9 out of 10 People Love Chocolate. The Tenth Person Always Lies- Chocolate Lava Cake

There are over 319 million people that live in the USA.
Half of that population, over 159 million Americans, consume over 50% of the worlds chocolate.

Isn't that crazy?!

I don't know anyone that doesn't like chocolate except ......me.

Weird? Yup. Believe it or not, I was never ever a chocolate fan. 

As an elementary student, did you ever wait in the lunch line, hoping to be handed a carton of chocolate milk instead of regular milk?

I don't know about your elementary school, but I remember at my school, working the milk line was one of the best jobs during cafeteria duty. Before anyone could pass through the lunch line, I hid all the chocolate milk cartons to the side, and saved them for my favorite people. I was in charge of passing out the milk, so I was able to save them and hand out my precious stash to all my favorite people (i.e. my friends, my friends' crushes, my elementary crush, my favorite teachers, etc.) when they passed by. It was the most powerful thing for a little elementary school kid.

I never understood why everyone loved chocolate milk. 

Growing up, whenever my mom took my brother and I to the grocery store, we always ended up fighting about which ice cream flavor to get. My mom would only buy one carton of ice cream so my brother and I usually spent the entire time in the ice cream aisle arguing with each other. My brother was usually the chocolate advocate, while I defended vanilla relentlessly. Our stubborn-ness and unwillingness to compromise usually led to my mom buying us a totally random flavor, like artificially flavored cherry popsicles. 

I never understood why my brother loved chocolate ice cream. 

Well...now that I am 30 years old, I think I am beginning to understand the hype around chocolate.

It's like brussel sprouts or taking bathes. 

You start hating it as a kid, and then when you finally reach adulthood, you slowly begin to realize that brussel sprouts aren't so bad after all or taking bathes is actually a relaxing wonderful thing.

My fiance recently made these amazing chocolate lava cakes. He got the recipe from The New York Times. It only requires a few simple ingredients- butter, chocolate, eggs, sugar, and flour. 

He whipped it up in less than 30 min and it was amazing. He served the warm gooey cake with Talenti tahitian vanilla gelato (my favorite!).

Try it sometime. If a chocolate novice, like myself, enjoyed it... then you would probably LOVE it because let's face it... unless you had childhood experiences like me, you are most likely in that group of Americans that consume over 50% of the worlds chocolate.

-mai

chocolate lava cake with tahitian vanilla gelato.

mishka dressed as a chocolate lava cake. he clearly doesnt enjoy this.

mishka commentary

chocolate is bad for me, so I couldnt try this recipe but it looks yummy.
I dont know why Mai thinks she can dress me up like a chocolate cake.

Hawaiian Soul Food on a Snowy DC Day

I woke up today, looked out my window in shock.

I didn't expect to see a sheet of white outside my window. Fluffy snowflakes fell from the sky consistently throughout the day. The snow just kept piling on cars and sidewalks. Another snowy day in DC- This time conveniently on a federal holiday so we weren't deeply affected by the storm.

Today was the day to take out the Staub.

For years, T and I always wanted a Staub (yes, Team Staub! Not Team Le Creuset!).
It was always on our lists- Our Christmas list, our Birthday list, our "when-we-get-married-and-start-a-registry" list, our "kid's-birthday-present" list.
Every year, we telepathically communicated to Santa for a Staub pot. Whenever something lucky happened like getting an auspicious note from a fortune cookie, we bought lottery tickets in hopes of winning a million dollars so we could spend a small fraction on a Staub pot.

Well, well. When preparation meets opportunity, what happens? SUCCESS!
The universe aligned with us a few months ago.

While window shopping at our favorite cookware store, we spotted a Staub on sale! It was hidden under boxes like buried treasure. We immediately took the box and headed to the register without any hesitation.

Meet Amelie, our Staub. Isn't she a beauty? (...yes, we named it Amelie cause Staub is French).

With the help from Amelie, I decided to turn this snowy DC day into a warm Hawaiian paradise.
I decided to make Kalua pork with cabbage today.

Kalua pork is a Hawaiian dish that traditionally requires an imu, an underground oven. Kalua literally means to cook in an underground oven. The most iconic illustration of a Kalua pig is a whole roasted pig served at a luau, feast.

I spent the entire day creating a luau spread. Other than Kalua pig with cabbage, I made lomi lomi salmon, mac salad, and steamed rice.

Back home in Hawaii, you can get a plate of these dishes anywhere. Ah the local plate lunch. I miss it so much.

We invited my FPIL (future parents in law) and HOLY SHMOKES... (I dont want to toot our horn, but...) everything was super duper delicious! Taste of home sweet home!

From top to clockwise- Steamed rice, cabbage with Kalua pork, mac salad, lomi lomi salmon.

Amelie, I love you! You are a miracle worker! She turned a chunk of pork butt into delicious luau heaven! Amelie, thanks for bringing the warmth of Hawaii to snowy DC (*literally... because cooking the pork for 5 hours in the oven really warmed our cozy little apartment)!

Go get a dutch oven (....on sale) and try to create your own luau spread! :)

Kalua Pork with Cabbage

Ingredients:
4 lb. pork butt
coarse salt (Hawaiian salt would be most authentic but kosher salt works just fine)
orange juice

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Slice top and bottom of pork butt in a checkered pattern (quarter inch deep). Rub coarse salt all around the pork butt. Place pork into dutch oven with fatty side up. Splash some orange juice in dutch oven. Cover with lid and bake for approximately 4 hours.
Within last hour, add big slices of cabbage. Cook for a hour (or until fork tender).

Lomi Lomi Salmon

Ingredients:
yellow onion
green onion
smoked salmon (we used wild caught sock eye)
salt
tomatoes

Finely dice onion, green onions, smoked salmon, and tomatoes. Combine in bowl and mix. Salt to taste. Refrigerate before serving.

Local Mac Salad

Ingredients:
elbow macaroni
mayonaise
carrot
onion
paprika
salt and pepper

Boil macaroni and cook till al dente. Drain and run cold water on macaroni. Grate onion and carrot. Combine macaroni and carrot/onion in a bowl. Add mayo. Season with salt, pepper, and paprika.

-mai

Mishka commentary

The entire apartment smelled and felt like Hawaii. I wanted to take out my Aloha shirt and just hula all day long.

British Invasion with an Army of Pomeranian Cookies

I have to say the British come up with the best TV shows ever.

Sherlock, Doctor Who, Luther, Top Gear...to name a few. The British invasion of TV shows! 

We recently added another favorite to our growing list.......

THE GREAT BRITISH BAKING SHOW!!!!!

If you've never seen it, T and I highly recommend it. This show has inspired us to bake more and try new recipes. T's favorite contestant is Richard, the builder, and my favorite is Martha, the 17 year old!

Alright, I am going to stop nerding out about this show and share these pictures of the cookies we baked this weekend.

My FMIL (future mother-in-law) got me a pomeranian cookie cutter last Christmas. We decided to take it out for a test bake using a sugar cookie recipe.
Queen Elizabeth would be proud of us (...see what I did there- the Great British Baking Show + Queen + pomeranian + cookie, etc. ok i'll officially stop nerding out, seriously).

Mishka has been officially cloned.

Army of Mishkas.

Mishka mesmerized by the cookie or the swirly design...or both.

Enjoy!

-mai

Mishka commentary:

Muahahahaha (*evil laugh)- I am officially cloned. Cookie cloned...but close enough!

Valentine's Day with a case of the tiraMAIsu

This year, T and I decided to have a low-key Valentine's Day. We planned for a chill weekend, but didnt expect the temperatures to be extremely chilling.

Freezing temperatures with Artic chilling winds called for a cozy stay-at-home weekend with my boys (...yes, Mishka is a boy).

As a couple striving for an egalitarian marriage, we decided to stay in our unisex sweat pants and share the responsibilities of preparing our special Valentine's Day meal.

T took the responsibility of planning and preparing our main course, while I took charge of the dessert.

For dessert, I decided to challenge myself and make one of my favorites... tiramisu! 

I LOVE tiramisu. Whenever I walk past the cake section at Whole Foods, I always get the case of the "tiraMAIsu". All of my self-will immediately disappears as soon as I see it, and I cave in- Always  buying a slice. Yes, I spend all my money and calories on this addiction.

As addicted as I am with Whole Foods' tiramisu, I never ever attempted to make it.
I was always intrigued but never bothered to make tiramisu because I thought it was a complicated dessert that only Italian chefs could master.

Well... well, just my luck. I found this recipe by Chef Giada de Laurentiis and it was surprisingly super easy to follow.

I easily whipped it up while Tom was in the shower. It only took me 20 minutes!
It actually took me longer to find a pack of lady fingers at the grocery store than to make the entire dish.

Try it sometime- Here is the recipe by Giada de Laurentiis.

Time to make some mishka...I meant tiramisu!

It took forever to find a pack of lady fingers! 

Whipping up the heavenly mascarpone cheese, with a red (appropriate with the Italian theme) stand mixer.

Making espresso the Italian way!

Dipping the lady fingers in the espresso-rum mixture. key is to not soak it for too long.

WALA! recovered from a case of the tiraMAIsu (note to self- need to get a sifter. too much cocoa powder)

Happy Valentine's Day!

-mai

UPDATE- T loved the tiramisu! It was a success! :)

"Dont Be So Crabby"- Crab Course in Hiroshima, Japan

Confession: Keeping up with a blog is much more difficult than I anticipated.

It's been 2 months since my last entry. Since the ending of November, a lot has happened.

Let's see.. in a 3 sec version- holidays, freakishly warm weather, holiday parties, holiday food, more holidays, gained weight, freakish snowzilla blizzard, more food, more parties, still gaining weight, and work-work-work-werk!

Meh. Not missing much. I have a few read-worthy experiences that occurred in Dec and Jan, so I will post them as I can. But no promises, remember my confession I started this blog with.

Last week, I got to reunite with my family in Hiroshima, Japan.
It was an unexpected and quick trip. Though the reason behind the trip was not a happy one, as someone that always tries to see the glass half full... I thought it was a memorable trip that brought all my family together.

I disconnected from work. I disconnected from my worries. I disconnected from social media (well, tried to for the most part) and I just focused on being with my family and experiencing every moment together.

It was great. Family is everything and I am so appreciative to be part of such a loving one.

One of the happier moments during the trip was when we got to celebrate my grandmother's 88th birthday at Kora, a crab speciality restaurant in Fukuyama. In Japanese culture, 88th birthdays are a big deal for Japanese women.

We indulged ourselves in a multi-course with everything crab. There were many side dishes- crab salad, vinegared crab dish, crab tofu, crab shumai, crab sushi, crab sashimi, and crab gratin. However, the highlight of the course was the main dish- Crab shabu shabu!

Shabu shabu is a Japanese dish that normally uses thinly sliced beef dipped in a hot broth. We used crab legs as a substitution for the beef. We swirled these ginormous crab legs in a hot kombu (seaweed) broth, and then dipped the crab leg meat in a citrus ponzu sauce before eating it. We also added vegetables, tofu, mochi, and cellophane noodles into the broth. The final part of this dish was adding some udon noodles. Udon noodles are thick white flour noodles. By the time the noodles were done, I was completely stuffed. I couldnt eat any noodles! I had to leave room for dessert!

Dessert was this interesting sweet potato dish. It was warm mashed sweet potatoes, covered in refreshing vanilla ice cream. The combination of enjoying warm potatoes with cold ice cream was amazing. The dessert was also not too sweet- The natural sweetness of the potatoes with vanilla went very well together.

Everything was so delicious!

We ended the night with bellies full and souls filled with happiness. We enjoyed our meals with lots of laughter. At the end of the course, my brother brought his ukulele out and we all sang silly songs for my grandmother. It was a very memorable night.

Crab dinner for 10. Can I go back now?!

Fresh crab legs. Look at that meat!!!

Shabu shabu style.

Dessert was also delicious- Warm sweet potato covered with vanilla ice cream! The hot and cold sensations were amazing.

Dont look so crabby. You are delicious.

-mai

mishka commentary:

I wish I was there! But I am happy for Mai. That crab looks bigger and meaner than I do!