Wedding Cake

This is my sort of wedding cake. Nothing says I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you like butchering a big dead animal.

Hungry For

AlwaysHungryNY has an interesting post about what New York chef's are always hungry for. It's interesting to know what the people preparing your food likes to eat on their own time. I like everything. But the two things that I can eat anytime are a bowl of hot steaming Vietnamese pho and crispy salty thin french fries.

edit: I would like to add chicken wings onto that list.

Pierre Herme Macarons

I don't like macarons. I find them overly sweet and flavorless with a texture that is unappealing. But lucky me, my macaron loving friend bought me back a box of these lovelies from Paris hoping to sway my opposition. Oh did she ever! The macarons made in France are of a different animal. Same cookie but the flavor and texture is so much better! Taste and texture of macarons are very important because there's not much going on. It's a very simple cookie that is relatively easy to make but very difficult to make well. There are three components that make a good macaron: 1. Filling 2. Crispy Crust 3. Chewy Texture.

Look at the crust of the PH macaron. You can see that the top has a nice crackly airy crust without being hollow. Underneath that is a chewy toothsome layer.
Now look at all that filling! The ratio of filling to cookie is perfect, there's just enough filling to be on the edge of indulgence without falling off. None of PH's macarons were cloyingly sweet and come in wonderful flavors. Why oh why are we here in the states so cheap with macaron filling when we are so apt to squirt a truck load of jelly filling in a greasy doughnut? Why?
From top to bottom: Rose Lychee, Vanilla, Pistachio, Chocolate Passionfruit, Salted Caramel (there's 3 of these).
They were all delicious but I think my favorite was the pistachio. PH's fillings are so on point. Prevalent yet subtle and definitely not artificial tasting. The whole macaron, filling and outer cookie, just melts together to form something spectacular in your mouth. PH's macarons are definitely sexy.
Thanks JH now I am a convert. I love macarons but specifically I love Pierre Herme macarons. Click on the brochure pictures to see a bigger view of all his flavors and find out where in Paris you can find them.

Welcome Back Mom! Here are some Scallops!

My mom came home from a 3 month business trip yesterday and the first thing she wanted to do was go to the supermarket. Living in New York we take for granted the variety of ingredients we have so easily accessible to us. Walk into our supermarkets and most of the ingredients are fresh and of high quality. Our fruits and vegetables are fattened from fertilizers and steroids. Authentic ethnic ingredients are flown here from all over. Just back from China, my mom said our Chinese supermarkets have more Chinese ingredients than the motherland. That's because we get goods from all of China and not just specific regions like they do there.

My mom was a kid in a candy store picking up items with cool wrappings that she's never tried before. In our cart went tons of meat, some destined for the freezer, bags and bags of fresh veggies and fruit, and some shrimp chips and red bean pops for snacking. Upon walking in my eyes fell upon these beauties:
Fresh Scallops

I don't often see fresh scallops in their shells in the market, let alone still moving! One of these suckers clamped my finger tip! Now I know they are fresh!


I came home and scrubbed the outside with a wire brush. Then I opened the scallops by first sticking a butter knife in and scraping the meat off one side of the shell. After doing this the shell can be opened and the side with no meat cracked off and discarded.


Remove all the weird parts leaving just the scallop behind. Rinse the scallop and shell in cold water to remove any debris and sand. Using your butter knife loosen the scallop from the shell so it will be easier to eat later.


I spooned some thinly chopped garlic, scallions, salt, pepper, and oil on top of each scallop and set it over a steamer. Steam for a minute and a half.

When removing from the steamer make sure not to loose all the juices that are left in the shell because it makes a nice sauce.

Next time I will put some cellophane noodles along with the garlic and scallions before they go in the steamer so it will absorb all of the sweet juices from the scallop.

Let the Ghetto Gourmet teach your Ass how to cook! Shaka!

You must watch this episode of Cookin' With Coolio! Yes Coolio, who sings Gangsta's Paradise! I guess everyone is trying to cash in on the cooking show business. I don't know what is more outrageous, the fact that he keeps his "special seasonings" in dime weed bags or his sous chef/hype man or is it his second rate, big boobied, worn out looking video girls? Nope it's none of these. It's not even him comparing his caprese salad to "your mama's titties". What's outrageous is Coolio now has his own cookbook titled, Cookin' with Coolio: 5 Star Meals at a 1 Star Price! Hear are a few of the more interesting recipes you can find in the book:
Soul Rolls (deep fried spring rolls wrappers with beef or turkey and seasonings)
Finger-Lickin',Rib-Stickin', Fall-Off-The-Bone-and-into-Your-Mouth Chicken
Crybaby Chicken
Chickena la Jarez Marsalala
Peanut Butter Chicken Love
Grilled Italiano Breasteses
Popcorn Steak
Cat Me If You Can Catfish
Jarez Make-It-Rain Peanut Butter Cookies

You can get it now on Amazon for the low low price of $10.88. Better get your copy now before they all get sold out for Christmas!

Check out his other cooking videos!