Puzzled after looking at the picture above? Don’t be. It’s a duck breast, cut into two, cooking in its own fat rendered from the skin.

More explanation necessary?

Since I’ve become a homebody for the next 2 months before my grad school apps are due, I decided I would report on adventures around the house and in the Mountain View/Palo Alto community as a way to keep you updated about my life. Sure it’s quieter around the suburbs. But it’s a unique challenge to find the interesting among the quotidian, the quirky among the mundane.

So what better way to start than with my kitchen endeavours. We all know this travel blog is a disguised food blog.

Here’s a dinner I cooked for my lovely housemate/landlady, S. She’s fabulous so I decided to make a nice meal to thank her for being awesome.

For cuisine, I chose French. For the main I chose fatty duck breasts with glazed peaches. Aka, magret de canard à la pêche.

The recipe came from the brilliant Mireille Guiliano. I modified it because it’s not grilling season right now (hello rain, another reason for my homebody tendencies). But it turned out perfectly too! Check out her other easy and yummy recipes.

Here’s are my mouth-watering photos to make y’all jealous! I’ll include the recipe as commentary for anybody who is interested in making this too. Note: tI don’t measure exactly. I’ve cooked enough that I don’t measure except when baking because it saves time and I don’t have to clean as many utensils. Plus, I can taste as I go along. If you must have the ingredients quantities, leave a comment and I’ll add them. But you should be able to assume how much salt to add and what seems reasonable.

You need some peaches. I used 2 and sliced them into eighths. Have as many as you want (within reason). Don’t forget to peel them or the texture will be too rough on the final plate.

Grab a fry pan, stick in some butter, honey, and 1/4c water (maybe less, you don’t want the peaches swimming in water) and throw in the peaches. Simmer until they’re soft but not overcooked. Leave them to rest.

Cook the duck. So refer to photo above. A duck breast comes with some skin that attached the 2 pieces of meat but you can really separate them into individual pieces, meaning 1 duck breast is 2 servings. While it looks big and fatty in the photo, you end up having a portion of meat about the size of a deck of cards – the size recommended, ironically, by most nutritionists. In other words, unless you’re really greedy and want a whole piece to yourself, just cut it in half. Makes it easier to cook too.

So fry pan on stove. Heat to medium. Score the duck skin in diamonds, helps the fat drain. Throw it on the heated pan, skin side down. Leave it for like 5-8 minutes (depending on thickness) until the edges look cooked but the middle  is still raw. Then flip it over, heat it for about 3 minutes. The goal is to have the middle still slightly bleeding – well done means tough and chewy meat. If you don’t like bloody meat, cook it for longer. Season – meaning sprinkle salt and pepper.

Lay some paper towels on the counter and quickly (but safely, burning yourself is NOT fun) put the meat on the paper towels to drain the fat. Put the fry pan back on the stove and throw the peaches in to reheat. And yes to cover in some delicious duck juices.

I made some vegetables to accompany but this is option. What types of veges don’t matter – you can see I have a medley of different elements from what I found in the fridge. It’s just to add some greens and colorful foods to your diet. You know, a health thing. Plus maybe you can trick yourself into believing that it will make your diet more balanced after swallowing all that duck fat. Haha, yeah right.

And by the magic of blogging, voilà, here’s the final product. So plating: grab the nicest places you have.

Gently slice the duck so it’s reasonably thick (about 1 inch or 2-3 cm if you’re used to metric – which is by far the easier system to use, of course!). Put some peaches next door. And there’s dinner!

Oh and just ’cause I really like S, I made dessert too. Strawberry soup with yoghurt and chocolate dipped strawberries. Her original recipes calls for Mascarpone but I prefer greek yoghurt with 1/2 tsp of honey stirred in because I find yoghurt lighter which marries well with the strawberries.

For the dipped strawberries, wash and draw the prettiest strawberries. I slice mine in half because it’s easier for them to sit still and the chocolate to harden than when they’re whole as they tend to roll around. Chocolate everywhere it messy to clean. I put some chocolate chips (dark) into a bowl and microwaved for 30 second increments until they were melted but not burnt. Be careful, it’s a fine line. Then I lay a sheet of aluminium foil on the counter, quickly dip each strawberry in the chocolate, lay it down and finish the rest. I throw them in the fridge so the chocolate hardens quickly and they’re ready for serving.

For the soup: grab some strawberries, wash them, dry them and crush them with a fork (you can try a potato masher but I find a fork is easier). Stir in some (tiny amount) of honey and lemon juice. Let it sit for a while. It should be quite watery with some lumps of strawberries in. Yum! I only let this one stand for 1 hour but if you plan ahead you can make this even a day in advance. If you’re in a hurry, you can serve it right now too.

To serve: pour some “soup” into a pretty bowl. Add some of the yoghurt mixture from above. Arrange the chocolate strawberries. And I even added mini basil leaves for decoration – whatever makes it more appetizing – go for it.

Serve dinner hot with some red wine and engaging conversation.

This is a good meal for a special occasion because it’s so easy to make but it looks like you put a lot of effort in. Try it and please let me know your results.

Bon appétit

A special edition to celebrate Halloween.

Even if it is a few minutes from ending (and I never celebrate Halloween, ha), I want to share some light-hearted fun about the holiday. When I first came to the US, I learnt that the 31st of October is most famously known as the holiday where one can dress up like a slut…get away with it. Great. I had always come to know Halloween for its witches, ghouls and trick-or-treating tradition. So I didn’t expect that social commentary. But since then, I’ve discovered that partying isn’t the only feature celebrated today. In fact, pumpkins are one of the best kept secrets (from the rest of the world) about Halloween and its Jack-o-Lantern. Since I’m busy grinding my nose in books this year, I’m spending it quietly and wholesomely at home and at the office (no partying for me).

So this is what I did on Halloween 2011.

I started a new job and as part my personal growth and life-enhancing duties, I got to help with pumpkin carving. This is an annual competition in its 5th year – and the stakes are high. As with any competition carrying real and heavy consequences such as gloating privileges and well-justified up-turned noses, we took this task with seriousness and made magnificent orange sculptures.

Most importantly, it was so much fun!!

So here are my top 3 favourite creations. Guess which one won first place?

Candidate 1

Candidate 2

Candidate 3

Awesome right?

And despite my sarcasm imbued post, I really do love my new job. It’s so much fun. And I get to learn a lot of important things – pumpkin sculpting, among many other skills. And I mean that sincerely.

So what did you do for Halloween? 

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The weather in South Bay was gorgeous this week. Unfortunately, last week it rained most of the week. Too bad for my Dad who was visiting me. We weren’t able to do much with wet weather, except shopping and indoor activities. It gave me a good chance to cook some delicious food for him (I may post those pictures in my next post, depending on if I have any new material to post about). But this week, in comparison, the sun was out and the temperature had risen significantly.

To celebrate, I’m posting photos of a short afternoon in Foothills Park, in the heart of the Palo Alto mountains.

The Palo Alto mountains are not really mountains – they’re not high or steep enough. But they’re bigger than hills and have a couple of tracks that are a few miles long (I believe the longest is 14 miles); so it’s a substantial amount of space and nature to spend a day.

The mountains and I are not well acquainted. I have only seen them on the rare occasion and usually from afar when I’m taking the I-280 to San Francisco because the 101N is a nightmare during rush hour.

And let me tell you, I was not disappointed at all. There was a cute little artificial pond in the middle of the park. Many young children playing in the water in rubber rings and kayaks. There were a good many boys fishing too – but I doubt there are any fish in that shallow, grassy ditch filled with murky water.

Nevertheless, the view was beautiful and still. A delicious piece of tranquility on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

And speaking of delicious, there were some ducks. Not that I would have eaten them from the pond. They would be too smelly!

Hello! That’s my friend and me. I went to the park with her family and her husband took a beautiful photo of us.

In fact, I have to credit him and his son L for taking a few of these photos. Here they are, enjoying the view.

We really had a nice day. The next time I’m here, I really hope it’s for a nice picnic. Keeping my fingers crossed that the weather will stay hot and sunny.

One of the perks of living in Silicon Valley is the brain power concentrated here. Silicon Valley is filled with some of the most intelligent, world-renowned technology innovators that  I have ever heard about (haha, and could ever dream of meeting). I am impressed every day by how talented the folks here are. In fact, it’s an impressive virtuous cycle: the more intelligent people in Silicon Valley, the more talented people are attracted to come here.

The first time I really ventured into Silicon Valley, I visited Intel. And I thought nothing of it.

There is a little museum attached to the main Intel offices that is dedicated to explaining the genesis and development of silicon chips from the time Intel was born to what microprocessors are capable of today.

The more I explored the museum, the more interesting things became.

I learnt about wafers, binary, what the factories that process the silicon look like (who knew the scientists were astronaut-like white outfits?), and even one of the old, old (I mean ancient) models of computers look like.

 

And it’s true, I don’t know a lot about computers and the hardware side of tech. But the museum was fascinating all the same.

So much so that I realised I’ve already taken 3 different friends, all of whom are foreigners, to this museum so they too can appreciate the beauty that is Silicon Valley. Yes, it is a different type of beauty. We’re not talking about the Mona Lisa or the Coliseum. I’ve seen both and they are beautiful. The beauty in Silicon Valley is about cutting-edge technology and the life-blood that is in front of you and me right now  - how else would I be able to blog and you be able to read my entries?

Anyway, the real reason I’m writing this post is not to talk about Intel. It’s to share my thoughts about living in this tech hub. I’ve recently hit a strange sense of gratitude for this curious place in which I have found myself. I can’t quite call this feeling home. It’s not familiar enough, yet? But I’ve certainly a new found…respect for the place. When I first arrived, I felt like Silicon Valley was suburbia. It’s the Orange County of Southern California. And I used to live in Los Angeles, the city, thank you very much. Ha. So moving to the ‘burbs really hit me hard. And it still hasn’t washed away. I drove up to San Francisco 4 days within a 10 day period – that’s a lot considering they are 1 hours trips one way. And I hated it. But I love the city. So what to do? Well…I especially hated getting the $50 parking ticket, to be clear, but that’s another story. However, despite my clouded resentment, I’ve really begun to appreciate where I live. Where else can I find people who are not only at the forefront of anything tech related but also the ones driving that progress. More than that, I work at an office on Great America Parkway – which is also where Yahoo! Citrix and some other big name companies can be found, including a few other ones like Intel and Cisco just around the corner in Santa Clara or Sunnyvale or Milpitas or San Jose - in any of the little cities around, really.

Silicon Valley feels alive. I live in Mountain View also which means I’m surrounded by people (particularly engineers but folks here run the gamut from engineers to marketers to entrepreneurs) who work for big name companies like Google, Apple and Cisco. They’re my neighbours, my fellow farmers market shoppers, even the crazy person at Target who buys rolls and rolls of toilet paper (yeah it happened, and he had a Google t-shirt on, that’s how I know). And the people whom you and I don’t know yet, but they’re the start-up to-be thinkers who will produce the next Facebook. Or they’re just normal people like me, living off the intellectual brainwave passing around here.

Binary, baby

If nothing else. Thank goodness, Silicon Valley has better weather than San Francisco.

Who knows, maybe I’ll even start to like it. We’ll see in future posts.

San Francisco is famous for its street art. Very often, the city or private individuals will commission the art which gives street artist a chance to earn a real living from pursuing their passions.

We were hanging out in the Mission district and decided to check out some art. It was great timing because we managed to catch a graffiti artist in action as he was a painting a mural on a garage door.

Apparently a lot of private individuals will commission artwork in order to cover over the tagging that kids from the neighbourhood paint on their walls and garages.

This discussion raised a very interesting issue about the ownership of private and public. And the spaces more fluid.

For example, the alley way where I took these photos is technically public space. But the garage doors facing the street are private. So some street art is painted on the walls (public) and others are on garage doors (private). So where’s the line?

Another fascinating observation is how the murals are organized. There is actually a curator who plans the murals and decides what artwork goes well and how paints. Who knew street art had such a…ordered, surprisingly hierarchical structure….?

Plus the murals often have politically charged messages that are very profound especially based on the way they are illustrated via bright art. It’s a lot more compelling that political messages in written form.

And the last part of the murals that I like best is the aesthetics. These murals are really beautiful, wonderful pieces of art that artist really spend hours and hours on. And the unsettling, yet precious, part is they will probably disappear overnight or even after a few hours of completion as the next artists (or as “taggers” depending on whom you talk to) continue to wage the graffiti war.

Peek-a-boo!!

Close your eyes and imagine cool blue light shining through tree leaves and leaving indistinguishable shadows on a dense forest floor. These images sprung to life for me during an hour hike around the Big Basin Redwoods. Big Basin Redwoods State Park is a little treasure cove of tall Redwood trees, about 45 minutes from where I live in Mountain View. It was an amazing surprise to see I could drive less than an hour and reach such scenic beauty in Boulder Creek. Even the drive to the state park was beautiful. We passed through Saratoga and ended up in the Santa Cruz mountains. The windy path forced us to keep to an honest speed limit of 30-45 miles/hour. But that made the view all the better. We arrived in the early afternoon to the camping headquarters but didn’t have much time to look around before heading down to Santa Cruz. The area looked wonderful for camping so I must go back soon for a weekend camp and hike. P and I chose to take the loop that would show us the oldest trees in this particular forest. So we met the father (the tallest tree) and mother of the forest (the widest tree). P is already very tall. And you can see just how the forest dwarfs him. One nice thing is I get to hide in little cracks and crevices because I’m so small in comparison to the trees. They make very adorable forts for children who can get lost in the intricate patterns laid out by broken trees, many of which have fallen during storms or from diseases and old age. And perfect for a game of hide and seek!

I also felt very short next to these trees! I really liked the eerie blue light that often flooded the trees. It gave a strange sense of peace and other-worldliness. The cool thing about redwood trees are they are some of the biggest trees in the world and I believe the tallest. Big Basin was a very beautiful forest. Can’t wait to come back for some nature walks. With more appropriate clothing of course. P.S And yes Santa is red, tall and round in the middle too. But we’ll have to wait for the appropriate season for a Santa post

My first experience in Napa Valley…

The sun was shining; the weather was sweet…

I spent a beautiful day with the family in Napa Valley.

The area is pretty – unfortunately a lot of tourists (like ourselves) make the traffic quite busy.

Also the cops are very careful about patrolling – so don’t drink & drive.

We visited a couple of wineries. Nothing spectacular. I did enjoy a Chardonnay from Jessup Cellars.

Later when we were in cheerful spirits, went to visit a vineyard and winery called Castella di Amorosa North of Napa. The winery is housed in a Tuscan Castle built in the 1990s-2000s with stone and brick taken from old buildings in Italy that had been demolished.

So the castle looks very authentic and has an eerie feeling – like you get when you walk into a relic of a building where you know it’s existed for hundreds of years.

I liked this castle because it was very serene. The vines were outside. There was a draw bridge and an unfilled moat where chickens were pecking around.

It’s nice enough to lounge around the grass and have a picnic.

We also did an underground tour of the fermentation rooms – those oak barrels are gigantic. We also saw some of the containers where the liquid is heated and fermented and later stored.

Very impressive.

Nevertheless, they kept some of the old equipment for show. This is how they used to make wine:

There was even a room with torture equipment – they really wanted this to be authentic. I’m not sure if any of the equipment was used. But it was really frightening.

Next, the best part –  a taste test

The tour guide gave us a test of the wine before it was aged – tasted really AWFUL. Very bitter and dried my whole mouth – the tannins were out of control. But the wines properly aged and ready to drink were delightful!  Especially their vintage collection. I liked their Cabernet Sauvignon. It had a lot of character. And I don’t know much about wine. So the fact that I could distinguish the taste and the flavours from other offerings probably meant it was good wine!

Overall, it was a tad too touristy (the castle sold merchandise like chocolate, pens and even the book, The Little Prince…). But it was a nice walk through and I would enjoy going back.

 

I made the leap.

That’s right. I moved up to Northern California. San Jose to be specific.

For all the haters, the means I’m going to be using hella a lot more.

All seriousness aside, I moved up here last Friday because I want to find a job doing marketing/communications with a tech company. So where better than live in Silicon Valley?

When I told my friend Y I moved to Palo Alto, he seemed stunned 1. that I’m not in NZ anymore and 2. I suddenly materialised to live in the same county as him. Good laughs.

Anyway, the advantages of living here are huge.

– It’s better weather (I was deathly ill the first week back to USA from burning heat in Orange County – I much prefer shade and green leaves here).

– It’s friendlier

– My auto insurance is cheaper by $100 (yeah never occurred to me how crazy LA drivers are, esp. when you’re one of them, but they are some of the most dangerous in USA, I imagine)

– Everything is a 5 minute drive away. No seriously.

– And I live so close to San Francisco and Berkeley.

So here’s a little welcome note from the Dyke March last week during Gay Pride Weekend.

I went to the Dyke March Saturday with friends and we hung out in Dolores Park where we sipped gently on wine while catching up and briefly skimming topics related to the LGBT community.

It was a nice day with so many CRAZY looking people. I love that about San Francisco. Anything goes. And you never look too silly. Even the naked people are OK. Except maybe if I turned up wearing a suit. And even then, people probably wouldn’t look more than twice…

Nice man making bubbles for the crowds. Isn’t that sweet?

Totally NOT surprised to see the New Zealand flag there. Proud moment of being a Kiwi!

San Francisco is filled with free LOVE <3

Capped off Dyke March with a motorcycle pride. After the parade I realised it made so much sense…Dykes on Bikes. Has a nice ring to it!

Polished off a lovely day with my good friends H, B (& O & A), with dinner at Gracias Madre. Organic Mexican cuisine.

So SF. And so delicious.

…Off to the Mission!

Exactly what hit the spot. And we ordered some crazy concoctions I’ve never tried before!

These are quesadillas made with hand-made tortillas fresh from their kitchen (their texture is really different, thick and soft but not too dense…) with sweet potato filling and cashew cheese on top!

YUMMMM

Next my favourite. Spicy as though so watch out if you can’t handle your chilli!

They’re Gorditas: potato-masa cakes with salsa verde, avocado, cashew cheese and some salad. But don’t be fooled. The vegetables don’t temper the spiciness.

And the Empanadas!

Another crazy fabulous hit.

I loved this. It was so good. Tortilla wrapped plantains with mole sauce. OMG OMG OMG. I have that weak spot for beautifully grilled and caramelised plantains. So you can imagine the food coma I was in after this.

All very reasonably priced (appetizers around $8-10, mains $12-15). The three of us girls ordered 3 appetizers and extra tortillas and cashew cheese to share tapas style. Turned out to be just enough (if not a tad too much) food so I recommend this if you’re starving because their portions are HUGE.

Thank you so much B for introducing me to this resto.

So this long weekend is July 4th. I promise to get up to something interesting.

Sit tight and don’t get too excited as you wait for my next post. Ha.

By the way if anyone has recommendations for things I should do in the Bay Area.

PLEASE send them my way. Would love to explore this place

 

http://ohhappyday.com/2011/06/goes-to-paris

So I’m posting this link because I am entering a competition to win a 7 day trip to Paris. This is one way to enter.

Just so this is not blatant advertising, I encourage you to enter.

And also lets me sneak a nostalgic moment…reminiscing about the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Montmartre & some of the less famous but just as wonderful sites.

And my friends. The one part of Paris I miss the most.

 

 

 

 

just to name a few. And many special others included elsewhere on my blog!

Such great memories.
Also gently reminds me to stay sober for photos.

Just arrived at LAX yesterday. I’m heading up to the Bay Area soon and promise to post more photos when I get there!

As promised, here are the drool-worthy pictures of food from Spain.

There are so many photos; D and I really made our rounds. So I won’t comment on them all. You can flip through slowly and enjoy the visual temptations.

But I will comment on the best ones…

Spicy sausage, pigs blood and gazpacho

Incroyable! Hanging ham legs (iberico?) from a café that sells ham in Granada. They filled the whole ceiling. I was partly worried my open mouth will be filled with some fat dripping off the ham hocks. Luckily each had a small cone that caught any drippings

So if you haven’t noticed already, ham is a big deal in Spain! Especially good quality ham.

Serrano…yummm!

Such a big deal they have the entire leg and carve strange from it. Apparently you can tell the different hams based on the color and type of hoof

D, paying his respects

Delicious, thinly sliced ham

But we weren’t satisfied. So on our quest, we chanced on his little café that sold cheap cheap (because this stuff is expensive!) but FABULOUS quality ham. Great find. As you can tell from the door itself

Pig hoof for the door handle. Classic, right?

And half an hour later, I’m one happy girl!

We went to a bar that served tapas. All over Spain, the custom is that you buy a drink and get a tapa for free. That is how tapas started and they have always worked like this. But this place was not so good.  We had to pay for some tapas. And the ones they gave us were bad. So we left.

But they had cute decorations. Like this handles for the beer on tap.

Range of different bottle openers!

One of my favourite tapas: Tortilla.

But Spanish style – means it’s made from onions and potatoes with eggs. Not like the Mexican made from flour or corn used like bread.

Bruschetta-like. Bits of salmon on toasted bread with cheese, thinly sliced avocado and cavier. SOOOO good

Spinach with Chickpeas – this was amazing. With the cumin, exquisite blends of flavours.

Hummus. So good

And octopus, gently grilled with a dash of olive oil and mayonnaise.

Shame the bread sucked. Otherwise, I might dare say the food was better than my food in France