Roasted vegetable terrine (left) and duck confit eclair with spicy chocolate ganache (right)

Chard pineapple chicken satay with peanut sauce (left) and wilted spinach and feta cheese pouches (right)

I loved the terrine just because I love anything with roasted vegetables but it certainly wasn’t as special as the duck confit eclair.  The duck I’ve had is usually on the drier side but this was incredibly tender and melt-in-your-mouth perfect.  Believe it or not, it was actually the eclair and ganache combo that made me second guess this.  It was just…too many flavors for me to handle.  Does it want to be salty?  Sweet?  Spicy?  In terms of texture, however, everything came together nicely.  Since it’s so unique, we decided to keep it.  As for the chicken, I didn’t care much for it (too dry and salty), but we all unanimously LOVED the wilted spinach and feta cheese pouches.  A definite winner!  We can choose up to four hors d’oeuvres so it will be the bride’s final call if she wants to keep the vegetable terrine or replace it with something more exotic (tartuffo cheese twice baked fingerling potatoes, perhaps?).

For the salads, we had to choose between the wild baby arugula & shaved fennel salad with crows pass farm apples, pistachio brittle, and a pistachio vinaigrette or the belgian endive & watercress salad with candied walnuts and a truffle vinaigrette (both are a mouthful to say, huh?).

Baby arugula et al. with pistachio vinaigrette

Endives et al. with truffle vinaigrette

Hands down the arugula!!!  We had the option of choosing any dressing for the salad too.  Both me and the other BM were fond of the truffle dressing (I normally don’t even eat dressing on my salad, but this was really good) but the groom didn’t like it so we decided to please him (plus the pistachio vinaigrette was lighter and probably something more people would like).

Finally, the entrees!  We had a choice between the petite filet mignon & porcini dusted halibut with porcini pan sauce or the rosemary breast of chicken & pancetta wrapped prawns with marjoram scented lemon vinaigrette (along with a side of either the crows pass farm potato risotto or bacon, carmelized onion dauphinoise potatoes).

Filet mignon and halibut served with bacon & carmelized onion dauphinoise potatoes

Chicken and prawns served with potato risotto

I’m glad the meat all comes from organic, local farms where the cows are grass-fed and the chickens are cage-free (only in California is this usually the norm rather than the exception…I love California ).  With that said, I still don’t like the taste of beef!  Couldn’t handle more than a bite.  But the groom and the BM loved it so we decided to go with that over the chicken (which was again too dry and salty…is this what an absence of injected hormones does to chicken meat?!  :P).  We all found the halibut to be delicious so what will probably happen is that we’ll have guests choose between a dual plate (filet mignon with halibut) or a single entree (filet mignon or halibut).  As for the sides, the risotto was incredible and beat out the bacon (yuck!) potatoes by a long shot.  Funnily, this was my second time ever having risotto (my first time was actually last weekend when I had my first seder meal…someone brought in vegetarian risotto made with green onions, peas, etc and we had it as part of the Passover feast…very yummy).

After the tasting, we went to finalize our BM dress decisions.  Alfred Angelo is having a $20 discount on bridesmaid dresses through April 18th  and has a large selection of styles/colors for very reasonable prices so we did some research and tried a bunch on.  In the end, we decided to go with this one (in lavender, as shown):

With each bridesmaid choosing their own trim color.  I love green so I went with the lettuce (it sounds weird, I know), as shown in the above picture.  The other BM chose tea rose, which really complements the lavender.  We called the bride right before making our purchases and she was very happy with our choices .

I also liked this one but it only came in a few select colors, none of them even close to lavender.  But who knows, if I ever get married, maybe I’ll make my bridesmaids wear it.  I think it’s cute enough to be a normal party dress!

Right before I headed home, the groom surprised me with a box of my favorite bread from 85C (a very popular bakery in Taiwan known primarily for their drinks…the only one opened outside of Taiwan is in Irvine, CA but it has wonderful pastries and cakes on top of 85C’s famed drinks!) known as ‘rose bread.’  It’s made of rose flour (so the bread itself is somewhat pinkish), stuffed with cream cheese, studded with cranberries, and sprinkled with black sesame seeds.  Most people I know think it’s kind of weird because it’s not exactly sweet or salty (and cream cheese isn’t a typical Chinese ingredient like, say, taro or red bean) but it’s soo good!!!  I was so happy/shocked that he got me three (each one is almost the size of my head)!

A shot of the interior (taken from Yelp)

Amazing, isn’t it?  And yes, I can eat a whole rose bread by myself.  I’m a fatty

My true love <3

All this talk of weddings, of course, has me thinking about how I would plan my own. If you’re married, tell me about your wedding!  Or if you’re not, tell me about your dream wedding! I know for sure I’d want a Tiffany’s ring (don’t judge me!!!).  And a traditional style dress (so no mermaid tails or champagne colors for me).  I actually haven’t thought about the dress much.  I figure I’ll know once I see it and I have yet to see one I love, though this one from San Patrick that my friend’s sister got married in comes close:

Too bad it’s discontinued .

My dream is to get married in this church.  I’m not Catholic, but it is the most beautiful church in San Francisco and I think its architectural and artistic beauty will make for some stunning photos.  Sea foam green and white would be the color scheme.  I’d let my bridesmaids choose whatever dress they want so long as everyone wore the same pale green color.  Ideally, I’d get married during autumn or winter because it’s my favorite time of year (and probably on a Sunday too because that would be cheaper).  I would spend as little money as possible on flowers or any floral decorations (maybe even just get fake ones) so that I can devote more money to alcohol to please my guests .  For favors, I’d like to donate $ to a charity and give everyone a nice photo frame that they could use (inside would be a sheet of paper stating that a donation has been made in their name).  I think favors that have the couple’s names and/or pictures all over them can be somewhat impractical .  The reception dinner will be a Chinese banquet (nothing wrong with cheap, good food, am I right?!) and for dessert, a Princess cake with a light green shell decorated with edible light pink cherry blossoms.  Sort of like this:

…And this is why I’m single.

Easter has passed and I hope it was a joyous one for all!  The night before Easter, I met with some women from my church and we had a Passover seder meal together.  It consisted matza, radishes, celery (dipped in salt water), eggs, a fruit/nut spread, and grape juice instead of wine (I would not be able to handle 4 glasses of wine anyway!).  We went through and discussed the symbolism of each piece.  It was really enlightening and fun.  Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera so no pics  But here’s a picture of a traditional seder plate:

Now that Lent is over this also means I get to eat cookies, which is exactly what I’ve been doing!!!  Say hello to my beloved Fran (a creamier, sexier Pocky):

My craving for them has lessened, but not by much (probably because I’ve still been eating other things that contain the same ingredients, such as cakes and pastries).  But in any case, I donated $200 to my church because that’s approximately how much $ I think I saved from not buying cookies (the box of Fran you see up there is almost $3 and a cookie from a cafe, which is where I buy tea almost every day, is over a dollar, so it all adds up fast).  I really do want to cut back on the amount of sweets (especially from foods using refined sugars) I eat…but it’s soo hard .  My body, my teeth, and my wallet would all thank me for it, though.

Anyway, it’s strawberry season in San Diego too so I’ve been eating a lot of those (a much better alternative to cookies, might I add)!  Two boxes for $1 at Wholefoods!!! Isn’t that incredible?  I love California

I also found this very interesting news article about photographing your food.  Unlike the other more unhealthy aspects of my eating life (e.g., calorie counting, obsessing, etc)…I love taking pictures of my food purely for the pleasure of it.  When I look back on my photos, I recall the people, the conversations, the events, the emotions surrounding the meal.  It’s a great feeling .  I also like showing my pictures to my family and friends.  Is that how it is for you too? On a slightly different note, I actually know the neuroscientist they talk about from UC Irvine (he’s hot, huh?  But sorry ladies, he bats for the other team)!  Our labs used to have lab meetings together before we moved to UCSD.  Academia is a small world.

On the training front, I had my first spinning class this past Monday and it kicked my ass hard.  I could feel the lactic acid building up in my gluts within seconds of pedaling!  I was doing okay the first 15 minutes (i.e., the warm-up), but after that,  I was going consistently 15-20 rpm less than the instructor was asking us to do .  I want to say part of the reason is because I did a quick 1 mile jog beforehand, but honestly, I don’t think that could have made a significant impact because I use almost entirely different muscles when I run versus when I cycle.  My next class is tomorrow so hopefully things will go better.

What has everyone else been up to?

Okay, so maybe they aren’t the prettiest muffins…but I liked how they tasted (then again, I’m biased since they are my labor of love ).  Here’s the recipe in case anyone is interested!

Jam & Greek Yogurt Muffins

• 1 cup flour (I used all-purpose)
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 1/6 cup honey
• 1/4 cup non-fat milk
• 1 egg
• 4 oz Fage non-fat yogurt
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 tbsp of the jam of your choice (I used blueberry…alternatively, you could put it real berries)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Mix all the dry ingredients together and then add the wet ingredients (except the jam or fruit) until everything is well combined.  Then add the jam (or carefully fold in the berries) and mix the batter.  Lightly grease baking trays or line muffin tins with paper cups.  Fill each cup until it’s 2/3 full with batter.  Bake for 25 minutes or until done (I baked for 28 minutes and used the toothpick/chopstick method to check).  Let the muffins cool for a few minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack.

I was able to make 12 muffins from the batter.  The original recipe called for twice the proportions I gave (except for the egg…I didn’t want to use only half an egg) and didn’t use non-fat milk or yogurt.

I’m fortunate to have a treadmill in my house (it’s very old without any of the fancy options machines have nowadays, but it’s a solid piece of equipment) so I was able to get back into training mode.  I’ve only been running 4 times a week and for 50-60 minutes at a time, but I’m thinking of keeping it that way since this quarter I’ll be attending a twice a week cycling class!  It begins next week and I’m really excited!  Cycling, for me, is a really tough workout since it works the muscle groups I normally don’t engage in when I run (specifically my quads and gluts…for some reason when I run, I use primarily my hamstrings).

The half marathon I had my eye on happened this past Sunday and I got major run-envy when I saw that some people from my friends feed on Facebook had ran in it .  I think I definitely would have been able to complete it…but it would probably take my like 3 hours (then again, it took one of the girls close to 4 hours to finish…so we could have ran together!).  In any case, there are two possible halfs I could run on June 6th–the Rock & Roll (half) marathon in San Diego or a much smaller race in Alameda (which is very close to my house up in Norcal).  I’m tempted to do the latter just because I know the R&R one is very popular and there will be a lot of people.  Not to mention that SD is ridiculously hot in June.  I’m also going to sign up for the race in the beginning of May–that way I’ll be forced to run .  Sound like a plan?

Okay, I better get back to work.  This quarter is going to be busy, busy, busy.  But before I end this post…I wanted to post my favorite April 1st article I’ve stumbled across:

New Starbuck sizes!

On the health front, my throat is finally less sore although my cough is still ongoing (at least there isn’t any more green phlegm!).  I ran about 10 miles total last week and I can’t go past 5 miles in a single session without my lungs feeling like they are on fire. .  It looks like running a half marathon two weekends from now seems unreasonable.  I haven’t signed up for it yet but we’ll see.  It sucks because I sort of feel like all my training has gone to waste…but at the same time, I know I’m capable of getting back into shape and it’s not like there’s a shortage of half marathons in Norcal or Socal.  On Apil 11th, there’s going to be a half in San Francisco and today’s group-on is 51% off registration.  Running a race for only $37 is a total steal, so check it out if you’re in the Bay Area!  There’s also the San Diego Rock & Roll Half on June 6th that I may end up doing instead if I can’t do the Oakland half on March 28th.  Hmmm…I’ll have to think about this more and see how my body feels in the coming days.

I have lots of reading to do but let me end this post with some of the good Asian food I had this past weekend:

Seafood udon

Taiwanese style coconut butter brick toast with drizzled chocolate

The freshest spicy tuna roll ever

Agedashi tofu

Did you know that March 14th is White Day in Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea (and yes, it’s also Pi Day )?  Usually on Valentine’s Day, girls in these countries will give their crushes/significant others gifts.  Then on white day, guys return the favor by buying their girls even more lavish gifts.  In South Korea, they also celebrate Black Day on April 14th, where singles will eat noodles with black bean sauce (“zha jiang mein” in Chinese, “jjajeongmyeon” in Korean) to mourn/celebrate their singlehood.  Perhaps I’ll be doing that a month from now.  This year, my White Day was spent with my high school friend eating the food posted above.  Not romantic, but still very fun.

What did you do for White Day/Pi Day?

With the Oscars comes the Red Carpet glamor…so I just wanted to post some of my favorite looks:

Sandra Bullock in Marchesa

Kate Winslet in YSL (the necklace is from Tiffany’s!)

Rachel McAdams in Elie Saab Couture

There were lots of other pretty dresses too (Kristen Stewart’s, Penelope Cruz’s, Anna Kendrick’s, Cameron Diaz’s, Amanda Seyfried’s, and even Miley Cyrus’) but these three stood out the most to me as the ones that I’ll remember even a few years down the line (I’ll also always remember Zoe Saldana’s and Charlize Theron’s…because what they wore was pretty ridiculous ).

My favorite Oscars look of all time, though, would still have to be Michelle Williams from 2006:

What were your favorite Oscars dresses and/or moments?  Also if you have any movie recommendations, I’d love to hear them!

Have a good week, everyone!  I hope by this weekend I’ll have recovered from this bacterial infection .