The inevitable top 10 list

First, a BIG WELCOME if you discover this blog via Foodbuzz. Hope you'll enjoy your time here!

You're in for a treat. Keep reading to find out!

Before 2009 is over (at least on the West Coast), I need to squeeze in a final top 10 list of the year.

I went through many changes in 2009, and I've learned a lot. This blog is one of the new things I tried this year, and I am incredibly grateful to all of you who gave me feedback and support. I dedicate this post to you （you know who you are!).

My top 10 food-related reflections/experiences/whatever of 2009:

10. I finally became a vegetarian. Turned out to be much easier than I thought.

9. I launched Guerrilla Vegetarian after putting it off for a long time. The writing process was very liberating, however painful at times.

8. I took up baking. Obviously a sure-fire way to satisfy my sweet tooth, but it also opened up a new universe in cooking for me.

7. I felt so blessed by the culinary bounty of the Bay area. The produce is first-rate, then you have authentic cuisines from around the world at your fingertips (plus at affordable prices!).

6. Panaderias (Mexican bakeries). I couldn't believe how much I had missed before moving to the Bay area, where I had my first encounter with Mexican baked goods.

5. David Lebovitz, former Chez Panisse pastry chef, now Paris-based food blogger. He always makes me laugh with his super-sarcastic style and musings about Paris, whenever I need a mood boost.

4. Vegetarian meat. I know it's weird, but I sampled a huge variety from vegan meatballs to Chinese fish cakes this year. Perhaps that's why I didn't feel deprived at all as a vegetarian. Hooray for our capitalist economy in which any niche need is met!

3. I made a birthday cake for my Mom, who lives thousands of miles away in Hong Kong. Although I ended up eating the cake by myself, my Mom got to see it on this blog. I was glad to be able to do something special for her.

2. Because of all of the above, I gained 5-10 pounds this year. Notice I try to be vague here.

1. Really, it's you. (Yeah, it's the tagline of Yahoo!'s new branding campaign too.) Given my meager readership, EVERY ONE of you keeps me going. Don't be shy and leave a comment. Check back often and tell others to visit!

Now you see how thrilled I was when my farewell post to Oakland got picked up by the blog A Better Oakland, which drove many visitors here.

I am also indebted to many other people who lent me a hand during this difficult year. So, THANK YOU all again. Here are the vegan Meyer lemon bars from Veganomicon I made for a friend that I want to share with you. Let's end the year with a sweet note!

Vegan Meyer lemon bars - browner than I expected because of the unrefined sugar I used

Wish you a wonderful and delicious 2010!

Vegetarian mecca: Berkeley

Merry Christmas to all of you! Is there a better way to ease into the holiday spirit than an excursion to Berkeley, CA?

I know this is a terrible lead-in to my topic today. But cut me some slack on Christmas, okay?

Even before I moved to the Bay area, I had heard much about Berkeley's culinary creds. Californian cuisine is said to originate from Alice Waters's famed Chez Panisse restaurant. Acme Bread, which produces some of the Bay area's best baguettes and sourdoughs, is based here. "Gourmet Ghetto," several blocks of restaurants and food stores that help shape the foodie culture in the Bay area, is a must-go for every visitor to Berkeley.

You probably know this, but Berkeley also boasts one of the highest concentrations of vegetarian restaurants in the Bay area, thanks to its progressive bent. Last weekend I finally made it here for an all-out vegetarian tour!

My first stop was the Saturday Farmers' Market. Berkeley alone has 3 farmers' markets, which say a lot about the food preferences of its residents. By now I am so spoiled by the amazing produce in the Bay area that what I saw here no longer "wowed" me. But just from the glistening color of the salad greens, the succulence of the carrots, and the plumpness of the oranges, you could tell right away they were top-notch.

Fresh and crisp salad greens

Carrots that I wanted to bite into right away

What's unique about this farmers' market is the huge selection of vegan and vegetarian prepared food sold. I don't think any farmers' market I've been to can measure up to this. There were raw vegan, Asian, Himalayan, Indian, and Mexican vegetarian food. The Mexican food vendor, Flacos, immediately caught my attention because...

I couldn't agree more with what Flacos's owner says on its website:

"Every time I went to a Mexican restaurant, the only item I could order from the menu was the 'Vegetarian Burrito' without cheese and sour cream."

Finding anything else vegetarian on a Mexican restaurant's menu is difficult. So I was very impressed by Flacos's innovative menu: vegan enchiladas, tamales, taquitos, stews, salads, etc.

I tried their banana-leaf tamale ($4). It was an interesting combination of corn masa, potatoes, capers, olives, and vegetarian shredded chicken slathered with a creamy sauce and wrapped around by a banana leaf. It was flavorful and filling with a hint of spiciness. Served warm, it's very comforting for a breezy Saturday afternoon.

Flacos, selling vegan Mexican food, at Berkeley Farmers' Market

AWESOME banana-leaf tamale from Flacos

There were many other items I wanted to try from Flacos as well as other vendors (did I mention the bakeries with their artisan breads?). But I had a long list of other places to check out, so I willed myself to resist the temptations and carry on with my tour.

I ended up at Chick-O-Pea's, a vegan falafel restaurant. I first learned about this place from a positive review in the East Bay Express weekly. The restaurant is completely self-serve - after you order your falafels, you pick your own toppings and condiments at a bar. I got their falafels in whole-wheat pita ($7) along with ultra-thin french fries tossed in spicy-hot Moroccan harissa ($2.5). 

The falafels were good, though not as crunchy as I had hoped. This could be that they soaked up the moisture from the toppings I over-stuffed into my pita. The toppings, such as red cabbage, carrots, and bean medley salad also tasted a little bland, so I had to douse a second and then third helping of dressing over them. The fries were decent.

Chick-O-Pea's, the interior is as sleek as the storefront

Sophisticated presentation of the my falafel pita, along with fries doused in harissa

I have to commend the presentation though. The falafels and fries were placed snugly in two compartments in a brown paper container. In eco-conscious Berkeley fashion, all containers and utensils are biodegradable and compostable.

Eating here reminded me of Maoz, an Amsterdam falafel chain now branching out in the US. Its concept is almost the same as Chick-O-Pea's, with the self-serve topping bar. Maoz's falafels are some of the best I've ever had. What's interesting is they will open a shop in Berkeley soon. Chick-O-Pea's is going to face some stiff competition!

I don't want to keep you from attending your Christmas parties, so I'll wrap up things. I was so full after having the falafels that I had no room for desserts at Ici Ice Cream or Gelateria Naia. I visited gourmet and natural food grocery Berkeley Bowl, but felt that its offerings pale in comparison to Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco or even Whole Foods in terms of variety and price.

On my list next time: raw vegan cuisine mainstay Cafe Gratitude, Chez Panisse, Cheeseboard Collective...the list goes on and on. No wonder Berkeley is a mecca for foodies, vegetarians included.

Hope you'll have an enjoyable and restful Christmas!

Budget tour de France

What do the following have in common? (Hint: post title)

a. Macarons, gateaux, viennoiseries
b. Pierre Herme, Laduree, Gerard Mulot
c. Dorie Greenspan, David Lebovitz, Ina Garten

Welcome to the world of French pastries! Like many people who love sweets, I dream of visiting Paris and sampling exquisite French pastries (a) at some of its most venerable patisseries (b). Despite my very limited French, I want to follow the footsteps of American chefs (c) who call Paris their second home, and pretend I am a local to experience French life to the fullest. (Perhaps Ina Garten is a stretch, she's REALLY American.)

Back to reality. I have neither the money nor time to take a grand tour of Paris.

The Bay area has a fair number of places such as Bouchon in Napa Valley that sell French sweets, but they are pricey. Trader Joe's now sells macarons in the frozen section at very affordable prices, but seriously, they tasted terrible even though I've had macarons only a handful of times in my life. So what can a budget Francophile do?

LU biscuits to the rescue. I first encountered LU during my first French lessons at Alliance Francaise in Washington, DC. Madame Auclair, our teacher, often brought several packets of LU to class. There were always LU's signature Le Petit Ecolier biscuits - buttery biscuits coated with chocolate depicting a little schoolboy. I love nibbling so I tried hard to keep my hands away from the biscuits. I knew M. Auclair and my classmates in the small class could figure out how many I ate easily.

LU's signature Le Petit Ecolier biscuits

I made myself believe every bite would transport me to Europe

Call it self-delusion, but every time I had LU, I felt I was eating something uniquely European (and it is too). My two favorite LU biscuits are Le Petit Beurre and Rich Tea. They are simple, crispy biscuits with a rich, buttery flavor and nothing else, and they don't weigh you down like shortbread.

I am surprised to find LU in almost every supermarket now, likely because its acquisition by Kraft in 2007 has opened up a vast distribution network. The biscuits are straight from France, and a packet costs only about $3.

Just be careful that some flavors contain artificial ingredients. I wonder if Kraft introduced them to cut costs just like what many food manufacturers have done to brands they bought, but that's another story.

Obviously I can make French sweets at home, but many of them are infamously complicated. I finally came across a recipe on David Lebovitz's blog (check it out, he's a former Chez Panisse pastry chef now living in Paris, I LOVE his sarcastic but incredibly humorous tone) for pain d'epices, kind of a French version of gingerbread.

Freshly baked pain d'epices, coated with sliced almonds

It's simple to make and promises some complex flavors derived from a melange of spices (including pepper!), orange zest, and honey. I had never used dark rye flour before but it really deepened the flavors. This is great for breakfast or an afternoon snack, and is even better when served warm.

A slice of pain d'epices - even the crumbs were delicious

Next time when I have the chance to visit Paris, I'll find out whether pain d'epices is as commonplace in France as David described. Before then, I am planning to read Dorie Greenspan's Paris Sweets over Christmas, drool over the recipes, and imagine my eventual trip to the City of Light.

Farewell to Oakland (and its food!)

Old Oakland Farmers' Market in downtown Oakland

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know I have a thing for Oakland. I love Oakland for its eclectic character and huge selection of affordable, ethnic eateries. It's where I went all out to conduct my Asian bakery and mooncake tasting tests.

However, I no longer commute to Oakland because of a job change. Before I travel across the Bay to be there again, I must point out a couple more of my favorite places.

The Old Oakland Farmers' Market is solid on my list of favorite farmers' markets in the Bay area. Every Friday from 8 to 2, tens of vendors sell everything from Asian and organic veggies, fruits, nuts, to pastries and tamales at reasonable prices.

One of my favorite fruit stalls

My other favorite fruit stall - their oranges (fall) and plums/pluots (summer) are amazing

Because my office was very close to the market, I visited it every week to buy fruits mostly. While not necessarily certified organic, most fruits sold here are pesticide-free, and they are among the best in the Bay area.

My tip is to go after the lunch crowd has thinned out to snag deals such as $1/pound of succulent red flame grapes or $.75/pound of crunchy Fuji apples. Just make sure to act quickly as bargain-hunting Chinese housewives abound =)

There's also a Chinese gentleman who makes all varieties of dried dates and an old couple selling nuts that I bought from often.

The second place is kind of random. It's a Vietnamese/Chinese grocery store called Khanh Phong. Among all Asian grocery stores in Chinatown, it stands out because of its house-made desserts (e.g. Vietnamese rice puddings and jellies) and snacks (e.g. rice dumplings and rice paper rolls).

I like their fried salty bun (loosely translated from xian-jian-bao in Chinese) the most. At $.5 apiece, it's similar to the fried dough that accompanies Chinese congee (rice porridge). But it has sesame seeds sprinkled on top and is less greasy. Great to serve as is, it tastes even better when toasted. The texture is airy yet chewy, with an intoxicating aroma of fried dough. Just forget how unhealthy it is for a moment...

(Chinese or Vietnamese?) Salty fried bun

Obviously I will miss Oakland's Asian bakeries and Layonna vegetarian food market, which I only discovered recently.

Let's end with a cake that I ordered in Oakland before Thanksgiving (don't ask why!), a pandan coconut cake from Delicieuse Princess Bakery. I had long been curious about the cake's green tint whenever I saw it in their pastry case. The lady who took my order assured me that it's not artificial coloring but derived from pandan leaves. I couldn't taste it in the cake (neither was there any coconut flavor), but the cake was delightfully light as usual.

What's in the box?

Vietnamese pandan coconut cake, but with little flavor of either

I know I've only barely scratched the surface of Oakland's culinary scene (like I still haven't been to the famed pizza joint Pizzaiolo), but I will surely return. Au revoir!

A non-traditional Thanksgiving

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! By the time you read this, you may have had enough of Thanksgiving (or more likely, Thanksgiving food). But let me assure you that I didn't have a traditional Thanksgiving. I didn't eat.

Well, not really. I didn't eat anything that suggests Thanksgiving. The week started promising as I planned to cook a multi-course Thanksgiving meal for myself. I had been collecting recipes and was ready to tackle time-consuming recipes because I could spend hours in the kitchen on a holiday. I was really excited.

Then I found out that I needed to take a one-day trip to Canada on Thanksgiving Day. The days leading up to Thanksgiving were also very hectic, so I barely had time for grocery shopping, let alone planning for my feast.

Because of a string of unforeseen events, it was almost 10 pm when I got home on Thanksgiving. Cooking was out of the question. Fortunately I had bought some yummy Taiwanese bread (more on it in the future) in Vancouver and devoured them while I was waiting at the airport. Definitely not what I expected my Thanksgiving meal to be.

I made up for the disappointment on the following day. Still not in the mood for complicated cooking, I decided to have Chinese-style hot pot (like fondue) for dinner. Hearty and warming, it was perfect for a chilly night when I could hear the wind blowing outside.

I made a broth using ginger, leeks, shittake mushrooms, napa cabbage, carrots, and bean sprouts. Then I added tofu, mung bean vermicelli, and an assortment of vegetarian meatballs and fish cakes that I bought from Layonna, a Taiwanese vegetarian food store in Oakland, into the boiling broth. In 30 minutes I had the meal ready to serve, all simmering in one pot.

Simmering hot pot on the stove

I dipped the food in tamari, chili sauce, and sha-cha (Taiwanese barbecue) sauce. The vegetarian meatballs and fish cakes didn't taste like the real deal, but imitated their texture very well (fibrous for the beef, spongy for the fish cake, for instance). The hot pot was 100% vegan but the broth was intensely flavorful, and I drank it as a soup.

(Not the neatest picture but I got to eat!) Hot pot soup served with condiments

So this was how I celebrated Thanksgiving. No turkey, stuffing, or pumpkin pie, but a meal I am thankful for nonetheless. That I could get these Asian ingredients for the hot pot so easily in the Bay area is a blessing by itself.

Dessert soups to warm your soul

As the weather gets cooler, what can be more comforting than snuggling into your sheets with a cup of hot cocoa in your hands? But sometimes I need something more.

During the winter months, I am always struggling to stay warm at night because I don't want to turn on the heat, which makes my skin super-dry. When wearing multiple layers or drinking hot tea doesn't help, there's one last resort: Chinese dessert soups, served warm of course.

They work because they are more substantial than beverages. They contain chewy or chunky ingredients, or are thicker in texture. I think they are the perfect sweet before bed. Although they are filling, they won't leave you feeling stuffed the same way cakes or pastries do. But people also enjoy them during dim-sum lunches or throughout the day.

Like all soups, dessert soups can take a long time to prepare from scratch. But after making so many Western desserts, I felt it's time for me to tackle something uniquely Chinese like this.

Based on what I found in the farmers' market and Oakland's Chinatown, I ended up with two dessert soups common in Cantonese cooking: taro and yam soup with glutinous rice dumplings and black sesame soup.

 Taro and yam soup with glutinous rice dumplings

Both were easy to prepare: no more than 30 minutes from start to finish. I cooked peeled chunks of taro and yam in boiling water with a piece of ginger until the vegetables were soft, then sweetened the soup with Chinese rock sugar. I made the dumplings by mixing glutinous rice flour and water, divided and rolled the dough into balls, then cooked them in the soup.

For the sesame soup, I stirred pre-ground black sesame seeds into boiling water and thickened the mixture with glutinous rice flour. I used agave nectar to sweeten the soup.

Black sesame soup

I used minimal amounts of sugar in the soups to give them just a hint of sweetness. The taro and yam tasted sweet naturally, and I didn't want the sweetness to mask the nutty flavor of the black sesame seeds.

Seriously, these hearty soups warmed my soul from the inside out, and I was good for the night. Bonus point: unlike most desserts, they at least have some nutritional value. Now if I had a food processor or mortar and pestle, I could experiment with other dessert soup classics such as ground peanut and almond soups. Time to add this to my Christmas wish-list...

Trio of dishes from across China

I can take a culinary tour of Chinese dishes whenever I want in the Bay area because Asian ingredients are much more accessible here. Not Americanized Chinese dishes, but dishes I regularly ate when growing up in Hong Kong.

All three dishes I am featuring today are simple to prepare as always (otherwise I wouldn't have attempted them!). They hail from different parts of China and should satisfy different palates.

Braised Shredded Tofu with Bok-Choy (Shanghai)

For years every Sunday, my family and I visited one of two Shanghainese vegetarian restaurants in turn for lunch or dinner. We often ordered this Shanghainese staple - shredded tofu braised with bok-choy and sliced mushrooms in a light broth. It served as a counterpoint to more strongly flavored dishes my dad liked to order, and it went particularly well with steamed rice.

I can find shredded tofu at any Chinese supermarket in the Bay area so I decided to recreate the dish at home. Simply heat some sliced ginger in oil, throw in all the ingredients, and add some water to bring to boil. Then season with salt, tamari, a bit of rice vinegar, and it's ready to serve. Typical of Shanghainese food, the slight vinegary taste of this dish whets your appetite.

Braised Shredded Tofu with Bok-Choy

Stir-fried Vegetarian Cuttlefish with Sweet Peppers (Canton)

Although the recipe is from a Taiwanese vegetarian cookbook, I assume the dish is Cantonese as I've encountered the original, non-vegetarian version of it many times in Cantonese restaurants. I was quite surprised to find vegetarian cuttlefish at the Marina supermarket in San Mateo. There's a large enough Chinese population in San Mateo to create demand for it.

This dish is supposedly to be spicy. I started with heating some Thai chilies in oil, then I stir-fried the sliced cuttlefish (boiled), sweet peppers, and some leftover enoki mushrooms on high heat. I finished it by seasoning with salt and soy sauce.

Stir-fried Vegetarian Cuttlefish with Sweet Peppers

The vegetarian cuttlefish did not taste like the real deal, but nonetheless it had a convincing fishy flavor and spongy texture reminiscent of fish balls. Definitely an interesting try!

Ma-Po Tofu (Sichuan)

Before you roll your eyes and brush this off as nothing special, listen to this: I've only real, numbing hot Ma-Po Tofu ONCE in the US. And I had it at a nondescript, hole-in-the-wall Chinese take-out place in Washington, DC.

Sichuan-style Ma-Po Tofu requires the use of Sichuan peppercorns and other specialty chilies in the sauce. My limited pantry didn't have them, so I made up the heat with Thai chilies. I sauteed sliced red peppers, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, and potatoes in oil heated with ginger and the chilies, added soft tofu cubes, then I doused the mixture with spicy bean paste thinned with tamari and water.

(Unauthentic) Ma-Po Tofu

The end-product burst with tongue-tingling flavors and served up a variety of textures (silky from the tofu, chunky from the peppers, starchy from the potatoes). This was probably still far from the authentic Sichuan dish, but I was more than happy with it.

Weekend dispatches from the kitchen

Sorry that I haven't updated this blog as often as I want. The last couple of weeks were filled with commitments that it was difficult to set aside time to write. Now that it's November, I know I cannot put it off any longer, otherwise you may never come back!

I try to make more complicated dishes over weekends. Not only because I have more time, but I find it to be a huge stress reliever. I am a constantly on-the-go person and there are often a hundred things in my head at one time (this is NOT bragging!). Cooking is one of the few activities that can force me to let go of my immediate concerns and focus on what I have on my hands: create something delicious. Obviously I have to stay alert because the kitchen can be a dangerous place!

I agree 100% with one of my friends who said cooking is therapeutic. The process of creating something is very satisfying to me. Unlike other pursuits such as sports that require lots of hard work and perseverance before you begin to see payoffs, cooking is relatively easy. Also a bonus: you get to eat what you make.

One of my recent weekend projects was an arugula/carrot frittata, adapted from my favorite cookbook Vegetarian Suppers from Deborah Madison's Kitchen. This also helped me use up leftover veggies in my fridge. I'm not a big fan of cheese so I left it out, and there were probably more veggies than eggs, so this is not a typical frittata. But it was delicious and comforting, especially when eaten along with toasted crumpets (kind of like English muffins). I'll certainly add this to my brunch repertoire.

Arugula-Carrot Frittata with Toasted Crumpets 

 

Because of my fascination with baking, I am naturally a fan of Dorie Greenspan, one of the doyennes of baking in America. Her specialty is French baking, and I've learned SO MUCH about fancy French pastries (macarons, the Pierre Herme cult, etc.) from her blog. Her Baking: From My Home to Yours is a definitive work in baking, but because it's a tomb of 500+ pages, I was hesitant to pick it up from my neighborhood library although I saw it on the shelf for a couple of times.

I finally mustered up the courage to take it home one weekend. After flipping through many luscious pictures AND painfully long recipes of cakes, tarts, and pies, I decided to try two that I believed were manageable: Chewy, Chunky Blondies and Swedish Apple Cake that is a variation of the Swedish Visiting Cake in the book.

 Dorie's Chewy, Chunky Blondies

Dorie's simple yet elegant Swedish Apple Cake

Not surprisingly, both turned out to be wonderful, despite my limited baking skills and using 50% less sugar in the batter. The blondies flecked with chocolate chips and shredded coconut had a hefty texture but you'd certainly ask for more, while the apple cake was simple yet sophisticated. I am looking to tackle more of Dorie's recipes in the future, so please stay tuned!

My favorite bakeries (Mexican edition)

What is the most delicious Spanish word I've learned in California?

Panaderia (bakery) it is.

Every time I walk past a Mexican bakery, I can't help but step inside, grab a tray and a pair of tongs, and start piling breads and pastries onto the tray as if I were hypnotized. I can easily spend half an hour checking out the selections and deciding what to get. The low prices certainly don't help. Since I am often the only non-Latino in the store and unable to speak Spanish, I have more than once attracted interesting gazes from the cashier and other customers alike.

I knew almost nothing about Mexican baking before moving to the Bay area. My only exposure had been a type of sweet bun called "Mexican bun" commonly found in bakeries in Hong Kong. I had no idea how the Mexican bun was introduced to Hong Kong, but it does resemble the pan dulce (sweet bun) that I see in Mexican bakeries. Talk about cultural amalgamation!

I love pan dulces for similar reasons I like Asian buns - most are soft and not too sweet. But pan dulces are denser and more filling than their Asian counterparts because of their heavy use of eggs and margarine. After eating a couple of these goodies, I hardly have room for anything else for the rest of the day or even the next morning. They are diet busters for sure, I don't even want to think about the amount of carbs and fats (trans, hydrogenated, all the bad stuff) they contain.

(Forgive my limited Spanish)

Two pan dulces (the one with the sugar coating should be called concha, which literally means shell) and a flat cookie sprinkled with sesame seeds

Cuerno (croissant), Mexican cheesecake slice, another pan dulce sprinkled with sugar

This sounds incredible to me too, but I've sampled more than a dozen of Mexican bakeries from the Peninsula, San Francisco's Mission District, all the way to Oakland in the East Bay. My favorites: Panaderia Hernandez in South San Francisco and La Flor De Michoacan in San Mateo near where I live. I've bought from both bakeries enough times that the cashiers can probably recognize me.

My favorite panaderia -  Panaderia Hernandez in South San Francisco

Panaderia Hernandez's overflowing pastry case

Both bakeries offer incredible selections of freshly baked pan dulces, cakes, and cookies. Their pan dulces are just right with their sweetness and richness, so you don't need to wash them down with water/tea/coffee. They are also not too dry - I learned from a book that this can easily be a problem due to the high proportion of yeast in the dough.

Most important, the vast majority of their pan dulces do not seem to contain lard. I still cannot spot it all the time, but as a vegetarian I try to avoid it, and I am really put off by its smell.

If I had to pick the better among the two, it would be Panaderia Hernandez. Their pastries have a more delicate taste, likely because they are made from better ingredients (you don't get the off-taste). Their sizes are HUGE, but strangely enough they are cheaper too, even though the bakery is inside an upscale-ish Mexican supermarket. Too bad it's at an out-of-the-way location, but I continue to plan trips just to visit it!

Bay area mooncake showdown

Writing this blog often has given me many excuses to eat more sweets than I should. Case in point: my mooncake tastings for the Mid Autumn Festival.

As I mentioned in my last post, I am pretty impressed by the caliber of Asian bakeries in Oakland. I had been waiting in earnest for their mooncakes to come out because mooncakes, of all Chinese baked goods, often showcase the best of a baker's skills. I know little about how mooncakes are made, but the vast majority of mooncakes I had before tasted flatly sweet or had too much oil in them, and it's really hard to run into a really good one. (Note: I am referring to Cantonese-style mooncakes that are round-shaped, have a thin, golden-brown baked shell, and usually filled with sweet lotus seed paste, but there are many other variations.)

For my test, I tasted mooncakes from 5 bakeries in the Bay area: Sheng Kee in San Mateo, Napoleon Super Bakery, Big Dish (actually more like a restaurant than bakery), Ruby King, and Delicieuse Princesse in Oakland's Chinatown. I don't like the egg yolk that is traditionally part of the mooncake filling, so the ones I picked were all egg yolk-free. Partly because of this, they were cheaper ranging from $2 for a mini mooncake to $4.5 for a regular-sized one. Each mooncake had a different flavor - the fillings range from lotus seed paste, red (adzuki) bean paste, purple yam, coconut, to black sesame paste.

Here's the verdict:

BEST - Delicieuse Princesse's coconut mooncake ($4.5). Although it is also the most expensive, you get your money's worth because you can SEE the shredded coconut filling and actually TASTE it. The filling has texture and is not blended with disproportionate amounts of sugar and oil. I may be partial to anything that contains coconut, but Delicieuse Princesse's pastries rarely miss the mark. My only complaint: the shell was a bit dry.

Ruby King's red bean paste mooncake and Delicieuse Princesse's coconut mooncake

SECOND PLACE - Ruby King's red bean paste ($3.25) and lotus seed paste ($3.75) mooncakes. With their moist, shiny outer shell and sweet, dense filling, they are what you expect from a decent mooncake. Bonus point to Ruby King for incorporating walnut pieces into the filling to provide some contrast.

Ruby King Bakery in Oakland's Chinatown

ABOVE AVERAGE - Big Dish's black sesame paste mooncake ($3.25) and Sheng Kee's date paste and tea-infused chestnut paste mooncakes ($2 each for a mini version). Both bakeries should be applauded for their unconventional flavors. But Big Dish's is too greasy, while Sheng Kee's don't taste fresh enough. Given Sheng Kee is one of the largest Asian bakery chains in the Bay area, it probably mass produced its mooncake months before. You can't hide this from a discerning palate though. When you think about it, $2 for a mini-mooncake is quite pricey too.

(Clockwise from top left) Sheng Kee's date paste mooncake, tea-infused chestnut paste mooncake, and two bonus treats: slice of Swiss roll and sponge cake sandwich

LOSER - Napoleon Super Bakery's purple yam mooncake ($3). This is surprising because its pastries are normally quite good. The problem with this mooncake is that the filling hardly tastes of yam; instead I feel like I am putting a lump of sugar and grease into my mouth. I hope it didn't add coloring to the filling! Other than purple yam, Napoleon has many other interesting flavors including kumquat and mango, but I didn't get to try them.

Big Dish's black sesame paste mooncake and Napoleon Super Bakery's purple yam mooncake, and a fish-shaped pastry to symbolize abundance

Well, now you know how many mooncakes I ate during this Mid Autumn Festival...

My favorite bakeries (Asian edition)

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know I'm addicted to all sorts of baked goods. One category of baked goods I had missed since living in the US was Hong Kong-style pastries - until I moved to the Bay area.

By Hong Kong-style pastries I don't mean dim-sums like steamed buns, but oven-baked breads and cakes with a unique Asian flair. Hong Kong-style pastries tend to be softer, lighter, and the sweet treats are less sugary than their Western counterparts. They often have Asian fillings such as coconut, red bean, or taro paste. You'll know better what I'm talking about with the picture below.

So imagine how psyched I was when I discovered DOZENS of Hong Kong-style bakeries in San Francisco's and Oakland's Chinatowns. It's almost like finding a spring in the middle of a desert (okay I am exaggerating, but consider this: whenever I visited New York from Washington, DC, I always took a trip to Chinatown to satisfy my craving for these pastries).

After quite a bit of testing, I want to share two of my favorite Asian bakeries, both in Oakland - Wonder Food Bakery and Delicieuse Princesse Bakery. There are a couple ones I like in San Francisco too, but because the San Francisco Chinatown is more tourist-centric, they are often pricier.

A Hong Kong native would feel instantly comfortable as soon as he steps into Wonder Food Bakery. All the old favorites - cocktail buns (soft buns filled with coconut paste), pineapple buns (buns with a crusty sugary topping that resembles a pineapple's exterior), paper-lined sponge cakes, egg custard tarts, etc. are in ample supply. Also available are fancier buns with fillings, mooncakes, traditional Chinese pastries (such as flaky pastry filled with winter melon paste), cookies, and many more. Prices are at the lower end compared to other Asian bakeries, making its pastries a great bargain.

(Clockwise from top left) Wonder Food Bakery's pineapple bun with red bean paste filling, paper-lined sponge cake, cocktail bun, pineapple bun with custard filling, shredded coconut bun, and egg custard tart

I like its pineapple bun (with or without filling) the most. The bun is sturdy enough to keep the "pineapple" topping in place. The size of the bun and amount of topping are well-balanced. The bun is soft but still chewy. The topping is crusty but not too dry.

Just from its name, Delicieuse Princesse Bakery sounds more up-market, and it is. Located on the periphery of Oakland's Chinatown, it's a Chinese-Vietnamese bakery with some European influence thrown into the mix. It makes most standard Hong Kong-style pastries, though in a slightly more sophisticated way. Think twisted coconut or red bean paste buns rather than the usual round ones. It also sells French and Vietnamese pastries like croissants and bánh mì.

Cakes are probably its strongest suit. A while back I bought an angel food cake from it to make my British summer pudding, then I got a chestnut cake for a farewell party for a co-worker. Both cakes hit all the right notes of a great Asian cake - light, spongy, and slightly sweet. As is the case with most Asian layered cakes, the chestnut cake was coated with fresh whipped cream instead of buttercream. I'd love to try Princesse's other layered cakes with flavors ranging from durian to tres leches.

Delicieuse Princesse Bakery exterior

Note: A big thank you to my friends who forwarded different versions of "100 (Chinese) Vegetarian Dishes" to me recently. I am still going through the recipes and there are tons of great ideas! I promise I will feature some of them in a future post.

Simple faux oyster sauce from home

Oyster sauce - thick, black-brown, savory with a hint of sweetness - is a must-have in Chinese cooking. Made from oyster extract, it's off-limits for vegetarians. Although vegetarian oyster sauce is now widely available, I am reluctant to stock it because of the artificial ingredients and preservatives usually added to it. Fortunately, after some experimentation, I've discovered an easy substitute with an eerily similar flavor that I can make at home.

I am embarrassed to call it out here because it's so simple: just mix tamari/soy sauce and molasses together!

Molasses's flavor is intense so you want to use it judiciously; otherwise the sauce will end up too sweet. Not many recipes feature molasses, so it's a great way to use up any leftover molasses from the all the gingerbread baking in the winter months.

Hearty bok-choy, tofu, mushroom stir-fry

The dish that features my faux oyster sauce today is a straightforward stir-fry of bok-choy, sliced tofu, carrots, shiitake mushrooms, and dried kombu. After heating all ingredients in oil laced with ginger for a couple of minutes, I seasoned the dish with a sauce made from my oyster sauce, toasted sesame oil, water, and a little bit of cornstarch. Like other stir-fries it's a homey, hearty dish, best served with a bowl of steamed rice.

As a dessert fanatic, I cannot resist sneaking in a treat I made recently to round up this post. These date-nut squares are from (again and again) Isa's Vegan with a Vengeance, my stand-by vegan cookbook. Made by layering chopped boiled dates and walnuts on a shortbread crust, these squares are rich, sweet, crunchy, and salty at the same time. They also contain no added sugar since the dates provide the sweetness. If not because I last made a coconut dessert, adding shredded coconut to the topping would be an interesting variation to try.

Sweet, crunchy, buttery date-nut squares

A sweet, decadent end to summer

This summer went by in a snap. It wasn't long ago when I welcomed summer with an end-of-winter cake. Before summer's official end, I had decided to indulge myself for the last time. So I made an over-the-top, decadent vegan coconut cake over Labor Day weekend.

Decadent, vegan coconut layered cake

As a coconut devotee, I love coconut cake. Unfortunately, most coconut cakes in the market are laden with thick, fatty buttercream frosting, of which I am hardly a fan. Vegan cakes provide a healthier alternative since the frosting is often made from silken tofu instead of dairy products. So I jumped at Canadian vegan cookbook author Dreena Burton's Coconut Cake recipe in her Eat, Drink & Be Vegan cookbook when I saw it.

Since I don't have a blender, it's difficult to make smooth, tofu-based frosting. That's why I was excited to pick up Nasoya's new Silken Creations, a pre-blended tofu dessert starter, from the grocery store. It's in pudding form originally, so I mixed some Earth Balance margarine into it to make it more spreadable as the frosting for the cake.

The cake turned out to be moist and flavorful although I cut down on the sugar and fat in the recipe significantly. The fragrant shredded coconut that I bought from Whole Foods really made a difference. I cut the cake into slices and stacked them one on another to form a three-layered cake. The tofu frosting, however, ended up being too runny. I spread some of it between the layers and poured the rest over the cake like a glaze. I didn't add any sugar to the frosting because the tofu already has it, but it was still way too sweet for me.

Next time when I make this cake, I'd either leave out the frosting or make it from scratch so I can control the sugar content. My attempt at layering the cake definitely made it look more sophisticated and less homespun though, so presentation does matter!

Bonus great find: I also bought Shady Maple Farms' Organic Stroopwafels (Dutch-style wafer cookies) with maple-flavored filling when I was at Whole Foods. They were exquisitely made and tasted amazing! Couldn't restrain myself from finishing them all at once...

Shady Maple Farms' Stroopwafels from Canada

Crunchy, chewy, and delicately sweet - all in one bite

Street food mania at Eat Real Festival

Street food is all the rage now with the economy still in recession and diners getting more value-minded than ever. Gourmet food trucks that tap into the increasingly sophisticated American palate are popping up across the country from New York to Portland, OR. The Bay area is busy catching up on the trend with two hugely popular events over the last two weekends - San Francisco's Street Food Festival and Oakland's Eat Real Festival.

Not a big fan of San Francisco's hippie crowd in the Mission district where the festival took place, I decided to check out Oakland's event instead (it's bigger anyway). The Eat Real Festival brought together 50+ local vendors to sell street foods from cuisines around the world, all for under $5. The focus was on using local, sustainable ingredients whenever possible, and proceeds benefited several food-related non-profits that promote healthy eating and economic development.

Food and music at Real Food Festival on Oakland's waterfront

As expected, thanks to free admission and perfect weather, there were LONG lines everywhere when I arrived at the festival. The people in line all seemed to be mellow and cheery, but I was super hungry and couldn't bother to wait. My immediate reaction was to go for the shortest lines, and fortunately my picks were decent if not excellent.

Always desserts first, I tried Nieves Cinco de Mayo's Mexican elote (corn) ice cream and Gelateria Cici's basil and salted almond gelato. They tasted and smelled like what they say they are (a sign of freshness), and were smooth and creamy as any good ice-cream. Both purveyors brand themselves as "all-natural," and I believe them as there's no aftertaste if artificial ingredients were present. I'd buy from them again definitely.

Nieves Cinco de Mayo's ice cream stand, with the purveyors explaining the many exotic Mexican flavors to customers

Gelateria Cici's ultra-creamy gelato

On the savory front, I had Soul Cocina's vegan bhel puri (Indian puffed rice snacks) with mint chutney and heirloom tomatoes. The tangy chutney and tomatoes complemented the heat and crispness of the bhel puri very well. Served in a cone, the bhel puri looked unconventional, which might explain why there's hardly a line for it. But it's a great idea to bring such lesser-known Indian street food to the public.

Soul Cocina's vegan bhel puri sampler in a cone

Although each item was affordably priced, the cost quickly added up when I sampled from more than a couple of vendors. I agree the festival was very "Oaklandish" in the sense that the pricey and the economical, the high-brow and the plebeian, fused together in a slightly incongruous way. But the huge amount of traffic should have at least helped the vendors and kept their business running, and I look forward to seeing how the street food scene will unfold in the months ahead.

Vegan soul food from Oakland, CA

Oakland is a very interesting place in the Bay area. Though not as well-known as its neighbors San Francisco and Berkeley and reeling from a high crime rate reputation, it has a lot of character and offers plenty to explore. Even by Bay area standards, it's incredibly racially diverse with sizable African American, Chinese, Hispanic, and Vietnamese populations. It embodies the Bay area's free-wheeling spirit, but you are also likely to find people who follow a wide range of other lifestyles. Quality dining options are abundant and at affordable prices, which makes it more appealing from a guerrilla perspective.

I was therefore delighted to learn that Bryant Terry, food-justice activist and chef who generated a lot of buzz in the food blogosphere earlier this year, is from Oakland. His new cookbook, Vegan Soul Kitchen: Fresh, Healthy and Creative African-American Cuisine, received positive reviews across the board from 101 Cookbooks to VegNews magazine. I used to live in Washington, DC, which has a large African American population, so African-American/Southern/soul food is very much part of the local culinary fabric. But West-Coast soul food? This was new to me. I had always perceived soul food to be heavy on meat and fat, so Bryant's approach that focuses on fresh produce and healthy cooking is pretty refreshing.

I tried two recipes from his book: Sweet Coconut-Ginger Creamed Corn (I added green beans) and New World Red Rice. Both were hearty and delicious like any good soul food, but not greasy at all. I rarely paired ginger with coconut milk except in a Thai curry, and the combination brought a sharpness that counterbalanced the creaminess of the corn. The rice dish, according to Bryant, is an adaption of Senegalese red rice. It's rice cooked with onion, garlic, tomatoes, chili powder, jalapeno, cayenne pepper, thyme, tamari, and paprika (which I didn't have so I left it out). The flavors were complex and exploded in my mouth. I love spicy food and this rice really did it for me.

Vegan soul: Sweet Coconut-Ginger Creamed Corn and Green Beans, served with New World Red Rice

I am a watermelon purist, meaning that I don't add anything such as salt to the fruit when I eat it. But I was tempted to try Bryant's sophisticated-sounding Watermelon Slices with Basil Sea Salt. The basil sea salt (essentially salt mixed with chopped fresh basil) elevated the watermelon so it turned out sweeter with a contrasting, like-it-or-hate-it touch of basil. The result was decent, but I'd say I still like my watermelon plain, without embellishment.

Interesting Watermelon Slices with Basil Sea Salt

Eye-opening San Mateo Coast farm tour

Since I shop at farmers' market regularly, I am always interested in seeing first-hand the farms that produce what I buy. My opportunity came this past Sunday, when I joined the non-profit Fresh Approach to tour three farms along the San Mateo coast.

We visited three very different farms:
- Iacopi Farm, a small farm in Half Moon Bay that specializes in peas and beans
- 5th Crow Farm, another small farm in Pescadero strongly committed to organic and sustainable farming practices
- Westland Nursery, a commercial specialty flower farm in Pescadero

5th Crow Farm with the tent where we would have lunch

I knew little about farming prior to the tour, so it was quite an eye-opening experience for me. I got to see different types of produce - artichokes, peas, strawberries, tomatoes - on their plants before they were picked. I wouldn't have been able to identify the plants on my own for sure. I also learned about the multitude of factors farmers grapple with on a daily basis that can affect their crops. It left me thinking despite mankind's technological advances, we are still largely subject to the unpredictable whims of nature.

Artichoke on its plant, at Iacopi Farm

Rows of lettuce on 5th Crow Farm

I was most impressed by what I saw on 5th Crow Farm. It's run by three young folks who are a couple years older than me. They are hardly your stereotypical grumpy, behind-the-times farmer. John, our articulate host and one of the owners, explained to us how they strive to make the farm self-sustaining, so everything is produced from what's on the farm (e.g. use compost as feed/fertilizers). It's easy to dismiss such efforts as hippie idealism or a PR stunt, but I have a genuine respect for them and will continue to support them and others who farm sustainably.

How about the food? The highlight of the tour was a gourmet lunch on 5th Crow Farm prepared by Pacific Coast Farmers' Market Association's chefs featuring the farm's produce. The menu included potato-leek soup, onion tart, salad greens with apple-poppyseed vinaigrette topped with sliced almonds and goat cheese, grilled summer squash, and strawberry lemonade. Among all dishes, the salad greens stood out because of their literally farm-to-table freshness. But what's truly unbeatable was the setting. We ate under a tent in the middle of the farm with postcard-like scenery as the backdrop. The PBS show Endless Feast, in which local farmers, producers, and chefs got together in each episode to prepare a meal to celebrate local food at a stunning outdoor location, immediately came to mind. I felt blessed to be able to enjoy a meal like this in real life.

Gourmet lunch on 5th Crow Farm featuring its produce

Another "wow" moment of the tour happened at Iacopi Farm, when owner Louie invited us to pick his fresh peas and taste them on the spot. They were sweet, crisp, and had that refreshing smell of just being picked from the ground. In short, unbelievably good.

Really fresh peas just picked from the ground at Iacopi Farm

Given the immense amounts of time and efforts that went into producing each crop, the tour made me even more conscious of the origins of the food I eat. Eating becomes a more mindful act when you think of it as part of a dialogue with the producers. You derive more pleasure from it too.

Westland Nursery, filled with flowers in full bloom