Swedish Princess Cake Tasting
I had no idea what Swedish Princess Cake was until someone brought in one from Copenhagen Bakery in Burlingame for a coworker's birthday - absolutely stunning dome of smooth, delicately tinted marizpan. That smooth seamless look - beautiful. OMG, I looooove custard. And raspberry jam. And whipped cream. And cake. And I like me a good marzipan. I was inspired by a local taste test so I decided to see who makes the best Swedish Princess Cake (IMO) in the Bay Area. I'm starting my own SPC (Swedish Princess Cake) taste test. Yay!
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Schubert's (San Francisco, CA) - second candidate in the Swedish Princess cake taste test. I had grabbed the last piece of the princess cake before closing at Schubert's and before meeting my friends at Spices II. Eaten one day later.
Decoration: 7/10 - Slightly haphazard chocolate squiggle, plus on the fresh raspberry, pale marzipan (ok, I'm just being really picky)
Gold/White Cake: 5/10 - Too dry and crumbly for my taste.
Whipped Cream: 8/10 - Nice and light. Not overwhelming.
Custard: 5/10 - No flavor even with the thick layer.
Raspberry Jam/Liqueur: 6/10 - A bit too sweet.
Marzipan: 6/10 - Too sweet marzipan with little pronounced almond flavor. A bit too soft. Sadly, if someone was iffy about marzipan, this would tip them over into the yuck category.
Overall: 6.16/10 - I wanted to like this version so badly, but I was so disappointed by this showing. I will try this again, however, as I may have gotten a stale just-before-closing piece.
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Copenhagen Bakery (Burlingame, CA) - I had bought a slice intending to consume it in house, but was sidetracked by my mom's Napoleon. Subsequently took it home and ate it two days later. Still excellent after at least 2 days.
Decoration: 9.5/10 - Beautiful chocolate decoration, lovely spring green marzipan, perfect profile of defined layers
Gold/White Cake: 9/10 - Moist and delicate.
Whipped Cream: 8/10 - Nice and light. Maybe a bit too much of it in the cake though.
Custard: 9.5/10 - Delightful custard flavor. Strong enough to be custardy, light enough not to overwhelm the whole cake.
Raspberry Jam/Liqueur: 8.5/10 - Sweet, thin layer. Good raspberry jammy flavor.
Marzipan: 8.5/10 - Not overly sweet marzipan with wonderfully strong almond flavor and aroma. Not too chewy or too squishy or worse - too grainy.
Overall: 8.92/10 - The standard I will compare others with. Yup. This was fabulous, even 2 days later!!!
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Swedish Princess Cake Rankings:
1. Copenhagen Bakery (Burlingame, CA)
2. Schubert's Bakery (San Francisco, CA)
Spices II - Szechuan Trenz / Genki
A group of friends and I gather monthly to either try new restaurants or to introduce old favorites. Yesterday night's pick was Spices II (291 6th Ave, San Francisco, CA 94118), selected by J. While a few of us have been to the sister restaurant, Spices I (294 8th Ave), none of us have been to this location.
I had always been attracted by the giant Pucca character on the awning (and had wondered whether or not it was legal to have it there!). With neon lights framing the windows, music videos playing on the TVs, and colorful interior, I always felt too uncool to enter - very Asian youth oriented. I had heard about the mouth numbing spiciness and the use of Sichuan peppercorns in their dishes and became highly intrigued.
The parking gods were smiling upon me last night as I reached Clement St. after 45 minutes of 280 and 19th Ave H-E-double-hockey-sticks - a spot opened up in front of Kamei housewares. Perfecto - I had meant to pop into Schubert's to pick up a piece of Swedish Princess cake and some other goodies. As I waited outside the restaurant for the rest of the group to show, I peered into the windows to try to determine what other people were ordering. (I had forgotten the list of interesting dishes to try on my work desk - dagnabit!) It looked like hot pot was the popular thing amongst the early birds, as well as the dry braised string beans.
After a quick debate with the waitstaff, the five of us were seated at the round (lazy susanless) tables near the restroom. Honestly, it would be very difficult to share many plates on the 4-seaters. They replaced our beautiful iron tea pot with a regular (but larger) stainless steel tea pot...very nice of them to accomodate our group.
Our order (with • denoting the level of spiciness according to the menu):
Off the 3 for $19.95 menu: #79 Kung Pao Chicken ••, #80 Ma-po Tofu ••, #85 Eggplant with Fresh Garlic and Basil •
#12 Crab Snowed with Fried Garlic • (seasonal)
#95 Tan-tan Noodles •
#100 Triple Delight Pan-fried Crispy Noodles
Seriously, I know Chinese restaurants are quick, but Spices II was pretty darned quick with our orders. Within five minutes, the tan-tan noodles and ma-po tofu came out followed by the triple delight pan-fried crispy noodles, kung pao chicken, and the crab. The eggplant came last, not terribly long after the other dishes. I really wished our table had a lazy susan as our table was overflowing with food.
Too bad I didn't get a photo of our crazily full table. I'm thankful we asked to move to a larger table since we ordered so many dishes (plus 5 bowls of rice). Top photo (clockwise): tan-tan noodles, triple delight pan-fried crispy noodles, ma-po tofu. Bottom photo: the garlic covered crab.
#79 Kung Pao Chicken •• - Now, before anyone berates us for ordering the dish, we wanted to see how they pulled off this oh-too-often dumbed down dish. If it weren't for my greasy hands and grumbling stomach, I would have taken a close up photo of the dish. This entree was studded with hot hot hot dried red peppers! No fakey spicy pseudo-sauce here. The peanuts in this dish were either fried or toasted - they had that particular toasty peanutty goodness. Second, the chicken was marinated or otherwise cooked first in a hot wok. I can't describe the flavor precisely, but it can only be obtained with a HOT commerical range and a wok. A sort of caramelization/browning maybe? This dish was delicious - easily the best kung pao I've ever had. There was a depth of heat and flavors in this dish I have not tasted in Cantonese prepped or (worse), Panda Express type kung pao. And oh, those wonderfully blistered little peanuts. I was disappointed in the heat factor - I guess I expected it to be pretty dang spicy. I have a pretty good tolerance for spiciness - and I didn't think this warranted a 2 out of 3 dot rating. (8/10)
#80 Ma-po Tofu •• - Yet another somewhat ubiquitous dish that I wanted to try at a more Sichuan style restaurant. Ooh...I think there was a nice slick of chili oil floating on top of the silken tofu. This dish was pleasantly spicy but still didn't have that kick I was looking for. It was fragrant with hints of floral aroma. I don't remember seeing meat or peas and carrots but I think they were there. I was focused on the tofu and the sauces. Mmm, I love my saucy dishes - but this was the dish that caused our table to each get a bowl of rice. Not for the spiciness, mind, more for sopping up the sauce. (7.5/10)
#85 Eggplant w/ Fresh Garlic and Basil • - I was surprised at the unadvertised leeks stir-fried with the eggplant. Not a bad thing, just surprised. What I didn't see much of was garlic and basil - yet the sauce was garlicky. The eggplant was nicely seared on the outside that yielded to smooth, creamy interior. The eggplant skin was not overly papery and tough. Even leeks, which I'm not terribly fond of, tasted great with some slight charring. Yet again, not spicy to me but still yum! (8/10)
#12 - Crab Snowed with Fried Garlic • - Not spicy, yo. The mound of toasted garlic came with a crab. =D Since I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE garlic, this was the highlight of the meal for me. While the Dungeness meat was sweet, tender, and moist, the toasted garlic made up for the flavor. Wow-wee...C and I didn't bother with the nut crackers - we just cracked the shells with our teeth and sucked the salty, toasted garlicky shells. Perfectly cooked crab, not too greasy and crabby but still a bit messy. I'm just proud I didn't get anything on my shirt (I'm a messy eater). They brought a bowl of tea water (well, that's what it looked like) for finger rinses which came in handy. (9.5/10)
#95 - Tan-tan Noodles • - Ever so slightly spicy and sour-ish yet rich. Still does not top Little Sichuan in San Mateo as my favorite tan-tan (or dan dan) noodles. Peanut sauce based noodles with some pork (?) and topped with shredded cucumbers. W said the sauce was too spicy for her, and L didn't care too much for the heat. I thought the first few bites of the tender noodles were acceptable, but the sauce was too rich and overwhelming later on. Towards the bottom of the bowl, the spice could not balance the gloppy and slightly odd sourish sauce. (6.5/10)
#100 - Triple Delight Pan-fried Crispy Noodles - I have no clue what the triple delight in this dish should have been. The three shrimp? The slices of squid? The over-tenderized beef? The dry baby bok choy? The one scallop? The noodles were the thicker wheat Shanghai type...which did not stay crispy as advertised. The first few bites were good...the contrast of the thicker chewier noodle with the slightly crispy exterior. The noodles soaked up the ho-hum sauce and became limp and flabby. On top of that, the crispy noodles were slightly burnt noodles. YUCK! Didn't realize this until later on in the meal. This seemed to be a take on Hong Kong-style crispy noodles but failed miserably. (3/10)
Overall, I was pleased with this meal. I was disappointed about the lack of spiciness of the dishes, but I think I can attibute that to our dish selection. I hope to try more of the snack menu, hot pots, numbing spicy dishes, and ••• rated dishes, including anything "water" (oil) cooked. Best of all, even with the crab, our total was $67 before tip ($16 per person after ~20% tip). We had a perfect number of dishes and nearly polished everything off. Not too shabby!
After waddling out of Spices II, we headed down to Genki for some ice cream. We usually head down to Polly Ann's for some ice cream (hey, it's been a local fave amongst us Sunset kids) but we were tempted by the option of crepes. Lucky for us, Genki currently serves eight flavors of Polly Ann ice cream: green tea, lychee, vanilla, chocolate, red bean, honeydew, mango, and strawberry. I had the "Tornado" pictured above with green tea and lychee ice creams topped with whipped cream and tapioca pearls. The tapioca were passable - could've been chewier but at least weren't mushy. At first, I couldn't tell if I had any whipped cream, but I did. Ice cream and good conversations - faboo. Next time, I'll forgo the $0.45 for the tapioca and whipped cream...it was interesting but not that great.
Saturday Food Crawl #1
One of my most enjoyable activities on a Saturday would be food shopping/planning. In college, I started using my Saturdays as meal planning, prepping, experimentation, and exploration days. Now that I'm (a bit) older, I relish the time I spend with my mom on Saturday mornings figuring out what we're going to buy and eat!
This morning was no different. We picked up my aunt around 9:30am and headed down to the Ferry Building Farmer's Market and Chinatown. Our secret: park at the Golden Gateway parking garage - it's the parking lot for the Chinatown Park and Ride program (er, not the exact name, but I'll dig that up later). The pros: $3 parking with validation in C-town (look for the red signs) but it's close enough for us to walk to the Ferry Building (like what, 2 little blocks?) as well as Chinatown (~10 minutes even for my stubby lil legs). Woo hoo for cheapness!
Anyway, onto the Ferry Building. Silly me, I had my camera with me but forgot to take photos...meh. After a quick stop at the ATM, I headed to Miette's for a pistachio macaron ($1.50), a hazelnut macaron ($1.50), and a package of lemon shortbread cookies ($5 - they'd better be worth it). I cut through the Ferry Building and headed to the stands in the back. After a wee bit of miscommunication with my mom and some harried discussion, we met up near the Blue Bottle kiosk.
After checking out the stands in the back, we headed to Acme Bread inside the building for a cranberry walnut loaf. I spied a pumpkin bread that looked interesting (which I picked up) and the sourdough cheese wheel. I wanted to know what the fuss was about this cheese wheel, apparently only available at the FB outlet according to this and other threads on the Chowhound boards. Let's just say: mmm...cheesy, chewy, oily goodness. *Homer drool* I LOVE gnawing on breads and this was absolutely gnawalicious. Each chew released this nice, intense, cheesy taste. Yum! I next ripped off a chunk of the cranberry walnut bread - yummy as usual. I love how every bite is loaded with walnuts - I hate skimpy breads with what amounts to THREE whole walnuts in the whole danged loaf.
On the way back to the garage, we saw the recently opened branch of the Pancho Villa Taqueria. Okay, my mom has an addiction to salsa bars so we had to stop to do a little taste test. After ordering and splitting some okay chips and a fish taco, we tested each salsa. None met mom's expectations...of course, she was eyeing the huge pile of pico de gallo behind the counter. Oh well.
After dropping off the goodies in the car, we trekked up to Chinatown up Washington Street. I noticed a weekend, 10 hour parking deal for $5 at the garage under the Hilton on Kearny (formerly, the Holiday Inn). I dislike the Portsmouth Square garage so this might be the next best thing. All the way up to Chinatown, we debated on what we were going to eat. Mom wanted clay pot rice, Aunt wanted phở, and I was fine with whatever. Auntie settled for jook or noodle soup, so we headed over to Utopia Cafe, a place I'd never been but had been itching to try. We had the seafood rice in clay pot, assorted pork giblet porridge (do pigs have giblets?!), and the salt and pepper fried tofu. My aunt noted that we really should have ordered the clay pot rice with something more oily, such as the salted fish with minced pork, or some sort of Chinese sausage (lop cherng). The flavor of the more oily, more pungent items would permeate through the rice while the oiliness would aid in developing a nice rice crust. Clay pot rice = about the flavorful rice and the CRUST. Mmm...crusticules (molecules of crust). The salt and pepper deep fried silken tofu came out first - deelish! These suckers need to come with warning labels: really freaking hot. Crispy on the outside, with the hot silken tofu on the inside...yummy! Next, the porridge came out. Now, I'm a fan of assorted organ meats so this was nice and organy. Except the ginger. I hate ginger. Yes, I'm Asian, and I HATE ginger. Ahh, but this was the good part - the reason why the clay pot rice was so late is that they actually cook the rice in the clay pot versus cooking rice then finishing it off in the clay pot. Believe me, there is a difference. You don't get that distinct flavor and smell that can only be generated from clay pot cooking. At last, the seafood clay pot rice came out (and unlidded by the waitress with a flourish!). So many scallops, shrimp, and perfectly cooked, albeit a bit salty, squid. Mom quickly added the special soy sauce into the rice and gave it a good mix. We scooped rice from the middle (another trick - gotta let the rice closest to the pot edges crisp) - absolutely yummay. Auntie reiterated that we should have gotten something oilier and stronger; Mom argued that she wanted something less greasy and "healthier." Auntie was right though - by the time we got to the crust, a section of the rice burnt a bit. I'm absolutely going to return - I spotted a childhood favorite on the menu: minced beef with (raw) egg over rice. This faboo lunch set me back a whopping $21 including tip.
We split up and said our farewells to my aunt, who was heading to her aerobics class. Battling the crowds on Stockton Street, Mom picked up some beautiful tender super-baby bok choy ($1.09/lb), 6 (for $1) packets of snow vegetable, and some mooi choy (dried, preserved vegetable/mustard green?) for dinner.
Oops, back on subject. It started sprinkling so we headed back to the car. Before we returned to the Golden Gateway, the rain was coming down. Mom and I decided to grab some dessert and coffee somewhere warm. Off we headed down 101 to Burlingame. I swear, the parking gods seem to love me - I always find a spot near Starbucks or Straits Cafe on Broadway. We ducked into Copenhagen Bakery & Cafe for a snack and coffee. My mom was so excited to see all the pastries and sweets available. I ordered a slice of their napoleon and a slice of their Swedish princess cake. Sorry, no pic of the napoleon as we, er, demolished the "puff" pastry. Mom wasn't too keen on the dark chocolate layer and the super crispy almost cookie like "puff" pastry, but loved the custard filling. For me, the overly hard "puff" pastry kind of ruined it for me. Instead, I was mesmerized by the lovely princess cake.
*Sniffle* Oh so bee-yoo-tee-full. Almost too beautiful to eat...(it's sitting in my fridge right now to be consumed tomorrow, hehehe). Marzipan-whipped cream-raspberry jam-gold cake-custardy cream-raspberry jam-gold cake...how I love thee.
Anyway, that was pretty much it for today.
I'm still looking at my own pic of the princess cake. *Homer drool*
