Yippee!

I just returned from a whirlwind weekend trip with my sister and although I enjoyed it thoroughly, I am glad to be back. "What?!?" you say, "Another trip?"

Yes, I know, I know. I also just recently returned from a two-week-long homecoming to Asia for Chinese New Year and I shouldn't be taking time off again so soon! But anyway, my sister and I have planned it for some time and we get so little time to spend together, just the two of us, that we just did it! So, watch out for that post soon.

But anyway, my dear fellow Hyde Park blogger Coco, was so very sweet to give me this prize. I feel so undeserving but am so very honored *blush*



Like Coco, I'd like to pass on this prize to fellow food bloggers I admire and respect. It's a tough one because there are so many great food bloggers out there, but here goes...

First, I'd like to recognize Christina of She Runs, She Eats, a fellow Midwestern foodie and runner. It's quite fun to find foodie bloggers out there who are also training for races.

Then there's Sylvie, an absolutely adorable German lady living across the pond popularly known as the Atlantic Ocean, who makes a lot of awesome British-style food. Like her, I think there's nothing that a freshly-brewed pot of tea can't solve *winks*

Jess is a wonderful SAHM and fellow knitter who recently started her blog.

So, those are just a few of the deserving bloggers of this prize! Yippee!

Anyway, I recently encountered an absolutely rad music video during my travels. The music is super funky, by Martin Solveig, a French electronica musician. I found the dancers in this video quite "sick" (in a good way) and uber cool. It's also quite appropriate for Easter as it features a rather large egg prominently. Check it out and towards the end, an adorable little prize emerges out of the egg! Happy Easter to one and all!

Top chef madness

March has come around and unlike many others who experience March basketball madness, my madness is over the new season of Top Chef. The inaugural 4th season episode premiered last night and it didn't disappoint. Contestants were thrown into the kitchen for a quick-fire challenge barely hours after they scoped out their rivals. And to honor the host city's food tradition, the first challenge involves making their own signature deep dish pizza, which they just enjoyed for lunch.

As usual, the show moved at breakneck speed and the chefs tried both true-and-tried classics (like sausage, onion and mushroom combo) and the seemingly absurd (think vegemite and peaches on a pizza?). This might seem out of the point, but I really like soundtrack of the show; a little bit electronica, kind of jazzy and very upbeat. Next time you're watching, listen in.

Anyway, Chicago chef Stephanie Izard won the first challenge (yay!), but for me, the highlight of last night's episode was the oh-so-dreamy guest judge, Rocco DiSpirito. I mean, really, he's so scrumptious!

Survey time :)

Hi folks!

My friend and I have been super busy with and excited about our business idea lately. We are going to join a business competition with it and currently, besides working on starting it up, we would like to learn more about our market. The idea is food-based (of course!) and is basically about letting you customize nutrition bars according to you own taste and nutritional needs. We would love to listen to the customers' taste and needs, so this is where you come in! We would like you to fill a short online survey that can be found here.

Unfortunately, being struggling graduate students, we cannot pay you for your invalueable opinions, but we can offer you our eternal gratitude for your kindness. Please feel free to spread the survey around to friends and family who might be interested. Thank you again and have a wonderful weekend!

Devilled egg: simple party food with staple ingredients

A friend graciously invited a bunch of us for the Project Runway finale viewing at her place. Our Molecular Nutrition graduate program is famous (or is it notorious?) for loving our food. I mean, seriously, Nutrition program equals food, right? :)

Well, anyway, it was a potluck and I decided to bring something salty instead of my usual forays into the land of desserts. This is not my first time making these devilled eggs. I first made these for another friend's wine party earlier this year. Devilled eggs are no-fuss to make and are so delicious and nutritious; they belong in every party tray. Here's how I made mine...

Start with some nice-looking eggs.


Place the eggs in a pot and cover with room temperature water.


Next, bring water to a roiling boil and let the eggs boil for 5 minutes. Then, put the pot lid on and leave for 10 minutes.

Pour hot water out of pan and to make it cool faster, add tap water into the pot and leave for 5 minutes.

Next, peel the eggs. This is probably the most time-consuming part of the recipe, but I figured out a simple way to do it. Tap the egg on a hard surface lightly until it is cracked all over (and I mean ALL OVER). Now, start peeling from a spot. I was able to peel the egg easily, by pulling out the membrane layer underneath the shell. For one egg, I peeled off the shell in one piece ;)


Cut each egg lengthwise.


Scoop out the yolk into a medium-sized bowl and place the "hollowed" egg white shell on a platter with "hollowed" face up.


Once you've cut and scooped out all the eggs, mash the yolks. Add salt, pepper, paprika and Dijon mustard to your taste. You can add some mayo if you'd like it to be smoother. If you're piping out the mashed yolk mixture, it's recommended that you add the mayo for easier piping.


Scoop about a teaspoon of mashed yolk mixture on the hollowed egg white. If you want to be fancy schmancy, you can pipe the yolk mixture on.


At the end, garnish with a dash of paprika, sprig of dill or a sliver of chive. For a more substantial bite, you can top each with a teeny weeny slice of smoked salmon.

Now, isn't that a fierce?

What a difference a day (or two) makes...

It's Tuesday in Chicago and winter has returned. Not that it went away for that long. This past Sunday was gloriously beautiful! Think mid-50ish Fahrentheit weather, little wind, partly sunny (or partly cloudy, depending on how you look at it). Even though I had to trek in to work for a few hours, I made sure I came home early enough so there's a few hours of daylight left. I surprised myself by hauling my lazy butt out of the apartment for a 3+ mile run along the lake, something that I sorely needed. The fresh, brisk air felt so good on my face and I miss having a hard ground underneath me to run on.

But come Monday, old man winter's back. How cruel of him to tease us with a taste of spring, only to return howling down on us the next day! Well, at least it's sunny ... sort of.

French bread, oh, French bread. How do I serve thee? Let me count the ways...

French bread is one of my favorite things ever. It is so simple yet complex; crusty yet chewy; and delicious both unadorned and ... well, adorned! So imagine the joy (and slight apprehension, which I will get to later) when the wonderful Daring Bakers announced that our mission for February is to make French bread with Julia Child's (deceptively) simple recipe. Upon first inspection of the recipe, I was simply floored by its length and contents. I mean, really, we're going to need canvas? And plywood? Sounds more like an art project, no? And can you blame my slight apprehension? I'm not going to wax poetic too much about it but when you come right down to it, baking is artistic!

Unlike my normal baking/cooking projects, I set out to be uber organized this time. I printed out the recipe (10 pages long, thank you very much!), laid out all the special equipment and ingredients ("mise en place") before I even started. Baking French bread took way longer than my usual baking recipes (think a whole Sunday!), but it was totally worth it because my French breads turned out beautiful! It was Sunday anyway, so during the multiple proofs (or incubation steps, as we call it in lab/geek talk), I just tinkered around the house, reading the paper, watching TV and doing little chores.

I made the mistake of digging into one before it was cooled completely. I mean, it took 2 whole hours to cool and let the crust set, but I was just sooo seduced by the aroma of fresh bread out of the oven. I couldn't resist! The bread tasted good but the crust wasn't as crusty as I was hoping. Fortunately, the second bread that I let cool for the whole 2 hours was much better: super crusty crust and chewy, bubbly middle. Although it isn't a French bakery-standard bread, it comes pretty darn close! And as usual, there are a few hundred DB posts up today. Kinda crazy but oh so worth it to check out! So take a look the creations of my talented friends here!

As the title of this post suggests, how did I serve this divine bread?


1. By itself: So simple and delicious! This may make me sound like a freak, but my favorite part of bread is actually the crust. Whenever I get a loaf of bread, I always attack the ends. Chewy middles are a distant second in my opinion. So the high crust-to-innard ratio of baguettes is a huge plus to me!

2. With butter: Still very simple and oh, so decadent. I think it might be especially yummy if you can get butter from dairy farmers who make small batches of unhomogenized and sometimes, unpasteurized butter as featured in the NYT.

3. With butter and jam: To further bring your taste buds nearer to nirvana, add jam to #2. Not jelly please no! But J-A-M. My current favorite is this awesomely flavorful blackberry jam from Trader Joe's. I just ran out but I'm hoping it's not just a seasonal item...

4. With butter and roasted garlic cloves shmeared on top. Now, THIS is sheer heaven!


5. As part of a bánh mì: If you haven't tried one of these yummy sammie, you have to try one right now. And I mean, go to a pho place right NOW! Banh mi is a Vietnamese-style sandwich made with baguettes. It is usually made with pork, chicken, pickled carrots, some veggies and cilantro.

6. With chocolate: As exemplified by fellow DBer Tartelette here.

7. With extra virgin olive oil as dip: Droooooolz!

8. With cheese of all kinds: goat, brie, blue, Cheddar. Oh, the possibilities are endless!

9. With Nutella: I suppose Nutella could be considered chocolate. But I think Nutella is just so good it deserves its own category. I really think the USDA should really reserve a place for this delicious hazelnutty chocolatey goodness in the food pyramid. Don't you?

10. As crostini: Sliced thinly, toasted and topped with various yummies like chopped tomato and basil, garlic hummus and pine nuts, roasted tomato puree and sliced mozzarella, etc.

11. For croutons: I've never been a fan of croutons and consider this one to be a bit of a waste of good bread. But hey, I'm sure there are folks out there who beg to differ and can't live without croutons...


That's only eleven of the ways I can think to serve French bread. Care to share any of your own ideas?

I'm baaack!

Imagine the horror that washed over me as I stepped out of Chicago's O'Hare airport this past frigid Monday with no coat on me. Yes, you read that right. NO COAT IN THE HEART OF THE MIDWESTERN WINTER!

After all, I just returned from a luxuriously warm 2-week holiday visiting my family in Jakarta and Singapore for Chinese New Year. I didn't have space in my luggage for a damn winter coat! Not with all the goodies I was planning to bring back from home!

Ok, ok, so it is partially my fault for not thinking ahead, but what do you think? If you were in my position, would you prioritize a stupid coat or the wondrous Asian goodies? Now you tell me!