Craving For Cupcakes?

This is what I edit for the Module 4 assignment! Sprinkles Cupcakes is a famous store originally opened in Beverly Hills, CA. They have now grown into a nationwide cupcake bakery. Stores are located in main cities such as: Chicago, Georgetown, La Jolla in San Diego and New York, etc.

Candace Nelson is the founder of Sprinkles. She was inspired by her great grandmother who worked in a restaurant during 1930s in San Francisco. Sprinkles cupcakes has colorful dots decoration on top of the cake frosting. From chocolate to flavorings , all cupcakes are made with fine ingredients. They even sell vegan cupcakes for those who are vegans! Furthermore, they have seasonal flavors from time to time, so be sure to check online or visit their store for some special flavors! Since July 4th is approaching, they are selling lemon blueberry flavor from June 22nd to July 8th. Seems like I should get one before they end the promotion ;)

Cupcakes are still on the top three dessert list in most Americans heart. If you are eager to try one, but lives in San Francisco or the Bay Area, just go to the store in Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto. One good thing about this place is you will never have a long wait compared to the one in Beverly Hills!

For more information, please visit: http://www.sprinkles.com/

Sprinkles at Palo Alto:
393 Stanford Shopping Center, Palo Alto, CA 94304

The Dumpling Kingdom Is Here!

As summer approaches, a lot of people are traveling. If you come around the San Francisco International Airport, you may want to come to try Dumpling Empire. The Dumpling Empire is located in South San Francisco, just about ten minutes away from SFO. 

Dumplings are one of the traditional Chinese food. It is also known as Potstickers. Chinese 

Dumplings can have a great variety in their fillings. It comes in the combination of meat, fish and vegetables. From the northern side of China, dumplings often comes in thicker shells. They can be either steamed or pan fried. Sometimes, you can dip it in soy sauce if you like stronger flavors. If you are a fan of hot food, you may dip it with spicy sauce. 

This is how the menu looks.

 I ordered the northern style Chinese dumplings. The flavor is Chinese cabbage with pork. It comes in twelve pieces.

Xiao Long Bao is steam soup dumpling dish from Shanghai, which is very famous in China. It is also supported by fellow Asian cities and countries such as: Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and Japan. However, it is very challenging to make a good xiao long bao because the shell cannot be too thick or floury, but at the same time must cover the meat. In addition, the folds is one of the way to show how skillful a master can be. I remember once I went to Ding Tai Fung, a very famous restaurant in Taiwan to eat Xiao Long Bao. Their dumplings has eighteen folds on it! Imagine the dumpling's diameter is about 4-5 centimeters only. This restaurant has different branches worldwide. There are two stores located in Arcadia, CA down in Southern California. There is a dipping sauce made of vinegar and ginger slices specially made to match the soup dumpling. There are some instructions for people to follow how to properly eat Xiao Long Bao. 

The top left corner is spicy marinated beef tendon and bottom left is barbecue lamb stick. 

The food is approximately $27 USD in total, which is pretty decent and satisfied! 

Dumpling Empire

Address: 216 Cypress Ave, South San Francisco, CA 94080.

Fall For Japanese Ramen!

Speaking of Japanese food, ramen is the one you can never miss! I have recently paid a visit to Ramen Parlor in San Mateo as my friend from LA came over. I found this restaurant on another friend's Instagram. Ramen Parlor has a unique soup base that attracts me. 

Here is a brief introduction to Japanese Ramen. Ramen is originated from China as the pronunciation of noodles (mein) and the character are the same in both Chinese and Japanese. Ramen is referred as "handle-pulled noodles". Good ramen noodles are made with chef who applies a suitable force to the ramen dough then cut to the desire shape and length. As technology advances, there are noodle cutting machine to help the chef so simplify the noodle making process. Besides of the noodles, soup base plays an important role in ramen as well. The most common three soup flavors are: miso, shio and tonkatsu. Miso is made of soy bean paste, shio is salt dominant and tonkatsu is pork flavor. For spicy food lovers, some restaurants offers curry or spicy miso flavors.

I went there on a Sunday night, surprisingly there was not a long wait. The restaurant is relatively small, but is already filled up. Ramen restaurants normally do not take reservation, that is why I suggest all of you to go early or count in the waiting time.

Here is the menu.

 

I ordered a Garlic Lobster Pork Flavor (Black) ramen with egg. Do not be fooled as there is no lobster in the ramen but lobster oil instead! It comes with two pieces of pork. The pork was really tender and filled with a sense of garlic. The soup base is rich, but not over salty. As for the noodles, it is thin and slightly chewy. The toppings are with black fungus, romaine lettuce and two pieces of nori (seaweed).

















We also ordered a chicken yakitori platter to share. It has chicken hearts, gizzards, wings and thighs. 





This restaurant has a minimum charge of $8.95 per person. So take notice of it. Other than that, this is a decent place for Japanese ramen. Feel free to give it a try! 

Ramen Parlor
Address: 901 S B St, San Mateo, CA 94401


Just to share an interesting fact I came up with lately. People in the States refer ramen noodles as instant noodles. However, people in Asia divided up ramen and instant noodles. Some people might think it is not a big matter since they are just noodles, but there is a difference to noodle lovers!

Tofu Burger Patty For Sure?

Whenever we hear "hamburger patty", fast food or unhealthy are two terms that easily pop up. However, today I am going to show you a healthy way to make the hamburger patty. Instead of using beef, chicken or pork, I am going to use tofu! Some of you might wonder, the vegetable: tofu? Yes, you are correct!

Tofu is a healthy product made by yellow soy beans. It is very cheap, but with numerous benefits especially to women. This article explains how tofu can become a substitution of meat. Not only for those who want to go on diet, but to be healthy is a golden rule!


Here comes the tofu patty recipe:


You will need:

One brick of tofu


Tofu patty mix- shitake mushroom flavor

  

*****Instructions*****

Step 1: 

Take the tofu out of the box and use kitchen towel to absorb the excess water. Then, mash the tofu with a spoon or your hands until they become small and fluffy texture. 

 Step 2:
Open the tofu patty mix package and pour it into the mashed tofu pile.

Step 3:

Mix the ingredients well. 

Step 4:

Heat up a frying pan and place a hinge of oil in it.

Step 5:

Dive the tofu mixture into small portion. Use a spatula to fry press the tofu patty. Place it on the pan and let it stay still for two and a half to three minutes in medium heat. 

Tip 1: Use the spatula to press the patty allows it to stay in shape and flip it over easily. 

Step 6:

Use the spatula to flip the tofu patty. Let it stay for the around three minutes until it turn golden yellow. 

Step 7: 

Turn off the gas and the tofu patty is ready to serve! 

It takes less than fifteen minutes from preparation to the finish product! This is an easy dish to make and is good to go along with rice, burger buns or sandwiches. 


You may purchase the ingredients in the Asian grocery stores as follow:


Mitsuwa Marketplace
Marukai 
Nijiya Market  
Ranch 99


Feel free to try this tofu patty! Enjoy!




Cheers,


Stephanie 

Hello and Welcome!

Do you enjoy cooking or eager to try out new places when dinning outside home? If your answer is yes, welcome to Comforty Foodie! I am Stephanie Chiu. A graduate student from Hong Kong studying at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. This blog is for class purpose, but I promise it will be an interesting spot to stop by. Comforty Foodie is a place for food lovers to mess up in their kitchen with delicious food! There will be homemade food recipes, cooking tips as well as food recommendations in San Francisco and the Bay Area!

To make this blog more compelling, I will be taking pictures of the homemade food. This will be an easy yet fun experience for all of you to enjoy cooking and of course sharing the mouthwatering food with your friends and family! Let Comforty Foodie be your inspiration and friend!

P.S. Before introducing food recommendations in San Francisco, I have include a signature photo to share- the Golden Gate Bridge to all of you!