Another Baking Blitz: Pineapple Rolls

It's that time of the year again - time for another baking and cooking marathon. Christmas has come and gone. So have Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. We're already at end of the first month of twenty-ten so what other major festivals will we be celebrating, you ask?! Valentines? No, no, no. As romantic as we are at hearts, D and I don't celebrate V-Day because we think it's just another one of those marketing ploy to get people to spend unnecessary money (alright, we're cheap!). But 14th February 2010 IS a very special day that we will be celebrating - not Valentines (didn't I just tell you that?!) but

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Tuesdays with Dorie: Cocoa-Nana Bread

I am so excited! Today marks my debut with Tuesdays with Dorie. TWD is a group of baking-cum-blogging enthusiasts that started with only 6 members couple years ago and has grown to over 450-strong (and counting) today. Group members are all fans of Dorie Greenspan and each week, we would bake a member-selected recipe from Dorie's award-winning book Baking: From My Home to Yours then blog about our bakes on Tuesdays. I joined the group early this year and with a couple of test-bakes under my belt, I'm now ready to get onboard and share this week's pick by Steph of Obsessed with Baking: the Cocoa-Nana Bread  from page 46 of the book.

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Love at First Bite

Rummaging through the fancy paper bag, sorting through the host of goodies we bought - boxes of assorted macarons, delightful sugar pastries, cannelles, kouign amanns, and, finally, down to that white a lá lunch-yet-so-chic-looking bag holding my most anticipated delectable of all. I couldn't even wait till we get to the little park across Rue Bonaparte before I literally tore into the bag: a pleasantly familiar floral scent wafting through, all my five fingers carefully holding it up, admiring its puffed crescent form,  but self-control could only last two seconds before I sunk my teeth, taking a deep bite into the prized item.

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Reunited

I really love to bake. I just didn't realize how much of a comforting and healing impact baking has on me until this weekend. What seemed like a dreary weekend that somewhat "depleted" me suddenly turned around and came to life again once I started the Kitchen Aid mixer, looked at it churned, whipped and frothed the heavy cream for the topping of my cupcakes. Once I immersed myself into decorating these light and airy blueberry cupcakes (Martha's page 42), the dull and dreadful feeling just seemed to dissipate. Surprisingly powerful antidote!
This was a very special bake for me. Somewhere several thousand miles across the oceans, in a different country, a very special friend was also baking on the same day (well, just several hours apart), from the same book, same page, the same recipe. A very dear friend whom I've known for two decades and just got reunited recently via a social networking site. It has been almost a decade since Tina and I last met or sat down to have a chat, hardly imaginable back during those days when we would chat over the phone every other day. I still remember the time when she took the long drive from Iowa, all by herself, just to spend a weekend with me in Kansas. Ah, the good times we had and things that we'd share - the laughter, silly girly giggles, the fun as well as the tears, the heartaches, the growing pains.....
Today. Over a decade later. Several thousand miles apart. Separate lives in different worlds. We've both grown and changed, but the beauty of friendship is just this: it transcends geographical boundaries, race, religion and even time. I'm truly glad Tina and I remain friends and now, we have one more thing in common to create new memories for our friendship.
Tina posted pictures of her blueberries-and-cream cupcakes online and they were just plain lovely. They look just like the pretty cupcakes on Martha's book! I wished I had the link; I will try to post some of the photos here.
Bake on, my friend!

Update: let's try this link to Tina's gorgeous cupcakes.

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Please help in any way you can.

The devastation of the massive earthquake in Haiti couple days ago is beyond anyone's imagination. In a flash, lives were drastically changed and it would take months, if not years, of rebuilding to restore the country.
My heart and prayers go out to them. I simply cannot fathom the state of despair and shock they must be in. It could easily be any one of us......This is a call for help; the suffering nation of Haiti needs our help. To help, please click on the World Food Programme banner above (The World Food Program is part of United Nations and is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger) or see here for the official list of relief efforts that you can support.
Now is our time to act.
Thanks and God Bless.

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A Different Take on Banana: Banana Parcels

I practised making loads of these Lepat Pisang, or Banana Parcels when I was taking Home-Science classes in high-school. Back then, once you get to secondary school (equivalent to high school in the States),  students will be placed in either one of the two available mainstream categories: Home-Science where they'd be taught the basics of food, cooking, sewing and craftwork or Commerce where they'd get a glimpse into the ever-so intriguing world of debits and credits. Which category you end up in was not so much a matter of direct, conscious choice. Come to think of it, a lot of important education and career-related decisions were pretty much "made" for us, not by ourselves or our parents but rather, by the sadly flawed and seriously discriminative education system of my home country which to me, has back-fired and created huge brain drain much more than the government cares to admit. Anyway, this post is not to gripe about the Malaysian education system. I am actually thankful for without the moutainous hurdles, the social and educational inequalities against minorities, I would not have resolved to complete my higher education in USA, graduating with honors, working hard, earning good living, paying property and income taxes to a country that I now proudly call my (new) home today. A country that appreciates talents, honors individuality, welcomes creative innovation and provides an environment that allows any determined person hungry for success to thrive. Most importantly, if it wasn't for the double-standards, I would not have learnt to make these banana parcels!
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Sweet madeleines, sweet memories.

I can't wait to share THE highlight of my Paris trip and finally, this came in the mail couple days ago!
I've been huge fan of Dorie Greenspan since I started to get serious with baking. I am so inspired by her work, her culinary adventures, her career......by Dorie.
It was our second day in Paris. We walked into

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A Forgettable Wedding Anniversary dinner at Manresa

It's not a typo. I really do mean a forgettable dinner. An experience which I really don't want to retain to memory. I had let this one sit for a while, hoping that I'll get a different perspective or find something positive that could redeem the experience. Four days later...........

Let's just get this out of the system.

To say that our experience in Manresa was disappointing would be an understatement. I've been wanting to visit Manresa after reading all the rave reviews, and especially more so after Chef David Kinch clinched the Iron Chef battle against one of our all-time favorite Chef Bobby Flay. Suffice to say our expectations were high when we picked Manresa for our 11th wedding anniversary dinner. We've eaten at several Michelin-starred establishments and were excited that we could find one so close to our backyard!

The restaurant was rather easy to find, parking was ample and we made it for our 8 pm reservations without any problems. They seated us by the window, as we had requested in our Open Table reservations. I couldn't help but noticed the cold, hard, faux leather banquette surrounding the windows as I sat down, which seemed somewhat at odds against the silk drapes that lined the windows. A quick glance around and I started to wonder if the theme of the decor was Mismatched, with a heavily-underscored capital M! Mismatched rugs on the floor, Japanese art pieces on the wall and instrumental jazz streamed throughout the restaurant (not entirely a bad thing if only the decibel levels were kept down a notch). Perhaps this was intentional and they were going for an eclectic, non-Spanish feel, but the whole decor and vibe just didn't work for me. After ~ 15 minutes' wait, the maitre-d came over and took our orders. We went for the tasting menu (but of course!), ready to forget the decor faux-pas and be wowed by the genius creations of Chef Kinch.

First up: a black olive madeleine and a red pepper geleé - the signature Manresa paté de fruit, presented in a gumdrop form, with the sugar coating and all. The madeleine was crusty on the outside, soft on the inside - right texture for madeleines although I would've preferred a richer (more) black olive taste. The red pepper geleé was sweet and tangy at the same time with slight hint of heat and its texture similar to that of a gumdrop. In fact, if you weren't told, you'd be thinking you were eating gumdrops - soft, chewy and tasty gumdrops! So far so good.

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Let's Party with Pie Tee...and Satay Sauce!

We were supposed to attend a New Year's Eve party couple days ago. Alas! D came down with flu and although was in both good spirits and physical condition, we didn't think the flu virus would be a welcomed New Year's gift to our hosts and their friends. So much for sharing these great party h'or d'oeuvres that I had painstakingly prepped the day before. The bright side of it was of course, there's plenty more for both of us!

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A Very Special Dish to celebrate our Wedding Anniversary

I woke up to this wonderful post yesterday morning that caused my stomach to growl and made weird noises that I never knew it could make. Char Kuih Kak: a scrumptious dish of stir-fried radish (daikon) cake in dark soy sauce with eggs, chives, beansprouts and a dash of spicy chilli paste - another kind of perfect breakfast, one that's uncustomary in this part of the world but one that I grew up eating back home. "Char" in Hokkien (a type of Chinese dialect that's the mother-tongue of most Penangites) means stir-fried, "Kuih" is cake and "Kak" denotes the square cubed form of the radish in this dish.
This dish immediately transported me back to our courting days.

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First Meal of 2010

It may seem crazy but ah, there's no better way to kick-start the first day of the new year with decadent chocolates! I almost ate an entire box of these

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