Hong Kong Bakery Shop

Yet again, I yearned for Chinese bakery food.

This time, I found three items of intense interest at the Hong Kong Bakery Shop. These were the pandan Swiss roll, the taro bun, and the pineapple lemon bun. Unfortunately for me, the pandan cake was sold by the roll, which was $5.50. I asked whether they sold slices of cake, and she said no, even though they DID sell slices of green tea cake along with the roll of green tea cake! Ah well. I guess next semester I'll just have to buy a whole pandan cake.

I got a taro bun because I felt like biting into big, starchy cubes of freshly cooked taro. I was severely disappointed; the taro was pink and mashed! PINK! and not textured like taro at all! It was cold and lacked the sought-after flavour! The bread was poofy though, but that still didn't make me feel good about spending 80c on a mediocre, unsatisfying bun. Especially when Mayflower Bakery sells taro buns for 70c.

I also got the pineapple lemon bun, this time careful to ask whether there was actually lemon inside the bun after the fiasco at Mong Kok Station Bakery last time. Of course, the "pineapple" part refers to the pastry top.

This bun was amazing! The pastry was like all other pastry (although there were a few sesame seeds on top), the bread was like all other bread... but the lemon curd filling simply rocked! It was also a pretty generous ratio of lemon curd:bread. I now have to learn how to make lemon curd. I am definitely coming back to get more of this bun. It's squished in the picture because it had been in my bag for 4 hours, but it was still scrumptious!

In retrospect, however, I'm thinking that maybe Mong Kok bakery just gave me the wrong bun when I asked for a lemon bun. Maybe they put the pork floss buns in the lemon bun shelf by accident. Either way, I wouldn't want to risk it again, and since Hong Kong Bakery sells lemon buns, why would I go to Mong Kok Station again? Plus, the buns cost the same.

I guess this is how businesses win over customers. Serve the correct food item.

Next time I'll try the taro bun at Mayflower Cafe. It's probably better than the one at Hong Kong Bakery.

Hong Kong Bakery Shop

917 Race St.

Philadelphia.

Again, I walked through the streets of Philadelphia. Hey, I only have another three years to do this. In three years, I'll look back, and think nostalgically, "Wow, I miss those days walking around Philly, buying food, looking at those rich hipsters smoke and buy from Urban". Cuz, in three years, I won't be living in Philadelphia anymore. I'll probably move onto Boston, or NY. NY is so much larger than Philadelphia. If Chinatown in NY is considered a thin sliver of the Hong Kong pie, then Chinatown in Philadelphia is considered a measly crumb from that pie (and the Chinatown from Boston is...uh, a smaller crumb). Through walking around Philadelphia, you'd think that I'd learn to enjoy this culture. Unfortunately, it seems that I just yearn to be back in Hong Kong.

See, that's my problem; I'm not good at moving and adjusting every 4-6 years; the lifestyle is too ephemeral for me. I can't say I miss anything about Ireland, but I miss Kingswood. I miss HK. Now, I miss high school, even though my journal entries from then tell me that there is nothing to miss.

In an effort to enjoy my time at Philadelphia and live in the moment, I again trekked across the city, all the way to Penn's Landing, and back. There was a Chinatown Block Party today, to celebrate the anniversary of the Official Seizure Of America From The Natives. It's funny to think that all that stuff happened in Philadelphia. ...and now I'm here to get my free drink, sponsored by Wawa. I learned that I actually like raspberry lemonade.

I believe that I love the Mayflower Cafe; last time's avocado bubble drink was phenomenal, and this time's coconut snowball was AMAZING. It was so gooey and soft and fresh I thought I was eating some sort of jelly! It was more solid, though, and...I just loved the chilled, watery-but-sweet-and-light taste of the glutinous coating! The red bean paste was normal. So much better than mochi! $0.80. It's always a delight when something is better than expected. It wasn't thick and chewy and dry, like all the ones from other bakeries (which I still love, but the texture of this one was just perfect for me today).

Mong Kok is a place in HK. The bakery/restaurant was absolutely packed; I had to eat outside because all the seats were taken. I got a lemon bun. A terribly spent $0.80.

I wondered how they could stick lemon into this bun. In the filling? Lemon jam? Curd? Actual lemon pieces? I mean, I understand why pineapple buns are called "pineapple" buns even though they lack any pineapple - they look like pineapples. This lemon bun looked nothing like a lemon (except for the colour but that's a terrible way to name your bakery products)! From what I could tell, there was a layer of puff pastry on top of a normal Chinese-bread bun. But what was the filling, and where was the lemon? Oh, and it was even called "lemon bun" in Chinese. Ning[2] meng[2] bao[1]. 柠檬包。

There was no lemon in the bun. Instead, there was shredded and dried pig pieces. Pork floss. Or fish floss. I'm not sure what animals taste like anymore...

I guess the question is: why would I ever go back to Mong Kok bakery if I evidently have had a better experience at Mayflower Cafe? Well, Mong Kok bakery has a wider selection and cheaper mousse cakes. I've yet to try any of those though. Either way, I realised that I shouldn't buy anymore food for the next month. Instead, I should just swim, run, and bike.

I went to the third Nuts To You (on 7th and Walnut) in Philadelphia and, this time, there were pizza-flavoured flour-coated peanuts! For 99c! They also had cheese and garlic flavour, but I figured that I am most likely not going to consume 4 lbs of flour-coated peanuts within a month (uh, actually, I probably could consume them all during a week...) so I just got the pizza ones. They're a bit stale, but alright. I guess I'll never go to Fresh Grocer again, in my life. If I do, I'll make sure to blog profusely about it.

Eggplant prices have risen. $1.09, a month ago, to 1.19, to $1.89 now, for a pound. So have cherries (pretty much x2 in price, compared to a month ago).

Maybe a food historian will be interested in my blog in a few decades? I'd be pretty happy to read some person's food blog (in the form of a sauce-splattered book, though) from the 80s. Or 20s. From Britain, or Australia.

Qin Dynasty Seafood Restaurant (秦皇食府)

Parsippany NJ.

A few years ago, my parents were unwilling to drive me there to visit someone, but now, apparently, lunch is worth the (longish?) drive in the rain. We went in order to celebrate Mother's Day and my end of the semester as a college frosh. There were tons of people because it was tea/lunch time, and there were people pushing around trolleys of foods. Typical Cantonese restaurant style; you pick what you want, and they stamp at the correct section of a piece of card at the table, and later, you pay for however many stamps of food you got. Pretty neat, because you get to try sundry foods at a relatively low price (Okay, much cheaper in HK, but can't complain).

Xiao Long Bao - the buns with the soup. I didn't eat any but my sister liked them.

The egg tart's custard was phenomenally creamy and flavourful. The spring roll was still drenched in oil (Yes. Dripping.), but it was pretty good. At least I could tell what vegetables were inside it...

My brother liked this.

Pig blood. My brother and dad liked this. Bad picture quality. :( In the background, you can see the sesame ball thingy, which was pleasantly crunchy and not too sweet.

Nicely garnished and seasoned chicken legs.

Halfway through eating my egg tart, I felt compelled to take another picture because the cross section looks just as amazing as the whole egg tart. Notice how creamy it looks!

Fried tofu with one piece of shrimp in the centre. I'm not really sure how they managed to stuff/inject a cube of tofu with one piece of shrimp. The tofu wasn't that great, actually. The fried part was soggy (as it was in sauce...), so there was no real point of it being fried, in my opinion.

Dumplings with glutinous rice skin. For such large dumpling skins, the filling was really scant. It was also a cow flesh filling, along with some peanuts and a few pieces of vegetables.

The good thing about the waitresses was that they would explain pretty much anything on their trolleys. This green ball was apparently made with bitter melon...

...and it was absolutely NOTHING like bitter melon; inside was sesame paste and peanuts, and the green part was just glutinous rice that was deep-fried on the outside.

Rice noodles (chang2 fen3) filled with fried dough (you2 tiao2). Novel concept, nice sauce. I'm not super fond of fried dough, though. I really love rice noodles, however.

My brother and dad love durian. I don't. I never have, and I'm not sure that I ever will. This is a durian pastry.

It looks pretty delicious, actually, and I did eat some, first while smelling, but then without smelling the durian. By inhibiting my sense of smell, the flavour was harder to detect (Monell!), and I felt like I was just eating some sorta sweet pudding. However, I really can not ingest a lot of durian. I've tried it in all these forms, and I still really don't like it; I've had it fresh (the same way I eat any fresh fruit), in candy form (yes, durian candy exists), in chip form (well, okay, they were jackfruit chips), and now in pastry form.

And I still don't tolerate it.

Final thoughts:

Good for large groups: you get to try more dishes, and each dish is pretty easy to split

Great if you want authentic Chinese (actually, Cantonese) food without broccoli and cashews. I'm saying this because when we first moved to the U.S. and got food at Chinese restaurants, there was a lot of broccoli, cashews, and sweet food.

Kids like it (i.e. my sister, who doesn't eat much at home)

Pretty fair pricing.

Go between 11 and 2 on weekends. On weekdays, the variety seriously goes down, and any time after 2, the variety also goes down. If you go for dinner, you end up with the more formal Chinese restaurant style, with ordering actual dishes, and having bowls of rice, and a tureen of soup etc. If you want just casual dining with lots of choices, you should go for tea time/lunch!

Qin Dynasty Seafood Restaurant (秦皇食府), 857 Rt. 46 E, Parsippany

Amy Gutmann's Study Break

Holiday style!

There were cookies, nuts, chocolate, a chocolate fountain, and drinks, brought to us by Amy Gutmann's hired catering company [the same one as the one at Halloween?]. It was in her backyard, and it was indoors inside this huge tent, tinted blue.

Cliche holiday cookies, with nice normal milk chocolate.

Dry, airy sticky buns that tasted quite bland and cold. I did not like it.

Milk Chocolate!

The disgusting liquorice-ish cookies are the white ones... I'm not sure if it's liquorice or anise or something... but it was disgusting! I thought it was powdered sugar.

Coconut macaroons, caramel thins...chocolate cookies. Tuesday 14 December.

Homecoming 30 October 2010

Those buns were advertised as warm. They were not warm, due to the wind. It was quite amusing. They also were super sticky [honey!], but too airy and uniform.

I know that this is a week late, but I've been really busy with studying, visiting BV, and doing homework, and somehow getting in 5-6 hours of sleep in per night. It's finally Friday, and although I do have a lot of homework to do, I'm going to update because this event I went to last Saturday was pretty amazing.

This was the Weiss Pavilion opening ceremony, and there were a lot of alumni there to see it since it was homecoming weekend. One day, I will protest the toast throwing tradition thingy...

The only reason I went was so that I could get a drawstring bag. The first 100 people, apparently, got drawstring bags. I also got a mint tin with mints and the Penn logo, which is pretty sick!!

There was also a lot of food. It was ridiculous. I have to say that the chocolate filled and sweet potato filled croissants were the best. The baked goods were cold, due to the freezing, windy weather, but they all tasted delicious and textured nevertheless.

They actually looked like savoury croissants, and I did want something savoury since everything else was loaded with sweetness. I did eat some quiche, before I realised there were cured pig chunks inside [ham].

This was a greek yoghurt, fruit and granola parfait. The blueberries and strawberries were used for the Penn colours, according to a girl I met at the opening. It was pretty awkward actually; at first, we just looked at each other, unsure of whether to talk or not. So then I said hi. And then we had a conversation, so that was interesting. I forgot her name though... oh well. I'll probably see her again, as I have with a bunch of other people who I thought I'd forgotten/they'd forgotten me.

I dislike hot apple cider. The fact that it's warm and sour kind of disgusts me. Cold apple cider, or frozen apple cider, on the other hand, is amazing. Note the cheerleaders in the glass. I should get better at photography.

This was a French toast chunk supersaturated with maple syrup. The whipped cream was amazingly fluffy and fat. It was literally a LOT of sugar...Maybe if I tried hard enough, I could've heard sugar crystals crunching...

Mind Trix...

No, not the cereal. I don't think I'm very fond of the Trix cereal.

I just got into the habit of writing "x" instead of "cks" or "ct". For example: connexion, blox. This way, I save a second when I write notes. Yay! Plus, I'm moshing together Ye Olde English and txting eng. I'll try stay away from that on this "grammatically correct" [but politically incorrect and socially awkward, and thus, potentially grammatically incorrect] blog.

Anyway, I think this image is a mind trick, because you THINK it's a typical generic burger on a tasteless bun with plastic tomatoes and leathery lettuce, and you THINK that those are prefrozen waffle fries, and you THINK that I'm sitting in a shady diner somewhere.

And, yeah, it's a burger, MADE OUT OF SPICY BEANS AND OTHER YUMMY STUFF SANS ANIMAL PIECES! And, yes, it's a lame tasteless bun that is saturated with mustard and ketchup [I really need to ask whether the chocolate milk, ketchup, jam, and peanut butter here has HFCS. I really need to know. I'm dying to know. Literally. I'm going to get mercury poisoning if I don't! Actually, I don't believe in the previous statement; it's just something that extremists have been screaming about for the past month or so. I'm lamely trying to make fun of them]. The tomatoes are fresh, and I saw a cook sticking fresh lettuce into the containers yesterday, which shows that this lettuce isn't seven days old. Which is quite reassuring. And, yeah, those are waffle fries [I love waffle fries. They just make fries so much more aesthetically pleasing], but they're most likely made from cut-up pieces of potato the same day they are drenched in oil, as the advertising in the cafeteria so audaciously announces... And yeah, I'm in 1920 Commons, which could be considered a shady diner. Especially when I'm sitting on the barstool chair staring out of the window, or lounging in a diner booth, alone, eating breakfast food at dinnertime [or vice versa. It works either way]. It gets really empty and shady at around 10 minutes before closing... it's when people look at you strangely when you decide to go in, because why would anyone want food 10 minutes before closing?

It's even worse when I'm alone, which tends to be the case since I haven't made friends yet. Or, at least, friends who eat at the same time as me. My schedule is quite horrific.

Man Tou

There are two things that my mum has been attempting to make during her free time since we moved here, a few years ago. One of them is fa[2] gao[1], which is a steamed rice cake. It has failed miserably.

The second is man[2] tou[2], which has gone from rock-hard lumps of gluteny-water to actual scallion filled steamed buns of yeasty awesomeness. I am proud of my mum, and the fact that she somehow figured out how to make awesome steamed buns without a recipe.

She used to mix flour and water and baking soda, in an attempt to make something that resembled man tou. It was icky.

Now, she somehow manages to gauge enough flour and water and yeast... without measuring them or anything [!] and somehow yields a perfect-ish batch of the ubiquitous bun on the street anywhere in metropolis China.

This sure beats the airy sweet bleached stuff [okay, even though the flour my mum uses IS bleached flour, it doesn't taste like Wonder-Bread-bleach-crap] that look exactly like oblong sponges "man tou" that one can obtain from Kamman. Gotta respect her.