I woke up at dawn to climb one of the nearby dunes. Climbing a sand dune is... hard. It's very hard. Each step is heavy and sinking and the effort I was exerting never seemed to match the small distance I was covering upwards, but after some huffs and puffs, I made it to the top and watched a quiet sun rise over the burnt orange dunes.


Sunrise in the Sahara.

Sand dunes at sunrise.

My tracks climbing up a dune at sunrise.

The rest of our camp woke up, we packed, hopped on our camels, and set off back to Merzouga for breakfast.

My camel.

Another group trekking in the desert.

My view atop a camel.

Camel shadows in the sand.

A quick breakfast in Merzouga, an icy cold shower, and Abdul and I set off on the long drive to Ifrane.

Breakfast in Merzouga

Our third day was filled mostly with driving, through the Ziz Valley Gorge, Azrou, and the Ceder Forests. We passed more palm groves, mountains, and nomad settlements.

Palm grove. The smoke is from the Berber bread baking.

"God, Country, King" in Arabic.

In the early evening, Abdul dropped me off in Ifrane, where I was scheduled to do a tech talk at Al Akhawayn University the following day.

Al Akhawayn University

Ifrane is lovely and pristine and unmistakingly earns its nickname, "Little Switzerland." It looks nothing like the rest of Morocco I visited, but it's easy to understand why it's a popular skiing and resort destination for rich Moroccans and tourists.

And that concluded my very mini-tour through central and southern Morocco. It was an incredible experience, filled with many colors, tastes, friendly strangers, and memories. Oh, and pictures!

Moroccan Cooking

2011-05-26T22:06:00.000-07:00

On my second day in Marrakech, I took a full-day cooking class to learn how to make Moroccan and Berber food. Myself and 10 other students met our instructor, Lalla Nezha, in Jemaa el-Fnaa inside the large central Medina in Marrakech. We then set off to the Jewish quarter to learn about some staples in Moroccan cuisine: tea, spices, and bread.

Berber whiskey, a spicy and sweet mulled tea.

Ras El Hanout, or "best of the shop," is a mix of many ground spices and an essential in any tagine.

Flat bread

We stopped at one of the many shops in a spice souq and the owner taught us about his wares. We passed around at least a dozen spices and salts, tried each in turn, and then washed our palettes with honey sweetened Berber whiskey, a spiced tea served morning, noon, and night in Morocco. We also tried Argan oil, which is oil made from the kernel of the Argan tree, a plant endemic to Morocco. Argan oil is used extensively for its nutritional, cosmetic, and medicinal properties and is something I heard about repeatedly on my trip because of it unique native abudance (outside of Morocco, the tree is only found in Brazil) and variety of uses.

Women making Argan oil by hand.

One of the most interesting things we tried was cinnamon bark. I've licked cinnamon sticks before, and you usually get a faint whisp of cinnamon and then a very bitter ending. This bark naturally tasted sweet! I stashed a few in my pocket for munching later.

Cinnamon bark. Naturally sweet!

We also learned a bit about saffron. Moroccans are very proud of their saffron, claiming its the best in the world (next to Iran's). The value of Moroccan saffron per gram is higher than that of gold.

Moroccan saffron, worth more than its weight in gold.

Then we went to the vegetable stands and butcher. At this point, each student picked out which kind of tagine they were going to make, and then purchased their animal (to be slaughtered) and vegetables.

Rabbit meat.

Finally, we picked up some olives, nuts, and lard from another nearby stand to finish off our ingredient list.

Free tastings!

Then we drove to Lalla's house in a Berber village about 20 minutes outside of Marrakech. After some appetizers of dates, olives, bread and Argan oil, and tea, we all chopped according to the instruction of Lalla's assistant.

She was walking around with platters on her head all afternoon.

Our class decided to loosely organize our dishes so that we'd have a nice variety to eat and share in the end, and I decided to make a fish tagine. Each of the tagines were similar and simple to make if you have the right ingredients. Ultimately, you're just layering your ingredients in a clay tagine (the cooking pot and meal have the same name) and then letting all the vegetables, juices, spices, and meat (optional) make nice slowly over an open fire.

Fish tagine: pre-cook...

Toward the end, you can add some olives, and if you're making a sweet tagine, you'd add prunes and toasted sesame seeds. This was the first time I'd had real Moroccan food and really enjoyed the complex sweet and savory flavors in each of the tagines.

Fish tagine: post-cook, pre-eating!

Eileen and Terry, experienced Moroccan travelers and eaters, chose meals more ambitious than tagines. Eileen made Couscous, the food so nice, they named it twice! I've had instant Couscous before and it is of absolutely no comparison to this. Eileen's Couscous was buttery and fluffy and topped with tender chicken, vegetables, fruits, and nuts. My only disappointment was having so many other tasty options at the table that I couldn't focus my full appetite on the delicious and beautiful Couscous.

Mount Couscous

Terry made a Pastilla, regarded as the national dish or Morocco and typically reserved for weddings or big celebrations. Pastilla is the meal I will most remember from Morocco. It is a pie which combines sweet and salty flavors; crisp layers of crêpe-like warka dough (a thinner cousin of phyllo dough) envelope savory meat slow-cooked in broth and spices alongside a crunchy layer of toasted and ground almonds, cinnamon, and sugar. The finished pie is decorated with a sprinkling of sugar and nuts. Incredibly yummy and unlike any meal I've tried.

Pastilla

One bite is never enough...

After all this, I was so full I skipped dinner and breakfast the next day. This cooking class was my favorite experience in Marrakech and I'd highly recommend taking a Moroccan cooking class to anyone that likes eating and learning about new cultures via food. Lots more food porn pictures here.

Back from Africa!

2011-05-25T23:28:00.000-07:00

I've just dumped out the last of the Saharan sand and rusk crumbs from my suitcase. I've been off-continent for a month, visiting Morocco and South Africa for work and play, followed by a week of work in Zurich. Many stories and photos to share, but for now, it feels nice to be home and over jetlag, mostly.

Android Cake Pops

2011-04-04T00:50:00.000-07:00

I am typing this up with my last few kJs of energy after many hours of baking, crumbling, molding, patching, dipping, and dotting, all in an effort to bring you these little guys...

The march of the cake pops.

Android cake pops! I first read about cake pops on Bakerella's blog a year ago and I've been a silent admirer ever since. I've watched her technique evolve from the basic pop to adorable sheep pops, chick pops, and so many more adorable creations. Last year, Bakerella published a Cake Pops book and earlier this year, the stars aligned, and Leo was in town at the same time Bakerella was doing a San Francisco book signing, so we both went to see her, buy her book, and profess adoration. Every since that visit, I knew I needed to stop the spectating and get into the cake pop action.

I wanted to create a brand new pop shape. Bakerella's already covered a lot of subject matter ground, both on her blog and in her book, but she hasn't gone geek yet, so I thought I'd do what I know and stick to that genre. Luckily for me, my colleague will make molds on a moment's notice, so per request, he made me an Android mold in a day. And then I promptly procrastinated for another 3 weeks, until today.

Manfuctured by lcamtuf Inc.

Cake pops, Mike and Ike arms and legs, and Pocky antennas.

Just like all Android platforms are not equal, these Android cake pops have their own unique set of flaws (droopy eyes) and features (too much frosting coating), but the core cake in all is pretty yummy. I could go on with more geeky analogies, but I'll spare you and just end this post with a few more pictures.

Post-coating

He found his home in a Google coffee cup.

So much time and dipping...

Update [April 4]: I just searched the web to see if anyone else had made Android cake pops and came across this sad little creature from Picaboo Cakes in L.A.

Androidish?

Mine were so much better. More pictures on Flickr.

Dragon Fruit Acquired

2011-03-30T22:07:00.000-07:00

I found them! For 6 months, I've been casually searching for them in grocery stores all over the Bay Area: Safeways, Whole Foods, Nob Hill, Trader Joes, small stories, big stores, hippie stores, artisan shops, farmers markets (didn't have much hope, but you never know), and even Chinese supermarkets. And all this time, it was waiting for me at the tiny Asian supermarket on Castro, a stone's throw away from my home.

The appearance of the dragon fruit is something Andy Warhol would have conceived: hot pink, green, and horned on the outside with milky white flesh that's peppered with tiny black seeds. And this outrageous appearance is contradicted by its subtle, nay, sublime taste. It's entirely refreshing, rivaled only by the watermelon. If I had to describe it, I'd say it's something like a kiwi diluted to only a quarter of its original sweetness.

You can gorge on dragon fruit and still feel light. It's the perfect palette cleanser, and on top of all this, it's amazingly simple to clean (unlike one of my other favorite fruits, the mango). You just slice it in half, scoop out the flesh, and devour as desired. No deseeding, no pits, and most importantly, no urushiol on the skin (hello again, Mr. Mango).

I first tried dragon fruit on my trip to China in 2009 and I've been a fan-girl every since. They're a bit pricey and I imagine not nearly as fresh and tasty as what I'd find in Asia or South America, but beggars can't be choosers, and I'm just excited I found a local dealer.

Editorial Illustration

2011-02-13T21:58:00.000-08:00

I started a new night class at CCA two weeks ago titled "Editorial Illustration". The class is taught by Caitlin Kuhwald, who is a professor in Illustration at CCA and freelance illustrator. According to Caitlin, editorial illustration is the bread and butter of a freelance career in illustration, and art directors for magazines, newspapers, and websites will always be in need of illustrators that are inventive, conceptual thinkers, and competent artists. In other words, it's one of those careers that actually has some money potential; well, for an art job.

Over the next few weeks, we'll have editorial illustration assignments that mirror assignments Caitlin has received in her own career. Our first assignment was to create a 3.7" x 5" (with .25" bleed) illustration for the following love advice column letter:

"Facebook is ruining my relationship. My boyfriend and I were fine until I figured out that his last girlfriend is a total Facebook whore who posts a new profile pic every week, updates her totally accessible wall constantly with quotes and photos, and has a zillion friends. It doesn't help that she's gorgeous too. I know she's made herself available to him again (though he declined); dealing with that is challenge enough, but being able to track her adventures and status is making me crazy. I visit her page way too often and sink into total insecurity every time. Help!"

And here is what I came up with...

While working on this, I quickly realized I don't remember how to draw. Actually, I realized I've done very little drawing and really should take some basic drawing classes. I remember the rough proportions of the human face from a high school drawing class, but other than that, I'm mostly a competent doodler. Drawing is one those things that just requires a lot of practice, and a class should help force that.

I also realized it's time to start practicing more on my tablet. I have a Bamboo tablet that I got as a gift a few years ago and got frustrated with and never really learned how to use, but I think it's going to be a requirement to get the kind of pen lines I want. In this illustration, I ended up scanning in a penned sketch and not really knowing how to smooth out or efficiently vectorize the black lines. So I'm not really happy with how that part turned out, but it's something to improve on.

Finally, I copped out and used Photoshop for coloring of this. I wanted to try out a more traditional medium, like watercolor or acrylic, but I just didn't have the time to experiment. To my defense, I'm traveling now and it's no fun setting up art shop in a hotel. Maybe next time.

February 1

2011-02-01T10:58:00.000-08:00

I was looking forward to today for awhile now; well, since January 1st. Having avoided coffee for a month, I expected I'd make a short sprint to the coffee machine this morning and relish the strong, warm, jolting reward of a job well done. But now that it's today, it seems I have too many other issues floating around in my head that overshadow coffee withdrawal to enjoy any celebration.

Until tomorrow...