Each year the NASFT holds the Fancy Food Show for food professionals. It is not open to the public, but to caterers, restauranteurs, food suppliers, grocers, etc. "The National Association for the Specialty Food Trade is a not-for-profit business trade association established in 1952 to foster trade, commerce and interest in the specialty food industry." The winter show is held in San Francisco and the summer one in New York City.

The event spans three days. Cakegrrl Kristy and I decided to go on Sunday so as to avoid weekday traffic and parking issues. We spent the whole day there and boy, was it packed! Not only with tons of visitors, but with tons of exhibitors trying to get their foods out there.

The show also tries to focus on upcoming food trends. What is gonna be the cupcake or pomegranate for the next year or decade? Which ethnic food is suddenly going to take off in popularity? For established companies, they show their newest products. For new companies, there is the opportunity to introduce their product to thousands of new potential customers. It's usually in this last group that you will spot the trends.

What trends did we seem to see? There was a section of the exhibit that focused on natural and organic vendors. It was here that we definitely saw a lot of gluten free foods. I also saw a lot of natural low calorie sweeteners too. That would mostly be agave and stevia.

In the general food area we saw a lot of ethnic quick serve food items. I would say that Indian food is definitely getting the spotlight with Asian close behind. I asked most of these vendors if they would send me samples to try and then blog about later. Hopefully they will follow through so I can play.

There was also gads of chocolate purveyors, cheeses, and lots of smoked/preserved meats. I was in heaven with trying all the fresh prosciutto and serrano. They would be carving it right off the bone and it was SSSOOOOOOOOO good, buttery, and salty. That was my favorite thing to sample.


Here was one of the chocolate vendors with Mexican spiced chocolate cakes for making cocoa. She was using a molinillo to froth the drink. I asked her why they used that tool and she explained that the Indians believed there was a spiritual element to the froth created and so this was a whisk-like device to help create the froth. My lesson for the day.


Keeping with chocolate, here was a chocolate sculpture being created by a student of a chocolate academy.


This section was where vendors could display their "What's Hot" products. It was concentrated in one small area so we could go through and circle vendor numbers on a sheet and hopefully they will send us further information and samples of their products.


And now I have to share the "Stupid Award" for the show. There were several vanilla companies there showing all sorts of vanilla products such as vanilla infused salt, sugar, syrups, etc. Many were giving vanilla beans away as samples. Kristy and I approached a vendor handing out the beans and talking to our winners of the award. These two women took the vanilla beans and were asking what to do with them while sticking the tips in their mouths like they were some sort of Twizzler! The guy was trying to explain how they were used in cooking, like scraping out the seeds from inside the pods or putting the beans in sugar or alcohol to make your own sugar or extract. These women were clueless as they chomped on their vanilla beans! Kristy and I were like, "Who let these fools into the show? Do they just let anyone in?"

Some exhibitors were very generous. One vendor had a spectacular array of gourmet sausages made with duck, lamb, and other great meats. I figured if I was gonna buy any product it was here and so asked about the price. The guy said they weren't selling any, only displaying. He said they give it away on Tuesday at show close because they wouldn't be able to take these meat products back or sell them. I told him I was from Sacramento and only here for the day. So he gave me a package of lamb sausage right then! At an Australian booth I had a conversation about some of the wild spices coming from the Outback. He gave me a scone mix made with some grain from there. We also got gnocchi from one of the exhibitors in the Italy area. There were also some of the stingy exhibitors who practically slapped your hand if you reached for something. Not a good way to make an impression.

We ended the day with very sore feet and lots of samples and literature to take home. I had three bags full of heavy stuff. It took me quite a while to sort through the things only to realize that I went a little overboard grabbing things I really don't need to be eating right now. But I think I'll just keep these for my movie going snacks and leave it at that. I look forward to trying some of things I actually need to cook, like spices, rubs, mixes, and sauces.

I look forward to going again next year and keep my fingers crossed that I get samples in the mail.

I've mentioned in past blogs about Twitter and some of the things that can be done with it as a business tool. Today was the first Sacramento Treasure Hunt (STH) done entirely via Twitter. And I was the number one finder of the treasure - although I didn't win it.

Matt, the creator of the hunt, does the marketing for the local Jiffy Lubes. He worked to get a bunch of other business sponsors for the first STH. Some of the prize contributors were: Round Table Pizza, Quick Quack Car Wash, Jiffy Lube, Rivercats, Kirkwood, and others. His plan is to have treasure hunts a few times a year and bring in more sponsors and make prizes even bigger.

Here's how it worked. Every weekday for a week Matt announced a clue via Twitter. You had to collect the clues and keywords each day. There was no need to go anywhere or buy anything. On Saturday morning he gave the final clue. The first ten people to arrive got a chance at the treasure chest. People from #11-99 would get some sort of voucher/gift card for solving the hunt.

The first ten who arrived were then given each a key to try to open the chest. So even though I was the first to arrive at 9:07 (last clue was 9:00), I still had to wait and try my luck at the treasure chest. Unfortunately, I did not win it. The runners up each got a gift bag with prizes. In this I got a free Jiffy Lube voucher, pizza voucher, Rivercats box seat tickets, and car wash vouchers. We then all enjoyed the cake (above) that Cakegrrl made.

So here are the clues and how I figured out to be the first person there.

Monday Clue: Channel Deirdre Fitzpatrick is on. Channel 3
Keywords "Quick Quack Car Wash"

Tuesday: Clue 2: A Nobel Prize Winner. marconi
Keyword "Sacramento".
I knew this clue would stall some people. Most people don't know that the major streets in the Arden area are named after inventors. All I did was go to the Nobel prize sight and look for Fulton, Watt, Howe, and Marconi since I knew it had to be one of them. Sure enough, Marconi won in 1909.

Wed: Jersey number of Zach Schrader. 4
Keywords "Round Table Pizza".
By this clue I started to look to see if there were any clusterings of the sponsor businesses near each other along Marconi. The best was in Carmichael. At this time I tweeted to say I was feeling pretty good about figuring it out.

Thurs: Clue: Where people watch.
Keywords "River Cats"
This is the clue that threw all of us. It was meant to. Matt meant that people watch their cars being worked on at Jiffy Lube.

Fri. clue: Synonym for street Avenue
(Marconi Ave.)Keywords: Jiffy Lube
I was still not sure. I did look at Google Maps to try to figure out what could be on Marconi that people watch. I also looked at addresses with 3 and 4 in them. But 3400 Marconi is in the middle of the stretch going by the golf course.

Saturday morning I got up and went to the Home Depot on Howe and then to the Starbucks at Town & Country to wait for the last clue at 9 a.m. Sure enough it was:

Sat clue: the square root of 2209 = 47
So I figured 3447 was the Jiffy Lube at the corner of Marconi and Watt. Remember, I had scoped out the Google map and so I knew there was a Jiffy Lube there. Sure enough, I was there at 9:07 and I was the first person!


We had to wait another hour and half to get 9 people there to try the chest. It took the seventh person to open it. The winner was a teenage girl and her mom. The girl had played all week but couldn't win because she was under 18, so she brought her mom. She got $1500 worth of prizes including $500 in AMEX checks and a Flip camera. I'm glad she won although I really felt I should have been given a First To Arrive prize.

View keys being tried on this Youtube video.

Matt says the next hunt will be in March. Now that the first one has been done and we are all blogging or tweeting about it, it will get bigger and draw more sponsors. I'll bet I'll be in the top ten next time too.

Update: 3/13/10
Dad and his new girlfriend were in town and so I took them to Ella. They opted for the $50 deal - entree and bottle of wine for two. The entree for the week was beef bourguignon and included a side cheese au gratin. They enjoyed it very much. I also introduced them to the bone marrow appetizer I mention below. New for them and they liked it too. But I can't say enough about my entree. It was a lamb dish with a stinging nettles puree with other root vegetables and it was FABULOUS! It was heaven in my mouth! I am now officially in love with Ella.


Original post: 1/12/10
Every January there is Sacramento Dine Downtown week. The idea was to take a traditionally slow month and pump up the dining attendance by offering a week of three-course meals for only $30 at many of the most popular restaurants downtown. Aside from generating business, it's a great way for people to try places they've been wanting to try. It's been so successful over the last few years that they expanded it to be ten days so that it overlaps two weekends. It's also being copied by other areas of town. Roseville will hold theirs soon.

I'm always on top of it and remembered to look up the dates and the restaurant lists back in November before it got publicized and places filled up. I wanted to choose somewhere I hadn't been yet and had been dying to go to - Ella. At the time the menus were not posted. As we approached the date, I took a peek of the other restaurants and all of the now posted menus. I was happy with my selection. Most of the restaurants keep to the usual fare to appeal to the masses - salmon, chicken, pasta, beef. OK, but boring. Ella had entree choices of duck and skate wing. That's what I want - different choices!

As I entered the restaurant my first impression was good. It was lovely with muted lighting and attractive, light decor. They had a coat check by the door, which was nice amenity. But one of my favorite things about it...the noise level! Because they use a lot of fabrics and sound absorbing materials, there wasn't the loud clamor that you hear in so many restaurants today. We could hold conversations without shouting! Why can't more restaurant designers get a clue? Brick, cement, and hard wood bounce sound to create a cacophony of conversations and serving noise.

We were thrilled to be seated at one of the kitchen tables, seen above. These tables are right by the kitchen service so that you can watch the chefs and staff at work. They are also just plain, nice, big tables. I also observed their private room for special parties and it looked lovely with a lot of drapery.

We had come for the prix fixe menu but also took a glance at the regular menu. Dangerous! There were so many tempting items. But the $30 deal was good too. In the end we ordered the prix fixe menu and added an appetizer from the regular menu. Many also chose to do the wine pairing.

I must say our waiter was attentive and talented in steering selections. He was suggesting the skate wing to which Ryan whispered, "they must be running low on duck". Whether that was true or not, he did sell it well, especially since he described how it was prepared and how it was a specialty item rarely seen on restaurant menus. It created the curiosity for one to try it. He also described the wine pairings explaining that the restaurant had gotten a fabulous deal on cases of these particular wines and they were sharing the cost savings with the diners. According to him, you were getting about $45 worth of quality wine for only $15. At the end I asked Ryan how the wine had fared and he said that he had been impressed with each glass.

So let's get to the food. First I'll repeat something I've said in posts before - a restaurant gets extra brownie points for introducing me to new foods and experiences that I haven't had before. Ella scored twice!


The first new thing for me was our extra appetizer we ordered from the regular menu. It was the bone marrow served with toastettes. I have had very limited experience with marrow mostly because I don't really come in contact with large enough pieces of bone. They took a beef bone and sliced it in half. Then it was broiled and served with a mixture of seasoning, capers, and parsley to spread onto the toast. Above is how it was served, but you can't see the bone. Below is the after photo. It was delicious! And rich! I could easily go and meet friends for drinks and appetizers at the bar and be absolutely content with this.



The first course from our prix fixe dinner included a choice of soup or salad. Most of us opted for the cream of carrot soup with creme fraiche. It was quite a generous ladleful and I knew if I ate all of it I would never make it through the meal. I ate about a third and enjoyed the creaminess without really sensing that I was eating carrots. It's probably because carrots are one of the vegetables that truly do change flavor with cooking. That's a big reason why some people like raw carrots but can't stand cooked and vice versa.


When it came to the entrees our choices were a duck confit or skate wing. The waiter successfully convinced most of us to try the skate wing. It was pan roasted with a mustard beurre blanc and served with potatoes. This was the second new thing for me. I mean, really, this is not a fish that I would normally think to eat...


But it was a very delicious fish. It was mild, soft, and buttery. With the beurre blance it was very rich and delicate. Everyone was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed it very much.


The dessert was choice of pear tartlet or sorbet trio. I'm not big on cold desserts in the winter time so I opted for the pear tartlet even though I don't care for pears. The pastry was nice and flaky and the caramel sauce nice and creamy. I felt that the pears could have been cooked a bit more. Ryan said he liked that it wasn't overly sweet. We all loved the thickly whipped cream.


The sorbets were delicious as well. The lightest was the pomegranate. The dark red is the blood orange, which was my favorite for just the right balance of sweetness and boldness of flavor. The last was a super tart Meyer lemon. It had a real pucker factor.

We all left feeling very content with our meals. I felt that Ella did a fabulous job presenting a varied prix fixe menu for those more adventurous diners during Dine Downtown week. Their service and food were superb and I felt that I got real value for my money. Ella has joined the top of my dining list now and I look forward to going again to try some of the other interesting menu items they offer.

above: Appetizer Combo

1/11/10 This is a repost because the food bloggers all gathered on Sunday for the buffet at Udupi. I didn't care to improve on this already good review, so I'm just reposting for those that might be new. Eileen mentions our gathering on her blog here.


Original post:
I like meat. It's rare for me to have a lunch or dinner without some sort of meat. Even when I have salad, I like it to have chicken, salmon, shrimp. Something. So I'm really not gonna jump at the chance to go to a vegetarian restaurant.

The reasons I went to Udupi? It's gotten rave reviews from everyone I know who has been there. Then my Meetup group has a lot of vegetarian members who have asked for more vegetarian friendly restaurants. So, I scheduled a dinner there.

Udupi is located on Sunrise Boulevard in Rancho Cordova in the same shopping center as 24 Hour Fitness. The decor is simple and sparse. There are a lot of tables and they easily fit our request for a table for ten. They were also doing a good business for a Monday night during a down economy.


I decided to split with someone else and so we ordered a couple of appetizers and then the Udupi Special combo. We probably could have cut out the appetizers all together, or, at least, ordered only one. The dishes were very generous and everyone ended up sharing with everyone else because there was so much! Our first appetizer was the Papri Chaat, flour chips with garbanzos and potatoes flavored with mint and tamarind chutney. We aren't too knowledgeable about Indian food and so were a little surprised that it was a cold appetizer. But it was yummy. I just skipped the garbanzos and ate the chips and potatoes. I loved the chutney sauce. The amount was enough to feed a crowd. We also ordered the veggie samosas which were quite large. Their version was filled with a mashed potato versus a chunky potato like some serve. (I prefer chunky.) But they were hot and delicious. At this point I'm already almost full!



There were three combo plates on the menu that definitely got our attention. If you want to try a lot of items, combos are a great way to go. Robert ordered the South Indian Thali and you see can see that it came with ten items as well as the rice and roti (bread) and choice of coffee or tea. We gave Robert kudos for finishing everything plus all the extra tastes he got from the rest of us.


I had opted for the Udupi Special. It gave you options. There was choice of soup, iddly or vada, dosai or uthappam, and then coffee or tea. I had chosen the Mulligathany Soup which was flavorful. But then something new for me came out. I had opted for the vada, fried lentil donuts. It was a mixed review for those. I liked them as far as texture and being really like a donut, only a savory one. Plus, it's healthy! Made from lentils. The flavor wasn't bad either, although a bit bland. That's why they are served with a chutney and a sambar for dunking. Dunkin' Donuts! If you are a dunkin fan, then you should have fun with these.


My next option was my selection of the dosa. Dosas are giant crepes with a filling inside. The menu had 13 choices of dosa and I selected the spinach one with onion, potatoes, tomato, spinach, and spicy chutney. By this time we were very full and only able to eat half of it between the two of us. The filling was a nice mash of the vegetables and the spicy chutney added an extra bit of zing. Woe is me, I forgot my leftovers! I wanted them for dinner the next night! We ended with a Madras coffee which was rich and creamy.


As I said, we all shared with each other and so this came by my plate as well. This is the Gobi Manchurian, batter fried cauliflower (gobi) stir fried with garlic, ginger, chili and soy sauce. It's a Chinese influenced dish, a bit of fusion cooking. It had the kick of the chili and reminded me of a spicy fried pork stir fry.


Eileen ordered the Channa Batura, a puffed bread with a side of masala (spice) and the Baigan Bartha, eggplant baked, mashed, and mixed with onion, tomato, and spices (below).

Everyone was happy and left feeling very full. The best compliment you can say about a vegetarian restaurant is when you can leave and say that you never missed or even thought about meat during the meal. Udupi met that goal with tasty and generous dishes.

Wild Ginger has been a star Seattle restaurant since the late 90's. My first experience had been when my brother got married. We went to the original location with our extended family for the rehearsal dinner. The next time I went back the restaurant had moved to a larger location with much more upscale design. This time I am at the brand new second location in Bellevue, WA.

My father remembered the rehearsal dinner and requested that we go there for dinner. So it definitely made an impression if he's remembering a meal from ten years ago.

This new location opened in September '09. It looks very similar in design to the downtown Seattle location, including being two-story. There is a large satay bar downstairs and a small private bar area. I thought it was odd that the bar was downstairs, so far from the entrance and tucked away in the back. Bar business is usually so important for sales, so why is it so hidden?

While I was in the restroom I was fascinated by the Dyson Airblade hand dryers in the bathroom. It was the most effective air dryer I've ever used. People generally reach for the paper towels because they hate to wait for the old dryers - rubbing your hands together for 30 seconds to dry. The Airblade 'scrapes' the air down off your hands like the high powered dryers in car washes. Start putting these dryers in restrooms and people will start using them over paper if they are conservation conscious.

But we were here for the food. I apologize for the poor quality pictures taken with my Blackberry.


We started with crab cakes for my nephew, a scallop satay skewer for myself, and dad ordered the Green Papaya Salad - Shredded green papaya tossed with peanuts, fish sauce and herbs in a lemongrass dressing. None of us had had green papaya before and we found this to be crunchy and refreshing. I liked the lemongrass and mint that stood out in the flavoring. The salad was huge and we ended taking half of it home.


We were all sharing our choices family style. I chose the Tuna Manada - Seared ahi tuna cubes in a coconut milk sauce infused with lemongrass. This was the most disappointing of all our dishes. It was on the bland side and seemed to me like they forgot an ingredient to give the extra punch it needed. Even salt would have brought out the flavors in a better way. It was just dull.


Dad's choice was the overall favorite. He chose the Salt and Pepper Prawns - fried prawns tossed in salt, green onions, and red pepper. Now I often eat this dish when we go to work lunches at Sacramento Chinese restaurants. This was the best version of the dish I've ever had. They were generous with the pepper and the prawns were perfectly fried, crispy, without any grease. I noticed that they used red pepper flakes for their pepper while in Sacramento we've always had it done with chopped, fresh jalapenos. Both ways are good, but this won out for the intensity of the pepper.


Paul's favorite is the Hanoi Tuna - Sashimi-grade ahi tuna marinated with shallots, garlic, and turmeric, seared rare and served with almonds, dill and scallion oil. He particularly likes the almond paste that you see underneath the tuna. I enjoyed it as well - but second best to the prawns.

We also had the Chinese green beans and I got their raspberry ginger ale to drink. The menu has two prices for the items - small and large. We got the large sizes of all our entrees and were glad we did. Even if you were eating the dish to yourself, you will probably want the larger portion. Service was attentive and friendly.

I'll probably continue to stop by Wild Ginger each time I visit the Seattle area.

We stopped in for a quick lunch at Tandoori Kitchen, just down the street from my brother's place. They had a buffet lunch for $8.99, which is pretty reasonable since the entrees were around $10.99 each. But we didn't want to eat too much since we had big dinner plans.

When I look now on Urbanspoon.com I see a mix of reviews. Some really are bad and others like the place. My overall response to the negative reviews I see is - it's a Pakistani restaurant, not Indian. This explains some of the dishes not being the same preparation as by Indians. It also could explain some of the service issues. After all, Pakistanis are Muslim. That's no excuse for how to treat customers in the U.S., but sometimes it does show an intolerance, impatience, and ignorance by Americans as well. I also always look on the dates of the reviews. Some of them are over two years old. I really take issue with Urbanspoon not having expiration dates on reviews that are posted. Things change, including ownership or chefs, so that old reviews are not pertinent today.

Anyway, we had good service and enjoyed the food. I was particularly excited to have a Pakistani samosa. Indians do them veggie and Pakistanis put in meat. I like the meat version and the one they served here was excellent. I was a very happy camper. The only negative on the samosa was the amount of grease. It did just drip it all over. But hey, sometimes grease is good. Bonus - he didn't charge us for the samosas. I had said how much I enjoyed them and he comp'd them for us.

My dad and I split an order of Chicken Tikka. I was wanting some sauce with it, but it came out as very tender, moist, chicken chunks that were nicely spiced. Although sauceless, I still enjoyed it.

I also tasted a meat dish Paul got from the buffet and enjoyed it too. So I would eat here again and Paul certainly will become a regular. And if you are reading the mixed reviews, I would suggest you try them yourself. After all, the reviews are about 50/50 and so how can you really know which side you will come on?

Growing up in Saudi Arabia our favorite street food was schwarmas. Back in the 70's they would sell from street carts and the lamb would be rotating on giant rotisseries. They would take Arab bread and put in it shredded lettuce, tomato, the sliced meat, a garlicy tzatziki like sauce, and mint leaves. All ARAMCONS grew up with this schwarma memory.

Sad to say, it is VERY difficult to find schwarmas like this any more - even in Arabia. My dad went back to visit last March and he said he couldn't find a lamb one anywhere, they were all being done with chicken. Here in the U.S. it is equally difficult. If you do find schwarma places, they usually use beef. Many will offer lamb as a kebab version. Basically they are cubing and kebabing the lamb instead of shaving it off a rotisserie like we grew up with.


I'm visiting my brother up in the Seattle area and for Christmas Eve we have gone to Mediterranean Kitchen in Kirkland. Apparently there is a full blown restaurant in Bellevue and this is an offshoot diner style. My brother's one warning - they use a lot of garlic.

OK. So my bro is a garlic wimp. My dad and I thought it was great. The best thing, this truly was the closest schwarma to our childhood memories. My only complaint, it could use a more generous serving of meat in the sandwich. (See any in the pic?) I really did feel like I was eating the sandwich of my past. Kudos.

My brother LOVES their baklava as well. It was pretty tasty. The nuts had been ground to a paste for the filling layer. The pastry was nice and flaky without being overly soaked in honey syrup.


Something that attracted my eye on the menu was the Mediterranean fries - french fries covered in feta cheese, garlic, and sumac - and ketchup. I love garlic fries and I like feta too, so it seemed like a good combo to me. It wasn't bad, but not something I would order again. I think in this case I would have liked more garlic and less feta. But it was nice that the feta was nice and melty.

My brother says that if you go to the actual mother restaurant you will smell the garlic as soon as you open the door. Not so bad for me. The more, the better. I'd be happy to have a Med Kitchen in Sacramento to get the lamb schwarmas and I know my fellow schoolmates would be thrilled as well.

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

I chose the Scandinavian recipe because it only called for things that I already had on hand. The Good Housekeeping would be more of the American traditional gingerbread in that it requires molasses.


I had never made a gingerbread house before, let alone from scratch. So many people just get the kits. The challenge said to make the house and decorate it as you please, just that all items must be edible. It also required the use of a template. I found mine off the internet somewhere (can't find the site again). I rolled my dough pretty darn thick so that my pieces were a good 1/4 inch thick.


The assembly required using simple syrup to be the glue. Simple syrup meant just melting sugar. Unfortunately I went a little too far and ended up getting very caramelized dark syrup. You can see a long drip on my finished house. This also ended up tinging my royal icing that came in contact with it. So after a day my icicles were looking like dirty snow icicles. Oh, well.


The real cost comes from all the decorating elements. I ended up using only candy on mine. I suggest going to the bulk bins at Winco as being the cheapest. I ended up at Sweet Factory for their bulk bins and large assortment. They are pricier though.

Here are some other things you can use:
-pretzel sticks
-Necco wafers
-almond slivers
-After 8 mints
-Triskits
-coconut flakes

All in all I was pretty happy with how it turned out. I wouldn't mind trying a more complex one next year or maybe doing a Halloween one. I ended up taking mine to work and donating it for auction to raise funds for our food drive.

This is probably my last cooking post for 2009. I'm off to Seattle and will probably do a review or two of restaurants up there. I'm hoping that maybe I can hit some of their famous gourmet food trucks as well. So for now, have a happy and safe holiday and Season's Eatings to you all.

Scandinavian dough
1 cup butter, room temperature [226g]
1 cup brown sugar, well packed [220g]
2 tablespoons cinnamon
4 teaspoons ground ginger
3 teaspoons ground cloves
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ cup boiling water
5 cups all-purpose flour [875g]

1. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until blended. Add the cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Mix the baking soda with the boiling water and add to the dough along with the flour. Mix to make a stiff dough. If necessary add more water, a tablespoon at a time. Chill 2 hours or overnight.

2. Cut patterns for the house, making patterns for the roof, front walls, gabled walls, chimney and door out of cardboard.

3. Roll the dough out on a large, ungreased baking sheet and place the patterns on the dough. Mark off the various pieces with a knife, but leave the pieces in place.

4. [I rolled out the dough on a floured bench, roughly 1/8 inch thick (which allows for fact that the dough puffs a little when baked), cut required shapes and transferred these to the baking sheet. Any scraps I saved and rerolled at the end.]

5. Preheat the oven to 375'F (190'C). Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until the cookie dough feels firm. After baking, again place the pattern on top of the gingerbread and trim the shapes, cutting the edges with a straight-edged knife. Leave to cool on the baking sheet.

Royal Icing:

1 large egg white
3 cups (330g) powdered sugar
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon almond extract

Beat all ingredients until smooth, adding the powdered sugar gradually to get the desired consistency. Pipe on pieces and allow to dry before assembling. If you aren't using it all at once you can keep it in a small bowl, loosely covered with a damp towel for a few hours until ready to use. You may have to beat it slightly to get it an even consistency if the top sets up a bit. Piped on the house, this will set up hard over time.

Simple Syrup:
2 cups (400g) sugar

Place in a small saucepan and heat until just boiling and the sugar dissolves. Dredge or brush the edges of the pieces to glue them together. If the syrup crystallizes, remake it.

It's no secret that I have a sweet tooth. This is problematic when one is single and has a craving for something sweet. Often I have the desire to bake a cake or pie. But then I would have an entire cake on my hands. Not a good idea.

On a recent Rachael Ray show there was a woman promoting her new cookbook - 101 Recipes for Microwave Mug Cakes. Turns out she had found a recipe for making a single serving cake in a coffee mug. She expanded on the idea by creating her own recipes to create a cookbook's worth.

I had my own craving and remembered that show. A quick search turned up a Wikihow page with three recipes - including the one I made.

Basically you grease a large coffee mug. Mix all the ingredients together in the mug and then microwave for three minutes. I made the chocolate cake with a handful of chocolate chips thrown in for good measure. It was pretty plain, so it could use a chocolate glaze. The easiest solution, though, is a dollop of whip cream.

We make microwave cakes all the time for Pampered Chef. I'm not sure why I had never thought about it before. I also have the Small Batch Baking Cookbook. Why not take those recipes and microwave them in a mug? I'm now curious to play around myself. But then again, do I really need to give in to my sweet tooth so easily?



Chocolate Mug Cake

4 Tbsp. cake flour
(other kinds of flour will work as well, but the cake will be heavier)
4 Tbsp. granulated sugar
2 Tbsp. cocoa
1 egg
3 Tbsp. milk (any kind)
3 Tbsp. oil (any kind but peanut)
splash in a little vanilla

Spray a large coffee mug with cooking spray. Mix together dry ingredients in the mug. Add the wet ingredients and mix well. Microwave on high for three minutes. Be careful! The mug will be hot. Remove it from the microwave with a potholder. Turn the cake out on a plate and wait for it to cool before eating.

12/9/09 Update - Original Post follows


My roomie took me tonite for a birthday dinner. We had the Mustapha which has prosciutto, mozarella, and topped with arugula. I've had it before and really like it because I love the saltiness of prosciutto. We also had the Elisa with mozarella, Toscano salame, onion, fennel, romano and oregano. It was also good, but I still preferred the Mustapha.

Robert, the owner, came out to talk to us tonite. We talked about the divide between people who prefer Hot Italian and those who like Masullo's. He said he didn't mind the comparisons because it sort of drove business for people to try both - so they both win. This time it was a Wednesday night and business was moderate but constant.


The menu changes seasonally and this month they had gingerbread on the dessert menu. It was served with spiced apples and a little whipped cream. We received a nice sized wedge and found it was nicely spiced and served warm.

I fall into the Masullo's camp and am so glad it is only a quarter mile from my house.

Original Post


Masullo Pizza would be missed if you didn't know it was there or had the address. So far they have no signage and they are in a small strip building next to a smog check and auto repair. So I better give you the address: 2711 Riverside Blvd.



The restaurant itself is very spartan. The tables are made from wood from one old neighborhood oak tree. But simplicity often works and is a nice change of pace.


This is the small Margherita pizza. What is wrong with this picture?

Perhaps I'm spoiled or something. But I'm used to Margherita pizzas having more basil. There are only three leaves on here! But then I was researching on the internet and see that my understanding of a Margherita might be incorrect. In fact, Wikipedia gives an explanation and pictures of Margheritas that look just like this one.

The Masullo pizzas are done Neopolitan style.

"the genuine Neapolitan pizza dough consists of Italian wheat flour, natural Neapolitan yeast or brewer’s yeast, salt and water. The dough must be kneaded by hand or with a low-speed mixer. After the rising process, the dough must be formed by hand without the help of a rolling pin or other mechanical device, and may be no more than 3 mm (¹⁄₈ in) thick. The pizza must be baked for 60–90 seconds in a 485 °C (905 °F) stone oven with an oak-wood fire.[2] When cooked, it should be crispy, tender and fragrant."

I had called in my order to go and was surprised when they said it would be done in 5-10 minutes. I guess that's because of the thin crust and the high temperature oven. Sure enough, I was there in 10 minutes and it was coming out of the oven.

My Margherita seemed to fit the criteria. It had a nice thin bread crust. I'm still disappointed, though, in the amount of basil and cheese and I was unimpressed with the sauce - very plain. But I'm willing to try again. I look forward to trying the Jacqueline of potato, fontina, oregano and Niman Ranch bacon and the Mustapha of mozzarella, granna, prosciutto and arugula. Stay tuned for an updated review.

11/17/08 Update:

We went on a Friday night and the place was PACKED! It's a small place, so it doesn't take much. Every place at the communal large tables were taken as well. Luckily the people waiting were all for one large group, so the two of us were able to be seated in about five minutes.

This was my first time eating in - I had always just picked up "to go" orders. The tables are set with chilled bottles of water that are just refilled later with tap water and rechilled. We each ordered a salad. I had the mixed greens which came with nice, salty slices of prosciutto and a balsamic vinegrette. My friend had the frisee salad with blue cheese and pine nuts. Both came with two small triangles of pizza crust that was nicely salted.

This time we ordered the Lupe, which is a new pizza combo. It had broccoli rabe, bacon, anchovies, and cheese. I've never had anchovies on pizza before but did like that super saltiness that they gave to offset the bitterness of the rabe. A great pizza that we both liked.

BTW, I had previously ordered the Josephine with the thinly sliced potato. Didn't really care for that one. Also, I observed the American, which is basically a pepperoni pizza. Be aware that, like the Margherita, the toppings are sparse. So expect only about 5-6 pepperonis and not covered like you would find at other pizza places.