Sugar Sweet Sunshine (final cupcake showdown!)...

I've gotten in the habit of screening a new restaurant or dish before coming back to write about it. I just dont' like lugging the d-SLR around if I don't need to, complete with gorilla-pod, filter, flash, blahblahblabh. It's mostly b/c I'm a gelatinous pig. HA!! GET IT?? gluttonous, gelatinous, was being off kilter funny. *ahem*. anyway...

The first time I had Sugar Sweet Sunshine was @ Karen's bday when Claudz got her the pistacchio cake. Cakey cake cake...yummmmmm. ANYWAY...

The next time I actually had Sugar Sweet Sunshine was an abysmally long time after...like last month actually, before heading out to some BBQ (memorial day mehbeh?) in Billy-burgh. We got the Ooey Gooey (chocolate cake w/ chocolate almond buttercream), Pumpkin Spice (pumpkin cake w/ cream cheese icing),

...and Sexy Red Velvet (red velvet w/ satin buttercream), and Pistacchio (pistacchio cake w/ satin buttercream aka "the moose"). There was also the Sassy Red velvet--which just had the chocolate almond buttercream instead of the regular ish but that was saved for another day.

BOTTOM LINE: I think SSS is the bestest EVARRRRHHHHH because they color outside the lines a bit with flavor combos and whatnot--PISTACCHIO??? yum. Again, the icing on the pistacchio--the satin buttercream--is reminiscent of yet has a lighter consistency than the Marshmallow Fluff spread and I SWEAR...cannot be plain ol' buttercream but whatebbs.

One more shot of the Ooey Gooey w/ Milk b/c it was pretty :)

ALMOND EXTRACT in the buttercream--this ALSO is brazilliant, regardless of how innocuous almond extract really is. It blows my mind here and there when I haven't used it for a while in my cake b/c I kinda forget how aromatic and strong even a smidge of it is. CRAZY LIKE A FOX!!

Anyhoodle, when I came back to SSS the second time around w/ Julia, I got all the same stuff again and then some. Just a note, I've never found yellow cake to be that appealing--but SSS yellow cake, me likes. I wouldn't necessarily order a yellow cake cupcake over chocolate any given time, but for SSS I'd eat that shizz instead of letting it sit or pass it off to somebody else as I tend to. Yellow cake normally is just incredibly pedestrian to me. PSHHHHH...b*tch please. ;) No seriously, it's a little pedestrian.

Besides the fact that it's located in the Lower East Side in what looks to be a run-down, dirty hipster version of the light-Connecticut-Montauk white and pastel decor found at Billy's or Magnolia's where you might feel like making a patriotic pound cake or short cake topped with whipped cream and strawberries for stripes and blueberries for star emblem, drinking mint lemonade out of a mason jar with straw decoratively tied around the edge in the wicker basket of your bike as you pedal around Hyannisport or Nantucket or some crap....

Sugar Sweet sunshine looks like you're in a fonder memory of the 1960's going into 70's complete with requisite avocado/lime/whatever colors and peeling faded pink, playing in the attic with an E-Z oven while a fudgsicle stick drips down your wee little hands while scratching at your scraped up knees from the day's rowdiness in the sand pit watching the light bulb bake intently, while in the background ur older cousins or brother/sister played vinyls from Van Morrison or Stevie Wonder--hell maybe even the Steve Miller Band and possibly locking you out of the attic so they could try their hands at being mid-day tokers instead.

Or in my case, my brothers locked me in a closet so they wouldn't have to watch me when they sneaked out to play soccer w/ the neighborhood kids. I don't even know what that last imagery was like/came from b/c quite frankly my toddler years were in Vietnam playing on our third floor giant patio and watching this man who rented out some portion of my family's building make chalk. Seriously. Chalk making. pretty cool to watch. :)

But yeah--Sugar Sweet Sunshine in a nutshell: more homey-goodness and explorations into interesting cupcakery beyond that banal tripe of a competition between Magnolia's, Crumb's (bleah), Buttercup (bleaaaaaah), and Billy's--not to mention the kajillian offshoots from Magnolia's spreading in the outer bouroughs and such. PLUS SSS cupcakes are only $1.50 while the others are well above $2--not to mention stupid Sprinkles in CA is dry and I swear left out in the open for a long time and not fresh is close to $4 if memory serves me right. I lost pictures of Sprinkles when I went with Peggy the last time I was home =/ *curse you busted hard drive covered by warranty!* *shakes fist!*

....aaaaand *end scene*.

I heart Pisticci's (and you!)...

TO mark the end of my grieving period for my failed & irreparable hard drive, here is (what I think) is ze best food pizzorn on zees blog. Pisticci's on 123rd/LaSalle & B'way.

Fig & goat cheese salad w/mangos, heart of palm (yummers!), strawberries, and dijon sauce.

Another looksie at the salad...NOMNOMNOmnomnomonoNOMnoMoNOmNOMMMMM...first time I had heart of palm. I like. Me also likes heart of artichokies...

The garlic bread, avec goat cheese--they don't...usually have this on top, but either way it was damn tasty.

The house tea (black tea with peach...syrup?). As refreshing as it looks...

I always get the homemade fettucine w/ wild mushrooms--this time with the truffle oil added (oooooooooh...not really, there is a diff but i like the diff in some other medium besides this dish). BUT ME LOVESSSIES this dish!! ^_^ Julie-boolie got the same thing sans truffle oil.

Dan (Julia's sis's hubs) had the peppercorn-crusted filet mignon with cognac and something sauce. It was a beautiful peace of meat and I took a picture of it sliced up and splayed but it's a little blurry :( But here it is!!

There were more entrees but they're not as pretty--but seriously, any specials, anything at Pisticci's is phenomenal. Fresh, simple, well seasoned, perfectly balanced, finger lickin' good and despite the Italian starchy fare, very light and not heavy at ALL. I had the seafood special and meat entrees before too and that shiz is the bizzomb in terms of preparation. Pisticci--fave restaurant in Boston, California, or NY (except maybe Kefi :P...and all the cupcake places.

Anyway...onto desserrrrrrt. Always on the menu but best in season (now): fresh berries and hand-whipped cream. Nothing else holding it up!

I disdain desserts topped with whipped cream--anythign w/ whipped cream really. I just think whipped cream is unnecessary and the devil. BUT, with that said, this cream could convert even moi-self :) Also--tiramisu and Frangelico mousse (tasty!but again both not that pretty so whatebbs :P) Here's the coconut-yellow cake w/ some sauce.

You'd think it'd be a little innocuous for such a place I rave about--but the cake is rich but (like my crazy triple chocolate cake) not that sweet, not that heavy or too airy, and the sauce is great with it. A lot of people seem to be averse to coconut but it really shouldn't be the slightest issue here.

another pic of the fig salad just cuz I think it's purty--that and I've only had fig maybe 3x in my entire life (no even a Fig Newton!) The whole fruit is fascimamating and its applications as well. :)

YAAAAAAAAAy. prepare for the last cupcake entry in the cupcake trifecta/showdown, lemon-and-thyme-roasted-chicken flavored chips from England, comped breakfast @ the Hilton in McLean, and purple 'taters coming this wk!

...and one more of the garlic bread :)

Mama Ly's mama's Bún Riêu...

The Moms' moms (my maternal grandmother, duhhh ;)) has been a devout Buddhist and vegetarian probably for 50+ yrs--but she still cooks savory/meat-filled meals for the fam. She never tastes it given her practices, and yet it's always jussst perfect.

Whenever there's a congregation of the Le progeny* in Washington, DC where my grandmother usually is, she cooks up giant beasts of a feast--which she's inclined to make all the time anyway, but we get the hometown favs when it's the big extended crew. Since the extended fam is in DC, and the my nuclear family is in CA and not hear in NYC, I've spent many a holiday noshin' on some majorly finger lickin' shizz.

A few wks ago my mom and aunt flew over for the couz's graduation and she made us bún riêu. What *is* this bún riêu you ask? Pshhh...you just know, homeskillet--You DON'T EVEN KNOW. teehee! See Noodlepie.com for more pics of bun rieu as vendor food in Viet Nam.
bún riêu as vendor food and more pics.

Bún riêu is a noodle soup (in the same vein as pho and other things) with a pork based broth, vermicelli (the thin white noodles), sometimes congealed pork blood, processed crab and shrimp meat (kinda lumpy scrambled-egg-like consistency but a little more liquidy/viscous), lime, fermented shrimp paste(^_^)

Seriously, it's a little interemeresting smelling but don't be knocking it!!--douchebaggery neither desired nor required. Eat or go home. Don't talk ish on mah people's shrimp paste .

Usually purplish-grey, salty but not in the fish sauce or sea salty way--pungent, maybe give u a little "agita" but OH SO FRIGGIN" good and utterly unfathomably completes the bun rieu.

It's a pretty tedious process making all of this. Mostly tedious to me, because it gets very time consuming for me and consuming mentally to go out and select all the ingredients (all the diff veggies etc) b/c I get really carried away touching/smelling/burping produce. (joke). It's not that I'm picky--I just really like to learn/experience everything tactilely and visually and...every other thing I can imagine it's just really enthralling.

For my little bowlsie, I nixed the pig blood and beignet equivalent (mostly used to sop things and add another texture). I forgot about the other shredded-stuffs. OH WELL. Almost forgot--there's also the SHREDDED BANANA FLOWER!! Courtesy of Bhakshanam.wordpress.com (great entry on making banana flower salad).

The banana flower stuff--it's so pervasive I forget sometimes! and so counterintuitively what it is! It's got a crunchy/hardness/thread-iness like celery crossed with jicama (maybe even green papaya?)--I forget which place/city/state I had it as a salad (maybe with roasted mussels) and it's friggin' awesome. It's a giant bulb--the one at the end of those giant bunches of tiers of bananas from tree--giant and purple.

Oh and we also had tomatoes and "do" which is pronounced like "yaw"--the "d" without that top part crossed like a "t" has a "y" as in "yellow" pronunciation where as the "d" crossed like a "t" is the natural "d" as in "dork" sound. I totally dig me some tomahters do any day of the week.

I also didn't inherit the caffeine addict gene or the super spicy Huế gene. But I like watching them make it from those french presses. I hear it's the shizzzzz. *le sigh*.
Last pic of bun rieu with the beignet-like things and congealed blood so ya know. So NOW YOU KNOW :) Pic courtesy of gastronomyblog.com

Grilled Corn @ Cafe Habana...

It's summah time. and I'd like to go to the Habana Outpost for a change. Still, it's all about the corn. This picture alone--reeks of summer to moi. This was from last year (first time actually) when I ate @ Cafe Habana with Claudia and Henry. It was night time--and we actually ate at the takeout window side instead of the cafe. I also had some kind of dandelion salad there (I think) and it was fanplasmico. mMmmMmmMm.

Yay summah in the citay!

Corn et al in Tijuana 2007...

Anyway, so all this corn-ness segues into my quest for grilled corn in Tijuana actually (as in Mexico). I went there back in January 2007 with my elementary school posse Giang and Marvin (who apparently is MIA now), and Christina. All for the corn behbeh. ALL FOR THE CORN. and cerveza. and lucha libre gear. :) and...just to go to TJ for shits and giggles (FYI: u park, and walk across.)

It was not the usual cheese, and it was boiled instead of grilled. I was disappointed--nay--I was loathe to find it subpar to my aggrandizing...corn..ness...internal dialogue..of...corn. :( le poo!
But we DID get some kick ass ceviche, beef tortas, tacos, and horchata (rice milk thing w/ a little cinnamon).
And beers. All for like 8 or 18 bucks i can't remember but there were 4 of us and we ate a lot and drank a lot. not just the dos equis. horchata. HORRRRRCHATA! (think shikaka but...horchata. you don't even know what i'm talking about.)
We also had churros--fresh and greasy as hell!! You know it's good when it's transparent :P
We also bought a huge stash of those chili lime pasted watermelon lolipops, and the lime/salt powder (lucas limon) that u could put on fruits and veggies (or if u were redonk like me, eat it as is). OHhHGhghaghghhghghhg (homer noises). This...is the crazieset thing u'll ever eat--totally beats Warheads and all that other sour crap. Utterly abysmal thing to do to ur tongue but who CARES (also comes in spicy). TEEHEE!
Good times to be had in TJ--even if u didn't buy prescription drugs, feed a painted mule, or party w/ DJ Quik like another underaged gringo from Newport Beach as we're all familiar with. See exhibit Uno above of Barney the mule-zebra.

And exhibit Dos...(complete with Tamiflu!):
The walk over & back is quick--the wait to cross back into CA at the border is a BIATCH b/c it's so damn long...but overall...delish :) Also...what's a trip to TJ without a lucha libre mask? (complete with cape?)

There's some bread in my corn...

Also a JASmart goodie--a little bland really! I personally LOVE corn in a can. (I almost typed can in a corn.)

I added some seasoned feta, it helped. You'd think with the little green garnish it'd mean somethign else was int here other than bland ass corn and bland ass bread.

JASmart you disappoint!! WTF?! Even corn has a natural sweetness--see corn ice cream in Sundaes & Cones!

And bread--carbs! sugars! wtf?! *shakes head*...

But I'm a fun-gi....

Went to Jasmart on 23rd & Lex hoping to get fish sauce without having to go down to Chinatown (I'm averaging 1 bottle a year--by myself!! :P). Did NOT find fish sauce--instead found mushrooms, chrysanthemum leaves, and (baby bok choy...sold by...THE PACKET?!?!).

Do not know what I'm gonna make with them--probably a steam packet with fish sauce (maybe soy or MISOOOOO), lemon, butter...like at Typhoon on St. Marks & 1st ave (fanplasmic japanese 'tapas' and whatnot...plus they're open super late. Cow tongue was good--so's other shiz but that's for another post).

So I bought enoki mushrooms too but I couldn't find a suitable idea for how to shoot them (as in pictures, not...pistols). Plus...why bother with ordinary enoki when you can feast your eyes on BEECH MUSHROOM!!!! ^_^ They're much bigger than enoki, but they're like enoki crossed with the Super Mario mushrooms :)

I also got "maitake" which just reminds me of shitake but less fun to say, maybe like SHIKAKA! (anybody for what movie that's from? it's a little tran-sian. :)) Anyway, according to Wiki:

Grifola frondosa, referring to a mythical griffin, commonly known as Sheep’s Head, Ram’s Head and Hen of the Woods or Maitake, is an edible polypore mushroom. It grows in clusters at the foot of trees, especially oak. The Japanese call it "maitake" (pronounced [maitake]), literally meaning "dancing mushroom." Hen of the woods should not be confused with the similarly named edible bracket fungi, chicken of the woods (Laetiporus sulphureus), also known as "sulphur shelf".

But anyway...I really do love mushrooms (the Princess Toadstool kind, not the druggie kind). When I was about 10 or 11, I used to just sautee mushrooms in a wee pot with onions and soy sauce and eat it. by itself. when I was 16 I ate rice and bbq sauce. by itself. The other day I ate leftover Southern fried chicken with basil marinara tossed in, with rice, and tabasco sauce. IT WAS FRICKIN" DELISH. *shrug*.

The chyrsanthemum leaves tho...I know in Vietnamese cooking it's used in "canh"/soupy soup or tossed in with meats. I don't even really know what they're called in Vietnamese--I didn't even know what the hell they were with the label from Jasmart, I had to google it from the Japanese phrasing on my receipt. BY GOLLY I WILL MAKE SOMETHING OF IT!! Think spinach meets arugula with a less citrus/bitter flavor. Look u can see the little chrysanthemum bud in the middle rightmos area :)

I like cold honey chrysanthemum tea from Cha for Tea (in Ca, a little too sweet) and Lee's Sandwiches (also in CA, not as sweet, way too much ice). I honestly bought all this stuff from Jasmart just so I could take pictures with them--but maybe 2% to experiment with various mushroom flavors, possibly making fancypants mac & cheese with fancypants mushroom for my "roast on the roof". EH. we'll see.

All right, one more shot of the shroomies--but the little beechies nestled in the big beech shroomies! :P

:)

Bbq in the 'Burg + Chocolate Zucchini cake!

BBQ in williamsburgh--felt like I was in the backwoods of...Appalachia. There was a pit in the backyard (and damn i twas a roomy backyard) and the fire raaaaged within a circle of concrete slabs and hipsters (ha!) Anyway...here's the pasta salad I made:

Here's also the chocolate & zucchini cake Claudia made--this was from the Chocolate & Zucchini foodblog (which we just looooveetthhhh sooooo). It was nummy--had bittersweet chocolate in it. Claudz & I will be presenting an encore @ my own rooftop BBQ this coming Sunday.
There was also fish. it was uneventful. There were saussages and whatnot too but my frickin' camera was acting up--they would've been quite pretty pics tho. :P

And...there's the pic of the fun-ness...except less hipsters visible here and oddly disproportionate number of males. They climbed the tree and broke off branches for kindling--and those watching threw volleyballs etc at them. There was a little bit of rowdiness at the festivities. :)

See entry below for recipe for bastardized pasta salad!...

Bastardized Pasta Salad recipe...

Everyone's been asking me about my recipes for stuff like the Bastardized Pasta Salad (again I can never seem to fully separate my palate & affinity for Mediteranean meets Southeast Asia). SO...since I don't really measure and kind of gamble with portions & ingredients, here's what I used:

Bizzastardized Pasta Recipe!

• GIANT corkscrew pasta (fusilloni)
• heaps of basil, one entire bulb of garlic (~10 bulbs? hahaaah)
• sliced half a red onion
• seasoned Athenos feta cheese (garlic & herb says ze packaging)
• non pareile capers (which I guess means having no equal--but just means it's from the South of France)
  
• halved cherry tomatoes (1 basket)
  
• half a lemon (maybe a little more)
• ....and here's the good stuffs--> FISH SAUCE!!! ^_^ OH YEAAAAAH.
  

Fizzzziiiish. Sizzzzaaauce. THAT's RIGHT--you don't even KNOW ese! ;) ...btw, I really prefer using Phu Quoc fish sauce over the other brands--the crab one is good, i can't remember others. MEH. I'll ask Mama Ly.

Direzione!

Start out sauteeing the giant-ness of minced garlic bulb in a relatively thick layer of oil (just like making the garlic & oil pasta except put on low heat after the garlic gets a little color, throw in the tomatoes, squirt in the lemon juice & fish sauce (i pretty much eyeball it all since I use lemon juice, fish sauce, and garlic a lot so I just...have an intrinsic gauge for what it'll be like I can't describe =/). I also like the tomatoes a little raw still in most the crap I cook but I like to bleed it a little (per se) cuz I guess the glycopene in the tomato makes the sauce congeal a little, and thicken the "sauce" and coat better.
Mix it all around a little, and if you want, throw in the cooked pasta (straight from the pot with a little of the water from boiling too it's still yummy) and mix around. OR, u can saute the red onions before throwing in the pasta but I like it with a little kick and purity in its own flavor in being a little uncooked and whatnot.
If you need to, add in a little more olive oil to coat the pasta, salt & season as u will (i only used pepper, the fish sauce adds a diff kind of salty flavor), and more fish sauce! but not too much b/c you'll get the savory & bite from the capers and cheese too so keep it on the bland side. I also don't add the sliced/shredded basil until the end but I add a little in the beginning to let it wilt and add some flavor. Mix in the other half of the shredded basil, mix mix mix!

Plate, break the feta over the pasta, scatter some capers over, stick some sprigs of fresh basil in it and call it a day.