Shruti's food musings

Christmas cookies! Here’s the recipe: Christmas Cookies

I made these last weekend. They are soft and they stay well. We refrigerated them for an hour and half and then used cookie cutters. The dough is soft and needs a lot of flour for the cutting.

That, is a list of all the cheeses available at the Cheeseboard in Berkeley. It’s a cheese co-op. I’ve been there once and it’s an overwhelmingly wonderful experience. One might not know what they want, but the staff there (who volunteer btw) are nice and helpful.

Yes, the picture is blurry but you get the point.

Banh Mi, the vietnamese sandwich from the Nom Nom truck SF.

So many things to talk about in this one post:

- Food trucks: in the bay area, food trucks are actually a gourmet experience. I’m lucky enough to work in emeryville, where a bunch of food trucks stop by every now and then (decreasingly so at my stop though :(). I’ve tried liba falafel truck, the nomnom truck, docs of the bay and fiveten burgers and they have all been spectacularly delicious.

- This, is a vietnamese sandwich called the banh mi. It was vegetarian! This sandwich, was delicious. It was spicy (layer of jalapenos), juicy (some kind of mayo spread), chewy (nicely done tofu) and had a nice topping of flavorful veggies on top. I liked the sandwich so much, I wanted to save the other half for dinner but couldn’t wait more than 30 mins to have the rest of it. 

A little late, but our glorious 3-person thanksgiving dinner!

Salted caramel, pumpkin, mango and quince from Masse’s patisseries in Berkeley! They were all really great, crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside. Definitely will go here again. Here’s their yelp. We also had their cheesecake, it was AMAZING.

I’ve made these cookies over 3 times and people have loved them every single time. They are really really good, and I don’t know why. They are nice and plump, because of the high flour content and are really easy to make especially with my hand mixer. I mix the flour at the end with my hand and then finally the chocolate chips. Here’s the recipe: Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love love love thai food! At Rice Cuisine, in palo alto!

Go here: http://www.yelp.com/biz/toast-wine-lounge-oakland

I went back to Manpuku and got the same thing again! Veggie udon noodle stir fry! It was cheap, flavorful and DELICIOUS. Here’s the link to my yelp review- Manpuku

Quinoa with stir fry

Literally the easiest thing I have made in the longest time for how great it tasted. I used two packs of frozen vegetables from Trader Joes (pick your favorite- I got mine with bamboo shoots, edamame and water cress). I sauteed some onions and garlic, added the veggies, some soy sauce and a bit of black bean garlic sauce! Voila, tasty and healthy stir fry!

Oh I made the quinoa in veggie broth. Do it. It’s delicious.

Another variation for this stir fry that I made recently was with tofu. Same deal with two packs of frozen veggies (went with safeway veggies instead) but  I skipped the onions and garlic. Instead, I marinated pieces of extra firm tofu in soy sauce for around 15 mins, then used a stainless steel pan to cook each side of the tofu pieces till they were brown on the outside, slightly chewy looking. I stir fried my veggies, added the tofu when the veggies were soft, a bit of sugar, some lemon juice and a little bit of the leftover soy sauce marinade and cooked for a little while. Absolutely delicious!