A Bad Cook, a Good Friend, and a Smiley Cake

My friend Sheila came over last night.  We try to get together once a week when she's not travelling for her job with Doctors without borders.  She's decided to quit her day job and become a pastry chef (empty threats), so she's starting a Saturday internship at a local cake shop.  Since my kitchen is well equipped and since I like cooking too, we sometimes bake together, just after I teach us a yoga class (or not).  Balance.  Other times we try out new Parisian restaurants.  She has an uncanny ability of finding the good ones.  
We are polar opposites in the kitchen.  She measures and weighs and follows all the mixing and adding instructions, and I almost always fudge something.  A little less sugar, that looks like a tsp of vanilla or baking powder, the butter doesn't really have to be at room temperature and completely incorporated... I'm not sure if it's because I'm a terrible cook or a good one.  Sometimes, it's simply because I don't have the proper ingredients on hand, or they just can't be found here.  I once used a mix of raw brown sugar and honey as a sub for the wet brown sugar found in the US.  Buttermilk, I almost always make myself with milk and vinegar or a lemon, and we don't have sour cream.  You can look up 'equivalent' ingredients for most things, but in my book, sour cream = greek yogurt = thick creme fraiche = full fat fromage blanc.  Whatever's in the fridge.  I recently made a birthday cake from scratch using an ancient Betty Crocker cookbook recipe.  It was as dense as a brick and almost as dry.... I need to throw out that cookbook.  (Poor Franck)  I'm still in search of the perfect recipe to replace my beloved Duncan Hines butter recipe golden cake mix.  It was one of the only 'processed' things I had in my kitchen in SF.  And I think I may try to use the base of this coffee cake, without the cinnamon streusel part. 
Some recipes, though, I never fudge, like bread recipes.  Even when I follow the recipe perfectly, I always panic that it's too wet, or not wet enough, or it didn't rise well, or it rose too much.  That reminds me.  I only have a few days to make a king cake!  
Anyway, Sheila brought over a recipe from America's Test Kitchen, aka Cooks Illustrated, for coffee cake.  I had actually made one a few weeks back that turned out well enough.  I didn't follow the instructions exactly as written and it rose a little lopsided, but you can't really go wrong with butter, flour sugar and cinnamon (or maybe you can if you count Franck's cake).  We must make a good team, because this cake turned out very very nicely! Or perhaps, as she informed me last night, it's because America's Test Kitchen tests all their recipes until they find the perfect one.  How did I never know about them?  

Here's my fudged (adapted) recipe.  I always use less sugar, more butter, and less equipment when possible.  

Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake

Streusel

3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
2.5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
1 cup pecans, chopped (I usually break my pecans by hand)

Cake
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sour cream (we used frommage blanc)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened but still cool, cut into 1-inch cubes

To make the streusel topping, combine flour, sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar and cinnamon in a medium bowl.  Mix well.  To make the streusel for the interior of the cake, remove 1 1/4 cup of the mix to a new bowl and add the remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar.  Mix well.  With the remaining ~1/2 cup streusel topping, add the pecans and butter.  Hand mix until crumbly (then lick buttery sugary fingers, followed by a thorough washing).  Set Aside.

Adjust oven rack to lowest position and set to 350F (175C).  Grease a bundt pan.  Beat to combine: eggs, 1 cup sour cream, and vanilla in a medium bowl, set aside.  In a separate mixer bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, soda, and salt.  Mix on low speed to combine for 30 seconds.  To mixer, add butter, remaining 1/2 cup sour cream and mix on low speed until moist.  Add egg mixture in 3 additions beating 20 seconds between additions (denise's translation -- slowly add egg mixture).  Increase speed to medium high and beat 1 minute.

Assemble by adding 1/3 of mixture (~ 2 cups) to greased pan and smooth with a spatula.  Sprinkle with 1/2 of the interior streusel (no nuts).  Add another ~2 cups mixture, smooth and top with remaining interior streusel.  As evenly as possible, add the remaining mixture and top with pecan crumble.  Bake 50-60 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean and cake bounces back a bit.  (streusel will make toothpick dirty even if the cake is done, so try to poke a streusel free area.  Remove from pan, and cool as long as you can stand it before eating! 

Well howdy there.  I haven't blogged in (too) many months.  So sorry to all my avid fans, I don't ever make New Years resolutions, so it's not one of mine to blog more often.

What has been going on?  Well, I saw the sun for more than 10 minutes yesterday (in Paris) for the first time in a (few) month(s).  (<those are so that Vince can't tell me I'm wrong>).  I should keep a sun journal.  It was really lovely to see the sun.  It happened to come out when I was at my first protest, or I guess it should be called a rally.  150,000 to 400,000 people (cops # to organizers #) went out on a day that was supposed to be rainy and cold to rally for equal rights for all.  "What?" You say, "In this day and age, there are not equal rights in France?"  Nope.  Gay people don't have the right to adopt (not even the children of their partners) or the right to medically assisted procreation, or the right to work if their partner is a citizen and they aren't, or the right to pay taxes together.  I honestly don't care what you call it, in any language, but I believe strongly that all people should have equal rights.  If a couple happens to be of the same sex, they should have all the same rights as opposite sex and biracial and multinational couples.  Love is love and family is family.  End of discussion.

What else has been happening?  Oh so much since I've last posted, I've been to the market 10 times, the podiatrist twice, the dermatologist once...  I won't catch you up in one post.  I promise not to bore you that much.

My mom came to visit.  It was a great visit.  She came a few weeks after my surgery.  Just in case I needed my mommie.  Fortunately I didn't need her too much and I was able to show her around.  She was however an enormous help, she cleaned a few times, helped me change my bandage, cooked a bunch, bought me flowers, and prepared and decorated for dinners and our Halloween Party.  It was the largest showing yet at one of our parties.  Almost everyone we knew in Paris was there (and still our place wasn't full).  I credit the timing of the party and the cook, a Wednesday night before a vacation day on Thursday, and my mom.  She made the most scrumptious gumbo.  Holy goodness!

We also saw rainbows at the Louvre, chandeliers at Notre Dame, views at Montmarte, and while walking through the Jardin de Tuleries, happened upon some city workers uprooting beautiful peonies in preparation for the winter plantings.  They were so nice, they listened to my broken french and graciously cut me a bouquet to take home.

Mom under the Pyramid at the Louvre

Notre Dame Chandeliers

Rome, the Last Surgery, and Soup Season

I've been absent.  Bad me.  I know.  I guess that means we've been busy.  September was Vince's birthday and our anniversary and he took me on a lovely weekend trip to Rome.  I think it might take the prize of most beautiful city I've seen.  And I'm just getting started in Europe.  What other treasures there must be to see!  Around every corner in Rome, there is another beautiful plaza, or fountain, or building, or any combination of those.  Truly a recommended destination.

Vatican Museum Ceiling by Raphael

Even if you're not Catholic, don't skip the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel is but a speck of the grandeur... we didn't even photograph it.  The popes have been collecting artwork and having famous people (Raphael and Michelangelo) paint their ceilings since Catholicism began.  The buildings themselves are works of art and are filled with millions of artifacts: from the most well preserved Egyptian mummies I've ever seen to Salvador Dali and Paul Klee paintings.  Plus, St. Peters Basilica is one of the most impressive, awe inspiring, and peaceful  places I've been to.  With it's towering domes, beautifully carved gilded ceilings, giant statues, and intimate temples in every nook and cranny, I felt the same peace there as when I was in a Jain temple in India with some lovely praying ladies.

Dry July... and August -- A cruel cruel summer in Paris.

There's this bizarre thing that French people do every year in July and August.  It's called vacation.  For a MONTH.  The minimum vacation allowance here is 5 weeks.  If you're salaried, since the work week is 35 hours, you get an extra 2 or so weeks.  For those of you who are bad with numbers, that makes 7 weeks of vacation per year... and now you know why were're here.  Many companies close for the entire month of August, so like it or not, you're taking vacation. Which can suck if you'd like to go to any vacation-y type place.  You end up in a crowded, traffic jammed, hot 'paradise' full of Parisians.  We've heard stories about Corsica, one of the beautiful islands we visited back in June.  Didn't seem like something I wanted to do.  Plus, here I was thinking Paris would be so much better without all the Parisians.  Which is partly true.  The only problem is that all our friends who live here are on vacation, and the people who run the bakeries, coffee shops, restaurants, bars and your favorite local store are all out of town.  It's such a phenomenon that there are blog posts about it.

Ewww Beets! Easy Peasy Salad.

Remember when your mom opened a can of beets, or a bag of frozen brussel sprouts, heated it up, and put that shit on your plate.  You were like "ewwww.  I'm not eating that.  Gross".  I do.  More often than not though, we had fresh vegetables from the garden, and I thank my lucky stars for that, because now I love vegetables.  Especially beets and brussel sprouts. If they're fresh, and well prepared, they are one of my favorite things.
I also have a strange obsession with beet greens.  I know... but they're so good and tender and flavorful, and they don't leave that film on your teeth like spinach does.  Plus, they have preeetttyy red stems.  Sadly fresh beets are difficult to find here in Paris.  For some bizarre reason, they're sold cooked, even at the farmers markets, and they look like blobs of black red gunk. So when I see them fresh with greens on, I buy in bulk.  That leaves me with lots of actual beets, so I make this lovely roasted beet salad with orange and shallot dressing.  It's heavenly, and healthy.
I also have a special way of cooking my beets.  I don't remember where I got the recipe, but it's no fail, awesomeness.  Many of the recipes I've read call for cooking them, then removing the skin.  I've heard horror stories about this.  Kitchen towels stained forever, hands burned, the skin never actually coming off, of the beets at least...  I think I even tried it once a long time ago and had all those problems.  Here's the fail-safe way.  

Why Paris is great, and other such problems

The Pantheon

Seriously, have you seen a more beautiful city?  I haven't, and I've traveled the world.  Ok, you're right, I've seen almost none of Europe.  But still.

Notre Dame

Notre Dame

Black Monday/Blue Monday

Église de la Sainte-Trinité

We're tightening belts around here, so I haven't been buying the usual heirloom summer tomatoes at the the Saturday organic market, nor being inspired by the other beautiful food there.  I didn't even make it to the market this weekend.  We did a treasure hunt on Saturday, organized by the Paris city hall.  Good times, for me at least.  I understood about a third of the puns, and followed Vince and his friend around Paris admiring all the beautiful buildings (mostly in the rain), while they tried to figure out where the next turn was.  So much fun.  But that means the fridge is empty of its usual abundance of fresh veggies, so here I am on Monday, in search of inspiration. 

Mondays in Paris are always the hardest day for me... the poor privileged housewife.  Any medium to small business that is open at least one day on the weekend is closed on Monday.  That includes the local street of awesomeness, Rue de Poteau, with it's cheese shops, charcuterie, and outdoor veggie stalls.  All shuttered.  I thought, perhaps it would be a good day to explore a farmers market in another neighborhood, so I checked Paris.fr for farmers markets on Monday and there are exactly 2, both at least a 40 minute metro ride across town.  Not happening today.  I'll have to come up with something else. 

My Love Hate Relationship with the Boucherie

Kosher Boucherie in my eclectic hood.

I'm throwing a little party this weekend.  We do a few every year.  One is always in the summer.... must celebrate the long days.  This summer it's fiesta night.  Not because it's an especially summery theme, just because I miss Mexican food like crazy, and tomatoes and avocados are in season, so I can make good guacamole and salsa.  I hope it goes over well.  The french are known for being afraid of spicy food.  I'm not making habanero salsa or anything, but I was able to find some lovely jalapenos in my eclectic neighborhood and dammit, I'm going to use them.

Right, I'm also going to try to make carnitas properly.  It can't be that hard.  I've made the cajun version (smothered pork shoulder) and the southern version (pulled pork) so now I just have to make the mexican version.  Strangely, many call for using orange juice... I wonder if there is some chemical reaction that makes the meat more tender and juicy, 'cause carnitas sure don't taste like oranges.'  Where's Alton Brown when you need him?!  

So I went to the boucherie.  I got a whole pork shoulder (about 4 lbs) bone included, and the first thing he asked me was if I wanted to have the bone removed, and how I would like it chopped.  Well thank you, Monsieur Boucher, I don't mind if you do.  I used to do microbiology.  I once worked in a food safety division of the USDA.  Meat, and its associated bacteria freak me out.  I wear gloves sometimes, when I touch meat.  It's weird, freaky, whatever you'd like to call it, I know.  So I LOVE it when the butcher cuts the meat for me.  It saves me the step of sterilization of cutting board and knives, and anything that came in contact with said raw meat.  The nice butcher then wraps it all up and puts it in a lovely plastic bag, takes my money, gives me change, and all without washing his dirty meaty gross hands yet.  >nose crinkling, eye squeezing, cringe<  Just one of the lovely things here that make me have to look the other way.  

Nature and Nourishment in Corsica

We decided to go on an extended weekend in Corsica.  It's not far, only about an hour and a half plane ride from Paris, it has mountains, and 1,000km of coastline (around 620 miles).  Hello... Hiking and beaches = paradise for this 'Parisian'!

It's been occupied since before time    -really- since BCE and hence has changed hands umpteen times. Normally, you would expect fish on every restaurant menu on an island in the middle of the Mediterranean sea, but since the locals wanted nothing to do with these changes in allegiance, they took to the hills and learned how to live off the land not the sea.  Fortunately for all of us, they stayed there, and to this day make fantastic cheeses and charcuterie.

Summer Candy

Blue Bottle

I religiously visited the Ferry Building farmers market in San Francisco every Saturday morning.  Waking up, grabbing a cup of coffee at the wonderful Blue Bottle directly across the street from my old apartment, and walking all the way there.  My attendance was especially frequent in the summertime when there were fresh sweet amazing tomatoes, cucumbers, mint, basil, and my favorite part.... candy!  It came in the form of white nectarines.  I would lovingly pick 6 big juicy wonderful candy nectarines, one to go with my plain yogurt every morning, until there was no more candy at the market.  It was always one of my favorite things about summer, it NEVER got old!

Next Up

Welcome to Paris

I guess we never really finished blogs for the trip.  There was more in Japan.  Nara, Kyoto, Nagasaki.  Maybe one day we'll post about them. Vince got really sick in Japan, then we made it to France, started eating again, visiting with family and friends, and getting reacquainted with our new world.  Then I promptly broke the shit out of my arm.  After which I had endless doctors appointments, pain and suffering, tiredness, haziness, and general malaise for almost 6 months.  It's amazing how constant pain affects a person.  You don't realize you're in pain, or that the pain makes you tired and lethargic, until you're all better.   Now I have all this energy, and the neurons are almost firing properly again.  Phew.  I'm glad that's done with.  Sorry to all of you who had to put up with me.

Kitsch and Culture in Tokyo, Japan

I was watching a video on youtube the other day in which some British kids decided to document their visit to the US by going to WalMart. They showed processed lunchmeat which already had cheese in it, iced tea in what they called gasoline bottles, and rifles. What a nice video of America. Yes, those things exist, and yes they're gross, or violent, or in the case of the iced tea, totally normal in my opinion. But it's kind of mean to show that and not the beautiful things you can see in America, or the great food that can be found in gardens and at farmers markets. Why do I write the aforementioned in a Tokyo blog post, well, because Tokyo is kitschy, which I personally think is excellent, but it's not really a nice word, and I also hope to show the beauty beyond the kitsch.

The Incongruous City of Beijing

Our first lodging in Beijing was in a traditional area that hasn't yet been disassembled and turned into high rise, high density housing. It is an area of small alleys (Hutong) and roads just large enough for a single small car to pass.  An area where real people still live, kids play in the streets, and tourists are few and far enough between that the store owners don't speak much English, and consequently weren't keen to rip us off. Though not high rise, the housing is much more high density than most westerners would tolerate. As we soon found out, the ample public bathrooms were for the locals who apparently don't have toilets or showers in their homes. As we were told, it's a charming place to see old Beijing, save the occasional whiff of the commode.

Yangshuo's landscapes are amazing

From Hong Kong we went to spend a week in mainland China in an area known for its landscapes, and we were not disappointed. Since it's the mainland, getting there for cheaper involved leaving Hong Kong by train to Shenzhen, where we passed the border, then taking a cab to the local airport, a plane to Guilin, and finally a couple of buses to reach Yangshuo. The funny part is: this was the quick way that involved taking a 1.5 hours flight instead of a 9 hours train.

The trip was worth every minute though as the area is truly gorgeous and offers tons of things to do if you like the outdoors.

Hong Kong doesn't feel like a metropolis

From Bangkok we moved on to China. Our first stop was Hong Kong. Even if the British have "given Hong Kong back" to China, it's still very much its own entity with its own government and rules and so it's nothing like the mainland. For one, there is no censorship of any kind. So it's pretty much a different country.

We spent a few days there and were generously hosted by Fred, a friend from my early college years who moved there at the same time I moved to the US, and who I had not seen in 10 years. On top of being our host he was also our guide through a few areas of Hong Kong and a wealth of information about the way things work there. As always, it was really awesome to be able to hang out with someone who actually lives in the place we visited. You get a much more intimate look at the place.

More to see in Bangkok

We stopped twice in Bangkok. Once at our arrival from India, before Cambodia, and the second time as our last stop in Thailand after Ko Phangan. We stayed several days there but feel like there is still many things to see there (and I'm not even talking about all the temples).
After several months of traveling we've realized that we like to discover big cities by wandering around semi randomly. It's not a very effective way to visit a place but it's a great way to discover great neighborhoods or fun alleys. For example our first day there we just started to walk in the general direction of chinatown. We ran into a beautiful temple before following the river.

Hijinxs ensue in Ko Phangan

From the far north of Thailand we then went pretty far south to one of the many paradise islands Thailand has to offer. We were looking for something nice (which also means touristy) but where we could feel at home too. We opted for Ko Phangan, an island off of Ko Samui and were not disappointed!

One of the islands claim to fame is its full moon parties that are supposed to rage all night. Even though we were nowhere near the full moon, we made sure to stay far from the area where the event takes place so we would be away from the most touristy part of the island.

Back to old habits in Chiang Mai

After our stint in Laos we went to the north of Thailand to visit Chiang Mai. As we had done in Luang Prabang, we arrived there without a place to stay. We knew of one that was well rated and cheap and got dropped in front of it. In this case the place was sadly overpriced and not really good so we took our bags and walked around in search for a place to stay. After looking at a few guesthouses we found a good one and settled down. This is fairly easy to do since we're traveling in low season and most of the places have rooms available. It often allows us to get a cheaper price than if we booked online. We only do it in small-ish, easily navigable places where many hostels and guesthouses are available within walking distance of each other.

Fun in Luang Prabang

Now that you have an idea of what Luang Prabang is about, I'll talk about our activities there. Due to plane schedule conflicts we stayed a whole week in the area. That makes it the place we've stayed the longest, even longer than Rishikesh. There was plenty to do though.

Discovering Laos

and some thoughts about South East Asia

After Cambodia we wanted to make our way to Laos. The big question was to decide where we were going and how. Ideally we wanted to see the south first and then make our way to the north. However it was one of those moments where it paid to be realistic. We didn't have that much time to visit the country and trying to do both would have been really pushing it, so we decided to skip the south and spend more days in the north, in Luang Prabang. We had made the same kind of decision in India where we skipped a place that seemed really appealing, but we never regretted it. Feeling rested and not too rushed is really important. We haven't regretted it this time either.

So to be truthfull, we didn't discover Laos as much as we discovered Luang Prabang, this charming old french colonial town by the Mekong river.