Restaurant Review: Dragon BBQ Express

Dragon BBQ Express - lunch on May 24, 2015

Every Sunday after church, my parents and I go out to lunch. We typically tend to stick to the same places yet every Sunday after the service, we always wonder where we should go for lunch. For my frugal, first-generation immigrant parents, the price points have to be in a “reasonable” range meaning they have to feel like a) it should be cheap, b) they have to feel like they received the right value for what they paid and c) don’t forget it should be cheap. I’m not talking fast food cheap but somewhere in the $10-$14 an entrée range is okay.

After exhausting all the typical chain restaurants nearby, some of which appear to be raising their prices and hence falling out of favor in our usual Sunday lunch circuit, I turned to yelp for suggestions. BBQ Dragon Express had a 3.5-star rating, it was nearby and it was akin to fast Chinese food so it seemed like a safe bet.

It’s in a mini strip mall and one of those places I would probably easily overlook if it hadn’t been favorably rated on yelp. It’s pretty small with more than half the space taken up by the counters of food and the hanging pork shoulder (looked like lechon), roast duck and chicken. There are several tables for dine in but for the most part, it looked like it was mostly a takeout business. Think of it like a Panda Express but if Panda is Westernized Chinese food, this was slightly more authentic Chinese food. Sort of.

Like Panda, there were trays of various dishes in warming trays. You pointed to what you wanted and the server dished up generous – and I mean generous – portions into a takeout box. A combo was rice, fried rice or noodles plus 2 side dishes. I pointed to “safe” Americanized Chinese food choices: steamed rice, lemon chicken and sesame chicken, the latter both breaded and in their accompanying sauces. Okay, probably not that authentic in terms of China Chinese food but suited to my bland taste buds.

The rice was good as was the sesame chicken but I wasn’t impressed with the lemon chicken. The chicken pieces were good-sized but the texture was a bit odd, not quite the firmness of chicken but too firm to be fish. It was weird. Fortunately the sesame chicken didn’t have a texture issue and was quite tasty.

Sesame Chicken (top left) and Lemon Chicken (top right)

The place was also really cheap. Our 3 combo orders came to $19.55 including tax so it was just slightly more than $6.50 per person. Given the generous portions that were literally enough for 3 meals (2 if you’re really hungry), that was a bargain. Not sure I’d make this a regular stop on our Sunday lunch circuit (I think my parents would have preferred Panda Express) but it was good to try out at least once and support another local small business. 

Cinnamon Crumb Banana Bread

Cinnamon Crumb Banana Bread - made May 30, 2015 from Little Bits of Baking, Crafting and Life

I’ve mentioned before that I don’t try out a lot of different recipes for banana bread. I have this one from my college undergrad days and my family and friends like it so much and ask for it all the time that they give the side eye to anything that isn’t my go-to recipe. Even when I give them the entire plethora of recipes from my blog that I could make, when I ask them what they want me to bake, I get the same answer “banana bread”. But after making double batches of it last month for my cousin’s visit, my sister’s visit, and my parents, let’s be honest – I’m sick of making it. This is why I can never work in a bakery. I don’t have the patience to make the same thing over and over again, day in and day out. Heck, I can’t even make the same banana bread once a month.

Topping before baking

So to use up some overripe bananas from the last time I made my go-to recipe, I tried out this new recipe for banana bread. Not only was it a recipe I’d never tried before but it also had an added component of a crumb topping. I adore crumb toppings; they’re sanctioned sugar additions to make a baked good even better.

Topping after baking

I’m used to crumb toppings having brown sugar for the streusel part but this had confectioners’ sugar instead so I was a little unsure how that was going to turn out. But my reservations were unfounded as it actually turned out well. Really well. The crumb topping crisped up nicely and made a perfect contrast to the quick bread itself. In fact, I liked the topping so much, I think I’ll have to use it again next time I make a quick bread. The banana bread itself had a nice soft crumb but was still dense enough to qualify as a quick bread. It isn’t as light and “cakey” as my go-to recipe but still had a good crumb and I enjoyed it. This is best served the day it’s made or no later than the day after as the moistness from the bananas, while good for the bread part, had a tendency to also moisten and soften the crumb topping so you lose the crispness after awhile.

I tested this version of banana bread out on my parents. They acknowledged that it was “good” but, in classic parental fashion, my mom followed up with “next time, make your other recipe”. Sigh. No toppling Goliath from that perch.

1 egg

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 overripe bananas, mashed
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Crumb Topping
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl of a mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together the sugar, egg and vanilla until combined. 
3. Add the butter and beat until smooth and the butter is fully incorporated. Beat in the buttermilk and bananas.
4. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon. Slowly stir the dry ingredients into the wet until all the flour is incorporated. Pour into prepared pan.
5. Make the crumb topping by combining the powdered sugar, flour, cinnamon salt and melted butter. Using your hands, crumble the mixture over the batter in the pan. Bake for 45 - 50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Melting Moments

Melting Moments - made dough May 23, 2015, adapted from The Essential Chocolate Chip Cookbook by Elinor Klivans

Over Memorial Day weekend, I had plans that got canceled at the last minute which meant I ended up with some free time. Which translates into something to do with baked goods. In this case, I started mixing up cookie doughs, trying out recipes from my baking books and socking them away in the freezer for baking later when I might be more compressed for time and need something to bring somewhere. Because you know there’s always a sometime somewhere where I show up with goodie bags in hand or a cookie plate at the ready.

Which is why I love making cookie dough in my spare time (yeah, it’s a hobby). It’s like my inner Linus having a security blanket. Never will I be caught off guard when I need to bring dessert. All I need is a little notice and I can just pop these suckers in the oven. Near-instantaneous fresh cookies on demand.

The original recipe for these called for making a filling with chocolate chips. It does come from The Essential Chocolate Chip Cookbook after all. I decided to buck convention and sandwich them with – what else? – cookie butter. You can also use Nutella.

I did deviate from the original recipe in that while I did bake them at 300 degrees, I didn’t leave them in as long as 30 minutes. I didn’t want them to get dry and I only baked them until I could see a golden color peeking around the edges of the cookies.  It took maybe 15-18 minutes, tops. To dress them up a little, I made them into small dough balls then pressed the dough balls with the pointed end of a meat mallet to get the nice indents. Sprinkle lightly with granulated sugar then freeze. You want to press them to approximately the same thickness since, when you bake them on a cookie sheet, the thinner cookies will bake up faster than thicker cookies and you don’t want uneven baking.

Let them cool completely before sandwiching with the filling of your choice. Remember those Speculoos sandwich cookies from Trader Joe’s? These were kind of like that in terms of crispness and taste although these weren’t as richly buttery. But they’re good vanilla sandwich cookies and set up the filling quite nicely. Definitely a winner in the sandwich cookie category.

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup cake flour
3/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
Cookie butter or Nutella for filling

1. Combine all-purpose flour, cake flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt; whisk to combine.
2. Cream together butter, powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth and creamy.
3. Add dry ingredients in 2 batches, beating until just combined each time.
4. Scoop into small balls and flatten with the pointed side of a meat mallet or the tines of a fork,
5. Chill or freeze for several hours until firm.
6. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and space cookies evenly.
7. Bake until the tops feel firm and the cookie bottoms are lightly browned, about 30 minutes; the tops of the cookies should not color. 
8. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
9. Sandwich with cookie butter or nutella.

Restaurant Review: Mayflower (dim sum)

Mayflower Seafood Restaurant - lunch on May 19, 2015

Just a quick write up on this one and I’ll let the (badly lit) pictures speak for themselves since I’ve written up dim sum restaurants before and while this was good, it was “normal” in that it didn’t particularly stand out. It was just good dim sum.

Sticky Rice wrapped in banana leaves

Fried Shrimp dumplings

One of my nieces graduated last month and my cousin Ellen attended the graduation ceremony with us and was nice enough to give me and my parents a ride back home as my sister was making the 4-hour drive back to her house directly afterwards. It was a Tuesday so we figured it would be a good time to go to Mayflower for dim sum.

Har Gow

My parents and I had tried going to Mayflower on a Sunday after church but it was ridiculously crowded with people overflowing outside of the restaurant. Ridiculous. It was much better on a weekday and we were able to get a table right away.

Siu Mai

Steamed Pork Buns

There were only 2 dim sum carts making the rounds but they did have several waitresses going to each table with a different tray of dim sum. Fortunately, all of our typical favorites were available: pork buns, siu mai, har gow and sticky rice. The dim sum was good so Mayflower is a good option. I don’t think it was so good that I would wait in line to get seated on a crowded weekend day but for walk in with immediate service, it was great.

Tofu-wrapped....something

Butterscotch Biscoff Pudding Cookies

Butterscotch Biscoff Pudding Cookies - made dough May 23, 2015 from Biscoff Cookie & Spread Cookbook by Katrina Bahl

If you like butterscotch and thick, chewy, chubby cookies, read on, Macduff. I’m still faithfully trying out recipes from my latest baking book before it inevitably gets lost in the plethora of other baking books on my overflowing shelves and I unintentionally forget I have it (alert: blatant first world problem). For now, I’ve marked up which recipes I really want to try from it and have been making my way through the post-its flagging the appropriate pages that need a second look. Think kid with new toy.

I liked how these cookies were pictured in the book with the kind of chubby factor I look for in a good cookie. Plus I had butterscotch chips to use. I did have to go out and hunt down butterscotch pudding mix since that’s not a regular in my pantry but fortunately it isn’t hard to find at the grocery store. I love pudding cookies because they almost inevitably stay thick and are moist.

This one was no exception. If I had to find fault with it – you know me and my picky taste buds – it’s that the cookie butter flavor disappeared almost entirely in the face of the butterscotch flavor. Butterscotch is a pretty dominant flavor and doesn’t share the stage well. In this case, it slapped the cookie butter to the back and kept it there. This is still a good cookie and I like the texture so I forgave it for the intrusion and dominance.

1 3.4-ounce package butterscotch pudding mix
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup creamy Biscoff spread
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups butterscotch chips

1. Whisk together pudding mix, flour and baking powder; set aside.
2. Cream butter, Biscoff spread, brown sugar and granulated sugar for 2 minutes until light and fluffy,
3. Add eggs, one at a time, and vanilla, beating until just combined.
4. Add dry ingredients in 3 batches, mixing only until just combined.
5. Add butterscotch chips, reserving a handful. Scoop dough into golf-ball-size balls. Press several butterscotch chips on the outside. Freeze dough balls for several hours or overnight.
6. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
7. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and space dough balls evenly, 2 inches apart. Bake for 7-9 minutes. Let cool for several minutes on cookie sheet then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Restaurant Review: Kincaid's

Kincaid's - dinner on May 18, 2015

My niece graduated from college last month (college! Where does the time go??) and we held her graduation dinner the night before the ceremony at Kincaid’s at Jack London Square. I’ve never been to Kincaid’s or if I have, it was so long ago that I have no memory of it. And it would have been back in the days when I wasn’t documenting every scrap of food I’ve ever eaten so it’s been at least 5-6 years, probably more.

View from our table

Warm Brie appetizer

She chose Kincaid’s because it was pretty, set on the water, there was parking available (always a big deal) and there was a varied enough menu that both sides of the family would be able to find something pleasing to their palates. Bring a hefty chunk of cash or a high limit credit card because Kincaid’s isn’t cheap. Just kidding…sort of. The average price of an entrée ranged from $40-$60. You can get slightly cheaper options but not by much.

I like the fact that they post their menu online so I can study it at my leisure and make my gustatory decisions ahead of time.  Because really, the few minutes you have with the menu when you’re also supposed to use that time to socialize and make a decision before the waitperson comes by to take your order? I put more thought into my food consumption than that. Because it’s not just about picking your entrée. There are side dish considerations as well. Soup? Salad? Appetizers? And for me, which dessert? You all know I build my entrée decision around what I’m having for dessert, right? Everyone always laughs at me when I say that and they think it’s “cute”. I’m serious here, people. Dessert is not to be taken lightly. It must be planned for and accommodated in that day’s calorie consumption and waistband room. Fail to plan, plan to fail.

Oysters

Calamari

Although Kincaid’s is a surf and turf sort of place, I’d already decided to skip the steak selections. I tend to eat (more than) my share of tri tip for lunch at work when I get a salad which is almost every day. The tri tip has to have something to sit on, after all. So for dinner, I went with the barbecue ribs, partly because it was a different meat but mostly because it came with mac and cheese and sweet potato fries. Carb heaven.

BBQ ribs and sweet potato fries

Mac and Cheese

Which they were. I never (rarely?) make mac and cheese, both because I don’t really cook but also because I know how bad it is for you. But it tastes so good, especially when it’s good mac and cheese which this one was. And you can’t go wrong with sweet potato fries. I had to pace myself because I still had dessert in mind so I ate less than half the ribs, half the mac and cheese and a good portion of the sweet potato fries. Because the fries wouldn’t be as good the next day, you know, so they should be consumed more on the day of.

Stuffed catfish

Half of a surf 'n turf split between two plates

For dessert, I waffled between the Bananas Foster Sundae and the chocolate cake. Chocolate cake is common and vastly overdone at every single restaurant that offers it but still….I mean, it’s chocolate cake. Covered in hot fudge sauce. I was severely tempted by the Bananas Foster Sundae since it’s a less typical dessert and I bet would have made for a lovely picture for my blog. But in the end the chocolate cake won, mostly because I was more full from my entrée than I had wanted to be and the sundae came with waffles which sounded just a mite too heavy to me at that point in time. But the chocolate cake was layered with mousse and frosting and you can pour as much or as little (or as much) chocolate sauce as you wanted over it. It was practically light compared to waffles. It was the right choice because it was good but I have to admit, I couldn’t do it justice as I really was full. So much for planning ahead.  

Key Lime Pie for the new grad

Pouring chocolate sauce on the cake

Service was great and our wait person was very nice. Kincaid's is definitely a good choice for celebrating a graduation, especially when you have a large party. They know how to take care of you.

Caramelized Banana Nutella Puff Pastry

Caramelized Banana Nutella Puff Pastry - made May 23, 2015

If you ever want to serve a quick and easy dessert that looks like you spent some time on it, grab some puff pastry. The kind in the grocery store freezer section that’s premade so all you have to do is thaw and unroll them. They bake up flaky and delicious so you could almost pretend you slaved away in the kitchen to get the right texture and flakiness. Having made flaky pastry dough from scratch in my culinary past, the pre-made stuff doesn’t taste as good but given how much easier it is, I’m not turning up my nose at the convenience.

Otherwise, to get the same type of flaky pastry from scratch, you have to make the dough and roll it into a large rectangle, beat and shape a ton of butter into a smaller rectangular slab, lay it over the dough, fold the dough over it and seal the butter inside, then, using a sheeter, roll out the butter-encased dough, fold it again, roll it again, fold it again, roll it again and so on until you have multiple thin layers of butter and dough folded and rolled multiple times. If you don’t have a sheeter, you can roll it out by hand but that’s even more time and effort. Trust me, unless you’ve got reams of time and finicky guests (I have neither) it’s easier to buy the sheets of puff pastry as the building block for your dessert.

I normally don’t bake with puff pastry, even the premade stuff because it’s so calorie intensive (hello, lots of butter). The flakier it is, the more butter it has. Not that there’s anything wrong with that because it isn’t like I actually bake anything low calorie anyway. But I don’t love it enough to take on that calorie heft very often. But once in awhile is okay and I happened to be in the mood for something decadent, preferably with bananas and Nutella, a first-rate combination in my book.

I also had some pastry cream in the freezer that I had made and put away for a future dessert. I thawed the pastry cream and the puff pastry, cut the pastry into squares, placed the squares into shallow tart pans to give the middle a bit of an indent, lined the bottom with the pastry cream, placed sliced bananas over the pastry cream then sprinkled butter and brown sugar streusel on top. Bake until the pastry is puffed and brown then drizzle with warm Nutella. Quick, easy, delicious.

If you want to make this even easier, you can skip the pastry cream and just increase the bananas and streusel topping but I happen to love pastry cream (too much so) and thought the creamy texture went well with the flaky pastry, the caramelized bananas and the warm Nutella. And I'm not one for custard-y desserts unless it's made with the CIA recipe for pastry cream.

1 sheet frozen puffy pastry dough, thawed

1-2 large, ripe (but not overripe) bananas, sliced into thick rounds

1 1/2 cups pastry cream, more if desired

¼ cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons butter, chilled and cubed

1 tablespoon flour

½ cup Nutella, more if desired

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Line spray individual tart pans with nonstick cooking spray. Cut puff pastry sheet into 3 columns then cut each column into 3 squares. Place in prepared tart pans and press middles into bottom of pans to create a concave shell.
3. Spoon pastry cream into bottom of shells, dividing evenly. Place a layer of sliced bananas over pastry cream.
4. Combine brown sugar, chilled butter cubes and flour in small bowl and mix together until you have a crumbly streusel. Sprinkle over tops of bananas.
5. Bake until puff pastry is golden brown and streusel topping has melted and browned, 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven and drizzle warm Nutella over top of tarts. Serve immediately.