Tea Era

Bubble tea (or boba) is a long-lasting fad in the Bay Area. By far, Tea Era at Castro St, Mountain View, is the best place to get boba. We're lucky that we live so close by!
We usually get the roasted barley milk tea, or the ceylon milk tea. My other favorites are taro milk tea, lavender milk tea, and his favorite for a hot day (like today!!) is honey longan tea. Their pearls are always consistently soft yet chewy (not under- or over-cooked).

Today I tried a new flavor -- dark plum green tea. Yum! (I'm a fan of choya ume by the way.) I added coconut jelly to my tea and it went pretty well! The dark plum is sour but sweet, just right for a hot afternoon. He thought his honey longan was a bit too sweet so we poured it into our glass flask with water and ice -- surprise! Physics at work at home! See the photo below for how the fluids separated out by their respective densities.. Cool!

Dark plum green tea with coconut jelly from Tea Era

Physics at work at home, approved by shiba

Nutella Mug Cake

This is a ridiculously simple recipe. It makes one mug of cake, almost instantly, and requires only a microwave. Tastes like a normal cake! It is really apt for people who like instant gratification, and makes me wonder why we even bake cakes.... Anyway, here goes!

Ingredients:

1. 4 tablespoons self-rising flour
2. 4 tablespoons sugar
3. 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
4. 3 tablespoons Nutella
5. 3 tablespoons milk
6. 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
7. 1 egg (Added last!)

Directions:

1. Add everything together in a mug, and whisk till smooth. 
2. Cook in a microwave at full power for 1.5 to 3 minutes  (cooking time depends on the power of your microwave). You can also have fun watching it rise and cook!
3. Ready to eat!! (I also lightly microwaved some marshmallows on the side to eat)

Like I wrote above, it is soft, and tastes just like a normally-baked cake (a bit more crumbly though), and pretty yummy for a late-night snack!

Bon appetit! 

Saturday @ Pacific Grove and Santa Cruz

We have been working really hard during the week, so we decided to take a day trip out on Saturday! We first went to Asilomar Beach at Pacific Grove, our favorite beach in the area. It was too cold to hang out, but we saw a deer grazing just less than 2 meters from us! Enjoy the photos~
We drove to Santa Cruz after that to hang out at the boardwalk and beach area. It was quite nice; a little windy at times but not too cold or warm. The boardwalk was crowded though, but we managed to find a good spot to lay down our picnic mat and read on our Kindles.
Dinner was at The Crepe Place, a surprising find, that served delicious food. The free bread was a single cute softgrain loaf, very soft and fresh! Our appetizer of hot buffalo wings was yummy but a bit spicy for me. Next came the crepes -- he had the spinach supreme, complete with ham, cheese and egg (his favorite ingredient), while I had the crab crepe, with gyuyere cheese and white wine alfredo sauce on top. Everything was very good, and we were so stuffed! Also the patio area was very quaint, almost romantic (we were almost fooled and worried by the bar front). We wouldn't mind returning to this creperie again on our next trip to Santa Cruz!

Hello there!

I'm going to eat more grass near the beach

The cute loaf of softgrain bread that really impressed my boyfriend

Crab crepe with white wine alfredo sauce

The Crepe Place

1134 Soquel Ave

Santa Cruz, CA 95062

(831) 429-6994

Pearl Cafe (Mountain View)

A surprising find! The bulk of the food menu was Hawaiian. We tried loco moco, morning musubi and the pepper chicken with jasmine milk tea. The milk tea was decent (tasted like Quickly and the pearls were not hard), and the food was pretty nice. We liked how the pepper chicken had a good meat-to-batter ratio. We had never had musubi before, but the morning musubi was quite nice (the hashbrown and the rice melded together), although the seaweed was pretty old and couldn't be torn apart.
It's pretty decent food at decent prices (the portions were HUGE), so we'll probably return in the future. Also, the ambience is pretty nice for relaxing and hanging out with friends!

Loco Moco with katsu and curry sauce. This could be two persons' lunch.

Morning musubi. Egg, spam and hasbrown with rice wrapped in seaweed.

 Pearl Cafe

506 Showers Dr

Mountain View, CA 94040

(650) 917-8988

Sushi Sam's Edomata (San Mateo)

At least two friends recommended this Japanese sushi restaurant to us, so we decided to make the drive up to San Mateo. It was worth it.
We ordered salmon nigiri (our standard for testing sushi bars), soft shell crab roll, and omakase sashimi (our friend recommended we try it). Everything was provided at very generous cuts, and the salmon had lots of fat (close to salmon belly). We quite liked the soft shell crab roll although we found that the batter was a bit too thick and we couldn't really taste much of the meat. 
What I really wanted to talk about was the omakase. It was completely worth the $40 we paid for it. 8 big cuts of a variety of white fish, special yellowtail, flounder, TORO, and a seasonal baby squid marinated with miso. The toro simply melted in our mouth, no need for chewing! We hadn't had the other kinds of fish before, and it was a good first experience. 
Finally, the omakase dessert, white miso parfait, was simply delicious. The blend of flavors in the cream and spongecake was heightened by the slightly salty taste of the miso puree. 
We would come here again!

Salmon nigiri and soft shell crab roll. Check out the thick layers of fat on the salmon

Omakase sashimi

White miso parfait. YUM!

Sushi Sam's Edomata

218 E 3rd Ave

San Mateo, CA 94401

(650) 344-0888

http://www.sushisams.com

Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is my favorite recipe for making dark chocolate chip cookies that are soft on the inside, yet crispy on the outside.

The whole recipe takes less than 1 hour from start to finish, and made ~60 mini bite-sized cookies:

Ingredients:

1. 2+1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2. 1/2 teaspoon salt
3. 1 teaspoon baking soda
4. 1/3 cup cocoa powder (*** Omit this if you don't want double chocolate cookies***) 
5. 3/4 cup granulated sugar
6. 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
7. 1 cup (= 2 sticks) butter, softened
8. 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
9. 2 eggs
10. 2 cups semi-dark chocolate chips (I like using Guittard's or Ghiradelli)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. Stir together the flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda.
3. Beat together the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract until creamy.
4. Add eggs to the liquid mixture, and beat well.
5. Gradually add the flour mixture, and mix well. (The dough will become rather stiff)
6. Stir in the chocolate chips until evenly mixed.
7. Drop by rounded teaspoon-fuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. (Or use your hand to pinch off and round off a small chunk)
8. Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes, or until lightly browned, or the top has hardened and cracked.
9. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Enjoy! The cookies will look like little round mochi balls.

It's all about the crockery

The size of the plate and cup determines how much you will eat and drink.

I greedily choose a large cup for my juice and now I'm bloated.

Also a good principle to remember for those on a diet. It affects how much you perceive yourself to have eaten!