Triple Pastry Wednesday at Magnolia Bakery

Wednesday is officially my least favorite day, because I have a three-hour lecture with no breaks and an overly tough professor. And for lectures over two hours, I think I deserve one pastry per hour in class. It's just common sense.

I had to get Magnolia Bakery's famous banana pudding. The custard itself is so creamy and rich, and not overly sweet. And there's chunks of cake it in, which is always nice. The slices of banana are okay, but I thought they were kind of mushy and had an odd, spongey texture. I would order this again, but I would prefer the bananas to just be pureed into the custard.

Magnolia Bakery is the only place I buy cupcakes from, because you can get buttercream instead of cream cheese frosting, which is gross. Their red velvet cupcake is so moist and fluffy, and the buttercream is so light. Honestly, I don't really know what red velvet cake is supposed to taste like, but I just love eating something that's so unnaturally red.

Fall means pumpkin pie! I got a small one--six inches, which I feel is still quite large, especially since I refuse to share. I like this quite a lot; most pumpkin pies are overly cinnamony and sweet, but this tastes very mild and creamy. The crust is also quite nice and flaky.

I really love everything at Magnolia Bakery--just make sure you go at a random time to avoid long lines. I can't wait for next Wednesday to get three of something else...

Magnolia Bakery
Various locations
http://www.magnoliabakery.com/

Cronuts at Dominique Ansel Bakery

The "cronut," which was released four months ago, is supposed to be a combination of a croissant and a doughnut, and it has taken America by storm. On the Dominique Ansel Bakery website, it says if you start waiting 2.5 hours before the bakery opens, you will have a "good chance" of getting a cronut. Meaning, even if you start waiting at 5:30am, you still may not get one.

I decided to get up bright and early to get in line before 5:30 (or actually, dark and early); I woke up at 4:30, leaving half an hour to wake up and half an hour to get there. I didn't even put on my eyebrows--it would just slow me down. I got there at 5:21 and there were already six people in front of me. The hardest part is waiting; bring an iPad to watch a movie or a fully charged phone, and maybe also a lawn chair if you don't like sitting on the sidewalk or squatting. Around 7:45, a guy will come out with baskets of madeleines and pass them out to everyone who has been waiting in line. Thanks, but when I've been up since 4:30, I need something more substantial than an extremely dry madeleine.

For some reason, I thought the cronut was going to look a lot more refined than this. Dominique Ansel is hailed as a star patissier, and all of his other cakes and pastries are beautiful. But this just looks like a $1 doughnut from a street cart with a fig on top (September's flavor is fig mascarpone). I must admit, I was very skeptical of how good the cronut is, but the texture is really interesting; it's less fluffy, and a little chewier than the interior of regular doughnuts. However, the big mistake that they made was to serve it at room temperature--a fried doughnut that isn't warm tastes a little greasy (but still okay), but then when you fill it with marscapone and cooked figs, the flavor just becomes kind of muddy. Although I like figs, and I like marscapone, I would've preferred a plain cronut because the execution is a little disappointing.

If I'm going to wait for 2.5 hours outside a bakery, I'm not going to walk away with a just croissant shaped like a doughnut. I've been told that the canele and eclairs are good, so I got one of each (I got the salted caramel eclair--they have chocolate as well). The canele is good, but I don't feel like it's a vast improvement from any other good caneles, like the ones at Lafayette--I wouldn't make a special trip here if you have a more convenient location to go to. The eclair's salted caramel flavor was spot-on, but the pastry shell just did not taste fresh--it had this kind of "refrigerated" flavor, kind of like when you leave cake uncovered in the fridge for a while, and then it tastes stale and the texture becomes kind of dry and crumbly.

Overall, I give Dominique Ansel Bakery an average rating. If I'm going to wake up at 4:30am for anything, it better be something that is life-changing and ruins all other food for me. However, cronuts just didn't do it for me. The texture is interesting, but it's not something that I'm going to dream about for the three hours of sleep I get before lining up to get another one. And the other pastries were just kind of eh. Although it was a cool experience, I wouldn't do it ever again.

Dominique Ansel Bakery
189 Spring St.
http://dominiqueansel.com/
For more information on the cronut: http://dominiqueansel.com/cronut-101/

Pies n Thighs

Omg guys, this is literally the third time I've ever eaten in Brooklyn. It's not that I'm a Manhattan snob, but the abundance of ombre hair and visible belly buttons is a little much for me. But I figured, if it's really bad, then I'll have a legitimate reason to hate Brooklyn.

The chocolate cake doughnut is quite large and really heavy. It's not very sweet, which is nice, but it's really not a special or particularly great doughnut. I think it's also important to note that when I took it home, the grease from the doughnut soaked through the wax paper and into my purse--it's like a sponge soaked in oil.

When I saw how small the chicken biscuit was... I almost thought it was a joke--it's pretty much the same size as the doughnut. It's a fried chicken cutlet sandwiched in a biscuit, and then it's all smothered in hot sauce (which is just wing sauce) and honey butter. The chicken is actually really crispy and moist, but there was barely any chicken! The biscuit is so fluffy, but the bottom of it was so hard, I really couldn't saw through it. Overall, it wasn't bad, but I wish the hot sauce came on the side (or maybe just have less of it) because it's so strong and it becomes the only thing you can taste.

Of course it would be illegal to go to a place called Pies n Thighs and not get pie. I got a slice of bourbon pecan to go, and I was really disappointed. Although the filling was quite nice, the crust was really thin--and what little of it there was, was really greasy.

Another thing about this restaurant is that it doesn't feel very clean. I sat right next to the fridge and saw this:

... which is really gross.

Overall, I give this restaurant just an average rating. The pastries are just fine, but I can definitely see the other fried chicken dishes being really good. Get everything to go; after you see the state of the fridge, everything around you starts to feel sticky.

Pies n Thighs
166 S 4th Street
http://piesnthighs.com/

Victoria C. Kitchen: How to make ramen not sad

Shin Ramen is probably the most luxurious instant noodles while you're a student, and we all need a cheap meal sometimes... but for less than two dollars you can make it not so sad!

You need:
One packet of Shin Ramen ($1)
One large handful of baby spinach (or some other vegetable; $0.66)
One large egg ($0.31)
Total: $1.97

Bring three cups of water to a boil, and add the noodles. Meanwhile, beat the egg and add it to the pot, along with the soup base packet (you don't have to beat the egg, but it will cook a lot faster). Put the spinach in a large bowl, and when the noodles and egg are done, pour it on top of the spinach--it will cook instantly.

Also, is Breaking Bad not the best show ever?

Donato Enoteca

I love happy accident discoveries! We were on our way to another restaurant... when we found out it was closed on Sundays (why do restaurants do that? They're just killing their business). We were determined to eat ASAP, so we Yelped furiously and found a place nearby.

Our first appetizer was grilled calamari--remember, if you want fried calamari, it's "calamari fritti" in Italian. I really liked this--it's so tender--but they cooked it so that the calamari's juices stay inside. This makes it taste like the ocean, which I love, but it can be really fishy.

Our second appetizer was braised wild boar bruschetta, which was basically a really gamey pulled pork. The boar was really cooked really simply--with a lot of tomato--and it was very tender, but I wish the bread was thicker and a little bit charred, so it would be a little tougher. The bread was slightly toasted but way too soft, and got really soggy from the boar.

I got the bigoli pasta with oxtail. I love the texture of this pasta--it's like tagliatelle, but thicker and coarser. This super dense texture is so unusual, but I wish more restaurants would use it! The oxtail was really tender, but it was all in shreds, so you get smatterings of its flavor throughout the pasta. Although it might not be as satisfying without big chunks of meat, it makes the dish a lot lighter, but you still get just as much flavor.

My boyfriend got the buckwheat pasta with mushrooms. The pasta is in large ribbons, which really accentuates the grittiness of the buckwheat--it's hard to grind buckwheat very finely, but the grit wouldn't be very apparent in thinner noodles, like soba. The mushroom flavor was good, but I didn't find that it was really different from that of other mushroom pastas.

Apparently this is how my boyfriend takes food photographs.
It's "artistic."

I was really torn between two desserts... the tiramisu and chocolate fondant. I think I made the right choice! All tiramisus are really flavorful, but a big problem I have with a lot of them is that the cake gets really soggy from sitting in the espresso all day and then it all becomes all one moist, too-soft texture. This one, though, wasn't soaked through with espresso, and each layer was nice and separated.

Donato Enoteca
1041 Middlefield Rd
http://www.donatoenoteca.com/

Beef noodles at Queen House

I really have a high standard where beef noodles are concerned--I'm actually Taiwanese, not just born to Taiwanese parents and went to Taipei once for Loveboat--so almost all beef noodles in America have been disappointing :/ However, the one at Queen House is not bad at all! The broth is really nice and rich, the beef is tender, and the noodles are the perfect, dense texture.

So much fat!

However,  the broth is not very clear. I feel like it was a bit of a rushed job. Even though the flavor is really beefy and savory, they really should've strained it. You cook the broth for a pretty long time, so bits of green onion, fat, and other solids from the braising liquid become mushy and cloud the broth. All the particles make the soup really sticky :(

So much grease!

Although this dish is not perfect, this is as close as I've gotten in America. I have to stop having expectations--then I'll never be disappointed!

Queen House
273 Castro Street

Sushi omakase at Sushi Tomi

Tuesday was Chinese Valentine's Day, so my boyfriend took me out for fancy sushi!

Our appetizer was beef tataki--kind of like a seared beef sashimi--with red onions. The beef was very, very tender, but because it's half seared and half raw, it can get a little gamey. The red onions were probably run under hot water, because it was very mild. The beef comes with a yuzu-shoyu type sauce, which I wish the onions were dressed in, because they felt a little "separated" from the rest of the dish. But, overall, the dish was very well-balanced and was acidic enough to still be light.

We ordered the sushi omakase, which is a chef's selection of onigiri. The only other sushi omakase I've had was at Sushi Sam's in San Mateo, so that's what I'm comparing it to.

We got a good mix of fatty and lean fish, like toro (fatty tuna), salmon, shrimp, and uni (sea urchin). However, I wish our server had told us what each fish was, because there are only a few that we could recognize.

At Sushi Sam's, all the sushi is already seasoned and "done" for you--for example, some of the fatty fish comes with yuzu rice--and they ask you to not eat it with additional soy sauce and wasabi, which prevents you from ruining the flavor of the fish with the wrong seasoning. At Tomi, on the other hand, all the fish just comes with plain sushi rice and wasabi, so you season it to your taste--which I think some people would like, because a complaint I've heard about Sushi Sam's is that it's not customizable. My one big fault with Tomi's onigiri, however, is that they put a decent chunk of too-fresh wasabi between the rice and the fish. I can handle some wasabi, but this came out of my nose and ruined a few pieces of fish for me. I ended up having to pinch off the wasabi before eating the sushi.

I think it's also notable that at least three pieces of fish were very fishy, which made it almost inedible for my boyfriend (which means I got more--yay :)

Overall, Tomi has great stuff, but just for personal preference, I like Sushi Sam's better. Both sushi omakase sets are about the same price, so it really depends on whether you want sushi that's tailored for each kind of fish (Sushi Sam's) or simple, customizable onigiri (Tomi).

Sushi Tomi
635 W Dana St
http://www.sushitomi.com/

Banh mi at Lee's Sandwiches

If you've ever eaten with me, you would know that it's very difficult to choose a place where I am willing to eat, because I have an immense fear of anything pickled. Since I was a small child, I have never eaten kimchi, pickles, or sauerkraut. I've recently realized it's because of the idea of eating something cold, soggy, and moist--I imagine it's like eating a very sour wet sponge. However, as I've tried more and more foods that I've disliked as a child and discovered that they're delicious (like eggplant), I decided to suck it up and try banh mi.

The take-out bag has a list of things you can
do with the bag, which I thought was really cute

Banh mi is a Vietnamese sandwich: a baguette with pickled carrots and radish, jalapeno, cilantro, and some kind of meat--I got grilled pork (I also recommend the barbecue pork). The carrots and radish were not soggy at all--they were still really crisp, but the pickling just adds a bit of briny flavor. The pork was really good as well; it's really tender--almost creamy--and very intensely savory. The best flavor, though, is the raw jalapeno. Besides the intense heat of the seeds, the pepper itself has so much kick and flavor. Overall, it was such a well-balanced, refreshing sandwich.

So I learned that pickled things can be good. Life is full of surprises.

Also, I've just launched my new beauty blog, Victoria C. Beauty! Please check it out if you're interested in makeup and beauty tips :)

Lee's Sandwiches
939 W El Camino Real #108, Sunnyvale, CA
http://www.leesandwiches.com/

Double lunch day: Pho Garden and Asian Box

I wanted both pho and Asian Box for lunch, so I decided not to choose. (My boyfriend asked me what I had for lunch, and I asked him not to call me fat).

My first stop was Pho Garden. Look how beautiful the vegetables are! When I get pho in New York, the basil is always rotten, the lime is dry, and they only give me two bean sprouts.

The broth is a little bland, but it's nothing that can't be fixed with a little lime and hoisin sauce. Apparently, Pho Garden is the home of the "Pho Challenge"; two pounds of meat and two pounds of pho, which can be yours for free if you finish it (if not, it costs $25).

A lot of Chipotle-inspired restaurants have been popping up--like Asian Box. You choose from carbs like rice and rice noodles, proteins like beef, chicken, shrimp, and tofu, and various toppings. Like Chipotle, the price is determined by your protein and other add-ons.

I got rice noodles, shrimp, all the toppings, and the Hot Box It sauce (a strong hot sauce). The shrimp is tossed in lime and basil, which I really like! It's not too firm, and has a lot of flavor. Unlike Chipotle, though, Asian Box's bowl just feels more like a salad--it's very light, but not filling (maybe because of all the raw vegetables). However, they do have a lot of great elements; I highly recommend the shrimp, pork (which is like chasiu pork), crispy shallots, and rice noodles--and the Hot Box It sauce if you can take it.

Pho Garden
246 Castro Street, Mountain View
http://phogardensf.com/page.php?Page=home

Asian Box
142 Castro Street, Mountain View
http://asianboxpaloalto.com/

Hot or Not: Green tea Kit Kats

Everyone has been going crazy over green tea-flavored Kit Kats lately, so I had to pick up a bag.

Instead of chocolate, it's a green tea-flavored coating. However, I find these so much sweeter than I'd expected; they're more of a white chocolate (which means a lot of sugar) with green tea essence. You don't really get that great aroma and slight bitterness of green tea, which really disappointed me. I just wish they would've stuck to a more true green tea flavor, instead of ruining it with a ton of sugar.

Also... the price. I got mine at my local Nijiya (a chain of Japanese supermarkets; http://www.nijiya.com/) for $5.99 (12 mini bars per bag). I'm not really one to skimp on food, but I feel like that's a little much for 24 bites of sugar. However, if there aren't any stores around you that carry it, you can buy it online for much, much more--Amazon sells it for up to $45 (!!!).

Hot or Not: NOT
I just feel like these are a little gimmicky, and not as well done as green tea snacks should be--especially for the price. I really don't think there's any reason to go out of your way to find these. If I had to recommend a green tea-flavored snack, it would be the limited-edition Pockys--they're much less sweet, cheaper, and more easily found in stores at reasonable prices.

Victoria C. Kitchen: Braised short ribs

This recipe isn't for everyone, because you need to cook for over four hours... but if you're like me and you have nothing to do at home all day, this is super easy.

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 pounds short ribs, cut into 2-inch pieces

3 cloves garlic, chopped

2 ribs celery, roughly chopped

1 medium carrot, roughly chopped

1 medium onion, roughly chopped

2 medium tomatoes, roughly chopped

1 cup red wine

3 cups chicken stock

1 teaspoon dried thyme (fresh is better, but they always sell it in such large bundles...)

Salt and black pepper, to taste

*I find that the celery, carrot, and tomatoes become almost inedible because they become too bitter, sour, and soft, so find other vegetables to serve with the short ribs

Directions:

In a pot over medium-high heat, heat oil and sear short ribs until well browned on all sides (do this in small batches so they don't crowd--if they're crowded, they won't brown properly). Remove short ribs, then in the same pot saute garlic, celery, carrot, onion, and tomatoes until browned. Put short ribs back into the pot, then add red wine and chicken stock to cover. Bring to a boil, add thyme, salt, and pepper, then cover and let simmer for four hours.

Serve over a grain; I like orzo, risotto, or polenta