03 Saturday Nov 2012
Pajunia in Elmhurst doesn’t serve savory jeon pancakes but it does have extremely delicious hotteok! This Korean winter treat is filled with cinnamon, honey, walnuts, sesame seeds, brown sugar and crushed peanuts. You can get 4 of these sweet, buttery filled “nut cakes” for $5.
Pajunia
74-24 Broadway
Elmhurst NY 11373
(718) 651-2879
31 Wednesday Oct 2012
Posted in Brooklyn, bucket list, celebrations, Mexican, Queens, snacks, spicy, sweets
These tamarind-filled candy tubes are covered in spicy, salty, tangy powder (salsa en polvo). I bought this pack of Skwinkles at an Associated in Sunnyside, Queens but MexGrocer.com is offering free shipping on orders for the next two days if you use the code “FREESHIP12” at check out.
03 Friday Aug 2012
Posted in celebrations, fruit, sweets
Tags
anniversary, ganache, ice cream, Marjoram, recipe, strawberry
For my grandparents’ 60th anniversary I made a brownie-torte with chocolate ganache and strawberries. The ganache was just heavy cream, bittersweet chocolate and butter melted in a bain-marie. It was kind of amazing.
The strawberry marjoram ice cream was also a success! I love the astringent brightness that the marjoram imparted. It may have been the camphor or pinene found in its oils.
It was the chocolatiest dessert I had ever tasted in my life and I just had another slice for breakfast because it was that good!
25 Wednesday Jul 2012
Tags
azahar, fleur d'oranger, Ladurée, Marshmallows, orange blossom water, oranger, recipe, smitten kitchen, ماء الزهر
I just finished a batch of orange blossom marshmallows. They were so easy to make. I just used a smitten kitten recipe.
The worst part was waiting for the sugar mixture to get to 240 degrees.
I am going to make another batch this afternoon of plain vanilla ones, just have to get some vanilla beans first.
I am so excited about all the cookie cutter shapes I’m going to use to make cute marshmallows cut outs!
I used to think Ladurée’s guimauve macaron filling was gross but now that I know what goes into making a marshmallow, I kind of love the idea of the incroyable macarons!
25 Wednesday Jul 2012
21 Saturday Jul 2012
Shrimp tacos with mango and cucumber at Nixtamal in Corona, Queens ($3/taco)
Chongos zamoranos is a sweet curd dessert from Zamora in Michoacán, Mexico.
Nixtamal provides tortillas to many restaurants in New York such as La Esquina, Choza Taquería, and even Nobu. The owners, Shauna Page and Fernando Ruiz, make their own corn masa using a method called nixtamalization. The corn is soaked in mineral lime, which increases its nutritional value, allows it to be more easily ground, kills fungus, and improves flavor. In front of Nixtamal there are a few stalks of corn growing in a planter.
18 Wednesday Jul 2012
The Minamoto Kitchoan kiosk at Mitsuwa in New Jersey is selling a special hands-on summer wagashi. I think it’s arrowroot with agar agar and extra water, mizu. The jelly prism is placed inside a plastic box and pushed through a screen that cuts it into small, spaghetti-like ribbons. A small packet of molasses is included and could be used as a sauce for the jelly noodles. The whole set is only $6.
17 Tuesday Jul 2012
Tags
I had some lettuce scraps left over from lunch yesterday so I decided to blend them with some sour lemonade and make popsicles. Some of the leafy pulp floated to the top but they still tasted really good!
12 Thursday Jul 2012
I was in St. Louis, Missouri last weekend for a wedding and, since it was my first (and probably last) time in that city, I set out to try all of the local specialties. Crispy snoots are a unique part of St. Louis BBQ. They are simply the fried face of a pig. In my case, it was a hairy pig that forgot to shave (notice the bristles on the snoot in the photo).
One of the few places that sold crispy snoots was Smoki O’s, just down the street from the Four Seasons where we were staying.
The gooey butter cake was, according to the local legend, invented when somebody messed up a pound cake.
Toasted ravioli are known as T-ravs and typically come with a side of marinara sauce. These were the grossest of the three St. Louis delicacies.
11 Wednesday Jul 2012
I went to Ladurée yesterday for the first time in weeks. I had been so upset about the discontinuation of the muguet (lily of the valley) flavor that I couldn’t bare even to pass by the storefront.
Overwhelmed with curiosity about the new summer flavors, I found myself in line once again trying to decide which of the new boxes I was going to buy for my collection. I chose this one in honor of the “Queen’s Diamond Jubilee”.
New flavors include basil & lime, strawberry & poppy (not poppyseed, but poppy petals), and the latest “incroyable” strawberry, with a guimauve (marshmallow) filling and a bit of sugar sprinkled on top.
Chinook Olive 