Home Cookin' and such in Prague!

Greetings from Prague!  I'm here performing concerts with pianist, David Kalhous.  We flew here from JFK last Tuesday, arrived here on Wednesday morning, had a rehearsal with the Plzeň Philharmonic that afternoon, and played our first concert, the Mendelssohn Double Concerto, with them the very next day.  Crazy schedule!  We've had a few days to unwind and rehearse for our next concert at the Jewish Museum in Prague on Wednesday.  On Thursday, I'm headed to Berlin for the weekend and come back to Prague on Monday to meet my mom who is flying in for our last concert on December 1st at the Rudolfinum!  

Don't worry, though!  It hasn't just been music.  I've been taking pictures and notes for you of some of my meals.  I am staying at David's family's house on the outskirts of Prague.  They have been the most generous and welcoming hosts and Eva, David's mother, has made some delicious home cooked meals for us.  I got pictures of some of them.  

Before that, however, we had Delta meals to contend with.....  As I always do, I ordered a special low-sodium meal.  I felt better after eating it than I would have had I had a regular meal.  I read an article a while back that said that because the salt sensors in our mouths are slightly deadened at high altitudes, airplane food is salted quite a bit more aggressively than even restaurant food.  No wonder we feel so horrible after eating that stuff.  Not to mention that they stuff it with butter to knock us out so we don't bother the cabin crew.  

This was some kind of chicken.  Not unpalatable, but definitely not good eats.  So I skipped the very questionable looking warm, soggy egg and cheese croissant stuffed in a condensing plastic bag.  

Czech food is, as you would expect, a lot of meat and potatoes.  One semi-specialty of Czech cuisine (which can also be found sometimes in Germany and Austria) are their houskové knedliky, known as Semmelknoedel in German.  They are bread dumplings made with flour, leavening, eggs, salt, and cubes of old bread.  They're great for sopping up sauces that come in dishes like guláš (goulash), koprová omačka (dill sauce), and svíčkova (vegetable and sour cream sauce).  I haven't had any of those yet, but definitely will once my mom gets here.  I'll post pictures and reports when they happen.

One dinner Eva made us was a kind of chicken goulash with peas and noodles.  Very homey, very comforting.  

 Another dinner was a beautiful roasted chicken with a pan sauce, mini potato pancakes, and broccoli soup. 

For dessert, she made a very traditional Czech sweet - tvarohový koláč.  It is a koláč (sometimes spelled kolache in America; very common in Texas where many Czechs settled) filled with tvaroh, an Eastern European farmer's cheese.  Delicious!

After our concert at Národní dům ve Smichově with the Plzeň Philharmonic and conductor Koji Kawamoto.

There was a lovely reception afterwards at the Caffe President.  They served champagne and very traditional and popular Czech finger food called chlebíčky.  Chleb is the word for bread and chlebíčky is basically any slice of bread with a spread and topping.  Here, we had chlebíčky with smoked salmon and spread, mayo and cheese, tomato and mozzarella, spread and salami, etc.  There was also chicken schnitzel and a pretty tray of desserts.  None were too exciting, but were nice anyway.  

Here is one dessert I'd been wanting to eat since the last time I was here in the Czech Republic.  Called Marlenka, it comes in hazelnut and chocolate flavors.  I got chocolate.  It is thin layers of chocolate cake witha very sweet, milky filling.  It was sadly too sweet...  Not much better than a generic, packaged chocolate cake.  I would like to try the layered honey cake called Medovnik.  I'll report on that later. 



I spent a nice evening tonight at a typical neighborhood Czech pub near the Kalhous house.  Not a single non-Czech to be found.  Yes, I know that you see a glass of wine in the picture and that it should be beer, pivo.  I don't really like beer, but honestly do mean to try some good Czech beer since it's probably the place to get it.  But I really needed to unwind and relax tonight, so I just got my go-to.  Nice atmosphere, jovial and crackling fire. Smells of roasting meat and hot soups wafting in the air.  A great way to spend the evening!

BERLIN - Konditorei Krautzig

Yes, I know, I know.  I'm going wildly out of order!  I'm not adhering to the rules of good blogger-ness.  But let's be positive - at least I'm blogging!  I've decided that I'm not going to put off blogging so that I can follow the rules of going in order and writing nicely and putting out beautiful posts and such, because that means that I will never write any posts.  So for all of you who are miffed by my bad blogger etiquette, many apologies, but you're just going to have to deal with it.  Or stop reading.  .....

ANYWAY-

In a city where almost every block housed a Konditorei, wafting out its sensual, buttery scents, luring unsuspecting passersby into its tempting clutch, it was difficult not to go into every single one to sample their wares!  Unfortunately, as consuming too many of these will eventually, ahem, cause one to go and buy new clothing, I wanted to find the best of what Berlin had to offer, and I think that Konditorei Krautzig, along with Baeckerei Balzer, were my two favorites.  The ladies at both places got to know me pretty well.  I mean, how many other times do you think they've seen a little Asian girl come in and order four or five pastries at a time?  

These displays, very simple and unlike the perfectly coiffed and arranged ones I'd see later in Paris, never failed to turn me into a 4 year old, giddy with delight!  This was my candy store.  Which one to pick?  The gloriously buttery and moist wedge stuffed with berries?  The delicately fried dough with plums?  The mile-high, fluffy cakes layered with pastry, whipped cheese, cream, and fresh fruit?  The dense and dark chocolate squares?  

It was torture.

Even though I knew what lay inside, it was still an exciting moment when I would gently pull the paper back and the intense aroma of butter and sugar would come wafting up.  

RHABARBER STREUSELKUCHEN 

This, along with the Apfel Ballen from Baeckerei Balzer, was the best pastry of my trip to Berlin.  I have never tasted a butter cake this supremely moist, this full of quality, deep butter flavor.  It was just sweet enough and the rhubarb was tender, slightly tangy to offset the richness of the cake.  The streusel on top was dusted with sugar and provided a gentle crunch and crumble and touch of sweetness.  So simple, yet perfectly done in every way.  This was beautiful.  

JOHANNISBEERE 

This red currant brioche was the only serious misstep of either bakery.  The dough was quite dry, the red currants were seriously sour (coming from someone who doesn't like desserts that are too sweet!), and the topping was just weird.  

PFANNKUCHEN

This and the one from Baeckerei Balzer were the best pfannkuchen I had in Berlin.  The one here was filled with the traditional plum.  The dough was perfectly tender and light and the filling was delicious.  One could eat many of these without realizing.  

DRESDNER ______TORTE

I forgot the exact name of this, but I do remember that the bottom was a thin layer of butter cake, cheese and cream filling, and topped off with meringue and sugar.  It was not a light pastry, but it was not overly dense either.  I could have used either a pastry crust on bottom or something a little more texturally different on top, but regardless, it was a tasty treat.  

APFEL BALLEN

I tried the apple filled donut here too, but it was not nearly as incredible as the one at Balzer.  The dough was different from their pfannkuchen dough.  It almost seemed puff-pastry like.  The apples inside were also too sweet.  Of course, this is better than any of the apple donuts I can readily get here in America, but since we're comparing Balzer's and Krautzig's...  

KONDITOREI KRAUTZIG 

10437 Berlin - Schönhauser Allee 126 

Tel.: 030 / 4485163

http://www.konditorei-krautzig.de/cms/index.php

Brunch at Locanda Verde

I had Sunday brunch with my good friend and fellow food fanatic, Brian, a few months ago at Locanda Verde down in Tribeca.  I'd been wanting to go for a long time, but hadn't gotten around to it (there are too many places to try in New York and so little time and money...), so when we were trying to decide on a place to go, I immediately suggested giving LV a call to see how bad the wait was as wait times have been known to go for well over an hour.  We ended up sitting at the bar and only had to wait for ten minutes!  

The room is quite spacious but is always packed.  It exudes a sense of both "trendiness" and twenties era lux, but it certainly didn't make me feel uncomfortable.  We sat at the bar and agonized over what to order.  While we were deciding, we sipped on mimosas and munched on the perfectly airy, fluffy, and slightly oily (in a good way) focaccia.  They were not the dense variety.  Quite the opposite!  They were like pillows and the had the lightest texture and spring.  I could have downed countless squares, but kept my appetite in check and limited myself to one and saved one for later, knowing that I needed to try as many of Karen De Masco's pastries as possible!  

Brian ordered the Lemon Ricotta pancakes with blueberries and meyer lemon curd to start.  They were quite disappointing, as I had heard raves about them and as pancakes are one of my absolute favorite breakfast foods.  They were nothing out of the ordinary, just your basic pancakes, and to be honest, if I hadn't known there was ricotta in them, I wouldn't have been able to tell they were supposed to be ricotta pancakes.  I could also have done with more lemon curd and blueberries - is that seriously supposed to be enough for three pancakes?  

I ordered the 8-Hour Tripe with fried eggs.  This, on the other hand, was awesome.  The tripe was perfectly cooked, very tender, extremely flavorful, rich, with none of the gumminess and "ick" factor that can often happen when tripe is cooked (and cleaned) incorrectly.  The tomato sauce it was cooked in was very rich in flavor and with the fried eggs, made for really quick work.  The whole thing was gone within a few minutes and I mopped up every last bit of that amazing sauce with my hoarded piece of focaccia.   Quite a decadent way to begin my day!

We shared a side order of homemade pork sausage.  

We also shared Karen De Masco's Pastry Misti del Giorno - cinnamon sugar donut, zucchini bread (with pine nuts?), and a muffin I can't remember... I think it was an apple muffin. 

The zucchini bread and muffin were solid, but I've definitely had better and after reading raves about them on other blogs, I was a little let down.  But the cinnamon sugar donut was out of this world.  It was up there in donut perfection.  Perfectly fried, delectable yeast dough.  The textures of both the outside and inside were spot on, the outside having just the right crunch without any greasiness whatsoever, and the inside with all the puffiness and lightness you could wish for and no sacrifice on the beautiful yeasted dough flavor.  It was a magnificent donut.  Next time, I'll just order two donuts.

By this time, I was pretty stuffed, but Brian never disappoints.  He ordered the bucatini all'amatriciana and polished it off in no time.  I tried a bite and it was very good.  Not quite as good as Lupa's in my opinion, but still very good.  

After all that though, the thing that was most on our minds was that incredible cinnamon sugar donut.  We asked our waiter if there were any more and he told us that there were some apple cider donuts available.  One quick glance was all we needed and we replied immediately that we wanted one - I mean, we'd already established ourselves as gluttons, so we figured we might as well go all the way.  :)  

[To give you a taste of Brian's ability for eating - We went to Momofuku Ko for dinner and did the wine/sake/beer pairings.  He had about a third of my dinner, half of all my alcohol, and scored an extra few of those incredible black pepper bacon biscuit amuse bouches that they were giving at the time.  Well, we left the restaurant and were walking back to our respective subways when Brian saw S'MAC.  He considered going in, then changed his mind, and headed to a slice pizza joint, ordered two huge slices, one involving sausage, polished them off, and asked me if I wanted to go get cupcakes!]

This did not disappoint.  This was a cake donut and it was great.  Very crisp on the outside, moist, apple-y, and rich inside.  It was a tad too sweet for me, but it was gone in the blink of an eye.  I do give the edge to the cinnamon sugar donut, but would gladly eat any of these donuts any day.  

I missed a few things I wanted to try here and definitely need to get back to try the Sheep's Milk Ricotta with truffle honey and burnt orange toast, have more donuts, the polenta waffle, and sample some of the desserts.  

LOCANDA VERDE

377 Greenwich St
(corner of N.Moore and Greenwich)
New York, NY 10013 | Map it
ph: (212) 925-3797

http://www.locandaverdenyc.com/index.php

BERLIN - Bäckerei Balzer

Hi again!  I know, I know, it's been a long time.  Much longer than I thought it would be.  I'M SORRY.  At least this absence hasn't spanned into years - just a few weeks!  This post will not be super long, but what better way to begin a recap of my insane trip than with a post of one of my two favorite bakeries in Berlin - Bäckerei Balzer!

Before heading to Berlin, I had done some homework on where to find the best, truly German style pastries and baked goods. I really wanted to have the classic pfannkuchen (known only in Berlin as pfannkuchen, elsewhere in Germany as Berliner, and over here as jelly doughnuts, but soooooo much better...), cheese pastries, streuselkuchen, and the like. There were a few French patisseries recommended, but I was going to Paris - better try the German pastries and Konditorei at the source!

Bäckerei Balzer was everything I'd hoped for and more. Truly incredible and comforting old-world pastries made by your very own German omas. I felt transported back to another time. Very simple, bare bones place, but full of warmth, conviviality, community, and of course, mountains of butter and sugar. There seemed to be quite a few regulars who would chat with the ladies behind the counter while picking up their treats. While they first eyed me, a small Asian girl with a suspicious looking camera (gasp!), with more than a little trepidation, by the end of my trip, the ladies and I would also be chatting up a storm about what was good that day, what ingredients were in which pastry, how much I loved the bakery, etc. It's the kindof neighborhood place that one always imagines, though if it were in mine, I would have to permanently switch to elastic waistbands and baggy shirts.

Happiness stacked up on a wall shelf, lining a display case....  It was pure torture every morning trying to limit my purchase to only three goodies.  I made a decent dent in their offerings though.

My very own German oma packing up my sweets, hehehe.  

My Day 1 purchases - Pfannkuchen, Aprikose Käsekuchen, Apfel-Schokoladekuchen

Pfannkuchen - the best jelly donut ever.  Light, barely sweet yeast dough, not the slightest bit greasy, hugging a gorgeous filling of fresh strawberries and rhubarb (the classic filling is plum) that were just sweet enough and let the flavors of the fruit shine.  It was truly an extraordinary ordinary pastry.  

An inside look at the Pfannkuchen

Apfel-Schokoladekuchen - I honestly didn't expect this to be as amazing as it was.  The apples were cooked perfectly, not too sweet, and were topped with a moist, buttery cake, both yellow and chocolate.  The chocolate cake and chocolate glaze on top were bittersweet, almost not sweet at all, and provided a great partner to the sweetness of the moist cake and apples.  The more I ate of this cake, the more I loved it.  I've never had anything like this before.  

Aprikose-Käsekuchen - While this was quite good, it definitely did not measure up tothe others. The flavor of the cheese filling fell kind of flat. It could have used somelemon zest or brightness to it, the flavor being one-dimensional. The bottom crust was also just okay.

Käse-Schnecken - The cheese filling here also had the same problem as the apricot pastry. The brioche dough was very nice, but the lackluster cheese filling made for a less than excellent pastry.

Apfel Ballen - This was, hands down, the best pastry of my trip to Berlin.  It was absolutely incredible.  The dough was the same beautiful yeast dough, just barely sweet, soft and luxuriously plush. The apple filling was just the right texture, cooked just the right amount, just sweet enough.  And the exterior...  It was fried so perfectly, great crunch, great flavor to the crust (couldn't tell what kind of fat they fried it in, but it was amazing), and the sugar on the outside added even more texture.  Not only was it the best pastry of my Berlin trip, it is the best doughnut I've ever had.  

Drool.....

Rosinenkuchen - A beautiful yeasted dough, very moist, a little more sturdy than the dough in the pfannkuchen.  Very buttery and studded with plump and juicy raisins.  It had a sugar coating on one side and the pastry was almost too sweet, but still so delicious!

Rosinen-Käsestrudel - This one fell a little flat. The cheese filling had the same problem as the other cheese pastries. The strudel pastry was a little soggy as well.

Even though I have been critical of the cheese pastries here, everything here is delicious and obviously made the right way with fresh and good quality ingredients. There is something wonderfully homey and rustic about German baked goods that I misssometimes in French pastries, but I couldn't have one without the other. If you're going to Berlin, this is one place not to miss.

More to come! I promise!!

Bäckerei Balzer, Sophienstraße 30/31, Mitte

Going to Europe in a week!!

I guess my title says it all - yes, I'm headed to Europe in a week.  I'll be there for just about three weeks, spending two of them in Berlin, one in Paris, and a few days here and there.  This has become a semi-tradition for me, this summertime solo trip to Europe.  I did it first back in 2008.  I think I may have even still been blogging back then.  I went to Rome, Siena, Montalcino, Cinque Terre, Czech, Amsterdam, Berlin, and London.  On my own.  Last year, I was supposed to go, but my flight got cancelled after waiting for 9 hours at JFK (!!!) and I think after the whirlwind summer of festivals, I just couldn't deal, so I got my refund and stayed home.  


Every time I tell people I'm going to Europe, they usually get smacked with two surprises.  Their first surprise comes when they find out that, no, this time I'm not traveling for concerts, I'm going just for fun.  Their second surprise comes when they find out that I'm going on my own.  I suppose it is a little strange to be doing something like this, but my rationale is that when or if I ever get married and maybe even have kids one day, I'll never be able to just pick up on a whim and go somewhere and explore for an extended period of time.  I've always dreamt of living in Europe for a while, and even though I'm too chicken to actually go do it, I guess this is my way of checking it out.  Maybe next time I should go somewhere more exotic, though the solo woman traveler thing might not be such a good idea.  Taiwan or China?  Australia/NZ?  


Regarding the whole solo traveling thing - I have to admit to you that it's a bit daunting, more so this time than the first time I did it, when I wasn't afraid at all and was absolutely relishing the thought of it.  The first eight days of my 2008 trip were spent roaming Italy on trains and buses.  Unlike most other countries in Europe, I have zero friends in Italy, so that meant that I was truly alone for those eight days.  On top of that, while I could speak enough French, German, and Czech to get by (even if I spoke Dutch, they would refuse to speak it to me because their English is so amazing!), I could barely speak any Italian.  Most of my exchanges consisted of "ummmm..." followed by a mad flipping of pages in my Italian phrasebook and the most embarrassing butchery of Italiano.  I'm so used to either being able to speak enough to get by or at least being with someone who can translate, so it was unnerving and most of all, really irritating!  I mean, imagine having to look up every single sentence you said, ALL DAY EVERY DAY for a week.  If it weren't for the espresso and gelato, I might have seriously considered ditching the Italian boot(s) for a pair of comfy sneakers...  It was around day 5 that I started to realize that I was craving conversation and human contact beyond grazie, gelato, pasta, and piu vino, and that was when a loneliness of the sort I'd never experienced before set in.  Mind you, I was still having an incredible time, but every once in a while, I'd be engulfed in this wave of almost primal yearning, quite startling in its depth.  It must be an intensely embedded human desire, this need for companionship and conversation, something that most of us don't really think about often.  


Just about when I was about to become that person who talks to themselves on the street, the two girls from Washington State who were sharing my Cinque Terre apartment with me left a note on the kitchen table inviting me to have dinner with them that night.  (I still have that note...)  The reaction that followed was almost physical, that's how thrilled I was, and for the rest of the day, I was amazed by how much I was looking forward to dinner.  Looking back now, this may be part of the reason why my experience in Italy wasn't as incredible as I thought it would be.  I think Italy, more so than many other places, is meant to be shared.  The spirit of the people who live there is in that same vein of conviviality and community and exchange.  Take solo dining, for instance.  I can much more easily imagine myself enjoying eating solo in a fine dining establishment in France or at a cafe in Holland or a pub in Germany than at a meal in Italy.  I think that the warm and jovial spirit of sharing and communion with others is a huge part of the Italian experience and on that last solo trip there, I missed that.  That's why I hope that the next time I go to Italy, it's with someone.  I may take my mom there when I take her on her first European trip this December.  I would love that.


This time, however, I will be among many friends.  In Berlin, I'm staying with a good friend and have quite a few friends and acquaintances there, while in Paris, I will also be staying with a friend and have a few friends there as well.  I've been to both cities before, so this isn't really a trip about seeing things.  It's more about being and about experiencing. 


I have been diligently preparing, especially in two areas.  I bet you can guess one.  Food!  I have a huge list of things I am going to try and places I'm going to go.  One big project I want to attempt is a big pastry roundup in Paris, perhaps trying two different pastries every day and logging my experiences here.  I may will have to buy new clothes.  Would any of the Parisian patisseries like to sponsor my new wardrobe?  I'm definitely going to try a few millefeuille and also try to get a croissant or pain au chocolat every day...  Too many things to try!  And you can't forget the German baked goods like pflaumen streuselkuchen, käsetorte, apfelstrudel.  Or the street food - currywurst, doner kebab.  


The other is language.  I've been teaching myself German on and off all year and have been just starting to review my French, so we'll see how that goes.  I'm excited about immersing myself and really improving while I'm there, though I'll more like end up doing and eating things that I don't mean to as a result.  


This is probably the last post before I get to Berlin, but get ready for some food-filled posts from the old country - yay!

The "Thomas Keller Rocks My World" Dinner Party - 6/18/2010

How many odes have already been written and sung (and blogged) about Thomas Keller?  Meals of a lifetime at French Laundry and Per Se, casual simplicity perfected at Bouchon Bistro and Ad Hoc, pure unadulterated sin made tangible with butter, sugar, and flour at Bouchon Bakery.  And mind you, that doesn't even include the raves and accolades about his cookbooks, French Laundry, Bouchon, Ad Hoc at Home.  

So why am I joining the herd of sycophants, you ask?  Well, because I'm pretty damn proud of what came out of my tiny New York kitchen on Friday, June 18, 2010 and I want my mom my hundreds of devoted readers to know.  I consider myself a pretty decent cook and baker, but TK's recipes made me stop stock still and marvel at that glorious bite of food in my mouth that I  supposedly made.  (Channeling Gusteau from Ratatouille, "Anyone can cook!", hehehe)

I invited two good friends over to be my guinea pigs honored guests for the evening - Thanks, Valerie and Michael.  :D

I had fun drawing up the menu.  Harhar.  Sorry.  Can't help myself.

 Other than the dessert and the appetizers, everything was TK based.

Home-cured steelhead trout

Cured with dill and citrus.  This is one of the most simple things to make and it's always a huge hit when I have dinner parties.  The amount it cost me to make this would have probably purchased about 5 small pieces of store bought cured salmon.  Why anyone buys it when it's so $$$ is beyond me....

Thomas Keller's recipe for Gnocchi Parisienne

This is an amazing recipe.  I don't feel comfortable writing it out on my blog, but I got it from here.  It's pretty simple and I love that you can make it ahead of time and freeze it.  

Gnocchi Parisienne is not traditional gnocchi in that it doesn't involve potatoes at all.  It's basically a choux pastry dough (into which he adds some Dijon mustard, emmentaler (and gruyere!), and herbs) that you pipe into boiling water.  After letting it cool, you then either freeze it or pan fry it in some butter to get a crisp, rich crust that gives way to a fluffy, light, and incredibly smooth interior that melts into pure bliss in your mouth.  What a marriage of textures!  I plated mine with chopped fresh parsley and extra grated cheese on top.  This recipe is definitely going in the books and one that I will make again and again.

You pipe the dough out of a pastry bag or a regular ziploc bag with a small bit of the corner snipped out and let it boil (in salted water!  always salt the water!) until they float to the top.

Let those babies dry on a cookie sheet.

Pan fry, garnish, and prepare to be worshipped for the rest of the night.

A main dish that didn't seem difficult or time-consuming that so many people raved about was the Sea Bass with Saffron-Vanilla Sauce from The French Laundry Cookbook.  The flavor combination was so unique and I also somehow had both saffron and vanilla bean in my pantry, so I had to give it a whirl.

First, you make mussel stock for the saffron-vanilla sauce.  I grimaced when I first saw that, thinking that it would be some long and involved process, but it was really nothing much more than quickly boiling a pound of mussels with some white wine, water, and herbs for a few minutes.  One of the easiest stocks I've made!  

Yay for quick and easy mussel stock!

You then simmer the mussel stock with saffron and vanilla bean until it's reduced down to a syrupy glaze, about two tablespoons or so, and then, while constantly whisking, add some heavy cream...

... and then some butter.  I won't ruin the recipe for you by telling you how much butter goes into this, but let's just say that the pat of butter there had a lot of friends.  :)

That's it!

As Chilean sea bass is not sustainable and very endangered and was the only sea bass available, I chose wild halibut instead.  I pan fried them in a little more butter...

.... and served them with the saffron-vanilla sauce on top and added my own accompaniment of home-roasted red peppers quickly marinated in some vinegar and salt.  

Let me just say that the saffron-vanilla sauce (a version of beurre monte) was swoonworthy, and it's not because of me - it's the recipe.  For those of you with a trained eye, I stupidly "broke" the beurre monte as I was reheating the sauce.  I forgot to keep an eye on it and since I heated it up without stirring it, the butter "broke" from the rest of the sauce.  I had been so careful up to that point and had created a really decent beurre monte!!!  :(  But the sauce was still incredible.  It was all at once luxurious, exotic, and heady and elicited swoons, total body slumps, gasps, and countless eye rolls (mostly on my part, hehe).  Thanks, Tom.

Valerie and Michael about to dig in!  They are so awesome...  :)

I also made individual peach-blueberry sour cream streusel tarts

One of them got slightly overdone and I took that one, hence the ugly picture.  I also like my ice cream on the side as I can't stand it when the ice cream turns into soup if you don't inhale the dessert in 3 seconds.  Haagen Dazs strawberry it was.

All of you out there who are skeptical about the hype surrounding TK and his recipes, I can say without a doubt that it's not hype.  Every recipe I've tried has been superb.  Some of them sound deceptively simple, others labor-intensive.  No matter the case, it will be truly worth your time.  I made the creamed summer corn recently (one of the easiest recipes!) and the sum of the parts was really more than I could have ever imagined.  GO GET THE BOOKS and start cooking!  Just wait - within a few weeks, you'll have more friends than a guy who just won the mega jackpot Powerball.