use real butter

Recipe: wonton soup

My trip to San Francisco was originally intended just for BlogHer Food 2010. When I checked my calendar to book my flight, I realized the following week was my dad’s birthday and my grandma’s birthday. I drummed my fingers on my desk – could I afford the time to hang out for ten days or should I fly back home and then back to the bay area? The wheels began to turn and I quickly formulated a plan checking with my parents, my aunt, my grandma, and Jeremy. For my father’s 70th birthday, I’d take him on a tour of wine country as his designated driver. Dad likes it when I make all of the plans and arrangements, and that’s exactly what I did. Mom isn’t a big drinker, so Jeremy joined us to taste wines with my dad. My parents love Jeremy. He is the perfect Chinese son-in-law, except for the fact that he isn’t Chinese.

wine tasting

one of several vineyards we visited

jeremy checks out the room’s balcony at the hotel healdsburg

Our first stop was Jordan Winery just outside of Healdsburg in Sonoma Valley. I’ll talk more about Jordan in a later post, but it was a gorgeous introduction to Sonoma’s wine country. It was also blazing guns hot – in the 90s! If ever my dad doubted my love, enduring this heat should be proof enough :) After visiting a few other wineries, we drove into town. I adore Healdsburg. I had such a lovely time last year that I wanted to share it with my parents and Jeremy on this special occasion. We stayed at the luxurious Hotel Healdsburg for the night where they leave you a bottle of local wine (and in this case, local is freaking awesome) in the afternoon, the staff come in and turn down your bed and leave freshly baked cookies… and the wifi is not only FREE, but it WORKS. That evening, we had dinner at Dry Creek Kitchen to celebrate dad’s birthday week.

patio dining at dry creek kitchen

chef’s tasting menu

toasting dad’s 70th

We had the chef’s six course tasting menu and for the most part, it was exceptionally executed. The only real disappointment was the final main course – the American Kobe beef. A good deal of my cut was gristly and rather unpleasant, which is a shame. Having had Kobe beef on several occasions at The Flagstaff House, I came to appreciate just how awesome Boulder’s own restaurants are. My dad commented as much too. I think my parents are sold on Boulder (full double rainbow all the way). Dry Creek Kitchen’s service was impeccable and overall I think everyone had a truly delightful time.

seared hawaiian ahi tataki

roasted sugar pie pumpkin soup

butternut squash ravioli

lemon-marinated petrale sole

american kobe flat iron

spice cake

warm valrhona chocolate cake

After a good night’s sleep (those beds are like clouds) we took a stroll around town before setting off toward Napa Valley. Jeremy and I mapped out the vineyards to visit based on our route, some of my dad’s preferences, and the encyclopedic recommendations that Lisa emailed me a few months ago. The pleasant drive along California highway 128 from Healdsburg to Calistoga rolls through picturesque hills of wine country. My dad’s favorite aspect of wine tasting is… the wine. My favorite part of the wine tasting is walking around the grounds of the nicer vineyards (some are better than others, to be sure). I let Dad decide if he wanted to sit down to lunch or pick up some goodies from Dean and Deluca in St. Helena. He opted for a baguette, pâté, and cheese from Dean and Deluca and we circled back to Beringer Vineyards to get a nice bottle of wine.

i had to take them by seghesio family vineyards before leaving healdsburg

driving from sonoma valley to napa valley

so neat to visit wine country during the crush

wow, that is huge

chateau montelena winery

at beringer vineyards

Dad was happy. Very happy. He fell asleep in the car as we drove south. I thought about all the years that I fretted over what to get my dad for his birthday. It’s like that with my parents – I can’t buy them things because they either get what they need or don’t want more stuff. So to plan for and take him on a trip into wine country was something I could finally do for my dad that I think he really enjoyed. In fact, I know he enjoyed it because he mentioned something about how he liked having me drive him around and that we should do more trips like this in the future. Okay, well… good thing he doesn’t turn 70 every day ;)

We returned to San Jose just in time to meet up with Grandma and two of my aunts for dinner. Jeremy had to fly home for the day job while everyone else was starting to arrive for the two birthday banquets – my dad’s and my grandma’s. When my family gets together, we eat… and eat… and eat. It’s suuuuuch a Chinese thing. The first thing we did after I picked my parents up from the airport in San Francisco was head to a Sichuan restaurant for lunch. We bond over food.

a big spicy sichuan lunch

cantonese dinner

beef noodle soup, congee, shredded pressed soybean curd sheets, and other goodies (lunch)

everyone grabs a slice of hot scallion pancake (another lunch)

It’s a little surreal hanging out with my family. We’re always celebrating someone’s birthday. Dad turned 70 and Grandma turned 89. Those are big numbers. But when you look at them, look at my family, they all seem remarkably young for their ages. Good genes, I’m telling you. I remember what they were like when I was a little kid and to be honest, they haven’t changed all that much. But time moves in one direction and as I grow older, I know they won’t be there forever and so I cherish these moments. Grandma said next year is going to be extra special, because my cousin turns 20, my other cousin turns 30, I turn 40, my uncle turns 60, my mom turns 70 and Grandma will be 90. Grandma told me the Chinese like those round numbers. I told her I like her.

On Dad’s actual birthday, we had a 10-course banquet at Dynasty Seafood Restaurant in Cupertino (thanks again to Lisa for her outstanding recommendations). The dishes were: Chinese cold appetizers, shark fin soup (hey, I did not pick the menu), crab balls, stir-fried scallops, Peking duck, abalone, lobster, smoked sea bass, special noodles, and peach buns. They weren’t real peach buns, they were steamed sweet buns with lotus seed paste shaped like peaches – shou tao or longevity buns. The food was terrific. My favorites were the duck (I always love duck) and the sea bass.

four beautiful women: my mom and my three aunts

stir-fried scallops

peking duck

happy 70th birthday, daddy!

The next day was Grandma’s birthday, so we had yet another banquet that evening at Chef Chu in Palo Alto. I know you’re wondering how it is that we can all keep eating like this. The only explanation I can come up with is that we expend a lot of energy shouting Chinese at one another. It’s exhausting! Grandma’s banquet menu included: an incredible plate of Chinese appetizers, lobster special noodles, Hunan tofu, mustard green hearts, some kind of beef (seriously, I lost track), miso sea bass, and tapioca taro root soup for dessert (in addition to a mango-raspberry mousse cake). The best part of the evening was seeing my mom and my grandma smiling so much.

delectable plate of chinese appetizers (the pickled cukes were the best!)

you’d never guess my grandma turned 89

lobster noodles

a chinese birthday isn’t complete without a *crazy* birthday candle

The following morning, most of us shipped off to our various corners of the country and I felt that pang in my heart whenever I leave my parents or my grandma. I think it comes from those feelings of being a kid when these adults were around to care for you and make everything right. I’m an adult now and I still get those warm fuzzies remembering how I used to go for afternoon walks with Grandma or when Mom would hold me in her arms when I was sick until I fell asleep. But when I come home to Jeremy, his gentle embrace has a similar effect on me. And when I open the front door and Kaweah bounds around me, sniffing and licking my pants (I know, she’s an odd dog) because she’s so excited to see me – I see it is the progression of family and I’m grateful for that. Also… I noticed that the heat wave in California broke the day I left. Thanks a lot.

my aunt, grandma, and mom

Ask any of my friends and they’ll tell you that I’m always busiest right before a trip. That’s because I plan ahead for Future Me. I clean the house, and prepare for the day I return from my trip. I always think to myself that if I were to die on my trip, that would totally be wasted effort. But I still do it. I can’t help it. So before my trip to California, I was busy making wontons. Not for Jeremy to eat while I was away (I made plenty of food for him), but for when I came back so I wouldn’t have to cook because I knew I wouldn’t be in the mood to dine out. What I realized was that I hadn’t blogged soup wontons before – I had only fried them.

wonton wrappers, pork filling, and little dippy bowl of water at the ready!

chopsticks are far easier than a spoon for filling the wonton skin

Unlike the fried wontons which had a shrimp filling, these are pork wontons. The reason I like wontons is because I find it mentally acceptable to purchase wonton wrappers and so it is super easy to make heaps of them. Dumplings are another matter. I cannot buy dumpling wrappers. Physically impossible for me. I have to make them from scratch and that is a bit of a commitment.

moisten the edges

pinch the top together

**Jump for more butter**

It’s been over a week since I landed in San Francisco and I’m still noodling about the area, busy with a lot of other business which I’ll share with you as I plow through the photos. But, given the choice between living life and blogging about it, I think you already know which one takes priority for me. However, the camera rarely leaves my side. That’s a good thing otherwise I’d have forgotten what I did just ten minutes ago!

Chuck, Anita, and I left the BlogHer Food after party as things were starting to crank up. We ran around hugging people good-bye – most of whom said, “But I just got here! You can’t be leaving NOW?!” I’ll see those good folks again, I’m sure of it. But Hungry Bear was preparing a wonderful dinner for us at their lovely home, we were meeting Anita’s husband, Mike (so neat to now call him her husband instead of boyfriend!), and we were running quite late. While I loved seeing so many of my friends in one place at the after party with, alas – great food, I felt like I could relax and enjoy a pleasant and more personal dinner with a handful of close friends. I really needed that decompression.

we started with gorgeous shrimp egg custard appetizers

chuck models his latest tee

wonderful and wholesome roasted japanese eggplant

hungry bear and chuck at the dinner table

Even after Anita and Mike left, Hungry Bear, Chuck, and I were up pretty late talking. That’s what happens when parents aren’t around to yell at you to get to bed. In the morning, before it got too hot (did I mention it was hot in San Francisco the whole weekend? Well it was – ass hot for San Francisco and it was snowing in my backyard at home) we went out for a walk around the bougie bougie neighborhoods then down to the Presidio. I felt so California!

along the beach

fog lifts over the golden gate bridge

We met up with Lisa at the Sports Basement. At first, I didn’t hear the name of the store and Hungry Bear told me it was a toy store. Then Chuck added, “It’s an adult toy store.” Well, okay! Turns out it’s an outdoor sporting goods store with great deals on all manner of gear… except for tele gear. I suppose that’s not so much a California thing. Since it was nearly Sunday noon, we opted for lunch at Nopalito.

some sort of roasted nut or legume

gorditas campechanas (braised beef in fried corn tortillas)

ceviche verde de pescado y calamari

tamal empipianado de puerco

carnitas

little cookie bites

The food was terrific, although I felt the carnitas missed the point. The point is to maximize the surface area of the caramelized bits of pork and that’s hard to do with giant hunks of pork. We were all in agreement there. Back at Hungry Bear and Chuck’s place, Lisa helped me gather my stuff as I unloaded much swag (mostly chocolate). During BlogHer Food 2010, Chuck was distributing some slick FoodGawker swag which I hope those who attended were able to score. Lisa and I each got a shirt too. The photo is a little blurry, but Nikons weren’t really designed with bears in mind (especially a Hungry Bear).

lisa and i sport the foodgawker bling

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: snickerdoodles

What a weekend that was (and yeah, I realize it’s already mid-week now – I’m writing from wine country)! BlogHer Food 2010. In San Francisco. With hundreds of my people. Oh, I didn’t mean people as in Chinese people… I meant “my peeps” as in food bloggers. Looking back, I don’t actually recall how I got from shooting golden aspens in the San Juans of Colorado to having a head-spinning wonderful time in this gorgeous city. A blur (because of the head-spinning… and everything else).

The theme of my weekend was to maximize quality time with the good people I love. Done and done! Chuck and Hungry Bear swept me off the airport curb and drove me into the city for drinks and catch up. My bee-yoo-tee-ful Seattleites, Tea and Lara met me for dinner at Contigo (a blogger must, no?). Simple, elegant, wholesome fare served up by Brett and Elan – two genuinely warm and fascinating people. The food… the food was brilliant and delicious. There, I used the word delicious – so the “delicious” police can just stick it. At the hotel, I was reunited with my friend and roommate Jennie. We both stayed up later than we should have, talking and laughing and gossiping. That Jennie is good people – heart of gold.

yes, let’s eat here

wood oven-roasted sardines on avocado toasts with pickled onions

summer corn and chantarelles

brett, lara, and tea

The start of the first day was filled with screams and squeals as friends reconnected, met for the first time in real life, and generally freaked out. That’s how these things go. I, myself, was guilty of dispensing many, many hugs. I wondered if I would be burned out on conferences having attended IFBC just a little over a month earlier. It requires a lot of energy to be “on” all the time. And by “on”, I am not referring to a public persona per se. I’m talking about a heightened state of interaction and enthusiasm that leaves you barely able to see straight after 12+ nonstop hours. It’s akin to how your face starts hurting because you’ve been smiling so much and so hard.

opening address

brooke listens on while looking fabulous

diane recording video

So there will be inevitable comparisons between IFBC and BlogHer Food because I’m not sure I want to attend both next year and because it’s natural to contemplate an experience in reference to other similar experiences. Unlike IFBC’s big group agenda, BlogHer Food offered four session tracks: values, visuals, vocation, and voice.

todd and diane kick off the visuals track with a great preso

helen and i led a session on professionalizing your photography

These ran in parallel so that you had to choose or session-hop. I see pros and cons of both ways, but the biggest con was missing out on a lot of great sessions. The biggest pro was having a more intimate interaction between speakers and attendees. I liked that it was a proper conference venue because we could leave our junk and all of our friends’ junk (because they weren’t staying at the hotel) in our rooms rather than schlepping everything around. That, and the area outside of the sessions was a great place to connect with friends and regroup.

aran sings to lucy as miren looks on

Let’s get to brass tacks here. The food. It’s a food blogger’s conference after all. The BlogHer Food 2010 food was worse than IFBC and better than BlogHer Food 2009 (i.e. it was edible, but not especially impressive) and the sponsorship was heavily corporate which… I didn’t like. I found myself skipping out on most of the food offerings. Breakfast was meh, because I’m Asian and I want SAVORY food for breakfast, like bacon. Where was the damn bacon? IFBC kicked BlogHer Food in the ‘nads with all of their local chefs and artisan or locally sourced foods and the food trucks (oh, the food trucks…). BlogHer Food food felt and tasted (for the most part) like it was pulled out of a box and laid on a platter. People would say (as if to excuse BlogHer Food), “But Seattle is a great food town.” Um, HELLO?!? We were in San Francisco!

As soon as I heard pasta was on the lunch menu for the conference, I got the hell out of there. It’s not that I can’t make myself sit through a meal that is less than perfect. It’s that I’m in SAN FRANCISCO and I look at my schedule as a series of meals – opportunities to discover fan-freaking-tastic food. Chuck, Broderick, and I hoofed it over to Spice Kit for lunch. Those who stayed for the conference lunch said it wasn’t bad. That’s great. Again, I’m not here for food that “isn’t bad”. I can get “isn’t bad” back in Colorado, m’kay?

at the spice kit: viet, korean, chinese

banh mi

pork belly buns

I blew off the late afternoon session and product demos (can you tell I’m not too keen on the whole product thing?) to get a little quality time with some wonderful people: Shauna and Danny, Aran, and the KIDS! We all told folks that the kids needed some air, needed to get outside, needed to move around, but really – we ALL needed that. The adults enjoyed the peace and quiet of 50+ children running around on a giant playground (Yerba Buena Gardens – kid’s dream come true).

miren resting after she and lu ate crackers and jumped on my bed

lucy wants us to get going

food fête welcome party after conference day 1

Ditching the welcome party early, I had a dinner date! This dinner date was set up long ago – among friends and between very busy schedules. It was originally going to be a smallish group, but over the course of one day it blossomed into a much larger group of 16 (+2 kids): Shauna, Danny, Lu, Aran, Miren, Penny, Molly, Tea, Marisa, Lara, Dianne, Allison, Son, Justin, Jen, Todd, and Diane. Large group dynamics.

finally seated! aran texts penny where we are

molly, shauna, and little lu

I have strong feelings about large group dynamics and large groups in general because I am all about the QT and I feel large groups really diminish that experience. Plus, I hate coordinating large groups because it’s an exercise in trying not to gnash your teeth. That’s the OCD in me. But you know, considering the fabulous awesomeness of the lovely friends – all of the wrangling was worth it to spend an evening together at Amber India. I dare say, their butter chicken was *almost* as good as Manisha’s. Almost. We all wound up sharing dishes around which was even more fantastic. I think the winner was Dianne’s okra dish. Sooooo good!

my butter chicken

tara’s eggplant dish

Day 2 of the conference had me up bright and early. It’s amazing how early I woke each morning with the intention of getting work done and how little progress I seemed to make for the amount of sleep I didn’t get. And several friends brought up one very good point – why do high end hotels charge for wireless when the Best Westerns and Holiday Inns offer wifi for free? The answer: assholery.

golden sunrise over the city

I pretty much stuck with the visuals track for the duration of the conference. Todd and Diane rocked their session on food photography the first day. I think those two are excellent teachers. They are knowledgeable, incredibly generous with their information, and so much fun to boot. Of course, I attended my own session, because I was in it. Helen and I shared our experiences going professional in photography with attendees. Tami, Adam, and Delores delivered a really informative and fascinating panel discussion on food styling. Before I met Tami, I didn’t know there were such people as food stylists. They also tend to be far more fashionable than me… then again, I guess everyone is more fashionable than me, so nevermind that. And then there was Penny. Penny’s talk. I saw her bring the house down at IFBC. But just like I could with Todd and Diane, I could listen to her wisdom over and over again. I was not disappointed. Although I had seen Penny’s slides before, the content was different from her talk at IFBC and it was even more special and inspirational.

the only food that really did anything for me at the conference

skipping the ferry building for some dim sum (shauna and anita)

lunch with food bloggers

BlogHer Food closed out with a panel on something about the heart and soul of a chef (well, they said chef, but really, it was about the heart and soul of these three very talented food writers). I didn’t pay attention to the title because the three members of the panel were a draw for anyone with a food blog. Last year’s keynote panel was about blogging, but this year’s panel was about writing from the heart and writing as a vehicle for introspection, for examination of one’s life. The speakers resonated with the attendees and they shared some of their personal journeys. In closing, Michael gave a great and impassioned speech on how cooking sets humans apart from the rest of the animal kingdom – how cooking has brought about our evolution as a social species. I loved it. The entire session was outstanding.

keynote panel: shauna, michael, molly

I was only at the BlogHer Food After Party (thrown by the hostesses with the mostest(es): Ree, Elise, and Jaden and organized by Jen) for a little while before I had to skidaddle off to dinner, but it was a hoppin’ by the time I left. Also, I can tell you that I found the bacon… at the party. Heaps of good food, great bacon, better people. You will have no doubt seen countless photobooth photos circulating the interwebs at this point. Huge thanks to our hostesses and organizers for another bang up job.

afterparty photobooth: son, allison, chuck, myself, and anita

In a nutshell BlogHer Food 2010 was an improvement over the previous year’s conference. San Francisco is a terrific location. I liked that my hotel room was in the same venue as the conference as opposed to a 20-minute bus ride away. The sessions were wonderful and full of good content. The schedules were not ridiculously jam-packed which gave people the flexibility to do more outside of the conference… like mingle. Unfortunately, the food was surprisingly underwhelming considering that the conference was for food bloggers. I just wish the organizers would get a few food bloggers on board to help with menu planning next time. The sponsorships irked me. I understand the need for sponsors, but I would have preferred local artisanal sponsors over… Pepperidge Farm. It felt like I was being marketed to rather heavily. Also, the twitter stream was a limp fish, dead compared to IFBC’s raucous, insightful, hilarious and (at times) racy hashtag. In the end, what mattered most to me was the people – and they had that in spades. Good job, BlogHer Food.

While everyone else has been trickling back home, filling the twitter stream with “I miss you!”s and “So great meeting you”s, I’m still hanging around the bay area. More on that later, I promise! What I want to share after all of that hubbub over the conference and rockstar status bloggers and great food is a simple recipe. In fact, this is one of the first cookie recipes I learned to bake back in the day.

butter, flour, salt, baking powder, sugar, more sugar & cinnamon – not pictured: eggs

mix the sugar and the butter

Snickerdoodles. I was inspired to make them because I like how the name name rolls off the tongue. Snickerdoodles. Snicker + doodles. I snicker all the time in my head. I don’t doodle so much, but doodle is a funny sounding word. Doodle. *snicker* I’m a snickerdoodle kind of girl. I like butter, cream, vanilla, cinnamon flavors. Chocolate? Not so much. I told Chuck the other day how I tend to eat around chocolate chips in chocolate chip cookies and give all of the chocolate parts to Jeremy. “There are all these *bleeping* chocolate chips! I just like the matrix, not the large-grain suspension!”

adding flour

rolling dough into balls

**Jump for more butter**