This year and most of the years we have a three tiered box (jubako) filled with New Year’s food called Osechi-Ryori. All the foods inside have symbolism for the year. Let’s be real here there are very few foods I like in this, but since I was going to work out shortly after I didn’t eat much anyway. So there was the kamaboko, the white and pink fish cake that represents the rising sun of Japan and has celebratory connotation. Tazukuri or sardines, usually dried, which symbolize a bountiful harvest. Lots of beans which usually symbolize health. Fruits like grapes and oranges which usually bring prosperity or the wish of having numerous children. Eggs, which I don’t eat, they’re usually rolled up to look like a sun, so take a wild guess. It also includes foods like Gobo (burdock root), Kazunoko (herring roe), shrimp, seaweed, and such.

The Osechi usually has food for several days at a time. I’m sure there’s a systematic way of eating it but basically the way we do it is that my entire family goes to my grandma’s for breakfast. We eat a store bought Osechi but she makes us her own ozoni. She always tries to explain to us what’s the importance of everything, but we’ve heard it so often we know it by heart. We show up because there is importance to us coming together and eating as a family and eating something special as well.

おせち

It took me a lot longer than I thought I would. And for the Chocolate Chip Cookie Fudge, you need to use a candy thermometer and mine was taking a really long time, so I’m not convinced it works. The Red Velvet Brownies came out a little dry, so I shortened the baking time in the recipe below. And there was way too much frosting, so if you double the brownie recipe or cut the frosting recipe in half.

I have yet to taste the chocolate chip fudge but it’s not quite set yet. So maybe in a bit. I’ll let you know!

Red Velvet Brownies with White Chocolate Frosting

For the brownies:
3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 oz red food coloring (or a scant 2 tbsp)
2 tsp pure vanilla extract, divided
1/2 cup (8 tbsp) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

To make the brownies:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Butter and flour an 8″x8″ baking pan.

In a small bowl, slowly stir together the cocoa powder, food coloring, and 1 tsp vanilla into a thick paste until no lumps of cocoa remain. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition, then stir in the remaining 1 tsp of vanilla.  With the mixer off, add in the cocoa mixture, then turn the mixer to medium and beat the two mixtures together until they are one uniform color.  Slowly add in the flour and salt and mix on medium-low speed, just until combined.  Do not overmix.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and stir up the batter with a rubber spatula once or twice just to ensure all of the flour has incorporated from the sides of the bowl and there isn’t anything stuck on the bottom of the bowl.  You’ll want one uniformly colored (red) batter.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 25-30 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the brownies.  Allow brownies to completely cool in the pan on a baking rack, about 20 minutes.  Frost brownies in the pan, cut into 12 bars, and serve, or remove the entire batch from the pan to a cutting board, cut into 12 bars, frost, and serve.

For the white chocolate buttercream frosting:
I WOULD CUT THIS IN HALF IF I WERE YOU
1/2 1/4 cup (8 tbsp) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 1/2 1 1/4cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
4 2 oz good-quality white chocolate (not chips), melted – I recommend Callebaut
1 – 2 tbsp heavy cream

To make the frosting:
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter until soft and fluffy then beat in the vanilla.  With the mixer on low speed, slowly add in powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time; allow the sugar to mix in before adding the next 1/2 cup. Once all of the sugar has been added, beat on medium speed for 30 seconds and scrape down the sides of the bowl.  Add in the melted white chocolate and beat on medium speed until incorporated.  With the mixer on low, add in heavy cream 1 tbsp at a time and beat at medium speed until the frosting has reached your desired consistency

I’m not dead. I was just dealing with a lot of finals. But now I’m back. I just returned from San Francisco. We had a lot of good food. I’ve been there before and my dad lived there for his college years so he has a lot of places he likes to eat. He took us to Sears Fine Food near Union Square for breakfast. I guess the trick to this restaurant is that the bigger your party the better the chances are that you’ll get seated. I had the waffles with whipped cream and strawberries, no maple syrup needed.

But of course we returned to In N Out because I always do when I’m in the west coast. So we went on the Wharf which almost seems like a waste because there are good restaurants down there we just didn’t choose to go to them.

The newest place we went to was Bluestem Brassiere which was also near Union Square. It’s American food, but at the same time it’s kind of weird. Bone Marrow, that’s right, Bone Marrow, was on the appetizer menu but they were out that night. But my cousin swears that it’s delicious. So it’s almost a shame that we didn’t try it but at the same time I’d be terrified to actually put that in my mouth. But I had chicken, mac and cheese, fries and potatoes. It was a carb heavy night. Followed up with a chocolate plate.

We also had Sakana, a Japanese restaurant near our hotel. It was pretty legit. I had karaage chicken, edamame, nigiri and katsu. It was all delicious and familiar. The waiter had a lot of tattoos and “Support Japan” wrist bands. But in addition it had a lot of Japanese workers which was nice instead of Chinese, Koran or Mexican workers. Not that I’m against that, but sometimes it’s difficult to leave your own cultural influences out when cooking from a different culture. But there are always exceptions. Everything was yummy.

And how San Francisco is famous for Sourdough bread, we ate at Boudin. The first thing I ate was the roast beef sandwich but when I bit in my jaw kind of dislocated because the bread was so hard. The next day I had a different sandwich but it was nearer to the morning so the bread wasn’t nearly as hard.

San Francisco has a lot of great places to eat. But it’s affected by how much you want to pay and what exactly you want. I had a great time.

First off I know what you’re wondering, did you have turkey on Thanksgiving? I did not. Alas we went to Cirque Du Soliel: Beatles, so we couldn’t really make a reservation and ended up going to the Cheesecake factory. I really try to avoid chains when I travel because we can get that anywhere. But since they don’t take reservations it just made life easier to get into in the mean time. I had the lemon herb chicken which was good, drowned in butter sauce. It was delicious. Then followed up by a tuxedo chocolate cheesecake. I’m not going to lie, I know that all the foods there are high in calories and it does make me cringe a little bit. But I will always stand by I’d rather be fat and happy then skinny and sad.

My highlight in the food was the local food I got to eat. At Aloha Specialties Restaurant, while the service was subpar, the food was decent. I had fried saimin, it had a little too much celery. And their wontons in the other saimin kind of fell apart really easy. But the service is the opposite of what their name. The cashier lady, didn’t even say anything to me. She just kind of glared, then I placed my order and she handed me a number. A simple, hostile transaction, the way I like em.

But Island Sushi was the best. Located in the Plaza hotel, this was like being at home. They had all the stuff I like to eat. I had a garlic chicken bowl and sushi. It’s not Mitsuba or Mistuken but it’s still good. It wasn’t dripping with sauce which is both good and bad. I ordered the bowl because I had the thought, oh well the bowl will be smaller. No not really. In addition I had maguro and ebi nigiri (which was delicious) and a California roll (delicious, but a little bit of a vinegar taste in the crab meat). So with everything I ordered I was actually very excited for my dessert which was the malasada sundae. It was so yummy, the warm malasada pieces which could have be crispier but it was delicious with the vanilla ice cream. There was also a strawberry sauce that I don’t really think added to the dish but it didn’t take away from it either. I think I’m just a chocolate person.
I keep meaning to go to Hash House A G0-Go but it keeps not happening.

TO BE CONTINUED…. (dun dun dun-dramatic)

People are worried about the childhood obesity issue but making pizza into a vegetable won’t help that. Yes, I also understand that it’s difficult for schools to make ends meet just so that they can have lunch, but at the same time we shouldn’t make pizza into a vegetable. I’m not quite sure how schools can make ends meet, honestly I think it’s going to take a little, or a lot, of philanthropy on some food supplier’s behalf. But I don’t think this is the way to go about it. Oh I’m so terrified the day when Pizza becomes a vegetable, there is just something wrong in the world.

There’s an article on CNN about the honey in the US. Drugstore honey (walgreens, cvs, etc) have no traces of pollen.  76% of grocery store brands of honey had no traces of pollen. But those from farmer’s markets and Trader Joes did have the expected amount of pollen. The pollen content is important because it helps people track where the honey came from and that it’s actually honey. If it doesn’t have traces of honey it might not be honey, it might have antibiotics you didn’t count on or be smuggled in from China (apparently according to the article).

So why do people eat honey? In addition to it being a natural sweetener someone recently told me that they eat honey because it helps with their allergies because of the pollen in it,

• it’s also an antioxidant.
• It boosts energy so apparently putting it into my morning smoothie is a good thing.
•  And you can use it when you’re sick because it’s easy on the stomach and throat. It can actually kill bacteria that causes infections and helps to soothe inflammations.
• You can also put honey on a burn from cooking and it insulates it, but it makes you sticky so maybe just some Neosporin.

My dinner was a chicken pot pie bubble baked. It’s almost entirely squishy, in the best of ways possible. Mixed vegetables, cream of chicken, cheese and honey baked grands Jr. It’s delicious. But sometimes you just need a side dish.

I also baked the potato chips, which didn’t come out well at all. I decided to cut them paper thin and that about burned the chips more than I’d have preferred. So I had to toss a lot of them. I guess next time I have to cut the potatoes thicker than I had. Lastly, the most successful was when I deep fried the potato chips. The paper thin ones worked really well with this one. And then when tossed with some salt, pepper and a little bit of garlic powder it’s perfect.