Happy Birthday with an Oreo Ice Cream Cake!
Dear Loyal Readers of Finechinagirl,
I simply must apologize for not updating the website at all! I have been busy recently and have not had the chance to touch my computer. Funny how time flies and flies and flies! I have gone to a few restaurants which I will post sometime in the near future. But for now I would like to share with you and oreo ice cream cake that I made for my brother’s birthday this past January 14th.
As a busy girl living in New York City, I just don’t have time to make ice cream, even though I have a nice ice cream maker. So, I scoured the web trying to find a simple, and I stress verry simple ice cream cake recipe, which I found through video.about.com. Click on the link to find the recipe on this.
Oreo Ice Cream Birthday Cake
Penang Malaysian Restaurant – Chinatown, NY
Penang
41 Elizabeth Street
New York, NY
(212) 431-8722
Penang Malaysian Restaurant - Chinatown, NY
One of the few Malaysian restaurants in Chinatown, Penang is located right off of Canal Street and right into the heart of Chinatown. Growing up, if I was hankering for Malaysian food, it was either at Penang or Nyonya, which is on Grand Street. There are a few more Malaysian restaurants that has popped up in Chinatown, but they are not as popular as the two that I mentioned about.
To be quite honest, I have always enjoyed the food at Nyonya. But this isn’t a post about Nyonya, it is on Penang. The atmosphere in Penang seems very quiet and desolate. I guess you’ll have to pick the right time, but I came here at 7pm with my party of eight and there were only two people there. No music was playing in the background and let me stress how quiet it was. Not only that, the lighting seems to be kind of dim which made me feel a little creeped out. Let me tell you, the atmosphere/feng-shiu at Nyonya is definitely not like that. I have only eaten the Hainanese chicken and the roti canai here since they were signature dishes which I will talk about that later.
Yes, if you can do take-out, do it!
Penang Menu
When you eat at a restaurant in Chinatown, most locals eat it family style. Hence the nice round tables with multiple seats. Let me know you the dishes my friends and I ordered:
Chinese Steamed Cupcakes – Faat Go/Prosperity Cakes
:Edit:
If you happen to live in New York City and you want to try this faat go recipe, I suggest that you take a visit to Chinatown and purchase a bag of homemade “wet” rice flour which is low-gluten. I can honestly tell you that I don’t know how to make this flour but I can tell you where to buy it. Having the right kind of flour is key to your prosperity cakes.
Fong Inn Too, Inc.
Fong Inn Too Menu
Now in Cantonese it is called, “Zhi mai fun.” Once you tell the clerk that you want this, he will give you a bag of rice flour which is shown below:
Hong Kong Rice Flour
Notice that this flour is clumpy and not dry like most flours. My mother tells me that this flour is essentially rice and flour that has been fermented for two days. Unfortunately I do not possess the know how, but I can tell you how it was made.
Good luck!
***
It all started with an obsession with Chinese cupcakes. AKA faat go (or huat kueh) as you say in Cantonese. My good friend Sally over at the tastyconfection and I wanted to learn how to make Chinese cupcakes because we have always eaten them. These special cupcakes are only available in Chinese bakeries during the time of Chinese New Year since they represent prosperity and success. There’s an old Chinese proverb which my mother always says that translates, “The more the cake blossoms, the more prosperous your year will be.” Something along the lines of this. Sally and I can care less about the superstitious properties that these cakes hold and wanted to eat them whenever we wanted to. The journey to find the most successful recipe was a frustrating one.
Complicated and non-traditional prosperity cupcake recipes disappointed me. I was amazed how I could not find a good old fashion Chinese recipe. There are many Malaysian and Singaporean recipes, but they’re not the ones that I am used to having. Sally tried learning the recipe from her grandmother, but unfortunately the cupcakes’ corners did not form which is why she is uncomfortable with sharing the recipe.
Now one day, my mother decided to make these cupcakes for my father’s birthday. She got the recipe from my aunt and then a couple of hours in the kitchen, she makes this:
Steamed Chinese Cupcakes aka Faat Go
Paula Deen’s Old Fashioned Cupcakes with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
Paula Deen's Old Fashion Cupcakes w/Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
Easy, simple and your back-to-basics old fashioned cupcakes. I am not one that possesses many skills in the art of baking, but luckily there are recipes that simplifies it so everyone can bake anything. Making cupcakes seems pretty simple, but nowadays people jazz it up with all sorts of fancy decorative frosting which to me is admirable and way too challenging for me. Fortunately, the people whom I love to bake for which includes my family and friends like it light and simple. I think I can speak for most of the older Chinese adults because they cannot handle too much sweetness. So I am pleased to show you the cupcakes which I baked and the chocolate frosting that I specifically made for my friend who loves chocolate! This frosting is not a Paula Deen recipe and I probably understand why because it doesn’t contain a lot of butter! Haha, bad joke.
Gourmet Mexican Food from The Taco Truck
The Taco Truck
Btw York & Hudson Street
Jersey City, NJ
*Not available Tuesdays and Thursdays
The Taco Truck
Tacos from a truck? Yes, I was skeptical at first, but this truck attracts plenty of new and existing loyal customers everytime that it is parked here in Jersey City. This truck is located one stop away from New York City, the Exchange Place stop, aka my take of a mini version of Wall Street of Jersey City. There aren’t a lot of restaurants in the neighborhood, besides your usually Subways, Cosi, Au Bon Pain, Marker’s, Kitchen Cafe, Garguilo’s, and several others that might be of some walking distance. There have been food trucks parked around like Nick and Perry’s and Lucinda’s, but none of them attract a crowd like The Taco Truck.
Having said that, my co-workers gave me the final push to come to this truck. When we came here at 2pm, there was still a decent line. Be warned that there is quite some wait before you get your food. When you come here during rush hour, I hear that you can wait up to 40 minutes, so consider that before you take your trip over there.
