Cupcake Fail

After an intense day of researching at the Newberry, Tessa and I decided to treat ourselves with cupcakes at Bom Bon Americano. We had passed by this place on the way to the library. I had previously tried their sandwiches, which were pretty good, but their sweets looked amazing.



Tessa and I both ordered their red velvet cupcakes. They looked so cutes with red lip sprinkles. However, after taking the first bite, I knew that this cupcake was a miserable FAIL. The frosting tasted like straight up butter and had the consistency of hard butter just taken out of the fridge. What happened to the traditional cream cheese frosting?? Why change a good thing?

The cupcake itself had a good texture, light and fluffy. But the flavor, oh the flavor was just wrong. It was almost salty. A salty cupcake? What?? Tessa said it was verging on savory. EWW.





Fail: Chubbs McGee does not approve.

Garlic Chicken with White Wine Sauce

I haven't posted about my own cooking in a while and decided that it was time. I have a lot of restaurant pictures to share, but I'll have to blog about them later.

Especially because this recipe was such an EPIC WIN!!!

I originally got the recipe from Simply Recipes, but I had to make some changes and use what I had in my kitchen.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 4-pound whole chicken, cut into eight parts
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 whole heads of garlic, cloves separated (I got exactly 43 cloves)
• Olive Oil
• 1 1/4 cup dry white wine, I used Charles Shaw Sauvignon Blanc
• 4 table spoons of Herbes de Provence

DIRECTIONS

Smash the garlic cloves with the side of a
heavy chef's knife and your fist.
Leave peel on.
Rinse and pat dry the chicken
and sprinkle salt and pepper onto the chicken

Heat up 3 Tablesppons of olive oil in a Dutch Oven on medium high.

Working in batches, brown the chicken on all sides.
Use tongs, they're so useful.

If you're short like me, you might want to use a stepping stool so you can actually see if the chicken is turning brown.

After browning all the chicken pieces and placing them onto a platter,
add a little more olive oil to the pan.
Add all the garlic clove and saute until golden brown.
Take a whiff, and enjoy the scent of sizzling garlic.

Add the 1 1/4 cup of wine.Take a swig for your own pleasure.Add the herbes de provence and bring to a boil.

Add chicken pieces and reduce heat to medium low. Cover the pan and simmer. Every five minutes move the chicken pieces from the top to bottom for about a total of 25 minutes. Make sure that the smaller pieces don't over cook. I actually took out the wings and the drumsticks at 20 minutes and let the thighs and breasts cook for an additional 5 minutes.

Transfer chicken to a platter and
pour the garlic sauce all over the chicken.

I sauteed some bella mushrooms in olive oil and garlic
and placed them on the sides of the platter.

The sauce was so good, I was tempted to take my spoon and scoop some in my mouth when I finished all the chicken.

Tessa and Glenn rated this dish
Chubbs McGee Approved!!!











Aww, thanks guys!

And just for your random viewing pleasure. I don't know the lyrics of the song, I only know the "Talking, Talking, Talking, Talk" part of Kanye West's "Heartless" and it reminds of that part in South Pacific when they sing "Happy Talk".

Love Sushi

I'm desperately craving some good sushi right now. Alas, there really aren't any good affordable sushi places here in Algonquin. Instead, I'll just sit and sadly think about the sushi restaurant that all my cousins love - Love Sushi (Newhall, California - in that other valley). Sadly, I think that I might like it better than Sushi Mac (Sherman Oaks, California - in the better valley).

I would be lying if I told you that Love Sushi has the best sushi I've ever had. But what's great about this place is that you pay about an average of $8 per roll and you get huge pieces that are tasty. More importantly, they serve very fresh and large pieces of sashimi. I actually prefer sashimi over rolls, but the majority of my younger cousins love the rolls.

If you happen to be in Santa Clarita Valley, I definitely recommend that you try Love Sushi.

On the Chubbs rating scale, I'd have to give it a
Grood.

I'll just share some of my family photos and you'll get a better idea of the huge portions they serve.

There's always a crowd there, especially on weekends. So we had to wait outside in the parking lot until they got a table that could fit all 13 of us. My cousins thought it was cold being 60 degrees in the winter. I laughed in their faces.

Sometimes, even I'm overwhelmed by the size of my family. And this wasn't even all of us.

Aww, brothers! Here we can see Matt and Kevin making some very serious sushi decisions.

Um. I don't know why I always do ugly peace signs.
But they very accurately express my excitement.

The salmon nigiri was the best. The tuna was just alright.

Yummm. Rolls. Look how huge they are!

And this picture has nothing to do with Love Sushi, I just thought I'd like to share how we spent our Christmas together. After eating a ridiculous amount of food, we played mahjong and listened to Jerome play the guitar. I love my cousins so much. Miss you guys!

Ode to Joy Yee's Noodle

Tessa and I definitely worked up an appetite while researching at the Newberry Library. Something about looking at blatantly racist photos of Filipinos during the early 20th century makes me real hungry. Maybe it's all the energy I spend on feeling angry?
It got to the point where my stomach starting growling in the otherwise silent reading room. Awkward, much?

To relieve our hunger, Tessa, Glenn and I went down to Joy Yee's Noodles in Chinatown, Chicago.



I love this place mostly because it reminds me so much of the Asian cafes back home in Southern California. The walls are a garish neon green, they blast hip-hop and house, there are Asians and Asian Americans everywhere, and the menu has a crazy overwhelming selection of Asian cafe food.

Just take a look at Tessa who almost can't handle the number of items on the menu. Everything looks so good! What to choose??

In the end, Tessa chose a Basil Pork with fried egg.Glenn ordered Basil Chicken with fried egg. He tends to stare intently at his food before eating it. I have no idea why though. Maybe he's just weird.

We all agreed the pork was better than the chicken because the pork fat brought out the basil flavor more. It's why duck and basil go so well together - because duck is so fatty. Also, both dishes overall would've been better if they hadn't over-cooked the egg. All of us appreciate the beauty and deliciousness of a runny egg and rice.
I ordered Grilled Eel in a Stone Pot. But I should've ordered my usual - Eel and Shrimp Fried Rice. Aside from the eel, everything else was a bit bland. I thought it was going to be more like the Korean mixed rice, bibimbop.

We all shared the Lemongrass Chicken Wings. This is my favorite item on the menu. The skin is so crispy and the lemongrass gives the wings a wonderful subtle sour flavor that reminds me of so many Filipino dishes.

Tessa was really excited about the wings, as you can see.

But the real reason why I love Joy Yee's is the Taro Tapioca Freeze!!!! I typically don't like ice-blended taro drinks. Usually, I prefer to have milk tea or sweet milk coffee with tapioca. But Joy Yee's Taro drinks are unbelievably good. They're not too sweet and have a great creamy consistency. Also, check out the crazy big mug they serve it in!

Glenn and I use to share this drink, but we decided to end that practice because it always caused bitter bickering between us. He tends to take huge gulps, whereas I like to prolong the experience, savoring each sip. If you take a look at the picture below, you can see the huge discrepancy between my mug and Glenn's. And this is after having the drink for only 2 minutes. I always want to say, "Relax, Glenn it's not a competition." But now that I get my own mug, I keep these thoughts to myself.






Overall, on the Chubbs McGee rating scale, Joy Yee scores a GROOD. A fun place to hang out with friends, good Asian cafe style food, and amazing drinks.