MY MARATHON BROWNIE BAKING SESSION

Hello all. Yes, I know it's been a while since you've heard from me, but strangely enough, they've been keeping me busy at work. Apparently once someone figures out that you are actually competent enough to get something done, they give you more work, and then more work, until you're going in on your days off and working from home, too. I keep hoping that as soon as the next project, holiday, etc is over, it'll get better, but it hasn't yet. I guess we'll see.

So onto the title of my post-... in addition to working on my days off, I've some how gotten myself into making wedding brownies for my friends. As you guys know, Kjell and Huong are getting married in June here in the Bay Area. The last time they were here they were doing wedding planning and thinking of ways they could save money. I mentioned that they didn't need to get a cake (typical wedding cakes cost a minimum of $4/person. Multiply that by 125 guests and you're look at $500) and so I proposed that they have wedding brownies. Pretty easy to make, and it'd be much cheaper than $500. And of course, I volunteered my services. So here I am, making batches of test brownies on my days off. I've made 4 batches in 2 days and am trying to figure out the best one.

The annoying this is that there are so many types of brownies, and not everyone likes the same ones. Do you want it cakey, fudgey, dry, moist, with nuts, with chocolate chips???You could keep going on and on. So far, the Alice Medrich brownie recipe from her Bittersweet cookbook is a loser. But I'm liking Ina's recipe for Outrageous Brownies. Tom says that he doesn't love the texture, cause you can feel the granulated sugar, and I kinda agree with him, but I do like the texture of them.

I've got two more batches in the oven. One recipe my Nick Malgeri and the other recipe from Cooks Illustrated. I'm hoping that one of these turns out to be the one. Meanwhile, we have stacks of brownies at home that need to be liquidated. I plan on taking them at work, but I wish that I had some friends around so that I could just pass them out. Ah well. I guess you guys just need to visit.

HOUSE OF CURRY

Tom and I are continuing in our search for good Indian food, and we've found a decent enough quick place called House of Curry. It's a little restaurant that sits on Solano Ave. in Berkeley, and though the food isn't spectacular, it's pretty good and the best part is that it's super cheap. We've been twice so far, but the first time we went, we actually ate in. The place has really simple decor, and it's pretty much self serve, but the staff is nice and they give you free chai while you wait.

We shared a lunch special, which was any two curries, and rice and naan. Here it is below- a plate of chicken tikka masala, some tandoori chicken, rice and naan.

All of our food was pretty decent. It's no India Quality, but we've already been back once since our first visit, and I think it's going to become a regular place for us when the craving strikes. So at least we've found a temporary place for now, and we'll continue looking for a truly great Indian place.

O'CHAME, AN EXPENSIVE BOWL O'NOODLES

A while ago Tom and I decided to head out to lunch at a local Japanese restaurant in Berkeley which is highly regarded for it's simple and delicious Japanese noodles. I figured it wouldn't be too expensive since it was just for lunch, and it was just noodles. So when we headed over there we found a restaurant that had just opened for lunch. The exterior of the building was this sort of Spanish/Mediterranean look with modern touches. When we entered, they had these really cool mural actually carved into the plaster on the walls. The entire space was really light and calming, and there seemed to be a lot of local entering to dine there. We snagged a seat right away.

After perusing the menu, we each decided to get one appetizer and one entree. Tom's appetizer was grilled eel on a bed for endive. I'm not a huge fan of eel, but I found this to be pretty good and Tom really enjoyed the pairing of the eel and the endive.

For my appetizer, I got a bowl of fried tofu. It wasn't really what I expected. Rather than dry pieces of fried tofu, it was actually a fried tofu served in a broth. It was pretty mild and tasty, but nothing super special.

And for our entrees, we each got a bowl of noodles. I ordered udon with tofu, mushrooms and vegetables. It was allright. The veggies were nice and fresh, but I found the udon to be kind of overcooked, and it didn't have the nice springy chewiness that you normally expect. Plus, the noodles weren't homemade, so it certainly wasn't worth the prices they were charging.

Meanwhile, Tom had ordered a bowl of noodles topped with shrimp. He also felt it was pretty good, but nothing spectacular. But we were both pretty surprised when the bill arrived, it was $50 for two appetizers, two bowl of noodles and two cups of tea. Ouch. It was a lot for a good, but not particularly spectacular lunch.

We might be back to take my parents one day, but I don't think we'll be back on our own. Frankly, I could make a bowl of noodles just at good at home.

CAN YOU GUESS WHAT THIS IS??

Every once in a while, I will actually read the local paper and get a food tip. That's how we ended up at the all you can eat sushi place in Berkeley, and it's also how I heard about a Turkish restaurant in Berkeley. Now Tom and I had just been talking about how we missed Family Restaurant in Brookline, with it's casual atmosphere and giant plates of tasty, cheap food, we really hadn't found anything like it around our new home, so we were quick to try out our new find, Turkish Kitchen.

Unfortunately, everyone else had also heard of Turkish Kitchen (at least 2 people I'd talked to at work had planned on checking it out), so even though we arrive a little after 6 on a Friday night, the place was packed and not a seat was free. Actually, it looks like the place has been here for a while, and with its key location right near the Berkeley campus and it's low prices, it's a popular place for students. Luckily, the tables turned pretty quickly, so we only waited about 10 minutes before we were seated. The staffed seemed friendly, but really overwhlemed by their new found popularity and it looked as though they were just struggling to keep up.

Tom and I decided to start with a shared hummus, which was actually quite good.

Tom then ordered a dish that had been recommended in the review I'd read. It's basically chicken, wrapped in a lavash bred and topped with a special sauce. Unfortunately, they give him the lamb version, rather than the chicken one that he'd ordered. But it was so busy, he didn't bother to return it, and just ate it. He actually enjoyed it, except for the special sauce that they'd put on top.

Meanwhile, I had a really great chicken kabob platter. The pieces of chicken were cooked perfectly and were totally tender and flavorful. I enjoyed it a lot.

Overall, I thought out meal was pretty great, though in the future, I think we'll be ordering take out, rather than battling the crowds. After dinner, it was still pretty early, so I thought we'd visit a childhood favorite, Foster's Freeze. Foster's Freeeze is a lot like Dairy Queen and famous for it's dipped ice cream cones. I hadn't had one in like 15 years, so I wanted to give it another try. I thought it was kinda funny that they had these display models of what the ice cream should look like. They even had little diagrams one wall pointing out the shapes of the ice cream, which was kinda funny when you see what my cone ended up looking like. So I ordered a chocolate ice cream dipped in chocolate...

But when the guy handed it to me, this is what it looked like....

I made Tom hold it while I took a pic, but I was laughing so hard it was kinda difficult. Anyhoo, the chocolate on the exterior of the cone wasn't so great. There was so much cocoa butter in it to make it harden instantly that it was just waxy, though the interior ice cream was pretty decent. Next time, I'll order it without the chocolate shell.