Homemade cocoa mochi! A review

I didn't realize that it was possible to make mochi at home till a friend brought homemade mochi to a Christmas gift exchange. The mochi wasn't as good as commercial mochi, but it was near -- just needed a few tweaks to the recipe. Since it was Valentine's Day last week, I decided to make a special treat for the ocassion.

I bought a box of mochiko (sweet rice flour) and it happened to have a very simple recipe on the box. I had fancier plans involving mochi filled with red bean, but it was late and I wanted something that was safe. The website actually shows a slightly different recipe, but it is mostly similar to what I used.

Box recipe: used 6 tbs cocoa
I also made my own modification: used 1 3/4 cup sugar.

Firstly some warnings:

#1. this 1lb box of flour makes a ton of mochi dough. If you don't have a big bowl that can be microwaved, you should really half or quarter the recipe. The mochi dough will bubble out of the bowl if it is too small, and make a huge mess in the microwave.

#2. if you have weak arms like me, you should use an electric hand mixer to help you mix the mochiko and water. It makes a much smoother batter.

#3. cooked mochi dough is a pain to wash. You need plenty of running hot water, and a brush.

#4. the microwaved mochi will seem very stiff, but it's okay coz you need to add a bunch of cocoa syrup. I suggest pouring in the syrup a little at a time. This time, I used a spoon to mix because the dough was too stiff for my cheap hand mixer.

#5: the texture of the dough is not suitable for making the type of mochi with filling. Maybe at some special stage when it is semi-cooled, it might be of the right texture. But it mainly pours like cake batter when you're done stirring.

Other tips:

#1. I used parchment paper to line my 13x9 inches baking tray, before greasing with some olive oil.

#2. Oil your knife before cutting the mochi.

#3. Store mochi in an airtight container -- I used Saran wrap before putting the lids on my boxes. You don't want dry and hard mochi the next day.

The taste test:

The mochi was just sweet enough, and mildly chocolately. After dusting with cocoa, it was not sticky. When you bite into it, it's rather soft and again, it does not stick to your teeth. My colleagues really liked it.

Future modifications:

#1. I cut the sugar slightly, but I want to cut it a little more. I intend to drop the sugar to 1 1/2 cups.

#2. I found the cocoa flavor to be kind of weak. I would try to add another 2 tb of cocoa, making it a total of 8tb.

#3. I like a slightly chewier/springier mochi. I think the 3 cups of liquid that was mixed with the flour was absolutely necessary. I think I might reduce the 1 cup water from the chocolate syrup to 1/2 cup and see how it goes.

PS: Total cost of the great mochi project: ~$4.

What to do with old Kimchi

It was a few years after I started eating kimchi (at restaurants) before I realized that kimchi is an actively evolving food -- it is a fermenting vegetable. I bought my first jar of kimchi and realized that it turned a little more sour and soggy a few days in the fridge. It was initially confusing trying to understand what I can or cannot do with kimchi. Here's a summary:

Fresh Kimchi: suitable for eating straight, and making kimbap (Korean sushi rolls). Beware if you're making kimchi kimbap and taking it in your lunchbox, because it will continue to ferment at room temperature (very quickly!).

Old Kimchi: stirfry with pork (and tuna), fried rice, kimchi soup with pork, kimchi pancake (pa-jeon)

"Cheeseboard" in Boston

One of the few icons in the Berkeley eating scene, besides Chez Panisse, is the more accessible Cheeseboard Pizza. It's located in the so-called gourmet ghetto in North Berkeley on Shattuck, and sells only one type of pizza each day (click here to check for the pizza of the day). Slices are sold at $2.50 each, and they usually give you a tiny sliver with each order. That means if you're buying a slice each for you and your friend, you should make 2 separate orders. They also usually have a jazz band playing live on weekends.















Cheeseboard Upper Crust

The Cheeseboard sells my favorite pizza period. They used to say that at Cal, it was between Fat Slice and Blondie's -- yeah right, for 2nd place maybe.

I finally found a suitable Cheeseboard substitute in the Boston area last week. Since D(iscovery) day, I've been there 4 times in 7 days. They have been around since 2001, and they are actually a chain (the Cheeseboard is unique, and a co-op). I've seen the store on Newbury Street, but I never actually tried them till they opened the store in Harvard Square.

Upper Crust sells thin pizza, and they sell more than 1 type of pizza each day. I have only tried the slices of the day so far, and I like them. For $3.50, you get a slice the size of 2 regular slices. The food is fresh and tasty and cheap. Plus it allows me to nourish my Norcal nostalgia.

Differences (for people who care to know):
1. Pizza at the Cheeseboard has a slightly thicker crust, that is baked till hard and crispy. Upper Crust's slices are thin and floppy, allowing you to fold them (New York style). They have an excellent edge that is crunchy though.

2. The Cheeseboard sells only 1 type of pizza each day, so the pizza needs to be friendly to all, aka vegetarian. At least I think that is how they work. I've never eaten a slice with meat on it. Upper Crust puts meat on their slice of the day some times. On those days, vegetarians can order from the rest of their menu.

3. The Upper Crust sells wings. The Cheeseboard has expanded to include a daily salad, and a daily dessert since my college days, but those are sort of complementary. I think the Upper Crust was trying to appeal to the football watching crowd, although they do serve salads.

4. The Cheeseboard has live jazz. The Upper Crust plays contemporary pop cds.

Conclusoin: The Cheeseboard comes first for me. Upper Crust can take its place above Fat Slice and Blondie's, but I don't think it rivals the best.

Korean Fried Chicken in Boston

I first found out about Korean fried chicken from a couple of New York Times articles. It sounded delicious and exciting. Unfortunately I didn't know where to go in Boston to get some. By accident, I discovered a tiny restaurant in Allston that sells a version of Korean fried chicken.

The restaurant is called Color, and it's at 166 Harvard Ave. It's a tiny place with about 8 tables, and a great appetizer menu. I first discovered this place when I asked a Korean friend where I could get soondae (I saw it in a drama). Soondae was an acquired taste for me. The fried chicken was an instant revelation.

These days besides the Color fried chicken, other dishes I like are the ra-bokki, kimchi pancake, and soondae. I also highly recommend the seafood soft tofu chigae. I do not recommend the jap chae, or the seafood stew over rice, or the fried calamari. The stirfried calamari is awesome though.

I like the casual ambience of the place (it is also a bolba cafe), but some people find the bright colors annoying.
I guess it would only be right to update this: you can find the famous NYC "Bonchon" korean fried chicken at this bar/restaurant place called Privus which is around the corner from Color. I don't think it was as good as the Bonchon chicken in NYC, and it just didn't feel like it was worth twice the price of what I paid at Color. I think I like the homeliness of the food at Color.

Golden raspberries

I first saw golden raspberries in a New York Times video clip, featuring Alice Waters shopping at a farmer's market. I had never seen golden raspberries prior to that.

At the farmer's market today, I saw some golden raspberries, and I had to try some. I bought those, and some blueberries. Posting pictures for your visual pleasure.

Unusual food of the day

Rind of the watermelon.

I was at the microwave warming up my lunch when I noticed an unusual vegetable in my colleague's lunchbox. It looked like small slivers of peach, an inch long, 1/8'' thick, yellow with a red tinge on the inner curve. I was pretty certain that it wasn't peach though, so I asked him.

He told me that it was watermelon. After scooping out the delicious red part, you are left with the rind which is normally discarded. If you took off the hard green exterior though, you have that white/red transition part that is usually hard and not very tasty. She sliced that part up and probably just stirfried it.

I'm going to have to look this up when I have a little more time. They are Chinese, so I assume it might be a Chinese dish even though I've never heard of it.

Best mango bubble drink is in Chinatown

I usually go to Chinatown for a meal if I'm downtown catching a movie, simply because I don't know where else to go. I've recently decided on my favorite drink to sneak into the theaters: the mango bubble from a shop simply named "Vietnamese sandwich and bubble tea" located on ~50 Harrison Ave in Chinatown.

The mango bubble comes with mango juice, mango chunks and a scoop of mango ice cream blended together and poured over tapioca pearls with a good chewy consistency. At $3.50, it's the same price as most places, but it's way more value for money. This is the only place I've found (so far), that doesn't give me a fruity syrup and ice and calls it a mango bubble.

If you know any other place that serves real fruit and stuff in their bubble teas, let me know. Thanks!

PS. I do not recommend the bubble tea in the Porter Exchange Mall -- the pearls are squashy, not chewy. They probably used the instant version, which is just wrong.