mon seul désir

The Cloister (New York Met)- The Hunt of the Unicorn tapestry series, and another New Yorker article detailing the enormous amount of effort on digitizing the art work. Also see the Wiki-explanation.

Musee de Cluny (Paris) - the La Dame à la Licorne "the Lady and the Unicorn" tapestry series, and Wiki-explanation.

Japanese steamed cheese cake recipe

In the end it turned out to be a fairly simple project. Mix up some cream cheese and milk with cornstarch (not flour). Separately whip up a meringue of egg whites and sugar. Combine and bake in a bain-marie, or water bath, which simply is a pan filled with water. One tip here: Most electric ovens vent through the back right burner on the stovetop. Be sure nothing is covering that burner when you're baking with a water bath.

The cake will rise considerably in the oven, then sink as the cake cools, to form a nicely textured, dense dessert. In Japan, this type of cake is often served with melted jam on top as a glaze.

Japanese Cheesecake

7 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
1/4 cup whole milk
1/2 cup ultrafine sugar (see note)
3 eggs, separated
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
2-1/2 cups boiling water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9-inch cake tin (round or square) with cooking oil spray.

Beat cream cheese with milk to soften. Add half of the sugar, egg yolks, cornstarch and lemon juice. Beat until smooth.

Beat egg whites in a separate bowl until foamy. Gradually add remaining sugar and cream of tarter, beating on high speed until soft peaks form, about 8 minutes. (If your kitchen is unusually warm or humid, it helps to chill the beaters and bowl. And always make sure both are completely dry.)

Gradually fold beaten egg whites into cream-cheese mixture, stirring gently until thoroughly combined. Pour into cake pan and smooth the surface. Place cake pan into a larger roasting pan and place in lower rack of oven. Pour enough boiling water into the roasting pan to come half-way up the side of the cake pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes, until a pick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool in the pan on a rack, then unmold cheesecake.

Note: Ultrafine sugar, sometimes called caster sugar, is sold under the name Baker's Sugar by C&H. It is a professional-grade sugar, lighter than granulated sugar and preferred by many bakers. Find it in most grocery stores next to regular sugar.

Shout to the Lord

Shout to the Lord (lyrics) -- Chris Tomlin

My Jesus, my Saviour, Lord, there is none like You;
All of my days I want to praise the wonders of Your mighty love.
My comfort, my shelter, tower of refuge and strength;
Let ev'ry breath, all that I am, never cease to worship You.

Chorus
Shout to the Lord, all the earth, let us sing
Power and Majesty, praise to the King;
Mountains bow down and the seas will roar
At the sound of Your name.
I sing for joy at the work of your hands,
Forever I'll love You, forever I'll stand
Nothing compares to the promise I have in You.

repeat

Shout to the Lord, all the earth, let us sing
Power and Majesty, praise to the King;
Mountains bow down and the seas will roar
At the sound of Your name.
I sing for joy at the work of your hands,
Forever I'll love You, forever I'll stand
Nothing compares to the promise I have in You.

braces hurt!

hi all, I just got my braces on this past Wednesday morning, thus starting a 2 year treatment plan again. I did this completely by choice, and for cosmetic reasons after all. My teeth were not too crooked, they have the standard Asian moderate crowdign effect, but being the perfectionist that I am, I just want them to be completely aligned straight.

By choice or not, the pain is more than I expected, (or remembered from when I was 8 years old). Worst thing is, I didn't expect this inconvenience, and thus didn't go to "Crazy Buffet" down on El Camino for my last farewell meal!! Now I feel that my mouth is "wired shut", pretty literally, and I can't eat any solid food for weeks!! This is completely torture for someone who cherishes food and sleep as two of the priorities in life.

---
I woke up in the middle of the night.. ~4:30am because my stomach is growling...
so I go over the to the fridge, Umm.. what should I have? Kalbi (Korean BBQ beef ribs)? Tonkatsu (Japanese fried pork chops)? Unagi (roasted eel)? steamed corn? Buffalo wings? .... NONE OF THEM!! cuz I CAN't have any!!!! (I must be so hungry that I ended up dreaming about all these foods.. should have remembered to go to "crazy buffet" for dinner before I got the braces!!!)

anyways, I ended up succumb to the temptation and ate a slice of the Japanese soft steamed cheese cake, and also a soy yogurt thingy I got from Costco (spent over $70 there today... LOTS of toilet papers =)

Thank goodness that I can still be satisfied in my addiction to the yummy Japanese steamed cheese cakes!! The steamed cheese cake is about $1 - $1.29 a piece from Ranch 99 (the CA/TX/west coast Chinese supermarket chain), and I started googl-ing about it, wonder if I can get the recipe then I can make LOTS and LOTS w/ very little amt of $$, ^_^ (recipe online and am going to give it a try... pretty complicated though)...

while surfing, I came across this (apparently) white guy's webpage detailing his experience w/ Asian food, thought you might enjoy this blog --- you can even see the picture containing the cheese cake package... Notice how *cheap* the pearl tea prices are in TX!!

--gobble gobble ... chomp chomp..- bear (Urh.. only in my dreams now)

=== also see my friend's suggestions on other yummy Asian desserts:

Hey W,

I don't know the recipe, but it looks like a doriaki made of cheese or something. The japanese like pancake-like buns filled with red bean and other sweet fillings. Try these links even though it's not the same thing that you're looking for:

http://japanesefood.about.com/od/japanesecake/a/aboutcheesecake.htm

http://cake.allrecipes.com/az/93280.asp

The other popular one is tako manju, which looks like little drums connected to each other with yummy fillings. I'm hooked on Beard Papa cream puffs, which just opened near Yerba Buena. You gotta try them. Steve will vouch for how good they are!

Take it EZ,

siLE-Pai

balance scale...

I think everyone carries a "magic" scale within. This scale is very useful, it's also need everywhere and all the time, it measure the balance between two things, everything from which brand of coffee to buy due to price differences, to whether it's worth it to pay a lot more for a house in a nicer school district.

Not everything in life can be measured by money, so how do we evaluate the intangible things? well, my personal opinion is that there is a potential VALUE to everything. Since nothing is free in this world, there is always a cost factor associated with whatever it is that we want. So the way to measure VALUE is essentially the evaluation of whether it's "worth it" to pay that cost to get the desired thing. That's where this scale comes into play, people always have options, you can buy the $4/lb coffee beans or the $10/lb ones, each individual would have different tolerance level or sensitivity towards their taste for coffee, so the inner scales are always busy at work, trying to figure out the "optimal" solution for that individual's perference levels.

For example, my teeth hurt so much so I want to go home to rest, but on the other hand, I don't want to disappoint my friend who was looking forward to friends showing up for her birthday celebration tonight. It's entirely a decision I have to make based how much I am hurting and how much I can tolerate the discomfort because I value our frienship that much more... It's indeed very hard to balance that scale in our heart. The "magic" scale dictates how we live our daily lives, and its tilts have major impacts on the decisions we carry on in life. It's called the art of balance!

4th Soil retreat @ Bodega Bay

Last weekend my SG @ GrX went on a retreat at Bodega Bay. 12 of us rented a nice house in the beach community for the entire weekend, sat around did some talking, relaxed, and had fun. The most memorable things happened during group sharing. I went with the minimal expectations of just chill out, relax, soak in the jacuzzi, and make deeper friendships. Praise God, that when I left, not only was I physically restored, but I also experience a spiritual high that is another positive indicator that my spiritual walk has been on the rise since April.

Friday night was a short opening, E. came up with a great ice-breaker game where we all got to draw with colored pencils and grinned like kindergarden kids. When it was time to reveal the answers, my initial drawing and several other people's pretty good interpretations of "getting dental braces" became "Bart Simpson on Cocaine"!!?!!

Saturday we had a quiet time discussion in the morning, then based on that passage in Deuteronomy 8, it's a very deep thought provoking passage that reminded us of the graces God has given to us in the past, and that we need to know that God is in control, that men do not rely on bread alone. It's interesting that how the Israelites forgot about God's miracles for them multiple times just during that period of Exodus, they repeated make the same mistakes and requires a little reprimand from God or Moses to get back on track. In our present time, we are also of the same forgetful crowd, falsely come to believe that we've created the wealth and success with our own hands, but in reality those are just the blessings from the Lord on High.

In the afternoon we went to the Doran park beach side, J&A lead a great game of sand sculpture. Remember those mermaid or castle statues you walk by on the beaches of Monterey or Carmel? well, today we got to discover the artists within us and we divided into 2 teams and raced against the clock to win the prize of creativity and the "best of".. =)

During Saturday night's sharing meeting, we started with some praise and worship music, (great songs!) then it took us some time to figure out the low light ambiance and passed a mood candle around for the several rounds of personal sharing. I truly appreciate how people were able to open themselves up, without fear of judgement from the others, and just share their stories to encourage others. (can't say too much more here.)

Most interestingly, instead of a Sunday morning service, we sat around in a circle and verbally expressed our appreciation of each member of this family in Christ. Speaking of the love languages, nothing, I mean nothing beats having someone openly tell you that how much they appreciate you and what you did, and to know how much the small things you did have a big impact on others. The Lord called us to be the "salt and light" of the world, it's time for us to stop living selfishly but to spread God's grace to our surrounding people and environments.

Amen!

bunny^2!

HUGE bunny!

Teddy bear gun, the latest from Gizmodo

Thanks to a forward I got this morning, pretty interesting (though silly) idea..
very cute though, and the bear has a parachute too!! Auooo ...

===
Teddy Bear Gun
READ MORE: Gadgets, Party Favors, Teddy Bear, Weddings, guns

Step away from the limousine, or I’ll shoot you with this … teddy bear? The Teddy Bear Gun capitalizes on a cutesy trend in Japan where wedding guests throw teddy bears at wedding receptions instead of rice or bouquets.

If teddy bear throwing sounds like a lot of work to you, here it’s made easy with a simple touch of a button. Pull the trigger and the tiny plush bear is catapulted into the air, and once airborne, it’ll float safely to back to earth thanks to its tiny parachute. Made by paintball gun manufacturer Sunamiya, the party crackers will go on sale this month.

Gun-shaped teddy bear crackers ready to liven up wedding receptions.

dream extender...

I woke up to my alarm clock at 8 am today, because I just came back from a 2 week trip to the east coast, and thus my mental clock is operating in the 3 hour adv. mode. =)

It felt great to hit the bed at 11pm and wake up early, gives me a feeling of being in control of my life, instead of hitting the annoying snooze button repeatedly. Talking about alarm clock, mine is set to the NPR radio station, so everyday I am being "talked to" wake up. I just had this fleeting thought, what if technology is adv. enough so that whatever we were dreaming about at that time, the alarm clock picks up the brain wave, and chooses the piece of news or songs that is relavent to the dream, so the vibe continues for a little bit into the reality in the morning? (kind of like GMail gives you links on the sidebar based on the text they detect in the email message.) That'd be pretty neat, huh?! I call it the "dream extender" alarm clock, hopefully it will sell like hot pancakes, only if I can capture the brain signal and make this wonderful invention happen!

Awesome feeling so refreshed in the morning, I should go to sleep early from now on!!

Ben & Jerry's

yup yup, last week there was a nation wide Ben & Jerry's cone day, and it's such a wonderful promotion because now I am addicted to another new flavour. "Cherry Garcia" has always been my favourite since day one, now I really like the "Coffee Heath Bar Crunch" as well. Oh, and now they have a new product called "Neapolitan Dynamite™ " that is Cherry Garcia paired with longtime freezer pal, Chocolate Fudge Brownie. Sweet! If you're not sure which side to try first, they offer this friendly advice: Just listen to your stomach!

I once saw a Travel Channel show about how the little factory in Vermont turns out these wonderful tasty delights. Apparently, they hire a guy to do random samples on the Cherry Garcia line (which is also their #1 seller). He would pick out a container at random, then saw the pint in half, count and record the # of cherry bits.

Now that's quality control! Um... yummy! :)