Father’s Day Weekend – Blondies and Bundt Pound Cake
Instead of getting a cake for my dad, I figure I would make him one! He loves my blondies and he loves pound cake, so I figure that’s what I should make! Now normally when I make pound cake, it’ll be in a 9×5 cake pan, but this time I want to make it in the bundt cake. I’m sure the eating experience would he the same, so I took my chance and went for it!
The recipe that I used is from The Repressed Pastry Chef.
I added a couple of ingredients like walnuts, because my mom was dying to have some, and my precious corn syrup and cinnamon.
Bundt Pound Cake
Sunshine Restaurant, Queens, NY
Sunshine Restaurant
69-15 Northern Blvd.
Woodside, Queens
(718) 639 – 6900
Cuisine Category (As listed in the Restaurant): Pakistani, Indian, and Bangladeshi
Sunshine Restaurant
Sunshine Restaurant
*7/19/09 Update: I returned here for the second time and I love the haleem and naan! It’s so savory and enjoyable to eat especially when the naan is fresh out of the oven! I highly recommend you guys to try!
Lesson of the day! As my friend points out, when a restaurant or store lists a few countries for the cuisine type, the country that is listed first is usually the primary group. So in this case, even though the restaurant lists 3 countries, it is owned by a Pakistani and the cuisine type is Pakistani. The reason why the other countries are listed is to attract customers of those nationalities. Yes, what an interesting tidbit!
The world of Jackson Heights is bristling with fast-paced people primarily from South Asia of all hours of the night. See in Chinatown, it’s gets dead around 11pm, but here supermarkets are shops are opened 24hrs! Restaurants are opened late night, but not all of them are. I have to admit, yes there are people walking around late night, but they are mostly men. I have yet to see any women besides my friend and I, so it made us feel a little uncomfortable. Now, there are halal carts on almost every block so you can be sure that you’ll never go hungry. After shopping for Indian spices and ingredients at the infamous Patel Brothers supermarket, my friend and I decided to look for a restaurant to settle down to eat. So we drove to Woodside, which isn’t too far away, to a restaurant that I have yet to explore.
Sunshine Restaurant Interior
Restaurant Interior of Sunshine Restaurant
Excited to what I have in store for my taste buds, my friend orders a bunch of dishes that you can see below!
The Meal
International Treats and Delights! Gulab Jamuns, Lor Mai Chi, and Chocolate Cake!
I can’t believe it’s been almost two weeks that I haven’t updated. Yes, I admit, I have been lazy when it comes to my posts. It would be so easy if I had a Blackberry with internet privileges! I do apologize for that, but at least I can make use of my camera and post better quality pictures!
Let me show you what I’ve come across over the course of these two weeks!
Firstly,
My friend decided to surprise me with an assortment of gulab jamuns to excite my taste palate! I have never have gulab jamuns before so this was definitely exciting to me. From what I was told, gulab jamuns are essentially Pakistani/Indian donuts. Now I just had to look it up to see what it is all about, and this is the recipe that I came across: Gulab Jamun. I am definitely going to make this since I now have the passion to make sweets! It doesn’t look that hard and it’s like making a donut! The problem with Gulab Jamuns, in my opinion is that you have to eat it when it’s fresh out of the fryer. When I got this from my friend, all the sugar has melted which coats the GJ with this syrupy goodness which I think is gross. Who likes a soggy donut? I sure as heck don’t. Perhaps I need to get my friend to buy it early in the morning when it’s freshly made so it can do just to my taste buds!
Assorted Gulab Jamuns
Afternoon Madness (Part 1): Blueberry Crumb Muffins
On this lazy Sunday afternoon, right about 2PM I woke up to the sound of my father beating down on my bedroom door calling me for lunch. I walked out of my room looking like a mad witch and glanced over at the dining room table. My brother and my father were already settled in their seats eating, and they turned their heads to look at me as I was passing by to the bathroom. A look of disgust was plastered all over my face as I exclaimed that I refuse to eat that for lunch. My father was speechless and looked angry since he made several attempts to wake me up just so that I can insult the food that he made. That was wrong on my behalf, but there was just no way in the hell I was going to eat cow stomach/tripe, scrambled eggs, and some veggies.
After I washed up, I opened the refrigerator and saw whole milk and blueberries. After standing there about a couple of minutes, I decided to bake blueberry crumb muffins. I remembered my co-worker Khris told me that he had a failed attempt with those muffins on Mother’s Day, and I had promise him that I would make some to show him. I have never made it before, but I wanted to see what he experience and see if I could succeed where he has failed. Now, I’m not a fan of eating blueberries straight up, and I’m also not a fan of whole milk, so the logical thing is to make use of both.
One of the recent food blogs that I enjoy reading now is My Kitchen Cafe. I came here to look for a blueberry crumb muffin recipe and I did just that! The recipe seems simple enough so I decided to go with that.
I tweaked just a little bit of the recipe, but otherwise it would be the same!
Blueberry Crumb Muffins
Blueberry Crumb Muffin Right out of the Oven
Cafe Zaiya Bakery – East Village, NY
Cafe Zaiya
69 Cooper Square
New York, NY
I apologize for the lack of posts! I’ve just been very busy, but I always have blogging on the back of my mind. I will try to update whenever I can even though if the posts are short.
I am a big fan of bakeries! When I’m in the East Village, I always make sure I stop by Cafe Zaiya for their sweet unique pastries and bubble tea. The price is a little on the expensive side compared to a bakery in Chinatown, but it’s worth every penny. I must admit that it isn’t the first time I’ve been to this cafe, but it’ll be my first post on it!
So I picked up a few pastries and I would like to share them with you. Sometimes I don’t even know what I’m buying, but I know it has to be tasty because it looks it! If you guys know the name of the following pastries, please let me know!
Black Sesame Bun w/Red Bean Paste
Close up of black sesame bun w/red bean paste
