February 16, 2011

A very Turkish meal: Kabk Mücveri and Yogurt Soup

If there is anything that fascinates me more than Germany, it is Turkey...its people, its religion, its culture,and its intimate connection with Germany. But, what concerns most people here is its food. I can't tell you how much I miss döner kebabs! I've been looking all over the bay area for a place that sells real döner kebabs and so far haven't had much luck. They were everywhere in Italy. There was this one place a block from where I lived in Torino, and I went there almost every other day. I made friends with the two Turkish guys that worked there with my broken Italian. One time they even asked if I had a boyfriend, I said no, and didn't have enough Italian in me to explain further. Good times. Then few weeks back when I went to visit Doug in San Francisco, we went to a Turkish restaurant and I ordered the lamb kebab dish, and a cup of Turkish coffee. I asked the Turkish waiter for a little cream for my coffee, he laughed and said I should never ask such a thing if I was in Turkey. He brought me some though, and taught me how to read fortunes from my coffee. My cup said good luck is coming my way.

February 15, 2011

Apfelstrudel: German Apple Strudel


Uff. I want to say sorry to my apple strudel because my dreadful camera skill is not doing any justice to my baking. I guarantee you this is a lot more appetizing than it appears. And that's not meat in my strudel... So my love for all things Deutschland continues. I'm learning the language as well, piano piano as the Italians would say. I came across this recipe many months ago on tastespotting, and have wanted to try it out for a while. I'm not usually a fan of baked fruits, especially pies..yucks, but I am more forgiving when it comes to apples. Or maybe it was the puff pastry that appealed to me, or the fact that it is German. In any case, I was glad to have made this dessert as it is not too sweet, and very delicious.

Oh, and by the way, Happy Valentine's Day.  I am getting a fantastic present from myself, and I'm constantly checking the UPS tracking... it is supposed to be delivered on the 23rd!



February 14, 2011

Japanese Souffle Cheesecake


I'm not a fan of the usual dense American-style cheescakes, but I really like this Japanese souffle cheesecake. It tastes light and airy with a slight hint of cake. This type of cheesecake is so much more difficult to make than teh regular dense cheesecake. A lot of techniques go into mixing this cake and whisking the white. Very easily it can fail. I made this cake for a get-together a while ago that I couldn't attend because of the lunar new year. It was supposed to be a birthday cake so I couldn't cut it open to see if it turned out alright. Actually to this date, I don't know if it turned out okay since no one that ate the cake really said anything to me. I can only hope from the beautiful exterior, that it was a success.


February 9, 2011

Pierre Hermé 's Croissant


My jeans came today and I couldn't button all buttons no matter how hard I tried. Thanks Zappos for free shipping both ways! I'm going to return the smaller size which I couldn't none of the buttons even came close to button holes, but I want to keep the larger size for a while and pray that my diet works. Zappos gives you a whole year grace period to return an item, and it's all free. I am determined to fit into this pair because I really love it, which means I should stop making things like the above photo. Carb at its best.

Had a new year's potluck last Wednesday with ALA and I love occasions like this where I can pick any recipe I want to make and have people to eat the food. I've made croissants before using the recipe from Bread Bible and they were pretty good. I don't like doing the same recipe again if I was successful already. I like new challenges. I am a fan of Pierre Hermé and so I google searched Hermé and croissant and found this recipe. This is much more complicated than the bread bible recipe, but I do feel the recipe worth the extra effort.