Quick Reviews - By the Docks (crab cakes) and Margaret Kuo (Chinese food)

I've been wanting to write up reviews for some the restaurants we went to while I was in US, but I'm lazy to write up full articles. Instead I'll just write a few short blurbs.

Ma, Ba, and I went to an outlet mall in Lancaster, PA to do some shopping, and for dinner they decided to drive all the way down to Baltimore, MD for crab cakes. Ba took us to one in Aberdeen a few years back which was pretty good, but fairly recently his colleagues recommend this place By the Dock Restaurant and Lounge (3321 Eastern Blvd, Middle River, Maryland 21220). This place was packed with people even around five in the afternoon. This place is famous for their crab cakes so we ordered two single crab cake dinner (one fried and one baked) and crab stuffed with shrimp platter. The waitress even suggested that I order the baked one for extra crab flavor (more crab meat and less filling) The dish came with baked potato, a gigantic crab cake, and salad. The portion was huuuuuuuuge! Even though we skipped lunch, we still couldn't finish all the crab cakes. The crab cakes were very flavorful and choke full of real, fresh crab meat. At around $16 per plate, it was a very good deal. I also ordered the French onion soup which was very hardy and very, very tasty, full of beefy, oniony, cheesy flavor. Definitely the best crab cakes in MD, and I loved it even though I'm generally not a fan of crabs.

My sister took us to Margaret Kuo's (175 E. Lancaster Ave. Wayne, PA), a very fancy Chinese restaurant, to celebrate her promotion at work. We ordered a bunch of dimsum and other Chinese snacks and well as sukiyaki from their upstairs Japanese section (The Akari Room). All the dishes were very well made and tasted very fresh. The dishes are like the refined version of snacks found in other Chinese restaurants. The sukiyaki consisted of lots of veggies, noodles, tofu, and thinly sliced Kobe beef. I noticed the cooking sauce was different compared to the ones I had before, and the waiter said the broth they used for the sauce is vegetable broth instead of bonito broth. All this tastiness came at a very high price, but it was well worth it considering the ambiance, the service, and the food were all top notch. I think we were treated extra well because we spoke Chinese. Haha. I was amused by a couple things in the restaurant. The gong was sounded to announce the arrival of Peking duck and the waiter carved the duck in front of the table who order the dish. We also had a very friendly chat with the manager (who is also a Taiwanese?) of the restaurant. She recommended the turnip cake, and when she found out my mom can make Chinese snacks (particularly the turnip cake), she asked for the recipe.

Too bad Wid missed both the awesome crab cakes and the Kobe beef sukiyaki because he had to go back to Bali early.

American Cheesecake Experiment

I've always been a big fan of cheesecake, but while I've made some pretty tasty cheesecakes, I've never been 100% successful. My cakes ended up cracked or the texture too dense. After making a bunch of Japanese cheesecakes and finally having a good oven, I turned my attention back to American cheesecake once again. I tried the chocolate swirl cheesecake recipe found in Better Homes and Gardens' Old-Fashioned Home Baking but with a few minor changes. Instead of 24 oz (680 g) of softened cream cheese, I only had 670 g of cheese instead. I also use 1.5 cup of Oreo crumbs with about 2 tablespoons of melted butter as the crust. The springform pan was 9".

With a hand mixer I mixed cream cheese, imported fine granulated sugar, vanilla, and all purpose flour together until the ingredients were well combined. Then, I added two eggs and a yolk to the mixture and, again using the hand mixer, beat the mixture until just till combined. The mixture was actually still a bit chunky but I switched to my wooden spoon to finish the mixing. After the milk was added, I split the batter in half and added the melted chocolate to one half. I poured all the batter into the pan, made swirls using a small spatula, and placed the cake in the oven.

The starting temperature was 375 but it dropped down to around 350 when the cake was in the oven. I noticed that oil (butter in the crust?) kept dripping out of the springform pan. Thank goodness I placed a cookie sheet under the springform pan. I let the cake bake for around 35 minutes before I checked it. I finally took the cake out around 45-50 minutes when tiny cracks started to appear. I think I could have taken the cake out around 40-45 minutes instead. I let the cake cool on a wire rack for about 15 minutes before I ran my knife around the edge of the cake. I then let the cake cool for another 30 minutes before taking the pan off the cake. I chilled the cake in the fridge overnight after the cake completely cooled on the counter.

The cake received very favorable comments from Wid's parents and Wid. It's surprising because Wid isn't a fan of American cheesecake yet he liked the one I made this time. The cook's sister who's the baker of the family said she likes the swirly pattern. Overall the cake had really good flavor and texture. It's not as fluffy as the ones from Cheesecake Factory, but the texture is still very cheesecake-like. The sweetness is just right for everyone. The edge of the cake was really brown so next time I'll have to remember to use more crumbs and build the crust up about an inch.

Now I'm tempted to try new cheesecake recipe though using 24 oz of cheese at a time is rather scary. Hehe.

Various Experiments

Here are some experiments from the past few months. I've never bothered to post them before because I was lazy.

I made the orange sponge cake and the Japanese cheesecake the same day for Wid's mom, if I remember correctly. The Japanese cheesecake turned out well as usual, but the orange sponge cake didn't because about 3/4 way into baking the gas ran out so the temperature dropped. The volume wasn't as good as before, but it did pass the upside down test. The cake tasted good and it was still moist and fluffy. Here is the original post about the two cakes.


I tried a recipe from the The New Best Recipe. The cake had a wonderful buttery taste, but it was rather compact. It had a more biscuit texture than cake texture. I don't know why it didn't raise like a normal cake. Maybe the baking power wasn't potent enough. The frosting was pretty much whipped melted chocolate and heavy cream; it tasted very decadent!

Gratin Experiment

Wid and I tried some potato gratin from Carrefour a few weeks ago and it was horrible. It was pretty tasteless and I don't know why it was so soupy instead of creamy. I decided to try making my own gratin/scalloped potato instead. I checked out a bunch of recipes but I couldn't find something exactly what I was looking for so in the end I ended up improvising. I cooked the thinly slice potatoes (about half kilo) in half milk, half water solution flavored with bay leaf and salt. I then cooked minced garlic and finely chopped onion in butter and olive oil. After I drained the cooked potato, I line a buttered 9" square pan with potato, then onion, salt/pepper/nutmeg, and then cheddar cheese. I repeat the process and then pour half of cup of milk and heavy cream mixture. I baked the dish covered at 375 F for 30 minutes and then sprinkle about quarter cup of parmasean cheese and let the dish cook for about another 30 minutes.

The result was a bit too dry and peppery to me. I also didn't like the tough crust, and the dish was a bit too thin. Next time I'll add more cream/milk and double the amount of potatoes. I'll also add less parmasean cheese. At least the potato itself tasted really good and well cooked thanks to the step where I cooked the potato in milk. Mami and Wid really liked the dish, but I'll make it better next time.

Happ New Year!

Happy New Year to my friends, who are the only people who actually occasionally read this blog. Haha. Oops, I haven't updated this blog for over two months. Hopefully I'll post more in 2008. I was in US for Thanksgiving and I still have a couple of restaurant reviews (fancy Chinese restaurant and a crab cake place) to write up from the trip.

Thanksgiving wasn't as awesome as it could have been because of family emergency, but it was still great spending time with my immediate family and eat my mom's cooking. We were supposed to have a big dinner with the entire extended family but because of the emergency, we stayed home and my mom improvised to provide a feast with stuff in the fridge. One of the dishes she made was salmon sushi and we also ordered a Peking duck from our favorite Chinese restaurant Golden City. The sushi and duck combo was actually a bit of an inside joke because our cousin's fiance and his mom were supposed to join the entire clan for Thanksgiving and the fiance (not Asian) freaked out his mom by telling her that Chinese people eat sushi and Peking duck for Thanksgiving. I think they ended up bringing a Cajun-style deep-fried turkey, but we didn't see it because we weren't there.

Lanai Part 3

Wid and I haven't frequented Lanai as much as we wanted to, but a few weeks ago our friend Lexo and Sulis, who first introduced us to the restaurant, told us that Lanai just opened up a sushi bar. We decided to check out the place once more. The sushi was surprisingly good and rumor has it the chef is originally from the now closed Japan-fusion restaurant Wasabi. We tried a couple of different rolls as well as items for the regular menu. We had the spicy tuna roll, Lanai special roll, and salmon skin roll. There might have been another roll we ordered, but at this point I don't remember. The rolls were surprisingly good and my favorite was the spicy tuna roll. For Japanese-fusion, the new sushi bar is very nice, but I think the best rolls are still found at Hana. I will have to write a proper review of the rolls later after I sample them again. Hehehe.

Next day we took Wid's family there and everyone really enjoyed the food there. Wid's mom complained about the price, but I guess she doesn't realized exactly how much food we all ate, which was a lot. We can safely say now that the food at Lanai is just as good as pre-fire. Unfortunately, no more salmon risotto, but many of the really good dishes are still on the menu, like the seared ahi tuna covered with sesame and served with wasabi mayo and green beans and seafood boullibaise. Wid tried their special of the day, which was steak sandwich with coffee-infused mushroom. It sounded odd, but the coffee actually gave another dimension to the dish. While you can taste a hint of coffee, it really doesn't distract you from the taste of the meat and the rest of the sandwich. I guess the concept is similar to that of using cocoa in chicken mole. For dessert, white chocolate mousse is always a crowd pleaser, or at least Wid loves it.

Sloppy Joe

We had some leftover hamburger buns that I bought last Friday from Bali Bakery. Instead of making burgers, I decided to try sloppy joe, which I've never attempt to try in the past. I looked online and found a recipe, but then all the reviews of that recipe kept changing things. In the end I just took the list of ingredient and made something up myself.

I browned the beef, chopped green pepper, and chopped onions in the pan. I then added quite a bit of ketchup. The recipe called for 3/4 cup of ketchup for 1 lb of meat, but I thought that was too much and possibly had too much ketchup flavor. Luckily I found some old BBQ sauce (2004!!!) and dumped it into the pan. I also added some yellow mustard, some red wine vinegar, water, a tiny bit of salt, and black pepper. While the sauce was simmering, I dealt with the roasted potato in the oven.

I spooned the sloppy joe mixture onto freshly toasted buns and served them to the family. Everyone really liked the smell and the flavor. I think Wid's dad was planning to eat only half of it, but then he took the other half and ate that as well. The hamburger buns were surprisingly good. I think it's the best bun I've tasted in Bali so far. The roasted potato was a hit once again. Maybe next time I'll melt a slice of cheese on top of the sloppy joe mixture.

I will definitely try this dish again since it's so easy and many of the ingredients are found right in the fridge.

Tale of Three Sponge Cakes

Last Thursday I wanted to make the orange sponge cake for my language teacher's birthday. I was fairly successful in my previous attempt. Wid's dad loved it and so did Bonnie the dog who hates oranges. I thought it would be easy to make the cake, and I did everything perfectly until the very end when I took the cake out of the oven. When I inverted the cake to cool, it plopped onto the counter. I guess the 1 hour cooking time as suggested by the cookbook wasn't long to cook the cake completely. I immediately figured out possible sources of problems: oven temperature wasn't high enough, I'm just not quite used to new oven yet, and the pan was too small (it was around 9.5" instead of 10" tube pan).

Since it was so heart breaking to see my cake failed so spectacularly like that, I was determined to try again as soon as possible. My chance came pretty quickly because Wid's mom wanted me to bake a cake for Wid's brother's birthday. She wanted a Japanese cheesecake, which I made, but I decided to make the sponge cake also. This time I used the same pan and recipe except at the end, I took out enough batter to make six cupcakes. The cupcakes were done in about 40 minutes. The cake was in the oven for one hour and 20 minutes. I think the cake might have been done around one hour and 10 minutes, but in the end the cake passed the upside down test and was cooled over night at room temperature.

The cupcakes cooked quickly so I put it in the living room. Wid's dad asked for one, scarfed it down really quickly, and asked for another one immediately. It's pretty cute because of he was so enthusiastic and happy about eating the cake. He said it tasted like a traditional cake (I guess it's similar in taste and texture of a madeline-like cake that's available here) and he liked the cake because it doesn't have a tough/hard crust. This makes the third cake to met his seal of approval. Wid and I ate two of the cupcakes for snack later in the night and in the morning Wid's dad ate another cupcake.

When we brought the two cakes to the birthday lunch, the orange cake was gone the first, followed by my cheesecake (a crowd pleaser usually), and then Wid's sis's (failed) cheese and carrot cake. The orange sponge cake was light and fluffy like before. It wasn't as wet as before but the level of the moisture in this cake was perfect. The crust stayed mostly intact as well, unlike the first cake, because it was taken out of the pan after it was cooled completely. Plus this time no complaints about the cake being under done. For some reason Indonesians think cakes should be oily or bone dry. Overall, I'm very happy my cakes turned out well. Now I'm tempted to try the cheese carrot cake challenge that Wid's mom proposed.

Mmmm, hot truck

Found this article bookmarked. It really brought back some wonderful memories of my undergrad years at good old Cornell. Here are some choice quotes:

AFTER 2 A.M.: The Hot Truck is the Holy Grail of late-night food in Ithaca. It not only boasts awesome French bread pizza, but also its own language. The PMP (poor man's pizza) is the basic French bread pizza. If you want extra sauce, order it "wet," mayo and lettuce "grease and garden," and when it's 3 a.m., you're a little tipsy and you don't know what to order, say "WTF" and the Hot Truck staff will choose a pizza for you.

I love Hot Truck and this is one of the things I miss sorely from Cornell. A friend of mine visited me in Boston a few years ago and we and his friends (other fellow Cornellians) went to a Hot Truck outpost of some sort outside of the city. Hot Truck at Cornell was still better, but the taste was similar and good enough to invoke fond memories. Maybe the original truck had the better flavor because of the memories.

MUST-EAT: Ithaca has more restaurants per capita than NYC, so there are plenty of options, but one of the most renowned vegetarian eateries in the country is in Ithaca: Moosewood Restaurant did vegetarian before it was cool.

I've been to Moosewood but I do not consider it as a must eat. I think the restaurant and the cookbook are overrated. I actually wrote my experience dining at this establishment for my food history class. The class had an interesting concept but the structure and the professor were terrible. Imagine a snobby professor who's obsessed with bread, who thinks he knows everything, and who loves to spout French all rolled up in one.

DOSES OF CULTURE: We've all been to Urban Outfitters and seen the "Ithaca is Gorges" T-shirt, but don't laugh, because the gorges are beautiful. At the Cascadilla Gorges, on the south edge of campus, you can walk over a suspension bridge and stand right above the falls.

One of my dorms was right next to Cascailla gorge. Love the sound of the water. My friend picked a room with a window facing the gorge so she could go to sleep to the sound of the water rushing. There are way more other impressive gorges and waterfalls scattered through out Ithaca and the Finger Lake regions.

ONLY AT CORNELL: Cornell is the only school where students can learn about drinking for credit. Hotel Administration 430: Introduction to Wines offers students the opportunity to learn about winemaking, its history and its culture.

Definitely one of the most useful class I've ever taken! Thanks to this class, I appreicate wines a lot more. Plus, drinking Bourdeaux from before 1940's that cost around $200 per glass was a bonus. The case was donated to the Hotel School by an alum.

Lanai Review 2

We finally returned to Lanai (Jalan Double Six Legian, Kuta) after many, many unforseen delays (first was CNY, then family gather, then road closed, etc.). We actually went to Lanai on the third day of its reopening back in December, but the food wasn't that great. The menu was still intact, but taste of the many of the dishes was off. For example, the salmon with risotto was so salty that even Sulis who's an Indonesian thought was salty (and Indonesians LOVE their food salty). Even the seared tuna, which I considered as one of their signature dish, wasn't perfect (too soggy). The owner apologized profusely about the food and asked for our honest opinions on the food because she cared just as much if not more about the food than us. We figured that we would give the restaurant another chance because we knew how great the food was before the accident. We thought the quality of the food was due to the new staff needing training and getting use to the kitchen/new equiptment. Since the owner is so passionate about her menu, we were sure that things will be much better.

Last night we were back at Lanai. The menu was still more or less the same, but we did notice some changes, like the salmon with risotto that we ordered the last time. It turned out the reason was that the restaurant had a hard time getting salmon. Salmon is not found in the sea surrounding Indonesia so the fish is imported... At least the seared ahi tuna was still in the starter section. We ordered a bunch of different things and shared so we could sample a bit of everything. The seared ahi tuna was of course the first thing we ordered. We also got the "killer nachoes," Philly cheesesteak sandwich, Lanai beach pizza, seefood bouillabaiss, and lasagna al forno. The service was prompt and the food came out fairly quickily.

The seard ahi tuna with green beans and wasabi was perfect again. The tuna was firm yet juicy, and the taste was just the same as pre-fire. Nachos were nice with lots of toppings (baked beans, sour cream, good salsa, cheese, etc.). The seafood pizza had good amount of toppings (like shrimp, bits of chicken, veggies), but since I'm not a big fan of seafood I'm not the person to judge that dish. It was very cheesy and the crust was nice, two things that I look for in pizza that are not found often here in Bali. Seafood bouillabaiss was tomato soup with large quantity of seafood (like shrimp and fish). The sourness of the soup complemented the seafood chunks quite nicely. The steak sandwich isn't genuine Philly cheesesteak, but, hey, I know what a good cheesesteak tastes like. The meat, cheese, and onion filling was not bad, but Lexo didn't like the bread the sandwich came in. I still think the best cheesesteak hoagie (not Philly though) is still at Broadway Cafe in Ann Arbor, but that's because the meat is bugulgi. Lasagna was cheesy and meaty and seemed to have bachmael sauce as base. It had a good flavor, but I like my own lasagna. Wid thinks that my lasagna is better than all the restaurants here. Hehehe.

For dessert we got white chocolate mousse, tiramisu slice, and creme brulee. Wid loved the white chocolate mousse and I think it tasted the same as pre-accident Lanai. Sulis thought the tiramisu tasted just like the one she got at another place in Bali. She thought it had more cream than she liked, and I guess the best tiramisu she's had is still in Australia. I guess the search goes on for her. My creme brulee was green and the flavor was different from the usual creme brulee because of some sort of sugar they used as flavoring? Even though it's different from my favorite creme brulee (creme brulee topped with fresh fruits from La Dolce Vita in Ann Arbor), the taste is still quite nice and I do like the creamy texture. Plus they did a good job caramelizing the sugar.

In the end the whole meal for the four of us cost 404,800 rp including the 10% tax and service (not making up this number). I thought the price is quite reasonable considering how much food we ordered for the four of us. I think we will finally be able to bring Wid's parents to here. Let's just hope nothing diasterous will happen to the place.

Only thing bad with last night (and it's no fault of the restaurant in anyway) was being accosted by a bum/old man thug pretending to be parking attendant. He tried to get us to give him money, but like a scrawny old man ripping our parking stub and rambling incoherently is going to intimidate us.

Potato Salad

I mentioned Warung Italia in yesterday's post, and from the same place I was inspired to make their version of the potato salad. I really like the creamy texture and the addition of scallions. In the end, mine didn't turn out the same as the restaurant's version, but it's fine because I intentionally made it different. I first cut up the steamed and skinned potatoes into chunks. Instead of adding onions, green/red/yellow pepper, and cucumber, I only added scallions. I then added mustard, mayo, salt, pepper, and sugar. I think the restaurant version doesn't use mustard but has a generous amount of mayo.

For the same dinner I made my usual tuna melt for me and Wid. When his parents came home, Wid's mom say the potato salad, and immediately helped herself to a spoonful. Hehehe. It's always nice to see people being ethusiastic about my food. :D The next day I noticed my potato salad was reheated. I guess people here don't understand the concept of potato salad, but the reheated version tasted fine.

Some Old Pics

Looking at the disc I noticed I have a couple (not so nice) photos of food from the end of last year. One was of sandwich fillings (tuna fish and egg salad). Another one was a blurry picture of tzatziki, Greek cucumber and yogurt concoction for breads and souvlaki. I have not made tzatziki since my stay in Greece back in 1998. I always loved this dish, but I couldn't make it back in US because it was impossible to find Greek yogurt. Then, I managed to find "Greek-style" yogurt made in Australia at an import store. The dip is actually really easy to make. It consisted of yogurt, olive oil, oregano, cucumber, salt, and a bit of pepper. The end result was a bit more sour than I remembered, but I guess it's because of the yogurt I used. Still, it was great on French bread and it brought back fond memories of Greece. I do miss Greek food a lot, but I haven't found a good cookbook dealing with that subject. Plus, nothing here will be better than home cooking that we had in Greece.

Clam Chowder - Success

The parents-in-laws have been big fans of New England clam chowder, and they have very fond memories from their visits to US. A few days ago Wid's dad reminded me about the soup, and I decided to try making the soup for them last night. Originally, I was supposed to make this around New Year's eve but things were very crazy.

I studied a bunch of recipes before I made the dish. What I ended up doing was a bit of improv, but the result was pretty nice. Since I only had one can of clams, I ended up scaling down the recipe. I cooked several strips of streaky bacon in the pan, and then I used the bacon grease (and a bit of butter) to cook the chopped onion, minced garlic, and potato. I then added flour to the mix and let everything cook a bit longer before adding the clam juice from the can. I then added milk and let the soup boil and then simmer before finally adding the canned clams. A bit of whipping cream, salt, and pepper for flavoring. The soup, with bits of bacon sprinkled on top, was served with crusty French bread.

The soup got a very enthusiastic thumbs up from Wid's parents. The only thing Wid's mom wanted was have more liquid because she wanted to sop up the bread with soup. Wid's dad thought it was perfect (salty enough). I think they were both very surprised by how thick and chunky the soup was, but that's how I like it. Wid's mom liked it so much that she wants to serve the soup for Wid's dad's upcoming birthday. Next time I'll add some chopped celery bits to the soup. I'm happy that the soup turned out well, and for once something actually worked on the first try.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to my friends and family in US!

I do miss Thanksgiving with my family and eat my mom's food. This year my dad's side of the family is going to my parents' house for Thanksgiving. Maybe my aunt would bring the awesome (the best) Italian pastries from Lucibello. When I called my parents over the weekend, Mom already started her food preparation.

Croissant Sandwich

When the whole family was home, we made croissant sandwiches for lunch. My sis came home a bit after lunch, and she wanted me to make her sandwich. She said, "Sandwiches made by other people always taste better." Hehe.

I love croissant sandwiches. I have to agree with my brother that the texture is lighter than normal bread, and it's a nice departure from the usual. Lightly toasted croissant was filled with deli style cold cuts, slice of cheese (provolone or cheddar), lettuce, slices of ripen tomato, a bit of red onions, and a tab of mustard. It's amazing how simple things can taste so good. Bro and his gf loved the Hellmann's new deli style mustard that my parents bought. I wonder how well it goes with my potato salad.

DC Eats

Wid and I just returned from our trip Washington, D.C. The main purpose of our trip was to visit bro and his gf and our buddy Andy, but we did get a chance to check out a bunch of Smithsonian museums that we missed the last time we were in town.

Wid went all gaga over the new Air and Space Museum (Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center), but it was quite the trek getting over to Dulles Airport and then to the museum because the Smithsonian no longer offer shutters between the two museums (due to lack of money?). Still, the long trip to and back from the Center was worth it, and we thoroughly enjoyed the free (2-hours!) tour. We learned a great deal and I'm curious to learn more about some of the planes. We also managed to catch a free tour at the Freer Gallery (lots of really cool Asian arts and the famous Peacock Room) and heard the sad story of why the gallery no longer have locks on their lockers (Damn homeless bums taking advantage of the "free" storage and then the staff have to break off to lock to open the door. Now they don't have any money to get new lockers). We also checked out the National Portrait Gallery as well as their special conservation center.

Something semi-related to food... While waiting for the shuttle to the museum, Wid and I grabbed some food at the Dulles airport. While enjoying our chowders, we saw a police with a huge ass German Shepard. The dog was sitting like a good boy, but with his ears perked up his attention was focused on the counter as if he's anticipating something. Next minute waitress came from behind the counter to meet the dude and the dog and in her hands was a sub. She broke up the sandwich into large chunks, and the dog, eagerly jumping on his hind legs, snatched up the food. It's kind of cool that this German Shepard is a well-behaved, working dog, yet he's still a dog, happy to get a meaty treat.

We checked out some notable restaurants during our trip. We took the Chinatown bus to DC on Wednesday, and after we checked in with bro's gf, we headed back to Chinatown for some good, cheap eats. Bro's gf recommended Full Kee on 509 H St., NW, which turned out to be a Cantonese style restaurant. There were lots of customers even at around 1 PM. The ambiance is typical small Chinese restaurant, but we were not there for the ambiance. I got porridge with lean pork and thousand year old eggs while Wid got beef brisket with vegetables on rice. We also got wonton soup and hot and sour soup. The soups weren't very impressive but the main dishes were very good. The portion was very generous and the price was very, very affordable ($4.50/plate). We were so stuffed by the time we finished lunch. We were amazed by how fast the waitresses worked from table to table.

We had a bit of a misadventure finding the place where bro and his gf were staying currently, but eventually we found the apartment. For dinner, they took us to a Greek restaurant that was highly recommended by their food-lover friend. Our friend Andy joined us for dinner. Taverna Cretekou at 818 King Street in Alexandria, VA, located in a charming brick building, had a very cute ambiance with reproduction of Minoan frescos (like the ones you seen in Crete and Thera). We went out to the garden because the night was cool. Four of us ordered the "Taverna Cretekou Special" which is "a Combination of Traditional Greek Dishes Including Moussaka, Pastitsio, Dolmades, Soudsoukakia and Spanakopita. My favorites were the spanakopita and the pastitsio. Soudsoukakia was basically a slightly sour meatball. Dolmades had too much rice for my taste, but it was ok. Bro's gf got a chicken dish which looked delicious with the very fresh, colorful vegetables. For dessert, I had the Crema Lemoniou Me Stafili Glyko which was Lemon Cream Flan Topped with Grape Preserves. Supposedly it's from their "ancient Greek menu" and it was very light and flavorful, like a light version of a lemon cheesecake. Andy had the creme caramel, and bro and his gf got the baklava. The dishes were fairly price at around $20 per plate, but the food was so good that I think it's worth it. Food, service, and ambiance were all excellent.

It was really nice to hear Greek again, and I have to say the food was the most authentic Greek food I've had outside of Greece. I do have a very high expectation when it comes to Greek food because when I worked as an archaeologist, we had nothing but homecooked meals by the local women, and then when we were traveling most of the taverna served wonderful and fresh dishes.

More on other DC eats for another day...

Yum Yum Donut

I really missed good old donuts. Sure, there are Dunkin' Donuts in Bali, but even those don't taste like the ones we get here in US. Most of the donuts I've tried in Bali has this stale, old oil taste, and the smell isn't very fresh either. When Ba, Wid, and I went shopping, we passed by our favorite local donut shop called Yum Yum Bake Shop, and I suddenly remembered that's one of the items on our list of to eats. The smell of fresh donuts and coffee permeated the air. Yes, even the smell can't be replicated in Bali... We only got six donuts because Ma doesn't eat donuts and we're heading to DC in a day or so. I'm eating the chocolate cream-filled powdered donut, and we still have a glazed donut, two French crueller, and a chocolate thunder waiting for us. Mmmmmmm.

Palo Alto Eats

Wid and I arrived in US last Friday after a hellish long trip. We were in the Palo Alto area for a few days to attend our friends' wedding. It was awesome seeing a bunch of my old friends, and it was like a mini MIT/Ashdown reunion. The food at the reception was some of the best food I had at a wedding. Wid and I had the beef which was way too big to finish, but it was nice that they provided a nice, hardy portion so no one would go home hungry. The wedding cake was great, and according to someone, it was from some Chinese bakery. The light spongy white cake topped with whipped cream frosting went well with the chocolate covered strawberries.

While we were at PA, we got our fill of food that we missed being away from US. One surprising good restaurant was the hotel's Pool Side Grill, which served "California cuisine." We checked out the restaurant the night we arrived because we were super jet lagged. Wid had the crab cake, which by itself was ok, but when combined with the sauce (some sort of tangy tomato sauce?), the crab cake because something extraordinary. I had the onion soup, which, while different from the usual French onion soup (one of my fav soups), was a bit tangy yet quite delicious with the large chunk of soggy french bread and the Gruyère cheese. I also ordered the chicken quesadilla with generous amount of salsa, sour cream, and guacamole. I really forgot how big American portion is, but I shared the main entree with Wid so we managed to finish it. Hahaha. The best part was the dessert. We saw the guys next table over with large blob of something in little glass cups. We asked the waiter wht it was and he said lemon sorbet. We were so intrigued by it, we decided to order two portions. The container that held the sorbet was actually a big hollowed out lemon, and the entire concoction was frozen before served to the customer. We marveled at the size of the lemon ("how the hell did they find lemons that big" was a question on everyone's mind, including our friends), but the sorbet itself was light yet very flavorful. In some ways it was like eating frozen lemonade but smoother.

Saturday we found ourselves in the middle of the Art and Wine (where's the wine?!) Festival on University Ave. For breakfast we grabbed some bagels and soups. I missed the good old bagels from Collegetown Bagels at Cornell.... My favorite combo was a toasted sesame bagel with copious amount of cream cheese and a hot chocolate made with steamed milk and topped with whipped cream. No such luck at this bagel place because they didn't serve any hot drinks except coffee. The place was packed and it took us 15 minutes of wait to get our 2 cups of soup and a toasted bagel with cheese. Needless to say, I wasn't super impressed by the service (they need better organization/assembly line). We checked out the fair and then we went to the Palo Alto Shopping Center where tons of posh stores were located. We finally found an outlet adapter after 2 days of search, and we got a bit of a lunch at a packed restaurant (Palo Alto Creamery?) where I got a cranberry salad (spring mix with dried cranberries, blue cheese, and sweetly roasted walnuts) and Wid got a hot dog and fries. We were very unimpressed by the "healthy" french fries. French fries should be fried, not oven baked. The texture was all mealy and there's no favor. The milkshakes were great though--full of fresh flavor, creamy, and thick.

After roaming a bit, we crashed back at the hotel. Closer to dinner time, our friends Andy and Quentin came to pick us up and we headed to our friends' pre-wedding BBQ. Met Anne and Joe's families, ate lots of food, caught up with some old frends, and overall had a good time. The best food was the super fresh, very sweet, white corns. We told Andy and Quentin about the lemon sorbet and they were so tempted that we went back to the hotel to get some of that dessert. We also tried the orange sorbet (also in a large hollowed out orange), but I think the lemon one is still better.

Sunday we met up with another MIT alum who's living in the SF area. We were supposed to meet Vince in SF, but Vince talked us out of it, warning us of traffic congestions and all. It was a very wise decision because by the time we met up with Vince and Andy's two non-MIT friends, it was already about 3 hours before the wedding. We jokingly said that we couldn't be late for the wedding or else the bride will kill us. Lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. Good stuff as always but the waiter messed up all our orders. Boo. I wanted an eggs florentine but instead I got eggs benedict with just bacon. At least Wid got his Kobe burger, which was mighty tasty...

I mentioned about the food at the reception so I'm not going to repeat myself.

Looks like this entry is too long already so my report on food in Pennsylvania will have to be written later.

New York Style Cheesecake Experiment

Wow, this week we've been eating out way too much. I can't remember when's the last time we had dinner at home (Tuesday?!). Yesterday we met up with our friends at a beachside cafe called Lanai in Semiyak. I'll try to post a review another day along with other interesting food stuff from the week.

With all the eating out and stuff, I did manage to do a bit of baking. On Thursday when we met up with friends from Singapore, we were in persuit of the best cheescake in Bali. Unfortunately, the villa cafe no longer had this cheesecake because the chef left. Boo. It got me even more motivated to try out this New York style cheesecake recipe that I found on the net. This was my very first time trying to make a proper cheesecake, and it turned out ok despite all the physical flaws (mostly the cracks on the top and sight over browning of the crust) and the trouble I went through with the actual assembling (grating my thumb by accident of course, borked oven with NO temperature control, running out of sugar in the middle of assembling, and misbehaving electric hand mixer). I let the cake sat overnight in the fridge after it was done baking and cooled sufficently in the oven and then on the counter.

I ate a piece of it this morning for breakfast. The taste is surprising light with a nice citrus flavor (the trouble with grating of lemon and orange was worth the taste). The crust at the bottom of the cake and most of the sides turned out fine with a nice golden brown color. The taste was quite good too, i.e. not burnt. I still need to figure out how to make the cheesecake more fluffy. I wonder if the slow cooling in the oven helped. Overall, not too bad for my first try...

Totally off topic, but on our way to Ubud, we saw a pink pig that was as large as a cow!! It had balls as big as grapefruits too. Then, in Ubud we met a very friendly golden retreiver. We whistled at him for a bit, and a few minutes later, he approached us and plopped himself down at our feet demanding to be petted. Now we know where our favorite dog Dilgo (half local/half golden retriever) got his personality.